Italy and "The Family"

No not that sort of "family"!

Well it's been a while since we updated this thing (again) but that's the way things go sometimes. Most of our internet time recently has been taken up by trying to find accomodation... enough about that...

We arrived very late in Venice airport on the 26th May and were met by cousin Luca and his lovely partner Elena. Luca recognised Lina straight away from her previous visit and from then on this little black duck began his crash course in Italian. It turns out Elena speak a little more English than I speak Italian so that was a relief for Lina (aka The Translator) until I started to pick up the lingo a bit. My lessons are continuing...

We stayed with Zia Rosetta and Zio Aldo (and the coolest dog in the world - Lido)... oh yeah and some chick named Chiara. That would be Lina's first cousin and a bloody nice person to boot. We love you Chiara!! When is the wedding Michele (that's Italian for Michael)

Basically it 5 days of family, food, looking around, food, catching up with more family, more food, more food.. no Zia I don't want more pane(bread), formaggio(cheese) or salami. No seriously... I REALLY don't.

OK enough teasing Zia although I'm tempted to throw in another joke but I'll refrain - you had to be there.

Over to Lina now....
The next day, consisted of Steve's crash course in learning names.... then it was full on meeting all the cousins from Zia Rosetta's clan, thats a total of 7 children, their husbands, wives and children, it was a total
of 21. For me, it was fantastic to see them all again, for Steve he was very happy to meet them, get their names correct and to continue his Italian lesson. We ate, ate, ate at this beautiful place overlooking the town (to celebrate Zia's birthday and our arrival), it was unfortunate that after a spell of hot weather it decided to rain, and rain some more. In fact, they received more rain in two days than Adelaide did in 12 months....

I managed to speak and communicate better than I thought I would - it seemed to come back to me quicky which was good - not to mention a relief.

The next day, my cousin Michela (female this time) and her daughter Ludavicha picked us up and took us to a nearby village called Bassano - pretty historic during the war.... and it was nice to see the narrow streets and walk around - despite the rain. Oh and beside the food, I need to mention that the coffee is just incredible!

That night we went to Michela and Roberto's for dinner, pizza and some of Roberto's pretty amazing home made wine.

Unfortunately Steve got broncitis, so it was a bit of an adventure translating with the good doctor to get the right drugs to fix him up - bit of a bonus that he did it all for free.

Chiara, Michele, Luca and Elena took Steve and I the next night to Asolo, a quaint little town made of cobblestones that I absolutely love. Had more good pizza (you have a whole one each here) and a walk around the town and what the hell to the top of the monastry - that was a lot of steps. Had a great night.

The next two nights were family nights, the first with Zia Rosetta's clan again and the next with Zio Marco's clan - that's Dad's brother (oh, to clarify, Zia Rosetta is Dad's sister). Its amazing that Zio Marco and Zia Guiseppina as well as their three children and their siblings all live virtually on the same block - and get on well. Big block mind you..... Other than seeing family, the really cool thing here was seeing where Dad was born, grew up, learned to play cards in the barn and meeting Renaldo his old mate. We also got to see my cousin, Guido's workplace, also on the propery and a shoe factory. Very interesting but his workmate likes his politics, almost as much as his calendar - if you know the sort I mean - lets just say he had more interest in showing Steve than me!!
Steve here... A special mention to Mauro (he is Lina's cousin's (Lina) son) here too... a very nice and kind young man. We did our best to get him to come to Oz at some stage but his fear of flying is a hurdle. The mention of how hot flight attendants are and the quality of Aussie chicks seemed to tempt him tough... a good lad who would do well back home.

Back to Lina now... Without boring you too much more, it was fantastic to see all my cousins again and very emotional to say goodbye. Luca, Elena, Chiara and Michele in particular went out of their way to spend time with us make us feel welcome. Michele in particular helped us with things we didn't even know we needed help with. Hopefully we will be able to return the favour at some stage.

The final morning was again sad and teary to say goodbye to Chiara, Zia and Zio as we headed for the airport and Greece....

More on Greece soon......

Ciao for now, or should we say Arrivaderci.....

Stiv e Lina (insert cheek pinch here)
xoxoxoxoxoxxo