Calabria

I have a letter to the Pope. Well, a letter to his household, at least.  We want to get tickets to the general audience that happens just before we leave Rome.  I tried faxing it from the US, and it just didn’t work. So I printed it out and addressed an envelope, and I have […]

Up early, quick coffee and bread with jam, then on the road to explore Museo Archeologico di Vibo Valentia. While only about 7 miles away, it was a good 30 minute drive up the face of a mountain and through the town. Waze, yet again, tried taking me on a road that was impassible because […]

I woke about 2AM to the sound of rain. It was lovely, and stopped shortly after I rolled over to go back to sleep. When I finally woke again, it was still overcast, and just before 10AM, the rain started again.  Big, fat drops falling down with enough force to rattle the leaves and make […]

There was tasty Bieletti brewed coffee while sitting on the porch this morning. A fresh nectarine and bread with butter and some amazing cherry preserves for breakfast. And then we relaxed.  Get used to reading that quite a bit. It’s actually amusing how much the babbies’ sleep/food schedule doesn’t align with non-siesta. Keeps us on […]

In the aftermath of our visit to the city buried by the volcano, we were all pretty well tuckered out.  3.5 hours up, 4 hours there, 3.5 hours back. Heat. Walking. More walking… So, Saturday because a day of relaxing. Mom and I started off with an afternoon swim in the sea.  The water was […]

It’s a 3.5 hour drive from Localita Brace to Pompeii.  It’s a long drive. Introduced the parents to the Hamilton soundtrack on the drive. Tried, mostly successfully, to stay awake.  Successfully found the ruins. Successfully parked.  Successfully acquired tickets. Unsuccessfully tried to enter the ruins. Turns out you can’t have professional photography equipment within the […]

Thursday, we packed up the babbies and the parents and hopped in the cars to head for the hills. The hills outside of Catanzaro, where Marcellinara sits. Marcellinara is the town listed on my Great-Grandmother’s immigration paperwork as her home before departing Italy for New York. We believe she and her husband married there before […]

Believe it or not, I didn’t take ANY pictures on Wednesday. The day started out a bit lazy. Slow morning filled with babbie laughter and occasional shouts of “NO! DON’T CLIMB IN THE FIREPLACE!!”  Breakfast of those store packaged croissants. Lunch of ham, salami and cheese panini, smooshed on the panini-press. And some nice, general […]

So Tuesday was the Assumption of Mary, which means, in a strongly Roman Catholic country, it was a holiday and everything was closed.  This was troubling as the other half of our party was arriving, and there was little to no food in the house. P, L and the babbies got here circa lunch time, […]

It is hot here. Holy poop. And I can’t even say “It’s a dry heat” because it’s not.  It is, however, still beautiful despite the fountains of sweat. My room opens up onto one of the back patios, and I can see the Mediterranean from bed if I leave the shutters open. But because I’m […]