A BUSY BUT PRODUCTIVE DAY

Saturday, October 25, 2003

We decided to get up early today so that we could try once again to find our way to the language school in Perugia. Based on our map, and talks with Wendy, I don’t see how we could have ever found the school based on the school’s first set of directions! We decide to follow Wendy’s directions this time, but know that traffic will be crazy. This is the closing weekend of the Eurochocolate Festival. Last weekend, we saw police set up at several exits, and eventually the exits were closed. Traffic was backed up for as far as you could see, and I’m sure parking was non-existent. There may be places to park and walk, but we don’t know them, so we are limited to going with what we know, which is very little.

We left San Venanzo about nine, filled up with gas, and were on our way. Although the police were waiting at the exits, nothing was closed and the traffic moved smoothly. Wendy’s directions, accompanied by her map made getting to the school easy. Now all we have to do is find a parking spot on Monday morning! If it weren’t so cold, I would suggest parking close to the school on Sunday night and sleeping in the car!

Once we left the school, we had a much better handle on where we were, and were able to take the Galleria Kennedy, the tunnel, to via Pellini, where we knew we could park. We were hoping that the lot wasn’t full, and we were right. We parked, headed up to the festival, and bought more chocolate. Several years ago, on a trip to Switzerland, we visited the Nestle factory in Broc. This is where the Nestle Callier chocolate is made. What makes the Callier brand so special is that it is made from FRESH milk, as opposed to the other Nestle chocolate which is made with powdered milk. Needless to say it’s so creamy and delicious we just had to have more!

Another reason I wanted to go this weekend was to get another stamp/postmark from the chocolate festival. I had gotten my first stamp and postcard with the official postmark two years ago, and thought it would be nice to add another year to the collection. Where I think this will go on my walls is another story! Once all our boxes arrive, (and where will THEY go?!?), I will have more pictures to hang than the Louvre. We did find the booth that the Italian Post Office had set up, but this year there were only postcards. I had forgotten that the stamps were actually from Switzerland, and were just made for the one year. We bought some postcards and were ready to go.

Wendy was going to be at her office in about an hour, so we agreed to meet there so that we could give her all the documents needed to mail to the shipping company in Naples. You are allowed to import your own goods, duty free, for the first six months you live here, but you must supply your passport information, your codice fiscale, your proof of residency, and an inventory in ITALIAN, signed by you. Unfortunately, Wendy had left the inventory at home, but we will meet with her tomorrow to sign it. Once we had all the documents copied, we left Wendy and headed to lunch.

We wanted to find another shopping area that we had heard about, and thought we would look for lunch on the way. We found our way to the area we wanted, and found a nice looking restaurant. When you are having a two or three hour lunch, a nice setting is always a plus! The shopping area was not what we wanted, or maybe the stores just hadn’t reopened for the afternoon, but we decided to head back home.

Art took the wrong ramp, and we ended up heading in the opposite direction we wanted to go! Suddenly I realized that we still needed to measure the frame for the bed in the guest room, and to check prices on a frame for our mattress. Italian beds don’t have box springs. They just sit on a metal frame, or sometimes a frame with wooden slats. Right now we have two single frames pushed together, and Art says the ridge in the middle is driving him crazy.

We found a frame that we liked at Mercatone Uno, and it will be delivered the same time as the daybed. We then measured the daybed frame and headed over to Marino fa Mercato to look for an armoire for the guest room. We found two that we liked, but then reason prevailed. Where in the world did we think we were going to put MORE furniture? We hope to have everything out of the garage in a week or two, but for now, things are very crowded. When we moved into the guest room yesterday, we had to put the two old single mattresses in the hall. Until the electrical work is completed in our bedroom, things will be cramped.

Now it was time to head back home. We made a quick stop at the furniture store to determine where the fixtures for the wall lamps would go. We bought two bedside lamps that will mount on the wall, thus freeing up valuable space. Our quick stop at the grocery took a little longer than anticipated. Saturday night, and everyone is hanging out at the mall, whether it’s in Louisville or in Marsciano! We picked up a few things, then stopped at the porchetta truck to get two panini’s to take home for dinner. Now we were finally ready to go home. We were expecting a phone call from our grandson, Nicholas between seven and eight.

Once we got back to San Venanzo, it was dark. It will be dark even earlier from now on, as this is the night we “fall back”, same as in the US. A nice treat was waiting for us….we had mail! A letter from Sherry and Dave was so nice to read as we ate our porchetta! They came to Italy with us on our first trip, and fell in love with Italy as much as we did. So, it was a busy but very productive day, and we feel very confident about our ability to find the language school on Monday morning. If all else fails, at least we have more chocolate to eat!