Goodbye, March!

We made it to the last long weekend of the year.  Two months from now, the school year will be over!  The gelato place in town is open for the season, but so far the weather hasn't cooperated.

Last Monday, we had a snow and ice storm along with the infamous Bora winds.  Passerby might have thought I was ice skating across the primary school parking lot, when, in fact, I was being blown by the wind across a sheet of ice.  But the weather has gotten a bit nicer (we even had an hour of sun today), so hopefully I can finally put my boots away for the year.

I have finally kicked the sinus infection that knocked me down two weekends ago and left me speechless all last weekend.  Tom thought that was pretty fun for one day, but it got old quickly.  My students also liked that they ended up with a day without classes!

The big party at school this week was busted in another residence hall.  Which means Tom and I were not responsible for those students getting in trouble.  So, contrary to popular (student) belief, Tom and I are NOT the only residence tutors who actually care about enforcing the rules.

My tutorial group actually liked the food that Tom made for dinner this week.  And since he did the cooking, they did not descend on our kitchen and ruin our stuff, which made us happy, too.

Tomorrow we head to Croatia for a few days, to visit this park.  Go take a look--it is beautiful!  We hope that the weather forecast (yes, more clouds and rain) is completely wrong, and we have a few sunny days for hiking, birding, reading books and doing photography.  We have packed raingear just in case, and I will take an extra book.  As I sit here typing, listening to the crashing weights in the gym underneath our house, I think I will be happy just to be away for a few nights!

Happy Easter!  Hope that spring is on it's way wherever you are!

Spring Migration!

I just posted something on my old ornithology class Facebook page about the terrific migration event we had here the past few days...thought I'd share it here too.  We just had the worst Bora event since we moved to Italy!  But this also led to the best migration event we've had too!  Here's the post from my Facebook page in case you're interested (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Doc-V-Ornithology/179275378794184):

First big spring migration event the past few days! A big front moved up the Adriatic and the birds were on the move out with the strong south winds ahead of the front. The first to arrive were waders (shorebirds) last Friday including: Black-tailed Godwits, Greenshanks, Redshanks, Spotted Redshanks, Black-winged Stilts, and Wood Sandpipers...most in big numbers. Then on Saturday the swallows and swifts showed up in mass: clouds of Alpine Swifts, Barn Swallows and House Martins. If this wasn't good enough, on Monday after the front had passed (and the gale force "Bora" winds out of the northeast finally eased up) the passerines arrived: Redstarts, Black-Redstarts, Dunnock, Robins all in huge numbers, and lots of other migrants along with them. First great fallout of birds that we've seen here since living in Italy!!

Ciao,Tom

Weekend in Slovenia

So I haven't blogged in ages!  I just posted something about the birds here in Duino on my Facebook page that I used to use for my ornithology course at Rutgers, and I thought: "I should write something on our Italy blog too!"  So I thought I'd share a few photos from our weekend with Gayle and Jeff at Lake Bled in Slovenia.

This first photo is a shot of the castle in Bled, taken at night while looking up at the castle from across the lake.  During the day the castle is the most prominent structure in town, always looming high up above the lake across from the new casinos as a constant reminder that this really is a very old place.  I really like the castle even more at night with its glowing lights reflecting on Lake Bled, something I tried to capture in this photo.  Peaking in and out of the fog with clear views like this only once in a while I found it beautiful and kind of creepy at the same time!

One of the town's older churches also glows nicely at night.  It was really nice to stay right in Bled and get the chance to enjoy the sites at night before resting up for some hiking in the area.  The weather didn't quite cooperate with us for a lot of hiking, but we did get to do one really nice hike out to Vintgar Gorge just outside of town.  From our B&B, which Kristen did a spectacular job finding by the way (it was super nice), we were able to walk up into this river gorge in the Julian Alps.

The next couple of photos are from our hike into Vintgar Gorge.  It was still closed for winter, but we hiked into it anyway.  Yes, we broke the rules with Gayle and Jeff (haha).  None of us minded, that is until we found out why the gorge stays closed in winter.  Just check out the snow that is still piled up on those narrow walkways along the shear rock faces inside the gorge.  We made it about half way into the gorge before reaching a point where the walkway was partially collapsed making it unsafe to continue any further.  Still, it was a worthwhile hike because we got to see the gorge at a time when few others probably ever see it.

It was a nice visit to Slovenia even if it was cold and rainy.  It was also nice to have our first visitors from back home.  Thanks for coming Gayle & Jeff!  We're looking forward to more visitors, so come see us! I'm thinking maybe a trip to Croatia next time? Maybe Rome instead of Venice, which we did with Kristen's parents this time? Any other ideas anyone?

Our First Guests!

My parents came to visit!

Tom and I have been looking forward to sharing our new home, and new country, with our friends and family and we were excited to welcome my parents here last week.

They arrived on Wednesday evening.  Tom entertained them on Thursday in Trieste with a visit to the castle and I met them after work for dinner.  Friday they stayed local--a walk on the Rilke Path in the morning and then a hike into the Carso after lunch.

Saturday we took the train to Venice for the day.  It was my parent's first time, but also the first time Tom was there.  We filled the day with plenty of walking and visited a few churches, Santa Maria Gloriosa del Frari and Basilica San Marco.  The churches are pretty amazing--giant and fancy inside and out.  We found a little German bar for sandwiches and beer for lunch, and had an amazing dinner at Paradiso Perduto with the best fish we've had in Italy.  Mom's meal even included some little fried whole fishes (head, tail, bones, etc) but she skipped them and ate the calamari, sardines and shrimp instead.

Our boat

We were pretty worn out, but had a good night's sleep at a little local B&B recommended by a friend.  The owner suggested a gondola ride as a good way to see the city, and Mom and Dad offered to pay!  We got a little more culture first at the Accademia (lots of pictures of the Virgin Mary and Jesus), had lunch outside on the lagoon, and boarded a boat.


My favorite part was the stories from the Gondolier.  I had no idea that gondolas were originally used to transport bodies to the cemetery on another island, which is why they are all black.  Venice is sinking 3 mm per year, which is why the first floors of houses are pretty much not used any more.  It takes four years of apprenticing (and lots of exams) to become a Gondolier, and you have to speak English, French, and Spanish in addition to Italian.  Seeing the city from the water really was completely different from walking the streets, and not quite as exhausting!

The main entrances to churches and
buildings open onto the water!

A "side street"

Tomorrow we head to Lake Bled and Ljubjana in Slovenia, where we hope there won't be too much snow.  Tom and I are looking forward to getting cheddar cheese in the supermarkets there, and my parents are just looking forward to seeing another country!  Stay tuned to hear about our Slovenian adventures. . .