2nd Week in Italy

Monday evening for Family Home Evening we carved little Jack-O-Lanterns out of oranges. I couldn’t find any big pumpkins at the grocery store for carving so we used oranges instead. The girls didn’t care they were just excited. We made fresh orange juice with the inside of the jack-orange-lanterns. Halloween in Italy is quite new and not everyone celebrates it. It is an imported American Holiday, so we had to be a little more creative.
Tuesday is market day here in Legnano so we went to check out the market. People set up stands and sell produce, clothing, household items, shoes etc. It was fun to walk around and look at everything and experience the culture. I guess every town in Italy has their market. After the market we went and walked around a huge park, Parco Castello, it had huge trees and a little pond with ducks, it’s a nice quiet retreat away from all the people.
Wednesday we celebrated our own Halloween in Italy. I found the girls some dress up jewelry and shoes and did their hair and make-up and they were little princesses for the night. They had fun dancing to Halloween music and playing here at home.
Thursday was a holiday in Italy so our town had a huge fair going on. The kids and I walked down to the fairgrounds to check it out. There were tons of people out! There was a market and big fair rides. The kids and I took a ferris wheel ride (it’s the only fun ride I can do with the baby).
Friday we just hung out, went to the park and got ready for the weekend.
Saturday-the day I look foreward to-Brett is off and we head off for an adventure. This weekend we drove down to Nice France and Monte Carlo, Monaco. The drive took about 4 hrs we stopped in Monte Carlo first. The tiny country of Monaco covers 1.9 sq km and occupies an area smaller than New York’s Central Park. This is where they have the annual car rally in January, it is also known for the Grand Casino. In the mid 1800’s, Monaco’s Prince Charles built spas and a casino to lure a growing aristocratic class. Today Monaco has the highest-per-capita income in the world. The lavish casino is designed to make the wealthy feel comfortable while losing money. As we walked over to the casino there were 4 Ferrari’s out front, we also spotted a couple Lamborghini driving around. The port here is filled with nice yacht’s and a huge cruise ship was docked here as well. It was fun to walk around and see all the bling bling and people just caught up in material things! Everything was expensive here so we stayed in our hotel in Nice, France. Nice is the largest resort on the Mediterranean coast. Our hotel was right in a pedestrian zone in the center of the city. So we just walked around and people watched, window shopped, and ate at a nice restaurant for dinner. The French people don’t seem as friendly if you don’t speak their language.
Sunday we went to church in Nice, and the missionary’s translated for us. The people were very friendly but we couldn’t really communicate with anyone so that’s hard. We drove down to Antibes a beautiful old town on the ocean. Antibes sits atop the ruins of the 4th century B.C. Greek city of Antipolis. The water was blue and clear, there were sailboats out on the ocean and the weather was gorgeous and sunny about 72 degrees F. Then we had to start heading back to Italy, it took forever to get home because the traffic was so bad. Since it was a holiday in Italy it was a 4 day weekend and everyone was coming home from their vacations.
It’s been another fun week, with many more good memories!