Life on the Vine

It's hard to believe that it's been four months since our new adventure in Italy began.  Time is going by so quickly.  I know I've been remiss in posting to my blog and I hope to get better.  I do fairly regular photo posts on my public Instagram page so you can check that out if you want to see more timely updates.  You don't need an Instagram account to view it either.  So...a lot has happened since my last post.  We are all settled into our house and had an Open House/House Warming party at the end of September.  We served Arizona wines at the party.  Here is the line up we set out for folks to try. Love highlighting Arizona wines...even while in Italy. Tom and I had a ton of fun and we were having such a great time with our guests that we don't have a single photo from the party!  Just this picture of the wines we pulled out.  We had about thirty people stop by and it was a great mix.  Our Italian landlord came by with h...

On Tuesday my mom flew back to the States after visiting for about two and a half weeks.  She'd worked out her flights so that she was here for three weekends.  The first weekend we did a few local sites, visiting Hohenzollern Castle and Bebenhausen Monastery .  The following weekends we visited Amsterdam and Paris.  It was really great having my mom here and having the opportunity to visit two cities I hadn't been too.  She arrived Saturday morning and after getting her back to my place and having some lunch, we got on the road and drove to Hohenzollern Castle.  I've heard many good things about the castle but had never taken the time to go visit it. First, before using some of my pictures, I'm going to have to cheat and use a photo from the Hohenzollern website.  Below is a view you can't get from ground level.  Plus, it was a cool, overcast day when we visited.  Hohenzollern Castle I want you to see just how gorgeous this castle ...

You've got to love German words!  It seems to me that in the German language they are all about utility.  Why fill a page with a bunch of unnecessary words when one REALLY LONG word will do.  Exhibit A - Vierburgenbeleuchtung, the title of this post.  This lengthy word means "Four Fortresses Lit on Fire" and was the descriptor of our final destination last Saturday.  Before getting to the details of our actual journey, let me first breakdown this impressive word.  "Vier" is the number four.  "Burg"is the word for fortress or castle, and then "en" which is a connector meaning in or on, and then finally "Beleuchtung," which means lighting or illumination.  Slap them altogether and viola - you get Vierburgenbeleuchtung! I've joked with Tom that I'm going to start taking pictures of long German words found on advertising and see if I can find the longest one.  This one is 21 letters long.  I think that's a pretty good st...