Duffel Found!

Well it's been over a week and our duffel has just been delievered to the house. It is still a duffel but does not resemble the duffel we left at Naples a couple of weeks ago. It has been completely ransacked, destroyed and every bit of our stuff has been gone through, broken, torn and looks like its been thrown in the trash. The lock has disappeared and the color of the duffel is different. So, we have our duffel back, but there is stuff missing, broken and it feels awful. Hopefully the airline will replace the items, but they can't replace the emotional attachments.

Day 16, The Last Day (or so we thought...)

I have not wanted to write this day for a few days since we’ve been home because the ensuing events of our trip home have been quite frustrating and I wasn’t ready to write about it yet. However as I write this, I am on a plane on my way to Jackson, Wyoming to spend the next three weeks. Well, where to begin. This story is quite long and I will try and keep it short, but provide enough information to understand the circumstances. So mom and I wake up so early on Friday morning around 3:45am and get ready to finish packing the car and make our way to the airport (which as we found out later was right next to the American naval base in Naples)! We eventually find the departures section of this small airport and decide to just leave the car outside while we went inside to check-in. We were scheduled on an Alitalia flight to Rome and then a Delta flight from Rome to JFK and because the two airlines are partners there was not supposed to be any issues with that. So we get to the business class check-in line and wait for about 15 minutes for 1 person in front of us to check-in. Meanwhile, as I should point out, we didn’t have seats on this flight- they were given out as a first come first serve basis (the worst system ever). Well when we finally got to the check-in counter, the man was so rude to us- first he said he couldn’t check us in all the way to JFK because he didn’t have access to finding our tickets and so he wanted to check out bags through to Rome and then we would have to get our bags in Rome, check-in AGAIN and then go through security and still make our flight. This was super frustrating as we were told we could easily check all the way through and not have to do anything in Rome. However, this man was so unaccommodating towards us that he was mean- not even wanting to look for our correct tickets so he could check us in. So mom and I accepted whatever he gave us and went to return the rental car at hertz a few blocks away. A gentleman who was in Naples training people on the Naval Base returned a car at the same time as us and accompanied us back to the airport terminal in the windy, cold, dark morning. We went through security- which was a breeze- and got to our gate. Mom went to the bathroom to wet the washcloth and came back 25 minutes later after having found a wonderful woman who went to her supervisor because she thought it was outrageous that we could not check our baggage and ourselves all the way through to JFK. She checked us in again, gave us new boarding passes and new luggage tags which she said she would run out to the plane to put on our bags! That made mom feel a bit better. The Alitalia flight was packed like sardines and people boarded the plane in a junk show many from the rear of the very old plane. So we make it to Rome, do our tax free stuff and get to the lounge to relax a bit before our next 10 hour flight. When it’s time to board, mom and I walk to our gate and they wouldn’t let us on board because we needed boarding passes (well we thought we had boarding passes, but apparently those didn’t work)- so we had to get new boarding passes at the gate and answer some security questions, then we could board. We get onto the plane and there are people sitting in our seats so the stewardess asks them to move and they were so rude it was quite unpleasant. As we settled into our seats, it became much more pleasant on the flight and mom and I were glad that everyone spoke English (we don’t normally feel like that coming home from Europe). Well I watched 3 movies and slept for about 5 minutes; mom slept for about 2 hours. So we arrive in JFK after 10 hours and make our way through the customs check and then went to get out baggage. 3 pieces of our luggage came out, the fourth was no where to be seen. Only one of our pieces of luggage actually had a baggage tag on it, the second piece had a number on it, but didn’t match any of the luggage tags we had and the third piece had no tags at all on it. We were really surprised that any of the bags actually made it. We were so distressed about the loss of the 4th bag that it was hard to be relieved that we were home. We went to the lost baggage office and the woman was okay, but by no means helpful. We ended up being there for 2 hours as we made the claim and then a nice man said he would go back and look for it in the back. No luck. We arrived at JFK at 2:45, we left the airport close to 5pm and of course was stuck in rush hour traffic on the way home while mom called the delta lost baggage people for the first time to explain the story and make a more complete claim. The man said that they would call us if they heard anything and that we should keep calling to check-in too.

For the next 2 days straight that is exactly what mom did- every 3-4 hours she would call Delta and receive different information every time she called- it got to be so frustrating that it was stressful and annoying. She was getting the run around and even when she talked to some supervisors, they were so incompetent that mom didn’t know what to do. So we still don’t have our bags- I could go into more detail about incompetency and the details surrounding the last few days, but I am too frustrated now writing this to continue. So there might be more later, but for now, we are home, minus one bag and off to the next stage of the adventure. Ciao!

Day 15, Naples

Naples was not a pleasant city to be in and as we left the beautiful Amalfi Coast and made our ways 2 hours north to Naples, one could clearly see the difference. The people, the buildings, the drivers, and etc. There is no need to go to Naples ever- except that our hotel was nice- a new 3 star on a dead end near the airport. The night before we left, neither mom nor I could fall asleep so a long game of 20 questions was played to try and fall asleep!

Day 14, Positano and Amalfi

December 12, 2007
Today we visited the towns of Positano and Amalfi. The weather was beautiful today, partly cloudy and a brisk Mediterranean Sea breeze. Mom and I woke up early-ish (7:30 am), so we got a somewhat early start in Positano and parked as far down along the slopes as we could. We were just about the only tourists there and it was wonderful. The streets were empty, the beach was empty and it was great! We did more shopping today than we have ever done and I will leave it at that as everyone will see mom’s new clothing soon. There were not many good photo ops in Positano which surprised us as it’s supposed to be a photographers dream… hmmm… not really this one. We walked around for a few hours and since our hotel is in between Positano and Amalfi, we stopped on the way to Amalfi to pee and drop off all the bags. We were then off to Amalfi, where we parked on the marina and headed into the ravine of what Amalfi is. The church was huge and one of the most ornate that we’ve seen so far in Italy. We walked all the way up the ravine as far as we could to see the Paper Mills which were closed, but still interesting to see. We wanted to buy some paper (since it’s made in Amalfi) but it was so expensive, we decided it wasn’t worth it. When we finished with Amalfi, we returned back to the hotel to watch the rest of the sunset and go to the Alimentaire for some cheese and bread for dinner- again. We are also trying to finish the 5 pounds of lemons, oranges, clementines and mandarins that we have before we leave on Friday. We leave the coast tomorrow morning and head to Naples, where we will spend our last day before we leave very early Friday morning. So potentially, this could be my last post before we get back to the states on Friday afternoon (depending if we have internet in Naples). Ciao tutti!

Day 13, Pompeii (Pompei in Italian)

December 11, 2007
Well we woke up today with the plans to explore Amalfi and Postiano. However our plans changed when we talked to the woman who lives and works here and we decided to head to Pompeii instead. She and we were worried about going there on the way to Naples as we had originally planned with all of our luggage in the car, so we decided to get it out the way we would drive the hour and a half today. We got a bit lost getting into Pompeii and ended up going towards Mt. Vesuvius first, which was quite large and since we couldn’t actually find the way to the base of the mountain, we turned around and went back in the historical ruins of Pompeii. The new city of Pompeii is awful and run down, so there is no need to ever go there. The ruins, however were wonderful and amazing that they have been preserved for so long. The people of this time (before AD 79 when Mt. Vesuvius erupted) seemed to be so intelligent, practical, wealthy and much more logical than we are today. They also had many brothels, and I will post an image of a kama sutra position that supposedly men could look at while having sex and get ideas for new positions!! If anyone wants more info on Pompeii, ask my dad. It’s really interesting. Mom and I walked around for 4, yes 4!! hours. We were utterly exhausted at the end, but we saw so much- the houses, ampitheater, theater, roads, casted bodies and much, much more. I will try and post as many photos as possible to show the town. It was also much more expensive to go to Pompeii than we had thought- paying for parking, entrance fees and the audio guide where we received all of our information from (almost 70 dollars… jeez). So after 4 hours, we decided to head home and on the way there was a beautiful sunset and a fair amount of afternoon traffic. We are now home and had another nice cheese and bread dinner with some chocolate mixed in. Only two more days of Italy.. it is sad, but I think we are getting ready to come home too. Ciao.

Day 12, Ravello and the Amalfi Coast

December 10, 2007
It was raining and mostly cloudy for most of the day today again. However, mom and I decided to go to the town of Ravello, high up on the hill overlooking the entire coast and the Mediterranean Sea. The rain stopped for a couple of hours in the middle of the day that allowed us to walk around the small, cute town (there are no cars allowed in the town). As it started to look like it was going to rain again, mom and I decided to have lunch overlooking the coast. This was the first time we’ve had a real lunch this whole trip, so it was very exciting. It was also our dinner… as our one meal a day budget only allows such. We chose Villa Maria as our lunch spot and it was a beautiful place- also a hotel (4 star). We had a cappuccino to start our meal as we were cold, and then mom had fish and anchovies over a bed of lettuce and lemons and I have linguine and clams with winter tomatoes, yummy. We couldn’t finish the food so we requested to take it home and we ate it when we got home a couple of hours later. As we were eating lunch, it started pouring, so we were very glad we were inside! After we finished lunch, we returned down the long stairs and through a tunnel back to our vehicle where it again started raining as we got into the car (lucky) and we made our way back down the treacherous, tiny road (which I videoed) that was only made really for one car and it was a two-way street. We were planning on stopping in Amalfi on the way back to Praiano (our home base) but it was raining still so we decided just to head home. In our town there are some really neat and original little displays on the side of the road of a miniature town with boats, fisherman, houses, fish and etc. We stopped to take photos of this incredible masterpiece. When we finally got back safely to our hotel, it started pouring again and I really wanted to walk down to the beach (at least 400 steps and quite a cliff), so we waited until there was a lull in the storm. When we finally bundled up, we ventured out on the small pathways to the ocean, where after about 20 minutes we found huge waves, wind and a few fisherman! We took some photos, watched the sunset and made the good stairmaster trek up the hill back to the hotel where a bit later, it started pouring again! I was also craving some chocolate so mom asked the people if they had more of the chocolates that they put on our bed last night and a little while later a tray of chocolate came to our door, with different types of desserts and the chocolate hearts from our bed! It was very cool. Okay, well enough for now. Off to drink wine and edit some photos.

Day 11, Traveling to the Amalfi Coast

December 9, 2007
Today was a long traveling day for us. We left Martina Franca and our hotel around 9:30 this morning and after much debate and asking everyone, we decided to go a northern route on the Autostrade to the west coast rather than the way we were planning on going through the mountains. So we set off, stopping in Locorotondo on the way at a supermarche to buy some sale marino (the special salt from this area that is soo good), some pasta, a couple of baguette’s and some coffee. On the Autostrade we were able to go faster (about 140-150 km/hr; 90-100mph) so the 300 km to Naples went by fairly quickly… about 2- 3 hours with stopping to fill up with gas and etc. We were told that driving on the Amalfi coast would be difficult and some people couldn’t believe we were even driving on the coast- well as we found out, this drive was nothing compared to what we drove on the Gargano Peninsula. The roads here are curvy and small, but there is a wall before the cliff heading down to the water, so it feels safer. Plus, mom got to use her pista kart (go-cart) skills again. It took us about an hour or so once we got onto the coast to get to Praiano (going through Amalfi and some other smaller towns). It is beautiful here. Our hotel is right on the water and is called Hotel Tramonto D’Oro. We could never afford to stay here during the peak season, so it’s perfect now. We are even in the cheapest room (supposedly without a sea view) but we have a partial sea view and a huge balcony. It will be hard to leave here to go visit anything else, but I know we’ll make our way around and see Positano, Ravello, Amalfi and just explore some of the little towns and the coastline on this peninsula. We will hopefully also be able to go to the restaurant that Omi’s hairdressers family owns in Amalfi. We also now have internet, which is very exciting so we should be able to be online more often. Yeah!
This one above picture is the restaurant at Masseria Chiancone Torricella in the trulli's, where we stayed for the past 5 nights!

Day 10, December 8, 2007

Day 10, December 8th, 2007
Masseria Mita and the surrounding trulli’s

Today was one of the best days so far this trip. It started out a bit cloudy and rainy and remained that way for most of the day, but the weather in no way affected our nice day. One of the women who works here, Maria, owns a true Masseria (fortified farm) with ancient (seculara) olive trees, a vineyard, and a private orange, mandarin, Clementine and lemon grove. Maria met us at the hotel at 10:30 this morning and we followed her for about ½ an hour south east towards Crispiano where we eventually arrived at a beautiful gate where we turned in and immediately saw a vineyard on the right and an olive tree grove on the left and straight ahead. We followed her down the pathway where her husband (who works on the farm everyday) was waiting. The name of their company is Masseria Mita and in fact they work here year round, but they don’t live on the farm (they live about 20 minutes away in Martina Franca). We had assumed we were just going to taste some wine and olive oil and be off in an hour; however, we were very incorrect and only after 4 hours were we on our way. So when we got there, they gave us a tour (their 10 year old son was there too) of the olive groves with the ancient trees and they showed us the oldest tree on the farm probably dating back to the 1600’s when the farm was created. The trees were beautiful and had enormous trunks that were just amazing. After we walked around the groves, we went into one of the old farm houses where they used to make the wine and we were explained the process of how they pressed the grapes and how the wine traveled into barrels underneath the farm to stay until they were ready to drink. We then went into their private garden which had orange, mandarine, Clementine, rose bushes and lemon trees. We smelled the fruit and it smelled delicious, so they picked some fruit for us and put them in a bag- we have about 5 pounds of citrus that we have to eat in the next week before we come home! They taste wonderful. Finally, we went into their farm house, which they now use for entertaining in the summertime and have invited us back to stay there and to have meals with them under the olive trees in the summertime. There was a platter of bread with tomatoes, olive oil and salt (which we have found out is different here than anywhere else) and some vino rosso (red wine). So we ate and talked for a while and it was so good, so we ended up buying a fair amount of the olive oil and the wine to take home. They also showed us their old wood oven (like a brick oven) that they still use to cook with outside of their house. So after 4 hours of spending time with them, we left and followed them back to Martina Franca where they showed us the best specialty store to buy provincial items, but it was closed. Oh well, we don’t need to spend any more money. So we drove around a little bit more and I took some more Trulli photos and then we came home. I should also mention that today is a large religious holiday here celebrating St. Maria. I don’t know anything else about it, except that everything is closed and our hotel is packed full of Italians eating lunch and dinner here! We have decided not to partake in the expensive price fixe meal and eat cheese and bread in the room for dinner- yummy! Wish we could bring back some cheese- it’s very good.
Someone has pointed out that he didn’t know what a trullo was when I wrote about them before, so I will clarify what they are now. Trulli’s (plural; trullo, singular) are round, stone houses that were built between the 15th and 18th centuries by everyone in this region. They were built in a certain way so that there was one loose stone on top that they could pull out and their entire house would fall down. They would do this in situations when tax men came to collect money or for other purposes to evade paying and getting into trouble. So after these men had left the premises, they would rebuild their home. Very interesting structures and we will miss them when we leave this region tomorrow morning.
Mom has fallen in love as well. With our car. She hugs every corner, drives quickly, and is becoming an Italian. She will be very sad when she has to part with it next Friday.

Day 9, December 7, 2007

Day 9, Exploring the South and the Ionic Sea

The most exciting adventure for today was finding these 4 pigs, who were very big, a bit smelly and kind of cute. Mom was very attracted to them. The plan for today was to go wine tasting, yet we are now going tomorrow with someone to guide us. So we decided to explore around Taranto and the Ionic Coast. We were hoping to find some small fishing villages, but never found them and instead found some industrial areas and an interesting coast line. We did venture into the Costco-esque store of Italy and found our way around to buy water, pasta, cream some Italian paper and some other goodies. Also it was extremely important to find a bathroom as both mom and I need to go pee so badly. So after 4 hours of driving around, seeing the coast and getting a bit lost, we decided to head back towards Martina Franca where we were hoping to find a restaurant that would be open around 4 or 5 (the restaurants here only open between 8 and 9pm for dinner). Well after driving around for ½ an hour trying to find the centro storico (historical center) we gave up and headed home. So our nice driving day ended up with both mom and I exhausted taking a nap when we got home. We’re not sure we’re eating dinner tonight because it’s a prefix menu and it’s expensive, so we’ll nibble on the breadsticks we bought today at the grocery store! Tomorrow is our last day in the Puglia region with the trulli’s and then we head over to the west coast to the Campagnia region and Amalfi.

Day 8, Matera

Day 8, Thursday December 6, 2007:

Today we were supposed to go to the Taranto area and go wine tasting, but plans changed this morning when we found out that the Masseria for the wine tasting was closed today, so we decided to head to Matera instead and do the wine tasting on Friday. I forget to mention in the previous days that we are staying in a Masseria which means a fortified farmhouse just outside of Martina Franca. This fortified farmhouse is surrounded by a large stone wall, a gated entrance and exit, and they are in the process of building a huge spa in the back of ‘hotel.’ In our room, we have these beautiful high ceiling (like in the trulli’s) and wooded windows with lace curtains. Outside the windows there are covers to keep the warm air in because it is freezing here (average of 2-8 degrees Celsius) and we couldn’t figure out how to open them so we tried lifting them to see out the window but we couldn’t get very far up. So yesterday for the first time, mom hit a switch by mistake and it automatically opened the shades so we now know how to open them! So today we ventured to Matera, a unique town in the Basilicata region filled with Sassi’s (stone dwellings carved into ravines dating back to the 8th century B.C.). It took us about 2 hours to drive there (mom practicing her go cart racing) and we drove around the city first to find the two parts of town with the Sassi’s: the Sasso Barisano and the Sasso Caveoso (the older and prettier one). This area was really interesting especially since the area has been inhabited since the 8th century B.C. until the 1950’s. Yes, you are reading that correctly- people lived in the cave, stone houses until the 1950’s when they became so overrun with Malaria that the government forcibly removed over 15,000 people from the cave to houses outside the town. Only in 1993 was the site named a Unesco World Heritage Site. We went inside one too (it was 1.50 Euros) and saw what it was like to live in these caves- it was quite cool. After we walked around for a few hours, we started to leave and found an area across the ravine from the Sassi’s to take some nice evening photos called the Chiese Rupestri, where I think we took more photos of these cool looking cows than we did of the sassi’s! It took us much less time to get home than it did to get there as we went a different way, but overall it was a nice, historical day and very interesting.

Day 7: Puglia

Day 7, December 5, 2007: Exploring the Trulli Area

Today was an exciting and fun day exploring the Puglia region (the region in which we are staying on the ‘heel’ of Italy). Breakfast started this morning in the hotel restaurant in the same trulli where we had dinner last night, with some nice croissants, incredible chocolate spread (like nutella but sooo much better) and our daily dose of caffeine. Our first adventure of the day was trying to find the market in Martina Franca, which we eventually found (and even found a free parking space). The market was huge and apparently Martina Franca is known for its homemade designer clothing and its white wine. We were not aware of the clothing fact before we got there and actually both mom and I bought a skirt that was very cute at the market. We had to of course speak in Italian, or at least try, so we’ve learned a few necessary numbers in Italian and we are getting much better at ‘grazie’ and ‘buongiornio.’ After the market, we decided to make our way to Alberobello which is know for its over a thousand trulli’s. There is a special area even for pedestrian’s only in a Unesco site where many of the trulli’s are. There are stores, houses, restaurants and etc located in the trulli’s and we explored all of the streets with them. We found one store that had hand made linens that looked beautiful, but we weren’t going to enter because there was a sign all in Japanese and we figured it was a Japanese weaver, so there was no need to buy the linens in Italy. However, we were welcomed inside one of the trulli’s to see the loom and the linens were beautiful so we asked to see some more. The woman said the weaver was world famous and a terrific weaver and she was Italian. The sign was only in Japanese because during the summertime the majority of the tourists in this area are Japanese. So we ended up spending almost an hour in this store trying to decide which pattern and style we liked and bought too much, but they will become family heirlooms. We also learned that the whistle in this area is a sign of fertility. After we left Alberobello we made our way a few kilometers to the town of Locorotondo, famous for its white wine, trulli’s and ‘round’ hillside roads. We ended up just driving through, but will probably go through again to take some more photos. We headed to the towns of Crispiano and Ostuni, which showed the Greek influence on the area with white washed walls and more trulli’s. On the way to Ostuni, we found an Olive Oil Factory, which we decided to stop in, as we’ve been looking for actual factories to buy olive oil and wine in. We didn’t know what to do, so we walked into a door and saw men working- so we took some photos, a video and mom decided to ask whether we could buy a small olive oil compared to the huge jugs of olive oil that we saw there (all of this in Italian, by the way). So the man said to go to the main office and ask, but we didn’t know where that was, so he actually took us there and told the women that we wanted to buy smaller jugs of olive oil. She was lovely and took us over to their store for the factory and we tasted a few different varieties of oil which were delicious and we bought a few kinds to bring home! She also went through the entire process of making olive oil, from the olives (with the pits, or as they call it, nuts) to the final production. I have the whole thing videoed and in fact the process takes only 4 hours!! At this point in the day, mom and I were getting a bit tired from our exploring and decided because the sun was setting to make our way back home. We made it home to our hotel for the first time without the GPS, so we were very excited! Tomorrow we have plans to go to the Ionio Coast near Taranto and we are going to visit a few wineries and a few small fishing villages. A doppo. A domain. (until tomorrow, 2 ways of saying it)

Day 6: Adventures to Martina Franca

Day 6: Gargano Peninsula to Martina Franca

We left the Peninsula this morning with overcast skies and drove down the Adriatic coast for a while until we reached Barletta when we decided to get on the Autoroute till we reached the town of Trani. Trani is called the “Pearl of Puglia” and as we drove off the exit both mom and I wondered why- it was industrial, ugly and busy. Mom was honked at in this town for the first time this whole trip! As we drove closer to the water, the streets became narrower and it became much nicer. We found a parking spot (a feat within itself) and walked out towards a beautiful cathedral right on the water with a castle next door. It was beautiful- we were the only tourists- but freezing… the wind was so strong we hid behind the stones as we walked around it to protect us from the howling wind. When we finally found our way back to the Autoroute, we were on our way again heading south bound. We decided to try and fill up with fuel at a self service place and as we began to try to read the instructions, the full service guy came over to try and help us figure it out. So we did it and then we had to go inside and tell them how much we pumped for them to charge us. Well, neither mom nor I knew how to say 35, so we tried. In the end, the woman was very nice and taught us how to say it (if we remember it or not is a different question)! As we left the gas station, a nice windy thunderstorm decided to open up and for the next hour or so until we got to our hotel it was raining/hailing. Our hotel is called Masseria Chiancone Torricella, which had no sign outside and mom didn’t even think we were in the right place until we eventually found an entrance. Once inside, however, it is beautiful and comfortable. There are trulli’s everwhere around here and the restaurant we are eating in this evening is in a Trulli! For the next few days, all we are going to see are Trulli’s so you will see lots of photos.
I would like to mention an incredibly funny story from last night so we don’t forget it. So as you know, we didn’t stay in the scheduled hotel, but stayed in another wonderful hotel, where the food was excellent (I had linguine with mussles, mom had a white fish of sorts that we don’t know what it was, but it was good) and there was no English spoken at all! In the evenings, dad and jeff have been calling us at the hotels and then usually the concierge connects them to our room. Well last night, they both tried to call and couldn’t be connected for some reason and they both tried their best in Italian. The man asked dad about a camera and dad said yes thinking that they knew I was a photographer. Actually “camera” means room in Italian and so dad got no where when he called the hotel. Jeff at least was able to say uno, uno, uno (111) instead of one hundred and eleven (which we didn’t know how to say at the time) and the hotel owner came knocking at our door around 12:30 at night. So a fast asleep mom went to the door and he said something to her that we didn’t understand, but then our cell phone rang and it was Jeff. He said he could hear mom talking to the man and she realized that he was holding the phone talking about jeff asking for our room. Quite funny, because he couldn’t transfer phone calls and it seemed that he was using a cell phone or something similar to receive phone calls to the hotel. So, back to the cell phones we went. We have an hour of free internet for the next five days, so I will try and post a couple of days at a time probably to save time, just fyi for those readers looking in everyday.

Day 5: Gargano Peninsula

I think mom has gotten the hang of the continuous go-kart driving that we endured today. We left San Vito del Mare this morning after having a nice breakfast and drove along the coast for the next 7 hours. We drove through Vasto, Termoli, and several other small towns including Campomarino, which was a cute Albanian town where supposedly they speak in such a dialect that the Italians consider it foreign and cannot understand, so mom and I felt right at home! After leaving there, we decided to drive around the entire Gargano Peninsula, which is part of the Nationale Parco of Gargano, which was beautiful. It took forever as the roads were super narrow, windy, and right on the edge of a large cliff. I even had to put on my motion sickness bands as I wasn’t driving, but trying to look for nice places to stop and take photos. Throughout the whole peninsula, we could hear the ringing of cow bells along side the ocean and it was great. We arrived at the hotel we were supposed to stay at (la veranda hotel), right on the ocean, but it seemed that we were the only ones there and a bit creepy, so we decided to try and get some dinner in the nearby town of Mattinata and found a hotel and restaurant there that seemed much more our style- so it was a bit more expensive, but mom and I both felt much more comfortable and we will go downstairs in a bit to have dinner.

Day 4

Day 4: Rome to San Vito Marina

Today, mom and I drove from Rome to our hotel on the east coast of Italy in the town of San Vito Marina (San Vito Chietino). It was an adventure just leaving Rome. We took a Taxi to the Hertz rental car agency from our hotel (15 E, 5 mins away); it was about 1.3 miles away and we were going to walk, but we were told it was hard to find our way back in Rome driving, so we decided just to bring all of our stuff with us. We got there and the car was all ready for us (with mom’s name on the screen)- the guy was very nice and gave us directions out of Rome, though we still got a little lost and the GPS helped us get back on track and on the A24 heading East. Mom says that driving a stick is like riding a bike: you don’t forget! And she did very well driving in Rome and on the highways. In fact, we both think that Italians are more cautious than the French and so far it’s been easier to drive here than in France (knock on wood, because it was Sunday today). We drove on the Autoroute for about 100 km until we then switched to the A25 towards Pescara and we got off the Autoroute to go to the town of Scanno. There are a few videos of the drive through the steep cliffs and mountains! We saw snow too for the first time today in the mountains which were beautiful. We went through one town, Albruzzo Al’bergo or something like that, that was a charming little town with tiny streets. It was great leaving Rome- I think mom and I were both ready to get out of the touristy area. So we have now arrived in San Vito Marina and are staying in a nice hotel called Hotel Garden right across the street from the water. We tried to find a restaurant for dinner this evening, but had no luck as it was Sunday. We did meet this lovely man who spoke a little broken English and he helped us find a Pizzeria so at least we have some Pizza for dinner. We also learned that the fish (pesche) is brought in daily only Monday through Friday so we should not eat fish on the weekends and that most Italians (at least on this side of the country) eat meat on Sunday’s only. Tomorrow we will drive down the coast to our next one night stop in Mattinata.

Roma, Day 3

I forgot to mention yesterday in my tiredness that there is a photo of mom pretending to ride a Ferrari bike from the Ferrari store that we went into right near the Spanish Steps! Today was still a fair amount of walking for us and a long day, but not as long as yesterday. We only walked for 6 hours today; yesterday was about 8! We ventured to the Roman Forum today and the area of the Coliseum. We came upon a march of what we think were the Polizia marching for some reason and using air horns, whistles and mega phones. I took a video of it, so when I get a chance I’ll post it up here. The massive size of the buildings, or maybe I should say the remaining buildings of the Roman Forum were just unbelievable. It’s difficult to imagine that people lived, worked and did everything in this place where we were today so many years ago. We went to a cemetery there that was used during 20-10 B.C. The Temple of Romulus and some of the other Temples were beautiful. The Coliseum was so touristy that we decided it was better not to enter and just take photographs from the outside. After a few hours of touring this area, we decided to go to the Jewish Ghetto and see the Synagogue, which we were informed was one of the oldest Synagogues in the world. This Jewish section also has the largest number of Jews outside of Israel. On our way in the morning too we came upon a man walking his cat that looked so funny I had to take a photo. We decided to eat at a little place close to the hotel on Via Sistina where we had our first pizza (4 cheese, yummy!)- even mom had some of it! Tonight is our last night in Rome and tomorrow we are bravely going to pick up the rental car and venture East. I do not know if we will have internet for the next few days, so this might be the last post for a bit. Ciao!