Family Trip to Venice

Week End in Caorle

La Dolce Vita

The sweet life, does it really exist in Italy. For many who come to Italy seeking it, the myth is not the reality they find. Life for many Italians is not that easy. They work hard for littly pay, poor job security, and live in tiny apartments in crowded cities. Foreigners who come here hoping to find work and live the good life discover that for them it's even harder to survive. First of all it's not easy to stay in Italy legally. One might compare it to trying to immigrate to the US, almost as hard or even harder. In fact I recently met a woman on a plane trip to the US who had gotten easily a ten year tourist visa to the US something that is almost impossible to do in Italy. Once here work is hard to find, those young women who come usually because of some romantic interest often discover their only option is teaching English, in spite of good US educations even advanced degrees.

But, wait, there are some of us who are lucky. My wife being Italian has made it easy for me. We live in an area where the air is clean, scenery beautiful. Most who live here work hard but live pretty well. We just spent a nice weekend in the camper with another couple who came with us in their camper. Sitting in the sun at the sea, eating a nice lunch with the two families and the kids playing. I couldn't help but comment that this is the Life, the sweet life. Of course that life can be found wherever one wants to and has the will to find it.

Frist trip in the camper

Motorhoming

We just got back from our first adventure in the camper/motorhome, we took off in a rain storm not sure if we should go or not. First thing was the battery for the living area was dead, but luckily I was expecting it and I discoverd the problem before we left the yard. Quick trip to the local auto electrical repair shop near here and we were on our way. Weekend turned out great. Stopped the first night by a lake, parked with a good view, too close to the train tracks but who's complaining, rained off and on all night. Next morning had a little walk after breakfast, then discoverd that 2/3 or more of our water supply was gone, seems we were draing water the entire time we traveled as I forgot that when the battery is disconneted a little selonoid valve opens up and has to be closed manually. At first we couldn't believe how much water we had used in just one night. I filled it up whe we arrived at our final destination - Roverta. I was amazed to find out that driving something so big is not that hard and one can take it most places. In Italy they don't mind if you park in any car parking place and even stay the night. We visited a big WWI war museum in the morning and saw the biggest bell in the world in the afternoon. The bell is dedicated to peace and made from melted cannons. Camped in an open area Sat. night up on a mountain road with a nice view. Seemed to be a meeting place for teens with nothing to do so I was a little nervous sleeping there, all was fine. Today, we took a long hike to see some fossil footprints. Getting to the starting point was interesting as we drove the camper up this very narrow steep mountain road, good Fiat 2,8 l. truck didn't have a problem. Maybe the best part was lunch, one day a week the little restaurant at the end of the road opens. It's kind of a meeting place for ex Alpini, the Alpine Soldiers. Lunch was polenta and stewed beef with pees on the side, hardy mountain food, very good, table wine all you want, I didn't drink but a bit as I had to get the camper back down that narrow road - too bad, then home made struddle, coffee, and grappa all for 10 euro each, they even brought out an extra bit of polenta and stew as Julia and I must have looked like we were still hungry. In the after noon we visited a pretty famous museum of modern art back in town, designed by the architect Mario Botta. The trip back just two hours to Belluno.

Camper Notes

After searching the internet for weeks on end we finally stumbled upon the camper/motorhome of our dreams. Well campers are always a compromise, but we think this one will work for us. It almost fit within our budget. Why get one, well that's the big question. We found that even though we wanted to explore Italy and Europe we weren't doing it. Mainly because with two kids and various weekend commitments we were just not making the plans, reservations, etc. it takes to go away for a weekend. So in the end we stayed home. There is also the cost issue, though it's debatable as to which is cheaper. Now we hope to be able to take off at a moments notice. We will see. The last few days have been spent cleaning, and setting it up. It's pretty much like having a second home, needs all the fixings, plus I like tinkering with things so I've installed some extra 12 volt outlets for the dvd play, phone chargers, and computer, and put in a 240 volt inverter that we already had.

So I will hopefully be posting some tales and photos of fun adventures on the road in Italy and Europe.

Wedding, Airline Flights, Skiing, Spring & A Camper

The last few weeks have been busy. There has been work to do, a new associate architect in San Diego, my daughter Callie's wedding which involved a trip to San Diego and terrible airline connections. The wedding was beautiful as was my daughter, I'll post a reference to the pictures when she gives it to me. The trip home a mess, traffic jambs on the 5 from Carlsbad to LA, rush to the airport, Midway auto rental seems a great company, they drove me right to the airport when I told them I was late rather than make me wait for their shuttle also gave me an upgrade from the basic car I reserved to the top of the line Toyota Avalon, well actually they probably gave away my car, but hey I'm not complaining. Then of course the BA flight was way late in leaving so there was no need to rush. Arrived late in Heathrow had to take a bus to Gatwick, BA doesn't make it easy to find the right bus, you are pretty much left on your own to find your way. Then of course missed the next flight and had to stay over night in a hotel. BA paid for it and dinner and breakfast, and somehow I got upgraded to business class. I could have stayed all day in the business class lounge, very nice. In some ways the trip wasn't so bad it's just that I left on Wednesday and got home on Friday.

Now it's Spring here in Belluno, we had a big snow one morning last week, the whole town was covered with a few inches in the morning and by night time it was all gone. I want to make one last ski day or two so we will try tomorrow, no one wants to go but me. Oh well I'm making them go anyway. And finally we have committed to buying a camper, found a good deal and gave a deposit so we will pick it up this week. We have spent countless hours looking on the internet and were getting tired of it all, but finally the one we think is perfect for us turned up and we got a good deal on the price.

So now we will enter the world of camper touring, autocaravans, they call them here. It's funny in some ways I've wanted one since I was about 14 taking a vacation with my family up through the Owen's Valley in California with a small travel trailer. The first motor homes which were really just a trailer mounted on a truck bed, were going by us and I thought that must be the totally perfect way to go. I've found out that in Italy and France there is an organization that has gathered a list of farms which let campers stay free for one night. I'm anxious to try that, as it seems an inexpensive way to get more in touch with the countryside.

Blog Links

I will put a link on this blog to anyone who links to here, unless it's totally offensive. Mostly I'm just returning a favor. I don't tend to read other blogs that much, just don't have the time. But it does seem that there is a wealth of good stuff written on many of them. Maybe if I had more time, but then one tends to get too buried in the internet, too connected online and not enough offline. Probably my two little ones are getting to know the back of my head better than the front. Random thoughts I guess.

Finally, if you link to me and I don't link to you then send me your link and I will link it. Or send me an email and I will link you. One good link deserves another.

Birthdays

Today is my wife Luisa's birthday. What has happened to birthdays, they used to be so important and what a difference between the way they seem to Italians vs Americans. Even on my birthday many of the Italian relatives, all mine only by marriage, call me some even give gifts. But on the American side, it seems most people are too caught up in the day to day struggle to remember. What makes the difference, I don't know. Are Americans more self centered or is life just that much harder there, or is it the difference in attitudes about family in general.

Today a Message

Today, Luisa and I went skiing, the weather was perfect, the snow ok. I think I'm a good skiier which at the end of the day today almost proved my downfall. Luisa was tired so she rested while I took one more run. I went down a black run, the snow was slushy and full of bumps, things were great, my skiis love this kind of snow. I sit back and a let the tips ride up a bit just do nice turns through the slush and mush. At some point I'm going pretty fast along the edge of a narrow run, I'm having a good time. When all of a sudden something goes wrong. I loose it, I can't turn, I'm heading towards the edge of the run out of control. There is only one thing left to do that's sit down and hope for the best. I see a big orange fence with a smaller one in front of it. I think ok, I'll just crash into it. I do. I stop. Then I look down I'm over the edge of a very steep hill full of big trees. My skiis tangled in the two fences, my body a few feet down the steep slope. I can't get up, I'm stuck in the fence and on the edge. Someone stops, asks if I'm ok, yes I say but HELP! I hand him the end of my ski pole ask him to pull me up, another guy arrives, one of the workers skiing down with a shovel. He grabs my other arm and the two of them pull me up. Then the nice guy who works there takes off my skiis and gets them out of the fence. I finally get up and thank everybody put on my skis feeling embarassed about the whole episode and ski on down.

I tell Luisa the story when I see her, she's a bit angry with me saying I take too many chances. I say you're right, and maybe God sent me a little message, a warning to watch what I'm doing.

Tonight I'm working at the computer, Luisa brings me a glass of wine. I think that's such a simple pleasure and so nice.

Bruschetta Salad

Here's a quick idea invented by Luisa tonight. Make a nice salad, her's had lettace, a few odds and ends some boiled egg, chunks of cheese, and tuna. And she made a dressing of prepared pesto thined down with olive oil. Toast a large slice of fresh bread. Rub the toasted bread with a clove of garlic, drizzle olive oil on the bread add a little salt. Then top with the salad, more olive oil and the some of the pesto sauce. Salt and Pepper to taste. Good!!

Giovanni's Frist Ski Race

Up until Friday he insisted he didn't want to race, but then he changed his mind. So this was the last one of the season for his ski club. After the races they put on a nice BBQ for the families.

Pictures and more pictures

Here is where we post pictures of some of our activities mostly in Italy. Have a look http://picasaweb.google.com/home

The New Catholic Confession system

Well I think it's funny. So have a look. A friend sent it to me.

Ski Lessons

Well Giovanni is back at the ski lessons. He's 6 remember. It's dry here, out our window we can see the slope he is skiing on, too far away to see him. We arrive at the parking lot at 1:15, it's warm for here, clear sky. A couple other cars are there with kids waiting for the bus. Ours is all decked out in his very professional looking ski suit, it's mostly bright orange which I thought was a great color for him, very visible kind of like these vests they make you put on if your car breaks down on the road here. When we ski together my greatest fear is that he will get hit by another skier so I think the suit helps.

We wait I'm sitting on the open back of our car, other kids arrvive, some of the girls are in a racing class so they have on these tight racing suits with baggy shorts over them. They are cute and very serious looking. Eventually the bus arrives, Giovanni's friend from school is sick so he gets on the big bus by himself, probably he's the youngest on the bus. We stand back and watch the bus leave, thinking he looks so small on such a big bus. Luisa wonders if he isn't too young to go off like that by himself. But I think back to the day before when I picked him up after the lesson, he was proud of himself for having bought and received the proper change for a small box of candy from a vendor who parks at the ski area selling stuff to all the kids. He seems to return with more confidence in himself than when he left. Says his instructor calls him by his last name Helm, it's cute. I can just hear it, "hey Helm, move your butt, Helm stop going off the edge of the run, hey Helm ---

Polenta

Here is the way I make it:

Mix at a ratio of 1 cup of polenta (corn meal) to 3 cups of cold water in a pot like you would use to boil pasta. I find mixing in cold water avoids the lumps as most receipes tell you to put the polenta into boiling water. Bring the mix to a boil, then that's right stir for half an hour or so, if you are adept you can do other things along the way. The polenta is done when you have a nice think mixture that pulls away easily from the side of the pot. When almost done ad some butter, salt and some gratted cheese. You can serve as is or top with lots of things, like a nice meat and gravy. Or fry up some sausages with some sauteed onions, pour the polenta onto a big round platter, put the sausage and onions and all the greasy drippings on the middle of the polenta, top with grated cheese, meat eaters love this. Save the left over polenta in a square dish put it in the fridge and it will firm up then you can slice it and grill it.

Here there often these little festivals they call Sagras, they are usually at a church or some other organization. The main thing they do is serve food. Polenta in always on the menu along with grilled pork chops, sausages, and sausage patties and sometimes a type of stu or goolash made with deer meat. And of course beer and wine. They cook the polenta in huge copper pots set on a wood burning device. Somehow it always tastes better that way.

Winter

It's a bright sunny day here, and even though the mountains all around us are full of snow, we don't have any. Maybe it's a false break but it seems like Winter is ending all ready. I'm a little frustrated because we haven't gotten any good use out of our ski passes. First there was no snow, then Christmas and New Years, then various bouts of sicknesses. Now we are almost well, and hoping to get in some Winter activities before it's too late. At least Giovanni is back in his ski class today. He missed last week. Seems he really enjoyed being of school a week even if he had to get the flu to do it. I was a struggle getting him to go yesterday.

Being Sick

Wow, we got zapped, the whole family has been sick for a week now and it seems we have at least a few more days of it. It's never really happened before that we were all down at the same time. Of course Luisa and I have not really been down, with kids to tend and work to do we've been stumbling around trying to keep up. We had a project to finish and one to get started on as the first had been waiting for a while and the later was getting nervous. This thing we have is I think the worse I've had since moving here, that all over achy feeling, fever, runny stuffy nose, sore throat and a dry cough. Only Julia has had the vomiting, that lasted 2 or 3 days, she is now ahead a bit on getting better.

The weather has been bad along with our health this last week, cold rainy, overcast. Misery loves company so I don't mind at least we don't feel the urge to be outside. This is a 4 day weekend and we had made reservations to go skiing part of the time, well obviously that got cancelled.

We are thinking of buying a motorhome/camper. It's been a big debate, the idea is to use it to tour around Europe and Italy and even take some extended time away wherever we can be in contact by the internet and keep up with our work. All we really need is the internet and a computer, so we might be anywere and keep working. Sounds good in theory at least. European motorhomes if you don't know are much more compact than the US variety, though the cost of fuel is still a big issue.

Waiting to see who gets the nods on super Tuesday, seems Obama is picking up a lot of steam and may take it for the Dems. He got my vote. On the Republican side I always thought they were supposed to be conservatives, but I don't see a conservative candidate other than Ron Paul who has a lot of appeal, but no chance. We shall see it's going to be an iteresting year for politics in the US, it can go in a new drection or follow the same path to self destruction that it has been following these last years.

Taking the kids to school

The best way we have found to get them out of bed in the morning is to turn on the tv to one of the kids programs. I turn it on at 6:45 after getting up myself. I first turn on the heat, the computer and start making our daily pot of American style coffee. We buy beans and grind them fresh every morning, a habit we formed in California. It's just the we can't really find the quality of coffee we like here. We have settled on Lavaza gold, it's 100% arrabica. I prefer Colombian. Julia who is 8 comes stomping up the stairs like a lumberjack as soon as she hears the tv and Giovanni 6 usually takes a bit of mommy time to get out of bed. At 7:20 the tv goes off and by then they are supposed to also be dressed. We really have a routine, every morning I wonder how long I can keep it up, it just seems so boring to do the same thing everyday and also to be obligated to do it. I've become spoiled over the years working independently and not having a fixed schedule. Now that the kids are both in regular school things have changed.

Luisa has the pleasure of a few minutes extra sleep and often gets hot coffee delivered to her in bed. While the coffee brews I begin to check the email and read some news on the Internet, usually starting with antiwar.com. Don't know what I'll do if the war in Iraq ever ends. Once she is up Luisa pays the price for having had a bit of extra bed time. She gets the kids dressed and fed and puts up with all the typical morning stress. In the meantime I get myself dressed, always wondering if I should actually put on real clothes or not since I'll be working at home all day. At 7:45 I get myself downstairs, our apartment is on two levels, and start telling the kids that we are late and why aren't they ready. So I wait while Julia gets her hair brushed, puts in her lip bumper, finally gets her shoes on and then the coat, Giovanni is usually ready as Luisa is still getting him dressed.

Finally we head out the door, now if by some slim chance we are out in time we can walk, however it's usually too late so we have to take the car. We descend down three flights of stairs into an underground garage. It's big and dark and always cold. A little creepy. The automatic light doesn't come on until we reach the far end. The one at the entrance has not been working for a while. Getting out of the garage is always a challenge, Italian parking lots, and garages are just barely big enough to function. I've tried the two directions to turn when backing out and have finally gotten it down to 4 turns if I go to the left on the first one. We drive up the ramp and then to the electric gate which opens shall I say slowly. Driving down the private street to the main road I always think someone should put up some no parking signs as they have turned a two way street into one way by parking on one side. So if we happen to meet an oncoming car someone has to back up so the other can pass. At least people seem pretty friendly about it and whomever has the easiest back up possibility usually backs up. When we reach the main road which actually leads directly the school there is usually a line of cars waiting for the stop light that is two blocks away, but once again people are pretty nice and we enter the line after someone lets us in.

Arriving at the school once again we are dealing with the typical Italian parking situation. Some parents just let their kids out the door and then move on turning around a sort of circular drive. While others me included like to park and escort the kids inside. So of course it takes a bit of maneuvering to find a place and then park. The school building is a semicircular structure, with I think 6 floors. The upper levels are mostly empty and contain small dorm rooms as the school was originally a live in school for boys only. It seems they use the rooms in the summer for groups and also there are a few residents. I met one and gave him ride one morning. His sad story is that he attends a high school about 15 minutes away and lives in the dorm. He had missed the bus that morning. Only problem is that I see him begging rides almost every morning so it seems he doesn't make much effort to catch the bus. An interesting bit about the school, it's a private catholic school, is that it is named after a first cousin, 4 or 5 times removed of Luisa's. Seems the ol girl who had no children of her own donated all of her money to the church in her dying days. This was much to the disappointment of her close relatives who might have wished to have the money and property.

But now we are entering the school, there is an outer door, with a paper note asking people to keep the door closed, because the facility is heated, attached to the glass panel in one of the doors. Inside the entry a nice lady is usually there greeting the kids and keeping an eye on things. In this little lobby there is a bank of telephone booths now abandoned which I suppose were used in the past by the resident students to call home and their friends. We say good morning to the nice lady and pass through the second door into a large semicircular hallway, with a very high ceiling. At one end of the hall is the school chapel. At the other are the stairs and hallway going to the various classrooms. Giovanni is on the first level above, Julia the next above that. In the hallways outside the classrooms each room has a row of benches and above the benches are hooks with the names of each student. They put their little bags of extra clothes on the hooks and also their coats and hats. Under the benches are their cubby holes where they keep their slippers. Each child at the beginning of school brings in a pair of slippers which they put on before entering the class room. We usually arrive at the last minute as the classes are heading upstairs, so my kids go charging off hardly saying good bye unless I grab them for a last minute kiss. On the rare occasion that we are there early, they meet their friends and chat or show off some little thing or toy they are smuggling into class. The parents too have a moment to chat and complain about the weather or tell stories about which kids are disrupting the class or what the latest thing is that they don't like about the school.

Some days we actually walk to school. Of course this happens more in the warm months. The walk follows the same path as the car. The kids usually complain if they have to walk but once they start they seem to have fun, running to the next intersection to wait for me or skipping and jumping along the side walk. I always remind them to watch out for the dog poop along the edge of the sidewalk, and tell myself I really need to post some signs telling people how bad it is to take their dogs there to dirty the place where we all walk. We get to the main intersection and push the button for the pedestrian signal on the stop lights. We wait, then when the pedestrian sign goes on I grab Giovanni to make sure he doesn't charge out into the street as there will often be a late right turning car. We walk along past shops and apartment buildings. We pass a ceramics studio which seems to be dedicated to classes for the handicapped. Usually outside a 30 something man waits to be let in. Sometimes I say good morning to him but he never replies, just stares at us as we pass. We arrive at the school and thread ourselves through the maze of the parking and drive through area. We enter, say good morning to the nice lady and the kids go running up the stairs, late as usual.

The Pencil

Is this an Italian trait, I don't know. But this is how it goes. My Italian wife, and architecture partner has a habit of grabbing the pencil out of my hand whenever she wants to talk when we are having a joint design session. Now for me if I have a pencil or any other object in my hand no one has permission to take it away from me. In fact I get really irritated if they do.

So we are doing an addition for her brother who lives in Canada, he has been here in Italy and we have had several design sessions with the three of us. What I noticed is that he and his sister grab the pencil back and forth from each other as each starts to talk or point to something in a sketch. This is in spite of the fact that I made several sharpened pencils available sitting there on the table. It seems that symbolically the pencil determines who has the floor for the moment.

Westward In The USA

I've started a new blog where I will be posting bits and pieces, stories, from the history of my family in the US. It starts around the time of the Mayflower and continues moving on Westward to California. I think it's interesting in that those little pieces give a picture of the common man, in the history of the US.

Sometimes I feel that my moving to Italy is in a way a continuation of that Westward movement. We went as far West as we could, so I had to finally go somewhere.



http://westwardintheusa.blogspot.com/



Have a look and let me know what you think.



John

Switzerland Holiday with Erin

School Christmas Program

I've put up a little Youtube video of the kids singing and here are a couple of pictures. I've seen a lot of these Christmas programs over the years and these here are pretty typical of the ones in the US.

Life in Italy

What is it like living here. Maybe I should write a little about our life in general here, and also compare it to how our life was in the US. To a great degree it's not so different. In part because the daily routine wherever one lives has certain common elements, kids off to school, work, preparing meals, making order in the home, etc. One major difference here from San Diego of course is the weather. There the temperature did not vary that much from month to month but here of course it does, we have real seasons here. Another big difference is the amount of time we spend in the car. We have carried some of our California habits with us, so we tend to take the car and go to the grocery store for example that is 10 minutes away where they have a bigger selections and lower prices than the store we can walk to. And we buy for a week rather than going every day like Luisa's mom does. However, even so a tank of gas lasts us 2 or 3 weeks at least where as on our recent trip to San Diego we filled up the gas tank 4 times in two weeks.

Where we live the city, Belluno, is nice but it is not one of the prettiest of Italian cities. What makes it beautiful here are the surroundings, we are surrounded by mountains, forests, rivers and beautiful valleys. In every direction from here there are lots of outdoor activities. Of course in Winter the sport is skiing.

I will make this a bit of a running commentary, so I'll write more later.

Web Site Hijacked

My domain name northeastitaly.com got hijacked, stolen as far as I'm concerned. Maybe the time for renewal was up but I did not get a notice and now I find out that someone else owns the name. I'm guessing people do this as a business. They watch names ready to expire and jump on them hoping the owner will want to buy it back at a much higher price. Well I was thinking it might have given a bit too much personal information about where we live and so on so maybe it's better that it's gone for now. But the whole idea of it is very disturbing.

The War on Iraq

One of my daughters has a step son in the Marine reserves. I'm just told he has volunteered for active duty and will be sent to Iraq. He is such a nice young man and I am pleased, and proud of his courage and commitment to the defense of our country.

But I have been opposed to this war from the beginning that has waisted the lives of some 4,000 US troops and killed undreds of thousands of Iraqi men, women and children. It makes me so sad to see him sucked into it. I just hope and prey that he makes it through this and comes home alive, in one peace, and is not destroyed mentally for the rest of his life.

Our Christmas Tree

I didn't know where to go to find a tree here in Belluno, it's not like they have tree lots all over town. But I left with the kids thinking it was going to take a couple of hours and we might not even find one. Well about two blocks from our house at the local flower shop we saw some sitting out front. I imagined the price would be out of site. But hey they were only 18 euro. I grabbed the first one I saw and we were home in 15 minutes.

Now the tree is decorated, it's not a work of art but I love all the decorations that have been collected and added over the years. Many were made by my kids, the grown ones when they were 4 and 5 years old and now my little ones have added to the collection. There is one I found from a friend I went to college with, Bill Catron, back in 1970. Others given to my daughters 20 and more years ago. It makes a tree full of happy memories and reminds me of what Christmas is about, love of family and friends and the birth or our Lord .

Giovanni turns 6

We had a regular sit down dinner for a bunch of 6 year olds.

Davis

My grandaughter Davis, doesn't she look Swiss and beautiful! Well she's not Swiss but she does live in Switzerland.

Italian Families

What do I know about them. Some I guess. What I like right off which some expats don't is that whenever you leave or come home unless it was just a trip to the super market it's a big deal. You get a big send off when you leave and a big welcome back when you return with all the kisses and hugs. It's great. Another thing is that there is always this level of excitement when everyone is together, always two or three conversations going on at the same time.

Another thing I like are Italian mothers, yes they baby their kids too much and a lot of Italian kids are whinney cry babies, but still the moms are great. If you have any Italian friends outside Italy have you noticed how the these Italian moms greet little kids when you arrive at their house or when arriving at a get together, it's all full of joy and affection even for the kids they have just met. My wife she's a great Italian mom, always there for her kids too much in my American opinion because she just gets too tired, when they go to bed she is usually so tired she just drops off on the couch. Even after working all day, she doesn't short change them, and I think this is pretty typical.

I will write more on this subject.

Politicians

I've decided there are two types of politicians, both types are corrupted by the system that demands that they accept money from those would influence their decisions. But there is a difference in the two types. Type one is only interested in furthering their own wealth, and power. Everything they do has really only that goal. Examples would be G.W. Bush in the US and Berlusconi in Italy. Type two, though not without the first goal of gaining wealth and power is actually interested in governing as well. They want to do what is right for their countries and want to go down in history as having done a good job. Examples of the type two are Pradi in Italy and the Clintons in the US. We could name many on either side of the conservative vs. liberal issue. The two types exist in both camps. I think our difficult goal as voters should be to separate the two types and only vote for type two. The type ones destroy our countries, the type twos while making mistakes at least give us a government that is somewhat democratic.

Blog Comments

Seems that about 15 people a day look at my blog, not a lot but at least there is some interest. The thing is that few people make comments. I'd like to hear from those of you who come here. Tell my why you came, what interests you etc.

Pizza Mexicana

Or what to do with the left over taco fixings. Take an extra large flour tortilla, or in Italy you can use Piada, those things that look like tortillas but are too thick for anything Mexican.

Put the Piada in a frying pan with a little oil, fry on both sides until semi crisp but not hard, put it on an oven safe plate, spread refired beans over it, then the taco meat, then chopped tomatoes, onions, what ever you like, top with a nice cheese that melts easily. Put in under the broiler until the cheese melts, take it out and serve topped with with salsa, taco sauce, avocados, sour cream (Greek yogurt works in Italy), whatever you like, use your pizza cutter to slice it - enjoy.

Grand Children

Well now I have four all beautiful. I'd post some pictures, but their moms are doing a great job with their own blogs so if you want to see them just click on the links for my daughters.

Italian Citizenship

Here I am being congratulated by the Italian consulate in Los Angeles. Now I am officially Italian. Of course I am now a dual US and Italian citizen. I'd never give up my US citizenship. But living in Italy it's just make sense to be able to participate as a citizen and also not have any issues about being able to stay as long as I want. My whole second family and I are dual now. Luisa became a US citizen last March.

Taco Night at the Helm's

Yes, it was taco night. One of the few things we can't find around here are corn tortillas. So we brought about 6 dozen back with us from California. We left Italy with two and a half bags not that full. Returned to Italy with four all weighed out to the max 50 pounds. I bring a scale with me. At the airport check in the lady asked what I had in them that was so heavy, taco sauce and tortillas I said.

Tonight I cooked the "traditional" Mexican tacos - California style I suppose you would say. Do you miss refried beans living in Italy? Here's how to make your own. Take two or three cans of Bartollini beans, a medium brown looking bean. Drain all the liquid even maybe washing them in a colander. Put them in the food processor with some seasoning as you like, a little olive oil and pulse until they are pretty well mashed up. Put them in a pot and simmer a few minutes and there you go.

California

So here we are for a couple of weeks in sunny So Cal, it's nice. We've (mostly I have) been pigging out on typical American food, that is Mexican fast food, hamburgers and fries and then there was the steak sandwich at an expensive beach front restaurant in Del Mar, but it was happy hour half price. So not too bad. Then the long walk on the beach watching the sunset. That's California at it's best.

Reminds me of another recipe that I used to make a lot for guests before we moved to Italy, we don't have a real oven in our apartment so I have not been able to do it there:

Garlic & Onion Focaccia


Ingredients:

Medium size pizza dough, make it yourself from a typical recipe or buy ready made at Trader Joe's. Plan or with rosemary and basil.

1 Medium onion
1 Tbls minced garlic (the type in packed in water is fine)
Salt
Olive oil
Grated cheeses, jack, cheddar, or whatever, cheese is optional.
Good quality Parmesan cheese

Cut the onion in half then slice thinly, saute the onion and garlic in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil until the onions are translucent.
Lightly brush olive oil on a standard size cookie sheet, then spread the pasta dough over the sheet. It’s best if you let the dough warm to room temperature. Then stretch and pull like you would for a pizza. When it’s nearly the right size put it on the sheet continue to stretch until it covers the sheet.

Brush the dough lightly with olive oil and then spread the onion and garlic over it. Sprinkle cheeses lightly over the dough then grate a small amount of Parmesan over it all.

Bake at around 375 until done. You might put it under the broiler for the last couple of minutes to brown the top. When done you can sprinkle olive oil over it if it seems a little dry and then sprinkle a bit of course ground salt to taste

Note – you can experiment with various toppings, just, remember it’s not a pizza so go lightly. Leave off the cheese for a more traditional focaccia. Variations are limitless. Fresh pesto sauce is great brushed over the dough or drizzled on top.

Italian cooking

Well Italian style cooking is more like it. I like to cook, but slow food is not what I have time for. It's more like slow food cooked in a fast way. I'm thinking about making a new blog just about my way of cooking good things fast.

What do you think? Here is a example of something I copied from a recent meal in a local restaurant and adapted:

Pork Roast with Chestnut Sauce

Ingredients:
Pork roast about 700 gr.
Milk
Butter
about 20 or 30 chestnuts
Olive oil
large salt
Besciamella already prepared or make your own

Make a cut in each chestnut, put them in water and boil for 45 minutes, the peel them, that's the hard part.

Pour some olive oil in the bottom of a backing dish, sprinkle with medium size salt. Put in the roast and turn it over covering it with oil and salt. Now bake it at a fairly high temperature until cooked, check the temperature of the pork to reach 160 degrees f. You should get a nice salty crust on the roast. Don't use too much salt.

While the meat is cooking put the chestnuts in a blender with some milk and blend, ad the besciamell until you have a nice creamy mixture and an adequate amount of sauce, add some salt and pepper to taste.

Next put a bit of butter in a sauce pan let it melt then add the chestnut mixture, heat it cook it stirring constantly for 5 minutes or so. When done set it aside.

Slice the pork very thin. Reheat the sauce and serve it separately from the pork as a topping sauce.

You can use turkey breast as a substitute for the pork if you like. The real Italian recipe would use cream for the sauce but my version has much less fat.

Note that I won't give exact measurments, one needs to use a bit of judgement, taste and experience.

California Fires

Our condo and office were right on the edge of the fire zones. In fact I'm sure our renters had to evacuate and Solana Beach where our office is was also evacuated. The weird thing is that two of the local TV stations broadcast live over the Internet during the crisis and we were tuned in here. It was too much like being there. Normally all live feeds are blocked outside the US, so it was unique. It just was strange seeing all the newscasters we know from the past as if we were still in the area. The Internet never ceases to amaze me. We got updates on the fire coverage from the San Diego emergency services site as well as from my wife's brother in Canada whose wife is from San Diego and worried about her parents. Of course his information was relayed from another brother in law living in Orange county. Then there were the phone calls to cell phones of my daughter to find out how her horses and she were doing and then my sister who also evacuated. She was camped at the beach having a fine time, so much for the misery of evacuation.

Fear of the Bidet

So we had someone here renting the apartment of a relative for 6 days, a really nice retired couple. When he saw the bidet his comment was "oh a bidet great for washing the feet". Now I ask you why such a comment or any comment at all. Well I think it's out of fear of something that some people shall we say mostly American type people associate with that other nasty word Sex. To them it's this foreign thing that them darn foreigners use after having sex. And anything to do with sex should not be made so visible. Those things should be hidden like breasts at a Super Bowl game. But then there is the other source of fear that is the fear of the unknown, people just don't know what it's for and therefore they fear it and feel obligated to make some silly comment when they first see one.

So what is that nasty little bowl with the faucet attached? Well it's a sink close to the floor or a mini bath tub. What's it for, it's for washing stuff. Yes of course it's handy after sex. But once one gets used to it being there, one finds all sorts of uses for it. Short people as in kids use it to wash their hands, even dare I say brush their teeth. It is useful for washing feet especially the feet of the little rug rats who would otherwise go to bed with dirt ladden feet. It's good for soaking laundry, and depositing wet bathing suits. As you can see it has many many uses. But it's main use remains that of a good place to wash that area between the legs, Italian kids are taught, more in the past than now, to use it after going poop, and little girls and boys who are too tired to take a bath find it handy to clean themsleves a bit before going to bed keeping mommy at least somewhat satisfied. And finally I'll admit my love of the bidet comes mostly from the mini shower aspect, saving lots of toilet paper.

Milan

Another weekend in Milan. Our daughter has regular visits to her orthodontist who is an American trained in the US but practicing in Italy. I am disappointed to say we could not find an Italian orthodontist with the knowledge to treat her problem. We did try.

Anyway I still can't really decide how I feel about Milan. Probably my problem is that I've always been a small city or country person. Milan is an interesting city, and everyone tells me there is a lot to do there. We usually spend most of our time shopping or at least looking at stuff in stores. This weekend we arrived on Friday about an hour before her appointment, since it was early afternoon we had no problem finding a parking space in the private parking area of the condo building where Luisa's parents live. That's a chore that can take an hour on a late evening. The metro takes one right into the center of town which makes that part easy. In the evening we had the typical family dinner with our kids, Luisa's parents and her sister and her kids. It's always nice to sit and eat with all the family at table. Luisa's mom is a great cook. I had a moment when I looked around at the table, with four kids there ranging in age from 5 to 9 all being very polite and quiet, yet not hesitating to talk if they have something to say, when I thought, this is great. What wonderful children we have.

Saturday was mostly spent shopping for clothes for our daughter who is suffering from peer pressure and won't accept almost anything we like, because her school mates don't dress that way. Saturday evening the kids were deposited at the sister's house and Luisa and I went out for Chinese. Amazingly we have found this restaurant mostly frequented by local Chinese and can you believe, Peruvians. They cook Peruvian food on the weekend. Well we really stuffed ourselves for a total of 25 euro. It's not a fancy place, but the food is good and the price especially in Milan is great.

Sunday was mostly the long drive home. Three and a half hours on the autostrada. I'm almost getting used to it, at least on Sunday there are no trucks.

Sweet Italian Days

I suppose people are more interested in hearing nice things about Italy rather than my political views, which I will write more later. Anyway here is something. Last Sunday, we had started a lazy morning not sure what we would do. A friend who has two kids in school with ours called inviting us to go on a hike with them up on the Nevegal with is a local mountain we can see the top of from our windows. It's also the closest ski area. The hike was supposed to be short and end in time to come home for lunch. So after a bit of debate as I had not felt that good earlier we called them back and said sure we will go. They were by then half way out the door so we only had ten minutes to get ready and off we went.

It takes about 20 minutes to drive to the spot we started hiking from. It's a liesurely hike, that takes manybe an hour to get to the top. But with 4 kids and two chatting women the hike takes much longer. It was one of those perfect days. From that area one can see all of Belluno and the surrounding valley and mountains. The view was beautiful, the air fresh and clean. At the top there is one of those typical refugios, always amazing to see something so rustic and cute in the middle of nowhere. Of course by then we were all hungry so lunch at home yielded to some panini and I had a beer. We sat outside on a long bench facing the view and the sun. One of those moments when life seems like it can't get any better.

The hike down finally after the kids had a great time just rolling around on the grass and playing in the sun, equally beautiful. Form the ridge one can see Lago di Sante Croce and the autostrada on the other side of the mountains. Finally arriving at the starting point there is a restaurant and a playground. On the way down we were joined by another couple who also have a child at the same school and so the kids played in the playground and the adults chatted. The short two hour hike ended finally at 5:30 or so.

Call to from and all over Europe FREE

Why not sign up for the VOIP phone system we use and talk as long as you want from the US to Europe, Canada, New Zealand and Australia at no extra charge. You can even take the system with you when you move to Europe, hook it up to your internet connection and have a US number that friends can call as if you were still in the US.

We have been using this system here in Italy for two years. We also have the system in our US office. Clients and others call our office number and when no one is in the office calls are forwarded to our other US number which rings in Italy using VOIP. And finally we use it to call all over Italy and Europe free. We just dial a number as if we were calling from the US. The system works with a regular phone wireless or wired just plug it into the little box as if it were a normal phone jack. My daughter living in Switzerland also has the same system we can talk for hours anytime we like.

So, yes we get $25 for every person who is willing to list our email as the one who refered them. But I wouldn't mention it for a measly $25 if I didn't think it was a good idea. Send me an email and I will give you all the info. You don't pay me anything.

Bringing the Troops Home

They ask me here in Italy what I think about Bush saying he is reducing the number of troops in Iraq. Well what I say is that it's all a bunch of smoke and mirrors, or to be more blunt lies. Those troops were already scheduled to come home. And the military can't really replace them because they are just stretched too thin. So Bush uses something that was already a given as if he just made are great decision and the media buys right into it. What a bunch of BS. I don't get it.

Just a Warning

As you see from a couple posts below, I'm starting to get away from the usual Italy is great stuff and voice a few opinions I have on other subjects. Don't get me wrong I'm not unhappy. I love living in Italy and I love the US, I'm proud of my family history which goes back to the very beginning of the US - we're even talking Mayflower people. I just think I need to start being move of a voice in the forest talking about some of the things that are going wrong in both places. Not that it will make much difference.

General Petraeus

Here's what Admiral William Fallon had to say about him:

"Fallon told Petraeus that he considered him to be "an ass-kissing little chickens**t" and added, "I hate people like that," the sources say. That remark reportedly came after Petraeus began the meeting by making remarks that Fallon interpreted as trying to ingratiate himself with a superior."

Quoted from an article in www.antiwar.com

And people wonder if Petraeus is giving an accurate report on the success of the surge - not.

Who is Fallon - Petraeus' superior, chief of the Central Command (CENTCOM).

Fall & Politics

Seems like Fall has arrived. The kids are back in school, the air temperature has become cooler. I have this sense that I have to start preparing for Winter, even if the first snows are still two months or so away. My garden is going downhill fast, it wasn't a great success this year, partly because it was somewhat neglected and partly because the weather here just wasn't that hot and we had a lot of rain.

While in the hospital I finished reading "The Sack of Rome" by Alexander Stille. This is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the sorry state of Italian politics. From this reading you will learn how vastly corrupt Italian politics has been and is. You will learn that money has controlled everything and Italy's richest man also one of the World's richest has used money to gain tremendous control over people and politics. You will learn how through graft and corruption Berlusconi gained control of the vast majority of information reaching Italians. You will see how his career from the start has been intermixed with the Mafia and that the main reasons he entered politics was to keep himself out of jail and to seize power for his own financial benefit after he lost his friends when the Christian Democratic party fell out power. Finally you will understand why the only times there has been any sense of actual governing in Italy during recent times has been when the center left was in power One can only hope that books like this might open peoples eyes and perhaps create some changes.

In the last chapter Stille points out how similar things have happened in the US and how the news media which is controlled by a very few people has influenced the thinking and the voting of Americans.

Italian Hospitals

Well I've been out for a while having a bit of surgery. Before you start worrying about me, it all went very well and I think the out come will prove to be positive. It was one week ago yesterday and I'm almost back to normal.

I went to the hospital in Padova because they have a top rated center and use the DaVinci robot aided laproscopy. Really the state of the art. I'd say that the Italians take a bit of an older view of surgery otherwise. They want you in the day before and want you to stay 5 days after. The doctors are great, the nurses too and the whole staff seemed to be doing a fine job. The food was iffy but hey who expects really good food in a hospital. It was actually ok sometimes even good just a little bland. If I had to complain it would be about the of level maintenance, but then I was told that they are starting a big remodel of the area I was in next month, even putting bathrooms in the rooms. For me it was down the hall. And then there is of course the 4 to a room concept. I'd advise anyone to pack along some ear plugs and an eye shield, makes a big difference.

Having 3 other beds in a room does give one a good chance to view a certain aspect of Italian life and values. I'm not making comparisons just observations. What I observed was a lot of care and affection, a willingness to help others and a true sense of sympathy for their pain. I guess I came away with a bit of a renewed faith in the goodness of the human spirit.

Val Pusteria

HERE are a few more pictures. This is a beautiful area of Italy, more German in character than Italian. We took a few days off and stayed in a small apartment. On Monday we took the famous 40k bike ride from San Cando to Lienz. It's a great ride, mostly all downhill. I also posted on Youtube a little video of our son Giovanni riding his bike. It's a chuckle. Click on the picture of him on his bike to see it.

Poster Pictures of Italy

If you see any pictures on our site that you would like printed poster size I can print them for you at a reasonable cost. They are fun to hang up even printed on plain paper. But we can also print on glossy paper or maybe even canvas. You can also send us your favorites for printing. Our printer is an HP 1050C + which can print up to 36" wide by almost any length.

Civetta Alleghe

Our friends Steve Kathy and Christopher came to visit for a few days. We took them to see one of the areas we ski in. It was a beautiful day and I've posted some nice pictures. HERE

Il Centro Minerario Di Valle Imperina

About 30 minutes from Belluno near Agordo that for some 300 years was a copper mining area. In fact until the 1960's it was the major if not nearly the only source of employment in the area. What a life those people lived. We should never complain about the harshness of our lives now.

Go HERE to see more pictures. We also had a great hike which ended at an old home being restored as a weekend retreat. The main area of the mining operation is being partially restored as a museum and park.

Old Friends

Did I tell you that after more than 30 years I met up with an old friend, Paul Holland. He and Joe Scott were my closest friends from the 3rd grade through high school. I've kept in touch with Joe over the years and at one point Paul and I made a couple trips to Baja by private plane, we are both pilots, but that it turns out was over 30 years ago.

I decided to look him up last Winter and as I said in a previous post we managed to meet in Venice. Here is a picture. He still has hair. Not fair, that's his wife behind him my kids and Luisa behind me.

Loving Italy

Well not always, but this last Sunday was a day to remember. There is a group here in Belluno that organizes concerts of various types of music, usually in or in the garden of one of the local villas. Sundays was outside a villa on the opposite side of Belluno from where we live. It's up hill from the city and from the garden outside one has a fantastic view of all the city and surrounding valley. We could even see our home. The weather was perfect, the setting beautiful. And the music very enjoyable, it was European jazz from the 30's performed by a young group featuring an excellent guitarist. Actually he was amazing. For a taste of their music you can check out their web site http://www.almaswing.it/ And the cost 5 euro can't be beat. So it was one of those I love Italy moments.

Otherwise, what's been going on. I haven't written much lately. Seems we are always busy and the day ends being too tired to sit down in front of the computer for anything other than a bit of reading. The Summer has past all too quickly. We haven't had much of a vacation. But then this is were much of the family here comes to vacation themselves. Maybe we are already on vacation. Luisa would not agree.

Our time has been taken up working, visits to the hospital for various tests for my upcoming surgery, and lunches and dinners with family and friends. Our big project was to make a connection between the two apartments that we occupy. The hole was cut by professionals and I took on the tasks of painting, and some finish woodwork. The biggest job was the clean up of the dust from jack hammering out the wall. It was everywhere in spite of our efforts to isolate it with plastic sheets. Then came the job of moving the furniture. We moved our bedroom into the room that was once in a while used for guests and converted our old bedroom into a room for Julia and a sometime guest room. In the process I learned the real reason why Italians rarely move. Their furniture is just too dammed heavy. To move one dresser with it's marble top and mirror down a floor of stairs is a major task involving the dismantling of the dresser, taking off the mirror, removing the marble top, taking out the drawers and then taking all the pieces one at a time down the stairs and then reassembling them. Do this for a couple of them and then take our four modern ones up the stairs and one does not want to do it again for a long time.

We have also taken some nice hikes in the fairly local regions. In my next post I will put up some pictures.

In the News

Well sort of anyway. HERE is a story written about us and our Bell Tower project.

Otherwise what's new. We have had some contact with friends from the US lately. Steve and Kathy Tanaka made a tour of France and Italy and stayed with us for 3 days, that was great. Steve got me into Geocaching, and kind of treasure hunt using GPS technology. I think it will be a fun thing to do with the kids.

Then a few months ago I decided to find a friend, Paul Holland, that I hadn't seen for it turns out 30 years. Thanks to the internet it wasn't that hard to find him took all of maybe 15 minutes. He and his extended family are currently on a cruise which started in Venice so we were able to meet him in Venice for a few hours and a pizza dinner. Wow eating in Venice has to be one of the biggest rip offs in Italy. But at least the pizza was good and it was great to see Paul again. He brought at our request 3 dozen corn tortillas and some other things which made the visit even better.

Julia ballet

At the end of the year they have a little test to graduate to the next level. HERE are some pictures.

Lago di Caldonazzo

About an hour from Belluno almost to Trento there
is this nice lake. It has camping and nice beaches.
PICTURES We took our bikes and road around
some then started off on a bike trail that runs
along a river for some 40k. We only did a bit of
it. But in all we including Giovanni who is only 5
did about 22k for the day.

BBQ with friends

In mid June some friends, mostly parents from Julia's school invited us for a BBQ HERE are more photos. Those Italians can get a bit wild especially the three woment siting in the sun.

Camping Bibione

Here a few pictures, our camp was one of the more primitive, we left home in a hurry.

Italian Beaches

We took a short break and did some camping at Bibione Pineda, the beach is long and clean, the water warm, and clean but murky. The location is on the Adriatic about 30 miles or so north of Venice. I've never been a fan of this type of beach as there is no surf and not a lot to do. But I am starting to like them. They are good for the kids as they can play in the water without getting buried in the waves and the warm water makes it comfortable for them. The camp areas are full of pine trees, the one we stayed in has a nice restaurant, clean restrooms that have toilets with actual seats and hot showers. There is a big grocery store and most every night they some sort of entertainment. One of the nicest things is the long boardwalk that connects the city of Bibione with all the camps and resort hotels. It makes a great bike ride.

The week was a full one as we left on Tuesday morning after spending 3 hours packing up all the camping stuff arrived in the early after noon and put up our tent in the wrong place, we mistook a weird looking 3 for a 5, but it worked out and we had a better spot because of it even if we had to leave a day early as the site was reserved by someone else last February. We went to Pradipozzo Saturday. Unpacked the camping stuff and took off for Milan on Sunday with Julia for her orthodontist appointment on Monday. Then on Monday it was back to Pradi, a long drive as there was an hour delay in traffic. Spent another night there and then today back to Belluno. Overall though it was nice, we had some fun at the beach, some good family time both at the beach and in Pradi, and discovered a cheap Chinese restaurant in Milan where the food is good and the portions generous enough.

Now there is the mess to clean up. I have to admit that I'm a bit burned out on camping. The actual camping is fine, it's more the time it takes to pack up, unpack, setup, repack to leave (another 3 hours) and then the unpacking and cleanup at home. We are thinking about buying a travel trailer.

4th of July & Italian Healthcare

We pretty much missed it in fact it was totally ignored here. Were we are we only know of one other American a young mom married to an Italian. So it was hard to get into the spirit. I was hoping we could take the kids to Aviano the big US air force base not far from here as they put on an airshow and some good ol American activities. But I was disappointed to find out that only people with a DOD id card and their guests were allowed in. Seems totally unfair. Someone who happens to work in the kitchen can bring in any person of any nationality, but a US citizen with a US passport represents a danger to the US military. What happeded here.

I've also been absent a bit lately as I found out I have one of those diseases everyone fears, but the good news is that it's at a maybe, hopefully, probably totally curable stage. I'll be having some surgery the first week of September. It's been a couple of weeks of a lot of ups and downs. Living in Italy healthcare is very accessable, but it seems that it also helps to have friends and relatives who work in the system. I thank God for my extended Italian family.

Bob Dylan

We went to a concert last night, billed as a tribute to Bob Dylan. It was fun and entertaining. Basically it's a yearly thing where local groups play for charity. The theater was full, the music too load. Lots of grey hairs in the audience and on the stage as well as young musicians. As one can imagine the quality varied from really good to wish they would stop now. There is a local guitar player who could have given Jimmy Hendrix a run for his money and some of the singers were very good. Overall enjoyable, but the Bob Dylan aspect was a bit disappointing, maybe I expected some imitators, rather than interpretations of his music.

We also finally had a bbq yesterday, invited some friends and their 3 kids. It's been raining every afternoon for the last two weeks. So we scheduled it for mid day and everything turned out fine. One thing I don't quite understand is that when one invites at least some Italians say at noon, they tend to stay the whole day and then even make excuses about why they have to leave at 7:30. I'm not complaining, it just takes some getting use to. In the US people would normally come for a meal, visit a couple hours after and go home.

Weekend In Milan

Luisa's parents took Julia and her cousin Sara to Rome on Saturday, so we took her to Milan on Friday evening as they were leaving from there. Saturday we had the afternoon off from kids. Luisa's sister took care of Giovanni and he had his first ever sleep over at her house with his cousin Guido. And we went to the Renzo Piano exhibit. Wow that was great, he must really be an inspiring person to work with. That evening we had our first dinner alone together in months - Japanese food, good.Sunday we took the two boys to a castle near lake Maggiore, the castle is great as one can go up to the highest levels, they also have one of the world's largest collections of antiques dolls. I got a kick out of the mechanical one that is an old lady picking up her skirt and peeing, they have some of the mechanical dolls on video, showing them in action.In the afternoon we went to the museum of transportation. It's really amazing, and free. It's the private collection of one man and has everything, from trains, to ski lifts, to subways. It's a bit like being in someones giant garage, though it's all outside and pretty well organized.This is I think a bit amazing, at least for the catholics. Julia and Sara walked into St. Peters with their grandparents for the mass and were picked out of the crowd to deliver the host to the cardinal giving the mass. Can you believe it? Even more amazing is that Julia also had an unusual experience there the first time we took her when she was a baby. She started to cry during the mass, pretty loudly. An old nun who was near us came up and lightly caressed her forehead. After that she was silent.Now we are back at work in Belluno, seems like it's going to rain all Summer

Good News

We won a competition for the design of a bell tower at one of the large churches in Belluno. I'll post some 3d renderings on our design blog. www.helpudesign.blogspot.com It's a big help for us to have this project as it's a kind of welcoming into the community. Hopefully it may lead to us getting other projects in the area.

We had a nice visit this weekend from a friend and client Phil Deane. He lives in Oceanside, California and is touring Italy mostly in the Southern half. So it was great that he made the effort to come up here in a busy schedule of touring.