Esther Pisano

Showing posts with label Travel. Show all posts

Venzone Pumpkin Festival

Fall in Italy is my absolute favorite. Especially the area where we live because it's so close to the mountains. I love when I can see the trees on the mountains changing to fall colors. Living where there is a real fall has been such a blessing. This Arizona girl loves it in case you couldn't tell ;) I'm so thankful we're moving somewhere that will also have beautiful fall scenery.

One thing I have loved about Italy are all the town festivals. You can always find something to do on the weekend because a nearby town will be having a festival celebrating something. This past weekend in Venzone, a town about an hour away, there was a PUMPKIN festival. Basically my dream festival. Literally pumpkin everything. Tons of booths selling pastries of every kind, breads, pizza, pasta, sandwiches, beer...you get the idea. I like that here in Italy they put a savory twist on food with pumpkin vs the typical pumpkin spice everything like in the states...although I'm all for that also :) Venzone is such a cool town and has the most breathtaking views of the mountains. You really feel engulfed in them and it makes the air extra chilly! Perfect weather for all the walking we had to do.

It's so bittersweet that we are getting ready to move from Italy now that Noah is getting bigger and loving the places we go to see. He had so much fun at this festival. It brings me so much joy when we go do things as a family but especially making memories here. He got his face painted for the first time and it was seriously the cutest thing. He held still the whole time much to my surprise! He of course, chose the dinosaur and was "RAWRING" the rest of the day. He ate the "peeba" aka pizza and loved the pumpkin donut we got him. He's not a shy boy and makes friends with the Italian kids which is so fun to watch. The language barrier makes no difference. He was obsessed with one of their wooden horses so we were on the hunt to find him a horsie of his own. There was also lots of amor, swords, bows and arrows, costumes and anything else you can think of that has BOY written all over it. If Noah was a little bit older I'm sure he would have been begging for it all, but I am happy out of everything he just wanted the horse. lol. We all loved watching the parade. Everyone was dressed in medieval costumes. The kids playing the drums was probably my favorite! So adorable.

And then there was Siena, sleeping through it all. She is not a fan of her carseat so Robbie wore her the entire time so I could take pictures. Is there anything better than a baby wearing daddy??

I am SO glad we went to this festival. I am soaking up this last season we get to spend here in Italy. I hope you all had an equally as fun weekend!!

We're Moving!!

We're so excited to FINALLY have an assignment and one that shouldn't get cancelled. We have been on a huge roller coaster for months ever since our extension to stay in Italy fell through.
We thought we were going to be here for another 3 years so we planned this pregnancy not thinking it would be in the middle of a move. Then our extension didn't work out, and I cannot fly during the time that we were supposed to move (the end of next month). So we were scrambling trying to figure things out.

We had to wait to get a stateside assignment to really do anything about our move with the baby or before I have her. We were assigned Maryland and before we knew it those orders were cancelled. Then we needed to wait for a new assignment. Guys, patience isn't my strong suit at all. I knew I had to just trust and try not to worry. Easier said then done, right? Finally! We were assigned Utah. We were thrilled! It was our number one pick out of the choices we had. We have never been to Utah before and it's much closer to home (Arizona) than Maryland but not total desert landscape and heat like AZ has. We wanted to experience something different. The base itself looks awesome. It's not in the middle of no where which is a huge plus! Some of the other places on our listing were a bit isolated so we are pumped to have things close to us. Salt Lake City is only 30 mins away. I think it will be a great place for us to live with our growing little family.

Once we had our assignment we asked to extend here just long enough to have baby girl and get her paperwork in order. The alternative would be to leave early which had to be by August 5th...the last day I can fly pregnant. That is coming up SO fast that we were a bit nervous about it. We would be extremely rushed to move and wouldn't have any of our stuff for a long while. I would also need to look at hospitals and meet doctors to figure out where we were going to have Siena. This was enough to make a soon to be mama a bit stressed out. Of course, it took much longer than usual to get a reply back but we finally did last week CONFIRMING we get to stay here until the end of November!! Whoo hoo! I am so thrilled to have 5 more months here. I love Italy so much that I will be soaking up every moment! We will get to have our baby at the same hospital we had Noah and I will feel a lot of comfort in that. Two Italian babes :)
We will be able to follow the proper timeline for getting the house packed up and our dogs in order to move. Guys, this is such a blessing!! We'll be back to the states in time for the Holiday which we may get to spend with family.

I am hoping Noah and I will make lots of new friends and find fun things to keep us busy. My heart will always be partially in Italy/Europe so the move will be hard but I find peace in knowing that God has a special plan for our family. Everything is meant to be so instead of feeling sad I am going to take as much advantage of these last 5 months as I can and look forward to our future. Maybe sneak in a few more driving trips before baby comes...I say maybe because Robbie is so done with traveling but I am hoping I can sweet talk him into something. haha. We'll see but if not our own backyard is gorgeous and will be thoroughly enjoyed. I get one more fall season here (pumpkin pizza!) and one more birthday which is a gift in itself!!

Do you have any must sees or fun things we have to do in Utah once we move? Please let me know!!

PS- I totally bribed Noah to get a cute shot! It's the only thing that works these days. This one cracks me up.

The Pisano's Take Prague!

When we moved to Europe I planned out in my head all the countries/cities I wanted to see. Prague was never on that list until recently. I began following some Euro travellers on Instagram who had been and fell in love with their pictures of the city. I decided we needed to make it to Prague before leaving Italy and man, I am so glad we did.

Prague is a short plane ride from Venice which was SO nice for this preggo mama and her toddler who still qualifies as a lap baby. Yep, we are milking that for as long as we can. Noah used to always sit with me but now that my lap is quickly running out of room, he is sitting with dad. Definitely not complaining about that!

The first day we arrived the weather was rainy and chilly. We definitely weren't prepared for the colder weather so we had to get Noah some warmer clothes. No worries there, there is always an H&M readily available in a big city in Europe. Once that was done we enjoyed exploring Old Town and getting Chimney cakes full of ice cream. Ya'll when in Prague, you HAVE to try this! Imagine the combination of a donut and churro filled with ice cream. So amazing. We were also able to find some pretty decent Mexican food in Old Town. These Arizonians were happy to be eating a burrito! haha. Don't worry we also had tradition Czech cuisine. I recommend sticking to the street food for this or asking the locals for the best restaurants to try! Robbie tried the beer since it's supposed to be one of the best in the world. His review was that it tastes "skunky"...whatever that means. lol

The astronomical clock in Old Town is a pretty incredible site. Definitely a must see while there.

We had amazing warm weather the second day which I was so thankful for! We took a boat tour which was so fun for Noah. They gave him ice cream which pretty much made his day and kept his content a good part of the ride. Then he was hanging out the window waving to passer byes. It was such a fun way to see the Charles Bridge and learn more about the history of the bridge and city as well as see awesome views of both Old Town and New Town.

We walked across the bridge to get to the castle and cathedral. It was such a busy day! If you can avoid the weekend I would suggest it! Although it was packed it was still a lovely experience. Some parts of the city (especially the bridge) brought back memories of Paris.

Prague has one the prettiest Cathedrals I have ever seen. It was so dreamy. Almost as dreamy as the pastel colored building and architecture.

If you ever make it to Europe be sure to add Prague to your list!!

The uphill walk was definitely worth the sweat and huffing and puffing for this amazing view!

Love the guards shades outside the Prague Castle

This would be my apartment of choice if I lived in Prague. So dreamy!

Prosecco Road

During Robbie's last break we had 1 day of sunshine. Yep, ONE. Italy has not been so good to us this Summer. So.Much.Rain. It is driving this mama crazy because I have a toddler who gets cabin fever after 20 mins of being inside. haha #thestruggleisreal.

So on our one day of sunshine I wanted to make good use of it and we headed to Prosecco Road. Oh my gosh guys, I didn't realize it was so close to where we live or it definitely wouldn't have been our first visit there. Wishing I would have brought family who visited in the past. Sorry guys...
Anyways, Prosecco Road is about 45 minutes from our town and is filled with wineries. Typically you would go along and tour the wineries and sample the Prosecco buuuut since I'm pregs and all we skipped to just getting lunch at a fabulous location. I mean the best views!!
If you're ever in the area and want the restaurant info just shoot me an email. You can also bike or hike through the road. I would have loved to do the hike!

The weather was perfect. I could have stayed out there all day but you know, nap time and all kind of takes precedence over sunbathing haha.

We enjoyed a relaxing lunch or however relaxing lunch can be with an almost 2 year-old and then walked a bit to get some great shots. We live here?! Someone pinch me.

Some of our lunch choices! Risotto, pasta and of course dessert ;)

Ok, these pics of Noah on the stool just melt my heart. He keeps getting more handsome! Probably a good thing since he is also getting more and more attitude. Balances it out, right?

We walked past the restaurant to soak up the views and be a little silly. I love these boys of mine so much. I am so excited for sister girl to join our pack, but man do I love being a boy mama.