The national flower of Italy. Its scientific name is Lilium. The lily in Italy is often associated with the Virgin Mary and the Holy Family.

Our Trip to Italy with Mia
1985

Duomo Cathedral
After Mass, we climbed to the Top!
Giant Flea Market Vicolo Fiori 2
Mia bought a sillver copact. 80,000. I bought a gold ring with turquoise stones. 100,000
Walking, we found ourselves in the middle of Mardi Gras Carnivale and the Children's Costume Parade.
Hair Salon, Coppola. Mia and Ihad our hair washed. We looked gorgeous!
La Scala! Atem-France Donatoni Premiere Performance: Musica nel nostro tempo It was such a thrill for me, to actually be here in La Scala! Mia: "bizarre" Charlie: "strange" Bette: "a visual treat, an audio cacophony" Somebody coughed, which got the one Bravo!
Late supper: Spaghetteria! sausage, polenta, 6 courses of spaghetti, bread, chianti. 40,300

Autostrada: One of the recent joys is my life is driving in a foreign country with Charlie at the wheel. I feel safe and happy. He loves driving and knows exactly when it's time to stop. This time it was for tea & apple brioche.

VERONA: Juliet's House. I have taught Romeo and Juliet in my Winhester High School grade-nine classes for 5 years so far, so I "entertained" Charlie and Mia with wonderful quotations during the one and a half hours we walked around. Bought seseme seed freshly-made candy

Autostrada: We stopped at the Ariston Hotel in Mestre to spend the night. The only memory I have of that are the comments in my journal: "no atmosphere" and "shower crazy"! In the morning we waited 1 & 1/2 hours at the train station amid costumed revelers, and no train to Venezia turned up. So we drove to a boat and arrived at St Mark's by water to live music, balloons, elaborate costumes, and dancing. We had great pepper pizza, chianti and great bread at Ci's!

Waiting for the boat to Venetzia

Carnivale de Venezia 1985 What an exciting time to be in Venetzia!
Took a ferry to Teatro La Fenice but they had no opera tickets. All sold out. We had lunch at Harry's Bar. Then we went on a gondola ride: the Grand Tour. It was worth the 60,000!
All the museums closed on Mondays. The Bell Tower, St. Mark's aad Doges Palace closed because of Carnivale.
We wandered all afternoon through the narrow streets and allies of Venice, returning periodically to St. Mark's Square for tea, cakes, and cappucinos at Lenare's and mingling with the vertiginous masses of costuned revelers. We bought glass beads for Mia, earrings for Deahn & Lori and a pendant for me. We played Black-Jack at a the Casino. We wathed the mask-maker at work in his little mask-making shop. Every mask is different. We each bought a mask.

Bolognia! Walked around for and hour. Mia and I ate a whole bar of Torrone. We walked through the park. We left Blognia with a promise to come back and stay longer. We found this wonderful Neptune Fountain Statue in the middle of Piazza Neptuni.

First View of Florence from the bridge leading into the city.

We arrived in sunny beautiful Firenze in the afternoon. We had trouble finding a hotel but ended up in Hotel Amsterdam, Via de Fossi 27, which we awarded 3 stars. It had hot water! We had wine, cheese, olives and bread and then Mia and I headed for a hairdresser. Piero was expensive!

We went first this morning to Galleria dell' Accademie. We found 13th Century Primitives to 16th Century Manerists-Della. And we found David!

>Michaelangelo's David!

Next we walked to the Uffizi Museum. It was wonderful! We saw Botticelli, Gioto, Fra Filippo Lippi, Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Raphael and Titian. I didn't want to leave!

We stopped at Pizzaria and had the best pizza so far! Then onto Cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore. Mia and I lit candles. We climbed 464 steps tothe top of the dome. Charlie and I were tired, but it was worth it! (We figured it was the last chance for him and me.)

We stopped at the Straw Market, on Ponto Vecchio. Mia bought a sweater for $10. We had dinner at Vecchia Bettola on Viale Arirsto. It was great!

Beautiful Day! Drove to Pisa. Climbed to the top of the Leaning Tower--a dizzying experience, scary.

We went into the Pisa Cathedral dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in the Piazza dei Miracoli. The Pulput built by Pisano is amazingly beautiful. The paintings are amazing, especially the painting of St. Agnes holding a little lamb by Andrea del Sarto.

On the way to Sorrento, we stopped on the side of the road for lunch: bread, olives, cheese, wine. Delicious!

Arrived in Sorrento aabout 8 p.m. Found Bellevue Syrene Hotel (where I stayed in 1962) but it was closed for renovation. Instead we are staying at Grande Hotel Ambasciatori, Room 708. Our window opens to the sea, a large balcony, gardens. And we have endless hot water! We had dinner in a terrific trattoria, La Laterne.

Bellevue Syrene Hotel! It's still here!

Grand Hotel Ambasciatori. Our Balcony!

We took a train to Pompei. Had our own guide. He told us interesting little anecdotes about life in Pompei a couple of thousand years ago. We really enjoyed the morning.
Sunny but very Cold in Pompei. 35 degrees.
We came back to Sorrento for lunch at La Laterne.Then Mia and I went shopping. We each bought a sweater, coral earrings for me, a wood inlayed pictue of Sorrento for Mia. We had dinner at La Pentolaccia. Piazza Tasso. Mia: Cannelloni. 4,000 Charlie: Mixed fried fish. 9,000 Bette: Sole 9,000 Plus salad 1,500; vino 4,000; gelato 3,000

St. Antoninus of Sorrento
10:00 a.m. boat to Capri.Tow people with guitars played and all the Italians sang along. We walked through narrow roads, cobbled paths and steps all the way to the top, where we had limonade, the best I've every had at a sidewalk cafe, Caffe Caso.
We came back to Sorrento. Took drive along Amalfi Coast. Rather treacherous but magnificant! We had lunch in Positano at Al Baarilotto del Nanno and walked around town for awhile. Mia bought post cards and a boy followed us back to our hotel.

We went to Mass at Our Lady di Lourdes Church in Sorrento. Then we drove to Cassino, Mary Lou's father's birthplace. Mary Lou had given me directions to the family home, but we could not find it. We arrived in Roma about 3 p.m. We drove to Trevi Fountain and chose a hotel directly accross the street from it, Hotel Fontana. From our bathtub we could see the Fountain. We walked up the street to a pizzeria. "The best one so far"! (Mia says I say that every time.)

Trevi Fountain

For dinner, we walked to a Trattoria called Palmerie, "A trendy New Restaurant". We walked around and on our walk found that the President of Italy lives right next door to us.

We got back to the hotel about 11:30. Very tired.

Walked around Roma: to the Spanish Steps. Shelly-Keats house. Sallistian obelisk. People sitting in the sun. Flower stall. French Church at Condotti. Next to Coloseum, Palatine Hill, Forum.

To Via Veneto for lunch at sidewalk cafe. After lunch we went to Villa Borghese and walked through the park. Museums closed.

We took a tour of the city at night. Dinner at Ranieri Restaurant. The owner offered dinner drinks, but we declined. He intrduced himself to us and gave us an ashtray as a momento. All three dinners were delicious!

We took the Metro to St. Peters, an altogether inspiring experience! We went first to the Basilica, where an excellen guide gave us a tour. Then we rushed to the museum and the Sistene Chapel, again so inspiring! We had lunch, then went back to the Basilica, to the top, and to Tombs and stayed until we could hardly walk another step. Mia and I stopped at a coiffeur on the way back to the hotel. Our hair is wild! The boy who did Mia's hair fell in love with her! (Every time Mia and I are separated from Charlie, boys are gravitating to her.)
Very sad that we have to leave. Three coins in the Trevi Founain assures a return.