Amalfi Coast, Italy

Here it is, the obligatory baby picture in the bathtub with hair spiked up! Now at 11 months, Gemma finally has enough hair to do this and it never gets old. (For me anyways)

I feel like everytime I post, we have just come back from a trip somewhere and I am trying to play catch up! We spent last week on the Amalfi Coast in Italy. We went for a friends wedding, (we set them up about 2 years ago!) and then also to have some QT before Ben deploys again. We had such a great time! The B & B that we stayed at was amazing - the best one yet! We stayed at Rina's Country House in the hillside near Amlafi. Rina was such a great host! She made fresh lemonade for us everyday from kemons she would grab off the tree in her garden! We also had dinner with her several nights that were all made from fresh veggies that she would pick fresh out of her garden that afternoon and fish that was caught that day in the ocean! We would drink wine out of unlabeled bottles made from the grapes that grew on her vines! Again, the Italian culture doesn't dissappoint! That was our 6th trip to Italy and each time we have visited a different region. Each region has different food and wines that are popular world wide. This time we were in the Campania region which is where pizza comes from! Rina taught me how to make pizza dough from scratch the Italian way! Rina's house was set up in a remote location so it was easy to put Gemma down for a nap and then relax out of the balcony enjoying the views and taking in the sun and culture. The wedding was beautiful and so fun! There were only 14 of us so it was very intimate. It took place in the nearby village of Ravello, a hotspot for celebrity weddings with the prices to go with it! (That's why Ben and I stayed in a neighboring town!) Gemma loved crawling around the farm at Rina's and chasing her two cats and dog all over the place! Next, Gemma and I had our picture taken with Justin Timberlake and Jessica Beil!...

OK, so it's a picture of a picture. :) Here's the story... The wedding party took a trip to Pompei and then we visited a winery on the way home for a tasting and some yummy dinner. Lots of celebrities get married in Ravello and it just so happened that a few months ago, JT and JB were in town for a friend who was married at the same hotel where our friends were married. JT and JB visited the same winery that we did and had their pictures taken with our hosts in the same place where I am standing. All of the ladies on our trip took their turns having their pictures taken too! (Like I said, we were at a wine tasting and the wine was soooo good. Taking this picture seemed really funny at the time!) Did I mention that I am a closet JT fan? Below you can see one of the well preserved streets in Pompei.

Here are the three of us standing on the balcony of our B & B with the town of Amalfi in the background. It was 375 steps to get up to our place. (Ben counted them) We would walk down and go for a swim in the ocean or visit the town when we weren't doing wedding stuff. Here is the town square with the Cathedral.

We rented a boat one day and 'drove' along the coast out to the island of Capri. We visited the green grotto of Amalfi and also the Blue Grotto of Capri. We had to get out of our little boat and hop in an even smaller row boat to get into the grotto through the opening you see. (It was really small, we had to lay down in the boat to get through. The water was a deep blue color, so beautiful!


The wedding was held at the Palazzo Sasso. Perched up high on a cliff, Lydia and Rich (Chewie) were wed on a balcony patio overlooking the sea. Lydia looked so beautiful! After the ceremony we had a delicious lunch at the hotel and then the whole group wandered through the town of Ravello while the photographer took their wedding portraits all over town. (It's that scenic) I kept peaking over the photographer's shoulder trying to learn a few tricks!


Here is a picture my frined Laurie took of Gemma out on her front lawn. Yes, Laurie really does live in a castle. I love the way the light is shining down in this picture, right on our little angel! She is still bear crawling most of the time. She will only crawl normally if she is wearing something that covers her knees.