Flooding and mudslides in Cinque Terre

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There were terrible rains and mudslides in Cinque Terre about 10 days after we were there.
I'll post some of my "before" photos, but here are some from an Italian newspaper:
genova.repubblica.it/cronaca/2011/11/24/

I found it through an American girl living in Liguria's blog. I'll post one of her updates "Prima-e-dopo", but if you also read her earlier posts, you see how awful the mud was/is.

Monterosso

This church was directly across from our apartment in Monterosso al Mare

Another news story from when the floods happened:

http://www.euronews.net/2011/10/28/italy-declares-emergency-in-flooded-northwest/

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Michigan!

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Sue Lassiter's surprise 60th birthday party.

SLHS '70
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Italy 2011

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Giro dei Simioni 2 -- 2011

Here I am, in Bologna!  
Rick and I are in the 3rd week of our 5 week return trip to Italy and Simionis.

We started with Castelfranco Veneto, and Alice's family -- we proceeded to go on a cruise with them on MSC, the Italian cruise line Alice works for.  While Bari, Greece, Turkey, and Croatia were nice to see, the real joy was the fun we had with her family as her parents Emanuele Simioni and Renata Zampieri celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary.

The most fun was trying to communicate with them for 7 days and nights when they speak no English, and we speak little Italian!  We had to create word games which became quite hysterical! Of course Alice, our fluent English/Italian speaker, was quite busy most of the time!

After the cruise Rick and I spent a few nights in Venice. Rather than just "see Venice" (we have visited on 2 other day-trips) we choose to rent an apartment back away from the crowds. We roamed quite streets/canals, but also went to visit St. Mark's Square with the basilica and Doge's Palace. (Be sure to use the time-saving tips for avoiding the long lines for tickets and entry. Ask me. We walked right in!)  

I found this article written by someone who stayed in the same district we did, Cannaregio, and also rented an apartment. She writes much better than me about why we enjoy getting a more local feel for cities we visit. Yep, we are still tourists, but try to be respectful visitors.
live-like-a-local-in-cannaregio-venice

After Venice we returned to Simionis and Castelfranco Veneto.

When back on land we spent time with Alice's aunts, uncles, and cousins, and especially enjoyed the polenta festa! (We went twice!)  We were surrounded by hundreds of people from local villages and all their families. A taste of not only great "poenta" (the Venetian dialect for polenta) but real Italian life.

Our main reason for visiting Castelfranco Veneto has been to trace Rick's father's family. We have not found any Simioni relatives, but this year we found a cousin! Rick's aunt's son, Alfredo Fior, right in Salvatronda! (See more on "Finding Desiderio" blog.) We could not have done this without Alice and her father taking us to Alfredo's home and introducing us to him in Venetian dialect! It was something special!

Still, Alice and her family ARE our family now! Maybe not by blood, but by the heart! We love these people! And I will continue to investigate upline since we also have more info (birthdates) of Desiderio's parents...  maybe we will connect up a generation or 3! 

While staying in our Castelfranco apartment, we drove to Thiene/Sarcedo and visited the families of Roberto and Francesco Simioni again. Francesco organized a family pranzo at an agriturismo which provided a fantastico meal. We ate and drank for 2 hours of course! Giulia Simioni was home from her NYC job for a few days, so we all enjoyed a reunion! New babies and toddlers, food and wine, english and italian. 

Francesco let Rick take the controls a bit!

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Rick and I spent two days alone in Verona, with a great spot right over Piazza Erba, and across from Torre Lamberti! We met a British couple we share breakfast and wine with on our hotel balcony both days.

Here in Bologna we've had another special treat as our San Diego friend, Lisa DeLucchi, who is spending 7 weeks in Florence, came here and spent 2 days with us! We've talked about this for months with our Italian language meet-up groups and friends, and we did it! We met right on her birthday and went out for terrific tagliatelle ragu, and tortellini en brodo!(at Eataly -- followed by some ridiculous singing of "My bologna has a first name, it's O-S-C-A-R..... yep, got it on video!)

Add that our Bolonese friend, Alessandro Cipressi. He gave us a personal tour as he did last year, but the sun was shining this time!  And we then had a fantastic lunch (although that is not difficult to do here in Bologna!)


We soooo love the food here, and Bologna is such an interesting town, but really, we are here for the food!  :)


... more to follow....



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Jennifer turns 50, and a great visit with the Schwarz family

It's hard to believe that I haven't been back to Michigan in 2 years. Time flies.
So when a $180 round trip airfare with Delta popped up a few weeks ago, I grabbed a flight and arrived in Detroit to surprise Jennifer Yess on her 50th birthday.  What fun it was to do so!

Thanks to Julie Rybicki quickly organizing a surprise lunch for Jen with a few of our ol' GM pals, I was able to walk in and join the celebration!  Then later on that Saturday night, I was treated to dinner at the top of the Ren Cen at Coach Insignia restaurant with Jen, John and 4 others.  I think John paid more for my dinner than my flight cost!


And then there were the Schwarz kids! I'd been looking for a reason to get there! Beautiful 21 month old Bella and her baby brother Bryan, just 2 months old! Me and Mom Alexis spent several days together playing, feeding, rocking, changing diapers, cooking, and lots of talking and hugging! It was so fun to see these lovely babies, and to give Alexis, and Jon, a little break. What a treasured time for me!

Several friends came by at Alexis' to visit with me so I could help out AND see people.  Penny through a family party on Friday night, so I was able to catch up all those fun kids and parents.

There are still some great airfare deals popping up.  I may have to do this again soon!

Love you all! 

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Bryan Schwarz, Palm Springs, and Joshua Tree National Park

The newest addition to our family arrived 10 days ago:  Bryan Schwarz.  A little brother for Bella, and a son for Alexis and John. Well, not so "little"... he was 8lbs 14oz.
Unfortunately I cannot figure out how to steal photos from Facebook anymore, or I'd post some here.  Maybe later.


Meanwhile,

A week at our timeshare in Palm Springs.

Had a great day today at Joshua Tree National Park.  Love the rock formations. Rick and I took two hikes, one to the dam, another through Hidden Valley where massive boulders create this secret place cattle thieves used to hide out in.

Keys View, up over 5,200 feet, took us to a fabulous overlook, and a little bit of snow.  I made a snowball and got my fill of "winter"!

It is about 15 degrees cooler here in Palm Springs than it should be, but at least the rain only lasted a day.  We strolled through a couple of art and street fairs over the weekend, had a great Mexican dinner in town, and are just sort of hanging out.

Neither of us feel like studying our Italian lessons.  oh well.

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Orlando!

My cousin Louise flew down from Detroit to Orlando and I arrived from San Diego within 15 minutes of each other which was great!  No snow delays in spite of some crazy weather the north, northeast, and even Atlanta which was my stop-over city.

My Dad is down this way each winter, in Lakeland.  He's 86 now and I came down to visit him.  Louise's brother, my cousin Roger, and his wife Jill, are also down here for the winter.

But it's been COLD!! And then stormy.  Finally our last day the sun is shining brightly.

No theme parks this time, just hanging out.

On Monday I picked up my Dad, his friend Marie, and drove to St. Pete to visit the Miller.

.......  more later.

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