A Family Tradition - Arrivederci Italia!

DAY 11:  Monday, May 27th:  It has become tradition when we travel to Italy to spend our last evening in the home of my cousins Gabriella and Dario who live in the castelli region in the hills south of Rome.  Their bed and breakfast has easy access to the Rome airport, so early Monday morning Silia, Pino and Sergio drove us to the Palermo airport for our flight to Rome.  It was a quick flight, and when we arrived our driver was waiting to take us to Velletri. 

Today Gabriella's son, Matteo, was graduating from Rome University and the family was in Rome for the event.  But we were in good hands as we arrived and a delicious breakfast was waiting for us in the dining room.  It was beginning to rain, but we still had several hours before the family would return from Rome, so we arranged to be driven into town to do a little shopping.  We spent a few hours there, and when we returned Gabriella and her family were waiting for us along with another cousin, Rossella, and Gabriella's sister Nadia.  We all had a beautiful lunch together at the family's large table, then they had plans to take us to Castel Gandolfo, the summer home of the Pope.

Gabriella's husband Dario is not only an excellent cook, but he is also a great tour guide so even though he does not speak any English, he made copies of interesting articles about the area and gave us a great tour of this beautiful region.  After visiting the area they took us to dinner in a very nice restaurant overlooking the crater lake and everyone said it was one of the best meals they had the whole time we were in Italy.  We returned back to the villa and had coffee and cookies in Gabriella's kitchen while we all practiced our Italian and English with each other.  I had a few gifts for them and I was able to finally be able to talk with Nadia in her own language since she didn't speak any English.  It was a great evening and the perfect way to spend our last day in Italy.  I love spending time with my beautiful Italian cousins who are so cultured, intelligent, and generous and who are so much fun to be around.  I cannot thank them enough for their generosity and hospitality!

This ends our Italian adventure which took us from Rome to Amalfi to Sicily and was filled with Fun, Food, Family and Love!  Our adventure ends, but the memories will live on forever!

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