Today's Italian Lesson

Lake Cerknica

We tried to go hiking this weekend at Lake Cerknica, which is the largest seasonal karst lake in Slovenia. We had stopped there last summer on one of our trips to Ljubljana and have been wanting to go back because there were nice trails around the lake, and also because it is supposed to be one of the best birding spots in Slovenia. One thing we didn't take into consideration, however, was that karst lakes are generally dry in summer and flooded in winter. And as you know if you've been reading our blog...this has been no ordinary winter in terms of rain!

The flooding around the town of Cerknica was terrible. See that building in the water at the end of the road? That is the coffee bar we had planned to relax in after our hike around the lake. Needless to say we didn't have any coffee. Or a hike. The flooding had turned the whole valley into a giant lake. The reason the flooding was so bad is pretty interesting. Karst lakes are not fed by above-ground rivers like most of the lakes we all know. Instead, they are formed when groundwater levels rise high enough to force the water above the surface, which usually happens in winter. In summer, the lakes go dry as any water quickly drains through the karst rocks - an example of these rocks is on the right. So while these seasonal lakes are supposed to form in winter, when there's too much rain the lakes can fill up quickly like bathtubs and flood the entire landscape until there is someplace for all that water to go.

So we couldn't hike, but we were able to watch some birds anyway. The high water levels created opportunities for birds to feed on the debris piled up on the water's edge like this very cooperative Black Redstart. So even though the rain foiled our plans once again we still ended up with a lovely sunny day in Slovenia.

Out of water

Despite my best efforts, I have yet to find a good substitute for my NJ gym.  I have tried to do more walking, jogging, biking, and this year I even teach aerobics 1-2 times a week to a group of students.  I love teaching and it gets me sweating once a week, but it still isn't the same.  So I continue to try to find ways to stay active.

A few weeks ago, a friend convinced me to try an aqua-kick class in a nearby town.  I packed up my swimsuit, towel, goggles, flip flops and swim cap and off we went.  We arrived but were turned away because we didn't have official doctor's letters declaring our good health.  

Last Friday we tried again.  This was a aqua-pilates class.  Our doctor's notes were sufficient, although I never actually had to see a doctor to get one.  My friend just told the doctor I taught aerobics and that was apparently enough evidence for the Italian doctor. 

 We went into the special pool--small, extra warm water, and shallow--and joined the 5 people walking in a slow circle around the pool. As we walked, we were supposed to raise our knees each time and sway our arms back and forth.  

The teacher stood in the center of the circle.  I couldn't see what anyone was doing, because they were underwater.  But somehow, the teacher knew I was doing everything wrong.  I got in trouble for looking at her to see what I was supposed to be doing instead of facing forward.  Then I got in trouble for not swaying my arms enough.  My arms didn't even reach the water.  Everyone else's were underwater, so how would you even know if they were swaying!  I also got in trouble for telling her I didn't understand something.  "I can see you don't understand, that's why I have to tell you AGAIN," she said, as kindly as one can say something like that.  We pretty much walked in a circle with various arm movements (swaying, circles forward, circles back, circles with one arm, circles with the other arm) for 45 minutes.  At least, that's what I did and I have no clue if that's what I was supposed to do.  While it kept me moving, this was no substitute for my gym classes.

I didn't expect to understand anything, and I didn't.  But I did think I could watch others and figure out what to do.  I couldn't.  I did expect to get some exercise.  That didn't really happen either.  What did happen was I again realized what the students who don't speak English as a first language feel like in my math class.  Why they so often look lost.  Why they don't laugh at my jokes, or respond when I ask questions.  They just don't understand.  Not the math, not the equations or the numbers, but the language.  They are trying with all their might to understand, but they don't.  I forget that, but Friday night I remembered exactly what it's like to be in their shoes.

So I didn't get much exercise on Friday, but I got a good story.  And some good reminders about what I can do, here, to be a better teacher between now and May.  So the night was not a waste.  And there is another aqua-kick class on Thursday.  I hear in that one, the teacher is outside the water and you get to watch to see what you should do.  So maybe, just maybe, I'll try again. . . 

Blues Brothers in Italy??

Last night we went to a bar in Trieste to hear our friend Elwood "Filippo" Blues play a show. He was in town visiting and had in impromptu gig with his old band, the Blues Mobile Band. Lots of fun being in Italy hearing great American R&B music sung by Filippo and his Blues Brothers tribute band which includes a full horn section. First time I got to see the band and they were great!

Rilke Spring

The cherry trees on the Rilke Path have just started to bloom...spring is on the way! There's already a lot of green out there thanks to the unseasonably warm weather and nearly constant rain we've had this winter. Here's hoping that the nasty weather we've endured all winter leads us to an early and colorful spring.

Felice primavera!

Evening in Brussels

Being the international jet-setters that we are, last weekend we hopped on a luxury Ryanair flight to visit our friends in Maastricht, Holland again. Well, maybe Ryanair is not exactly luxury - more like riding a dirty city bus - but thanks to their cheap fares we did get to visit two countries in two days. We've been to Maastricht a few times now, always flying through Brussels, Belguim on the way. This time we decided to spend our first night away from Duino in Brussels to finally see a bit of the city.



The building in that first photo is one of the many decorative buildings that line the Grand Place - the main square in Brussels. We ventured out at night to see the city without much of an idea about what there was to see in Brussels. We had three missions: (1) find the main square, (2) drink some Belgian beer, and (3) eat some mussels and fries. It was pretty easy to find the Grand Place because from most spots in the city you can get a glimpse of the Town Hall glowing in the square off in the distance. Like Trieste, I think Brussels may be a city that's even more beautiful at night.

Here's a closer look at the Brussels Town Hall. This Gothic-style building from the Middle Ages (opened in 1420) is the centerpiece of the Grand Place. Standing in the middle of the square you are surrounded by a variety of other Gothic buildings that are each so unique you can see that they were constructed over a long period of time in the Middle Ages. At night, the Grand Place is unbelievably beautiful in the glow of the buildings. There really was no option but to find our restaurant for the evening on this square...and that we did!



La Chaloupe d'Or Brasserie is a bit new (it was only built in 1692), but we decided to give it a try anyway. After all, they did have Belgian beer, mussels and fries on the menu. And the bonus was the amazing view of the Grand Place from our table by the front window. We felt pretty lucky to get such a good table, any table really, because we forgot that it was St. Valentine's Day and most restaurants in town were completely booked. La Chaloupe was cozy inside with a wood fire burning in the center of the room and decor straight out of Medieval times. Overall, one of the better dining experiences in Europe.



After dinner we walked the streets of Brussels for a little while, window shopping for chocolates and taking in the architecture of Gothic cathedrals. The city is really interesting because it has a nice mix of old and new thanks to it being the de facto capital of the European Union. Because of this Brussels also has a very international feel which I think is unusual for such an old European city. Brussels is truly a beautiful city worth visiting!

Italian Surfers

OK, it's the day after I surfed at Punta Sabbioni in Venice for the second time and I feel the need to say something about Italian surfers. They are awesome! My experience at this surf spot exemplifies one of the nicest things about Italy: The People. Let me tell you about it.

This surf spot in the Adriatic is probably the main break for this entire part of Italy. Overall, the Adriatic doesn't break often. When it does, this is the spot that picks up the most swell and offers the best protection from the relentless onshore winter winds in this area. The break is on the north side of the inlet at Venice - on a clear day you can see the famous bell tower at St. Marks just up the inlet. A very surreal place to be surfing if you've spent any time walking the streets of this iconic Italian city. Being so close to Venice and being the best break anywhere in the northern Adriatic this spot actually can draw a crowd on good days, which are few and far between.

Punta Sabbioni really reminds me a lot of Manasquan Inlet, one of my former local breaks back in NJ. The break looks and feels very similar with several good right-breaking peaks on the north side of a long jetty. Both spots can get crowded on good days. The water quality after heavy rain unfortunately also reminds me of Manasquan Inlet! But that's pretty much where the similarity ends. I won't bash the locals in Manasquan here, I'll just say that the experience for a non-local there would not be like what I'm about to describe below.

Pulling into the parking lot at Sabbioni you quickly realize you're not in NJ any longer. The second I step out my car I'm greeted by friendly "ciaos" by every surfer in the lot. Everyone, I mean everyone, stops what they are doing and looks up to see who's pulling in - probably expecting a friend because everyone seems to know everyone who surfs here. Now living in Italy I can tell you that "ciao" means something. This is not ordinarily the greeting for strangers. By saying "ciao" instead of something more formal like "buon giorno" the guys are letting me know I'm more like a friend...simply because I surf I think?

Something really cool happened this second time surfing at Sabbioni. After I suited up I started the long walk alone out on the jetty to get to the break. I don't usually talk to the other surfers because I'm embarrassed that I still can't communicate well enough in Italian in these situations. But this time, a very excited guy came skipping across the rocks to catch up to me and he just started rambling on and on in Italian about how good the waves were and a bunch of other stuff that I only half understood. Finally, I told him I didn't speak Italian that well because I didn't want him to think I was just being rude by not talking with him. He asked me: "Dove sei" (where are you from)? I told him I was American. His already big smile instantly grew bigger and he switched to speaking perfect English, only after apologizing for his bad English which really was very good.

His first words in English were: "You're an American and your surfing in Venice? That's so cool!". He said this as he high-fived me! Seriously, he enthusiastically high-fived me for being an American! He then went on to tell me about his friend in California who laughs at him every time he tells him that he surfs in Venice. About how nobody believes you can even surf in the Adriatic Sea. We talked the whole way out on the jetty. I was pretty excited because I could finally talk to another surfer and ask questions about the break, the right conditions to surf, where to jump off the rocks (which I did for the first time yesterday).

When we got to the beach my new Italian surfer friend yelled over to another guy putting on his leash: "Questo regazzo e dagli Stati Uniti!" (this guy's from the US)! His buddy responds: "Che figo" (cool)! For the next three hours I surfed really nice 3-4 foot glassy waves in a moderately crowded lineup without a single hassle for waves (very much unlike a session at Manasquan Inlet). Thanks to this one guy, I think everyone at Punta Sabbioni now knows me as the American who surfs in Venice. I think I'm a local now.

Bologna

According to the guidebooks, Bologna is a place you go to eat. And so, we did.

After a quiet three hours on the train Saturday morning reading "The Goldfinch" on the kindle, we arrived in Bologna, a city in central Italy. Known as the home of the first University (1088-ish) and inhabited since the 9th century BC, it had been on our short list of places to visit before moving back to the U.S.. And we were not disappointed.

Fancy painted porticos

The city is full of porticos - arched, covered walkways tall enough for men to ride through on horses. We did not see anyone on horseback, but enjoyed the picturesque walkways anyway.  This one was particularly pretty at night.

We arrived in time to wander through town before lunch. The central square was full of balloons and wig-wearing Italians competing in some sort of bike competition. They surrounded the old churches, government buildings and a medieval palace with a very modern feel odd. Past the two leaning towers (take that, Pisa), we found our way to the university area. For as old as it is, it was full of students and the ancient buildings were plastered with graffiti and posters advertising bands and political protests, and felt much like any big (but old) City University area.

Tom's tortellini in brodo (broth)

Since the city is known for food, we followed the guidebook directions to a street with "several good trattorie" and found a little place to enjoy lunch.  The menu reported the pasta was homemade, and it was all delicious.  Add the best red wine I've had in an Italian restaurant and it made for an excellent meal!  There was plenty of good food in Bologna, and we ate more than our fair share, but this meal was the best.

It was even more amazing in person

 As we wandered through Bologna, we kept seeing signs for the Girl with the Pearl Earring exhibit which opened the same day.  Luckily, after only 15 minutes in the standby line, we got in!  So we had a little taste of Dutch art (Vermeer to Rembrandt) in the midst of our Italian weekend.  On the train, I had almost finished reading "The Goldfinch" and I was so excited to see the painting in this exhibit.  I will certainly remember both after finishing the book on the day I saw the actual painting.

As with any good night, Saturday ended with gelato.  It was nice enough to eat it outside in the shadow of Bologna's two leaning towers.  Another great weekend in our Italian adventure!  Almost enough to make me wish we weren't leaving so soon.  Almost.

Sign of Spring?

We finally had a sunny day last week, and maybe our first sign of spring? Butterflies were out in numbers in the Carso. It was easy to photograph them because they all seemed to be in a state of shock getting a rare chance to dry their wings and warm up in the sun...they really could care less as I approached them to take their picture!

Piadina and a Movie

Another rainy night in Trieste. But the rain couldn't stop us from going out on the town, especially not on movie night. We joined the British Film Club so that we can see movies in English. I think Kristen may have talked about this before, but in order to see movies in original languages in Italy you have to go to a "movie club", otherwise the films are dubbed in Italian. That's the law. Seriously.


Like I said before, the rain couldn't stop us. Even though we had to take a bus and walk because our Fiat is broken down again. At least the broken down Fiat gave us an excuse to walk across the Piazza Unita in the rain at night which was quite beautiful. So off to the movies we went.

On our way, we stopped for a piadina at our favorite piadinerie that our friends Filippo & Annemarie showed us before they moved from Italy. Sorry guys...we ate piadine without you! Don't worry, they were really, really, really bad this time.





See how bad they look?

...so many bad piadine...

Crazy Weather Pattern Continues

I just saw this on Surfline and thought it would be a cool way to show you all the kind of weather pattern we are stuck in over here in Europe. Those of you on the East Coast of the US know all too well how crazy the weather has been this winter. But have you seen what has been happening to all those storms passing your way after they really start to crank up while crossing the Atlantic on their way to Europe?

This is an actual shot of the waves in Nazare, Portugal during this most recent storm that's still ongoing here in Italy. The swell chart above looks like a hurricane...in fact this storm basically is a hurricane. Waves this size have been a regular occurrence on the Atlantic coast of Europe this winter. Those waves I surfed at Punta Sabbioni in the Adriatic Sea the other day were not quite this big (thankfully)!

It's really interesting to see a storm of this magnitude sending swell all the way across the Atlantic Ocean, then creating swell in the Mediterranean Sea, and finally sending swell into our area way up in the far northern corner of the Adriatic Sea. Unfortunately, the weather over here has been like one big never-ending Nor'easter since last year...with no end in sight!

Missing the Cincia Mora

Last winter it was a common sight to see Coal Tits foraging in the pines that shade the Rilke Path. In fact, back in 2012 when this photo was taken Coal Tits were one of the most common birds in Duino. This winter, I haven't seen a single Cincia Mora!

I've talked endlessly about the rainy weather this winter, but it has also been a lot warmer than last winter so I suspect that these little guys probably just stayed up at a higher elevation this year. Without them the Rilke Path has felt a little desolate...their joyous chatter as they forage together in large flocks is usually the first thing you hear on winter walks along the path. Fearless little birds, they often go about their business of finding food despite your presence making the path come alive as they flutter from branch to branch. Their return would really brighten up the dreary days we're having...I hope they come back soon.

Surfing the Adriatic!

I'd been watching the surf forecast for more than a week. The terrible weather we've been having since last year was about to get much worse. I know, I know...broken record.  But the current storm is the biggest one yet. Coming up the Adriatic out of the south, this storm was forecast to send a nice swell our way. Now this wasn't the first time that I'd seen a forecast for good surf, and none of the previous forecasts ever panned out. Still, now that I'm understanding the weather here a little better I was hopeful this swell would materialize.

So on Friday I took a chance and planned out a trip to one of the surf spots I've been keeping in mind for these conditions. I dusted off my shortboard which hasn't seen the water since Sardegna last summer, set a destination to Punta Sabbioni in the GPS, and headed out for a two hour drive in pouring rain to find some waves.


Punta Sabbioni is an inlet break near Venice that's supposed to pick up southeast swells and offers some protection from the onshore winds that blowout most spots in the Adriatic in winter. The drive there is long and boring passing through industrial areas and farmland. About thirty minutes from Punta Sabbioni, I finally saw some graffiti on an abandoned building that perked up my spirits a little bit making me think maybe the drive would be worth it after all?

Embracing the terrible weather once again, I was stoked as soon as I pulled into the parking lot at the first beach I could find in Punta Sabbioni despite the ongoing deluge of rain. Notice the empty parking lot...usually this is another thing to be stoked about when pulling up to a surf spot. But then, it immediately hit me: "crap, I'm going to be surfing in a strange spot, alone, in fog!" Didn't exactly give me a very warm fuzzy feeling. Oh well...I just drove two hours so I'm going to surf no matter what.

In an attempt to find another surfer, I drove to the main break in Punta Sabbioni hoping someone else would be out. No luck there either! But this spot was a little more inviting, maybe because it reminded me a lot of my old home break in NJ: Manasquan Inlet. There was a long rock jetty just like in Manasquan with several peaks breaking on the north side. The swell was a little bigger than forecast and the fog a little thicker making it a spooky proposition to paddle out alone. But again...I did just drive two hours. Plus I've never seen waves this good in the Adriatic before. So I just had to suck it up and get over the fear...I mean really...there aren't any sharks here or anything...right??

This next photo is one of those ones that I really like because it kind of sums up the experience. Empty parking lot at the end of a long sandy road that recently flooded, probably on the last high tide, hopefully not again until after I surf. I was pondering this along with how I would feel paddling out at this new spot in the fog as I put in my fins and waxed my board. Excitement with a touch of fear. Surfing.

After I suited up in my 4x3 complete with winter boots, gloves and hood I stood on the jetty for a long time scoping out the break. It's breaking 2-3 feet IN the inlet and 5-6 feet on the north side where I'll surf. Not much of a channel. Short period swell, maybe 5 seconds, likely making the paddle out a challenge. Smaller waves on the inside, better waves farther out. Do I really want to be surfing out there, 300 meters from shore, alone, in the fog?

I think you can tell from my ear-to-ear grin how it went! Two hours surfing a decent swell without fighting for a single wave, overcoming the fear of surfing alone at a new spot in stormy conditions, finally surfing in the Adriatic Sea.

This was a good day in Italy!

A Walk in Trieste

Kristen and I are sitting in a famous Trieste bar (coffee shop) called Caffe San Marco right now as I write this blog post. More on Caffe San Marco later. On our way here we decided to take advantage of a break in the rain and go for a walk in a part of Trieste that we hadn't been to yet. We found this beautiful park that we didn't know about: Giardino Pubblico "Muzio de Tommasini".

The park, named after the Italian botanist Muzio Tommasini, is a small botanical garden right in the middle of Trieste. Famous for studying the flora of the Julian Alps, Tommasini was also an important political figure in Trieste during the Austro-Hungarian Empire when he founded the city's first botanical gardens. The park has moss-covered paths that wind through trees and gardens passing by busts of famous Triestinos.

In the center of the park is a pretty pond with fountains and bridges, a nice place to relax when the weather gets better next spring. There were lots of birds singing in the mini-forest oasis surrounded by concrete buildings. I think Kristen's looking up at some in this photo? Little did she know there was a turtle in the water right behind her, probably watching her watch birds.








We were very happy with our new find!  But our real destination for today was Caffe San Marco...

Originally constructed in 1914, Caffe San Marco has been a popular jaunt for many famous writers for a century. Of course, being in Trieste, James Joyce is one of the most notable writers who put his pen to paper here while sipping a "cappo in b". More recently, the famous Triestino writer Claudio Magris can be seen working here regularly. I've heard he likes to talk to anyone who approaches him. For a recent history of the bar see this link:

Recent History of Caffe San Marco



Here's the inside of the bar. Recently renovated after years of neglect since WWI, one step through the front door and you're taken back 100 years to the height of the Austro-Hungarian Empire when Trieste was one of the world's most important ports. The marble tables that are here today are likely the same ones where Joyce wrote...I like this a lot. Many places in Trieste claim to be where Joyce wrote, kind of like places where George Washington slept back in NJ, but this place feels like the real deal.




Salute to all our friends and family back in the US!

p.s. There's still time to come visit us before we move back this summer. So come have a cappuccino with us at Caffe San Marco while you can!