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
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009
February 2009
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
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
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
How many Italians does it take to change a lightbulb?
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
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
Friday, January 23, 2009
Destroying my knee snowboarding
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
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
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Being named “Casale” in Italy
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
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
Friday, January 16, 2009
"How's Italy"
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.
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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?”
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.
.jpg)
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?”
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Getting Started
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...
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...
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