Time seems to be playing games with me right now. I think the past week has slowed time down significantly because we have 1) gotten our third cat to Italy 2) had an ex-pats Thanksgiving 3) Taken a trip to Venice!
The Cat
Neville, our "first born", has been hanging out at my mom's house in Virginia Beach since May and she was politely wondering when the heck we were going to take him back. Julie, our beloved friend, agreed to take Neville as her baggage during a flight from Colorado to Naples, with an extended lay-over in DC. The moving pieces of this plan were crazy! Lauri, my sister, picked up Neville from my mom, drove him to DC for two days, then drove him to Dulles to meet Julie outside of security to deposit the cat. If this seems like a whole lot of work to get a cat to a foreign country, you're absolutely right! Julie and Neville arrived in Naples after the shortest connection in Munich and both seemed a bit frazzled. Neville spent the evening locked in our room, hissing at everything that moved and with big, "what the hell is happening" eyes. Tom and I have since laced his water and food with "Rescue Remedy" which acts as a prozac for our overly boisterous and emotional kitty.
Thanksgiving
Tom and I met on Thanksgiving 5 years ago when I flew out to San Diego to spend the holiday with Lauri, (aforementioned cat-trafficing sister) who lived there. It now holds a dear place in all of our hearts and I was overjoyed when Lauri and her BF, John, decided to come out to Bella Italia for a visit. I drove up to meet them in Rome, the trip taking 3.5 hours instead of the 2 promised on my GPS, and met them with the classic "Oh My Gosh! I'm so sorry I'm late! Ahhh! Give me a hug!" They might have been a bit overwhelmed.
At some point, after the Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps and another lunch at Palatium, we all hopped into my CRV and drove back to Napoli, some of us saying our Hail Mary's a bit more than others. On Thursday, we made food for the masses and sent the boys out to the local enoteca to procure wine. They returned, with significant pride, hoisting 2 5-Liter jugs of some random wine. It was 26 Euro for 10 liters. Holler! Half way through the night and down 1 jug, we sent Deacon and our friend Nathan out again to procure more wine. The enoteca owner was aghast that we had managed to drink 5 liters, while Deacon assured him it was both a major American festival and there were about 30 people in our house. (In reality, there were 10 of us, one of whom being the DD and not drinking... Shamefully, nearly 15 liters of wine were consumed in addition to the ones we drank earlier during our "little sit.")
We all took turns skyping our families, in various levels of sobriety. From turducken to bourbon-laced cranberries and no less than 3 bacon-enhanced side dishes, we had an absolutely amazing meal! And probably washed the same pot (thank you, Tom) about 57 times.
And then we went to Venice!!
I found our tickets to Venice on Easy Jet for 19 Euro in August. It seemed like a brilliant idea! Who wants to spend 6 days in Naples when you can spend 3 in Venice?? So off to Venice we went all together too early on Friday morning. Megan elbowed and shoulder checked her way through the Easy Jet boarding process and we procured 6 seats in a group. While in Venice, we absolutely LOVED the museum above St. Mark's Basillica. It was 5 Euro but worth every penny! We got to see the frescos up close, pieces of the amazingly ornate ceiling mosaics and walked along the ledge outside to get a great view of the Piazza. It was such a great way to spend the morning!
From there, we meandered by boat to Murano and strolled the glass blowing shops in search of the perfect ornament, necklace and gift to send back for Christmas. The days past in a dreamy, slow motion style that mixed together and can only be told one from the next by the time stamp on my photos. There was a blur of wine and cheese and warm pasta dishes that we haven't had down here in Southern Italy. It past in a dreamlike state of brisk days with many sighs at the beauty of that strange little island which Rick Steves says is kept alive by the pulse of tourism.
At one point, after walking and walking and walking, the need to find a chair drove us to also search for a drink to help stem the pain in our feet. Megan suggestioned we stop in at the Hard Rock Cafe and I openly judged. "We don't even go there in America. Why would we go there abroad?" Well, I am now publically stating that Megan was right. We actually had a wonderful time at the ol' Hard Rock. We sat at the bar, watching old Elton John and Tina Turner videos and laughed at my inherent lack of knowledge of Van Halen. What can I say? It wasn't really my generation?? I realized how much I've missed things that feel American being over here for nearly 6 months. The comfort of things that make sense to me is something I've missed so much. For that short little hour in the Hard Rock, I felt like I could have been back in the States and that was oddly, a really great feeling.
And just like that, the strangely long week was over. Megan and Scott flew back to Dallas. Lauri and John took the train back to Rome before heading back to the US. And Tom and I spent the evening putting up our newly purchased Albero di Natale (Christmas Tree)! We cannot thank our American travelers enough for coming out to spend Thanksgiving with us! We had a wonderful time visiting with you all and look forward to seeing you all again very soon!
Love and hugs and Season's Greetings!
Lynne
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