Harvest

Unfortunately summer is over and thinking back to this past season, it was a great one. Personally I love summer and I would probably love to live in a place where it's constantly warm (such as southern California or Florida...) but lately I was also considering the pros and the cons of the changing seasons...

For sure cons are:

1. Many months of cold;
2. Decide what to wear in consideration of the season, expecially in spring and autumn, when the climate is particularly changable;
3. Need for more space in the closet for heavy jackets;
4. Remember to change tires (once in late spring, once in late autumn);
5. Icy roads in winter;
6. Shovel snow form the courtyard;

And for sure pros are:

1. Christmas with snow;
2. See the changes of colors of the trees in autumn;
3. Different activities to plan in different seasons : Go skiing or snow walking in winter, go to fairs and start gardening in spring, pic-nics and sunbathing at the lake in summer, harvest, wine tasting, mushroom seeking and chestnut picking in autumn;
4. The enjoyment of the first warm sun;
5. The excitment of the first snowfall and the fun playing with it;
6. Nature blooming in spring;
7. Hot chocolate with marshmellows when outside is freezing;
8. Buy more clothes and shoes, because it's for the changing season and it's needed! (Ely is helping with this pro!!!)

So, in the end, I think warm weather is nice, but I also like to live in a place where I can enjoy seasons. :)

And, this time, I have anticipated the enjoyment of the harvest, because Ely is developing - with other photographers friends - a photo project about wine and grapes, which is a big businness here in Italy. So, they are wandering around the region to find the perfect spot and the perfect grape to photograph. Here are some shoots taken last weekend.


Happy Harvest everyone!

10 on 10 - Semptember 09 - Celebrations

This 10 on 10 is about "Celebrations". The first one is Anna's birthday (Ely's sister), who just turned 19. The second one is the inauguration of Rufi's house. Finally our cat made his dream come true and finally has bought his first house...isn't it pretty? (Thanks Ely for your formidable creativity!). Happy 10 on 10!!!

- M & E

CELEBRATION #1 :

1. ...cheers!!!

2. Cuddling grandfather Luigi

3. The celebrated girl with Mario and Davide

4. Eating

5. Vino (Wine)

6. A good espresso to end the dinner with pleasure!

CELEBRATION #2 :

7. Rufi's house under construction and his pet on the frontporch...

8. Oh no!! Graffitis on the new frontporch!!!! But Rufi likes custumizing!!!

9. The front with the garden

10. The backyard and new curtains!

Sunday in the mountain...

This morning we woke up and the weather was fantastic! Neither a cloud in the sky and a light fresh air that made us feel like to grab a backpack, prepare a couple of sandwiches and go out in the mountain for an excursion.

We decided to go to Renon (Ritten) near Bolzano (Bozen), less than an hour drive from Trento. We had a walk around the beautiful sourroundings of Oberbozen and Koblach, overlooking the mountains all around and we returned back to the car park with the historic train line that connects the villages with the original old coaches. It was great!

Here are some of the photos taken today.

Slowly back to normality...

Wow! Almost a month has passed since our last post from Dubai. As all has probably noticed, we didn't have much time and also didn't have many opportunities to make posts from Dubai, mostly because we were always around and internet cafes aren't very common. Moreover internet rates in hotel were very high, and when it was for free...my i-phone didn't work properly and couldn't connect to my mail server...

The holiday was great: we could experience a new culture, a new place to visit and terrific landscapes. It was all much better than what we were expecting. Our hotels were fantastic and at a very reasonable rate we could experience a 5 star treatment.
It was also shocking to pass from the wealthy and futuristic Dubai to the more genuine, but definitely poorer, Sultanate of Oman, in the Musandam Peninsula. The journey to Oman passes through dramatic landscapes of rough colorful rocky mountains that face a light blue clear sea. With up and down, the only-one paved road reaches Khasab, the biggest town of the entire region of Musandam.
We visited the town...
We had a one-day cruise...
and a mountain safari...
Our return back home was hectic. The flight to London went smooth and as expected we spent a half day in London, shopping at Westfield. But that same evening we had problems with Ryanair from Luton (the worst travelling experience ever! Ryanair sucks!!!) and couldn't fly back home. Ely had also a flu, caught days before in Dubai for the extreme temperature difference between air conditioning in the hotels or shopping malls and the outside (averange temperature outside was between 39°C/102°F and 50°C/122°F!!!). So we were in a complete chaos, with half of our baggages on their way to Milan, while we were stuck in London with the other half and the problem to how and when go back home. Ryanair ground crew in Luton has been very rude, not professional and absolutely not helpful at all. We had to find another flight from Gatwick to Innsbruck (Austria) leaving the next morning. So we took a bus (3 hours from Luton to Gatwick South) and we arrived back home only the next day after midday.

The next day I also had a flu and Ely and I were sent to the E.R. of Trento hospital by our family doctor, because they had the doubt we could have been infected by the Swine flu! After an half day in hospital and many many exams, we finally returned back home. It wasn't Swine flu, but a simple cold with fever.

Now we are completely recovered, and back to work.

We are happy to be back home now, with all the comforts that our own house can give...but we also think back of our holiday and at all the fun we had and would raccomend everybody to go to visit Dubai and the United Arab Emirates. It's quite an experience! We can tell!