Our first stop was Gorgazzo spring in Polcenigo. To the right you can see a picture I took at the spring. I thought it was quite beautiful for the winter time, I can only imagine how much more it will improve when spring comes and it is lined with leafy green trees!
Farther down we reached a small pool of turquoise colored water. I took the following information on this pool from this site: http://www.italianvisits.com/friuli/gorgazzo/index.htm "Not far beneath the surface is the opening to a cave. Divers have traveled as far as 131 meters along this very narrow and curvy tunnel, and they still have yet to reach the end. Unfortunately, some of these underwater explorations have proved fatal, and so this cave has been closed to diving since 1999. Today, approximately seventeen meters under the surface at the opening of the cave is a guardian, a statue of the Christ. At Christmas, the Christ is alighted, and there is a beautiful mass with divers."
Way cool! Gorgazzo is also about a 10 minute drive from Budoia (where we're going to live!). It looked like a fun place to take the wee fam for picnics and duck feeding.
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| Making friends with Jemimah Puddleduck ;) |
Our next stop was the Porcia market. Each town has a weekly market, so if you learn the schedules of the nearby towns, you could easily hit up a different fresh market each day of the week.
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| Here is a meat and cheese cart. We can't wait till we have our place and can make yummy foods! |
After the market, our tour guides took us to Pordenone. Around here, Pordenone is known as the "big city" and is an enviable place for airmen to live. That is, the single airmen or ones who prefer the mall like atmosphere or partying lifestyle more than small country town living. I have found most families are sprinkled in the surrounding mountain towns instead of the city, which is also a much farther commute to base.
In Pordenone, we traveled through the streets to the historical town center and St. Mark's Cathedral. The cathedral was definitely impressive and Italy is full of historical cathedrals, something my DH Troy and I look forward to visiting.
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Our next destination was the Pordenone train station, however as we weaved our way through the streets we stopped at three different locations for chocolate tastings. (Yes! ^_^ Whomever designed this tour must have put this stop in with me in mind!)
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| I don't know the name of this, but it was really good! |
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| Watching the chocolate making process |
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| So many savory bites! |
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| I bought three of these since they were only €1 each. They were so delicious! |
Troy and I both agreed that one of the most beneficial know-hows we gained from the tour, was how to purchase a train ticket and go through the train station.
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| First train ticket! Licensed to travel ;) |
Purchasing the ticket itself is rather easy, they have kiosks with options for other languages, or you can go up to the counter and purchase from an attendant. However, I've found the tickets themselves are quite different from the ones in the states. Here, you do not really select a time when you would like to go, but you do pick a location. For instance, I'd plug in Pordenone to Sacile on the Kiosk and it would print me a ticket. This ticket is then good for the next year! I can come back to the train station on the day I wish to use it and "Validate" it. So one doesn't have to use the ticket they bought right away. However, once you do validate it, then it must be used on the day you validate it, but you can still pick any one of the leaving trains to Sacile you'd like. (You validate it by simply sticking it into a machine and getting it stamped.)
At first this may seem cool, if your plans change or you miss your train you can come back to the train station at a later day (or a later time the same day) and your ticket is still good. However, there are some downsides to having a system like this. If you look at the ticket itself, it is worthless if you want information. Generally people buy a ticket with a specific event in mind. We bought ours because we wanted to go to Sacile right then and there. Tickets in America would generally have the boarding time, the train number, the gateway or platform you should wait at, and perhaps even the estimated length of time the journey would take and the "arrival at destination" time. This ticket has nothing like that. Once you have it, there is really no information on there that can be helpful to you.
In order to get this information, one must go out to the platform (or "binario", as they call it) and look through the schedules and find the train they wish to join. When it gets closer for your train to arrive, you must keep a careful eye on the television screens because they will tell you what your train number is and which platform/track you should be standing at. This seemed fairly simple enough for a small train station where there were only 3 options, but I can see where this could get confusing and problematic in a larger station. It may have also just felt like more work to me because I'm used to being able to look down at my ticket and have all the information I need, without having to check various other sources.
The train we boarded took us to Sacile, where we got back on our tour bus and went to dinner. We were taken to a very nice restaurant where we were taught some basics about Italian eating. Troy and I have already learned some about eating out in Italy, so most of it was review for us. I will make a separate post about eating in Italy, for there is a lot to know and I feel this post is already long enough.
Our final stop was a winery. Being pregnant I can't have any wine, and I was also exhausted. So I opted to stay on the bus and nap for the half hour or so they toured and tasted wines. After the winery we were finally on our way "home", or back to temporary lodging on base. It was a good experience and I'm glad we had the opportunity to go, though it made for a very long and tiring day.
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