A Spade (Ani DiFranco)

Friday in December

I can't believe it christmas is only 2 weeks away, my semester is coming to an end and the projects are piling. But I am so excited for Christmas this year! :) My house is missing everything but a yummy candle and a poinsetta that would cue christmas is near.
It has rained for 40 days straight here, yuck! But the sun emerged yesterday and today! Although the rain is dreary I decided I much prefer it with the 50 degrees than the zero degree weather in Iowa... I miss the snow as it is more enjoyable and festive, but my trip to Paris really let me know how I dislike the cold!
But it is all okay because my husband had me in mind all day yesterday (as he knows I enjoy a sunny day) and upon his appearance at home he wisked me away for a sunset drive up the mountain to Piancavallo where the ski resort is, the further we progressed up the mountain the more snow there was! So who can complain, mild winter temperatures with snow and snowboarding only a 20 minute drive away! And the snow capped mountains are such a beautiful view from my house. :) I kept stepping out on my balcony to enjoy the sun yesterday and all I could hear was baaaaing of sheep (didn't even know there were sheep near us) and when we left the house there was a huge herd of them being herded across the road to other pastures! :) It was so neat, like something from days past, I wish I could have captured it. It is so nice living in rual Italy... besides hearing the nighbor's rooster crow till noon.
Beside educating myself on the the male psyche and how important respect is to them (for my research paper and my marriage, always like to kill 2 birds with 1 stone) I took myself through Kings of Leon's career... I can't believe how different and young they looked in 2003 their sound and look was out of the 70's, then in 2007 they had evolved some but still great and now their sound is so different and I am a big fan of a few of them, but all their new stuff sounds the same :/ Love the passion tho.
I must now make some spectacular frech dip sandwhiches for dinner, really wish I had some sweet potato fries!
Anyway A Day in the Life ;) ~kt

Thursday

I am officially in Love with Italy.

It would be wonderful if all best friends could come every so often to experience the delight this country has to offer, each town and city has something new and spectacular. Who will come and spend hours taking in sculptures, paintings and architecture with me?

Yesterday I made a new friend and we spent the enire evening together (crash course on getting to know someone) I fully enjoyed her company and stories of her recent lone voyage to Romainia... inspiring! I can travel alone and fully enjoy it! I much prefer some company to share it with tho. :) She decided we should take a train to Venice for the evening. What a wonderful idea!

It was dark upon our arrival but the city and shops where more alive at 6 pm then they had been during the day when I had last visited. We started our walk tho the city with a lively woman giving us sample shots of different kinds of grappa, if you have had grappa you realize this isn't nessecarily a good thing, but we found a chocolate grappa that was delicious and worthy of Brittany's euros. After quite a while I finally decided upon a resturaunt that was worthy of our dinning experience, very quaint with candle light and all! The method of dinning and ordering food here is strange to get used to, but it was still enjoyable.

With bellies full of pasta we made our way through the maze of streets to San Marco's square (which we completely missed upon last visit). After turning this way and that way with the streets getting narrowerand the buildings closing in, I can not explain the feeling of emerging through the arches into the square. It was like a weight was lifted from my chest and I could actually breath as I walked further into the massive openess that is Piazza San Marco. It is magical at night, with the light just peering from the archways of the building walls that lined the square and led toward large gorgeous buildings at the other end. The detail that is put into the architecture here is just unbelievable, even the buildings which have no significance. I was spell bound by a tower to the left, of what I later found out was St. Mark's Basilica. I always forget to research where I am going more... well I didn't at all for Venice until this morning and was shocked to find out what I had viewed the night before; I am now thrilled to go back, once again, during the day so I can go into the building and see their full spendor. Because of the dark I could not see how beautiful everything was untill I was up close and the surprise of the gorgeous paintings on the outside of the Basilica made it all the better.
As if this wasn't enough, we walked to the right of the Basilical, along Doges Palace and it opened up to the Tronchetto - Lido di Venezia, if there were a picture deffinition for romantic this view at night is it.
better pictures (found on google)

My picture