Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Two Day Road Trip

On Tuesday morning I woke up at 4:30 a.m., after going to bed at 1:00 a.m., to drive Jason to the airport. He was flying to Paris to meet his bride Christie. When they return to Catania on Saturday, she will be staying for the duration at Malibu.

Laurie and I decided to take a two day road trip of Sicily in their absence. Our trip is featured in the next seven posts I have added today. Our journey took us first to Caltagirone , the ceramics center for the island. Needless to say we spent some euros on their wares.
From there we were off to Piazza Armerina and it's famous mosaics in the Casale hunting lodge.

We then drove down to see the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento and finished the day by spending the night in Palermo!

There are no pictures posted of Agrigento as we just drove around the ruins and did not go into the park. The Temples are all very close to the road so Laurie was happy with the views. If you want to see the Temples, see previous posts from about 4 weeks ago on both this and Jason's blog.

Today we woke up late but still got a chance to see the Cathedral at Monreale. After St. Peter's Basilica in Roma, this is arguably my second favorite church in the northern hemisphere although Westminster Abbey is pretty good for a Protestant house of worship. More money was pumped into the Sicilian economy by Laurie's purchases of more ceramic pieces!

Then it was off to fulfill a promise to Mike D'Antuono and see his ancestral hometown of Caltanissetta.

A quick stop in Enna for a snack and it was back to Catania in time for our 8:00 p.m. film study with the WR's and DB's.

I need to mention how proud I am of the way all of our players are improving. The competition the last two practices has been much more intense! First game at Milan is now only 25 days away.
 
The sunrise at Malibu Tuesday was
an omen of a GREAT road trip!

Laurie by the tiled steps in Caltagirone

A close-up of the tiled steps which Laurie now plans to add to our front steps/porch in Camarillo

I just can't get enough of the Sicilian country side!
This was taken just outside of Caltagirone

1 comment:

Gloria Ives said...

I can't wait to get back to Italy. Your pictures make me yearn to return. Thank you!