A slice of Greece...in Italy?

On Thursday, 1 July 2010, at the suggestion of our hostess Rita, we decided to see one of the best examples of Greek architecture outside of Greece, found about 30 klicks from us in Paestum. Paestum has always been shrouded in mystery. It was probably founded around 650 BC by a large group of Dorians who had been expelled from their city. 

The best preserved of the structures is the Temple of Poseiden built to the most important god of seafaring imigrants. The Romans took over this town as the Greeks moved out after an infestation of misquitos (!).

Much of Paestum was destroyed by the 79 AD eruption of Vesuvius and subsequently totally abandoned and not rediscovered until well into the 1700s by chopping down overgrown underbrush and trees. The Temple remains one of the finest Doric examples. Many of thye walls and floors contain intact mosaic pictures are also preserved. Having been to Greece and seen lots of ruins including the Acropolis and I would agree.

Food, food and more FOOD!

On Wednesday, 30 June 2010, we had one of the nicest experiences of the trip. The owner of our apartment is Joe D'Amelio, a restauranteur in Atlanta - Cafe di Sole. Joe's mother was a young lady of 16 when she imigrated to America and became a hairdresswer in Boston.They were able to acquire her childhood home and she now lives back there and son Joe has redone the top two floors. Rita agreed to give us a day of cooking lessons. It was great.

Basic tomato sauce                          Eggplant parmesan                               fried zuchinni and penne


She also described another grilled eggplant dish that Rob loved, Pasta Fagiole (Fazool), and meatballs. The homemade wine and lemoncello completed a scrumptious dinner after the fruit, cheese and minature ice cream cones. I hurt.

Making an "ash" out of yourself...

Today Tuesday 29 June 2010, Pompeii is the most important classical archeological site in Europe. Its monumental buildings, its collection of mosaics and wall-paintings are unmatched. There are 163 acres of  ruins and almost two thirds of Pompeii is uncovered now. Excavation continues - a slow, painstaking process hampered often by lack of funds. And the story told by the ruins is more one of humans and humanity than merely of stone. Walk inside any building and you'll see the frescoes, gardens, fountains and kitchens almost as they were when the volcano blew.

                                              Vesuvius is visible from every corner of Pompeii.
 

The eruption found its inhabitants unaware, unprepared and ultimately flash fried. Our plan was to visit Herculaneum, Pompeii's neighbor who in AD 79 was destroyed in the same eruption and supposedly even better preserved but time was not on our side and we headed back to our mountain paradise.

Don't look down! Don't look DOWN!!!

We came here to explore the Amalfi Coast, so Monday morning 28 June 2010 that's exactly what we headed out to do. We had admired the gorgeous flowered patio jadineres of our landlady and she informed us that she nad purchased them in the nearby town of Vietri sul Mare, a village famous for its hand painted porcelain. We bought patio pots in a brightly colored assortment of painted flowers.

And Vietri was the first town of the drive along the Amalfi Coast. It was hard to leave this lovely art, but we were to return and shop somemore at a later time.

The narrow windy road along the Amalfi Coast is hair-raising at best. According to Noel Coward and his wife, who did not view the road from the floor of their car as they were driven between the charming towns. Each town was more charming than the previous one. The vistas were unreal.

                                                   

                                                     

                        Lunch in Amalfi - the best pizza ever.                        

The Amalfi Hotel

Positano is the "wedding cake" of the Amalfi Coast. At least everyone has a great view not blocked by your neighbor. This also where we turnede north and headed back toward home, not anxious to drive these roads in the dark. We missed Sorrento  but we were ready for a special bottle of wine waiting for us back at home base.

                           

                                     

The Pope is coming!!!!

The view from our balcony was the best

thing about the apartment...

SUNDAY, 27 June 2010 was to be a big feast day here in Corpo, for their patron saint. We are next door to a 999 year old Benedictine Abbey. They are very busy getting ready for the Pope’s visit next year for their millennium celebration (1011-2011). Sunday ended with fireworks and cannon shots. And every so often they peel their church bells.
                                                               

Our apartment was two floors and decorated to the nines with the nicest of everything. The inside was as modern and updated as the outside was historically gorgeous. The second floor was one bedroom and a full bath and laundry room. The main floor was a balcony off the beautiful little kitchen next to a dining area and livining room with the other bedroom and full bath on the street side of the apartment. In the picture below, on the right hand side of the building, the top two arched windows are our apartment.

The entire village is built around an 11 century Benedictine Abbey; the oldest in all of southern Italy, celebrating their millenium later this year.                                      Most of the day, we explored our little village and stayed low key while Rob and Beth caught up to European time. We had a delicious lunch at the hotel in our square outdoors on their gorgeously decorated terrace.

Picking up Rob and Beth

Saturday 26 June 2010: Today’s big assignment was to fetch Rob and Beth from their flight into Rome from London. By the time they arrived they had stopped in London, changed planes and been up more than 24 hours. They got very little sleep as the little girl next to Beth went to sleep and threw up. Eeeewww. But they were a little late and since my phone was now working, we made very efficient hook up with Phil snatching them as the came out of customs at Leonardo da Vinci airport.

 We loaded up and immediately began the sizable trek to Napoli and beyond. According to the GPS (our girl Francesca Putanesca) it would take us in excess of 3 hours. The only instructions we had from the owner was to take the Cava dei Terrini exit off the autostrata and follow the signs to the Hotel Scapolatiello. As we pulled into town, Francesca the GPS and the signs for the hotel seemed to agree. The signage was quite poor and we finally just relied on the GPS WHICH TOOK US APPARENTLY TO THE WRONG, SORT OF SCAREY SIDE OF TOWN. Thinking we must be completely lost we called out landlord’s mother. She had a neighbor bring her to where we were and they then guided to the completely opposite side of town where we were supposed to be. By now its dark and we can only tell that the roads are narrow and quite windy…and we are going UP- I mean very, VERY UP!!! We finally arrived at the top of the mountain which was called Corpo de Cava, an intimate little village with barely enough room for the cars to get by and never 2 at a time, The entrance to the square in front of this lovely four star hotel was only wide enough if we folded the rear view mirrors in.

It was dark when we arrived and all you could see was the 100 meter trek down the street narrow cobblestone street to the entrance to the apartment because the were much too narrow for any car. One Vespa couldn't pass another. Very 11th century.

We explored the apartment and Momma had made us a great dinner in case we were hungry. We were. Ate and crashed to face tomorrow. At first light, you had to gasp at the view from the kitchen balcony.

Our last night at the lake

Friday, 25 June 2010: We decided to explore and found this lakeside village.

Later, we traveled the Lake circumferential highway and drove out into the boonies to find the Castel ­­­­Giuliano not having any idea what it was. I saw on one of my maps. So we drove and even asked our new best friend Francesca Puttenesca – our GPS lady. She was so helpful and got us there but you could tell it was Friday as traffic everywhere was picking up. The Castel turned out to be privately owned and not open to the public. It was huge and very medieval and not at all fancied up.

I discovered the word “borgo” which I thought was actually Borgo the name of a town. Actually any town can be a “borgo” which is an ancient Etruscan village so in the town of St. Martin, one area is called Borgo St. Martin. In trying to find one borgo, we ran out of road and stumbled on this little trattoria with the funniest little guy who announced when we sat down to buy lunch that the special today was, a pasta and the second plate was a pork dish, wine and water included. We figured out that since we were the only table he had, that was probably all momma had cooked that day. When we asked for the menu, he told us “mio!! Io e la carta”. He was fun and very funny, liked my accent and at the end of dinner talked us into the lemoncello which is akin to lighter fluid and has the capabilities to knock you on your keester. So…after my first sip as the driver, Phil finished them off…both of them. He was real toastee. 

                                                                                                             

                             

I had some honey desserts with the fresh figs that were growing in their arbor. Yum yum!

Back to the hotel, Phil made a dinner reservation in the high terrace restaurant at our hotel which on the full mooned, crystal clear night was absolutely stupendous. Dinner was well served and so fun, whereupon we ordered our all time favorite Multicino wine – Brunello. It is a rare treat. Then we rolled back down the hill and into our comfy little bed for our last night on Lago de Bracciano.

What should we do on our first full day in Italy?

Thursday, 24 June 2010: I noticed at the airport and then driving here to Lake Bracciano, I was getting no email updates on my Blackberry. That in itself was not a huge trajedy, EXCEPT that when Beth and Rob fly in Saturday, our way to make contact was by telephone instead of trying to just meet up at one of Europe's busiest airports! After ONE HOUR + on the phone with Verizon in Salisbury (how much is that bill????) who patched me through to Global tech, we finally got my phone to work so now I can call Rob and Beth when they arrive in Rome.

We explored all the way around the lake today, saw the other adorable villages perched on its shore the most important of which is its namesake, Bracciano. It’s a small medieval borgo surrounding this magnificent Castello Odescalchi built from the 13th through the 15th century.

And all around the castle was this photo of Tom & Katy and when I went to buy a book in English, they were sold out. Do ya think? Other towns include our own Trevignano Romano, and Anguillare. We walked around the castle, Phil heard all the story of the castle (do you think he is understanding anything this Italian worker is really saying??? Although he is staring intently! Hmmmm…)

and we had this fabulous lunch - and oh- drank some more wine. We explored the rest of the back roads going back to our town, sat and relaxed before we had an even better dinner across the street and gorgeous sunset and moon rising across the lake. My how gorgeous.

Wed 23 JUNE 2010 - Wake up in Rome

Well the day arrived and we were frantic running around doing a million last minute things: pick up one more script, mail 3 more bills, a couple of returned packages: fold the clothes and pack them in and gather up all the techie gadgets and wires we wanted/needed. We were in good time to the Salisbury airport where security check is considerably easier than big airports. We flew to Charlotte and changed planes and flew a LONG flight directly to Rome. Eight and a half hours. That seemed long to me as flying from the northeast airports to Paris is usually only six hours. Who knew the route was to fly north over Delmarva and Philly and then the same northern route over Newfoundland, Iceland and down over Paris and continue south to Italy. Wha-a-a-a-a-a-at??? Whatever happened going from point A to point B and the straight line theory?
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Wednesday 23 June 2010: Schlepping through the Rome airport was not that terrible. We got our bags and found this cute cute Puegot car and hopped in it and took off for the Rome beltway. Our rented GPS we brought from home worked like a charm and agreed completely with the Mapquest directions I brought from home. We call her Francesca as she informs of the next right turn and bare left., electronically controlled speed zones.

So here we are at Hotel Residence Recostano. We had trouble getting them to respond to my emails but they finally did. Fortunately for me I brought my email request, their email offer and my email confirmation as they had no record of our reservation. But no drama, we got in our room; and lovely pasta lunch, shower and power nap later we are snuggied in for the next 3 days.

A little exploring, a quick love affair with this pudgy little French bulldog,

another bottle of wine and canasta game later, we are both sawing logs. zzzzzzzzzzzz. In spite of the Blackberry drama. More on that later.