Christmas Vacation Italian Style

The past few days have been a whirlwind.  The last time I wrote we were heading into Naples to get pizza.  The plan changed when my luggage was in airport purgatory.  I eventually had to go to the airport and demand my bag.  After about forty five minutes and also aiding a member of the U.S Navy who was in the same predicament as me, I was on my way with my bag.  Instead of heading to Naples we went to Caserta and just as good pizza.

After lunch we went up to a small little mountain town called Casertavecchia, which translated is "Old Caserta".  When you think of old time Italian towns, this one takes the cake.  The streets made of cobblestone and just wide enough barely fit a car.  You could literally walk the entire town in about 15 minutes.  The hilly streets and old time feel makes this a very interesting visit.

Casertavecchia

That brings us to Christmas Eve and you can only imagine what that entails.  I took the family through the town of San Nicola during the morning to get out of the house to avoid being yelled at by the multitude of Italian ladies cooking dinner.  The feast of the seven fishes was everything that it was cracked up to be.  Eel, squid, octopus, shrimp, cod fish, white fish, and scallops.  Thirty five people surrounding a table and talking at an octave that only a dog can appreciate.  Even Aunt Bethany from "Christmas Vacation" could hear this conversation.  The evening finished with a trip from Santa and a game called Tombola, which is equivalent to BINGO

Christmas Day was as about as relaxing as could be. Surrounding by family once again and Christmas mass in the church in which I was baptized.  This was the climax of my "Good Ol' Fashioned Italian Christmas".

Today (Friday) we woke up early and headed to the former house of Bourbon.  The Royal Palace of Caserta was last inhabitant of the monarchy that ruled Italy before its independence in 1848.  There are 1,700 windows and 120 rooms in the castle, only about a quarter of that is opened to the public.  After viewing the inside we went into the back grounds.  The grounds are just under two miles long and roughly a mile wide.  We took a ride in a horse drawn carriage to avoid really tiring out the baseball orphans.

Ten days is never enough time to tour Southern Italy, when you throw a holiday in the mix the time frame intensifies.  We have two more days left in Italy and we plan to make the most of them.  Until next time.

3D
If you don't take it from me, ask my wife.

Christmas Italian Style

It's Tuesday morning and I still have no luggage.  Supposedly it is coming today, let's just say I am less than confident.  We do have a pool going so hopefully the pot doesn't raise.

The past couple of days have been a world wind.  On Sunday morning we woke up a little later than we wanted and we headed to the Abbey at Monte Cassino.  If you don't know the story of Monte Cassino, it is sad story.  On February 15, 1944 the Allied and German forces were locked in a battle at the Gustav line, which was a German stronghold preventing Allied access to Rome.  Since the Abbey sits on top of a mountain it was rumored that German troops were occupying it for the high vantage point.  Tha Allied forces decided to bombard the abbey with an air raid turning the structure to rubble.  It was later confirmed that only Italian refugees were in the church and perished in the rubble.  After the war the Italian State, with the aid of Allied resources, rebuilt the abbey to its original state.

Church at the Monte Cassino Abbey

It is an impressive build with some great architecture.  The vantage points give a great view of the Appenine Mountains.  Below the hill are several cemetaries of soldiers from other countries that perished in the battles around the hill.  The church inside is decorated with beautiful art,14 karat gold architecture and a nativity scene eight feet long.  The baseball orphans were left speechless at all "toys".

Following the trip we went to a restaurant for lunch/dinner.  We eventually had to get up and leave because they just kept bringing out food.  As we walked out, the chef was sad that we were leaving because he had more food to bring out to us.  Restaurant, Italian style.

On Monday, we took it easy.  We went to "Il Mercato".  It's a type of flea market/farmers market where it has been known that some high end products have "fallen of the truck".  There was a large crowd which reminded me of Disney World.  No Holds Barred.

Il Mercato in San Nicola La Strada

All in all, we are having a good time.  Tuesday's agenda has a trip to Naples and lunch at Presidente Pizzeria which has been made famous by a visit from President Clinton and the movie "Eat, Pray, Love".  Hopefully my bag comes today.  Daily laundry is getting old.

3D
If you don't take it from me, ask my wife.

Good Ol' Fashioned (Italian) Christmas

Greetings from Caserta, Italy.  This year the baseball widow and I decided to have, as Clark Griswold would say, "Good Old Fashioned Family Christmas", Italian Style.  My goal is to blog as much as I can, if not daily during our stay.  

You will be seeing this Sunday Morning, so the only thing that has happened is the travel to Italy and a reunion with Family members.  I would like to say that everything went off without a hitch, but that just doesn't happen to me during my travels.

I will preface this by saying that the staff at Alitalia is great and have always been good to me.  To be quite honest it was a great trip.  When the baseball orphans first saw the airplane at Logan, they couldn't hold their excitement. Our flight path took us from Boston to Rome to Naples.  Rome seemed to be the problem.  We arrived in Rome and the only way I could describe the airport organization was "a cluster".  The security line had roughly two thousand people, three lines and zero organization.  It was a free for all until you got to the front.  Then the airline changed our gates four times during our layover, which was about two hours.

We finally boarded our connecting flight to Naples and we sat on the tarmac for an hour while they finalized the baggages on the plane.  Then we took the connection and arrived in Naples roughly thirty minutes late.  No big deal.  The big deal was that all but one bag arrived from Rome and it was yours truly.  Didn't they take extra time to square that away??  I have traveled to Italy nine times in my life and five of those times a bag has not arrived on time and once, not at all.  I was prepared because of experience, so it wasn't a completely awful.  Just annoying.

The reunion with the family was great and they almost literally ate up the baseball orphans.  You can image the feast that was waiting for us, twice when we arrived.  This is going to be a great trip and I look forward to sharing this with you.  As of Sunday Morning (Italy time) Rome airport still had my bag.  I think the online auction is Monday, I will keep you posted.

I want to apologize for any spelling errors, my spell check is in Italian.

3D

If you don't take it from me, ask my wife.