The Drive: Opera, Milano to Alba Adriatica, Abruzzo

Below are pictures from our 5-hour drive to see my dad's cousins! They live in Alba Adriatica, Abruzzo... a small beach town. The drive was pretty... especially since it was a nice day and not as foggy as it had recently been.

Lots of farmland, vineyards, then mountains in the distance, and finally... Alba Adriatica!

Christmas Day in Opera

Very, very nice to spend Christmas Day with my parents and brother, Sean, in Opera, Italy!

We woke up... made coffee, ate some Pandoro (similar to Panettone but plain)... and opened presents together.

I already blogged about the

 My [new!] Little Ponies,

which Dad picked up... 

...he also hilariously got Sean the wrestling figurines that

were thrown out at the same time... I love it!

The ponies are now safely displayed in my school library...

...awaiting kiddos to play with them!

Mom did really well packing a ton of gifts to bring along with her from the States. ...And thank you to Grandma Sharpe and Aunt Gail for sending gifts along too! It was really nice to receive special things in Italy... and now I can wear/use them and think of family back home.

We went to Robert and Mary's house for dinner that night. Their house is the one that has great get-togethers with music in the living room! 

Dinner was wonderful... the company was even better. It was a beautiful holiday with my family and new friends.   : )

CHRISTMAS COOKIES!

We arrived back at my apartment in Opera on the 24th of December. And, by my request, we made our family's traditional Christmas cookies!!!

I had shopped around for ingredients here for a while and got what I could find... Mom brought some things too... and I borrowed cookie cutters from a friend at school.

The cookies turned out GREAT and were so, so nice to have. I have not had our Christmas cookies in at least a few years... last winter I was on an amazing trip in New Zealand... the year before we spent as a family... but in Vietnam and Cambodia (and I did not have an oven at my place in Vietnam to even attempt cookie making)... and for a few years in a row before that, Mom and Dad came from New York to spend the holiday with us kids in Denver, Colorado. I don't remember when the last time I had Christmas cookies was.

...I'm sure happy to have had my fill recently   : )

fun with photos in Orvieto, Italy

Some of my favorite random photos from around Oriveto:

The ground around the Duomo is beautiful:

Orvieto's Underground, Italy

Sean was very interested in seeing the caves that cover the underground of Orvieto. Since the small town is built on a large hill, there is not a lot of space... so people began digging/building underground. Every house... EVERY HOUSE in Orvieto has its own cave! Amazing. The caves used to be used primarily for storing wine... and working... basically people's offices. We even saw an olive oil making station in one of the caves!

The Orvieto Underground tour took us into two large caves... they are the only two caves (out of about 2,500 total!) that are open to the public today. All of the other caves privately belong to the people of the town.

The second cave that we saw had been used to house pigeons. The pigeons lived in the holes built into the wall of the cave, shown below. Pigeons could take care of themselves... coming and going as they pleased... and were much cheaper than chickens. Because of this, a traditional dish in Orvieto is... yes... piccione... or, pigeon. Sure enough... piccione was on the restaurant's menu that night... and Sean ate an entire bird for dinner. Well done Sean, well done.

We were lucky enough to see our apartment's landlord's cave! We had just returned from the tour and ran into her. When she heard that we went on the tour and enjoyed it... I asked her if her family had a cave under the building... and she invited us to see it. Amazing. Today, the cave is used for storage.

It used to connect to the house but now the stairway has been filled in.

Funny moment: Dad and Sean were talking with the landlord's husband and the man gave Dad a nice bottle of wine. He explained that the wine is his Sunday-drinking-wine while he goes hunting. Dad asked him what he hunts... the man reached into a large freezer that is in the cave... and pulled out a WHOLE, FROZEN PHEASANT. No joke.

walk around the wall - Orvieto, Italy

Returning from the morning spent in Lubriano and Civita di Bagnoregio, we went on a walk along the wall that circles Civita's cliffs. The views were great!

I spot a castle!

Dad, Mom, and Sean:

We found the public funicolare to ride back up to Orvieto!

1.30 euro for each person is as much as my one-stop bus ride to school in the morning... and this was much more fun!

back to Orvieto...

The drive between Civita di Bagnoregio and Orvieto is gorgeous. Dad pulled over for a minute so that we could capture the following view... looking at Orvieto in the distance atop the summit:

Our rental car for the week... and our mighty driver!