Boy it was a busy summer!! And here it is the end of DECEMBER and I am far behind on updates... If the days could only be a few more hours longer. *Sigh*

After our amazing trip to Southern France, we had some "recovery" weeks.

Lincoln graduated to his big boy bed.

I took a solo trip to Syracuse to see my brother get married to the love of his life and had a TON of fun with family and friends.

Then, lucky enough, they took their honeymoon on a Mediterranean Cruise with a port stop in Napoli. Jamie, Riann, Lincoln and I gave them a "best of Napoli" tour by visiting Gambrinus (one of the oldest and well known bars (cafes for Americans), Spaccanapoli, Pizzeria da Michele (the 2nd oldest pizzeria in Napoli, best known now from "Eat, Pray' Love"), then a metro ride up to Vomero (one of my favorite spots in the Campania region) for gelato, and a finuculare (kind of like a hillside tram) ride back down to the port area). It was a busy exhausting day, but one of my favorite days being in Italy.

For my birthday weekend at the end of July, while friends of our's kept Riann and Lincoln overnight, Jamie took me away for some r&r. First stop: a few hours of leisurely walking and shopping through Positano, the Amalfi Coast scenic drive, and then an overnight at a cliffside fabulous hotel in Amalfi.

Back to reality, August was jam-packed full of events, everything from Sesame Street visiting the base, too many birthday parties to count, long days of hanging out at the pool with our friends - one of the days, Riann even passed the swim test by swimming the full length of the pool which let her go jumping from the diving board and going down the waterside in the deep end.

And before we knew it, it was almost time for school to begin.

The second weekend of September (and the second weekend of Shannon, Matt & Ari's visit) was all planned out by Jamie to see a typical Italian town and Rome. Our first stop was about 2 hours, 45 minutes up the boot of Italy from where we live, a town called Orvieto in the Umbria region. Orvieto is a fairly flat town built up on tufa (volcanic rock) - a very picturesque town, and very visible driving up (or down) the A1 surrounded by it's tufa cliffs.
We visited the very old duomo, walked the cobblestone streets, peaked into several shops and just enjoyed the Italian town for it's beauty. We missed out on some highlights, like the Pozzo di San Patrizio (St Patrick Well, built for the popes) and the underground labyrinth of caves and tunnels. A town easy to get to as a day trip, or as a stop on another road trip or on our way home, we'll be back to visit for sure!

We stayed just outside of Orvieto at a really fantastic agriturismo: La Rocca. It was one of the most beautiful settings and the agriturismo had so much on site including an awesome pool (the kids LOVED!!!) and a really amazing restaurant. I could see myself going back to stay at La Rocca a few more times, or at least for a few days to get away and relax.

Like most tourists want to see, we headed to Roma for the next two days to hit the highlights of that city, one of the most amazing cities in the world.
We stayed right outside of Vatican City, in fact we could see the pillars surrounding St Peter's square looking out our apartment window. Pretty cool!

We let Shannon and Matt have a few hours without Ari while they did the main tourist (not-so-toddler-friendly) attraction there: The Vatican Museum which includes the Sistine Chapel. Meanwhile, we took Ari, Riann and Lincoln on a bus ride over to La Bocca dela Verita
(the Mouth of Truth, well known from Audrey Hepburn's Roman Holiday) before heading back to St Peter's piazza to let the kids play (and do some nun counting) and met up with Shannon and Matt.

The second day there, we saw the Colosseo and the Roman Forum, the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon... a day filled with walking and seeing as much of Roma as possible.

Sabbia, mare, templi greci ... e mozzarella di bufala!

Translation: Sand, sea, Greek temples... and mozzarella di bufala!

Jamie's sister, Shannon, her husband Matt & their son Ari came to visit us at the end of August. Jamie only gave them about a day in Napoli to catch up from their long flight before we were hopping on their tour.
Out-of-season by a few days, we headed to the beach about 2 hours south along the coast and stayed at a resort called Oleandri.

The months of July and August, you just don't want to be at the beach here unless you really love the crowds. The timing was perfect! We invited a few friends to tag along too, so we met them all shortly after upon check in at the resort. We all headed to the sand and sea, the kids began their fun as the adults chimed in to some relaxation.

Jamie had researched some nearby restaurants, so we headed out for dinner on our first night and ate some pretty amazing food!

The next day, it was hot, so we got an early start and headed to Paestum, a town known for it's most well preserved Greek ruins which included several temples.

It is quite an amazing place!! It could only be prettier if it wasn't the end of a hot, dry summer and instead had the lush greens and flowers in bloom all around.
We also visited the Tenuta Vannulo Mozzerella farm. We saw a ton of Bufala, indulged in some gelato, and brought home some fresh balls of mozzarella di bufala - possibly some of the best cheese ever!

After a few hours there, and to the kids delight, we headed back to the resort and back to the beach. Since we had some other friends at the same resort, and we couldn't stop talking about the food from the night before, the whole group of us made plans and meet up for dinner at the same restaurant. Again, it was a night of full bellies thanks to the excellent cuisine!

Our hurrah to Labor Day weekend, Italian style was a scenic, although semi-tortueous drive up the Amalfi Coast to the town of Ravello. Hairpin turns, cliffside two-lane road... a little scary, to say the least, at times, but OH! so worth the drive to get to beautiful Ravello!
We ate some lunch at a scenic little park to settle our stomachs, walked around and snapped a few photos before our last portion of the drive to get home.

I'm still hoping our first weekend excursion didn't completely wear out Matt, Shannon and Ari... a few days to rest before our next Italian adventure!

La vita è solo una ciotola di ciliegie

Translation: Life is just a bowl of cherries

Living in Italy is quite fabulous, however we still have our "normal" day to day life to live: grocery shopping, doctors appointments, work, cleaning, etc.

Of course we have to take the moments as they come and enjoy the little things in life among all the travel.
Since we were only in London a week prior to the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, it was quite fresh in Riann's memory that a real life prince and princess were going to get married. So on Friday, April 29th, I picked Riann up early from school and we watched the broadcast of the Royal Wedding together. Riann was so happy, I'm sure it will be one of those memories neither of us will forget.

For Mother's day weekend, I went with my good friend Tammy to Ischia, an island just a ferry ride from Napoli. Who knew paradise was so close to where we lived??
We had a great seaside dinner, but we unfortunately took the bus on the long route back to our hotel. It was dark, it was a long ride of winding and hairpin turns, it was not the way I wanted to end our day on Ischia.
The good news was, we had another full day in Ischia. Tammy and I headed to the beach club resort of Negombo. Hello Paradise! This place is amazing! There is a gorgeous beach there, and numerous thermal pools, maybe 15 or 20, some sea water, some fresh, and they ranged from cool water to hot and everything in between. There are a number of restaurants with everything from cocktails to fresh fruit to full meals. We ended up deciding to stay a bit later and enjoy Negombo for a little longer before we took the ferry back to Napoli.

Jamie, Riann, Lincoln and I spent Mother's day together, we drove up to the beach in Gaeta with a picnic lunch and just enjoyed being together for the day.

We've done other random fun things, everything from Italian and cooking classes,

to BMX shows,

to going out to dinner to say arrivederci to friends moving away.

Life in Italy... it's just a bowl of cherries.

A bientôt ... à de grands amis!

Translation (French to English:
Cheers... to great friends!

On June 23rd, we once again piled into our car and hopped on to the A1. Next stop (besides potty breaks): Monte Carlo, Monaco!

Riann and Lincoln did awesome on the long 8 hour ride, they are such troopers! Jamie and I are very lucky they are such well behaved, acclimated travelers.
Monte Carlo was Monte Carlo - full of expensive cars, top names in fashion, and high rollers being gawked at by the middle class. I wasn't really all that impressed by Monte Carlo. Sure, it was pretty, we saw the famous Casino Monte Carlo and Hotel de Paris, and a ton of fancy cars and multimillion dollar yachts, but I felt like this was one place we could say, "Cool, we went here, saw that" and that was good enough. Then again, maybe it had to do with the fact that I was SO excited to get to Toulon, France to see our good friends, the Hoblets!

One night in Monaco, a morning of yummy pastries, and some sightseeing, onward to Toulon!
We arrived to Sarah and Phil's chateau, mid afternoon; it felt like we all picked up right where we last saw each other - State College, PA and before that, Jacksonville, FL. Including the kids, Lily and Zack, who are the same ages as Riann and Lincoln, had a lot of fun all planned out on their own.

Our first afternoon, we just kept it simple with a nice little walk down the hill from their house to the beautiful beach where the kids had fun and the adults just enjoyed the crystal clear, clean, blue water.

Our friends Sarah and Phil made plans for a week full of side trips and a whole lot of fun.
Our first adventure was to The Abbaye Notre-Dame de Sénanque, which was founded in 1148 and populated by monks, a beautiful medieval Cistercian abbey known for its lavender fields. We didn't see any monks, but we did enjoy many photo ops with the lavender.

Our next destination: Gordes. Oh, lovely, lovely Gordes! I am convinced that Sarah and Phil picked the best places for us to see in southern France. Oh la la! Just a quaint little town where we picked a perfect spot for a fancy picnic, which included French wine and a baguette plus all kinds of other good stuff. We walked through the town, poked around in a few shops for treasures and treated the kids to glacées artisanales... French for gelato - delizioso! I mean délicieux!

Next stop: L'Isle sur la Sorgue and their Sunday market to find all things fun and French, new and old, and tasty too of course!! The market had everything!

I scored with a few more treasures: a linen table cloth, some fun French ceramics, breakfast of cafe and pain du chocolat, and a few more photos of the experience. We proceeded with our adventure and arrived in Avignon for lunch, a ride on a carousel for the kids, walking through the streets of Avignon, more photos, and a quick stop of... yup, more glacees. I'm telling you, it makes every adventure for the KIDS that much more enjoyable.
Our last sight of Avignon: Pont d'Avignon, a famous medieval bridge in the town of Avignon that originally spanned the Rhône River between Avignon and Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, now it no longer crosses the entire river but it does make for beautiful photos!

Back in Toulon, we had a quieter, less adventurous day - we spent it an a gorgeous beach just about a 40 minute drive from Sarah & Phil's house. The kids had a blast, the water was amazingly clear and aqua blue; we brought snacks and sandwiches which made the day even more fun.

We thought the beach had worn out the kids, but they still had energy to help celebrate Jamie's 35th birthday, a little early, but with a fabulous dinner outside and with some tasty pastries from a nearby French pastry shop and homemade Tiramisu that Sarah whipped up.

Sadly, all good things must come to an end, as did our visit to Toulon and the Hoblet's...
But not before having one last day seeing "Sarah's little corner of France": the usual places she goes for cheese, wine, baguettes, the market close to their house.

And not before the grownups had an evening out, kids at home with a wonderful babysitter:
Drinks at a bar with the (British) owner who Phil has become more or less friends with.
Dinner at fabulous restaurant called Le Lido was amazing, whatever it is we ordered ;o)
(Sarah and Phil had to translate everything for us, they even ordered for us... I couldn't fake this language!!!)

A beautiful, scenic walk home, up the hill, overlooking the Med... priceless! An amazing evening with friends who treat you like family. One adventure we will always treasure - I even have over 1,000 photos (yes, really) to remember.