La Dolce Vita

Jan 2010 - Chamonix, France

2010-08-23T22:24:00.003+02:00

Our first trip of 2010 may have been the best vacation that I have ever taken. We were in a fully catered luxury condo that was ski in ski out. And it was only 750 Euro per person for the week. Plus 280E for my unlimited (7 mountain) week long lift pass, plus about 180E for the plane tickets. Words don't do justice to how good it was. We would wake up in the morning and either our chef (who trained under Gordon Ramsey) or our "house girl" Jenna (who was a cute little 19 year old college student from New Zealand on her summer break) would have prepared a breakfast for us. You could be out of the house and walking to the tram to the peak at 9AM or as late as you wanted. When we had fresh snow (which was 3 days) I was out early and up the mountain as fast as possible. I would ride all day, and either break for lunch at around 1 or 2 and then either quit for the day or ride until 4. Then it was back to the house where Jenna would have baked fresh cookies and breads and put out snacks and coffee and tea. We were also given "unlimited" beer and wine for the week. Unlimited in the sense that if we finished all the beer in the house they would then buy more and charge us, but it seemed that the first 2 cases per day were included. So you could sit in a giant bean bag chair and Jenna would bring you cold beers until you told her to stop. We never got charged for more beer, but I think that with a different crew perhaps an East Coast crew we could have done a lot more damage. We could lounge around, watch movies, go down to the ski lodge for apre-ski, or sit in the hot tub, steam room, sauna, or pool... by about 8 (5 of the 7 nights) our chef would have a ridiculous 4-5 course meal prepared for us.... it was amazing. It was all you could do not to pass out after the meal.

The most amazing day of the trip was the day that we hired a guide to take us back country. All of the photos of the trip are uploaded on my FaceBook page. The guy got us into some sweet, sweet untracked powder. My only complaint that day was of the 4 of us in the group, I was the most skilled and probably the only expert (besides the guide). He took us on some fairly easy (mostly lift accessible trails to gauge our talent). And we immediately had one guy say that he couldn't hang and back out. Then we hit the hardcore back country stuff (which wasn't all that hardcore if you just listened to the guide). We took a lift to the edge of one of the French resorts and then hiked (about 500m) to the French / Swiss border and dropped into a untracked bowl heading into Switzerland... again it was amazing, but I was the only on that could keep pace with the guide, so we ended up having to wait a couple times. I'm not complaining, but if I could do the trip again, I would set it up so that I was with only expert riders when we hired the guide. So that the mountain guide was pushing us the whole time. Basically the only real rule was, never get ahead of the guide. This was a important rule that prevented you from riding off a cliff, starting an avalanche, or falling to your death in a crevice. Other than that we were out to have fun. So, we needed to ride down to this Swiss village and catch a bus back to France (where we could access a lift again) Since we were delayed, we missed the bus in the Swiss village and had to get out chef to come pick us up in one of the vans. So we had a nice lunch and waited for our rescue. We made it back on the mountain around 2 and had time for one more back country run. The one girl in the group quit and it left just me, Andrew, and the guide. We again took lifts to the edge of the resort and started to hike again. This time across the spine of the mountains between two valleys. This was hard work, and at one point the guide was wearing his skies, carrying my snowboard in his arms, and had Andrew's skies on his back. I was using the guides ski poles to walk so that I wouldn't post hole in the snow, while he carried ALL of our gear. So we get to the top of a small bowl that funnels into a chute and then out into another open bowl. It had other tracks in it, but you could still find some nice fresh powder, it was amazing. I think you can see in my photos, the initial tracks and then the steep drop into the chute, with just tons of powder built up in there.

So, my thought on the whole trip is that it is one that I want to do again, and I want to bring the crew from NJ on this trip to France. The house we were in held 11, and the one connected to it holds another 8. We could just do adults, but you could bring the kids because Jenna (our house girl) will also baby-sit during the day (for a fee), she also will do your laundry, and I'm not sure about any other services that she might offer. You would have to discuss that with her. I think that we could swing some reasonable flights to Geneva from NYC and once you are in the house, the cost of the trip is actually a bargain. (More expensive with kids, but still totally worth it). If anyone is interested in doing a catered chalet in the future, let me know because I will keep in touch with Jon up at Chamonix for additional trips out there.

There you have it, the most amazing snowboarding trip of all time. Ciao, Joe

Too long without writing - 2010 update

2010-08-12T22:19:00.005+02:00

Hello everyone, I am really sorry about not writing for so long. 2010 has been an unbelievably busy it's pretty sad that I haven't written since Halloween 2009. Well, let me try to bring you up to date.

We have done a ton of travel, we hit Munich for Oktoberfest last October. Melissa also started working as a gov't contractor. Over the winter we did two fantastic ski trips. Right after Christmas we went up to the Italian Dolomites and did some great snowboarding. The Dolomites are on my list of places to return. It is an amazing community up there where you can ski between Italian villages and use the lift system to get around.

Our second trip was back to France for a week in a catered Chalet in Chamonix... I already have a post written about this one and will post it this week, but it might have been the best vacation I have ever been on.

The end of January I did a guys trip to Munich to see Nickelback, and then in Feb Melissa and I went to Madrid. We did a weekend in Sorrento and then trips to Tuscany and Umbria.

We took it easy for a couple months and then kicked it back up with our 5th Anniversary trip to Capri in May. I also went to Prague in May for a guys weekend to see KISS and I did a work trip to Berlin in June.

Our Summer travels have been to St. Tropez over the 4th of July, and we just got back from a week in Ibiza, Spain. Ibiza is a pretty amazing island that Melissa and I really enjoyed. So, that takes us back up to date. I should have short stories on all the travels and some of the other fun aspects of life is Naples. And I forgot the fact that I was able to swing up to Switzerland for a weekend to meet up with Pete Candito and win a pile of Swiss Francs in a casino up there. One of the things I love about Europe is that in just June and July I was able to visit Germany, Switzerland, France and Spain.

Melissa is getting ready for two girls trips to Lebanon and Turkey, while I am getting ready for a golf trip to Scotland... though I may never be ready to play golf in Scotland.

OK, that's it for now, I be back more often to keep the blog updated. Ciao, Joe

Life in Naples

2009-10-26T21:43:00.002+01:00

I’ve been doing a lot of writing about how great life is in Europe and all of our wonderful travels. Well, life always has a sour side that goes along with the sweet, and I have been remiss for not mentioning it in previous blogs. Now, I don’t want to sound like I am bitching about living in Italy, I actually really like living in Italy. Naples provides Melissa and I with amazing travel and cultural opportunities. But to live and work here day in and day out you have to live in this Neapolitan society and it is really a…. special place. Special because of all of the culture and history associated with Italy, but also Special in that riding the short bus, wearing a helmet kind of way. Here we go.

Last Thursday afternoon, I’m driving my car up to the Support Site to play some Ultimate Frisbee. As previously mentioned the driving in Italy is really special, but I have already talked about that. The Support Site is another special place, it is the Navy-housing complex, built on Cammora land (the Italian Mafia) and signed to a 99-year lease by the USA. Now, I’m not saying that the US Navy is doing business with the mob, I’m just saying that we rented some land for them for 99 years, I’m sure that it is all perfectly legal, in a special kind of way. So, I’m driving up the Domitz, and I exit onto SP 162, “hooker highway” heading toward the support site. It’s called “hooker highway” because of the numerous hookers standing along the side of the highway for a 3-kilometer stretch.

As I get past the hooker section of “hooker highway” I notice smoke rising in the distance. Again, this is not an uncommon thing, like may other third world countries Naples burns their trash out in the open. It is a fairly tall plume of black smoke rising off to my left and I don’t think much of it. The road bends left and the smoke plume drifts across my field of vision to my right side. At this point I start to think that a car might be on fire on the road up ahead, but traffic is still moving and highway speed. (Highway speed in Naples = 50kph if you are driving a three wheeled vegetable cart, or 210kph if you are driving a BMW). I probably was doing 110kph, or about 70mph.

By this time it is clear that the plume of smoke is covering the highway, so I pop on my hazard lights and start to slow down. Smoke is billowing across the highway from something but I can’t see what it is. There are no flashing lights, no emergency responders, and there doesn’t appear to be anything on the road. (Which also isn’t uncommon in Italy). I am going about 30kph as I head into the cloud of smoke and I immediately realize that I am on an overpass, and there is a large billowing fire under the bridge that I am driving over. Smoke is billowing up on both sides of the 4-lane highway and also in the gap between the two lanes of traffic. And then I came out the other side of the cloud and continued on my way.
So this is just one example of the interesting things that you encounter when you are living in Naples. I’ll keep you posted. Ciao, Joe

Vacation in France - August 2009

2009-09-13T19:20:00.005+02:00

As I mentioned in my last blog post, Melissa and I were in France on vacation. It was one of the best trips of our lives. The overview of the trip went like this. We departed Naples by car and started our drive to the Bay of Biscay on the west coast of France on July 31st. Day one we drove all the way to “X” or the actual French name is Aix-en-Province. Where we found a nice hotel in the heart of the town, and the guide book claimed that Aix had one of the nicest boulevard’s in all of Europe…. A bold statement, so we thought we should check it out.

Aix was a nice little French town, and to our surprise, it did have one of the nicest, “rues” that we have seen so far in Europe. Imagine a little town with a cute pedestrian center on a tree-lined street. As you walked down the boulevard it is lined with shops and restaurants. We found a place to eat, and I ordered (for the first, but not the last time in France) the “Moules and Frites” or Mussels and French Fries. The bucket of mussels held approximately 50 mussels… quite a meal. So, Aix was great, and it is someplace that we need to head back to soon.

The next morning we slept until 8AM and got up for a breakfast in the hotel, and then left around 9 for what we thought would be an easy 5 hour drive across France to the Bay of Biscay. Were we ever wrong. Aug 1st is the day that everyone goes on vacation in Europe, and we were stuck in traffic for the entire day. It took us 10 hours to reach Capbreton. And right before we got there we hit a ridiculous storm with 70 mph winds, driving rain, and lighting. It was crazy. The temperature dropped from 85 to 65 in about 20 minutes. But once we got there… just before dark, I was excited to see that the storm brought up the surf. And the next day we would be in for some head high waves.

So as I stated in my last blog post, we staying in a hotel right on the beach called the Cap Club. Capbreton is in a cluster of beach towns and just to the south of Hossegor, a famous surf spot and one of the stops on the world surfing tour. In fact several American pro surfers have retired to the area. The area is made up of little towns in a vibrant little beach community right on the ocean with lots of great restaurants and café’s. There are fantastic bike paths all along the beach, and through the ocean-side forests that connect the little towns. A stone “boardwalk” allows pedestrian traffic to get all around the area.

So, since I already talked about the surfing, let me describe everything else we did in the towns. French food and wine are fantastic. Every meal was a little bit on an adventure since Melissa speaks zero French and I was only able to use what came back to me from high school, which was actually not too bad. Crepes are fantastic for both dinner and dessert. If you get a crepe made with salt then you can stuff it with cheese, meat, and mushrooms and make a delicious French style calzone. If you make your crepes with sugar then you have the standard crepe that you can fill with chocolate, ice cream, or whatever delicious goodness you long for. In some meals I ate both a dinner and dessert crepe. It was fantastic.

To work off all that food we rented bikes and rode them all over the place. With bike paths connecting everything, and the French actually having respect for traffic laws it was easy and safe to get around town. We also spent lots of time lounging on the beach, I surfed, or we were able to just sit out on the fantastic deck in front of our hotel. The weather was good, not too hot, but nice. In the low 80's during the day, and then cooler at night. We actually were a little underprepared for the weather to be that cool. Overall it was a fantastic and relaxing first week of vacation.

For week two we were heading to the south of France. This time, we left our hotel on Friday Aug 7th, and we did not want to get caught in ridiculous traffic again. So, we woke up early and got on the road at 6AM… ugh. This time we made the drive all the way to Cannes, France without hitting any traffic at all.

The difference between the west coast of France and the south coast of France is significant. The south coast of France is like Vegas with beautiful beaches. The weather was warmer in the south of France in the 90's during the day and comfortable in the mid 70's at night. Cannes is unbelievable! It makes sense why the rich and famous go there to vacation and party. I think that one of my new life goals is to go on vacation to all of the places that George Clooney goes on vacation ie. Cabo (love it), and Cannes, also love it. That moves Lake Como in northern Italy higher up on my list. But how is the south of France when you aren’t George Clooney… It is still fantastic. The food in Cannes was probably better than it was anywhere else during the trip. And the variety was amazing. We had unbeleviable meals at “Chink’s” (Chinease and Japanese fare) and at Le Mesclun (French food). The bars were also very good. We were out one night after dinner and rolled into a bar called Au Bureau. Live band, big English style beers, and sand on the floor of the bar. The staff was as drunk as the customers, and they would pour you a beer, and then forgets to charge you for it. The bartender was more interested in jumping on stage and trying to sing with the band than collecting money for drinks, and she had a terrible voice. My god was she bad, but everyone in the place was having a good time.

When we were recovering from our nights out, we would go to the beach and rent some chairs and an umbrella and lay out. Cannes had beautiful sandy beaches. Oh, and did I mention yet that on all of the beaches tops are optional for women? Did I also mention yet that French women are beautiful? Of course, none as beautiful as my wife, but you can imagine the scenery. And it’s not just on the beaches. Normal going out attire for French ladies is a transparent shirt with no bra. It’s a little bit different than what you find in America, where you would be arrested for wearing what the French wear. Oh, and for the men, well unfortunately the speedo is in fashion, but the good news for me is that it is completely optional, so I was able to just wear the board shorts…. Who wants to see my creamy white thighs anyway. You can also see Facebook for those.

We did a day trip to St. Tropez from Cannes. We took a beautiful boat ride down to St. Tropez and spent the day walking around the town. St. Tropez is on my list of places that I need to go back to. We did not get to go to the beaches outside of the town, (which are rumored to be even more risque than the Cannes beaches) but we did walk around the town, go to the market, had a café by the water, and generally watched the people walk around. The boats, cars, and rich and famous were something to see. It is a total show with everyone dressed up to be looked at. And we did some shopping; I bought my first ever pair of white “man-pris” and several white shirts. We also met a nice couple from Washington DC that were on their honeymoon in France. It was good to meet some other Americans and enjoy the town with them. We ended up meeting them for dinner that night as well, and hopefully they will come back to Europe and visit us again in Italy.

From Cannes our adventures took us to Nice, but not without driving about and hour inland and going to the “Grande Canyon du Verdon.” I forgot to mention this up until now, but the landscape of the south coast of France reminded me of Sedona, Arizona or maybe Utah. Lots of red rock formations all over the area. The “Grande Canyon” is smaller than our Grand Canyon, but still an impressive sight. The south of France is amazing.

From there we headed back to Nice on the coast. Nice, while not quite as nice as Cannes was still very cool. Again the food was very good, and can really only be describe with this photo of Melissa as a huge plate of raw seafood came out one evening. The beaches had the same atmosphere as Cannes but were made up of pebbles and stones vice sand. That in and of itself made them not quite as nice as they were in Cannes. The interesting thing about Nice was just walking through the city. Really a much larger city than anywhere else we had stayed to that point. There were tons of fountains, sculptures, and art in the city and an amazing variety of shopping and food. The photo to the left is the main boulevard and is line with seated men on pedastals that glowed at night. Even being there for 3 days we didn’t see it all, and Nice would be a good city to visit any time of year.

We did a day trip to Monaco from Nice by train, and talk about an amazing train ride down the coast with beautiful views. Monaco is the description of what a city can be when the government basically has unlimited funds and cares about their city. The city was clean, actually polished is a better word, with only the nicest amenities. For those of you living in Italy, I would say that Monaco is the exact opposite of Naples, clean, well organized, and well policed. Just to give you an example the public tunnel from the train station to the place is lined in decorative marble. You would think that you are in the Bellagio Hotel/Casino in Vegas as opposed to a public walk way. The harbor was filled with huge, multi-million dollar yachts, and the streets were lined with expensive cars. It is the only place that I have ever been where you would see a Rolls Royce drive by, and the next car behind it was… another Rolls Royce. It was pretty amazing. For you high rollers out there, if you want you can take a helicopter ride from your hotel to the airport when you are coming or going… just FYI. Check out my Face Book photos for pictures of the cars and yachts in Monaco.

The day we left Nice, I got some sort of stomach flu, so from that morning on, I didn’t eat anything again until we got back to Naples… 2 days later. I’m not sure if it was a bad meal (probably not because Melissa didn’t get sick, and we shared everything), some kind of bug, or just the fact that I had been eating and drinking heavily for 14 straight days. We left the south of France (or French Riviera) to head to the Italian Riviera. We found a nice beach club near the town of Portofino. It was still a rocky beach set up Lido style with the chair, umbrellas, and of course, the Italian style coffee bar. After a day at the beach we decided to swing by Pisa since we were pretty close. Pisa is a dump. The only nice part of the city is within the walls of the duomo complex that has the church and tower. Note my Face Book picture of me holding up the tower… it was pretty funny. We spent that night at Camp Darby, a cute little Army outpost in the northern part of Italy, and then headed back to Naples the next day.

Overall, that two week vacation was fantastic, and we would do it again… perhaps next year. Until, next time. Ciao, Joe

Surfing in France

2009-08-04T18:57:00.002+02:00

Melissa and I are in France on vacation. We drove from Naples, Italy all the way to Capbreton, France which is just to the south of famous surfing town Hossegor on the Bay of Biscay. (What was a 16 hour drive took us 21 because of holiday traffic, but I digress.) We found a very nice hotel right on the south end of the beach in Capbreton called the Cap Club. The hotel was clearly built in the 70’s but is in a great location. From the front deck of the hotel we can look out at the surf breaks of Capbreton. The town itself is probably the size of South Seaside Park, and is about as busy. There aren’t any wild bars or nightclubs but the town is a vibrant little beach town right on the ocean with lots of great restaurants and café’s. There are fantastic bike paths all along the beach, and stone “boardwalk” that allows pedestrian traffic to get all around the town. It is a great little beach town.

Capbreton is separated from Hossegor by a small channel “think smaller than Point Pleasant” that allows fishing boats and private boats access to the sea. That islet is at the north end of Capbreton. As you work your way south, there are a series of jetties that break up the beaches. From north to south, you have the beach that is up against the channel, which from what I have seen has no waves, is just crashing shore break. Then there is a small beach just in front of the hotel that has a pretty good beach break. South of the hotel is the final jetty, and that opens up into wide beaches and huge sand dunes as far south as the eye can see. This area seems to have the best surf. I have surfed from that south jetty all the way down to what appear to be huge rock formations, but are actually giant concrete costal defenses from the Second World War.

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting a lot when we set out for a surf trip to France. My thought was, how good could it possibly be. I mean, it’s the Atlantic, early Aug is the very beginning of the Atlantic hurricane season. I could get completely skunked. As we drove across central France, probably only 100km from the beach we saw a huge gray storm clout on the horizon. Our 8-hour drive in the sun turned into 70mph winds, and driving rain. The temperature dropped from 85 and sunny just north of the Pyrenees to 65, windy and rainy. We got to the beach in light rain and clouds, and the surf was up. It was totally victory at sea. It was also about 8PM and no one was out (the sun sets here around 9:30); so paddling out didn’t seem like a good idea. So we went out to dinner in Hossegor and went to bed. The next morning I was up at 7AM to check the waves and it was still stormy with no one out… experience tells me, when surfing a new spot, if there is no one out, it’s for a good reason. So I went back to bed until about 8:30 and checked again. This time there were probably 10 guys out in front of the hotel and at the jetty. So I grabbed my board and paddled out.

The tide was low, so I followed a French surfer down the rocks on the south side of the jetty and paddled out behind him (keeping the jetty on my right sheltered me from the surf and that paddle was fairly easy.) Once I was out there, the sets were excellent, peeling rights along the jetty that were easily head high plus. Since I hadn’t been in the water in 7 months (since we were in Cabo in December), I was a little rusty, and my first two waves were… not so good. But my third, a beauty on the outside was mine alone, and peeled all the way to the beach. I was able to get two good turns off the top as well as speed through a center section. I ended up with 10 waves total and had a great time. Things have continued to be good here in France. I was out for another great session in the evening. The surf was still holding it’s size and the wind had died. There were fun clean conditions. There were a lot more Frenchmen out in the afternoon, but they were very polite, didn’t drop in, and if you paddled strongly for a wave they pretty much backed off. Based on those two surf sessions on our first day in France (Sunday the 2nd) the French surf already exceeded my expectations.

Monday showed a drop in surf but cleaner conditions. I paddled out at around Noon (after the extreme low tide in the morning) and surfed for two hours. The surf was in the Chest to Head High range and very clean with light off shore wind. I surfed further south, and at one point paddled over and took a look at the gigantic coastal defenses that the Germans built on the beach 65 years ago. It was a fun and very interesting surf session. I got out pretty far south from the hotel, and walked back up the beach to the boardwalk. That section of the beach had a much younger crowd and lots of young surfer girlfriends all laying out topless… you got to love France. So, thus far, my French surfing experience has exceeded my expectations. The forecast calls for 6-8ft surf on Thursday (ground swell), this could end up being an epic surf trip.

I’ll keep you posted and put up some pics when we get them downloaded to the computer.

Ciao and au revoir, Joe

Injury and Recovery

2009-07-29T22:17:00.000+02:00

This blog update isn’t about Europe and all of our wonderful travels, or the crazy drivers in Naples. This update is about recovering from injury… actually the interesting thing that I learned is that recovery starts before you are injured.

It has been six months since I slammed into a tree snowboarding. I suffered a partially torn ACL, MCL, and Meniscus. Before I crashed into the tree I was doing a workout called Cross Fit pretty religiously. It is a workout regime that combines Olympic weight lifting, running, gymnastics, and calisthenics. The program is designed for people that are fire fighters, cops, and military, and gives anyone an overall good level of fitness. The workouts are killer, but only take 20 minutes in some cases. I had been doing Cross Fit for almost two years when I hit the tree, and I was probably in as good a shape as I had been in since the end of Navy Dive School.

Suddenly, with one bad turn on a snowboard, my leg was busted and ligaments in my knee were torn. A severe injury that might require months of rehab and surgery. Because the wonderful Navy docs kept my leg immobilized for 11 days the recovery process got off to a slow start. 12 days after the surgery I was on a bike trying to turn the pedals on level one and I wasn’t even able to get the machine to register that I was riding it. But I kept pressing the rehab, and working out as hard as I could pushing the injury as far, and slightly further than the docs wanted to let me go.

It is almost 6 months to the day since the injury and without surgery I am back to 95% of where I was when I was injured. The last 5% seems to be the biggest challenge, but I am back to my Cross Fit ways just like before I was injured. For me, the moral of the story was to stay in shape so that recovery would be easier later once you do get injured. And also, that no matter how bad you are injured, you need to keep training to get back into shape for both your body and your soul.
Ciao, for now. More fun Europe stories to follow.

Travels in Europe

2009-06-29T22:30:00.004+02:00

Sorry it’s been so long since I updated the blog, I’ve been traveling and moving jobs, so this is really my first free time to write anything. I’ve been having trouble finding time to post photos on Facebook. Enough excuses… you know what they say about excuses.

May and June have been great. The weather started to get warm, and for the most part it stopped raining. Naples is so close to so many wonderful places that you can really explore the area when the weather gets nice, and you have daylight until 9PM. Next year I strongly recommend May for visitors. From what we have been told it starts to get hot in July and August, but we will keep you posted.

Toward the end of May, Melissa and I were getting very excited to have “the girls” some and visit us in Naples. For clarification, “the girls” include Nicole, Andrea, Liz, and Lexi (whom I hadn’t even met). I was all ready for the visit, one week of work left before the holiday weekend, and ready to have some fun… when my boss walks over and says, “What are you plans for the weekend?” That is a loaded question when you are in the Navy. Well, to make a long story short, I ended up in Lisbon, Portugal… the next day. It wasn’t then end of the world; I only missed “the girls” visit to Rome. I was back in Naples in time for the rest of the trip, good times. BTW – Portugal was great except I was working 12 hour days. But I would definitely go back to Portugal, and stay right on the beach, a great surf destination.

We had a lot of fun in Naples with “the girls.” We hit the beach bars for the first time this year. Basically Naples is like New Jersey in so many ways. Picture Joey Harrison’s surf club on the beach in Italy, and that is exactly what you have at several beach clubs in Italy. In so many ways Naples reminds me of New Jersey, you pay for the beach, the Neapolitans build beach clubs right up to the water, cutting off access and charging you to get in. We hit the Briganti football team’s playoff game, watched them win, and then attended the post game Toga party… oh yes everyone had a blast.

And then we were off to Dubrovnik, Croatia. We drove across Italy, and caught an overnight ferry from Bari, Italy to Dubrovnik. I slept like a baby on the boat, but I don’t think that the girls fared quite as well as I did, it was a little bit rough that night. So we arrived in Croatia in the morning rested (sort of) and ready to rock. We rented a great apartment right in the heart of the old city. Dubrovnik is a walled city that has stood for the last 11 centuries. The ramparts surrounding the city are still completely intact, and the wall around the city has protected Dubrovnik as recently as the 1990’s, when the Bosnians laid siege to Dubrovnik and shelled the city with artillery. It was really pretty amazing to walk around the city. The first thing that we did was walk the wall around the city looking at the amazing views and vistas. The food was fantastic, and we spent some time in a bar that was through a hole in the wall overlooking the rocky coast.

Dubrovnik also had fantastic food and bars. The city is small and somewhat crowded, but the small restaurants and bars just overflow into the streets. One night we saw a live performance on the steps going up to the town square. I recommend a visit to anyone; make sure you go in the summer time.

From Dubrovnik we drove to Montenegro, a very nice costal country that has only existed as a country for the last 2 years. It’s amazing to realize that the area was torn by war just a decade ago. The area has recovered nicely. We drove down the coast from the rocky shores of Croatia to the rocky shores of Dubrovnik, but when we finally got out to the coast in the city of Budva, where there is a much smaller walled city on the coast, surrounded by beautiful beaches. It was a great trip and a very nice drive.

After the girls left town we did a long weekend in Prague with our Navy lawyer friends here in Naples. Prague could be my favorite city in Europe so far. But based on the legal council of the people I was traveling with, I can only tell you about certain parts of the trip. Let’s just say the Prague might be the Vegas of Europe.

So, we spent 3 days and 3 nights in Prague, and we still weren’t able to see all the sights that we wanted to see. We started with a walk through the Jewish Museum on our way to a bike tour of the city. The Nazi’s were such unbelievable scumbags that I cringe when I see some of these sights in Europe. Prague has an unbelievable preserved Jewish quarter, because Hitler hoped to us the Jewish area of Prague as a museum to the EXTINCT Jewish race. When I hear stuff like that it makes me so angry that humans allowed that type of thing to happen, and we just need to make sure that it never happens again.

So, Prague is pretty amazing, fantastic food, great bars, cheap beer, and a killer party scene… who wants to go back with me?

Ok, that is all for now. More stories to follow.

Ciao,

Joe

Paestum Photos (Melissa)

2009-05-18T09:36:00.005+02:00

Paestum in about 90 minutes south of Naples on the coast. It is the site of the most well-preserved Greek ruins in all of Europe (that's what they told us anyway).

I did a great bus trip there with a couple of friends. Our half-day trip consisted of a tour of the ancient Greek town, the Roman town that was built on top of the Greek ruins, the museum of ancient artifacts, and a quick lunch at a cute cafe with bright yellow umbrellas (very Italian). While I was in Paestum, I took about 30 photos of amazing Greek temples and artifacts. After returning home, I show my husband my photos of these magnificent sights that I was humbled to stand before...yet there is only ONE photo that insights any remark of excitement from him. It's the one photo that I took of my lunch.

Of course I specifically took the photo of my lunch because I knew it would be the most interesting thing to him out of everything that I had seen all day. You can decide if you agree...here are the photos:

A few items from the Museum...

And finally, here is lunch :)

American Football by Italians? (Melissa)

2009-05-18T09:00:00.004+02:00

Disclaimer: Joe should really be writing this since it is about football…but I’m going to start it and he can “revise” as necessary.

Photo: Joe with our friend Michela and her brother Alessandro who has played on the team for close to 20 years (if I understood Michela correctly).

Yes, the Italians have an American-style football league. Who knew? I thought nothing beats soccer over here. But we met a guy that used to play for the Jets (just had to be the Jets, right?) and then he played for some other team, and then he got hurt...so now he's coaching the Naples football team.

We were told that we didn’t have to buy tickets and that parking was 2 Euro. Seemed odd. When we got to the stadium parking lot, it was packed! Little did we know it was because there was a kids dance performance going on in an adjacent building. There were actually only two other people in the stadium. So we did pay 2 Euro to park, and then walked into the high-school style stadium with no gates, no guards, and no ticket-takers. We even brought our cooler of snacks and beer without any problem. I think we could have rolled a BBQ in there and started grilling in the stadium without anyone saying ANYTHING to us.

Eventually about 10 other people showed up to watch the game with us. The game was great, Naples has been undefeated so far this year. I'm sure Joe would have lots of commentary about the plays they were running, but it all looks about the same to me. The funny thing was they didn’t have a good kicker (imagine that!) so they never kicked any field goals. Which may have been a good thing because they were actually playing on a soccer field – so they tapped big orange poles onto the top of the soccer net to make an upright on the top of the soccer net. Not sure that would have worked out so well. It was a lot of fun to be watching American football in Italy.

At the end of the game (Naples won!) the players lined up and did a dance for the stadium, which was hysterical. The teams were very respectful with a sincere “good-game” line-up of high 5’s. They also chanted and cheered for the opposing team the way I’ve seen girls softball teams do in the states. Of course after all this, a few of the Italians got into a fight on the field. Yeah, Italia!!

All in all, it was a great day and a lot of fun!

Namesake Restaurant (Melissa)

2009-05-01T11:59:00.002+02:00

After Joe and I found our house in Italy, we realized there was a sign for “Il Casale Ristorante” pointing to our street. Obviously we found this amusing; to get to our house, just follow the “Il Casale” sign. Eventually our curiosity got the best of us and we decided to venture out and find this restaurant that was located on our street (sounds pretty simple to find a restaurant on the street you live on, but you don’t live here so you’ll just have to TRUST ME when I tell you that it was an adventure to locate this place). We find the restaurant tucked away a mile up the road, but we are not dressed for dinner and the place is busy so we don’t go in.

Soon enough we start hearing from other people that Il Casale is their favorite restaurant in Naples. People gush about how much they love it there. We decide we must go. The neighbors tell me that I have to make the reservation (duh). I find the number and call…I immediately ask if they speak English because I’ve never actually made reservations speaking Italian and I don’t know how well that will go. No luck, they say they don’t speak English.

So here’s how it all goes down (feel free to read with an Italian accent since the rest of this story actually occurred in Italian). I do my best to tell them I want to make a reservation. They must understand because they ask me something that sounds like a request for a date or time or something. Great! I tell them what day, and then what time. They were clearly asking for how many people because they then ask me WHEN I want to come in. Oops. Luckily the time and number of people are the same word, so it all works out. I now have a reservation for 8 people at 8:00 on next Tuesday. Whew!

Then they ask me for my name… I say “Casale, Melissa Casale”. There is a pause, and then they say a bunch of Italian words…I think informing me that they know that I want a reservation at Il Casale, I just called Il Casale, so what is the name for the reservation? Again, I say “Casale. (speaking slowly with emphasis) MY NAME IS Melissa Casale”.

Bingo! They get it. They immediately sound joyful and excited. I get a bunch of thank you’s and they confirm my complete reservation and then I hear “Grazie, ciao Signora Casale. -kissing noises- Ciao, ciao! -more kissing noises-“. Hmm. I’ve never had kissing noises before. I hope we get a good table.

So we’ll bring the camera (and maybe the family tree) and follow up after dinner next week. Ciao! –kiss-- --kiss—

The follow-up:

Allora, as you have already reviewed in Joe's comments the Casale name had no tie to the restaurant name...but we did still get a major discount off the bill and the food was great. Overall, I would say it was a success.

Amalfi Coast Photo Montage (Melissa)

2009-04-16T08:03:00.007+02:00

Last weekend we drove from Naples down to Sorrento, and then along the Amalfi Coast. We stayed at a B&B in Ravello, which reminded me of the movie The Sound of Music for some reason, maybe because they have a huge music festival there in the summer. Overall, absolutely loved it, completely breathtaking, and these photos simply CANNOT do it justice!

Coffee on the patio of our B&B

The piazza in Ravello

Exploring Atrani

Villa Cimbrone with our neighbors and their kids

We only stayed Friday and Saturday night, leaving early on Sunday. Who knew such perfect paradise could be just a little over an hour from the house? Next time we'll hike The Path of The Gods. Based on what we've seen so far, I'm guessing there's a good reason for the name. Stay tuned!

Is it Thanksgiving? (Melissa)

2009-04-02T08:41:00.002+02:00

I cannot believe the Italian meal. I’ve been completely puzzled by it. Almost every time we go into a restaurant, they attempt to provide us with as much food (if not more) than Thanksgiving Dinner. And I’m not exaggerating.

From my experience so far, restaurants typically do not offer a menu. And from watching Italians, they typically do not use a menu. It seems like everyone just knows what they want, asks for it, and the restaurant provides something along those lines. So, since there is no menu, the way has been working is the waiter comes over and gets a drink order and ask if you want antipasti. Sometimes there is a choice of antipasti, sometimes not. So not knowing what to expect, you say “yes” to the antipasti…and then the parade of food begins.

One by one (or sometimes on a separate rolling cart brought over and left beside the table) they bring out 7, 8, 9 plates with various snacks on them. The food is delicious and they are only small portions, so of course you are going to eat it all. But after a half-dozen little snacks, one tends to start feeling full. But this is only the beginning.

After you polish off all the antipasti, the waiter appears again and now asks what primi piatti you would like. Well, you are kind of full, but the pastas they are offering sound wonderful (even though you are still wondering if you are ever going to see a menu during this meal) so you decide to try a primi piatti. They bring you the most delicious pasta you have ever eaten and surely you assume the meal is over.

But no, the waiter is back asking what your choice is for the secondo piatto. You are confused and looking around to see what other diners in the restaurant are doing. Not sure what else to do, you take the secondo piatto. Of course it is also the most delicious thing you have ever eaten (meat/fish/whatever). They ask if you want any contorni (side dishes) – luckily you say no and give a sigh of relief that you can now roll yourself out of the restaurant.

Not so fast – there is still dessert, caffe, fruit plate, cheese plate, digestivo. It goes on for about 12 rounds of fun. And the food is all heavenly, but you are so stuffed that you feel sick. So how on earth do the Italians have Thanksgiving dinner every single night?

Fortunately, I met Pierpaolo and had the good sense to ask him about this, because I was getting concerned about my waistline. Naturally he laughs and tells me “no one eats every course of the meal (unless maybe you are at a special event and plan on having a huge meal), you just pick and choose the ones you want”. Thank God! Now I know.

Commentary on Joe’s Blogs (Melissa)

2009-04-02T08:37:00.003+02:00

Since I’ve been such a slacker and have not contributed to this blog until now, I have read through Joe’s postings and here is my input:

Being named Casale – Just two things to add here.
1. Every time I have written my name, there has been an Italian that has excitedly asked me if the name/my husband/the family is ITALIANO (picture me saying that word in a strong, heavy accent with big hand gestures). We then have a fantastic discussion about where Joe’s great-grandparents are from…and then wonderful things happen. The person asking me about my name is now my friend. They will buy me coffee or take me next in line, offer something better than what I currently have in some way, shape or form. And they are so happy to do it, all because my name is Casale.
2. Also, one note on the Casal d’Principa area that is off limits – there was also a story about how one or two Navy people that were renting homes in that area had their doors busted in during the middle of the night by the police. The reason had something to do with the “landlord”. It was shortly after that when the housing area relocated those military families to homes outside of the Casal d’Principa area - homes that had landlords outside of the Casale family.

Destroying my Knee Snowboarding – The most amazing part of this entire “torn knee” experience was taking a trip to the Italian hospital. I have heard some wonderful stories about socialized medicine – and I now think those people that told me those wonderful stories are CRAZY. Joe’s ambulance ride – seriously? No medical attention, just a “ride” in the back of a truck on a gurney that wasn’t even strapped down. So he was rolling around creating more trauma to his knee, which wasn’t even looked at. Not that when he got to the hospital it was looked at, not until he was there hanging out for hours. And don’t even think about picturing our bright, cheery, aseptic hospitals. Move your mind to a darker place, with dimly lit bulbs hanging from the ceiling, walls that have not been painted in 10 years, buckets of open bio-hazardous waste laying around with blood dripping out of them onto the floor (no, not kidding, not exaggerating). The “hospital” was awful and scary. So, um, yeah, I’m gonna to vote “NO” on socialized medicine.

Getting Caught Up! (Melissa)

2009-04-02T08:28:00.005+02:00

Getting Caught Up!
Wow! I have been GROSSLY NEGLIGENT in maintaining this blog. We have been here for 3 months now and although I had managed to find the time to set-up this blog within the first two weeks, I obviously haven’t touched it since! At least Joe has been keeping everyone up to date and entertained. So, I’m going to quickly get caught up with an abbreviated version of the past 3 months, and will then be able to stay a bit more current as things progress.

FLYING INTO NAPLES
Flying into Naples on the morning of December 30th was a quick reality check. I had been told that Naples is the most densely populated city in Europe but I didn’t actually think that was true. I would no longer question that information. The city is ENORMOUS! From the airplane you get a view of buildings as far as you can see. The buildings spill out from the city center and spread out everywhere, all on top of each other, each one a different color. If you get a chance to fly into Naples, make sure you get a window seat!

Of course we really didn’t know what to expect once we landed, but lots of people have told us that Italy is “law-less” in the sense that they do have laws but nobody follows them. I thought of this as we walked into and out of the airport without any customs inspection at all. Nothing. No one questioned our visit, no one looked at our bags. We just wandered through. And it seems that most things here follow that same sort of careless attitude. It’s not necessarily bad, just different.

NEW YEARS EVE
New Years Eve was quite a site – apparently Italians LOVE fireworks. Who knew?! I certainly do now. We were very jet-lagged and pretty beat up from our travels so we didn’t stay up to ring in the New Year. I think we went to bed around 11:00ish but the deafening noise from the millions of fireworks woke us up. I was so tired I didn’t want to get out of bed, but after over 30 minutes had gone by and the noise was still going strong, I just had to get up and look out the window. The entire sky was filled with sparks and smoke. If all of the fireworks I have ever seen in my entire life were put together and shot off at one time, that still wouldn’t compare to what I was looking at outside my window. And the fireworks went on for about an hour. It was ridiculous. I’ll be prepared for next year.

JANUARY – ORIENTATION & REHAB
We spent our first month on the military base (which I call “Little America”). We did not like being there since we were very isolated from all the fantastic treasures Italy has to offer (eating at Applebee’s instead of una trattoria – yuk!). We spent the first few weeks in orientation, learning our way around and house hunting. Immediately after orientation Joe tore up his knee and then we started the medical rehab phase of this adventure. Fortunately he has not needed surgery and is doing fine.

FEBRUARY – MOVING & INSTALLING UTILITIES
This was a major pain – absolutely unbelievable. It amazes me that Italians just accept the fact that things will take weeks to get done and things will just randomly stop working with no explanation. It was a big and important lesson to learn up front. I also started Italian language immersion classes in February - that is going to have to be a separate blog.

MARCH – PICKING UP THE DOG & FINALLY GETTING SETTLED
That about sums it up. The dog is finally adjusted and happy – back to her normal spoiled self. I finished school and have been finding lots of random things to occupy my time – again those items will have to be a separate blog. And we are loving Italy and ready for visitors – so come visit!

Driving in Italy

2009-03-25T21:52:00.002+01:00

Driving in Italy

It’s about 4PM and I’m back on the entrance ramp to the Tange. It’s a typical entrance ramp that you would see in the US, except that traffic is getting heavy, and I am only moving about 15 mph onto the highway. The difference is that I am the center car three abreast as we enter traffic. I’m almost rubbing rear view mirrors with the cars on either side, and I’m thinking to myself, I really enjoy driving in Italy.

Driving in Italy is very different than it is back in the states. It is very selfish… driving is all about me. That’s right, there is no concept of courtesy toward other drivers. I mention that I am getting back on the highway, well that is because I already got on once, at one of the scariest entrance ramps that I have ever seen. The entrance ramp that I use to enter the Tangenziale every day coming home from work is only about 20 meters long, is on a blind bend to the right, and abruptly ends in a stone wall. So, after I enter the highway, pass under the overpass that is the reason for the stone wall, if traffic is heavy, I will get back off the highway, pass through the gas station on/off ramp and parking lot, and then back onto the highway (on the ramp where I was three abreast.) Now in the US, that is certainly illegal. It is probably also illegal in Italy, but it isn’t enforced.

For that matter, very few of the traffic laws are enforced in Italy. Unless of course, you get into an accident, then the Caribanarie will start writing tickets. But until you crash you don’t have anything to worry about.

Here are some of my highlights thus far while driving in Italy. Of course, like New Jersey, the Italians love the traffic circle. The key to the traffic circle is to not stop. Sometimes you are forced, but momentum through the traffic circle is your friend. Don’t worry if the car entering the circle has the right of way, all you have to do is get the front third of your car out front, and you are good to go. People expect you to cut them off, so they are always prepared to stop. Also, say traffic is light on the circle, and you want to proceed ¾ of the way around…. If you think that you can make it to the left by cutting across the circle in the wrong direction… go for it.

That takes me to my next topic, the lines on the road. They are mere suggestions. You can drive on either side of the road, you can pass across double yellow lines, you can drive the wrong way down a one-way street. And, if you are riding a scooter, then you can basically do anything that you think won’t result in death or dismemberment. Here’s an example. I’m sitting at a light on a 4-lane (two lanes in each direction) road with a jersey barrier down the middle. There are 4 cars abreast waiting for the light and some scooters in the gaps. I’m the 3rd car in line, against the jersey barrier, in the left lane. The light turn green and the two cars in front go left, the guy infront of me turns left, and then me and the guy to my right also turn left. So now we have 5 cars barreling up a two lane road with oncoming traffic. The guy that was directly infront of me wants to pass everyone, so he accelerates and we end up with 3 cars abreast ahead of me (on the two lane road), and then me with a guy to my right, and it all just gets sorted out.

You can really do whatever you want. Red lights are optional. Seriously, sometimes they just shut them off because no one uses the red light anyway. Personally, at some intersections I don’t even look at what color the light is, I just look to make sure I’m not going to get hit by a cement mixer as I cross traffic.

Really the only law that is enforced are the automatic traffic cameras that control speed on the highway, those send you tickets automatically, so you can’t really speed on the highway.

I’ll keep you posted. I have already hit my side mirror on two occasions, once into a ceramic drain pipe, and the second time into a parked car. I may just start driving around with my mirrors folded in. You really need to see it to believe it, so I suggest that you all come out for a visit, and we’ll go for a drive.

Until next time…. Ciao. Joe

February 2009

2009-03-09T21:12:00.002+01:00

February 2009

9 March 2009

Keeping the blog updated lately has been a challenge. Since we moved into our house in beautiful Pozzuoli, our Internet connection has been spotty at best. This blog entry will be more like a journal entry just to let you know what we have been doing over the last month. Again I apologize for not updating the blog sooner.

Internet in Italy – Everything is done slowly in Italy. We moved into our place on Feb 2nd, and didn’t get anyone over to the house to hook up Internet service until Feb 13th. That is considered pretty good. Some friends have told us that they waited up to a month for an appointment to get Internet, and even some have had the technicians show up and tell them that they can’t get service. Excuses include, “There are too many customers in the connection box on the street, you have to wait until someone cancels their service.” You can bet that the landlord didn’t mention that. So, after the techs left on the 13th, the internet works for maybe 2 days and goes out. And it takes four more days of troubleshooting over the phone to get it working. Italy doesn’t have customer service personnel that speak any language besides Italian, so while my Italian is good enough to order food, shop, or find the bathroom, it is not yet sufficient to trouble shoot a spotty Internet signal over the phone. So, no, Italy is not like America where you call and you can press 1 for English, 2 for Spanish, 3 for Japanese, 4 for Italian…. etc, nope, you get only Italian.

So, that takes us all the way to around Feb 20th, after my Italian realtor hooks us up with some customer service assistance, to when we finally have internet working again. That lasts for exactly 6 days, and I should have gotten a blog entry (with photos) posted in that time about Italian Markets. In fact, if you have my facebook address, you can look at my photos and comments from the market, but I never had time to publish a similar story on the blog page, BECAUSE THE INTERNET STOPPED WORKING AGAIN. I don’t know why. So another six days of troubleshooting over the phone and finally it is working again, we think, we’re not sure for how long. So, we are back online, who cares, right?… you guys want to know what we are doing in Italy.

February was a pretty fun month. We moved into our place and have really been enjoying it. We have a very nice Italian villa in a great little town called Pozzuoli, which is right next to Naples. It takes me about 20 minutes to get to work from Pozzuoli. The Villa is very nice, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bath, with an office, living room, kitchen, fireplace, and a very big basement/garage. It also has a great yard for Clare to play in. The yard has 6 fruit trees, we know one is lemon and one is an orange tree, we’ll find out about the rest in the fall. It is also very secure, located in a gated community (called a Parco) off the main street, but situated in such a way that you can’t even see any of the homes from the street. So, we spent about a week settling into the house, and took our first trip (since the skiing incident) out of the Naples area.

For my birthday (Feb 7th), Melissa took us out to the Island of Ishica for the weekend. Ishica is a small resort island located to the south of the bay of Pozzuoli. It took about an hour and a half on the ferry to get out there. Ishica is mostly a summer tourist resort, but it also boasts resorts with thermal spas and naturally heated pools. If you didn’t know, the whole Naples area is located next to the very active volcano Vesuvius and the areas surrounding the area are still very volcanically active. Pozzuoli is located over a very thin crust of the earth’s surface over a large magma bubble. There is a thermal vent on the other side of town called sulfatara that is a vent for the volcano, and as you can imagine by the name, it stinks of rotten eggs. I haven’t been there yet, I’ll save that for when we have guests in the area. We can’t smell it from our house… most of the time. Ishica is over the same magma bubble, and the thermally heated pools were very nice. Overall the island is cute, and Melissa and I will plan to go back there in the summer.

The following week, I was finally able to finish up my last portion of the check in process for the Navy here in Naples. It was the staff action officer course, and it completed a full three weeks of checking into a command here at Naples. The process included a week of Area Orientation, followed by a week of Inter-Cultural Relations, and cumulated with the Staff Action Officer course. Also that week, we lost water for 2 days in Pozzuoli due to what I think was a water main break. Not to fear, we have a 600-gallon emergency tank in the basement… yea, that was empty. So, I filled it up once the water came back on, and we should be OK next time. Yet another Italian lesson learned.

Melissa has been taking an intensive Italian course in downtown Naples every day. So, for the last 4 weeks she goes to school at “Centro Italiano” and spends 4 hours of intensive immersion Italian training. She is getting pretty good. She is also now a master of public transportation in Naples, as she takes the trains and busses from our house to down town every day for class, while I go to work. I think that she is starting to look Italian. We spent the last three weekends in Naples enjoying the area. We’ve done some great dinners either in local restaurants, or with friends. Melissa took an Italian cooking class one weekend, I played in a poker tournament… it’s been pretty good.

This weekend Melissa and I are in Rome. As a matter of fact, I am sitting in our very small hotel room in Rome writing this blog right now. Rome is very nice, and pretty amazing. As you turn any corner there are different ruins. Buildings that are only 500 years old look new next to the Parthenon (which is over 2000 years old.) This is truly the beginning of civilization. My favorite site so far has been the Trevi fountain. It is an amazing piece of architecture, with “the Ocean” central figure, riding a chariot.

That’s all for now, I promise more stories soon, pictures from my trip to the market, and the stories about how everyone’s brother has a pizza place in NJ, and all about the food.

Ciao until next time,
Joe

How many Italians does it take to change a lightbulb?

2009-01-28T18:13:00.002+01:00

Today was nice, Vesuvius had snow on the top of the crater, and the temperature in Naples was 63 degrees. Naples really is beautiful... just don't look at the ground.

But that's not what this entry is about. We have been living in a hotel room for 1 month now. 3 of 7 lights are out in the bathroom and apparently the maids aren't proactive enough to get them fixed. So I called the front desk yesterday and tell them 2 of 5 vanity lights are out, and 1 of 2 overhead lights are out. "OK, we will leave a note for maintenance."

Maintenance puts in a call to Public Works. Public Works writes a work order and sends that to the contractor who changes light bulbs in the Navy Lodge. And today, when we got home from the hospital and the housing office, 2 of the 3 lights were fixed.

By my count that is a minimum of at least 4 Italians to change 2 lights bulbs, or complete 66.6% of the work order. WHO WANTS A GOVERNMENT JOB?

Ciao,
Joe

Destroying my knee snowboarding

2009-01-23T11:53:00.000+01:00

22 January 2009
By: Joe Casale

Sometimes life throws you a curve ball.

I destroyed my knee this weekend snowboarding. We went to Roccaraso (in Italy) for our first snowboarding trip in Europe. And on my second run, I hit a tree pretty hard. I was along the right side of the trail weaving in and out of the trees, looking for good powder between the moguls and the edge of the trail, and I hit a patch of crusty snow as I was transitioning from toe side to heal side (i.e., I was turning to the left). The board slipped out from under me, and I slammed the left side of my left leg knee into a tree. My last thought before I hit the tree was, "I'm going to break my leg."

My left leg below the knee bent about 20 deg to the left and the kneecap rolled to the right. So, I screamed and looked at my now bent to the side leg. It looked really bad, so I immediately pushed the left calf with my left hand, and on the "side" of my knee with my right hand and everything popped back into place. It hurt like a bitch.

People on the lift saw and called ski patrol, and I was able to take off my board and start to slide down the rest of the hill on my butt. Ski patrol launched a helo to come find me, and when I got to the bottom ski patrol was waiting for me. I got a ride back to the main lodge on the back of a snowmobile where Melissa was waiting for me.

So, I injured myself at about 10AM, these are the events that took place as best as I can remember. The Italian ski patrol was a trip, none of them spoke any English and they wore police uniforms, they were supposed to be EMT trained also, but as far as I could tell not a single one of them knew anything about first aid. The medical clinic was closed and unmanned and I waited there without treatment for an Italian ambulance to take me to the local hospital. I had to prompt the ski patrol to give me a bag of ice. Melissa seemed to be the person with the most first aid training in the area. Since no treatment was available at the mountain, and I thought that my leg might be broken we thought the best plan was to let the Italians take me to the hospital. Melissa stayed at the mountain to inform the people that we were on the trip with and, get our gear back on the bus, and because they wouldn't take her in the ambulance. I wasn’t sure why they wouldn’t take Melissa on the ambulance, but as we were heading to the hospital we had to pick up someone else with a broken arm.

The ambulance was a meat wagon, I’m not sure that the EMT’s in the ambulance had any training, and they were just there to pick up bodies. They didn’t even strap me to the gurney or take off my snowboarding boot. I just lay there, unsecured, as the ambulance bounced down the road and my knee flexed up and down between by butt and the top of my boot. Once I was at the hospital I laid on a gurney in the hallway entrance of the ER for about 2 hours before anyone spoke to me. I was the only person there that spoke any English, my Italian is bad, and I was by myself with no cell phone. Melissa was the only person that knew that I went to the hospital and then had to figure out how to get me back, and eventually back to the base in Naples.

So after 2 hours a real Italian doc saw me, poked at my knee and ordered some x-rays. After they wheeled me to the dimly lit X-Ray room, they wheeled me into a waiting room with an old woman that was clearly about to die. About a half hour after this, Melissa finally showed up with an American dude that was also stationed at the base, but drove up there in his own car, and they drove us back to the Navy Base.

While I was in the hospital, Melissa was able to contact the MWR (Moral Welfare and Recreation) people that put the trip together, the quarterdeck, the hospital, and got the emergency number to the Battle Watch, but no one was really able to help her out. She also spoke to the medical liaison, who is supposed to translate Italian to English if you end up in an Italian hospital, but she wasn’t very helpful. The bottom line from all of these people was that we would have to find our own way back to Naples. The medical liaison suggested that we take a cab back to the base. But, we did finally manage to make it back.

So, now I'm in a full immbolizer and I am unable to put any weight on the left leg at all. The doctors and have done x-rays and a CT and the leg is not broken, but I don't have an MRI and my appointment with Ortho scheduled until next week. The ER doc that did the exam on my knee says that the problem appears to be with my MCL (on the interior of my knee). I'm concerned that the MCL or several tendons are torn (based on how far my leg bent around that tree). But I also hear stories about how some people have this injury and they are able to recover quickly because the tendons aren’t even completely torn. I’m hoping for the best.

So, it looks like I am done snowboarding for the season.

A note on skiing in Italy: The mountain was only about 2 hours away and looked like a great ski resort with lots of varied terrain, and what appears to be the potential to have good snow conditions. I’m looking forward to getting back on the slopes next year.

Until next time.
Ciao,
Joe

Being named “Casale” in Italy

2009-01-18T16:11:00.000+01:00

18 January 2009
by Joe Casale

Being named “Casale” in Italy is interesting. First of all, Casale in Italy is about as common as “Smith” or “Jones” in the United States. There are towns over here named Casale, if you open the phone book there is an entire page of Casales… but that’s not the best part. The best part is I can tell an Italian that my name is Casale and they spell it right the first time every time. And, they never, ever try to use the letter “K” to write my name.

It seems that whenever an Italian finds out that my name is Casale, they want to talk about if I have family in Italy, which, I do, but haven’t met yet. The old Italian family is located in the town of Santi Cosma and Damiano, which is between Roma and Napoli and is very close to Gaeta. Probably no further than 10 km inland from Gaeta. Our inter-cultural relations instructor Guiseppie was fascinated by our quest to go visit my distant relatives. He gave us a map and directions to go find the town. Whenever he had a chance during class or during our excursions out in town he pulled me aside to talk about the best way to track down the old Casale family. Melissa and I haven’t made the effort yet, but I assure you that we will, and we will keep all of you, and Guiseppie posted.

Finally, I don’t know if you heard, but…. The Mafia is from Italy. No kidding, I thought that HBO just made that up. Apparently the largest Mafia family in the Naples area is named Casale. Great, so I got that going for me…. The Casale Mafia is so large that there is a town outside Naples called Casal d’ Principa that is off limits to the military to rent in the area. Now, the official position on this is that the soil is polluted and the water is poisonous in the area, but I have heard speculation that because that area is Mafia run, the Navy doesn’t want sailors living out in that area. It is all very shady. And while we were house hunting we went by the residence that HBO rented in Monte di Procodia to film the episodes of the Sopranos in Italy. Now, I’m not sure if any of the above information is actually true, or it is just speculation by the Italians that I have spoken with… but I can say that it is all very interesting.

So, that’s all I have for on that topic. Melissa and I are taking our first snowboarding trip in Italy tomorrow and we will let you know how it is. Yesterday we took a tour of a vineyard at the foothills of Mt. Vesuvius. The food, wine, and views were amazing. We look forward to taking any of our visitors on a wine tour.

Until next time. Ciao. Joe

"How's Italy"

2009-01-16T14:56:00.000+01:00

Posted by Joe Casale:
15 January 2009

Hello everyone, this is Joe, and this is my first entry on all of our experiences so far. Melissa and I have been very busy the last couple of weeks, and have had a lot of great and some not so great experiences in Italy. We want to be able to share those experiences with our family and friends so this is a brief synopsis of what we have done so far.

We left NYC, from JFK, on Dec 29th 2008. We almost didn’t make it to the airport because of traffic on the Van Wyck Expressway. Fortunately, I was able to “ride the wake” of one of the emergency vehicles for about a mile and we just made it to the airport on time. Now, I’m not sure who is familiar with riding in the wake of an emergency vehicle, and I think that in the US it is probably against the law, but I assure you in Naples, it is something you will see when almost any emergency vehicle goes by. Unless they are the Carabinieri, who are half police force, half military Special Forces…. but more on them later.

So, we made it to the airport, flew over night into Milan, and then down to Naples. Our sponsor picked us up at the airport and we were set up in the Navy Lodge. I can’t remember much after that because I think we slept for about two days.

A quick note for those of you that are considering visiting Italy, this is not the time of year to do it. Of the 17 days we have been here so far it has probably rained 12. The temperature has been mild, in the mid-40’s to the 60’s, but the weather is definitely not good enough to fly to visit this time of year. We hear the spring and fall are the best times. Apparently August is also bad… because it is too hot, and everyone in Italy is on vacation in August.

The Navy has a fairly robust program to help get you settled in Naples; ours started on Friday Jan 2nd and lasted 4 working days. The indoctrination program gets you started in the housing process, checked-in to the command, talks about emergencies, safety, and driving, and even gives you a short course so that you can take your Italian drivers test. Melissa and I both passed, so we are safe for the very unsafe Italy roads.

Over that first weekend we visited both Sorrento and Pompeii. Italy has some pretty amazing places that you all should come and visit. Our sponsor, the fantastic Aimee Smith, drove us down to Sorrento, along the winding coast road. Sorrento is a beautiful city by the sea. I ate some of the best olives that I have ever had, and then we ate Gelato, which was fantastic.

Saturday we went to Pompeii, an amazing archeological site, and unfortunately walked around in the rain. The civilization that the Romans had in 79 AD when Vesuveus erupted was amazing. And the city was perfectly preserved by this eruption. You get a clear view into a day in the life of this Roman town.

We finished up our “Area Orientation” class last week, and really got into looking for a place to live in Italy. We spent all of last weekend driving around the Naples area with a bunch of different realtors and finally settled on a beautiful villa in the town of Pozzuoli. It’s right on the coast, fairly close to my work, near Carney Park (more on that later also), and just a short walk from a very cute down town area.

Now we are in the middle of the ICR course (Inter-Cultural Relations). This class is a way for the Navy to get us out in town, experiencing the culture, learning how to use public transportation, and learning the language. We’ll be able to give any of our visitors a great tour of Naples from this course.

More to follow soon, I also want to write about the following topics and experiences:
Being named “Casale” in Italy
Everyone’s cousin has a pizza place in New Jersey
The food doesn’t suck in Italy

I’ll write more on those topics soon, but I wanted to get this out so that you can get a feel for “How Italy is” so that I can stop answering the question, “How is Italy?”

Getting Started

2009-01-07T11:37:00.000+01:00

Wednesday January 7, 2009

We have officially started our second week in Italy, although it feels like we are starting our second month with all the information we have been processing and learning.

Today is the last day of Area Orientation and the rest of the week will be dedicated to house hunting! However, next week will be spent in cultural classes...then back to house hunting! And of course the following week is when work will start for Joe.

More to come...