Yep, train time again ...
And looked what we found in the train station in Napoli! That's right it a Tiger store, just like those we shopped in Finland. That was super fun.
Since it was Valentines Dad, Jeff pulled out a card he had brought with him, to give to his sweet wife, while we were all on the train. They are actually shown here in the apartment in Napole, which was on the 5th floor and was very like the ones the missionaries had in Finland, other than being huge. It had five bedrooms and four bathrooms and 15 of us stayed there. The Seamons and the rest were at an apartment across town.
We had lunch and then Randy bought Barb some roses at a cute outdoor stand.
Then he took us to a cameo shop, where, as a missionary, he had met the carver, who did cameos of the Angel Moroni for the missionaries, though he was not a member.
Here is the work bench, I loved seeing the shells with circles drawn for cutting, and the partially done cameos.
This is the owner, who no longer carves the cameos, but has four artisans who work for him, with his son who is the jeweler for the shop.
The shop owner told us that he had done a cameo of the new Rome Temple and had presented it to the Mission Presidents wife. He was also on the first tour of the temple which is reserved for local dignitaries. He was pretty thrilled with it.
Here are he and Randy with the cameo of the temple that Barb picked out.
All the cameos in the shop were offered at half price, and I was tempted, even though I own about 40 of them.
But I kind of had to go for the temple cameos that were offered. What a lovely heirloom memory for our trip to Rome. Above are my cameo, then Barb's then one of two that Tami bought.
I thought the details on this one were exquisite. It was also my Valentines gift from my adorable boyfriend.
After the cameo shop, my heart be still, we headed to an overlook where we could see Mt Vesuvius. Dad has a short legged passenger here.
Its the mount on the right side.
Then we took a special train that is fitted to the side of a hill. Its called a funicolare. The other apartment was at the top of this hill, so we all went up and wandered around.
We were surprised to see how serious they are about decorating for Valentines, until we recollected that the original St. Valentine was a priest in Rome who married Roman Soldiers to their sweet hearts though Caesar had decreed against it, deciding that single men made better soldiers. Of course Valentine was put to death. So even though Valentines was popularized in England in the 1800s, it still had its start in Italy.
The next day, the mature adults and Eric, headed out to tour the Amalfi coast. I thought the tour guide looked like he could Randy's brother.
We saw several of these trees, and I they reminded me of the ones your see pictures of in Africa.
We first stopped at a winery where they make lemon flavored liqueurs.
The whole region is know for its lemons, and seeing this one at a market in the first town where we stopped we're not surprised.
Every town had a lovely old church.
Several of us bought inlaid wooden boxes, but not being a fan of inlaid work I wandered. I loved this lamp in a glove shop. So whimsical.
I liked this lemon-everything shop, and noticed that it is called 'Scotti'.
This nice man squeezed fresh pomegranate juice for us. It was delicious ...
We all wondered about the hand sign this priestly statue was displaying. We later realized that is the position a priest uses when blessing someone.
In the next town, where we stopped, we smelt a lovely lemony scent wafting up the alley we were walking down ... and found this very large and strongly scented candle.
The vines that cover this walkway, are grown in the divots on the side of the sidewalks. I bet they are charming when in bloom, and even in leaf.
Here we are at the bottom of a long decent to the Mediterranean Sea ... I gathered some sea glass, and then in an effort to touch the sea, was grabbed by a wave that went up over my shoes and wet the bottoms of my pants. I had to scrap off gravel from my feet and socks, but by the time we got back to the top and met our tour guide my feet and shoes were almost dry.
All of the hillside cities were stunning. This picture is from the beach where I got my feet wet.
I loved these doors.
We stopped for a traditional lunch in a very nice restaurant that was included in the tour price. One full wall had these niches with huge Capodimonte figures in them. This was my favorite.
Lunch was a lovely salad, bread and pasta.
This town was our last stop along the coast. Dad said he couldn't understand having such an opulent church in such a small town.
For all that I have seen many a little boy peeing statue as part of a fountain, this one was a first for me ... and its part of the church square to boot. We all laughed.
Then we went up all those very, very many stairs to see inside the church. This is a colored statue, behind glass.
A barrier with a pattern of inlaid marble.
A clothed scene of statuary, also boxed in with glass.
I was entranced with these carvings of the last hours of the life of Christ. They were on pillars going down one side of the chapel.
I thought the church porch was stunning, I especially liked the doors and the striped pillars.
This is a view from the church porch.
Then it was time for another Gelato stop.
After which Dad and I took a little walk.
Here's an interesting view.
That night it was pizza for dinner. What else?
The first thing we did in Pompeii was to see the sports arena.
We had taken the train to get there, and because we had a three day train pass (35) we got in free, instead of paying 18 euros.
This was one of the most complete homes we saw. I loved the restored garden.
The mosaics were stunning.
The motifs reminded us of our front porch. But then the house was built in the Richardsonian Romanesque style.
I loved this floor with tiles set into basically a colored cement. I told Dad I wanted to do this with the front porch. He said he was not playing.
Tami and I are in the large theater.
Here's a wall fresco in one of the homes.
It was an amazingly comfortable day for February.
Tami and Tia take a selfie in the square. We learned that before Pompeii was covered by the eruption, 17 years before, there had been an earthquake that had destroyed much of the city, and they were still working on renovations when the volcano finished off the town. The remaining portion, that is something like 127 acres, is only about a fourth of the original town.
Dad found his rider.
We went to the museum in town, after several hours out at the Pompeii site. Barb found this graffiti on the side of the museum there in Napole. Its means 'I love you' in Italian, but Ryan's wife is Tia Moe. How perfect is that. (She's shown with Tami two photos up.)
I loved this woman in purple. Yep, its the purple marble again.
Many frescoes from Pompeii are displayed in the museum.
Here's another.
This is also a wall fresco, though it looks like a tile floor.
The younger group had found a whole street of Nativity scenes the day we did the Amalfi Coast and since Barb collects them we went to check it out. They were mostly under cloche jars and I was charmed. But when you're traveling with a back pack, it would have been near impossible. The pictures will have to do.
We walked through Dante square and Tami had the idea to photograph him with the moon in his hand. I loved the effect.
That evening we went to dinner at the same restaurant we'd eaten at the previous night. They had a small dining room in the back of, basically a pizza shop. They were very attentive to our group, and the food was lovely. Though the decor was pretty hipster, we were surprised to see that they used mismatched vintage floral plates.
Then it was my turn for Gelato. Randy had had me taste his melon (canteloup) Gelato the night before, and I decided it was time to give it a try. It was amazing.
The next morning we headed to the airport. Jeff and Robin had left, taking a train to Germany, so our party was diminished.
Then we said goodbye to the Seamons who were headed to Euro Disney outside of Paris.
We took a puddle jumper to Nice, and it was fun to wait to load last to get pictures of some of my favorite people. (We could only have one carry on, and ended up dumping a couple of books and the rest of our food to cram everything, including our carry on bags, into our back packs.)
We got into Nice and spent the night. We still had a couple of cute babies to make things fun, though. Here is Barb with her granddaughter Boston, as we eat outside on the shores of the French Riviera.
Here's my ever so delicious veggie burger. The white stuff is a melted goat cheese. Yum (Please note the REAL French fries that came with it)
After-dinner entertainment included watch Josh take a dip. The younger group had been playing a kind of consequences game, called what are the chances ... the end result was that Josh had to immerse himself in the Mediterranean Sea.
Here's a blurry clip from Barb's video, showing his excellent form.
Deed done.
I was fascinated with the stones.
and evidently so were the boys, but they were skipping their stones. I had no idea one could skip a stone onto waves ... but evidently it can be done.
After that we headed to an expensive boutiquee store, what else would they have in the Riviera? Such sweet tiny radishes... and
Amazing frenchy pasta.
The crusty french bread was a must. Right?
I loved the green flowers available.
Out in the mall, there was a huge xwing fighter made from 2.5 million legos. It took 6 people, 3 months working full time to assemble it.
Then we were off to board a big plane and fly to Chicago.
Tia French braided both her own and Kylies hair for the flight. What a perfect thing to do in France.
Well that concludes our amazing 10 day trip to Italy. It was a wonderous time, and is filled with amazing memories. I just thought I'd share this picture of me back at work, wearing my Rome Temple Cameo. Perfect.
