As Promised ~ Part Deux

Thanks dear friends for your emails and comments and yes....I am feeling quite a bit better, but as you probably know from your own experience these summer colds are TOUGH to get rid of! I hope that you all had a relaxing weekend with any fathers in your family. I still think of my own dear Dad on that day, who has been gone for over 21 years now...but is always in my heart:-).
We didn't do much of anything special yesterday but lay around....especially Mr. Fufu who did lot of this, which he really deserves:

And laid around here too:

And we drank some spritzer cocktails made with these two ingredients, the first bottle which I smuggled back from Italy in my suitcase that FINALLY ARRIVED here in Miami:


Speaking of Italy, my promised post of a small grouping of more photos. I bought a new little Canon Elph Camera (pink:-) for the trip so that I didn't have to lug my huge Rebel and paparazzi lenses around....so the photos should be easy to view in this smaller format.

After the fascinating Malta it was on to Italy, which has some of the most beautiful terrain, incredible history, stunning buildings, and art work that is out of this world. The people are animated and friendly, every city that you visit is extremely overcrowded with tourists and the streets are not the cleanest around as a result. It seems that whenever you visit any place in Europe you can pretty much count on striking workers somewhere, someplace. At the time we visited, a couple of the strikes in Italy were trash pick up in a few places and the fisherman pretty much EVERYWHERE were striking and not fishing, due to the high cost of petrol. You think we have it bad? It's as high as $9 a gallon in some European areas!!

First stop in Italy was the area of Naples and Pompeii. The city sits close to Mount Vesuvius, which had erupted in 79 a.d. and was excavated in the 1700's.....given a look into life during the Roman Empire. If you love history, it's worth reading about and studying~which my family all plans on doing now that we have been there.

It was REALLY HOT in Pompeii, even for this Miami girl! The floppy hat is a bit quirky, but saved the day for me.
The streets were built with stones made from the volcanic lava. There are deep grooves in the stones that were made by the chariots running the streets.


Kinda creepy plaster casts of some of the people who perished in the volcanic eruption.


Next was the city of Sorrento located along the beautiful Amalfi Coast overlooking the Bay Of Naples.
A beautiful drive with such impressive views, and a great local culture. I would definitely like to go back to this city and spend more time some day!

Beautiful hanging bougainvillea reminded me of home, where it also grows year round.

A stop for lunch at a great local restaurant. I must have been Italian in a past life, as this is my FAVORITE ethnic food of all.

Since I was with the family, I didn't have a whole lot of time for this, and the prices were really sky high throughout Europe.


We took a ferry over to the exquisite island of Capri. It's not the easiest place to get to, and then to the top you have to take a funicular ride (cable train)....so definitely not for the weak at heart (or stomach)!

Top of the world on Capri, definitely worth the effort to get there!

Lots of places to eat Gelato and pink buildings full of high end shopping everywhere.



Then on to Rome via the port of Civitaveccia. What can you say about this important part of history!

The Vatican, where we took a tour with an incredibly knowledgeable tour guide who spoke six languages fluently. The Sistine Chapel with Michaelangelo's painted ceiling is indescribable. Unfortunately they don't let you take photos in there...but it's one of those places that you really have to visit in person. If you haven't yet, I hope that you can someday.





The Coliseum.

Then on to Florence. I was surprised to find more crowds and noise here than in Rome! Beautiful place, where we really didn't have enough time to linger.

A beautiful sunrise from our balcony on the ship that morning.

We were adventurous and didn't take a tour to Florence, but opted to go on our own via the train and see more local life.

My sweet family at a cafe in Florence. We had true Italian pizza for lunch....out of this world yummy!


Local scenes in Florence.

On to the south of France....the incredible lush, relaxing Riviera. If we could move here we would chuck it all and go.....our family's favorite place in the world. Nice is just lovely....and the surrounding areas as well.


The flower market was open the day that we were in town, as well as the flea market. Since I had this new camera my battery died that day without warning and dumbo me didn't bring the spare along....so from here on out I had to rely on my girls for their photos.

Rocky coastline that didn't keep people from sunbathing later in the day.

Our girly girl had fun skipping stones!

Finally on to Monaco and the capital of Monte Carlo. Again I didn't have my camera.......so the photos here are courtesy of my daughter, who has a great eye for taking interesting shots.


Lots of high rollers as you can imagine in this paradise! The casino was not open when we were there, as it was morning and they didn't open until later in the day. The Monaco Grand Prix race had just finished a couple of weeks before and the stands and barricades were still up......which thrilled Mr. Fufu beyond words (a guy thing). I enjoyed seeing where Princess Grace lived and we got to see the changing of the guard ceremony. Monaco is probably the cleanest city that I have ever seen!


The world famous Paris Hotel. I tried to go inside for a look~see, but they only allow guests to enter (excuse moi!)

Well ladies......I hope that you have enjoyed my little photo tour. Now for me it's time to get to get back to work for the remainder of the day.......

By the way, I just wanted to thank you for the emails/comments about the article in Romantic Country magazine.......and to mention that we are now SOLD OUT of our bulk order, which just arrived into our shop today and will be shipped out promptly to those who purchased them. Thanks for visiting me today.....

Talk soon
~xoxoxo~
Janet