We jump on our Delta jet at 7:30 PM Tuesday, April 5^th, Flight 66 if you are going to track us. We’ll be flying overnight, arriving Rome at 11:15 AM Wednesday. We then fly down to Catania on the East Coast of Sicily, arriving there at 6:30 PM. We’ll be staying in an apartment in the middle of Catania.

While in Catania, besides checking out the markets and historical sights, we’ll make day trips up to Mount Etna and Taormina. Expect lots of photos, especially restaurants and markets. On Monday, April 11, we will move to Siracusa by train, stopping off at Augusta for lunch and to look around a little. In Siracusa, our apartment is again in the older part of town. Lot of history there, including a lot of the Greek influence, but more on that in the blogs from Siracusa. While in Sicacusa, we’ll be visiting the Ramacca Artichoke Festival, Sagra del Carciofa. We are staying in Siracusa for two weeks so there will be many sights on which to report. 

Our next stop will be Agrigento on the Southern coast of Sicily where we plan to visit the Valley of the Temples as well as markets and restaurants and eat lots of fish. And if you are concerned about our accommodations, they will not be too shabby:

On Monday, May 2^nd, we cross Sicily up to the Straight of Messina where we jump on a ferry and travel over to Italy and Reggio Calabria where we’ll stay for a couple of days. Very nice apartment and the location with view, especially looking from the balcony across the Straight to Sicilia is beautiful. They even have my heart medicine ready on the little table!

We’re already thinking that we ought to stay for six months instead of four. Wait until you see photos of our next couple of apartments. From the tip of the toe of the Italian boot, we transition inland to Catanzaro on May 5^th, en route to the heel and the eastern side of Italy.

Did we mention that food is our prime objective for this visit? Food festivals, visiting and shopping at the markets, using vegetables right out of the ground and fish right out of the sea? Well, we have to do something with that food so having a functional kitchen is necessary — and a main criterion when we search for apartments.

Catanzaro is home of several bridge complexes. Below is the Morandi Viaduct Bridge and the photo below that is a screenshot lift of several of the complexes from Google Earth. Our apartment is at the yellow map pin right center overlooking that racetrack-appearing bridge complex. Ponte Morandi is in the lower left and then there is the third bridge in the upper left. Flush from your memory that orange pin in the center of the screenshot.

Next stop is Taranto, located at the top of the heel on the boot. This just may be the best apartment we have ever stayed in while in Italy. But they each have different and endearing traits. Remember the apartment in Milan where we had a similar terrazza on the top floor or even in Palermo? Milan had the awesome view of the Italian Alps and of the Duomo (Milan Cathedral) while Palermo looked out across the harbor but also down on the piazza and Salvo’s vegetable market stall. This one in Taranto though looks pretty darn nice. That’s the bedroom you are looking into! Eat your hearts out! We’ll arrive Taranto on May 7^th. 

After visiting many of the towns and other sites in the heel of Italy, we will move over to Lecce which is closer to the Adriatic Sea. Have we told you we’ll be in many of these locations and apartamenti for a week or more. And we always make sure we have extra beds, Wifi and very importantly, a washing machine. If you need help planning a visit to any of these places, just send an email!

If you are wondering about our luxurious lifestyle, this apartment will cost us $300 for a week, about the same as a hotel room for one night in Rome. The most we are paying during this trip is $1,000 and that is for a full month in one of the apartments.

We’ll leave Lecce on May 17^th, moving up the Adriatic Coast towards Abruzzo and the location of Fran’s mother’s family’s home. The night of the 17th we will stop off in a little town called Mattinata on a peninsula that sticks out into the Adriatic. It’s just one night but we wanted to break up the longer drive and this looked a good place to hit the hay.

Our next stop will be San Salvo Marina where we will stay three nights. Still, not bad. And we will be into the middle of May. I’d bet the water will be just wonderful and will be well ahead of the tourist season.

From the 21^st of May until the 25^th of June, we will be in Chieti, Abruzzo, just a few miles from Fran’s family home in Monteferrante. Our apartment is in the center of town and with our rental car, we’ll visit much more of Abruzzo than were were able to see back in 2016. We’ll be doing some cooking classes and visiting many of the friends and family we met in 2016. Fran has cousins in Monteferrante, Lanciano and Ortona should you want to look up those towns and we have friends in other locations, to include our olive oil supplier Tomasso.

From Chieti, we will head up to Basel, Switzerland, to be in place to board the ship for our Rhine River cruise when it departs Basel on July 2. We still need to make a few arrangements for the this first part of our trip and to start packing. Therefore, we’re going to let the blog sit for a day or two or at least until we know we are ready to travel and have completed arrangements and reservations for the April – June part of the trip. Check back in a few days for the remainder of the itinerary. Ciao e a presto.