Live Cheap & Make Art.

Welcome to our Blog!

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Here we are in Sorrento, Italy, March 2007

This is Our Story

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This is the story of how two fifty-somethings retired, sold our home, put all our belongings in storage, applied for and were granted the proper Visa and went to live in Italy.

We’re not rich. We did it on a firefighter’s pension. We lived cheaply and simply. We didn’t buy and restore a great old villa in the hills of Tuscany. We rented furnished apartments in four different regions. We weren’t fluent in Italian but we studied hard and were able to communicate and make friends.

We weren’t just lucky. We worked hard to make it happen. We had a dream and we pursued it. This is our story. Complete with our photographs and watercolors of the places we lived and visited and the things we did and how we did it.

To jump into the stories, click on one of the archives to the right side of this page. You are welcome to start at the beginning and work your way through or pick a date and see where we were!

Here’s a brief index to help you navigate a bit:

January 2005: Planning and Dreaming
March to April 2005: Our “Farewell Tour of America”
April to December 2005: Perugia, Umbria, Tuscany and central Italy
December 2005 to June 2006: Marina di Ragusa and the island of Sicily
June to November 2006: Verona and northern Italy
November 2006 to April 2007: Vietri sul Mare, Amalfi Coast & the south

Our Travel Art is for Sale

We do hope you will take the time to visit our website, but in the meantime, to view some of the watercolors, on this blog, search "watercolors" on the top left corner of this page and scroll. As with the paintings, Bob's photos are sprinkled throughout the pages of this blog, or search "images".

Below are some examples of our “Live Cheap & Make Art“ travel art - the watercolors, photographs & prints from our adventures. Most of the images posted throughout this blog are available for purchase - Bob's photos and my watercolors – either as originals or as archival, limited edition Giclée prints in different sizes. Some paintings have already been sold! Send us your email address in a comment if you have questions on how to buy anything you see here. We will also be taking part in art shows and festivals in coastal Delaware this year and hope to expand that in the future. For a list of upcoming events, visit our website Live Cheap and Make Art Studios. As with our dream of living in Italy, we are putting one foot in front of the other & going where they lead. Thanks for coming along!

Rosemary's Watercolors & Giclée Prints

Ristorante Fontanella di Porta Sole, Via delle Prome, Perugia

Via Carmelo, Acate, Sicily

Bob's Digital Photographic Prints

Little Saint, Good Friday, Enna, Sicily

The Screamer, Scicli, Sicily

Thanks for visiting!

Rosemary & Bob Connelly
Milford, Delaware
June 2007 (updated February 2008)

If you'd like to read about our life and travels in America visit our new blog at: www.livecheapmakeartUSA.blogspot.com

Our Backstory 6.05.07

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Here’s the “Backstory”:

In April of 2005 my husband Bob and I embarked on our great adventure. We sold our home in Phoenix, Arizona and put into storage what remained of our belongings after selling, giving away and tossing what we considered unnecessary, with the goal of simplifying our lives. Bob had retired from the Tempe Fire Department in 1999 after 25 years and for the next 5 years taught photography at Westwood High School in nearby Mesa, Arizona. When he announced he was ready to retire again I jumped at the chance to join him and resigned from my job as senior graphic designer after working in that field for over 20 years. Bob wanted to devote himself to his photography and I longed to develop my watercolor style further and to paint every day.

In recent years we had watched too many of our friends and relatives close to our ages succumb to cancer or heart attacks cutting short their lives before they could enjoy retirement or see their children grow to maturity. We dreamed of retiring and traveling while we were still relatively young and healthy. Life was too short we decided, to put off our dreams. The time had come to make it happen.

We wanted to live in a foreign country and view the world from another perspective. We wanted to live a simpler life, not filled with stuff, but full of experiences: learning to speak a second language and exploring new places. After vacationing in Europe a few times, Italy won our hearts. Our two or three week vacations never seemed enough time and we always came away wanting more. My grandparents had immigrated to the United States from Sicily and the Naples area at the turn of the 19th century and I longed to search out those roots, walk where they walked, feel connected to my ancestry in a very real way.

I should also tell you that we are not wealthy. We have a modest pension from Bob’s years with the fire department and a very small nest egg. I will have a small pension but that won’t kick in for a few years, when we will both be eligible to receive Social Security. We knew we would have to live within a tight budget but after researching quite a bit, talking to expatriates, (www.expatsinitaly.com) and looking at the cost of living in Italy, we decided it was doable.

I had started taking Italian language classes a few years earlier, before our 2003 trip to Tuscany and Umbria. We both enrolled in classes and studied in earnest for over a year prior to leaving Phoenix. If I could do anything differently I would start sooner and study harder. Maybe get a private tutor and try to be more fluent before packing up and moving. But we also planned to take classes at the Università per Stranieri, the foreign language school in Perugia and hoped that by having to use what we learned, we would improve. Immersion in the culture made a difference but we also struggled for understanding and would recommend to anyone thinking of doing what we did, to work harder sooner.

We spent a good year preparing all the necessary paperwork and applying for a long-stay “elective residency” visa from the Italian consulate. We worked really hard to make this happen but it was absolutely worth it, start to finish.

To read about our adventures and see our photos and watercolors, we invite you to peruse the archives at the right side of this page. Thanks for stopping by!

Rosemary & Bob

Our Last Words and Parting Shots from Italy

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We're leaving Vietri sul Mare on Saturday, spending a few days in Rome before heading back to the states on the 5th of April. Our two-year adventure has come to an end. The following is our last photo essay from Italy, followed by a few reminiscences of our favorite people and places. Thanks for reading and following along with us. It's been amazing.

Vietri sul Mare, sunset

Salerno's harbor with the Grimaldi ferry and Vietri's torre (tower)

Looking down at Vietri, another view of the city

Green boat and sea, Marina di Vietri

Zeppole! That famous Napolitano treat (we'll miss these too)

Vietri sul Mare & the Bay of Salerno

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A few more parting shots of Vietri and the surrounding area

Vietri sul Mare, after a storm

I due Fratelli ("the two brothers" a Vietri landmark)

I know it's corny but we literally came upon these two rocks that are shaped like hearts. We didn't position them here side by side. It felt symbolic to us!

Looking down from Vietri to the beach at Salerno's harbor

Fig tree in the Garden of Minerva, Salerno

Arrivederci Italia 3/29/07

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Saturday, March 31st is our last day in Vietri sul Mare. And the last day we can really consider ourselves "living in Italy." On Saturday morning we will board a train in Salerno and spend a few days as tourists in Rome. We want to visit some of our favorite places and maybe find some new favorites. Who knows when we will return again.

This is another turning point for us. Another chapter ends and a fresh new one is about to start. For the past two years we have lived simply and cheaply in Italy and had the time of our lives. It has been full and rewarding. There have been challenges and problems along the way but mostly it has been filled with wonderful experiences and incredible people who helped us through many of the rough spots and are responsible for many of the highlights. To each of them we will be forever grateful. I know that a lot of people will ask us "What was your favorite place, your favorite area?" "What was the best?" This is a very difficult question to answer, as each place was special and favorite for different reasons.

Perugia, Umbria 1 April to 30 November 2005

In Perugia, it was all shiny and new to us. Everything we experienced was a first and we were thrilled just to have accomplished the feat of simply getting here, of making it happen. We loved living in that medieval city and walking its ancient streets. Sitting in the piazzas and listening to free music concerts; the language lessons and all the people we met in that month of study at the Università degli Stranieri; walking out to Il Tempio di Michele Arcangelo, our favorite little round church and stopping to talk with Claudia and Remigio at their shop nearby; our visits to the Internet Point and conversations with Giovanna who helped us navigate many, many issues we had early on, always with a smile (or a chuckle, as we are certain we made her laugh at our silliness!) Massimo the Magnificent who fixed our computer after Bob got caught in the rain with it.

Meeting Rita and Sergio, our landlords who also gave us so much help and support we could never thank them enough and Marco and Annalisa, native Napolitani who offered good advice about living in the south and enjoyed hearing our tales over good food and wine; all the neighbors we had the good fortune to meet there, Catherine, who gave us lots of helpful advice, Susan and John who, unfortunately came towards the end when we were so busy with visitors and leaving that we didn't have the time to really get to know each other but enjoyed what little time we had; Giuseppe, the Italian Top Gun who raced us back to our apartment one late night to make his curfew for driving in centro and who invited us to a restaurant where there was belly dancing; Jonathan Haar, the author of "A Civil Action" and "The Lost Painting," who stayed mostly to himself but was very interesting and kind; and especially Doug and Esther, our August neighbors, those talented young sculptors. We will always remember the times we spent in the garden, drinking wine and discussing art and life with them late into the night with the stars overhead. And Esther's beautiful mortar and pestle, custom made just for us.

We will always remember meeting Art and Barbara (of Art and Barb Live in Italy) whose blog inspired us when we still lived in Phoenix and whose lives continue to set a standard for how to treat people and extend kindness and help in a most unassuming, yet extremely available way. All the expats like Cristina in Siena, Larry & Shelley in Massa Martana and Janet & Stephen in San Feliciano, whose enthusiasm was contagious and who continue to realize their dreams of living in Italy.

We owe a debt of thanks to our Phoenix friends Shawn and Stephen who generously offered us a week at the end of July in Paris and we had the most amazing 10 days in that gorgeous city. Easy to do with one of the little low-cost airlines that Europeans use to jet around the continent.

Perugia meant seeing Umbria in all its seasons, arriving just before spring and staying for eight months, with snow on the rooftops before we departed in December. What a joy to see those red tile roofs covered in white! We loved the way the fog would roll around that hilltop city when the weather was wet and rainy, we felt that we lived among the clouds. We loved all the festivals and especially Calendimaggio in Assisi, the festival of the Ceri in Gubbio and the Inferiorate in Spello, arriving with our toothbrushes and finding what we believe was the last available room in the town! All the pizza, all the cappuccinos, all the gelatos, all the walks uphill to our apartment in the highest possible spot in that highest of cities.

We must admit we got tired of the student neighbors and how some of them tromped around in high heels in the apartment above us, and of the people who passed on the street near our apartment talking at the tops of their voices at all hours of the night when we were trying to sleep. The apartment tended to be cold at night and the cost of electricity was high. We hated the dog poop and the graffiti in that city (and in Italy in general) and the way the students would trash the beautiful piazza into the wee hours of the morning (but were delighted that it was all cleaned every morning as if nothing had happened.)

And of course, no reminiscence about Perugia would be complete without talking about our beautiful garden there. It filled us with such joy. You can't imagine our delight upon arriving to realize that not only was the view I had on my computer, as wallpaper, NEAR where we lived it WAS where we lived. Everyday we had the absolute joy of going out into that garden and looking out over the rooftops of Perugia. I guess the way we feel about Perugia is the way you would feel about your firstborn. You don't love the other kids any less, but there is something special about being the first. And of course the visits from our children, Chris and Jessica and our Phoenix friends Art and Chris. It was a delight to be able to show them all our favorite places. I'm only sorry we hadn't figured out how to make the photos larger on the blog from this time because they don't do it justice.

Marina di Ragusa, Sicily 1 December 2005 to 31 May 2006

Sicily was a total surprise. We had never been there before and only seen photos in the guidebooks, which absolutely did not prepare us for the beauty of the Ragusa area, which only seems to get a mention but deserves much more. My grandparents were born in Sicily, near Palermo so I already felt a connection to it but the stories I heard growing up were of a harsh place, a difficult place to live, no work, many struggles and my ancestors left to make a better life for themselves and their children. We expected more desolate places and were not prepared fully for the lush interior we found. I worried that we wouldn't be able to communicate with the Sicilians since everyone said they speak so much dialect. They do speak dialect with each other, but so do people in every region of Italy but they also speak standard Italian, like every other region and we had no trouble understanding or being understood. In fact it seemed easer for us there and perhaps it was because there were less English speakers and we had to push ourselves to improve our Italian and we did.

Everyone we spoke to in Perugia, in Umbria, when we said we were going to live in Sicily, got a far-away, dreamy look in their eyes and said "Ahhh bella Sicilia!" It lived up to it. But the best part was the friendship we formed with Elio and Giovanna, our landlords. We cannot say enough about the way these two people welcomed us into their lives and treated us as if we were old and dear friends. They helped us through every crisis we had, with Giovanna holding my hand as my elbow was stitched up following a careless fall and Elio showing up immediately when Bob's car was hit by a "flying avvocato" (a speeding lawyer) and we called him in a panic. He not only helped us find a place to get it repaired, but helped arrange for a loaner car and found us an advocate who made certain we received full payment for getting the car fixed, by proving it was completely 100% her fault and not Bob's. They introduced us to hot ricotta and Buonaiuto's cannoli. They suggested places to visit and festivals to attend that we never would have found on our own and often invited us to tag along with them and their friends on various outings. We had a blast and felt so well cared for always. When my journals were stolen and there really was nothing he could do, Elio showed up and took us out for a gelato in Donnalucata and a walk on the beach to cheer us up.

They helped us renew our permessi di soggiorno and introduced us to the Nokia phone that we were able to use as a modem with our laptop for Internet access and later as a GPS navigation system for our car that saved our marriage! They insisted we join them for Christmas dinner and made us feel so welcome always among their family and friends. The "hunt for the wild asparagus" was a day we won't forget as we trudged around the countryside searching for the elusive plant with Elio, his brother and a friend, both called Pippo (Giuseppe). We treasure our friendship with these lovely, lovely people. We will see each other again! We must. They are too important to us.

Our days in Marina di Ragusa are among our favorites. We loved being able to walk down the stairs and across the street to the golden sandy beach every single day (except during the rainy times!) and put our feet in the Mediterranean Sea; to stop and chat with Angelo and Giovanni and the other "old guys" in the piazza; to stop and have a cappuccino with Salvatore before heading out on a day's journey; to gaze out our window in all weather and see the changing colors of the sea. These are things we will always hold in our hearts. Bob said at the time that he was happier there than anywhere else he has ever lived in his life and I believe that may still hold true for him.

We adored Siracusa and Ortigia and will never forget spending my birthday in the audience of the spellbinding "Trojan Women" in the ancient Greek theatre; standing in the piazza in Catania as fireworks exploded overhead, choreographed to music on the feast of St. Agatha; viewing Caltagirone for the first time as we explored this city in search of ceramics and Presepe at Christmas time. We never got tired of walking through Ragusa Ibla and Modica and gazing at the view of both of those cities' incredible panoramas. We'll always remember the sunsets at Punta Secca and the birds in flight over Siracusa; Scicli and its cave homes that are still occupied made a lasting impression on me and I sat for hours sketching the way these crumbly houses stack one on top of the other, tumbling up and down the hills. We drove from Ragusa to Catania to reach Palermo through some of the most gorgeous scenery in the world, that the guidebooks described as "inhospitable" a term we took huge exception to. So lush and green and expansive, you can forget you are actually on an island, it seems to go on forever. Palermo's chaotic and crumbling beauty, like Napoli a study in extremes of colors, textures and patterns. Our great trip with Jessica to the west with stops in Marsala, Trapani, Erice, that little icy jewel of a town above it, all the Greek temples: Agrigento, Segesta and Selinunte, (where we ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and Nutella with a bottle of red wine as we watched the sunset from our little terrace and its view of the temples). Lovely Taormina and Cefalu, and the elusive volcano, Mt. Etna that would often disappear among the clouds and reappear like a vision.

We had a great visit with the Bivettos, my brother and cousins and their wives when they visited in April, in spite of our car accident happening on the day of their arrival and in spite of all my worries about how they would react to the place we found for them. They seemed to really enjoy being in Sicily and were as blown away as we were by its beauty and took pride in our family connection to it.

We found complaint with the trash on the beach and I took to going down often with a couple of empty trash bags and picking up the litter hoping the locals might pitch in too but they never did. Surprisingly there often seemed to be piles of trash just around the corner or next to a heartbreakingly beautiful place and we just couldn't understand how this could happen. The traffic could be crazy in the small towns and the habit the Sicilians have of pulling into a parking space, leaving their rear ends sticking out in the road, regardless of how narrow, was always a point of frustration for Bob, the driver. In spite of all this, we adored Sicily and hope to return some day when the weather is warm and we can swim every day in the beautiful blue sea.

Borgo Roma, Verona, Veneto 1 June to 31 October 2006

Verona was fabulous because the cities of the north are fabulous! We admit we didn't enjoy the pollution up there and it was not good for Bob's asthma. But Verona itself was a joy and we loved the city. The River Adige that winds through it, the Renaissance and medieval architecture, the church towers and the beautiful windows and doors, the bridges and the castle; in fact there are so many castles in this area we could not visit them all; all of it was a delight to us. Being able to return again and again to Venice, to Lake Garda, to visit the lovely cities of Padua and Mantua, Brescia, Bolzano and Trento, the living chess tournament in Marostica; driving through the Veneto, Alto Adige, Trentino and other regions of the north that seem so close to each other because of the excellent autostrada system up there; seeing the Dolomites for the first time!

It was amazing too to be able to drive to Germany with our daughter Jessica and her husband Nick, for our friends' Andrea and Vincent's wedding, ending with a visit to Regensburg to see our old friends Helmut and Ingrid and to Switzerland to see Helena and meet her family with a lovely detour into the south of France to stay at the farm of Vincent's family there. It was fun also to drive down to Cortona to meet Shawn and Stephen, who invited us to hang out with them in the Villa they had rented there with some friends and we jumped at the chance to spend time with them again. We really enjoyed showing them around Perugia and all of our favorite little spots that most tourists wouldn't know about or be able to find on their own. It was a very hectic summer and we were constantly on the go.

With its modern shopping malls, autostradas and giant grocery stores, life in the north of Italy was the closest thing to living in the suburbs of America and there were McDonalds in many places and even a Burger King or two. Fortunately no Pizza Hut or Starbucks yet! The people in the north were more reserved than we had experienced in Sicily and that was a bit of a disappointment. As we lived in a "real neighborhood" we expected to be able to meet local people but it really never happened. Few seemed interested and many would go in and out of our apartment building with barely a nod. Thank goodness for Giorgio and Laura, our landlords, who more than made up for it with their warmth, love and attention.

In Verona we lived just 5 minutes drive outside centro in a lovely apartment, with a really well equipped kitchen (we even had a diswasher!) and while I admit I would have preferred to have been right IN the old city, the best part of living in Verona was meeting Laura and Giorgio, our landlords who also became our treasured friends. Giorgio did everything he could to make our stay memorable and we had many outings with him and Laura and their families that made our experience so much richer. We will forever be grateful to them both and we'll never forget their kindness. Several times Giorgio called us to ask if we were at home and what we were doing and offered to pick us up and take us to meet this friend or that, who were always involved in some interesting endeavor, like Flavio who creates exact reproductions of medieval, antique weapons and also native American Indian tools and weaponry and even presented us with one of the knives he made entirely by hand. We loved every minute of it, and him for taking such good care of us. I'll always treasure the evening Laura and I spent at the Roman Anfiteatro at a thrilling performance of Madama Butterfly while Bob and Giorgio shared a beer and a pizza in town. Even Giorgio's sister Mirella invited us to collect chestnuts in the countryside, showing us a whole other side of Verona we would not have seen on our own. The day's outing on the Po Delta with all of them is among our fondest memories. Driving away from Verona Bob and I were both crying in the car, listening to the beautiful tape Laura gave us of her singing that completely blew us away, so talented is she. We will see each other again! We have to.

Vietri sul Mare, Amalfi Coast, Campania 1 November to 31 March 2007

Living on the Amalfi Coast has been really amazing. I am sorry to say that the most negative interactions have been in this last place but it doesn't change our feelings about having lived in this gorgeous region of Italy. For years I have wanted to visit Naples. When we passed through this area on our "Grand Tour" of Italy several years ago we did not make it to Naples and we both wanted to explore this old city with such a reputation for extremes and to eat a pizza in its birthplace and walk its streets, to see the laundry hanging across the streets and feel its energy. My great-grandfather on my mother's side came from this area, in the mountains near Benevento and as with Sicily, I have always felt a connection to it. We love the old Napolitano songs and food, and the people are among the warmest and friendliest we have ever met. Lord knows Naples is a city of contrasts and the warnings we got from everyone made us bit wary of going, but I found it fabulous and interesting and in places absolutely gorgeous - like the walk along the seaside, its lovely castles and parks, the views out onto the harbor from Vomero hill and the incredible diversity that exists there.

The garbage was an issue in Napoli as the garbage companies go on strike from time to time and we aren't sure why, except we heard that there is not enough room in the garbage dumps and they just stop collecting it. We think there must be some organized crime power game going on but it does take ones breath away (and not in a good way) to see half a block filled with bags of trash, piled in heaps. Not a pretty sight. Shameful in fact and one we hope they can get a grip on and do something about. There were some stories on TV about shootings in the city and the Camorra seems more active at this time than the Mafia in Sicily. But we personally never witnessed even any petty crimes when we were there and never felt in danger. We think a lot of the warnings are overstated but the fact remains that in any big city you must be careful and not flaunt your things and hold onto your wallets and purses. I had my bag stolen in Paris while sitting at an outdoor café and you will all remember how my backpack was taken out of our locked car at a nature reserve in Sicily. We were a lot more cautious after that, but sort of like shutting the barn door after the cows get out (or something like that I guess!)

Traffic, and I hate to say it but it's true, especially in the south, was horrendous! And, I believe in this area, it was worst of all. We call it "Traffic Anarchy." There was hardly ever any police presence at the craziest intersections and no one obeys any of the traffic signals anyway. It is very much a "you go, I go" mentality, except that you and I are going literally in every direction with him and her and everyone else wanting to go first! I have huge admiration for my husband who navigated his way through it but I know he is ready to get home and looks forward to people driving in one lane, not straddling two to keep their options open, using turn signals and not coming at him from the opposite direction, in his lane. Passing is done on blind curves, tailgating is common on the twistiest roads and the look of utter amazement on the faces of the other drivers as he passes them and gives them his best "what the hell are you doing" expression (using the fingers touching thumb symbol emphatically) is nothing short of hilarious, but that's just to me. Bob might disagree with that assessment.

In spite of the crazy drivers however, we loved the views along the Amalfi Coast and stopping for a caffe in Cetara and spending time in Ravello, our two absolute favorite cities here. The cliffs and towers, the colors of the sea, the orange and lemon trees in their terrace gardens, the flowers and plants and yes, even the sight of laundry hanging everywhere, delighted us to no end. And, in this last place, here in Vietri sul Mare, we really felt as if we lived here. The neighbors welcomed us from the first and it has been so much fun to share "buon giorno" with them from out on our terrace (often with me still in my pajamas) and have mundane discussions about the weather or our families and children, as my mother and her neighbors did when I was growing up in Brooklyn. Rosaria next door has been our weather barometer: if she puts out laundry we figure we are safe. She always seems to know when or for how long it is going to rain and we trust her more than the weather channel. We've been invited to family dinners including Christmas in Cetara with Nunzia and Antonio's family and December 8, the "Immacolata" all fresh fish (caught by Piero himself) dinner upstairs with Martine and Piero's lovely family that grew by one since we arrived, with the birth of little Danielle in December. We asked advice and were helped through the sale of our car, finding a hairdresser, a place for car service and where the best pizza is, and even felt brave enough to make my baked ziti for the family upstairs and my chicken parmegiano for Nunzia and Antonio and both were well received (or they were just being kind!) just to name a few instances of the friendships we've experienced. Meeting Emma has proved to be a wonderful experience as well. Her advice and good common sense about so many things was quite refreshing and most appreciated.

Being able to take our time and visit all the archeological sights in this area has been incredible and seeing Mt Vesuvius in all its different colors, from a distance, on the road and up close, looking into its mouth. Just amazing. I felt ready enough to do my watercolor journaling again and have filled a few of those "Moleskin" journals with lots of quick sketches and washes done on the run, sometimes in the car, sometimes walking through a city. It was a hoot to share all of what we had found with Jessica who came to visit again and took advantage of the opportunity. She loves "touching old stuff" as she once said and we loved her excitement over everything she saw. We were just sorry Chris was not able to come again also, but being a daddy has had to take precedence over traveling and I'm sure he wouldn't trade this time with his little Kyla for anything outside of their own world right now. We can't wait to get home and see them both and become more active grandparents.

Vietri with its many ceramica shops is like a big candy box, its colors and patterns literally jumping out at you as you pass. At first we thought we might tire of seeing all these ceramics but I never did. I had a difficult time deciding what to bring home, there were just too many choices for me! Finally we decided on a set of dishes with the typical Vietri pattern and a dessert set, with coffee cups and saucers that is based on an antique pattern. We spent too much but it was the biggest splurge of our "live cheap" lifestyle and, we hope will be heirlooms for our children. It was difficult because I loved almost everything I saw. Vietri turned out to be a great location for touring both the very winding Amalfi Coast and other parts of the area. It is the first city on the Amalfi Coast so it was easy for us to head towards Amalfi and Positano, (both gorgeous viewed also at night with all the lights twinkling!) and easier from here than the other Amalfi Coast towns, to take the autostrada north towards Naples, Pompei and the volcano, south and east to Salerno and the Cilento Coast or inland towards Benevento and even further east into Basilicata and beyond. We did it all. Our trip to Puglia to see the Trulli was amazing and fulfilled yet another dream of ours, to tour this unique region. We barely scratched the surface though and would love to return.

Our landlords here have not made much of an effort to make friends and in fact, we had to do some searching to even found out who they were, and we've had some less than favorable experiences with the British agent we used, based in Salerno and the Amalfi Coast (according to his website he is the only English speaking agent working in this area) who says he is going to give us back our deposit but so far has not and we don't have high hopes of this happening. The landlords say it's not their problem and we considered reporting the lot of them to the Guardia Finanza, the “tax police.” It was difficult to find an apartment here over the Internet as we had done in each of the other areas and working with an agent seemed a way to accomplish it. We made a bad decision in choosing this particular agent in the first place but that must just be chalked up to being part of the experience and hindsight is always 20/20.

But it's been so much fun living here, to run upstairs to borrow an egg or ask advice of Martine or Nunzia or Carmela. We love to go up and play with little Manuel, now about 18 months old. Cute! To stop and chat with Antonio in the feramenta, with Ferdinando at the Locanda Restaurant and Emma at Apicella's ceramics shop where we bought our dishes. I gave Martine's young granddaughter some of my watercolor paints and paper and she just beamed with delight. By now our language skills have improved enough that we can hold our own and we don't get quite as tongue tied as in the beginning. This week I even gave Nunzia a lesson in making my chocolate cake (transferring it to her metric measurements as we worked) and showed her how we color Easter eggs! In return, she has given me an Italian cookbook and countless family recipes that I can't wait to try. We've learned so much, both of the language and the culture of Italy and its food and history that I don't believe we will even realize until later, when we get home and have a little distance from it all. We loved our ceramics lessons with Andrea and Lucia and hope we can figure out how to come back again in the future and study further with them. We loved looking out at the beautiful Bay of Salerno every day and watching the big ferries coming and going guided by tiny pilot boats and the sea dotted with small craft of the local fishermen.

Bob will be bringing home thousands of photos and I've done a good bit of painting. We know we will spend a lot time when we return organizing and sorting and figuring out what to do with all of this stuff we have accumulated and hope that some of it is worth something to someone! It will take time to digest it all. We only know it's been amazing and we are fortunate to have been able to experience this dream of ours and to carry it through to its completion. After two years in Italy we have to admit that we are kind of tired now and ready to go home. Not that we are really ready to leave Italy! We hope to continue studying the language and return to visit many of our friends and favorite places here. We'll just see how it goes. It's a big world and life is short. There are more adventures ahead. We hope our friends will come to the states to see us too.

We've spent the last few days packing in earnest and had to go and buy another suitcase, in addition to sending home quite a few boxes that will arrive after we do. We're practically on a first name basis with the woman at the Post Office who I'm sure must think we are insane with all the boxes we've sent home! It will be like Christmas, getting back and looking at what we have collected in these two years and going through the things that have been in storage all this time, seeing what we kept and probably wondering why and looking for things we did not! It should be very interesting indeed and keep us busy for a while sorting it all out!

In the beginning, and for the longest time, we were concerned that not too many people were reading our blog since we didn't receive many comments. Finally, in August 2006 we put a counter on the page and at this writing there have been well over 5,000 hits. That is really rewarding and the fun thing is that the readers come from literally all over the world. Imagine someone in Seoul, Korea and Lisbon, Portugal, Montenegro, Paris, Beijing, or New South Wales, Australia for example, caring about and reading what we have to say and to show. Amazing! And we thank all of you for coming along and following this great adventure of ours. We hope you have enjoyed what we have put out there and that perhaps it will encourage you to live out your dreams. I can't say it was easy. It wasn't just dumb luck. We worked really hard to get here. There were many challenges. But it was absolutely worth it. We started this adventure saying to ourselves "Now is the time. Life is short. You never know what tomorrow will bring." So now we'd like to say, if you have a dream, go for it. It's doable. Put one foot in front of the other and before you know it, your dream becomes a reality. We are living proof!

Arrivederci,
Bob and Rosemary

More of Jessica's visit to Napoli

2007-03-29T01:47:00.000-04:00

A view of Naples from Castel St. Elmo

Ladybug over Napoli

Ladybug Lovers, at the top of the Castle

Jessica and Rosemary, in heavenly light

Pozzuoli: Anfiteatro Puteolano a.k.a. Teatro Flavio

2007-03-27T16:57:00.000-04:00

This is the third largest Roman Theater in Italy. Construction began in 70AD under the rule of Nero. It had a seating capacity of 40,000 and a large underground area to house caged animals and a lift system to bring them up to the arena.

Jessica in the Theater

The underground area (in black and white)

Here you can see the immensity of the theater

The marble columns are scattered throughout the underground area

For Jessica this was like a trip to Disney Land. As a professional Stage Manager it must have been quite an experience to walk in such an historic place.

Cumae an 8th century B.C. Greek colony

2007-03-27T16:45:00.000-04:00

Jessica at the Temple of Jove (Jupiter) She just loves touching "old stuff"

Sibyl's Grotto: A trapozoidal tufa passageway used as tunnels for the military (probably)

Rosemary at one of the openings along Sibyl's Grotto

Jessica and the island of Procida

2007-03-26T14:36:00.000-04:00

Procida's harbor

The blazing sunset viewed from our seats in the ferry

The colorful houses of Procida

Jessica and the island of Ischia

2007-03-26T14:15:00.000-04:00

Passing the island of Procida going to Ischia, the Abbey of San Michele

Boats in Ischia's harbor with a view of the castle

View of Ischia from the top of the castle

Jessica at the top of the castle

Jessica pretending to be a dead nun. In the 1700s, the nuns of the convent in the castle put the bodies of the dead sisters on these chairs where the bodily fluids drained and they were left to decompose. Later the bones were collected, dried & buried all together. Gory, but true.

Villa Gelso, Elio & Giovanna's country house, Ragusa

2007-03-25T06:20:00.000-04:00

We stayed in the country house of our friends Elio and Giovanna, in Ragusa, Sicily for a few days last week, to say goodbye and see Bella Sicilia one more time. Here are some views of this peaceful place set in the Ragusa countryside. Here's a link to Elio's website if you want to find out more about pricing and availability etc: http://www.affittocasa.net/sicily-italy/index.html

Sicilian "mandorini" in the kitchen window

Back door and picnic table on side veranda

Gate to the veranda from the stone courtyard

The veranda, a shady spot with cozy benches

Views of the Villa Gelso, Ragusa

2007-03-25T06:12:00.000-04:00

Beautiful pottery on a china cabinet in the kitchen

Looking back towards the Villa Gelso, from the road, stormy skies

Two bedrooms are upstairs with a roomy terrace

Living Room (soggiorno) & freestanding fireplace (note typical "pece" floor)

Looking into the soggiorno from the kitchen

Villa Gelso, Ragusa

2007-03-25T05:57:00.000-04:00

A big country kitchen with door to the side veranda

A bench on the veranda and a view of the countryside

The courtyard and one of the friendly cats

Wildflowers, low stone walls, rustic country farms and cows on the rolling green hills surround the tranquil Villa Gelso

The wood burning oven in the typical Sicilian country kitchen

Eating Cannoli in Modica

2007-03-25T05:53:00.000-04:00

The incomparable cannoli of Buonaiuto's, Modica

Eating a cannolo on the steps of the church (how decadent!)

In Ragusa again with friends

2007-03-25T05:32:00.000-04:00

Il Duomo San Giorgio, Ragusa Ibla, restored!

A view of Ragusa Ibla

Chicken roasting in Ragusa

Our Last Supper in Ragusa at the Timino farm, where we enjoyed, among other things, hot ricotta, wonderful cheeses and olives and a scrumptious assortment of grilled meats

Le Donne (the women) - our Sicilian women friends, left to right: Marinella, Signora Tumino (restaurant owner), Giovanna, Lucia, Rosalba, Assunta and me, Rosemary, seated in front

Gli Uomini (the men) - our Sicilian men friends, left to right: Salvatore, Elio, Pippo (the three brothers) and Rino and Bob, with Gianfranco in front

Sicilian cart and Sicilian friends

2007-03-25T05:26:00.000-04:00

The horse that came before the cart on San Giuseppe day

A very wonderful example of a hand-painted Sicilian cart

With Elio and Giovanna at Punto Braccetto, Sicily

Angelo, our favorite from the older men we knew in Marina di Ragusa

Cena San Giuseppe, Santa Croce Camerina

2007-03-25T05:15:00.000-04:00

The "Cena" - an incredible feast prepared for this special day

The group representing the Holy Family. We were surprised that they were not dressed as you expect for the Holy Family but this is the way it is done here.

Giuseppe (Joseph) knocks three times asking to be allowed inside. When at last he answers "Joseph, Mary and the Baby Jesus" the door is opened and they are fed from the Cena.

The special, fancy bread that is typical of the feast of San Giuseppe

Giant pot of pasta, cooked outside & served to those allowed in

Torniamo a Casa (Home from Sicily) 3.20.07

2007-03-24T10:12:00.000-04:00

We were awakened this morning by the sound of thunder, deep, rolling thunder and the sound of rain hitting against the outside shutters of our apartment here in Vietri sul Mare. It was pouring rain as we got on the bus yesterday in Ragusa, hugging our friends Elio and Giovanna, our dear friends. Giovanna said the sky was crying at our leaving and so were we. We have come to love these people who befriended us from the very first, when we arrived like the bumpkins we were, in Ragusa, with our limited language skills and our wide-eyed enthusiasm for everything we saw and did. Elio literally took us under his wing and helped us through every little crisis we had from our technology problems to the car accident to renewing our permesso with such a generosity of spirit, time and energy, it will ever remain a benchmark for how to treat the people who come into our lives. They introduced us to their circle of friends, their families, invited us into their homes, shared their knowledge of Sicily and their love for the southeastern part in particular and took us places and showed us things we would never have found on our own. There are no words to describe the gratitude we owe them and we only hope they will let us repay even a tiny bit by coming to visit us in the states in the future when their very busy lives allow.

Jessica went home on the 14th and we took the bus home to Vietri and napped and rested that day, getting our things together for our quick trip to Sicily. This was not something we had expected to do before leaving Italy, but if you have read this blog recently you know that when we were in Ostuni we received an invitation to return to Ragusa, to stay in one of the properties of our friends Elio and Giovanna for the chance to see them and Sicily one more time before we returned to the states. We jumped at the chance, although we knew we had just a few short weeks to get our things together for the move back home and a bit stressed out to tell you the truth with everything we have to do to prepare for our trip back home to the states.

Nevertheless, it was something we wanted to do very much and they just made it easy for us, letting us stay in their beautiful country house "in campagna" (in the country) just outside Ragusa, as their guests.

Our flight left Naples at around 4:45 and in about an hour we were touching down in Catania, just in time to catch the 6pm bus to Ragusa. By 8 we were embracing Elio and Giovanna at the bus station and picking up a few things to make a light dinner at their lovely apartment. They had framed the little watercolor I had presented them with, of their country house, before we left in May, now part of the art collection on the walls of their home. I was flattered. They liked the little gift we brought them from Vietri, a set of limoncello glasses with decanter and a tray to match, not nearly enough to truly thank them, but they appreciated the thought and even scolded us for bringing anything at all!

Staying at the Villa Gelso

The Villa Gelso is a lovely old two-story Sicilian farmhouse that Elio and Giovanna have lovingly restored and filled with antiques and traditional Sicilian ceramics, furniture and treasures. It is part of a small borgo, with another house owned by their friends Lucia and Rino and a third by a gentleman who is retired but maintains a small farm and a herd of sheep who can be seen every day clamoring out of his fenced yard and down the country lane, to munch on grasses in a nearby field. There is a family of cats who also inhabit this property, cavort and play with each other, living quite a peaceful existence, keeping away the mice and amusing themselves as only cats can.

A bright blue front door welcomed us into the soggiorno, a combination living room and dining area, with cozy furniture and freestanding stove (fireplace). A pile of wood was stored in a corner of the room and all the necessary accoutrements for starting a fire. So cozy! The floors are made of a traditional Sicilian tile called "pece" in shades of dark browns and carmel colors that reminded us a bit of the stained concrete floors we had in Phoenix, but more browns than rusts in color. There is a large country kitchen with doors that open to the terraces on both sides and lots of trees and potted plants and enough cozy corners to relax in and enjoy the rolling green hills, wildflowers and low stone walls that characterize this part of Sicily, that we enjoyed so much when we lived here last year. Its location is close enough to Ragusa and the other sights in the area as to be a very convenient base for touring as well.

Upstairs are the two double bedrooms (with a fold out bed downstairs too) and second bath (there is another downstairs). Casement windows open to views of the countryside and a large terrace with an almost 360 degree view of the surrounding countryside, all the way to the sea on a clear day. On Friday morning we enjoyed the sunshine and our breakfast there.

Visiting Marina di Ragusa and Angelo

Not only did they let us stay in the country house, but they also gave us the use of Giovanna's car during our stay so that we could visit some of our favorite places. On Friday, of course, our first stop was to Marina di Ragusa, to say hello to Salvatore at the coffee bar we frequented, only to learn that he doesn't work there any more (only in the summer is what we understood) and to walk along the Lungomare. We stopped at the home of Angelo, a favorite of ours among the older guys who hung out in the piazza. He had not been well when we left and we worried about him. I had sent him a post card and a note and had not heard back so we were concerned something dire had happened. But when we rang his doorbell and he came to the door and recognized us, he got tears in his eyes and welcomed us warmly into his home, offering coffee, a drink, some biscotti? We learned that after we left he had had a serious car accident that landed him in the hospital in a coma for ten days and that he was only now recovering. To tell you the truth, he still didn't look very good to us so we will continue to worry about him. We didn't stay very long, as we were meeting Elio and Giovanna later that evening and didn't want to tire him out either. He gave us the email address of his son and asked us to keep in touch with him. We promised we would. Angelo had given us his address when we left last year, telling us that whenever we went back to Marina we should come and see him and his buddy Giovanni had teased him about it at the time (probably thinking we never would do it.) so I think it gave him great pleasure to see us standing at his doorstep a year later! It did our hearts good too.

Pizza in Donnalucata

Friday night we met Giovanna and Elio in Marina and drove together to Donnalucata, a nearby town (where we used to buy fresh fish at the market) for a gathering of their friends. Almost every town in the area was celebrating the feast of St. Joseph (March 19th is his feast day) with some sort of festival, parade, or other celebration. There was a street fair/market going on and we wandered around admiring all the wares, after a pizza dinner in a local restaurant. The men insisted on sitting at one end of the table with the women at the other and the women (all modern women with professions and every bit their partners' equals) gave them a hard time about it and a lot of teasing back and forth ensued. It was all in good fun and both Bob and I were thrilled that we were able to follow a good deal of the conversation and even share in the teasing and story telling. They all noticed that our language skills had improved since we saw them last and gave us lots of positive pats on the back for it.

Ragusa Ibla and the Duomo

On Saturday we spent some time in Ragusa Ibla and saw that the restoration of the Duomo is finished, no more scaffolding. The Ragusani are apparently unhappy though because they hadn't anticipated that the restoration would mean bringing back the dark stone details on the façade that had faded over time. The overall appearance of the Duomo, although in dire need of a good cleaning before, was that of light colored tufa stone. Now it is accented on the columns and around the massive doors with very dark, almost black stone that really stands out in a very contrasting way. We thought if you had never seen it the other way, that you might find it very beautiful anyway, but Giovanna felt that with the dark iron gates around it, the lower part of the church is now too heavy and dark. For us, we were just happy to see this lovely piazza, with its palm trees and shops surrounding it, free of scaffolding and open to the light.

Unfortunately while we were in Sicily, the father of a dear friend of Elio and Giovanna's died and they needed to tend to the needs of their friend. We shared a simple late lunch of roasted chicken and veggies (yummm) picked up at the local rosticceria. We were on our own on Saturday evening and spent some quiet time in front of the fire, with a simple dinner. Not that we minded, it was very relaxing for us after our busy couple of weeks.

Sunday, "in giro" and the Cena di San Giuseppe

Sunday was a day "in giro" (traveling around) with them. They picked us up around noon and we went to a nearby town - Santa Croce Camerina - for a celebration of the feast of San Giuseppe. Last year I was lucky enough to tag along with Elio's brother Salvatore and his wife Marinella and witness for the first time the "cena" - a private home where the people who live there and their friends and families prepare an incredible feast, spread out on a huge table and invite the Holy Family to partake. This is acted out by local people representing Joseph, Mary and the Baby Jesus, who come to knock on their door, asking to be let in. This is in memory of the days before Mary gave birth, when she and Joseph went to Bethlehem and "there was no room for them at the inn". Joseph (Giuseppe) knocks three times at the door. First when the matriarch of the family asks "Chi è?" (Who is it?) he says "Joseph" and there is no response. Then he knocks again and at the same questions responds "Joseph and Mary." The third time is the charm and when he responds "Joseph, Mary and the Baby Jesus" the door is opened and they enter, wash their hands and take their seats at the table and are served from the "cena" (dinner) spread before them. (Last year they were served spaghetti, but this time it was a little of everything on the table.)

Giovanna, charming as she is, with her beautiful sparkling green eyes, asked the woman of the house if we could stay and watch since we were not members of the family or close friends. She explained that we were visiting and it would be a great thing for us to be able to see firsthand what they did. This is a very religious event. This particular family had some health issues that were resolved in a positive way and they wanted to express their thanks to God for delivering them from their burdens (This is the way it was explained to me and I hope I have recounted it properly and respectfully.) First we all walked to the church, they said their prayers and were accompanied back to the home by a marching band and only the immediate family went inside as the Holy Family approached and began the knocking ritual.

Afterwards we were invited to share a bowl of pasta that was prepared in a giant pot and mixed with a simple tomato sauce. Bob felt a bit uncomfortable, as if he were intruding on a very private event but Giovanna assured him that the people were very happy to have us join them and witness this unique festival.

The day ended with a drive to the sea, to Punta Braccetto, one of the most southerly points on the coast of Sicily, a little snack of the focaccia sandwiches typical of this area, accompanied by some juicy oranges. Elio really wanted to take us for some granita too, but we were all too tired and convinced him it was OK to go home without it. (Elio tries his best to accommodate us and if he thought we wanted to do something, he would try his darndest to make it happen!)

Modica and a Last Supper

Monday we spent in Modica. We wanted to just stand at the overlook with the panoramic view of the city and to walk through its lovely streets one more time. We bought a few pieces of Sicilian ceramica, imitations of pieces from the 18th century, a Sicilian cookbook (I was sorry hadn't bought one of these when we lived here and took the chance to do it now.), some Modica chocolate and of course, cannoli from Buonaiuto's shop. We sat on the steps of the church, munching happily, delighted to have had the chance to eat just one more!

Monday night we joined Elio, Giovanna, Elio's brothers Salvatore and Pippo, their wives Rosalba and Marinella, friends Rino & Lucia and Assunta & Gianfranco for another "Last Supper" at the Masseria "Tumino" - a large working farm that offers typical Ragusana fare, cheeses and olives, with the centerpiece of the meal (as far as we were concerned) a steaming bowl of fresh, just made, hot ricotta! If you ever get the chance (and have not yet) to try this, it is, in our opinion, out of this world. Afterwards they served a variety of grilled meats: veal, pork and beef that were sliced thin and dripping with the most delicious sauce, that was probably the simple, tried and true Italian concoction of "aglio, olio, pepperoncino and sale (lots of sale!) It was completely finger-licking buono, buono, buono.

All of this was followed by a fresh-made, from their fresh ricotta, more cannoli! Everyone else had the good sense to share one, while Bob and I hadn't understood the pinky gesture that meant they would each have half. We talked and laughed so much that night. We learned about other gestures and what they mean. Giovanna explained a term we had heard that meant something like "Who is this guy??" or "What do you want??" that sounds something like "Chi (hard "c") stu ca?" that I remembered hearing my uncle say, so I know it is Sicilian but she laughed and wanted to know where I had heard that and said it's not really a nice thing (not obscene or anything) but not a friendly thing. I got that it was accompanied by the typical Italian gesture of touching all your fingertips together with the thumb and shaking it back and forth.

We had the waiter take a photo of the whole group and then one of all the men and all the women. These people have been friends since childhood and it is one of the things I envy and enjoy about being around them. They have a familiarity and a devotedness to each other that can only be achieved from a lifetime of experience. In this gypsy lifestyle of ours we have met many people and many whom we consider lifelong friends, but know we sacrifice something by not staying in one place, the trade-off to having many experiences I suppose and one we have to be content with, so rich have these experiences been.

Pranzo (lunch) with Lucia and goodbyes

On Tuesday, we got our things together to leave, took a walk around the countryside and were invited to have lunch prepared by Lucia, next door. She is a surgical nurse and is studying English, with the desire to visit America and her relatives in Australia. It was lovely to spend some quiet time with her and hear all about her plans and dreams and get to know her a little better. We learned that she and her husband Rino are building another house and trying to sell this one. It's a wonderful two bedroom and a den upstairs and very spacious downstairs with big kitchen and open living space below. They are asking 300,000 euros and we wish we could afford to buy it! If you are at all interested, let us know and we'll put you in touch with Lucia. It would definitely be a turn-key situation as they have lovingly restored it and it looks gorgeous.

We promised to keep in touch, sharing email and street addresses and a warm hug as we hurried off to meet Elio and Giovanna, drop off their car and take the bus back to Catania. There was not a lot of time for a lengthy goodbye but we hugged and kissed each other warmly and with the rain pouring down on us, hurried onto the bus, crying our eyes out as it pulled away and I saw Giovanna blow us a kiss from their car. Hoping our paths will cross again, knowing it will take an effort on both our parts, as long distance relationships are hard and it takes a real effort to maintain a friendship when there are many miles in between. We will do our best though and we know they will too. We will see each other again. Promise.

Per Elio e Giovanna, vogliamo dire: Grazie tantissimi, i nostri amici! Non vi dimenticheremmo, mai. State bene, sempre. Starete nel nostri cuori per sempre. Benvenuti in America a casa nostra quando potete venire. Baci, baci, baci.

Now the thunder is still pounding around us. We've seen some hail hitting the terrace and rain has been constant all day. The electricity has gone in and out and we wonder about the strength of the connections out there. The forecast for tomorrow is for more of the same and then we hope the sun will come out. We promised ourselves we would swim in this sea before we leave here on the 31st and we hope we can keep that promise!

Buona giornata, wherever you are,
Rosemary & Bob

Getting ready to leave 3.21.07

2007-03-24T10:11:00.000-04:00

We arrived home last night from Sicily and now it is time to prepare in earnest for our trip back to the states. It is not going to be easy to leave; this experience has been the most amazing thing we've done so far in our lives (besides our children of course!)

We headed for Sicily on the 15th a bit tired from Jessica's visit and a bit stressed out over another issue. We were having a little problem retrieving the deposit we paid to our "agent" when we arrived here in Vietri. It's part of a longer story, but to try to summarize, we stopped working with our "agent" (a Brit, not an Italian) when we discovered that he was skimming a bit of our rent money off the top to keep for himself, unbeknownst to us at the time. The fact was apparently news to our landlords too because in January, when they discovered this little scheme he was perpetrating, together with a local guy, they put the kabosh on their plans and told us we would in the future, pay them directly, reducing our rent. We confronted said "agent" and after a few unpleasant email communications, he stopped writing. The landlady said she had the deposit, misunderstanding that we were not talking about the last month's rent, which we also paid up front, but an additional month, as "desosit."

At the beginning of March when we asked her about it she denied having any further monies and thus began our very stressful attempt to get them back. We are at the moment expecting the agent to transfer our deposit to a PayPal account, which our son Chris will then withdraw and hold for us. We are hoping we can trust this guy to follow through, but to tell you the truth we are not so confident about it. We'll see. We hope that he proves us wrong and does what he said he would do and we can leave with all well that ends well. This has unfortunately caused us a bit of grief and been the only really negative experience we have had in Italy, with dishonest people.

We have been spending a good deal of time also, arranging for our return to the states, having started several weeks before Jessica's arrival. The sale of the car went more smoothly than we ever could have anticipated, thanks to the help of our neighbors, Martine, Piero and their son Herve. We have already sent a few more boxes home, due to arrive after our return. We have arranged for our things from storage to be delivered to our new home in Milford, Delaware and for the cleaning of our carpets and touch up to the paint on the walls, as needed. We've researched phone companies and Internet providers and arranged for a car to pick us up at the airport in Philadelphia and deposit us at a hotel where we will spend our first night home in the U.S. We plan to rent a car in Milford until we can purchase one. Shirley, the agent who has managed the rental of our home there has kindly offered to lend us a portable mattress so that we can actually move into our own place and not have to stay in a hotel beyond that first night, until our things arrive anywhere from the 7th to the 11th of April. We figure we can just use paper plates etc and eat take out for a few days, rather than spending a lot of money on a hotel room. (the "live cheap" attitude must continue!)

We anticipate these next ten days to be very full indeed as we decide what we can fit in our suitcases, what we will ship and what we will need to leave behind or give to our neighbors or charity. Bob started getting a bad cold in Sicily and I have insisted he take some time to completely rest and not worry about doing any packing or preparing until he feels better. I'm slamming down vitamins and drinking juice and trying not to catch what he has!

We still hope we can make it to a few more ceramics lessons before we go home and I still want to buy a few more pieces of ceramica as mementos of our time here in Vietri. You would think I would have done this by now but I always have trouble shopping when there are too many choices and with Vietri chock full of ceramics shops, I just couldn't decide before now what I wanted to get. Whatever we buy will be shipped home since there will not be room in our suitcases, limited as we are now by reduced maximum luggage weights permitted on airplanes.

I hope to write again before we leave, just to say arrivederci and summarize things. If that doesn't happen, I will certainly do it when we get back to the states. We have so much on our minds now as this departure date looms in front of us. We have so many mixed emotions about leaving. It has been incredible to be here. We've had so many wonderful experiences and a few not so wonderful but all in all we are thrilled that we did this. That we had a dream and made it happen. We have learned more than I believe we even realize in this moment. It is a time we will always treasure and be proud of for as long as we live.

For now, we are still here,
Rosemary & Robert

Jessica takes Napoli!

2007-03-24T07:23:00.000-04:00

Teatro San Carlo. Jessica enjoyed seeing them in preparation for a show.

Galleria Umberto's impressive glass and iron roof

Villa Communale, public gardens in Napoli

Jessica's lovely shot of the stairs, Palazzo Reale. She has a good eye.

Jessica in Naples

2007-03-24T06:51:00.000-04:00

Napoli skyline

Our Non-religious daughter!

The King's writing table, Palazzo Reale

Palazzo Reale steps

Jessica's visit to Napoli

2007-03-24T06:40:00.000-04:00

Our beautiful daughter Jessica at Piazza Plebiscito

Ceiling, Chiesa San Francesco di Paolo

Castel Dell'Ovo

Galleria Umberto exterior

Castel Nuovo

Jessica's visit to Pompei & Herculaneum

2007-03-24T06:07:00.000-04:00

One of the black and white mosaic floors in a villa

Mosaic shrine in an outside courtyard

Plaster cast from a victim found among the ruins

One of the theatres

Overview of the city of Pompei

Jessica's visit to Campania

2007-03-24T05:59:00.000-04:00

Fumaroles at Solfatara

Bubbling Mud at Solfatara

Looking into the mouth of the volcano Mt. Vesuvius

Having fun on top of the volcano

Pompeii ruins

2007-03-23T14:46:00.000-04:00

Jessica was a bit surprised at the chaos that is called driving here.

What we see on our way into centro.

Jessica's first day in Campania we drove the Amalfi Coast

2007-03-23T14:29:00.000-04:00

Cetara

Detail from Villa Rufolo in Ravello

View from Villa Rufolo

Villa Cimbrone

Another visit from Jessica 1-14 March 2007

2007-03-22T16:09:00.000-04:00

Jessica arrived here on the 1st of March and we had a great visit with her, as always. She's such a terrific traveler, we really enjoy her excitement over everything she sees and we try to show her as much as possible when she comes here to Italy. We laughingly told our friends that we think it took us about four months to see all the things she saw in just two weeks (although that's probably an exaggeration!). We drove the Amalfi Coast, spending time in Cetara, that little jewel, and in Ravello, delighted that the formal gardens in the Villa Rufolo were fully planted with seasonal flowers and it looked lovely. We also walked up to the Villa Cimbrone one more time and were happy to see things starting to bloom. We picked up some panini at the alimentari and ate on the Villa's famous balcony with the busts (theirs, not ours!) overlooking the Mediterranean, the one you see in all the guidebooks.

Volcanic Activities

We walked to the top of Vesuvius, visited Solfatara, Pompeii and Herculaneum. A highlight of her visit was eating my meatball sandwiches with a bottle of the local Lacrima Christi wine (the vineyards are on the slopes of the volcano) that we bought when we arrived at the top of the volcano, Mt. Vesuvius. It's a bit of a steep climb for around 20 minutes but definitely worth the effort to look into the mouth of a volcano and see some fumaroles (hot spots) rising like steam, even though this particular volcano hasn't erupted since 1944 and they don't expect any activity any time soon.

The Royal Palace and Gardens at Caserta

On a particularly rainy day we drove to Caserta and toured the Royal Palace and its gardens. The rain literally came down in sheets (fortunately we had our umbrellas) as we walked through the gorgeous English gardens, discovering the little pond area with its statue of Venus, crouching on a stone as if she had just come out of her bath or was about to jump in!

Before coming back to Vietri we made a detour to Benevento so she could see the Roman Arch there and get just a taste of that city, near the birthplace of my great-grandparents on my mother's side.

Trips to Napoli

We went to Naples three different days, once by bus and twice by car. We visited the Duomo, the Galleria, the Teatro and Piazza Plebescito; Castles St. Elmo (where we witnessed a large cluster of ladybugs in love!) and Nuovo, the Archeological Museum and its incredible collection of mosaics and frescoes from Pompei and the other buried cities, and Napoli Sotteranea; the majolica painted cloister of Santa Chiara (where the guard berated us for climbing on the benches for a photo op. I was mortified!!) and the Catacombs of San Genaro.

The islands of Ischia and Procida

We took a ferry out to the islands of Ischia and Procida, climbing all around the Aragonese Castle on Ischia for some of the most beautiful views of the bay and the harbor. We had lunch at Al Pontile restaurant overlooking the harbor and were served the most delicious bruschetta con pomodorini I think I have had in Italy, followed by a mediocre plate of Penne al'Arabiata that surprised (and disappointed), after such a lovely antipasto.

We spent another day touring the Roman ruins at Baia and Bacoli and the Greek ones at Cumae, including the "Sybil's grotto" with its strange trapezoidal-shaped cave and the temple ruins. We even made it to Pozzuoli to see the well-preserved Roman Amphitheatre, a genuine thrill for our daughter who is a professional stage manager. She was especially excited to be able to go below the stage area and wander around, not something generally available in these ancient ruins.

Vietri ceramica and shopping

We spent one day shopping in Vietri where Jessica found lots of pretty things to take home both for herself and for friends, while Bob stayed at home resting. He hates shopping anyway and it was also an opportunity for us to have some girl time, looking in all the shops and admiring and touching everything!

Another drive along the Amalfi Coast

The day before she went home we took another drive along the Amalfi Coast and lunched on the beach near Punta Campanella, putting our feet in the water and collecting pretty colored rocks. We stopped in Positano for a walk down to the beach and a look up at the pastel colored houses that climb up from the sea (or spill down to it, depending on how you want to view it!). From there we headed around the peninsula towards Sorrento and a little walk around the centro, picking up a few last minute souvenirs.

Her flight left early on the morning of the 14th and she took with her one of our suitcases filled with things we needed to send home. We waited around until her 6:55 am flight took off, then went home for a much-needed down day. On the 15th we packed our bags and took the bus back to the airport and headed for Sicily! (but that's another story.)

Rosemary & Bob

The Certosa in Padula

2007-03-22T15:48:00.000-04:00

We had a lovely day exploring the Certosa with Janet and Stephen. Here are a few views.

Certosa San Lorenzo di Padula

2007-03-22T15:41:00.000-04:00

A few images from our visit to the Certosa with Janet and Stephen

Off to Sicilia 3.14.07

2007-03-14T19:42:00.000-04:00

Hi folks. Just wanted to let you know that our daughter Jessica left this morning after a two-week visit with us here in Vietri. We had a great time and as always it was hard to say goodbye but this time, knowing we will see her again in just a few short months, home in the states made it easier.

Tomorrow we are off to Sicily for a few days visit with Giovanna and Elio and we are looking forward to it very much.

We have a lot of catching up to do but won't be posting anything new for a while. We'll be back in Vietri on the 20th, in the evening.

Here's wishing you all a Happy St. Patrick's Day and a happy spring. If where you are is anything like here, the weather is warming up, the trees are leafing out and the flowers are starting to bloom. Lovely!

Buon settimana e ci vediamo subito!
Rosemary e Robert

Janet & Stephen and a visit to the Certosa in Padula 2.21 - 23.07

2007-03-13T05:04:00.000-04:00

Photos to follow if time allows.
After a lovely string of emails with our friends Janet and Stephen in the U.K. and much deliberation about whether we could afford to go there for a visit, to see them as well as some of our other friends, we decided we just could not put it all together and so Janet and Stephen, who own a place in Umbria, said they would just come here to see us before we left for America. They planned to fly into Naples from Stanstead, rent a car and then, after visiting with us, drive up to San Feliciano to spend some time in their home there before returning to England. We met them when we were living in Perugia. Janet had corresponded with me through the “Expats in Italy” website originally and she had enjoyed reading the blog and I always enjoyed her very amusing and always entertaining emails about her life in Great Britain. She and her husband Stephen are about our age with grown kids and grandkids and share the love of living in Italy, travel in general, gardens, history and the like. They were anticipating coming to stay in their newly acquired property when we were living in Perugia and we finally met face to face at an Expats gathering there. They found a book I had mentioned on the blog (I wrote about this when it happened) and brought it to me as a gift, a very touching and thoughtful thing to do. We have been friends ever since then and keep in touch via periodic emails. They have had a busy past year with family responsibilities that included the death of her father and the birth of a new grandchild, among other things. They had planned to visit us in each of the places we've lived and promised to do it before we returned to the states. Time was running out! It was just a short weekend but it meant a lot to us that they went to all the trouble to come all the way down here. Perugia and Lago Trasimeno are several hours’ drive from the Amalfi Coast.

All day we anticipated their arrival! We had expected them to call when they arrived in Naples so that we could walk up to centro and greet them. But they had had some difficulties getting out of the airport (not a surprise, the area around the airport is quite crazy to navigate) and never managed to be able to call. We began to worry that they had missed their flight or had some other difficulties. When they finally called it was from the piazza in Vietri and we scurried uphill to meet them. By this time it was late and raining and the Locanda, where we had planned to go for dinner was closed! Plan B was to go downhill to Butera, where we sometimes have a pizza. It seems like a chain restaurant but the people are always friendly and the pizza is good. We don't have to go far from our apartment and if we are lazy on the way home from a day's travels, it's easier to park the car in Marina than up in Vietri. It didn't disappoint. They were still open and we all ate a hearty meal. They were quite tired by that time and everyone went off to bed. It's been nice having a spare bedroom for our guests, affording them more privacy than just the sofa bed we had in Verona and in Perugia.

The weather report was iffy for the next day. It had rained for a few days with more expected. Our plan had been to take the ferry to Procida and spend the day exploring that island. But we were all worried that it might not be the best idea if it rained since the sea would be rough and the boat ride less than pleasant. Our friends Marco and Annalisa from Perugia (originally from Naples) had written to us only days before suggesting we visit the Certosa di San Lorenzo in Padula, in southern Campania before we left this area and everyone thought this was a better idea. We consulted our maps and books and the internet for opening times, locations and what have you and planned to rise early and go straight there. Afterwards we could drive a short distance along the Cilento Coast. They had never been to this part of Italy and were excited to see it.

Up early, a simple breakfast and coffee and we were off. The day started off a bit overcast but the promised rain did not come and we were happy to be able to wander around without need of umbrellas. With the help of our GPS system, Padula and the Certosa were relatively easy to find. Stephen offered to drive and Bob navigated, allowing Janet and I to sit in the back seat and enjoy the scenery and catch up a bit on each other's lives. The views are breathtaking all around driving through the interior of southern Campania and we really enjoyed the drive. Unfortunately there was also a bit of roadwork that slowed us down and the drive took longer than anticipated.

The Certosa itself was lovely. A huge complex of buildings and our research told us that the Certosa, or "Charterhouse" in English, is a Carpathian monastery, with the Carpathian monks being a very wealthy but extremely strict, cloistered religious sect who spend their lives in silence and prayer and tending their individual and communal gardens. This particular Certosa is no longer an active one, but more of a museum, while many are still active around the world. It was fascinating to see the various rooms and private apartments as well as the enormous cloister with the city of Padula directly behind it, climbing up the hill. The basic structure of the monastery was begun in the 14th century but as with so many of these buildings, over the centuries it underwent many changes and the Baroque decorations definitely were added on with abandon. The chapel was especially glittering with gold and dripping with baroque details. Bob got yelled at for taking photos of the beautiful wood inlays but couldn't resist! The huge kitchen was fabulous and my favorite part of the tour. Giant tables where the monks prepared their food and ate together and the colorful ceramic tile covered oven in the center of the room were quite wonderful.

Our favorite part of the complex was a gorgeous marble staircase, a sort of atrium with openings that afforded views of the countryside, like giant landscape paintings framed in white marble. It was definitely worth the trip and we all learned something about this religious order and the influence it had and the way these monks lived, lives, we think that were structured and peaceful, but not exactly Spartan.

The drive around the Cilento Coast, as always, was filled with beautiful views. The Cilento Coast has rugged cliffs and little bays with gorgeous beaches. The day was getting late and we headed for Sapri, a walk along the Lungomare and a gelato and we even ran into a couple of other Brits who told us they have a house nearby in Maratea and wished us all well as we headed back towards Salerno and home! We stopped a few times to enjoy the views and watched as the setting sun lit the sky with streaks of pink and red.

By the time we arrived back in Vietri it was well past 8pm and we parked the car and walked up to the Locanda where Ferdinando welcomed us warmly and served yet another scrumptious meal of – they enjoyed his fresh fish caught that very day in the waters off the coast of Vietri: polipo (octopus), seppie (cuttlefish), calamari (squid) and gamberi (prawns). As always when friends share a meal the wine and the conversation flowed easily and we all stopped to enjoy the view of the glittering port of Salerno as we rounded the curve towards our apartment halfway between the sea and the city and returned to talk about what would do in the morning before they headed off for Umbria.

In the morning we walked down to the sea and shared a coffee and cornetti at Martine’s bar and sat outside and enjoying the lovely weather. We took a little walk around centro, peeking into the ceramics shops but as it was still early many were still closed. We showed them our little Duomo, not too exciting, but there is one lovely old altar piece that appears to be from the Middle Ages. I always enjoy the little piazza in front of the church and the beautiful majolica tile decorations on the façade.

By 11am they were on the road again and we were left waving goodbye with promises all around to visit again, whether in Umbria, Britain or the states and we hope we can all keep these promises. This is the hardest part of leaving here. We have made so many wonderful friends that we will hope to see again. We have extended many invitations for them to come visit us in America and hope they know we are serious and look forward to showing them around and returning some of the favors shown to us during this incredible sojourn we have been living.

Now I must close. Jessica leaves here tomorrow after spending two weeks with us. We have tried our best to show her all the important stuff and have been on the go literally every day in this quest. Today we plan another day in Naples and look forward to seeing some things even we haven’t seen yet so it should be fun. The day after tomorrow we will get on a plane and fly to Sicily for five days to visit with our friends there, a happy thought and one we hadn’t anticipated doing until a few weeks ago when Giovanna called and invited us. The last 10 days will be spent without a car (we sold ours and will return the rental when we bring Jessica back to the airport) so we will be as we were in the beginning of this trip, taking buses and walking (not that we haven’t continued to do that!). We will keep attending our ceramica lessons and walking on the beach. The weather has warmed up now, the flowers are blooming and the trees are turning green. The tourists are returning too as we have seen many more busloads on the Amalfi Coast road. It is coming time for us to leave and I am filled with so many emotions I can barely sleep these days. Sad to go, looking forward to returning. I have felt this way each time we have moved in these past two years, from Phoenix to Perugia to Marina di Ragusa to Verona to here and now on to Delaware. How will we ever say goodbye this time???

Rosemary & Roberto

Janet and Stephen visit from the UK & more 3.11.07

2007-03-11T00:13:00.000-05:00

We had a lovely visit from our friends Janet and Stephen that I need to tell you about and we are so behind in our writing! They arrived on February 21 and left on the 23rd – a very brief visit but we had a great time. We went down to see the Certosa in Padula and took a drive along the Cilento Coast. I will write more about that later but wanted to be sure to post at least that much at this point. We want to post some photos and to tell them what a wonderful time we had with them. The day they left, we had our anniversary dinner party, then we met Emma and started ceramics lessons, sold our car, made plans to receive our furniture when we arrive at home on April 5th, in addition to researching cell phone and internet providers, insurance companies and rental car agencies, packed two bags for Jessica to take back to Milwaukee with her, welcomed our daughter for another visit and been on the go every day with her since she arrived on the 1st! There has not been a moment to spare but we wanted to at least put this much out there.

We’ve received a couple of very nice comments on the blog recently that I wanted to mention and thank those people for their kind words. It is always a pleasure to know that people are out there reading and enjoying what we have to say and to show. So thanks for that.

Now it’s 6:15 in the morning and I need to get going. Today we plan to visit Cumae and Baia and need to get an early start. We have had a practically non-stop time with Jessica but enjoy having her here so much. We just wish our son Chris could have been able to join us as well but with his new responsibilities as a daddy, that wasn’t possible. We spoke to our little granddaughter Kyla last week who had a wonderful visit to the zoo and told us all about seeing the brand new baby goats and the peacock who got “bigger and bigger and BIGGER!” We can’t wait to get home and enjoy these sorts of things with her, so we are very grateful to have much to look forward to.

Thanks again for coming along with us. These next weeks will be quite full. Jessica leaves on the 14th and on the 15th we will fly to Sicily for 5 days. Then we are definitely in the “Home” stretch!

Buona giornata,
Rosemary & Bob

Ceramic Lessons (below, making a box)

2007-03-11T00:01:00.000-05:00

With guidance from Andrea (pictured here with me) and his wife Lucia, Bob and I made a couple of bowls (sort of like the first day of Kindergarten!), a square box and a round one. We learned how to work the clay with our hands and then to roll it out with a big rolling pin. It was so much fun. Their home/studio is on the side of a cliff and looks out to the sea.

Ceramics lessons 2.27.07

2007-03-10T23:47:00.000-05:00

I know. We have only one month before we must leave our little paradise here in Vietri sul Mare. Jessica is arriving the day after tomorrow for two weeks with us and we are excited about showing her around this area. We're going to Sicily for 5 days after that. We sold our car today (we'll rent one while Jess is here) and we have decided to take a course in ceramics before we leave!!

Emma, the new friend we wrote about recently, who works at two different ceramics shops in Vietri, introduced us to friends of hers who are ceramic artists and we were presented with the opportunity to learn from these extremely talented people. Normally their courses are 50 hours. We don't HAVE 50 hours to spare! But their work is fantastic. We loved their house, on a hillside above Vietri, in a little village called Benincasa, with a vegetable garden and a studio overlooking the coast. They have two small children. Their home is filled with their own unique creations, including floors lamps and wall hangings, everything in the kitchen, including the fireplace, all the plates, bowls, coffee cups and platters are just an explosion of color and shape and design. We thought at first we couldn't do it. Not enough time. Not enough money. Too late in our stay to get started with something like this. Then we just looked at each other and said "why has this been put in front of us? In the spirit of this time in our lives, this adventure, we had to go for it. We had to remind ourselves that life is short and you have to grab it when you can and not put things off because you never know if you will have the opportunity again.

We talked with Andrea and Lucia and worked out a schedule, starting that very afternoon. We've had three lessons so far and the three hours each afternoon have flown by. We won't have any lessons while Jessica is here so we can show her around and enjoy her company. We'll start up again as soon as we get back from Sicily and we'll go every day until we leave Vietri on the 31st. Crazy maybe. We just know it seemed like something we had to at least try. Working with the clay, learning how to fire the pieces, apply the glazes and colors, feels kind of like the culminating act of this time in Italy, having spent a lot of time looking at ceramics in Umbria, in Sicily and of course here in Vietri, this home of ceramica. We're sure we won't produce anything of value at this point but just want to learn about it. To try our hand, as it were. And who knows, it might be one more reason to come back here in the future. To take more lessons. To study in the home of ceramics, where they have been doing it for centuries. We just know we're having a blast and that alone makes it worth it.

Ciao,
R&B

Dinner Party 2.23.07

2007-03-10T23:45:00.000-05:00

On Friday evening we invited our friends upstairs, Nunzia and Antonio for dinner. It was our anniversary (38 years!) but not really the reason for the invitation. They have done so many nice things for us we just wanted to return a little of the favor. Originally I thought it would be fun to make a typically American meal for them but the harder I thought about it the more I decided I couldn't really do that because I don't think I really cook like "an American." My family is Italian. If you have been reading this blog for a while you know that my grandparents were born in Italy - I am an "Italo-Americana" and my repertoire of meals consists largely of dishes I learned to make from my mother. And, as America is such a melting pot, borrowing from so many cultures to form a cuisine, who is to say what is truly American anyway? OK, a roasted turkey for Thanksgiving, maybe fried chicken, hamburgers and hot dogs (these last ones, not exactly stuff you want to serve your Italian friends!) Is a roast beef and mashed potatoes American or is it from the British? Is a Virginia Baked Ham truly an American invention? Pork chops? Macaroni and cheese (ooh baby!) So anyway, ultimately I decided that I would just fix them something I knew how to do and see if they thought my idea of Italian food would be pleasing to them and if they would think it was more "Italian" than "American."

For starters I made my sister-in-law Elaine's Slow Roasted Tomatoes. I don't know where she got the recipe (or if she invented it herself!) but it is a hit every time I serve it. Nunzia and Antonio loved it too and asked me how to make it. "Facile!" I said (easy) and promised to give them the recipe. (Simply add olive oil, basil and garlic to those little cherry tomatoes and roast it in a 325 degree oven for around 30 or 40 minutes until the skins pop and you can smush the tomatoes a bit to make a kind of salsa you spread on toasted bread or top pasta with.)

I made my own version of eggplant parmigiana with the long skinny eggplant we get here, breaded and fried it and layered it with slices of fresh tomato and provolone cheese and baked it in the oven. I made chicken cutlet parmegiana also and they liked it too and were completely surprised to see this dish prepared with meat, since they only know it with eggplant! I got some fresh pasta to toss with my meat sauce and in the middle of cooking the pasta our gas bottle (the "bombola") ran out of gas! Nunzia had to run upstairs to finish cooking the pasta and then we all sat down to eat. Antonio said that a sauce made by an Italian would have had more pepperoncino in it and been a bit more spicy, but hurried to add that he liked it all the same. They brought a tray of the most delicious pastries for dessert and we opened the Eiswein our friends Andrea and Vincent brought as a gift for us from Germany. By then it was time for them to go to Cetara and take home their little son Manuel who was left with his grandparents for the evening so his parents could enjoy their little night out without having to chase after him or worry about what he might get into in our definitely non-child-safe apartment!

We were so happy we could do this and ultimately it was decided that the meal I prepared was somewhere between true authentic Italian and American-Italian, but more of an Italo-Americana meal, just like the chef!

Buona sera,
Rosemary and Bob

Hiking with Emma, above Alessi

2007-02-28T23:39:00.000-05:00

Resting at the top of the mountain

We walked up to just below that cross

This Jesus statue, a recent arrival, on top of a bread shop

Rosemary and Emma, above Salerno

Church nestled in the hills around Alessi

Emma, a new friend in Vietri 2.25.07

2007-02-28T23:38:00.000-05:00

We recently met Emma, a lovely young woman who works at one of the ceramics shops here in Vietri. It's the one with the lovely tiles in the window we have passed many times near the Pasticceria Russo. We love some of the tiles in the window, that are a natural colored terra cotta contrasted with delicate designs in painted, glazed ceramic. Finally one day a few weeks ago before we went to Puglia, we found it open and met Emma. Her English is wonderful and we enjoyed talking with her about the area, about ceramics, language, the Italian people and life in general. We suggested we should go out for drink some time and asked her about the possibility of taking a ceramics lesson. She promised to get back in touch with us as she was not going to be available for a few weeks and neither were we.

We stopped in there the other day and she invited us to go on a hike with her in the hills above Vietri, near where she lives in the town of Alessi, high above Vietri and the Bay of Salerno. We also scheduled a day for a ceramics lesson. On Saturday around 2 in the afternoon she picked us up at our apartment and drove us to her home where she lives currently with her parents. She parked the car and we walked - mostly uphill - to the most wonderful viewpoint, with Vietri and the whole coast of Salerno and the Bay spread below us! It was breathtaking.

We learned that Emma is married to an American, a lucky young guy named Wes and that they are trying to work out where to live, whether in the states or in Italy and apparently they have many options open to them. She told us how difficult it is in this area to find work and she felt there would be more opportunities in America for her and Wes, who works for the government. But it could be that he can work in Europe, Italy or otherwise but at the moment he is in Washington D.C. We are hoping to visit with them when she comes to the states this fall.

After our hike in the mountains we went back to Emma's house where she literally threw together a lovely meal of sausages, potatoes and broccoli rabe that was fantastic and served with bread called pane grano that her parents made. A very interesting bread that is baked, then dried in the oven, and stored in plastic bags. When they want to eat it, they dip it in water for a few seconds, not so it gets soggy, but it adds moisture to it and you can break off pieces. It was very tasty and quite unusual for us.

She drove us back home with a stop at the Bombola shop to make sure they were going to deliver a replacement gas bottle to our apartment. Earlier in the day I had received a phone call from our landlady trying to arrange delivery (since we had run out of gas during the cooking of the pasta during our dinner party the night before!). Emma helped us out by talking with our landlady and helping to coordinate the whole thing, then drove us there and back to our house where the gas bottle arrived just moments after we did! We invited her in for a glass of wine and more conversation, getting to know each other better. After a while it was evident we were all pretty tired from our hike and she said Buona Notte and left us.

Exhausted, I went straight to bed! Bob stayed up a bit longer but soon followed.
This morning after breakfast I made one of my chocolate cakes for Emma to thank her for such a lovely day yesterday and we brought it up to her. On Sundays she works at a different ceramics shop and we are considering buying some of the plates they make to take home, memories of our time in Vietri.

Tomorrow she promised to pick us up around 11am to take us for our ceramics lesson. We are looking forward to it very much as well as getting to know this really bright and interesting young woman.

Buona notte,
Rosemary and Bob

Carnevale 2.18.07

2007-02-28T23:34:00.000-05:00

Last year we were living in Sicily and booked a bed and breakfast in Acireale for Carnevale and loved watching the big floats parading down the street, listening to the music and seeing all the colorful costumes of the people. It was fantastic. This year was a bit more subdued but still fun. Since we've been traveling around so much we decided to just stick around Vietri and see what developed. We had conflicting opinions on what would actually happen, with some people telling us we should go to Maiori since they have a big celebration on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, others certain that Vietri had its own version, others suggesting one little town or another. Ultimately we decided on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday to walk up to Vietri centro, to Piazza Amendola and see what was going on. In Sicily, in Marina di Ragusa, for 4 Sundays leading up to the official Tuesday before, all the kids in town (and from Ragusa and surrounding cities as well) showed up in the main piazza in costumes and it was just fun to watch them running around and having a good time, slinging confetti and silly string at each other.

That is what we found on this past Sunday, the 18th of February. The costumes were fantastic! So creative. The parents go all out for this and the costumes are incredible. You hardly see two of the same kind. Bob took a bunch of photos and we'll post some here. It was very low-key for us but we enjoyed it all the same. The kids - anywhere from toddlers to maybe 8 or 9 year olds - were absolutely adorable and clearly had a blast. We also met a group of pre-teen girls who were walking up and down the main street showing off their pretty costumes and generally having a good time.

The day of Carnevale, Tuesday, it rained, so the parade in Maiori, we were told, would be cancelled until Sunday the 25th (today) and we debated about whether to go or not and decided to skip it. We were told that traffic can be horrendous, that unless you go early in the morning and find a place to park that you could end up walking from Cetara, a pretty long distance. We could have taken the bus, but just didn't feel like doing all that. Instead, we spent a lazy Sunday, sleeping in a bit, leisurely breakfast, a walk up to Vietri to look in the ceramics shop windows and get caught up on my writing. We have started to pack and go through our things, tossing unnecessary stuff and making piles to give away and to save.

We are pretty certain that the little town of Milford, Delaware, our next home, will probably not celebrate Carnevale like they do in Italy and for this we are sad. We love the way they do it here. It is so much a family event. Not like the restaurant Fat Tuesday in the states, just an excuse for getting drunk and eating spicy food. There are these certain cookies they make too, called Chiacchiere (not sure I have the spelling correct) that are like strips of dough - like lasagna noodles - baked and then sprinkled with powdered sugar that I absolutely love and hope my neighbor shows me how to make. They are just crispy and delightful and the powdered sugar gets all over you but who cares! Lasagna also is the meal associated with Carnevale here in Vietri. We tried to go out to a restaurant Martine recommended by when we got there at 9:30 things had not yet even thought about starting up and we decided it seemed more for the younger crowd and went down the block to one of our other favorite places for a late meal.

That's one of things about eating out in Italy. Don't even think about going out until at least 7:30. Most Italians don't show up until around 9. That's something we do look forward to in the states, eating dinner (or lunch for that matter) when we are ready, not having to take a nap in the afternoon if we want to go out to dinner because it will be so late! OK, we will sacrifice the quality of the food for sure. We know we won't be able to get the same kind of tomatoes, or mozzarella or parmegiano cheeses, the same pasta dishes or roasted vegetables...but don't let me start thinking about those things now!!!

Buona sera,
Rosemary and Bob

Carnevale Feb 18 2007

2007-02-28T17:04:00.000-05:00

This little girl was just too sweet. She was loving every minute of the feste

Carnevale Vietri sul Mare

2007-02-28T16:37:00.000-05:00

Even a duck needs a bippy now and then.

Snow White

Fairy

Raegge is populare here

Even the teenagers want to dress up for the feste.

Locanda dei 7 Peccati

2007-02-26T02:59:00.000-05:00

Wall graphic in the restaurant (in english "Seven Deadly Sins"

Interior of the restaurant filled with antiques

Going back to Sicilia 2.15.07

2007-02-26T02:54:00.000-05:00

While we were having dinner at the restaurant in Ostuni, the Locanda dei 7 Peccati, my cellphone started ringing. It was our friends Elio and Giovanna who had received the gift we sent congratulating Giovanna on finishing her degree. We had sent her a book on the national parks of America (hoping to tempt them to make a visit to the U.S. in the future) and they wanted to thank us. And to invite us to come for a visit before we returned to the states. Originally when we came to the Amalfi Coast we thought we might make a trip back to Ragusa but just ran out time. Giovanna was insistent! We just could not go back to the states without one more visit to Sicily to say goodbye and they even offered to put us up when we got there. I told her we would have to talk it over and we would get back to them.

Bob and I just looked at each other and said "Somehow we have to figure out how to go Sicily!" Our British friends Janet and Stephen were expected for a few days visit at the end of February and we were looking forward to seeing them again. And our daughter Jessica is going to be here from the 1st to the 14th of March. We leave here on the 31st so it didn't give us much time. We looked into taking the ferry again but that didn't seem very appealing and we wouldn't be able to drive since we are selling our car on the 27th.

The very day we were trying to figure out what to do I had the opportunity to meet our next-door neighbor Rosaria's son's fiancé who just happens to be Sicilian and flies here via AlpiEagles airlines and said it takes an hour to get to Catania and is pretty cheap! We went straight to their website, found a cheap fare and shot off an email to Elio and Giovanna, asking if they were really serious about us coming and telling them the dates we thought we could come, arranging a few days around a weekend so they wouldn't have to work when we came. They thought it all sounded good and told us to go ahead and book, which we did.

We then had to go next door to ask Rosaria’s son to come and help us since the site was only in Italian and we couldn’t figure out (even with the help of our dictionary) if the reservation had been made and what to do next since we had given them our credit card information and everything but then nothing happened. Antonio (there are many Antonio’s here!) kindly stepped over the low wall that separates our two terraces, looked at what we had done and called them on the phone to confirm that we did indeed have reservations that were soon confirmed by an email. We were very grateful for his help! We often feel like the character in Tennessee Williams play “relying” on the kindness of strangers. And kind they have been. We don’t know how we would have done most of the things we have done here in Italy without the help of many, many people.

So now we will drive Jessica to the airport in Naples early in the morning on the 14th and go back again on the 15th in the afternoon for our flight to Catania. We are very excited to see our "Bella Sicilia" and spend a little more time with our lovely, generous friends, maybe even take walk on the beach in Marina di Ragusa, stroll around Ragusa Ibla, or nibble a few cannoli in Modica, who knows. We are very excited and indeed fortunate.

A presto,
Rosemary e Robert

Watercolors of the Villa Cimbrone

2007-02-26T02:23:00.000-05:00

Entrance to the hotel part of the Villa

Ravello's Cattedrale in the main piazza at dusk

Gazebo in a little courtyard of the Villa

Main entrance gate to the Villa from the inside looking out

Villa Cimbrone, Ravello 2.11.07

2007-02-26T02:17:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago we went back to the Amalfi Coast town of Ravello, one of our favorite cities here. It sits high above the coast and the views from the gardens at Villa Rufulo are breathtaking. A few days before we had taken a drive in the afternoon and spent a short amount of town wandering in the gardens of the other lovely Villa, the Villa Cimbrone. This is a very high-end hotel, built by an English lord in the late 1800s with an absolutely stunning view of the coast and lots of charming little corners, to while away an afternoon.

It is about a 10-minute walk uphill to reach the Villa from the main piazza, but they also have a helicopter pad for those guests who can afford to be escorted from the airport directly to the Villa without having to deal with the rest of the tourists schlepping their suitcases from the bus. The Clinton's have stayed here among other famous personalities like Greta Garbo, but they also open their doors to tourists who, for around 5 euros a head, can wander the grounds and appreciate the views. We imagine that if their guests are high profile enough, they must curtail this type of visit. It is lovely and understated and we found that we lost the light before we were ready to leave and promised to return, for me to paint and for Bob to take more photos.

We spent several hours on our next visit with a beautiful blue sky and puffy white clouds overhead. I had a delightful time sitting on the bench and studying the beautiful details of the gates and doors and flowerpots on steps decorated with ceramic tiles. Bob spent his time blissfully focusing his camera lens on all the lovely details of the place and before we knew it, the light was fading once again and it was time to go.

Signs of winter are still apparent. Many trees are still bare and the rose bushes are only beginning to think about sending buds out. But we think it will not be long before this sleeping paradise comes to life and hope to return before the end of March and perhaps catch a glimpse of spring's awakening in this secret garden.

Buona sera,
Rosemary e Roberto

Selling our car 2.21.07

2007-02-25T10:22:00.000-05:00

The insurance on our Toyota Yaris runs out on the 15th of March. We will be heading home to the states on the 5th of April, which meant we either had to extend our insurance for another month (not sure how do-able that would be) or sell the car and spend the last few weeks riding buses and what not. The simple answer was to try to sell the car sooner rather than later and we put out the word. We told all of our neighbors that we were selling it, consulting them on price and how to go about this. Martine said we could put a notice in her coffee bar and Nunzia said her brother had some connections with a used car place in Cava di Tirreni and also suggested we put a sign “Vendesi” (for sale) in the car window. She even let us put her phone number on the sign so that she could field calls from locals since we were worried about answering technical questions on the phone. She made us write down all the car’s specifications for her and for her brother as well.

We also listed it on the Expats in Italy website but didn’t get much more than a nibble. We told everyone we know here, including Antonio and his brother at the feramenta and Ferdinando at La Locanda, one of our favorite restaurants here.

We had a few people ask us at stoplights “Quante?” (how much?) for the car and they frowned and said “troppo” (too much) when we told them we were asking 3,000 euros for it. We paid around 5,200 for it two years ago and it seemed like a fair price, albeit without any “Blue Book” research.

Our plan was to try to sell the car on our own, but if it didn’t sell by the first of March we would take it to the lot in Cava and let it sit there in hopes of exposing it to motivated car buyers. We didn’t have to go that far! A friend of Herve’s (Martine’s son, with whom she owns the coffee bar) was interested. He offered us 2500 plus a large ceramic vase (he and his father have a ceramics shop) to boot. We accepted. He was supposed to give us his “anticipo” (a deposit) prior to the sell date of February 27 but it took him a few days to get around to it. Then the son of the lady who lives around the corner and a friend of Nunzia’s brother also expressed an interest. When we told Martine this she put a call in to Peppe (the first offer) and he came the next day and left us his deposit.

On the 27th of February we will turn over the keys to the car and fill out all the paperwork necessary to make the deal final. We feel like we have come full circle and will be back to taking the bus wherever we need or want to go until we depart Vietri on the 31st of March. We plan to spend a few days in Rome and fly back to the states of the 5th of April.

Our daughter Jessica is coming for a visit, from the 1st to the 14th of March and we have arranged to rent a car during that time so we can take her touring around the area more comfortably. Then on the 15th we head for Sicily for a few days. But that story is another post.

Ciao,
Rosemary and Bob

Watercolors (I like to call it "drive-by sketching")

2007-02-21T12:33:00.000-05:00

I have reverted back to doing my watercolor journaling and have enjoyed making these quick "drive-bys" in the car as the countryside rolls by. OK, some of them are more like "stand-and-sketch" but you get the idea. I sketch quickly on site and then add washes later, at my leisure. They are much more like quick impressions than "paintings" and are just fun to do.

Driving through the land of the trulli

Driving away from Ostuni, past the sea, through fields and farms

More of my watercolors in and around Ostuni

2007-02-21T12:28:00.000-05:00

These Moleskin journals have the creamiest paper and I love using them. I hope the colors come across OK on your monitors, as the background color is kind of off-white.

Ostuni's white walls

Impressions around Ostuni

Polignano a Mare

Impressions of trulli country

Traveling back to Campania

2007-02-21T12:24:00.000-05:00

We stopped at Polignano a Mare to enjoy the views

A huge field of red, ruffly lettuce (?) in Puglia

The Trulli of Puglia

2007-02-21T12:16:00.000-05:00

White top detail of one of a trullo

Rosemary in front of one of the trullo - for a sense of scale

The shopping street in Alberobello

Trulli painted roof designs

Tops of the Trulli

Wandering around Ostuni

2007-02-21T12:07:00.000-05:00

Flower pots in Ostuni

Ostuni skyline

Ostuni's outer walls

More walls

Street, Ostuni

Views in and around Ostuni and Alberbello

2007-02-21T11:56:00.000-05:00

An eldery lady checked on her laundry and hurried back inside her trullo

This ancient grove of olive trees had a carpet of yellow flowers

Locorotondo skyline, Puglia, trulli country

Our fancy lunch in Ostuni near the highest point in the city

Wall decoration where we had lunch, Pozzo dei Desideri

Images from Ostuni and Puglia's trulli

2007-02-21T11:50:00.000-05:00

Cathedral in Ostuni, detail

The trulli in Alberobello, rooftops

Ostuni chimneys

Blue/Green door with prickly pear in Ostuni

Ostuni's Cattedrale

Matera, Basilicata 13 Feb. 2007

2007-02-20T15:27:00.000-05:00

Matera

Sculptor's Doorway

MAtera stairs

Obviously we were tired after climbing all the stairs in this beautiful city.

Matera, Basilicata 13 Feb. 2007

2007-02-20T15:16:00.000-05:00

Matera Skyline

Church literally carved from the rocks

Fresco inside a cave church

Ancient Cave Dwellings. They reminded us of the cave areas in Scicly

Museum of the daily life of the cave dwellers

Matera, Ostuni and the Trulli 2.13.07

2007-02-19T02:52:00.000-05:00

Sorry we haven't posted anything for a couple of weeks. We have just been revisiting favorite places along the Amalfi Coast, like Ravello and Cetara and back to Naples a few times, just enjoying being on the sea and not wandering too far. We'll try to post some photos of these places and also some watercolors, since I haven't posted any of those for a while. Partly I felt a little burned out for a bit there, maybe just tired, but for a few weeks I didn't do too much. Then I decided to carry one of the little Moleskin journals with me and started doing what I call "drive-by sketching" and I have been having a lot of fun doing quick sketches of what we see as we drive from place to place and putting in washes of color later when we get home. It's a lot like a coloring book for grown-ups! Mostly just quick impressions but it has taken me back to the watercolor journaling that I enjoyed so much before. (check out our archives if you want to read about when my journals were stolen from our car in Sicily, around February 2006)

Road Trip to Puglia

This week we took what we think may have been our last road trip, to Puglia. We didn't want to leave Italy without seeing the trulli, the little houses with circular pointed stone roofs unique to this area. I did some research and planned an itinerary that included 3 nights in Ostuni, a beautiful white city with a view of the Adriatic Sea and not far from the trulli towns of Alberobello and Locorotondo where the largest concentration of these buildings can be found. Check out this website: http://www.viaggiareinpuglia.it/

We left early in the morning on Tuesday, the 13th and drove through the Basilicata. This region southeast of Campania, we have discovered, is absolutely gorgeous. We had our first experience there when we went to visit Pino's hometown and were happy to drive through it again. It is the region that straddles the instep of Italy's boot and touches both the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Adriatic. It is filled with majestic mountains, the castles of Frederick II, forests, and cave-homes and the latter were the reason for our stop here.

Matera and the Sassi

Matera is known as the "city of the sassi," cave-homes cut into the tufa rocks. On one side of the ravine you can see the rough caves inhabited in Paleolithic times.

We learned that until the beginning of the 20th century these homes functioned quite well for the local inhabitants, who also carved churches out of the rocks, being easier to do that in the soft tufa stone, than to cut the stone and build with them. They had an ingenious system of canals that regulated sewage and rainwater and apparently everyone lived in harmony with the land. But in the period between the wars it became overcrowded, overburdening resources and throwing off the delicate balance. It became unsanitary and unhealthy and the Italian government finally relocated the inhabitants to other parts of town.

Since then, it has become a UNESCO World Heritage site and the Italians have been working to clean it, renovate and repopulate it and in fact it is one of the more visited sights in this area. Fascinating and beautiful, it is like a neighborhood museum - 3.3 million square feet (300,000 square meters) of homes, in a tangle of streets that are well worth spending more than the few hours we had to spare. Not the reason we came, but we learned also that Mel Gibson filmed his "Passion of Christ" movie here. There is also a novel we want to read by Carlo Levi, called "Christ Stopped at Eboli" an unflattering account of this region I believe, published in 1945. He was vocal in his opposition to the Fascists and banished here during that period. It really does seem like a city lost in another time.

We think the Basilicata is worth exploring further but unfortunately we are running out of time for getting to know an entire new region!

It was pouring rain when we left Vietri sul Mare and rained for most of the drive through Campania and the Basilicata. Luckily, the clouds parted, although the sky was still white and grey with them, while we clamored around the stone steps and in and out of the incredibly cool cave churches, visiting the museum, a fully furnished home where we saw the way people would have lived up until the 1950s. Fascinating stuff.

On to Ostuni

By noon we were picking up some panini at a local alimentari and continuing our journey towards Ostuni. The rain resumed again but the sun broke through the clouds long enough for us to appreciate the sight of this white city on a hill as we approached. We got a little lost entering the town (frustrating!) and eventually had to call the man we were renting the apartment from to come and find us and we followed him to where we could park the car and take our bags up to the second floor apartment (that's first floor to the Italians). We found a very comfortable, modern, fairly well equipped kitchen with dining table, a soggiorno (small living room) and a loft bedroom - an ingenious way to make two rooms out of one with a high enough ceiling to split the space. Not much of a view, but a tiny balcony onto the street, off one of the main squares in town, well insulated and quiet, with very efficient heaters which was appreciated.

We dropped our stuff and went off to explore, the rain having subsided, liking this town very much. In truth, it was love at first sight! Gleaming white wash, doors of bright blue and green, a tangle of streets, lots of steps leading this way and that and just interesting at every turn of, it seemed more like Greece to us than Italy. When rain threatened again we hurried back to the apartment. Bob ran out to pick up some bread while I stayed in to "color" in my sketches from earlier in the day. A nap was definitely in order and we slept for a few hours before braving a torrential downpour to walk around the corner to the only open restaurant we passed!

The Locanda dei 7 Peccati

What a find! Francesco welcomed us warmly and ushered us in to his restaurant called "Locanda dei 7 Peccati" which translates to the "Seven Deadly Sins" basically and illustrated with paintings on the wall. The atmosphere reminded me of the interior of the sassi home we had seen earlier in the day at Matera, with tools and baskets, ceramics pots over the doorway and furniture, an eclectic mix too, with old Tvs, chiming clocks and religious paintings that seemed more secular in their placement as decoration, than pious icons for worship. In the center of the room there was a fireplace and he motioned for us to sit next to it. We were the only customers in the place and normally I would take this to be a bad sign, but as the night was cold and wet and it is so completely off-season, we were just happy to have found it to be open and grateful for the warmth of the fire and the conversation with this very lovely man.

The meal that followed was fabulous! We had a local white wine and he made the most incredible orrechiette (the ear shaped pasta this region is famous for) in a mixed vegetable sauce that was light and a bit spicy and absolutely perfect! He also fixed us a plate of the most scrumptious fried potatoes ever and a bread that seemed more like a doughy pita, drizzled with olive oil and rosemary. We were full at this point but he talked us into a secondo and I had a pork dish with fresh tomatoes and Bob, the grilled lamb. They were good too, but the memory of that orrechiette lingers on. He spoke pretty good English too and it was nice to be able to just chat with someone (besides each other!) in our native tongue for a change.

I Trulli! Alberobello and Locorotondo

On Wednesday, we got up and out early (in spite of a bit of a hangover from drinking an entire bottle of wine!) and headed for Alberobello, by way of Locorotondo. We were thrilled to see a brilliant blue sky overhead and couldn't wait to get started. It is impossible to describe the feeling of driving through this area and seeing these little houses in clusters everywhere. For one thing, they seem so simple and lovely, sometimes a single one standing along, usually in clusters of 3 or more. Some are dark stones, other more tan, golden. Some have white tops with decorations on them, some are plain. They say that it is just easier to build another one when you need more room, so some of the larger farms seem like an entire little borgo, with at least 10 or 12 of varying heights, clustered around a more box-like house. White is the color of these homes, unless they are made entirely of the warm, pink/tan stones of the area. Low stone walls surround the farms, reminding us of Ragusa and there are olive groves and vineyards and broad stretches of rolling farmland, a bright chartreuse green now.

But nothing is like arriving in Alberobello and seeing an entire little city, two huge neighborhoods on either side of a main drag, built completely of these trulli. The people themselves seem built to fit in them as so many of them were small of stature as well and we wondered which came first! They were for the most part friendly and proud of their little homes but we can only imagine how it must be in the summer when their world is invaded by hordes of tourists. It really is like stepping into a fairytale and you fully expect to see Snow White appear, because surely, Sneezy, Grumpy and Happy must be nearby. We loved it. We took copious amounts of photos. I sketched.

Later in the afternoon, when we had our fill of the trulli, we tried to find a local beach but found many of them to be private, associated with a campground or just closed for the season. We did find Marina di Ostuni, and maybe we weren't in exactly the right place but at this time of year it didn't really impress.

Another Yummy Meal

Back to Ostuni, a nap was in order and we decided to go back to Francesco's place to see what else he could do with the orrechiette! This time we decided to skip the secondi and he fixed a huge platter of roasted vegetables, another of those potatoes we liked so much and we each tried a different pasta. Bob had one with melanzane (eggplant) and I ordered one with fresh tomato sauce and ricotta salata. Both were yummy but Bob's turned out to be a bit too picante for him and mine a little mild for me, so we switched and were both happy. It was nice again to talk with Francesco and he offered tips for other places to go in the area. It turns out he also rents apartments in Ostuni and invited us to come by the next afternoon and he would show us his place there.

Thursday we had planned to spend entirely in Ostuni, exploring the city. I made Bob get up earlier than he would normally have done so we could drive away from the city and catch the morning light. We realized that the city is not very large and found our way around fairly well. One of the things we absolutely loved was how incredibly clean it is. Spotless! Litter has been one of the things we have complained about all over Italy and especially in the south. But not here. The city was completely litter-free, dog-poop free, white and clean, no visible graffiti even and just a delight. We wandered around the streets, up to the highest point, had a history lesson from the man in the shop where we bought postcards, admired all the potted plants, succulents and flowers and the view of the Adriatic and dreamed about buying a place here! It is evident that the Brits have discovered it and are buying up property here. I suppose that will raise the prices for everyone but we can certainly understand it.

We met Francesco in the late afternoon for a tour of his property and found a wonderful apartment with a roof-top terrace and a view of the entire city and the sea! It can accommodate anywhere from 2 people to 8 (in a second apartment one floor down) and he rents it for 25 euros per person per night in season. A good deal. He can be reached at +39 0831339595 and the apartments can be seen on the web site www.bbcasevacanze.it, under the following names: Villa Preziosa, Casa di Sara, Casa Teresa A & B, Casa 7 Peccati and Casa Giosue. You'll get the better deal if you telephone him directly and his English is great. Tell him we told you about it! You won't get any better price for it, but it will be fun for us to know that we were able to spread the word.

After yet another afternoon nap we returned to Francesco's Locanda dei 7 Peccati for our last meal. We thought about trying one of the other restaurants but it didn't seem necessary, we liked this one so much. By late afternoon the clouds had formed again and rain seemed imminent. We took our umbrellas with us and I asked Francesco if he had soup and he asked "What do you want?" and threw together a vegetable soup with a light tomato base and a bit of a bite that was exactly what I wanted. Bob had to try the pizza and we each drank a glass of wine. With the fire burning next to us, we savored the meal, the company of this friendly man, the warm atmosphere and the rain washing down the streets outside until well after 10pm when we walked back to where we were staying for our last night in Ostuni.

Polignano a Mare

On the way home the next morning we stopped in Polignano a Mare at Francesco's suggestion and found it delightful as well. Right on the Adriatic, this cluster of white building blocks sits on a cliff jutting out into the sea with caves below carved out by the rushing water no doubt. It seemed definitely geared to and discovered by tourists and well done at that. Signage was attractive, professionally done, the historic center is extremely well-preserved and extremely charming.

A Visit TO St. Nicholas

We hurried then to reach Bari before 1pm as we wanted to see the church of St. Nicholas, whose remains were stolen from Turkey in 1087 and lie in the crypt there. The city on first and very fast look seemed important and dignified. It has one of the most modern commercial centres in the south, according to our guidebook and looked quite prosperous. When we asked someone to help us find the church, he advised us to be careful and watch our belongings. It's a large city. I guess that goes with the territory. We found the tomb of Old St. Nick (aka Santa Claus)and the church is lovely, gothic, with beautiful Byzantine style paintings and mosaics, built in the 12th century and not fancied up with too much Baroque detailing in later years. Unfortunately we barely had time to look around before the caretaker was turning out the lights and throwing us out. We would have liked just a few more minutes to wander around and admire the art but we have to be satisfied with what we saw.

That was the last planned stop on this limited tour of Puglia and we stopped this time at a supermercato and picked up the fixings of a lunch and ate in the car, on the autostrada, in the direction of Salerno and Vietri sul Mare, where we found ourselves around 2 hours later, tired but very satisfied with our little road trip to the other side of the boot.

Ci vediamo dopo,
Rosemary e Roberto

(photos to come)

More views of Napoli

2007-02-09T15:44:00.000-05:00

Looking into the Santa Lucia neighborhood

Beautiful lamp detail on store front, Via Santa Lucia

Piazza Plebiscito and the church of San Francesco di Paola

Mt. Vesuvius and the Bay of Naples from Castel dell'Ovo

The Harbor Master's Headquarters (near where we parked our car)

Napoli

2007-02-09T15:31:00.000-05:00

Castel Nuovo with horse and wagon

Castel Nuovo detail

The Kiosk known as the Cassa Armonica (sound box)

Kiosk detail, Villa Comunale gardens

Galleria Umberto I, and its gorgeous iron & glass ceiling

Napoli 2.04.07

2007-02-09T15:28:00.000-05:00

Vietri sul Mare. Monday February 3, 2007

It's a gorgeous sunny day today. The light is brilliant reflecting off the sea outside our doors, which are wide open. The air feels cool and fresh with a slight breeze blowing. Our laundry is hanging on the line and on the drying rack. There are no clouds in the sky. An occasional car zooms by on the street below but other than that it's very quiet.

Yesterday, a Sunday, we spent in Napoli. We decided to take the car instead of the bus and park at the port, since the area we wanted to explore - Toledo and Castel Nuovo - were nearby. It has been our experience that traffic in this region is usually light on Sunday mornings and it only took us half an hour to get into the city. The parking lot next to the port where the ferries leave for Sicily and the islands of Capri, Ischia etc, was wide open and we felt safe leaving the car in a lot that has attendants and wandering the city by foot.

Each time I visit Naples I love it even more. Armed with our Eyewitness Guide and a walking-tour itinerary, we headed for Castel Nuovo, begun in 1279 by Charles I of Anjou and was built and rebuilt again in 1443. It is massive and impressive with its five rounded towers and fancy triumphal arch. It houses a museum that was unfortunately closed on Sundays but to which we would like to return.

This area is jam packed with impressive buildings and we walked through the nearly deserted Piazza Plebiscito with its Pantheon-inspired church of San Francesco di Paola and Palazzo Real. We looked up to see Castel St. Elmo above us and wandered through the beautiful shopping mall Galleria Umberto I, whose glass-domed ceilings fill this cavernous space with light. A "right to life" crowd was holding an event inside and everywhere young people and old were handing out flyers while a group of not-so-talented young girls danced on a stage set up in the center. Some of them surely must have their eyes set on a career in TV game shows. We will have to return when the shops are open and we can appreciate better the beauty of the space without being accosted by groups of fervent believers.

Across the street from the Galleria Umberto is the 18th century Teatro San Carlo and we could have taken a tour but decided to wait until Jessica comes in March. She will really appreciate seeing it.

We stopped for a coffee and a cornetto and a sfogliatelle (a delightful pastry filled with ricotta cheese) and admired the views of Mt. Vesuvius across the bay and the handsome young man who served us.

We walked through the famous Santa Lucia neighborhood to the Villa Comunale, the public park in the Chiaia neighborhood.

We had pizza at an Antica Pizzeria off Via Chiaia, the shopping street in this neighborhood and found ourselves back where we started, at the Piazza Plebiscito and Castel Nuovo, now lit with afternoon light, and headed back towards our car and home.

Yesterday was mostly a day for walking and getting acquainted with the area. It is one of Naples loveliest. And, as it was a Sunday, all the Napolitani were out enjoying the seaside and strolling along the Lungomare near Castel dell'Ovo, in all their stylish clothing, fine leather coats, boots and furs. We climbed around the castle again as we had done a little more than a year ago before our ferry left for Catania and the start of our six months in bella Sicilia.

It's so hard to believe we are now counting down to the end of our time in Italy. It hardly seems possible that two years have almost passed and we have very mixed emotions about leaving. On the one hand we are ready to go, to be "home" in our own country, speaking the same language as everyone else, spending time with our kids and granddaughter, our families and friends, going to the movies, exploring the east coast, which in reality is the start of a whole new adventure. But Italy. Italy with its ancient cities, breathtaking scenery, lovely people, fresh tomatoes, cheese and pasta, the pizza of Napoli (we are spoiled forever!)...the sea...the volcano...will remain forever in our hearts. Each place we have lived in has become a favorite for a different reason and each time, when the time grew near for us to say goodbye, we asked ourselves "How will we ever leave (Perugia...Marina di Ragusa...Verona...now Vietri sul Mare)...???" The question remains unanswered.

Or answered simply "we will leave because we have to leave, because the time has come for us to leave. Because we look forward to what comes next. Because we continue to have a thirst for new adventures. But we will keep the old ones with us and they enrich us and fill us with joy and appreciation. There are still eight whole weeks in front of us and we plan on making the best of every one!

Thanks for coming along with us. We hope you've enjoyed what we have put in front of you and appreciate knowing you are out there.

Baci, baci,
Rosemary and Bob

A Day on the Amalfi Coast

2007-02-08T02:21:00.000-05:00

Our breakfast in Cetara

Looking through an arch on the Amalfi Coast

Amalfi Coast views

2007-02-08T02:14:00.000-05:00

The beach at Maiori

Painting "Giovanna" on the side of a boat

The Mediterranean Sea, Costiera Amalfitana

Fisherman readying his nets

Along the Amalfi Coast

2007-02-08T02:07:00.000-05:00

The Badia Santa Maria dell'Olearia, along the Amalfi Coast

Window of the Badia

Buying fish from i Pescatori, the fishermen, in Cetara

Lovely Cetara

The beautiful Amalfi Coast

Amalfi Coast drive 1.31.07

2007-02-08T02:05:00.000-05:00

After we returned from our weekend in Rome with Andrea and Vincent, we took a couple of days to rest, catch up on laundry and writing, downloading photos and by Wednesday were getting antsy to take a drive. The weather was gorgeous, after the rainy cold days in Rome and we wanted to just be by the sea. We stopped in Cetara for a late morning coffee and were disappointed that our favorite little coffee bar there was already out of cornetti (how can this be!) and a little 3-year old boy nearby was riding on his battery powered mini-motorscooter making an annoying buzzing sound. I don't really understand this as I think it would be much healthier to give a kid a bicycle that they actually have to use muscles to operate than a toy they just sit on where the only energy expended is by the parent/grandparent who has to chase the kid around as they zoom through the piazza! Still hungry for breakfast, we bought some fresh fruit and a few loaves of this most wonderful bread and made a picnic sitting out on the pier with the view of lovely Cetara directly in front of us. This is one of my absolute favorite places here on the Amalfi Coast. Out there it is peaceful and quiet and the views are spectacular. I never tire of it.

After a while we decided we should wander further on and packed up our stuff. There is an abbey along the road to Maiori, which is well before you reach Amalfi and we have been fascinated by it since we arrived here. Finally we decided to just park the car off the road where the turn-off for the cemetery is and walk back to take a closer look. It is the crusty white Badia Santa Maria dell'Olearia and it was unfortunately closed. But it is quite impressive the way it is built right into and under the sheer cliff along the road that overlooks the coast and there is a huge cactus and purple and red bougainvillea growing at its base. Plus it was just fun to walk along the coast instead of just driving by. We stopped to buy some oranges and tangerines from a little stand tucked into a corner of the road and admired the giant lemons he had for sale. We wandered up the road towards the cemetery and down, admiring the views and just soaking in the sun.

There is a wonderful pair of Norman towers along the road after Maiori and we stopped again for some photos and sketching. Bob walked over to get some information about the restaurant in the tower that is right on the sea but it was closed. The hotel was also closed, so no luck there. We thought it might be fun to come here for dinner some time even though we suspect it might be pricey.

Lunch was a panini at a bar with a view of the sea in Minori, the little town past Maiori, just before Ravello.

By the time we finished eating it was after 3pm and we decided we were ready to head home and took our time getting back to Vietri.

We really enjoyed our day, taking our time to savor all the little things and look forward to still more days like this.

Buona giornata,
Rosemary e Roberto

Does anyone know what this is?

2007-01-30T13:05:00.000-05:00

During our trip to Basilicata we saw this "fruit" in a tree and all around it on the ground. I asked a very old man what is was and did not fully understand his answer but do know he said not to eat it. So, what is it and why grow it if you can't eat it?

According to Ginger: "It's called an Osage orange(Maclura pomifera)actually native to the US. Not edible. they were used for a thorny hedge plants between fields because they are hard to kill and withstand just about anything M.Nature wants to dish out."
Thank you Ginger

More Rome

2007-01-29T14:09:00.000-05:00

Teatro Marcello (like the Colosseum, but smaller)

Teatro mask mosaic (Musei Capitolini)

St. Peter's Basilica detail

Painting "The Immigrants" (Galleria D'Arte Moderne)
(I imagine the little girl in the red scarf could be my grandmother)

Images of Rome

2007-01-29T13:40:00.000-05:00

Colorful tassels in a Rome shop window

"Dying Gaul" Capitol Hill Museum, 1st century BC copy of a Greek original

Leonardo Di Caprio's ear and Rosemary's arms
(that's Rosemary taking a photo at left and Leo's ear under the blue cap and somebody else famous we think, taking a photo behind Leo. Anyone know who he is?)

Capitoline She Wolf
(Wolf from the 5th century BC, Romulus & Remus were added later)

The Roman Forum at night

Rome, January 25-25 2007

2007-01-29T13:16:00.000-05:00

Marble Bust in various types of marble

Andrea & Vincent at the Trevi Fountain (look for her coin in the air)

Caravaggio's St. John the Baptist

Capitoline Hill at night

Andrea and Vincent say goodbye

Visiting Rome with Andrea and Vincent 1.25-28.06

2007-01-29T13:01:00.000-05:00

It's a very cloudy, grey day here in Vietri and temperatures are definitely lower than they have been. The weather here has been gorgeous, unseasonably warm everyone said but they also warned that colder weather was about to begin. When we headed north on Thursday it was under very threatening skies and we could see a dusting of white on Mt Vesuvius where big heavy snow clouds swarmed above and around the volcano. The tops of the tallest mountains between here and Rome had snow on them and rain fell on and off as we approached the city.

I haven’t done much painting since the Christmas holidays and of course I’m feeling guilty about it! Here I am in Italy, wasting time when I should be working!!! But then I brought along a little sketch book with me and had fun in the car doing these very quick little “gesture” drawings of the passing scenery and putting in washes of color later. This is one of those little black journals (like the one I had taken from me in Sicily) so it’s very immediate, just for me stuff and I enjoyed it very much. No pressure to “make a painting” – just record what I was seeing. The time is passing very quickly now and I just know that before I know it we will be heading back to the states. I want to feel that I have made the best of it and go home with things I feel proud of.

We had reserved two rooms in a small bed and breakfast/apartment near the train station and instead of driving the 3 hours back to Vietri and the Amalfi Coast with our young friends whose wedding we attended in Köln, Germany in July, we decided instead to spend the short weekend with them in Rome, visiting the sights. Andrea had been there before but Vincent had not. We never tire of this wonderful city and have been there now more times than we can count but always enjoy ourselves.

We arrived late Thursday and planned to spend one night on our own there so that the next day we would be rested and ready to sightsee. Of course, we ended up doing our share of walking anyway, visiting the Musei Capitolini and its wonderful view over the Roman Forum (where I walked right past Leonardo Di Caprio and didn’t realize until he and his entourage left and Bob told me “That was Leonardo Di Caprio!” Much to the chagrin of his bodyguard, Bob took a photo of him but only managed to capture his ear!) on Capodoglio Hill and an exhibit of works by Matisse and Bonnard in the Complesso del Vittoriano that is connected to the Vittore Emmanuele monument, next to the Roman Forum. On Friday morning, with rain pouring down, we took the train and walked uphill and down, near the Villa Borghese, to the Galleria D’Arte Moderna and spent a few hours immersed in modern art from the 19th and 20th centuries. The collection consists of mostly Italian artists but with some works by Monet, Degas, Van Gogh and the impressionists, as well. We enjoyed it so much and think perhaps we might have to go back again. Andrea and Vincent were expected around 3pm and we had just finished having a coffee in the museum cafe when they called to say they had landed at Ciampino airport, giving us about half an hour to get to Termini train station and meet their bus. It was still raining when we walked back to our bed and breakfast but by the time we hit the streets again, it has quit and didn’t bother us again the entire weekend.

It was wonderful to see them again and be able to spend even just these few days together. We saw them last, as I said, in July when they were married and you can imagine how busy they were with all their guests, it was not possible to spend much time alone with them. We brought their things to the room and stopped for a bit of lunch then headed first for the Roman Forum which was by this time closing for the day (one hour before sunset) so we simply did a walking tour around it pointing out the sights we knew and walked by Trajan’s Market, the monument to Victor Emmanuel, the Spanish Steps and Via Condotti with its fancy (expensive!) shops. We had a quiet dinner in a little restaurant called Osteria del Crispi, on Via Francesco Crispi and called it a night.

We made them get up early the next morning so that they could visit the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel. We didn’t think the crowds would be as great at this time of year as usual and arrived around 8:30. Andrea had not been to this museum and both of them seemed to enjoy not only the chapel but the other parts of the museum as well. We stopped in the café of the museum for a slice of pizza (mediocre by Italian standards but we were hungry) and a bit of a rest.

Afterwards we joined the queue waiting at St. Peter’s Basilica and after a short while, entered the church. They decided to go up into the Dome while we opted to rest our feet a bit while these youngsters climbed the 500 or so steps and waved down to us from the balcony that surrounds the dome. St. Peter’s never fails to impress with Michelangelo’s Pieta and Bernini’s masterpiece bronze canopy, not to mention its sheer size and the magnificence of its works of art. This really is what I like to call “the Pope Show” because it does seem to venerate the Popes more than God, but that may just be a personal prejudice on my part, born out by all the statues and monuments to them throughout the church.

We never made it to the Roman Forum as by the time we got back there it was once again closing time! (darn these short winter days when the sun sets around 5pm.) We did take them up the Capodoglio Hill for a view of the Forum as the sun was setting, and then another break for a gelato and a well earned rest. We caught a bus to the Pantheon, walking through the lovely Piazza della Rotunda, passing the Spanish Steps again and over to the Trevi Fountain for the obligatory coin toss. Back towards our B&B we walked up more steps to pass the Quirinale, where the president of Italy has a residence and two pretty Italian soldiers (women, not men) stood guard.

We enjoyed our dinner at the Antica Pizzeria Fratelli Ricci on Via Genova, not far from where we were staying. This pizzeria, we were told is the oldest in Rome but after having pizza in Naples, well, that’s a tough act to follow. This restaurant started as a wine store and we did enjoy the crisp, white wine, Est! Est! Est! that they produce. The service was friendly and we thought our waiter was American when he said “there you go!” and delivered our appetizers (really yummy olives stuffed with meat and fried in a tasty batter and deep fried pumpkin flowers). It turned out he is Italian and Dutch but his English was impeccable. Andrea, who speaks not only German and Hungarian, but also French, Italian, English and Spanish, had no trouble communicating with anyone! Vincent, her husband is French and keeps up with her linguistically – it was so fun to listen to them speak to each other in German and then French and English!

They had a noon flight on Sunday and we shared breakfast in our rooms and then walked them to where their bus was waiting. After tearful goodbye hugs and kisses we promised to see each other again as soon as possible and they promised to come visit us in America after we get settled in and we will hold them to it. The sun was shining as their bus pulled away from the curb and we waved at each other until it was out of sight.

We made really good time getting back to Vietri and were home by early afternoon, took a nap and ate a simple dinner. Andrea called to let us know that they had made it home safe and sound and would probably do the same. We miss them already! That is the hardest part of this adventure! The world is too large. It’s too difficult to see everyone when we all live so very far apart. Perhaps someday travel will be faster and easier and we can pop back and forth across the ocean like going across town and have dinner with our friends in Europe as easily as with our friends across the street. But until then we will have to content ourselves with email and the telephone and be grateful we have both.

It meant so much to us and we were delighted that they wanted to come for a visit and look forward to the next time we can be together.

Now the sun is setting on this cloudy day. It has not rained in spite of the clouds and we don’t know what to expect from tomorrow. We stayed at home all day today but who knows what tomorrow will bring!

Buona sera,
Rosemary and Bob

Due Fratelli (two brothers) rock formation in the Bay of Salerno

2007-01-29T12:44:00.000-05:00

Pino's family in Ripacandida

2007-01-24T12:41:00.000-05:00

These photos of our friend Pino's (of Pino's Pizzeria in Phoenix, Arizona) family in Ripacandida, in Basilicata are for him and for them. Grazie to them all for the kindness to us. We hope they enjoy seeing them here.

Chiara with Gerardo, her papà

Paola (Pino's sister) and her husband Rocco

Pino's mother with her granddaughter Giulia

Pasquale, Pino's papà

Nonna with Chiara

Ripacandida, hometown of our friend Pino

2007-01-24T12:30:00.000-05:00

Railway in the countryside, Basilicata

The well in the Giardini Communale, Ripacandida

View of Ripacandida from above

Giardini Communale, with its canopy of trees overhead

Basilicata and the city of Ripacandida

2007-01-24T12:18:00.000-05:00

Fresco detail in the 12th century church of San Donato, Ripacandida

The rolling hills of Basilicata

Palazzo Leopoldo Chiari, Ripacandida

The Cathedral in Ripacandida

Giant Sequioa in the Giardini Communali, public gardens

Ripacandida in The Basilicata 1.22.06

2007-01-24T12:16:00.000-05:00

On Sunday we took a drive east of here to another region in southern Italy, called The Basilicata. It sits between Campania to the west, Calabria to the south and Puglia to the east. It stretches across the ankle and the instep of the boot of Italy and touches both the Mar Tirreno in the east and Mar Ionio to the west. (the Tyrrhenian and Ionian Seas, parts of the Mediterranean). This was uncharted territory for us and the main reason we wanted to go there was that it is the birthplace of our friend Pino, whose pizzeria (at 139 West Thomas, just west of Central) was our favorite in Phoenix, Arizona where we lived before moving to Italy. We shared a pizza or pasta or whatever happened to be the special of the day, at least once a week and our favorite times were those when the restaurant was not crowded and Pino would sit and visit with us. We witnessed his tiny pizzeria expand and grow and we happy to see his business succeed.

We shared our dreams for living in Italy with him and he would try to help us with our Italian. In those days, when we were just learning he teased that he had to use "baby talk" with us. Now we say that we speak Italian like "Tarzan" (you know, "me Jane, etc.") - we've improved somewhat from those days where we could hardly put together a coherent sentence or understand a more complex one than "Come sta?"

Before we left Phoenix, Pino gave us his father’s address in a small village in Basilicata, near Potenza, in the northwest part of this region. We have wanted to go there since we arrived in Campania but couldn't remember where we put his address until this weekend and decided to go now before we ran out of time.

Driving across Italy is like passing through the United States, each region has its own unique features and seems to change dramatically in some cases as you go from one to the other. As we passed from Campania into Basilicata we drove through the most gorgeous scenery, green rolling hills, mountains dotted with farms and little villages, it felt a bit to us like driving into the interior of Sicily, unspoiled, virgin territory not yet marred by too much tourism, hotel signs, gas stations, souvenir stands. The area is lush with rolling fields of still green wheat, the silver green grey of its olive groves and castles built by Frederick II and his son Manfred. It has a sense of expansiveness and openness and it is an area we wish we had more time to explore.

We passed the city of Potenza, shrugged off by the guide books as a modern city with little to show for its illustrious history as a Roman city, where so many earthquakes have washed away its past but know there is more there than the guidebooks indicate. In spite of having our GPS system, we still got lost trying to find our way to Ripacandida, Pino’s village. We misinterpreted some of the directions and drove past the turn off but finally came in sight of a lovely city on the crest of a hill, its bell tower reaching for the sky and layers of buildings toppling down the hillside and were delighted to find that this was the birthplace of our friend.

We are embarrassed to tell you that we did not give them any warning that we were coming, not sure we would actually be able to find it and not wanting to really make a big deal of it. We thought we would just stop there, say hello, tell them we were friends of Pino’s and wanted to visit his village. When we arrived in the town we asked directions of some people walking by and they pointed out the house and even rang the doorbell for us, letting Pino’s lovely mother Antonella know she had company. When we told her we were friends of her son she immediately called his father who was working repairing fences on their property and he hurried home, much to our increasing embarrassment, now having interrupted his work!

Their son-in-law Gerardo kindly offered to take us on a tour of the city and we walked with him through the streets of the town and up into the center, as he pointed out the sights. As it was a Sunday, and during pranzo to boot, everything was closed but it was still evident that this is a sleepy little place, much in need of restoration but a little town with a lot of character and charm, filled with marvelous little nooks and crannies and we detected a sense of pride and frustration in Gerardo who is an architect and well appreciates what he has there. There is some restoration going on, some done in keeping with its historic nature, others not. He pointed out that once this city was white, gleaming, like Ostuni in Puglia and that is what he would clearly like to maintain. We saw some palazzi that had been restored whose owners decided to add more color – some horrible greens and even a shocking pink faux finish (An American is restoring this particular palazzo with an eye towards investment and should be slapped for not doing it in a way that respects the authentic qualities of the city, in our humble opinion.)

We walked back down to their house to find them all ready to go off to lunch and thought we would say our goodbyes at this point and get out of their hair. Nothing doing! They planned to take us to lunch to treat us to a typical meal of their region and a bit embarrassed again that we had made them change whatever plans they had previously had for the day to entertain us, we piled into Pasquale’s car. They were so kind, so friendly, making us feel welcome.

We dined with Pino’s sister Paola and her husband Rocco, Gerardo and his adorable 3-year old daughter Chiara whose mom was home with their 6-month old baby who had been sick and Pino’s Mom and Dad, Pasquale and Antonella. The meal was delicious! We drank local wine, had antipasto of different types of prosciutto, salami and cheeses (including a fried scamorza that was delightful), both sweet and salty ravioli in a mushroom and cinghale sauce, and fettuccine with mushrooms. Already stuffed by now, this was followed by a mixed grill of different meats – veal, lamb, and pork, all delicious. They finished it off with a gelato-filled crepe topped with berries and of course, a caffe! When we told them how much we appreciated their generosity and kindness they denied having done anything special, saying something like “Is hospitality dead in the north??” We hope they understood that we really did appreciate their stopping everything to show us around and make us feel welcome and apologized for not calling prior to showing up on their doorstep.

Paola called Pino long distance and we had a chance to say hi to him and we hope he got a kick out of knowing we had made it to his hometown. Bob took photos of the family and we promised to return, sharing phone numbers and giving them the address of the blog before we said our goodbyes.

Rocco and Paola escorted us to the medieval “Castel Lagopèsole” that sits on a high position overlooking the valley below and the views are nothing short of spectacular. We missed seeing the sunset however and do hope to get back to this area for another closer look at some of the other cities in the region, like Matera, with its cave-like homes cut in the steep rock of a ravine and Maratea, a pretty hill village tucked between cliffs by the sea. We also want to spend a few days in Puglia so perhaps we can combine our travels and see more of Basilicata at the same time. Clearly there is more to see and we are excited that we still have nine weeks left. Not enough time really but it will have to do!

Today it’s stormy and rainy. We even had some hail on our terrace. This morning there was a break in the weather after a rainy night and we bundled up and took a walk down to the sea. It’s colder than it has been, but not unbearable. The tide is high and the waves are larger than we have seen, and it would not have surprised us to see surfers out there but did not. We stopped for a cappuccino at Martine’s bar in Marina and when the rain started up again we headed home. We need to go and do some grocery shopping later on. Our “German daughter” Andrea and her husband Vincent are coming to visit us for the weekend from Germany. Tomorrow we will drive up to Rome where we plan to spend the night, picking them up and taking them back here on Friday evening, after a whirlwind tour of Rome! We are looking forward to having them here and can’t wait to see them again.

Now we’ll say ciao and buona giornata.

Buon fine settimana (Have a good weekend!)
Rosemary and Bob

Oplontis, Villa of Poppaea Sabina, the wife of Nero

2007-01-24T11:51:00.000-05:00

Our friends Marco and Annalisa from Perugia (originally from Naples) told us about the Villa at Oplontis, an excellent example of a sumptuous Roman villa buried in a mud slide as a result of the eruptions of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD. This was only discovered in 1964 and included large gardens (being restored), porticoes, private baths and a pool, originally situated in the countryside and now surrounded by the modern city of Torre Annunziata. The frescoes are extraordinarily beautiful.

Peacock and Mask, fresco detail

Doing preservation work on the wall frescoes

Fresco detail from the Grande Sala

Fossil of Wooden Doors, encased in hardened mud

Notice how thick the plaster is on these walls.

Oplontis

2007-01-24T11:38:00.000-05:00

Columns and Frescoed Wall

Birdbath Fresco

Oplontis Exterior

Column details

Fresco detail

Ercolano (Herculaneum)

2007-01-24T11:32:00.000-05:00

Ercolano Overview

Forum Baths changing room

Carbonized Wooden Stairs

Red Columns

Mosaic Floor Of Triton

Ercolano Scavi

2007-01-24T11:23:00.000-05:00

College of the Augustals Fresco

Triton and Sea Creatures (second version)

Neptune and Amphitrite Mosaic

Ruins of Pompeii

2007-01-20T12:03:00.000-05:00

"La Muntagna," (the mountain) Vesuvius - a sleeping giant

An example of the ruins of Pompeii

The streets of Pompeii (note the cart tracks from ancient times)

Human remains - bodies were found encased in Volcanic material

Pompeii

2007-01-20T11:49:00.000-05:00

The Forum of Pompeii with Vesuvius in the background

The Basilica – law courts, not a church but where the word derives from

This view of Pompeii from the exterior gives it a sense of scale

One of the many walls covered with frescos in the Villa of Mysteries

Museo Nazionale Archeologico

2007-01-19T12:11:00.000-05:00

Mask Mosaic from the House of Fawn, Pompeii

Fresco from Pompeii

Cameo

Bronze Pitcher, Pompeii

Pillar from Pompeii, mosaic made using small pieces of colored glass

Mt. Vesuvius 1.19.07

2007-01-19T12:06:00.000-05:00

In November, I wrote about the day Bob and I tried to find the road to Vesuvius. We made the mistake of trying to do this on our own, just by looking at our maps and not following the guidebook's suggestions of how to arrive at the top. It was not successful and we ended up a bit frustrated. Just before my sister and her girls arrived we decided it was worth another try, this time following the route suggested and found ourselves driving ever higher up the slopes of the volcano, appreciating the wonderful views of Naples and the bay, trying to ignore the piles of garbage visible in places on the lower slopes (and especially strange as you round the corner and come to a hotel called "Eden" next to an especially obnoxious collection.)

We got an early start and took the Naples-Salerno motorway and the Ercolano exit. We followed that road and the signs that led to "Vesuvio" passing the Observatory (closed at this time) and finally came to a dirt lot where we bought admission tickets and paid 2.50 euros to park there. A dirt path with a somewhat steep incline leads to the top of the volcano and it is impossible to describe the feeling, after walking for about 20 minutes, of looking down into mouth of a volcano and to realize that it still has all the steamy places, fumaroles, like in Solfatara that indicate heat and activity below the surface. Vesuvius has not erupted since 1944 but it is still considered to be an active volcano although at the moment it is dormant - a sleeping giant. The Observatory keeps a close watch however and it is said that they can predict an eruption one month prior to an actual event, which must be a comfort to all those people still living on its slopes, cultivating their vineyards and growing their tomatoes, apricots and olive trees.

The Vesuvius National Park covers a huge area. The volcano itself is made up of the older Monte Somma and the younger Vesuvius, whose cone is actually inside Somma. The eruption that buried Pompeii and other less famous cities in the area blew the top off the volcano so that now it looks like a big saddle in between the two mountains and it is amazing to imagine how much lava, ash, rock and debris rained down, dramatically changing its shape, along with the local landscape and burying entire cities so that only the tops of the tallest buildings - three stores high in some cases - were visible when the dust settled.

The Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples (closed Tuesdays but open without pause from 9am to 7pm daily) houses a wonderful collection of some of the best mosaics, sculptures, frescoes and household items found in the ruins and it is truly impressive to see them. They are so incredibly preserved and so gorgeous to see, we sincerely recommend anyone coming to this area to see Pompeii and Vesuvius, that they stop in Naples to complete the picture of this catastrophic event that left such a rich legacy and helped the world to understand what daily life was like during this time in the Roman Empire. We have been completely fascinated by this bit of history and plan to post photos of the ruins of not only Pompeii but also the smaller Herculaneum, the wonderful villa at Oplontis and some of the items we saw at the museum and hope you enjoy seeing them as much as we did.

Buona giornata,
Rosemary and Bob

Mt. Vesuvius, a walk to the top

2007-01-19T02:57:00.000-05:00

Silhouette of the top of the volcano with fumaroles active still

The path (visible at the left corner of the photo) along the top edge

"The Mountain" il Vesuvio in italiano

The path that leads to the mouth

Looking into the mouth of the volcano

Solfatara and the Phlegraean Fields

2007-01-19T02:46:00.000-05:00

The word Phlegraean comes from the greek meaning burning. Solfatara is the most active part of this volcano system with fumaroles (geysers) that shoot sulphureous gases into the air from openings in the ground. It is an eerie, other worldly atmosphere. The crater here is 4,000 years old and the Romans called it Forum Vulcani (home of the god Volcano). We thought it was really cool. Here are a few shots that hopefully give you an idea of what it is like.

Pozzuoli, the Phlegraean Fields

2007-01-19T02:39:00.000-05:00

The city of Pozzuoli

Boats and the city reflected in the harbor

Fresh fish in a blue bucket

Pozzuoli and the Phlegraean Fields 12.27.06

2007-01-19T02:36:00.000-05:00

Just after Christmas we visited the Phlegraean Fields, an enormous area of volcanic activity west of Naples made up of craters that form natural amphitheatres, bubbling mud pits (after a rain we assume, since we didn't see any) and geysers of scorching steam rising up from openings in the ground around deep gold and ochre colored rocks to create one of the most surreal landscapes we have ever seen. The activity underground was clearly felt as the intensity of the steam rising seemed to pulse and heighten and we became engulfed in it. Putting our hands close to these "fumaroles" we could feel the intense heat being generated by the still molten underground magma as the strong scent of sulpher filled the air.

The volcanic crater of Solfatara (itself a collapsed volcano!) is the name of the site we visited just outside the seaside town of Pozzuoli and is open from 8:30 in the morning until 1 hour before sunset. We had some difficulty finding it and eventually followed the sign to what seemed to be the parking area for the campground and there located the entrance. It was a bit of a challenge with some driving around in circles, but it was well worth it all the same.

The nearby city of Pozzuoli was founded by the Greeks around the 7th century BC and later became a Roman trade center with fancy upscale villas for the wealthy Romans. In the center of town there are Roman ruins, the ancient Serapeum, originally thought to be a temple but which turned out to be nothing more glamorous than a market place, but still pretty interesting. Outside of town is a large amphitheatre, which had a seating capacity of 40,000, underground areas for caged animals and a sophisticated drainage system to collect rainwater.

Pozzuoli is the birthplace of Sophia Loren, and today it is a pretty seaside town of around 80,000 people. We located the port where boats take off all day for the islands of Ischia and Procida and picked up a schedule. Going out to these islands is one of the things we still want to do.

Next up on my schedule to write about is our hike up to the top of the volcano, Mt. Vesuvius, and our visits to Pompeii, Herculaneum and Oplontis so I'm glad you are still with us.

Ciao amici,
Rosemary e Roberto

Oops, I missed this one?

2007-01-16T17:03:00.000-05:00

A mime/statue outside Castello Sant' Angelo. One of the few talented and creative mimes I have ever seen in Italy. I know some will scream there is no such thing as a talented mime but compared to the many rally terrible ones we have seen this guy is an Oscar winner.

Vatican

2007-01-16T15:15:00.000-05:00

Corridor in the Vatican Museum

Bernini Spiral Staircase

Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel

Rome

2007-01-16T15:02:00.000-05:00

Arch of Septimius Severus

Sack of Jerusaalem on Arch of Titus

Palatine Hill

Giraffe at the Borghese Zoo

Chimp at the Zoo

Rome

2007-01-16T14:21:00.000-05:00

Trevi Fountain

View of S. Maria Maggiore & Via Torino from the apartment we rented

Suzanne and the girls take Italy!

2007-01-13T12:33:00.000-05:00

Sam, Suzanne and Maddie arrive in Vietri!

Rosemary and the girls at the sea in Vietri

My sister Suzanne and her girls along the Amalfi Coast

Suzanne and the girls take Italy 12.29.06-1.11.07

2007-01-13T09:18:00.000-05:00

My sister Suzanne and her daughters Samantha (15) and Madison (10) finally arrived in the evening on Friday, December 29, 2006. Amazingly, they left Denver just ahead of the second snowstorm to hit that city in a week. The previous storm struck the very day they were to take off, grounding their plane and closing the airport, leaving the Denver area with more than two feet of snow. They had to reschedule their flight, which delayed their coming and meant they would not be here to celebrate Christmas with us but at least I knew they were still coming. You can imagine our joy at seeing each other again after almost two years! There were tears of joy and huge hugs all around. The girls have grown so much in the time we’ve been gone and the three of them have gone through so much together. It’s been tough for them since my brother-in-law passed away almost 3 years ago. My sister has looked forward to this vacation for a long time and we wanted to make sure they all had a good one.

Expecting jetlag, we planned nothing for their first day, letting them sleep in and then just a leisurely breakfast, walks around Vietri and down to the sea. Madison, it turns out, is quite the water-baby and couldn’t resist every opportunity to get her feet wet. The bottoms of Sam’s jeans were completely soaked and both of them seemed to enjoy the time we spent walking on the beach, toes in the sand and in the surf, picking up rocks and little treasures. We had a lovely lunch at the Trattoria Pizzeria on the road that leads up to centro and Maddie, our little chef, got to watch the pizza being made in the ceramic tile-covered, wood burning oven and was adventurous enough to order the pizza with prosciutto crudo and provolone! (I might also add that another favorite were the bocconcini, the little balls of buffalo mozzarella this area is famous for!)

Their first drive along the Amalfi Coast

The following day was New Year’s Eve. We had planned a day that would not require a lot of walking, just driving the Amalfi Coast, enjoying the views and stopping in a few places. Cetara, being the first stop, won everyone’s heart with its charming streets, little shops, lovely seaside and harbor area. Next stop, the lovely city of Ravello, on a crest above the sea and a visit to the garden with its wonderful views of the Amalfi Coast. We visited the cathedral and showed them the vial of the saint’s blood behind the altar that is said to liquefy twice a year, and I’m not sure if they were grossed out or fascinated! We picked up a picnic lunch and sat on a sunny bench in the main piazza.

By this time it was pranzo, that time of day in Italy when everything closes and all the Italians go home for lunch and a rest. This is something Bob and I have had to work around and living here as we do it’s not as big a deal as it is for tourists on brief vacations. You must plan your day to either go back to your hotel and do the same, stop and eat a leisurely lunch yourself and use this time to travel from one place to another or resign yourself to walking around cities that are shuttered and closed for a few hours while the locals disappear. This break can last anywhere from 1pm to 3 or 4pm and in the winter, in the smaller cities like Vietri, stores don’t open again until at least 5. The city of Amalfi is a bit different as it is such a tourist destination and when we arrived there we found most of the shops open and doing business. Since it was New Year’s Eve there were bands of young boys playing music in the streets around the cathedral and Suzanne, Madison and I went into the cloister and museum while Bob and Sam opted to sit it out on the steps outside and people watch. Of course eating gelato was a necessity.

A Security Breach

Back home and a quick trip to the supermercato, insane really, on New Year’s Eve and just as crazy as any trip to the grocery store in the states on the day before a holiday! The funniest thing happened! This particular supermercato has pretty tight security and as you go through the check out, you pass under a security device, much like the metal detectors at airports. I guess they have a shoplifting problem there and when Suzanne passed through it, the beepers starting going off! Not having a history of shoplifting, my sister was shocked when two security officers approached her and we tried to find out what this might be all about! Something on her person was setting off the detectors and it turned out that the jacket she bought before leaving Denver still had one of those little theft detection labels in it. Not like the big white plastic thingies but an innocent little label sewed into the seam! They should have disarmed it when she bought it but neglected to do it. What was really hysterical was that she had come through airport security in Denver, Washington D.C., London Heathrow, Munich and Naples without setting off any alarms and here she was in the supermarket, about to be arrested for shoplifting! (I exaggerate!) The police told her to cut it off as soon as she got home and we took a photo of her with them, as a memento of this strange event. We told them they had better security than all those airports and everything, which made them very proud and we all had a good laugh over it.

New Year’s Eve in Vietri sul Mare

New Year’s Eve was magical! We started to hear the sound of fireworks outside as it approached midnight so we all went down the street to the point where the views of Salerno and along the coast towards Amalfi are the best. Everywhere fireworks were going off, all along the shoreline of Salerno! Above our heads our neighbors put on an incredible show and there were explosions from the center of Vietri visible as well. Marina di Vietri put on a show and along the coast from Raito above and tiny Erchie below, volley after volley exploded in the night sky. We were as ecstatic as the kids and could not believe the display before our eyes, spinning around at one point, not sure which direction to look since we seemed to be literally surrounded by fireworks! It was truly spectacular and I’m sure something we will all remember for a very long time to come.

New Year’s Day we planned to just stay close to home, enjoy sleeping in, walking on the beach, strolling around Vietri and just relaxing. I do believe this was the favorite part of this vacation for them and we just enjoyed being together. Madison helped me prepare dinner, ravioli with my “Sunday” sauce and we had a lovely day.

Paestum and the Greek Temples

We spent the next day exploring Paestum. The skies were threatening, we carried our umbrellas but the rain didn’t come, thankfully and I hope they found it interesting. Bob, ever the teacher, explained the history of this former Greek colony and the ancient temples that still stand on this beautiful site, some of the best preserved outside of Sicily and Greece.

The Ruins of Pompeii

The following day, still carrying our umbrellas with rain on and off, we took them to see the ruins of the city of Pompeii, destroyed by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in the year 79 AD. My planning could have been better and we walked too much, too far, out to the Villa of the Mysteries, with its incredible fresco cycles. My sister enjoyed seeing this very much but the walk back to the center of the city proved too much for the girls and I was sorry I had not read them better and kept within the center of Pompeii. The ruins are so vast, it’s quite incredible and there would have been enough to see without this long detour that took us out beyond the city walls, to the outskirts. I think they found it pretty cool but certainly their attention span was not the same as ours and they were ready to go after a few hours of wandering around!

Mt. Vesuvius

It was very cool to drive past the volcano and explain to them how it had erupted and why it now looks the way it does. We told them that the week before Bob and I had climbed to the very top, about a twenty minute hike, a bit steep, and peered down into the crater. They weren’t up for that much of a climb but we drove up into the Parco de Vesuvius onto the slopes of the volcano where the views above Naples are breathtaking and where they might be able to collect a few volcanic rocks to take home as souvenirs. It was so cute the way they scrambled out of the car when Bob pointed out a volcanic cave and my sister snapped some photos of them on their rock-hunting quest!

Driving through this area around Naples is always frustrating for the amount of trash piled up and around the garbage bins and I was sorry my sister had to see that and sorry that this situation is what it is as it really does detract from the beauty of this place. Fortunately we drove out of that and once again were looking out at the beautiful Amalfi Coast and the bays of the Mediterranean Sea.

A few days in Rome

We planned to spend two nights in Rome and headed out early for the nearly 4-hour drive north. Our GPS device had suddenly decided to quit and we were forced to find our way with only our maps and my poor navigational skills. We have not made this trip from Vietri to Rome and were very pleased to arrive in the vicinity of the apartment we had rented near the train station without getting too lost. Our host Mario, the owner of the Chicca Bed and Breakfast (www.chiccabandb.it) was waiting for us on the corner and escorted us to the palazzo, a few steps from Piazza della Republica, which proved to be an excellent base from which to explore the city. The girls loved the antique elevator with its beautiful wrought iron gates and up to the fifth floor it slowly rose to our two-bedroom, roof-top apartment with its all-in-one kitchen and sitting room. It was quite comfortable, each bedroom had its own bathroom, which really helped getting up and getting out early each day for touring Rome.

We hit all the big sights, the Roman Forum, the Colosseum, the Pantheon, Trajan’s Arch, the giant monument to Victor Emmanuel. We positively wore them out! We stopped for dinner at a Chinese Restaurant, the only one open at around 6pm, and that seemed to please everyone although it might seem a bit strange!

The next day we planned to visit the Vatican. My sister was an art major in college and the thought of seeing the Sistine Chapel in person made her positively giddy. Bob and I have this down pat now, we think, having been there several times and taken our other visitors on tours there. We find it works best for us to take a cab to the museum around 7am and plant Bob on line. The cab then proceeds to St. Peter’s where we arrive around 7:30 just when the doors open. There are no crowds yet and you can pretty much walk right in. We found out that Christmas time is almost as crowded in Rome as summer and believe it or not there was already a line forming in front of the Basilica and we waited a few minutes to work our way through their security. I cannot describe the look on my sister’s face as she stood in front of Michelangelo’s Pieta and tried to explain to the kids why this is such an important piece of work and why they should feel very honored at their young ages to be looking at it. I’m sure they didn’t really get it but I talked about it anyway! The only down side to touring this way is that you really only have about 45 minutes in the church, with no time to climb up into the dome or study all the paintings, sculptures and mosaics but hopefully enough time to appreciate the beauty of the place. By 8:30 we were back in line and ready to go in when the doors opened at 8:45.

Knowing we could not hold the attention of our nieces through all the rooms of the Vatican Museum, we made our way through stopping in places that held an interest for my sister and kept moving towards the Sistine Chapel where Suzanne sat in awe gazing up and even the girls found it wonderful to see. Bob and I pointed out the small dark places that show how the ceiling looked before they cleaned it and even they could see and appreciate what a masterpiece this is.

When the gift shop had been perused and souvenirs purchased we stepped outside for a breath of air, a photo op and headed out towards Castel Sant’angelo and a walk across the river. We visited the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain, where they tossed coins over their shoulders. The big mistake we made was not using the tour buses that go all around the city to visit the sights. Bob and I never do this, as we like to just walk everywhere. But for our visitors it proved to be too much walking and would have been better to have purchased an all day ticket that allows you to get on and off at all the major sights without having to walk from one place to another in between. We did, at the end of the day take one of the tour buses all around the city and the girls, I believe, slept through most of it! After a gorgeous day, it started to get kind of chilly on the top of the double decker bus and we found a restaurant near our hotel where we all just collapsed into our chairs and ate comfort food: pasta, pizza and bread, and we three adults drank wine and relaxed after our busy day of touristing!

The next day, January 6th, we had reservations at the Borghese Gallery for the five of us but Suzanne and I rethought this plan. Bob gallantly offered to take the girls to the zoo while my sister and I visited the museum. He deserves a medal for this since, as it turned out, this being a holiday in Italy, the zoo was free and was packed with people and not a particularly relaxing morning for my dear husband! The Borghese is a delight! Not a very large museum, it is nevertheless filled with the most wonderful art works. The sculptures by Bernini alone are worth the visit and we walked around and around these incredible pieces of art in complete awe of his mastery. We are both Caravaggio fans and there is an entire room dedicated to this Renaissance genius. The museum allows only a two-hour visit and at first we thought it would not be sufficient to see everything but it really is. I made reservations online for the time period I wanted (11am to 1pm) and then paid for the tickets when we arrived. You are told to be there at least 30 minutes before your scheduled time and they absolutely will not let you in a moment before. Sharply at 1pm they see you out. It ended up being just enough time and we even circled back to our favorites a few times to stand and stare. It was great also just to be alone with my sister and I treasure the time we spent together.

We then planned to pick up our luggage and our car and drive back to Vietri in the light of day. Best-laid plans sometimes don’t work out. It turned out, since it was a holiday, that the parking garage closed from 1 to 6pm and we would not be able to get our car until then! I phoned Mario and he kindly offered to let us stay in the apartment for a few more hours, as it was not rented for that night, fortunately for us. Bob opted for nap while Suzanne and the girls and I took a walk along Via Nazionale. Unfortunately, it being a holiday all the tempting shops were closed and this was a disappointment. Fortunately, we happened to find a lovely little neighborhood park where Madison had fun climbing on the play equipment and even Sam enjoyed herself.

Around 6pm Bob left to pick up the car and we brought our bags downstairs to wait for him, keeping our fingers crossed that the attendant actually showed up on time to open the garage so that we could leave. By this time of course it was dark and our concerns about finding our way out of the city proved unwarranted as the signs were good and we got on the right road to the autostrada and home to Vietri in a few hours time. We dropped Suzanne and the girls off at our apartment, picked up some roasted chickens and French fries at the take out place in Vietri, ate together and went to bed.

The next day, a Sunday, was a day of rest. We planned nothing and simply spent time here in Vietri, walking on the beach, strolling through town, looking in the ceramic shops, relaxing. We enjoyed a coffee and gelato in Marina di Vietri and fixed dinner at home. We all needed the down time, and it was nice just being together.

We had planned a day in Naples but decided this might be asking too much of our nieces and instead drove north to the medieval city of Casertavecchia. We thought Sam might enjoy walking around this ancient city and we were right. Unfortunately it was a cold and rainy day and most of the shops were closed, except for Ursula’s and this lovely German lady we had written about earlier on a trip Bob and I made to this city a few weeks ago charmed the girls and Suzanne and she showed them her workshop and took them on a tour of her house and explained how she had restored this old building and made almost everything in it with her own hands.

Tuesday we took another drive along the Amalfi Coast with a stop in Positano and a drive through Sorrento. The views are simply breathtaking and I’m glad we did this twice as the first time I believe my family was still experiencing jetlag and didn’t remember much from that day! Positano is so delightful I was glad we saved it for this day, as I’m sure it will be remembered as the beautiful place it is.

Shopping in Salerno

Wednesday, the day before they were to leave, we had kept open. I knew they would need time to pack and get ready to go home and wanted to leave it up to them what they wanted to do. Sam had her heart set on finding a coat and doing some more shopping so we suggested a morning in Salerno. I wanted to show my sister the old part of town and knew there would be plenty of opportunity to find things for Sam to buy and I was right. Bob, who hates to shop, dropped us off in centro and we spent the next few hours exploring the city and looking in all the little shops. The girls loved the old hat shop and each found one they loved. I have this theory about what I call “shopping endorphins” that kick in once you find something you like on a shopping day that sets the mood and makes the rest of the shopping experience successful. It worked! After the hats, they found other little things they liked and finally in one of the clothing shops Sam found “the coat” – exactly the style and color she was looking for all along and in just the right size! They all found things they liked and the girls were delighted and had a great time.

We ate lunch in one of the pizzerias nearby and walked along the harbor admiring the views back towards Vietri and all the little boats there. We finished up walking a short way to the bus station and riding the bus back to Vietri, which waited for us as we ran to catch it. A very successful morning and a great way to end their first trip to Italy I thought!

We took one last walk along the beach and Madison waded in the water. The weather was gorgeous and we took our time, sitting on the steps and gazing out to sea. They spent the rest of the afternoon packing and organizing their stuff. Their flight the next day was an early one so we didn’t stay up late but I don’t think either my sister or I slept much, anticipating having to say goodbye the next day, knowing it will be months before we see each other again. We hope they will come to Delaware this summer for a visit and we will try to see each other more often once we are back in the states.

Their flight left on time. Bob and I waited at the airport until we knew it had taken off, then came home and slept a few hours more. We curled up in bed the rest of the day, watching movies on our laptop, getting up only to make a light supper and then falling asleep for the night. Bob is getting a cold and today slept in. We got a call from the girls that they had made it home without too much excitement except that Madison’s suitcase had not made it from D.C. to Denver and they were still waiting for its arrival. Let’s hope it makes it home, as it would be sad to think some of her souvenirs are lost. I know this will upset her very much so keep your fingers crossed that they find it and deliver it in the next day or so.

That’s about it. It was a wonderful time with them and I can’t believe it’s over already. The days flew by. I know they must be pooped out but we hope they have taken home some good memories that they will treasure as I do each of them.

Ciao,
Rosemary & Bob

Kyla wearing her pink coat

2006-12-29T01:54:00.000-05:00

Our granddaughter: Isn't she the most adorable kid ever???

They're Coming!! 12.29.06

2006-12-29T01:46:00.000-05:00

Well! Not without a little extra added excitement (or should I say "stress!") my sister and her girls left Denver yesterday afternoon. The weather forecast predicted yet another big snowstorm but thankfully they got out of there before it got bad again. We decided she would only call if she did not get on the flight and as I haven't heard from her and I've checked her flight online, I can only assume that they are on their way and the flight will arrive on time tonight in Naples.

Today Bob and I have decided to drive up to the Observation Center on Vesuvius. To keep myself occupied mostly from being too excited to sit still and just to check it out. Our last venture was a disaster and we never found the right road. This time we've done a bit more research and hope to get close to the crater.

Assuming my family arrives tonight, I probably will not write much, if any, while they are here. Thanks again for keeping up with us and our adventures!

Ciao,
Rosemary & Bob

Views from Piero's boat in the Bay of Salerno

2006-12-28T13:41:00.000-05:00

Piero

Passing between the Due Fratelli rock formation

Mietri sul Mare, Marina di Vietri & Raito

Antica Torre Guarding the Bay of Salerno

A Boat Ride on San Stefano's Day 12.26.06

2006-12-28T13:25:00.000-05:00

Bob and I walked down to the beach this morning after breakfast. There were many people out and about on this day after Christmas and we saw Piero, our upstairs neighbor out in his boat fishing. He waved and pulled the boat closer to the rocks where we were standing and Bob asked him how the fishing was going. He replied that it was too windy for fishing but asked if we would like to go on a little ride with him. Thrilled, as we have wanted to go out on a boat here, we gladly jumped in! He took us along the shore towards Salerno and the views of Vietri and Raito above were delightful. The color of this water has to be seen to be believed. It is so clear and clean and today looked alternatively turquoise and deep blue depending on the direction of the sun. Along the beach there were even people swimming and sunning themselves and he told us that it was warmer up there, protected by the cliffs and that it was windier the further out to sea you went.

When we returned to shore, Bob and a few of Piero's friends who happened to be passing by helped him pull the boat up onto the sand. What a great gift! We were so happy to have had this opportunity.

We stopped at Martine's coffee bar and told her we had just had a little boat ride with her husband and ordered two cups of espresso. We sat outside with the sun on our faces counting ourselves fortunate indeed to be in this place at this time.

In three more days my sister and nieces will be with us! I cannot wait to show them this area and all the wonderful things we have seen.

Buone feste!
Rosemary e Robert

View from the Bay of Salerno from Piero's boat

Piero

Pulling Piero's boat ashore (note the little guy behind me helping)

Christmas morning musings 12.25.06

2006-12-26T16:03:00.000-05:00

It's Christmas morning. The sound of firecrackers woke me. This is a tradition in Italy, shooting off noisemakers in celebration. Some of the cities put on fireworks displays but the kids love to light firecrackers. Some of them sound like big bombs going off. Around midnight we heard a long volley and then again this morning.

Yesterday was a lovely day, if a bit cold, at least the sun was shining and the sky was blue. In the morning we walked around Cava de'Tirenni, a town I like more and more every time I go there. I especially love the main arcaded street, now decorated for Christmas, it's just so festive. The day before we joined the rest of the crazy last minute shoppers at the big supermercato there. It was a zoo as you might expect in any grocery store the day before Christmas and I started making up my own words to the Christmas classic "soon it will be Christmas Day" - "Children screaming, people coughing, Panettone piled high"...you get the picture. The buying and giving of the Panettone is quite a phenomenon here. I wonder if Italians actually do any baking in their own homes, there are so many wonderful sweet things to be found everywhere. The more gorgeous (think "expensive") ones of course are in the windows of the pasticcerie, the bakeries. I saw one gold wrapped cake, paired with a bottle of expensive wine with a whopping price tag of 70 euros! Everywhere you go there are piles of these boxes of Panettone cakes, in all sorts of flavor combinations, and shoppers with at least one or two in their carts. The basic one comes with a little packet of powdered sugar to sprinkle on later. The expiration date of these things is, like Easter I think. There is the classic one, of course, with candied fruit and raisins, one with vanilla cream inside, one with chocolate, one for diabetics, without sugar, and more than I can remember now.

Historically, from what I have been able to find out, they were first made in Milan. The Panettone is THE symbolic Christmastime cake in Italy.

One of the big bakers of these cakes is a company called Bauli (www.bauli.it). They are based in Verona and we went there before we left that city. We bought a cake to take to our friends Sergio and Rita, thinking it was a pure Veronese treat, but came to realize that these cakes are everywhere. Like the Perugina chocolates, you can buy them anywhere it Italy (and around the word I suspect!). Last Christmas, Elio's brother Salvatore took one of the plain ones and cut it into a Christmas tree shape and added rum and other things to dress it up and created a very gorgeous dessert. The actual cake part of it seems a cross between a yellow cake and a loaf of bread. I've had fun this morning reading online some of the legends surrounding its origin. Here are a few excerpts from one of the sites (www.sanpellegrino.com): (to our friend Dennis in Phoenix, this is for you)

"The most accredited story regarding the invention of panettone features one of Ludovico il Moro's falconers named Toni, who was in love with the daughter of a struggling baker. He sold off two of his lord's hunting falcons (which could have cost him his life) in order to purchase some butter. Having found work as an assistant in the family bakery of his beloved and having renounced his "nobler" origins, the young falconer began to make his special dessert bread, flavoring it with butter, eggs, candied fruit and raisins. He then sold it to the local clients, who became growingly enthusiastic about his creation. Thanks to this invention he was graced with love, success and wealth, and "pan di Toni" ("Toni's bread") soon became the most popular dessert among the Milanese, who took up the tradition of giving it as a gift during the Christmas season."

Here's another:
"Another story, another protagonist. In this last case, a humble nun called Suor Ughetta, who wanted to make a tasty gift for the poor. To her bread dough she added eggs, sugar, candied fruit and raisins. When she'd baked this special bread (the top of which she'd sliced in a cross form as a blessing), she realized how delicious it was... as did all the townspeople, who began to make generous offerings at the convent just so they could get their hands on a slice of this very special dessert."

Very sweet stuff.

Rosemary e Robert

More Christmas Lights

2006-12-26T15:56:00.000-05:00

The presepe in Positano

The lights of Marina di Vietri

Our tiny tree and Rosemary wearing her new Christmas present

Bob's Birthday and Christmas Lights

2006-12-26T15:46:00.000-05:00

Bob's birthday (I was taking the photo so he had to light his own candles!)

The arcaded streets of Cava de' Tirreni

This overhead net of lights went on for at least a mile through a curving street near Sorrento

The colorful lights of Atrani, near Amalfi

The twinkling lights of the Amalfi Coast

Christmas Eve 12.24.06

2006-12-26T15:38:00.000-05:00

Christmas Eve is Bob's birthday. It has always been the tradition in our family to be sure this day is celebrated and Bob is given his due in terms of being treated special on his day and not just lumping it in with Christmas. I fixed a nice roasted chicken with potatoes, onions and carrots, basted with vin santo wine and broth that we feasted on. It was just the two of us but it was lovely. We spoke to our children and granddaughter who called to say Happy Birthday, and to my brother, a few friends called with their greetings. Our neighbors upstairs came down earlier to invite us to come with them to their son's house but we had other plans and declined. We hope they weren't offended. Our tradition on Christmas Eve has always been to celebrate Bob's birthday (this year, with a Panettone cake!) and then dive into Christmas by going out to look at the Christmas lights. This year, we planned to drive the Amalfi Coast to do it!

We headed out the door around 8pm. The streets of Vietri were almost deserted by this time, with a few last minute shoppers scurrying home. Most of the stores were closed tight, their windows dark. But the Christmas lights twinkled and the city looked so sweet. On the main streets in Vietri they have strung lights across from one side of the street to the other - in a wave of blue lights with white ones hanging down. I told Bob it reminded me of the waves of the sea with reflections of the stars twinkling. He told me I was a dork. There was some traffic on the coast road, but not as much as normal. Every little town along the coast is decorated for Christmas. We passed Cetara, with white lights and stars on the seaside, Maiori's main promenade and shopping street ablaze with lights as we drove past. From Ravello up high we saw bursts of fireworks.

The crescent moon was golden above where the coastline wraps around to Amalfi and Bob stopped and took out his tripod and made a few photos. Which he did several times on our drive. Atrani was like a Presepe (Nativity scene) come to life, with colored lights on the houses and the little churches up in the mountain above the town. Amalfi glistened. Positano had a wonderful Presepe set into a side of the mountain with a net of stars above the little houses. The city itself was like a fairytale to me, Christmas lights glowing from every tier of this steep and layered city, down to the sea. There were more fireworks there and we tried to find a vantage point but they were over before we could. Each little town was quiet and still, the inhabitants celebrating indoors with their families, a few tourists wandering around, happy expressions on their faces.

We spoke to our daughter Jessica and I tried to describe to her what was before our eyes. We thanked her for the lovely gifts she had sent. A jacket for me, a book for Bob and a couple of scarves she had knitted herself that we both love. Chris sent us a gift certificate so we can shop for ourselves.

By 10pm we were getting tired and decided to take the faster route home, north to Naples and then south along the autostrada back to Vietri rather than retracing our route along the Amalfi Coast road. We were home before midnight ready for sleep! Today we have been invited (and accepted) to go with Antonio and Nunzia and their little 15-month old son Manuel, to Nunzia's parents' house to celebrate Christmas Day with her family in Cetara - one of my favorite cities on the Amalfi Coast. We are looking forward to it very much. Now it is after 9am and I think I'll go make my morning cappuccino and step outside to see what the weather is like. The sun is shining and there are only a few wispy clouds.

Buon Natale!
Rosemary e Robert

Random Observations from Vietri sul Mare

2006-12-24T11:36:00.000-05:00

Marina di Vietri and Vietri sul Mare at dusk from the hills west of town

The door/window that was being repaired. The large opening above the door normally is covered. The orange thing outside the door is the screen that comes down completely covering the window.

We had an umbrella that lost a battle with the wind and found in Cava de' Tirreni a man who repairs them. He said he has been doing this work since he retired in 1988. He charged 1.20 euro to replace the broken part. We were glad to pay it and happy not to just throw away a good umbrella.

Squadra Spazzini = Garbage Collectors

Spazzina = Garbage Collector