Cottage life: The ultimate Canadian experience

If you ever get a chance to visit Canada, you will have to go to a cottage, for a weekend at least. Cause honestly, if you've never been to one, you wont know what the Canadian way of life really is about.

There simply is no arguing about it: Being at a cottage is the Canadian experience. Hanging out in the Canadian wilderness, nothing but woods, lakes, animals and bonfires to experience.

Talking about animals: The squirrels in Canada must be on anabolics. They look as if they've just eaten three South Tyrolean squirrels. As a little snack. Before they have a South Tyrolean badger for supper.

And! There are flying squirrels in Canada. Yes, they are squirrels. And yes, they fly. Or rather glide between the trees. I used to think, that this kind of animals lives in Madagascar only and has big parties singing "I like to move it". Well, that's how wrong one can be...

:-[==0

I just thought I'd share this...

Look at this and try not to drool. Impossible huh?

It's a perfect example of a typical Italian breakfast. Most definitely not healthy (and it's a secret how the very same Italians often keep a Dolce & Gabbana runway silhouette) but so delicious!

Now imagine a foamy/creamy cappuccino with it and there you go with

 la dolce vita.

chocolate croissant

15 impressions from the Kirchtag in Oberbozen

Lederhosen

One of the music groups taking part in the procession came from Bavaria, Germany.
That's how they were dressed:

Bavarian Dirndl

Bavarian musicians

Some important town personalities take part in the procession with that beauty of a historical carriage:

...pulled by Haflinger horses, a breed originating from South Tyrol.

Haflinger horses

you have to put up with less traditional peace signs in the pics if you know the "stars" :)

The blue apron is typical for Tyrolean peasants.
In the time, when they weren't allowed to wear their traditional costumes (due to the planned "Italianization" of the region by the government), the blue aprons were regarded as a secret backup costume.

traditional costume

A short Dirndl, maybe a little less traditional, but who cares when the legs are this mind-boggling :)

traditional costume Ritten area

traditional costume Ritten area women

Odd world

I just got home from a two week vacation in Canada and New York. It was a lot of fun and I will report more on it soon. I just wanted to tell you about a strange and highly contradictory event first:

I felt pretty safe on that whole trip, even though I was aware of staying in big cities with a certain crime rate. And coming back home to our little mountain town, we felt very relaxed and happy to be home again. It is this crazily safe world, kids playing all over the town every day, people rarely locking their doors...so you might be able to share our shock, when yesterday our little town's bank was robbed! At lunchtime, right before the employees of the bank left, a guy entered the bank with a gun, shot at a wall to prove that the gun was real and then escaped with about 50.000 €! What an odd world we live in...a bank robbery in a 1.400-people-town!

Anyways, they didn't catch the bank robber yet, even though he escaped on a bicycle, no kidding.

:-[==0

summer in Northern Italy

... is fresh fruit and vegetables. Tomatoes in all shapes and shades of red, herbs, juicy peaches, sweet and dark cherries - the assortment is vast and everything tastes like sunshine and summer rain

market in Bozen

... is taking it easy around lunchtime, it's simply too hot to move much!!

...is enjoying long summer nights outside, sitting on the piazze with some vino

...the smell of drying hay in the sunshine and the sound of ringing bells around the cows' necks on the mountain pastures

...long dinners with family and friends outside

... gelato

...empty, idyllic paradise beaches as much as party beach spots with malls and bars

Sardegna beaches

Rimini

...summer festivals, outdoor concerts, mountain parties and traditional festivities

...sticky and sweltering heat in the cities during daytime, leading to sticky and sweating people

...Italian summer fashion

...Italian eyewear

5 things I love about Canada

1. People are nice

Some might call it the typical North American shallowness but I always prefer a smiling face to a grumpy one. No matter how heartfelt it is. And who expects a deep conversation about true feelings or politics in a store or with a one-time-acquaintance anyways?

2. Canadian things are pretty

I mean just look at the flag, the national anthem, Canadian symbols like the beaver, maple leaf and tree, the moose (less pretty but very much loved), the loony coin…

 

loonie

 

3. Canadians take their sports serious

They do, playing it themselves and following their favorite teams. Again I think it’s friendlier. More fans, fewer hooligans.

4. The cultural variety

Natives, French, Scottish, Irish, British, German, Italian… – you find the traces of these cultures in architecture, language, names of towns and people, food and festivities. Yet in a very special “Canadianized” way.

    

Canadian hockey

5. Nature

Huge lakes, high mountains, endless forests, icy landscapes with polar bears, rivers, coasts, waterfalls, national parks… and all of them are exceptionally beautiful. There are 7 cultural and 9 natural properties inscribed in the UNESCO world heritage list.

Niagara Falls

  

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pretty patio

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piazza vs. patio

Sitting outside while enjoying your coffee, drink or meal in summertime is part of almost every country's culture. Italy and Canada are no exceptions and again, it's the "how" that differs a great deal.

Thanks to our industrious and a little megalomaniac ancestors in Italy, there's a romantic and beautiful piazza around every corner in Italian towns. Typically these piazze show glorious monuments of noble men, facades of the wealthy family's splendid recidences which overcame the centuries and opulent fountains. Tourists come from all over the world to snap pictures of every little detail and ornament so that the most famous ones are usually more than overcrowded. But, as said, there are umpteen in every city so you can always catch a free table and live la dolce vita.

Piazza Navona, Rome

Piazza San Marco, Venice

Piazza Erbe, Verona

 

But what does a folk without ancestral construction-mania do? Right, they create their own, brandnew places to meet friends and live the life called patios. Every house, restaurant and bar has its own outdoor area, furnished to attend the guests' needs of relaxation and party hunger.

private patio 

Toronto, Canada

What's your favourite piazza or patio?

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