We took a little break - Italia!

OK - I wanted to start my post above the picture but the computer won't let me. It won't let me italicize 'above' either. Pretty much everything has taken a turn south since I upgraded to Explorer 9 and the new Yahoo Mail. The keyboard constantly freezes on me - but only in Blogger and Yahoo. Grrrrrrr......

That's not what this post is about. It's about ITALY! Long ago when we figured the Ascension weekend (4 day weekend for school) would be our last opportunity to travel, Bart asked me where I'd like to go. I wanted to go back to Italy. The people are ALIVE, the food is great, it might, just might, be warm and we just really enjoy it.

So he booked us a weekend in a little seaside village called Santa Margarita Ligure and spoiled us. It was so nice to get away from the house and all the work that needs to and will get done for the move. Additionally, we hadn't seen him in a month so it was great to spend time together without the everyday distractions. Like I said, we were spoiled last weekend.

Getting there, getting home - not so fun. Wednesday night traffic in Milan was 1) sheer torture 2) not moving 3) reminded me of LA rush hour but somehow worse and we'll stop there. Sunday night the Gotthard Tunnel had a 5 km wait so we opted for the alternate San Bernardino pass route. Hmmm - foggy and slow up top and then - tunnel closure due to an accident. All the traffic from both sides of the tunnel had to be re-routed on the old road through the little mountain village. I'd still have made the trip even if I had known about the "road challenges" because we had a great time. The girls had their portable DVD player as well so were comatose in the back seat.

I have a lot of pictures for you. More specifically for my sister D who complained that I didn't have enough pic's on the Blog lately and she wants to see the girls. So here we go, in no particular order:

I love taking pic's of the fruits and veggies. If you've never purchased produce in Italy - please do not touch! The clerk will be more than happy for you to point out which particular piece you want and bag it. I still have a slo-mo in my head of my friend S reaching toward an apple/orange and the shopkeeper rushing toward her and me trying to get to her from down the street to warn her - too late, she touched. Shopkeeper took it out of her hand, bagged it, etc.... Hard to know the "rules" sometimes.

Typical Italian scene: men on the bench.

Pretty doors in Portofino.

Pretty girls in the pretty blue water.

We enjoyed watching all the boats. Which you can't see now because Blogger and the keyboard don't like me.

I took a few pictures. So did Bart.

Biker chic:

Off for a little shopping in Santa Margarita:

Reading by the pool:

Boats in the harbor of Portofino:

I take pictures of goofy things. The villa of Dolce & Gabbana with all the boats docked below.

While the family eats gelato, I have an espresso. I did eat one gelato - delicious!

Water was beautiful:

And here we are: Bart and I with our "mini-me's."

So great to have him around and we miss him already. Oh, we're homeowners (aka poor) again! As I write, Bart has already received delivery of our Des Moines storage items, hopefully the bed and they should be arriving to install the washer/dryer. WhooHoo!

Told him we'd get a bed before the TV!