Fiat.Folk.Football.

So far I have been in Italy for three weeks and it has been a rollercoaster. Instead of leaving with my unit to go train in Germany, I was left behind in order to get my apartment and final inprocessing completed. Fortunately for me I am almost done and I am headed to Germany tomorrow to join my boys in the field for the last 10 days of the exercise. Good news is that I have signed the lease on the new apartment and my car will arrive before I get back from Germany. So the 16th will be big day, collect my car, my new apartment keys, and finally be settled in.

As I was left on my own, it was up to me to find a way to explore the area beyond Vicenza and taste a little more of the area around me. So what do you do? You rent a tiny car.
This is the Fiat Sport 500. A cool little diesel that was honestly a lot of fun to drive. Italy is full of crazy drivers, round abouts, and tiny roads that apparently lead to no-where. Suffice to say, I enjoyed driving this silver go-kart. (As you can tell from the following picture
I found through the local paper, that there was a Celtic Folk Festival in the Dolomite mountains north of Vicenza. The Brintaal Celtic music festival has been held in Valstagna, Italy since 2001. This is Valstagna, a quaint little town that sits in a gorgeous valley complete with lazy river.
The center piece of the Festival is large white tent complete with Guinness and popular Celtic dishes.
There was free camping offered. So in true form, I rented a tent (my great REI tent is currently being shipped across the ocean at the moment) and set up shop right next to the river. When the local Italian kids camping near me found out who I was, from then on I instantly became "that American guy". The best part about the festival was that it was free! This is the German Celtic band "Faun". Very cool and between sets spoke in English which was a cool plus.
One of the best shots of the night.

The next day I came back to Vicenza to attend the local soccer match. On the way I had to have the typical Italian fast food, Kebap. Basically a Turkish burrito, the kebap is an amazing blend of meat shaved off a rotating roaster that is topped with lettuce, tomato, mayo, (the Italians like ketchup on it...kinda weird if you ask me) and hot sauce. Delicious.
At the ticket office I got 5 euro off my ticket because I was a soldier. I bought the cheap tickets which in fact where the best as they were filled with the local football hooligans! The game was a lot of fun and ended in a rain soaked tie. The best part was learning all the Italian swear words as the locals basically cussed out the opposing team at every instant.