Celebrating 10 Years in Italy

 Today was finally a sunny day with no rain.  And perfect timing for our private driver along the Amalfi Coast.  Like so much of Italy the pictures cannot do it justice but I sure tried to capture the magic. The amazing cliffs and the emerald green sea intermixed with the quaint Italian homes and narrow passageways make it the most captivating place.  Our driver was so knowledgeable about the area and taught us so much about each town along the coast.  We stopped in two if the towns: Positano and Ravello.  Positano was a quaint fishing town right on the water. We walked down to the beach and right there was a beautiful church. It was by far the most ornate church we have seen in Italy with a lot of gold around the altar.  Ravello was built up on the mountain instead if by the water like the rest of the towns along the coast. It offered amazing views down below. As we left the Amalfi Coast we headed towards Pompeii for a tour.  When we drove North ...

 The day started off rainy.  Really rainy.  We walked 20 minutes in a steady rain down to the marina to meet up with our tour group to go to the island of Capri. After getting in the wrong tour group line and worried our day had been cancelled because of the rain, we learned that our group was still going and boarded a ferry bound for Capri (pronounced KAH-pri).  The ferry had inside seats so we didn’t get wet and a short 25 minute ride later we were ushered off the big boat and onto a boat half its size.  The water was rough which meant we couldn’t go to the blue grotto but instead we went to the other side of the island to see the well known Faraglioni (beautiful group of rocks jutting out of the Tyrrhenian Sea).   Upon our return to Capri we were immediately ushered to a tiny bus.  The bus was tiny so that two of them could pass each other on the crazy narrow roads going up to the towns of Capri and Anacapri. We started at the top in Anacapri (“Ana”...

 We were back at the train station this morning, this time headed to Naples.  It was raining when we left Rome /‘d raining when we arrived in Naples.  The entire 75 minute drive to Sorrento was also raining.  We passed by Mr Vesuvius on the way but couldn’t see it because of the clouds.  Even in the rain, the coast is beautiful.   Our hotel is amazing and tucked into a hill.  To get to the reception area from ground level you have to take an elevator 5 “floors” up.  This is by far the largest hotel we’ve stayed in, which was nice yesterday in the rain to be able to walk around inside.   But we didn’t let the rain stop us. We found an amazing restaurant for lunch just a short walk down the hill with fresh seafood and pasta.  They even gave us free limoncello at the end of the meal (amazing!).  We wandered through town and stumbled upon a few beautiful churches and some cute little shops.  We might have had more limoncello along ...

 Sunday in Rome.  Such a magical day.  We got up early and headed to St. Peter’s Basilica.  We got in line around 8am and it took us only about 30 minutes to get through security and up to the Basilica.  On the right side we found a little chapel and stayed there to pray for a while.  They were preparing for mass at 9am but when we could hear the music out in the main basilica, we headed out there to find them celebrating mass.  We found a seat and although it was in Italian, we greatly enjoyed the beauty of mass in St Peter’s.  After mass, we were able to see the sacristy and get holy water, and even found the crypts below where many of the more recent Popes are buried.  Seeing the tomb of Pope Benedict XVI was so moving. There were fresh flowers surrounding it and a place to kneel and pray. No pictures were allowed in the crypt.  Below is the sacristy where we were able to see all of the priests getting ready for the 10:30am mass surro...

The train from Florence to Rome was uneventful.  We made it to the hotel, dropped our luggage and wandered off.  Our first stop was the Trevi Fountain.  It was crazy busy but as beautiful as I remember.  We took our required picture and moved on.   We arrived at the Pantheon and were sad to see that tickets were required on the weekends and they didn’t have any left.  Thinking we would not be able to go inside, a lady came up to us offering to let us join her tour group heading inside in a few minutes for a reasonable price.  We’re still not sure how legit it was, but we got inside and had a hilarious tour guide (we think from the UK) and were able to see the beauty of the church inside this amazing former Roman temple.  Perhaps the strangest thing about this church is the eye in the middle of the dome that is open to the sky.  It was sprinkling at that time and the rain came through into the church.  It remains the world’s largest unrei...