Epilogue, or Welcome to Chicago: Richard M Daley, Mayor

After a three day travel marathon that included 4 countries, 3 trains, 2 ferries, and 1 night in a hotel room we arrived in London for our flight back to the good old U S of A. Here're the details:

Day 1 - Thursday:
Woke up at 5:30 am, packed up the bags grabbed a couple pastries (not sure, but Hvar must be known for their pastries.. they have these flaky cherry filled things that are incredible) and headed to the dock to catch the 6:30 ferry from Hvar to Split.

Arrived in Split around 7:30 and took care of business first: Located the Jadrolinja international terminal and purchased our deck passage for the 9:00 pm overnight ferry to Ancona, Italy. After we purchased the tickets we dropped our bags at the left luggage counter at the bus terminal, and went off to explore the city for the next 10 hours.

Lucky for us (becuase we had nowhere to rest or wash up during the day) it was oppressively hot that day. We started our day by wandering around the city where we encountered a huge open air market that sold everything from whole skinned goats (seriously - skinned goats hanging by their legs from the stall roof) to tennis shoes to some sort of mysterious alcohol sold in myriad different used bottles (coke bottles, wine bottle, water bottles, etc...). After checking out the market (we didn't by anything - unfortunately we had no room in our packs for a dead goat) we went into the old town and saw Diocletian's palace (built as a summer home for the emperor during the heyday of the Roman empire). The cool thing about the palace is that it has pretty much been in continuous use for the last 1500 or so years.. it is currently occupied by souvenier shops, restaurants, and hotels. By this time (about 10:30 am) we were already hot and sweaty (and pretty much out of interesting things to see) so we stopped at the coolest (as in not hot) cafe we could find and had some omelets for breakfast while we listend to a quartet (plus two guitarists) of what looked to be ex-yugoslavian military - pretty tough old guys - singing. They were really good. After breakfast we went back to the port, checked our e-mail (in a place with AC) and picked up our chess board from the left luggage counter. We went back to the same cafe and played a few games of chess. We pretty much spent the rest of the day wandering through the old town with very frequent stops for cool drinks.

We boarded the ferry a little after 8:00 pm and started off for Italy. The Croatia/Australia world cup match was going on as we left and when we were about 100 yards off shore Croatia apparently scored. The entire town (Split is a big town -- couple hundred thousand people) erupted into a simultaneous roar immediately followed by dozens of nautical flares shot from various places within the city. About the same time, all of the big ferries (the international ferries are almost like little cruise ships) blew their fog horns to add to the celebration.

After we were under sail and settled in we struck up a conversation with an Italian guy (Federico), an Irish girl (whose name I can't remember right now), an Aussie (Clare - she reminded me of Natalie portman for those of you who know how I feel about Natalie Portman), and a Kiwi (Nessa). Federico who was 24, was in Croatia on business - he sells auto parts to distributors; Nessa and the Irish girl were cousins in their early 20's and were heading to Venice to wrap up a month long trip that included Italy and Croatia. They met Clare on the boat into Dubrovnik (the same way we met Sarah) and had been traveling with her in Croatia. Clare was in the middle of an abbreviated 4 month walkabout (most Australians do a year right after college). She had been to Switzerland, France, Italy, and Thailand, and was on her way to Greece for the final month of her trip. We sat in the lounge, talked, and passed around a water bottle of homemade grappa "moonshine" that Joey and I purchased from a waiter at a small family run restaurant in Hvar. Federico went to his cabin around 2:00 am and the rest of us passed out on our makeshift beds (laying in bar booths with feet on chairs).

Joey, Federico, Nessa, The Irish Girl, and Rob on the ferry from Croatia to Italy (Clare had already gone to sleep at this point).

Day 2 - Friday
We woke up at 5:30 am the next morning to blaring techno music and the bartender yelling "Buon Giorno!, Good Morning!, Time to wake up!"

After we arrived in Ancona (a little after 7 am) we left Clare at the ferry terminal where she would start the 21 hour (!) ferry ride to Greece, and caught a bus to the train station with Nessa and the Irish girl. Our plan was to catch the 11:00 am train to Milan, but things went so smoothly that we were able to get on the 8:15 am train instead.
We arrived in Milan around 1:00 pm dropped our luggage, and went to McDonalds (we had to do it at least once). The food was actually pretty good but for the lack of condiments.

After lunch we planned to buy our tickets for the overnight train to Paris, but realized that we had left our eurrail passes in one of the bags. We went to the left luggage counter where I showed the attendant my claim check and asked him if I could retrieve one item. He gave me this look as if I was placing a terrible burden on him (I could see my bag sitting about 10 feet from where he was standing) and asked me to step aside for a minute. Then he left... I'm pretty sure he just went home for the day becuase I never saw him again. So I went to the back of the line, waited for another 10 minutes and when I got to the front, asked the new attendant the same question. He also told me to stand aside (by this time there were A LOT of people in the line) so I stood aside and waited for about 15 minutes. Finally I decided I would just retrieve my bag, pay for it, and recheck it (which meant I would have to repay the 3.80 initial checking fee). So I once again got in line waited, and when I got to the front again I told to guy I wanted to retrieve the bag. He once again looked all put out, and told me that it was not possible. I would have to retrieve ALL my bags. By this point, I was already a good 40 minutes into this operation that should have taken 5, so I said fine. So I got all three of my bags back, pulled out the tickets and went directly back to the drop off line to re-check them. At this point there were probably 30 people in the retrieval line, so the attendants decided to remedy this problem by abandoning the the drop off line. So, as the retrieval line got shorter, the drop off line got longer and longer. I waited at the front of the line for another 15 minutes before I was finally able to recheck my bags. After that hour long ordeal, I went to stand in the LONG line to buy the train tickets.

We planned to meet Mom and the Geigers at their train which would be arriving at 3:30. By this time it was a little before 3, so Joey waited for them while I went to buy tickets. While I was standing in line a saw two girls a ways in front of me, one of whom was wearing a Miami Golf T-Shirt. I talked to them briefly when the switchbacks in the line made it so that we were standing next to each other. They were from Medina Ohio and had just graduated from Miami in May (for those fellow Miami Alums reading - they lived in End Zone). A short time later I bought the tickets (which cost me an arm and a leg - all of the second class couchettes were full so we had to buy passage in a three bed cabin).

When I exited the line, Joey, Mom and the Geigers were waiting for me. From there we caught a bus that (very round aboutly) took us to the Duomo. The front of the huge gothic church was, unfortunately, covered in scaffolding, but the inside was very impressive. They have a strict dress code (no short shorts, bare shoulders, or low cut tops) and there are Carabinieri officers standing outside assessing people as they enter. Mom and Rita both had exposed shoulders so they had to by shawls from a nearby vendor (how convenient) to cover themselves before they could enter. After checking out the Duomo we grabbed dinner and walked back to the train station. Mom, Rita, Dan, and Tom caught the 8:30 train back to Stressa where they were staying and Joey and I passesd time until 11:30 pm when our train left for Paris.

Day 3 - Saturday
We arrived in Paris around 8:30 am, picked up a map at the information desk and went about finding our hotel. We took the Metro (Chicago should take some lessons from the paris metro - it's really nice) to the center of the agrondisement where our hotel was located (paris is organized around "agrondisements" which are are sections of the town hemmed in by large streets), and much to our surprise, found our hotel very easily. We couldn't get into the room until 2:00 pm, but we left our packs at the desk and set off to explore paris (in a day). Our hotel was right down the street from the Opera so we started there. After that we picked up a bus that took us to the Champs De Elyses where we snapped a few shots of the Arc De Triumph and had lunch. After lunch we hopped back on the bus which took us down the Avenue of Woodrow Wilson past a statue of George Washington to a sqare just opposite the Eiffle Tower. We walked back down the avenue to the Museum of modern art.

It was very intersting to observe Joey at the museum. He's never really been much of an academic, but he's really taking to his fine arts education. He had out his sketch book and was writing down names and taking notes on several of the works. He also gave me background on a half dozen or so artists/works that he recognized - apparently everybody associates cubism with Picasso but DeRain and Barick were actually the first artists to employ the method (there were examples of all three artists in the collection). During the bus ride he also pointed out some examples of Art Nouveau metal work which he said is characterized by "its fear of negative space".

After the Museum we walked back to the Eiffle Tower for a few more pictures and a bus ride back to the opera (at this point we hadn't showered in going on three very hot days so when we passed Notre Dame, I said "should we get off and check it out?". We both looked at each other and in unison said "nah"). We got back to the hotel around 5:30, showered, took a short nap, and headed out for dinner. We ended up eating at the Hard Rock Cafe near our hotel. Joey had the BBQ Bacon Chedder Burger, and I had the Grilled Skirt Steak. We thought that it was important to start our reintegration into the American lifestyle before actually re-entering the states.

After dinner and a few beers we headed back to the hotel for a good nights sleep in actual beds.

Click on an individual photo to see full size.


Day 4 - Sunday
We woke up at 5:30 am, loaded up the packs and walked to Gare Du Nord to catch the 8:00 am Eurostar to London. Arrived in london Waterloo on schedule and after a 1/2 hour underground ride to Heathrow, were ready to attempt our final connection. When we picked up our seating cards the lady at the ticket counter said our chances looked pretty good, and that first class was pretty open so we might even be able to get that. We went through security and were directed to the "fast track" area where we breezed through the security check in less than 5 minutes.

Not sure what happened in the succeeding 3 hours, but when we arrived at the gate it was crowded with standby passengers who had been bumped from the previous two flights. So, 27 days into our trip, we experienced our very first missed connection. After the full plane departed we got our seating cards for the 4:50 flight and were told that we would have to go back to the departure lounge to wait for the gate assignment. For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of traveling through Heathrow, they have a very (as far as I know) unique set up. All passengers wait for their flights in an expansive "Departure Lounge" that contains a full on mall with upscale shops (Gucci, Cartier, etc..). Gates are not assigned until about an hour before the flight is to depart at which point you need to exit the departure lounge and walk about 20 minutes to the gates. If you arrive at a gate and need to make a connecting flight or (as in our case) you don't make a flight and need to catch another one, you are routed back through the departure lounge. The kicker is that you have to go BACK THROUGH SECURITY to get there - and there is no "fast track" for the flight connections security. The line for security if straight was probably 500 feet long. We received our seating card at 2:30 pm for a flight that was to board at 4:05. We walked from the gate through the flight connections area to the departure lounge and directly back to the departure gate where we arrived just as boarding was to begin. Luckily we got seats (albeit in coach) and at at 4:50 we were in the air and homeward bound.

We arrived in Chicago, around 7:30 PM breezed through customs hopped on the EL and were back home by 9:00 pm. And that, as they say, is that.

...but tastefully done

Well I'm leavin' tomorrow, but I could leave today
Somewhere down the road some day
The very last thing that I'd want to do
Is to say I've been hittin' some hard travelin' too.

Okay, so if you've been reading along these past few weeks you might say that private verandas and thrice weekly steak dinners (not to mention the photo at the top of this post) don't exactly constitute "hard travelin' ", but in some respects it was just that.

We encountered, and conquered, that feeling of complete solitutde that in the early days of our adventure, greeted us in every new town where the streets were unfamiliar, the customs unclear, and the language completely foreign. We learned that the stereotype of the "ugly American" is, unfortunately, not unfounded, but that with a modicum of respect and restraint the locals will always look past it. Please and thank you (in the native toungue) and a smile will get you a long way in any country.

We met (and observed) new people from countries across the globe. In some cases we engaged in conversations (with and without the benefit of a common language), and in others we simply communicated with our eyes and hands. In every instance though, they left us with another memory that will sit with us for a long time to come.

Tonight is the last official night of our trip. Tomorrow we start our three day journey back to chicago. The voyage will begin with the 6:30 am Jadrlinja ferry to Split. We'll spend the day in split then pick up the overnight ferry to Ancona Italy at 9:30 pm. From there it's a four hour train ride to Milan where we hope to meet up with Mom as she begins her two week Italian vacation with the Geigers. We leave Milan at 11:30 pm on an overnight train to Paris. After a day and a night in Paris we will take the 8:00 am eurostar to London and then (hopefully) a 2:30 pm flight to Chicago.

We spent the last day of our trip on the beach. After another homemade dinner and a few drinks in town, we went to bed early last night. This morning we picked up our laundry and caught a ferry to Milini beach where we lounged in the sun, floated in the Adriatic, had lunch, a litre of wine, and a few beers at the seaside bar, while we enjoyed the "scenery".

To all of you who have followed our travels during the past month, thank you. The fact that you were out there with us always made it feel as if we were never really alone. We hope that you've enjoyed reading these posts as much as we've enjoyed writing them.

Arrivderci,

Rob and Joe

Hvar Nights

It's interesting, having been in the same town for a few days, to witness the cycle of the tourists' comings and goings - especially the backpackers. Every morning and afternoon the Jadrolinja ferry arrives to pick up a group of veterans, ready to move on to their next destination after having successfully conquered Hvar. They are replaced by a fresh crop of backpackers, who after disembarking from the ferry, wander down the promenade with their packs (sometimes two - one on the back and one on the front) taking in the sights and trying to orient themselves with this new unfamiliar place. A short while later you will see them being led through the narrow midieval back streets of the old town by the local with whom they've arranged accommodation. By that evening (or afternoon depending on whether they arrived on the morning or afternoon ferry) you will encounter them again, this time sans packs, rested, and freshly showered, on the promenade as they scan the menus at the local restaurants and bars or in the internet cafes writing to their friends and family to announce their successful arrival in a new town. By the next day they are walking through the town with a purpose, like they own the place. They've found their niche - the beach they will walk to in order to sun themselves, their "regular" dining spot, and the place where they will unwind with a few beers in the evening. A day or two more of this and then they, as we, will be off to the next spot to start the cycle anew.

The Jadrolinja Ferry arriving at the port in Hvar Town

This is our third day in Hvar, after acclimating ourselves to the town on the first day, we spent most of day two ambling around the islets just off Hvar Town in a rented 5hp motor boat (I use the word ambling intentionally, becuase with a 5hp motot that's pretty much all you can do). The trip was fairly unremarkable, but very relaxing. We would motor for a while, find a nice cover or rocky beach and either drop anchor or tie off to one of the rocks - a harrowing manuever which we exectued extremely poorly at first (to the amusement of the "real" boaters who observed us I'm sure), but after a few tries and refinement of our technique we became quite proficient at it. The only really interesting sight (other than scores of nude sunbathers) we encountered during our tour was a small barren islands with a population of exactly 3... sheep. The sheep, with huge horns and thick, matted coats ran back and forth across the island, stopped for a while to graze on the sparse vegetation and ran some more.

Some pictures from our boat trip.


After we returned our boat we went back to the room to make dinner. We decided to take advantage of the kitchen in our room after realizing that our meals were becoming increasingly extravagant (read expensive) - as an indication: the previous night I had a steak, stuffed with prosciutto, in turn stuffed with cheese, and topped with shrimp in a garlic cream sauce - not exactly roughing it. We made a simple meal of spaghetti with red sauce, and a litre of the local wine we'd purchased that morning at the open air market.

That evening, we were determined to experience some of the Hvar night life we had heard so much about. We had gone to bed pretty early the night before after an early morning, but we could hear revelers on the promenade until almost 4 in the morning. After dinner we decided to take a nap so we'd be ready to hit the town that night. Our nap lasted a little longer than we anticipated. We woke up around midnight. We were, however, determined to make it out (and by the sound coming from down below, the town was in full swing) so we got up, showered and headed down the steps to the promenade. It turns out that the raucous commotion we could hear from our room was mostly attributed to one huge night club conveniently situation directly below our room. The rest of the town was pretty tame (at least it was at 1:00 am). Joey and I aren't really into the whole nightclub scene, so we decided to check out the rest of the bars. The first place we stopped at was empty but for about 15 people, but the were making up for it with their voices. There 5 completely blitzed Croatian guys in side belting out the lyrics to a song which based on the accompanying music and the gusto whith which they sang, is their eqivalent to "Friends In Low Places". The next bar we moved to actually turned off their lights when we sat down. The third bar was a little more lively. Packed with a mixture of locals, a few backpackers, and the occupants of the yachts and sailboats docked in the harbor. We stayed for a couple drinks and headed back to the room around 2:30. All in all, I was rather unimpressed - but we'll see what tonight has to offer.

A few pictures of the Hvar night

Today, we hiked up to the fortress (complete with dungeons and everything) which guards Hvar Town from a hill behind the city. The story is pretty interesting. The original structure on the site was put their by the Illyrians in the 5th century BC. It was rebuilt by the Venetians in the 13th century, and modified by the Austrians in the 19th century. It saved the towns inhabitants in the 1400's when the city below was attacked and burned by the turks. And, after all that, it was almost destroyed in the 17th century when lightening struck the powder cache in the armory.

Joey on the steps from the harbor to the fortress

Joey in the dungeon


Since our hike this morning, we've pretty much just been taking it easy, had a few beers, played a few games of chess and watched the people go by - that's how us "veterans" do it.

Goin' where the climate suits my clothes

After watching the US upset Italy by tying them in an extremely violent match last night, we hit the sack early and woke up at 5:30 to begin our journey to Hvar - the last island stop on our trip. We caught a 6:30 bus to Vela Luka (situated on the other end of the Korčula island - a 46 km drive), and then picked up an 8:00 am catamaran ferry to Hvar. We arrived in Hvar Town a little before 9:00 am.

Our first order of business was to secure lodging. The room we got is a lot more swank than our places in Dubrovnik and Korčula (small kitchenette, antique furniture, hardwood floors, and linen curtains) with a price to match, but Hvar is a pretty swanky town in general. It is one of the main ports of call in croatia for the world's rich and famous (as evidenced by some of the montrous yachts in the harbor - apparently we just missed Eric Clapton) partly becuase it receives more hours of sunshine per year (around 2300) than any other place in Croatia. The main seaside promenade is guarded by tall palm trees and lined with bars (some of them appear quite trendy) and stands peddling products made from the lavander cultivated on the hills outside of town. The town itself is pretty small.. in fact, none of the streets on the island have names but the bars are packed all day (and from what we've heard, well into the night). To make things even more exciting the Croatia Japan soccer match is today, so there are quite a few "enthused" fans. When ever something good happens, the entire town erupts into a simultaneous cheer.

This picture was taken from the window of our room overlooking the harbor.

Our original plan was to spend two nights in Hvar, before making our way to Italy for a couple nights in either Venice and Milan, but we've grown very fond of this bohemian lifestyle we've been living the past few day and we're considering extending our stay in Hvar to 4 nights and cutting out the final few days in Italy.

Tomorrow we are planning to rent a boat to explore some of the small islets and coves around the island, and since we try not to plan anything more than a day in advance, that's the extent of our agenda so far.

A couple more pictures from our day today


P.S. : The internet on Hvar is about 3 times as expensive as the other places we've been in Croatia so we're trying to limit our time. As such you may not hear from us tomorrow (just a warning so that we can avoid frantic e-mails from mom wondering if we're all right).

Nighttime is the right time

Last night we ate dinner at the same promenade cafe where we had been for breakfast. I had ordered steak for dinner three out of the past four nights (you'd never guess it, but the steak in Croatia is amazing) so I decided to splurge on the grilled lobster (I got to pick it out and everything). It was very good, but also very expensive - about the same price you'd pay for lobster in the US. I think I may have steak again tonight.

During our dinner we struck up a conversation with two cute British girls (Anna and Kate) who were probably a year or so out of college. They had just arrived in Korčula from Hvar (our next stop) and told us that it was even prettier than here (if that's possible). We talked about the places we'd been so far and where we planned to go. When we brought up Dubrovnik, I said that I thought it was very pretty but almost too pristine. When I started to say "It reminds me of..." Anna finished my sentence with "Disneyland!". So I guess our earlier observation is a fairly common one.

After they had finished eating we asked them if they'd like to join us at our table for a drink. Anna replied in that polite, British way of declining that makes you feel as if you've just been done a favor: "Thanks, but I'm afraid we'd be a bit rubbish at conversation at the moment."

After the girls left we talked for a while with an old (late 60's) British couple who were sitting at the other end of our table. From what I gather they are spending their retirement traveling around the world. During the course of our conversation they mentioned that they had been to the US several times, as well as Turkey, Croatia, and several places in Europe. The topics were centered around driving experiences and crime in the different countries (Italy and Turkey are the worst for both driving and crime). Crime is almost nonexistant in croatia, and the woman remarked that in some of the medium sized towns (such as Korčula) it is common for citizens to leave their keys in their cars with the doors unlocked when they aren't using them.

After we finished up our dinner (and two litres of wine) Joey and I were confronted with a situation that we hadn't encountered the previous night when we went to bed fairly early: Korčula doesn't exactly have a vibrant night life. In fact, it was pretty much deserted by midnight. And so we wandered aimlessly throught the empty streets until we came to a large marble square open on one end and bound on the others by shuttered museums and a church. Joey looked at me and with an air of mischief said "we've got to get the frisbee." I agreed, and we went back to the room and grabbed the disc. We tossed in the sqauare for about 1/2 hour before we decided to move on and find another location. Our next venu was a circular marble park just outside the city walls along the marina. And as you would expect anyone to do upon encountering an enclosed, perfectly circular marble surface (with two rickety soccer goals set on opposite sides of the circle), we decided to invent a new game. We were working through a game that involved placing the disc at the center of the circle, and then running to grab it and throw it in the goal when an old woman opened her window (about 100 yards from where we were) and shook her fist at us. We were being pretty quiet (we thought), but I guess we underestimated the extent to which the sound of a frisbee hitting marble reverberates through the midieval streets. At that point it was after 1:00 am, so we called it night and headed back to the room.

Latenight frisbee venu number #1

Latenight frisbee venu number #1


Today, we had our now standard breakfast of omlets at the same place we had dinner last night. While we were eating Anna and Kate walked by and jokingly asked us if we planned to get up and see the rest of the island.

After breakfast we caught a ferry to the town of Oribec (the idylic seaside town I mentioned in my last post) for a some swimming and sunbathing. We finally got in the water after staring at it for the past week. It was invigorating.. okay actually it was just freezing. But once we got used to the tempurature it was very nice. The water is highly salinated so you can almost "stand" in the water with out treading at all. The water went from shallow to about 20 feet very quickly, and even at that depth you could still see the bottom like you were looking through a green tinted window.

We got back to Korčula around 3:30, grabbed some lunch and took a short nap. Tonight should be exciting. The evening world cup match features Italy vs USA.

View of Korčula on the taxi boat back from Oribec

The Dude Abides

We left Dubrovnik by bus yesterday with our dirty laundry in tow (the laundry mat that we found was actually a full service cleaner and they were unable to wash all of our clothes before we needed to leave). The bus traveled along a (I know i've been using this word alot but it's the best way to describe this place) beautiful coastal road that would occaisionally dip into the mountains and around pine covered slopes interrupted by small vineyards and olive groves. We arrived in an ldylic little seaside town and the entire bus got on a ferry for the short trip to Korcula.

When we arrived in Korcula there were, once again, a gaggle of locals offering sobe (rooms). We approached one lady who showed us a picture of the island and said "my house, center". After the many arduous 25 minute walks down (and especially UP) the steps and hills in Dubrovnik, I was a little skeptical. I think I asked her if it was actually IN the center about 10 times. Finally she said "come, I show you". I decided that if she took us to a car we would say no thanks (partly becuase a car ride means a long walk and partly because this lady was about 85 years old). But thankfully, there was no car. She walked with us into the old town where she handed us off to a guy (i'm guessing her son) who walked us the remaining 200 or so yards to the house. The room cost us about 40 kn (around $7) more per night than in Dubrovnik but it is 100 times better. The rooms are modern and each has it's own bathroom and shower, and the front door of the house opens onto a cafe lined promenade that looks out over the Adriatic and a few small islands off the tip of Korcula.

The view from the door of the house where we are staying.


After unloading our bags and paying for the room we headed onto the promenade and found a place to eat at one of the cafes and watched the Sweden Paraguay world cup game on one of the many flat screen TVs attached to the outside walls of the restaruants. During dinner a scrawny black cat approached the tables in the area where we were sitting. He would walk up to a table, and sit (very statuesquely) at the foot of the diner and stare directly at him for several minutes. If the diner succumbed and dropped him a bit of meat he would almost shiver with excitement as he ate it. After a while at one table he would very methodically mvoe to the next table and repeat the performance. When he arrived at our table he climbed up on the ledge overlooking the sea so he was at eye level with us, and stared. Honestly, we were a little scared that he might pounce on us, so after about 10 minutes of staring we gave him a small piece of steak. Not one to overstay his welcome, he moved on to the next table shortly thereafter.

Shortly after the cat incident, all of the TVs turned off and we heard chanting followed by a long religious procession which contained about 50 men carrying crosses, candles, and relics of different sizes. Behind them marched a dozen or so nuns interspersed with children carrying flowers, and finally the priest walking under a canopy held up by four men and preceded by an insense bearer. He held up a gold bejeweled monstrace with a communion host inside. The priest was followed by a procession of locals in normal dress. After the procession passed the TVs came back on and the happy chatter once again filled the warm breezy air.

Our original plan was for to Korcula to be a quick one night stopover on our way to split, but the place is so "chill" that we decided we wanted to extend our stay (from one night to three). It's the kind of place where it would be perfectly acceptable to spend and entire day sitting in the sun at one of the cafes along the waterfront and take in some white russians (albeit far more likely a litre of the local wine)... And that's not far from how we spent our day today.

We woke up early and asked around until we found a laundry service - we were determined to get our clothes washed after our unsuccessful attempt in Dubrovnik. The woman informed us that it would take four hours to wash and dry our clothes, so we dropped them off, and headed to the internet cafe for some adminsitrative work (checking ferry times, etc). After than we picked up some fruit (the strawberries here are fantastic) and sat down at one of the cafes on the promenade for coffee and breakfast. I think this is the first actual (by american standards) breakfast we've had so far on this trip. We both had an omlet made with the local cheese and smoked ham (which is really more of a cross between what we would consider ham and bacon). After breakfast we played a couple games of chess at our table then strolled around town and snapped a few pictures.

A few shots from around Korčula:


We picked up our laundry at 2:00, and then went back to a different cafe for lunch (really good pizza - second only to the stuff we had with Antonella and Giacamo in Piedimonte Matese), a few beers and a few more games of chess. Around 4:00 pm we picked up a taxi boat to the other side of the island for some sunbathing on the rocks (pretty similar to how Lokrum is set up). Picked up the 6 o'clock taxi back to Korčula town which brings us up to the minute. We need to meet with Zola at 7:00 to pay him for our two additional nights then it will most likely be back to a cafe for some wine, dinner, and world cup soccer.

P.S. Sam, this is one is just for you: "Stuff On My Brother".

And then we were two.

We woke up around 8:00 am this morning, packed our bags and headed into town (which is grueling with our full packs on) to do our laundry and wrap up our stay in Dubrovnik with one last post.

After our trip to Lokrum yesterday we went back to the room, washed up, and headed back to the old town to meet Sarah for dinner. When we arrived at the place we thought she was talking about we learned that it was only a bar, not a restaurant. So we had a couple beers and waited. Were about to leave and find dinner elsewhere when we saw her characteristic purple hoodie and mailsack bag. Turns out the restaurant was actually around the corner. She had already eaten but she went with us to another of the many (probably hundreds of) restaurants in the town center and had some wine and chatted with us while we ate.

After dinner we walked back up the hill, said our goodbyes at the little grocery, and parted ways. She is off to Split today and then back to the states via London. We are Korcula bound. And so, it's just me and Joey again. Joey and I have been traveling extremely well together, but it was nice to have a third for a few days. Safe travels Sarah!

ADDENDDUM:
I bought a new card for my camera and was able to transfer a couple of the pictures from Lokrum that I had saved on my camera's internal memory:

A couple pictures of Joey on Lokrum.

Joey sitting atop the grotto inside the Lokrum net on the oldest Lokrum Disc field in the world. (for more information on Lokrum Disc please refer to the previous post)

Now you see them...

There will be no pictures from our day trip to Mljet yesterday becuase I am an idiot. This morning Joey and I took the short ferry ride from Dubrovnik old town to the nature preserve on the island of Lokrum which is situated just off the coast. On the way I was adjustiing the settings on my camera (white balance, color saturation, etc...) . I remembered reading in the manual that it was possible to create and save custom setups, so I scolled through the menu items until I came to one called "format". At this point I was beset by a temporay but devastating lapse an judgment and selected that option. I expected another menu to appear that would allow me to name and save the group of settings I had just created. Instead it erased all the digital pictures I've taken so far. There was no helpful warning message like "Are you sure you want to DELETE ALL OF YOUR PICTURES?", or "I REALLY wouldn't do that if I were you." ... Just an hour glass and then nothing.

I have a representative sample from most our trip up to yesterday uploaded to this blog, so there's no huge loss there, but you will have to picture Mljet in your mind's eye. Actually so will we... as a little ironic twist, we've taken most of our pictures on this trip with our film cameras. We just used the digital to take snapshots for the blog, but yesterday we shot almost exclusively digital.

So, I will do my best to tell you about our day with descriptions of the photos I was planning to add.

PHOTO: foreground - three pairs of feet, one with painted red toenails (sarah's), one sandled (mine), and one pair of bare size tens (joey's). Background - a secluded cove with crystal clear blue/green water surrounded by tree covered hills in front of a perfect blue sky.


We woke up at 6:30, showered, packed our day pack and walked to the small grocery store down the street to meet Sarah at 7:30. We met right on schedule and went inside to pick up some fruit and bottled watter for the trip. After we purchases our supplies we walked a little under 1/2 hour to the Gruz port where we would pick up the 9:00 am ferry to Mljet.

We arrived at the port around at 8:00 am, ate our fruit and drank coffee while we waited to depart. The boat left sailed on time and a little over an hour and a half later we docked in Polace on the island of Mljet.

The island of Mljet is a little over 30 km long and no longer than 3 km across at its widest point. The entire western half of the island is covered with a national park which includes two large salt water lakes, one of which has an islet with a 14th century monestary at its center, and Montokuc, the highest peak on the Island.

We bought our park admission for 90 kuna each (about 30 percent higher than the price listed in our guidebook - the croatians are definitely embracing capitalism). We headed up the path to the summit of montokuc (a little over 1.6 km to the top). After about a 45 minute walk up the hill (with Sarah in the lead.. she is in WAY better shape than we are) we reached the peak.

PHOTO: foreground - Sarah and Rob sitting on a rock in the lower right hand corner of the frame. background - vistic view of the two lakes below and past them the Adriatic.

PHOTO: foreground: Joey and Rob standing on a rocky outcrop jutting out over the forest below. Background: a small penninsula sticking out into a dark blue sea.

We walked down the opposite side of the mountain to the water. The way down was not quite as interesting as the way up, the path was wider and gravely (large enough for a car) and there weren't quite as many opporunities to glimpse the Adriatic. We reached the bottom and walked along the road until we found the nice secluded little area pictured in the first photo. We hung out there for about an hour before hiking the 4 or so km back to Polace.

We arrived back in Polace around 4:00 pm and sat down at a cafe to order a few cold .5 litre beers and some lunch.

PHOTO: Rob, Sarah, and Joey sitting at a table with a small port in the background. Everyone is holding their beer with huge smiles on their faces (the owner had just said something really funny and we were laughing at his joke).

For lunch Joey ordered the Mljet Game with Gnocchi. When he asked the waitress/owner (wife of the guy in the above photo) what the "game" was. She struggled with the english for a moment before replying "crazy pig" (which Joey, Sarah, and I all immediately recognized as "Wild Boar"). When the husband served us our food, he was laughing so hard at the fact that his wife called Wild Boar Crazy Pig, that he was almost crying.

We had a litre of the local white wine with our dinner, and after we finished, sat around and talked for a 1/2 hour or so until it was time to get on the boat for the trip back to Dubrovnik. We arrived back in town and started back up the hill from the port towards our rooms. We reached the point in the road where our paths diverged around 8:20. We agreed meet back at the market at 9:00 pm so we could head back into the old town for dinner.

I have to give Sarah some props here: she made the 10 minute walk back to her room, showered and made the 10 minute walk back to the market before 9. Joey and I were a little late (although our room was slightly further away and there were two of us).

When we arrived back in the city center, the whole town was atwitter with excitement over that evenings World Cup match between Croatia and Brazil. There were TVs EVERYWHERE in the old town (including a 15 foot diameter screen hung on one of the old city's fortified walls overlooking the marble streets where scores of people had gathered to watch.) We ate at a wine bar on an outside terrace overlooking the old city's ancient port. It was a nice night and normally the terrace would have been packed but we were one of only three occupied tables. Everybody else (including the waitstaff) was in the indoor dining room glued to one of 8 or so flat screen TVs set up around the restaurant... Unfortunately Croatia was bested by Brazil in a 1-0 match.

As I mentioned this morning, we took a short ferry ride to Lokrum to sun ourselves on the rocks that jut out from the pine covered island into the Adriatic. We arrived around 11, laid around for about an hour then took one of the trails up into island interior. During our walk we encountered several Peacocks (of which there are apparently a large number of on the island) and several craggy cliffs split by clear water. There were quite a few people swimming but it was still too cold for us. During our walk we encountered a small park with some soccer goals set up. It was here that Lokrum disc was born.

Here are the rules and regulations as drafted before and after the inaugral match:

Players:
2

Equipment:
Two large soccer goals (referred to as Lokrum nets)
Two Small soccer goals (referred to as grottos)
One 175 gram disc.

Field of Play:
Lokrum nets should be placed on a large grass field no less than 50 paces apart. Grottos are centered inside the Lokrum nets with front posts of grotto and net aligned to each other.

Game play
Object is to score points by throwing the disc into the Lokrum nets. Each player must tag the crossbar of the grotto and release the disc from within the redzone which is bound by the posts of the Lokrum net and extends outward for 5 feet in front of it. Release outside of the red zone or failure to tag the grotto crossbar will result in forfeiture of the scoring opportunity.

Interventions:
Each player is allowed two interventions per game (a match consists of three games). An intervention is exercised anytime the defending player comes in contact with the disc in the area between the Lokrum net posts and extending across the field from one net to the other. An intervention is successful if the defending player catches the disc within the red zone and prevents the offensive player from scoring. If an attempted intervention is unsuccessful the intervention is lost and the offensive player receives one point. If a defensive player exercises an intervention after his alotment has been exhausted, the offensive player receives two points.

Scoring:
3 points: A disc thrown into the grotto without first touching the ground.
2 points: A disc that bounces or slides into the grotto.
1 point: Any disc that enters the Lokrum net but not the grotto (on the ground or in the air)

Misc rules:
A lokrum match is made of of three games, each played to 11 points. If a player scores more than 11 points his score is set back to 7.

Defensive players may not enter the red zone until the disc has been released.


results of the first match:
game1: Rob 11-6
game2: Joe 11-10
game3: Rob 11-6

Match: Rob

Lush, verdant hills kissed by crisp azure waters.

...That one's for you Sarah.

We left Piedimonte Matese around noon on Sunday and after an uneventful 3 hour drive through a constant rain, dropped off the rental car at the Bari airport and caught a cab to the seaport. We arrived at the seaport around 3 pm with the intention of securing passage on the 10 pm ferry to Dubrovnik. When we entered the terminal, however, all of the ticket windows for Dubrovnik were closed. We panicked briefly at the thought of being forced to spend the night in Bari (which is the ugliest, dirtiest, most godforsaken town I've ever seen... It gives Gary Indiana a run for its money), but an agent at another ticket counter informed us that the window for Dubrovnik would open at 7 pm.

So we waited. Went to the bar and played a game of chess and a few games of two handed euchre, slept, and people watched.

When the ticket counter opened at 7, we bought two deck passages (which means no assigned seats... you just hang out in the common areas on the boat). We entered the boarding queue around 8:30 but they weren't allowing Dubrvonik bound passengers to board, so we waited again. While we were waiting we met Sarah. She had spent the previous week in and around Sorrento for a friend's wedding and was on her way to Croatia for a few days before starting her journey back to San Fancisco.

Once we finally boarded the boat she joined us at a table in the bar. We talked for a while, and after the boat was under steam, opened a bottle of wine that I had purchased in Siena and toasted plastic dixie cups to our upcoming adventure.

Toasting on the ferry from Italy to Croatia.

We all nodded off around 11 30 and slept (as best you can sitting in a bar lounge) unil around 5 30 am. In the morning we made plans to meet at the Pile Gates for dinner and talk about an excursion to Miljet (a nearby island/park) tomorrow.

The boat arrived in Dubrovnik around 7 am. We got off the boat and went through customs at which point we were surrounded by locals looking to rent out rooms. Our original plan was to secure a room through a travel agency but none of them appeared to be open so I decided to give the hawkers at the door a chance. I approached the friendliest looking old lady i could find and asked her what she had. She told me her room was "nice, nice" and was only a 15 minute walk from the Pile Gates (she showed me her house and the Pile gates on a map... they seemd fairly close but the map didn't have a scale). She informed me that the price would be 100 kn per person per night (about 15 or 16 dollars). She said it was a firm price so i told her i wasn't interested and started to walk away. At that point she reconsidered and offered 90kn per night. I countered with 80 and she accepted (so total cost for 2 people would be around 26 dollars per night). She led us to her husband who was waiting in a car nearby and he ferries us up the hill to his house. We inspected the room and it seemed nice enough so we agreed to take it.

The view from outside our room in Dubrovnik

After a brief nap we headed to the Pile gates (more like a 25 minute walk). The old town of Dubrovnik is very interesting - definitely the most beautiful place we've seen so far. All of the buildings are covered in red terra cotta (set against palm trees, and the deep blue Adriatic) and the main streets are made of marble polished by the constant foot traffic (no cars allowed). The town is so pristine it almost doesn't seem real. It reminded me of the country themed town settings at disney world. That effect was reenforced by the fact that entire old town seems to be populated soley by tourists and those who cater to tourists. All of the shopkeepers and restauarant workers speak impeccable english. In fact, I don't think I've heard any Croatian yet.
Some selected shots from Dubrovnik.

The "10 minute" walk to Castello

Today we leave Piedimonte bound for Bari and then (we hope) a ferry to croatia. We don't have a reservation and you can't book online less than 72 hours in advance, so we've got our fingers crossed.

Yesterday we hiked the footpath from Il Centro Storico in Piedimonte Matese up the mountain to Castello (that's the entrance to the footpath in the picture above). Anotonella, and the lady whose back yard the entrance is in both told us that the walk to Castello would take about 10 minutes. The people in italy must walk as fast as they eat, becuase it was more like 45 minutes at a constant 30 degree uphill angle.

The path provided some breathtaking views of the mountains and of Piedimonte matese below. We arrived in castello and snapped a few pictures (sorry no digital), but there really isn't much to the town. We stopped in a little hole in the wall bar and played a game of chess will sipping on a couple Peronis and some tomato and basil potato chips. We also bought a 2 litre bottle of water to rehydrate us after the walk up.

On the way back down we crossed paths with a Roman hiker who spoke english. He was near the bottom of the trail and already pretty winded. He asked us: "it's ten minutes to the top right?".

We arrived back at the hotel around 5:30 PM and relaxed for a while then called Antonella to make arrangements for dinner. She and Giacamo along with her sister (Federica's mother) Nuccia picked us up out in front of the hotel at 9:00 pm and we headed to a Pizzeria in the neighboring town of Avilgnano where we met Nuccia's husband Gianni. The pizza was excellent. 10 times better than any pizza we've had up to that point in the trip. After dinner we tried to pick up the tab to thank them for all they'd done, but failed miserably (try getting into an argument with a southern italian woman and let me know how YOU do). We finally agreed that if they came to America we could pay for them.

After dinner we went back into Piedimonte Matese where there was a street festival (complete with brazilian belly dancers) put on by the newly elected mayor of the town. We had a cofee in Green Garden, the most popular Gelateria in town, and walked around for a bit. Then we went with Gianni and Nuccia to pick up Federica at a party (Nuccia wanted to hear Federica speak to us in English). The car ride was pretty funny. Gianni only speaks about 5 words in english (all of them unprintable) but he is hilarious... definitely somebody we would like to have hung out with a little more. Apparently he is a big fan of disco, and during the car ride he had the Beegees (followed by Rappers Delight) blaring and was dancing while driving. After we picked up Federica we met up again with Anotella and Giacamo and talked for about 15 minutes before Gianni, Nuccia, and Federica said there goodbyes and left. Anotella and Giacamo drove us back to our hotel we said our goodbye, thanked them for all of their hospitality and they drove away.

A few pictures from our walk up the mountain (don't worry mom it's more dangerous than it looks). The two pictures of just the mountains show the road that Giacamo and Anotella took to La Mira Lago Matese.

These are my eatin' pants!

Overlooking La Pizza San Sebastiano di Il Centro Storica di Piedimonte Matese.

It's been a while since our last post, and a lot has happened since then so put on your reading shoes:

Siena a Caserta:

When I originally planned our travel from Siena to Caserta, I overestimated the travel time. I thought that we would be able to leave Siena on a sleeper train and arrive in Caserta early the next morning. As it turns out the entire trip is only 5 hours and includes 3 separate trains (Siena -> Chiusi, Chiusi ->Roma, Roma -> Caserta). That posed a slight problem becuase our car reservation wasn't until the next morning and our hotel until the next afternoon. We were, however, saved by Gaia the manager/receptionist/bar tender of the Borgo Grandaie. She called the car rental place and the Villa De Pertis and took care of switching around our reservations.

So we left Siena about 12:20 PM and three train rides later arrived in Caserta a little after 5:00 pm. We were to pick up our car in the Piazza Girabaldi in Caserta, but we had no idea where it was in relation to the train station (or how to get out of Caserta once we got the car). We didn't have a city level map of the region, but we figured we just pick one up at one of the kiosks in the train station when we arrived (all of the train stations we had been into this point hand an abundance of local maps available). We got of the train and went to the kiosk in the station. No Maps.

That left us to find Piazza Girabaldi on our own. After we picked up the car we would be able to get a map from the rental agency. Since we had no idea where we were going, and there aren't many english speakers in Caserta, we decided to just get in a cab and have them take us to Piazza Girabaldi. As we approached the taxi stand we decided to do our best to find out how far away this place was. Good thing we did, because the man indicated that we were, in fact, IN piazza Girabaldi. We quickly located the rental agency and went to pick up our car (a blue fiat). Still no maps. The guy in the rental agency did his best to point us toward Piedimonte Matese and Dragoni (where are hotel is). Here were his directions as close to verbatim as I can remember

First you go that way (right) then you go the that way (left) . You drive in front of the palace and after about 20.. no 50 meters you will see a small alley. Turn that way (right) into the alley and drive until you reach a wall and can go no further. You will see a sign on the wall that says "Caizzo". Follow that road for a long time until you get to Caizzo. When you get there stop and ask somebody for directions.

So we left Caserta, fully expecting to spend the next several hours trying to find our way out of the city. As it turns out, however, the mans directions were accurate and we made it onto the road to Caizzo with no problems. About 10 or so km don the road we started seeing arrows indicating the direction for Piedimonte Matese, and shortly after, Dragoni. So we followed the signs along small two lane roads through little towns, and around valleys full of farms and surrounded by cloud ringed mountains. After about an hour (and a small delay when a herd of sheep overtook the road) we rolled into Piedimonte Matese. This was very exciting but for the fact that at that particular moment we were looking for Dragoni. So we did a quick drive through of the town (the first thing that struck us was the large number of young people. I would estimate that about 65% of the people we saw were under the age of 25, and most of those were in their teens). After hour brief tour we headed out of town in the direction of Dragoni. We first mistook Alife for Dragoni, and after stopping at a computer repair shop for some charades, we got back on rack. We checked into the Villa De Pertis, which is an expansive house that looks like it could be in a 20's horror movie. I half expected Igor to answer the door, but to our relief, it was Biaggio - the friendly cook that Uncle Rob had told us about. We checked in and headed to Il Buccou Divino (another one of Uncle Robs suggestions) for dinner.

Il Buccou Divino

The restaurant was, just has Uncle Rob had described, completely empty when we arrived (and remained that way until we left two hours later). The staff remembered Unclde Rob's visit a week earlier and asked if we would like them to choose for us. We said yes, and the gastronomic adventure began. We started off with a bottle of red wine typical to the region (our favorite wine so far), hour first antipasto was a kind of uncased sausage wrapped in a dense pastry (gourmet pigs in a blanket if you will). After that we had a second antipasto: layers of the local cheese (made in Piedimonte Matese) alternated with paper thin slices of smoked buffalo. It as extremely good. Our pasta course was Gnocchi with bacala (some sort of fish) and zucchini in a butter sauce. I tried to ask Giancarlo (owner i think) what bacala was and he replied in english "salt goat". I'm assuming something was lost in translation. Our main course was beef medalions in a rosemary red wine sauce, followed by a a moist fig pound cake covered in cream sauce for desert. After that we had some coffe and went home to sleep. Overall all I would say this was up there with the best meals i've ever had.

A few pictures from Villa De Pertis - note joey standing in the front door to provide a sense of scale.

Il Altri Civitilli

The next morning we headed into Piedimonte armed with a map of the Piazza where Great Grandpa Salvatore was born that he drew back in the 80's (included in the "roots" post) and another map of the route to the piazza that Uncle Rob gave us when we met in Rome. The path looked simple enough, but we misjudged the starting point and ended up on an unintended tour Il Centro Storico (historical center) above the Piazza we were looking for. We wandered around for a good two hours before we finally realized that the path started in Piazza Roma. So we headed up the path this time (turns out that it intersected with our previous walk and if we had gone the way I wanted instead of the way Joey wanted we would have found the piazza). When we arrived at the water source we took a wrong turn and ended up in what we think is som sort of pumping station. One of the workers came out and told us we couldn't be there so we showed him our map and asked him where we needed to go. He motioned for us to come with him, and led us into the Pizza Di San Sebastiano where grandpa was born. There were a few people standing around and the worked basically yelled into the air (in italian) does anybody here speak English?. A few more people came outside and there was a little imprompto town meeting. They finally settled on a house that contained an english speaker and went to knock on her door. She didn't answer but a few seconds later she pulled up in her car. Enter Antonella.

The people in the square did their best to describe that we were Americani and she took over from there. When we established that we were Civitillos she went and rang the door of Renato Civitillo (the person who Uncle Rob and Theo met and had lunch with). He came downstairs but when he realized we didn't speak Italian, he kind of lost interest. Shook our hands and went back upstairs. At that point the members of the town meeting decided that I looked like Giovanni Civitillo, and that we must be related. So Anotella asked us to wait for 15 minutes.

So we waited in the Sqare next to Angelo, an old man (probably in his 70's) with a raspy voice who didn't speak a lick of english. We had a few pantomime sessions but mostly just stood in silence. About 15 minutes later Antonella pulled up with her husband Giacamo and their niece Federica. She told us we would go now to see Giovanni (who happens to work as a forest ranger with Giacamo). So we hopped in the car and headed a short way down the road.

When we arrived Giovanni came out wih his mother Vittoria, sister Anna Lia and Wife Loretta. I would guess that Giovanni and Loretta were in their 20's and that Anna Lia somwhere between 13 and 16. Another town meeting ensued as we tried to figure out if we had any common ancentors. Anotella translated bits and pieces but it was mainly in Italian - every once in a while would catch a Civitillo or a Pastore (great grandmas maiden name). At some point an old woman (maybe 80) joined the meeting from an overlooking balcony. After a while we decided that we would come back when Giovanni's father Michele returned from work that evening.

At this point we learned that today was Federica's 13 birthday and Anotella invited us back to her parent's house for a late lunch. Her Parents' house was located just below the footpath to Castello (which we plan to walk today). We entered the house and were introduced to her parents Luigi and Imperia. Anotella filled them in on the situation and before long Imperia was on the phone to her friends in Castello seeing if anybody knew any Pastori. (also should note that throughout the day Anotella encouraged Federica who is taking evening english classes to practice on us. She was a little shy about her english at first but warmed up eventually).

For lunch we had pasta in a spicy red sauce, antipasti made with eggplant (i think) and artichoke (i think) from the garden. The wine was made by Giacamo's father and was served in an old soda bottle. We started to eat and talk, and soon after Luigi who was standing behind the table said that we should eat first, talk after. So we did. Everytime we stopped to take a breath during the meal Anonella would prompt us to eat! eat! It was advice well taken becuase the food was delcious. After pasta we had a selection of local cheeses and cantaloupe followed a cheesecake topped with a strawbeey jam for Federica's birthday (it's her favorite). After dinner Imperia and Luigi showed us their gardens and we snapped a bunch of family pictures and talked for a while longer.

Luigi, Imperia, Federica, Me, Joey, and Giacamo:

Luigi, Imperia, Federica, Anotella, Giacamo

Then Giacamo told us that he and Antonella would take us to see La Mira Largo Matese, which at 12K feet (i think) is apparently one of the two to higest lakes (altidudinally speaking) in the world. So we got in the car and headed out (or rather up). First we dropped off Federica, she got of the car, offered us both her cheek, and headed up the road. We then took the very windy mountain road up past Castello and and San Gregorio, to the lake. The lake sits in a valley at the foot of several snow capped peaks - very beautiful.

We hung out at the lake for about 1/2 hour and on the way back got a call indicating that Michele had returned and so headed back to the house of Il altri Civitilli (the other civitillos). We arrived and were warmly greeted by the family and invited into the living room. Again there was much talking and discussion about possible links between our families, but despite my strking resemblence to both Giovanni and Michele decided that there is most likely not a recent connection. We drank peroni and munched on some pretzel like pastries, took some more pictures and left after about 1/2 hour. Antonella and Giacamo then drove us into town, made some copies of their road atlas for us (finally we have a map!) and dropped us at our car. We are meeting up with them again tonight for pizza at a place in a neighboring town that is supposed to be good.

CIVITILLI: Joey, Me, Michele, Giovanni, and Anna Lia

CIVITILLI: Me, Vittoria, Loretta, Anna Lia, Giovanni, and Joey.

At the end of the trip Anotella said in an apologetic tone - "we are sorry that this is all we could offer you". We told that she had given much more than we could have ever expected.

Il Altri Civitilli (and Giacamo) looking at grandpa's map of La Piazza San Sebastiano. In order to fully appreciate this picture it is important to note that everyone you see (and some you don't) were, with the exception of Michele, talking at the same time.

We are running out of time, but i will try to post some more pictures of the town in general when i have a chance. Also we will be off the grid for a couple days so probably no more posts for a few days.

Tuscan Sun

Today is our travel day and we're short on time so this will be brief... Spent the day yesterday on a tour of the Montelcino region which included stops at two Brunello wineries. The first was a medium sized operation run entirely by women. The second was a small family vineyard run by the 25 year old son of the owner -that's him in the picture to the right (the family has been producing wine out of the same facility since the 14th century).






We bought two bottles of wine from the first place and two more plus a bottle of olive oil from the second.

Also, it turned out that our guide Jacopo was from caserta (our next stop) and was familiar with Piedimonte Matese... He sounded kind of jealous that we were going there.





We returned home around 8:00 pm and enjoyed our new olive oil and wine. We made a dinner of capellini tossed with olive oil, fresh basil, garlic, tomatoes, and romano cheese.





I'll add some more details on the wine tour as time permits.




A few more pictures from our montelcino excursion:




Joey in La Piazza Del Campo in Siena: