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[Sir_Winston54]

<Sigh> What I wouldn't give to be able to live somewhere in the area around/between Vicenza and Lago di Garda... two and a half years of the best times of my life were there, and I think I could probably pick up and/or remember enough Italian to get by fairly quickly, despite my decrepitude and the almost-45 years since I lived there and spoke Italian daily. <Sigh> I'd even settle for somewhere within 100 km of Firenze, if I couldn't have the area between Vicenza and Lago di Garda.

A pic of part of the lake where I spent some of the happiest days of my life learning to waterski, and play poker, and kiss...

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x95/Sir_Winston54/lago-di-garda.jpg

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x95/Sir_Winston54/karta_italia.jpg

 

[rida]

<Sigh> What I wouldn't give to be able to live somewhere in the area around/between Vicenza and Lago di Garda... two and a half years of the best times of my life were there, and I think I could probably pick up and/or remember enough Italian to get by fairly quickly, despite my decrepitude and the almost-45 years since I lived there and spoke Italian daily. <Sigh> I'd even settle for somewhere within 100 km of Firenze, if I couldn't have the area between Vicenza and Lago di Garda.

A pic of part of the lake where I spent some of the happiest days of my life learning to waterski, and play poker, and kiss...

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x95/Sir_Winston54/lago-di-garda.jpg

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x95/Sir_Winston54/karta_italia.jpg

OK, now you had to go and make me home-sick ....

Funny, I am fairly happy where ever I am ... but for some reason your post and the pic of Lago di Garda has brought up memories of my college days and I suddenly miss hanging out with friends, going for beers and than drag everybody to look for an ice-cream parlor still open at 2AM (after they kicked us out from the Birreria) ... and ending up having to get into the hightway to go to an Autogrill so I could have my ice-cream ... and basically add 20KM to the 2KM drive home ...

To Chris: ciao!
finalmente ti scrivo anche qui. Piacere di conoscerti!

 

[Sir_Winston54]

OK, now you had to go and make me home-sick ....

Funny, I am fairly happy where ever I am ... but for some reason your post and the pic of Lago di Garda has brought up memories of my college days and I suddenly miss hanging out with friends, going for beers and than drag everybody to look for an ice-cream parlor still open at 2AM (after they kicked us out from the Birreria) ... and ending up having to get into the hightway to go to an Autogrill so I could have my ice-cream ... and basically add 20KM to the 2KM drive home ...

To Chris: ciao!
finalmente ti scrivo anche qui. Piacere di conoscerti!

Meh - I'm reasonably content pretty much wherever I am, because I've chosen to be there - BUT even though I spent less than 5 percent of my life to date in Italy (2 1/2 years), it was there and with those people that I felt most at home. Though we lived in base housing (but off-base ), my father got the whole family into go-kart racing (very big in Italy in the early 60s), and we spent the majority of our non-school, non-sleeping time interacting with Italians, and learning to speak Italian from those who had some English.

As a result, when we went to the Flea Market in Firenze near the end of our stay, one of the vendors accused me of being an Italian boy hired by my parents to do their bargaining for them! (For some reason - perhaps my age? - I picked up Italian as spoken by Italians more easily and fluently than anyone else in the family, as well as being able to speak "book" Italian well enough that I got A's in Italian I and II at college 10 years later, without even purchasing the textbooks, let alone studying them. What an easy, sleazy way to get my "foreign language" requirement out of the way! I loved it! )

Regardless, when I dream of retiring (and it almost certainly IS a dream - I'll probably work until I croak, just to keep most of the bills paid <sigh>), it is to that area that my thoughts most often wander... My Italian now is *very* rusty - it's been more than 30 years since I used it in college, and 40+ since I used it there, but I still think I could remember and pick up enough to make living there comfortable, since I certainly wouldn't want to live in the midst of a bunch of ex-pats complaining and explaining how everything back in the States is so much better. I'd likely be overturning the bridge table in their laps and telling them if they felt that way, they should go the fuck back!

Ah, well - everyone should have a dream. Mine's harmless, and pleasant. But I do empathize with your feelings of homesickness for la bell' Italia, because I share them.