Hello all!

Many of you have already watched our first two videos and have caught a glimpse of what we’ve been enjoying these last weeks. I wanted to offer a bit more of an explanation, but thought I may just insert various parts of an email chain we have been sending back and forth within my family.

My (Marie’s) parents and sister, Kristi, were here for the first week, so here is our first few days from my Mom’s perspective:

“Our time here in Italy has gone really well from the by beginning.  The whole clan was at the airport to meet us when our flight arrived from France–Chris and Marie had arrived a few hours before us.  We stayed at a little nun’s convent on the edge of the city not too far from the airports, and quite near a part of town where the Stevanus’ had lived for a couple years when Chris was fairly little.  This made navigating the city a “known” rather than extra stress.

We drove down into the city looking for something to eat, but restaurants don’t open until around 9 pm, so we saw a fair bit of the city first. Then after getting some pizzas, we went on down to see the Colosseum and several other sights that were all lit up, including the Trevi fountain.  Monday morning we headed back into the Vatican where we stood in line to see St Peter’s Basilica and decided it wasn’t sworn the long lines to see the  Sistine Chapel although we girls were certainly tempted.  After St. Peter’s we headed down to the Colosseum hoping to get in to see that, but the tour price included both the Colosseum and the Roman Forum, but we didn’t have time for both, and Mark and Denise (Chris’ parents) were waiting for us in the car, so we walked around to see what we could. For dinner, we headed up into the mountains around Rome, to a little village where we got some supper.  It was so nice and cool up there,  a great cultural experience.”

Tuesday morning after eating a quick breakfast with the nuns in Rome and saying goodbye, we headed down the west coast toward Naples. The highway to Bari intersects with that highway only about 20 minutes north of Pompeii, so Mark and Denise took us to see the ruins of Pompeii for a few hours.  It’s amazing how much of the city has been recovered–we only got to the main city square and a few of the homes in the end as the ruins are so extensive!  But it was hot, and after a few hours, one home turned into another and one pile of rocks looked like the others, and we were all aware that we still had several hours yet to drive before arriving in Bari, so we drew our “tour” to a close.  The drive to Bari (actually they are living in a small town about 60 km north of Bari) over the mountains was beautiful, and we arrived by around 8 pm, got cleaned up and had dinner at Stevanus’ home later that evening.  Finally, around midnight, we went out for “gelato,” the Italian ice cream. 🙂  As you can imagine, that became a nightly ritual for as long as we were there.”  

Wednesday, we spent some time down at the “beach” and took a little swim in the beautifully blue but chilly Adriatic.  The beach was a little challenging as it was small rocks rather than sand–you definitely kept your shoes on!  Thursday, the last day in Bari, we actually went to downtown Bari and Chris showed us around some of his old haunts, some of the historic sights downtown, and ate in one of his favorite restaurants that had at one time been a pirate’s den. Mark and Denise were doing some paperwork and document stuff.  On our way home we stopped by to visit with Priscilla’s family at their little cafe.  Then, that evening we spent the evening with the church that Mark and Denise work with–Dad spoke and Chris translated.  Marie, Kristi and I also had to stand up and “say something.”  After the service, the pastor came over to Stevanus’ for a dinner… Another great experience!  We definitely now have a context and feel like we have a better understanding of Chris’s background, and are glad for the days that we had together there.”

This is where the two videos end, and since this post is rather long already I may leave it there for tonight. Chris is working on our next video about our time here in Bari and I’ll post a narrative for that once we post it!

And in case you’ve missed them previously: