Easter greetings from Italy!
We hope everyone had a blessed Easter Day. Julie and I have been extremely blessed being able to spend this time together in Italy.
If I’m being honest, we miss our children and grandkids back home and although we are creating fond memories here, it comes with mixed feelings not being able to be with our family during holidays. One thing I believe Julie and my kids can quote me on is the fact that children grow up and start their own families and the cycle of life continues.
What I’ve experienced here in Italy is that family is the core of their existence. Everywhere you go, all the businesses are run by generations of family members. From the great grandpa who just sits at a table folding napkins to the great grandson greeting customers and the uncle cooking in the kitchen. All the businesses are filled with family, greeting each other with hugs and a kiss on both cheeks. When you see family units loving, teasing and even yelling at each other, it’s hard not to think of all the great memories our family has made over the years. Now let me get another bowl of scialatiello and forget about that ham back home.
Easter morning, being fresh from our couple day trip to Capri, we realized the population has just tripled in size with tourists, not including us though as we are now considered villagers (paesano). I befriended the owner of the piazza cafe. I called him paesano one morning thinking I was calling him friend only to find out I was calling him a villager, a friend would be called amico. Oh my gosh… only I would do such a thing. He took it well and still gave me a nice cup of espresso and a zeppole.
After our breakfast today we attended a church service and took a long hike up into the Valle delle Ferriere. My hope was to eat at a restaurant called Agricola Fore Porta, which fully sustains itself by producing its own food. However they are only open for 3 hours each day and require a reservation that unfortunately I did not have. But I was in luck and the lady that turned us away treated me to a slice of Easter pie and a glass of fresh squeezed lemonade. All was not lost, the pie was delicious, the lemonade quenched my thirst and I was able to make reservations for Tuesday. The view and the walk we took to reach it was also amazing, so all in all it was much better than washing dishes for a normal Easter at our house.
We also stopped along the way and had pizza and Italian sausage at Julie’s favorite pizza terrace, as well as a scoop of gelato and a homemade chocolate eclair. Certainly looking forward to my Tuesday reservation!
Our journey to Capri didn’t start out as a great journey. It was a cold and windy morning, about 45 degrees. With our backpacks loaded, we felt like a couple of teenagers backpacking across Europe. After the very scenic, cold and windy boat ride, we quickly realized that we are in fact not teenagers but senior citizens backpacking. But hey, we were doing it in Italy and our destination was the beautiful island of Capri.
Now most of you know Julie’s reservation about traveling and being in a foreign country for so long… but Capri and the small city Ana Capri was so quaint and welcoming that Julie actually said, and I quote, “we should move here.” The meat and cheese markets alone would make a vegan a carnivore… well that is until they stumbled upon the numerous fruits and vegetable stands. It can be quite crowded during the day with all the tourists. The best time to visit is in the evening and early morning when it’s just the villagers roaming the streets. My advice if you go to Capri, please dedicate at least two nights to the island and witness how quant, warm and friendly the island transitions into once all those annoying tourists leave for the day.
Arrividerci and here’s to my reservation Tuesday at Agricola Fore Porta.