“Arrivederci e Grazie,” Italy!

We tried many times, on different days, with different conditions, even in different moods, to take one picture that accurately reflected the splendor of the landscape of Sicily, but doggonit, we were never happy with the results. Perhaps what we see lies in the vastness — the blue sky and/or water, the undulating mountains, the play of shadows and light, the patchwork of farms, or just the many shades of green. Our eyes saw what a couple of amateur camera operators just couldn’t capture. Really can’t imagine it during prime growing season.

How does one say goodbye to such an amazing country? Well…. heck, we’ll just ramble on about things that caught our goofy attention.

Across the country, olives and grapes were constants. From small to gigantic groves and vineyards. And in the north, plenty of apple orchards, but what we didn’t expect was the oranges that were everywhere, especially in the south. Trees and fruit of all sizes! Two-to-fifteen-foot trees and golf ball- to softball-sized citrus! Growing where? Like, every- and anywhere!

Porsche? What Porsche? Look at those oranges!

We like ambling along in the car, seeing things at our own pace. But boy howdy, does Italy have trains. And they move durn fast – more than 100mph! Interestingly, it’s a network of quiet, efficient electric trains.

With all its mountainous terrain, Italy also has an extensive network of tunnels, covering a total length of approximately 1,600 miles. We marveled at the length of many of these tunnels as we made our way through the country. Once we realized there’s a sign posted at the entrance to each tunnel that displays the tunnel’s length, it became a game of sorts trying to capture a photograph of the longest ones as we passed through.

On the way to Trento in the north
(2752 meters / 1.7 miles)

A few random shots just for fun:

Try as we might, we never did adjust to the European timing of meals. Seemed like we always found ourselves looking for a bite to eat in the mid-afternoon, when the restaurants were closed between lunch and dinner shifts. But somehow, we still managed to consume w-a-a-y too many carbs with all that tasty pasta, bread, and gelato. 😉

Todd, however, made a major adjustment. After almost two months, our tea-drinking captain finally gave in and tried Susie’s espresso at a cafe in Alberobello. Declaring, “Hey, that’s not bad,” he went over and ordered his own. By the time we made Sicily, he was ordering doubles!

Sometimes the espresso came w/small treats
(not bad for less than $2)

Even in Italy, time did what it always does. Flew by!

All too quickly it seemed, our 85-days were up, and we were heading for the “uscita” (exit).

Can’t fight reality, right? Nor can we bring all of our loved ones over here to live. So, we drafted a note in Google Translate to bid “our” fisherman farewell and then packed our bags, including the newly purchased one in which to tote gifts. 🙂