Wench Pat here, just back from a two-week trip to Italy, combining business with pleasure. I’ve dug up some fabulous ideas for the new mystery series and enough material for a year’s worth of blogs. I should probably just post photos and not blather on!
One of the lures for this trip was the opportunity to explore the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii. The winding, narrow coast drive is every bit as hair-raising as promised. We were a small group in a small bus and thankfully, most cars were smaller than us, but those giant buses. . . ! Ai yi yi. Traffic would back up on every curve when two buses met each other and had to maneuver their way out of the mess.
But the tiny towns clinging to the side of mountains overlooking the beautifully clear Adriatic 
Sea were spectacular. I cannot imagine how one buys groceries and hauls them up those hills, but the inhabitants have been doing it for thousands of years. Entire mountainsides are terraced with lemon trees and grapevines, and they manage to grow produce for the entire region on what looks like solid rock.
We were in the first group of tourists venturing back to Italy, and everyone was thrilled to see us. This also made us fortunate since the streets and restaurants weren’t crowded. Everyone wore masks, and all major museums and so forth required proof of vaccination, so we felt quite safe.
Pompeii—what can I say? I’ve wanted to see Pompeii since I was in elementary school. They’ve uncovered immense amounts more of the town over 
those years. I wasn’t prepared for a site so large! I also hadn’t realized that Pompeii was on the coast at the time of the eruption. The place must have been a veritable Garden of Eden with the grapevine-covered mountain on one side and the crystal sea on the other. The town was laid out mostly in neat squares, with fountains and running water and streets wide enough for chariots. The wealthy had their own personal spas and everyone else had use of public ones. They were living the idyllic life and really had no warning once the mountain spurted its poisonous gas. The lava poured toward the sea, creating over a mile of new coast line, and the wind was such that the ash descended on the town, burying it for centuries.
We managed to lose most of our Pompeii photos (including the ones in the brothel showing the drawings above each room of what the inhabitant was prepared to share with their customers!) when the phone and camera came in contact. But we did salvage a few from the new museum on the grounds, including some of the new figures recovered from the ash.
We tried our best to learn basic Italian while we were there, but each region has its own dialect and just saying grazie with the wrong accent could get us into trouble! Our guide showed us hand gestures that Italians learn from birth, hence our view of them as using their hands to talk—they do, quite literally. Waiters won’t bring the bill unless one calls 
them and seem to totally ignore customers without a signal—with a hand gesture, of course. They’re eager to know if we enjoyed the meal, and if we couldn’t remember benissimo, there’s a gesture for that too!
Maybe I should divide this trip into three parts. Sienna near Tuscany was our next stop and I have soooo very much to say! It turned out to be our favorite part of the trip, even though I shrugged and thought vineyards when we started out. I’ve seen vineyards. I haven’t seen Etruscan ruins beneath Roman ruins beneath medieval fortresses!
Have you been to Italy? What was your favorite part? And if you’re still hoping to go, what would you like to see most? (and the image to the left is one of so many ancient murals that I've lost track and just added because it's way more imaginative than most!)
