A Walk and a Spritz at Piazza del Duomo, Amalfi

Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device

The inside of the Duomo is pretty enough

As promised Naples Duomo

Amazon Lockers Napoli Style

One night in Naples is probably enough. We stayed in the old town and were surprised that it was so dark ...that warm Italian glow doesn't seem to be able to filter down between the sad, tall buildings to the narrow streets below. Even the Duomo (pictures to follow) is absolutely wedged like cannoli filling in between other buildings (or probably those buildings were squashed right up against the Duomo at some point). There isn't even a piazza in front of the Duomo for enjoying a spritz with a view.  

No matter....there is always something of interest to take away. I missed capturing the actual delivery man in the photo below, but look at the wicker basket just above street level. It is tied to the rail of the first balcony. We came around the corner to see the woman in that apartment hauling it up with whatever the delivery guy brought her. There is a smaller basket up at the top balcony. (The middle two balcony residents must not be Prime members.)

A better image of just the dog

Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device

Question for the day

Off to Pompeii but wanted to throw this question out there..this is the statue of the Assumption of Mary in the cathedral in Naples.   Who knows why there is an angry dog at her feet?

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: mapaul.dvm <mapaul.dvm@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, May 28, 2019, 8:56 AM
Subject: Assumption of mary
To: Georgia Paul <georgia.paul@gmail.com>

Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device

Etna

Yesterday afternoon we arrived in Castelmola on the hill near Taormina with a view of Mt. Etna.

In the “lessons never quite learned” category is the one that says:

Always buy it, see it, do it, say it, or photograph it when you have the opportunity lest that opportunity never comes again.

Not exactly a pithy fortune cookie phrase....but words to remember nonetheless.

The first time we saw Mt. Etna it was far off in the distance but clear as a bell in a cloudless sky.  No photographic evidence exists.

When we arrived here yesterday afternoon the view from our balcony looked like this:

Then the clouds rolled in though at least the forecast rains have been held at bay. But this afternoon the view looks like this:

A bit eerie, I think.
I will keep trying but weather.com is not optimistic for clearing.

I will, however, try to do better when I get my first glimpse of Vesuvius next week and will snap a picture straightaway just in case.

Meanwhile, I apologize to you, Michael, for discouraging you from buying the first ceramic-topped lemon squeezer you saw and for assuring you that there would certainly be plenty more to pick from later.

And while I am at it, I should probably also say, I Love You. And Thanks for a Wonderful Trip Thus Far.

Noto Means Known

This is our third and final night in Noto....the quintessential Baroque city of Sicily.

 Here is what we know.....

 Nothing stays the same....

The agricultural valleys we passed driving to here are no longer just vast expanses of green (orchards and vineyards and fields as one would expect) but now there are massive areas where the crops are covered in huge tents of white plastic sheeting. (I am hopeful and yet doubtful that it can be reused year after year after year rather than discarded like so much plastic in the world.)

It seems that every major piazza sports a prominently located defibrillator. (Has this always been so or am I just now more apt to notice/appreciate their presence?)

And yet some things remain the same....

Michael can still manage to drive crazy little roads with me (and now google) navigating....though I am unsure if the cataract makes him more nervous or conversely blindly, ignorantly brave.

There are no more perfectly suited libations than a Cappuccino in the morning and a Campari spritz in the evening enjoyed in Italy.

And the Italian sun illuminates its native stones like nowhere else I have ever been on earth. Even in the brightest light of the day, for instance, the  Cattedrale of Noto looks like this:

And even from behind from our little balcony it looks like this:

#nofilters

Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell.

Another New One

Had gelato for dinner tonight. 

That is not the new part.

The new part was the young boy who came in and ordered his gelato not in a cup, not in a cone, but in a hot dog bun!

Seriously. A hot dog bun?

I would have taken a photo except that I thought it would be in poor taste to take a picture of someone's child...

But now back in the room I googled "gelato in a bun". There you are....a Sicilian treat. Apparently it is not a hot dog bun but a brioche...all the difference in the world. Now Michael will have to try one.

A Million LittleThings

In the spirit of full disclosure, for anyone who might get the impression that all of our travels go off without a hitch like a well-oiled Swiss clock....this particular trip had more than its fair share of hiccups at the start (hopefully only at the start but only time - clock analogy pun unintended - will tell).

That first day getting to Monreale outside of Palermo....our trusty research and our local B&B host both assured us (that means me) that it was easy peasy to catch the local bus to the duomo. True to a point. But I didn’t check and no one mentioned that said bus only runs every 75 minutes. So, of course, we arrived five minutes after a departure. After an uneventful (boring) 70 minutes on a park bench we were finadlly off.

Thirty minutes later, arriving at the duomo, we thought we had better grab a quick drink, an arancini, and a bathroom before going in. Only to find that this particular duomo closes for lunch. Yes, the church closes for lunch. That was a new one. ....and of course it closed ten minutes before we walked across the piazza hoping to enter. So.....we “enjoyed” yet another rest on a park bench.

The next morning, we went down for breakfast and I asked the receptionist to call us a cab so we could check out and pick up our hertz rental car. I wrote down the information to avoid any confusion. Hertz @ Via Messina 7A. Nice neat block letters.  I hear her give the information over the phone...sette A. The taxi comes. Off we go.  Great. Still just enough  time to pick the car up in our 29 minute reservation hold window....and there we were in the middle of god knows where at Via Messina 70...an abandoned warehouse. Talk about a panic. We finally worked it out and got to correct location and still got the car (in spite of an hour wait in line)...it was a miracle, for sure.

Finally, driving from Agrigento to Ragusa, google maps offered up the fastest route specifically noting that we were avoiding road closures. Thank you, google maps. Beautiful, modern highway. Whizzing along. Then exactly as predicted, we came upon the road closure (dotted red lines), and the detour....and off we went. Clearly the correct diversion. Plenty of signs and reflective temporary fencing, and other cars coming along with us....yup right up ahead we will merge back onto the highway....except....wham...pylons blocking the path. Turn around on little path.....rerouting, rerouting, no not that way....rerouting, rerouting, maybe this way....lost signal...rerouting....ah, finally, here we are.....

And sometimes little things can be good.....like:

Hundreds of thousand of wildflowers you see on that unexpected detour through the countryside

Or the bazillions bits required to create the mosaics at Monreale

Or the mosaics at Villa Romana del Casale in Piazza Armerina

(Michael picked that one)
Or all the cuts and pieces that it took to make the columns of a temple.

All the million little details (easy or difficult, positive and negative, planned and serendipitous) that go into making a memorable vacation.

I cappuccini sta matina

Tonight aperol spritz piazza del duomo Ragusa

Agrigento

More later but after a full day of driving (thank you Michael) and navigating (thank you me) we are relaxing at our B&B, Villa San Marco, with a bottle of wine, our pizza ordered for delivery (three pizzas actually as we haven't eaten since breakfast), and this lovely view of The Valley of the Temples. Life is good.

Palermo

Had a relatively easy day here r in Palermo. Walked through the market this morning. Baskets of tiny wild strawberries. Bright yellow apricots. Ridiculously long, skinny asparagus. Adorable baby artichokes. I had to reign Michael in reassuring him that we didn’t have to buy everything we saw today....that we would likely find more fresh fruits every single day of this trip. He doesn’t even like fish but couldn’t resist taking a picture of this massive tuna....

Then we headed on past the Cathedral of Palermo on this perfectly clear and sunny day.

And then hopped a bus out to Monreale to see their Duomo.

Had a light lunch of birre and anrancini on that little piazza.
Back on the bus.  Another little stroll. (Bought some fruit on the way back!)
And after a little break, out for the passeggiata.
Campari spritz. Pizza. And gelato.
And that will make the day.

Little Lamb

A quiet, peaceful, pastoral beginning to this trip.

Here in Hampshire finishing up a visit with our good friends, Robin and Faye at their lovely home in the Wallops. Lovely gardens, fresh eggs, baby lambs, stellar weather, great food, good wine and lots of laughs.

Today we are off to Sicily.