Though I began this week at the beach, and I’m ending it
there as well, there was an excursion north to pick up my sister Melissa. On
Tuesday, I began my day at 7 a.m. with a 30 minute walk to the train station
here in Campomarino. It is usually only a 20-25 minute walk, but a train was
passing so I had to wait while the barrier was down. With a bus substituting
for the train that morning, I had a 15 minute bus ride to Termoli, where there
is a much bigger train station. In Termoli, I stopped for breakfast at my
favorite paneficio (bakery) in town, and ate a piece of pizza for breakfast
while overlooking the castle of Federico II. I grabbed some sandwiches at a
local salumeria (deli) and set out for Milan via train. It was scheduled as a 6
hour trip, and we left right on schedule. However, while on the train we
experienced delays that got me to Milan more than 90 minutes late. Luckily, I
had a wide open schedule so I didn’t need to cancel anything.
Melissa arrived on Wednesday, and we spent most of the day
relaxing and catching her up on sleep. Then we had a great drinks and dinner,
and went back to the hotel. It was a relaxing day that we both needed.
 |
| Juliet's Balcony |
 |
| Piazza Erbe |
On Thursday, we pushed out of Milan in our new rental car,
a Renault Captur, and headed off to Verona a couple of hours away. We walked
the city for 2 hours (the time we had on the parking meter), seeing highlights
like Pizza Erbe, Piazza Bra, Juliet’s Balcony and Juliet’s Tomb, and then
grabbed a bite to eat off of a street vendor. It ended up being a day of snacks
instead of meals. We then hopped back in the car and headed to Campomarino. We
had a 6 and a half hour drive to get back and it seemed to go on and on. We had
a problem with the radio at one point, with all of the controls freezing, no
ability to control station and volume or back up camera. After the station we
had on turned to static, we stopped at a rest stop and had a cammionista (truck
driver) help us undo the battery cable. I had no tools with me for that and was
still 5 hours from home. The radio finally turned off, something it wasn’t
doing even with the keys out and doors open. We encountered a little traffic in
the beginning, but for most of the day the roads were nice and clear. When we
got back to the house, we headed into the center of town for a piece of pizza
for dinner. Somehow, I managed to drive 9 hours and still walk 16,000 steps in
the same day.
Yesterday was nice as we went for a walk in the morning and
then headed to the beach. Lido Ritz had a happy hour special yesterday with
three Aperol Spritz for only 10 euros. They hit the spot on a nice, sunny day. After
the beach we went to the center of town, had pizza at Ristorante Netti, and
then tried gelato from the two gelato places in the center of town. Both were
delicious.