A Week in the Life

It is always interesting to see changes in Italian day to day life. Liz and I passed a large designer mall last Sunday.  It was a first for this area and I was interested in visiting it at some point.  I drove down on Monday and spent time walking around, going into a few shops, eating lunch and people watching.  The mall was Disneyesque and had many upscale shops as well as our usual American mall brands – which are big over here.  From Guess to Prada with prices to match, I did not buy anything but an Italian curling iron for ten euros.  I was mostly interested in how shoppers dressed. For the first time, I saw many wearing blue jeans, tennis shoes and shorter pants.  Italians usually dress very well - especially the men. I ordered a sauced fish dish and a plate of vegetables at a cafeteria.  To my dismay, the fish turned out to be octopus!  At least the vegetables were good.

I went out for afternoon drinks with Phil, a friend who is married to an Italian friend.  To my surprise, a guy who joined our table had lived in Laurel, MS (my hometown) as a reserve officer for two years. Phil is in black and the guy is in green.  Others are Italians Phil knew.  

One of my favorite nearby villages is Polcenigo. Lois took us to lunch near there. I loved seeing the river running through and the charming old mill house on the property.  

  

 Ended the week with a visit to a new antique market in Aviano, which is 10 min away from my village. Loved seeing lots of neat things – interesting to see demijohns for just 5 Euro!  Note these are not the expensive hand blown ones you see around – but generally look the same. Noted a group of vendors having their wine, bread, and salami complete with table cloth behind their tent of items.

 

Drove down the mountain highway and noticed lots of vans on side of road.  There must have been a bicycle race/tour coming behind.  

Would have loved to stop and take time for them to catch up, but
that can take hours.  You always see decked out bicyclists almost every day just out for fun.

 Next week, I am at my rock sculpture class in Umbria – hope that is worth the time and money!  Just something I have always wanted to do.