Marcella's Blog

Thursday, July 29. Day 13 in Italy!  James and I had a wonderful leisurely day in Ravello! We had breakfast at a cafe in the town square, finally mailed our postcards, and headed out to Cimbrone gardens.  I somehow took us the extra long hike adventure way, that was not actually an entrance, so good thing we had no time commitments or other plans! We finally arrived (very sweaty), and enjoyed the flora and sculptures. The gardens were somehow abandoned and found by a Lord in the late 1800s visiting Ravello to shake his depression from losing his wife. He found the land and bought it and restored it. Beautiful story. Following the garden walk, we went to lunch at Cumpa' cosmio (had lots of famous pics - Travolta, Chrissy Teigen and John Legend.)  Ravello is known for its ceramics (and a month long July music festival (symphony)), so we window shopped today….did you know that 8 year marriage gift is pottery! It's m...

(Amalfi at night) Today James and I ventured off to Ravello for a few days together! (Thanks Nonna and PopPop!) Ravello is part of the Amalfi coast but up in the mountain and not on the beach.  It was quite the adventure this morning! Before leaving for Italy I booked us a driver from our Villa to Ravello, but now that we've been here and know the bus system, I decided to cancel the car ( it was 200 euro!) and we opted to take the SITA bus for $5 euro! We started walking down our driveway and coincidentally our host was leaving his house, next door, and drove us to Colli di Fontanelle! Then we grabbed a coffee, bus tickets, and waited the 20 minutes for our 1130 bus…that bus came by, and even though we were frantically waving the bus driver just shook his head and kept on driving past the bus stop. We went in the coffee shop to try to understand why, and it turns out when there's too many people on the bus they won't stop. The route were on is between Sorrento a...

Tuesday - monte faito As we were having breakfast today, we went from finalizing our day to Pompeii to switching last minute and taking a funivia up to monte faito! The heat at Pompeii midday would have been too much for the kids. So, my parents joined us for another adventure! We took the train to castellammare di stabia and then a cable car up to monte faito, hiked around & had lunch.  Waiting for train Wild ponys! Train station art vesuvio: My cousins who went said it was very hot but so amazing! We're going to try and go when my brother's are here next week and go right at 9am! 😆

Monday  Monday, June 26 This morning we slept in with no timeline other than getting on the bus home at 2pm.  We packed up and left the hotel around 10am to walk through the newer part of Scalea and get lunch before the bus ride back to the villa.  My parents, and our first agenda item was to finally find postage! They only sell stamps at the post office. We found the closet one (about a 15 minute walk) and upon entering it felt like the DMV. each customer took a ticket with a number and we sat on benches until we were called. No self service kiosks here. While waiting and confirming we understood the process, we asked a lady who knew Patricia and Enzo! Yay!  Then we walked into town and found a quick spot for toast (ham and cheese sandwich) and granita's (icees). Before leaving the kids saw paw patrol gelato, so order me 2 please!  We are now on the bus home, full of nappers and a Cecilia s...

Sunday, June 25, A day in Scalea! The plan for Sunday morning was to board a boat at 9am and see the coast by sea, and end with lunch at Olgarino Lido Bar and Ristorante, however the water was too choppy so no boats were going out…so, it turned into a relaxing beach morning! Christian is part fish, and spent almost all of the 3 hours in the water! Cecilia played, and sat with Pop Pop by the waves, as she does so well. We decided to walk down to lunch (about a half mile) to see more of Scalea. Lunch was al fresco on the beach with several courses consisting of octopus ceviche, meat/cheeses, , and a fish pasta the city is town for! The resilience Christian learned the other day at the playground payed off for him at lunch, as a few of the cousins kids joined us. He befriend Samwele, a 9 year old son of Sandro) and they started playing soccer on the beach, the rain came and after they were soaked they played pinball to win about 30 bouncy balls! I so ap...