Amalfi Coast, Gaeta, Trash bins, annd more

4-29 08
As usual, behind in any writing….. last weekend on Sunday, April 20th we enjoyed a beautiful outing to the Amalfi coast. We had wanted to visit before the summer season begins, when the driving will become more impossible. We started in Vietri sul Mare, which I think was about an hour drive away, than made our way back to Amalfi. The views are spectacular and the road is predictably narrow and filled with hairpin turns. Being from the mountains, I’m rather accustomed to switchbacks and lots of turns, but this was definitely an adventure in driving. Bill treated me and did the honors, so that I could enjoy the view. The majority of the road is simply narrow, with mirrors place to help see oncoming traffic around the turn. But at times it truly is about 1 ½ lanes wide and when a large tourist bus tries to swing around the corner, it’s a problem! There were only a few times that we rolled down the windows to pull in each of the sideview mirrors to not scrape the rocks on my side or risk having it knocked off on the drivers side.

We were unable to find parking in Amalfi, and headed inland to Ravello, which is equally beautiful with more wonderful views. First we treated the girls to gelato and than enjoyed a walk through the old central part of town. In addition to the spectacular views, I also enjoyed looking at some of the beautiful pottery. Inow remember why I was somewhat tortured during my trip to Sicily 7 years ago- so much beautiful pottery, most of it is very expensive, and my lack of decisiveness makes it very challenging. There was a pattern that was quite different than I have seen before- a very elaborate blue and white (of course). When I enquired about the price, I was appalled to find that each bowl was 60 euro, which, with the dollar as horrendous as it is, makes it almost $100/bowl. I need new pasta bowls, but we’d never be able to eat from something at that price, even if I ever could justify buying it. At the factory store, there were also a set of plates that were seconds that I liked, which were a “very good price”, only 22 euro apiece. Yikes, that’s still $35-40 apiece. I know that fine china is often that much or probably more, but since I don’t own any fine china…. Its hard to imagine paying that much and not being terrified to use it! Sigh…. Maybe a truly good bargain will be found during our stay here, or maybe the dollar will eventually improve. Meanwhile, it’s fun to window shop. I seem to recall a few shopping trips in Japan spending a long time making decisions while my friends whipped through their purchases…… We drove home via an inland route and returned in time for a quick meal of pasta and popped the kids into bed. A fun day for all, although Bill and I enjoyed it more than the girls.

Meanwhile, I continue to make slow progress in the house. The basement is getting closer to being accessible for play with guests as well as the girls by themselves. It’s fun to have a true playroom. If I could put a hook up for a swing, it would also make a great therapy room if I were ever to see any clients privately. I realized that my idea of a playroom truly is more of a great therapy room. I’ve finally make it through most of the piles of misc. “stuff” that have sitting around the living room and I’ve just started to tackle our third floor to help create a guest bedroom/ craft room and all the rest of our extra clothes, and “stuff”. I finally found the various pieces of our little vacuum (desperately needed at this point), just found our napkins, placemats and tablecloths, but I still haven’t’ found many things, including Alyssa’s piano books and more importantly, still can’t find my checks. Piano, piano…. My friends know that I’m happy to “entertain” even when the house is in a normal state of chaos, but its much harder to be willing to invite acquaintances over, particularly from other cultures who seem to highly value extreme cleanliness, when the place is still a wreck.

Last week Alyssa was invited to a birthday party that was held at the bowling alley at the NATO base by an Italian classmate, Giovanni. Rather chaotic, as is predictable…. Lots of young kids who’ve never seen a bowling alley before, everyone going out of turn, running down the alley to retrieve the ball before it gets to the pins, balls going backwards…. I think Alyssa was in tears only 3 times. Of course it didn’t help that it was at the end of a long school day. But after supper with shicken nuggets and a yummy chocolate cake, all the memories are good. For me it was nice to meet a few other parents. Giovanni’s parents, Rosa and Giuseppe, invited us over for a playdate on this past Sunday. I was rather nervous, but it actually went fairly well. They drove to our house and took us to their home. The kids seemed to have an ok time playing, and we laughed at each of our attempts to communicate in the other’s language, with some of the skills of a 2-3 y/o! It makes me realize how much kids’ language skills bloom during those first years. They have traveled quite a bit in the States and are each about the same age as Bill and I. It’s funny to try to make friends when communication is pretty limited.

I think that our one neighbor- Klaudia, (9y/o) may be my best opportunity to keep making a little progress in Italian. As I try to help she and Alyssa out in playing together, I at least have to communicate somehow. Alyssa is teaching her to play Quirkle, a great new game we got for X-mas, and she’s teaching Alyssa to jump rope. I was VERYpleased last week to have the opportunity to join 3 other ladies for a tennis lesson (the first I had played in about 7years) was very pleased to find that I could still hit a tennis ball. It felt SO good to get out and play. I think I enjoyed that more than anything else I’ve done since arriving here in Italy. The simple pleasures….. I’m hoping to make tennis a part of my life again. Much like yoga and meditation, it’s great to focus the mind and let go of everything else!

OH! EXCITING NEWS FLASH!! On our street, the trash site down the block that I can walk to, has new trash dumpsters- seven altogether, and one of the sites further down the street for dumping things from the car now has 3-4 bins. Of course where we most often dump the trash from our car still has no bins, but it’s exciting to see any bins at all!

The other exciting news on the homefront is Bill was finally able to get all the parts/pieces needed for both our gas grill to work, and also for our new reverse osmosis water filter. It’s great to no longer need to buy bottled water and lug it home, as well as significantly decrease the amount of trash that we make. There are some towns around that recycle, but very few here in the Campagna area, and certainly not ours! I’m not as avid a recycler as my parents, but its painful to see nothing recycled here. Certainly not good stewardship of Mother Earth for our children.

Tuesday May 6th, 2008
Still unpacking boxes…. But a friend came over this weekend to help give some ideas on arranging our things here, and we got the first thing hung on a wall; we put the beautiful ocean quilt my sister-in-law made for us over the piano. Most people recommend that everything be put on the walls using plastic anchors and screws, so it def. requires more thought and effort to get things up.

This weekend Bill once again was the motivator to get us out of the house. We drove up the coast about an hour to Gaeta. The water was beautiful. We bypassed the main beach road and parking and went further up the hill, eventually finding a small beach that was a short walk down the hillside- being a little nosy is definitely required to find the pathways past the hotels, etc. to find your way. It was a great beach, with rocks that made a sheltered enclosure and natural barrier for the kids so we really didn’t have to worry about them. They loved it and it was nice to relax. The 2-2 1/2 hour drive home with the rest of the beach traffic wasn’t quite as nice, but …. What can you do? We’ve been told that the water there is safe to swim/play in as compared to here in the Naples area where no one monitors it and there’s way too much “stuff” (including the sewage plant that’s not too far away) dumped in for it to be safe.

May 22, 2008
My birthday is quickly approaching, wish I has friends to celebrate with here, or that the commissary had had the raspberries I had wanted for the cake I was making. Now it’s back to the cookbooks… Today had a good story of the Neopolitans though. On base after my class, I met a lovely French woman. She and her husband were moving back to France next week, and she offered to pass on several ofher maps, hotel info, etc. as well as the names and 3’s of some of the Frech who would stll be here next year. I was delighted to have the opportunity to speak and listen to French for a change, and also was shown some spectacular views of the coast from the area they live in. Unfortunately, I did not have the GPS unit along for our impromptu visit, and was a little fearful of making it home. I did pretty well at first, seeing occasional signs that lead me to believe I was on the right track at least as the road meandered and was anything but easy to follow. Than I hit a construction area. I saw an on ramp to something, but it wasn’t labeled at all, so I did not want it. ( getting on/off a hiway is often complicated as the ramps to go in different directions can be FAR apart, and how to get back on after exiting is often tricky!). But eventually, I decided there was a good chance I was lost, it was now 5:30, the girls were tired and hungry, so I stopped to see if I could find someone to ask directions. The one store I saw was closed, but a car started to pull out. I honked, rolled down the window and hollered and waved, and an older gentleman stopped. I got out to ask directions ( my best pidgeon Italian) and yes, indeed I did need to turn around. As I tried to clarify the directions, he said to just follow him. So, back we went, through all the construction again, and than he pulled over. He got out- ignored all the honking cars- told me that here was where I needed to make yet another U-turn and take an on ramp to the hi-way (the one I had looked at earlier, but had no idea where it went!). I wondered how in the world I’d get turned around with all the traffic. Simple- he just stood in the road, stopped traffic in both directions so I could pull a U-turn, and go! : ) There are times the Italians drive me crazy, but sometimes you just have to love them! It’s much harder to picture someone helping to that degree in America, let alone the drivers around tolerating it.

As I read an update from my friend living in ChengDu China and the help they are trying to provide to earthquake victims, I am reminded of how inconsequential my difficulties with establishing our lives here in Italy are. We are blessed- even if parts of my life still feel like a struggle.