Tag: Italy

Pontremoli Italy

by allberry2001, posted in Main

That was our destination on this trip to Italy. My wife’s sister bought a place in town after we did a drive-by visit last year and she saw the photos. I must say it is a small town at that, now that we have stayed there a few days it seems everyone in town knows everyone else. I got the impression it’s a hiking area that is really busy in the summer season.

That was not the only reason we were there as like last time we were looking to buy a place for ourself’s. Myself and my wife went house hunting last year with not much luck, between the language problem and realtors not showing up it was more of a drive around Italy.

This time with my sister-in-law’s help we did find a realtor that we could work with,2 in fact. One of the first places we looked at was not much more than stones in shape of a house, the land it was on was huge but it was not “livable” till a lot of work was done.

The next place we looked at was a 3-story box more or less with a 2-car garage on the bottom level. The apartments were in “better” shape almost to the point we could get one up and running in a short time and have someplace to live. The idea was to create a B&B so we would have an income while living.

Now like most Italian towns, they have a castle at the top of the hill, and the next home that is livable was in between this castle and town ( a big hill ).

At this time again I’m trying to get as much info about my Grandpa who left Italy in the early 1900s.

Sorrento Italy 2022

by allberry2001, posted in Main

A few years ago we went to Sorrent via the local train when in Torra de Greco visiting the area. It looked like a small town that we wanted to get back to someday, 6 years later we got the chance to go back and stay for a while. It was a 9 day trip from Reno to Denver to Naples where we rented a car and drove down to town. First off the ride was only an hour-long but the last 30 mins were on local roads and depending on the day of the week and time of the year this could take 2 hours easily.

View from the B&B

The B&B that we rented was next to the beach and it was in a good location. But they forgot to tell us there was no lift in the building. We were on the 3rd floor and the steps in Italy are not what we called ” up to code”. The room was small but it wasn’t like we were going to be using it for more than sleep. After getting into town we found out some of the bars and cafes we closed for the season. They close during the non-tourist season. Like I said the room was near the water the town is uphill, we found a set of long steps to get up into town.

Main road
Main street

The steps were worth it, it burned off all the food we ate during the day. This trip was more than an adventure we were planned on looking for a home here but we made min effort on that front.

Amalfi coast

Next was the Amamife Coast drive that we planned, one of the reasoned’s we rented a car. The drive was very short in miles but what I didn’t know was we would be turning the wheel of the car so much. The view was so beautiful from what I saw being the diver. It was so with the drive, I would hate to do the drive in the busy season. The small roads and little towns would take you forever in a car, forget about parking.

Mount Vesuvius

The next day we had planned to see the rim of Mt. Vesuvius ( think the wife planned on pushing me in ) so we drive up to Pompeii. Now we had been to the ruins before but never explored the city. So we looked around a bit and decided to visit the city a bit. By the time we got done eating and drinking we never did get to the rim…next time..wink.

After all the traveling soon it was time to come home, we didn’t want to it was a 32 hour trip via Munich Germany someplace I had never been but we opted for a hotel near the airport to make our flight home, so I didn’t get to see much.

The flights to Munich and from Munich were far from packed so it was nice to move seats and even have enough room for a nap( laying flat ).

We made it to Italy and Greece

by allberry2001, posted in Main

With all the waiting we made into Italy via Canada and it was surprisingly easy. We brought our tests to the airport in Reno and no one asked for anything else till we got to Italy. The flights we packed as normal and all we did is show the papers that said we have gotten the shots and off we went.

  • Ristorante Di Rienzo

Off to our favorite place in Italy we went, after a year of not being there the waiters remembered us and were so happy to see us. The tension we felt in the upcoming weeks and during the flight took a day or two to go away. We spent a lot time at the restaurant they would hold our table for us,I had asked for green olives one night and they didn’t have any. The waiter when and got some from the store for me. Dawn couldn’t pick off the menu what she wanted for desert so they loaded everything on a tray and brought it out to us to pick.

After the days of walking around and seeing so many tents offering Covid tests or free shots we were feeling like we could come back for a longer stay. Hint…Hint…

Now off to Athens Greece.

From the time we got to Italy to the time we left the rules changed to get into Greece all we needed as Americans was our vac cards so that was a lot off our minds. I did get transportation from the airport to the B&B we were staying at ( I would have never found it ). Once we got our bearing on where in town we were it was easy to find our ways around.

View from our B&B

Now after being in Italy for a week I forgot how my cheaper Athens is when it comes to food and drinks. The one thing bad is there are so many Americans in Athens compared to Rome and so many of us just ruin it for everyone. We did find a nice place’s to plant out butts and people watch and since we were only here once before we did so much walking.

Πεζοδρομος Θησειου hanging with Dimitris Mavraganis

The photo above is the waiter that was serving us the last 3 days he was so friendly and so helpful picking wine. I would like to thank him again for making it a wonderful trip.

As for the trip home that will come in another post…

So tomorrow starts a trip…

by allberry2001, posted in Main

Last day of work before a trip overseas, I have been waiting 2 years for this after going a least once a year before the Covid. We are hoping to get to Italy and Greece but with restrictions changing by the min I am so scared we will get stuck at some border. We have a stop in Canada and that is going to be a first, let’s see how it go’s.