Capuchio Designs

Monday, May 31, 2010

Amalfi Coast

Today was a bit more relaxing than yesterday’s events.  We took the coach down one of Italy’s finest coastlines, the Amalfi Coast.

leaving hotel for the day

On the way, we stopped at an Italian “Auto Grill” which was a gas station and mini-mart all in one.  We only had about 15 minutes there to use the facilities and grab a quick coffee and/or pastry.  There were so many people jammed inside, that it looked like a caffeine feeding frenzy.  So many little, tiny, espresso cups!

coastal views

little boat

Positano

Positano in the rain

Positano is known for its linen

Only smaller minibuses are allowed down near the town, and only these small delivery trucks can fit on the narrow roads.

pretty little shop

interesting stairs

pretty houses on the hillside

outside wall of a restaurant

Since there was down pouring rain (thank goodness I wore my Keene’s that day), there was only shopping to do here.  Because I’m definitely not the shopper, I just kept looking for good photo opportunities, of which there were plenty!

We couldn’t believe that two buses could actually pass on the outer roads of Positano, but here’s proof.  Yikes!

our mini bus passing a big bus on a narrow road

Positano was molto bella (very beautiful)!

Sorrento

We returned to Papa’s favorite hillside town of Sorrento on the way back from Positano.  There we visited an inlaid wood shop and explored a bit of the town.

narrow cobble-stoned streets

Siesta time outside the woodshop

Later that afternoon we had an excursion to a Family Fattoria, where we enjoyed a lunch of local specialties including homemade mozzarella.  Maria demonstrated how to make mozzarella the old fashioned way.  (Don’t ask me how, as I’ve already forgotten, except she does plunge her hand in boiling hot water which leaves it fire engine red!)

Maria making mozzarella

lunch at the mozzarella farm

Lunch consisted of the first course of fresh mozzarella, rustic bread, prosciutto and garden tomatoes, followed by rigatoni in a tomato sauce, then a slice of ricotta cake drizzled with their own lemoncello (hard liquor) for dessert.

appetizer plate

The farm owner and Maria also made and sold their own lemoncello, an Italian favorite after dinner liqueur.  I bought one bottle of the lemon-cream variety as a gift, because it had a little bit less of a “rocket fuel”  kick than the straight lemoncello did.

selling/buying lemoncello at the farm

farewell little farm

Tonight we ventured out from our hotel on a walk into downtown Sorrento for a little exploring on our own.  We tacked onto two other older couples in our tour group for the first 10 minutes, but they quickly dropped out due to inappropriate shoes and … age!  We continued on walking down narrow roads with no sidewalk and cars zooming past us just inches away.  You need nerves of steel in Italy!

The walk was about 40 minutes or 3 miles.  When we went to the shuttle pick up area to return to the hotel, there were two other tour couples who showed up too.  We waited and waited, as the hotel shuttle never arrived (thanks to our dim witted tour guide’s misinformation) so we shared a cab back with our fellow travelers.  It was worth the $20 Euros to not have to risk our lives again.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

This is the day we begin to enjoy the “La Dolce Vita,” or the sweet life.

Today we woke up early and had a great breakfast at the Sheraton.  The spread of food was vast.  There were lots of cheeses, meats, runny eggs (yuk), fruits and pastries.  I could see right away that my previously good diet habits were going to fly right out the window!  Oh well … when in Rome, do as the Romans do … right?

We boarded the coach and headed south at 7;45 a.m. for the Monte Cassino Abbey.  It was actually rebuilt after an epic battle of 1944, and dominates the countryside from its mountain top setting (yep, straight from the brochure).  We walked up a small, winding road,  to get to the Abbey, where we found amazing views of the scenery down below.

Monte Cassino Abbey

Vineyard and villa below the Abbey

We saw part of a church service inside, with priests and an alter boy swinging the incense (think smoke maker).

Church service at the Abbey

The church was so ornate, as all of Italia is, with angels embedded on all the arcs up above.

Jesus on the cross (inside the church)

inside the church

Mother and Child mosaic

The monks at this Abbey survived when the United States bombed them in 1944.  The following photos show some of these ancient lower areas of the Abbey that they hid in.

hiding place for the Monks

place of worship

original iron door

This Abbey was a great “opening act” for the rest of what Italy had to offer.  Now it’s off to the Commonwealth War Cemetery, just down the hill from the Abbey.

Ciao Abbey of Monte Cassino!

Abbey of Monte Cassino - South of Rome

Commonwealth War Cemetery

This cemetery is for the fallen soldiers of WWII.  There were pristine gardens and it gave me such a sense of tranquility and peace.  There was very unusual foliage there, as well as a koi pond.

Commonwealth War Cemetery

I loved the symmetry of this site.

symmetry and sadness

long rows

koi and lily pond

beauty between

pond view

Now it’s off to Pompeii.

Pompeii

On our “coach” ride down to Pompeii, we stopped at at little restaurant for some lunch.  The locals were there with their families and we were able to catch a glimpse of a post communion celebration.

family celebrating son's communion

We arrived in Pompeii, the ill-fated Roman resort buried by an eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in AD79.  Dario, a man-purse wearing, linen-suit-wearing Italian, was our tour guide here.  He was very entertaining and knowledgeable.

Dario (Dave's new Italian name)

Our tour lasted about three hours.  We explored the daily life of  this ancient Roman civilization which included a bath/massage house and old brothel, complete with “position” paintings still left behind on the walls.

cobblestoned street of Pompeii

street view

Pompeii

ancient house area

balcony of the brothel

position on brothel wall (in case someone forgot)

Then we were off on a scenic cliff-top drive on the way to Sorrento.

Sorrento

We arrived at the Hotel La Pace, and were handed the key to our room.  We stayed 3 nights at this hotel with its canary yellow tiles and beautiful views of the Bay of Naples and the town below (yes, we’d be paid back for this good fortune later).  Sorrento is situated across from the Isle of Capri and Naples.  Our view from our balcony was postcard perfect, with the old buildings and ocean visible.

straight ahead view from our balcony

view of Mt. Vesuvius and old buildings

We ate dinner at the hotel tonight and sat with two quiet sets of couples who were “not the life of the party,” shall we say.  Our courses included:  lasagna, steak, and a strawberry shortcake-like desert.

Hotel La Pace

our room to the left of palm tree

Buonanotte – (Goodnight)

Our jet to fun!

Our alarm awoke us at 4:45 a.m. on the morning of May 28th, 2010.  Believe me that this early wake-up call didn’t bother us a bit, since we weren’t sure we’d be flying out of DIA at all.

Our original flight was booked with British Airlines, but due to an employee strike, our flight wasn’t happening.  Thank goodness our tour company had the “insight” to change our tickets so that we could fly via American Airlines.

Instead of a leisurely morning on Friday, we were up and at ’em.  We actually were quite happy about this change which meant we would fly about 2 1/2 hours to O’Hare in Chicago, then change planes and continue non-stop to Rome, arriving on time to catch the hotel shuttle.  (Thus alleviating the anxiety of trying to communicate in Italian to a cab driver, while exhausted from lack of sleep).

Of course my husband noticed “Air Force One” flying past the airport window at O’Hare.  This was because President Obama and his entourage were arriving in Chicago for some business.  There were security, military-like helicopters as well.  As a result, our flight was delayed, as the entire airport shut down for about 30 minutes.

Our flight to Rome was long!  We tried to get some sleep on the 9 1/2 hour flight from Chicago, and adjust to Italy time which is 8 hours ahead, but it was quite difficult.  We thought we flew over Monaco and may have seen some of Tuscany’s rolling hills.  We were so excited!

My photos from the airplane were no good, and neither were our self-portraits on the plane, ala Diane.  I looked like a stretched-out-rubber-necker and Dave looked like he had a glass eye.  I guess you could say we don’t travel well.  My soft Target pants ended up looking like stretched out toddler clothing, while so many of the other lovely ladies on board were in their high heels and skin tight clothing, and full-on make-up … maybe on the way back home.

At the Rome airport (9:15 a.m), there was no customs, and we only needed to show our passport, and we were in!  We were faced with hundreds of people holding signs for tour groups and others.  Confusing!  We finally were able to figure out where to meet our tour group shuttle.  I must say that it was glorious to be led by a sign-on-a-stick holding Italian lady to a nice new tour bus ridden only by four people to the hotel … yeah boys it was a Mercedes!

Then we were off to the Sheraton Roma Hotel via the tour “coach”.

Sheraton Roma Hotel

We were greeted by our New Zealand, fluent in Italian, tour guide.  Because we were so sleep deprived, we took a two hour nap then explored the beautiful, plush,  grounds of the hotel.  50’s on the outside, clean and pretty on the inside.

beautiful flowers

palm tree on plush grounds

pink flowering bush

Later this evening, we met our entire tour group for drinks and snacks at the hotel lounge.  Almost all of them were quite a bit older than us.  There were 34 people on this tour, with only two women traveling as singles.  An Australian couple, Denise and Tim chose to sit with us.  They were quite outdoorsy and delightful as most Australian’s we’ve met are.

We passed on an optional excursion into the center of Rome for dinner and entertainment this night.  Our exhaustion caught up to us.  We stayed behind and visited with a nice Aussie family of Norris and Fay, parents of two adult daughters, Troy and Leigh (think of my sister and me).  It was nice to chat with them as they were quite a hoot and had already been in Rome for two days before, and had lots of good information to share.

Then … off to bed.

Hey all!

I’m going to blog about our wonderful trip to Italy.  Since it already happened, I’ll reference the days by date/ day number (not to be confused with blog date).

Since I’m quite the organizer, I’ve finally decided to blog about each day of the trip in sequence, and include only the very best of my photos for each area.  Yes, I will whittle down the 1,400 + photos to something more manageable, but since this is my documentation of our experience, there may be more than you think!

Sit back and relax and enjoy what Italia has to offer.

Passeggiate – pre-dinner promenade (stroll) “to see and be seen.”

Ciao!

P.S.  Some of the first days’ text may have appeared in a previous email to you, so you can breeze through that.  Thanks for reading!

Under the Tuscan Sun - Villa Bramasole

Ciao Bellas!

This is just a tease of our trip to Italy.

I’m still trying to figure out how to organize everything so that I can blog about our 17 day trip of a lifetime.  Italy is simply amazing.  The art, history, piazzas, rolling Tuscan hills, cobble-stoned streets, duomos, and cathedrals are breathtaking.

One of the Italian regions we visited was Tuscany.  We were fortunate to have been able to take an excursion that included a walk down a quiet, tree lined, little mountain road, right up to the “Villa Bramasole” (Yearn for the Sun) of Frances Mayes.   She is the author of  the book Under the Tuscan Sun.

Where little Italian man placed flowers in the movie.

Frances fixed up this dilapidated villa to its marvelous, majestic, glory of today.  It took my breath away.  She now has over 90 variety of roses in her flower garden.  Beautiful setting, great view of the valley below, and very touching indeed.  Peaceful.

Gate to the Villa Bramasole

Stay tuned as I try to figure out the best way to share my experience with you.

Arrivederci!

P.S.  I took more than 1,400 photos, so it may take me a while to sort through them.