March: ITALIA!

For a long time, I have wanted to spend some time in Europe; specifically Italy. We are wanting to have a baby soon and wanted to do that before we added another little one so we decided the time was now! I started planning this around October or November, and we decided to have a more low key trip and spend a month in Italy. I was pretty good and we kept the low key part for the first two weeks, but come on. You can't fly in and out of Rome and not see the sights. Especially when my kids haven't seen any of it. And we homeschool, so that part of me just couldn't let it go! We are also going further South than I've ever been in Italy and so obviously we also needed to see some of those things. In the end, we have about two and a half weeks of chill and two and a half weeks of sight seeing. Today I'm writing this on our little balcony overlooking a suburb of Rome We're pretty far away from city center, but really close to the temple. We drove past it yesterday on our way from the airport and it was so exciting! So our general outline for the trip is two days in Rome for the temple, two and a half weeks in Sicily, a half a week in Naples, half a week in Positano, and then a week in Rome. I have been planning this and packing and getting things ready for so long, I can't believe it's finally here! 

February 26-February 27: Flight and Rome

Today we got up early, around 5:45, and got everyone ready and went to the airport. We had no problems and parking was smooth, so we got in and through security really quickly. Man I love that bottom Delta level security. So fast! In what is becoming a kind of tradition, we went and got breakfast at Vessel Kitchen. This time Henry commented again on how long that Donny Osmond ad has been there but it was a little different because now he knows two of his grandkids! We boarded the plane, which actually took a long time because there were a ton of Paralympic athletes going to Milan on our plan! We landed in JFK, spent the layover in a lounge, and then got on the plan to Rome. This flight was a little rough because everyone was so tired but nobody could get comfortable. Eventually, everyone fell asleep for various amounts of time- I think Rusty and I got like an hour of sleep. Rough. We landed and were just so excited to be here! Rusty had an Uber set up and we wandered around the airport, in and out of parking garages, for about an hour before we gave up and just found a taxi. Then we made it to our apartment, got inside, showered, and took a nap for about five hours haha. We woke up and went out in the town! By now it was getting dark and the day was spent, but walking around out here was such a delight! Rusty found a place for food and when we got there everything was in Italian, obviously, but it all said "pinsa" instead of pizza. We looked it up and it looks like pinsa is an earlier form of pizza; a sourdough flatbread. IT WAS DELICIOUS. For appetizers, we got bruschetta and it was divine. So good. Afterwards, we walked around for a little bit and went past a really beautiful flower market before going back to the apartment to drop off the leftover food before going to the grocery store. When we got to the apartment, a woman was standing at our door. It was Christina, the owner of the apartment. She needed to take pictures of our passports and wanted to check in on everything. My phone had been dead so I didn't answer any of her messages, poor thing. We chatted for a while and turns out she is a tour guide listed in Rick Steves' book! So cool! I told her how cool it was that I found a book all about the stained glass art in the visitor center in her library, and she said that she went in for the open house (she called it the inauguration) and it was really beautiful. After chatting with her for a while, we went to the grocery store across the street to get some food for breakfast, some water, and some cash for her from the ATM. I love looking around a grocery store on a trip! It is so unique and you learn so much. This one was inside a mall, so the kids got to run around a little bit before going back home and crashing for the night.

HUGE cheese!

Zucchini flowers!

They have so many different kinds of aubergines!

Tons of sausages

This entire thing was fresh pasta

February 28: Temple

Amelia, Rusty and I all were awake for parts of the night because of jetlag, but somehow Henry and Adeline slept right through the night! Henry woke up around 8, and it is 8:30 now as I'm writing this and still no sign of Della. Which is honestly such a good thing, because all of them were so grumpy yesterday they were saying the weirdest things like "your room is a butt crack" and things like that haha. Rusty walked to the temple for his 9:00 session, and the kids and I walked over around 10:30 to see the visitors center before my session at 1:30. I eventually had to wake Della up at 10! She was sleeping so soundly, and she wasn't up at all in the night. Our walk there was fine, but there was a lot of traffic which all of the kids were a little stressed about haha. Della said, "This is fun, but it also scares us." The visitors center is amazing! We started by looking at the stained glass. After reading about it and looking at the pictures it was so wonderful to see it in person. The size and the light coming through it make a big difference. A sister missionary told us about the different parts of it, and then she took us to the front and showed us the Christus statue and the statues of the twelve disciples. 

A 3:00 AM snack break

Still sleeping at 10 AM

The symbolism in the stained glass windows is incredible and there are so many that I could never write them all. Some of my favorites are the woman by the well. She represents the woman at the well obviously, she also represents the woman taken in adultery because of her red clothing, and she represents the woman with the issue of blood because she is reaching out with her hand. There is gold, frankincense and myrrh depicted, parts of the sermon on the mount, and every parable.

His wounds are gone close to Jesus and are still there further away. This man is currently in the process of being healed.

Matthew; coins representing him as a publican and also representing the 30 pieces of silver that Judas sold Jesus for.

These show the Sermon the Mount: bread, salt, candle on a candlestick

The olive press doubles as the stone closing the tomb

Real coin from the time period

Real rock from Galilee

Crushed up frankincense next to the myrrh plants

Real rocks

Real seashell from Galilee

Widow's mite- real coin

Sand from the Holy Land

A real pearl

Alpha and Omega on this real marble

Real salt from the Dead Sea

Matthew; writing and bag of money for job as publican. Money is not on his belt or in his hand, he has set it on the ground and placed his foot on a firm foundation.

John; writing and eagle symbol

James in a traveling cloak and walking stick because he walked far to preach to Spain

Peter with the keys

I went and did my session, and it was my first time going to the temple when I didn't know the language. It was kind of nerve-racking to get everything and get dressed. I eventually got where I needed to go and got my translator. The session was great, and it was fun to try it with the translator, but with the jet lag so bad my afternoon session was a little bit hard. It's the first time I fell asleep in the session and my neighbor had to wake me up because I wasn't participating haha. Whoops. I finished the session without that happening again, although I did fall asleep again. 

Having some lunch at the apartment while I was doing the temple session

After a little nap we went to the mall across the street again to eat at a restaurant Rusty had picked out where you could try a bunch of different kinds of pastas and appetizers. It was fun to try so many different things! They would ring a bell and bring out another course.

March 1-14: Cefalu

March 1

Our taxi driver from the airport came and picked us up from our apartment to take us back to the airport so that we could fly to Palermo this morning! She picked us up at 7, which was not that early considereing other flights we will be taking on this trip, but we still weren't sleeping super well so it was a little rough. The airport was fine, we had some food at a little restaurant where we could sit down for a little before it was time to board. The flight was so short! Then we went over and found the train to downtown Palermo, from where we would be able to take a train to Cefalu. The first train was easy to find and we didn't have to wait that long, and I was glad because it meant that we would make it to the train station in time to catch the 12:45 train to Cefalu instead of having to wait for the 2:00. When we got there I went to buy our tickets and only the 2:00 train showed as an option. I asked someone and she said that the train was only running at 2:00. I messaged the Cefalu host and he bumped our taxi and we just hung out in the station for about two hours. We ended up playing Scum and it was actually pretty fun. That we actually got on the train was kind of a miracle because the kids and I had left to go to the bathroom but had to come back because you had to pay money and they didn't take 20 Euro bills. When we got back we saw the train said Cefalu, and it was the train one station over from where we were waiting. We got on the train and the views were so beautiful! 

After what felt like a very long day, we finally got to Cefalu. The taxi picked us up and took us to our apartment. We were so excited to be there, and the views from here are so beautiful that the kids just had to go to the beach. It is really cold, so even though we packed swimsuits for them I didn't think they'd ever use them; especially not this afternoon. But they went down in their clothes and ended up getting pretty wet so we let them wear their swimsuits every time at the beach after that. 

The smallest kitchen haha

I thought it was weird that this said clack. When I tried to point it out to Rusty I ended up saying, "Clack means deerbell... deerbell means doorbell." Ah, jet lag. 

We went home and showered everyone and then went out into the town to find some dinner. Rusty had read reviews about a panini place and that seemed like a great thing so we went there, and I'm so glad we did! I think that was the best sandwich I've ever had in my life. The lady that was behind the counter was named Federica. I told her I didn't know what I wanted but I would eat whatever she suggested. So she made me a bomb sandwich. Then Rusty said the same thing and she told him what sandwich she was going to make for him and he said, "Oh that sounds great. Can we add some procuitto?" And she smiled at him and said, "Noo.... let me make my sandwich. Just trust me." It was so cute. But then she sliced up some fresh procuitto for us to try, and also gave us some fresh ricotta. Oh my word those were both so good too! Then she offered us some coffee and when Rusty said no she said, "Oh it is free! Just stay and have coffee!" And we felt so bad telling her that we don't drink coffee. She didn't really understand why we wouldn't drink coffee haha. But we told her we would be back a bunch while we were staying here. 

After our sandwiches, we walked around and ended up finding the duomo! We got the kids their first gelato and they were instant fans. We ate it while we sat on the steps of the duomo and it was so pretty. When we were walking away the bells went off! I was so happy! When I was trying to find a place for us to stay in Italy, I wanted somewhere that had a bunch of grandpas, lots of locals not tourists, small town, narrow and cute streets, laundry hanging in the streets, and a church with church bells. THIS PLACE HAS EVERYTHING AND I AM SO HAPPY.

March 2

Today was an incredible day! Well, it is only 10:56 AM so there is still a lot of the day to go, but the morning has been wonderful! It was our best night so far for jet lag. When I woke up I went onto the balcony and was changing the laundry and could hear the bells from the cathedral! I just couldn't believe that I was here. Then we went out to sit on our balcony making a list of things we wanted to do while we were here. There were some fishermen fishing on the pier so we decided to go take a look and give Rusty some quiet time to get work done. The kids and I sat quietly next to a nice fisherman and I asked him if it was okay that we stay there. He said, "Si si, tranquila" so we sat and watched. He told us that he had a fish in his bucket we could go see, and then after that he let us be part of his fishing! If he would catch one he'd let us hold it and throw it back in. When it was Amelia's turn he said, "Where is my baby?" and it was so cute. The first one he let us throw back in was really floppy and I ended up kind of juggling it before getting it back to the sea. We were all laughing so hard! Then the kids and I walked around the different areas around the old harbor. Everyone wanted to go back to the fisherman, so we went back and then Amelia and I ran to get Rusty to bring him so he could be there. It was a blast to be out there fishing with three old grandpas! They let us feel the spiny fins on the fish they caught and throw them in. What a cool thing!

Then we walked around the town a little bit to find a grocery store so we could get some produce for breakfasts at the apartment. There were lots of the planters of heads and I remembered the story so I told the kids... and it is a kind of depressing story. So a Sicilian woman fell in love with a Moorish man, and then found out that he was married and had a family back home so in a fit of jealous rage she chopped his head off. And then she used it for a planter for her basil. When all of her neighbors saw how good the basil was growing, they wanted planters like that too so they made ceramic ones. An alternative story, also horrifying, is that the two lovers were told they could never be together so they cut their own heads off and then I guess someone used them as planters. Anywhoo, you can see these all over! We even have some in our apartment as decorations.

Our street with our laundry!

Bird of Paradise flower

When we got back to the apartment we heard this yelling coming from outside. It didn't sound angry, but it was loud and it didn't stop. I looked out the porch and saw this tiny truck filled with groceries. He just came and yelled a bunch, some people bought stuff, and then he left haha. HOW IS THIS REAL LIFE I LOVE IT SO MUCH. 

Once we got back to the apartment we changed and went down to the beach again. We hung out there for a while, but the kids were hungry so I went and got some arancini for us to try. I wanted to try some arancini and found a nice spot in town where I could get a bunch of them with great reviews. I got lots of different flavors to try but the winners were a ham and cheese and the ragu. And we got some more of those delicious sodas!!! SO YUM!

SCHUH SERVICE haha

After being at the beach for a while we went back home, showered, and went to dinner at a fancy Sicilian restaurant. I have a list of Sicilian dishes we are supposed to try and so we found some of the things on the menu. There were two that I was really scared of: one had roe in it and the other had sardines. Rusty asked the waiter which one he would rather have and he chose the sardine one. As soon as it got brought to our table it had such a powerful stench... and it was really quite awful haha. Rusty ate some, said "This is is horrible. Try some." So I had some and even before I had it in my mouth I knew that I would regret it, but I had to try it. I am the one who told Rusty to get one of them. So I had some and it was awful. Henry tried some and it was awful. The whole table smelled bad. Amelia said, "That smells ick" when it first got brought over. In short, disaster. We pushed it around the plate to make it look like we ate more than we did. The girls got bolognsa, Henry wanted swordfish and that happened to be one of our dishes on the list, and then I got some pasta that originated in Cefalu. Everyone else's was okay, but nothing to be super excited about sadly. I decided that I would get rid of my list and we would just eat what we thought looked good on the menus from now on instead of going off of a list. BUT THEN CAME THE CANOLIS. Oh my gosh they were so good, and the saving grace for the entire meal. We also tried some sort of cake with ricotta and frangipane. It was yummy, but not like the two canolis. Those were heavenly.

We stopped by the medieval washhouse

EWWWWWWWW

Henry LOVED it obviously haha

Amelia had a little cut on her face from the spiny fish hitting her this morning

For some reason I can't remember we got another treat after dinner and dessert at the restaurant haha

March 3

This morning the kids and Rusty went back down to the pier thing to see if our favorite grandpa was there again. I am having a heck of a time finding anyone to take us fishing like is Henry's dream because of the off season. I was hoping that if we could communicate with that nice grandpa that we could pay him to bring us some extra stuff and teach us how to fish. Sadly, he was not there today but we will try again tomorrow. We did some school work and then Rusty and I went for a run. Right as we were getting ready to go the yelling grocery man came back! I love that man! I wish I knew what he was yelling, but it sounds happy haha. Henry came down with us so he could take our groceries up and Adeline and Amelia stayed up on the balcony and recorded everything on my phone. The produce looked so fresh and good and we ended up buying some broccoli, fava beans, peppers, tomatoes, strawberries, and kiwis. He threw some little clementines in for free. This man was so nice, and even though we couldn't talk to each other very well you just could feel how kind he was. I looked up once and saw a lady that is apparently our downstairs neighbor letting a basket down on a string to the man and he put her groceries in it and she hauled it back up. I started laughing and he said, "Eh... it's automatic!" Henry took the groceries up and then Rusty and I started on our run. We went right behind the farmer and he drove off yelling at the top of his lungs for people to come and buy his stuff, and then a clementine fell off the back of the truck and bounced down the street haha.

For our run we decided to go over along the coast and explore that way. We made it all the way over to the other side of the bay and the views were so beautiful, along with the nice breeze, sound of the waves, and nice oceany smell. I could run there all the time.

We came back and the kids wanted to go to the beach- again. So we got some snacks and water, the blanket to sit on and a towel and went off. On our way we stopped to see Federica again. When we got there I was surprised that there were quite a few people in there, but her husband was working with her and he said, "Oh! You are my wife's friends!" It was so cute. He asked what I wanted and I said I wanted whatever she gave me last time, but I didn't remember nor could I pronounce it. Rusty wanted to try a new one, and the kids all got new ones too. They were all delicious, but not as good as the first time. About halfway through though, we realized that I was eating Rusty's and so when we traded we both got a lot happier haha. We went over to a new beach, the one that we ran by on our run, and played over there. It was a little warm for a minute, and then it got windy and cloudy and quite cold. We came home and showered and let the kids play for a minute while Rusty did some work.

Granite- common in Sicily. Kind of like a shave ice. Not our favorite, but Rusty loved it

March 4: La Rocca

Today our little nonnos were back! This time when we went down to see them Felipo let the kids take turns fishing. He is a very sweet old man, and sadly he wasn't here yesterday because he wasn't feeling well and found out that he would have to have surgery. But he was back today and said he felt okay. He told us about his family, how his two sons didn't like to fish, and how one son had a baby nine months ago- Felipo's first grandchild! There was one fish that was really tricky and got away, and Rusty said, "That's a tricky fish!" And Felipo said, "That Sicilian fish!" He doesn't speak a ton of English, but a lot more than the Italian we speak haha. The kids had a great time fishing, and Amelia even caught one!

We headed up to do the La Rocca hike today and I was so excited! I really love hiking because you're just out in nature, not rushing; it's just enjoying the journey and it's so beautiful. This hike was a particular favorite of mine and I thought that if I lived here I would definitely do it often. It was beautiful, in and out of shady big pine trees, crossing through ruins, and ending with beautiful views. 

We got up to a lookout point that we deemed perfect for a little picnic pit stop. It had beautiful views and we were off the trail a ways so we were all alone- not that there were that many people on the trail anyway. After our snack break we went over and saw some cool old buildings that were there- a church and something else without a sign. Then we kept on going until we reached a great lookout over the town of Cefalu!

Butterfly clover according to Amelia

Church of Sant'Anna

We got to the lookout over Cefalu and loved walking along the wall, seeing the huge cross, going through some of the ruins that were there and just looking out over the view. Two amazing things happened here that made it my favorite stop on our hike: 1. We heard the church bells go off! We had already gone up a little ways but I heard them and ran back down so I could get a video. It was so magical to hear the bells while we were up there! And 2. We heard this yelling and IT WAS GUISEPPE THE GROCERY MAN! We could hear him on the very top of this mountain haha. That guy is crazy! 

The most famous ruins that you will see on this hike is the Temple of Diana. It's from the 9th Century BC and was used as a temple to worship water or Diana the goddess of the hunt. One of the really cool things about this building to me was that they found a scarab beetle amulet that came from Egypt and showed that there were ancient dealings between the two. The scarab amulet dates back to 900-700 BC. That is wild!

We kept hiking up to the top and when we had gotten there we took another little snack break by sitting on a wall in the shade of an olive tree. Then we went around to the other side to get closer to the walls and eventually to the castle. 

Olive trees! We tried them and they are terribly bitter haha

The castle is, well a castle that is from the 12th century. It was used as a protection and for safety when invaders came to Cefalu.

The marina!

On the way down we heard some goats and we finally spotted some!

When we were done with our hike we decided to try a bakery that I have been wanting that's a little further away. We were pretty close because of the hike so we went over there and got a few things. THIS IS THE BEST BAKERY. HANDS DOWN. I LOVE IT. We got one of the frangipane fruit called Frutta Martorana. It's just frangipane that looks like a fruit, but I've never had frangipane so it was still fun to try. We didn't finish it- that's a lot of frangipane by itself. Some small little bite sized things were also had, some gelato, but the big winners were the cartocci! It's like a donut filled with the same ricotta filling they use in cannoli. SO GOOD.

Cartocci!

We decided this would be Della's first car

After our treats we of course went to the beach. Even though it is a little chilly the kids still cannot stay out of it! They don't get in that far though haha.

For dinner we went to a seafood place right across the street; one that Henry has been begging for since we got here. I got some prawns, and they were delicious but they still had their heads and legs on. So that was rough. I really hated it. Henry got a bunch of seafood with his pasta, and everything had faces and legs too. It was as whole party for all of us! Afterward we got a cannoli to share, and then we were so full we walked around for a little bit before going back to the apartment. THAT CANNOLI WAS EVERYTHING.

Shrimp heads ew

This building lights up like the Italian flag every night!

Our apartment

March 5

Today we ventured into Palermo! It was the first time we were in a big city, and it was just a tad stressful haha. We decided to try to cram it all in one day so that we wouldn't have to go back. We had a pretty full schedule but we made it through our list! There were just a couple of things that didn't work out exactly how we had hoped. The first place we went was the little square with three churches all together. All of them are amazing, but we just didn't have time to see inside all of them. Palermo actually has more than 200 churches! We did go inside Santa Caterina d'Allesandria to see the cathedral, the monastery, and the views from the rooftop. 

This was the ceiling of the train station! Just beautiful! And it had different cities around the edges that you could travel to.

Inside Santa Caterina

The ceiling just took our breath away!

Looking down from the lowest roof level into the courtyard

These were beautiful, original, hand painted floor tiles

The roof of the cathedral!

The view from the top over the rest of Palermo! So beautiful

I loved the domes in the distance!

The laundry area for the nuns

I had read that the pastries in this cathedral are pretty bomb, and they are made by nuns in the monastery which is cool in and of itself haha. So we stopped there on our way out and ate some in the lower courtyard. When we were walking out of the church we heard this beautiful opera music. Actually, we had heard it while we were on the roof but we just figured it was a recording. When we got outside we could tell it was live so we walked around the corner of the building and saw these two people with a microphone and speaker singing the most beautiful opera I've ever heard. We got some great videos of them. It was absolutely surreal to be in an Italian town hearing this Italian opera music ringing out through the air. Beautiful. 

Our next stop was the Fontana Pretoria before we kept going to Quattro Canti. Originally, we weren't going to go to the Palermo Cathedral, but it really felt like we needed to stop in even for a little. The coolest part about that cathedral is definitely the outside of it. It is stunning! Inside it is still impressive, but after seeing the Santa Caterina cathedral it wasn't as spectacular. One of the most unique and stunning things about Sicily in particular is how the old cultures were not erased when a new culture conquered the land. They just built on top of it, or next to it, or changed it to fit their beliefs or needs. This cathedral is definitely an Arab feel on the outside and a very normal church on the inside. The exterior of it is enchanting!

Fountain!

Quattro Canti- Each corner represents one of the seasons

Palermo Cathedral

Continuing our walk, we headed over to see the Palatine Chapel with all of the beautiful mosaics. We passed by this gate: Porta Nuova. Our last stop before having lunch was the one I was most excited about: Norman Palace and Palatine Chapel. The chapel has amazing mosaics, but the main part of it (Christ Pantocrator) was covered up because they were doing restoration work. It's always part of visiting these big ticket items; they have to keep everything in shape. It was a bit of a bummer, but the rest of the chapel was so astounding. The meticulous work it took to create all of these mosaics, and they beautiful way the chapel incorporated so many different styles and cultures was stunning. It also had two bonuses that I wasn't expecting! There was a sculpture by Michelangelo there and also an exhibit of impressionist art, including some pieces from Monet!

Beautiful carriage with gold and silver from 1700s

Inner courtyard

These mosaics were incredible!

Ceiling

The doors

...were amazing

Inside the Palatine Chapel- the ceilings were also so amazing! And I loved that they were completely different and unique from what I was expecting to see in Italy

After seeing the chapel we went to walk through the apartments. These apartments were used by many different kings and rulers over the years, and you can see different styles throughout. Our favorite was the room full of mosaics of animals and hunting. The Norman Palace was started in the 9th century by Arabs but then greatly expanded in the 12th century. Beautiful buildings! On our way we were surprised to see a statue there by Michelangelo of Christ. I didn't know anything about this piece before; not even that it existed. It is normally in a church in Rome but was here on loan and was completed by Michelangelo in 1521. Michelangelo was unhappy and didn't want to complete this one because there was a dark vein on Christ's face, so he made a second one.

When we had gone through the apartments, we went out for a little walk in the garden before going in to see the Impressionist exhibit. Rusty and I both really love impressionist pieces so we were really excited about this. There were three or four pieces by Monet there, but the other pieces were really beautiful as well.

By this time we were pretty tired, and I was amazed that Amelia was still sticking it out. We got a ride in a tuk tuk to go get some lunch at a place with good reviews. The tuk tuk ride was hilarious! That guy was going all over the place, almost running into people, honking, and swerving down alleys. It was insane! The place for lunch was yummy and the waiters were really funny and played around with us a lot. One kept winking at Amelia, and one kept tapping Henry on the shoulder and walking away.

When we were done with lunch we walked over to the Teatro Massimo, walking along the Via Bara All'Olivella to see some of the marionettes. Sicily has a long history of these marionettes, and even though they did not invent them they did invent the Opera dei Pupi, which is this particular style of marionettes. The puppets perform poems and wear real armor. 

The opera house was really impressive! It was huge and we got to see the foyer, auditorium, royal box, and the echo room. This opera house is the largest one in Italy, and the third largest in Europe. Its design is beautiful and the acoustics are amazing. We thought about coming to see an opera here because they are doing some right now, but the shows get out so late and it just wasn't feasible. But the tour was fantastic! 

The entrance room

The actual model that was made to build this

The main dome was made so that it could be opened, where the painted parts are, to allow for ventilation and air flow

The royal box from downstairs

After being in the main theater, we went upstairs to the reception area for the really fancy people and then to the royal box. Italy doesn't have royalty anymore, but the box is still reserved and unable to be booked by the common people (AKA me) until right before the show just in case someone famous or in politics comes. The views really were great from there though! And the seats were so comfy!

There is a funny legend about this first step going upstairs. It is called the Nun's Step and apparently in order to build this huge theater they had to destroy a lot of buildings; including four churches and two convents. The legend is that a nun still haunts the building because of that, and causes people to trip and fall on that specific step. 

These lights were made with Murano glass

Royal box

The echo room was our last stop and it was really quite fascinating. If you stand on one side of the room and someone else is on the far side from you, you can hear whispers from each other but not exactly what the words are. If, however, you stand in the middle of the room right underneath the dome and speak, it amplifies your voice greatly! You could stand there and talk in a normal tone and it sounds like you are speaking very forcefully. According to our guide, this room was designed like this to show off great acoustics but also to allow for men to engage in business and political discussions without being overheard. There were doors all around the outside of the circular room, and half of them were false with only a wall behind the door. But the doors were essential to the acoustics of the room. How do people figure these things out!?

We tried to hit up the Mercato Ballaro on our way to the train station, but sadly everything was already getting put away. So we just went to the train station and went home! It was a very full day, and honestly there were some really amazing sites to see in Palermo but even with that, it was not our favorite city. It felt kind of icky and not just like it was a dirty city; like there was something yucky about it. 

Quattro Canti again

Another beautiful church we just happened to pass by on our way

March 6

Today we were very brave and left the kids home alone watching the TV and went out on a date just us! We walked around and found a cute restaurant and had some really yummy food! Then we went back and got the kids so that we could go and see the Museo Mandralisco. It's a tiny museum, and if we had limited time in Cefalu we wouldn't have gone. But one of the perks of being here so long is that we really get to explore lots of the town! 

This puppet was in our restaurant!

finish facts about museum

finish

We had walked past this place a few times but today we finally took a picture of it. It was an olive oil business and they would store it in these big terracotta pots.

After the museum we walked around town a little bit and ended up finding this secret little viewpoint behind one of the churches. And behind the viewpoint was a whole network of trails that go right by the ocean! It was kind of magical for a few reasons: it really was beautiful, we had it all to ourselves, and we stumbled upon it. I don't think it would have been as magical if we had looked it up on Google before.

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Doing school

March 7: Agrigento

The Valley of Temples! Today was the day! On our way to the train station we ran into Felipo going to fish and he asked us where we were going. We told him "Agrigento" and he said, "Oh yes. I went there once." Haha. He's so content to stay here and fish and I don't blame him. It was also a really long day for us, and we only had one day off from our long day in Palermo, but it was 100% worth it! I can always tell if the day was a real success by how Rusty reacts. Or maybe it's that I gauge it that way. But, regardless it is what I do and today was a success! All of us were pretty amazed the entire time we were there. To be transparent, Amelia was mostly in awe of the lizards but still: in awe. We got on our train and were a little confused because, honestly the Italian trains are a little confusing. If you want to go to Agrigento, like we did, you first have to get on a train going to Termini Imerse and then you switch trains and get on one going to Agrigento. But which train goes to Termini Imerse? You don't know. Because the trains just say their final destination. And they don't have boards that tell you. So it is a little bit tricky. And I don't think I've said this yet, but not very many people here speak English. I think it's because it's Sicily and not mainland, but I think it's awesome. It makes some things harder and we have actually had to use our phones to translate things and I've never really had to do that before that I can think of. I'm a little bummed because if I had known how immersive it is here I would have tried to learn at least a little Italian, but I'm used to going to a new country and trying to speak some of the language and they're like, "I speak English," and then it's just a waste because you can't practice it. But how cool to be here for five weeks and really get to practice Italian! Too bad I didn't learn any. Maybe I'll start doing some duolingo while we're here. ANYWAYS that was a huge tangent, but we eventually got on all of the right trains. The kids and I did some school on the train and then they got tablet time which was a big deal for them and that made it so Rusty and I could have some quiet time. I was going to read my book but the views were absolutely incredible so I switched and just listened to some music instead.

When we got to Agrigento Centrale it was time for some food, so Rusty found a popular street that had a lot of options. Everyone voted that we'd rather have an early night today and do a quick lunch than a sit down lunch but get home later so we just grabbed some sandwiches. I told Rusty I felt like I was cheating on Federica haha, and the sandwich wasn't nearly as good! Then we wandered for a while looking for a taxi and when we couldn't find one I started to get nervous. It is about 40 minutes-1 hour to walk to the Valley of Temples, and then it's all walking after that. I didn't know if the kids could do it. We remembered seeing some taxis right at the train station (only two) and we went back there hoping that they were still there. Luckily, they were!

Our taxi took us to the gate (after we watched a minor fender bender) and as we were walking in I started looking around for where to buy the tickets. The two main temples were visible on our drive into the National Park, and I was just so excited. A nice woman came out of a booth and said that she did tours and asked if we wanted one. I told Rusty we didn't need one, but then she started talking to us about the almond trees and she explained everything so well and she was so kind and I realized that I was kind of tired and stressed and it sounded nice to just follow someone around and not have to figure anything out. So in the end, we did hire her and I don't regret it. Her name was Anna and she was originally from Greece. One of the very first things she showed us was the blossoming almond trees, and she even had us pluck some almonds off the tree that were not quite ready yet. They were sour, like a green apple. And fuzzy!

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March 8:

Today was Sunday! We didn't get to go church last Sunday because we were on a flight from Rome to Palermo, so today was our first chance. It was an hour away and there were only two options about fifteen minutes apart from each other in Palermo, and they both started at 8:30. That made it an early day for us, leaving around 7 but it was worth it. We ended up stopping at a train stop earlier than Palermo downtown and walking from that side and it saved us some time. The place we got off was not touristy at all, but just for locals. It was actually really gross and we named it the place of dog poop because I've never been anywhere that had that much dog poop. You really couldn't walk anywhere. It was disgusting and really didn't help our feelings about Palermo haha. 

This is the church right outside our kitchen window!

Cefalu street

The famous archway by the pier

Everything about Cefalu is just photogenic and beautiful

Our apartment is in a lot of the ads for Cefalu

This is where Anna told us was the big war that was won and Agrigento was built as a celebration

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We finally made it to the church building! It was clean outside and just felt like going home. It's so strange how no matter which country I am in, going to church always feels the same. The spirit feels the same everywhere and that is something that I have learned from our travels. God loves all of his children the same and he honors and blesses those who gather together in His name to learn of Him and His Son and renew sacred covenants. There is a great power that comes when saints gather together. Obviously we knew the meeting would be in Italian so we weren't surprised, but there were so many people that came over and said hello and tried their best to introduce themselves. They went and found a girl that had just got back from serving a mission in England so she spoke well and had her get us all situated. She asked if we wanted someone to translate for us and we told her that we were ok; it wasn't necessary. We went through the first half of the meeting like that and then she came back over and asked if we were sure because there was a professional translator there and I thought it would be rude to say no at this point, and it would be nice to know what they were saying! We just didn't want to be too much trouble. I'm glad we ended up doing it though because the talks were touching and honest, and I also learned another lesson. I was just thinking about things during the talk that I couldn't understand and I was feeling like I needed to work on getting better control of my physical body in order to pay more attention to my spiritual body. Specifically, I was thinking about being better with fasting and how saying no to things that you want really can strengthen you and your faith. When she started translating, I was so shocked to hear that that is what that brother was talking about. Not fasting specifically, but putting spiritual needs above physical desires. I thought it was cool that the Spirit was reaching me with a similar message.

View walking back to the train station

There was a pasta place we wanted to try that was over by the train station and our favorite dessert place which lovingly became known as "The Duck Place" because it had a really ugly scary duck statue out front and that's what Amelia called it. It took us a while to figure out why she called it that haha. Anyway, we tried this pasta place and it was so good. Like SO SO GOOD. It's all fresh pasta and really simple ingredients and so stinking delicious. We ended up going back multiple times and the waiter always knew our order because Rusty's the only one who ever deviated from our first day's choice haha. We were regulars there.

The kids have been wanting to play and there is this very tiny park so we tried it, but man it is just so small. We only lasted a few minutes.

Then we walked over to the longer beach about ten minutes from our apartment because it looked like it had a lot less trash on it than our beach did. The kids played in the sand mostly because it is still so cold but man they had fun!

For movie night that night we watched Pinocchio! It takes place in Italy and Sicily is big for the puppets which I already wrote about. It has been seriously like 30 years since I watched it and it was way less scary than I remember haha. Then Rusty and I went and got dinner and brought it back for the kids so they didn't have to leave again. The menu had a very troubling item on it: horse meat. Have I been eating horse meat and not knowing it? 

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March 9: Cefalu Cathedral; Sea Walk

Another low key day here in Cefalu that was just perfect! We went out when we saw Felipo and met his friend that came down from Milan to visit him and fish. I ran into town and grabbed some pastries as a surprise for them. They let us fish again and see the fish they caught. I think Felipo likes watching us throw them back as much as anything else haha. It's always a hot mess!

I just love that church out our window

Saying buongiorno to Felipo! Our Nonno!

What a beautiful view

Our apartment

Caught a fish!

Henry fishing

"Finnito"

Sharing our pastries

After visiting with Felipo for a while we went to go out on the sea walk again! Then we were going to make our way to the cathedral to go inside for the first time! On our way we ran into the grocery man, and I finally asked him what his name was. The funniest part is that I was talking to Rusty about it and he was so surprised I hadn't found out his name yet. I told him, "It's probably Guiseppe," because we had watched Luca recently. Then when I asked him his name he said, "Guiseppe!" I laughed so hard haha!

The sea walk was pretty and also gave us some fun new surprises! We saw a turn off that was for a lookout point for keeping the wall safe from invaders. We saw some tide pools, but only crabs inside. Today we reached the other end of it and popped up over by the cathedral!

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We've walked past the cathedral many times, but never gone up the stairs or inside. It's free to walk around inside and look at everything, and even the outside is so beautiful. It doesn't really look like a cathedral from the outside, but more like a fortress. And we noticed that it has a very asymmetrical design, including the two towers that are not designed the same. The fortress like exterior was supposed to represent the strength of the Norman kingdom. Inside, there is a mosaic of Christ Pantocrator just like we saw at the Palatine Chapel but we only saw an image on a screen. We looked it up because we had no idea what "Christ Pantocrator" was but thought it was odd that we had seen this same image of Christ in so many different places. Turns out, the image of Christ doing that pose is called Christ Pantocrator, All-Knowing or All-Powerful Christ. The right hand is making the letters ICXC which means Jesus Christ in Greek. That hand gesture was also used anciently as a sign that an orator was about to speak and it was time to listen; so Christ was calling the people in the chapel to listen to His words. It also could mean that Christ was about to give a blessing. Another symbolic meaning of his fingers was that the three extended ones represent the trinity and the two bent fingers represent the two natures of Christ: human and divine. The other artwork is also beautiful, and there was an organ there that was built in 1612 and after a recent restoration still functions! So cool! 

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After we had looked around inside we decided that we wanted to do a tour where you got to go up on the roof like we had seen people do when we were on our hike on La Rocca. I'm so glad we did! That was our favorite part. It was really cool to see inside the cathedral, but it looked kind of similar to the Palatine Chapel but less extravagant. But walking around inside the little tunnels and seeing the different parts of the cathedral was so fun and exciting; and it was basically just us. Not a lot of people up there with us.

Saw this puppet on our walk home

We went swimming after and for the first time ever we saw that there was a shower thing to rinse off

March 10: Monreale Cathedral, Mercato Ballaro

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March 11: 

Today was our cooking class! This wasn't something that I had booked before we came here because I didn't know what day we would want to do it, or if we would do it as a family or just Rusty and I switching off. A few days ago I started looking at the classes offered and Rusty and I decided that it would be fun for the whole family to do it. We booked a class with a woman named Rosamaria and walked over to her house in Cefalu this morning. It was up high on the hill kitty corner to the Castle and in an area we had never visited before. In order to make there on time, we left early and went to get the kids some breakfast from that place we got the yucky smoothies. This time we let the kids get Nutella pancakes, which came with no syrup but the kids didn't mind, and Rusty and I had some yogurt and fruit. It took us less time to eat there than I had anticipated, so we were off and on our way to Rosamaria's house a little early and ended up getting up to her house fifteen minutes early. We were just going to walk around and waste some time but this woman came running out and it was Rosamaria! She said that she was sorry but she needed to get some more things from the store for our class really quick and we were early. I apologized and said that we would just wander and she invited us to go sit on her back porch while she was gone.

The class was so fun! She taught us how to make so many things: an orange and fennel salad, some fried fennel green and cheese balls, homemade Sicilian gnocchi, a pizza, busiate pasta (we voted to do the gnocchi instead because it was so much easier), some olives and cheese, and some fried focaccia dough with a homemade Nutella sauce. I ate so much that I legitimately thought I was going to throw up. I would not have done well as a missionary because I wanted Rosamaria to know I liked her food so much that I just kept eating and eating. She was so nice and we loved spending time with her. Her English was pretty good but there were still some language barriers, but we had a blast. Rosamaria was amazing with the kids and they loved the class so, so much!

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Tonight we met with Felipo and his wife, and his wife's best friend, in the main square by the cathedral to go get some gelato! We met up and then he started walking towards the gelato place that we didn't like and I was nervous that was where we were going. When I asked Felipo he made a face and said, "NO!" and we kept walking and talking. We broke off into boys and girls and chatted as much as we can with the limited language on our way and the further we got the more I started to think maybe we were going to the duck place for our treats. And that is exactly where we went! We didn't say that we had been there before, and told him how good it all was when we were eating it and he was so proud of himself. He paid for us all to have gelato, and I was still so full from Rosamaria's class that I really didn't need or want any but he was so excited. We ate our gelato and laughed because Amelia was going so slow because she said she was making it last long. They walked us back to the main square and said goodnight, and then I sneaked into a pharmacy there to get some dramamine for me and Della and to get a pregnancy test. My period was late and we were hopeful! I took the test the next day and it ended up being negative which was hard but it's okay. The lady at the desk looked at me a little weird when I asked for a pregnancy test when I already had three children haha. They don't have children here.

March 12: Fishing on boat

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March 13:

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March 14-18: Taormina and Siracusa

March 14:

The time had finally come to check out and leave Cefalu! We could hardly believe it. I had worked pretty hard to have almost everything all packed and ready before so today wouldn't be too crazy, and we still somehow ended up running around a little bit crazy. After we were pretty much ready, we went and said goodbye to Felipo and Frederico (the cute short friend) and then dropped the trash off. We wandered past the cathedral one more time and then said goodbye to Federica and happened to go past Felipo's wife and her friend! Then we walked past Guiseppe and bought some produce and said goodbye to him too. What a wonderful place Cefalu is!

To get to our car rental we had to walk across town with all of our luggage and I had some serious doubts about 90% of the things that we brought as we were dragging them across the uneven cobblestone streets and fighting with them trying to get out of the way of cars. Eventually we got to the car rental place, got our bags in, and then started on our way. The car is actually way more spacious than I thought but getting around proved to be a little stressful. We just don't drive like Italians haha. The drive was really pretty going along the coast, and after a stop at a gas station for the bathroom and some food, we made it to Taormina. In my original genius plan, we would drive to the lookout point before we parked the car in the garage. But parking was atrocious up there and then we ended up getting somewhat lost and everything was one way roads and we were all over the place. So then we went and parked, took the shuttle to town, and it was a ten minute walk from our apartment. Oops.

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After the view point, we went to the Greek Theater. Wow! What an amazing place! We didn't get a guide here but instead just wandered around and explored which was pretty perfect. It was cloudy and we didn't get any chance to see Mt. Etna here or at the viewpoint, but it is impossible not to be impressed and in awe of this place. While we were sitting in the stands a lady started singing opera on the stage (just a tourist) and even though it was weird and uncomfortable, the acoustics actually were really impressive haha. After the theater we went and got some food. It was good food; ok, but a lot of our food was cold. I think it was because they were holding it while we ate our appetizers but it was still unpleasant. A giant pile of boiled spinach that is cold is just not great. Della and I were shivering while we tried to eat it haha.

March 15:

I'm in bed under as many blankets as I could find in this apartment trying to get warm for the first time today. We had a pretty incredible day today, even if it was covered with hail and snow and rain and thunderstorms haha. Today was our day trip to Mt. Etna and I was excited, but a little bit disappointed because it said it was going to be really cloudy and rainy. When we were driving up to the hiking trail we were able to get some really beautiful and clear views of Mt. Etna! Maybe it wasn't the absolute best views, probably shown by our guide's surprise when I got so excited, but it was still the best view we've had of Etna the whole time we've been here. I didn't think we'd actually get a chance to glimpse it, so I was pretty psyched! I was a little bit nervous because our guide kept talking about how Mt. Etna is Europe's most active volcano, and it is constantly active and every day small tremors are happening and nobody knows when it will erupt and there is no way to predict it. I was sitting next to Adeline and just watching her face, willing him to stop talking haha. Finally I just said, "But we will be safe and there is no reason to worry," and I think he kind of got the hint. But maybe not because he started talking about it a little bit more later on. We passed through some little towns and it was cool to see because many of their walls and lower foundations of buildings, and in some cases the entire building, were built from lava rock.

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The plan for today was to do a little hike around some of the little craters from the last lateral eruption, and then do a little trip in some lava tubes. As we started going up the road we saw some really beautiful pine trees and some beech trees that don't grow anywhere else in Sicily. Then as we went higher up we started to see some snow, and then a lot of snow. We got out to do our little hike and it was cold; like really cold. We started trekking up the mountain and it got windier and started hailing and raining and we got pretty wet. The kids were absolute troopers and stuck with it. As we got closer to the top, we had to turn around because it wasn't safe to keep going because of the storm and the visibility. I was just about ready to tell the guide that we were good to turn around because I didn't know how much longer we could go and keep the kids happy. Sadly, we were very underdressed and underprepared for this hike. I was not anticipating snow, and the messages just said to dress appropriately. I even messaged them and check with what jackets we had to make sure we were good to go. Anyway, it was cold but we made it back to the van and drove to the place to go into the lava tunnel. We sat in the parking lot for a little while and just watched hail come down. For a while I was pretty sure we weren't going to do the tunnel at all, and then the hail stopped. I had been praying that it would just be nice enough for us to get to do the lava tubes, and maybe thirty seconds later the hail stopped. It was a miracle just for me! Rusty and I talked to the kids and they said they were game to go because it was really close to the car and we only had to spend about ten minutes in the cave. And I promised them lots of gelato and cannoli haha. I think at the end we were all glad we did the cave part; it was pretty cool! It was actually warmer in there than outside, which was not really what I was expecting because they said it got really cold in there. We walked over and he said that this particular part of the lava tube had two different names. One meant "Cave of robbers" (Grotto dei Ladroni) and the other meant "Cave of Snow" (Grotto della Neve). In kind of a bummer move, our guide Ricardo told us that the first name was "fake news" and no robbers ever hid out there. But that doesn't seem very exciting and honestly, who is to say? But, people did use to put a bunch of snow down in the cave and then cover it with leaves. Over a few months it would turn to ice and then they would sell the ice to places like Taormina and Catania to keep food (mostly fish) cold before they had refrigerators. Getting down into the cave was a little dicey, but it was really cool once we were inside! 

Once we were done in the cave we ran back to the van because it had started hailing again. On our way back we stopped at a little winery where we were offered some sandwiches and drinks and these weird cookie things. Then we got home, and ran back to our apartment from the drop off location in the rain. The rest of day we just got in our cozy jammies and watched movies until it was time to go out and get dinner. Rusty was just going to go get some pizza for us and bring it back but everyone is kind of over pizza haha. And we've really got to get over that before we go to Naples so I called a break on pizza. We went to a really nice place that had the most delicious food. I got minestrone soup, Rusty got a seafood spaghetti, Henry got fresh caught sea bass, and the girls both got shrimp ravioli. Everything was delicious! Because today was Sunday but we couldn't attend church, we studied the scriptures and sang a hymn before bed tonight. 

March 16: Mall and Drive to Siracusa

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ortygia, gelato

March 17: Neapolis Archeological Park; Ortigia; Puppet Show

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March 18-22: Naples

March 18: Flight to Naples; Antico Pizza da Michele; Historic Center Wander

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March 19: MANN; Herculaneum

What a great day! I mean, every day has been pretty incredible but today was one that we got to mark off some pretty big bucket list items. We started the day pretty early, leaving the apartment at 8:30. Luckily the metro station is just across the street, so it didn't take us long but figuring out the metro was a little trickier. Our first destination was only a few stops on the metro later and a really quick walk: The MANN (The National Archeological Museum of Naples). There were some really amazing things in here; so many that it would take days to really appreciate it all. We started on the first floor which had so many amazing statues that were found in Herculaneum, along with some statues from other places. 

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March 20: Sasevero Chapel; Underground Tour; Lungomare

Today was supposed to be a bit of a low key day, but it ended up being a pretty busy day for us. To start off we went to the Sansevero Chapel to see the Veiled Christ. That's all that I knew about the chapel, so to say that I was in awe when we walked in would be an understatement. The entire chapel is STUNNING. Unbelievably beautiful. There are sculptures all around the perimeter of the chapel and the walls and ceilings are covered with these incredible paintings. The church is incredible, and then there in the center is the Veiled Christ statue.  finish add more about statue and chapel

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Our next stop was the Underground Tour. more narrow areas to get the water faster, found the theater in the basement. how the theater was built with the pyramids to absorb the earthquake, then thin bricks, then thicker ones. bishop that opnened up a road and split the theater in half to connect the poor people with the church and city center. they made nativities. the rocks made from compressed ash, absorb water, act like a sponge in an earthquake. Greeks would build a giant well and then get a bunch of rocks out of it like a quarry, build around that area and then move on. not build anything too close to the well so they could move things around, beginning of piazzas. also wanted to use it as an underground river for water. WWII they paved over the flooring and left some of the trash that was in it. 

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On our way home we went through the nativity street again so that I could get a nativity for me and one for Emilie. When we got back to the apartment we had three hours of down time, which was really nice. The kids played for half the time and then had tablet time for the other half, and I slept the entire time haha. When we were done with our down time (actually, we weren't done we just had to go) we went out to the metro station to head down to the Lungomare. We got to the Municipio station and we were supposed to switch and go to Line 6 in order to get there, but fun fact: everything to get to Line 6 was roped off. So we asked a worker and he said that Line 6 only runs in the mornings, sometimes. It's like, it kind of works some of the time but is actually not that helpful at all haha. So we just switched our plans and went out to see Neptune's fountain and the Piazza del Plebiscito. Then we walked along the Lungomare on our way to find a restaurant, but the places here all open up at 7 or later. So we were in a bit of a pickle because nothing was open, but if we walked back to some of the open places we would be walking away from the metro station we did find. We ended up finding a park and going there to let the kids play while we tried to figure that out.

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tried to find metro but was on a train finish. amelia crying, rusty not there.

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March 21: Pompeii; Vesuvius

TODAY WAS A MIRACULOUS DAY! There are places that we see that just don't live up to the hype, you know? You think it will be so cool and you go and it is really cool, but it's too crowded or too forced or less grand than you think. Pompeii was NOT one of those places. It delivered in every possible way and it was amazing. We started this morning by meeting Demetrio down by the cafe instead of taking the metro and trains. It is really handy to be across from the metro, but honestly the trains are just the worst. And we had that mix up with Herculaneum which we couldn't afford to have for Pompeii because we had a guide. To top it all off, we got home so much later than we were anticipating last night and so the kids were exhausted. If we went with Demetrio it gave us another 45 minutes in the morning, having us leave at 8:15 instead of 7:30. So we paid the extra money to have him take us and I don't regret it at all. He dropped us off at our location to meet our guide, Rosanna, who was a real treat! She was so cute and so sweet. Right at the gate she met us and introduced us to her daughter, took us to the bathrooms, and then we started our tour. She gave each of us a map and told the kids that tonight during dinner we should look at the map and circle all of the places we went. She was so good at talking to the kids! Rosanna took us to a place where we could see the basalt on the bottoms of the buildings and she explained to us that the city of Pompeii was built on top of this basalt. It was very durable and strong, but definitely not good for anything like sewers because you couldn't dig down into it. That was why Pompeii had the sewers flowing down the streets unlike other Roman cities. We then went into the Antiquarium and saw some of the casts of bodies and some items that were found in Pompeii. She explained to the kids how the casts were made, and then was impressed that the kids knew so much from studying it! She said we needed to look up Pliny the Younger and Henry and Della told her all about it. She asked them questions all day and they always had an answer, even Amelia! I was so proud of them! After the Antiquarium we walked past a temple to Venus, who was kind of like a patron saint for the sailors because she was born from the sea. So the first thing the sailors would do when they got to port was to go and make an offering of thanks to Venus. Then they would go to the main square and start trading. The forum there was insanely impressive and I was planning on going back and walking through some of the buildings that we skipped, but honestly the hours just flew by! We never got to go back but we saw the Basilica (judicial building), temple of Apollo, and the city office buildings. Everything would have been covered with thin sheets of marble, and in some areas of the forum you could still see that. 

 

Then we kept walking and saw a huge shop on the right hand side of the forum. Both sides had so many shops, but this one was larger than the rest. Rosanna told us that this was a wool shop owned by a woman, and the kids thought it was especially hilarious and horrifying that the well in the front was for people to come and pour the pee that the collected in there for her to use for dying or cleaning the fabrics. GROSS. Next we walked past the Temple of Jupiter and many more shops before reaching the bath house. I was really excited to see the bath house here because they were closed in Herculaneum. The women's baths were closed but we were able to go inside the men's which was pretty incredible. We were able to see the opening underneath the floor that showed the floor resting on pillars so that the hot air could circulate underneath the floor, and then also up through the walls. Rosanna told us that baths were separated by gender not necessarily for modesty reasons, because they didn't really care so much about that, but because they had different interests and jobs. Men would talk business and politics, and women were not able to vote and usually didn't enjoy talking business because most didn't own their own. 

Our next stop was a thermopolium and then the House of the Tragic Poet. Tragically, (see what I did there haha) you couldn't go inside of it. I don't know if that's just for right now or all of the time but I tried to go back later to see inside and found out you definitely cannot. But the most important part of that house was really the Cave Canem mosaic by the door which means: Beware of Dog. We saw that and talked about it before moving on to the thermopolium, basically like a fast food restaurant. The terracotta pots would hold in the heat or the cool really well, and Rosanna had the kids touch the pots on the different sides of the counter depending on which ones were in the sun and which were not. The ones in the shade were so much cooler than the ones in the sun! The kids played here for a little bit like they were the restaurant owners and we were buying food, just like we did in Herculaneum. So fun to watch them use imaginary play in a place like that!

We walked down Villa della Fortuna and she showed us how the toilets would just empty right onto the streets and also some of the lead pipes that they still have. In ancient Roman times, the wealthy people would live on the bottom levels because of the stairs and the lack of air conditioning, and also so you could have your toilet dump out into the sewer system (or street in Pompeii). 

Our final stop with Rosanna, which is amazing because all of this took an hour and a half, was the House of the Vetti. This was a house that was two former slaves who then became very wealthy and built a beautiful, huge house. We saw incredible paintings on the walls, the inner courtyard was stunning, and we got to see the kitchen and bathroom (right next to each other because that was the room with running water). The color of paint in the rooms was so expensive and made in the most incredible ways. 

After the House of the Vetti we left Rosanna and went and had a little lunch of things that they would have eaten in Pompeii, plus a few extra things. Then we went out to see the amphitheater and the palestrum. The amphitheater is the oldest Roman theater still here and it could hold 60,000 people. The Palestrum was the gym for people to work out because they really believed that a healthy body would give you a healthy mind. Luckily for us, we were also able to see a temporary exhibit there that had some casts. Sadly for us, the Garden of Fugitives was closed. WHICH WAS SO SAD TO ME BECAUSE I WANTED TO SEE THAT SO BADLY. AND SO DID HENRY.

Henry and I tried really hard to go see the Garden of Fugitives so Rusty and the girls started speed walking to the exit because we realized that we were pretty late, and Henry and I ran to the Garden and found out it was closed and then ran to the entrance gate in order to get to the bus on time for Mt. Vesuvius. We got there with enough time to get everyone some snacks and then get on the bus. The bus dropped us off at the top which really cut off a lot of time, and then we had a nice, steep hike up to the top. There was enough time for us to go all the way around the crater and to see into it from different angles, see the view over the bay and Naples, and to see the steam still coming out of steam vents! It was so cool! After we were done walking around it was time for us to go back down to the bus. 

It had been a long day, but before we could go home we needed to go to Gino Sorbillos and get some pizza there. This was the last big pizza place on our list and after we ate there it was right up there and maybe even inched in front of the rest. It was so good! Afterward we wandered around to some different places to try some specifically Neapolitan desserts. 

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March 22-26: Positano

March 22: Positano

Today we arrived in Positano! Our time in Naples was so fun but it was also so busy that we were all ready for a break and some down time. Demetrio took us to the ferry dock and we checked in and then boarded. The first part of the ferry ride we did outside and then the girls all got cold so I took them inside and the boys stayed out. After a while we all ended up inside to stay warm! When we got close to Positano the waves started to get really big. It has been a while since I was scared on a boat, but I got a little bit nervous here haha. We pulled up, got our bags, and then started walking to our Airbnb. Google maps said that it was only a 12 minute walk, but it said it had stairs. That isn't ideal when you're carrying so much luggage, but what are you going to do? Right as we got off the ferry there were some porters there that offered to take our bags for us. Rusty was pretty adamant about not doing that because he could handle it, and the truth is he could have if it had only been 100 stairs like the porter told us. But Henry counted and it was 429 total stairs, including the ones up to our apartment. That's a lot of stairs when he is carrying the two 40 pound bags haha. I was carrying two carry-ons, Henry was carrying one, and then we each had our backpacks. It was a lot. We did the first section and it was just one long run and I thought that it would be the end of the stairs, but they kept going. In fact, every time that I thought we had reached the end there was just another set of stairs. By this time we're all grumpy (especially Rusty haha) until we finally reached the top. The view was beautiful! We sat down on a bench and collected ourselves and then started walking on the road. It was all good until the road started going downhill, which was pretty immediate. And it just kept going downhill. The further downhill we went the higher Rusty's anger level got haha. Turns out, our Airbnb is really quite low down by the city center. David (the guy who checked us in) told us that it's only about 200 meters from the ferry dock on the road, which is an inclined road up to the apartment. But we went all the way around haha. David said to ignore Google and Apple Maps here. Would have been nice to know hahahaha.

So I was asking the host if we could leave our bags at the apartment and she was kind of rude about it, which was annoying because I had already talked to a different host on the AirBnb app and she said it would be fine. Anyways, this girl on WhatsApp said that it would be fine but we couldn't check in until 3. I said that would be fine but we'd love to leave our bags. When we got to the address there was a gate and we realized we had no idea how to get in, until a cute little grandpa yelled down to us to tell us how to get in through the gate. Then he watched us for a while because it was at that exact moment that I realized that this address was not only for one apartment, but a whole lot. And I had no idea which apartment we were supposed to go to. And guess where all the apartments were? Yeah. Upstairs. So the cute grandpa comes down and asks us which place we're staying in and I tell him and he says he doesn't know that place. So then he asks who the host is and I say Fabio and he doesn't know that guy either. At this point I have no idea what's going on and I'm texting the lady on WhatsApp and she is reading them but not responding which is super annoying. I ask the grandpa if we can just leave our bags by the mailboxes and he says of course but is still a little upset that we are homeless. He yells to some other Italian man and then that guy yells back and then he comes over and tells us, "Don't worry, I called David." And I said, "Oh, our host isn't named David!" And he said, "Yes, I call David." So now I'm stressed because some poor man named David is going to have to come over here and then be annoyed that we're not even here for him, but turned out that David was there for us. He was so nice and made everything so much better. He got us into the apartment and said we could stay there because it was already all clean, so we came in and just rested for a while. We went out for a quick lunch and a run to the grocery store, but then we came back to the apartment so the kids could play and Rusty and I could take a nap and listen to stake conference. After all of that we went out again to a restaurant for dinner! I wasn't hungry after our late lunch so I just ordered a salad, but everything was delicious! And the kids got to sit right next to the lobster tank which was a huge plus for them. It was the best entertainment ever for them! Our waiter was so cute and nice. He put basil leaves behind his ears and flipped them forward and stuck out his tongue haha. We all just felt so happy to be back in a smaller town instead of a big city; we are not big city people.

March 23: 

I didn't sleep very well last night; for some reason I kept having bad dreams that my kids needed help and I couldn't ever get there. I didn't have a panic attack or come close to it, but I definitely kept waking up stressed. So we had a slow morning, which was so nice because Naples was so busy! Rusty got up and met our host, Fabio, who brought some delicious pastries as a welcome for our stay. We hung out for a little bit and then did some school. There was still some Ancient Rome stuff that we didn't get to cover yet, so we went over inventions and ideas and did some Literacy and Math. I'm trying to wrap up the last few lessons before we go home but I don't know if we'll actually make it haha. After doing school for about an hour we all needed a break because we aren't used to it, so we went out onto the balcony. Rusty and I laid in the sun while the girls did a spa, with me falling asleep and taking a nice nap, and then the kids were playing with ants on the lemon tree. They had a whole game set up where they had a story line like a soap opera for the ants haha. I did some laundry and then we all got ready and went out for a late lunch and a walk to explore around the town. We didn't wander very much though because the kids all wanted to go to the beach, so we got some food on the way and then went straight there. The beach was a little rocky but it was fun to play with the rocks and the kids loved looking for sea glass! We hung out down there for about an hour before we had to come back so the kids could go to the bathroom.

March 24: Private Dinner

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March 25: Hike

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March 26- April 1: Rome

March 26: Travel to Rome

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March 27: Borghese Gallery

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March 28: Trevi Fountain; Pantheon; Campo de Fiori; Ostia Antica

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March 29: Palm Sunday Mass; Caracalla Baths; San Sebastian Catacombs

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March 30: Colosseum and Roman Forum; Fresco Workshop

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March 31: Vatican City

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April 1: Tulip fields

April 1:

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Henry's Highlights:

• "Is that cross for the monster?" Me: "What? A monastery?" Him: "Oh, yeah a monastery?"
• Telling Della what to say in their movie: "You say, 'NO honey.' Well, not NO, like in a mean way. Only woman can say it so I don't know how to do it. But it's like nice, but firm."
• For the movie Della asks if they're rich or poor. Henry says, "We're like Mom and Dad. We're not begging, but we are not billionaires. We're just regular."
• “Dick doesn’t sound like a bad name, but penis sounds pretty awful”

Adeline's Adventures:

• Had a tummy ache and said, "I feel like my tummy is saying no more kiwis... And that makes me sad."
• About walking on the road with traffic: "This is fun, but it also scares us."

Amelia's Updates: