Pianeta Grand Maratea

... Happy Feet" for one ecstatic 3 year old. Not so "happy feet" was Stu who decided to go for a 3 hr mountain bike ride..take the cable car up 1300 metres and pedal down using their map based upon kilometers - easy! Except the italians true to form hire out bikes without milometers. Step 1 - set your milometer to 0. "Where the f**** is it?". 8 wrong turns later oh and did I mention the chain kept falling off.Not a happy bunny.. 

 

... a hotel called Capo Casale. It was high up in the old town and the trek from the lobby to our room took us outside and up many staircases. Our room turned out to be in a separate old house that had been renovated into hotel rooms.

At night the streets were jam packed with Italian vacationers and we were about the only non-Italian tourists there. On our first night we had not made reservations at any restaurants and went from place to place ...

... stay. Beware though :) the population of Scalea doesn’t have any idea that the English language exist, so you have to learn a few basic words in Italian before you exit the hotel (The reception of Hotel De Rose speaks a good English).
Get ready to say “vino” (wine), when you are in South Italy you really need that word! Have a nice trip!

... samples. After a few free samples you are really thinking about lemons, soon we have lemon tea towels, lemon soap, lemon candies, and oh yes do we have limoncello! It is a relief to have a relaxing day, with no schedule and we really do enjoy the leisurely pace of Sorrento. We stroll through the market, we enjoy sitting on beautiful terraces drinking wine and eating wonderful pasta. This is la dolce vita.

... cold climate, literally clinging to a jagged mountain was beyond us, but it was a great place to spend the night, admire the vast views and walk around the lanes the next morning.

A steep descent took us to the coast. Here there is what is best described as a far less touristy, impossibly picturesque southern Italy version of the Amalfi coast, and definitely another highlight. We wound into ...

... back on the plane. Praia a Mare was fantastic. We went to the same Buddha Beach bar each day, hired our 3 loungers and an umbrella and drank them out of cold Heiny's! The girls spent hours in the water and mum finally got a decent tan to take home to Invercargill! We hired a pedal boat one afternoon and took off around the island, hard work for grant and I. The island had beautiful caves that we went into where the water was so blue and clear you could see millions of fish for miles.

... for the first couple of hours. Assisi was a very moving and peaceful town, the streets are beautiful and the views from the Rocca Maggiore were unbelievable. I would recommend anyone travelling through Italy to try and get to Assisi. It blew us away. We then travelled through temperatures reaching 45 degrees, rain, hail, and thunder and lightening to get to Pompeii. Apparently the rains had hit Naples and Pompeii just before we arrived and had nearly flooded the entire town ...

... uma "resposta divina a minhas duvidas?". Por um momento fiquei em duvida se eu havia visto aquela pedra por coincidencia ou se ela "havia sido mostrada para mim". Nao cheguei a uma conclusao se as coisas acontecem por "sorte" ou destino. Se eu sou apenas uma pedra diferente por acaso ou se isso tem algum significado. De uma forma ou de outra, resolvi que vou fazer algo para levar para essas outras pessoas um pouco da minha experiencia em outros lugares ...

... weeks. Carpineta is up a mountain and overlooks the Mediterranean. Needless to say, the view is amazing. I spent most of my time at Susan's house sitting on her balcony. We spent our time reading, going to the beach, and taking the dog for walks. What a hard life. Jesse even learned how to drive a standard. The house is quite high up on the mountain and the roads are steep with sharp curves. This is ...

I write this on the airplane home from Copenhagen to Seattle where my mother and brother will meet me. Nope, didn't go to Bracciano for the big wedding-figured if Oprah wasn't going, I wasn't going. Nope, didn't see Jlo or Jim Carey or Will-they were over by the Spanish Steps and I was by the train station so I could catch the train to the airport. The last event I want to write about probably sums up this trip for me: I have written about ...