Motociclette I

This is a first look at the more common street bikes that we see here in Italia. As you can see, they are  far superior to all the Harleys we get at home.

This, is the Honda TransAlp, a terrific adventure bike that is unfortunately not imported to the US. These are fairly common in the Napoli and surrounding areas.

 Here we have the Vespa PX200, this is the 

 largest cc Vespa that I am aware of. They also come in a 150, 125 and 50. These scooters are everywhere in Napoli and you can always hear them because they idle like a CR500.

Next up is the Kawasaki er6-n. A very good looking street-bike and these are considerably less common than the TransAlp, but they are still more frequently spotted than 1198s.

 Now this bike is probably one of the coolest Beamer adventure I've seen, the F800-GS. These bikes are slightly less rare than the er6-n, but still not as common as a TransAlp or a Vespa.

Lastly on this list we have my personal favorite, the Ducati Hypermotard. Some of the coolest bikes that ride around here even with the fact that they're air cooled. We see these maybe once or twice a week depending on where we go walking.

This is only the first of possibly several more motocicletta blogs to come, let me know if you want me to change anything and I will be sure to not change anything anyways.

Blackeye's Vase

The Story of The Barnacle Pot

There's a story behind how this vase came to be in our living room and I'm going to share it with you.

It all started like any good story does, on a dark, stormy night on the high seas. Captain Blackeye's ship was being tossed about through the tumultuous waters, like a rubber ducky in a jacuzzi. The crew worked tirelessly to keep the ship afloat, lashing and tying things, so as to keep them from toppling into the waters below. Whilst this went on, the captain sank below decks to make certain that their plunder went unharmed, but little did the crew know, Blackeye had a secret compartment hidden behind the bulk of the spoils. Blackeye scrambled his way to the far corner of the treasure room where his secret compartment lay, he rotated the hidden switch and released the trap door to his bounty and therein lay his vases. 

These vases were of unimaginable value to the right people and luckily, Blackeye was one of those few. Shortly after checking that his newfound belongings were safe Blackeye heard one of his crew coming below decks for some unbeknownst purpose. Blackeye quickly secured the vases and locked the trapdoor and the crewman, while wanting to know the reason behind why his captain was below decks in such a storm, knew better than to question his captain and went about his business. Blackeye returned to the upper deck to find the scene to be very much the same as he had left it and without appearing as though he had left at all, he continued to bark out orders to his crew.

Not an hour later, the man in the crows-nest yelled out to his captain that he had spotted another ship not far off. Blackeye ordered his men to prepare for battle. As the other ship neared, Blackeye's crew turned the ship for a better firing position. The other ship still appeared not to have seen Blackeye and his ship, but Blackeye had no qualms in firing upon an unsuspecting enemy. Blackeye opened fire on the opposing ship, ripping the sails and hull to pieces and the battle seemed to already be over even though it had scarcely even begun. Blackeye and his crew cheered through the rain! In the midst of the celebrating Blackeye noticed that the other boat, while greatly wounded, was still coming towards his own ship at a rather alarming pace, he quickly put an end to celebration of victory and commanded his crew to turn the ship away from the tattered galleon barreling towards them. The crew worked furiously, but to no avail, the waters and winds were much too powerful. Blackeye, noticing this, ordered his crew to brace for impact and not long after the final crew member lashed himself to the deck, the impact came. Both ships melded together in a flurry of splinters and pieces of shrapnel. The ships, having no way to stay afloat any longer, began crumbling away into the sea. Plunder from both ships poured into the murky depths, members of each ship scrambled to locate any chunk of wood large enough to support them, some unluckier than others were swallowed up by the gaping maw that is the sea.

A number of the days later, the storm subsided and revealed that the two ships had sank not a mile from shore and one of the first sights that the crew saw was the mighty Vesuvius. Sadly, Blackeye was not amongst the survivors that night, but his tale will live on through the ages by the art of spoken word.

The vases were, many years later, found on one of many diving excursions to locate the treasures lost by both sides of the conflict. One of the lesser vases was sold at auction where one of the previous owners of this apartment purchased it at a steal of of buy for a mere 2.3 million dollars at which point he placed it in his living room for all to loom upon with envy.

That, is the story of how this vase, came to be the centerpiece of our living room.

Fresh Move

After almost a full four months of moving from place to place we are finally moved in to the last of our housing facilities in Chiaia.

This is the view out of the westernmost wind- 

ow in the apartment (mine/Dante's). As you can see, it was a scosch rainy today.

Pan 90° left and you come to the TV which I will be using for epic nights of Halo 4.

Another rotation of 90° brings you to the hallway of nations. It goes in forever and has light years of storage in closets lining it.

Directly above the hallway hangs Juliann's loft room. The ceilings are too low for everyone else in the family, but it works for her.

One last quarter turn faces you towards Deetle's

and my beds. They are currently garbed in epilepsy inducing, candy cane bedding. Now that we have moved here all kinds of crazy clubbin' is gonna go down, fo sho.

Capua Venture II

As I'm sure most of you have figured out, this was our second outing to the colloseum in Capua and contrary to popular belief it is actually the largest colloseum in Italy. Most people would tell you that the Roma colloseum is the largest, but that would be incorrect information. Also the Capua colloseum has a far more complete underground system than its fellow, Roma, does.

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This is one of the two remaining, complete arches in this amphitheatre.

This is part of the outskirts of the colloseum. As you can see it is not exactly in prestine condition, but it was still a spectacle to behold.

In this photograph we see the native LeClair

 enjoying an apple of the green variety.

This picture may or may not have been in what most people would call a 'safe' or 'allowed' location and that is all I will say about it.

Firenze

We began our southward journey shortly after our final breakfast at La Vignetta (our hotel on lake Como). Breakfast consisted of some delicious cocoa krispies-esque cereal as well as a marmalade croissant alongside a cup of Italiano ciocolatta, but that's beside the point. We got the car all packed up and we were on our way.

Hopped on the autostrada out of Cernobbio due south-ish where we would stay for a couple of hours. Soon after commencing upon the autostrada I busted out ye olde Gameboy Advance SP for some Pokémon Crystal domination. I started by capturing the red GYRADOS at the lake of rage and after that I adjourned to Mahogany Town to rid the town of Team Rockets presence. After quickly dispatching these Rockets I defeated Mahogany Towns gym leader and obtained the corresponding gym badge. Upon completion of these trivial bouts I initiated my journey to the small town of Blackthorn for some R&R before FLYing to Goldenrod to get the underground key from the Rocket member at the top of the radio tower.

Around the time I collected to key from the Rocket executive we were nearing our intended location in Firenze, so I saved and shut off the Gameman. We parked our vehicle in a piazza near our hotel and after some searching we were able to find our two star resort in what seemed like someone's apartment. We unloaded the car, got somewhat settled in our room and set off to see what we could see, but obviously not before stopping for a marvelous burrito/wrap at a nearby kebab shop STOP

Modena/Maranello

Day one in Modena:
GPS brought us to the wrong location initially, but that was eventually sorted out and we arrivened at our hotel at a reasonable hour. After settling in at the hotel we set out to explore the surrounding area and possibly find somewhere to eat. Returning from our walk, unsuccessful in finding a restaurant, we adjourned to the hotel restaurant where we enjoyed a rather splendid meal.

Day two:
Drove initially to the Lamborghini factory, only to be disappointed by the fact that it was closed until early January, much like Ducati. After this happened we ventured on to the Ferrari museum in Maranello, the larger of the two we visited. We spent plenty of time at this museum and took much pixurs of the Ferrari's through the generations, (check Facebook). Upon leaving the museum we were greeted by a woman wanting to know if we would like to drive a Ferrari, we contemplated this for a moment and came to the conclusion that we would very much like to. So we followed her back to their headquarters across the street where we filled out paperwork for driving a California, my father and I each for ten minutes. Dad drove first, with Juliann and I sitting in the back, we rounded the block and returned so I could hop in the front. Only mother and the instructor could fit when I drove since no one could fit behind me. We took off and I switched the car off automatic and turned the steering wheel dial to sport mode when the instructor wasn't looking. I can now say I know what 450hp in a Ferrari feels like.

Damiani Log

Just chillin at Damiani's, drinking the occasional cappuccino, eating croissants con crema, listening to the piano.  It is quite peaceful here, very laid back and no one seems to mind what you're doing.  Anyone can grab a slice of piano and no one asks them if they got permission or asks them to stop.

Everyone here seems to be an expert tennis player and when they they aren't on the court they are relaxing in the hot tub, sharing conversation.  We finally have a couple of rackets to play tennis with, albeit not our own rackets, they should still be able to get the job done until we are able to retrieve ours from Roma.

Hoping to have some church friends over this weekend for some maxin and relaxin, maybe some cards and definitely some hot tub.

This has been yore Captain,
Signing off