Vacation plans

Our little furry samurai ;) Banzaiiiiiiii!!!

After a very very very hectic end of spring and beginning of summer, finally it's time for holidays. Summer holidays for me and Ely are synonymous of some kind of adventure abroad, in search of new vitality for the rest of the year, curiosity to discover a new culture, a new place and - if possible - meet old friends and make new ones. We aren't those kind of travelers who just expect a sunny beach to lie down and rest for 2 weeks or so. We are greedy of enriching ourselves with something different than bare resting. In fact, we usually come back home and we are even more tired than before, but with an unexpected new strength given by the travel that we have just experienced. It's difficult to explain how it makes us feel, but for sure among our readers we will find someone with the same attitude who will understand us perfectly.

Probably I have already written among the lines of the previous posts that this summer we are heading to Japan and we will travel around the japanese islands for about 3 weeks. :)

We have always wanted to travel to Japan, but just recently we have took the final decision to spend our holidays there. I also have a couple of japanese friends in Tokyo, and we will probably meet up while there. We met for the first time when at university we attended the same meeting at french Lille's EDHEC Business School in 1998. It was a great experience at that time to meet students from all over the world and after that we kept in touch until now. It will be great to meet Ayako and Yukiko again.

So, just another full week of work and then we'll fly away! We can't wait!!

If possible, we will post from Japan. Otherwise we will make a recap upon our return back home at the end of August!

Do you have any tips about Japan? We would like to have suggestions from our blog readers who have been there before and have some recommendation for us! Thank you!

10 on 10 :: July 2010 :: Memories of a visit from South America :: Javier

Almost 2 weeks ago we had here my friend Javier from Argentina for a few days. He was visiting Italy for the second time and before coming to the north, he stopped over in the south, visiting Rome and Naples. Together we had a great time, visiting Venice, Verona, Garda Lake, Bolzano and spending a half day shopping in Milan for Ely's Birthday on June,30th. It was fun, especially for her because she got quite a lot of gifts! Lucky girl!! :)

We went to pick Javier up at the Venice airport on Friday, June,25th. Since we were so close to Venice and despite he visited it last time he came here, we decided to spend a half day in the lagoon city anyway and enjoy a walk around, even if the temperatures were extremely hot. Venice is always nice and we love to take friends there for a visit. In fact, we had a great time and Javier loved visiting it again.

On the way back to Trento, we stopped over at the Replay outlet near Treviso and in Bassano del Grappa for a nice dinner in one of our favorite restaurants "Birreria Ottone". The perfect end of a perfect, but tiring, day! :) YUMMY

On Saturday June,26th it was a day of celebration here in Trento. It's a tradition in Trento that on June,26th is held a celebration for the patron "San Vigilio" and in this occasion it is evoked the battle between the inhabitants of Trento and those of Feltre (a nearby city) called "Mascherata dei Ciusi e Gobj". After this, there is always a beautiful display of fireworks and it's nice to lie down on the grass along the river Adige and see the fireworks for more than half an hour! They are spectacular! :) So we spent part of the day in Verona, where we met my dear friend Ursula and later we came back to Trento for the fireworks display and for the celebrations afterwards until late night!!!!! It was fun fun fun! ;)

Sunday morning we were quite tired for the late night partying in the city, so we woke up late and decided to go to the Garda Lake for some sunbathing and walking around. First stop was Riva del Garda, where we headed to the beach, ate there our "panini" and then had a walk in the town centre. In the late afternoon we decided to go and visit another nice town on the lake, Malcesine, where we had a nice walk around the alleys and reached the heights of the castle and had fun watching all the german and english tourists stuck in front of every video in every bar and restaurant, watching the match Germany vs. England for the World Cup Soccer Championship. Unfortunately Italy is out of the games and I can say we deserved to loose this time because we played in the worst way possible and without any passion...

On Monday it started a new working week for me and Ely, so Javier had time to go visiting around by himself in the morning, while in the afternoon we went for a walk in Trento for some shopping. The same was on Tuesday, but instead of Trento we went to visit Bolzano.

Javier was leaving Trento for moving to Milan on June,30th. So, considering that is was Ely's birthday, we finished working earlier and went to Milan with Javier. We arrived early in the afternoon and spent the whole time going around shopping. We also visited the first "Abercrombie & Fitch" store in Italy. Ely couldn't NOT shop there! In the evening we met up with my friend Ursula again (she works in Milan right now), but in consideration of the drive back home that was expecting us, we couldn't stop for a drink and had to say goodbye to Javier, who was stopping in Milan for a few more days before to fly back home to Argentina with a stopover in Rome.

Thank you for visiting us, Javier! You are always welcome here with us! Ely and I hope to see you again soon...

xxxoooxxx