Follow my adventures while living in Italy with my husband and our two dogs Moose the whippet and Ruby the Australian Terrier. It's sure to be full of fun, frustration and cultural confusion.

Wednesday 24 April 2013

A beautiful spring day

So I just posted two days ago but I went on an amazing hike today that I just have to share. There is a lake like right next door to the house, when I arrived in March it looked like this

People ice skate on it in winter

Anyway today as I walked past it looked like this


I carried on past the round the lake into the forest, while I was walking I was really puzzled why I could hear a cuckoo clock as there were no houses nearby, then I realised... it was a cuckoo BIRD because they have those here! Then it got really annoying, like a cuckoo clock that is broken and won't stop cuckoo-ing.
spot where i realised I could hear a cuckoo bird

I carried on walking through the forest up to another lake 

and then carried on to an amazing lookout spot. On the way I saw a deer running through the forest, I have come to the conclusion that while I love animals, especially my furrkids Moose and Ruby being near wild animals doesn't really float my boat, in fact it kind of freaks me out (I know it was just a deer, but it was quite large...). At the lookout point I sat in the sun and found out that my camera has a whole lot of amazing functions including a pet setting, a "photo taken through a window" setting and of course a panorama setting so I got abit snap happy.
panorama!

the dolomites (not sure which mountain?? rosengarten perhaps??)


panorama!

panorama

what I'm trying to show here is all the little villages dotted throughout the mountains

my lookout seat

and finally, this is our house! we live in a flat on the top floor, beside it is a barn.

So today was a really nice day, I had a chance to spend sometime outside enjoying the natural beauty of the place. I really needed it as yesterday was a pretty rough day, Joe and I got stood up by a landlord when we went to view a flat and then Joe went to pick up his permit of stay to find out they had made a mistake with his birthdate so now it will take another three weeks. This is particularly annoying because my visa application cannot begin until Joe has his permit of stay so yesterday was very much an "i hate Italy" day. However there are some good points, the people we know here are lovely and wonderful and so eager to help, one of our friends has managed to find out who we need to go speak to about the process for getting me a visa, so that's great (and totally kind of her as its not her problem) and we'll be going to see them next Tuesday to  find out more information. Also this delay means I won't be back in Italy to live until sometime in July (hopefully, if everything goes smoothly from this point on) so we have delayed the apartment hunt for now as it was mainly just bumming us out.  

I'm now planning what we are going to do for our long weekend and Italy's good points are shining through again, I'm paralysed by choice as there's so much to see and do and all we have to do is pack our bags and jump on a train to go and experience it. 

I will let you know what we decide and how the adventure went next week

Ciao for now




Monday 22 April 2013

The first month... aka the art of doing nothing

So I have been in Bolzano a little over a month now, it's been a major change to my life before the move. I was working the day I flew out, now I legally can't have a job (hopefully this will change soon, fingers crossed). Joe of course is busy with his PhD so I'm left to my own devices mostly, so what have I been up to?

Walking - Bolzano is beautiful and is set in gorgeous scenery. I have done more of this the last couple of weeks as the snow disappeared and Spring arrived.
 this is the Talvera, a river that runs through Bolzano with park on either side, we hope to find an apartment near here
 the mountain surround Bolzano on three sides
 The cathedral
 The main square "Walter Platz" great for grabbing a coffee and people watching
 The pyramides of the earth, impressive geological formations made by a glacier a short hike from our current house
This is me in the forest, very sweaty after said short hike.

Looking for an apartment - currently we are subletting a room of another PhD student who is abroad doing some projects. Our current place is in Renon, a plateau above Bolzano, you catch a cable car to town. This is very beautiful but not very convenient so I have spent a lot of time on the internet apartment hunting.

the view of Bolzano from the cable car

Reading design blogs and browsing IKEA online - as we got rid of almost all our belongings we will need to furnish our apartment (as the ones we like keep appearing to be unfurnished or only partly furnished). 

I've also been reading a lot and watching a lot of How I Met Your Mother. 

Of course I've been spending time with my husband which is nice since he left the country ten days after our wedding. To begin with we did a lot of little trips, a long weekend in London, a night in Verona and an excellent weekend in Venice for hubby's birthday but as uni work has increased trips have been put on the backburner. 
 Joe in Verona, outside the arena, the 3rd largest remaining Roman arena
 Venice
 Us beside a fountain in a square in Venice, it was pretty cold and windy

The 25 April is also a holiday in Italy, celebrating the end of fascism so hopefully we will do something then. We are also heading to Paris in a few weeks for a long weekend before I fly back to New Zealand to sort out my visa (so looking forward to this trip, I love Paris and cannot wait to share it with Joe who has never been). 

Lastly I've been trying to learn Italian, it's a pretty big challenge, I was doing quite a good job of doing a little everyday but then I was in kind of a funk last week and lost all interest. This week I'm trying to get back into it, hopefully soon I'll be able to order a coffee without the waiter instantly switching to English.

Ciao for now xx