Day 8---Ravello

This has been my favorite day so far. We did so much---pretty much everything here---many gardens, churches, shops and shopping. 

We started the day with an uphill climb to a huge garden overlooking the sea on so many sides. On the way there, we passed several vegetable gardens. Most restaurants have their own gardens to provide them with the vegetables they need for their chefs.

 I have never seen pumpkins grown from and arbor. I have no idea what those long things are.

You can't really tell how big this is. At first, I thought it was a watermelon. But then, it looks more like some sort of squash. All of the fruits and vegetables here seem to be larger than I'm used to seeing in the US.

We continued on our way. This is one of the reasons I wanted to make the trek. I just had to walk down Via Santa Barbara. Turns out, it was really a little residential way. This is the first time that Butch said to me, "I'll wait here for you. Remember, each step you walk down is another step you have to walk back up." I couldn't NOT do it. I kept going---each turn was interesting. When I finally turned around, it was a long way back up.

Along Via Santa Barbara, there were smaller, private gardens. This grape arbor was loaded with green grapes. I think they will remain that way because we saw purple ones too.

 There were interesting gates and doors along the way. This one had a beautiful olive tree right next to it.

Look closely and you can see the olives. I was tempted to pick a few to take home, but then, that would be stealing!

 Here's one section of the steps that I had to walk back up. There were probably about this many more behind me. Still, this is nothing compared to the number of steps Butch has walked this trip.

These were the hugest lemons I've ever seen. Everyone must want to touch them, hence the sign. That coin is about the size of a quarter.

I spent some time people watching in the main piazza while Butch went off on another geo-caching quest. This one yielded a travel bug from Norway. He'll carry it back to the states and drop it off somewhere there. Finding travel bugs are always exciting.

 I have no idea what this vegetable is. I have never seen it before. It sort of resembles broccoli, but not really.

Here you can get an idea of how big the lemons are. They are larger than oranges. They aren't that way back home.

We stopped at a Lemoncello factory. Butch had a taste, but they would not let us in the back to see the operation. I guess that makes sense---health regulations. That didn't stop us from buying.

We relaxed with a beer (for him) and a glass of wine (for me) and shared a sandwich for lunch. After, Butch went to buy a large bottle of water. He walked a ways to a place that sells large bottles rather than get some smaller ones. Whatever he thought he saved, I spent by being left unaccompanied at the shops!

We went back to the hotel, rested and got ready for the concert overlooking the sea. We decided to have a cocktail at our hotel before leaving. I have to say now that the mosquitoes in Italy are horrible!!! We have made a note that we need to travel with bug spray. We have them in our room too. I've been making Butch hunt them down. The only good thing is that despite all the bites, they have not triggered a hive reaction. Anyway, they do make it miserable. I just seem to be bothered by them more than most people.

Anyway, when we got to the box office to redeem our voucher for tickets, we were both concerned about the mosquitoes since it was outside. The woman told us that we were going to be inside. We could hear the piano as we walked up the stairs. I thought they were warming up. When we got to the top, it was very embarrassing. Apparently, it had already started and we had to walk right across the front of the room. We found a couple of seats in the back and started looking at the program. It started at 7 where our information clearly stated 7:30. It didn't take long to figure out that we were in the wrong place. We waited for the pianist to finish his selection before sneaking out the back. We went back downstairs where the woman ended up giving us our money back. We don't know where the disconnect happened, but considering we've had 9 drivers, guides and transfer agents up to now, everything else has gone like clockwork.

We just stopped for another cocktail before finding a place for dinner.

We have not had a bad meal since we've been in Italy. At this place, we started with an appetizer assortment, cheese stuffed anchovies, seaweed balls and cheese stuffed prawns. We've had a lot of anchovies, but you just don't see them on a menu anywhere in the states. Sometimes, you can get them on your Caesar salad, but not often. All of it was delicious.

We had two main courses---veal scallopine and this pasta with salmon and cream. It was divine!

We walked back to our hotel where I was able to get a good night time picture. Really, I'm lucky my camera still works. I have dropped it so many times on the stone pavements. Today, I had it on my wrist, but was sort of swinging it when it flew off and landed and slid at least 10 ft. I thought it would definitely be dead, but it wasn't! What a kid-like thing to do.

Also, notice the cars parked in there? This is the first time I've seen that. This is supposed to be a pedestrian only place. At least that's what they told us as we had to walk here---following a guy in a cart with our luggage.

We saw this car drive in when we were having our cocktail on the square. Butch---who considers himself an auto aficionado---had never seen one before. When we discovered it in our hotel courtyard, I decided to snap a picture. Look how little it is. We still don't know what make or model it is. We looked all around and found the insignia on the front, but we could not make it out.

One final note. Last night, I was getting ready to wash my face before bed. I noticed these wipes and thought---"good idea---keeping people from wiping their make-up on their towels." When I opened it, it seemed more like a wet wipe and was the same type of cloth. I used it anyway. Today I discovered----since I had my glasses on---that it was a shoe wipe! Are you kidding me? No wonder my skin feels like leather today!

Tomorrow we're heading back to Rome to meet up with our friends from church. We get to meet the pope on Friday. Seriously, there are 3000 here with the religious organization we belong to, so I have no illusions that I'm going to actually "meet" him. I'm sure he's just going to talk to us and give us a special blessing. I'll take it!