Second Round of Visitors

We head up to Rome today to pick up one of my dear friends from our days in San Diego, who is making the trip to celebrate a milestone birthday. Since it's not my birthday, I won't put an actual number on it. Her one special request for her time here was to visit the gardens in Tivoli, outside of Rome as they were a place her father really enjoyed. We will spend the weekend at an agriturismo - our very first agriturismo stay! My horseback riding trip was at an agriturismo, but this is mine and Nathan's first family trip. Even Scully gets to go - he's going to flip when I motion him into the car. Actually, when he sees me pull out his portable crate and start shoveling dog food into a Ziploc, that's when he'll start walking in circles on his hind legs. A neat trick for a 55 pound dog.

After we get Paige from the airport, we'll have a nice, quiet dinner in Tivoli and hope that our beds back at the agriturismo are comfortable - it's hit or miss in Europe. Actually, it's also hit or miss what kind of bed you will get. Options are either a Double or a Single. A Double bed could be anything from a Queen Size, Full Size, or two Twin beds pushed together - or even two Twin beds not pushed together, and when you complain to the front desk and show them your reservation form with Double bed on it, they look at you in surprise and say, "You just push the beds together," so then you trundle back up three flights to your room, and move around several nightstands and possibly a chair before trying to shove really heavy beds in place and then you have to actually move those same heavy beds every night and morning in order to pull bed sheets up or down (true story). Regardless, our agriturismo apartment sleeps four people and we will only be three, so I'm confident there will be some sort of suitable arrangement.

On Saturday, if Paige is coherent after 30 hours of traveling and a nine hour time difference, we'll visit Villa d'Este for their gardens and Adriana's Villa (Hadrian's Villa), also a worthwhile site to see. Before returning home to Naples on Sunday, we'll swing back by the airport to pick up a childhood friend of Paige's, who will be joining us for our week of touring around. Nathan will be sorely outnumbered next week with a house full of women, but he'll only have to put up with us for a few days as we head to Capri and then back up to Rome to pick up my aunt and uncle flying in from Georgia. Either my blogs are going to be more interesting because I'll actually be sightseeing every day or they'll be non-existent because I'll be falling into bed exhausted every night.