Ten wonderful years...

The first major trip that Anne and I took together was to Rome in 2006, almost 10 years to the day of this visit.  In looking at some of the pictures from 2006, we realized we had the same clothes and decided to bring them along to do updated photos.  These are taken at the Spanish steps.  They were doing work on the steps, so there not a lot of people behind us, but otherwise pretty much the same.  A little older, little more grey, but otherwise the 10 years have been very good to us and we are looking forward to many, many more.

Spending our last day in Rome

Our last full day in Italy was spent reliving our very first full day in Italy ten years ago, in Rome! We fly out tomorrow and drove up from Sorrento up to Rome this morning.  We walked 11 miles on a big loop of all the main sights.  Terrific way to cap a fantastic trip with my sweetie!

Trevi Fountain, newly cleaned and oh so majestic

Inside the Pantheon - as an engineer, it's one of my favorites

Fountain in Piazza Navona

The walk up to the Vatican is always so inspiring

Great view of bridge over the Tiber river

Two views of the Forum ruins

The Amalfi Coast

Today we set off for the Amalfi Coast.  We decided to enjoy our journey by boat instead of car or public bus, because one of us (not naming names...) is not a fan of driving along cliffs.  After our view of the roads from the sea, we made the right choice leaving he car safely parked in the hotel garage.

Our words will never give the beauty of this natural landscape justice. Nor can we adequately describe that Amalfi and Positano are like two outdoor shopping malls, set into beautiful hillsides.   So, while it sounds disappointing, it wasn't - because the wonder of this volcanic area is magnifico, and we enjoyed just viewing the hillsides.

Photos of crystal blue water, breathtaking.

Crystal blue water

One of the many small inlets on the rugged coastline, with a private beach

The city of Amalfi, it was much busier than we expected, probably 

because there was a cruise ship in port

Positano, much nicer city.  One of our "fun to watch" movies (OK, Anne's) is Under the Tuscan Sun, so we had to stop.  It's a beautiful city, but it's really the natural park area that surrounds both of these outdoor shopping malls that makes a trip to the Amalfi Coast so enjoyable.

A day at Pompei

We had a great day touring Pompeii.  In 79 AD, mount Vesuvius erupted covering Pompei.  It remained undiscovered for over 1600 years, covered in 25 ft of ash, until a chance digging for a canal discovered a forgotten city of 25,000 people, with the most beautiful homes, shops, bath houses, and yes, even a brothel.   

One of the most amazing things.  When the archaeologists began excavation and heard a hollow sound, they filled the hallow objects with plaster.  This is one of the most amazing finds, a young woman believed to be 23 years old and measures approximately 5 feet tall, typical for this region given the time period.  While somewhat uncomfortable to think of their demise, most met it quickly due to the off gassing that occurred with the volcanic eruption.

One of the few sections with the original frescoes on the exterior of the city wall

A couple shots of the courtyard used to train fighters for the games at the forum

Amazing amphitheater with perfect acoustics.   The dark spot in the center is a rock where if you stand and talk, the acoustics are perfect and everyone can hear you talk without raising your voice.  We tried it and it worked, amazing.

What is referred to as the original McDonalds.  The pots inside rocks were used to

 hold soup that was served to the masses at a counter.

View of part of the city from the high ground

A pizza and bread oven from 300 BC

Mark and Anne with Mount Vesuvius behind us.  Realize, the mountain was twice as high before eruption and the gap behind Mark's head was all mountain that was blow away in the blast.

Mount Vesuvius

View from the hotel of the local area.  Mount Vesuvius is in the center, town to the lower left of the mountain is Napoli, to the lower right is Pompei.  Right in front of the hotel is Sorrento.  Much clearer day and better for photos.  Hope to get a good night shot, will update if I do.

A great Lunch

This entry is about food...won't appeal to everyone, but our lunch was so good and so simple, we want to remember every morsel and perhaps even try to replicate it at home!  Once we set the itinerary for the trip, we look at yelp and trip advisor to see if there are any must-visit places.  We are less about high end places, but look for unique family run restaurants.  We found one up on the hill where we had our tour and stopped for lunch (Lo Stuzzichino).  It was outstanding and highlights the food difference of the region - southern Italy is more about olive oil, fish and lemons.  Before you view the photo's below, I can tell you the tomatoes were every bit as good as they look.

OK, while bread was not a main course, it was some of the best bread we have had in a long time and served as a great delivery vehicle for olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  Rustic and fresh.

Cantaloupe and prosciutto appetizer: sweet and savory

Traditional caprese, the appetizer Mark has been patiently waiting to enjoy!

Clams and pasta, a new favorite of Mark's.  While not a big fan of clams, they give the pasta a wonderful flavor and the dish is very characteristic of southern Italy.

Seabass with sliced tomatoes, Anne's choice at any restaurant

The "train" tour

While not much for kitschy tourist traps, we heard good things about a small train tour around the top of the hill at Sorrento, so we decided when in Rome...(well we're not exactly in Rome, but you know what I mean).  It was great fun and we met what we believe are all of the Brits in Sorrento. We hit many places with great views that we otherwise would not have experienced.  We sampled lemoncello, olive oil, mozzarella and visited a monastery with sweeping views, that still has five inhabitants, one of whom is 104 years young.  We had to hike back up to the top of the hill to meet the tour, but well worth it.  These are just random photos of our day:

View of some of the gardens on the hike up.  They use 

every inch of land to grow crops in Italy.

One of the many beautiful houses on the side of the hill, during the hike up

Statue at the monastery

Tour of the lemoncello factory.  This is the owner describing how they make it.  They add lemon rind to alcohol for months and then finish with some sugar.  It was very good, but like revenge, it's best served cold.

Anne with Mount Vesuvius in the background

Mark with the island of Capri in the background

Arrived in Sorrento

We arrived in Sorrento today and will stay for four nights, because there are so many sights to see on the Amalfi Coast.  While we like the "ambiance" of European hotels, we used our hotel points to book our final stay at the Hilton in Sorrento.  It sits on the hill with a great view, but also has awesome A/C and enough room for Mark to turn around in the shower, two things often missing in a "traditional" European hotel.

The drive in was as expected, if you know much about Sorrento (or the Napoli area), driving is a white knuckle experience.   Mopeds, bikes and cars everywhere.  Traffic signals are not seen as carrying much weight and missing someone by 4 inches is like missing them by a mile.  Fortunately, Mark's travels in Argentina and Brazil have trained him for this, but it was still a harrowing experience.  Not to worry, we and our car arrived without a scratch.  Mark's smile is a signal that the whimpering he hears from the passenger will soon come to an end.

Typical traffic for the 20 miles into Sorrento, bumper to bumper traffic, with mopeds going up the center and bikes on the outside.

After checking in to the hotel, we decided to hike to the top of the hill behind to the hotel.  We are doing a tour tomorrow and wanted to see where the meeting location was, so we treked up the hill.  12,000 steps and 100 flights of stairs later (according to the fit bit) we arrived.  I must admit, that was a little more than we expected when we set out, and we get do to it again tomorrow morning to meet our tour.

When we finally got to the top of the hill, we celebrated at the highly rated gelato shop.  It was named for the owners beloved cat, a statue of which is pictured below.  I am not sure, but the smoking may have been part of his demise....

Leftovers from Vieste

Photos of Vieste market and dinner.  Anne and I had a great day walking around.    Those have have read previous trips know that we usually like to make market day a time when we buy food for a picnic lunch or dinner.  However, we wanted to preserve our calories for dinner, so we skipped the market lunch.  Check out the market and dinner photos - the fish staring into the photo was terrific!

Matera - an unexpected gem

In our journey from Vieste on the Adriatic sea to Sorrento on the Mediterranean sea, we stopped and spent the night in Matera.  Why?   Mainly because it was the only town half way between the seas that is noted by one of our favorite travel bloggers, so we decided to take a chance - and it is simply magnificent.    Matera is well in tact and dates back to 300 BC under Roman rule.  This photo was shot with my iPhone, and while it doesn't do justice to the depth of this city, it definitely provides a glimpse of what a gem this city is:

The Galanti Famiglia

So much to share, but this is a limited view given time constraints.  We will share more when we're all together this summer - but wanted to give you just a taste of what we have learned so far with photos.  We have many documents that we procured from visits to churches and city hall in Gimigliano, Olibra, Venarotta, and Ascoli Piceno.  For now, just some fun photos.

Guiseppe Galanti, my grandfather, born in Gimigliano, Italy, 1895.  He was the youngest of five children born to Domenico Galanti (b. 1842) and Carmina (aka Anna) Morganti (b. 1855).  His siblings were Rita (b. 1882), Emideo (b. 1885), Maria (b. 1887), Luigi (b. 1890 and died in WWI).  My grandfather emigrated to the United States in 1912.  There he married Anna Ezzi and raised a family.  Will share more in a book we're going to prepare.

Luigi Galanti, my grandfather's brother (referenced above), served in the Italian army during WWI, where he gave his life.  There is a memorial dedicated to him and about 30 other WWI veterans in Venarotta.  A picture of the memorial was placed on an earlier posting.  Mark took the photo below of what is an actual painting of Luigi, which was found in the home of Domenic Galanti, nephew of my grandfather, Giuseppe Galanti.  

The below photograph was taken at the wedding of Domenic Galanti (Giuseppe's nephew) to his lovely bride Cristina.  Domenic is now 92, and Cristina 88.  We had the privilege of meeting these two during our visit. They are happy, healthy, and clearly share a bond that only 60 years of marriage knows.  The gentleman on the left of the photo is Emedio, Giuseppe Galanti's brother (referenced above), and his wife, Antonia Tranquilla.  Interestingly, Edmedio was married twice.  His first wife passed away.  Emedio had four children: Domenico, Emedio, Angela and Olivio.  These children would be Giuseppe's nephews and nieces.  Of Emedio's children, only nephew Dominic (pictured below) is alive. 

 

I love this photo of Domenic an Christina.  The tree that it is taken in front of in Gimigliano on the family farm is still alive today (60 years later) - Mark and I were lucky enough to sit under it. 

Domenic and Cristina had two sons, Emedio (left) and Roberto (right), both of who are still alive and Emedio lives in Gimigliano and Roberto in Ascoli Pecino.  What is so special about this photo is that when my Uncle Joseph Galanti visited Gimigliano in the 1970s, he returned to Philadelphia and had these suits made for Emedio and Roberto.  The family loved the suits and they still have the photo of the boys in the suits proudly displayed in their home.

This photo was taken approximately five years ago: Clockwise from Top Left: Emedio Galanti; Emedio's wife (sorry, i don't have her name and she is lovely!); Alessandro, Emedio's son, who is now in veterinary college; Domenico Galanti; Martina, Emedio's daughter, who is now 16 and speaks excellent English, wants to become a doctor and help people in Africa; and Cristina, Domenic's wife of 60 years now.  The photo was from their 55th wedding anniversary.  This is a beautiful family, so happy and warm - they care about one another and live an incredibly simple yet gifted lifestyle. 

Our meeting this week, with Domenic and Cristina showing us 

photos of the Philadelphia Galanti family.  Such a treat!

Because Alessandro is studying to become a vet, they have goats, sheep, cows, rabbits, and of course chickens!  He tends to them in morning and at night, and is in school and studies from about 8 AM to 8 PM.  Martina goes to high school, which in Italy is six days a week, and includes two hours of English a week.  They love Pope Francis and their family, how great is that?!