Mom's Adventures in Italy

We arrived in Italy 12 days ago. In that time, I'd say, we have done a lot. First, we came home to my non air-conditioned house. We unpacked and tried to stay cool by taking multiple showers. The following day we packed up again and headed to the mountains.

In the mountains, we were greeted by Ipolita's family. And shortly after we arrived, lunch was ready and we sat down to have a feast, the Italian way. In the evenings, we would soak up the cool air that was unheard of in Naples. The following days we helped pick vegetables from the garden, ate, took walks, ate, slept and ate.

picked figs!

 One evening, we went to a nearby town because they were having a festival. They had the decorated street lights, booths with knick knacks, booths with food, and a dog show. It was a good evening.

we played in the playground 

The next evening, we went to another nearby town. We went to San Gerardo's sanctuary. We went to mass and walked around the campus to learn more about San Gerardo's life. There was a room that was devoted to the thanks and prayers people have sent to San Gerardo for helping their child to be born healthy, to get pregnant, or any other reason relating to children. People would send gifts afterwards for this miracle and it would be placed in that room. It was interesting to see all the millions of people who have sent pictures or gifts from around the world. Afterwards, we walked in the streets and looked at all the local food from the area. They had a particular bean from that area, chestnuts that were cooked differently, hazelnuts, and many other goodies. We got a few items then stopped at a bar for gelato.

hazelnuts

We enjoyed our trip in the mountains thanks to our gracious hosts/family :) We have many more fond memories of the mountains now including flying a kite. :)

ricotta from the cheese lady and salad from Ipolita's garden

After we returned to my apartment, we realized it was too hot to sit around in my non air-conditioned apartment so we decided to plan a trip. We spent many hours trying to figure out the best method to travel and finally settled on renting a car.

We set out the following morning only to find out that we couldn't get the car for some reason. After being crushed that our plans had been ruined, Ipolita's husband came to the rescue and got a car for us for the following day. We decided to leave our bags packed and do some sight seeing in the area instead.

I took Madre to Reggia di Caserta, a palace similar to Versailles, only 20 minutes away by train. It was my mom's first train experience in the Naples region. Once we arrived, we visited the apartments in the palace first. Afterwards, we walked around in the park, but it was so hot! Mom was complaining and then we saw sprinklers in the grass. We watched a father and his children run through them and get soaked. My mom commented that it looked refreshing and that it was something my father would have done with me when I was that age. The next thing I know she is walking down the path where the sprinklers hit the sidewalk. She comes back and she is drenched. She said, "I didn't know I was going to get soaked, I just thought I'd get a little sprinkle." oh mom. :) She was cooled off after that so we continued to walk.

The next day we headed out for our Italian Road Trip. We had to get the car outside of the American military base nearby. As we sat and waited outside the gates for a rental car, we saw many Americans coming and going. I felt as if I was in America, except for the big Italian truck that kept driving by and looking at us suspiciously.

We got the car. And I drove away. Mom wanted to drive first but I insisted that I should since I didn't know exactly where I was going but I at least had an idea. We did use the GPS which definitely helped. Our first stop was San Giovanni Rotondo, the sanctuary where Padre Pio lived for most of his life.

After spending some time there we headed north along the Adriatic coast. Mom got to sit back and relax for most of the trip stating how beautiful it was on this side. We had never driven or been on the east side of the country before except for Venice.

We stayed in Padua for the first night. Once we finally got there we were able to better compare the driving in America versus Italy. Most of it was the same except for the signs. It was difficult to figure out the signs in the cities. But we made do.

The next day, we woke up refreshed and cool since we were in an air-conditioned room. We started our day by visiting St. Anthony of Padua. It had importance for my mother since her grandmother always prayed to St. Anthony. In the church they had a relics room, where they had St. Anthony's mouth, tongue, and other body parts in golden glass cases. I had to walk quickly because I don't do well with that type of stuff. Otherwise, we had a good visit. On our way back to the car, we stopped and bought a St. Anthony cake. We figured we had to try it so we did.

Our next stop, which was planned spontaneously, was to have lunch in Venice. We were so close we decided we had to stop by and visit it again. We walked through the streets of Venice and got all excited like little kids again. I love that feeling :) We walked in some shops, talked with some store owners and told them how much we love the items we bought there 5 years ago, shopped some more and then had lunch. After lunch, we headed for the Rialto Bridge and Piazza di San Marco. We headed there but only made it to the Rialto. It was so hot and we were getting tired so we decided to turn back and get some gelato along the way to cool ourselves off.

Mom's lunch

My lunch: pasta with vegetable sauce: eggplant, peppers, and zucchini

Once, we made it to the car, we headed for Verona. Prior to the planning of the trip, I had told my mom how I read the book "Juliet's Letters." My friend, Tina, told me I had to watch the movie and unfortunately I still haven't seen it but I read the book. My mom read the book and was more motivated to visit Verona. In Verona, we headed directly for Juliet's house. There was a little crowd but not too bad. We went into the house and even stood on the balcony. There is a lot of speculation if it was really Juliet's house but mostly for us it was interesting to see homes from that time period and what if it was real? :) We walked the quaint and medieval streets in search of Juliet's tomb but decided not to go the extra distance once we figured out how far it was since it was getting dark. We managed to see Romeo's house as well but a family still lives in it so it wasn't open to the public. On our way to the car, we stopped in a pastry shop that was selling Juliet's kisses. In the book they had mentioned a certain pastry shop made these little cookies in honor of Juliet so we had to try them.

I'm standing on the balcony

Juliet's kisses

Romeo's house

We then headed to our hotel in Brescia for the night. The following morning we were able to look out at the scenery and we decided this was not the traditional Italy that you normally think of when you think of Italy. The streets were large and for some reason I associated it with Pittsburgh or Philadelphia, mom just said it was a modern city. We had breakfast in the hotel and as we walked into the room, I passed a couple of Americans who I know were basketball players in Europe. After breakfast we headed for Lake Garda. I had always wanted to visit but especially in Autumn because I wanted to see the change of colors, I'll have to go some other time. We decided to stop by Sirmione. As soon as we drove up to the city it was cute and quaint and much like a resort. There were many people from all over Europe in this town. We walked up to the castle and walked around the historic area. After walking around and capturing the beauty, we decided we needed to head out. We had to make the trek back to Naples so we had to get a move on it.

We passed through Modena, Firenze, and Rome on the way home. We were getting hungry so we decided to stop in Orvieto, a old medieval town located high up on a mountain. I had been there before so we just needed to find parking then we could wander around. We just happened to stop by when the Folk Festival was in full swing. There was music, parades, and people everywhere. We walked around,  ate some dinner then headed back to Naples.

The next day, we got ready and tried going to Sunday mass at the Duomo in my town but we got the mass times confused so we said our prayers then headed for the store. Since we had the car I wanted to take advantage of the fact that we had transportation and buy bottled water. We bought bottled water and a few other things. After I dropped things off at my house, we went to Ipolita's house. It was her parent's 50th wedding anniversary so we met at their house before heading to the restaurant to celebrate. They asked if we would drive them since we were driving a nice car and we said of course! We would chauffeur the bride and groom in style. :) It was nice since usually I am being chauffeured by Ipolita's family and now I could finally chauffeur them around! We went to a little village on top of a mountain. We stopped by the church first, the sanctuary of San Michele. The priest was closing the church when we came but was nice enough to open it up for Ipolita's American friends and for her parents on their 50th wedding anniversary. After saying prayers in the church, we went to the restaurant for the celebration lunch. Mamma Mia! It was a party! And there was a lot of food! Thank goodness we both wore dresses with room in them! :) Mom wasn't used to all the food. I tried preparing her prior so she knew what was going to happen but throughout the meal she kept saying "I'm full but I'm still eating!" We were both full after the antipasti! It was a fun time, the food was delicious and the company was even better! :) Thanks for inviting us!

view from the church

Angela the Chauffeur :)

I will post more of our adventures later. So far, this is what we have done....tiring but exciting! :) Can't wait to see what else comes our way!