Playing catch-up: Ferrara, Italy

I know I am a horrible blogger and very behind in my postings, but I'm attempting to play catch-up of our lives recently. Karl and I made it back to Italy safely last Wednesday night, but not without drama...we were delayed 8 hours in Norfolk, Parker and I were sick on the plane, our plane got struck by lightning while trying to land in Naples, we took Parker to the ER the night we got in with a temp of 103.9!, and basically none of us has slept since! We are slowly getting back into the swing of things and that includes getting back to blogging :)

I promised everyone postings from our big trip to Northern Italy in January, so I'm backtracking all the way to January 14th when we went to Ferrara, Italy! Ferrara is a beautiful, yet very small Renaissance city and is referred to in some Shakespearean plays. The town is still surrounded by miles of ancient walls, mainly built in the 15th and 16th centuries and they are said to be the best preserved Renaissance walls in Italy.

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Parker showing us how to drive (don't worry- we were parked when we tookt his). On the way to Ferrara, we got stuck in a 3 hour back-up on the A1 and also a snow storm...we were ready for a good meal once we finally got into town!

This is the moat around Castello Estense- an amazing castle built in 1385 and right outside our hotel window! A small chapel near the castle and cathedral.

The view from our hotel of Castello Estense- probably one of the best hotels we've stayed in while traveling in Europe (mainly because they had an amazing breakfast which is VERY hard to find in Italy!).

The former cathedral of San Giorgio; according to a now lost inscription the church was built in 1135. The upper part of the main facade, with dozens of pointed arches, dates from the 13th century, while the lower part of the portico and the main portal are from the 1100's. The elaborate reflief sculptures depicting Last Judgement above the second story date from the thirteenth century.

The Loggia dei Notai in Piazza Trento e Trieste.

Remembering Mom

http://www.legacy.com/dailypress/DeathNotices.asp?Page=Lifestory&PersonId=124563305 Thank you to all of our wonderful family and friends for your support the last few days- we love you all!

I love you mom

I honestly didn't believe that I'd be doing a post like this for quite sometime- it's so surreal. My mom lost her battle with pancreatic cancer yesterday. I had come home a few weeks ago to help out around the house and take her to treatments, but she was getting progressively worse each day and then took a turn for the worse Thursday night. We were all with her yesterday morning as she took her last breaths and she went peacefully without pain and little suffering. My mom was an incredible woman who will be missed dearly by many. As a RN, she helped countless people and touched many lives. Parker was truly the light of her life and I feel so lucky that she had the chance to spend time with her only grandbaby in the past few weeks- he held such a special place in her heart and put a smile on her face even in her last days. My very pregnant sister flew in yesterday and I know my mom will be watching over her in the next few weeks as baby Lucia will be entering the world VERY soon. We love you so much mom and I am so lucky to have you as my angel watching over us. I will miss you everyday for the rest of my life.

Zoosafari in Fasano, Italy

Once again...sorry for my lack of blogging (it's not that I don't want to, but it's hard to find the time!). Well, Parker and I made it to the states after a very long day flying last Friday and I think we're officially over jet lag! For those of you who don't know, I've come back home for about 6 weeks to help take care of my mom who was just diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. We have a very strong family and are doing everything we can for her as she starts her treatments. I'll be happy to give more info if you want to call/email me, but for her sake of privacy, I'm just sticking to the bare information on the blog.

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I did promise to tell more about all of our travels in January, so here it goes! While we were in Alberobello, we made a side trip on Jan. 2 to Fasano, Italy and went on a zoosafari! This was by far one of the coolest things we've done in Italy so far. We got to drive our car through the zoo and had lions and tigers walking next to our car. A giraffe, camel, and some zebras actually stuck their head in the car (Parker was not phased by this at all)! After driving through and seeing tons of animals (elephants, lions, tigers, bears, monkeys, camels, ox, moose, flamingos, and so many more), we did a walking tour of part of the zoo where we took a little train to see monkey village, polar bears, hippos, and a lot more! It was definitely something I'd love to do again if any of you want to come visit!

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Parker and I on the train going around the park. He sure does look happy!

When we first drove into the zoo, we were forced to make our way through all these animals! It took forever since they kept coming up to the car and laying in the middle of the road! Look how close you can get to the animals! Introducing Parker to the zebra.

This is the first time I ever saw a rhino!

Monkey Village

Karl wasn't so excited about this guy making his way into his side of the car.

Luckily the camel didn't spit on us. Camels are much bigger than I thought they were!

Next blog- Ferrara, Italy!

New Year's and Alberobello, Italy

Let's face it, I'm officially bad at blogging recently! Since New Year's we've been away almost everyday this month and I simply have not had anytime to update everyone on what we're doing...I'm going to attempt to blog a lot in the next two weeks to make up for it! Let's start with New Years and our trip to Alberobello, Italy :)

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New Years in Naples in nothing short of incredible- I've never seen such amazing fireworks go on an on like they do here. Karl and I have a great advantage in that our house sits on top of a huge volcano, so we get all the best panoramic shots of the festivities. If you've ever seen pictures from our house (or been to visit), you know you can see all the way out to the islands and on New Years you can see fireworks going off all the way across the bay and out to the islands! We were going to leave for our trip on the 30th, but Karl didn't want to miss the show!

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It is kind of hard to see, but all those lights across the Bay are actually fireworks!

Happy 2009! On January 1, all three of us headed out for our first Italian vacation since Parker was born! From the recommendation of a friend, we headed to the southeast region of Italy to a small town, Alberobello. This has to be one of my new favorite places in Europe- the town was breathtaking and the people were so wonderful (they were calling us by name on day 3- most Italians can't pronounce Parker's name, so they just call him "angelo" which means angel). The town is made up of houses called trulli which are over 500 years old on average. There are many theories behind the origin of the design. One of the more popular theories is that due to high taxation on property, the people of Puglia created dry wall constructions so that they could be dismantled when inspectors were in the area. They have conical roofs and are suprisingly spacious inside! It was pretty chilly, so we always had to bundle the little one up!

These are some of the famous trulli with the paintings on the roofs.

The trullo church.

Our trullo for four days :)

The town in miniture- it's not a very large city as you can tell from the few streets.

While on this trip, we went on a zoo safari in Fasano...check back for some of the most amazing pictures we've had from a trip here in Europe!

Christmas Festivities!

I've finally got some pictures up from Christmas! While it's so hard to be away from our family during the holidays, we are so lucky to have such great friends here in Italy to spend the holidays with. Parker had a wonderful first Christmas and is oficially spoiled rotten! He got the hang of pulling the wrapping paper off gifts and loves to play with all his new toys and books :) Karl and I got him tons of stuff, but I really think that his favorite is the ball popper...he actually just likes to watch mommy and daddy run after the balls when the pop out all over the place! I think my favorite gift was the Wii from Karl- I'm super sore today after playing way too much tennis, boxing, and Dance Dance Revolution yesterday. Karl loved all the soccer stuff I got him and also a signed print of the marina here in Pozzuoli, Italy!

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Christmas Eve started all of the festivities. When Karl got home from a half day of work, we did a mini-Christmas celebration with our maid, Rosa, complete with Limoncello and gifts for Parker. Later that day, Karl, Parker, and I headed to a local Pasticceria (Pastry shop/coffee bar) to get dolce for Christmas Eve dinner at our landlord's house. We then headed home and made dozens of cookies with Parker...he even helped shape the sugar cookies and put sprinkles on them...such a little chef :) At nine at night, we headed over to Gennaro and Rosa's (our landlord and his wife) for Christmas Eve dinner...that's right...9 pm...Italians eat late! We had tons of food with the main meal being Spaghetti alla Vongole (spaghetti and clams) since they mainly eat fish that night. There was also a TON of wine that was made in our vineyard earlier in the year! We finally got home around midnight and headed to bed to wait for Santa...

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The plate of dolce we got for Christmas Eve dessert (and yes, it was as good as it looks).

All our loot (minus the boxes from my family that haven't arrived yet)...Christmas is going to last for weeks! Parker putting the last ornament on the advent calendar (my oldest sister actually made this for us last year!).

Ready for Parker's first Christmas!

Gennaro with Parker at Christmas Eve dinner.

Parker decorating the cookies!

Me and little chef :)

Parker on Christmas morning with his new soccer ball...Karl is trying to influence him I think...

Christmas was such a fun day! After opening (some) presents...it took two days to open all of them...I baked an amazing apple pie (I will toot my own horn on that one) and Amanda's famous MacNCheese and we headed next door to Lisa's for a great Christmas dinner with tons of friends!

It really couldn't have a been better couple of days and thank you to everyone who helped make it so very special!

Opening more gifts.

Parker in his Christmas bag :)

Opening the ball popper while my parents were watching on Skype from the laptop in front of us.

I think I could have just given Parker wrapping paper for Christmas and he would have been happy!

After a VERY long Christmas day :)

Sunset

I was planning on posting all of our Christmas pics tonight, but it's just too late to wait around for my dinosaur slow internet to download. Instead, I'm leaving you with a pic Karl took Christmas Day from our house...our own little piece of heaven :)

I'll work on getting up those other Christmas pics in the next few days!