What a day...

It is very hard to describe yesterday other than "what a day".  One of the days you dream of and see on television.  We started in the morning with a guide who spoke english that Anne arranged through a Facebook contact she met who is the mayor of a small town near where her family grew up and ended up at dinner in the home of relatives, with an 88 year old woman repeatedly telling me in Italian "you must eat more".  Everything in between is still a little of a blur, but involved searching through records, meeting with priests at churches and some of the most incredible hospitality and assistance of local people who believe it is important to reconnect with family.  We have more appointments this morning so it will be a day or two until we can expand on what happened, but I will leave you with this photo from yesterday

One of the few items we had to search for Anne family was a handful of photos her uncle gave her from a trip about 40 years ago.  The man on the left below, is the man in the center above, and the boy in the center below is the man on the right of Anne.  What a day....

Great day at the beach

Arrivederci to our new favorite beach town, San Benedetto del Tronto, which reminds of of all of the gems that exist in Italy.  It is not well known, we only picked it because it is the closest beach town to the Venarotta area where Anne's family originates.  If you check travel books like Rick Steves or Lonely Planet you will not find a reference to this town, so it's our hidden treasure!

The main beach area is about a 4 mile stretch of sugar fine sandy beach with hotels and their rows of beach chairs near the water.  There are both pedestrian and biking lanes along the beach, great for exercise and people watching - it's dotted with benches and little parks along the way.  The restaurants are great, reasonably priced, served with local, fresh ingredients.  Most hotels on the beach are under 100 euros per night, which includes breakfast and full use of the beach chairs and umbrellas.  What a steal! Here is a shot of the hotel from the beach and a separate photo depicting a view down the beach.  Tomorrow we are meeting up with a local interpreter who as started doing genealogy research on Anne's family, we are very excited to see what we can find.

Beach Day in San Benedetto del Tronto

We're going to dip our toes in the "acqua" on our last full day in San Benedetto.

Sunrise from the balcony.  Not visible in this photo are the fishing boats on the horizon.  Red sky at night, sailors delight; red sky in morning, sailor's warning.  Stunning.

Update from the next morning - we caught fishing boats trolling during the sunrise, bellisimo!

A day in San Marino

Jeopardy Quiz: Vatican City and San Marino.  Answer: What two countries are within Italy's border?Today we drove north to San Marino for the day, a very small independent country located wholly in Italy.  The country was formed on a large rock outcropping in the third century and has been independent since.  It is very small, roughly 5 miles by 5 miles and built on a steep hill.  There are three large towers that were used for protection, the climb was steep, but the view breathtaking.  Anne's fear of heights was in full swing, one of the climbs to the view where this photo was taken with a lot of hand holding, and that was just for me :):

We hiked from one end of the castle towers to the other, a very steep and traditional trail system.    Given that it was a Sunday, groups of people were better dressed than you expect.  Check out the woman in the back of the row hiking and then look at the zoom in on her feet.   I don't think those are REI standard hiking shoes - who says you can't hike in heels on a trail?

Bikers and Fish

While not exactly visible from this photo, there was a biker rally in San Benedetto.  We enjoyed hanging out with them, and they even helped us order from the fish shack pictured below - it's the small building with the blue and white striped awning.  Fish stuff olives (yum!), veggies, calamari and shrimp - doesn't get any better than that!  The refurbished yellow VW is a mobile DJ, spinning LPs with party music - very fun!

Sunrise in San Benedetto del Tronto

San Benedetto del Tronto is a beautiful beach town!  In the middle of the country on the Adriatic coast, we found very friendly people, expansive beaches, and lots of families - this is a must-do seaside escape.

We arrived Saturday after a longer than planned drive (turned out to be 4 1/2 hours from Rome's airport) - and as a bonus, it was a scenic drive that didn't make Anne whimper through the hillsides - no cliff drop offs because the Italians know how to build tunnels through mountains.  So grateful!

Anne kept her streak of great hotel selections in tact with a find on the beach.  Below is a view of our balcony at sunrise.  We were quite pleasantly surprised to find a private balcony with a hot tub.  We're watching dolphins right now!

The town has an interesting feel.  It is like many of the east coast beach towns, but as it is not prime european vacation season yet, so we're enjoying the solitude of it all.  Great for us, may not for the local economy.

Today we're off to San Marino, a small independent country located in northwestern Italy.  We didn't know there were two countries within Italy's border, the Vatican and San Marino.

Charlotte, NC Layover Fun!

Using frequent flyer miles always creates unintended fun - forcing us to visit a city we probably wouldn't otherwise put on our itinerary.  This time, Charlotte NC became our intention.  With a 12 hour layover, we stopped in a hotel and visited the NASCAR museum and even better, a kitchen that transitions folks from incarceration to working.

So...even though neither of us has any history watching NASCAR, we did connect with many of the names and there were lots of cars and interesting items.  Part of the museum provided a history of NASCAR's start:  what else, running from the cops to sell moonshine!

On our way between the museum and the kitchen, we came upon the annual street fair, Speed Street, NASCAR themed.  Anne has a true disdain for the uninspiring gecko pictured below!  It was not possible for her to deflate it, but she enjoyed thinking about it.

And finally, we grabbed lunch at a very highly rated kitchen that specialized in Southern cooking and soul food - benefiting those who are on their way to doing good.  While we didn't eat it all, what we did enjoy was fabulous!

We are back to the airport in a few and off to Rome.  Ciao!

The big loop through Italy

The next big adventure with my sweetheart is two weeks in Italy.  This trip discards the hustle and bustle of our favorite cities, and takes us straight to remote towns, including Gimigliano, a town of 200, where Anne's grandfather was born and raised. We are living out the desire to research family history and learn a bit more about the area that is the genesis of the Galanti family.  Stay tuned for details.

As for the Itinerary, we arrive in Rome and do a big loop on the map below:

• The Adriatic Sea, staying at San Benedetto for 3 nights.  
• The mountains to Ascoli Piceno for two nights, near Gimigliano
• A national park area near Vieste for 2 nights
• One night in Matera to break up the travel
• Four nights in Sorrento, the area near Naples and Positano
• A final night in Rome with time to hit all the sites again 

It is about 850 miles, broken up over 14 days.  Should give us a great view of the parts of Italy we have not explored.  Ciao!