On the Farm

While Jeff and I were enjoying our time together in Italy, the girls got to visit Grandma and Grandpa Stephenson at their farm in Wisconsin.  They got to spend time riding tractors, harvesting chicken eggs and raspberries, helping with the chores, reading and playing with their Wicke cousins for part of the time.  Every night when either of my parents would go down to the barn to feed the sheep, they took Celeste.  She loved it so much, that she started to demand that they take her down to "Feed the Sheepies!!!" as early as 3pm.  Some days she wouldn't stop screaming her request until they took her down to the barn.  As soon as my dad came home from work he would scoop her up and carry her around.  She loved this, so she would ask all day long, "Where's Grandpa?" when he was at work.  When he came home she would say "Hi Grandpa!" over and over and over.  She was in love!

The girls got to go to the Milwaukee Zoo with their cousins as well as the movie "Percy Jackson".  They took Celeste to the movie and then taught to to say "Percy Jackson!" whenever they asked her, "What's your favorite movie?"  I guess this movie is a little scary, and that she hid under her blankie for most of it.  My mom also took the girls to one of her favorite places, the Salvation Army, where they were able to pick out a treasure of their own.

Elise and Gwyneth were very good about practicing.  They only missed one day!

All the cousins together at lunch.

Posing in front of the "fish pond".

Here is Celeste with Dad - they were always together when he came home from work.

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Dad taking Celeste down to the barn to "Feed the Sheepies!"

Sorrento, Pompeii, and Capri

On our fourth day we headed for the train station to make our way down to Sorrento. First, we took a 2 hour train to Naples, air-conditioned, assigned seats in small compartments. In Naples we switched trains for an un-air-conditioned, crowded, noisy beach going train to Sorrento. Sorrento would be our starting point for day trips to Pompeii and Capri since we didn't have a car. Pompeii is easily reached by 1/2 hour train, and Capri by 1/2 hour boat. Well, it was bound to happen, I was disappointed by our B&B in Sorrento, which is putting it mildly after the exhausting train rides with nothing to eat. It was 2 pm when we checked in to a bright green and blue (on everything!) room with no view. Sorrento is on the coast, and my opinion is that when you are on the coast you should have a view and a pool. We sought out some pizza, Jeff hoping that if I was fed I would stop crying. The crying stopped, but the pouting did not. He asked around about "beach" access - he used Spanish and everyone responded with Italian. Somehow he figured things out. This was another trip where we were surprised with the limited English fluency (maybe because we don't stay in hotels with concierges etc...). We caught the bus that would drop us off at Queen Regina's Baths.  I had packed our thinnest beach towels, which proved to be a good thing because you needed pretty large towels to help with the rough rock boulders that were the beach.

As you can see, after swimming in the 80 degree water I was refreshed and even smiling.  This part of the coast of Italy is made up of steep granite cliffs, so every beach access point takes a long winding hike to get to.  When we made it back up the path to the main road for the bus, we decided to take the bus south along the cliffs to find a place to eat for dinner.  We consulted our guide books (photo-copied pages from three different books) and got off in the village of Massa Lubresna.  We tried to figure out which way to find a restaurant, but were a little turned around, so we walked back on the winding, cliff-hugging road to find a restaurant/hotel in one of the guide books.  We had a great meal, overlooking the ocean facing Capri, Jeff's with some type of clam he had never tried before.  The wait staff was very solicitous, and when they returned with the bill it was in a brochure for the adjoining hotel (with a view and a pool!).  Jeff said that if I wanted to make a change I had to do it, but he would negotiate with the place we would be cancelling from. I talked with the person in charge, and their rooms went for less than our blue and green cave in Sorrento.  We stayed one night in the cave, but the next two in this great little hotel with all that I wanted!

Early the next morning we made the hotel switch and headed towards Pompeii.  Ever since Rome we were confused about how to ride the public bus system, i.e. where to buy tickets.  It appeared that no one was using a bus ticket, so we got in the habit of not using one either.  Mistake, a $50 mistake.  We were apprehended on our way to the train station for Pompeii by two bus cops who asked for our tickets.  We of course, didn't have tickets and were fined $50.  We pleaded ignorance and they were not impressed.  Jeff tried to get out of it, and I was standing embarrassed in the hot sun just wanting him to pay up.  We paid and got on the train to Pompeii.I figured that the $50 is about what we had avoided paying by not buying bus tickets all along.  The mystery of the "free" buses continues to elude me.  After a short 30 minute train ride along the coast we stopped at the entrance to the Pompeii archaeological grounds.  This place is absolutely amazing.  We rented audio guides that introduced each sight with little tinkling bells and chimes that will always be in my memory of Pompeii.

Venus found painted at the back of a courtyard. And I thought this subject was from the Renaissance!

Jeff and I commented more than once that we wished we could time travel.  What I found so amazing is that the preserved paintings in the houses depicted life like we experience it.  Even the color schemes are very similar to how we still decorate.  The whole place felt like nothing much has changed for us humans in 2,000 years!  Except, maybe we don't enslave people in the quite the numbers they did.

Living Room Wall Painting

Diner where people would come for a quick meal.

Inner courtyard of an ancient "dry cleaners."  People sent out their clothing to be cleaned, and urine was the main cleaning agent.  Other people had the job of buying urine around the city to then sell to the cleaners.

Brothel "menu" item

Here is Jeff "fighting" like a gladiator in the largest coliseum in Pompeii.  I think this one could seat 20,000.

Listening to the hand-held interpreter while looking at burial chambers.

These are plaster casts of people who died of asphyxiation during the volcano.  This was absolutely fascinating.  Because they died of asphyxiation their bodied were preserved under many feet of ash.  Over the centuries the ash hardened into stone, but left a relief image of where their bodied and clothes were before decomposition.  The bones remained, so an archaeologist in the 1860's tried pouring plaster into an opening when they found a bone, and when it hardened and they removed the outer stone, a cast of the person as they were at death remained.   Needless to say, Jeff took more pictures of these people than any one family needs.

After our amazing trip to Pompeii, we returned to Massa Lubresna, took a dip in the pool, ate dinner at the hotel, and headed into Sorrento to watch some of the World Cup at the various ice cream shops and bars that line the main street.  We probably watched 4 games this way during the trip, remembering that we have been in Europe for the past three World Cups.

The next morning the receptionist at the hotel drove us to the dock in Massa to catch a ferry to Capri.  Jeff and I debate over what was the highlight of the trip: Capri or Pompeii.  I say Pompeii usually and he says Capri.

After the ferry ride with this very comical "Captain" we took a little bus to the middle of Capri where you can look at the coast on either side.  From here we walked along the ridge to the ruins of a Caesar's fortress (I can't remember which Caesar, but Jeff can).

After our hike we headed back into town for lunch over-looking the water and some gift shopping.  I would have loved to stay here for the entire summer - it was heaven!

We decided to make our way back to the dock for some swimming.  Since the entire island is solid rock there aren't any beaches, but we saw a pebbled area by the boat dock when we landed.  To our surprise as we were walking down there we saw a little cove with swimmers.  The picture below left shows a switch-back trail that leads to this private cove.  Jeff dubbed it "La Liberte" because some of the swimmers opted not to wear suits, and a small group of them chanted "liberte, liberte" to get this old crusty guy to come out of his nearby shake and swim.  At least he had a suit on.  The water was so beautiful and 80 degrees that we couldn't be shy about swimming with the hedonists.  We just kept our suits on - for various reasons...Too bad you can't see the swimmers in this picture.

This is a picture of one of the many cliffs that make up the island.Here's a picture of our Captain - he was very charming, so Jeff took his picture.  The ferry took us around the island to see the many geological wonders...When we finally made it back to Massa that night we were very tired, but still happy.  The next morning we took the train back to Rome for one last night.

I'm not sure who these statues depict - of course, but on our last day we went to one of the Capitoline Museums - we couldn't get enough of the up close history.

Here is the last picture Jeff took of Rome while I was still sleeping and he went for a run.  I think this is at the top of the Spanish steps - beautiful.  We realized that traveling together is perhaps the best thing for us - thanks Mom and Dad!

Rome 2010

My wonderful parents watched  the girls while Jeff and I went to Rome this summer.  We absolutely loved our time together.  We spent three days in Rome before moving on to Campania. Here are a few of the highlights of our time in Rome:

Romulus and Remus nursed by a wolf, the myth of the founding of Rome, with the Colosseum in the background. The ancient Forum on the right,  is like the city center. The three pillars to the right are the remains of the temple of the Vestal Virgins - women devoted their entire lives to living in the temple and maintaining their virginity in order to bring good fortune to Rome. We toured these ruins on our first day at 4 pm, after I recovered slightly from jet lag in our B &B.  The entire week was filled with sun in the mid 80s - it was beautiful and not too hot.

Looking up at the Pantheon's 2000 year old still intact concrete dome - amazing!

The Borghese museum where Jeff and I fell in love the Caravaggio and Bernini.

In the Vatican my favorite painting was this one by Raphael - The School of Athens.  Plato is the one in the middle pointing to the sky, and Aristotle is on his left.  Jeff of course, likes Diogenes on the steps who lived in a wine barrel and flouted the conventions of soceity and was known for his public displays of sexuality and other bodily functions.

On one bridge over the Tibrus River with an ancient bridge remnant in the background.  I often carried the tour book in hand because it was obvious that we were tourists, so why try to hide it!  The second picture is of Jeff at a restaurant.  You can see more ruins in the background - they are everywhere.  There was an outdoor piano concert of Liszt and Chopin which we were able to enjoy.  I often took his picture at restaurants because they were all so picturesque.  The food was even more amazing then expected!

On our last night in Rome, we were able to see a performace of famous arias in the St. Paul Episcopal Church.  The music was exsquisitely beautiful.  As I get older I find myself more easily moved by music - some of the performances were divine.

Outside our B & B - it was in a very romantic and picturesque part of Trastevere.