After a few low-key days of relaxing, school work, reading and chill time everyone seemed to be getting a bit antsy and restless. So we planned a last minute adventure to head to Salerno. We had briefly been through Salerno on our trip home from Rome but it was a quick stop and surely there was lots more to see.

We didn’t do much planning and barely touched the surface of what there is to see in Salerno, but it was a fun day and it was good to be out and busy. Half the adventure was getting there. We had a new bus experience. As tourist season is beginning to pick up and most of Europe is beginning a two-week school Easter break; the crowds are certainly increasing. When our bus arrived it was SO crowded. We barely squeezed through the doors and were limited to a cumulative 2 feet of space for all 4 of us. It was a bit stressful for the kids but we were just glad to have made it on the bus (not everyone was so lucky). Fortunately just a few minutes into the ride a vast majority of the folks got off and we scurried to occupy their seats.

After the bus, we hopped on a ferry. This was the highlight of the day. With perfect weather and amazing views the hour-long ferry ride over to Salerno was gorgeous.

Arriving in Salerno we oriented ourselves with a quick trip to the tourist office and then meandered our way through the main pedestrian street. Full of shops, cafes and crowds there was a lot to take in. We managed to find a small cafe to eat at and then continued to walk through the old part of the city up to what was part of the renowned medical school in Salerno and is now a botanical garden – Giardino della Minerva (Garden of Minerva). Leila, with her fascination for Greek mythology, educated us on Minerva (the Roman equivalent to her favorite goddess Athena) as we navigated our way.

This garden had been established in the 18th century and was an educational area where medical students learned about the plants used to treat diseases. It was a small but interesting garden and had some beautiful views.

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We didn’t spend too much time in the garden as Leila, our task master, had us on a tight schedule to get back in time for the 2:10 ferry. We made the boat in time and had another great ride. This time we got to enjoy quite a show of windsurfers and kite boarders too.

We were home in time to shop, cook dinner and spend the evening making Easter cards for our new Praiano neighbors and friends. Happy we made the trip.

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Leila and Josh have really been each other’s EVERYTHING on this trip. Reading buddies, bus companions, dance partners, rock climbers, wave jumpers, convincing-mommy-to-buy-gelato-ers. It has been so nice to see them snuggling, giggling and bonding. But everyone needs a break sometimes.

Josh and I spent some 1:1 time together this morning (while Leila and Noni did the same). We walked to town, enjoyed coffee and pastries, played in the square, explored a new beach and then back to the square for a little soccer with some Italian buddies he has made.

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Leila and I had a really relaxing girls’ afternoon with a delicious lunch at a new restaurant and then we headed to the same cafe where Josh and I had been for more coffee and pastries…lucky me, I got two-times the goodies. Leila was then anxious to see Josh again so we met up with Josh and Noni at the square for some fun together time.

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Loved my special time with them both!

Our trip to Pompeii marked the first day we have set an alarm clock. When I told the kids the night before that we needed to leave the house by 7:00am they both looked at me with horror and shock. For two kids that are normally racing out the door before 7:00 to ensure they are first at the bus stop, they have quickly adapted to the sleeping in leisurely mornings (me too).

There was one amazing perk to waking up before sunrise:

Our transportation to Pompeii went RELATIVELY smoothly. The local bus was late so we ended up walking to town, but that was fine and we still had plenty of time to catch the SITA bus to Sorrento where we then hopped on the Circumvesuviana (local subway-like train) to Pompeii. The fact that the 9:07 train didn’t end up leaving till 9:20 (for no apparent reason) didn’t even phase me. Apparently these workers are very often on strike or on a “go slow” so I considered ourselves lucky that they were running at all.

We made it to Pompeii in plenty of time for our pre-booked tour and enjoyed the day. It’s overwhelming how enormous the ruins are and it was so nice to have a guide that could highlight the best sites and explain so much of the history and details about the people that lived here. The layer of ash did an amazing job preserving so much of what existed 2000 years ago – mosaic tile floors, frescoes, clay jars, ancient graffiti and bodies (archeologists used a method where they poured plaster into the empty spaces in the ash around the remnant bones – crazy amount of detail was preserved). I was a little slack when it came to photo taking I’m afraid.

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Getting to Pompeii, and all the other places we have visited, requires a lot of research on my part to figure out the best way to get there, what we need to bring and what to do once we arrive. In case anyone else ever needs to get form Praiano to Pompeii Josh has written some very handy instructions that could save you lots of time!

Today was a lesson in patience. For the most part in the US I feel like there is a certain expectation that things just work. You know, places are open when they say they will be open, buses show up, etc. That is a luxury. And it’s not really how things work in a lot of places.

I was excited to make a trip to beautiful Ravello (just 20 km from Praiano), but I had hoped that we would get an early start and be home early in order to get organized for a big trip to Pompeii the next day. My early start was foiled.

My plan had been (1) walk to town (2) get cash from ATM (3) buy bus tickets (4) get on 8:45 bus to Amalfi (5) get on 9:15 bus from Amalfi to Ravello (6) enjoy perfect carefree day. We walked to town only to find that the only ATM was out of order. With only 5 Euros in my pocket I was really hoping I could use my debit card to buy bus tickets at the tabacchi. There was a little sign on the tabacchi’s door that said “sorry no bus tickets”. Seeing as this is the only place in town that sells bus tickets I assumed that couldn’t be right. The store owner told me “no tickets – nobody delivered any yesterday” and just carried on reading her newspaper. After the bus driver took sympathy but explained there was no way he could sell me tickets I went back to the tabacchi hoping for more help. She explained that I could walk the 1.5km to the next tabacchi…hopefully they would have tickets. Noni and the kids stayed in town while I made the trek. Thank goodness that shop had tickets…unfortunately though, they only accepted cash which I was short on. The incredibly kind shop owner told me no problem and just told me I could come back to pay him the rest of the cash that evening. So I made the walk back to town with tickets in hand, collected the family and we finally boarded the first bus around 11.

It was a rough start, but after a few more little bumps we finally succeeded and honestly we all stayed pretty calm and content during the process. While these struggles don’t necessarily make for the easiest of days I do believe this is an important part of the traveling experience and our ability to persevere and figure it out together is a big part of why I wanted to make this trip with the family. Plus – Ravello certainly proved to be worth the effort and we really enjoyed our time exploring the town and villa there.

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I went back to the tabacchi that evening to pay the shop keeper what I owed and went ahead and bought bus tickets for Pompeii. Fewer life lessons tomorrow would be okay!

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Obviously all things Easter are a pretty big deal here. The town has been very busy preparing for Palm Sunday and the upcoming Easter processions. In honor of this special day our wonderful airbnb host (and now dear friend) dropped by to gift us delicious homemade breads and very special gifts for the kids. Josh received a palm decorated with candies and decorative mozzarella and Leila received a bouquet of flowers and candied almonds. Such a fun and generous gift to include us.

Aside from that special treat we had a pretty “normal day”. We have started studying Pompeii in preparation for our trip there on Tuesday. Preparing this lesson proved to be a bit tough as I had to be pretty discerning in my selection of what to show the kids to ensure neither of them would bail on visiting an active volcano.

Josh and I also invented a fun new game in our yard called “lemon toss”. The buckets each have different point values and we are tossing lemons that fell off our tree. Reaching 100 points is the goal and it’s proving to be a pretty competitive sport; tears have been shed.

We celebrated our lemon-toss wins with an afternoon on the beach. The highlight for me was a quick run and the highlight for the kids was meeting some fun friends to play with. It was a beautiful afternoon.

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A great day was topped off by a delicious dinner prepared by Leila and Noni and a family movie night with lemon cookie snacks.

We had a sneak peak of the town of Amalfi when we traveled through it on our way home from Rome on the 9th. Between the ferry and the bus we had been there just long enough to grab some sandwiches and enjoy them on the pier. Leila talked about those sandwiches (ham and cheese on focaccia bread) for four days and were the driving force for our field trip there with Noni. Spoiler alert…the sandwiches were NOT available on this trip!

It was a fun little trip. We explored the beautiful Cathedral of Saint Andrew (the first church we have had to pay to enter – it was worth it though), Josh dragged me through about 27 ceramic stores (his new passion – I still hate shopping) and we ate sub-par sandwiches on the beach. Thank goodness for gelato!

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Back in Praiano that evening mother nature decided to really show off.

Returning from Rome, it was surprising how much coming back to Praiano felt like coming “home”. I have to brag…I have been stopped twice by Italians asking me for directions. I don’t understand 95% of the words they are saying nor was I able to help, but at least I have started looking like a local!

We had a few days full of the normalcy of our new life here. Schoolwork, laundry, shopping, cooking, enjoying time in town, visiting the beach and dealing with the technical difficulty of our internet service being down.

Schoolwork: Leila created a Powerpoint and video about ancient Rome (we will work on getting that loaded on her blog) and Josh has been working on his writing as well.

Laundry: I’ve never seen a dryer in Europe, but I could get used to this method.

Shopping and Cooking. This may be the most dramatic difference for us in Praiano. Both Sean and I love grocery shopping and cooking, but normally it is a well-planned, highly-efficient procedure that involves a detailed meal plan, one large shop a week and a lot of prep work on Sunday to ensure work nights are bearable. Not in Italy. Less than 100 steps to the local market we go to the store at least twice a day. The trip to the store is part of the whole cooking experience which is pleasurably slow, unconstrained by any time commitments and always involves pasta. We have literally had some pasta (always fresh) with every single dinner since arriving!

These few days of our new norm were marked by one big change. On the 10th, Noni (my mom) arrived in Naples to join us for the next five weeks. On the 12th, Sean departed to return home to work for the next five weeks (he’ll then rejoin us in France). We are all so excited that Noni arrived – and it was so nice that there was a little overlap, allowing Sean and I to have an amazing dinner out just the two of us before he left (that meal also included pasta)! We were really bummed to see Sean go though. This had always been the plan but I don’t think the reality of going five weeks apart really hit us until the day arrived. We are going to take the separation from Daddy one day at a time and do our best to stay busy and sane – Noni will be a lot of help in that department!

I have traveled to Italy a few times in my life and had never made it to Rome. Honestly, it always had minimal appeal to me. A traveler that typically prefers the “off the beaten path” locations, Rome always felt like the antithesis of all that I enjoy about travel with its size, crowds and reputation for crime. It’s history and culture is, however, undeniable and I couldn’t argue the educational value for the kids. So, it was with trepidation that I reserved our apartment, tours and tickets.

The saying says “all roads lead to Rome” but from Praiano it seems to require a bus, boat, train and taxi. The bus rides around the Amalfi coast are true adventures in and of themselves. Despite relatively short distances, they take a long time and always involve a lot of dramatic twists and turns, near constant honking and a significant level of bravery (side note – I am so relieved that none of us suffer from car sickness as this place would be totally out of the question).

After a rough 3-hour bus ride to Naples we hopped on the train. I LOVE train travel in Europe. The trains are fast, clean, smooth, inexpensive and convenient. Our hour-long train traveled 250km/hr and was a welcome reprieve after the bus. The nutella croissants didn’t hurt either.

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Rome quickly proved to be all those things that I had feared; even exacerbated by an influx of 10,000 people running a marathon there the day we arrived. Rome also proved to be much more.

After a brief arrival and luggage drop off at our beautiful city apartment, we immediately set out to the meeting spot for our twilight gelato tour.

Just finding the tour proved to be difficult; battling crowds and getting disoriented in the maze of streets. The unexpected silver lining was that pedestrians seem to take priority over cars on most of the roads. Additionally, the city squares are full of street performers (musicians, bubble blowers, floating genies) that kept us entertained along the way. Our evening tour was less than stellar with a rather uninspiring tour guide and an exhausted Josh, but it did help orient us to the city and we saw some of the major landmarks (Parliament, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps). And, of course, gelato makes everything better. Mercifully, the tour ended just steps from our apartment and a beautiful outdoor restaurant where we enjoyed pasta and wine before collapsing into our beds.

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Day 2 in Rome was excellent. After a leisurely start to the morning we began our long trek across the city to the Colosseum. In no rush, we were able to enjoy the street performers, some delicious donuts from the patisserie and a few impromptu pigeon chasing sessions courtesy of Josh and Leila.

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Arriving at the Colosseum and the surrounding Palantine Hill area, I was truly in awe. The history and the interest in celebrating and preserving that history is remarkable. The sheer size and engineering perfection of the Colosseum is hard to conceive, and truly humbling. I can not think of anything that I have seen in my life that even comes close. We had an amazing tour which the kids truly enjoyed and were able to add even more color to thanks to their “school work” the previous week.

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After seven hours of walking the city we treated ourselves to an enormous dinner that included mussels, clams, truffle bruschetta, roasted fish, multiple rounds of pasta and pastries to wash it down. When in Rome…

Exhausted and ready to return to our relaxing Praiano home, we left early the next morning and took a different route traveling by train to Salerno, ferry to Amalfi and bus to Praiano. This crew is quickly becoming professional travelers! I’m really happy we made the trip. Not only is Rome a historical marvel, but I’m glad that I stepped out of my comfort zone and did something that I had always assumed I wouldn’t enjoy.

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P.S. One other thing that I cherished about Rome was being able to just walk into any of the 900 churches around the city, enjoy the peace and see masterpieces like this:

After morning runs, errands and a little school work, we spent the whole afternoon relaxing on our local beach; a short 15 minute walk from home.

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Intermingled with all the rocks on the beach are these pieces of painted terra cotta tiles (I think that is what they are). They were beautiful and so fun to collect. Some of these gems will definitely be making their way back to Georgia.

Watching the weather all week, we had decided that this would be the best day to attempt the long hike from Praiano to Positano via “Sentiero Degli Dei” (Walk of the Gods). This path goes along the cliffs of the Amalfi coast and is known for being stunning and strenuous.

We chose the path that we hoped would be easiest for the kids, but knew there was a good chance we would have to turn around.

We were told the first part of the trek would be 1000 steps straight up to the Monastery of St. Domenico and the Church of Saint Maria a Castro. The kids began counting each step…making it to “300” before they were out of breath and too busy whining to continue counting. A quick snack refueled them and they were sufficiently distracted from their misery thanks to the beautiful views and occasional statues that were tucked into the cliffs along the route.

Arriving at the church after about 45 minutes of stair climbing, we were welcomed by the most amazing view and a caretaker that fixed us fresh lemonade, coffee, cookies and snacks. The whole experience felt unreal.

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Totally inspired, we were all prepared to carry on for what we knew would be the most dangerous part of the hike. The next 30 minutes were relatively steep but the kids enjoyed the climbing and were total troopers. As the trail flattened out on top of the mountain that is where things got a bit more dangerous. With steep drop offs we had to keep a close eye on the kids and hold hands at times, but they did great. The trail got more crowded and we met many other adventurous hikers…all of which were impressed my our little “mountain goats”. We took a break to enjoy our picnic lunch of nutella sandwiches, salami, fruit and cookies…and a few hundred more photos of the beautiful scenery.

Arriving at the end of the hike (four hours after starting) we were all ready to get on the bus. Unfortunately the bus wasn’t due for another 40 minutes so we decided (probably a bad call) to start the trek down. We managed to walk another 30 minutes before finding another bus stop and making the very wise decision to wait there. The bus took us the rest of the way down to Positano where we celebrated our amazing accomplishment in the best of ways…gelato and beach time.

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This was a TRULY AWESOME DAY!

Note: This day included about 5% whining and 95% joy. I consider that a huge success and feel very lucky to have such awesome travel companions.