We're Here

August 2nd

We finally made it to Verona and the Blackburn's apartment! It was literally planes, trains, and automobiles to get here.

View from our balcony.

We were greeted by a friend of the Blackburn's, Troy, who helped us find our new living quarters. He and his wife Penny had bus tickets, and some food to help us get started. Troy also showed us the routine of the Blackburn's place as well as how everything works.  For example, we need to watch what appliances are running so that we don't blow a breaker.  Hair dryers can pretty much take care of the circuits by themselves.   Later in the evening, Troy's wife Penny brought us our first Italian home-cooked meal, Pasta Alfresca. It was fantastic. The pasta here has a different texture that I can't quite discribe and I like it. Italians eat a lot of things Atkins was against. Yet, I have seen very few heavy-set Italians.
We finished our evening with gelato. This could become one of my favorite Italian words. We liked the gelato so much that we tried to have some more this afternoon, but the gelato shop was closed for the afternoon.

Some stores and shops close down for the chiusura pomeridiana (afternoon closing) and re-open again at 4 pm. We also learned that August is the month of heat, festivals, and holiday which means some shops are closed for the entire month for vacation.

August 3rd

Today, Troy took us around Verona via foot and bus to get us acquainted with the lay of the land. You have to be careful crossing streets here. Troy told us so far 5 people have been hit and killed by vehicles. Just because the light is green doesn't necessarily mean that it is safe to cross the roads. Their roads are similar to ours with lines at the cross walk and signs. The main difference between us and them is that the lines mean nothing to them. Italians use available space to guide their driving. It's kind of a controlled chaos. Here people drive offensively instead of defensively. The first part of this YouTube video explains fairly well what I am talking about, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAJNFoHuLno.

We also went to Centro (downtown) where the plaza and markets are.  Beautiful buildings, architecture, lots and lots of history (which we will learn about as we are here longer).  There are a lot of vendors at the piazza (plaza) so we will have to go back when we have more time to spend there.  We finished off the excursion with an iced coffee---WONDERFUL!!! 

The apartment has a dog park and neighborhood park behind us and we are listening to the cacophony of dogs barking and Italian moms carrying on conversations while their children play.

Well, it is getting close to 7 pm here which means we should start thinking about dinner. Vicki, Brianna and I will all be contributing to this blog. Feel free to make comments, suggestions, questions or anything else that comes to mind.

Buona sera i miei amici which I believe means good evening my friends, (or your sister's pregnancy brings great joy to our village).  At this point, I'm not sure which it is.

Ciao,

Ralph and Vicki