Gnome on the Range

Blake and Carrie are out of town, so Christer is using their car for work, and we get to keep our car to take Levi and Jameson on walks.  Today the weather was really beautiful, so we decided to go up into the mountains to the national forest for a big of a scenery change.  The drive up is about a 20 minute drive straight up the side of the mountain (the same mountain the Caneva castle is on), and about 20 minutes of driving across to the backside of the mountain.  Full of hair-pin turns and constant weaving, this drive is not for the weak stomach or car-sick prone passenger.


We passed the Caneva castle on the way up, but, as you can tell, we were at too much of an angle for a good shot of the building itself.

We also passed by this little house that Christine said she's been wanting to get a picture of.  It just screams quintessential Italian cottage, and the different colored chairs just seal the deal.

The route we were walking was actually a road leading up the mountains to some cabins and a restaurant at the top.  There was also an agriturismo along the road that uses their animals and produce to create goods to sell, just like at San Floriano.

Yes, those are sheep grazing on the side of the hill.  You can also see the road we took to get to the car park. (exciting, I know)

There was a restaurant at the bottom of the road with this beauty of a statue out front, just beckoning patrons inside.  Taken with the Hummels in mind.

I keep getting distracted with the soccer game going on, so here are some pictures from our walk.  It was definitely a huge leg workout, especially pushing the stroller uphill.

As you can see, it was a little cloudy over the high mountains, but we could see just enough to see all the white snow still covering the tops.  It was 92 degrees when we left the house, and 82 degrees when we parked to start our hike.  A whole 10 degree difference because of the altitude change.  

If you've been following the World Cup at all, the Brazil/Chile game was on tonight and was showing on one of our military tv channels.  Alexis Sanchez is one of the star players for Chile, but during regular season he plays for Uninese (pronounced Ooh-din-ay-zay), which is about an hour from here.  Udinese is Fabio's hometown, and Jameson has a Sanchez jersey, so, needless to say, we were rooting for Chile to win tonight.  I say "we," but on a scale of 1 to 10, Christine has a -2 interest in soccer, so she was researching hotels for us to stay at in Venice this weekend.  We've decided that Jameson needs a break from all the estrogen, so the boys are going to have a daddy/son weekend, and Christine and I are heading back to our favorite city for some more exploring.

Today my favorite thing about Italy is:  Lunchtime rituals.  Yes, it's annoying that everything shuts down, but it's also a very nice social norm that helps keeps the Italian culture as relaxed and stress-free as it is.  Christer hardly ever takes his lunch break, but today got away from the office and was able to come home and see Jameson and have lunch here.  It's annoying for the consumer, but I also know there wouldn't be any employee complaints if the United States started such a thing, and it's got to help boost productivity to come back from lunch relaxed mentally, socially, and physically.