April 6, 2013 - My Birthday!

This morning Elena and I went out for our usual cappuccino at Mama Cafè. Mario, the owner, surprised me with a lil flower and a candle..LOL

Breakfast was also ON THE HOUSE...

That is me with my HAPPY face!

At lunch time I was nicely surprised with three bouquets!

Roses from Romano and one bouquet each from Vittoria and Tommaso!

In the afternoon, Elena, Vitti and I went to have "merenda" at IL CASONE..Tommy joined us a little later too and that was nice!

Now, I do not really know how to translate merenda as it is more then a snack... lol

It's a small meal, I guess...

Well, anyway... here we are at merenda... 

Elena got me a very neat electric tea kettle!

I love it! 

After "merenda", which took longer then we thought due to our laughing and chatting too much, Elena dropped Vitti and myself off at home. Tommy had already left in his car earlier...

When I got home I found more presents!

I got a lovely perfume from the kids and a treadmill from Romano!

I had been complaining about the bad weather (it has been POURING here) and saying how I miss not being able to get any exercise! So, now I can exercise when it rains too! LOL My husband is a funny man!

This is the perfume and it is very nice! Not too sweet!

At 8 p.m. we headed out to dinner. Our usual place: GABBANI! 

We really love the food there as they always change the menu based on what they buy so it is never boring.

When we got there we were shown to our usual table but as I approached I noticed a cartoon drawing propped up on the bench.

It was of me... with a big cake and a LOT of candles and it said "Crap! Am I getting old now too?" I looked really sad about it too!

I knew who had done that drawing.... It was clearly our artist friend Claudio Carotenuto!

I thought to myself "How nice of him to deliver this here!"

Then, all of a sudden, Claudio, his wife Annamaria, Tommaso C. and his wife Daniela all sort of appeared out of nowhere!

It was a surprise party!

But it was a really big surprise as not even Romano knew they were coming!

This is the drawing:

They also gave me a wonderful purse!

I can use it this summer!!

While at dinner Romano also gave me another present!

Some earrings! 3 pair as I am always losing mine!

And here are some photo's of us at dinner!

My adorable kids:

My handsome husband:

Here I am with Daniela:

Here I am with Daniela and Annamaria:

Here I am with Tommaso and Claudio:

And here I am SUPER HAPPY after blowing out my candle!!

It really was a great birthday!

January 9th, 2013

January 9th, 2013

Probably the most scariest day in my life!
Woke up this morning and went grocery shopping after having coffee with Elena at Mama's Cafè.
Had lunch and then Romano and I went for a nap.
As we were getting into bed for our nap he said he might not go to Tai Chi in the evening as he was feeling a bit under the weather… That was probably the understatement of the year.
I woke up at about 4 p.m. and came downstairs. Romano was still sleeping.
I made myself a coffee and settled down to watch some news on TV and get caught up since I had been in London.
At about 5 p.m. I heard a LOUD thud from upstairs. For a minute I thought it was the cat but then realized that she could not have made such a loud sound no matter what she knocked over.
I went upstairs calling out to Romano. I went into our bedroom but it was empty. I went towards the bathroom and kept calling out but got no answer.
The bathroom door was ajar so I knocked and called out. No answer.
I opened the bathroom door and there was Romano, on the floor, unconscious, with vomit all over the place and a large pool of blood under his head. I mean a LOT of blood! 
I knelt down beside him but he was not responding so I put him in recovery position and ran to the phone to call an ambulance.
I ran back to Romano and he was sitting on the toilet but not focussing at all and just blubbering. I thought he had had a stroke or something!!
I tried to get him up and get him to lie down on the bed.
He was a mess. Blood and vomit all over him and he only had his underwear on.
I finally managed to carry/drag him onto the bed.
I managed to SOS Elena while driving like mad to the front gate to let the ambulance in.
When I got to the front gate I saw that Claudio was still in reception so I honked my horn and he came out and I told him what was happening and to accompany the ambulance up when it came.
I drove back up to the house like a mad woman and am pretty lucky that I did not hit a tree or three!
I ran back upstairs to Romano who was still on the bed and he smiled at me. I talked to him and he answered but looked like he was very confused.
Just then Elena came bursting in and right behind her were Claudio and the ambulance drivers. I say ambulance drivers because in Italy we do not have paramedics and I did ask for an ambulance with a doctor but I guess no doctors were free. The ambulance drivers are volunteers in Italy and usually have a minimum of first aid training but nothing to write home about.
These two, a man and a woman, were very nice and looked like they knew what they were doing…. They looked Romano over, asked him questions and took his blood pressure etc.
By this time Romano was his old self (almost) again and did not want to go to hospital saying that we would call our family doctor.
The ambulance drivers were not too sure about that and neither was I since he hit his head but he really did not want to go.
So, he signed some papers and they left.
I called Tommaso, our doctor and he said he would be right over.
In the meantime Elena, who has taken many first aid courses, patched him up the best she could. She even drove home to get those bandaids that act like stitches.
He was pretty badly banged up.
He also had a fever of 38.8.
Tommaso, the doc, came and looked him over and said it was OK to stay home although he could do with a few stitches.

Finally all seemed quiet…
Oh, and Vittoria.. she came home from guitar lessons to find the main gate open and an ambulance in our front yard. Thank goodness Elena stopped her at the front door and told her everything was ok. The poor thing was white as a ghost. 

At midnight Romano decided to go pee and I told him to leave the door open and to call out if he felt even a little dizzy.
Sure enough he called me and I got in the bathroom just in time to catch him.
Once more he passed out and then started vomiting .
I put him on his side and called out to Vitti while making sure he did not choke on the vomit.
Vitti ran in but but this time I had it under control and he was coming to… He looked at me, smiled and asked what I was doing in the bathroom with him… Gotta love him...
I managed to get him up and turned around to find Vitti fully dressed and she asked me "Are we going?" 
I asked here "Where?"
She said "Hospital sounds good to me!"
I told her no.. her dad was fine.. (Keep Calm and Carry On) and she just looked at me like I was nuts.
Finally got Romano cleaned up and into bed..
He was ok by then but I stayed up most of the night waking him up to see if he was ok…
I am thinking he has a bad case of the NORO virus which seems to be going around but has not hit Italy that bad yet.. I guess he got an early edition!

And that, my friends, is my WELCOME HOME story!

January 1, 2013

Happy New Year!

And once again at the top of my resolutions list I have written "KEEP BLOG UPDATED!"

Wonder if this is my lucky year?

This picture was taken shortly before midnight on December 31st, 2012 so it is actually a photo from last year....

Also on my LONG (but getting shorter) list of resolutions is the following:
- Read more classics
- Do a PL album focussing on the year in progress
- Finish the numerous TRAVEL books that I promised I would do LAST year!
- Take long WALKS with hubby
- Cook a new MEAL every week
- Study GERMAN more and read more books in German
- Take a photo EVERYDAY 
- Post said photos on SHUTTERCAL

I think that is about it! It's long enough don't ya think?

Well, I will end my first post now as I am actually writing this on January 10th and cannot for the life of me remember what I did on January 1st!

Happy Sunday!

Some Sundays are good... some are GREAT! Today was GREAT!
First of all it was a glorious day! Warm and sunny!


Vitti and I decided that we wanted to go and take some photos of some of the towns near here.
Ok.. Vitti didn't really decied that. She didn't even know anything about it but I was just dying to try my new TOM TOM in extreme conditions. Small Tuscan towns is EXTREME CONDITION. LOL


So, I bribed Vitti with a picnic of prosciutto sandwiches and off we went.
But then I had a brain wave... (I don't have them often) and I called Elena and asked if her son Giordy wanted to come with us. He likes taking pics... almost as much as Vittoria. Ok, not true but he can be bribed with a prosciutto sandwich just like Vittoria.


We then drove to Elena's and picked up Giordy. Elena had some silly stuff to do such as housework or such some nonsense so we left her to it.


We drove to Gello. A VERY small... TINY... town.. VILLAGE... three houses and a cow....about 8 km from me.
When we got there though there were three or four German cars parked outside the walls and it looked very private. Well, ok.. there were HERKIN (copyright Donna 2010) PRIVATE PROPERTY signs all over the place so we decided NOT to take photo's... the BEWARE of DOG sign also scared the kids (Sissies).


While I was planning our next stop... (fighting with Tom Tom) the kids decided to eat their sandwiches.

After thinking long and hard... I decided to go to the town that we could actually SEE from where we were! LOL. I did not remember the name of it so the Tom Tom was no use at all. (they need to invent an app where you take a picture of what's in front of you, show it to the Tom Tom and have him give you the route).


So, we got there the old fashioned way...and the Tom Tom kept yapping at me to turn around.. turn around...


The town was CASAGLIA and I had actually been there before. Numerous times even. I just did not remember that. Then again I don't remember a lot of things lately.


We drove into the town and parked outside the walls.
We then walked around and took lot's of nice photos! The kids had fun as I was sure to bring them each a camera as well.

The kids started getting bored. They take very fast photos so we decided to head back home.


When we got to Elena's house she had prepared lunch for us! 
It was such a nice day that we sat outside and ate.


A lovely, relaxing Sunday! Like all Bloody Sundays should be!

Vitti in Austria

Some of you may know that Vitti left for a school trip to Austria on Wednesday at 4:30 a.m. I remember the 4:30 a.m. part very well. Don't really remember much else. 


I did take a pic of Viit all ready for the trip. Notice her new purse is bigger then she is...

They drove first to Innsbruck and visited the historical centre before leaving for Salzburg.
They arrived in Salzburg pretty late and got settled in the hotel and had dinner.
She called me saying they had messed up the rooms and she was not with her best friend but that the hotel would sort it out the next day.


Yesterday morning I received a text that she was visiting the old part of Salzburg.


Vitti also texted me last night while we were out for dinner and said that she had eaten Mozart Balls...

Now, for those of you who don't know what they are...trust me, it's nothing bad. It's actually a good thing! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozartkugel

I doubt she will bring any home.

This morning they left Salzburg and are on their way to SALZKAMMERGUT (sounds scary, huh?).

On the way they are stopping at the salt mines in Hallein. This includes a 1 km walk 80m underground. Sounds like fun. I wonder if she will take pics.

They will have lunch in a restaurant (Vitti's favorite part) and then head to SALZKAMMERGUT... which I see is on a lake.. (you can see too.. it's right there on the map)

Uh, you might need a magnifying glass for the map. If I put it any bigger it seems to fly off the page! Now, if this was a map of Italy it would not be a problem as Italy is nice and LONG whereas Austria seems to be too wide for blogs....

They will sleep in Salzkammergut tonight.

I know all this because I have Vitti's itinerary...

She has just texted me that they have arrived at the salt mines.... 

Will keep you posted!

Oh wait... while I am here I want to post a photo of dinner last night... 

Not a great photo (I really am not impressed with the iPhone 4 camera)

I'm so PRETTY!

YAY! It's my birthday today! I don't know about you but I LOVE my birthday! Reminds me that I am still alive every year..LOL


Today I woke up at 7 a.m. as per usual seeing it is a school day (I do prefer my birtdhays on weekends). Romano and the kids sang Happy Birthday to me.. along with "I'm so Pretty" from Westside Story. (It's kind of like my birthday theme song... I sing it all day on my birthday.)


At 9 a.m. I went and had my haircut! I did not do it to be pretty, because I already am, but I just really needed one. 40 Euros later I was even prettier then before!


After my haircut I went for coffee with Elena. That's pretty normal as we do that every morning. The only difference was me singing "I'm So Pretty" in the coffee shop. Elena was impressed... the other patrons not so much. Their loss. 


In the afternoon Elena took me, Vitti and Giordy to the lil zoo near us. Tommy followed on his motorbike. He wanted to be able to make a quick getaway if things got boring. 


During the ride there I made sure "I'm So Pretty" was blaring from the speakers. Elena laughed but the kids sort of hid in the backseat.
I also made sure to shout to every person that I saw along the way that it was my birthday and that I was going to the zoo! I scared a cyclist half to death.


The zoo is very small. It started out as a family farm. The owner, Ceppatelli, a true animal lover, wanted to create a place where children could get to know animals better. So, he started out with a few farm animals in 2001. He had mostly birds up until 2006 when he added lots of other animals. 
You can see some of the animals here:
http://www.parcogallorose.it/photogallery/animali.php

I took lot's of pics at the zoo!

As you can see from the photos there were many strange animals there!


It took us 2 and a half hours to do the whole tour of the zoo so I guess it is not that small.


There was no ice cream though as it is still low season and the snack stand was closed. This made me sad....


In the evening we had dinner at home and I got my gifts and roses from Romano and the kids!
My gift this year is really cool! I finally got a gas ventilated oven! Well, a coupon for one...
I have been wanting one for years. I actually gave up hope on that one.
My current gas oven does not work well. It does not heat up properly and since it is not ventilated it only heats from the bottom up. Not great for baking.
So, now, all I have to do is go and choose my new oven! I am happy!
Can you imagine though.. what if my baking still sucks once I have the new oven? I won't have anymore excuses.. Hmmm.....