Heading to Tuscany Today....

And on purpose this time.......

Will post pics as soon as I return....I promise........

Ciao!

"Positano....what brings me to Positano?"

Okay,

I know you all have seen "Under the Tuscan Sun" and if you haven't...you need to rent it....TODAY!

We finally made it to Positano.........remember the line in the movie where Diane Lang finally gets up the nerve to go visit the guy that she met that day and had the fling with...then they kept missing each other......when she goes to Positano to visit him.....she goes to his house...yells out his name and he comes out onto the veranda....and he asks...."What brings you to Positano?"....and she screams......"What brings me to Positano?" What brings me to Positano?"....then the another woman walks out onto the veranda......remember that scene? ...well we finally made it...and there is the little pink house upon the hill...that the waiter pointed out to us as the house where they filmed the movie...I will post another picture and point it out...but you can see this is the absolutely most magnificent town I have ever seen....pictures just can not capture it....

We are eating al fresco at the Positano Cafe...and the view was just incredible.....actually the entire Amalfi Coast was incredible....and I mean there is absolutely not another place on earth (that I have seen) that even comes close to this beauty...I don't even have enough words in my vocabulary to describe it...it was absolutely heaven!

They grow the most 'hugest' lemons down there and the limoncello was just to die for....and believe me we have tried several rounds of limoncello...but this was the best!

This is the place to visit when you come...can't miss this spectacular beauty! Of course the trade off is someone has to drive.....I'll let you talk to Piddle about that! Every book we have read..says it is best if you hire someone to drive you down the Amalfi Coast...don't try to tackle it yourself...well now we know why! But Piddle was a champ and got us there and back in one piece...and didn't get a ding on the car! He was truly amazing! You'll see!

Can't wait to take everyone on this adventure...has been the highlight of my year so far!

Pompei- The Garden of Fugitives

These pictures are of some of the people that they unearthed that were petrified under the ash....they were trying to escape the volcano lava as they saw it rolling down the hill..they said that most of the people who did escape were the most rich people who escaped in boats into the sea...and the people in these pictures were found in the garden..didn't quite make it...the were affixiated with the poisonous gases and petrified on the spot....so so sad....you got goose bumps just standing there looking at this....

In the other pictures of Pompei....I forgot to mention...that is Mt. Vesuvius that you see in the background! and is still the only active volcano in Europe and it threatens the inhabitants of Pompei today.....you think that they would relocate wouldn't you?

Pompei

As you all know (if you were in class that week) Pompei is the city that was buried when Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D....

Something like 20,000 people died and at some point they started excavating the city and continue to this day.....

Pompei was once a very happening place for the upper class of Rome as a hot vacation spot.....you will need to read a little more about it....there is so much that is incredible...but out of all of it...probably the most suprising (that I failed to take a picture of..) was the street with the restaurants that served hot and cold buffet style meals...we couldn't figure out why there were so many sinks in these places...some had two..some had 5 or 6...and finally found out that the bowls that we were seeing kept the food cold or hot....and we thought the buffet-style restaurant was something new!

Okay, you would think that there would be other incredible stuff...and there was...there were tons of bath houses, brothels, temples built for gods, and so on...just unbelievable....can't wait for you guys to see it!

L'Estate E' Arrivata (Summer has Arrived!)

Summer Has Arrived!

It is officially summer!

The Pool is Open!

Our First Visitors!

Okay......we are off and running!

Our first visitors arrived today!

Rex and Tina from Fayetteville are our first visitors....they are delightful...

We are having a great time sharing everything that we have found so far...and having some virgin moments as well......

We are going down the Amalfi Coast to visit Pompei and Amalfi of course!

We are finally getting to do some traveling and sightseeing...and have some terrific traveling buddies!

To my Friend....who turned 39 plus 1

To my life-long best friend....

I wish you could have been here today to celebrate with us....but I drank all day to celebrate your milestone and thought about you all day!

DeAnna turned a corner today and has entered a new era! Ray said that she doesn't have to say she is 40....she could just say that she is 39 plus 1.......

I think that is what I am going to be......we may be 39 forever!

Here's to you.... DeAnna! ....to the best years of our life!....Welcome aboard!

Orvieto...our new favorite little town

So we have this great little town about 25 miles from us....everyone has been telling us to check it out....so one day we set off on our new adventure.....Mustang Sally (our GPS) always gets us where we want to go...well sometimes we take the scenic route..but always seem to make it! well usually! We just put in the "town center" of whatever town we are looking for and she takes us to the town square...every town here has a square...that is generally very beautiful...

So on this particular day...that is what we did....we wound our way up to the town center...there was a nice church...nothing spectacular....so we decided to just go back down and see what else we could find......and as we turned the corner...this is what we saw!

We couldn't believe it.....it is the most beautiful cathedral we have seen so far....the legend goes..that the Orvieto People are so proud of this cathedral that when this same architect began building the cathedral here in Todi, he was using some of the same designs that he used on this cathedral...and because they didn't want any other cathedral to rival their own...they killed the architect...and to this day, the cathedral here in Italy is still unfinished after a certain point...you can see that the stone has been laid and is ready for the architect to engrave...but never finished....that's some competitive bunch of people huh?

There is also an underground to this town that we will be touring tomorrow when we return...everyone says that this is the best part of the town.......will send more pictures when I have them!

They also make one of the best white wines in the area...because grapes are grown the soil with lava rock...makes a great crisp wine...we bought a case! imagine that....