Mad Max and the Forklifts....

Ciao Amicis!!! What a time we've had in Trieste. I'm going to do a wrap up blog for the past few days to catch you all up on all that we've done. So day two of Trieste consisted of Mad Max as I like to call him magically finding us at the local coffee shop. We were about to head back to the hotel to meet our next hosts from the Rotary Club de Muggia, when this blue eyed guy with a wide smile and his quiet companion showed up at the coffee shop. We had thought they were Rotarians immediately but mistakenly thought they had seen our presentations the night before so we said hi, did the "Ciao, Ciao" thing a few times and then they kept standing there....THATS when we realized they were our hosts. And boy we're we happy to see them!

Mad Max was what we've started to call "cartoon character" engaging. He was super friendly, with a wide smile and a joking streak a mile long. Ferdinando, a past president of the club, was the gentle soul of the group, calm with a sweet smile. We hoped in a van with Mad Max at the helm, speaking very good English no less, and off we went.

First we went to Lipitzan to see the horses - which was super exciting for Tim as he had asked some of our previous hosts about the famous dancing white horses of this area. And dance those horses did for us - gorgeous!! We saw the stalls, the ring, the church of the area and enjoyed our visit immensely. Then we dashed off again with Mad Max to the Orient Express for a great lunch of the food of the area, which these days is considered Slovenia though the town had a very Italian feel to it. Hard to express how astonishing it is to all of us that all of these countries are so close together and borders are crossed within minutes. We have state lines that are easy to get to but somehow it's so different to be in another country where another language is spoken. After the local cuisine we hopped to it again and drove to a Slovenia port area called the Port of Roses. Tim and I immediatly dashed towards the 5 star hotel to see hospitality at it's finest - and it was. The Palace Hotel owned by the Kimpinski grop was an ancient palace for the local nobility that was converted to a hotel some 100+ years ago. Recently the hotel went through a renovation and added a very modern, but very well integrated wing of rooms. And since I took no less than 150 pictures of that hotel during our showroom tour, I will now apologize on behalf of Tim and myself to my team for dragging them along on our fascination with hotels. Our poor team has now seen probably way more hotels then they would ever like to see and heard WAY more discussion of hotel operations and renovations then they would ever want. SORRY Wendy, Kimmie and Dave!!!

Leaving from the port we went to an ancient church on a vista overlooking Trieste and Muggia. The fresco's and some marble engravings inside the church were from the 900s. 900s!!! That is one thing that keeps blowing our minds - the immense history that is centuries and centuries older than ours. After that quick stop (Mad Max kept saying "Allore, we must go" while pointing to his watch at each stop) we headed into the central village of Muggia for a quick walk around the square, which the Team has equated Muggia as their Sausalito while Trieste is their San Francisco - a beautiful seaside village. Then we were off to PastaZara2 factory. There we met up with some Rotaracters, Rotarians, and some Rotary exchange students from high schools in Australia and British Columbia. The tour of the facilities was fascinating - there was so much automation in the factory - they even had computer run forklifts. This was a scene straight out of Terminator - these machines were moving around by themselves. We were told to watch out for them, they would stop when they got too close, but personally those things scared the crap out of me. Giant forklifts moving pallets of pasta around....just by themselves....without humans. CRAZY!! And at the end of the pasta factory tour, we were whisked back from Muggia to central Trieste and back to our hotel. We called out our goodbyes to the lovely Maximillan as we hopped out of the car (who knew there would be so much in and out of minivans on this trip??)

A quick freshen up and then were back at the driving - headed to the Rotary Club de Muggia for our second formal presentation at a Rotary Club. Might I brag again about my team for a moment....they all did awesome!! This was probably our latest night at a Rotary meeting - dinner didn't finish until 10pm and we did our presentations AFTER dinner. I know my head hit the pillow that night but I honestly don't remember sleeping...because we didn't get to sleep for very long....to be continued.....

The horsey's of Lipitzan

Weinerschnitzel - YUM!

The Palace Hotel

Isn't Max a character??!!

Wait a minute... what day is it? Where are we?

*Let's give credit where credit's due! Wendy wrote this one, not me!  But her computer isn't connecting to the internet right now, so with the power of copy, paste and jump drives, here goes a team effort blog entry!*


You Told Us So!!

Each of us has had the pleasure of hearing stories of our predecessors on prior GSE trips and things to expect. This entry is dedicated to all those who have come before us and know the thoughts and feelings at the close of week #1. Here are a few things that are coming to life for our group.

On May 25, 2010, we said goodbye to our first host family, Guilio and Daniela, and left the mountains of Tarvisio for Trieste, a port city at the peak of the Adriatic Sea. We had a quiet, tearful ride to Trieste where we met the presidents (past, current, and incoming) of the Rotary Club of Trieste Nord. This group, though different, was welcoming and excited about arrival. Getting acclimated to a new group of people and a new place so quickly after such a great connection with our prior host is a bit disorienting?. They took us to Miramare castle which was built by the Austrian Arch Duke, Ferdinand Maximillion in 1860. The history here is affascinante (amazing!...My team thinks I say that too much?) and our hosts were rattling off stories of significant milestones in European history at every turn. After leaving Miramare, we were joined by a few other Rotarians at the Yacht Club Adriaco, the second oldest yacht club in Trieste with 800 members. More Proseco, wine, and sardines! We walked along the coast in beautiful sunny weather with our new host, Marco Meloni, sharing more of the history of Trieste. It is pretty hot and we’ve done a lot of walking.

Jess and Tim went on their first vocational meeting where they met the General Manager of the Hotel Savory. Jess is exposed to a bit of Italian machismo! Kimmie, Dave and I roamed the city streets of Trieste with another Rotarian. At the evening rush hour (5pm), the city is vibrant and alive and most people are in an outdoor café / bar sipping their wine and relaxing.

This is the first large club mtg and formal presentation. We were decked out in our uniforms and ready to go, seated at the head table to the President and his gang of VIP’s. Our presentation went off pretty well. We debriefed and bond in the bar afterwards. Salute!!

We’re finally starting to gel as a team. We’re getting to a place where we know the strengths of each team member, how we compliment and yes, challenge one another. Tired yet energized as you told us we would be?


Miramare Castle

Miramare Castle

Us at Miramare Castle with Rotary Club of Trieste Nord President Giorgio

Sailboats in Trieste

Yacht Club Adriaco

First club meeting with presentations, SUCCESS!

Well deserved drinks, ching ching!

Ciao!

Do you remember the time Tim ate two full plates of prosciutto?

amazing... AMAZING!

Okay, I am stealing this favorite line of Wendy's, but truly, our trip has been AMAZING.

*Note, this word will be used on purpose throughout this blog post*

So, day 6 was spent in the mountains:

Alessandro Lolli (Chairman of the Italian District 2060 GSE program) along with Giulio's friend Franco (el presidente del mundo!) met us at the Negroni's and Dave, Jess, Wendy and Tim packed into Giulio and Franco's cars while I took a grand trip in Alessandro's wonderful convertible. Soooooo, after dealing with motion sickness for as long as I can remember, I've decided I want a convertible! We were twisting and turning up the mountains for about an hour and a half and didn't feel sick once... AMAZING! Hear that Mike? We're getting a convertible someday! :)

Finally we made it to the town of Sauris in the Province of Udine. And in this town they produce the most incredible prosciutto, speck, lardo, salamis, etc. Very important, this family owned company doesn't give tours to just anybody... and we got a tour! Such a great experience to see the salting, smoking and resting process that all the meat goes through and then, the best part, the tasting of the meats! Prosciutto and lardo of such great quality and sliced so thin it melts as soon as it hits your mouth. And yes, I tried lardo for the first time and it was fantastic, just like butter! Of course you can't eat it all the time, though otherwise you'll be molto grasso! I think y'all got that one, right?

We were also fortunate enough to spend time with the wife of the Sauris Wolf factory owner, a wonderfully strong, kind Italian womyn who took time out of her day to tell us the story of how the factory came to be and how they don't expand because they want to maintain control of the quality of product. Quality, not quantity!

And as the title says, Tim was truly in his element at the factory. He was firing off questions to our tour guide and then when we got to the tasting, he finished one plate and then another. This is good living, y'all.

After the prosciutto factory in Sauris we headed back to the mountain to the casa de Negroni to rest before we got a tour of Tarvisio and hopped over the border quickly to see Slovenia. Giulio showed us the most AMAZING lake (lago). Truly, I hope to come back to camp there sometime. The view of the mountains was breathtaking.

When we returned to the house, the two playful labs (Astra and Scott) were romping in the front yard while Daniela was already in the kitchen at the helm of a magnificent machine that made polenta while also taking care to stir the porcini mushrooms (from their garden) in the melted butter (burro). Yet another AMAZING dinner with the our Camporosso famiglia - polenta, deer stew (cooked three hours to a point where it was tender as mom's pot roast), porcini mushrooms sauteed in butter, a multitude of different cheeses with cherry tomatos, fresh green salad, three kinds of gelato, various chocolates and then grappa to wrap up the meal. Don't worry about us starving over here!

Life with the Negroni's was absolutely phenomenal. We truly could have stayed there our whole trip and been content, they are our Italian mama and papa.

So as you can tell, we're trying to blog/talk about one day at a time, but we're a bit behind. So somebody else will talk about our AMAZING journey and introduction to Trieste later.

For now, goodbye our dear readers. We miss and love all of you dearly. Keep readin and we'll keep writin!

And now, some pictures for y'all :)



look, a mercedes benz garbage truck!

sauris wolf prosciutto factory

inside their store

prosciutto lab where these workers are specially trained to smell the meats to make sure they're still good to send out.

look at all those prosciuttos!

our tour guide explaining the curing process

happy campers at the wolf factory!

jealous yet?

look, the wife of the wolf factory owner, spending time with us little american folk!

our wonderful hosts - Giulio and Daniela Negroni. Our Italian famiglia. Noi ti amiamo!!!

10-year-old Aftra and her 8-year-old son Scott

if you haven't been to tarvisio, you're missing out...

one happy GSE team!

polenta machine!

look! Giulio and Daniela hung our flags up around the dining room table!

Ciao a tutti!

A Day of Surprises!

We are still in the gorgeous mountain town outside Travisio and having a great time!!! We had a small change in the program today because Monica (from the GSE team from Italy and incoming Rotoract District Governor) was having a "Spring Party"...well they called it a BBQ, although it was not a BBQ that we would recognize at home! My team has decided that the Italians now believe the term BBQ means "American Party"! This spring party was back in the area of Venice (Mogliano Veneto) at an awesome antique villa named Villa Zoppolato.
Our first surprise of the day was when we found the road blocked by a bunch of people and my colleagues, the Caribinieri! As they often do in Italy, we all got out of the car and said "What's up?" Well....little did we know but our route took us into the middle of the Giro d' Italia (Tour de Italia) bicycle race! We waited a few minutes and here came the pack of bikes, screaming by!
(Lance Armstrong-eat your heart out!)





After about 20 minuted the road opened and we arrived at the Villa. The grounds were beautiful and the "padrone d' casa" was very excited to tell us all about the space which was built in the 10th century! We then met with Monica and several other Rotoractors. Our host "papa" Giulio was also with us, since he had to drive us all the way there! Diego (team leader of the Italian team) and Alesandro (District GSE Chair) were also there. We had a great lunch "al fresco" and that is when we got our second surprise...Monica asked one of the girls "So, do you want to try out your presentation on our computer?" WHAT? No one told me we were expected to do our full presentation for this event!? Well, luckily we had someone as smart as Christine as our D5150 District GSE Chair who told us "Always be prepared to do a presentation at the drop of a hat!" Jessica (bless her heart!) had the presentation on a memory stick in her purse and we decided to wing it!


Well my team did GREAT! I felt like a proud father as my team went up and from memory gave their presentations, even throwing in a few Italian phrases! I am very lucky I was given such a talented and intelligent team of young professionals! I warmed up the crowd by doing my part in Italian and they actually laughed at my jokes! (Well maybe they were just laughing at me!) I started with the one about the Italian farmer, the priest and the rabbi...Just Kidding! The crowd of 50 was very receptive to our presentations and many came up to us after and asked lots of questions and all said how well we did!

We left that meeting and arrived back home in time to change into our formal uniforms for our first "official" Rotary meeting at the Rotary Club of Tarevisio! Our host "papa" is the president of the club and he and I compared notes about our two clubs, since they are similar in size. (Nice to know that Rotarians are the same all over the world!) Here is a picture of us all decked out with our host family before the meeting!
The meeting was held in a mountain top Alpine hotel with about 20 members of the Club. The members greeted us warmly and we were seated at the head table with Presidente Giulio! When he rang the bell (yes they do that here too!) to start the meeting, he began to describe my team and how happy he was to host such wonderful people. His compliments were so effusive, that at one point I actually started to blush! I was so proud of the impression that my team had made on him!
Overall, another great day in Italy, District 2060!

The Hills Are Alive

Hi All - Our team has spent the last couple of days in Camporosso (a village outside of Tarvisio) which is just a couple hours from the Italian / Austrian border. Our host family lives in a home very near the foot of a ski resort. (For all of you skiers out there, the skiing in the winter must be amazing). We're surrounded by mountains, wonderful people and great food!!

Our hosts are Guilio and Daniella Negroni. They have two sons Giacomo and Giovanni. Guilio is the president of his Rotary club (Tarvisio) and is originally from Rome. He has a very fun sense of humor and reminds me of some of the Rotarians I know. Today, he took us across the border into Austria, Hellbrun Schloss, a midevil castle (not a big deal, but this was where some scenes from the 'Sound of Music' was filmed) in Saltzburg, the home of Mozart.

Tonight, we shared another incredible meal and heard more about the history of Guilio and Daniella's family. Daniella's father was originally from Austria when it was first ruled by the Italians. In World War II, her father was a member of the Italian military while her brother was a member of the Austrian military and yet another brother was a member of the Gestapo. The history here is sometimes hard to fathom.

For all those futball (Soccer) fans out there, we watched the final championship. Giovanni was glued to it just like my brothers would have been to the Superbowl.

More soon...Ciao!

Walking, walking, walking

Kimmie did a great job of blogging yesterday about some of our first adventures here. Our second day was filled with a couple of notable things - churchs, walking, and wonderful and charming Italian people - most important our GSE teammates from District 2060.

Tim asked to see churches yesterday, for the beautiful art that most European churches house. Well today his wish came true!! Our tour guide for the day, Diego, did a great job of showing us many churches....which incorporated the second most notable thing of the day....walking! We've learned that Venetians are very healthy from all the walking they do every day - there really is no other way to get around the city efficiently, which allows them to eat the amazing food we've been enjoying. Pizza, pasta, steak, chicken, antipasta - all very easy to eat when you've been walking many kilometers all day long. And Wendy and I learned a very important lesson over and over, heels and cobblestones don't mix. Flats for sure tomorrow!!!

The third notable part of today was what wonderful hosts our dear Italian friends have been. Diego and Allesandro showed us around yesterday and the rest of the GSE team Filipo, Francesca, Carlotta, and Monica hosted our dinner tonight. After our great adventures together in District 5150 - meeting up with the GSE team of District 2060 was like being with our family away from our families. Kimmie and I forgot for a moment in the car that we were in another country, while singing songs on a CD Filipo created from their trip to the Bay Area. To me that is really what this program is about - bridging the gap between countries and making every place a friendly Rotarian is a home away from home. Ciao for now!! More to come (and pictures from me next time!)

Jess

Greetings from Venice!

Hi all, Kimmie here again!

Our adventure started very early Tuesday morning at SFO where our GSE big kahuna in charge Christine Goodin came to send us off and take a picture of the team:

After a layover in Philly, we were finally on the long flight to Venice. Even a delay, bit o' turbulence and babies crying couldn't stop our good mood!

We landed Wednesday around 9:45 a.m.-ish and were warmly greeted by a big welcome crowd filled with smiling familiar faces, GSE Italy team leader Diego & team members Monica and Carlotta, as well as some friendly new ones, including District 2060 Governor Luciano Kullovitz  and Alessandro Lolli, who is in charge of the GSE program for District 2060. Diego took this pic of us at the airport:

We hauled our luggage to a van and then took a water taxi to our hotel. Venice is absolutely breathtaking, more than we could have ever imagined! Many thanks to Alessandro and Diego for showing us around today and taking such great care of us, you both rock! If our first day is any indication of what lies ahead, we are truly in for a treat these next weeks.

Also, we're happy to report that it's gorgeous weather here, we brought the California sunshine! We basked in the good weather while chowing on pasta, chicken, steak, swordfish, pizza, gelato and more. Don't worry moms and dads out there, we're eating well. Perhaps too well haha!

We're also proud to note that once we landed in Italy, we didn't take a nap once (even though our bodies wanted to!). Instead, Diego helped us stay up for the more than 24 hours and now that it's night time here, we're ready to crash. Hopefully, since we're going to sleep around the proper bedtime, we can set a good sleep schedule from here on out!

Take a look at some of the photos I was able to snap around town today...


Waiting for the water taxi:

Beautiful building off the main canal:

View of a bridge over the main canal, taken while in our water taxi:

First order of business after we checked into the hotel, grab some food and drinks to celebrate our landing in Venice!

Look at all that laundry stretched across the canal... what if your clothes fall in?!

St. Mark's Square:

 This is for my bestest buddy: Look, Roxy, it's a Hard Rock Cafe right next to the gondola rides!

Much love to all our family and friends out there, ciao!