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. . .