We traveled for 34 hours to get from Greece to where we are in Italy. Taxi to bus, bus from Athens to Patras, ferry from Patras, Greece to Bari, Italy, train from Bari to Rome and 2nd train from Rome to Lenola which is an hour south of Rome by train – my guess is approx. 60 miles. Franco, Marsha’s friend picked us up at the train station and took us to his apt. Lenola is his boyhood home and he returns every year for a month – he lives and works in the US. After Marsha and I got cleaned up he took us out to dinner. There are pics of the two restaurants where we ate, but it seemed rude to take pics of the food. Lenola is a small town in the mountains – roads are very curvy. The food was delicious – made with local ingredients. We had homemade linguini with porcini mushrooms, squash blossoms, I had mixed grill with sausage, some kinds of meat on a skewer and goat. It was all great. The next day we got up early because Franco took us to the Amalfi coast – very near Naples and Vesuvius. Talk about winding roads with sheer drop offs . These roads were the worst and they are narrow. There is barely room for 1 car in each direction and people park on the side of the road. We thought Franco may have scraped his car on a wall while trying to let a tour bus pass in the other direction. There couldn’t have been more than a 1/2 inch between the car and the bus. We had stopped for a very light lunch because we were going out to dinner again. Franco had bought fresh Buffalo mozzarella for us. We were stuffed, but went for dinner and we each had a pizza. We were so stuffed we couldn’t finish the pizza. Again it is midnight and we are in Rome. We only have 24 hours here in Rome so it is the whirlwind tour. I will attach the pics and send this message, but I need to get some sleep.
I don’t know if you all know Bob Penrod passed Tuesday. Shirley is doing very well. Service will be Friday the 6th. Hope all is well.