My Italian Adventure

[JustWatchMe 7,117]

I just realized that I don't need to carry an Atkins shake. I can carry an Unjury powder packet in my belt and just buy a bottle of Water. Genius.

Anyway, I just had the most lovely dinner all alone. The family went back to the Grand Canal in Venice without me, as my knees needed a well deserved break. So, my second meal of the day, at 10PM, was a lovely Caprese salad and pesto. It was so pleasant to sit in the restaurant surrounded by people speaking Italian, and just soak up the atmosphere.

I ate only half of the pesto and brought the rest back to the room for my daughter. It is amazing to me that even with this wonderful food, I can listen to my band and stop when I feel the signal that I have had enough. The only thing I'm eating more of here than I would at home is the bread. I just cannot pass up this amazing bread and local olive oil. But, only one piece. The other thing is the wine. Okay, I guess that's two things. What can I say? It is really good.

The other difference here is the portion sizes are all somewhat "normal". For example, I was not given a giant plate of Pasta. I was given what amounts to about 1-1/2 cups of cooked pasta. Even that was more than I needed, since I started with the Caprese salad. Oh, and this was cool. The pesto was served normally with pasta underneath, but it was topped off with green Beans tossed in the pesto sauce! I had thought recently that pesto was not going to be part of my regular diet, because pasta isn't necessarily the best band choice. But I don't need the pasta! I can make the pesto sauce, and toss it with any vegetables I like. Green beans were perfect. I might actually come home from Italy as a good cook.

Tomorrow will be a long, long, long day of traveling by train and private car. We are headed from Venice, in the north, all the way south past Naples, to the Amalfi Coast. I expect not to have Wi-Fi until late into the evening. So, ciao for now!

[JustWatchMe 7,117]

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Edited May 20, 2014 by JustWatchMe

[enjoythetime 1,457]

Oh, my feet!!! Today we walked around Cittadella. And I do mean around Cittadella. There is a medieval wall around the city making a circle of 1.5 kilometers. We walked the entire top of it as well as straight through town twice. We tried to find my husband's relatives but ended up on a wild goose chase in a taxi. We found a different family with the same surname. They were so sweet and brought all their family out to meet us, even though we were no relation. Old nonnas came out to talk in rapid fire Italian. It was a hoot. My younger daughter had one semester of college Italian so she tried to translate. The taxi driver took us to the totally wrong town the first try. Not a word of English. You can't help but laugh. We haven't eaten in ten hours. Oh yeah, the town takes a siesta of sorts in mid afternoon. Everything closes for a few hours. Tomorrow we go to the Amalfi Coast via Naples. This leg of the journey better involve some sitting on my tush by a swimming pool!!!

I'm so glad you're having such a wonderful trip!!! Please please please will you take and post pics for me of the amalfi coast? I want to go someday but for now I'm living through you;)!!! Thx for the daily recap, so cool!!

Have an awesome day tomm!!

[JustWatchMe 7,117]

Pistachio liqueur. That is all.

[JustWatchMe 7,117]

I am literally wearing holes in my shoes. I hope they last another day or two so I can get new shoes for Rome. We are at the Amalfi Coast and it is gorgeous. I bought a blouse in Sorrento tonight, and it actually fit. It was wonderful. The food remains easy and delicious. I am basically sharing all of my meals with my daughters. I haven't weighed myself here, but only because the fitness room did not have a scale that I could find. However my one pair of jeans seems a little loose. Wishful thinking? Tomorrow, Pompeii.

[gowalking 10,790]

I am living vicariously thru you and am enjoying your posts immensely. Can't wait to hear about Pompeii.< /p>

[JustWatchMe 7,117]

No Internet Friday in our hotel. Over the last couple of days, we spent a lot of time in Sorrento. The girls went down to the Water and splashed around a bit. Intended to go to Capri but never made it. We visited Pompeii. Very humbling to see such a civilized society wiped out instantaneously. Our trip now takes us to Rome for the final leg of our travels. More soon, when I can get reliable Internet! I am afraid the pictures will have to wait until I return home to my PC. I can't figure out how to upload them from the phone app.

[Bandista 7,466]

! ! ! What a fantastic trip ! ! !

[JustWatchMe 7,117]

Well it wasn't until we were leaving the Amalfi coast that we realized we hadn't seen very much of it. Supposedly we should have taken a bus into Amalfi and Positano. Oh well. Live and learn. Sorrento was lovely and we thoroughly enjoyed our hotel as well. Pompeii was worth seeing again. There was no way to see it all on a two hour tour.

Today was not much more than a travel day. We left Sorrento and railed it to Rome. Having an hour to kill in the Naples train station gave us time to observe a team of six panhandlers work the crowds. One would approach a tourist and the others would lurk nearby. If the tourist gave money, a couple of the others would then follow him, probably to grab the wallet from the pocket they just saw used. From our train seats, we also saw a team working one of the platforms, and a pickpocket jumped off the train and handed off a wallet to an accomplice on the platform, who vanished like lightning. It's an art form, I tell ya.

We had a late lunch/early dinner in a little restaurant near our hotel in Rome, run by an Egyptian. Then back to the room. We're all tired today, so just being lazy tonight. Watched some Cake Boss and Spongebob Squarepants in Italian on TV.

Tomorrow Breakfast and then mass. We'll walk around and see some sights on our own. Our next scheduled tour is Monday at the Vatican.

[JustWatchMe 7,117]

@@gowalking, Pompeii was so interesting to visit. A man could throw his wife out in the street for two things. Infidelity (hers, not his, of course) or getting into the household wine. Brothels abound. The buildings and streets have sculpted, ahem, phallic symbols on them to literally "point" the way to the nearest brothel. Since sailors from many countries would stop at the port and didn't speak the language, the brothel walls had paintings of the "menu choices" on them. A sailor could simply point to the picture he wanted and then go into a room with a girl for that service.

One part of town had a circular theater with excellent acoustics. In the corridor or alley leading up to it was a wall with scratch marks in it. Pompeiian graffiti! People standing in line waiting to get in would get bored and etch on the wall. They drew horses, gladiators, and of course, male genitalia. The male member was considered a lucky symbol of fertility and power.

The plaster casts of the people who died affect you the most. Even a dog was captured in its death pose. The people did not die from the lava. They suffocated from the gas in the air, and then were buried in ash over time. Between the first quake and the second one, all of the boats made it out of port. But that was not nearly enough to rescue the population of the city.

Vesuvius is much farther away than you would think.

The baths were amazing. Double floors for insulation, lead pipes for Water transport. The streets have actual grated sewers just like we do today.

I could spend a week there and probably not see it all.

Almost forgot to mention that Pompeii was taken over by the Romans in 79 BC and the volcano erupted in 69 AD. I think that's what our guide said. Sorry if I'm getting the dates slightly wrong, but basically it happened two thousand years ago.

Edited May 24, 2014 by JustWatchMe

[JustWatchMe 7,117]

I got my first compliment from my WLS skeptic husband today, ten weeks post op. He commented that I am in better shape than our Pompeii tour guide. She got out of breath walking up a flight of stairs and I didn't.

Best part? I don't care.

[gowalking 10,790]

Thanks for the details of Pompeii. I can't wait to do my own European tour.

[JustWatchMe 7,117]

Roma! We walked to church, and then to the Colosseum. I prayed for my feet. Mass was long, and in Latin. Beautiful music. The weather here is sunny and warm, and starting to get humid. I cannot imagine the stifling heat in full summer. They were sold out of the English audio tour, so we just wandered in the Colosseum and Forum on our own. It was amazing. I was struck by how this thousands of years old structure is right next to a major roadway. (Go ahead, Google map it. Right. Next. To. It.) It stood for thousands of years, and here we come in the last hundred years and introduce constant gasoline and diesel fumes to these enormous walls. We don't deserve this planet.

Another magnifico lunch with my daily glass of wine. It made the walk back to the hotel easier! My shoes are still holding out, but today we walked on the craziest stones ever. Huge flat stones, small round stones, medium jagged stones. I will post photos when I get home. Ouch.

Stairs, stairs, and more stairs. There are a lot of stairs in the Colosseum. At least I did not have to run up or down them while being chased by a lion.

I accidentally on purpose packed nothing stronger than Tylenol in my bag for this trip. My knees and feet have regretted that a few times, but so far I'm bouncing back every day. Hard to believe. I feel like I've been on Survivor!

When I get home, I will definitely walk more, and outside rather than on the treadmill. If this vacation taught me anything, it's that I am physically capable of much more than I thought.

Well, we will sleep soundly tonight and then take a tour of the Vatican museum tomorrow.

Caio for naio!

[Bandista 7,466]

Buona Notte! And when you're back in the States you'll have to check out the band Pink Martini for their fabulous version of "Una Notte A Napoli." They really ham it up and it's so much fun -- you will love it. Oh, wait, maybe I can attach here: starts off slow then off they go.....

[JustWatchMe 7,117]

@@Bandista, I'll check it out at home. For some reason I'm not getting the audio on that link from my phone. Thanks!!!