Costiera Amalfitana

Amalfi was amazing. The train ride from Roma to Napoli is an entertaining 3 hours. The 30 minute walk across Napoli to the port is loud, gritty and full of delicious pastries. 
The ferry from Napoli to Sorrento takes 30 minutes and passes by the volcano Mount Vesuvius, which is best known for the giant eruption in 47 A.D. that destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum. 

Sorrento itself is fairly flat, but the town is built atop breathtaking cliffs, so arriving by boat is partciuarly spectacular.

Bim is currently working on an archeological dig outside of Pompeii and hooked up the most amazing agrotourismo just outside of Sorrento. We had our own apartment, and access to the beautiful resturaunt overlooking the sea. 

We ate heaps of antipasti, little homeade pasta shells with real miniature clams in their shells, and tender squid in a slightly tart tomato broth. The place grows olives and citrus and makes their own oils and limoncello, among other "condiments." Two weddings happened on the property while we were there: the place was straight out of the movies.

Bim and Enrico pretended to be Robots on the lawn. Just kidding. They were actually trying to be Ralph Lauren models.

We rented a scooter. I mostly rode on the back, but drove once or twice and did a lot of posing.   

We drove from Sorrento to some smaller towns, and eventually to a rocky beach.

We hussled back to town for all four WC games and drank beers while yelling in Italain at the television screen (*brief note here: I am a complete anomoly in Italy becuase 1) I care about soccer; 2) I yell at the TV; 3) I cannot prevent myself from leaping out of my chair at the mere potential of a goal. I've grown used to the look of mild disgust and Enrico doesn't appear to be too embarssed by me). 

On our third day we traversed the penninsula and located our new hotel in Praiano, which is between Positano and Amalfi. We were lucky with our room and got a beautiful terrace overlooking the ocean. We ate delicious seafood pasta and lemon deserts in the resturaunt, and (I) jumped up and down when fireworks exploded during dinner (most likely for a wedding and NOT for Independence Day, but I'll take what I can get).

We visited the beach in Positano and were nearly baked on the hot hot rocks. 

We visited the town of Amalfi, which (I'm pretty sure) is where The Talented Mr. Ripley was filmed. Aside from an incredibly rude Gelato dealer, the town was spectacular, although a bit touristy.

We headed back to Sorrento, returned our scooter, boarded the ferry, walked back through Napoli, 

where we saw this homage to Maridonna. If you look closely, you can see his hair, captured for perpetuity, under glass...I thought this was fitting, given that it's a World Cup year. 

We boarded the train and returned to Bella Roma. Amalfi: unbelievable.

Stocolma!

Stockholm is an archepelogo with 14 islands, although some of the "islands" are just slightly bigger than boulders submerged in water. The city is spread between three or four main islands, all connected by bridges and/or causeways. The nordic air is fresh and the city is clean and well organized. The people are blonde blonde blonde, slightly taller than average and enjoy nearly 20 hours of sunlight during the summer. There also seemed to be an inordinate amount of Italain vistors, which we found only midly entertaining.

Things I liked about Stockholm:

1. City Bikes! We bought a 3-day passcard for the city bike system and toured the entire city by bicycle. There are more than 1,500 bikes available, and you can pick them up and drop them off at more than 60 locations. By far the best way to see Stockholm.

2. Transportation by boat. We took a beautiful boat/ferry ride to a fancy old estate and walked around their manicured gardens.

3. Wasa Boat Muesem. I just learned from Wikipedia that the Wasa Boat Mueseum is the most vistited scandinavian muesem. That could explain why we had to wait 30 minutes to get in...but it was well worth it. Inside stands the Wasa, the world's only 17th centruy boat, immacuately preserved. The poor dear sunk on her maiden voyage: the wind shifted, spilled her on her side, and the open gun windows filled with water and sank the boat. The wreck was salvaged in 1961 by a man who had spent 20 years dropping a piece of metal from a small rowobat into the ocean in the attempt to locate the massive boat.

4. City Hall. You can get married for free in city hall! And you only need a reservation 6 months in advance. Here's the catch: you only have 5 minutes for the ceremony.

5. Herring, Reindeer and Roe. I already loved pickeled herring, but fell in love all over again when I had this delicious little snack from a street vendor: battered and fried herring with pickeled onions and cucumbers on crispbread. We also ate cured Reindeer with whipped cream and horseradish, which tasted suspiciouly like pastrami (which, don't get me wrong, I love), and cod roe on toast with shrimp mayo.

6. Chi-Chi Cafes. Stockholm is not nearly as serious about coffee as Italy, but they care WAY more about the aesthics of their coffee shops. This was a particuarly yummy spread at a spot where we enjoyed a late lunch. 

7. World Cup. My teams had very bad luck in Stockholm (in fact, every single team I was rooting for lost while we were there), but I'm not going to blame that on the city.

stockholm

friends! i'm heading to stockholm, sweeden for the weekend. i'll be sure to post pictures and updates when i return! 

finalmente!

Something very exciting happened yesterday: one of the men who works at the bakery that I go to EVERY morning to get my two pieces pane azimo to eat with my lunch *(more on this in a second) knew what I wanted. Of course it's very likely that he knows what I want every morning (since it's always the same thing) but just likes to hear me stumble over the compisition of the sentence, but for whatever reason, a string of small miracle occured: I walked in, he looked at me, asked me if I wanted two pieces of pane azimo, I said yes, I paid, and I was on my way.


*I was really excited when I discoved pane azimo: it's like a thin, whole wheat and sesame seed cracker with a wheaty, nutty taste and just enough crisp. Yesterday my italian friend pointed out to me that pane azimo is the equivelant of italian matzah! So not only do I walk through the Jewish Ghetto every morning to get to work, but--and I find this a little bit remarkable--I enjoy the unleavened bread of my ancestors each day at lunch. 

villa adriana

Today Juliette and I traveled by train to Tivoli and then by bus to reach Villa Adriana (Hadrian's Villa). Villa Adriana is one of the oldest villas in Rome, built around 118 BC. The plan is unique and was incredibly progressive for the time. Luckily I had a Master architecture with me, who explained the use of pivots, geometry, topography, water, and materials. The buildings (or ruins) were stunning, as was the attention to detail (check out the tile/mosaic patterning of the arches and walls). 

il vatticano

The Vattican is still standing, just in case anyone was worried. Piazza San Pietro is still crawling with pink tourists, and people still queue up for mass. As I was walking through the Piazza I overheard a tall man in a long black priestly robe say in an American voice into his iPhone, "Yeah, you know...it's really great to be here. I think I made the right choice." Go figure. 

festival di letteratura

The letterature festival internazionale di roma has been happening for about a month, but we just found about it last week. The topic for this year's festival is "la vita dolce," and for each night of the month-long event, well known authors and musicians respond to a topic like " affetti," "denaro," piachere," destino" and "ossessione." The event is free, and but it takes place in the Roman Forum, so people queue up at 7pm for first-come-first-serve tickets for the 9pm show. Juliette and I went twice last week, first to  "destino," where we heard Massimo Cacciari (Italian), Jamacia Kincaid, and Sapphire (the author of "Precious") read their works, accompanied by a pianist named Alessandra Celletti. Both Cacciari and Sapphire read in Italian, and Jamacia read in English with Italian "subtitles" projected onto the screen behind her. The last night we saw "sfide," with Giacomo Marramao, Herta Muller and Maurizio Maggiani, accompanied by 3 Untitled DJ's. Although I couldn't understand much of the readings, Italian is beautiful to listen to and the music was stunning. And of course it's always nice to be in the Roman Forum with the Romans.