Driving down the streets is always interesting to me because it looks so different than the US. The streets tend to be narrow, sometimes cobblestone or brick, and the buildings are brightly painted with window boxes and flowers.
We drove back onto the base, where we had lunch with Andrew, Angela, and the kids. The pizza was quite tasty - especially the salty prosciutto, although we were told that was just okay pizza, so I am looking forward to great pizza! Andrew took us on a tour around the firehouse. We spent some time around the fire engines and Chris tried on Andrew's pack. Andrew told us about the different engines, some are specifically for plane fires. That was pretty interesting to see.
After we finished there Angela drove us to Pordenone. The town at first was not all that impressive and it was completely closed up save a few cafes. I let Chris make the call on whether we would stay and walk around or not. It was pretty cold (somewhere in the low 40's), but it would be nice to get out and walk around. We decided to stay for about three hours. We were next to a closed carousel, but it was a big plaza with some shops. There was some kind of small wooden buildings covering an area in front of a stage (I'm guessing they open up and become small little vendors, kind of like the kiosks in the mall but these look like cute miniature wooden cabins). There were lights strung up across, but were shut off. I had hoped at night they would come on. We walked up a ramp that was also festively covered with lights and it took us out into the town. The buildings were not so pretty and the shops not so interesting. We walked around a bit, and did come across a school that was housed in a very beautiful building and a gated yard. It looked like it was probably private school.
We found ourselves going back down that ramp, but this time we could hear Christmas music playing. I had hopes that something was getting ready to happen on the stage, although we saw nothing. We continued to walk back to the plaza, but then the lights popped on over the wooden buildings.
We walked across the plaza to the another street where we saw large balls of light hung across a cobblestone type street. We turned the corner and saw that this was a street we wanted to walk down, and although it was quite empty and definitely shut down, it had all the charm of the Old World. The buildings were clearly of an older style and varied, though they made one long continuous row. Little alleys led out to various other streets, and we walked down a few to see the cute little shops or the nice large yards behind the buildings (there were apartments atop all of the shops). The windows were festively decorated in Christmas regalia.
As we continued down, more people started to show up on the streets. There were a few cafes open every here and there and one bookstore (yes, randomly a bookstore). At the end of the street we walked down, there was a large, Renaissance style building at first I thought was a church. Upon closer inspection it was not a church but some kind of government building, but it did have a life-sized wooden nativity scene set up in the front. We walked in a took some pictures, tried to read the signs, but to no avail since neither of us knows Italian.
Just a few steps beyond was a church (a duomo), so we went inside and I was thrilled to see that there was a choir up on the stage practicing for the 5pm service they were about to have. We sat in there for a few minutes, taking in the cathedral and sounds. I was able to hear one of my favorite Christmas songs, "O Holy Night".
We left there and walked across a street and across a bridge. By this time, there were a lot of people headed toward us and up the way we came. I thought maybe they were headed for that service at 5pm. The day has been foggy, and so it only added to the beauty and mystery of the river we were crossing. We walked just a little farther and saw that we had left the part of the town that was really the most interesting.
Headed back in to that one street, we saw that the area had come alive. We walked back up from where we had come and headed past our starting point. Night was falling quickly and all the festive Christmas lights were on by now. Crowds of people out walking, looking in store windows, eating at cafes, walking dogs, were bustling about the streets. People were pouring out of alley ways in groups or alone in their heavy winter coats and scarves and boots.
We walked all the way up to the other end and back down when we heard church bells peeling for quite some time and quite loudly. I saw the church down on of the alleys, so we walked over to see what was going on. I wasn't sure, didn't open the door to peek in, so we just walked back to the Main Street with everyone else and decided it was time to think about a snack since we were both full still from our pizza at lunch.
We ran into Nuovo Cafe, which looked cozy and modern. They said it had free wi-fi, so even better since we thought we'd contact Angela to come an hour later. We walked in and saw they had toilets, so we headed downstairs first, and saw there was yet another room full of tables and guests. I was a little afraid of the bathrooms since Angela had warned me that some of the toilets were simply porcelain bowls you squat over. Luckily this was not one of them - this was a nice toilet.
After that we looked at a menu, but since there were no open tables downstairs, nor even upstairs, we took a seat outside on the patio area off the sidewalk. I tried to figure out if there was such a thing as a mocha on the menu...which I did eventually find something with chocolate to drink that was a blend of coffee. Our waiter came up, quickly realized this was an English only table (well, Chris knows Tagolag, but I doubt the waiter spoke that), the waiter switched to English. We ordered a honey croissant, on his recommendation (it was not my favorite, but it was okay) along with our coffee drinks. Chris and I tried to get online with their code, but to no avail. We decided it was fine since there really weren't shops open anyway.
We finished our drinks and pastry and then walked back to the plaza where we would meet Angela. We decided to buy a panini (not the kind I was hoping for though....) to go for dinner later on. The carousel was circling, and the lights were on with people everywhere. It was a really lovely sight, but we had seen it all, so we were happy when we were picked up at having such a nice time out.
Angela drove us home where we spent a fairly quiet evening (although there were some games of hot potato in there with the boys). Also, Chris and I challenged each other on songpop which we were just introduced to by our hosts! (Sidenote- I am currently beating Chris at this game). We talked some about our possible plans and decided that Venice is a good place to go tomorrow after going to the nearby market. We had some light sweet wine, which is not so good for my indigestion, but I did keep it at a minimum.
We shall see what tomorrow brings...
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