Assisi

This past weekend, while Nathan was out of town, I joined in on a USO trip to a chocolate festival in Perugia in the Umbria region. I'd spent the previous week on the waitlist, calling the (very nice) lady at the USO office every single day to see if I'd made it onto the trip, which left at 7am on Saturday morning. It wasn't until Friday afternoon, 1.5 hours before the USO closed, that I got the okay...as long as I was willing to share a room with another lady on the waitlist. Since we'd already arranged Scully care, and I didn't want to sit around the hotel all weekend, Saturday morning at 6am found me up and on my way to my pick-up point. The USO arranges for bus transportation for these trips with plenty of rest stops (too many for me - 100 people on our bus plus all the other bus tours who are stopped all trying to use about 4 toilets...really, I think we spent more time waiting for a free stall than actually driving to our destination). Our trip consisted of spending Saturday afternoon in the town of Assisi (a surprise to me) and Sunday in Perugia, the location of EuroChocolate.

Assisi is gorgeous! It began raining as we arrived, and the clouds obscured the view, but it was just clear enough to show us what we were missing from this little hill town. The panoramic version of the more you know, the more you know how little you know...or something like that. Sadly, we didn't have nearly enough time in Assisi. There are two main churches in town, which anchor the ends of the main street. The largest and most famous church is the Basilica of St. Francis, who was born in Assisi. The story of St. Francis is more fascinating than I ever imagined and rivals any of the modern soap operas. He was born in the late 1100s to wealthy cloth merchant, and while working in the market one day selling cloth, he was compelled to give all he had to a local beggar. After this event, he joined the military, spent a year as a POW, and shortly thereafter, had a serious illness. At some point during this time, he faced a crisis in his spiritual life convicting him to nurse the ill and renounce material things (all material things, including shoes and soft clothing) in order to rebuild the churches. The final straw for his folks (or at least his dad) came when he sold a bunch of his dad's wares and gave the money to the local priest for rebuilding the church. Dad retaliated by beating him, then taking him to court...an interesting take on the parental "I'm going to teach you a lesson" lesson. St. Francis (then known only as Francis) left Assisi, founded his new order (the Franciscans) and lived in the valleys around Assisi repairing churches as well as doing some travel preaching. In his travels, he attempted a peace treaty with the Muslim world, and so impressed the Muslim leaders that the Franciscans were the only ones allowed to stay in the region as the token Christian representatives.  To this day, 1000 years later, the Franciscans are still the ones charged with responsibility for the Christian sites of the Holy Land. St. Francis was pretty radical for his time - he believed everyone (even poor people) should be allowed to talk to God in their own language, not just in Latin (gasp!). And a final fun fact, St. Francis set up the first (known) live nativity at Christmas. I left out all the other drama, such as being shipwrecked, having visions, getting his very own mountain to use for meditation, and the stigmata that plagued him for his final years. So there's your very unofficial guide to the life and times of St. Francis. The church built in his memory is one of the most beautiful I've ever seen. The insides are covered in frescoes. There was a terrible earthquake in the region about 30 years ago, which severely damaged the fresco - one of them was broken into so many pieces that only (only) 200,000 of them were found...and put back together.

Unfortunately, this is NOT the hotel where we stayed; but I love the red scooter up against the ancient, stone walls.

The 2nd church is the Church of St. Clare. St. Clare was a woman quite taken with the ideals of St. Francis. She ran away from her parents because they wanted her to marry a wealthy young man.  This seems preferable to a wealthy, old man, however, one may assume that said young man was "che bruto" since it doesn't seem like she even gave the guy a chance. St. Clare, like St. Francis, also founded an order. Hers was called the Order of Poor Ladies, and after her death, it was renamed the Order of St. Clare. The nuns of this order are today known as the Poor Clares, and it is still a cloistered order. Only three of the women are allowed to leave the cloister. They can't even participate in mass in their very own church, which is attached to the cloister. I seem to recall something about a room opening onto the sanctuary but blocked off with an iron grate.

We only had time for a quick jaunt down the main street of Assisi, which had tantalizing, little alleys begging for exploration, colorful flowers in window boxes set against old, crumbling stone walls, monks wandering around, lovely shops, and finally, finally, finally, the chance to walk around a gorgeous street with no fear of death by speeding Vespa. How disappointing it was to then return to our hotel, which was one of the worst hotels I've stayed in. However, my roommate was great - just moved here from DC, so we had a lot to talk about and stayed up late into the night. This and the fact that my bed had clean sheets were the only redeeming qualities of the night. I take that back - the dinner was also fun. Food was only so-so, but the companionship was fantastic. My table was all women, most of them moms on weekend getaways, and we had such a fun time.

From now on, while we're on trips like these, I'll be updating an on-the-go travel journal separate from this blog. The blog is to update our loved ones on our life here, to act as a diary for me, and to be somewhat informational for anyone out there moving to or visiting the region. The Everlater is very different. It has actual details, such as name of hotel, where we ate, what tour we took, etc., plus it will have quick thoughts - a place to record a sentence or two on what we're seeing, experiencing, eating, one or two photos, etc. I've added a link to "My On-the-Go Travel Journal" on the right side of the blog, under the title "Blogs and Links I Love." Below is also a link:

Link to Everlater.com Travel Journal

Since I just wasn't able to stop writing about St. Francis, I'll have to leave Perugia and the Chocolate festival (the actual reason for the trip in the first place!) for tomorrow.

Just a little decoration on the walls in Assisi to enjoy as you wander down the street

Vietri sul Mare

One of the best spots ever for the afternoon riposo (nap)

We visited the lovely Vietri last Saturday. Getting a late start, by the time we found parking, our stomachs were growling in tune. In our parking search, we'd noted that Vietri has one main street where the tourists head...and that was our destination as well. Vietri is home to some of the most vibrant ceramics in southern Italy, and that main street mentioned above is home to dozens of itty, bitty shops, each with their own handmade ceramics. In our walk from the edge of town we took a wrong turn and ended up outside a church immediately following a wedding. We lurked about a few minutes to take in everyone's wedding finery, then as we headed out of the piazza, we found ourselves caught up in the procession of the wedding guests down the one, narrow alley exit. A bit embarrassing, but we just smiled gamely at all the shopkeepers standing in their doorways until we could duck off onto another street...where we ran right into Nathan's boss and his family who had just sat down to lunch. (Vietri is VERY popular among the military folks. It's only a short drive away, has a large selection of items that make great gifts and souvenirs for our homes, and you can see from the photo above that the views are spectacular.). We had a nice lunch with them and got to pick their brains for all their great travel recommendations in the region, specifically for a place called Alberobello, where we hope to spend Thanksgiving. By the time we finished lunch, shops were all closed for riposo, so we followed in tradition by finding a comfortable bench to nap for the next hour.

I'm in love with the vibrant colors of the Vietri ceramics.

I'd heard and read about how beautiful the Vietri ceramics are, but I had this vision in my head of something along the lines of South of the Border - a whole bunch of tourist shops selling the same stuff. Wrong, wrong, wrong...or, as they say in Italia, scoretto, scoretto, scoretto. Because each shop is selling handmade items, they all have slight differences. While the bowls, plates, mugs, platters are similar shapes, the actual artwork is subtly different. And there are a few stores that have broken from tradition and have very unique, different artwork on their ceramics.

This shop has an inventive way of showing their wares...and it certainly worked in getting us to head downstairs.

Vietri has a ceramics factory which sells a good number of cast-offs, irregulars, and the like. But the best thing is it's Gaudi-esque building containing the showroom. Despite the resemblance to Gaudi's architecture, the designer actually studied under Frank Lloyd Wright.

Our visit to Vietri was one of the daytrips we've come to really love. We have a morning where we're focused but not rushed - sit for breakfast, check email, read for a bit, then get on the road. At our destination, we don't hurry, but rather stroll along, take the side alleys that look interesting, stop for caffe and gelato. We generally end these days feeling so relaxed, excited that we saw something new, interesting, and different, and glad that we took our time enjoying the surroundings rather than just checking the block off the tour list.

Yet Another Housing Update

View from Rooftop Terrace...and why we can't wait to move!

What a difference 24 hours makes. After the depressing (three) conversations that Nathan had with the housing office yesterday, we were very discouraged. Today, however, I talked to our realtor, and she told me some information that is direct opposition to what housing told Nathan. She said she was at the house with the inspector on Tuesday, and she (the inspector) did perform the inspection.  And...that the inspector found nothing wrong with the house save the missing gas meter. The realtor said the gas line is in fact installed, and the landlord is only waiting on the meter, due to be installed on Mon/Tue. This isn't even a situation in which there is a misunderstanding. In this case, we are being told two completely different stories that absolutely contradict each other. The housing rep told Nathan that the inspector reported there is no gas line to the house, and the gas line was scheduled to go in Monday/Tuesday  but there would not be a meter available until a week after that. Also, housing said that b/c the gas line was not installed, the inspection was not done. The realtor assures me that none of this is true and has advised that we sit and wait until Tuesday, at which point we'll know whether the meter was installed or not and can then get a better idea of a timeline. It's so difficult to know who to trust as our realtor has really done right by us, yet the housing office is supposed to be an advocate and support office.

One of the issues in the forefront is not just that we're ready to move out of the hotel (and Crazy Dog even more so!), but that we're only allowed 60 days here. We're now at five weeks, with only three to go. If Housing is the one with the correct story, then it's unlikely we'll get into our house within the next three weeks. At the 60 day mark, we have to leave this hotel. I've already gone to the hotel front desk to request an extension past the 60 days, but they're booked, and we're pretty far down the waitlist. For obvious reasons, we'd really like to avoid moving to yet another hotel!

Since this is one of those times when we have absolutely no control, we're trying to stay busy on the weekends. In fact, this past Sunday was the first day we didn't do something sort of touristy. We did, however, head to the local Auchan, Decathalon, and Leroy Merlin, similar to SuperWalMart, Sports Authority and Lowe's, respectively. That was a great trip as we found great wine at Auchan, cheap swimsuits at Decathalon, and patio furniture (albeit, ugly plastic stuff, but still...it's October, so we're beggars at this point) at Leroy Merlin. On Saturday, we had a great day, which I'll post about tomorrow. For this weekend, I'm on the waitlist for a USO trip to Puglia for EuroChocolate. A chocolate festival in a beautiful, Italian town - what could be better! I really hope someone drops out as I've already arranged Scully care with the young woman who kept him his first two days here in Italia. Should I not get onto the trip, I think I'm just going to take the ferry to the island of Ischia and spend the night out there. Nathan is on travel, so it will be a solo trip for me. We have lots of jokes about his destination, which he said I could post once he was there. Here's my favorite: What did K.C. and the Sunshine Band say when they visited Africa? Shake, shake, shake...Shake, shake, shake...Shake [you guess what goes here]. Hee, hee, hee.

It's our kitchen! Just kidding...it's actually the outdoor kitchen. That fireplace thingy is a traditional pizza oven, one of Nathan's favorite features of the house.

House Update

I really, really wish this update was "Yay, our house passed inspection and we're moving in a week!" Sadly, it is the complete opposite. One of the things the landlord has to do is have a city gas line installed. Prior to now, he's had a very large gas tank in the backyard which is plumbed into the house. This is very common here. A new Italian law has put strict limits on how these things are stored, and one of the conditions is they must be underground. It's cheaper for our landlord to just plug into the city gas line. At our pre-contract meeting, I clearly remember the housing representative saying the city gas line did NOT have to be completed by the time of the inspection. However, the inspection was supposed to be yesterday, and today, we found that the inspector did not perform an inspection. Once she saw the above ground gas tank and no installed city line, she left and apparently will not return until the gas line is ready to go.

Nathan raised the point with housing that since the inspector is probably going to find other problems the landlord will have to fix, why not perform the inspection, and then give him the list of repairs required...which would include the city gas line installation! We did not get an answer back. This says to me that the inspector is just not going to budge, so the gas line installation is going to take another 1-2 weeks (in Italy time, that means one month), then housing will schedule another inspection (probably at least a week's wait for that), then the inspector will give the landlord a list of required updates/maintenance and schedule another inspection 1-2 weeks later. Once we pass inspection, if ever, then our contract signing appointment will be made (takes about 4 business days to get on the books for that). Once the contract is signed, we can move in approximately 5 days later (we can't get utilities set up until the contract is signed, and the utility companies need 5 days). To cap it all off, our stay here in temporary lodging expires in three weeks. I have no idea what hoops we're going to have to jump through to get an extension approved, or if we get the extension, if there's room in the hotel. We could very well go to the front desk to extend and have them say, "Too bad." And just to complicate matters even further, Nathan's travel schedule for November has gone bonkers. It seems he will only be home 7-9 business days in the entire month, and I'm including Veteran's Day + the holiday Friday after it as well as Thanksgiving and it's holiday Friday. This whole house thing could go a couple of ways - one, it could very well take another two months, or two, something we don't understand will happen that all of sudden allows us to move in. We called our realtor this afternoon to ask her to please encourage the landlord to get this thing done, and her response was, "Ciro [landlord] is going to give you a free bombola (basically, a propane tank people w/o city gas or a gas tank use for house gas) while the city line is being installed." Nathan told her over and over that housing is not going to let us move in until the city line is installed, but she didn't seem to understand. 

Despite the delay, I do want the city gas line installed b/c if we move in w/o it, we'll never get it. It will always be, "The line will be put in next month," and we'll be stuck buying bombolas and having to worry about turning them on and off, leaking, exchanging them, hooking up the hoses, etc. Looks like at least another month in the hotel, probably two. I love living in Italy. I love living in Italy. I love living in Italy...seriously, I really do like it here, but I hate being unsettled. It's the worst part of the constant moving we do. We've now been living out of two suitcases each for 8 weeks. The weather is turning, and my teachers at school give me sad looks when I show up every day in sandals. I did bring in my suitcase some winter shoes, but I need to break them in, and don't want to do that on a day when I have to walk two or three miles. So far I haven't had one of those days.

A Small Bit of Sightseeing

View from window of our classroom at Centro Italiano.

With class in downtown, it's the perfect opportunity to explore the museums, castles, and churches. I'm right there within walking distance of it all. But four hours of struggling to speak and understand a foreign language takes most of that day's brain power quota. Then add the thought of the commute home, and I've just not gone off exploring. One day last week, however, I made myself take some time. Naples has an underground city...like most of Europe's larger cities, it's built on top of ancient cities. Dig down just about anywhere, and you'll hit some sort of sign of habitation from centuries ago. Even way out here in the country, this base must be built over some sort of old city or farm because our commissary and department store both have glass walkways on certain aisles providing a window onto the ruins below.

In the Exchange (base department store); We'd lived here three weeks, and I'd passed this aisle half a dozen times, before I looked down and saw this!

One of the sites I really wanted to see was Napoli Sotterranea - a tour of the underground city. Arriving at the site, I found the tour was still an hour away, and "it is not possible" (a favorite Italian phrase) to visit without taking the tour. Next door is the San Lorenzo Maggiore church, which has their own access to a subterranean site. While the San Lorenzo scavi (ruins) are listed in all the guidebooks, by all reports, it's closed to the public. Since I was there, I thought I'd just go see for myself. Off I headed to stand at the ticket booth. And there I stood, in front of a lighted booth with no one in it...and waited, and waited....watching other folks heading into the area, walking with purpose. I finally got tired of waiting and went through a nearby doorway, which opened onto a very pretty courtyard surrounded by a loggia on all sides. Discreet signs pointed the way to the scavi. Not too many people were about, so I followed the signs, walking down a corridor lined with old columns on their sides and statues, and eventually coming to a narrow staircase headed down and an open door at the bottom. Since I'd yet to run into anyone who challenged me or looked askance at my presence, I headed down...and into an amazing subterranean world. Since I hadn't actually paid for a ticket, I didn't have any information on what I was seeing with the exception of my limited Naples guidebook. That at least told me which parts were ruins of an old main street - a street of shops.

Main Street

 Even without information, it was wonderful to wander about on these old streets, walk into homes last inhabited centuries ago, and just imagine what the lives of those who came before must have been like. A friend commented several years ago that the older he gets, the more he realizes that people all over the world are the same, regardless of country, economic circumstance, religion, etc. People everywhere are just focused on their friends and families, raising their kids, getting together with friends, all the things that make up our daily lives. The women living in these houses of old were most likely thinking about what to make for dinner, heading to the shop to get some lamb or chicken, resewing a fastener onto their children's clothing, and taking time to chat with a neighbor. I love the opportunity to live in a place where history is so very present in the day to day. Rounding a corner can bring speeding cars and vespas, yet rounding another corner can put me face to face with a castle built 1000 years ago, and still another corner brings an exposed column set in place over 2000 years ago.

While I enjoyed my little side trip, I was brought back to crushing reality when I got to the train station, waited almost half an hour for a train, finally got to my stop in Aversa (the nearest town to the base accessible via train), and headed to the bus stop alone. Waiting at bus stops in the outer towns, especially alone, is just not pleasant for women. Even when with a friend, it's a constant barrage of honking, men coming up to talk, circling the road by the bus stop to stare, etc. Alone, at least one man stops to try to get you into his car. You may be getting the picture of where the working girls ply their trade, so apparently, no matter one's mode of dress or the fact that they're wearing a backpack, woman at a bus stop equals woman looking for some johns. My friend and I asked our teachers at school what a good Italian phrase is to communicate "get away from me," as we had problems even when we waited together, but they said it's a problem for all women at bus stops,  foreigners or not, and you just turn your head away. So I spent an enjoyable afternoon in Naples capped off with a not so lovely commute home. Plus, it meant Scully was in his crate for 10 hours.  I guess my days of afternoon exploring are over until we're living in our house.

Commuting

I've just begun Week 3 of my immersion language at Centro Italiano. I'm loving the class and feel like I'm getting a great intro to the language - as well as the knowledge of how/when to use what we're learning. But as I've said before, this commute is killing me! And it's just more confirmation of why I did not want to live here on the Support Site. It's a nice place if you need to be near things like the school, hospital, grocery store, etc. But for someone like me, who has a greater need to be near the museums/sites of Naples, it's difficult. I've tried three different options for getting downtown and walking to class, and no matter what, I can't get the commute less than 1.75 hours...one way. Most days, it's at least four hours spent commuting. In my month of class, I will spend 80 hours commuting just into downtown Napoli! If we were living here on the Support Site, I would not leave this base during the week. Planning the route, waiting for the bus that runs only once/hour to the train station, etc. is just exhausting.

A short bit about Naples...it is beyond a doubt the dirtiest city I've ever seen. Trash is everywhere. Bagged trash, loose trash, overflowing dumpsters, dog poop. I could go on like Forrest Gump's  friend, Bubba, talking about shrimp. This is unfortunate because having spent time in other Italian cities, I find that Naples could easily rival any of the more popular tourist destinations. We have world class museums, including one of the world's top archeological museums, beautiful cathedrals,  historic castles, ruins galore with Pompeii, Ercolano, Campi Flegrei, Paestum, etc., charming alleys, the ocean and seaside towns, and easy access to incredible mountain towns, skiing, the Amalfi Coast, and three distinct islands with their own charms (and thermal baths!). Plus, the best pizza and coffee in Italy. Sadly, it's really hard to overlook the trash. You just can't escape it.That and the crazy drivers. Even the rest of Italy acknowledges that the drivers of Naples are loco.

Today was my first day driving alone. Conveniently, this day happened to be our first torrential downpour. Fantastic! I'm not normally skittish about driving in rain, but guess what Italy has lots and lots of. Marble. So much marble that they mix bits of it in with the asphalt used to pave the roads. Marble and rain create a dangerous combo alone, but then add in the driving. One particular intersection  I go through has four lanes painted on the road, but in the morning commute, these lines are ignored. Both times I've driven this way, the four lanes are actually about seven lanes of cars plus scooters zooming by at close range. Also, I get to this intersection via a tunnel, which spits me out on the left side of the madness, while I must make a right turn about one short block down. Here is the trick: don't look behind you. A refreshing cultural norm here in driving is that you are responsible only for you. For example, once you signal your intention to join a car in their lane, they politely move over for you. After all, the lane is clearly wide enough for 1.5 cars, so why shouldn't you all just share. And if you start moving over, the car must give way to avoid hitting you, which is their responsibility. See...easy.

Piazza Garibaldi in downtown Napoli, where the Central train station is located. One of my three commuting options includes taking a train into the city, and then beginning the death march across these streets to get to school. To quote my friend with whom I commuted for two weeks, "I'm pretty sure I'm going to die at least five times per day on this walk." Crossing streets is another skill...don't stop or hesitate, just walk. But give way to buses and scooters - they don't stop for you...ever.

One of the alleys I enjoy using to get back to the main piazza - this one has far fewer cars to avoid than the main street...and less dog poop.

One of the beautiful buildings in downtown Napoli. Sadly, it was days before I noticed it because my first few days walking the route were exercises in avoiding traffic, trash, dog poop, and a multitude of other commuters strolling along.

Most street corners have interesting art posters pasted to the walls.

Sunday in Herculaneum

Ancient Herculaneum, Modern Ercolano, and Vesuvius watching over it all.

When Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79AD (following an 800 year dormant period), the ash fell onto Pompeii, crushing the buildings, burning what could burn, leaving us what is now an overwhelming area of ruins. Pompeii takes a full day to really explore. But head northwest along the coast, and you'll come to modern day Ercolano, home to some of the best preserved 2000 year old ruins in Europe...the ancient city of Herculaneum (actually, the city was built around the 4th century BC). And best of all, these fantastically preserved ruins take only half a day to explore. As a side note, there was a devastating earthquake that rocked this region in 62 AD, and Herculaneum was completely rebuilt after this...only to suffer complete destruction only 17 years later, which really makes one think about the frailties of life and, in order to be a complete Debbie Downer in this blog, how little our material efforts really matter.

Rope found at the seaport

 ...depressed yet? Anyhoo, while Pompeii burned under hot ash, the (wealthier than Pompeii) citizens of Herculaneum headed down to the port for evacuation by sea, taking with them their gold and jewelry. (Yet another side note: this makes me think that guy on TV who hawks gold at every commercial break may really be on to something). Back to topic, again...hours after the initial eruption, a surge of hot gas blasted the town. At 900 degrees, this immediately killed all remaining citizens and carbonized all organic material (such as wood framing in buildings, plants, fabrics, wax tablets, and more interestingly, preserved the joint connections of all the people). Following this blast was a whole bunch of mud (or solid ash) - Nathan has a good analogy: honey flows very slowly at room temperature, but stick the bottle in the microwave, and then out comes this fast-flowing liquid. That's what happened to the top of Vesuvius. Hot air liquified the mud/ash/lava. This is what flowed down in several surges over Herculaneum, burying this carbonized town under 50 feet of tufa (volcanic rocks). There the town remained until about 1709 or so, when it was discovered during the digging of a well shaft. Excavations have taken place on and off since then. Once of the neatest features of ancient Ercolano is that the site goes right up to the edge of the excavated area, around which are tall walls. Immediately on the edge and on up to Vesuvius is the modern town of Ercolano. I enjoyed looking at those apartment buildings and thinking of just what is underneath them...grand villas of wealthy Romans, filled with frescoes, statues, papyri, jewelry, perhaps a few temples, some restaurants, some ancient apartment buildings upon which are sitting the modern ones.

I'm not really sure how often I can use the word "amazing" when I write these blogs, but I'm probably reaching my limit. Yet they'll still come out. Herculaneum is amazing. I visited Pompeii seven years ago, and while it's a wonderful site, it's a whole bunch of ruins. A column or two here where you must then imagine an entire forum, a foundation there to use in imagining the villa it once supported. Herculaneum has buildings, homes, thermal baths that you can actually walk into as if it were a modern city. When you look up, you might just catch a glimpse of the wood framing used within the rock walls. Frescoes are on the walls and you walk upon mosaic floors, giving any HGTV aficionado a great glimpse of the decorating trends of 2000 years ago. We took a photo of Nathan sitting in the "locker room" of the Men's Thermal bath. There was a bathhouse for both the women and the men, complete with a locker room, a cold room, a warm room (sauna), and the hot room. Herculaneum also had a very large gym (palaestra), which included a marvelous fountain of a Hydra (mythical monster that was a many-headed snake) which apparently flowed water all around it into the swimming pool, where young Herculaneumanos would go for their swim practice, which just goes to show that no matter what millennia we're in, people are concerned about working out. Although this gym also contained a fish breeding pond, so the ancient gyms were a little more versatile.

Herculaneum was so well preserved that food was found in pantries and stores. In one home, a loaf of bread was found, and fortuitously, bread was apparently once stamped with one's name; therefore, we now know that the House of the Deers was owned by Q. Granius Verus because this loaf of bread found there had the stamp "Celer, slave of Q. Granius Verus." My mind immediately heads to such hypothetical situations such as: What if Q. Granius Verus sent over his slave, Celer, with a loaf of bread to his new neighbor? I am assuming that the professionals have much better detective skills and subject knowledge to rule out these types of things.

House of Neptune and Amphitrite, so named because of these richly decorated, glass paste, mosaics. This was a personal dwelling.

Nathan hanging out at the Thermopolium (i.e., lunch joint). One such taberna contained the following saying painted upon the wall: "Diogenes, the cynic, in seeing a woman swept away by a river, exclaimed: 'Let one ill be carried away by another.'" Perhaps this particular taberna was an all male establishment.

Grocery Store

Walking the ancient paths

First Month

In many ways, it feels like this past week was our first "real" week here. It seems like all the stuff involved in moving is coming together and getting settled. We're getting into a routine. We've figured out (a little) the transportation system. We're comfortable getting in the car and driving places. Our housing situation is in process. And we've finally begun cooking dinners instead of just eating cheese and prosciutto, or a bagel, or going to the one restaurant on base.

I absolutely love my language class! While I won't be fluent at the end of the four weeks, I'm learning enough vocabulary and grammar to be able to communicate, and it's a wonderful feeling to be able to come up with some sort of sentence structure to talk to people here.

This weekend, we're planning to take the ferry to Ischia. We have three islands off the coast of Naples: Capri, Ischia, Procida. Capri is the most famous. Ischia is less well-known, but reputedly more beautiful and is also home to wonderful hot springs. Procida is not really visited by tourists, so it's more of a Neapolitan, local island. Today, we're hoping to test drive a cinquecento car on a local car lot and then we'll see what sort of activity we come up with. Nothing heavy; we both need a little rest.

Royal Palace and Medieval Town

Last Sunday, we drove to a nearby town, Caserta, to visit the Royal Palace - Reggia di Caserta. It was modeled after Versailles, has the most amazing fountains, and was built from 1752-1774. Due to some constructions problems (things never change), the palace is minus it's intended corner towers and central dome. It was used as a summer palace for the Bourbon kings, and was intended to be a center of political and social life, safe from attack by sea.

Royal Palace at Caserta

There is a very interesting description, written by an English guest (Lady Anne Miller), of one the dinner receptions at the palace. The description is too long to include, but in summary, there were no tables, only rows of chairs. Good looking soldiers did all the serving, with one spreading a napkin across the guests' laps, another placed a silver plate on each person's lap, and the food was..."a great pate, composed of macaroni, cheese, and butter...drinkables are served between the arrival of each eatable." Who knew that today's college students are eating the dinner of royals!

The apartments were filled with frescoed ceilings, frieze covered walls, and gilded furniture. One room is taken up with a huge presepe (nativity). How many times have I heard the story of the birth of Christ and “no room at the inn,” while not really thinking about the atmosphere of the town. This presepe, though, gives a wonderful, visual image of what Bethlehem must have really been like. Teeming masses of people who are cooking, eating, chatting, doing laundry – just living their lives. It’s a wonderful picture of the old, old story.

As impressive as the palace is, the gardens are even more so. A 1.8 mile walk stretches along incredible fountains, cascading into one another. The crowning glory is the Great Cascade, which has a waterfall coming out of the side of the mountain out of a temple like structure and falling 250 feet into the pool below, then flowing down the terraced pools.

Aeolo Fountain

Beside this long promenade is an English garden, filled with statues from Pompeii and Ercolano, reproduction ruins, a Bath of Venus pool, Beekeeping area (which actually looks like a theatre, complete with marble statues), rose garden, Gardener’s house, numerous lawns, a temple, an orchard…the list goes on and on. We got quite lost in the English Garden, but kept making our way downhill, thinking the exit would be at the bottom – and found that the only exit is at the entrance, way back up top.

Following our exploration of the Royal Palace, we headed up the mountain to Caserta Vecchia, founded in the 9^th century, and is today, a preserved example of a medieval town. It’s a small, hilltop town with narrow, stone alleys and lots of pizzerias. We’d planned to have a little dinner, but it was only 5pm. None of the restaurants open for real food until 7:30pm. And while the food here is great, I’m so tired of takeaway panini sandwiches. That or a tiny, folded pizza are the only two lunch items around. Yes, the bread is fresh, the sauce is homemade, the buffalo mozzarella is creamy, and the prosciutto is perfecto…but eating the same two foods for lunch every single day does actually get old. The caffe does not get old. Soooooo delicious. Anyway, we left Caserta Vecchia still hungry, but with our “home” (in the hotel) only a 20 minute drive away, we decided to save a nice dinner in Caserta Vecchia for another time.

Beautiful Caserta Vecchia

Random Bits

I still owe you some pics and stories from our Sunday tour, but that will have to come in a day or two. I'm just too tired tonight to upload photos, label them, and write up a description. I thought I'd just share a little bit of the daily stuff. I started language classes yesterday, and I think they're going to be really helpful. It's a four-week immersion class that meets in downtown Napoli for four hours a day, Monday-Friday. It's through an Italian school, not affiliated with the military. The only problem is the distance...

Getting to school in downtown Napoli involves getting a ride to the nearest train station, training into downtown  35 minutes, and a 25 minute walk to school. The reverse trip includes an extra bus ride on a bus that only runs once/hour, so if we (a friend is also in the class) miss it, it's a long wait. You may recall my mentioning the emphasis in our Area Orientation on "getting outside the wire." I find this highly ironic considering that most incoming families do not have transportation. Therefore, in order to leave the base to go anywhere, one must take a bus to the nearest train station. The bus picks up outside the gates, but in order to take it, you have to have a ticket purchased in advance - it's not available from the bus driver. The office on base which is supposed to sell these tickets always seems to be sold out. So you can't get on the bus. And when I've asked the question (I've brought this up with several different people now) about how to get the tickets, I'm told, "You have to go to the train station." I really enjoy looking at the person and saying, "How do I get to the train station." They always say, "You take the bus." I just look at them and wait a few seconds - usually the light dawns quickly, but if it doesn't, we get to play an interesting round of "Who's on First."


The class is a lot of fun, and four afternoons per week, we have some sort of optional activity - a film, a lecture, a sightseeing tour.

I missed the activity for this afternoon because...drum roll...we met with Housing and our landlords today. We are officially in pre-contract. Today was negotiating day. Our landlady and her son came in, and we loved meeting her son. He is really nice, speaks great English, and is planning to open a pizzeria in Florida next year. For the negotiating, we'd hoped we could get the rent lowered as we're coming out of pocket quite a bit. Naturally, when the time came to ask for this, we choked. I brought it up, but we were sitting across from this sweet, 76 year old lady who tells us how pretty we are every time we meet her. We both started backpedaling. We're terrible negotiators. By the end of that discussion, the landlord had offered a lower rent, and we actually offered to pay more!!! Sweet, little Italian ladies are a powerful negotiation tool.

The only thing we asked for was that the alarm system be hooked up to private police, which the landlord assured us is completely unnecessary. He sensed how uncomfortable I was, and the Housing rep told him that we're American, so we don't understand the area and security issues...the upshot after only a brief discussion was that our landlord offered to install for us a video monitoring system, and after a few months of living there, if we feel unsafe, we can have the private police. Our landlord offered for us to use the pool at his hotel whenever we'd like and for us to come to dinner with their family at the restaurant. When Nathan told him he'd like to learn how to make an authentic Napolitano pizza, he offered to teach Nathan using our outdoor pizza oven. We were very happy to meet our landlady's son and are looking forward to developing a nice relationship with them.


We now enter an even longer bureaucratic process. The home inspection takes place on 12 October and probably won't pass (apparently this is very common). Something will have to be fixed, then a 2nd inspection. Once the house has passed, we'll get an appointment 3-5 days later to sign the contract. After the contract is signed, we'll have a move-in date of about 5 days after that. We're easily looking at the end of October before we're moving in [big sigh from me and Scully]. For now, though, it's off to try to get a good night's sleep. Although my mind is taken up with figuring out how to get to and from school on Friday as the Italian transportation workers are going on strike, and when we asked at school about parking for those of us with a car, the teacher just laughed.

Amalfi Hill Town

View of Amalfi Coast from Villa Rufolo

We have wanted (and asked for) a duty station in Europe for over a decade now. Adding a great amount of fuel to that fire was one of Nathan's prior bosses. He and his family arrived in Key West from Naples, and we had the luxury of hearing about their experiences when sitting around their dinner table, eating pasta with a traditional sauce taught to them by their Italian landlords and drinking wine they brought back to the U.S. with them. One of their favorite places they mentioned often was a little town up in the hills above the Amalfi coast, Ravello. While living in a hotel for months on end (for the third time in six years!) is pretty much a drag, the benefit is that weekends are completely free (maid service every four days is one luxury I will gladly accept!) - no cleaning or home chores weighing us down. This past Saturday, we woke to gray skies and a rainy forecast, but decided Ravello had to be a sooner than later visit. Scully needed an excursion as well. I don't know exactly how long it should have taken us, since we (yet again) made a wrong turn, but my guess is about an hour. After making our way through the approach, which was filled with tour buses, we found a town as delightful as the rumors foretold.

One of Ravello's charming, pedestrian streets

We were in need of a lazy day - a time to just wander and soak in atmosphere rather than a blitzkrieg of sightseeing. Plus, it was drizzling for our first hour in town, so we just strolled around the piazza and alleys, visited a limoncello factory, bought prosciutto sandwiches and ate them in a covered alley, and shopped in ceramic stores. This region is known for beautiful, painted ceramics - I thought I wouldn't really like the style, and Nathan just keeps muttering, "no more stuff" at random moments, as if he's been suddenly afflicted; however, we both were drawn to some of the work - the detail is amazing.

Once the rain cleared up, we visited one of Ravello's few actual sites - Villa Rufolo, built about 800 years ago. There's not really a villa to visit, but there are some beautiful ruins and gardens. Excavation is still going on, and one of the very recent finds is a Turkish style hammam (bath type complex). I just love how so much of this type of thing is underneath our feets here. As a side note, I was with a friend in downtown Napoli today, walking past a fenced off area of road construction. We could clearly see that where the crews have dug down pretty deep is some type of ancient, columned building. This was underneath a major road in one of Europe's densest cities. But back to Ravelo and Villa Rufolo...below are a few photos.

In the courtyard

We're not sure if this is actually a centuries old dog house, but it sure looks like one.  Scully seemed to like it.

Grape Stomping & Wine Tasting

We've had an action packed weekend enjoying the area, so I'll be posting three separate blogs with our activities. On Friday night, we joined a tour offered by the USO to a local winery for grape picking and wine tasting. Just the drive to the winery was an adventure. We left for what was supposed to be a 20 minute drive to a winery located on the side of Mount Vesuvius. After an hour, we reached the base of the mountain only to be stopped by the carabinieri (police) and turned around due to demonstrators on the mountain. We're not sure what they were demonstrating for or against and why on the mountain, but our amazing bus driver obligingly turned the bus around and headed through the back roads. The same narrow roads that we don't seem to manage in our Toyota without some scrapes and bruises, the bus driver took at light speed, whipping around corners, bullying other cars and people out of the way. He got a large round of applause when he pulled up to the winery! This winery does not sell their wine to any other stores or distributors, and they're only open on Saturday & Sunday to the public...except for special events and tours such as ours. Since we were very, very late, we were quickly led into the vineyard and given shears & crates to get to clipping. Pepe the Winemaker supervised.

After filling our three crates, which seemed to take way longer than it should have for a group of 20, we headed back to the area where the real magic happens. The owner talked a little about how wine is made today, BUT...talked about back in the day when wine was pressed the traditional way...stomping on grapes. He had the barrel ready for us. Nathan, along with most of the men in the group, elected not to do this, but I decided why not. We had a fun tour group, and I don't care how touristy it is. Up rolled the pants legs, and off with the shoes...thankfully, because I had somehow stepped in a humongous pile of dog doo somewhere in the vineyard.

Finally the wine tasting began. We had a lovely plate of antipasti, accompanied with small tastes of the 2009 white, rose, and red. Next up was some of the best spaghetti I've ever eaten with a 2007 red and the reserve 2004 red. All the wines were absolutely wonderful! We finished up with the winery's special dessert beverage...apricot grappa. One shot each. Yummy! Actually, that wasn't the finish. For the finale, Maurice pulled out the pitcher of grape juice that we'd created from our stomping. Everyone got a small taste set in front of them, but only a small taste because he said any more would give us an upset stomach. (I should note here, everyone had to wash their feet before getting into the wine barrel! But the grapes weren't washed, no filtering, nothing else - straight off the vine). Most of us in the group went ahead and tried it. It just tasted like really, really good grape juice, so I drank my juice plus that of the lone hold out at our table who refused to try it. That extra juice was a very bad idea. Very, very bad. Next time, I will heed the advice of the winery owner when giving instructions on drinking foot-stomped grape juice. I'm just going to leave it at that...

Going to hell...twice

Yesterday, we met with our landlady and realtor at the house we hope will soon be ours. The meeting went well - basically, we asked our realtor if we could have things like patio furniture, the alarm hooked up to private police, the gas tank fixed, etc., and the realtor replied no, we could not - as I understand it, our house is considered pretty desirable, so we don't get any extras. Our house is pretty desirable to us, but the other lady who looked at it first hated it, so who knows. The landlady and her husband built this house and lived in it for decades; she now picks who she wants in it, and they have to take it as it is. She cleans it up and makes repairs as needed, but we don't get to come in like all the other Americans in rentals and negotiate a whole bunch of things, like maids, gardeners, private police, patio furniture (which we desperately need!) and so on. We can live with that.

Since Nathan didn't have time to attend this meeting, ferry me back to the boondocks, return to work, then return home, we had a couple of hours to explore some nearby sites. Without prior planning, the two places we visited were both once considered entrances to Hades. How on earth we managed this coincidence, I don't know. First up was Vulcano Solfatara, an eery, volcanic crater with fumaroles (smoke) escaping all over the place.

This is a dormant area, so no threat of catastrophic eruption, but it's unique in the numerous fumaroles of sulphuric gases. There are also a couple of bubbling mud-pits. We alternated between two names for the place: Fire Swamp, since it looks like an all white version of the one in Princess Bride, and Earth's Anus - it smelled seriously bad. In fact, for any of you coming to visit who wish to visit this place, I have already determined that I will be waiting for you in the car up at the entrance. I just cannot smell that again. The Fire Swamp name really stuck though once we crossed paths with a couple on a little tour. Their guide lit up a torch and started waving it across the ground. The fire sucks out oxygen, which then causes more fumaroles to steam up. We walked across this area just after the tour guide finished and the ground was still burning hot in some places and soft from the steam. I kept imagining steam shooting up as I stepped on a patch and then a pit of boiling mud opening up. Hell, indeed.

Tour Guide in the Fire Swamp

Bubbling Mud Pit, OR...Pit of Despair

We also visited Lago d'Averno, which is just a short walk from our (hopefully ours) house. We have two lakes and the sea (the Tyrrhenian, not the Mediterranean, is our shoreline) just a short walk away. Lago d'Averno has a walking path that goes all around it, about 1.5 miles total, and several restaurants line the shore. The restaurants are concentrated on one quarter, though, leaving the rest to vineyards, ducks (and duck blinds - guess hunting is big on this little lake), and a couple of ruins. Odysseus entered the Underworld from here as did Aeneus in the poet Virgil's writings. The Temple of Apollo is thought to have once been a thermal bath area and had a domed roof rivaling that of the Pantheon in Rome. In 37 B.C., Agrippus (the Roman General) turned this lake into an important naval port, linking it to Lago Lucrino (right by our house) and the sea with canals. He also built the first, major road tunnel that allowed chariots to travel to and from nearby Cumae - it was just over half a mile long. That tunnel was in use up until the 1940s! Yet another interesting tidbit is that just two months ago, police seized the lake from it's owner, who is accused of being a mafia frontman. News reports state that he allegedly purchased it on behalf of a former godfather Giussepe Setola. Setola was featured in the book, Gommorah, a bestseller about the Camorra (mafia) here in Campania (the region of Naples and surrounds). I haven't read this book yet, so I hope our library on base has it in stock.

And finally, Sibyl's Grotto is also located on the shore of Lago d'Averno (although other locations have also been suggested). Sibyl's were legendary ancient prophetesses, and this one, the Cumaean Sibyl, was the most famous among Romans. She first appears in writings from 500 BC. She is later featured in Virgil's Aenid, and also makes an appearance on the Sistine Chapel, painted in among Old Testament Prophets. This is due to the Middle Age belief that one of her prophecies foretold the coming of a saviour, perhaps because Emporer Constantine interpreted one of the written Syballine Oracles as holding an acrostic in which initials from verses spelled out "Jesus Christ Son of God Saviour Cross." The Cumaean Sybil lived 1000 years due to a deal with Apollo, but because she refused to sleep with him, he granted her only a long life, not youth. Sybil aged the entire time, so by the end, only her voice remained. Or so goes the legend. My favorite reference is in Virgil's poem - Sybil is a guide to the Underworld, which is entered through Lago d'Averno (Avernus):

Trojan, Anchises' son, the descent of Avernus is easy.
All night long, all day, the doors of Hades stand open.
But to retrace the path, to come up to the sweet air of heaven,
That is labor indeed. (Aeneid 6.10.)

We did not get to view Sibyl's Grotto. At the mouth of the path up to it were still smoking, fire remains. We passed those and continued up the path, to find the same thing. At the third fire, we turned a corner and glimpsed a man with a loose dog hanging about. Considering we were heading into a tunnel with a man who seemed to like to enjoy lighting fires within 10 feet from one another (creeeeeepy!), we elected to turn on our heels and quickly exit back to the lake path. The lake is a nice walk from our house, and will be a good place to walk Scully, so we'll save it for another day.

Touring Aversa

Today I took a tour into the nearby town of Aversa. This is not a town that would be on any tourist's route because it's attractions can also be found in locations that are prettier, more easily accessible, and in far greater number. But Aversa is our nearest large city to the Support Site base with a handy, little bus which picks up right outside the gates and drops passengers off at the Aversa train station - which connects us with downtown Napoli and Rome, and thus, the rest of the country. But Aversa on its own is a nice destination for military families living out here. The town has over 100 churches, one of which we toured (not the one in the photo).

The cathedral we toured has one of the most gorgeous interiors of any I've ever seen. A friend who has traveled throughout Europe once remarked to me that once you've seen one cathedral, you've seen them all. She didn't mean it quite that literally, but on my backpacking trip back in 2003, I began to understand. There's a cathedral on every street corner, and they all hold remarkable paintings, plasterwork, altars, etc. It's very easy to quickly reach cathedral apathy. The cathedral we toured today, though, was stunning. The walls and ceilings were painted white, so even with the soaring arches overhead, we could clearly make out the ornate plasterwork. Marble floors were being buffed as we walked by staring at the artwork, and then we reached the truly amazing parts. Normans conquered this region back in the 1000s or so. At that time, they built this cathedral, and in the back of the church, we could see the part of the church still standing that was built by those Normans over 1000 years ago. In addition, some surviving, plaster panels were on display with artwork unlike most European cathedral art. As one of our tour members commented, the panels had a design more reminiscent of the South Pacific than of what we'd think of as Celtic influenced. In addition there was a replica of Mary's (mother of Jesus) house set right into the front of the cathedral. There are often little side chapels and the like, but this was an entire, freestanding house. Apparently, after Mary died, a wealthy family from around here brought her house to the region and put it on their land. This cathedral had a replica built of it and has turned it into a gorgeous chapel. Unfortunately, photographs were forbidden. I would have loved to share this place in photos with you.

Aversa has a small historic section, and while wandering up the main, historic street, we came across this:

Just an old column supporting this building, containing a clothing store. Living with this ever-present reminder of ancient history seems so overwhelming to me. Everywhere I turn, there are ruins or churches a millenia old, or ornately-carved decorations on crumbly, old buildings that are probably 300+ years old, or a lake that the ancients thought was the portal to Hades (more on that later since we'll be living about 1/2 a mile from it - yep. we're moving in next door to Hell - fantastic. I hear there is a lovely, little nature walk around it, enhanced by the faint smell of sulfur.). I want to learn about all of it, but I start reading the history of one little thing, which leads to all these other tangents, and then I get lost in the mythological world of Sirens and Hades and Sybil the Oracle (we're also living just down the street from her cave).

Aversa also offers a nice bit of shopping, including several outlets, a mozzarella di bufala shop, restaurants, and a wine store that sells wine out of humongous, metal vats for 1.5 euros per liter (a liter is slightly larger than a typical bottle of wine). The shopkeeper sticks your bottle (your own or one you buy for .20) under a tap, much like a soda fountain. There were about 10 wines to choose from. I tried the first tonight - it's not going to win any awards from me, but for 1.5euros, it tastes great!

When Nathan returned home, we headed out to visit Auchan...Italy's version of WalMart. Surprise, surprise - we did NOT get lost on the way, but then, we weren't using the GPS. At Auchan, I was just overwhelmed by such a large store after weeks of not seeing anything like it. It has a lot of groceries, which we skipped on by to check out the wine and liquor sections. They are excellent, by the way. We'd planned to then stop at the nearby Decathalon (think Sports Authority), but the sheer volume of people and stuff in Auchan forced us to take cover in the car and plan our retreat. We'll storm the castle another day.

Getting Lost Again

It seems to be a theme with us that as soon as we leave the base, we get lost. And that is using the GPS (aka StupidHead). Our GPS is not good. Yesterday, she took us on one of those very narrow streets, lined with cars on both sides, around a corner which took a 3-point turn to make, only to find it was a dead end and we then had to back out! On the plus side, we see a lot of interesting things by getting lost. Yesterday, after the realtor dropped us back to the base, we drove back downtown in order to explore the area around the house. Here's what we passed when we got lost going the long way to the house:

This is at the Pozzuoli Amphitheatre. We parked the car and stood in front of the blue box we thought was the parking meter receipt box. After staring at it for a minute trying to figure out how to work it, we realized the photos next to the buttons showed couples in intimate positions. The little machine we were trying to pay for parking was actually just selling condoms. Everything is an adventure.

Napoli has this marvelous thing called the Artecard which allows entry into over 60 museums / sites for either 3, 7, or 365 days. We haven't found a place to buy our Artecard yet, and this site, while included in the entry, doesn't actually sell the card. So we had to content ourselves with pictures through the iron fence until a time when we can actually spend time exploring it. Good thing we didn't waste our money on a parking condom.

We eventually made our way to the house we hope to rent and explored the area. I'm very happy with it. The only thing missing within walking distance are some shops for clothes/shoes/home items, a supermarket, and a weekly produce market. For those, I'll have to drive or take the metro. The other drawback is that the garage is only a two car with no other outdoor space for parking, so we have some decisions to make in regards to my Cinquecento. We did, however, see cars parked along the street (nice cars) and not a one of them had the wheel lock, so I'm hopeful that means the neighborhood is nice. (Many cars have this lock that covers the entire steering wheel & column to prevent hotwiring - theft is a huge deal here.).

We now have an appointment for a contract, but it's not a done deal. The landlady may decide to continue showing the house even though we have a contract appointment. The Housing Office here will not show the house to anyone else (supposedly), but there are many NATO countries represented here in Napoli, so if the landlady wants to continue showing the house, she might do so.

Nathan has gone to work today - his first day. I plan on reading the mountain of paperwork we were provided last week and getting it into some semblance of organization. We'll take it easy for a couple of days and meet our realtor on Thursday in order to develop our list of negotiating points. We'll go over the house carefully and list anything we want the landlady to do for us before we agree to rent. It's really an interesting process over here - so different than anything we're used to. We'll keep you updated.