Day 23: 19 July 2010

Got up early today to drive to the seaside beach town of Caorle to meet Joe’s relatives.  It took a little under 1.5 hrs. from Montegalda to get to Caorle.  Zio Guido and Zia Terezina (Joe’s great uncle and aunt), and Francesca (Joe’s second cousin) were waiting with delicious pastries when we arrived.  They welcomed us into their summer condo and we were quickly immersed in Italian since only Francesca speaks a little English.  Joe did his best to listen and respond in some Italian phrases, but it was still difficult to understand.   We later learned that Teresina was speaking primarily dialect which is why we were so lost in the conversation at times. 

Took a quick walk down to the beach and through town with Francesca and got to know a little about her.  Francesca is an elementary school teacher for children ages 6-10.  From what I gathered, she teaches the same group of students for several consecutive years. We were surprised to hear her talk about the large immigrant population at her school and the lack of services for them since these children do not come from just one place, but many Eastern European countries, India, and Africa.  While I explained the difficulties of teaching English to Mandarin speaking children, Francesca compared that to her experiences teaching students who write in Sanskrit!  It was interesting to hear about her 22 years of teaching.

Afterwards, we went to one of Zio Guido and Zia Teresina’s favorite seafood restaurants for lunch.  It was like a sit-down Tony’s with tons of fried seafood on the menu, and one or two pasta dishes for people like me!  The restaurant was on the river that runs down from the mountains and meets the Adriatic Sea here.  Following lunch, we took a small 5 min. ferry ride across the river to part of town on the opposite side.  Eighty year old Guido was our chauffeur, driving us around town and pointing out all the main sites.  We stopped at a wildlife sanctuary along another branch of the river.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many swans in one place!  When we returned to the condo, it was time to eat again!  If there’s one thing that I learned today, it’s that “no thank you” is not even possible, and that not eating something probably means I’m being too polite.  When I came out of the bathroom, there was a plate of cantelope waiting for me.   Joe knows I’m not a fan but when he tried eating some from my plate, Zio Guido added another piece to both of ours!  I had no choice but to put down the most cantaloupe I’ve ever eaten!

Francesca brought us to the free part of the beach next.   The beach in Caorle is separated into two parts by a chapel.  We went to one of the free sections and went almost immediately in the water because it was pretty warm here today, even by the water.  I guess today was a day of firsts for me…add swimming in the Adriatic!  The water was about as warm as the Mediterranean, but definitely not as clear.  The beach here is sandy and more shallow near the shore, and we couldn’t even see the bottom.  We both agreed we liked the Mediterranean better minus having to walk over the rocks to get out.  Took a nice afternoon siesta on the beach before walking the 5 min. back to Guido and Teresina’s condo.

The table was already set for another meal when we returned.  Teresina insisted we shower which entailed trying hard not to get everything wet since the shower was mounted on the wall with a drain on the floor of the bathroom in front of the sink and toilet, and no stall of its own.  We sat down for pizza, tomatoes, salad, hard boiled eggs, cheese, and cold cuts.  Joe had no trouble at all since he eats almost anything you put in front of him, but my picky pallet was once again problematic.  As you can guess, Joe’s family found it extremely odd that I only ate pizza, bread, and water, and kept insisting that I eat more.  I finally caved and ate some cheese and tomatoes.  Dinner was made a little more awkward by the fact that the family assumed we were staying overnight in Pordenone with Francesca and spending the next day with her without any discussion about the matter.  There was a bit of a language barrier/communication breakdown as we tried to explain that we were going back to Montegalda for the night, and that we would drive to Pordenone in the morning but it all worked out in the end. Headed back to Montegalda around 8pm and got our stuff ready to conquer Pordenone and the mountains in the morning.