How is Italy?

I have, in the past week, had several friends and family ask me how I like Italy.  This inquiry is usually followed with something like "is it amazing/awesome/fantastic/wonderful?"

Italy is fine.  

Parts of it are very beautiful, parts of it are covered in trash and debris.  I have only seen the little bit of Campania that we have been able to adventure to and around.  Most of my experience with Italy is while driving and let's face it, basing a country on its driving is not really a fair assessment of the country (for the most part).

HOWEVER.

Italy is like this:

Please note I do not normally take photos of my food, but this image really sums up what Italy has been like so far.

You may be asking, Italy is like a slice of pizza?  It's like a cafeteria? Or saying,  Maura, your photo doesn't explain anything.

Oh, but it explains everything.  Notice that there is a 1/4 of a pizza.  Notice that there is a 1/4 of a pizza shaped plate.  NOTICE how the pizza is not aligned on the plate.  This is what Italy is like. 

They have plenty of reasonable systems and policies in place, but they choose to just do whatever they want, in everything.  They do not form lines, they do not use roundabouts properly, they do not wait for anything.  If a highway has 2 lanes marked on it, they will make it a 3, and sometimes 4, lane highway, because they can. 

Italy is like a 1/4 of a pizza tossed all higgledy-piggledy onto a 1/4 of a pizza shaped plate.  The pizza is delicious mind you, but still.  (Food here is delicious, so that furthers my point.) 

I think I should have ended up in Germany.  The nonsensical disorder of Italy is really troubling the organized OCPD engineer in me. 

Musings on Italy Thusfar

November 20th

Random thoughts about Italy:

• The only rule for driving here is "Don't hit the person in front of you."  All else is game.  Streets signs are optional.

• Closets are a foreign concept.  We have one closet in our house, and that is rare in and of itself.

• Italians seem to be very happy to talk to you in Italian, even after you have told them you don't speak Italian.  This does not matter.  Little old ladies will cheerful chat away at you.

• There is something delightful about the pizza here that does not get old like American pizza.  After the third time having American pizza in one week you don't want to see pizza again for awhile.  Not true here.  Also, pepperoni is an American construct.  Pepperoni pizza does not exist here.

Small incidences:

• The other day a man came to our parco and tried to sell me fish out of the back of his van.  The fish were not vacuum sealed, they were not frozen, I'm not even sure they were on ice.  They were just laying in a pile on the metal floor of his van.  He was very pleasant though.  

• Anytime something ridiculous (by our standards) happens here, Dan and I have given up trying to figure it out and instead have started just saying "Non so. `E Italia."  Which we think means "I don't know.  It's Italy."  This at least makes us less frustrated when silly things happen while driving.

• Demijohns are these glass bulb shaped containers that are used for wine or olive storage.  They are very popular among the Navy folk.  During Area Orientation (AO) the Personal Property Office (PPO) came to talk to us.  It mostly boiled down to "If you have questions, concerns, or problems, please come talk to us."  There is a Facebook group dedicated to those living in Naples and while it has great information, it also has a lot of complainers.  PPO told the story of one lady who complained on the Fb group that PPO wouldn't move her demijohns back to the states.   Others then chimed in and it became a hate fest towards the PPO.   Dan and I sum-up this exchange as follows:

                      Offended Lady: Personal Property won't move my demijohns!
                                 Stranger:  Demijohns!  I LOVE demijohns!  I hate Personal Property!

        It turns out that her deminjohns were from the side of the road and filled with dirt and other                 gross things, which the Navy will not move.  So moral of the story, talk to PPO first.

I'm sure I have other musings and small incidences, but I cannot think of them now.  So.....yeah.   Move along.  Nothing to see here.

Pompeii

November 10th

We had a 4-day weekend for Veterans Day, but because of having recently moved into our house and being up to our elbows in boxes and packing paper, we did not go on any extended trips.  However, we did make it to Pompeii which is about 45 min south-west of us.

We didn't take a tour, and didn't get a guide book, so we mostly wandered around on our own.  Our biggest guide was a multi-cache geocache that I wanted to do.  If you are not familiar with geocaching you should check it out; it's a lot of fun.

Anyway, here are some photos and what I remember about them.  Also note that these photos are more gathered by subject material than in order of the path we wandered around through the city.

Pompeii and Vesuvius! Weeeeeeeeee!

These are photos from the Amphitheater of Pompeii.  It is the oldest Roman amphitheater.

This is a view from the amphitheater going into the city (left). Dan in the casa del giardino D'Ercole or the House of the Garden of Hercules (right).  I supposed he's really in the giardino del giardino D'Ercole.

Several buildings had these tables/benches that were covered in opus sectile which is an art technique of inlaying material into walls, floors, tables, etc.  None of the other tables were as colorful as this one though.

A view into what was an interior courtyard, I think (above). A main street of Pompeii.  The big stones in the middle are for crossing the street.  In the day (aka Roman Times) it would not be uncommon for the street to be flooded with all sorts of ick that you would not want to have to step in (right).

Another main street of Pompeii (left). There is a cafeteria in the middle of the what I'm going to call Downtown part of Pompeii.  We got snack there to so we can say we ate in Pompeii (above).

Pretty sure that's a penis with wings (above). Legs for a table.  We believe this artist had seen actual lions, unlike previous sculptors (right).

Ceiling art from two different bath houses.   The one above had little statues of men holding up the ceiling.

Mosaics/Paintings! BEWARE OF THE DOG! (It's being cleaned or preserved or some nonsense so you can only see it through a little hole in a tarp that's covering wire.)


A collection of water spigots. My favorite is the bull thing.

Here's the token proof that I was on this adventure.  As Dan was taking the photo, you can tell I'm not quite sure what he's doing.

General thoughts on Pompeii:  

• Next time we need to get a book/tour guide pamphlet thingiemabob.
• We went on a Monday in November.  There were still a fair amount of people visiting.  I cannot imagine what this place is like in the summer when it is very hot and packed.  
• After awhile you get a bit ruined out.  It would be nice to go find the museum that is holding all of the good bits from Pompeii.
• I would like to see Herculaneum which is the nearby town that was also buried when Vesuvius erupted in 79AD (did I mention that that's when it was buried?  Ooops! Now you know!).

P.S.

I found my geocache, in case you were wondering.

Sunsets

October 31st and November 2nd

I just wanted to let you know that we do not yet have internet at our house.  It can take up to a month to get internet, if all goes well.  So updates will be spotty as they have been.  Good.  You're used to it by now.

To mollify you for lack/sporadic/bunch updates here are some sunset photos from our house.

Enjoy!

October 31st:

November 2nd:

A House!

Mid-Late October

I know, I know, I'm terrible.  I showed you all the places we looked at and told you we were going to make a decision, and then disappeared and didn't tell you which house we chose.  This was mostly due to me not wanting to jinx us getting the house (the process is a being confusing and tedious) and a little bit to inconsistent internet and laziness.

To sign a lease is a multi-step process, like everything else here.  There is a pre-contract, an inspection, a contract, a utilities set up, a PFTF delivery, and a House Hold Goods delivery to arrange before you can move into your property.

Luckily for us, the pre-contract and inspection went very quickly.  This enabled the other steps to also go quickly.  FYI - PFTF is Partial Full-Tour Furnishings.  These are items that we are allowed to borrow from Housing for the duration of our time here.  Things like a stove, a refrigerator, washers and dryers, and other items.  They will not completely outfit your place, so they are partial furnishings for the full duration of your tour.  Dan thinks the name PFTF is confusing.

All has gone fairly well and our Contract signing is scheduled for the 24th of October.

So without further ado, we chose....

The Banana House in Licola! 

It has plenty of space for guests, so y'all better be planning to come out and visit us, or at least use our sleeping spaces.

Bananas! WOOOOO!  Bananas for EVERYONE (left)! Front yard and front door patio thingie (above).

This is also the house with a pool. We will need to figure out how to take care of a pool.

Divine Hat

Early on in our time in TLA, when I had nothing better to do, I made a hat.  It has been some time since I have been able to make anything.  I start to get itchy and restless when I haven't made something in a long time.

I used the directions found here. It was pretty easy to follow and now I have a hat. I'm ignoring the fact that it's still around 70-80 degrees outside and very sunny.

I also don't really know how to do the selfie thing.  I'm not sure DSLR cameras are meant for selfies.

The hat!  Look at those curves (above). Me wearing the hat and selfie failing (right).

The End.