Ideale per le vacanze compleanno poco

Translation: Perfect little birthday vacation

As my birthday quickly crept up on me again this year, Jamie and I were trying to figure out where to go that was very close or on the beach, affordable and had availability - not an easy task when it is July in Italy. All the Italians seem to migrate to the beach and they spend from sun up to sun down there too. Many other Europeans also head towards the sea for their vacations, so vacancies in desirable locations in better hotels are not in abundance, that's for sure!
Riann has frequently requested to go to the beach this summer, and I just wanted to see Riann & Lincoln having a good time, maybe sip a few good drinks sea-side or pool-side and get a little reading done. We finally decided on a hotel in Pontecagnano which is found just a little further down the coast from Salerno. It was only about an hour drive, and we were able to spend most of Friday afternoon on the beach. To watch Riann's face light up as she dug holes, made sandcastles and ran in the surf was enough of a present for me.
Friday night we went to a restaurant off the beaten path from the main street of our hotel, "Giardinello" was recommended as "the best" in town by a staff member from our hotel. The only problem was we got there and it was not even 7pm yet, and in typical Italian fashion they were not yet open. Riann and Linc usually go to bed at 8pm, so we kept our fingers crossed and waited outside like stalkers until it opened. Most of the seating was outdoors with a playground in the middle. We were the ONLY people there for our entire meal but Riann and Lincoln were happy taking turns eating and running around climbing on the playground.
Saturday we woke up to clouds and a lot of wind. We had planned on spending the day between the pool and the beach, but it didn't seem quite warm enough. (It is sad that we have acclimated our bodies to thinking HOT is above 95, and it "feels cold" below 85.) We ended up making a quick decision to go into Salerno, do a little walking around, check out some sights and probably get gelato. We stumbled upon Duomo di San Matteo, a beautiful old cathedral,


and we walked around the little cobblestone side streets lined with shops. And of course, we found gelato but "gelato on a stick". The sun came out and it got hot, so we headed back to our hotel. We walked over to the beach but it was so windy and the seas were really rough.

We spent a few more hours at the pool before dining at our hotel's restaurant. The hotel also had a playground near by the dining area, so dining with the little ones was a pleasant experience once again.
Sunday was my birthday and I woke up to Riann delivering several handmade cards about a foot from my face and a little "It's your birthday Momma" whispered in my face. We had a nice breakfast at our hotel then headed home so Riann and Jamie could create my birthday cake. With a quick stop at a little road side market to get watermelon and peaches, we got home before noon and had the rest of the day to play.

Due giorni, due avventure continua

Translation: Two days, two adventures continued

Last Saturday after Spaccanpoli, the four of us were at a barbeque with some friends. Our barbeque was right next to "Central Park" here on base to watch Gary Sinise and the LT Dan Band. We met up with some other friends who ended up inviting us to tag along with them on their Sunday adventure...
Sunday morning we got up and met our friends for the 30km scenic drive from home to Casertavecchia. We did zero research, we had no info, so we had no idea what we would find at the end of our drive, but we trusted our friends to take us to someplace pretty cool.

We drove up, up, up the hillside of the Tifitani mountains, around all these hairpin turns with seemingly nothing else around and ended up at a dirt parking lot with a few restaurants at the bottom of another hill. We walked up this long hill to find ourselves at the start of the little medieval village of Casertavecchia. Again, a place that you picture when you know you are coming to Italy. A one lane, cobblestone road about as wide as a car, we were often moving over to let a small car or motorscooter pass us. The ruins were closed off but I was able to hold my camera up, point and shoot, getting some pretty amazing pictures.





There were church bells chiming for several minutes before we reached the bell tower. I'm not sure if she liked watching the bells or hearing the sound they made but Riann kept saying they were beautiful. To live life through the eyes of your own child is a pretty fun experience, it makes you look at things again in a completely different way and really look at something instead of just walking by.
We stumbled upon the church that must have just let out, and then through an archway we spotted several people watching something... being curious, we deicided to look too. What we found were two men in full suits of armor on horseback. What we ended up finding out from an Italian spectator was these men were practicing for an upcoming jousting tournament. It was pretty cool to see, and something I never thought I would...



We ended up having lunch with our friends at a wonderful little restaurant where, of course, the food was delicious. Pasta and pizza for all of us, and then a stop at the bottom of the hill we had to walk back down for gelato before heading home.

Due giorni, due avventure

Translation: Two days, two adventures

Last Saturday, Jamie and I took a solo adventure thanks to our new-found babysitter. We were a little hesitant to take Riann and Lincoln down to Napoli via train because it was all new to us and we just didn't know what to expect. Good thing for the sitter because as soon as we got to the train station we ran into our first hiccup: the ATM-like ticket booths were having technical difficulties so we had to stand in a really long line to talk to a human. We missed two trains heading to Napoli but we finally made it. Wow! The train station, Napoli Centrale is HUGE!
Jamie, aka "Human Mapquest" got us to the spots we wanted to see and headed to Spaccanapoli. Our first stop: The Duomo.

Beautiful!!
And apparently, we did not get the invitation for the wedding we ended up attending.



We got ourselves to Spaccanapoli, an area I had heard a lot about before we even knew we were coming to Italy.


Whether it was watching Samantha Brown or reading "1000 Places to See Before You Die", Spaccanapoli was just a place that seemed perfectly "Italian" to me. You see women lowering buckets down on ropes to vendors from their windows and laundry hung out on lines; you walk down the narrow, cobblestone street lined with all kinds of vendors, little shops, restaurants, etc. But one place I really wanted to go was Scaturchio, one Naples oldest and best cake shops... it was closed. We still enjoyed some good food including a pizza-to-go for 1 euro (so delicious!!) and a cannoli.
900-something more places to see...

La nostra piccola vita italiano

Translation: Our little Italian life

Finally, life has become more normal the past two weeks or so. Jamie goes to work on a regular basis, Riann has gymnastics and swimming lessons on base on a regular basis which means Lincoln and I have a regular routine again now too. A few of you have asked some questions that I just haven't gotten around to answering, so my apologies... I will try to answer some things here.
Technically, we live in Gricignano di Aversa, about 20km north of Napoli. Someone told me the base used to be all farm land, so it is very flat here but we are surrounded by mountains and the volcano Mt. Vesuvius, or Vesuvio as they call it here. I double checked the spelling just now and was a little freaked out learning this: "Vesuvius has erupted many times and is today regarded as one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world because of the population of 3,000,000 people living nearby and its tendency towards explosive (Plinian) eruptions. It is the most densely populated volcanic region in the world." Thanks, Wikipedia. And I thought I was pretty safe living on base.
I have met a friend who refers to living on base as living in "Pleasantville", where every day is perfectly the same, nothing goes wrong, and everyone is walking around happy and content. Well, yes, that is pretty much how it is here, Pleasantville. Living on base provides security and easy access to everyday things. Once Riann starts kindergarten, school will be a short walk from home. We have a grocery store (Commissary), the Exchange which is pretty much everything the grocery store doesn't carry), a hospital, a mini mart, a movie theater, bowling alley, an Irish Pub, auto shop, soon there will be a restaurant opening on base, and a lot of other things... you would never have to leave base IF you didn't want to. You hear a lot of rumors about living out on the economy, mostly negative things. But depending on who you talk to, there are also a lot of really cool, safe places that are off base where you can live too. Jamie and I thought it was best to get started on base, get acclimated, and do absolutely everything we possibly can off base to enjoy the best of both worlds.
It has been hot here since the day we landed, and the sun is brutally hot. Every morning I get Riann & Linc ready to walk out the door, I slather their little bodies with a good coating of sunscreen, they look a lot like little cupcakes frosted in vanilla buttercream. Even with the SPF 55+, they are bronzed little babes. People that have been here for 2+ years have said to me "It only gets hotter". Ugh. Thank goodness for the AC we DON'T pay for, and for the still cool-water pool we have access to every day.
We visited the school Riann and Lincoln will be attending off base in starting in September. I have only heard exceptional things about this school. Riann will go 5 days a week and Lincoln will go two days a week. What ever will I do with all that free time I have on my hands??
We have hardly had a day with nothing to do since we landed here in Napoli. I feel like every day we have something to do, somewhere to go... And when Jamie and I do get the kids down for the night, we are often reading up on, researching, and planning where to go next weekend. I feel like we have to remind ourselves we are here for 3 years, that we do have many more weekends to travel. But c'mon, we're living in Italy! There is so much to see, so much to do... even the people I've met that have been here for 1 or 2 years say there are still so many more places they have yet to see. Why would we want to stay home, do nothing, be lazy when we have all of Italy, let alone Europe, to explore??

Happy (belated) 4th of July!
Now that our lives seem a little more settled and "normal" (our house is feeling like home, the cats flew NY to Rome Friday where Jamie picked them up), we tried to figure out how to spend the holiday weekend. Our initial thoughts were to go to Florence but our Telepass (like EZPass) has not come in yet (toll roads can get really backed up in the cash only lanes), its been really hot and we didn't really have any recommendations for a hotel that would work well with Riann & Lincoln. So we decided to go to the Caserta Market again Saturday to stock up on produce (and I drove for the first time off the base... intimidating but really not that bad), then we went on a day-long mini cruise along the Amalfi Coast on Sunday. We had heard nothing but wonderful things about the cruise itself and the stops, so we took a chance and booked.

Beautiful!! Even with the heat and haze, the coastline from Castellamare to Positano was amazing. We have driven the Pacific Coast Highway before, I think this drive would be even more amazing... and terrifying. Oh, the cliffs would have me freaking out if we had driven!! The cruise went along the coast most of the time, but ventured off to Nerano Bay near Capri for a swim stop.


Jamie jumped in, Riann jumped in for a moment before freaking out (the water was much rougher than it seemed) and I, of course, was too chicken to get in. Lincoln just watched everyone with me holding on to him for dear life. I was exhausted just from watching some of those people tread water for so long! We had the choice of stopping at either Positano or Amalfi, and since we had heard Positano is more difficult to get to by car, we decided to check it out instead of Amalfi. Also, it being the first stop meant more time to explore and less time on the boat. Positano is picturesque! Even with the haze, it was still gorgeous. The small homes are all built looking like they are hanging off the cliff, one on top of another. There are colorful flowers growing like ivy does on many of them. It is just beautiful!


We first went to a restaurant called L'Incanto where Jamie dined on "the best pizza ever", I had spaghetti with local clams that was SOOO delicious, Riann indulged on fresh pineapple, and Lincoln slept away in his stroller.




After, we headed across the sidewalk to the beach. No sand here, it is pebbles and rocks, it is much nicer than it sounds except that the rocks are so hot from the sun. Riann was like a fish, and Lincoln was miserable and then hesitant, and finally happily playing with the rocks in the waves of the Med. Pretty cool.


Before heading back to the boat, we stopped for gelato... Gelato is so good!! I make a point of trying a different kind every time, but so far Limone is my favorite.

The town of Positano has many stairways and uphill walkways making it difficult to tour with a stroller, so we were not able to see a lot. But we do plan to go back again, maybe next time when its not so hot. Or maybe it'll be a great spot to go to next time we have a babysitter.