If your heart is in your DREAM a Aug/Sept 2011, NEW - links to dining/trip report

[dizneeat]

After another little break we made our went out for another little stroll!

I loved the way these people are drying their laundry!

No trip to Italy is complete without some Gelato!

Tiramisu flavoured ice-cream

This time we walked to the beach

We did a lot more shopping and on the way back we stopped at a grocery store to pick up a few things to take home and look what we found!

At a small green grocer's we picked up some

coconut and some

cherries.

Then we were on our way back to the hotel.

This is a view of our hotel. Our apartment was on the "third American floor" - 2nd European floor and all three windows belonged to our apartment.

 

[KatMark]

A beautiful city and a very nice looking beach area (I love all the "private" changing rooms). Your lunch looks good for Mark (I don't like all that stuff on my pizza); the orange drink kind of looks like the color of baby aspirin.

I love the Mickey, Pooh, etc. pasta.

 

[jenseib]

I love the beach pictures.
And that pasta is so cool

 

[Minnie&Nana]

...sigh....I do so love Italy...the food, the small villages, the churches, the beach...the food...

Your apartment hotel was a perfect location! Fabulous pics - thank you much, Karin!

 

[tinacaplan]

More great pictures! Max would die over the Cars pasta. So funny that you found that there. Tom's pizza looks so delicious. The whole place looks like so much fun. Glad you had such a nice weekend.

 

[englishrose47]

The Cars Pasta would be a HUGE hit with one of my consumers at my second job she LOVES Mater !!!!
Your Pizza would be my choice !!It looked heavenly , I love artichokes !!! As for Tiramusi gelato

 

[Stefy]

Beautiful pictures Lunch looked delish, there's nothing quite like Italian pizza, if you ever come for a visit to London we have to take you to Made in Italy they do the most delicious pizzas, proper authentic Italian

Love the Disney Pasta, so awesome! Did you get one of each?

 

[annmarieda]

Your pictures are just amazing! It is so bright and sunny there. I am beginning to wonder if winter is ever going be over here. Normally, the "gray months" are November to March... but it is still pretty gray out. I need some sun and blue skies. So thank you for sharing your pics. They help to brighten my day!!

 

[Wicket's Mom]

What a wonderful trip so far, lovely scenery. I want that food, it looks so luscious! I'm a pushover for good crusty rolls & breads.

That room is so cute, amazing how much can be fitted into a small space.

 

[dizneeat]

A beautiful city and a very nice looking beach area (I love all the "private" changing rooms). Your lunch looks good for Mark (I don't like all that stuff on my pizza); the orange drink kind of looks like the color of baby aspirin.

I love the Mickey, Pooh, etc. pasta.

It's a nice little town and there were a lot of childhood memories. The pizzas were real nice - I love Capricciosa, lots of yummyness on the pizza!

Whatever that orange stuff was, it reminded me of a hard candy we have here - it's a kid's candy and there is loads of glucose in it, which gives me hives. YUCK!!
I had about two sips, tried not to make too much of a funny face and left the rest!
What the heck is baby aspirin - a medicine for babies? We don't have anything like that here.

I love the beach pictures.
And that pasta is so cool

It was so funny - the first thing I saw when we got there was a shop that sold Disney bags - I knew this was the place for me!

We found lots of Disney food - it was so funny, we didn't buy any, but I sure took photos!

...sigh....I do so love Italy...the food, the small villages, the churches, the beach...the food...

Your apartment hotel was a perfect location! Fabulous pics - thank you much, Karin!

Italy is beautiful and once you visited you're hooked, aren't you, Christine?

The aparthotel was a really lucky draw! I enjoy some space on vacation.

More great pictures! Max would die over the Cars pasta. So funny that you found that there. Tom's pizza looks so delicious. The whole place looks like so much fun. Glad you had such a nice weekend.

Actually, the cars pasta MADE me think of Max. If the US would allow larger parcels again I would have picked one up for him!
It's a really nice little town and so different from what it looked like when we were kids. We loved it!

 

[dizneeat]

The Cars Pasta would be a HUGE hit with one of my consumers at my second job she LOVES Mater !!!!
Your Pizza would be my choice !!It looked heavenly , I love artichokes !!! As for Tiramusi gelato

They had a lot of Disney food articles - I was pretty surprised with it, but loved finding it in the stores.

The Tiramisu gelato was wonderful! The Italians are really good at producing some yummy gelato!

Beautiful pictures Lunch looked delish, there's nothing quite like Italian pizza, if you ever come for a visit to London we have to take you to Made in Italy they do the most delicious pizzas, proper authentic Italian

Love the Disney Pasta, so awesome! Did you get one of each?

Not much longer and it will be your time to enjoy some yummy Italian lunch!
Hm, I need to check out that Italian place in London ..... thanks for mentioning it!

No, we didn't buy any of the Disney pasta. We took home some MickeyRoni last summer and it still sits in the cupboard.

Your pictures are just amazing! It is so bright and sunny there. I am beginning to wonder if winter is ever going be over here. Normally, the "gray months" are November to March... but it is still pretty gray out. I need some sun and blue skies. So thank you for sharing your pics. They help to brighten my day!!

I am so sorry, summer hasn't found you yet. We have had a lot of wonderful days so far this year!
I still have a few photos to post and some new on my summer trip!

What a wonderful trip so far, lovely scenery. I want that food, it looks so luscious! I'm a pushover for good crusty rolls & breads.

That room is so cute, amazing how much can be fitted into a small space.

It was a really wonderful trip! You would love the rolls! They were sooooooo good!

The room was really nice! I just love to have a small kitchen, even if we don't intend to cook.

 

[dizneeat]

Okay, it was already late afternoon when we opened some of these .....

and after a toast to our vacation we headed out again. This time we wanted to check out the area where we had stayed as kids.

And guess what we found on the way there!

a Peter Pan/TinkerBell display!

A few minutes later we found the building where we had spent every vacation during our childhood.

And then we went to walk along the beach

We walked out onto the pier to enjoy some time above the sea as well.

While we were sitting there, enjoying the sunset we discussed dinner and then decided that we were not hungry enough to go out to dinner, but we still had a lot of the breakfast goodies sitting in the fridge. All we needed were some rolls and some more drinks. So when we went back to our hotel we stopped at a grocery store and guess what we found .......

......... more Disney goodies!

 

[dizneeat]

Once we got back to our room we relaxed for a while, then had a leisurely dinner of prosciutto di san daniele, sopressata, Italian rolls, olives, tomatoes and some adult beverages.

We discussed going out again, but we were tired, so we agreed on one last little outing for the day - we walked down to the pedestrian area again and one block down to a gelateria.

I had the strawberry sundae. Strawberry and vanilla ice-cream, topped with whipped cream and strawberry syrup and a lot of fresh strawberries.

Tom had the Nafta. Vanilla ice cream, topped with Amarena cherries and amarena syrup, topped with whipped cream.
We sat at a little table facing the pedestrian area and watched the people walking by, while we enjoyed our late night treat.

Then it was finally time to head up to our room for a good night's sleep.

The next morning we were up early again, took showers, then walked to the bakery and the grocery store to pick up some goodies to take home and some breakfast items.

I did not take photos of this breakfast, as it looked exactly like the one the day before.

Once we had finished breakfast we packed up our stuff, loaded everything into the car and checked out of the hotel.

We left the garage and parked the car in one of the side streets to do a little more shopping, since undecided me couldn't make her mind up if I wanted some scarfs for our cruise or not.
Tom then insisted on going back and get them. Well, in the end, we did go back and we bought A LOT more than just the two scarfs.
I got a necklace, a bracelet (both made from very small rocaille pearls) and a handbag (no Mickey for me! )

We spent about an hour and a half walking up and down the main street again before we headed to the outskirts of the town to pick up some more groceries to take home.

When we finally left Lignano it was past midday and we agreed on having lunch on the way to the motorway. We passed a few restaurants, even drove up to some, but didn't like what we saw.
Then finally we found one with a lot of cars outside, only Italian licence plates, so we thought that might be a good one.

We walked inside, no more German, they only spoke Italian or English, and were shown to a table.

We both ordered Diet Cokes and started studying the menu.

There was a nice and yummy looking basket full of bread on the table.

Tom ordered the grilled calamari and polenta. The calamari were SO tender and so good! Unbelieveable!

I had the housemade gnocci in a light cheese sauce, infused with salmon. Oh boy, that was tasty. The gnocci had just the right consistancy, light and fluffy, but still held up to the bite and the sauce was creamy and so tasty.

We shared a mixed salad with our entrees.

Before we left we took some photos of the grill.

We left happy and full!

 

[dizneeat]

It was time to hit the road again and drive home. I did take some photos of the drive again.

Crossing the flat land in Italy.

The mountains are getting closer again.

There was a wildfire on one of the mountains and we saw the rescue planes flying in and out.

And finally back in Austria again.

After crossing through Carinthia and into Salzburg we made a short stop to use the restroom and to have a snack.

Tom was just thirsty, he had a Diet Coke.

I had an ice-cream cone, Vanilla! Yum!!

An hour and a half later we arrived back home again.

 

[dizneeat]

Tomorrow we are going to have lunch with our catsitters, but I really hope that I can start to post our plans for the first few days of our summer vacation this weekend as well.

And I have got some news to report as well, I checked in online for the first two of our cruises AND I booked a few extras ........ stay tuned, all to be revealed real soon!

 

[KatMark]

Great updates, Karin. I had to take a doubletake of the picture of the grill with the man in the green shirt...he looks JUST LIKE MY DAD!

Can't wait for a Disney update and what you've added on the cruise.

 

[englishrose47]

Wonderful pix Karin !!I have a new camera on layaway and for sure will have it by August . Gonna make do with my old one for Lake George , which is coming up super fast will be there in 6 days !!!!

 

[dizneeat]

Great updates, Karin. I had to take a doubletake of the picture of the grill with the man in the green shirt...he looks JUST LIKE MY DAD!

Can't wait for a Disney update and what you've added on the cruise.

Glad you enjoyed the update, I need to update my two trip reports (hopefully tonight) but hope to give you a few hints on how we intend to spend our summer vacation tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

Wonderful pix Karin !!I have a new camera on layaway and for sure will have it by August . Gonna make do with my old one for Lake George , which is coming up super fast will be there in 6 days !!!!

Thank you, Rosie!
I cannot believe you are going to Lake George in just 6 days! Where has the time gone!
for getting a new camera! That is exciting isn't it? What camera are you going to get?

 

[Tarheel Tink]

Thank you for taking us along with you to Italy! I loved the trip and the photos.

 

[tinacaplan]

Thanks for the updates...the calamari and the gnocchi look so delicious. I've always meant to learn how to make those from scratch, as my aunt always did, and they are the best, but they are a bit of work, so... Your strawberry sundae looked great, as well.


Can't wait to hear about your trip plans. I really wish our dates overlapped even a little. Oh well... something tells me they will again...eventually!