Yesterday was definitely the type of day I had been looking forward to when I first decided to come to Italy

The day started off well with four lovely classes with my students and a nice walk around Civitanova Alta with my English teacher.

When we got home from school we had some delicious pizza that I bought on my walk with Cristina and I took a few minutes to jot down a quick post about my morning at school. Then Maria Carla offered to take me sightseeing around the area since it was such a beautiful day.

 When I came to this region of Italy I really knew next to nothing about it. I’ve been to most of the big tourist-y places in Italy, but never to an average city. What I didn’t realize about this area in particular, however, is that it is like the outlet capital of the country. There are outlet stores for shoes, clothing, purses – anything clothing or accessory related you can think of. It was very convenient when I needed some warm boots; we just popped over to the factory outlet store of the company my host dad, Fabio, works for and bought some great, all-weather boots for the snow.

When we started driving around yesterday I began noticing signs for all sorts of luxury goods outlet stores – including Prada. I mentioned it and Maria Carla asked if I wanted to stop. Umm…yes, please!

I didn’t really hope that there would be anything I could afford at Prada, even at factory outlet stores, but I still wanted to check it out. I love really high-quality items, but I’m never willing to pay full-price. Well, it turned out that this place was just made for me. They have all of their final sale items from last year’s collection and stuff this year that is almost gone. There were several different styles in my size, though sadly not in the most gorgeous little pair of black pumps with ruched leather on the sides. I did manage to find the most comfortable, medium-heel pumps in cream. As soon as I put them I felt like I’d slipped my foot into butter.

The best part, only €100 – the equivalent of $130 at the current exchange rate. Uhhmm…hello! So, of course I bought them. I thanked my husband last night for my Valentine’s Day present. He said he knew I’d love them. Ha! Love that man.

I can’t wait to go back a couple more times and see what other wonderful things I can find.

Prada we drove a little farther south to Porto Sant’Elpidio, a little beach town popular in the summer. Even in the last throes of winter it was still an absolutely gorgeous little place. We got out and walked along the beach for a little while. I took oodles of photos of all sorts of things. The sea here smells different from what I’m used to at home – although it’s so subtle most people probably wouldn’t notice it unless they grew up near the ocean – but it was similar enough to offer a great deal of comfort. I love the water. I can’t imagine ever living away from a large body of water and being able to visit the sea was quite nice. The Adriatic is this amazing shade of light blue I’ve never seen before. It’s quite extraordinary.

I can’t remember how it got brought up, but we started talking about 4 year-old Francesco’s tendency to watch television with his arms crossed behind his head and his feet crossed. It’s really quite amusing to see.

I decided that would be my new photography pose for Italy, so Maria Carla happily took some photos of me striking my new favorite pose.

After Porto Sant’Elpidio we drove back north to Civitanova Marche where we puttered along the little port area. It was so pretty at sunset I just couldn’t believe it. I can’t wait to see how the sunset changes with the seasons.

Maria Carla and Fabio used to walk along the little port wall when they were younger – I can see why, it’s terribly romantic.

I also started noticing the graffiti along the retaining walls. When I was in Italy before I took pictures of graffiti because it is very interesting here; not the scrawl of gang signs and whatnot present throughout most of the United States. Here it’s almost an art form. I look forward to capturing some more of the graffiti during my time here. When I move to stay with my next host family in March I’ll be within walking distance of most of Civitanova Marche and I can come down to the water whenever I want. Talk about total bliss.

After all of this we went to pick up Francesco from his school, stopped at the minimercado to pick a few things up, I offered to cook dinner on Friday, and we went home to eat a quick dinner. At dinner I tried two new kinds of charcuterie and straciatella – not the soup, the cheese. It’s like the beginning process of mozzarella. It is rich and creamy and amazing and guaranteed to give you a heart attack if you eat it more than once per year. Delicious.

Fabio’s best friend, Andrea, is a chef who owns his own restaurant. He was hosting a cooking class nearby and invited me to come along and participate. There’s no way I could turn that down, so Maria Carla took me over after dinner and we had all sorts of fun until about 11:30pm! That, however, is another post entirely. I can’t wait to go back and do another class on pasta making!

I made contact today with one of the other language tutors currently in Montecosaro. She is teaching at the primary school. We’re going to meet up with another language tutor at a café later this afternoon. There are a bunch of us here right now working in the schools. Apparently several of the schools have the same headmaster and he’s brought over a bunch of us for this three-month period. It will be nice being able to share our experiences and to learn from each other.

The café is about 2km away, so I’ll walk there. Hopefully I’ll find something else wonderful to take pictures of along the way. I really can't imagine how that wouldn't be possible...

Ciao!