Flowers, Cats, and Trees

Dear Charlie and Polly,

I hope you are having a great first week of summer! Your Kiddie Car Wash looks like so much fun, and Charlie, we can't wait to see the new gap in your smile!

Today, I thought I'd show you pictures of all the beautiful things we see each day as we walk (climb?) from our house into Ravello. The first thing I have to mention are the flowers. It seems like everything is blooming and beautiful right now! These are bird of paradise flowers. They don't bloom in Clarksville, but we saw them blooming earlier this year in San Diego and Guatemala. Doesn't it look like the head of a beautiful bird?

This is an orchid growing out of a stone wall on the path. I wonder if someone planted it there or if it got there by itself?

These are some beautiful lillies right outside our door.

Red roses,

A pink snapdragon,

And hydrangeas just getting ready to open up.

I'm not sure what these are...

...or these...

...or these.

But all together, the combination is beautiful!

This is where we had lunch yesterday, the Ristorante Garden.

I had my favorite - Caprese salad. Yum!

Guess who else was very happy with his salad? An Italian "Doccy" salad!

This was next - homemade pasta with fresh tomatoes and shrimp. Delicious!

After lunch, we set out to find more of this... (chocolate and caramel this time)

Along the way, we saw this wedding party. I think every day since we have been in Ravello, we have seen at least one bride. Polly, when you are all grown up, Sweetie and Doc would love it if you got married here! :-)

Something else we see a lot of while walking around are cats. Cats are EVERYWHERE! They call them wild cats, but they don't really seem wild to me - they just don't want people to get too close to them.

There are cats on walls...

And cats on steps...

And cats in bushes...

Can you find the cat in the bushes?

And cats in corners...

And cats expecting more cats!

You can even buy a tile for your house with a cat on it. Guess what it says? Beware of the Cat! What is the Italian word for cat?

There is also a beautiful pine tree that grows here. It has lots of different names, but most people call it an umbrella pine. Can you see why? Do you remember the famous Ravello picture from my post yesterday? There is an umbrella pine in that picture, and there is an umbrella pine in our stained glass window at home. Pine nuts come from this type of pine tree. Ask Mommy if she has any pine nuts you can taste. They are yummy!

Can you find the umbrella pine in this picture? They are easy to spot, aren't they?

This is a very old umbrella pine at the Rufolo Gardens. They have tied up so it won't blow over.

For dinner last night we went to a restaurant called Cumpa Cosima. Miss Kari and Mr. Mark told us about it when we came here eight years ago, and it was the first place we had dinner in Ravello on that trip. Last night, I sent Miss Kari a text with this picture, and we were able to communicate with her in real time, even though we were over 5000 miles apart. Isn't technology great? :-)

Cumpa Cosima is Mama Netta's restaurant. It has been in her family for generations. Miss Kari and Mama Netta are good friends, and she asked that we tell Mama Netta "hi". Instead we made this picture with Mama Netta and sent it back to Miss Kari!

Good night Ravello!

Love you and miss you both!

Sweetie and Doc

 

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Monday in Ravello

Dear Charlie and Polly,

Monday was another beautiful day in Ravello. Every day last week we were very busy sightseeing in Florence, so it is really nice to just relax and take it easy this week. We had breakfast on the terrace. I fixed myself a Caprese salad which may seem like a strange breakfast, but it tasted delicious!

Doc had his usual cereal and milk. No weird Italian breakfasts for him!

:- )

While I was downstairs doing some laundry, I came upon this picture hanging on the wall. It is a very old photograph of a famous Ravello view. Do you think you have you ever seen something that shows this view before? You have...it's in our house somewhere, but you will have to try to figure out where! It is a view of the sea from the gardens at the Villa Rufolo, a beautiful home and gardens built almost eight hundred years ago. We went to a strings concert at the Villa Rufolo Monday night. It was beautiful, but it didn't begin until 9:30 at night, and I got a little sleepy before it was over!

Before long, it was time for lunch! Are you beginning to see a pattern here? Eating out is the highlight of our day. So up the steps we trudge...

As we climbed up the stairs we passed this beautiful tree. Can you see what is growing on it? Beautiful ripe cherries!

After several hundred steps, we reached our destination - the Villa Amore restaurant.

Italian meals are a bit different from meals we are used to at home. They consist of many courses, served one at a time. First, there is the antipasto, or appetizer. Next is a pasta dish. Then comes a meat dish with different side dishes. And finally, if you are not too stuffed, a dessert. Doc and I have finally figured the best way for us to order our meals here. We choose one dish from each category and share everything. That way we don't get quite so full! The Villa Amore restaurant served one of our favorite antipasto dishes - prosciutto (thinly sliced ham) and canteloupe. The canteloupe here is sweeter than any I ever remember having. Delicious!

Next we had pasta carbonara, or spaghetti with bacon and eggs. It was yummy, too.

Then they served us these big guys. They are called prawns, but they are really just great big (GREHT big) shrimp. There was nothing shrimpy about them!

And of course, spinach!

The view from the restaurant was similar to ours from the house, just a good bit higher.

Here we are - stuffed from a delicious lunch!

From the restaurant, we followed the path toward town...

...and passed the organic garden of the Villa Maria.

After wandering around for a while, it was gelato time. I had chocolate and hazelnut!

While we were eating our gelato, Doc noticed these two cats playing with something. Soon their owner came out and scooped up the "something" they were playing with and tossed it into the bushes.

Out of the bushes it came - a poor little lizard with a freshly removed tail.

:-(

That's all for now!

We love you and miss you both very much!

Sweetie and Doc

 

 

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Ravello Steps

Dear Charlie and Polly,

We have spent one entire day in Ravello, and it has been wonderful! This has to be the most relaxing place on earth.

Today, I thought I would tell you a bit about where we are staying. We chose this place because it had two things we knew we wanted - a beautiful view and a garage. We remembered from the last time we were here that parking places are very difficult to find. This is a picture of our front door. Most of the houses look very plain from the front, because the back of the house (with the view) is most important. Would you believe by looking at this picture that the house is actually on FOUR levels. And guess what that means? Steps - lots of them! Eighty-one to be exact, from the garage to the bedroom!

There are winding steps. These go up to the top floor where there are four bedrooms and a bathroom. The main floor has the living and dining room, the kitchen, and two bathrooms.

There are wooden steps. These go down to a lower level which has another living area, the laundry room, and another bedroom.

There are marble steps. These steps go the garage, but at the bottom of the steps there is something mysterious.

Two locked doors. Hmmm, I wonder what's behind them? Any guesses?

But the back of the house is the best part! First there is a wall of jasmine blossoms. The smell is unbelievably delicious!

This is the terrace off the second level (the level above the garage). It is the largest terrace and has a beautiful area completely enclosed in grapevine.

In this picture you can see the top three levels of the house from the back. The terrace on the middle level opens out from the kitchen and living room, the top terrace opens out from the upstairs bedrooms.

No matter where you are in the house, this is what you see!

Sunday was a very lazy day! We walked up hundreds of steps to get to the town square where we had lunch.

We wandered around town after lunch when out of the blue we heard people singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow".

 

It was an American group singing on the church steps. Next they sang "Stand by Me".

 

It was delightful!

There are paths just like this all over town, and a lot of the time they are the only way to get from one place to another. Most of the streets in town don't even allow cars, so it is very much a "walking" town.

At dinner time we climbed many, many steps until we arrived at this beautiful restaurant.

Our table was the one in the middle in this picture. This restaurant is on the other side of Ravello, so the view here was different from the one at our house but every bit as beautiful.

I will write more tomorrow. We love and miss you both very much!

Sweetie and Doc

 

 

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