So today Amy and I leave the U.S. for an adventure across the pond. Apparently for some reason every three years or so we find ourselves on a plane headed somewhere new. Granted, in this case we’ve already planned a return trip. Same book, just a new chapter. Now all I have to do is figure out if I’m Frodo or Sam…
P.S. For the non-geeks out there, that’s a Lord of the Rings reference.
So as of today, barring any weird problems, we have chosen our home away from home in Grottaglie, Italy. It’s a decently sized apartment at the edge of town within walking distance of the necessities. We’ll have to get some furniture for it, but the stuff that’s currently in it will give it some scale.
For your viewing pleasure….
Here are some places we looked at in the area. They aren’t in any particular order but they should kinda be grouped together. We hope to have some better pictures of the place that we picked this afternoon. A couple of notes. First, Italians love their outdoor spaces. Just about everywhere we looked had them and they see it essentially the same way as a “room” when they think of square footage (or sq meters maybe?). Also, they like their bidets, as any “proper” Italian bathroom will have one. Not that we know how to use it just yet.
Never simply assume that an adapter you purchase for travel will actually work, and expect that if it fails it will do so spectacularly. Until last Monday I had a pretty cool adapter that would let you plug in multiple devices and should work in Europe (i.e. accept 220 to 240v at 50 hertz) Yeah, not so much. Fortunately when I plugged it in to the wall there wasn’t anything attached to it cause when I did, “POP!” everything went out. Hmm, blown fuse…in a hotel. That can’t be good. After a few minutes of trying to find the fuse box on my own to cover my mistake I decided to go to the desk and fess up. When I got there and explained what was going on it turned out there was another couple already there having the same problem with their power being out in their room. Unfortunately they also spoke English so they had already heard me mention that it may have been me so I couldn’t get away with just saying, “Oh wow, you too? How crazy is that!?” Instead out of sheer embarrassment I apologized. I don’t know how many people I put in the dark but they had it fixed in a few minutes. From now on I’m buying all of my “cool adapters” over here.
“American” music is a defined a little more loosely here even for more formal settings. During our first meal at the hotel after the long trip we had dinner to some old hits by Dolly Parton, which wasn’t bad, just unexpected. However, it was the following night when we really got a treat. As we walked into the dining area the candles were lit and there was soft orchestral music playing in the background and we really didn’t think anything of it, but the tune sounded familiar. About half way through the meal (which takes a couple of hours over here, they take food seriously) my brain crammed full of movie stuff recognized the what was playing. It was an orchestra version of, “A dream is a wish the heart makes”, from the Disney film Cinderella (and sadly, no I didn’t have to look it up, I’ll turn in my man card when I get back to the states). It was even funnier when I realized the song I knew I recognized when I came in was “Cruella Deville” from 101 Dalmations. We spent the rest of the dinner figuring out what the songs were. I appreciate their work at making their guests feel at home, they are very kind to do it (it wasn’t just for us obviously). It’s just funny that you can take music from a Disney children’s film and turn it into fine dining music.
(On a side note, even as I sit here a Jazzy vocal version of “I feel the Earth move under my feet” is playing. Funny stuff.)
Driving is different, even with the pedestrians. The first thing I realized the minute that we got into the city of Grottaglie is that you have to turn up your situational awareness up a notch or 10. Like other European cities the streets are simply smaller, they also park pretty much anywhere they want to. Thus, the Italians have a pretty highly developed sense of the size of their vehicle relative to their surroundings, including pedestrians. When you’re walking this means “no sudden movements”, it just may screw them up. When you’re driving it means they make the assumption, right or wrong, that the driver’s whizzing by them have that same level of sense of their surroundings so they’ll just stand out in the road a lot further than we would. One of the unexpected things I’ve found is the fact that so far there isn’t a lot of road rage even though aggressive driving seems to be the rule, not the exception. If you have to stop in the middle of the road in town for some reason they will simply go around you instead of sitting there honking or flipping you the bird (unless they can’t get around, but they seem to find a way). Traffic laws also seem to be more guidelines than anything. Stoplights may work the same but when it comes to intersections with stop signs (or better yet yield signs) all bets are pretty much off. Stick your nose out there and get into to traffic cause they simply assume you will and if you don’t they’re ok with that too, cause they’ll take the advantage if you give it to them. To be honest its a little fun, like driving in an obstacle course with moving obstacles. This may change with time though, we’ll see.
So what’s with us anyway? As the Saturday for our house hunting trip rolled around we quite honestly didn’t seem to be doing anything different. That morning we worked out, heck, we even had an optometrist appointment that morning (nothing like getting your eyes dilated just before driving to the airport). However, apparently you can do all that, pack an hour or so before you need to leave, get to the airport just an hour and a half early and still make it to nearly the other side of the planet. Somewhere in West Tennessee my father is shaking his head. This even included getting to the airport to find out that Amy technically wasn’t booked all the way to Brindisi, Italy (we’re still not sure what happened there, but they fixed it….eventually). We’ve left town using the Charleston airport many times now, but the first one we ever did where you have to walk out on the tarmac to your plane just happened to be a trip that ends in another country, very encouraging.
So we and 48 of our closest friends packed on this model airplane ( I kid, it was a good flight and we didn’t have to pedal) and flew to New York’s JFK airport where we discover the wonder and beauty that is multiple building/terminal chaos (granted it doesn’t hold a candle to Heathrow, where I’m pretty sure on any given day there’s an employee lost somewhere doing his own personal Survivorman show). Sadly, it did mean that we had to go back through security for an international flight. So we found a place in line and shuffled up to the part where you get to take half your clothes off and then go through a body scanner…good times. Because of the line we were held up a bit while our stuff went on through. When we finally made it through our stuff was sitting at the end of the little chute where Amy was asked, “Why are you so happy?” Oh how I wished she had thought of giving him her answer in her best Scarlett O’Hara impression when she said she was just happy to see her stuff again. Then I remembered we were in New York City, even with what little accent she has left he probably thought she WAS Scarlett O’Hara. Onward to an expensive burger and an interesting conversation with some New Yorkers that were headed to Italy on the same flight to hunt down a father’s birthplace. Brindisi wasn’t their final destination though, they were headed to Sicily. When it came time to board we got to see what it was like to have one of those “first class” tickets. There is a LOT less hustle and bustle that way. The real beauty, however, was in the seats.
I will be honest and say that seats that turn into beds aren’t the only way to fly but only because I’ve done it in the other kind of seats a few times already. It is the most comfortable though (and the food is fantastic).
I have now officially been to Rome, though only just barely as we left the international area and were on another flight not too much longer afterwards. It was on this flight that I think I discovered why Italians clap upon a plane landing (or supposedly anyway, they didn’t this flight. Matt Sand, I’m disappointed). The fellow driving this thing was either a retired fighter pilot or was trying out for an air show. Granted it was a great ride but I wasn’t sure I’d be around to do it again there for a bit.
Interestingly enough, driving in Italy hasn’t been as bad as I was told it would be. But then again, when I started driving I started off with the assumption that all the other drivers were stark raving mad and planning accordingly. So far so good. The REALLY interesting part are the side roads, or at least the one that gets you to the nice hotel we’re staying at. As we pulled off the SS7 (highway essentially) Amy’s directions told us to go straight, which looked like it would put us back on the highway except for this little rough patch of asphalt that looked like it was headed into the back of some guys farm. We took it anyway (not without me saying I thought Amy was nuts) and the further we drove the more I thought we were eventually going to end up on some TV show about European serial killers. Just before I was about to just turn us around I saw that we were parallel to the highway we had been on and figured at some point we could get back on. Technically that was true but sure enough this road ended up being the right one and led us to this fantastic hotel that feels so far removed from civilization I’m not sure even Google has found it yet. Still, it’s a nice place no?
More to come tomorrow, got to get some sleep!
Italy apparently is a little different than “typical” Europe.
As some of you already know, my wife and I are moving to Italy for Amy’s work at Boeing. While Facebook posts and emails will be part of our trip, we decided to start a blog for friends and family to keep up with us as we travel and live abroad. Our first trip there will actually be to look for a place to live. Our first real post will be of that!
