Bento Gonçalves-- Trains and Italians

Saturday in Bento Gonçalves we took a trip on an old steam engine named the Maria Fumaça. It was pretty darn fun. :) First, we took old timey photos of us dressed like Italian immigrants. Here is a picture. I was trying SO HARD not to laugh, which was hard enough considering how we looked, but then the photographer lady kept tell me to look down the train track sadly, and reminding me how I miss "Mateo" and "Giovanna" back in mother Italy. Oh my goodness, I don´t know how I kept it together. I am clearly a horrible immigrant. I like to laugh way too much! Oh wait, I AM a real live immigrant! ;) Ha, we modern immigrants can smile. We have email.

So on the Maria Fumaça, what happens is that you ride on the train and different performers come through singing and dancing. It´s all Italian themed, and it was SO wonderful! They´re dressed in character and they were really such a joy. Ivan´s family is very Italian and he said it was just like being at home with them. :) Here are some pictures.



The little old lady asked Ivan to dance :)

Gauchos


Dancing with the old, singing, Italian man on the train :)



(You can push play, I don´t know why the imagine thing is having problems)



I love the colors in this picture. This was at one of the stops where we´d stop and drink wine or champagne or grape juice.


It was so much fun! It was funny, though. That train went SO slow... probably because there were people drinking and dancing on it. It took 2 hours ride, then we all got on a bus and it took us 15 minutes to get back where we started. :) Ha! Man, Italians are great fun. Mama mia!