Catching Up

These last few weeks have been totally immersed in catching up.  So many things to do and so many people to catch up with.

As you can see from my last blog, my cousins, who I grew up with in Cleveland, Ohio, came to visit for two weeks.  We had established an annual girls’ get together several years ago, to re-connect and to stay in touch personally.  Since COVID and since I’ve moved to Italy, that hasn’t been possible.  But this year, they came to Italy and we had a fabulous time together.  I love them so much!

Mike went to America for his mother’s memorial service and to see most of our kids.  He didn’t want to be the only man among four chatty women in our apartment.  It really did work out fine for all of us.

After hosting the group and doing all of the driving (about 700 kilometers), I was a bit tired.  So pretty much the week after the girls left and Mike got home, I was cleaning house and taking it easy. 

We always find time to stop for coffee.

Except for all of our “to-do” things.  Mike had doctor appointments (cardiologist, urologist, chiropractor) that all went really well.  We are very pleased with the results of his exams and tests. 

One day we picked up our friends Valerie and Cecil, who live in Pescara (and in Evanston, IL) and went to a little town about 30 minutes away called Loreto Aprutino.  There is a covered market there on Saturdays that I’d been wanting to go to because I’ve heard so many people talk about how nice it is.  There’s also a couple of museums there.  First, we went to the ceramics museum, which was interesting.  Then we had a very nice tour of the olive oil museum.  It was once  a big oil producing company, and we got to see how the oil was produced a century ago.    Then we went to the market, which was a disappointment.  We had expected it to be huge, but, no, just a few vendors.  We got a bite to eat at a nice café, walked to a park that had a memorial damaged in WW2.  Then we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening at our apartment, chit-chatting, enjoying our balcony, and sipping Mike’s famous Aperol spritzes.  It was good to catch up with Valerie and Cecil.

Sunday evening we picked up our friend Monica, an expat from Florida and New Jersey, and drove to a beach club in Silvi where there was a swing dance competition.  Her friend Antonio joined us.  It was a lively evening! Lots of activity on the beach, with the start of summer.  Watch the videos...

Last Tuesday we met our friends Diane and Nando for lunch at their beach club, The Palm Beach Club, in Pescara.  It’s a beautiful setting, with good food, good service, and a nice view of the sea.  We had met Diane and Nando at an English-speakers group gathering several months ago.  They are from South Africa and live in an apartment in the middle of Pescara.  They are adventuresome and had joined us on the trip to Tirano and the ride on the Bernina Express (aka Red Train) to St. Moritz last April.   We love hearing their stories of life in South Africa, all the different animals and the lifestyle. 

On Friday we had lunch with our friends from Vasto, Marsha and Bob.  We had met them on one of Anna Swan’s tours of small Abbruzzese towns.  Bob’s health hasn’t been good lately, and he has had to have surgery at a hospital near us.  They had a follow-up appointment there, and we met at a braceria (a restaurant that specializes in meat) in Silvi (a little town just north of us) that Mike and I had found a while back and had a good meal there.  Since Bob was a butcher in his past life, he was pleased to be able to order a nice cut of roast lamb.  It was good to catch up with them.

Today we met up with our friends Valerie and Cecil again.  This time at a beach club along the Lungamare called Il Mare di FaLu for a seafood lunch.  The restaurant is a beautiful setting on the beach and the food was excellent.  They rode their e-bikes, and it was interesting for us to see how the bikes work.  We can always find lots to talk about with those two.  They are off to Paris for week, so we’re not sure if we will see them again before they return to Chicago and we take off for Portugal.

Oh, did I say Portugal?  Yep. We are planning and packing this week and next for a tour of Lisbon, Porto, and the Douro River.  Then, we will stop for a few days in Valencia, Spain, to see my “nephew” Eddie, his wife Heather, and their son TJ.  We go way, way back (a long story for another time), and it will be good to catch up with them. 

More when we return.

Ciao Tutti!

Oh, here's some photos: Click HERE