Lake Barcis, Italy - Week 3

Samantha took us to this AMAZING lake for a picnic lunch!

The whole way there we played a game in the car, so the trip was actually pretty quick. I liked going through the tunnels. I tried to hold my breath, but... the mountain tunnels are several kilometers long, so...

I gave up! :)

Barcis derives from "barcia", boat, or from the provencal "bacis", that can be translated as "river basin", for its shape. It was built in the place of the ancient Cellis, destroyed by a landslide in 1314 and reconstructed along the Cellina river. It was again destroyed by a fire in 1606, and it was set afire in 1944, during The II World War. In 1904 the dam for the electric power production was constructed, together with a panoramic road that connected it to Montereale Valcellina, a road that was recently proclaimed a natural monument. (info found here)

I really loved the view!

Stephen and Anaia were checking out all of the fishes!

We walked around the lake to a little grassy spot on a point that went out farther into the lake.

Our Picnic!

Isn't this view just breathe taking??

After we ate Alyssa and Anaia ran around to get some of their energy out!

Fishes

The water is sooo blue/green.

This is a home that was on the side of the mountain. We all talked about what it would be like to live there.

After lunch we checked out a little store and then we went to the local Gelatoria!

This was the walk to get to the GELATO!! Going up the steps I was distracted by the promise of Sweet Gelato, but when it was time to go back down I had to get a picture of the beautiful steps! LOL

Slovenia

While we were at Samantha and Anaia's we decided to go on a "day trip". Samantha is very adventurous! I love it! She doesn't even own a GPS!! Wow!

We all jumped in the car and decided to drive to Slovenia! Now for those of you who don't know where that is. That is a country next to Italy.

My favorite part about the whole trip was NOT Slovenia, it was the Italian Countryside! I LOVED seeing the mountain ranges, fields of grapes, all of the little towns we passed through, etc.

Here are some pictures that I took of an Italian graveyard...

On the way to Slovenia we stopped at a Pizzeria..

I loved just seeing "true" Italy. These were definately NOT tourist areas that we went through.

 The Italians struggle to put up good road signs so we did get turned around (in all of the round-abouts) a few times, but we made it!

Here are me and the kids at the border of Slovenia.

Sam promised John that she would wait for him to get back so they could explore the Slovenia together, so me and the kids walked across the border. We looked around, took some pictures, bought a souvenier, and walked back into Italy.

I know the border of a country doesn't give you a true impression, but lets just say they were advertising their "wares" right away! All we saw were run down stores, casino's, and massage parlors. Ugh! We didn't stick around too long. When we were heading back into Italy, Samantha had to go into the country just a little bit in order to turn back around. The countryside was very beautiful, although the homes looked very run down. I hear that Slovenia is a very poor country.

It was a GREAT day! I loved all of the sightseeing!

Thanks Sam for being a GREAT tour guide!

Aviano, Maniago, and the HEATON's- Week 3

Me and the kids REALLY enjoyed our time with Samantha and Anaia. I couldn't wait to go see them. Sam told me that she was finishing up her schooling, so we waited until she was done with classes and then the kids and I took the train to AVIANO!!

Here we are...

Sam and Anaia actually live a few minutes outside of Aviano in a little town called Maniago. We arrived on a Sunday night and on Monday morning they town has an awesome market.

 We were able to walk down to the market and I was blown away at how many booths there were! I really enjoyed looking at all of the little booths.

Alyssa was determined to buy a scarf there and that made me catch the fever.

While we were shopping Stephen put in his order... GELATO Please!

It sure is yummy! Nothing like any "ice cream" we have in the USA!

My favorite parts of the day were looking at all of the cute little animals

and of course haggling with the Italians. I sure know how to tick people off! Its good to know I can break all language barriers and tick off Americans and Italians alike! LOL

This is me trying on clothes over my clothes. Alyssa thought it was funny and had to take a picture!

Anaia didn't want her picture taken, but Samantha and I wanted some long awaited pictures of the "cousins"!