An Italian experience...

Two days ago we had what I would say was a typical day for an Italian city dweller.  It was quite an eye opening experience for me.  When Jake got home from work we headed down to the park with the kids.  After they played for a while we headed down to the local gelato shop, where we were greeted by a very welcome man (I would guess the owner).  We sat in the outside 'tent' and enjoyed our gelato.  As we were getting ready to leave, he tried to get Owen to give him a high-five but he was being shy.  The nice guy rubbed his head, then ran in and grabbed Owen a sucker.  Owen was SO excited when he gave it to him.  It was cute.  The Italians love little kids.

Then, we walked down the street a little further to the grocery store.  Got what we needed and headed back home carrying our groceries.  It was interesting to think that this is what a lot of people know and the ONLY thing they know.  They don't know our wide open spaces in Idaho, they don't know our kids can just get on their bikes and ride down to their friends house, we can head to a park that has grass that the kids can run around on, the soccer fields are made of grass not just a court.  It made me appreciate the wide open spaces we take for granted where we live.  I love having a yard of my own, somewhere I can plant a garden if I want and somewhere I can send my kids outside to enjoy the amazingly beautiful place we live in.

Castel Sant'Elmo...

Another castle with another amazing view!  They sure know where to build these castles.  This one was pretty neat, yet still not as cool as I want to see!  I want to see ones with all the cool castle things, spears, swords, dresses, time period stuff!  Oh well, I might have to go to a different country for that some day.

This castle is now used for lots of offices.  I cannot imagine going to work in a castle each day.  It would be kind of fun.  There was this little watch tower/prison door that the kids thought was so fun.  We went up the elevator first and just walked around the top of the castle to see the sites.  Then, we headed down the moat area and walked up to the front of the castle.  We got to walk through the castle on its ramp up to its main court.  It was cool!  They still had the original doors, the draw gate, and the kids thought it was great to run through a castle.  Did I mention the views from the top were pretty awesome?  You could so a long, long ways!  It was interesting to look out on the area of Naples and see just how many buildings there were, to see all the domes of the many churches and to see the big 'crack' of the city.  There is one little road that seriously looked like a crack in the world.  Anthony was asking me what it was just as Jake was commenting on it also.  It really put into perspective how tall those buildings were.

The branch of Pozzouli...

After going site seeing on Saturday we went to the branch party to celebrate Carnivale.  I forgot to take any pictures because I was exhausted but it was fun to get out and mingle with the people.  They truly are a welcome group of people and very loving.  They just had a pot luck of treats and socializing.  It was fun.  We ended up talking to one of the elders who is here, Elder Bird.  He is actually "from" Idaho Falls. He grew up in Louisiana but finished high school at Bonneville.  In his words, it is such a small world and when you are in the church it is an even smaller world!  It was nice to talk to him about his experience here on the mission and the cool stories of the temple in Rome he had to share.  One of the sister missionaries that we met down in the Catania ward actually got transferred up here to this branch so we got to see her again, pretty fun!

I've never had such a cool church experience as I have on this trip.  I love the gospel and the happiness it brings to people all over the world.  The spirit is alive in so many of these new converts to the church and you can almost see it radiating from their eyes.  The joy they get from the knowledge of the gospel is truly inspiring.  It makes me want to be like them. It makes me want to LOVE the gospel so much that people can see it in my eyes.  One of the newer converts to the church gave the Gospel Principles lesson on Sunday and he did an amazing job.  He taught with the spirit and when sharing his testimony the room was alive with the spirit testifying the truths.  He is from Nigeria so much of what he saw growing up is very unbelievable to me, but it strengthens who he is and his testimony that he has found the truth.  We are all different people, we all need the gospel differently in our lives, but we can all LOVE it.  We can all testify of its truth through our eyes.  We can all gain happiness from living its truths!

Loving life!

Pompeii...

 We debated back and forth about hitting Pompeii the same day as Herculaneum, but we are so glad we did.  It was quite amazing. After we enjoyed a fire cooked pizza, we headed down the street about 30 minutes to Pompeii. It is a HUGE, huge ancient city that got frozen in time by the volcano.  You can almost imagine the bustling city of long ago as you walk the streets. I would imagine it was much like the modern day Naples in its craziness!  It was very cool to see their residential part of town, their forums of shops, their Colosseum, their theater and their temples to their gods all in one location so close together.  In no way did we get to see the whole thing, but we spent a few hours here and enjoyed our time immensely. The kids did great even though we made them walk SO much today.

I love the above picture.  It is in the middle of Pompeii where you cross over from the residential part of town into the temple region of the city.  But the big mountain in the distance covered by clouds is Mt. Vesuvius.  I cannot even imagine how scary it would be to be going about your day and all of a sudden see a huge volcanic cloud go up 2000 meters up into the air, yet not very many people fled, they just figured they would be fine.  I cannot even count the amount of times the kids have said that the volcano is steaming since almost every day in Sicily we got to see the volcano doing some sort of activity, but thankfully we have yet to see any activity here (and hope to never be anywhere near the 'death zone' of Vesuvius when it decides to erupt!).

Herculaneum Ercolano...

 This is the less famous of the 2 cities that Mt. Vesuvius' eruption covered and destroyed in its huge eruption in 79 AD.  They actually didn't find this site until the 1800s.  They say that this was the resort type town for the rich Roman's who dwelt in Pompeii.  It was a very interesting experience to go and see so much of their town intact.  Every time I go to these places, I wish I could travel back in time and see how amazing they were in their time.  Just from what is left of their ornate decorations and huge pillars you can tell that it would have been quite a site to see.  I think the Roman's, had it right though and now on my wish list for my house is a huge garden right in the middle of all my rooms and mosaics adorning my floor!  HAHAHA!!

 The picture above is some of the original wood.  When the eruption happened, a gas came through the town first and immediately preserved all of these sorts of things.  There was even a loaf of bread that they found still intact.

 The floor the kids are standing on is made of all mosaic pieces, you'd never know it by looking at the picture though!

 We took refuge from the downpour of rain in this little tunnel.  When we first went down to the bottom to wait it out there was no water coming through the tunnel, not 3 minutes into waiting it out there was a HUGE stream coming through.  I could not believe how much water was draining out of the city, right to where we were. Lesson learned to not take refuge at the bottom of a tunnel where the run off is designed to go :).

While they were excavating the site they were surprised to not find very many bones of people, thinking they had been smarter than the people of Pompeii and actually fled the volcano, but once they hit the dock yard where the ancient sea was, they found all the people there, waiting for the boats to come and rescue them.  Quite sad, actually.  Not a way I would choose to die that is for sure.

Another cool place to cross of our list of amazing places we have seen.  The world is full of amazing places!

Castelo dell'Ovo

 Friday we went down to the sea side to go explore the Castle of the Egg.  It is said that the king of this castle put a mythical egg in the basement to lure mythical creatures his way.  Kind of odd, but it was a nice little castle to let the kids run around and get out of the apartment.  The seaside road that we walked on was pretty nice too.  Just a way to stroll around the beautiful seaside!  The kids liked the big cannons that they got to lay on and all the waves hitting the side of the castle as it is built straight up out of the sea!

Lessons learned in Napoli...

Lessons are sometimes not easy to learn.  Sometimes they try your patience.  Sometimes they really make you try to look at the positive every where you go instead of dwelling on the negative.  Sometimes they just make you want to cry.  But they ALWAYS make you a better person.  There is always something to learn in situations you are put in...you just have to laugh and pray a lot sometimes to learn those lessons.

• I've learned that when you get to a new place, give it AT LEAST three days before you judge it completely.  First impressions while traveling to a foreign city are often clouded by your extreme fatigue, anxiety and hunger.  Once you find a place to sleep and something to eat things get remarkably better.
• Here in Naples we are ordering our dinners and sometimes the literal translation of a menu item brings slightly confusion (piece of meat on a fry pan or chicken on a spit anyone?).  But no more confusing than it is to have a language barrier on the phone trying to order said menu items.  I call each day to order and the lady who answers has pretty limited English and with my even more limited Italian we somehow get things ordered.  I am still not sure what will come once we get the meal, sometimes it is right, sometimes it is not...but at least we are fed.  And forget about trying to change the time...remind me to look up the numbers in Italian so we get our meal at the right hour of the night.  I'm still confused with the military time apparently, or 7:30 and 19:30 sound a lot a like :).
• City life is not my dream come true.  Yes, it will be fun to have said that I've lived in the most concentrated city in all of Europe for a month, but glad I will only have to tell the story and not live this life forever.  You have to allow for so much extra time to get somewhere, either because you are walking, you are stuck in traffic or you get lost.  You also have to make tough choices...ride a bus for 40 minutes or take a 20 minute walk?  
• You can shop, but it will take you all day because you have to go to a different store for just about everything.  You have your 'grocery' store which has most food stuff like cereal, nutella, crackers, cookies, loaves of bread but then you have your fruit/veggie market, your meat market, your pharmacy type store for shampoo, conditioner, et cetera, then you have your household market for cleaning supplies and such as that and not to mention your actual bakery with fresh bread and 'hot plate' things to eat.  Thankfully they are usually all on the same street, but you will typically walk to them so bring a bag to carry things home.
• You WILL have trouble finding parking, everywhere you go.  And when you park you will have to walk several blocks to get to where you are going.  With our apartment, we were supposed to park on the street every time we came home but that was super stressful each time as sometimes there were lots of spots and sometimes there weren't any.  We asked our 'landlord' to get us a private parking spot even though it is about 5-7 minute walk up the hill because then you would just KNOW you have a parking spot.  It does take the stress off knowing you have somewhere to park.  Anyone see the Seinfield episode where they get a GREAT parking spot and then NEVER want to move their car after that because it is free and a great spot?  Oh yeah, we can totally relate to that!
• Never take advantage of things you never knew were so amazing.  Like a clothes dryer.  We luckily have a dryer in our apartment but it take all day for the clothes to dry in the apartment.  I can understand saving money on very expensive electrical costs by line drying your clothes, but only if you have outside space available and maybe when it's a bit warmer!  Oh and a freezer...forget about a freezer here.  Learn to drink warm water too...no ice around these parts.
• Never forget that you are in Italy, living an amazing adventure and to find the good and try to forget the bad.  Remember that you are only here for a month and to make the very best of it!

oh Gelato...

Oh Gelato, how we love you.  You can make any day better.  You can make living in the city bearable.  You are just a very yummy treat!

Climbing Mt. Vesuvius ...

How many families get to say they've been on two active volcanoes in their lifetime?  Not many, but we did!

Yesterday we hiked Mt. Vesuvius.  You drive a LONG way up the mountain before you park your car and climb up the rest of the way.  Pretty amazing views from that high up.  This volcano is made famous for its distruction of the city of Pompeii back in 72 AD and that was its biggest eruption.  It has had a few smaller ones since then, the last one being over 100 years ago if I remember right.  They anticipate it will some day have another huge eruption and over 700,000 people live in its 'death' zone.  Hopefully that doesn't happen while we are here!

  You hike up to the top, which is quite a climb to get to enjoy the views of the bay and also the giant crater the eruption left.  It is something I've never seen before, quite a huge hole.  It still emits poisonous gasses (slowly and not dangerous in small amounts) reminding everyone that it is still an active volcano. 

We enjoyed a little picnic at the top of the volcano and then came back down.  The trip down was almost as hard as the steep climb up as you had to hold yourself back and not get going too fast!  

It was a fun little trip with the Trimbles!

Naples branch...

When I first found out we were coming to Italy, I contacted the mission home and asked for people that could help us find a place in Naples and anyone I could just ask questions to.  I was blessed with an email address of a very sweet, amazing person named Becky Trimble.  She has been a lifesaver in my anxiety of Naples and Italy.  She gave us the coordinates to help us find the church, which is a very good thing as it is in an alley that I'm not sure we ever would have found, but we did and what an experience we had.  Amazing how the church can feel like home so quickly.  We were immediately greeted by the elders and a few of the ward people who work with the Navy.  Quite a few of them are contractors and are stationed here, so we already had lots in common!  I took the kids down to primary and they were happy to hear English being spoken.  The primary president is from America so that was super helpful.  They sang the opening song in both English and Italian and the kids did great.  I then took Owen over to nursery and he started playing. I asked him if I could go to my class and he said yes.  So, off I went.  He did so good.  He played with the Sister and Brother who were in there even though they didn't speak any English.  What good kids I have!

I didn't get too much out of Relief Society as it was all in Italian, but I enjoy listening and trying to pick out what they are saying.  After that we decided to attend the Gospel Principles class as it was taught in English.  There are lots of Africans in this branch.  They have all been recently baptized and that made the class amazing.  Two of them had been baptized the previous night and were going to recieve the Gift of the HOly Ghost that day in sacrament meeting.  The lesson just happened to be on that very topic so it was very special.  Probably the best Gospel Principles class I have ever been to.  The spirit was so strong and I loved it.  Sacrament meeting was a treat too.  A couple of talks in Italian, a couple in African English :) and translation too.  It was a great Sunday service.  The view from the back of the church is quite amazing!

The drive home wasn't quite as amazing.  It seems like everyone from Naples was out that day as the sun was finally shining and the rain had gone away for the day.  What should have been a 20 minute drive turned out to be about 45 minutes of terror...lol.  Glad Jake is driving and not me.

The Trimbles invited us over for dinner that evening and it was amazing too.  They feed us hamburgers and I cannot decide who was more excited, the kids or me!  It is nice to have something besides pasta every once in a while.  They were so welcoming and the kids all hit it off.  Their kids correspond with our kids almost perfectly, even to the month of their birthdays.  Their oldest is one year older than Anthony but other than that, they are the same age.  It was so nice to be welcomed into a home and I felt like I've known them forever!  The kids are begging to go back!

Welcome to Naples...

Wow, you would think I hadn't been in Italy for the last month with how much anxiety I had that first night in Naples.  It is crazy how your emotions affect your brain's ability to process.  We had a great drive up from Sicily.  The kids were really good considering they haven't done car rides like that before.  We stopped twice to get out and stretch our legs, take a potty break and eat snacks and lunch.When we got to Naples, my stomach was just a pit.  Naples is one of the most concentrated cities in all of Europe.  So, think LOTS of people and even more CARS. 

Finding our apartment for the first time was quite the experience.  We couldn't find a parking spot on the street close by and were not even sure which building our apartment was in. Jake dropped me off and I walked up the street to find the actual building.  Then by some miracle, one of the people who was parked right outside left, so I stood right in that parking spot until Jake could drive around and come park!  I only got a few hairy eyeballs and nobody tried to run me over so that was nice.  The apartment is small and WAY completely different than Orange Park but we are going to learn to love it and embrace city life for a month and make the most out of it.  The kids like that they can push a button and see outside to who is at the door and then push another button to unlock the door :).  They will have to adjust to having to sleep all 4 of them in the same room and to living mostly indoors, but we will and we will have a wonderful experience I'm sure: once the shock wears off.

Different is good, right?  

We did find a park down the street from us so we may just spend quite a bit of time there!  Jake found a great take out pizza place down the street and got us a pizza Saturday night and again last night.  They say it isn't even the best pizza in town, but it was yummy!  We got cheese the first night and last night we got half cheese and the other half with fries and sausage on it.  Who can go wrong with fries on pizza?  It was yum!

Getting into the groove of things takes time and I'm still grateful for the opportunity we have to be here with Jake.  I just pray we make it through this month with smiles on our faces and happy hearts!

The return ferry ...

 Still pretty exciting to drive your car onto a huge boat and have it start moving!  The kids thought it was great again.  This was a much bigger ferry than the last one and the weather was much warmer this time.  Good bye to Sicily and hello to main land Italy!

Saying arrivederci...

arrivederci Orange park,
arrivederci Sicily

arrivederci to one of the best months ever!

What an amazing month in Sicily.  One I would repeat over again for sure.  Saturday morning was quite sad.  I was more disappointed to leave than I ever thought possible.  A month is not really that long, but at the same time is a significant portion of time to get used to where you are and the people you share it with.  Giuseppe, Traudy and Chamet came out to tell us goodbye.  We even got the traditional farewell of a kiss on each cheek.  They were so kind to us throughout the month.  They sent us on our way with a big box of Sicilian treats, a huge bag of oranges and some more chocolate bundt cake.  They told us to return as soon as we could and we couldn't agree more.  I would go back in a single heart beat!  

Hiking Mt. Etna...

Jake was lucky enough to meet Angelo at his work.  Angelo was nice enough to take him up on an 'excursion' to see Mt. Etna up close and the lava flow.  While we were in Sicily, the volcano was very active.  It has not been that active in one month since about 2008 they said.  It was never a huge eruption, but it was always erupting and flowing lava down the side.  It was beautiful.  Just about every night we got to see the red glow of Mt. Etna.  Something I will not soon forget and hopefully not the kids either.  Angelo took Jake and Anthony up to see Mt. Etna up as far as they could go up safely at that moment in time.  They couldn't really see the actual red of the lava flow because of the steam and smoke, but they said it was very cool to go up and get informed about the volcano and the different types of rocks it shoots out.  We didn't know it at the time, but when we were going to see the Chestnut Tree we heard 'guns shooting'.  It was actually the volcano erupting.  Jake and Anthony got to hear lots of loud bombs while they were up there too.  Very neat to say you've been on a volcano that was erupting :)!!

Valentine's Day...

 What a fun Valentine's Day Party!  The missionaries put on a party for the ward in Catania.  We had a great time.  They played musical chairs and Jenna got down to the last 3. She didn't want to do it alone, but we had a fun time walking around holding hands.  Fun!  They had a little photo booth with dress up stuff.  I finally convinced Anthony to take a picture with me, but as you can tell I couldn't get Jake to come over or Owen to give up coloring to join us!  Then there was a guessing game with the candy in the jar.  Jenna really wanted a piece so we took a guess and she won!  She was so excited.  They were little taffies.  They taste kind of like mambas, pretty good!  They had treats and a place to make little Valentines.  It was a fun little party to celebrate the loves of my life!

These are the 2 missionaries the kids fell in love with.  They really were so kind to my children and such a good influence of missionaries!