Arrivederci Roma

Waiting at the Rome airport for our flight.

Flight leaves at 4:30 Rome time

Should be home tonight.

It was a wonderful trip travelling through Italy.

Latina today, home tomorrow

We drove from Salerno to a town called Latina today.

Once again we are amazed at the towns on top of mountains as we drove through the countryside.
In the cities and towns it seems it's all apartments. We surmised that 95% of Italians live in apartments, and have balconies full of 2 things. Plants and laundry drying.

Checked into our hotel called Maggiora Hotel.
Sounds like a Italian name. We have shown some wonderful pictures out of our hotel windows and balconies on our trip, but this is not one of them. Oh well it's only for the night.

We actually booked all our hotels, either the day before or a couple days before through booking.com and found them very good and reliable when you read the descriptions and reviews. Prices were quite good, usually under $100.00 per night.

We are quite close to the Rome airport and should have no trouble finding the drop off place for the car. Well let's hope not anyway. So far we have put about 3,700 kilometres on the car. The price of diesel is the equivalent of about $2.30 a litre, or for you Americans, if any follow our blog, about $8.00 a gallon. I guess we can't complain about are prices back home.

We drove around Latina for a while, had lunch at McDonalds, bought some vino (the low price of the vino makes up for the high price of gas).  What a treat it was at McD's to have a McChicken and french fries!  You do get tired of pasta and pizza after a while.

Found a nice ristorante in another hotel that seems to have a good menu for dinner.
The ristorante is open from 7:30 until 10:30 at night. We can walk to it from our hotel.

The ristorante was quite good but once again we ordered too many dishes, but that's what we do here.

Heading for the airport tomorrow morning and should land in Toronto at 9:45 PM and home before midnight, if Joey remembers to pick us up.

Wonderful Salerno on the sea

A very easy drive from Monopoli to Salerno through the Apennines
A nice warm day, all blue skies and temperature in the high 20's. There are flowering bushes all along the autostrade in most parts of Italy

I think these bushes are there to keep those crazy italian drivers focused on the road.

We arrived in Salerno around noon and checked into our hotel, right across the road from the sea.

Headed across to a ristorante for lunch. We were right on the water that included a large beach just full of folks in the water or soaking up the sun.

We were mulling over the menu (all in Italian of course) and the waitress, who speaks a couple of english words, checked to see if we were ready to order. We asked about a couple of dishes, but were advised they were all meat. (one veal and the other pork). We told her we wanted pasta with meat, so she pointed those out and we ordered.
The pasta was excellent and as we were nearing asking for the bill, our meat dishes arrived!!!
Apparently we had ordered both the pasta and the meat dishes.
Dinner will be on the light side tonight.

After checking our room, with 2 balconies overlooking the sea, we headed out for a walk and, of course, a gelato.
A little further down the coast we found a lounge with a sea view. We stopped for a wine and beer and a photo

We sat out on the side balcony and looked at the many apartments that fill up the landscape.

We headed out walking along the coast and ended at a lovely pizzeria where we had, you guessed it, pizza and a bottle of wine. The decor was really nice, black, grey and red.  And the chairs were so comfortable.

Back to the hotel to sit out and watch the traffic of cars and people pass by.

Tomorrow we are off to Latina, a town about 100 kilometres south of Roma.

Last day at Cala Corvino

We went into Monopoli again today looking for a super centre grocery store and ended up in the narrow streets which make me claustrophobic.  
The streets below are very typical of the Monopoli streets. Bonnie took them through the front windshield as we drove around.

These are the streets the we are actually driving on in Monopoli.
We fired up Jack ( our fabulous GPS that we brought from home) and said "take us home Jack".

We had never walked to the cliffs here and thought today is our last chance, so off we headed.

The pix below show the cliffs at our waterfront. The younger folk can walk down, and there is a small sandy beach at the end of the rainbow. Bonnie and I did not venture that far.

We headed back to the room for a pasta dinner and then down to the pool. Bonnie in her string bikini and me in my speedo. (no pictures please) We fit right in with the local Italians. A beer for Joe and a spritz for Bonnie and we headed back to the confines of our condo.

Now to get our stuff together to leave tomorrow for Salerno.

Monopoli is more than just a game

You might say that Joe "kicked the bucket" last night.  But I wouldn't want Chris to get too upset that I was being blaze about it.  lol.  I heard a loud crash in the night and asked Joe "Are you alright?"  He said yes, and I went back to sleep.  In the morning I found the bucket which sits in the bathroom with a rag and a broom in it, was knocked over on the floor.  Turn the light on next time Joe.

Joe says ----- "It's not my fault"  The light switch was beside the broom handle. I was reaching for the switch to turn the light on when the broom fell over.

We finally made our way out of the condo and headed to town. We turned the GPS off and just drove around Monopoli taking in the sights, the sea and the very narrow streets.

After getting lost a number of times we came to a lovely spot in Monopoli Sud, that's Monopoli South for y'all non Italians.

The coastline was superb, both rough as well as a cove with a beach.

We also found a delightful ristorante for lunch. We tried to order pizza but that is available only for dinner. The waiter (in broken english that is way better than our Italian) advised us that all lunch dishes were seafood. At least we think that's what he said.
We ordered a tomato linguini with a number of shell fish in it.

That is a picture of our lunch.

Once we arrived "home" we headed for the pool for some sun and a relaxing read.

Our balcony has wonderful views of the sea and the pool but sometimes it is really a "bum" view.

Tomorrow will be a quite day as we pack up and prepare to head for Salerno on Saturday morning.

What a great day!

After a leisurely morning we were out at 9:15am for some exploring of the little towns around here.  Bonnie made scrambled eggs with cheese on croissants for breakfast.  The only problem is that we have only one big frying pan and it is aluminum or something so no matter what, the eggs stick to the pan.  Fortunately for Bonnie she is the cook and unfortunately for Joe he is the dish washer.  he he.

Our first stop was a coast town called Torre Mare.
Well, it was an angry sea today my friends. It was a clear and sunny day but the winds were at 35 kilometres an hour. Just a mild breeze in Texas

We had cappuccino and hot tea on the waterfront and prepared to drive inland again.

A lot of the smaller highways are lined with beautiful bushes with pretty pink flowers.  They look so nice.  We went into Conversano first.  A typical city with narrow streets between stone walls with doors every few yards along where people live.

We did find some stores but find a lot of them are closed.  We are not sure if it is because it is still early in the season or not.  We strolled the main street and I started my usual cough.  A nice lady came out of the store and gave me a candy to help me and asked if I wanted some water.   I took the candy which helped a lot. What a nice lady.  Actually we have found that most of the Italians are very kind and helpful.

Next we went on to Turi.  The road to Turi is about 10 kilometres and lined with vineyards and olive trees. The tree below has a large trunk but not tall. We are not sure what it is but there are lots of them.

Turi is a prettier town with a lovely main street.  We found a cute shop with lovely little dishes etc.  The clerk also took us down to the basement, deep stone steps to another area with more pretty things.  We asked about restaurants in the area for lunch and she suggested Casa Mariani but found it too hard to describe how to get there and suggested we ask someone on the street.
Well we didn't do that but found a lovely little cafe with only three tables and we both got a panini with ham, mozzarella, tomato, lettuce and mayo.  Joe also had mushrooms but they are called fungi here and that kind of puts me off.  They were delicious and we split a bottle of water.

They also had a nice clean toilette.  Most of the toilettes in places are quite clean.  The total bill was 7.90 euros.  What a great deal.
We headed out of town following our GPS directions and guess what.... I bet you guessed it; didn't we pass Casa Mariani and it looked really nice.  We would have spent a lot more there for lunch though.

Headed to the pool and the walkway to the coast. Apparently they close the walkway at 6:15 each night. Oh well, we will try to get to the waterfront tomorrow if we get back in time.

The picture below is the palm trees in Italy with the very wide trunk.

See y'all tomorrow.

Suck it up Buttercup

Yes, it is time to stop whining.  We got up this morning and discovered we once again have hot water!  Quickly we each jumped in the shower.  One at a time that is, and if you saw the shower you would wonder how even one could manage in it.  Oh, sorry. No whining.
Next - we washed out our underwear and hung them on the drying wracks.  We didn't have any clothespins so we left it inside until we could return with some.

Off to another adventurous day. We drove to Polignano a Mare on the coast, then Mola di Bari.  Both these towns are on the sea. These "small" towns are amazing.  They are not small at all.

Street after street of narrow roads and high walls with a door every once in a while, or a store that  you would never know was there.  We drove down to the waterfront but in both cases it was a rocky edge but great views.

 I really wanted to go to an IKEA store, as we had seen signs but just a arrow in the right direction and then nothing.  So we gave up on that.  We saw a grocery store and decided to stop there for a few things.   The store was big and clean and had anything you could every want including clothes pins.

We decided to head inland to a "small" town called Triggiano.
Getting hungry, we couldn't really find a good place to eat, and if we did there was nowhere to park.  Well guess what!  Those golden arches reared their heads and we put McDonalds into the GPS and it took us right there.  Only to find IKEA right across the road!  So we decide that IKEA would probably have better food than McD's and went there to eat and then look around.  We were disappointed to discover that they only had a snack bar with pizza or a hot dog.  So that is what we had with a coke Zero and Bonnie had a chocolate glazed donut.  How's that for dieting.

So we wandered all around the store.  It is almost exactly like home only the signs are in Italian of course.  Before leaving we found the REAL restaurant, which was much more expensive and we had a soft gelato each for 50 cents.

We came back, put the pegs on our clothes and put the rack outside for drying.  Went to the pool, came back and our stuff was dry.  No more whining for us.  We have hot water and clean undies.

Tomorrow more small town exploring.

Still looking for a laundromat.

Another wasted day looking for a laundromat in Brindisi.  We saw what is called a lavanderia which means laundry yesterday and we thought it was closed because it was Sunday.  Still closed today.  Maybe it is always closed, who knows.  So, we decided to wash out the essentials and put them out on the dryer racks.  Guess what!  No hot water!  We are counting the days and the amount of undies we will need until we get home.

Headed for the pool while the sun was still high in the sky

Bonnie made us a delicious dinner of tortellini with prosciutto inside,  green and yellow peppers and basil tomato sauce.  (no, Joe didn't drop it this time) and some red wine.  What a delightful meal.

The fellow from the office came up to look at the hot water heater and said "no problemo fix tomorrow".  So now our bodies are dirty to match the clothes.

That's all we have to say.  Until tomorrow then........Arrivederci.

A leisurely day

The day was quite leisurely once I went back to bed for a couple hours more sleep.
Up early to try to catch the sun rising over the Adriatic.

We made instant coffee (quite good) and Bonnie decided to make grilled cheese for breakfast.

It was the most "interesting" grilled cheese I have ever had.

Anyway we thought we would head down the coast for a while and look for a shopping mall for (guess who). On the way we continued our tireless search for a laundromat. (unsuccessful once again)

However the shopping was a little more successful as we found a number of stores in Brindisi, a small town of 550,00 people but as today is Sunday, most were closed. I think we may return as it is only about 100 KM away and we have high hopes of finding a laudromat.  We saw a couple that we think my be what we want, but of course they were closed.

On the way home we found a mall with a number of interesting stores. We bought a few small items had lunch and went to the Lydl store for some supplies.

We were in the store for about 5 minutes when they "kicked" us out as it was siesta time.

We managed to buy our pasta, veggies and pasta sauce along with a little wine before we had to leave. 

When we arrived at the condo, Joe dropped the pasta sauce and, of course, the bottle broke. Pasta sauce all over.

Oh well, we do have olive oil for the pasta so all should be well.

All in all a nice relaxing day for the most part.  We are both catching up on some reading.

Getting further South

We left Pescara on our way to the condo at Monopoli on the Adriatic coast.
We followed the autostrade 350 KM through some wonderful countryside.
Snow covered mountains in the distance and lots of houses on the hillsides. This whole country seems to be on a hill. Further down we found the countryside was either olive trees or vineyards as far as the eye could see.

After a few wrong turns we finally arrived at the correct spot, checked in and inquired about laundry facilities. Well they sent us into Monopoli, a small town of only 56,000 folks. What a disaster. We went up and down 5 foot wide streets for about an hour with no idea where we were. Of course we found NO laundry facilities. We thought of heading back to Udine to see if Claudio's mother could finish off the laundry she started a few days ago.

Anyway, back to the condo for a well earned glass of wine on the balcony.
The picture below is from our balcony. The balcony is large enough to host a dinner party and dance out there.

The coastline here is much more rugged than the last couple of places we stayed.

We have a fitness club staying in the complex this weekend. They asked Bonnie to lead them doing the Zumba on trampolines. That's her with her back to the picture.

Tomorrow -- Who the hell knows.

Down the Adriatic coast.

We started down the Autostrade but decided we wanted to go through the small towns instead of the big highway.
We turned off the GPS and headed to the coast and kept driving south.
We went through lots of towns, some right at the ocean, but there were no small towns, they just kept going and going.  Joe has connected with his roots now and drives like and Italian.  "Oh my nerves" as my sister Jacquie would say.  

We stopped at a town along the coast for an iced tea with lemon and made our way to the Adriatic to put our feet in the sea.

As we approached our hotel in Pescara, we suddenly got to a road closed sign. Straight ahead about a kilometre was our hotel, but how do we get there? We drove around, circled the hotel and came in from the south side of town. Success, but there was no place to park, as this is the time of the iron man/woman competition, which is why the streets are closed. With the help of the desk clerk, we found a spot right across the road. Hopefully you can park there overnight!!!

The good news is, our hotel Salus is just across from the beach.  The bad news is the view from the window is the back side of buildings, but the good news is we have a little balcony.  The other bad news is that the bathroom is the size of a postage stamp, but the good news here is you can sit on the toilet and wash your feet in the shower at the same time!  It is nice and clean, so we are okay.

Off for some lunch and to check out the beach in Pescara. We had pizza for lunch and walked along the boardwalk, then down to the beach for another swim. (ha ha) I guess I mean sticking our feet in the water again.

Back to the hotel to rest up for dinner.

Out for dinner and guess what we had. Pizza of course.  Joe's was 4 cheese, mine was a vegetarian, 1/3 zucchini strips, 1/3 potato, and 1/3 roasted red pepper.  Not my favourite.  The 4 cheese was better.
The wine cooler was a little different from what we are used to using. See for yourself.

There were rows of tables outside the restaurant set up for the school children and their parents to celebrate the end of the school year.  What a hoot with kids from 7 to 18 running around and parents trying to eat and look after everything as well. All in our Pizzeria. The kids get 3 months off.  Nice!

By the way there are a hundred play things set up for the little kids all along the beach.  From trampolines, slides, little houses, climbing stuff etc.  The children love it.

Tomorrow we head further south to Monopoli where we will be staying for a full week. No longer living the life of gypsies at least for a week.

A day in Pesaro

So far every hotel we have been in has had a large breakfast that is included. Today was no exception except a tour bus full of Japanese beat us to the breakfast bar. I tried to tell Bonnie to hurry but she said those small folk cannot eat that much. Right!!! Once the staff refilled everything we were OK.

The desk clerk's Mama had washed are clothes and we were ready to depart. We said our arrivederci's to the staff, waved goodbye and were on our way down the Autostrade to Pesaro.

A number of kilometres down the autostrade, Bonnie said "Did you check out". Oops, no I hadn't. We had not given them our credit card and had stayed for 2 days, charged the restaurant and bar to the room and left like a couple of bandits. And they didn't even say "hold on, are you paying or what?"

Well a quick u-turn and back to the hotel to settle up.

Finally, on our way to Pesaro.
We took the Autostrade most of the way at a "huge" cost (you think the 407 is expensive) for a fellow who lost his wallet with his credit cards and cash.

Arrived in the seaside town of Pesaro in the early afternoon.
What a beautiful spot. Our hotel is right on the Adriatic Sea. The picture below is from our window.

We hit the bricks to walk around the waterfront and see the sights of Pesaro.
Below is a couple of photos of the area.

Back to our fabulous room where Bonnie takes a nap while Joe writes the blog.
Bonnie will edit my writing when she wakes up and then we will head for dinner.
The restaurants don't even open for dinner until 8:00PM.

Off to dinner at the ungodly hour of 8:30PM. Found a nice ristorante with a great view of the Adriatic.
The special was sea bass cooked with vegetables with a nice limonchello for dessert!!!

The picture below is the seaside at night

Tomorrow we head further south on the Adriatic to Pescara

What a wonderful day!

Well, this was indeed a lucky day.  We went to Codroipo first thing this morning where Joe's grandfather and grandmother were both registered at birth.

Below is a picture of the wheels that got us on our incredible search

After a cappuccino and a hot tea we began our search.

We managed to find BOTH the registrations which was amazing, all written out by hand.  The lady who was helping us, Miss Emanuela Ventola, translated a lot of the information for us.  They were actually both born in Zompicchia and we have their house numbers but not the street name.  They lived at 43, and 45, so we presume they were neighbours.
When the parents registered them, the custom in those days was to bring the baby with them, but they were too far away (2.3 kilometres) for them to do that, so they had to have a witness for verification.  Amazing to find all that out.  She gave us a copy of the registrations.

We then went to Zompicchia to look for the house numbers.  We walked and drove through all the streets but were unable to find them.  We did find the amazing cemetery and the church in the town.

We found a number of De Tina's in the cemetery but only 2 DeClara's. I guess the DeClara's were a hardier stock.

We also had lunch at the restaurant and it was strange to think that Joe's grandparents, great grandparents and other family members were right there years earlier.

In the afternoon, because it was so sunny and nice we decided to drive to Trieste on the far east coast of the Adriatic Sea.
We were so close to Slovenia that you could hit a 9 iron from Italy to Slovenia. (That would be a 5 iron for Norm and Wayne)
What a beautiful city (it was huge) but it got cloudy and did finally rain while we were there.  Oh well, we had already had a great day.  The city is on the side of the mountain so the roads were typically very winding.

Back home we couldn't find a restaurant so decided to bring back a McDonalds salad each and enjoy it in our room with some wine.  MMM Good.

A couple of notes about Italy:

First of all I don't know why they even bother putting turn signals in the cars because NOBODY uses them,  just the foreigners.  The trucks do use them though fortunately. The cars just whiz in and out wherever they want to go.  Pretty scary at times.

Second: Our GPS has done a wonderful job of getting us around.  The only problem is that she will say for example "turn right at Via Blah blah blah blah blah.  Well in the cities they do not post the names of the streets, just where it goes to.  So that is useless.  The towns seem to post the street names though.

Third:  Joe has done a great job of driving the gear shift car, watching out for crazy drivers, checking and following the GPS and navigating the narrow roads.  Also listening to me saying "watch out for this, or that, or the other thing.

Tomorrow, off south, down the Italian east coast to the Bristol Hotel in Pesaro, a city on the Adriatic.

On our way to Udine

Well, we finally got to sleep in this morning, but nevertheless were up around 6:30, had breakfast and were on the road by 8:00.


Well, what a day!  Never boring where we are concerned.  Woke up this morning and decided to have a shower.  It was not very bright in the long skinny bathroom and I wanted more light.  I saw a cord that ran from the top of the shower on a string with a small red ball on the end.  Thinking it was a light switch, I pulled it.  Nothing happened so I gave it a couple of good tugs.  Nothing.  Then I realized it was the Emergency pull cord.  I told Joe if they phoned or came to the door to see what happened, he was to explain that it was an error.  Well, no one came.  Lot of good that cord is!

Then I decided that because my breathing was really tight, I would use my nebulizer to get the airways open more.  Joe got it out and I set it up by the computer so that I could use the internet while I was using the nebulizer.  Great, got a couple of good breaths in and then noticed there was a lot more steam than usual coming out of it.
Guess what!  Not steam, but smoke, and getting worse by the second.  We unplugged it and it kept smoking so we put it out the window (on the window ledge) until the smoke subsided.  So much for breathing better!  Now I think it is "Toast".


475 KM through the Apennines to Udine. What spectacular scenery on the trip.
We went through 645 tunnels (not an actual count) on the way.
Below is #274. When we drove through the mountains we were either on a long bridge over the valleys or going through a tunnel when the terrain was high.  So the drive was really smooth just driving through the tunnels or over the bridges.  No hills to drive on!

Arrived at our hotel for today around 12:30. The hotel is the Hotel Executive and is quite good.
We have a bar and a restaurant on premise that serves authentic Italian food.
Free parking and free internet is a bonus as well.

We asked the fellow at the front desk if he knew where we could find a laundromat as we have been about 12 days on the road. He told us of a large mall with an "I clean" store that would do the laundry for about 2 Euros.
Off we went and after about an hour of driving around, asking 3 people (2 of which spoke no English) we finally found the mall. The charge is 2 Euros per item and after 12 days we have about 50 items.
100 Euros to do the laundry!!! No thanks.
Lunch at McDonalds (yes they do have them here) and they also have a motion activated garbage pail.
I know you all will want to see a picture of it, so here it is.

Just hold your tray or hands near the door and it automatically open then closes when you finish.

Back to the hotel to rest, write the blog and prepare for dinner. The front desk fellow asked how we made out at the laundry, we explained the problem.
Lo and behold, he told us to put the essentials for the next few days in a bag and his mother would wash it for us and return it tomorrow. Wow!!!

You could never find more friendly, accommodating people than the Italians.  We are very impressed.
However, not so impressed with the food here.  We thought we would get a lot of vegetables here, but really a LOT of pasta with fairly plain tomato sauce or cheesy sauces are served.  Also mostly white bread or buns.  Even the lasagna was no better than we make at home.  One good thing though, the gelato is VERY good.

Tomorrow we head for Codroipo and Zompicchia where Joe's grandparents lived before emigrating to Canada.

Ist Day on Our Own

Well, we said the tearful goodbye to most of our group last night.  Most of them are leaving for the airport at 6am, and the rest, including us, are not leaving until 8:05am.  We are going to the airport with that group because we will pick up our rental car at the airport. Then we are on our own for two weeks.  The best thing about that may well be...sleeping in!  Wish us luck finding our way out of Rome.

Now we are in Umbertide for the night.  What a day!  Joe lost his wallet the other day, and it had in it: two credit cards (now cancelled), his debit card and drivers license.  But he has his International Drivers  License and a copy of his regular drivers license.  Well Avis in Rome wouldn't accept them as sufficient identification, even though he also showed them his passport.  A big caffuffle happened at the counter.  Long story short, I had to be the driver as I FORTUNATELY brought my drivers license with me.  However, Joe is doing the driving of course. the rental car is a VW Golf.

So off we go with our GPS.  We are heading north and decide it is time to stop and find a hotel room.  A place called Perugia was our destination.  We we got there.  It is of course on a hill as everything is in this country. We went up and down narrow cobblestoned roads, some of which do not look like a road at all.  Well, round and round we went and not only could we not find a hotel (they are not signed like ours in Canada) there would be no place to park if we did find one.  Well it took us a while to get out of that blasted place and we went back to the highway heading north.

We decided to try a little village called Umbertide. And lo and behold, we see a hotel sign and it has a restaurant attached.  We thought we had died and gone to heaven.  We were both hungry and food and drink sounded great.  This was around 5:30 pm.  We booked and then were told  "Sorry the restaurant is closed today".   We had to go into the town.  The first restaurant we checked didn't open for dinner until 7pm.  We did end up with a typical Italian dinner, pizza and gelato.
Bought 2 litres of wine and a bag of popcorn for the room.

Glad to be settling in for the night and sleeping in.

Off northward tomorrow

To Pompeii and back to Roma

Up this morning to a lovely sunny day. Our breakfast buffet (at 7:00AM) was outside on the terrace.
The variety was unending.  From personal omelettes, fruit, breads and rolls, meat, cheese, bacon, sausage, fruit juice, half decent coffee.  Great

Off to Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius.
The ruins are quite the thing to see. Pompeii was covered with 30' of ash in 79 AD and not discovered until 1748. At that time the ruins were uncovered and preserved for us to wander through today

What they had in Pompeii is remarkable.  It is a whole village, with housing, a huge city square,  a "red Light" district with rooms.   In the rooms are stone beds with stone pillows.  Our guide, Enrico, assured us that they put a mattress was put on top of the bed.  There was a picture outside each room to show what positions were available!

I am not sure what the position in the above picture is but it is close to 2,000 years old so I imagine it's a  something that is still done.

They had spas, massages, and a theatre that held 5000 people for plays and another smaller one for music.  When the volcano erupted most of the people escaped but of course some got caught in the fallout of ash.  They had two preserved figures in glass cases.

We got to Rome to the Romanico Palace Hotel.  It is old, with gold and ornate decor, but beautiful.  The funny thing is:  the bathroom is totally modern with the shower with jets all down the wall and a jacuzzi tub.

Off to our arrivaderci dinner from Onsight.
What a great place and again a 4 course dinner with wine.
Sat with a number of new friends and listened to the restaurant people sing a number of Italian songs.

Tomorrow we return to the airport and get our rental car for 2 weeks "on the road".
Will we survive on our own in a country that we don't speak the language?
Stay tuned!!!

From Capri to the Amalfi Coast

Wow, what a day!  We left for the Isle of Capri at 7:35 this morning.  Weather was sunny and nice, but windy.  When we got on the boat, and by the way whoever told me it was a short 5 minute trip was dreaming because it took 30 minutes.   The water was choppy and we had lots of rocking and rolling.  Not my favourite thing to do.

Then, much to my chagrin, we got on a smaller open boat for a tour around the Capri coast.  Very interesting but nerve wracking.  We backed into a couple of caves and the boat was rocking.

We went through an "hole in the wall" and when you are under the arch you are supposed to close your eyes and make a wish.  I wished we would get back alive!!!  

Capri is absolutely beautiful. Words cannot describe it.

After that we took a tram called Unico Capri up to the main town where we could shop and have something to eat.  We had coffees and a sandwich and sat outside in the sun.  

Wonderful views. Unfortunately you have to take a boat to get off the Isle of Capri which I was not too keen on doing.  However, although it was cloudy by then, Naples Bay was much calmer and we had a smooth trip back to Sorrento.  Enough boating already.

By the time we got back to Sorrento  the clouds came in and the rain. 

From there, we took mini buses along the Amalfi Coast to Positano. named after Poisidon.

We started walking, and some people went down to the beach.  We didn't because it is a fairly steep hill and I didn't think I could make it back up.  We relaxed in cafe with a lovely garden and had a beer and a wine.

We were going to buy a couple of lemons to bring home but we thought our suitcase would be overweight with these lemons

Back to the mini buses and home to our hotel.

We had a "dine around" dinner at a restaurant called Parrucchianos,  It was gorgeous!  Huge rooms with gardens all around.  I mean trees, flowers, all around the eating areas.  Also hydrangeas on some tables and beautiful centrepieces with large lemons.  As you can see above the lemons grow quite large here.  

Below is our table with Donna and Joe, Pat and Ken (aka Half a Beer) and Bonnie and Joe.

It was a typical "Italian" meal where you are full after the first course, really full after the second course, and absolutely stuffed after the third course.  However the dessert was too tempting not to eat.  We strolled back to the hotel and the night was lovely.  Hopefully we burned some of those calories off!

Tomorrow, off to Pompeii and then back to Roma.