Five Days In

It’s hard to believe we’ve been in Italy for five days now! It’s strange to have been planning and preparing for this PCS for nearly 11 months and now we’re finally here, living in freaking Italy!

The first few days were, of course, a bit of a shock. We’re staying on Support Site (aka Fort USA) so things are pretty much what we’re use to back home (wherever ‘home’ is… I’m not sure anymore). The commissary and NEX are as delightful here as they are stateside, there are Americans everywhere, and we’re staying across the street from the school (so there are crazy kids running around in the morning and afternoon). All in all, it feels like we’re still in the U.S.

But over the weekend, we were able to experience a bit of Napoli! Our friends rescued us from the Navy Lodge and took us to their home that sits on the coast of the Mediterranean, with a fantastic view of Monte Vesuvio (that’s Mount Vesuvius for you non-Italian speak folks). Of course, Max and Roscoe were invited as well. Between the five dogs (they have three) and their two cats, we felt perfectly at home with good friends and lots of fur.

During our visit, they took us out to a little restaurant on Friday evening just down the road from their parco. Arriving at 7:30, we were one of the first people there (only Americans eat dinner before 9pm after all).

With their expert help (the husband has been out here for nearly a year), we ordered antipasti and house wine. Our servers brought out our plates but then continued to bring out a smattering of other dishes too. Apparently it’s quite common in Italy for the kitchen to send out random dishes over the course of the evening. In addition to our bruschetta and sliced meats, we were brought meatballs (made with a lot of nuts), some sort of cheese wrapped with ham and eggplant, a bean dish, and a cheese-like dumpling. For our next course, we ordered gnocchi and then pizza. Dessert was limoncello with something that resembled biscotti, compliments of the house. Everyone shared something from each plate.

In total, we were there for nearly two and a half hours, and not once did a server ask if we were ready for the check or in any way heckle us to get up and leave. Our friends explained that in Italy, eating is a social experience. Servers are paid well and aren’t working for a tip. In fact, being a server is a highly respected profession! Food is fresh and you’re only served what is in season. Produce markets only sell what’s in season. If you buy meats, chances are good it was living and breathing that morning.

The next day we toured their town by foot and experienced what a typical Italian Saturday morning in the market is like. There were lots of people out and about, shopping, eating, and dropping their kids off at school (yes, on Saturday!).

One of our stops was into a local candy shop where we found this little gem—pocket coffee! Espresso in the middle of chocolate… and yes, it IS as amazing as it sounds! And Happy Hippos… the most delightful combination of creamy and crunchy that you’ll ever eat.

We spent the rest of the day sitting in their living room, admiring the view from their windows, and drinking wine. Their landlords make their own wine, and the landlords’ son lives near Tuscany—the wine capitol of the world—and brings home many bottles of wine to share.

Begrudgingly, and only because we didn’t pack another set of clothes, we returned back to Little America (Support Site) and said goodbye. Visiting with them was the perfect remedy to ward off that bit of homesickness that was creeping in. Our outing also made living in a foreign country seem just a little less stressful.

This week, we will continue to attend Area Orientation (alternatively titled: Teaching Americans How Not to Act Like Americans in a Foreign Country). I’m hoping the Navy gods will soon tell us what the Magic 8 Ball has to say about our housing situation and potentially bless us with permission to live out on the economy.

I’ll have to leave it here—we’ve got some Italian driving rules to look over for our driver’s license test tomorrow.

I hope everyone is doing well. We think of you often and can’t wait to share more of our Italian experiences with you!!

(If you couldn’t tell, this post written by Danielle)

(but titled by David)

Getting Started

Ciao!

We arrived in Naples last night around 6:30 local time. The dogs were happy to get out of their crates because, between waiting at the airport in Norfolk and the international flights, they had spent the better part of the past 24 hours in them. A couple from the band are our “sponsors”, and they drove us from the airport to the Navy Lodge hotel where we’re staying until we know what our permanent housing situation will be. As of right now, we still don’t have any information.

That could be changing soon, though. Tomorrow beings “area orientation”, a week-long series of informational sessions on how things work here. They cover all kinds of things from stuff specific to Danielle’s work to getting Italian drivers licenses to some kind of legal matters. David has to get a Sojourner’s permit to live here, so that will be covered at some point too.

Today we slept in a lot as we deal with the jet lag, but our sponsor did get us out to get lunch in the city that the base housing is in. We got some pizza, which only seemed right being here in the birthplace of pizza. It was excellent, of course.

Beyond that, we’ve mainly just been settling in. We’ve been to the store to get basics. We got some euros, which look more like Monopoly money than dollars. We got our cell phones onto an Italian carrier. We’ve walked the dogs some too, though the cool rainy weather we’ve been having is not to their liking.

It’s been an adjustment already, and there’s plenty more adjusting to go. We’re tired from the travel and time change, but we’re also excited by the new experiences we’ll be having. It’s all just getting started.