A Return To Italy

It has been a long time since we first traveled to Italy (Belle was just 10 weeks old); it has been a long time since I last posted on this blog.  Such a long time that I believe only a few masterful photos may work as an attempt at the heartfelt apology.  And so here is my offering (with all credit going to my husband for the masterful photos):

We traveled to southern Italy and made this 400+ year-old stone home, situated about 20 minutes west of Cassino, our base-camp for the week.  One unique feature (discovered upon arrival):  if you desire heat at night, you must build a fire ... and in the mountains in early April, you desire heat!

Market Day in Sora is quite impressive.  Variety of merchandise, number of vendors, enthusiasm of buyers.  To be honest, for a non-shopper it can be a bit overwhelming.  We have experienced a few markets during our time in Europe, but this is the first time we have seen live animals for sale ... bunnies at a market??  We walked away with photos only!

Ahh, Rome.  It is true.  Rome cannot be "done" in a day.  While this is true, part of us took in as much as we could from atop the ever-popular Hop-On-Hop-Off tour bus.  The younger part of us roamed the roads of Rome on a different day, and Patrick played guide to both parts. 

Palantine Hill, the Colosseum, St. Peter's Basilica, the Tiber River, the Swiss Guard ... and the lesser-known-but-just-as-popular-with-the-five-year-old-boy-crowd Pinocchio Store.  Our Roman Experience.

One day we piled into the van and scaled the heights of some amazing mountains in Abruzzo National Park.

A few days later we turned south and after careening through tiny, narrow, cobbled streets in what looked like third-world-country villages, we ended at Pompeii and wandered through some of those archaeological finds.  As the sun began to set on that day, the Mediterranean called out to us and some had to answer the call with jeans rolled up and shoes tossed aside.

With views like this all around us, we would readily agree with Bear's statement "I could live here."