Superfans at the AC Milan vs. Lyon
Champions League Game
My fake cousin Carly has earned the title of First Loved One To Drag Her Butt All The Way To Italy For A Visit; she and boyfriend Chris came for a week at the begining of April, toured around a bit, hopped up to Poland to visit Chris' relatives, then returned to celebrate her birthday before almost missing their plane home. Though it's been more than a month since the pictures in this post were taken, they're the only recent-ish bloggable ones I have...so as they say in Japan:
I totally had a Nippon Moment while trying to beat the humidity with a shower yesterday --it brought back nostalgic memories of stepping out of one steam bath into another...sniff sniff. It has been amazingly sunny for the past few weeks, and I already have a backpack-tan from biking to the market, library and grocery store. I'm having to strategically time my treks to avoid peak sun hours because I'm not used to the heat yet --today it's supposed to hit 27 degrees!!! I may have missed the official Festa Dei Serpari, but dodge suntanning snakes almost every day: Filippo has warned me about the vipers that live in our forest, but I think all the critters I've seen are harmless.
Rewind a few weeks: Filippo and I went all the way down to Sardinia for a 10-day Easter holiday. Kind of hard to explain, but in Italy (apparently) you can buy a campsite, then totally deck it out with all the comforts of home. Sites at his campground are about 30' by 30', and have a trailer on them (just for sleeping in) with covered patio outside holding a fridge, stove/oven, table, hammock, etc., with room for a little garden. His mom lives in theirs every July, then rents it out for 60 Euros a night in August!
Anyway, the campground wasn't officially open for the season yet, so we got to stay in one of their little bungalows for free. It was hot, but not too sunny, so we kayaked on the turquoise Mediterranean sea, rode bikes through the countryside, took lots of naps, and I even learned how to play some card games when it rained. We made friends with some locals (I almost adopted a wild puppy) and ended up eating and drinking some of the most delicious concoctions I've tasted since moving here! Sardinians are sheep farmers, and their main diet is surprisingly meaty; we scored the best home made pecorino Sardo, eucalyptus honey (which actually tastes of hazelnut?) and sausage out of the back of some bearded guy's van.
Filippo had a meeting in Vienna last week, and we managed to finagle a 4-day visit with our friends Esther and Kristian! I've written lots about Vienna in the past (New Years and Fall entries) and it is absolutely one of my favourite places on this planet. This last trip happened to coincide with a Latin American, Caribbean and EU summit, so the city was even more of a pedestrian's paradise. I spent an entire afternoon in the Burggarten (next to the Hofburg) eating, suntanning and scheming about job possibilities... Esther took me to a thought-provoking René Burri exhibit, which has inspired me to load my trusty Canon Kiss with a roll of black-and-white.
We live 10 minutes away from Northern Italy's low-cost airline hub, so Esther is coming over tomorrow for a 3-day stopover on her way to Sicily. Yesterday, I was a Muffin Fool, whipping up a tray of Apple Crisp and a double-batch of Coffee Chocolate Chip from my new favourite cookbook: 250 Best Muffin Recipes. (Which I fully encourage you to buy not only because it is chock-full of creative combinations, but also because the author is Canadian! See if you can find it at a bargain bookstore, like my mom did.) Anyway, Filippo wants to befriend our neighbours, so asked me to prepare some "bribes", but his plan may have backfired: I pounced on our cute Moroccan neighbours with a plateful as they were leaving their apartment, and the youngest daughter looked absolutely terrified.
I intend to post a few shots of our apartment and of Filippo (!) in the near future, but for now will have to make do with landscape pictures (bottom two taken at Filippo's cousin Linda's house) meant an enticement for more Loved Ones To Drag Their Respective Butts All The Way To Italy For A Visit:
Rewind a few weeks: Filippo and I went all the way down to Sardinia for a 10-day Easter holiday. Kind of hard to explain, but in Italy (apparently) you can buy a campsite, then totally deck it out with all the comforts of home. Sites at his campground are about 30' by 30', and have a trailer on them (just for sleeping in) with covered patio outside holding a fridge, stove/oven, table, hammock, etc., with room for a little garden. His mom lives in theirs every July, then rents it out for 60 Euros a night in August!
Anyway, the campground wasn't officially open for the season yet, so we got to stay in one of their little bungalows for free. It was hot, but not too sunny, so we kayaked on the turquoise Mediterranean sea, rode bikes through the countryside, took lots of naps, and I even learned how to play some card games when it rained. We made friends with some locals (I almost adopted a wild puppy) and ended up eating and drinking some of the most delicious concoctions I've tasted since moving here! Sardinians are sheep farmers, and their main diet is surprisingly meaty; we scored the best home made pecorino Sardo, eucalyptus honey (which actually tastes of hazelnut?) and sausage out of the back of some bearded guy's van.
Filippo had a meeting in Vienna last week, and we managed to finagle a 4-day visit with our friends Esther and Kristian! I've written lots about Vienna in the past (New Years and Fall entries) and it is absolutely one of my favourite places on this planet. This last trip happened to coincide with a Latin American, Caribbean and EU summit, so the city was even more of a pedestrian's paradise. I spent an entire afternoon in the Burggarten (next to the Hofburg) eating, suntanning and scheming about job possibilities... Esther took me to a thought-provoking René Burri exhibit, which has inspired me to load my trusty Canon Kiss with a roll of black-and-white.
We live 10 minutes away from Northern Italy's low-cost airline hub, so Esther is coming over tomorrow for a 3-day stopover on her way to Sicily. Yesterday, I was a Muffin Fool, whipping up a tray of Apple Crisp and a double-batch of Coffee Chocolate Chip from my new favourite cookbook: 250 Best Muffin Recipes. (Which I fully encourage you to buy not only because it is chock-full of creative combinations, but also because the author is Canadian! See if you can find it at a bargain bookstore, like my mom did.) Anyway, Filippo wants to befriend our neighbours, so asked me to prepare some "bribes", but his plan may have backfired: I pounced on our cute Moroccan neighbours with a plateful as they were leaving their apartment, and the youngest daughter looked absolutely terrified.
I intend to post a few shots of our apartment and of Filippo (!) in the near future, but for now will have to make do with landscape pictures (bottom two taken at Filippo's cousin Linda's house) meant an enticement for more Loved Ones To Drag Their Respective Butts All The Way To Italy For A Visit:
