The other modern convenience we were missing is having a car. It certainly has us doing some walking which is not all bad. Last week, though, we were very fortunate to be loaned a vehicle. It's a small mini-van with a lot of interior cosmetic and electronic issues, but it drives just fine. Chris got his drivers' license last week after passing the test and on Saturday, we got the van. We took it down to Sossana which is a 30 minute drive South of town where Chris' boss, Greg, lives. We looked at a house down there which is very interesting (the lower level bathroom is below ground and the back wall and part of the ceiling is actually the rock of the hill) but not quite right for us. We continued on a little drive to Orgiano, another place we were considering (the countess), then back to Greg's house. They had invited us to a little last minute dinner party and it was very nice. They have a great house. The kitchen is spacious with a long country table. There is a wood burning stove in the kitchen that gives a lot of warmth. We had good wine, good cheese, and good company. We were joined by an Italian friend and his British wife plus another American friend who works on the Army Post and lives near-by.
Lago di Fimon
That night we left and had to find our way home in the dark, and it was dark. One very interesting thing about the towns around here are that they are small and surrounded by much agricultural land. There is no urban sprawl like we are accustomed to at home. It's really very nice. You drive through farm land, then into a small town with one or two roundabouts (no traffic lights), you pass a church that looks like it may date to the 1600s, and before you know it you are through the town and driving through more farms. This is what it's like just a few minutes outside Vicenza. Vicenza is more urban but still a manageable town.
Our Hotel Christmas Decoration
Last Sunday we drove back down to an area South of Vicenza. We are still getting an idea of where we want to live. This area is called Arcugnano. It was a nice drive and we stopped at Lago di Fimon, a small lake in the middle of this valley. We took a nice walk and talked to a couple fishermen. We also found a good pizzeria for lunch, but that is not hard to do around here. There was even a little girl Isabel's age and the three kids kept each other enteretained towards the end of our stay, despite the language barrier.
So far, the kids have only really picked up "ciao" and Isabel is good at saying her age, "cinque". For those people who say everyone here in Italy speak English, perhaps they are talking about the ticket counter at the Roman colliseum, because very few people speak English. If they can, they don't let you know it. Chris has been great. He seems to remember a lot from his time here in the past. The real test came when we invited over an Italian girl the other night to introduce her to the kids and us so that she can hopefully be a babysitter we can call on when needed. She came to our hotel with her father and neither one spoke more than about 5 words of English. It was an interesting interview. All in all, though, Chris did great. I continue to get nervous and then tongue-tied with Spanish which comes a bit more easily. By the time the girl and her father left, Chris could barely speak any language. His brain was done.
The other more interesting happening this week was the buying of our new car! It's actually an old car, but new to us! It's a BMW 540 and I think it will do us very well on the Autostrada. We are just keeping our fingers crossed that everything continues to work since it has some years on it. Apparently, when it was new, some Italian gold trader owned it and drove it to visit his gold mines. This is per Giovanni, the very nice Italian man who works at a local auto shop. Giovanni took us for a test drive the other day and it was the scariest test drive I have ever witnessed. Thank God we weren't on a closed track, or maybe that would have been safer. He took us around a couple city streets that were not populated with people or cars. He declares he is going to demonstrate the suspension and he suddenly swerves onto the curb to the left at 40 mph (or about 60 kmh as they would have it here), then to the curb on the right side of the street to show us the other side. Then curves back to the center of the street coming about 1 meter from the parked car in front of us and he then slams on the breaks to show us the stopping power and control of this car. No anti-lock breaks here. Then he accelerates again around the corner and down the street to show us it's 0-60mph acceleration. Meanwhile, I'm screaming, "OMG!" from the back seat and Giovanni is laughing and saying to Chris, "Your wife, she is scared, si?"
Well, now the car is ours, but I'll let Chris tell the story of all the hoops one must jump through to actually get it registered, insured, and inspected. We'll be lucky if we are able to drive this thing the coming week.
Other events of the past week include me passing my drivers' license test (not very exciting), the kids started preschool (yea!), and we had a nice visit with a coworker of Chris' who is going to pass along his house to us as he is moving out next week. It will be a temporary house as we look for something else. It's advantageous because the lease is month-to-month which is very unusual, and at this point almost anything is better than the hotel!
View of some snowy moutains from the front of our hotel
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