Day 10: Ducati!

Ian and I joined a few of the others for the Ducati factory tour. I knew this would be a really cool place for Ian to get a shirt or jacket, and I was right. He found just what he was looking for and even wore it for his senior portrait.

I have to say, I wish I came home with more than a shirt, but I guess after recovering from major surgery due to a simple car accident, a motorcycle probably isn't the smartest choice right now. But maybe a scooter . . .

Day 9: Montombraro

Although it was another day of train travel, this was a day of rest and relaxation for most of us. Pat was taking us to see his house in progress in the countryside of Montombraro. (This is where Bob Dole received his life threatening injury in World War II and where the Italians held back the Nazis.) Unlike the other days where we took trains that were meant for farther travel, today we took a local train. The outside had certainly been "funk-ified" with some local color.

Robby and Griffin enjoying the scenery out the train window

From the train, we grabbed a bus that would take us the rest of the way. While we were waiting, Maggie had a chance meeting with one of the locals. Of course, she doesn't speak Italian and he didn't speak English. She was a little weirded out until I came and sat down, and even happier when the bus came.
One of the scenes we came upon in our travels was this beautiful field of sunflowers. I've never seen anything like it. It just didn't seem like the flowers that people grow one or two of in their gardens could be so beautiful. When we returned to Bologna that night, I saw one of the street artists painting just such a field. I wish I had found out how much he wanted for that painting, but this picture (taken by Kevan) captures the feeling.

On this day, there was a group roofing the house. I wish I had pictures from inside the house, but I only took the exterior and views from the inside. (Kevan took some; see Terri and Kevan's blog on the sidebar.)

Some of the flowers on the walk up to Pat's property

The exterior

The view from the back of the house which is all windows

The side view from Pat's bedroom

After we toured and "ooh-ed and aah-ed" the work in progress, we walked down to the park so the kids could have a little R&R.

When Pat finished up his business with the flooring guy, we walked over to the little resort that is their neighborhood pool. Complete with restaurant, pool table, ping pong table, and water slides, we spent the rest of the day playing in the water. Unfortunately, we all paid for it at the end of the day with sunburn. Ellie spent most of her time on the water slide (when it wasn't closed for a really long lunch) and Griffin surprised all of us by putting his face in the water over and over and over again. It's a huge accomplishment for this little one, enough for me to say that he might finally be ready for swimming lessons if he's not afraid to get his face wet.

After swimming, we made our way back to the bus and to the train to take us back to Bologna. Not surprising to anyone was the reaction of Robby and Griffin.

Friday (Day 10) would be an off day for almost everyone as the Griesemer group would be coming back from Venice and some of us would be going to the Ducati factory for a tour.

Day 8: Venice

It was another early morning, but for this trip, Pat promised a quick tour of the city and a visit to his favorite mask maker. (There were masks everywhere, but he promised that the one he would take us to had the best quality. He delivered on his promise as all of ours made it back to Utah without a scratch.)

Since it's near the water, there was a steady breeze throughout the day. It's amazing to me how much heat you can handle with a breeze in the air. It's like being in Utah versus Pennsylvania: the humidity kills you. You can take 105 degrees with 15% humidity a lot better than 90 degrees with 85% humidity. So we were off to see the streets--and waterways--of Venice.

The train station opened up onto the Grand Canal. It was so hard to believe we were standing in Venice!

We also went on the Scalzi Bridge to get a couple of pictures up and down the Grand Canal. I guess as with any big city, sometimes the side streets, or canals in this case, are prettier than the main street.

As we headed to San Marco or St. Mark's Basilica, we walked through the narrowest of streets and up and over the side canals, occasionally finding a gondola (which we understand are really expensive, up to 100 euro ($150) for a ride that could only fit 4.

I think I could have window shopped there all day. Every store front was filled with beautiful masks, clothes, or souvenirs. There were fruits stands throughout as well, and boy were they tempting!



And sometimes, just around the corner, you'd find the strangest thing!



And then, we were there. The mask store! I could hardly believe my eyes when we went in. It was so small, but every inch of wall space was covered with the most beautiful and elaborate masks used for Carnival.





(I made sure to buy a beautiful photo book of the costumes people wear. They are breathtaking!) So we started trying them on.

Seth bought this one

This is the mask for doctors. It came about during the plague when doctors had to tend to the dead. They were able to fill the "nose" with aromas to cover the horrible stench and it was believed that it would prevent the doctor from catching the disease.


This is one of the masks I bought. I thought it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. We also bought a red sequined mask with a handle, a white eye mask for the girls, and John got one like a jester. They're all stunning.

From the store, we headed off to St. Mark's. The Basilica is amazing and I found out after we left that the interior is almost all gold. I knew that we weren't planning on doing any tours--and Griffin was counting on this fact--but I really wish we had seen it. (I have since bought a book so I could have some pictures.)


This square is known for its friendly pigeons. They have no fear and will land on you if you have food. Even with my extreme fear of birds, I thought I'd give it a try. In theory, it was a great idea. In reality, it was this.


They are nuts! They just came at you from everywhere. Some of us were braver than others (namely me!).

On Pat's hands

On John's head

On John's arm

After leaving the square--and the pigeons behind us--we headed toward the Bridge of Sighs.

This bridge connects the courthouse with the jail. It was named by Lord Byron and comes from the suggestion that prisoners would sigh at their final view of Venice before their imprisonment.

Now it was off to take a water taxi! Pat headed up the negotiation process since there were so many of us (16). We loaded into one that looked just like the boat in the third Indiana Jones movie and made our way back to the Grand Canal.




We had about 45 minutes until our train left, so we took advantage of this little shaded area with a fountain. So we enjoyed gelato and the shade while we got some souvenirs. John took the girls to get t-shirts and I got a small ceramic mask for the Christmas tree and a Venetian flag (red and gold with a Griffin on it) for Grif's room.

Terri and baby Joshua

Terri feeding Gabriel gelato

While I was gone, Griffin made his way into the fountain to cool off. It was what he later called "heaven." As I watched him in the fountain, it made me think of him playing in the fountain in Montreal last year on our trip to the International Fireworks Competition with the Chris Hopkins family.

Venice, 2008

Montreal, 2007. The same outfit except for the shoes!

We caught our train with no problem and headed for home. Unfortunately, we had a small situation when we got to Bologna. I thought I had left my phone on the train when we got off and asked Ian to run back and get it. As I waited for him, the doors to the train closed and I started pounding on the doors yelling in English that my son was on and needed to get off. Of course, no one understood me. Ian was on the other side of the doors pounding as well. After a few moments of panic and trying to figure out what we would do if it took off with him on the train, the door opened and he got off. (He later told me that after pounding for a bit, he saw a button that would open the doors, so he pushed it.) I realized that I did have my phone (it was tucked in a little bag), but we had left Griffin's hat on the train. He was devastated, but we were all relieved to at least have Ian with us!

We ate at a different restaurant, enjoying a bit of the Euro 2008 tourney. Ian ordered a pizza and was surprised to get the following:

Day 9 would take us to visit Pat's home-building site in Montombraro.