Bravo! Laundry!

It was another quiet day at home, so I went out for a bit of exploring.  I walked down the main road in front of our house (yes, the scary one) and then up and around one of the neighboring towns.  Remember the church steeple you can see from our house?

It's in a little town called Stevena which is a "commune di Caneva."  There was also a school right by the church, but I couldn't tell if the school was part of the church or just next to it, and the gate was closed so I couldn't get in to see or take a picture.  Stevena was a cute little area.  They were doing some construction on a park right across the street from the church which is going to be very cute when finished.  On my way out of the town and back the the main road I passed over a bridge on this swamp type body of water.  I heard what sounded like a million frogs, but when I stopped to look, I could only find one.  I stood there for about 5 minutes looking for all the frogs, but just kept seeing the one frog.  Oh well.  I took a picture of the lone frog, and lo and behold, there are 12 frogs in this picture!!  Can you find them all?

I had to make it full screen, but I promise you, there are at least 12 frogs in this picture.  It's like my own little version of Hidden Pictures in Highlights!

There is also a cemetery down the road from our house that I've been wanting to take a look around in, so I stopped for some pictures.

The cemetery itself was pretty standard, like you'd find in the United States, but there were a few differences I noticed.  First, these family plots seemed to be very popular, and it makes sense with the importance of family relationships here in Italy.  There would be a big "room" with a giant headstone in the ground that says "Famiglie" and then the common last name.  All the names are the listed on the wall, with corresponding photos, and I'm assuming they're all buried in the same location.

There was a grouping of people buried next to each other with a memorial sign over them, so I took a picture and translated it.  These 6 men were part of the Garibaldi battalion for the Italian Army and were killed during the Holocaust.  The translation wasn't great, but I'm pretty sure they were all from Caneva.

You can also see the little family rooms in the background.

After my jaunt through the cemetery I kept walking down the busy road to see where it'd take me.  It was really hot and I was getting pretty thirsty, so I kept checking my watch to see if I'd make it to a store or restaurant before everything closed.  I came to a round about (Italians are big on their roundabouts.  They even use roundabouts to get on and off and change directions on the highway) in downtown Caneva that had a general store of some sort so I bought a drink and then saw a post office across the street.  Great!  I needed stamps!  I had actually looked up the Italian word for 'stamps' before I left but had completely forgotten by the time I got there.  I managed to use charades and what little Italian I know to express to the sweet lady what I needed.  Success!

This is just a random structure Caneva has towards the roundabout.  I'm not sure what it says or why it's there.  Sorry for the lack of info.  :)

After my walk, Jameson and I did laundry and played outside.  I went outside to see if my clothes were dry and Elia told me, through charades and Italian that I don't understand, that I should have shoes on.  I went inside to grab my basket and Christine's sandals (there was no way I was walking 3 flights of stairs to get my shoes from my room just to please this old man).  I went back out, and as I was taking my clothes down, Ida says to me "Bucato, bravo!" which, again through charades, I figured out meant 'good job on the laundry.'  At least I think that's what she was saying.  She could have been saying "bravo! thanks for taking your clothes down so we don't have to stare at your pants and undies anymore and we can actually enjoy our view."  We may never know.  

Today my favorite thing about Italy is:  Even the smallest little 7-11 type stores have fresh fruits and vegetables.  The store across the street and the store I went into today are both probably smaller than your average gas station, and have a refrigerated fruits and vegetables section.