Well, I had a couple of ‘firsts’ In Italy over Easter weekend. I’m not sure you knew this, but in Italy the Monday after Easter is National Picnic Day, or Pasquetta meaning “little Easter”. Everyone and there dog (literally dog) goes outside for a picnic.
Another ‘first’ this weekend was my trip to Napoli. I decided to catch a train down to Napoli to spend the weekend with some friends from Oklahoma… pause… Oklahoma you say? YES, Okies are everywhere! Jennica, a friend I met back in February during a trip to OSU “over heard” me talking about Europe and it turned out that her parents live in Napoli and she was coming with her best friend Heather to visit them over Easter. Long story short, I met up with Heather, Jennica, and her fam for the weekend.
Now, I complained about traffic in Milan but I think Napoli has it beat. Jennica’s dad was definitely a seasoned driver because he still had both side mirrors. I would say that every 3rd or 4th car we passed was missing either one or both side mirrors from the narrow streets and cluster bomb of cars.
On Saturday, we took a ship (the one you see me pointing in above) to Ischia and headed to Negombo, a day spa. (quick disclaimer – day spa was not my idea) This day spa turned out to be quite interesting. We walk in, look through an entire page of massages in Italian so I had no idea what I was looking at (I probably wouldn’t know if it was in English either) so I told the receptionist I wanted a deep tissue massage. So, after we scheduled our massages for later that day we decided to catch some rays and go for a swim. The Mediterranean is still a bit nippy, but Jennica decided to “voluntarily” (wink wink) jump in with me.
Now its massage time and 60 year old Mario calls my name. Apparently, this dude was the best for deep tissue massages. I personally don’t have a problem with a dude giving me a massage, but when it comes to getting ready for the massage I need my personal time to get ready. Well, Mario didn’t think so. If you have ever had a massage in the states, then you now that they give you 5 minutes to get ready in private, but in Italy modesty doesn’t seem to exist. Needless to say, the massage turned out well for me but Heather and Jennica say otherwise. All I heard was something about paper thongs and soft hands but I’m sure you can ask them. After it was all over we hit the Turkish Bath.
I keep asking myself why people find these things relaxing?!? First, you walk into a room that’s approximately the temperature of the sun and you acclimate yourself to the feeling of breathing fire. You know the feeling you get when eating a strong breath mint and breathing in through your nose? Well, that is what every pore on my body felt like. THEN, you actually go into the Turkish Bath! I’m not sure which Turks invented this “situation”, but they’re crazy! Now that we’re at the temperature of the sun and things are blurry… possibly from the steam rising off the marble or my brain frying like an egg I spend about 5 minutes in there and had to leave. I stumble out 10 pounds lighter and drenched in my own sweat. Definitely a ‘first’ for me.
The next day we woke up early hit Sunday morning mass and took a road trip down the Amafi coast. This was beautiful! We started at the furthest point South and drove all the way up past Sorrento. This is where we decided to stop have lunch at Maria Grazia. This was probably one of the best meals I have had thus far in Italy. Instead of trying to articulate my words to describe it I would rather let you read the menu on the link. INCREDIBLE!
Afterwards, we caught the sunset on the beach and got ready for National Picnic Day on Monday. Jennica’s mom is awesome! Not only did she make us an incredible dinner the night before with Turkey, Pasta, Olives, Salad, Sweet Peppers, Cheese, Vino, and Mandarincello (my fav!!!), but she also made us a picnic Monday and guess where we ate? OUTSIDE!! 
