Sightseeing Trio

I've been lucky enough to have had a little bit of girl time since moving to Italy. So what exactly does girl time consist of in Italy, you ask? Well on special occasions, today being one of those days, it involves Venice & the surrounding islands. And for your viewing pleasure, I quickly grabbed a couple photos from the day to share with you.

My fabulous chickadee Melissa, you may know her as New Girl or my super awesome workout buddy, and I met up with our equally fabulous chickadee Jessica, you may know her as Jesstagirl, in Venice. Venice just so happens to be the midway point between all of us via train. After meeting up we jumped on the vaporetti (water buses) for the long journey to the island of Burano, known for it's colorfully painted homes. It took nearly 2 hours for us to make the 7km journey.

The island is actually itty bitty, but ever so charming. My favorite houses were the magenta, teal, and purple houses. I wonder if my landlord would let me paint our house one of those colors? Probably not. We spent the afternoon exploring, snapping lots of photos along the way, and enjoyed a delicious lunch outside.

This is one of my favorite pictures from the day...

We asked a fellow tourist to take our picture, and I have to say I think it turned out pretty darn cute!

It was a wonderful warm day and we even made it to our train in time after a super speedy walk/jog to the station. I did, however, drop my brand new iPhone in Burano, cracking part of it. All because I was trying to take a darn picture of my sugar deficient treat from the local bakery that I crumbled all over myself. I wanted to cry, but I didn't.

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A few weeks back, the three of us met up in Venice to take in the sights of Carnevale as well. I've been horrible about sorting through pics, thus the delay. So here's a random selection from that day.

The costumes were fantastic. It was even better when people truly embraced their characters. It was, of course, jam packed, but a shutterbug's delight, and they even had a wine fountain. 

I've been very lucky to have had some girl time with these chickadees. 

It's been a welcomed break from the stress of this transition. Unfortunately, I've been spoiled, and my time with Melissa is limited, as she is moving very soon, and Jessica lives about 2 hours away. So I have to enjoy this time while I can. Pretty soon I'm going to be solo in my neck of the woods. I'm not looking forward to that, and sadly meeting new people on post has been a major bust. 

How do you meet new friends when you PCS/move?

Vantini Winery

On President's Day, my lover and I took an impromptu trip with friends to a winery near Verona by the name of Vantini. They are known for producing Valpolicella wines; dry, sweet, red, white. My palate leans towards the super sweet variety, although I did give a few of the dry reds a try.

We were graciously greeted by the owner's daughter who educated us on the various wines produced by her family as we sat in an area that closely resembled a family dining atmosphere. She was hilarious and inviting...it was like sitting down with an old friend. We were especially spoiled when she brought out a large sampling of the salami they make on site. I've never been a fan of salami, but I certainly didn't want to come across as rude by not trying it. I took a thin baguette slice, drizzled it with olive oil (also made on site), and placed a paper thin slice of the salami that was marinated in their Amarone wine on top. Oh. my. word. It was SOOO delicious! So much so that we had to buy some. This surprised me immensely. Looks like it's time for me to invest in a deli slicer.

In addition to the indulgent wine & food tasting, we toured the facilities and met the current owner (the founder's grandson). He was rather excited to see my lover, squeezing him to pieces. After a little help with the translation, we learned that he thought my lover bore a striking resemblance to a famous Italian singer. This was incredibly amusing for us, especially considering my lover couldn't possibly look more American, freckles and all.

We had a wonderful time at the winery and definitely plan to go back in the future. For now we grabbed a modest selection of wine and salami to hold us over until the next time we visit the winery.

What types of wine do you prefer?

We're PCSing to...

Yesterday my lover walked through the door with his official PCS orders in hand. This means that I can finally share with everyone where the Army is sending us next. We found out a year ago, almost to the day, but within the past year our assignment has been changed twice by a man who shall remain nameless, creating a great deal of stress, excessive shedding of tears, and extra leg work for my lover. Fortunately, persistence pays off and our assignment was restored to its original location, and now that we have orders in hand we feel comfortable sharing with everyone the destination of our next stop on our journey with the Army.

Goodness...have I dragged this out long enough? I think so.

We are moving to...

Image via Google Images.

Yep. Back to Italy! The land of amore & vino!

We went back and forth about whether we would try to go back to Italy, or if we would try to stay in Hawaii longer. Either way we knew the decision had to be made early because we knew that branch's first picks for us would be neither Italy or Hawaii, and as most of you know, you have to put the wheels into motion before branch gets a chance to make the decision for you.

It's felt like a dream for the last year...or maybe a roller coaster of emotions would be more appropriate. I remember the day my lover called me from down range to tell me the news. I was sitting in the LAX airport at o'dark thirty stunned...our dream had come true. Thank goodness I called my bestie right away, otherwise I might have burst. The months that followed were filled with ups and downs as our assignment changed a few times. Thereafter, we only shared the news with our immediate family and a few very close friends. Due to our assignment changing a few times, we decided to keep the details of our assignment private as my lover jumped through hoops to undo the switcheroo the nameless man put into action. So I apologize to anyone who feels like they have been left out of the loop.

Now that we have our orders, we are both going through a plethora of emotions. We're excited to have the opportunity to travel and experience the Italian culture once again, but certainly not ready to leave the Land of Aloha, our home. We'll move back upon my lover's retirement though...if not sooner. We also feel very selfish in our decision to pursue another overseas assignment. The assignment is fantastic for my lover's career and great for us as a couple in regards to our desire to travel more. On the other hand, it's taking us even further away from our loved ones by choice. This was not an easy decision...we still waver on it to this day, but there's no going back now. There will always be pros and cons to every duty station for us, a topic I will expand upon in a future post, but regardless one chapter in our life is about to close while another opens.

We are now within our 90 day window of leaving the island, and our To Do list has expanded to ridiculous proportions. It's exciting, but incredibly overwhelming and scary. There's been so much I wanted to discuss on my blog, but it all had to be sidelined until we received our official orders. Now that it's all out in the open, I hope to document the various aspects of our PCS in the next few weeks and months on here. I'm pretty sure my emotions will be all over the place, but it's my intention to be as honest as possible about this PCS...good and bad.

This is an amazing opportunity. I hope you all join me as my lover and I embark on this next chapter in our life.