Oh - Otranto!

 

Another White Knuckle Day in the Car Ends Well

 

Traversing Trani

 

Observations after a full week in Italy

 

The Road is Long from Abruzzo to Puglia

 

You Seriously Can't Get There From Here...

 ... or Adventures in L'Aquila!

Do Laundry While the Winds Blow

 

Day One in Nettuno is Family Day

 

On the road... again...

 

Day Two in Rome

 Yesterday was Jewish Rome. Today was a Jewish perspective on a very Christian location - The Vatican!

Day One in Rome

 

From Denver to Rome

What a long, long trip from Denver to Rome! We left the house where we were staying at 7 o'clock on Tuesday morning in Denver. We had a very smooth trip to Newark, getting in shortly after 4pm. After traveling from Terminal A to Terminal C, we headed straight for the Polaris Lounge. We sat in economy plus on our first flight - which Lou didn't seem to get the gist of. He did ask me about the Polaris Lonunge, like why did we have it. (He'd also asked me why we had priority TSA clearing. I just shrugged and said, "I don't know.") The kids and I were all excited about Lou realizing we were sitting in Polaris. At first I think he thought the entire plane was set up as large as the cabin that we were sitting in.

On the flight, all I did was eat or drink or sleep. We were given water immediately before anything else happened. As soon as we were off the ground, I got some sparkling wine. Next were hot nuts, a glass of wine, a glass of water, and finally our multi-course meal. Lou and I watched The Book Club - The Next Chapter while we ate since it took place in Italy.After that, I laid out my lay-flat seat and more or less took a nap. Can hardly say I slept for the night since it was under 4 hours.

I woke up with less than 2 hours left of the flight. Snacks were being served... and I rewatched 2 episodes of Stanley Tucci's Searching for Italy. Then it was time for breakfast! Seriously. We landed shortly after.

Immigration is so automated, so much quicker and so much easier. Then onto the taxi line which seemed to take forever. Our crazy Roman taxi driver didn't disappoint. I had to cover my eyes at points. He dropped us off directly across the street from our hotel - but no where near a crosswalk. We had to walk 2 blocks to a crosswalk - and then 2 blocks back. Of course our room wasn't ready. We were tired so stopped into the first pizzeria that we passed. The waiter was quite a character. First pizza!

Back to the hotel. Lou napped. When he woke up, we walked around the neighborhood. We went to Piazza Navona and Campo di Fiori, both plazas that I'd been reading about over and over again. First gelato!

 

The big birthday surprise

This trip was originally planned as a way to celebrate Luigi's 70th birthday even though we'd planned to be home right before his birthday in 2020. Now, with the way things have worked out, we will actually be spending his 73rd birthday in Sicily. On the actual date. We'll start our trip home on the following day.

I really want to make this trip special for him so I've got a few surprises in store. I've needed to tell Lou about one of my surprises: a tour of the part of Sicily where he was born. I'm not sure if the company I'm working with realizes that we're kind of interested in little Luigi's young history just as much as his ancestry. We'd love to see places that have meaning to the short period of time that he lived in Sicily.

Today is the day that we're committing the funds and sending off the information. Names, dates, birth certificates, a marriage license, a passport, and so on. Obviously I couldn't come up with all the information on my own. This secret is out of the bag.

Lou is afraid that the researcher is going to put us in contact with part of the family that his mother broke ties with in the 1970s. My thought is even if that meeting is disastrous, think of all the other information that we can get. That we'll always regret not delving more into his history than an hour or so spent with people he doesn't really want to be with.

I'm not sure how much this venture will end up costing. A researcher will work in Sicily gathering information - and then the tour company will plan a full day tour based on what they discover. I wanted our tour to be on our first full day in Milazzo so that we'd have another few days to explore on our own afterwards, but the tour company's ideal date for something like this is the second to last full day in Milazzo. We can make it work.

I'm pretty excited.

Stayed tuned - serious planning going on

 

Travel Day 10/22/15

After a horrible night's sleep (our hotel in Sicily didn't believe in blankets and the bedspread was lighter than our sheet - plus a horrendous thunderstorm), we were on the road before 10 o'clock this morning. Our destination was the airport in Catania. Lou's cousin had called to advise him that there had been flooding in Catania and flights had been canceled. We checked our flight and that was still showing on time. Figuring there could be flooding on the roads, we decided to head straight for Catania. Ciao Milazzo.

There was probably one spot on the autostrada that had damage from last night's rain. Otherwise all the lane closures - and there were many - seemed to have been there quite a while. One section of the road had grass growing between the cracks. Tell me they're working on that road!

At about 11:15, we were about 30 minutes away from the airport. We're the type of people who like to get to the airport early. But for a 5 pm flight that was even way too early for us. We were right near Taoromina but that was too ambitious for a quick stop. We decided to stop playing n Giardini Naxos and stroll along the beach.

Perfect choice. The sun was out, there were shops to look in, and unlike the last time we were there, many of the ristorantes were open for lunch. We spent about two hours then and then continued on to Catania.

Turned in our car, checked in our bags (I was so worried about weight and we were fine) and had time for a pit stop and a drink before boarding. The check-in attendant told us we'd be boarding at 4:20. At 4:10 we left the bar and walked over towards the gate. There was a crazy long, long line already. We wondered if we'd missed out on some instructions!

Once on the plane, Lou started chatting to the flight attendant. I missed the beginning of their conversation but the part where my ears perked up was when Frank told Lou he was born in Brooklyn to Sicilian parents and in 1987 his parents decided to move back to Sicily. He said he misses salad bars in New Hersey, of all things.

The flight was uneventful as was our arrival in Milan. Our airport hotel sent a shuttle to pick us up. Then the same shuttle driver dropped us off at a local pizzeria for our final Italian dinner. Last night to sleep in a hotel. Tomorrow night I'll be sleeping in my own bed.

This blog is not complete. I still have to finish my post for my hiking day earlier in the month. I have photos to post for days (like today) when I had wonky Internet. And I feel the need to give overall impressions which I'll do by category.

Until then, buona notte.

Our last full day - 10/21/15

It's hard to believe that today was (almost) our last full day in Italy. Yes, we'll be here all day tomorrow too. But tomorrow we'll need to deal with returning our rental car, catching a flight to Milan, and staying at an airport hotel. Today was the last full day of vacation.

Our plans for today were pretty unambitious. We got nearly everything done that we wanted to, we enjoyed and we relaxed. We'd planned to visit two tourist spots, one family spot and to do some shopping.

The weather forecast called for higher chances of rain between 11 and 2. Yesterday the forecast was dead wrong so we weren't sure what to expect. We headed to our first tourist spot, the Castello, first. Again, my lack of knowledge of European history hindered me a bit when it came to understanding all that we were seeing. It was originally built in the 11th century and its last purpose before becoming a national monument and tourist site was as a prison in the 17th or 18th century. Even without knowing the who, what, when or why, we were awed by the construction, the layout and the vistas. When classical music was played over loudspeakers, I felt as though I was stepping back in time.

One of the coolest parts of our visit to the Castello was not directly related to the site at all. We walked into what was once a convent, took a right turn and ended up at an exhibit set up by a dedicated historian named Nino whose mission in life is to bring Sicilian history to life. Well, to those who understand Italian. Even without understanding, I learned a few things and was entertained.

It started raining as we were climbing back down to where we'd parked the car. Didn't get too wet at all. Next stop was Capo Milazzo. The drive up had us passing magnificent villas that I'm sure sported great views. It was until we had reached the top that I remembered being there with Lou on our first trip to Sicily. We climbed down to the ancient church of San Antonio of Padova. It's built right into the side of the mountain. Walked back up top, had a quick coffee and took the panoramic road back down to Milazzo, the road we were warned not to drive at night because it has no lights. There were some lovely villas on this road as well.

Our next destination was Pace del Mela and Giammoro where Lou's mother's family lived, where he spent the summer when he was 16 and where his grandparents are buried. We had an interesting drive around, stopped at the cemetery, and managed to go the wrong way on a senso unico for the first time this trip. Driving down, I saw a gorgeous rainbow below where we were up on the mountain. Had we not just made that horribly wrong turn, I might have asked Lou to stop for a photograph.

We thought we'd have lunch over there but nothing is open between 1 and 4 or 4:30. (Our first trip to Italy we only at lunch once, in Milazzo.) We decided that we'd head to Milazzo and find something open here. We passed something on the way called Parco Corolla that I thought looked like a shopping mall so we stopped there. We shared a sandwich at a snack bar before realizing we could have had something better inside the supermarket. It was more like a shopping center with an IperCoop (more of a supermarket than a Super Walmart might be), a McDonald's, the Italian equivalents of Home Depot, Best Buy, Macy's and Sports Authority. As always, we had fun in the supermarket.

Zucca and olives for sale!

We enjoyed some last day prickly pears.

Sicilian eggplant are just called eggplant here.

Lowes has a much better selection of seeds.

We were looking for t-shirts, hats and candy. Apparently, Sicily has no local sports teams. The only t-shirts with writing said Brooklyn, New York and Nets. As if we needed further confirmation that Brooklyn is hot!

Lou really wanted a Sicilia hat. I suggested we drive near the port in Milazzo to look for a souvenir store. We didn't find of of those, but we drove past a cart selling hats and there was exactly the hat Lou had been looking for.

After the nightmare of returning to our hotel late afternoon and needing to find a parking spot, we came up to our hotel room to pack. We may have traveled light in getting here but we acquired enough in a month that we're going home with an extra suitcase.

Evening stroll, dinner out (my third version of pasta ala Norma in 3 days. And since it was our final evening of real vacation, we stopped at a bar on the way back to the hotel for cannolis and drinks.

Lou is going to miss his Chino.

I cannot believe our trip is near its end.

Buona notte.