On the Road Again 11.3.06

Today is Friday, November 3. We left Verona on the first, after a farewell coffee with Giorgio and Laura and Giorgio's sister Mirella and her husband Adriano. We had a hard time saying goodbye to these people who have been so good to us. We will never forget their kindness and we all promised to keep in touch. Laura presented us with a gift of a CD of songs she had recorded and Giorgio gave Bob a bag of these little candies he has become fond of. Mirella and Laura gave me recipes of some of the Veronese dishes they had prepared for us. A tearful goodbye and hugs with Laura & Giorgio and we were off. The first thing we did was plug in Laura's CD and we were amazed and completely impressed by the quality of her singing! We had to call her immediately and tell her. We knew that she liked to sing and that she was part of a theatre group who did musical theatre but had no idea of the immense talent she possessed and are so excited to have this little bit of her to remind us of this time. When we were in Switzerland, Helena's dad gave Bob a copy of a CD that he had compiled, of different versions of the song "Summertime." It turned out that it is one of Laura's favorite songs. Bob later gave her a copy of that CD and she was thrilled. And now, her version is on the CD she gave us! It is not lost of me that we spent the summer visiting all of these people and that this song will now hold deeper meaning and memories for all of us.

November 1st is a holiday here in Italy – All Souls Day – and traffic was light as we drove down to Perugia. We left Verona around 10am and arrived here around 2. We got settled into our rooms here in the Casale Borgo dell’Angelo – Sergio and Rita’s vacation country house in the quiet hills just outside centro and unpacked what was in the interior of the car and slept for the rest of the afternoon!

That evening we were invited to have dinner at Sergio and Rita’s home in centro and as we arrived the rain started coming down. Since we were early, we didn’t want to barge in before they were ready so we walked down the Corso Vannucci and around centro (with umbrellas fortunately!) in the pouring rain. It was lovely. We enjoyed dinner and the conversation with them and before we knew it, it was time to go.

Thursday was a whirlwind. Breakfast with Shelly, our American friend who is restoring a home in Massa Martana, more sightseeing around Perugia, lunch with Giovanna, who is from Pompeii (she owns the internet café) and dinner with Marco and Annalisa, our Italian friends who are originally from Napoli. They all assured us that Vietri is a pretty city, small, conveniently located and safe and that we would be in a part of Italy considered to be one of the most beautiful. We are very excited!

This morning Bob is packing up the car again and we will head south. We expect to be in Vietri sul Mare by around 5 or 6pm. Hopefully, we won’t hit a lot of traffic and the drive will go smoothly. We’ll let you know how it goes!

Con affetto,
Rosemary e Robert