House Hunting the First

September 30th

Today is exciting because we are going to go look at houses.  Our housing counselor is Paolo.

We are going out to look at three properties today, each a bit different, to get an idea of what we might want (since we don't really know).

The first property is in Lincola and is huge, but not quite what we want.
The yellow house	The "yard". It's mostly paved. That dirt is the grassy area.	It has a nice lemon tree in the back though!
		This is the ground floor entry area.  Everything is marble or ceramic tile.
		This is the kitchen.
		This is the garage/basement. Yes, it is tiled.
Upstairs.  All the doors look like this.	One of the bedrooms.	Upstairs balcony and view.
		This is the view.  It's pretty sweet.  Those are peaches in the foreground by the way.

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The second property is in Cuma Licola and is also quite spacious.  It has these cool glass pocket doors on the inside.
	The walkway to the front door (left).  The landlord's sister lives next door.  So that's handy. Main room with cool doors (above).
	The cool pocket doors (left). The kitchen, which has a patio off to the right and a balcony to the left (above).
	Upstairs landing (left). One of the bedrooms with a balcony (right).
		Looking down into the yard.  They were doing some painting and updates to the house.
		The garage/basement.  This one is not tiled.
		The view.  It is also pretty sweet.  That is a tangerine grove right next door.  I bet it smells awesome in the spring, or whenever it goes into bloom.

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The third property was in Pozzouli and was part of a closed community that mostly caters to other military or NATO families.  It was a little less interesting than the other two, but still nice.
		This place was the first floor of a three floor apartment building.  It has a little bit of grass.
		The kitchen.  This is the biggest/nicest of the kitchens we saw today.
		The main room with a green marble fireplace.  We're not sure that we'd need a fireplace, though Paolo has assured us that it gets cold enough for them.  I'm not convinced.
	The hallway to the bedrooms and bathrooms (left). One of the bedrooms that looks out to the garden area (right).
		The view was lovely here as well, but it was a bit of a tease.  Look at the amazing things you could see, if the other building wasn't right in front of you!

We liked the second property the best, but would like to see more places to get a better idea of what our options are. We are going back out with Paolo on Friday to continue looking for a place to live.

1st Day and Cooking

September 29th

Today is Dan's first day of work with his new command!  WOOOOOO!

I went to a cooking class.  It was a bit chaotic, but good.
Roasted peppers bruschetta - eaten with bread (left).
Smoked salmon (top right).
Potatoes and Green beens (bottom right).

We also made a sausage and cheese brushetta, a pasta with a traditional tomato sauce, a four cheese penne, and lemon chicken.  There was a lot of food and it was all very good.

Brittany and Tom had us over for tacos and limoncello.  Look! Look!  It's a visual pun! (It's limoncello in a cello!  BWUAHAHAHAHAHA!)

Naples Tour

September 26th

As our last part of the Intercultural Relations brief, they took us on the train to downtown Naples.  We bussed to the train station and we started our adventure at the Campi Flegrei stop.  We took the train to the Piazza Amedeo stop and took the cable car to Vomero, which is the newer part of Naples.  We stopped to get cage and snacks.  I got a sfogliatelle, which is a citrus ricotta filled pastry.  It was delicious.

We also walked around the Vomero market.  This is where you would go to get your produce if possible.  Italians only go to a grocery store to get produce if they absolutely have to.  It is their last resort.

After Vomero we took the train to the Umberto Galleria.

Campi Flegrei stop	Umberto Galleria

We were given 40 minutes to wander around before having lunch.  We walked down to view the bay of Naples.

		Here's us! I think that's Vesuvius in the background.
This is the Basilica of San Francesco di Paola. This seems like a good representation of Naples, very old things covered in graffiti. The area in front of the Basilica is Piazza del Plebiscito; Naples's main square. The inside of the Basilica has several very large and impressive statues. This is also where the dried blood of San Gennaro is kept in a vial. It is said that twice a year the blood liquifies to show that the saint is protecting the city.
Here are some silly altered signs we found in Naples.

One of the main shopping alleys (bottom left)   Dan in an alley (bottom right).

This is Brandi, the restaurant where Margherita pizza was created.  The chef made a special pizza for when King Umberto I came to dedicate the Umberto Galleria in 1889.  The pizza was made with ingredients that represented the Italian flag: red tomatoes, white mozzarella, and green basil.  The chef named the pizza after the queen, Margherita.  Woo pizza!

We took the train back to Campi Flegrei and piled back into the bus.  I may have slept most of the way back. 

Area Orientation Parts 2-5

September 22nd - 25th

Most of this week was bureaucratic and informational briefs.

Day 2 of AO:
I mostly skipped Day 2 of AO.  Dan was required to attend almost all of it.  I slept in and then only went to the brief about the process for getting/registering a car.  I spent the afternoon going shopping with Jen and Amy for a dress for Jen.  (I met Amy in Norfolk and Jen on Sunday at Amy's).

Dan told housing we would like to live off base.

Day 3 of AO:
Today was the day we had driver's ed and took our driver's license test.  It was a multiple choice test about what various driving signs meant.  Dan and I both passed.  Wooo!

We went to the Chapel Services brief, but mostly because it was before the Vet brief.  The next thing we had to attend was the AOR Anti-Terrorism brief.  It was....a bit intense.

Dan had to attend the next few briefs, but I went off to get the pets registered with the Vet.  This went smoothly.  One more thing accomplished!

Day 4 of AO:
Day 4 was about MWR who does a lot of tours and events for the Service Members here.  It sounds like they have bunch of great trips that they organize around Italy and other parts of Europe.

We also were required to attend an Intercultural Relations brief.  I will say this, the information was good, the presenter was delightful, but it was too much at one time and way too long.  It was 4 hours long with a mini break in the middle.  I got very fidgety and restless by the end of it.  I wish more of the information had been in a packet rather than flashed up on a slide. 

Dan and I ran off after the briefs to talk to housing.  They told us we were allowed to live off base and needed a CNA (certified non-availability) to start the house hunting process. 

Day 5 of AO:
This day started with the security brief.  There was good information, but I kind of wanted to move back to the US after it.  Dan wanted to see numbers/statistics and was not as swayed by the Security Chief's stories.

The next part of this day was going over to Capodichino to get my Sojourner's Permit.  It's required for me to be able to reside in Italy for more than 90 days.  Luckily we ended up near the front of the line, so it didn't take long.  Part of the process was getting fingerprinted.  They take this part seriously.  They did finger and palm prints.  My hands were entirely covered in ink by the end.  Luckily the ink washed off with some scrubbing.

Dan checked into PSD to get our ration cards, we got lunch, and I checked in with the NMCRS.

When we got back to the Support Site we went back over to housing to talk to a housing counselor and set up a showing. 

Grape Stomping

September 20th

Dan is still badly jet lagged.  I decided to go off on a USO tour adventure with Tom and Brittany.

We piled into a bus which drove us to a vineyard on Mount Vesuvius, Cantina del Vesuvio.  The roadways and corners the bus driver made it around were ridiculous.  I would have been stuck/ in so many accidents.  It was impressive.

Apparently this place is mostly for tourists.  You go out and cut some grapes from the vines,  you can stomp the grapes a la I Love Lucy, and then you can have a lunch and wine tasting.  And of course there is wine available for purchase at the end.

Tom was not really interested in cutting grapes, but Brittany and I were all over it.

I may have chosen a bunch of grapes that was growing around some other vines, and made a mess while trying to get them free.

We had to wait for the kids to stomp grapes before we were allowed to stomp grapes.  I was not happy about this.  Why do we always insist on letting kids do things first?  I want to do things.  We finally get to stomp grapes!  It is oddly satisfying.  It's kind of like popping bubble wrap, except for your toes, and gooshy.  I liked it.  I seriously recommend going to the grocery store, buying some grapes, sticking them in a bucket and stomping on them.  You will feel better after.

The lunch comprised of salami, bruschetta with tomatoes, and spaghetti.  We tried their Lacryma Christi wines (a Rosso, a Rosato, a Bianco, and a Reserva).  We also tried their sparkling wine, Capafresca Spumante, which I liked the best, but it may have had something to do with it being hot and the wine being cold.  We also tried the Grappa they distill and the olive oil they make from their olive grove.  It was all quite tasty.

Once I returned from grape stomping, we tried to figure out what we wanted to do about housing.  Unfortunately no solutions were determined.  Both on base and off base have advantages and disadvantages, and neither option screams the right choice.

Maybe tomorrow we will figure out what we want to do.  We have to tell housing on Monday.

Area Orientation Part 1

September 19th

 Area Orientation is mostly mandatory for all Active Duty members, so Dan is required to go to all of the various briefs.  This first day was a welcome as well as figuring out some of our needed paperwork to get set up in the system and get various records transferred.  Weeeeeeee!

I kid.  It was good that they set this up for us.

Housing threw us for a loop though.  I thought we would be told we had to live on base or that base housing was full and we had to live off base.   I was not expecting to have a choice in the matter (and was hoping to just be told what we were doing).   We were supposed to tell housing today what we wanted to do, but convinced them to give us the weekend to think about it.  PANIC!

Jimmy took us to Pozzouli to walk around for the evening and then we'd meet up with him later for pizza.

While waiting for Jimmy, we thought we'd get some drinks and sit for awhile.  We got our drinks, but because of some confusing language issues, we also got a plate of fried chicken and potato chips.  I'm not 100% sure where we went wrong.  Oh well.  Adventure!

For dinner we went to Picea with another person from Dan's new command, Matt.  The Margherite pizza was delicious (tomato sauce, mozzarella, and basil) and it was a lovely dinner.

Moving to Italy

September 16th  - 17th

First and foremost, today is Michael's birthday.  Happy Birthday Michael!  (It's also Mexican Independence Day).

Today is our last day in Norfolk and the USA.  There is a lot to do.  We have to pack up our camping supplies, donate what we aren't taking with us, clean, sell the car, and get to the airport.

The packing and donating of items goes quickly and fairly smoothly.

Michael has  a friend who might be interested in the car, but it turns out she can't swing the money today.  Oh well, we'll just take it to CarMax like we planned to do anyway.   Which we head off to do.

Once reaching CarMax we get a text from our rental person that she'll be there in about an hour to do our move out inspection.  That would have been nice to know at some point before now. Rational me thinks.  Oh well.

We successfully sell the car, get back home (thanks to Michael) and frantically start cleaning.  We thought there'd be more time, but there wasn't.  Our realtor showed up and started going through the house with Dan while I was off acquiring sandwiches for later.

The taxi thankfully shows up at 5:30 when it was supposed to.  I had been worried it was not going to show up at all.  We pile the dog, four checked bags, 3 carry-ons, and the cat into the taxi.   W is not happy.

Check in at the AMC terminal goes smoothly enough, but I am a little concerned when they tell us to just leave our pets over by arrivals until our flight starts to board.  We can leave the AMC terminal so long as we're back 45 min before boarding.  We have five and a half hours to kill because they told us we had to be there by 18:00 since we had pets.  Our flight boards at 23:40.  You want me to leave my scared pets alone for five and half hours?  That doesn't seem like a good idea to me.  Rational me checks in.

There's no personnel checking on them or anything.  They just sit by the baggage claim conveyor belts.  I am not okay with this.

Dan and I opt to just sit and hang out with our pets.  Other pet owners are doing the same, so that makes me feel less weird about thinking leaving the pets is odd.

So we sit, and wait.

And wait.

And wait.

Ta gets taken away to be cargo and boarding begins, but it is not clear how they are boarding.  They seem to be having people board based on where they are terminating.  Though we aren't sure.  We just get in line and push our way to the front.

W gets unceremoniously shoved under the seat and Dan puts everything else in the overhead bins.

Sunrise!	Airstream over the wing. Neat!
Landing in the Azores.	The Azores!

We take off and land in the Azores about five hours later.  Dan has not slept much and is very cranky.  We are allowed to check on Ta.  They have her and the other cargo pets in a little fenced off area about a quarter of an acre big.  We are allowed to take her out of her crate and walk her around.  I have W with me, and take out her bedding because she has peed on it.  It is pretty rank smelling.  Ta gets to walk around in a circle for 30 minutes.  So we do that.

I declare the Azores our first Italian adventure country visited.  Dan disagrees.  I think because I walked on soil (and picked up dog poo) it counts.

Dan is still grumpy as we get back onto the plane.  We both doze for the 4.5 hours to Naples.

Landing in Naples.  That may be Vesuvius....

Luckily our sponsor is there to pick us up, though he has a Honda Civic.  We disassemble Ta's crate, and my super power packing skills get all of our stuff and us and the pets into his car.  I may have ended up with some bruises from having to have Ta sit on me for the ride from the airport to the base, but we got there.

Side Note:  Base is split into two locations.  Capodichino is where Dan will work and is base proper.  The Support Site is where housing, the NEX, the commissary and other support buildings are.  We are going to be staying at the Support Site until we either get assigned to housing or told to move off base.

The Navy Lodge has us scheduled for 10 days now instead of 5, so that's exciting.  Because we have pets, we are in a two room suite.  We were also given this lovely welcome bag:

  

At least there's a real bed.  

Our sponsor, Jimmy, took us out to dinner with another couple (Tom and Brittany) who just arrived as well.  He wasn't excited about the place we ended up going to, but I didn't know any better to be upset.  

We have tomorrow off, and then Area Orientation starts Friday at 07:15.

Tomorrow is going to involve sleeping.

But we made it to Italy!

Busch Gardens

September 14th

Free Busch Gardens Adventure!  (or highly discounted)

Several theme/amusement parks owned by the same company allow active duty military and their families to attend one of their parks for free once per year.

We went to Busch Gardens.  Because, why not?

We brought our friends Laura and Christian along for extra funzies.

There are not that many photos, since we were spending most of the time having an awesome time.

Laura found her "people" with the Lorikeets. A few days before this, she was working on something and made a squeaky noise. There was a bit of a pause before Dan asked her "Are you a parakeet?" Laura threatened to never make noise again, but when we found the Lorikeets, she knew she wasn't alone.

Getting ready to go on Apollo's Chariot. I opted not to experience this particular roller coaster. I quite enjoy the range of facial expressions that are occurring here.

And just because it was fantastic, here is a close up of Dan's Busch Garden's adventure facial hair.

We were successfully amused.

Amusement Park Adventure Completed!

Norfolk Zoo Reprisal

September 12th

Our friends had never been to the Norfolk Zoological Park, so we took them as one of our last adventures in Norfolk.

Of course we start the adventure by messing with the giant marble globe fountain.

This is the baby monkey from the previous zoo visit.

This bird is FABULOUS.

There was an enclosure that had gibbons and otters in it.  The otters kept chasing the gibbon until it jumped up into a tree.  Then the gibbon would chase the otters back into the water. It was very silly.

I like giraffes.  They are one of my favorite animals.  This one doesn't want to deal with ANY sass.  See that tongue?

This is cutest sleeping fuzzball.  It's a Fennec fox.

We're riding a rhinoceros!  Well, I am.  Dan wouldn't get on it.

Roommate photo!  I think Michael and Christian had more fun on the rhino than we did.

New fun fact:  Tarantulas shed (molt?) their bodies every so often.  As much as I find spiders interesting and generally like them, I found this information a bit upsetting.

And we ended the adventure by pushing the giant marble globe fountain.  What can I say.  It's just fun to do.

Adventure Completed.