Home

We are home safe and sound.  Paul went off to work this morning and I have been catching up on all the stuff I need to get prepared for the next few weeks.  AND there were a few things that needed to be washed!  You know, vacations are wonderful but it sure is nice to climb in your own bed, between your own sheets that smell the way you like!  We slept great last night!
It's mid-afternoon and I'm waning!  I have a meeting tonight so I'm hoping to be able stay awake through it! :-)
Our last day in Rome began with a tour of the Vatican. The do have quite the museum!  I am still in awe of that Michael Angelo!  He and his younger painting colleague of the day, Raphael are pretty amazing! Again, I was brought to tears with the beauty!
After the tour, we wandered around the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain again.  This time there was no rain and we could climb the steps without fear of falling on our cans!  We were still a bit sore from Pompeii but we made it! :-)
We found an nice little pizza joint a couple blocks from our B&B. We sat on the sidewalk (tables) and enjoyed our last house wine and pizza of the trip.  Rome's pizza is not nearly as good as Naples' - just sayin'! We went back to the apartment and packed... sigh...
The owner of the B&B called a car for us to get to the airport.  It was actually a Mercedes van.  It was so nice to sit with our cases safely stored in the rear.  Options could have been a bus or the train...not sure if we'd have been able to sit for the hour long trip plus hanging onto bags!
The whole trip home from door to door took 15 hours.  Not too bad!  It was better than a Columbus' ship! (Of course, he'd have never found our home!) Daniel picked us up and I tried to keep awake the whole way around the beltway.
As soon as I can, I'll post all of our pictures...There are some fantastic sights!  I wonder where we'll go next???

Bedroom view

Our view from the apartment

Guarding the city

Vesuvius from pompeii

Pompeii alley

The theater

Shrine

Centaur

Pottery in pompeii

Jupiter

Vesuvius

Via a Roma

They say that all roads lead to Rome…we are back!

We spent Paul’s birthday in Pompeii (yesterday).  I tried very hard not to get saddened by the place.  I can’t stop thinking about the horror of a volcano erupting over your home and burying you alive!  Then I think about how amazing the place is/was.  It was so civilized!  The art was phenomenal! Then I realize that I wouldn’t be able to enjoy the art if the town had not been covered by ash!  It’s so complicated!  It was beautiful day and we got quite a workout.  All the streets and sidewalks are cobblestone-ish or really rocky (think boulders). Lots of climbing and steps…still working on the buns of David!  Unfortunately (Ok, fortunately!), we are also still eating lots of pasta and pizza and drinking wine!  Oh…and pastries for breakfast and gelato! 

Last night we ate dinner at local place that is only open on the weekends.  It is right next door to a big restaurant that had a wedding celebration!  They all looked like they were having a blast!  We walked from our place to the restaurant – starving because we’d only eaten breakfast (a large one) – at 6 or so.  They didn’t open until 8.  So, we walked back to our beautiful home-away-from-home and pre-gamed on some wine and crackers.  We stared out at the Mediterranean Sea and waited until 8.  It was another lovely dinner!!!  Anne and I couldn’t figure out which pastas to order so we each ordered one and switched halfway through!  Holy Yumminess!

Today we drove to Rome.  We dropped off the car and the train station and took the Metro into the city, near the Vatican, where our final nights will be spent.  Gordon booked us a nice little B&B. 

This afternoon we walked completely around the Vatican – we can now say that we have circumnavigated a whole country!  Tomorrow we have a tour through the Vatican.  I look forward to seeing more of Michael Angelo’s work!  I remember the last time I was in the Sistine Chapel… it’s amazing…  BUT I wasn’t thrilled with the wealth that is on display throughout the place…  It really bothered me last time.  We’ll see how Pope Francis is running the joint!

Ciao!

The last two days have been just as busy as the rest of our days.  We hung out on the Amalfi coast yesterday and in Naples today.  The two days were pretty different from each other.

The Amalfi was just as beautiful as you could imagine; it was gloriously sunny with clouds that hovered over the mountain peaks.  The roads are kind of narrow and the hairpin turns are tight to maneuver.  It’s not a drive for the faint hearted.  Paul and I have both driven it several times but it has been quite a while! Paul did a marvelous job.  We took zillions of pictures. (I’m only going to attempt to post a few!)

One of the most fun parts of the day was reliving our old pottery haunt in Veitri. We bought pottery for our families for most of the holidays while living here from some nice little shops filled with owners who are quite the characters.  We have a set of dishes that we purchased from a shop called Giovanni.  They are still there!  We bought a couple of things from them but like I said before…shipping is expensive! 

One of my favorite things to do after shopping in Vietri twenty-some years ago was stopping by this small restaurant for their misto pasta.  THEY ARE STILL THERE AND THEY STILL MAKE IT!  Oh, man it was good! 

We came home by way of a produce shop and deli. Anne and I made dinner – bruschetta and a plate of salami and cheese.  With our 2 bottles of wine, dinner was about 15 euros (about $!6!!!!) It was so good!!!

Today was kind of frustrating and drizzly/rainy.  One of our must-dos was to go to the Archeological museum in Naples.  We decided to take the train.  One of the problems in taking the train was that we didn’t know where we’d be able to park the car and we are staying in a place where buses don’t run.  Luckily, we found a parking place for the day and got tickets for the train.  The train was so crowded and we are so paranoid about pick-pockets that it was a bit un-nerving.  After about an hour of standing and listening to all the conversations around us…German, Austrian, English (queens), English (us), Italian…we made it to the central train station in Naples.  We were told to not look like you don’t know where you are going so of course we picked the wrong direction as we exited the building.  OY!

We walked to the Naples Duomo and sat and figured out where we were and how to get to the museum.  This museum is filled with items found at Pompeii. It is amazing what they were able to do in the first century!  They were making glass, bronze casts, silver stuff etc.  Their mosaics are so beautiful! Really fantastic! 

We went to lunch/dinner at a very famous pizzeria – Michele’s.  They only make pizza margarita and Pomodoro.  They either are tomatoes and cheese or tomatoes and olive oil.  AND they are wonderful!  I’m looking forward to trying out the Neapolitan Pizza cookbook to see if I can create these yummy pies! 

Our return train ride home wasn’t as rough as the ride to Naples since had seats but it was still long!  We are so happy to be back in this quite place to relax as we rev up for our trek through Pompeii and Herculaneum.  Last time I was there I had David in a backpack!  I think that this should be a bit easier! J

A domani!

Our old neighborhood

 Our old Villa

Buffalo for Mozzerella di bufalo

Home made dinner

Capri

Travel buds

Statue on the rock

Cave

Capri

Amazing colors!

Dude!

Circumnavigating Capri

This is the tunnel into the Grotto - tight squeeze!

Smashed together on the Blue Grotto boat

Blue Grotto - our Captain sang Oh Solo Mio! 

Taxi on Capri - we didn't take it, just liked the Fiat!

Capri

Capri

Shopping in Sorrento!

Old people on the Amalfi.

Amalfi

Amalfi

Amalfi

Misto Pasta - freakin yummy!

Vietri

Favorite ceramics shop in Vietri.

The hospital where David was born.  It looks better in this photo than it is in real life.  It's an abandoned building now.

Colosseum outside of Naples.

Under the third largest Colosseum!  24 years ago we actually worshiped there!

Home cooking with Anne and Carrie

Capri

I'm way behind on photos. Paul is charging the battery to the camera. Hopefully I can share them soon.
Well, we had a beautiful day. I would call it a "Sorrento Day." We took a boat ride to Capri from the port of Sorrento. We jumped off of one boat and onto a smaller one and toured around the island. We did take a detour too a smaller boat to the Blue Grotto....oh, man...I hope the pictures are half as cool as the experience! It was a fantastic ride and the skies were blue with puffy clouds...nice!
We took a funicular to the island town and wandered through parks, bought graniti, shopped, and bought lemoncello. Then it was time to head back to Sorrento.
In Sorrento, we walked up a freaking long stairway...think Duomo...where we found an amazing dive for pizza. It was the best pizza I've had so far. Rome's pizza is kind of cracker like. Naples pizza is chewier. It was so good! We wandered around more shops. While at one shop, we found out that there is an elevator that takes you from the port area up to the city...We could have skipped those freaking stairs for 1€. Oy! Anne says that we will have buns of David by the time we get back!😀If only!

Another Beautiful Place

So, when we lived outside of Naples, we'd get up on a Saturday morning and one of us would say, "I think this is a Sorrento day." We were spoiled, that's true but it would have been a shame to not enjoy the experience. Today is a Sorrento day but not like others we'd experienced. It's dreary and rainy. That doesn't mean it's not beautiful though.
Anne and Gordon have picked out the beautiful places we've stayed so far and this place is freaking amazing! I really can't believe we are staying in another beautiful place!
So we left Tuscany yesterday. I was quite sad. I could live there! I want to learn to cook wild boar! We drove to Daruta to check out pottery. They had lots of beautiful things but no money passed our hands. I've spent 25 years thinking about what I'd buy there and bought nothing! (Sorry tb).
We arrived in our old neighborhood just after the sun went down. We couldn't really figure the place out...It's changed a bit. We had reservations at a local hotel. We weren't sure were it was even though there was a sign. Anne and I sat in the car looking at each other like, "I'm not staying here!" It was dark and dirty and scary and creepy. Luckily, it wasn't the hotel...it was down the road a bit. And it was fine.
We asked for a pizza place and the desk clerk recommended one down the road as the best one or the one across the street. You know that we could not find the one down the street so we picked up pizza from Ernies across the street. I don't know if it was good or if I was just hungry! We ate it and drank wine in our room at the hotel.
We woke up to a less scary neighborhood...the day light helps. We found our old home and took pics. The hotel was built in the parco where Ben went preschool, were one of his pals lived and were Paul and I went for cooking school dinners.
We drove up to Gaeta and had lunch. By then we needed to get to our next home-away-from-home.
We are hanging out waiting for dinner-time overlooking the Bay of Naples. Dang...

Tiramisu

Grilled chicken and chips on arugula with caramelised onions and carrot salad

Ravioli - to die for

First course-fish fritter, olive fritters

Long walk up there

Us

Photo bomb

Medieval

What a boar