Big Cashew's continuing European Travels
Well, another couple of days have flown by. I guess its time to fill my fans in the exciting actions of the last two days as I am sure you are all starving for more. OK, I am sure reality is you have had your fill and that there are plenty of left overs to be had but they are just rotting away at this point. Still, there is somethings to blog about (notice I did not say good things) so let's get to it.
Yesterday (Sunday) was not really much to talk about, but we did do a couple of things so I will tell you about them. First, the home owners were out for most of the day. Rosario goes to her mothers for Sunday morning and then to her mother-in-laws for the afternoon. Lello takes here to both places and either runs errands or hangs with her. The kids are both out early too, so when we got up, we had the house to ourselves. We had our cups of tea and then went for a walk down the street into the neighborhood. This neighborhood, like just about all of them, are "gated" communities. By gated I mean that every house has gates all around the perimeter. Some also have gates around the whole neighborhood. I don't know why, but this really bothers me as I wonder how safe is it here when everyone lives behind these gates and all the windows in the house have metal shutters that close and cover those windows. They are always shut at night and sometimes they are not even opened during the day. Again, just a point that rubs me the wrong way. I guess is my hangup.
After our walk, we took the car out for a spin. Chiara wanted to find a church for mass. We were busy Saturday evening so we did not go to an earlier mass. Anyway, we pass one church and I miss the turn, so I have to go a little farther and do a U turn. We come back and I drive into the parking lot. There are some people there so she asks about the mass. They must have completed the masses there and we were directed down a side street towards the "New" church just recently built. We look for it but go the wrong direction at a turn. We have to make a loop as the road is one way. We come back and I suggest instead of turning, we go straight. after about 1/4 mile, we see a steeple in the distance. We drive almost a mile and there it is. It is a "New" church, especially when compared to the majority in the country. You can see a couple of pictures I took.
The mass took about an hour. I would say at least 20 minutes or so were from the sermon. Apparently some Italian priests were canonized as Saints and the story was all about them. I could barely contain myself. And I could barely stay awake. So that was our first "highlight" of the day.
The second activity was going back to Gigi's and Adriena's. This was in late afternoon. Angela and Pietro are there quite a lot. They all seem to enjoy each others company. We were invited to have some dessert. I was bit tired, but Chiara wanted to go so off we went. As I have noted before, no one speaks English. I sat at the table, had some of the pastries and some lime soda. Its not and issue that no one speaks English. They treat me very well, like one of the family. Its just that there is minimal conversations we can have. Occasionally, Chiara will translate to get an answer from me, but not too often. This trip I brought books on tape so I will turn on the CD player and listen when they talk.
As far as I am concerned, I am here to take Chiara to visit whom she wants to, and I have fulfilled that task quite thoroughly these past two weeks. No complaints. If it makes her happy, then that is what I do. And that was it for Sunday.
Monday was filled with one goal. Chiara wanted to get to Our Lady of the Rosary Cathedral in Pompeii. She pretty much wants to go here every trip and attend mass. This time, she also wanted to visit with her first husbands Aunt who lives about half way to the church. As it turned out, when it was understood that she was going to the church and added the visit, both her sister, Rosaria and her cousin, Louisa, both wanted to come. So a two person trip turned into a 5 person (four women and me) trip and all went to the church. The trip itself was mostly non-eventful until we reach Pompeii. Then things got a little nasty. We went as far as we could with the back streets that GPS took us. We finally got to the main street that takes you to the square, except that the end section is only open to resident's cars. We had to turn off, and it appears we turned off to soon and in the wrong direction. I took a left, as my navigator directed and we went done this side street. We got to the end and I was directed right. We, or really I, drove down this street and noticed something peculiar. The street was supposedly two way but it was getting narrower. We finally come to the end section, which first required us to cross railroad tracks. The thing was, the tracks were a small hill that made me concerned about bottoming out. I also had two pedestrians walking toward us in the middle of this narrow opening. Now I seldom brag, but there's a statement in the Bible that states "it is easier to fit a camel through the eye of a needle than it is for rich man to go to heaven". I now need to usurp this one. It is harder to do anything you can think of with a camel then it is for the Big Cashew to drive his car through any size opening these Italians throw at me with no scratches or dings! Just bring it on. This street had a rock wall on one side and metal posts on the other to protect pedestrians and it was barely wider than the car. But to top it off, it had a 90 degree turn in the middle of all this. I am not sure how I did it, but I came through unscathed and ready for bear. Then to top it off, I was shortly faced with another 90 degree turn on a two way street just wide enough to fit through moving in a straight line. There was a car parked on both sides and I had inches at most to make this turn. I have seen the enemy and I have pushed him back in his hole. No problem.
We arrived at the square and needed to find parking. The church is supposed to have parking but it is not easy to find. I dropped the women off before parking, and I was forced to circle once to wait for an opening. One came up and we parked the car, then walked into the church. The goal was for the ladies to be there for the noon mass. We entered around 11:50 and the mass started a 12. It turned out to be a wedding mass, so we stayed and watched, and even clapped for the bride and groom. After the mass, I went around and took these pictures:
The car is for the wedding couple.
And here are few pics of the crew that was with me.
After the mass, the ladies went to the intentions office and wrote out mass intentions for family members who have passed on. I went around to take more pictures. Once finished, they came back into the church and then walked to the entrance to step into the front courtyard. The wedding party was completing pictures and these ladies wanted a picture of them with the car, as you see above. We then walked to a local restaurant and had lunch. The special was pasta with mussels in a tomato sauce, then fried calamari and shrimp, and finally fresh fruit. All this for $18 Euros/person. It was very filling.
After lunch I drove everyone back, dropped off the Aunt and the cousin, then headed to Villa Chiara to say hello to Biagio. We only stayed about 20 minutes, no food, and then headed back to Rosaria's.
We were tired and not too hungry at that point. It was good to get back.
Tomorrow is our last day here, so we will see what it holds for us. Signing off for now!
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