Venzone, Italy Pumpkin Festival (10/24/2009)

On Saturday we went to a nearby town (about a 1 1/2 hours away) to a local pumpkin festival in Italian Festa della Zucca. We went with a couple friends from the hubby's work the Volks (Rhysa, Codie, and Richard) and the Petraes (Ryan and Corina). The Volks rode along with us while the Petraes followed us. We got there early and we were thankful because we got parking right outside the entrance to the gates. It wasn't completely set up yet though (it doesn't start until after 3pm on the Saturday) but we got to watch as the city started to come alive. It was amazing to see the empty streets transformed into a such a beautiful place. The decorations were beautiful, the people in costumes simply amazing, the vendors, food, and entertainment more than we could have asked for.

I have never seen so many things made out of pumpkin and almost everything we tried was absolutely amazing. I think they have the best pumpkin bread ever! They even had pumpkin grappa (which we're sending some back home for everyone to try). I guess they even had pumpkin pizza which we didn't try we went for the sandwiches on fresh bread (so good). We did buy a few things to bring home with us and everything so far has been super yummy (I'm not a fan of the donuts but the hubby enjoys them).

We while we walked around we did take in some sites. We walked through their local church that was absolutely beautiful. I walked into their crypt where there are five mummies (totally strange to say the very least). We sat and just in took in the sites and sounds of the town and festival. Although some parts were in Italian we still enjoyed every minute of our trip. This is definitely something we look forward to doing next year!


History of the Pumpkin Festival in Venzone
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One of the most renowned fairs takes place the fourth weekend of October in the medieval town of Venzone, which is not far from Aviano and about 35 kilometers north of Udine. Venzone was destroyed by an earthquake in 1976 and had been rebuilt according to original plans. It started celebrating its pumpkin fair 14 years ago because of an ancient legend, which centers upon a pumpkin. According to this legend, in the 14th century Venzone was almost completely built and had many nice palaces. The city's cathedral and the tower clock had finished being constructed. Unfortunately, the city didn't have enough money to pay the artist who had just completed decorating the roof of the tower clock with a golden globe. The city committee decided to give him just one third of the amount he asked for his work because they thought that everybody should volunteer some of their working time for the town, especially during this hard time. He didn't have much choice, and he accepted the money that the city gave him. But that night he thought he would pay the city back in the same way. He went back up to the roof and replaced the golden ball with a nicely painted pumpkin. He left the city the next day. The Venzone inhabitants were happy for the completion of the work that embellished their city but, shortly, they realized that something on the tower was wrong because the ball was changing color. Only when big pieces started falling down did they understand how the sculptor had fooled them. Nevertheless, the city dedicates an annual fair to this important agricultural product that grows in the area. For a couple of days, the town is swarmed with thousands of visitors from towns nearby, as well as from Germany and Austria, who come to watch the parades of people dressed in medieval costumes ,musicians, jugglers, armigers and knights, who populate the narrow streets.

Now check out our pics from our afternoon in Venzone!









Our drive to Venzone.





The entrance to the town center of Venzone, Italy.













































All of the above are of the people dressed in their costumes, of the sites, and vendors. It really is a must see for everyone in their lives!







The crypt and the mummies...weird right?











We're all hanging out letting Richard walk around without all the crazy crowds running him over.

Trieste, Italy with the Volks (10/03/09)

A couple of weekends ago we decided to check out another near-by town. We have visited it once before and checked out Castello Miramare I think sometime in May, but we wanted to go and check out a few more places. We met up with the Volks (Rhysa, Codie, and Richard) and we all rode to Trieste together. Again it was a beautiful drive to the town of Trieste (it was a different route than we took before).



Codie had a long night the night before so he took a little nap with his son Richard LOL.

Once we got into town we stopped and took pics of their lighthouse. It is absolutely beautiful with this amazing statue that reminded us of the Statue of Liberty. From there we continued on to yet another castle. This is called Castello di San Guisto and had a cathedral next to it as well (which I need to get pics from Rhysa of still). The castle was just ok (I really prefer castello Miramare) but the cathedral was absolutely beautiful. It was well worth the trip to see. We had lunch at the little stand right outside and picked up a couple souvenirs as well.









Pics of the statue...kinda pretty don't ya think?

After we left the cathedral we attempted to find the concentration camp, but the road was under construction and couldn't find an alternative route, so we headed to caves that the town also had to offer. This cave is called Grotta Gigante. It was about an hour long tour and is suppose to be the largest underground caves. It was definitely a hike. We had to walk up down 500 stairs and if I understood the sign right we also walked up 500 stairs. This cave tour is definitely not for those out of shape or if you don't want to carry your kid. The hubby loved it, but I've been to other caves that I found more interesting. I wasn't able to take any pics while in the cave its against their policies and I didn't want to get my camera taken away! So needless to say we have no pics but if you google it I'm sure you could find some of the interior if you're really interested.











Walking up to the castle and Richie checking out the statues....





























Views from the Castle.











Pics of the cathedral (more of the inside to come once I get them from Rhysa).

After the cave we went downtown to have dinner and our GPS got us completely lost and took us in the wrong direction, so we walked around lost for a little bit and drove around town for a little bit taking in the sites. Trieste is truly a beautiful city! We also didn't realize that they would be having festivals going on during that time so parking was a major pain in the butt, so we decided to just get food on the road. We love to stop off at the autogrills off the autostrada and get yummy sandwiches (they have sit down restaruants as well).



Hmmm...enough said....

Udine, Italy

On one of our weekends out we decided to drive up to Udine, Italy. We picked up our friend Rhysa and her son Richard for our little adventure (her hubby had weekend duty boo!). Udine is only about an hour maybe a little further from our home in Fontanafredda. It was a very pleasant drive of the country side and Richard looked around until he fell asleep.

When we got to Udine we drove around and took in the sites. Its a really cute little town. We found that they were having a marathon going on that day as well, so it was super crowded. We got there just in time for the dog run which was funny. We walked all around the town center and had lunch at a local pizzeria (which in my opinion had the best cheese pizza a.k.a. margarita pizza ever). We walked around a bit more and had fresh crepes from a local street vendor and got some super yummy hilda cookies for the ride home.

It was a beautiful day and we all enjoyed the beautifl day! After walking around the town center we found a beautiful local park to walk around in and have a seat. We checked out a fountain and looked at fishies with Richards. The hubby had to use the restroom and went looking for a bathroom and to our surprise he found a set of urinals behind some bushes! Totally weird LOL.

Well here are the pics from our day (I didn't take as many as normal!):















The town center.



The hidden urinals.





The beautiful park and fountain.

Brewery Tour in Pedavena, Italy

In August we took and ITT trip that the base offers. It was to a brewery, a grappa museum, a vineyard and a castle that we had dinner at. We went with our friend Anthony (a coworker of Jerry's) and his parents (who were really nice!). We had started the day out a little late because someone was running late and held up the whole bus not that I'm naming any names ANTHONY!

So our first stop was for coffee after sitting in this tiny bus with tiny seats that were totatlly uncomfortable, especially if you have the jolly green giant next to you a.k.a. as my wonderful hubby Jerry. I mean Italians are tiny and everything here is tiny, so my husband is way out of proportion when it comes to anything Italian (even the Italian 2x clothing looks tiny next to him!). I didn't take any pics at this little town that we stopped in. For some reason I was not really picture happy like I normally am (most outings I come home with at least 50 pics!).

Then after a bit more driving we finally were at the brewery. It was rather boring for the two of us since we had just did a tour in June in Germany so it was a repeat of everything we learned before and this tour was twice as long cause our tour guide said everything in Italian and then someone else translated it to English (which we later found out the damn lady spoke English and wasted our time). And then finally they took us to this giant wearhouse and we got to try three different beers and you could drink as much as you could in the time we were there and you could buy tons of souveniers and what not as well. Of course we came home with some beer and gifts for a few friends.

The brewery also has a restuarant so we had lunch there and we had the most amazing meal. The guys drank more and so did everyone else on the trip. I think everyone was pretty good and buzzed, if not drunk when we left that place. And then we were stuck on the bus for a bit longer while we made our way to the next town to try out some grappa and see the grappa museum.

The grappa museum was soooo boring and we had to watch this boring video and look at stuff in glass cases. I honestly don't remember a think about anything we saw, which is bad but I was soooooo bored. After all of that we finally got to try out some grappa and boy was that stuff horrible! Like its some of the most nasty stuff I have ever tried. I really don't recommend it to anyone, but if you want to try it I leave that totally up to you! Once we were doing taste testing (there was at least 7 to try and we only tried 2) we were free to walk around the town and site see. We were in Bassano, Italy and it is just beautiful. While we walked around and took in the sites, everyone else found a bar and drank even more. By the time we left there almost everyone on our trip was totally drunk and annoying. I think this is about the time I was getting annoyed and ready for the trip to just be over!

Once we gathered everyone again, we went on our way to our next destination. We stopped at a vineyard that makes presecco wine. Its a sparkling wine. I didn't much care for it but I guess they use it to make spritzers and stuff as well. I think we tried about 6 glasses of wine while we were there (I didn't drink that much cause some of it just wasn't good). And of course people just got drunker and stupider with each alcohol that was added.

When we were finally done here we went to dinner at the castle. It was really cool. We had to take this tram thing up the side of a mountain to get up there. The view from the top was amazing. Drunk people ended up lost, people got even drunker, and we had to wait entirely too long for food. But it was enjoyable because we enjoyed our time together and hanging out with our friend and his family. I was sooo relieved when we finally got on the bus and headed home though. I was soooo beyond tired and so thankfully we lived less than five minutes from where we were being dropped off. I think we spent a total of 16 hours on that trip that day and it is one we will never take again! We did find a lot of cool places that we would like to go back and visit on our own though.

Ok enough rambling on about our day! Here are the few pics that I took while at the brewery:



























Of course the hubby took a pic of a car...ugh...LOL.

Finally the last of the Germany pics from June!

Ok so here is the last of them. They are from the brewery tour we went on. The beer was super yummy (ok not all of it I'm so American that I only enjoyed the pilsner and one other one, but the hubby loved most of them!). On this tour we learned about the whole beer making process and we had to take a test in the end. We also got to take home a diploma! So now I'm a beer master or whatever they're called LOL. We also got to try something called beer schnapps...I'm not a fan but the hubby enjoyed two shots of it! He also drank a few liters of beer (I only had one shot and maybe one liter of beer), but thank goodness we didn't have to drive! We had a wonderful tour guide (pictured below) that drove us back and forth from the resort to the brewery!

Ok now for the pics!



Oh yeah they use no preservatives and its all natural as well so you have to drink it when you buy and it can't sit around for over a couple weeks!







The small bottle is the beer schnapps the other two are for beer.



This just says they are having a beer seminar for us!



Our tour guide and no he's not drinking it just happens to look that way!



Hey Meg and Tommy this is for you! My B-Day present in Germany enjoying the mountain view!



The tiny gas station at the Army Post (I don't think they even had a shoppette).











Random views and German signs LOL I have no idea why LOL

I've Totally Slacked

Ok, so I never finished posting pics of Germany. I know I know slacker right?!?!

We also went a beer, grappa, and wine tasting tour here in Italy in I believe it was Bossano (probably spelled horribly wrong!) and it was fun for the most part and totally looooooooooonng. We went on a tour with the base so of course there were quite a few young people (not that we're totally old) that drank entirely too much and just made the trip seem so much longer than it was (well 16 hours with strangers is a long time any way you look at it). We lost drunk people, found drunk people, let drunk people drink even more (God only knows why!), and we finally made it home.

I was soooooooooo beyond tired by the time we finally made it back to Aviano and I was so thankful we lived so close to where we had left from. I just crawled into bed and past out (not because I was drunk because after all one of us had to drive home).

We have found some really pretty places to visit when we have friends and family come out this way. But we will never again in this lifetime go on another drinking tour with the base and I mean ever! I would post the few pics that I took but photobucket is being crazy and not uploading my pics! Stupid Photobucket! I guess I need to find somewhere new...

I really should finish posting pics of Germany as well cause I'm sure some of you are acutally interested in seeing them (the all three of you that prob actually read this blog!).

I'll have to find somewhere else to host my pics but until I have nothing new to share (I know I know I'm in Italy and I should have seen all of Europe already, but its hard when one works crazy hours all the time and we're both in school).

Germany

Ok so I know I've been slacking and we've been back for over a week and I should have posted these pics already but I had finals and I was signing up for new classes. I've been doggie sitting as well and had 8 dogs here over the weekend! It was soooo much fun though!!

About Germany...It is absolutely beautiful there and there is so much to see!! We left home and arrived at our hotel on Sunday and that Monday we went out exploring on our own. We went to two castles. The first one I can't even spell but its known as the Disney castle and its beautiful! I didn't take any pics because the hubby visited it in 20o4 and I have like two billion pics of it from that trip so I didn't need anymore (sorry I don't have any pics to post here of it). The second one we took pics of! Its called Linderhoff Palace and was beautiful! It is definitely a must see! Just look at the pics below!!













On our way home we hit some unusual traffic! We didn't know that everyday at 5 a.m and 5 p.m. that traffic is horrible!






On Tuesday we took one of the tours that the resort has to offer. It was a BMW World/Soccer Arena tour which was really cool! We went to like a showroom that has all the new BMW models and an interactive center where we got to play with all the newest BMW technology which was way cool! After there we went and had lunch in Olympia Park and it was super yummy and of course the hubby had a beer with lunch (I can't drink the German stuff!) and from there we headed to the Arena. The Arena is huge and has about two bizillion stairs that we had to walk up and down and up and down, but it was really cool to see and hear about the stadium (its one of those must do things while in Europe since they love soccer!). The trip was really cool and we have pics posted below.















took a few pics of the lobby while waiting for our tour guide to pick us up.

































































Wednesday we walked around the little town of Garmisch where the resort was it is soooo cute! We had breakfast at a little bakery that was super yummy! We walked around for awhile and picked up a couple gifts and then had lunch at a local cafe where I learned I will never eat weisswursts again (they're a sausage that they boil and its makes it almost spongy and unbearable to eat!) and I've also learned that they serve pretzels with everything and I really like that fact! The hubby got schnitzel (it was pork) and that was alright! Then we had to go back to the bakery for dessert of course!









































Thursday we drove up to Ramstein AB to get some oil and to check out the base. I ended up bring home like two cases of wine from a local winery! It is soooo yummy!! We didn't take any pics of this day at all.....hmmm....I guess I must not have been feeling well LOL.

(I have more pics to add in my next blog!)