Jen and I had a flight booked to Rome on Wednesday, November 3rd. I never slept at all the night before which was Election Night. I watched the returns come in on the BBC and when I left the house at 8 a.m. Munich time, it wasn’t looking too good for my guy and when we landed in Rome, my worst fears were confirmed. I can’t really even talk about it because I become completely over the top enraged every time I begin to discuss it. I’ll say this though – I have always been proud to be an American, but right now I am ashamed. The Europeans think we are crazy and they are right. My only consolation is having voted in a Blue State.
We had a great time in Italy. Hooking up with the gang from home felt wonderful. I cried when I saw Joanna at the airport. Rome was warm and sunny and just about perfect. Having been there many times before, it was great to have no agenda. After a few days there, we headed down to Sorrento to hook up with Paul and Chris and we all stayed in a really cool villa right on the water with views of Naples and Vesuvius. Truly impressive, it was built in 1920 and had innumerable terraces. It was a real Gay and Away holiday with the boys, who were delightful, and who managed to rearrange the entire contents of the villa within an hour of our arrival! Flower arrangements were made, offending knickknacks removed….it was nothing less than a hoot.
We had truly awful weather for all but one day, but we managed to enjoy ourselves and see some great stuff, including visit Pompeii, a place I have wanted to visit since I was a kid. Pompeii did not disappoint. It was everything I expected it to be and more. Vesuvius just literally looms over the place. We also spent a few days in Naples, which I absolutely thought was terrific. I had read all sorts of dire stuff about the place, and in fact, a gun war between members of the mafia occurred there in the streets during the week we visited, which resulted in three dead, but I found a lot to love about the place. You just cannot go into certain neighborhoods. It would be akin to foreigners visiting Philly and ending up in North Philly. There is no reason for a tourist to go into these neighborhoods. But Naples is real and alive and thumping with humanity. The streets are so tiny in parts that the sun can’t even penetrate to the ground. The buildings are festooned with laundry and people are selling everything from hand made nativity scenes to fish to vegetables and fresh snails. Everyone is gesticulating wildly and speaking in a dialect so thick it is impossible to ferret out much meaning at all. There aren’t many tourists at all, which, for Italy, is refreshing. It’s the first place I have visited there that somehow seems to operate independent of tourism. It’s hardscrabble, and not easy, but wonderful. There are Roman ruins beneath baroque churches, Bourbon palaces, archeological wonders in their museum which is one of the most amazing I have ever seen, palms trees everywhere, traffic completely and utterly out of control with horns blowing continually. It’s a love or hate place and I loved it. Chris and I spent an afternoon in the Capodimonte Museum viewing a once in a lifetime special exhibition of twenty four Caravaggio paintings from the last four years of his life. The exhibit is in Naples for two more months and then has a run in London before the paintings are returned to their rightful positions in museums and collections allover the world. Some of them are from private collections so it was a great opportunity for me to see some things for the first and last time ever. I was thrilled. Another great thing about Naples is the pizza. We had three lunches there and every time we had pizza cooked in a brick oven, each better than the last. Cooked in a brick oven, with tomato sauce made from San Marzano tomatoes from the slopes of Vesuvius, and buffalo mozzarella, these pizzas are an absolute revelation. Simple, wonderful, perfect!
All of the food in Italy was amazing in its simplicity. I ate many plates of sautéed clams and grilled fish. One day I had a huge mixed grill platter of all sorts of seafood, which was just seasoned with extra olive oil and lemon. Add a great glass of local white wine and life just doesn’t get any better.
We had a great day on the Amalfi Coast, the only really sunny day of the trip! We hired two taxi drivers who were brothers and sat back as they showed us all the good spots. We had a blast with them. Driving the coast is treacherous and not to undertaken lightly and we all were happy and willing to be Luigi and Mariano’s passengers. The Amalfi Coast is, without doubt, the most beautiful place I have ever seen. Dramatic drops, beautiful villas perched precariously seemingly atop one another, Moorish looking churches, tiny fishing villages, great ristorantes, wonderful pastry shops, everywhere was something beautiful to see, smell, or eat.
We arrived home on Saturday night to nasty Munich weather and collapsed. I read my e-mail and was saddened to find out a few people in my life had lost family members who were close to them. One of them was the father of my old boss, Bob. His dad, Izzy, worked beside me for about thirteen years and I had become extremely fond of him. You cannot work that closely with someone and not come to care about them. We all became close there. I still consider Marty one of my closest friends. He’s one of the few people who has unflinchingly told me the truth if he thought I needed to hear it. We laughed together everyday, argued politics, and agreed at times as well, and shared life and death experiences. We don’t see too much of each other (but he did come to my going away party!), but I know I could count on him for anything, anytime. Another friend’s brother died, and she sounds devastated. Words ring so hollow when someone is so wracked with pain. But on a happier note, after I’d read those sad e-mails, I opened another from Jason announcing the birth of his and Jen’s second son! Perfect timing for a photo of Jason and his two boys. It warmed my heart. And this morning at seven a.m. Munich time, the telephone rang and initially it scared me because of the earliness of the hour. But it was Todd bearing more happy news that Pam had delivered, apparently alarmingly quickly, a new baby girl! Todd sounded exuberant and slyly told me that he had been hoping for a third girl. It brought tears to my eyes. I cannot wait to see the new baby as well as Abby and Katie.
Of all the trips I have made these past ten or fifteen years, there is no trip I have anticipated more than coming back to New Jersey for a short visit. I am really excited!
We had a great time in Italy. Hooking up with the gang from home felt wonderful. I cried when I saw Joanna at the airport. Rome was warm and sunny and just about perfect. Having been there many times before, it was great to have no agenda. After a few days there, we headed down to Sorrento to hook up with Paul and Chris and we all stayed in a really cool villa right on the water with views of Naples and Vesuvius. Truly impressive, it was built in 1920 and had innumerable terraces. It was a real Gay and Away holiday with the boys, who were delightful, and who managed to rearrange the entire contents of the villa within an hour of our arrival! Flower arrangements were made, offending knickknacks removed….it was nothing less than a hoot.
We had truly awful weather for all but one day, but we managed to enjoy ourselves and see some great stuff, including visit Pompeii, a place I have wanted to visit since I was a kid. Pompeii did not disappoint. It was everything I expected it to be and more. Vesuvius just literally looms over the place. We also spent a few days in Naples, which I absolutely thought was terrific. I had read all sorts of dire stuff about the place, and in fact, a gun war between members of the mafia occurred there in the streets during the week we visited, which resulted in three dead, but I found a lot to love about the place. You just cannot go into certain neighborhoods. It would be akin to foreigners visiting Philly and ending up in North Philly. There is no reason for a tourist to go into these neighborhoods. But Naples is real and alive and thumping with humanity. The streets are so tiny in parts that the sun can’t even penetrate to the ground. The buildings are festooned with laundry and people are selling everything from hand made nativity scenes to fish to vegetables and fresh snails. Everyone is gesticulating wildly and speaking in a dialect so thick it is impossible to ferret out much meaning at all. There aren’t many tourists at all, which, for Italy, is refreshing. It’s the first place I have visited there that somehow seems to operate independent of tourism. It’s hardscrabble, and not easy, but wonderful. There are Roman ruins beneath baroque churches, Bourbon palaces, archeological wonders in their museum which is one of the most amazing I have ever seen, palms trees everywhere, traffic completely and utterly out of control with horns blowing continually. It’s a love or hate place and I loved it. Chris and I spent an afternoon in the Capodimonte Museum viewing a once in a lifetime special exhibition of twenty four Caravaggio paintings from the last four years of his life. The exhibit is in Naples for two more months and then has a run in London before the paintings are returned to their rightful positions in museums and collections allover the world. Some of them are from private collections so it was a great opportunity for me to see some things for the first and last time ever. I was thrilled. Another great thing about Naples is the pizza. We had three lunches there and every time we had pizza cooked in a brick oven, each better than the last. Cooked in a brick oven, with tomato sauce made from San Marzano tomatoes from the slopes of Vesuvius, and buffalo mozzarella, these pizzas are an absolute revelation. Simple, wonderful, perfect!
All of the food in Italy was amazing in its simplicity. I ate many plates of sautéed clams and grilled fish. One day I had a huge mixed grill platter of all sorts of seafood, which was just seasoned with extra olive oil and lemon. Add a great glass of local white wine and life just doesn’t get any better.
We had a great day on the Amalfi Coast, the only really sunny day of the trip! We hired two taxi drivers who were brothers and sat back as they showed us all the good spots. We had a blast with them. Driving the coast is treacherous and not to undertaken lightly and we all were happy and willing to be Luigi and Mariano’s passengers. The Amalfi Coast is, without doubt, the most beautiful place I have ever seen. Dramatic drops, beautiful villas perched precariously seemingly atop one another, Moorish looking churches, tiny fishing villages, great ristorantes, wonderful pastry shops, everywhere was something beautiful to see, smell, or eat.
We arrived home on Saturday night to nasty Munich weather and collapsed. I read my e-mail and was saddened to find out a few people in my life had lost family members who were close to them. One of them was the father of my old boss, Bob. His dad, Izzy, worked beside me for about thirteen years and I had become extremely fond of him. You cannot work that closely with someone and not come to care about them. We all became close there. I still consider Marty one of my closest friends. He’s one of the few people who has unflinchingly told me the truth if he thought I needed to hear it. We laughed together everyday, argued politics, and agreed at times as well, and shared life and death experiences. We don’t see too much of each other (but he did come to my going away party!), but I know I could count on him for anything, anytime. Another friend’s brother died, and she sounds devastated. Words ring so hollow when someone is so wracked with pain. But on a happier note, after I’d read those sad e-mails, I opened another from Jason announcing the birth of his and Jen’s second son! Perfect timing for a photo of Jason and his two boys. It warmed my heart. And this morning at seven a.m. Munich time, the telephone rang and initially it scared me because of the earliness of the hour. But it was Todd bearing more happy news that Pam had delivered, apparently alarmingly quickly, a new baby girl! Todd sounded exuberant and slyly told me that he had been hoping for a third girl. It brought tears to my eyes. I cannot wait to see the new baby as well as Abby and Katie.
Of all the trips I have made these past ten or fifteen years, there is no trip I have anticipated more than coming back to New Jersey for a short visit. I am really excited!
posted by jane at 7:47 AM
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