i am...mai

Italy Trip 2011 - Cinque Terre & Bagnone

Our first weekend in Italy found us on a road trip to Northern Italy with Jenny and her family. What an adventure! Four adults and four children in five cities over four days.

Cinque Terre and Bagnone are definitely on my list of places to which I'd like to return. Our itinerary only allowed us enough time to visit one of the five villages that make up Cinque Terre - Riomaggiore. But the few peaceful hours we spent enjoying a dip in the Mediterranean sea, eating some delicious gelato, and shopping for souvenirs, were enough to show me just why this area is such a popular tourist destination.   

 Rob loved swimming in the Mediterranean Sea.

Arwen had such a great time collecting rocks striped with marble. We only let her take home a few small ones. These big boys had to go back.

For me, there was just something about this door... 

Bagnone was a delightful discovery we made thanks to the limited availability of rooms for a travelling party of eight.

By broadening our search on booking.com, we came across a great rate at a hotel that was once a watermill. The place was beautiful, and the village easily became one of my favorite stops. It felt like we'd stumbled upon a secret. Even a woman with whom Rob tried to converse seemed a bit surprised. "You American?!? How you find?"

I would've loved to have spent another week here. It was so peaceful and quiet. Perhaps next time.

The rest of my pictures from Cinque Terre and Bagnone are on flickr at http://tinyurl.com/3j2q5hf.

Italy Trip 2011 - Pompeii & Naples

Last month, we pulled Arwen out of school for three weeks and flew to Italy. It is so difficult to put into words all that we saw and did, so I'll just share some photos from our first of what I hope to be many trips to Europe.

We spent our first full day in Italy exploring Pompeii. Arriving shortly before the gates opened, we decided to grab some breakfast in the neighborhood. It turns out that breakfast (or at least eating breakfast out) isn't big in Italy. Most restaurants don't open until lunch. The one place opened was a little coffee shop attached to the train station across the street. Thankfully cappuccino and espresso were two words we did have in our tiny little italian vocabulary bank. A few finger points to pastries in the glass case, and we were in business. Italians know coffee. This was delicious. 

Pompeii was absolutely amazing. We spent a good time of our visit simply awestruck by our surroundings. Here we were walking about ruins - an entire city! - from the 1st century.

Arwen's biggest fascination seemed to be the castings of the human and dog remains found buried in the ash.

Rob pointed out the cryptonite effect the italian sun was having on our adventure. While in the shade, we felt as though we could do this all day. The second we were exposed to that hot afternoon sun, we found ourselves scanning the map for the nearest exit.

We survived a full day of exploration and rewarded ourselves with our first taste of authentic gelato. After this, how will we ever enjoy the stuff they try to pass off as gelato at home?

We also managed to successfully find our way to downtown Naples via the regional train when we were done. Go us.

More of my Pompeii & Naples pictures are loaded to flickr. Click here for the slideshow.