Back in May, I was lucky enough to take a wonderful vacation to Italy with my mom and Nola mom (a post about our friendship another day). Just know that this trip wouldn't have happened without her beyond gracious invitation to my mom and I to come stay at her rented
villa in Ravello on the Almafi coast for a week. Italy was absolutely amazing. I had been there once before with friends, so I was very excited to go back.
I was also looking forward to this trip because I was hoping this trip would be the medicine/therapy/whatever you want to call it to help bring my mom back to life after the death of my grandmother. She was having a really hard time, and I was very worried about her. Understandably so, but I didn't know what I could do to help her living two hours away with a full time job. Luckily for us, Italy happened!
My mom and I flew to Rome and stayed there for a few days. The flight over was HORRIBLE. I felt ill the whole time and being jammed into the back of a plane for 10+ hours is no fun. My poor mom put up with my ass the whole time, bless her. I'm surprised she didn't just tell me to drink some wine and go to sleep, haha! (PS - I'm famous for drinking some wine and just falling asleep sitting up, my bff can attest to this...). Anyway, we made it to Rome! We stayed at this great, tiny hotel near the Spanish steps with lots of great shops ideally located only minutes away :) We had our own little courtyard with a table and chairs. It was so great to just sit out there in the afternoon with a glass of wine, relax and read 50 Shades of Grey (yes, read all three. excellent reads, but now I need a bf)....
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| A view of the courtyard from the roof of our hotel. |
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| Mom and I on the rooftop of our hotel. |
Mom and I did some sightseeing in Rome, but not a ton. We were both so jetlagged from the flight over, and we had both been before, so we didn't feel any urgency to rush through Rome and see everything there is to see. We drank wine at every meal except breakfast and just did whatever. Just great bonding time. We did make it to the Vatican on Sunday to see the end of Mass on the big screens outside St. Peter's. What was amazing was the number of people gathered in the square to watch Mass and then just the constant steam of people that kept coming into the square. I wasn't sure why until I realized (like an idiot) that the Pope was going to come out and do his traditional Sunday blessing from his apartment window. So, Cheryl and I waited with the thousands of other tourists to see the Pope. It was a great experience. He spoke in 7 different languages, and the people who spoke whichever language he was speaking at the time erupted in applause when he began in their language. That was pretty cool.
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| The Pope! |
His message that day focused on the Holy Family. I liked that his message was about that on the particular day I was there because as anyone who knows me knows, I want a family more than anything in this world. Just waiting on God and his plan to help me find the right man, so we can start a family of our own. Until then, I'll continue to have fun and pray that it will work out (easier said than done).
Ok, so on to Ravello. After 4 days in Rome, we headed to Ravello Monday afternoon in a ridiculous downpour. It was slightly scary since we had no idea where we were. However, it didn't hurt that we were being driven there by a hot Italian man in a huge beautiful Mercedes. Thanks Salvatore!
When we finally made it there, I have never been happier to get out of a car. Let's just say, me and my stomach did not exactly like the tiny roads up the side of the mountain to Ravello. But, I survived!! I was so happy to see my Nola mom. She had been in Italy for 3 weeks, so we hadn't really talked. That's a long time to not talk to someone you talk to a few times a week.
Our time in Ravello was wonderful. We took a boat ride to Capir for the day. We learned how to make pizza. Turns out, I suck at it! My mom, as usual, kicked ass at making dough, as she does with most things culinary. The last night we were there we had a bbq (although there was nothing bbq about it). We had pasta, grilled calamari, shrimp, veggies, etc. It was very delicious, especially after all the carbs we had been eating for the past week. They also surprised me with an early bday celebration! The cake was so delicious!! I LOVE that it said Happy Birthday Grasshopper. Haha! My Nola mom calls me that because that's essentially what I am in her life. She tries to teach me the ways of the world and give me wisdom about how things should be in life.
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| View from the villa...amazing |
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| View from the center of Ravello up into the mountains. I love how you can see the different levels of orchards. There were lemon orchards everywhere. Amazing! |
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| A small cruise ship in the port of Almafi for the day. |
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| Almafi |
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| Not a bad way to spend a Tuesday afternoon :) |
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| Our boat for the day to take us to Capri. My favorite day of the trip! |
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| Loving the boat ride. |
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| View from the boat ride. |
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| One of the grottos we saw on the way to Capri. |
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| I would like to be friends with these people. |
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| View of Capri from the center of town. Pure heaven |
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| Kreg and lemons the size of his head (Sidenote - I was the youngest person on the trip by at least 25 years. So much fun1) |
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| I just loved these wild flowers. |
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| An enormous hydrangea tree. This was taller than me. I LOVE, LOVE hydrangeas. |
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| More of Capri |
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| Me and Cher :) |
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| Me attempting to make pizza dough = epic failure |
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| The pizza oven on the property and our wonderful chef who made all the pizzas for us! |
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| Cher and I again. She schooled me in the dough making. |
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| Yum |
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| Last night in Ravello with Debbie (Nola mom). We had the chef come back and do a bunch of grilled food. |
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| But don't worry, because you're in Italy, we had some pasta before the grilled seafood. |
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| Cher and I - we both had LOTS of wine on board. |
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| Debbie and our great chef - he spoke no English the poor guy. We were trying to get him to say Who Dat and things of that nature. We told him that was a requirement if he was coming to Nola. |
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| An early surprise bday celebration for me. It says "Happy Birthday Grasshopper" . Debbie calls me The Grasshopper similar to the Karate Kid. She's teaching me the wisdom of the world. |
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| Our chef, yours truly, Debbie and Tano (he ran the house, so great!) |
Clearly, from the pictures alone, we had an absolutely fabulous trip! I highly recommend an Italian getaway whenever possible.
Until next time, ciao and salu!!!
