Made it!

Well, after a mad dash through the airport in LAX made it to my plane (given wrong terminal by flight attendant). The trip was good going from LA to Rome, I happened to be sitting in the aisle seat with an older couple on the inside seats. They had to go to the bathroom quite a few times during the trip which forced me to get up which was a really good thing for me.

Cassandra went to work on Friday so I pretty much just recuperated (little bit of jet lag) and was definitely ready for our trip to Marostica on Saturday. The bus left from Aviano Air Force Base and it was a quick 2 hour trip westward from here.

Marostica has two castles called Castile Superior and Inferior. The whole area is surrounded by a wall that goes way up the hill to Castle Superior and this includes the town also. We were there before 5pm and the chess game did not start until 9 p.m. There were brave ones that walked all the way up the hill but we started to go that direction also but only made it to the base of the church so we (should say I) decided not to go up that steep hill (knew I wouldn't be able to walk for about a week if I did that). We walked around and then went into a deli and purchased our food (pizza, eggplant pasta and a delicious green bean dish) and then went to the park and ate there. In Italy, if you choose to sit down to eat in most places you will need to pay extra for that and it is usually added to your bill so we opted for a free park bench (ala Rick Steves).

We finally were able to go into the area for the game and as we were going to the bathroom before it started we went down the steps to do so and my foot got stuck (think it's the shoes that I'm wearing and the only ones I brought with me) and I took another tumble! I just kept falling and falling and falling and it was all in slow motion too. Thank God nothing got sprained like my last fall but I did get some bruises especially with my knees, poor Cassandra(she didn't know what to do)).

Anyway, we got back to our seats and the evening had gotten a bit cold so we still got ready to see the show. It was surreal to see the castle as the background and the people reenacting a story in which two men were vying for the hand of Lianora. Her father, the nobleman, did not want them to have a deadly duel so he suggested for them to play a game of chess to determine who would get to marry her. I will try to download some of the pics and hope that you can see for yourselves.

The base has these types of trips that are more affordable than doing it on our own. We will be doing a quick trip to Switzerland for about 60 euros ($95) sometime in October. We will be taking an Italian cooking class here in the area which are put on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

My plan was to catch a bus which stops near Cassandra's house and go to Pordonne for the train to Venice but lo and behold there is a train station about 5 blocks from here!

Will close for now until my next adventure
Ciao

Starting my trip

Here I am patiently waiting at the San Diego Airport for the first leg of my trip. I will leave to Lax in 40 minutes, wait there for about 2 hours and then be on my way. I will land in Rome, go thru customs which means I have to tote my large suitcase, smaller one and my heavy computer case, yuk! I don't have a camera at this time as I lost mine while at Valencia, Spain in April. I have been using Cindy's but once in Italy I will be using Cassandra's. I will be at Venice at 5:45a.m. our time, 2:45p.m. her time.

Cassandra will not be getting out of work until 4 so I won't be seeing her until 5 on up, she drives slow. I told her to find me near the snack bar in the Venice Airport because next to it is this neat contraption that one pays to have their luggage wrapped in plastic wrap to secure the contents and it was really interesting watching this process so I'll have 2 hours of that.

Will close for now, don't want to bore my blogger watchers with too much tedious info, but can you tell I have time to burn? Oh, well, hang in there with me it will get more interesting once I have some pictures to share with you.

Just have to add a few lines after I posted this. As I was saying earlier in this blog that I had plenty of time, NOT! Good thing I checked my ticket and saw that my flight left at 12:30 and 12:50pm like I thought. Needless to say as it was 12:20 p.m., I tossed everything very quickly in my computer case and made a mad dash to the already formed line! I thought oh, no is this how my trip will be, i.e. going south to Naples 2 hours south of Rome instead of north of Rome to Venice, but as I have arrived safe and sane to Cassandra's my thoughts were for nought.

We had dinner and I am getting ready to go to bed as I have 5 hours of sleep with a 28 hour period, so good night to all of you that are at Yosemite, Monterey County and in the hot Imperial County.

buena sera
me

Hasta luego, (can still say it this way because I don't have to switch to italian yet)
Catherine, the world traveler

leave your posts for my sake too.

My trip to Italy

Hola to all,

Will be leaving for Italy tomorrow and still haven't finished packing. I will be trying to journal my time there and add pics of the places that I go to.

Cassandra has made plans to attend a human chess game complete with horses (knights). It will be taking place at a real castle somewhere south of Venice. It will be about a 3 hour trip from Aviano Air Force Base and there will be 2 buses going. There will be plenty of countryside to see. I will post the pics from that event sometime this weekend.

I will say ciao to all because I still have to finish packing