09 January 2008

Southern Italy

We have had a great past week in southern Italy. We visited Napoli for a day on Friday, then took the spectacular (and death-defying) bus ride along the Amalfi Coast on Saturday. Sunday we bar-hopped all day; coffee bars, that is. It was a drizzly day (as so many have been lately) and we had no agenda and little cash, so we spent the entire day traipsing from bar to bar, downing cappuccinos, and people-watching. It was quite a nice day.

Monday was our 10-year anniversary of the day we started dating (!) and Tuesday our 4-month wedding anniversary. We celebrated by spending those days on the enchanting island of Capri. We stayed at a B&B in Anacapri, the western side of the island, which is at a higher elevation so has amazing views of Capri, the Mediterranean, and the mainland coast. We visited an old monastery, an enormous natural arch (very neat), and some lookout points and Tuesday we did a long hike along the entire west coast of the island. Just beautiful.

Today we are en route to Taormina, Sicily where we will be house-sitting until early February. The train ride from Naples has been excrutiating due to the fact that we've been crammed six-seat train compartment with possibly the rudest and most repulsive family Italy has to offer. THREE of the seats in our compartment have been occupied by this family of FIVE (yes, that's correct). Two obese mothers, a teenage girl, two kids under 4. The mothers openly talk about us and even point and laugh, and don't flinch from the most pointed glare. The teenager was singing at the top of her voice and actually got spit on us. They were hitting and yelling at the kids the whole time and put the window down even though the elderly woman also in our car said she was too cold and asked them to close it. The more obese woman has been laying back with her feet up on the opposite seat and her stomach exposed. They were all eating chips and candy and leaving the wrappers on the floor. And this is within a compartment approximately seven feet long by six feet wide. Luckily they got off a while back, leaving behind lots of trash and an unpleasant odor. We'll post a transcript of our email conversation for your enjoyment.


Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

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