Italy

The dark haired, well-tanned taxi driver places our small suitcase in the lobby of the hotel, takes the Euros I'm holding out, holds onto my hand in both of his and says slowly, "You have the most beautiful eyes, your husband is a very lucky man." And I know I'm in Italy.

Our week in the Bay of Naples and the Sorrento Peninsula was full of interesting events, both up and down. On the downside, and to dismiss them quickly, there was: the two and half days of POURING, PELTING rain (saved money with this, though, because it was raining so hard we couldn't even leave our room for meals at some times and Anna was very displeased with the humidity's effect on her curly hair!); the unusually rude ticket sellers at the Ancient Roman city of Herculaneum, which we tried to enter twice with no luck (5 minutes after last entry one day, no proof of European citizenship - which we are - on the next so we couldn't get the reduced rate and no credit card facilities to pay the exorbitant foreign fee!; half of the Archeological Museum in Naples closing as we walked through it because they were understaffed - so no Gladiator or Mural viewing for us; the closure with no explanation of the early Christian catacombs in Naples after an hour's walk through rather economically-challenged neighborhoods in the rain to find them; and Michael being mercilessly picked on by some pre-teen Italian boys in the pool at our hotel who kept teasing him about being Chinese and stealing his swim cap so he'd get in trouble by the lifeguard.

ok, onto the good stuff, and there was plenty. Our hotel was heaven for the kids. We had bunkbeds in our room, we had endless bread, butter, jam and hot chocolate for breakfast, we had cascading pools with two long water slides, we had a set of really bouncy trampolines (and I even joined them on these during a starry night- so fun AND beautiful!). I especially enjoyed the view from the terrace of the beaches and coast, and Anna especially enjoyed the Italian friends she made there (a very different experience from Michael's...)

The day the sun came out we hopped on the bus down the Amalfi Coast. So pretty and reminded me a little of the Big Sur Coast; a few more colorful villages tumbling down the cliffs to the sea perhaps, and maybe I'm getting a little homesick, but I enjoyed the curvy road hanging to the mountain side and felt comfortable and at ease despite the steep vertical drop. We opted out of trying to 'do' all the villages along the way and settled down in Amalfi for the day. We explored the hilly alleyways of the ancient maritime city, toured the beautiful Duomo, ate lunch in the main piazza (Anna devoured her whole plate of spaghetti with clams, and disgusted Michael by extracting each clam from its shell with gusto), relaxed on the beach (children swimming, me getting a massage from an enterprising immigrant from Canton - I'm a sucker for a Chinese massage), and of course enjoying a gelato or two.

The next day took us very early to the ruins of Pompeii. The ticket people here were super friendly and accommodating, didn't even charge for the children! Both Roman sites are run by the same company, and neither seemed to follow the information on the signs. Very confusing, but at least Pompeii on this sunny morning was a happy experience. The children opted for the children's audio guide over a human personal guide because they wanted the freedom to explore the site. I told them the six things I definitely wanted to see while there, then Michael and Anna each took a map, listened to their audio for an overview of the whole place, each figured out a route, and then I made them confer and negotiate to decide upon a plan for us to follow. And this was no easy task because Pompeii is at least as big as our hometown of Los Altos and two of the things that were 'definites' for me were on opposite sides of the place. We did it, and before it became too hot. This place is amazing, and fortunately the original Roman public fountains are now plumbed with a modern system so there was water to splash on ourselves at almost every corner. We saw the preserved plaster casts of some of the dying, suffering people from the volcano eruption, incredibly colored and detailed mosaics and wall paintings (especially in the brothel! I had some delicate explaining to do to Anna and Michael in there!), Roman writing on so many walls, the oldest surviving Roman amphitheatre, etc. etc. We found especially interesting all the streetside cafes with built in dishes and tile countertops, evidently it was custom in Roman cities to not go home for lunch. Michael thinks these are the forerunners to the Spanish tapas style of eating. As our hours in Pompeii went on we thought it would have been an excellent idea if the current managers of the site re-opened some of these cafes up with small snacks and drinks. And of course, the visit to Pompeii continued our Monty Python tour of Europe as we laughed as we wondered 'What have the Romans ever done for us?' and tried to read the ancient graffiti on many of the walls to see if they got the grammar correct... We finished our morning with a delicious lunch of pizza, pasta and Caprese salad, and some truly magical lemon icy drinks fresh from the biggest lemons we have ever seen.

One thing that really stood out for us was the very little in contrast between all the ruins and the actual cities where the people currently live. This is especially true at Herculaneum, where Anna noticed the similarity between the Ancient Roman city and the modern higher one. Everything seems to be falling and crumbling apart, but nobody seems to notice. People are living in buildings in which half are empty with banging shutters and huge chunks of plaster are missing and there is graffiti everywhere (like much of Pompeii, and frustratingly often on the street and train station signs so you can't tell where you are!).

The three best parts and most memorable of our Italian tour have to be, though, the friendly people (because when they were, they REALLY were, lots of kisses goodbye from our local baker and restauranteur), the sun and its setting - so beautiful, and of course the food. Everything I put into my mouth just made me melt in happiness. Yum! La dolce vita!