I hope every­one had a lovely Easter.  Here in Lanciano, Easter is a pretty big deal with parades and march­ing bands going around the town nearly every­day since last Thursday. Chris cap­tured some amazing shots of the Easter parade this past Thursday.

We’ve been relax­ing in Lanciano with my good friend Cristina (who I call “Cris)  and her family. I met Cris when she was 13-years old and I was 16-years old. We hit it off from the very begin­ning. Some of you might recog­nize her because she was one of my brides­maids.  Her family runs the high school here, called Canadian College of Italy the Renaissance School, where I atten­ded grade 10, 11 and half of 12.

Here are a couple photos of this beau­ti­ful Italian town and the people I love.

Chris walking through the main piazza of Lanciano fea­tur­ing the bell tower and the Basilica.

The bell tower rings every 15-minutes. First it rings one tone of bell for what hour it is, then another tone lets you know if it is 15-after, 30-minutes or 45-minutes after the hour. To say the least, if you visit Lanciano be pre­pared to hear a lot of bells.

Since arriv­ing it has become a daily ritual for Chris and I to wake-up and head dir­ectly for the market or “mercato” in Italian, to satisfy our craving for caf­feine. A double espresso or cap­puccino usually does the trick.

Carla and Chris enjoy­ing a cap­puccino at the market.

We’ve also been helping out with odd tasks around the school and market. One of the first things we did was help Carla, Cris’s sister, dec­or­ate the market for Easter.

Carla and Chris hard at work trying to figure out how to make the purple and green paper hang “just-so”.

We even worked out our muscles and helped unload a van full of fresh produce the night before the weekly Wednesday market. I had no idea a crate of zucchini’s could be so heavy.

Laura and Chris help unload fresh produce at the market as their new friend, Mrika, chuckles at their technique.

Of course after a workout like that we were all craving a well deserved drink so we headed back to the Allegria, the restaurant/hotel where the stu­dents eat lunch and dinner, which at one point also con­tained a wine bar for the public.

From left to right: Eligio (staff member of the market & res­taur­ant), Cris (my lovely girl­friend), Mrika (staff member of the market & res­taur­ant), Davide (my girl friends brother) and me!

Cris and I enjoy­ing our first beer together, EVER! She has only recently dis­covered the beauty of beer. I have a feeling we’ll be drink­ing a few more together.

Filled with excite­ment and energy after a good nights rest, I wanted to show Chris the school.

Chris spots my Grade 12 school photo hanging on the wall in the school.

After explor­ing the school for a bit, we met up with Cris, her boy­friend Dave and her sister Carla. Of course I had to get a shot of them in front of the school.

Dave, Carla, Cris and Chris stand­ing outside CCI The Renaissance School the Canadian high school in Lanciano, Italy.

Cris and Chris, essen­tially THE two Chris’s in my life, walk past some stu­dents on their way to lunch.

One evening Cris took us on a tour of the central town. Her tour focused primar­ily on churches and archi­tec­ture with its most excit­ing and well known topic being the Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano. Seeing as the miracle is in a church I didn’t feel com­fort­able taking a photo, but the link provides excel­lent inform­a­tion on both Lanciano and the miracle. However, on the tour we did see some won­der­ful examples of modern day life and old architecture.

People having a smoke break outside of the town teatro (theatre).

This large space rests dir­ectly under the basilica. Other hall­ways and cor­ridors are found under­ground which were used as pro­tect­ive pas­sage­ways for priests and as a cistern hun­dreds of years ago.

Lastly, I snapped a couple of photos while we were in Rome. Chris was doing a lot of street pho­to­graphy while we were there so I shot a few as well and a couple of the church that dis­plays a Michaelangelo sculpture.

A little boy in Rome marvels at the Egyptian looking mime.

An intense walk.

San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome, Italy. The church that con­tains one of Michaelangelo’s masterpieces.

A quiet cor­ridor of San Pietro in Vincoli, a church in Roma, Italy.

Related posts:

1. A Month in Lanciano
2. Meet the D’Alessandros
3. Easter Procession
4. Pasta babies from the pace of life in Piacenza
5. Laura wants to share lots of random photos with you
6. Maroc, Morocco, Marocco
7. 24 hours in Roma