Amalfi Coast

It's been hard to get away for a weekend since I work Saturday mornings and so it doesn't give us much time. However, Wednesday May 1st was a holiday, and so we decided to take advantage of it and go somewhere. My work schedule has lightened up a lot with summer nearing and nearly all my kids classes ending. So all I had to clear off my schedule was my Saturday morning class. Which I easily got covered, but did not go over well the school, which is whole other story in itself. 

We had originally wanted to go to Paris, but flights were just to expensive so we decided to do a trip along the Amalfi Coast. I had always wanted to visit the beautiful famous coast line, and funnily enough, before I studied abroad in High School in Italy, when I received my placement  "Revello" I went immediately to google and searched it. These amazingly gorgeous photos came up but only to soon realize it had auto corrected to "RAvello" which is one of the picturesque towns on the coast.  Two very completely different town. 

If you ever go to the Amalfi Coast: 

-Bring sunscreen and use it!

- If you get car sick bring something to help with the motion sickness! 

- Be prepared for everything to be over priced ( 5 euros/hour parking, 20 euros plates of spaghetti) 

- Enjoy good limoncello 

We thought it would be best to rent a car since the buses don't run so frequently and we wanted to be able to roam when and where we wanted. So we spent the first night in Napoli, eating the best pizza in the world, and then renting a car and driving down to the coast. 

Napoli is notorious for its terrible driving and we were a bit nervous at first trying to navigate our way out of the Hertz garage onto the highway. While waiting to take a left turn onto a two-way road, another car pulls up behind us and immediately starts honking. It was impossible for Luca to turn and so the guy behind decides to cut in on the inside of our car and bolt for it. In doing so, he clipped a man who was on a scooter.  Welcome to Napoli. 

The tight narrow roads along the coast offer the best break taking views you can   imagine and are also right on the very edge of the cliffs.

We stopped at Positano first, made our way down to the beach and then stopped to have lunch on a terrace overlooking the sea.

Positano

Afterwards we continued on to Ravello, where we visited Villa Cimbrone. This villa is one one of the most spectacular places I have been. There are beautiful flowers growing in every corner, it's peaceful, and the views are incredible. We read that the owner of this Villa was a British man who had been suffering from depression so he bought the villa to cure his moods. We thought it'd definitely help someone who is feeling down.

Villa Cimbrone - Ravello

Villa Cimbrone - Ravello

 We slept in Minori, which is one of the less famous towns that is part of the amalfi coast. And it was really nice because it was even more quite than the other towns, it wasn't as touristy, and we were able to talk to the locals and eat well.

View from hotel window in Minori

The next day we drove even further south, almost into Calabria, where visited Angel's Caves in Pertosa. This was definitely worth the drive, I had never seen anything like it. On the way back to Minori we stopped a Paestum, which has some ancient greek ruins, and three temples still standing.

And on the last day we stopped at Amalfi before heading on up to Napoli.

Attempting to Snowboard

I have been terrible about posting new blogs and I apologize. I will try to do better! This post is long over due but it's never too late! 

Back in December, Luca took me into the Apennine Mountains in Northern Tuscany to go snowboarding for the first time. I had never been skiing/snowboarding in actual mountains before, my only experience had been the big hills of Minnesota which doesn't seem like such a comparison. 

I had also never been snowboarding. I had had many friends promise that they would take me snowboarding and teach me this cool looking, popular sport, but no one ever lived up to their promise, except Luca.  

I had been told many times before that you need more than just one day to learn. You need to be patient. You will fall, and fall again, and again, and again. It will hurt. It will be painful. You wont' be able to walk the next day. Etc. etc. etc. I had heard it all before ..... and it was definitely all true, even though I thought I would and could do better. 

I spent almost the whole day on the bunny hill. It was frustrating since the hill isn't long enough to even get a good trial run in. When you think you actually are getting the hang of things, the hill ends and you have to go back up to the top, work on standing up, making your way through all the other beginners, and then going just enough to stay on your feet for 5 seconds. 

However, at the end of the day, I was able to make it down a blue run (which here is our green, and thankfully Luca told me that, because it would have been a terrible mistake to go down a green run!) even though I probably didn't have any proper form. 

And I'll admit that at the end of the day after having fallen so many times, I was in tears from falling on bruises. My knees were bruised, my butt was bruised, I couldn't raise my arms, it killed to walk stairs, and I felt like my wrists were going to fall off. 

I haven't decided yet if the next time we go, I'll grab a pair of skis which I feel totally comfortable on, or try to conquer the snowboard again! 

Matrimony

I apologize having gone practically the whole summer without posting anything new, however I was little busy getting married. This summer has been everything but boring. I first flew back to Minneapolis at the end of June to see my brother get married. It was a quick weekend full of celebration, laughter, joy, and fun! 

Then I was back in Italy, busy, getting ready for my own wedding. It was so wonderful to have my family come over to celebrate. It was a busy week between Bologna and Tuscany. The ceremony took place in San Gimignano in Sala Dante. We then headed on over to Villa Sorbigliano in San Casciano to continue the festivities. It was a long exciting day that started getting ready at noon and didn't finish until 3am the following morning. 

 

As much planning you're able to do before the big day, there are still stressful moments, funny moments, and some little mistakes. We didn't have a rehearsal and so we laughed when Luca had to ask when to exchange the rings, and I think we made everyone wait with great suspense before the cake cutting as we stood and waited in front of it for a good while until the chef came over and told us we needed to cut it.

The middle of the evening was interrupted when his friends played some pranks on us and we had to sing in front of everyone and recite declarations of love with some of the oddest words such as: eel, spoon, shark, and refrigerator.  Our evening ended with the hotel manger, very upset, that we woke him at 3 in the morning to show us our room, as our friend failed to tell us which building it was in at the large hotel site.  

After a wedding, a reception in Minneapolis, and traveling to Brazil for our honeymoon, we're finally back in Bologna after 6 weeks and getting ready to slow down a bit. 

Lost and Late

On Monday I had the start of my Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) course. I took the bus leaving at 8 am from Poggibonsi and was given the directions that it arrives in Florence and I should watch for when we pass over the river, go around a rotunda, and see the roman door. 

I'm sitting on the bus.... we pass over a river.... go around a rotunda.... and there is a very large roman door in front of me, so I get off the bus. I start looking around me for #14 when I realize that I am Piazzale Porta Romana and NOT Piazzale Porta Prato where I had wanted to be and needed to be. 

I start walking in the direction that I was sure the bus had gone and figured I would start walking. I look for a bar to stop in but for some reason 9 am must have still have been too early in Italy. I finally go into a gelateria to buy a bus ticket. I find the bus stop but realize the bus doesn't come for another 20 minutes. I think to myself " I can probably just walk it in that amount of time" 

I keep walking and walking and walking and finally I get to THE river. Obviously the main central river of Florence- the Arno river. I see the porta! I keep walking. I finally get there and go the right of the old roman single standing door. I find a #14 on one side of the road... it isn't TEFL. Find a #14 on the other side of the road and it also isn't #14. 

I walk onto over to the complete other side of the roman door (now on the left of it) and I look at 2 OTHER #14s and none of them are TEFL. I'm starting to think this is a joke. 

FINALLY after an hour and half of wondering around and walking I arrive hot, sweaty, exhausted, and late but ready to start the course.