Roam Italy...: January 2013

Monday, January 28, 2013

Presepi di Poffabro

This post is late! I forgot the photos were on the kids' iPods, since I forgot to take a camera that day. On New Year's Day, we drove about 30 minutes east to Poffabro, a tiny little mountain village that draws big crowds each Christmastime because they put Nativities (Presepi) all over town in every nook and cranny! Seriously, almost every little hole or crack in the wall gets filled with one! This town is steep! We had to park at the bottom and hike up the hairpin road to the town. I started off chilly, but ended up nice and warm after the hard hike up!

View from the bottom where we parked. Had to hike up to that church on the left.

Main piazza

Bryan, enjoying a gluhwein in the main piazza

And here are just a few of the hundreds of nativities!

Panorama of the piazza, taken by Andrew

Sunset, looking out from the piazza, just as we were leaving

Glad we got this in on our last Christmas season here!

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Happy Birthday to you and you!

Early January is a busy time at our house with Andrew and Sara's birthdays back-to-back! On the 7th, Andrew turned 14! On the 8th, Sara turned 10! All double digits here! Where has the time gone? Each of them chose their birthday dinner -- Andrew chose Sushi and Sara chose Indian, so we ate well!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY ANGELS!

So young to be so close to dad's height! He's got me beat!

And a miracle happened! Both kids wanted to do the same thing to celebrate! They both wanted to take some friends to a place about an hour away called Colorado's (weird for Italy, right?) which has a Chucky Cheese kind of feel, but is way cooler with Laser Tag as well. Bryan and I were dreading this experience because we hate these kind of places, but this turned out to be much better than we have in the states. PLUS, our friends, the Pappas' decided to go along with us since their daughter, Isabella, was one of our guests. This made it TONS more fun. We got to sit in the snack bar drinking beer and prosecco with our friends while the kids played 4 rounds of Laser Tag.

Ready for Laser Tag! DA BOYZ!

DA GIRLZ! Charlie's Angels style!

Happy parents -- it wasn't so bad after all!

The Pappas -- our saviors -- SO glad they came!

Lisa even rode the bull!

Here are scenes from the rest of the fun...

All the monkeys, front to back -- Jake, Andrew, Brandon; Isabella, Francesca, Sara

A GREAT time was had by all!

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Panevin!

The annual Italian tradition at Epiphany is always fun! There are huge bonfires about every 3 miles apart all over Italy on January 5th each year. Ours, in Dardago, is at least 25 feet high and so hot you have to stand back at least 50 feet once it's really rolling. We were joined by our friends, the Pappas and saw lots of Italian's and American's we knew from our little village.

Me, Lisa, Sara and Isabella

Dimi and Bryan with phones in one hand and hot wine in the other! Sheesh!

I love this shot I took of our friends!

US! Andrew is taller than me now!

Monday, January 14, 2013

Happy Anniversary

For me and Bryan, the end of December 2012 marked our 17th wedding anniversary! He had some days off, so we decided to take a little trip to celebrate. We didn't feel like having the pressures of exploring and trying something new, and having to guess where to find good meals, so we went back to a place that feels like home -- Garmisch, Germany -- and to enjoy our favorite restaurant! Well, the hotels in Garmisch were all booked, so we stayed about 20 minutes away, in the cute little town of Oberammergau, which is famous for the Passion Play they put on every ten years.