Ciao, Bello! Relaxing in Cinque Terre, Italy

"Ciao, Bello!" seemed to be a pretty standard greeting everywhere we went during our recent vacation in Italy. The enthusiasm and emotion expressed by the Italian language seems to be a stark contrast to the harsher sounds of multiple consonants that are common in Czech. We obviously love our adopted home in the Czech Republic, but our trip to Italy was a welcome vacay as our time in Europe comes to a close in just a few weeks.

Our brother-in-law, Steve, came to see us for a Prague-Italy vacation and a little R and R. Since we live about 3 miles away from each other in Charlottesville, it was extremely special to have him in Prague to see our life. It also seemed fitting to host him as the last visitor of our year abroad. The weather in Prague was uncooperative and rainy, but just being together was the most important part. We love you, brother, and we're so happy you were here.

After a few days in Prague, we flew to Milan, rented a car, and drove to Cinque Terre. Phil was an excellent driver and negotiated the roads expertly and avoided the occasionally insane truck drivers gracefully. Cinque Terre is located about an hour east of Genova on the coast (the upper western coast of the "boot"). It is a national park on the Ligurian Sea that encompasses five towns. There are no cars allowed inside the park, but the towns are connected by hiking trails along the mountainous coast. The landscape and scenery were nothing short of spectacular. It reminded me a little bit of Maui, Hawaii because of the green slopes descending to the deep blue water. The coast is very rocky, so the few beaches that are accessible are gorgeous, but rocky instead of sandy.

We stayed in the largest and westernmost town, Monterosso. It was a great "home base" for the three of us because although it was more "touristy" than the other towns, it also had the widest range of restaurants and beach access. One of the highlights of our Monterosso experience were the proprietors of our hotel. Though the accommodations were good, the sweet family that ran the hotel was spectacular. I don't think the grandmotherly hostess/owner ever left the premises for the five days we were there. One night, we came back after dinner and she grabbed Steve's arm and said "Pour a drink for my friend. Limoncino for them!" Now that's service;) Thanks, "Mrs. Bucci"!

The five towns date as far back as the 14th century, and are built into the rocky coast. The towns are fairly "vertical" with candy-colored houses built into the land. Each town had its own personality, so it was fun to visit each one. To get to each town, you can hike or take a train or ferry. Since we were there during the last week of May, Cinque Terre was crowded, but still not unbearably touristy. You could tell that we were hitting the beginning of high season. But as you can see from the photos, Cinque Terre is too beautiful to be missed! I completely understand why everyone I know who has visited this part of Italy raves about it!

Monterosso: the largest town with the most beach access

Vernazza: the "coolest" town with a fantastic central harbor, great restaurants on Piazza Marconi and killer people watching!


Corniglia: the only town perched above the water instead of on the water, simply stunning
Manarola: the quietest and least touristy of the towns

Riomaggiore: the easternmost town where we heard the most Italian being spoken

We hiked three of the five days we were in Cinque Terre. Two of the hikes (Monterosso to Vernazza and Vernazza to Corniglia) were pretty serious: lots of elevation change, rocky footing, narrow trails. The last two were more like walks (Corniglia to Manarola and Manarola to Riomaggiore). But the views from all four were spectacular. Ironically, I found myself enjoying every minute of even the strenuous hikes. Why you might ask? Well, there was never a lack of amusement from the German tourists and their hiking poles, the silly college students hiking in flip-flops and tube tops (what were they thinking?), and from the funny guy who saw the first steep incline and hollered at the top of his lungs "Oh, *$%^!" Good stuff. Phil, Steve, and I make each other laugh a lot (or maybe I just think Steve and Phil are really funny!) Whatever the reason, I truly loved the hikes, not just for the scenery, but for the company.


Other highlights of the trip include:

Relaxing on the rocks in Vernazza - calming and beautiful to listen to the water on the coast and also enjoy the people watching in the harbor
The rocky coast - you just don't see blue water and rocky coastlines like this everyday

The Lemon Festival - Monterosso is famous for its lemons and we happened to be staying in town the weekend of the annual festival. It was no North Carolina State Fair, but we did sample the Limoncino (lemon-flavored liqueur), and I enjoyed the local specialty, anchovies... (Note: under no circumstances should you try another local drink, Cinqe Terre Grappa. Steve and I tried it, and he declared it the second worst drink he had ever consumed (after a cheap Chinese liquor whose name he blessedly forgot). Stick with white wine or Limoncino, for your own sake)



Il Gigante - The public beach we enjoyed had a large statue of "Il Gigante" built into the rocks. Apparently, it is Neptune, the God of the sea. I loved it, and appreciated spending beach time near the Giant!
This trip will have a special place in our memory for a long time to come. Molto Bene!

Take Me Home Country Roads...to Moravia

Moravia, the southern region of the Czech Republic, was our most recent trip in our adopted country. We were extremely lucky to have the chance to see it with friends who have been living there for the past year, the Rockwells. Heidi is a fellow Fulbrighter, on a teacher exchange program. She is a high school English teacher in Chicago and swaped places with a Czech teacher for the year. Her husband, Mark, is a PhD student in philosophy, and their two children, Mariana (15) and Elise (7) have been in a small town in southern Czech Republic living a true cultural immersion experience. We are lucky to have gotten to know the Rockwells through our many Fulbright events and had an incredible few days visit with them exploring Moravia.

This region of the Czech Republic reminded us a little of our home in central Virginia: rolling hills, vast fields, gorgeous countryside. What was extremely different was the way the villages are spread out throughout the countryside. There isn't any American "sprawl", just separate villages that may have a few hundred people or a few thousand, but not much more. Right now, the countryside is in bloom with shockingly yellow fields of canola flowers (yes, for canola oil). So as we drove along from village to village, there views are yellow and green as far as the eye can see. Pretty impressive. This picture is from Mark and Heidi's balcony (they live on the 8th floor of a panalacky) in Moravske Budejovice, a town of about 8,000.

In addition to visiting the Rockwells, our goal for this trip was to see a set of paintings by Alfons Mucha. Mucha is a late 19th/early 20th century Czech painter, most famous for his colorful stylized paintings and posters of women. Late in his life, he took sixteen years to create 20 paintings encompassing the history of the Slavic people. These weren't just any paintings, but were gigantic canvases, a few of which measure 6 X 8 meters! If you look at the photos below, you can see Mark standing in front of one on the paintings. The photos shows how massive the paintings are. Phil was particularly excited about seeing these national treasures because his guy, Jan Hus, and the story of the Hussites are included in a few of the paintings. Mucha uses these paintings to tell the story of the Slavic people, extending from Russia to the Balkans and spanning time from the 9th century until the end of World War I. Below are a few of the paintings

The baffling part about seeing these paintings was their location: they are kept in Moravske Krumlov, a tiny town with not much else happening. Furthermore, the "castle" where the paintings are displayed is completely falling apart. So these national treasures are hidden away in a small town in a dilapidated building. I have no idea why these paintings aren't in the Mucha museum in Prague. At the very least, they should be housed somewhere where they might be better appreciated and visited. It just seemed strange to me.
One last perplexing note about this museum: we had to put on "booties" over our shoes when we walked in. Seriously? The building was in disrepair, yet we were supposed to wear slippers over our shoes...slightly incongruous if you ask me...





We also went to Znojmo (pronounced Znoy-Moe), a picturesque town situated on a river near the Austrian border. There are castle walls and a tower that date as far back as the 11th century. We had a gorgeous day for exploring, so we walked through town, stopped at a park so Elise (and Phil;) could play for awhile, walked up to the church (there is always a church to see) and took in the views.










Our next stop were some beautiful castle ruins along a river. You just don't find castle ruins along the side of the road in Virginia...We ended our day with a fantastic dinner at a restaurant that looked out over the ruins. What a day!


Our trip to Moravia was wonderful, from our hosts to the countryside. We felt like we got to see the more rural side of the Czech Republic, which is very different than urban life in Prague. We love those country roads...

What Have We Been Doing in May?

Time flies when you're having fun...This has been especially true of the last month! Spring officially arrived in early May and there has been no shortage of fun things to do in the warmer weather. Here are a few things we've enjoyed in the past few weeks:

A day of hiking outside Prague with Charlie and John - we hiked to two quarries named Velké and Malé Americka (Big and Small America). It was a fantastic day!

Watching the Prague Marathon - The race route went by our flat! I spent a few hours watching the race...it was very inspiring. Below is a photo I took of the man who actually won the race. It was incredible to watch him in person. I also took a short video around mile 8 of a group of teenagers playing the drums for the runners as they ran by. So fun!








Beer gardens - the Czechs really love the outdoor beer gardens. There is one in a park called Riegrovy Sady. Here we are one evening enjoying a Gambrinus. Since it doesn't get dark here until around 9 p.m. these days, it's particularly fun to hang out in the garden at the end of a long sunny day!
Knitting group - Obviously, this is something I've been enjoying, not Phil. My friend, Joanna, has a Stitch and Bitch group every other Saturday afternoon at her flat. It is a great time for me to knit and talk with interesting women. Her son, Sasha, often brightens my day by greeting me at the door with a, "Oh, Hi Danielle!" One afternoon, he ended up sitting in one of her knitting baskets and was so cute, I just had to take a picture!

The Falling Dollar

Since we've been in Prague, we have become members of a wonderful church community. Our tiny church, Faith Community, was started by a team of missionaries lead by our friends Phil and Shanna Davis. They came to Prague in 2005 from Charlotte, North Carolina. Recently, the Charlotte Observer did a story on the Davis family and other missionaries' economic situations, highlighting the falling (or should I say tanking) US dollar. It is in an interesting perspective on the effects of the weakened dollar on expats living abroad. Since we moved to Prague, the dollar has fallen from over 18 Czech korun to somewhere just above 15 (no, we're not on the Euro, yet). In 1998 and 1999 when Phil and I visited Prague, it was around 35 korun to the dollar. Yikes.

You should be able to read the story about the Davis family in the Charlotte Observer, but the link may have expired recently. Funny enough, the photos that ran with the story also included photos of Phil;) A group of guys from church were out at a local hospoda (pub) with our pastor, Phil; apparently, the photo of the two Phils made it onto the front page of the Business section of the newspaper!