Monday, September 29, 2008

Fall - Day trips: walks around town and a festival not far from here...

Fall is that time of year where it's not to hot yet not to cold to do outdoorsy things; For example, Sundays are perfect for walking around town, the City is practically a Desert. Here are a few pictures of one of the old quarters of Cagliari called Stampace. Typicall small alleys, roads, and small homes are the common denominator here! Stampace is the oldest quarter in Cagliari. It has existed since at least the 11th century and today, strolling through its streets, each with its own church, you get the feeling of being in the “real Cagliari”. Its street plan has remained unchanged since pre-medieval times.

Stampace Quarter




Saint Anne's Church


Enrico can almost wrap his arms around the old Fiat CinqueCento!

Small Windows...
...and Doors!

Typicall small homes

Saint Efisio Church (Patron of Cagliari)
Me in a tiny-tiny alley
The Bastion of St. Remy - once built between 1899 and 1902
then bombarded during WWII and reconstructed in 1958

Inside the Galleria

After walking around the City we went to a small town named Decimomannu Every year at the end of September in this village a few kilometres from Cagliari, the memory of Santa Greca is celebrated who lived between the III and Iv century B.C. and martyrised during the Roman persecutions.
Every year, for five days the celebration attracts big crowds (on Sunday there were about 30,000 people) around the small Romanic church, built in the XIV century and later reconstructed during the middle of the XVI where she had been presumably buried. The whole village is involved in many events, both religious and non: processions and stands take possession of the village during these five days, together with thousands of believers and tourists coming from the island.
The religious celebrations, which are daily tolled by the holy masses, begin on Friday night with the dressing of the Saint: it is an ancient ceremony, with the mothers and wives of the “obrieri” (the festival organizers), dress the simulacre with the most precious clothing and jewels. On Saturday evening, in the square facing the church, is the reavling of the Saint's statue, usually kept inside the little Romanic church with her relics, that instead come from the church of Sant’Antonio Abate. On Sunday morning there is a solemn procession with many folk groups from the entire South of Sardinia, ther passes through the village streets accompanying the Saint and the relics; the procession is repeated the following day in a more intimate way, to accompany the return of the Saint to her church. The celebrations end on Tuesday afternoon with the separation of the relics from the Saint statue and their return to the church.
At sunset (my favorite part) TONS of barbacues light up with red embers where long skewers with eals and piglets spin, and grills are covered with mullets (fish), sausages, and the local magarcui bread is flavoured with salt and olive oil. There are music concerts, theatre shows, square dances and fireworks but I'll be honest, this year we only went for the food! The cool thing is that you buy all your food from the different BBQ stands, and then you pay other people that have organized tables and chairs for your place to sit, table setting and drinks.

St. Greca Church
A cheese stand and stuffed wild boar

BBQ with pigglets
BBQ with fish & eals

BBQ Quails


BBQ fish

Olives YUM!

At our table

Yes, that is a small heart, a pigglets heart to be exact,
and yes I did eat it!

A view from outside our table

The name of our table stand was - My. Happy's cottage

Beautiful Fireworks show 20min. Long!

These Fireworks Remind me of
California Palm Trees!



Saturday, September 27, 2008

An Afternoon with Carlotta

I recieved a phone call yesterday from our brother-in-law with a request for "emergency babysitting"! Both grandma's weren't available and Enrico's sisters were out of town! Oh what joy! I got to play and have fun the WHOLE aftenoon with our niece Carlotta!

We played with my Barbies...

givin' Barbies luuuvvv!

...and with Mr. Stinky (who cooperated quite well)
...my mom came over and Carlotta just had to try on her high heels!!

... she is so proud to be 4 years old...
... we played dress up...
... yes me too! I'll never turn down a tu tu!
...my fariy princess!!
here she's flying! ;)
...and had a nice healthy snack, toast with butter and jam!

Friday, September 26, 2008

At My Nanny's House! The coolest things!

We went to my nanny's house last night for dinner. She raised my mom when she was a child/teenager and has always been like a second mom to all of us! She's like Mary Poppins to me! While we were there she took out LOADS of video 8 film reels , and said to us "do any of you know how to work the darn video projector? I have all these videos but haven't been able to see them because I can't work it!?" Enrico knew that he could get it to work, so I went down to the basement with her to get the projector. After a few attempts, Enrico (he's an engineer) of course got it to work! We were in awe! It was so neat to be able to see my mom as a young girl ON VIDEO playing with her friends. And my I add more, I WAS EVEN ON FILM! Our Nanny came to San Diego when I was born and made videos of her stay with us! I recorded a small piece of one of the reels with my camera, of course there is no audio but I am perfectly content! As soon as we get the rest transfered on CD, I'll post a few more videos! For now Enjoy this short segment!




Trying to get it together!

Mmmm... let's see

Wonderful assistant!

Again, WONDERFUL assistant!

TA DAAAA!
The machine itself!

Happy while watching!

Thursday, September 25, 2008

My Uniform!

So here are a few pictures in my work uniform. We decided RED for now, and then maroon for the Winter Season. I know I look like a total dork.... but it is soooo nice not to have to worry about what to wear to work and, it's comffy!