A Year of Firsts: Fall Update and a Trip to Palinuro

lunedi, 30 ottobre

I have heard that winter has arrived early for my Minnesota friends. I am truly sorry as I sit on my porch and admire my rose bush that is blooming again - in late October. No I am not rubbing it in but just confirmation that I love the southern Italian climate. I do hope winter is kind to you.

You can tell the seasons are changing as there are some trees that change color - but not many here in the south. The temperatures are now in the 60's during the day and cooler at night. But not too cold where you can't sit outside for dinner. Last night Angela, Luigi and I ate at the Rosticceria and sat outside under the stars. Layering and a scarf around your neck and you are all set. It was heaven.

So now how about an update on a few of my house projects? I thought you might also enjoy a little site seeing from southern Italy. A few Minnesota friends visited for a week and I took them on a boat excursion to Palinuro. More on that in a minute. But first the house projects.

My fireplace is almost ready to use. My new screen is here - now just waiting for the grate for the logs. I am holding off as long as I can to put a fire in the fireplace - similar to the urge to turn on the furnace back in MN - you want to wait as long as you can. Oscar's ready!

Also I hired my cousin Antonio, the carpenter, to build closets (armadi) for me in the office/spare room. This will provide some much needed storage for clothes, Christmas decorations, luggage, etc. It will be a full wall of storage. I got a sneak peak of the progress on Saturday as I needed to pick out the handles for the doors/drawers. His workmanship is amazing. Check out the pictures. Installation is scheduled for next Monday and I can't wait. I am so excited. They are solid wood! I will send another picture when they are installed.

The two closets without the doors. Notice the closet
on the right will have 4 drawers.

These are the cabinets that will be on top of the closets
They will also have doors and will go all the way to the ceiling.
I am using every bit of space.

The drawers with a sample of the handles I picked out.

I was excited to have two Minnesota friends visit recently. One day we took a boat excursion to Palinuro.

From Wikipedia "Palinuro is part of the Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park, an area of "shrubland" typical of Mediterranean countries.

It is popular with tourists, especially in summer, due to the cleanliness of its waters and beautiful beaches; and is regularly awarded five stars Blue Flag^[2]
The town is also famous for the caves along its coast,^[3] which are regularly visited, especially by frogmen."

The boat leaves the port of Marina di Casal Velino in the morning and takes a slow ride down the beautiful coast. It takes a few hours. Once we get close to Palinuro the boat stops and then starts to off load everyone into smaller boats. Some people will go relax on a beach/or go swimming as many of the young Germans on holiday did that were on the boat. Or some people chose to go snorkeling - the boat provides all the wetsuits as the water has cooled over the past month. My friends and I chose to relax on the beach. We also took a hike up the mountain trail that takes you to a hotel. The path is supposedly to be used only by hotel patrons but the hotel is closed for the winter so we chose to ignore the signs telling us to stay out. As in Italy - rules are made to be broken. HAHA!!

Carol and Susan enjoying the small boat ride to the beach

Enjoying the beach while the younger tourists enjoy the water

A view as we start to climb the 444 steps to the hotel at the top

Picturesque coastline

A view down to the beach

Many are surprised by the rocky coastline

Bellissimo mare

The color is amazing

The smaller boats pick us up after a few hours and on the way back to the large boat we explore the grottoes that are famous in this area. There are three that we visited. The Sulfur Grotto - there is a smell of sulfur and an underwater sulfuric flow - notice the movement in the water in the video.

https://youtu.be/tFwS751A1QM

Next is the Blood Grotto - due to the redish color on the outside and inside of the grotto. The color comes from the iron deposits on the rock formations.

https://youtu.be/C74z9sSHxwg

The third Grotto is the most beautiful and of course I had a phone/camera malfunction when I was trying to video so I only got a still photo of it. The name comes from the effect from the sunlight penetrating into the grotto from an opening that is 100 feet deep in the water. The color is so beautiful!