Our Labor Day Weekend

Well, we had your average Labor Day weekend. We spent a lot of time at the beach and playing around in the water. The only difference was, we were on a little island in the Mediterranean Sea. We went with two other families that live on our "compound", to the small resort island of Ponza. It is right off the coast of where we live, just north of Ischia and Capri. Not well known to the American tourists, but very popular with Italians. It is very similar to La Maddalena, where we did our last Italian tour. We took a ferry over on Saturday morning, got settled in our apartment and went down a PLETHORA of steep stairs to the "beach". I use that term loosely, because there was no sand to be found, everyone was laying on the rock. You will get the idea from the pictures. The area was called piscine naturali, natural pools, because there were several spots in the cove that dipped down and looked like swimming pools. One in particular was surrounded by rock. That is the one where I spent all my time floating around. The water was very salty, so you were able to stay afloat without much effort. There were also spots on the rocks around the water where you could jump in, some higher than others. It was what I consider wimpy cliff diving. There were sea urchins to be careful about as well as a few jellyfish. Tom actually got a good sting from one of the jellies. Just a little souvenir from the natives.

On Sunday, we went on a boat ride around Ponza and another small island, Palmarola. We stopped in several places on got to jump in the water. The rock formations were quite interesting and different from each other. The water was so blue and clear. It was amazing.

We made our way home on Monday afternoon and got ready for the week. We all had a great time.

As far as our day to day life, we are pretty boring. Victoria started school on the 25th of August. She seems to be doing well. She is even tolerating the commute down to Naples. We are trying to encourage her to use that hour productively. She is required to read 25 books this year. With as much time as she has and as much as she enjoys reading, that shouldn't be a problem. She is also able to get some of her homework done on the ride home. I think she is going to knock our socks off this year. It will be a nice change from the challenges we had last year.

Anabelle starts back at the Italian school on the 12th of September. Thanks to the closing of the American school here in Gaeta, we get funding to pay her tuition as well as an allowance for an Italian tutor. Sooo, I am hoping that she will be able to ramble on in Italian before we know it. Maybe she will give her mom and dad a lesson or two.

Tom's job has not changed a bit in the last month. We are still holding our breath to see what will become of the clinic. The hospital in Naples was nice enough to grant Tom's leave request for the end of September. We are off to Germany and Oktoberfest. We are staying outside of Salzburg and are going to travel around Bavaria from there. We just love Germany. We were there before, but didn't get to see everything. We will go back to a couple of places we really enjoyed. I think the girls will have fun too.

So, that's all for now. I will have a new entry when we return the beginning of October.

Ciao Tutti!!!

Tom, Lello and Aaron on the ferry to Ponza.

Leslie, Anabelle and Julia at the Piscine Naturali.

See? No sand, just rock.

The view from our apartment. The natural pools are to the right of the boats.

Faye, Victoria, Tom and Anabelle on the tourboat.

Tom and the girls, and Madison and Anabelle swimming off the side of the boat.

Pretty water, huh?

Some of the scenery from the boat.

Madison, Anabelle, Garrett, and Victoria enjoying some of the views.