Over the weekend Stacey and I went to a place called Santa Margherita. It is the town located just next to Portofino, and they both sit on the coast. Santa Margherita is not very big and has an even smaller "old town" that is easily explored in a few hours. We checked into our hotel and walked down along the harborfront. We saw a statue of Christopher Columbus. I guess he discovered more than America! Villas dot the hillsides, and there is a small castle. There are also two amazing churches, which I did get a pretty good picture of the inside of one. The black and whilte stones making a design are in front of one of the churches, which was mainly built for the old fishermen to use to pray for a safe return from the sea. Just off the shore, you can still see a net in the water. Not to long ago the town's Water Polo team would practice and hold their games in the sea. When all the other cities went to indoor pools, Santa Margherita just said,"No thanks!" The team disband and I guess no one wanted to pick the net up. Our hotel is the one big white one. We had the only 5 star hotel in town and the air conditioning was pretty weak. BUT, the evening dinner out on the second story balcony overlooking the Mediterranean Sea was wonderful!!!! They even had a man playing a piano on the lower terrace, and he played every old romantic song we have ever heard. The picture with the trees growing up through the floor was the breakfast terrace. We ate just behind the tree! There was a chef on hand. The breakfast table inside with all the choices was not something you would find at Denny's! The pool situation was amazing in itself! You first walked down these winding stairs, that had every flowering plant and pot you could imangin! They were hanging and clinging to every ledge. The stairs would terrace out and start over again with more potted plants, flowering bushes, and palm trees. Then you made it to the pool. You went down another terrace and there was a bar, and snack area, and full resturaunt, just there to cook lunch. Then you went down another terrace to the beach, which was really just a sunbathing area with ladders down into the sea. Concrete was free formed around hugh rocks to make different levels to sun bath on. Handsome Italian men would open up your loung chairs, (which hada little canapy to put up and over to protect your pampered face) put up your umbrella, lay out your towels, and bring you drinks and goodies all day. We were in heaven!!

These are some shots from the car driving through Umbria. There are just field after field with grapes, sunflowers, and wheat. All manicured like one big yard. The picture of the hillside town is a place where we stopped years ago. I don't even know the name of the town. We were only there long enough to take one picture. We got out of the car and looked around. It was evening and the light was fading fast. We could hear the sounds of a family having dinner in their home through a nearby window. Dishes and silverwear clanking, people telling of the days events, and the smell of something wonderful drifting out to us in the evening breeze. I took a picture of the front of the house with all the potted plants forming a beautiful garden under the window and around the doorstep. A few months afterwards, I gave my mom that photo and she painted it and we had it framed. Now, every time I look at it, I remember that evening with Stacey long ago.

This is the Villa Zuccira located in Umbria. We stayed here for a few days while Stacey worked in the nearby Foligno. The Villa has been in the family for years. The current family members have just added on a new section with several rooms, all decorated different. The pool is also new. To the right of the pool, just out of camera range, is an almost completed addition, that will be used for weddings and receptions. It is decorated in stark white, and already is booked for fall weddings. The one picture I took our rooms light fixture. It is was made from Murono glass. This is a famous glass made in Italy. I have seen several light fixtures in and around Italy made the same way, and they are just as fancy and pretty. This one was made with light pink and green glass. The owners of the Villa were very nice, and had a three month old Irish Setter named Pepo. Our first puppy was an Irish Setter years ago. Of course, we longed for our silly dogs back home after playing with Pepo for a couple of days.

Pictures from Sermonata. This is a little hilltown that we drove to one day and just explored. It took about an hour to walk every street. There were kids tossing water balloons off a flower covered balcony when we first came into town, and the same bunch, with a about a dozen more were playing soccer in the street when we left. There was laundry hanging out window, we saw one woman sitting outside her home with a bowl in her lap preparing some salad greens for dinner. Another woman was just sitting outside her doorway, catching a breeze and watching us take pictures. A few men and women were in the town square sitting around talking. We walked into the church and just about the only picture that came out was an ugly little scary statue, and the ceiling. It was a beautiful church in a little town that is barely on the map, but that would make a postcard in the States

Journal 8

Ok, A lot has happened since my last journal!! We have been really busy and I have also not had easy access to the internet. First of all, we have moved!!!!! It is, "The Room With The View!" It is not the Tuscan countryside, but it's ITALY!!!!! I am posting pictures of the room and the workout gym, that I might say we ARE using!!!! We are eating, but we are also working out!! This upscale room we have moved to has scales in the bathroom!!! I weigh 59 on these scales!! I just love it!! They are not broke, it is just in kilos. AND I am not telling you how to convert it over! HA! I have also learned how to tell the temperature. What we told to do is simple double the temperature and then add 30. It's almost accurate...that's what they say. Today for instance, it got up to 34. We doubled the 34 which made it 68, then added 30. Yes! It was 98 today! We has also discovered a mall right down the road from us, called Leonardo. It has a store which is pretty much like a Walmart store, and then a regular mall is connected. The mall has several clothing stores, a couple of shoe stores, a dry cleaners, a couple of jewerly stores, electronic store, a phone store, a few other stores, a couple of different eating places, and YES gelato places. I guess you could say it is pretty much like our malls, but then it is so different. The clothes all look the same more or less. The shoes all have to have the Italian pointed thing going on, along with platforms, and the food is all spread out, not in one main food court. The first thing we purchased in the "Walmart Twin" was $100.00 worth of hangers!! I still need more!! We also bought a cheap basket to keep fresh fruit in, which right now has only chocolate in it! That's only because we just got back from our five day work/play trip. Usually it has fresh cherries, bananas, and oranges. We also keep a small amount of baggette bread and croussants on had, AND water!! Lots of WATER!! It took us about three hard days to FINALLY find a Laundromat. They just do not have them!! People thought we were nuts! I won't bore you with the ugly details, but used the internet, asked hotel workers, after getting directions, we went in circles, asked directions over and over again, were sent to dry cleaners, went on dead end runs, and on and on and on. BUT, in the end the Americans got their way, and we did find one that will work. We went in and this lady told us to load it ourselves into the washing machines. Then she put her detergent in and told us to come back in one hour. When we came back in, it was just finishing tumbling in the dryer. We took it out and folded it. It cost us about $16.00 for three loads. We added it up the different pieces and what we had would have cost us over $250.00 at the hotel!! We didn't blink an eye at the $16.00. AND we have learned to be very conservative on what we wear more than once. I am now on a quest for a hairdresser. The day we were at the laundrymat I walked into this place down the street. No one spoke a word of English. Everyone was scrambling around looking for someone to talk to me. I felt like a celebrity because I was "the Americano," "the Americano," "the Americano," and three Italian girls were smiling licking their chops wanting to get at me, but none spoke a word of English. I didn't think it work at all, so I just smiled and backed all the way out as they were still trying to get me to stay. I have a promise to myself to get it done tomorrow!! But, as I just remembered, Italy plays in the semi-finals in the World Cup tomorrow and this country will shut down and come to a halt! I am not kidding either! They take it more serious than anything I have ever seen!!