MQT Half Way Done...Enjoying Italy!

It took me about a month here in Italy, but I was finally settled in a couple weeks ago with the last shipment of my household goods. It's nice having everything set up and organized in my new place. I've put a pic on here of the car I bought a few weeks ago. Some of the guys in the squadron said my apartment will end up being a place just to sleep here and there since we're TDY or deployed a lot from here. Speaking of that, I'm going on my first TDY next week to Turkey for 2.5 weeks of flying in their "war games" call Anatolian Eagle. After getting back near the end of June, we'll be heading to the States for Combat Hammer at Hill AFB, UT and then to Red Flag at Nellis AFB, NV. I'm really looking forward to all of that as a brand new wingman in the Viper!

My flights here have gone pretty well. I'm enjoying the bigger engine in this jet. It's a GE100 that has about 5,000 lbs more thrust than the jets at Luke had. We do a lot of our training out over the Adriatic Sea, which takes us just to the East of Venice as we fly to and from the airspace...rather cool. Yesterday on the return to base after a 2 v 2 TI/ACM flight, the mountains were the most visible I have seen in my few flights here. It was a perfectly clear, cool morning and the Alps were a sight to see...it's hard to believe I'm flying the Viper here!

I've had a chance to see some pretty cool stuff already in Italy. The second weekend I was here, I hopped a train from Sacile and went to Venice for the day. The city is awesome and very easy to get lost in. It's a labyrinth of shops, homes, rivers and small walkways. I was able to get to San Marco's Square and the Doges Palace pretty easily from the train station, but got a little lost on the way back. It's all good though since there was plenty of new stuff to see. This past weekend a few buddies of mine and I took a 4 day road trip over Memorial Day weekend around parts of Italy. We saw so many places it'd be hard to recall everything, but the main places we saw were Montalcino in Tuscany, Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius, Sorrento, the Amalfi Coast and a couple American WWII Memorial sites close to Florence and Rome. Montalcino is known for the best wine in the world, Pompeii dates back to before Christ was born and was buried under the ash from Vesuvius' eruption, Sorrento was just a cool place and Amalfi was a great site to see. The four of us rented scooters and drove about 20 miles along the coast stopping here and there to take pics of the great view out over the Mediterranean Sea. The Memorial sites brought perspective to the job God has given me...it was humbling to see how many guys gave their lives in the war. What some Americans pay thousands of dollars to do we did doing for much less! That's the latest from over here in Northern Italy...I should be done with MQT soon after we get back from this upcoming TDY.

More Pictures:

Venice; Memorial Day Weekend Trip