Title will be explained at the end:) I think this about sums up the Italy trip.
Wine tasting at Santa Lucia Vineyard and what a beautiful place. Our enologist was Mossimo and he has an advanced degree in enology which I found out when I asked the difference between an enologist and a sommelier (the guy who chooses your wine at a store or fine restaurant)!
The barrels - the smell was quite delicious and they are trying different kinds of oak as the Italian oak is very expensive so they had some testing in "American Oak" and "French Oak" - didn't see any China Oak!
Mardelle photobombed the wine we tasted - we sure did have fun!
And then on to Rome - this was the living room of our "Casa Boezio" which had about 20 foot high ceilings and was so nice and reasonably priced. The owner is an attorney, married with 7 children ages 4-16! and they also have other places that they rent directly so that's good to know.
The hallway from the front door.
This was a little disconcerting upon our arrival in Rome because we are Yankees from the USA. Translated it means No MUOS Stop antennas, stop wars, defend the future of Your land. Googling tells me that MUOS means a mobile communications satellite system by US Dept of Defense....hmmmmm.
Bright spot of each and every day was the gelato or gelati - both are correct.
It was kind of nice to see the American flag at this restaurant.
This looks like Study Abroad class and yes it was puzzles, word find, math find and working on maps to get where we were going the next day. It appears on my laptop that I was looking at pasta dishes at our chosen restaurant!!!
One of our guides for Rome. It's called The Roman Guy but they tell us it is mostly female guides but they are having difficulty getting the name changed. I agree that The Roman Girls sounds just a little questionable:)
Pope Innocent XI was first in the Sebastian chapel at St. Peter's Basilica and yes it is a real body for the most part. The hands look quite real and it creeps me out just a little because I am not used to seeing dead bodies on display even if it is a Pope or Cardinal. This is Pope Innocent XI who died in 1689 and was Pope from 1676-1689. His body got moved to this new location to make room for Pope John Paul II when he was beatified which got him one step closer to sainthood.
Toffia cemetery - will my love of cemeteries never cease? I used to go to our rural family cemetery by Wylie, Minnesota, where my Grandma would tell me stories about the old Schultz clan who was buried there. Actually we take up about half the cemetery and now includes my brother and my parents.
Love this sign in the DOM department store.
Dinner at Ristorante Spirito Divino - every day was quite a smiley day even though we walked over 1-1/2 hours to get to this place as it was a big difficult to find. We did take taxis home which only cost about $4 per person - however it is all about fitness!!
Last day in Rome - another 10 mile day. Note it says "New record set" - somehow I want to zero out this and start over again because I will certainly have difficulty beating this.
The daughter of our cooking school hosts is starting a little business of her own so we all got bay leaves to bring home for about $1 and she was so proud to be making some money of her own at the age of 12.
So - the day we return I see this in our newspaper and the name of the city sounded familiar as Puerto Varas, Chile. Click on a picture at any time to enlarge.
So back in October when we visited South America and notice where our hotel was in Puerto Varas and just to the right is this same Cabulco Volcano and we were surrounded by "possibly dormant" volcanoes. I guess this one had not erupted since the 1960s. This is the reason for this post title as it seems just after we visit a place it falls apart temporarily or is not safe to visit for a while. What next? Headed to Tulsa tomorrow which is in the tornado belt but the weather predictions are for nice weather.....should I start being paranoid about this?....not enough to keep me at home.
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