mama_sloane (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} mama_sloane) wrote,@ 2006-06-11 17:29:00 |
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So last night we all went out for dinner and had a great time and then went over to Pam & Don's for cake. Then Jason, Molly, Jordan, Cheyenne, Amanda & Eric show up which made my birthday extra special and we had a good time chatting away and laughing.
We arrived home from our vacation on 5/29 and it was a fun, exhausting, interesting trip. Our traveling companions were John's sister Carole & husband Ed & their son Tim. We were on a tour in Italy and started out in Rome.
We arrived two days before the tour started and visited the Pantheon & Forum. The Pantheon is remarkable & beautiful built without any support pieces and the ceiling is magnificent. We went on a night tour of Rome which was very pretty with all the lights and even saw that the lights were on in the Vatican apartment signifying that the Pope was in residence. We left on our tour & headed toward Pompeii where we had a local guide take us on a tour of the excavations and continued on to Sorrento where we visited an Inlaid Wood Factory which had beautiful furniture and I especially liked their jewelry boxes.
Then we headed out to a very choppy sea crossing across the Bay of Naples to the beautiful island of Capri for two nights. When we landed we took a tram to the top of the island and the views were breathtaking, the narrow cobblestone streets wound down to our hotel and the path was lined with expensive boutiques like Channel, Prada and Valentino to name a few. According to our guide Capri is a favorite haunt of Sarah Jessica Parker's & the international jet set. I was not as interested in the shops as the view's of the quaint white stucco houses with flat roofs sprinkled along the hillside. The hills were topped with huge rocks and high up on the cliff we could see cars and buses driving along the mediterranean sea. We also got a chance to drive along the Amalfi coast which gave us a gorgeous view of the sea.
We sailed back across the Mediterranean and drove through Naples into the Umbrian hills to mystical Assisi. We enjoyed a tour of St. Francis Basilica. There was a young girl Claire who loved St. Francis but of course since he was a Priest nothing could ever come of her infatuation. She had beautiful long blonde hair & he cut her hair and ordered her to start the
the order of the Poor Claires' which she did. There is another church dedicated to Claire called the Church of St. Mary of the Angels although it is located away from St. Francis Basilica as they could not be close together. There is another story that St. Francis went through a difficult time and threw himself on a bed of roses in the garden which is part of his church. Expecting to be cut by the thorns the thorns disappeared & the roses that have grown there since & are thorn less. There are also doves in the garden that are there to this day.
More later
We arrived home from our vacation on 5/29 and it was a fun, exhausting, interesting trip. Our traveling companions were John's sister Carole & husband Ed & their son Tim. We were on a tour in Italy and started out in Rome.
We arrived two days before the tour started and visited the Pantheon & Forum. The Pantheon is remarkable & beautiful built without any support pieces and the ceiling is magnificent. We went on a night tour of Rome which was very pretty with all the lights and even saw that the lights were on in the Vatican apartment signifying that the Pope was in residence. We left on our tour & headed toward Pompeii where we had a local guide take us on a tour of the excavations and continued on to Sorrento where we visited an Inlaid Wood Factory which had beautiful furniture and I especially liked their jewelry boxes.
Then we headed out to a very choppy sea crossing across the Bay of Naples to the beautiful island of Capri for two nights. When we landed we took a tram to the top of the island and the views were breathtaking, the narrow cobblestone streets wound down to our hotel and the path was lined with expensive boutiques like Channel, Prada and Valentino to name a few. According to our guide Capri is a favorite haunt of Sarah Jessica Parker's & the international jet set. I was not as interested in the shops as the view's of the quaint white stucco houses with flat roofs sprinkled along the hillside. The hills were topped with huge rocks and high up on the cliff we could see cars and buses driving along the mediterranean sea. We also got a chance to drive along the Amalfi coast which gave us a gorgeous view of the sea.
We sailed back across the Mediterranean and drove through Naples into the Umbrian hills to mystical Assisi. We enjoyed a tour of St. Francis Basilica. There was a young girl Claire who loved St. Francis but of course since he was a Priest nothing could ever come of her infatuation. She had beautiful long blonde hair & he cut her hair and ordered her to start the
the order of the Poor Claires' which she did. There is another church dedicated to Claire called the Church of St. Mary of the Angels although it is located away from St. Francis Basilica as they could not be close together. There is another story that St. Francis went through a difficult time and threw himself on a bed of roses in the garden which is part of his church. Expecting to be cut by the thorns the thorns disappeared & the roses that have grown there since & are thorn less. There are also doves in the garden that are there to this day.
More later
