Getting Back On Track

It has been a crazy couple of months with finding and moving in to our home (for the next few years) and exploring our new town.

We moved to a small town just North of Naples and hundreds of years away.  Ok not literally but the town has ruins from the gladiator era and apparently has/had the second largest amphitheater in Italy after the one in Rome.  It still exists though it’s ruins now but we are literally 2/3 blocks away from it and I’m a little embarrassed to say we haven’t toured it yet.  We have walked to it and passed it but haven’t done the inside tour as of yet.  It will happen soon!

Driving to our house from the highway you have to pass under Hadrian’s Arch, the following site shows photos of it and the amphitheater and church.   Also, I will link the town’s site, if you open it in Chrome you can translate it.

http://en.comuni-italiani.it/061/083/foto/

http://www.comune.santa-maria-capua-vetere.ce.it/

Some photos I have taken while walking around a bit:

We have enjoyed some amazing food in town and gone on two wine tours so far, the second was on the foothills of Mt. Vesuvius.

Mt. Vesuvius Winery Tour, the wines are aged under 15 feet of lava rock and down in the cellar was where we were served a couple of whites and a few reds to taste.  Then up to the patio for lunch.  The last two photos are a small wine barrel with a spout for our bar and we bough a bottle of olive oil, they gave us all a container of apricots that were delicious!  We also bought a few bottles of wine, it was wonderful.  Really a great trip and only about a 15 minute drive from the Navy base.

We took off to spend a day driving up the coast a bit and have a light lunch in Gaeta, Italy.  It was a lovely drive and arriving in the quaint little town was a joy, so much to see.  We will be going back!

The heat is here, days are up in the 90’s now and there is humidity.  Just need to ride it out  till cooler temps allow for more outdoor activities.  I am not a lover of heat so the hope is Summer is short here? Please?

Future plans include a certain young adult joining our household (step-daughter), a possible trip to somewhere cooler in August, maybe Swiss Alps? Maybe something else.  September has us braving the heat in Sicily for a few days of exploring where some of my family roots are from.  Working on a jump to Greece in October and Thanksgiving in Prague.  Oh and Christmas 2016 at the Vatican.

Needless to say I am in love with Italy so far and I haven’t told you about our quick trip to Rome yet!