I Don't Believe in Coincidences

 I'm writing this entry primarily because I don't want to forget what happened night before last. There was a series of events that all came together that made me and Robyn marvel at how it occurred.

We have been asked to teach an English class at the ward house on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7:00 until 8:00 pm.  Tuesday morning, Lori Thorderson--one of our friends we've met working at the temple--called to see if we were interested in meeting them for dinner that evening.  Robyn said we couldn't go until after our class but that we'd love to hit a pizzeria with them.  They came to our English class and helped the students practice and then we walked down to Ippo's Pizzeria--one of the better choices in a sea of opportunity for great pizza.

We parted after a wonderful dinner (you can order round pizzas or pizzas by the meter so you have to be careful not to say "two" unless they know you're talking round rather than meters.)  We could see our bus coming so we ran across the street just barely in time to stop the driver. If you don't make a definite signal that you want to take the bus, the driver won't even slow down even if the stop is crowded with people.

Robyn usually finds a seat while I validate our tickets.  As I walked back to sit next to Robyn, I passed a couple who said, "How's it going?" in English. I said, "Great," and sat down.  Just then I wondered how he knew to greet me in English. He said, "I dunno know, it just seemed natural."  We chatted for a second, he told us they had spent the evening on temple square and were going back to their hotel. Just then, it occurred to me that there was no way these people were going to find their hotel.  Our bus concludes its route about 200 yards past our apartment on a dark street in the middle of nowhere. I said, "I don't think you're going the right direction.  As we chatted over the next minute or two, we found that they indeed were going the wrong direction--at nearly 10:00 at night.  As we huddled together to find out where they needed to go, it was immediately clear that we could get them on the right bus if we rode to the end of the line. They needed bus 86 "Conca d'oro" which concluded its run right by their hotel--but the app they were following would only have worked if they were headed the other direction. The number of elements needed for that encounter were too varied to have been a coincidence. They needed:

1) for us to get on a bus at 10:00 pm that we usually boarded two hours earlier.

2) to greet us in English on a fairly crowded bus. Usually, we sit towards the front next to the validator, but Robyn had to walk to the back of the bus to find a seat. Had there been fewer people on the bus, we would not have seen each other.

3) To chat with us long enough to realize they weren't going where they hoped to be going.

I think the Thordersons were inspired to invite us to dinner in order to help the Smiths get home.

Early morning walk and afternoon visit to the catacombs

 I went for a walk about 7:00 am the other day. I ended up at Rome's LDS temple square. Too early for other people to be there, I snapped this photo that almost seems like a painted postcard. A few years ago, I started post-processing all of my digital photos--but all my software for that stuff is at home in Salt Lake, so, this is what it looked like right from my Pixel 6 phone.  I decided not to bring my Sony or Nikon cameras, thinking that I wouldn't be in many situations that would call for a high-end camera.  I haven't been disappointed, mainly because the quality of this phone's camera is surprisingly good. I quite like how the shadows of the palm trees show up on the temple.

In the afternoon, we went to one of the catacombs along the Appian Way, the catacomb of Saint Sebastian. Although there aren't any cadavers visible (or hidden for that matter), it was fun to see; and our guide told me things I hadn't ever heard.  This is largely a burial site for Christians during the first several hundred years of the Christian era.  There apparently is historical validity to this being the original location of the burial of both Peter's and Paul's bodies.  Our guide mentioned that the lack of crosses among the excavations is due to the fact that the cross wasn't a Christian symbol until about the 5th century and this catacomb predates that era.  Before that, the popular symbols were below: an anchor (left), a fish (center), and the Chi Rho (right). He also said that Christians from that era prayed differently--with both arms raised above their heads.

The Chi Rho is a symbol obtained from superimposing the first two letters of the Greek word for Christ (third symbol above).  First century Christians used symbol of a fish because the Greek word for fish is "ichthys," and its letters served as an acrostic for Iesous Christos Theou Yios Soter. (Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior.) I took a few photos before Robyn told me it wasn't allowed. In my defense, the guide explained the prohibition in English so I wasn't listening.  The anchor is said to have represented safety.

  

Above are remnants of an ancient Chrisitan sarcophagus, with men standing shoulder to shoulder with their right arms raised.  Below is a representation from inside the catacomb of the whale that swallowed Jonah.  

Our guide said these catacombs were also the location of funeral meals that took place at the time of burial--but as far as memory serves, there couldn't have been any potato casseroles 1,000 years before Columbus.

The tour ended in the chapel of a beautiful Catholic Church in the process of a mass being celebrated for a group from France. Bernini's final work of art, a bust of the head of Christ is displayed at the back of the chapel that he did at the age of 82--titled "Savior of the World."

Mario from Maiori

 We've returned our rental vehicle and I'm missing the convenience of a personal automobile--even though there are limits to my bravery in Italian traffic. 

It's been almost two weeks since we took our daughter to see the Amalfi Coast and surrounding villages. Although lots of people drive themselves along the coast highway, we took a bus service down and back from Sorrento.  Given that even though I wasn't driving and had to spend much of the trip in the back seat with my eyes closed, I think it was a good decision. Occasionally, the driver would pull off for photo ops, and we spent a few hours walking through the town of Positano--definitely a high priced but gorgeous tourist trap.  The end of the Amalfi Coast bus trip (before returning to Sorrento) was the town of Amalfi.  The options were to wander around as we did in Positano, or to take a boat trip to see the surrounding villages. I'm really grateful we opted for the boat trip.  All the occupants were either Spanish, English, or French speakers, so the tour guides took turns explaining what we were seeing in those languages.  Their Italian accents were so strong that it seemed to me like they were saying everything in Italian.  A woman next to me was from Barcelona and she said the Spanish sounded more like Italian to her than otherwise.

After the boat ride, we went to a seaside restaurant for lunch.  The food was excellent, but the company turned out to be the highlight of our visit to Amalfi.  Lydia took a photo of our table, and behind us you can see a delightful fellow peering over in our direction.

He introduced himself and talked our ears off. He was visiting from a nearby village because his wife was in the hospital. 

He told us that he was turning 90 in 15 days and was planning on singing and dancing at his birthday party.  He asked if we liked Neapolitan music--and what was my favorite. I said, "Turna A Surriento."  He sang it for us.  I asked him to sing it again so that I could get a video.  He wanted to sing another song instead.  I recorded it, but it wasn't quite as fun as the first song. He opened a gift wrapped package full of pastries and insisted that we share them with him.  It was a wonderful lunch.  True to the culture, this man was dressed to the nines, simply because he was out in public.  Suit coat and tie.  He said he was grateful that even though he was 90 years old, he still had all his mental capacities.  He said his wife was struggling with dementia. Robyn asked if his wife was beautiful. He said she was, but that he was always more handsome than she was.  He got out his wallet that was full of 70 year-old photos.  It was a lovely and memorable part of our trip along the Italian coast.

A Quick Demo on Traffic

 I mentioned how difficult it is to figure out how to navigate the streets. I knew a bus was approaching a stop sign around the corner from where I was standing, so I started to video the encounter. This is a one-take, no rehearsal shot.

The Amalfi Coast, Positano and Amalfi

 

The Isle of Capri

 We drove our rental car from Rome to Vesuvius to Pompeii to Sorrento--one of the most beautiful locations I have ever seen.

Italian traffic is remarkably like a game of Mario Brothers except the surprises come out of nowhere, leaving you grateful to be alive.  No one signals for lane changes, you're supposed to ignore motorcyclists who seem to take care of themselves.  I'm not sure if any rules at all apply to them.  I have been impressed at the competence of the motorcyclists--at least those who have survived this long.  That may sound overly pessimistic because in a weeks' travel through really, really, scary traffic, I didn't see a single accident. We did see several ambulances blast past with sirens blaring their European alarms--which sound to me like a braying donkey--but no real accidents. 

I have always pronounced the name of the island off the coast of Sorrento as though it were a French word with
the emphasis on the second syllable: CaPREE'. Our guides explained that it was originally settled by Greeks who raised goats there--hence it's called 'CApree--the word for goats.  Rather than being a romantic French getaway, it's merely The Island of Goats.  But this island is surrounded by the bluest water I have ever seen. There are lemon trees everywhere, wild flowers growing up through cracks in the pavement and billions of tourists. To say that the vistas from the sea, around the island, and from the mountain atop the island are breathtaking doesn't quite capture the beauty of this place. I'm surprised that anyone left this paradise anciently.  

On the island are a couple of separate villages, and a road above the village of Capri leads to Anacapri (which is Greek for upper Capri) where a gondola ride takes people to the summit of the island.  Our taxi driver up to Anacapri stopped a few times to let us take photos of the village below; but the view from the top was absolutely spectacular.

We noticed that there was a historic cathedral in Anacapri and so we went to see it before meeting up with our taxi driver who had roped us into his personal tour. The floor of the cathedral was a giant display of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. Produced in the 1700's it too was worth the price of admission.  The artist had apparently never seen some of the animals portrayed, but it was nonetheless impressive--even with a unicorn.

Whoops...

This story started on Friday. Our good friend Dario is always looking out for us and helped us renegotiate our gas service for heating our apartment. There are reverberations from the Russia-Ukraine war, and one of them is much higher costs for petroleum products. A guy came in the morning to set up the contract. It took longer than normal because we aren't Italian citizens, and he had to call people who had to call back and there was some waiting involved.

We had an appointment to pick up a rental car at 11:00 because our daughter Lydia was arriving to see us and to see some of Italy. When I told the gas broker we had to hurry because we had to pick up our daughter at the airport, he had lots of ideas he wanted us to try. Everyone wants to tell us about the foods we need to try and he was no different. I said we were taking Lydia to Sorrento to see the Amalfi Coast, and he said, "Sorrento? Why that's famous for Lemoncella!" I wasn't familiar with it and asked if it was a soft drink. He said, "Oh, no, not at all. It's a wonderful liquor."

I said, "That's why I'm not familiar with it  We're astemi--we don't drink alcohol." He was disappointed but gave me a list of foods we needed to try--including a pasta dish cooked with liver, lung, and heart. I said that probably wouldn't work because neither of us care for liver. I hadn't ever considered lung but it didn't seem like it would interest me either.

I made a mental note that I should tell Robyn about Lemoncella but with everything else on my mind I forgot. We took a taxi to the rental agency and started working on getting the car. They have a brand new Ferrari in the showroom and I asked what that would cost to rent. He said, €1,500 per day. Since there was no place to put Lydia's luggage, we decided to keep the Audi we had reserved--at 50 Euros per day.

Well, we got Lydia and went to see Vesuvius, Pompeii and Sorrento. The road up to the still active volcano is very narrow and serpentine. There were road signs warning that you had to make a reservation to park at the trailhead and it had to be done on-line. I noticed the part about reservations when we were almost at the top. I pulled over to make the reservation with my phone when I learned I didn't have internet service. Fortunately, we were right by a gift shop that had a sign that reservations could be made there--because there was no cellular internet on the mountain.  Robyn had already gone inside the gift shop where the proprietor welcomed her with a free sample of "Lemoncella." She asked, "What is it?"

He said, "It's made with lemon juice and buffalo milk." 

She said, "That sounds interesting," and took a snort. 

Just then, I walked in as Robyn exclaimed, "THAT'S HOT!"

The bartender said, "Oh, that's from all the alcohol."

I thought, "I knew there was something I was supposed to tell Robyn.

Well, when we got to the trail head, we noticed it was really cold with a biting wind. I mentioned to the park ranger (Mount Vesuvius is a national park) that it seemed too cold for being just outside of Naples in April--there are palm trees everywhere. He said, (loosely translated) "Tell me about it. It snowed this morning. We're all dying."

Robyn's usually the least comfortable in our family being cold, but she seemed fine. I asked her if it was due to the liquid courage she'd had. She didn't think so. Nevertheless, she was quite the trooper in a very cold adventure.

The view of the bay of Naples below us was breathtaking.  

Postscript: (I revised the above post slightly because I wrote it in the Sorrento hotel, on my phone, while in bed. There were quite a few typos.)

I wrote from under the covers because the room was a little chilly and we didn't notice any radiators anywhere. Since there are oranges and lemons growing everywhere, I figured the hotel wasn't heated. It wasn't a problem because most of the time in the hotel, we're sleeping. But it was too chilly to sit at the kitchen table to write.  When we were gathering up everything to check out, I picked up a remote control device that was next to the TV. It was for the heater--located about 20 feet above our heads--No wonder we couldn't see it.

The crazy high ceilings are something we haven't been able to figure out.  Older buildings have ceilings about 20' high. We're in a newer apartment facility and our ceilings are only 15 feet high.