It took long enough...
On the home-front, we continue to fill out paperwork and wait for the official Visa's to arrive. We are hoping that it will only be a week or so more. Tom is still bouncing back and forth between Rome (on weekends) and Lausanne (during the week). I continue to wait, fill out paperwork and keep life here moving.
Luckily, last week, my friend Robert invited me to join him at a Tuesday night Expat event. It was a lot of fun seeing some people I have have not seen in a while. It was also fun meeting some new friends...
On a funny note I met a gentleman from Nottingham England - his name Sharif (So, I met the Sharif of Nottingham...heehee).
As you may remember, for Easter weekend, Tom & I spent a wonderful 4 days in Sorrento, Positano and down the Amalfi coast. Being one of our favorites - we wanted to see it one more time before our upcoming move. The weather was pleasant but a little cold - still just lovely to be there.
We also decided that the universe was giving us a sign that it was time to leave Italy - two of our favorite people in that area (Stefan from the Hotel Grand Royal and Marco from Restaurant La Cambusa) both left their positions and moved on to bigger and better things. Time for us to go...
But before we do a great Easter get-away & a Fantastic Easter lunch at the Saint Catherine Hotel in Amalfi!
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| Easter brunch menu... |
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| Everything was Amazing! |
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| A wonderful dinner in Sorrento... |
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| The view from our room... |
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| While there we saw... La Processione del Cristo Morto (The Procession of the Death of Christ) |
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| A Good Friday thing! |
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| Lunch at La Cambusa in Positano! |
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| A great drive down the Amalfi Coast! |
And a new place for us...Ravello!
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| Ravello, City of the Music! |
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| Great views and shops! |
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| Me & the shops... |
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| Tom & the view! |
It was a wonderful weekend! In a wonderful place! With a wonderful man...my Tom!
Beyond a wonderful Easter - since my last posting - Tom & I also celebrated the 6th Anniversary of our Civil Union in New Jersey (April 4th). To celebrate, we decided to check something else off our 'Rome Bucket List', we went and had an Amazing meal at one of the best restaurants in Rome - ViveVoce (the same place we celebrated Tom's birthday)
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| Happy Anniversary to us! To many more years of Love & Happiness! |
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| Our Tasting Menu! |
Back on the Home-front, while waiting for everything to kick-in-gear, I have been having fun continuing my ceramics (the sculpture of Adam by Rodin). Just starting on his head - hoping to finish soon...
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| He's been removed from his stand... |
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| ...& is laying down at the moment. |
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| Just working on details... |
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| ...& starting on the head! |
I have also been taking in new & revisiting old sights in Rome (while time permits) with a new friend Jack. We met at the Expats event. Jack is from San Francisco but has moved to Rome to start a new life. Here are few of our adventures...
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| The Greek garden in the Ville Borghese... |
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| ...& taking a row-boat for a spin! |
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| With the ducks and... |
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| ...other sea-fairing individuals! |
A trip to the local mall for supplies and to our surprise - an Italian Military Exhibition...
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| Italian Top Gun! |
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| Jack & an old Italian Fighter plane. |
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| A Drone... |
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| ...and a new fighter! |
Lastly, today I went to Eur (a suburb of Rome) in an area built by Mussolini. He wanted to get away from the dirty old Rome and build a new clean more modern Rome. This is the result...
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| The Colosseo Quadrato (the Square Colosseum) |
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| A Fascist Icon, Palazzo della Civilta del Lavoro |
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| Mussolini's Church... |
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| ...w/Statue of St. Paul. |
Finally, I was happy we got to see a 'new' attraction in Rome...Eataly... An Italian food emporium. This 170,000 square foot food store is amazing. It was formerly Rome's Stazione Ostiense - a defunked train station transformed into this 5 floor food giant. Opening in 2012 this is the largest of the Eataly stores in the world. In 2010, the chain opened a store in New York's Flatiron district and has many other branches in Italy and Japan. It was truly an experience - a truly delicious experience!
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| Eataly Rome - Truly amazing... |
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| ...fresh pasta, cheese & much more! |
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| This sign said it all! |
I am truly grateful to my new acquaintance for putting up with me and showing some new things...
Ok, enough babbling...
To end this posting I will just show you one more photo...
Just when I though Italians couldn't surprise me anymore - they do!
This is a car parked in front of our apartment - notice the fine parking job but...
they will never receive a ticket or get towed...they had a proper parking ticket in the window! It still amazes me...
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| Yes, head first on the sidewalk! |
To all our family and friends we send our love and best wishes!
Stay well - enjoy the spring -
And Abbracci a tutti!
Ciao for now -
Ron & Tom
