A real Easter scene in a Salzburg shop
I remember a time when I was younger visiting family in Sacramento, and I made a list of all the things I wanted to do before I headed home, some quite specific. In hindsight, the list just reminds me of my childhood pretentiousness, but I realize sometimes I make a similar list when I travel now--hopefully not as demanding. Anyways, I said I wanted to see a lake town like the one old Rick Steves mentions, Hallstatt (but not that one, since it was not on the way home). The next day we went to the beautiful Worthersee, and it definitely satisfied my whim for a real Austrian lake town. Thank you Komars.
I think I was most impressed on the trip by the Austrian version of the Easter egg hunt. I’m always interested in how different families celebrate holidays, but traditions change even more when you cross borders. In Austria, children search the garden for not Easter eggs, but Austrian or German or Belgian chocolate and gifts! It’s like Christmas in the Spring plus the best chocolate in the world. The Easter bunny even brought me some chocolate! (*thanks again) and I’m proud to say I have yet to finish the box; I’m trying to savor it as long as possible.
Two girls in the family around my age took me out one night in Villach for a real Austrian beer. I still can’t figure out how to pronounce ‘may I have one’ in German. After these months in Italy, I’ve grown comfortable with the language enough to know I can get out of any minorly bad situation (ie. always ask directions, read timetables, and ask bus drivers questions), and definitely have a certain language prowess with shopping, eating meals, and other day to day activities. When I stepped out of the train in Austria, my first instinct was to say “Ciao.” Although I speak a lot of English here, the Italian switch is definitely on, and it was a tough change to all of a sudden be in a German speaking country. It made me realize once again I may get quite lonely on my two month sojourn if I have no one to speak my own language to. I’ll probably write a lot more blogs, because I’ll just want to think in a language I know. Lucky you.
Another highlight of this Easter trip was our pilgrimage to the Santuario Del Monte Lussari in Italy. This place was a trip. We drove into Italy from Austria to a small ski resort. Up the lift we “skiked” (ski+hike for the non Damerons) to the little lodge-village, then continued up to the top to a chapel. I am happy to say I made it to a church on Easter Sunday -- it was a chapel on top of an Italian-Austrian border mountain filled with skiers, I’m talking people in full on ski gear with ski boots and helmets inside the church. That’s something I’ve never seen. Thanks Again.
Last weekend I went on a couple school trips. On Saturday I went with my Art History class to Assisi. The main cathedral was amazing, but the professor is nuts. She’s beautiful, sweet and definitely intelligent, but I think most of us agree a little pazza. Inside this cathedral there are signs everywhere saying “silenzio.” All tour guides are supposed to have the church approved microphones and all their listeners are supposed to have the ‘right’ headphones. Our professor, who never follows rules or ‘suggestions’ by museum guards. She continuously got in trouble for trying to lecture to our little group of students as we walked around to see the frescos. The monk/security man (not sure what his actual title might be) came up to my professor about five times to tell her to stop. Eventually she told everyone in the group to get out their ipod headphones, put them in their ears, and hide the unattached ends. For those of us without headphones, she said to put our hands up to our ears to pretend we had listening devices. She borrowed a camera from one of the girls and pretended it was her microphone. We walked around the church pretending to have this audio system. The guard/monk man I’m sure knew we were pretending. As we left the upper church for the lower, he told my professor she had to go immediately to the main desk to ‘check’ to see if our devices were approved by the church for use. She looked him straight in the eye and said, “of course.” We did not. In the lower church, another one of these guard/monks walked up to her and said that he had heard from upstairs that there was a professor trying to use the wrong equipment and we had to stop. Looking back, it was just another funny, if uncomfortable couple hours with this one professor, but at the time, I think it’s a little odd to just straight up lie in a church.
I’ve heard this ‘break the rules’ mentality is definitely an Italian trait. Us Americans live with ridiculous invasive laws, so I’ve heard. Sometimes I think it’s best to just pay for the headset.
Sunday was another interesting day, this time for creative writing. Our professor took us on a driving tour of Tuscany, about four little towns. He showed us al lthe major places in his published novels. Sort of like getting Francis Mayes to personally show you Cortona. My favorite stop was a large, artsy garden project by an expatriate. This place just seemed to have a bit of magic. I wish I remembered the name, because it's probably not in the tour guides. We also stopped at an old woman's home. The professor says she's around 80, but still climbs trees barefoot (not sure why). The woman lives in an unassuming home, but the professor told us when she and her now passed husband decided to renovate, they found a wine cellar from about year 1000. In the little cellar, she makes wine without any additives, the best (and least expensive) I've tried here. I was sad to hear that they weren't going to sell any. I guess this year's was so good, they only let family members purchase it.
Secret Garden in Tuscany
Tuscany!
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