Italy – Wandering Dawgs

When I first read Tina’s challenge Memories I thought it would be easy. I was wrong. I’ve been struggling all week with how to approach this challenge. I finally decided to focus on my last two years of high school when my family lived in Italy.

My father was a career United States Air Force officer. He was never stationed outside of the United States until shortly after my 16th birthday when we moved to a small U.S. Air Force base near Brindisi, Italy.

My Mom and Dad wanted to take advantage of our time in Europe so we often went on road trips on the weekends. Sometimes we explored close to Brindisi and occasionaly we took longer trips to places like Venice, Rome, and Florence.

Full Disclosure: I did not take these photos. My father took many of these photos with his Minolta 35 mm film camera and some of the photos were taken by my brother Joe. Joe converted Dad’s slides to digital format. I made a few minor edits to their photos. All of the photos are from either 1967 or 1968.

Brindisi, Italy is located on the heel of the boot on the Adriatic Sea. The Air Force base was located in a rural area just a few miles from Brindisi. The following gallery includes images from the town of Brindisi and the surrounding area.

The town of Alberobello, was close enough to Brindisi to make a day trip to see the Trulli Houses. All these many years later I still remember how enchanted I was by these unique houses. My Mom also liked the beautiful hand woven bedspreads made there. Of course she bought a few to take home.

We also took some weekend road trips around Italy. These images are just a small sample of the incredible places we visited.

My brother and I attended Munich American High School and lived in a dormitory our second year in Europe. After I graduated we returned to Brindisi a short time before my Dad’s tour of duty there was over. Our European adventures were not over, though. I have many more happy memories of the month we spent traveling around Europe before we returned to the U.S.

Last week Egidio asked us Where does it lead?” I really enjoyed your creative responses. Thank you to everyone who joined the challenge.

Many thanks to our host Tina for this week’s challenge. If you would like to join the challenge please be sure to tag your post with Lens-Artists and include a link back to his post Lens-Artists #417: Where does it lead?.

Be sure to check back on Saturday, October 24 at noon eastern time when John will be your host for the challenge.

You can keep up with all of our challenges by subscribing to the Lens-Artists team members websites: Tina, Patti, Ann-Christine, John, Sofia, Anne, Egidio, Ritva, Beth.

For information on how to join the Lens-Artists challenge please click here.

Every Day is a Gift

For this challenge Egidio introduces us to the Portuguese word saudade. Wikipedia defines saudade as “an emotional state of melancholic or profoundly nostalgic longing for a beloved yet absent someone or something. It is a recollection of feelings, experiences, places, or events, often elusive, that cause a sense of separation from the exciting, pleasant, or joyous sensations they once caused.“

The closest English word to describe saudade is longing. I had a hard time deciding how to approach this challenge. I finally came up with a few places that have special meaning for me.

Ireland will always be with me. Words can’t describe the beauty of the green landscapes, the friendly and kind people, and the feeling I had while there. I still think of Ireland often and long to return.

It’s been almost 20 years since we’ve been to Florida Keys. I long to return to those carefree days of boating, fishing, watching the sunset, and scuba diving although these days I wouldn’t be diving.

My father was in the United States Air Force. When I was 16 he was assigned to a small base in Italy. Whenever Dad had a few days off we would take trips to see the country. Dad always took his Minolta camera with him and took thousands of slides of our adventures. My younger brother spent many hours converting those slide to digital format (thank you Joe). The following gallery shows three of the many places we went – Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Coliseum in Rome, and Trulli houses in Alberobello. When I look at these photos all my happy memories of traveling with my family come rushing back. I long to return to Italy one day.

Thank you to all the beautiful quiet moments you shared for Ritva’s challenge last week. Be sure to check back on Saturday, September 20 Eastern Time when Tina will be hosting our next challenge.

Egidio, thank you for teaching me a new word. I hope you will join him for this week’s challenge Longing. Be sure to tag your post with Lens-Artists and include a link back to his post Lens-Artists #365 – Longing

For information on how to join the Len-Artists challenge please click here.

Every Day is a Gift