So I went to Italy...

[Buffalo Phil]

...Formia, to be exact, and the surrounding area. My family is from there and I have a lot of distant relatives (mostly cousins) that still live in the area and I spent a week hanging out with them and their families.

I left the States Sunday afternoon and after an 8 hour plane ride, we landed in Rome Monday morning and a few of my relatives were there waiting for us.

The car of the week? A Citroen C4 minivan.

I slept most of the way to Formia, which is about an hour and a half south of Rome on the coast, so I missed the sights and sounds of the Appian Way, but I really don't think I missed too much. Italy is a first world country with a third would twang. Cleaning up the trash on the side of the street isn't exactly on their priority list.

This is Formia.




Formia is a huge beach community that is a narrow town between a mountain range and the Tyrrhenian Sea.

The view from the top floor of my cousin's house.





All the houses there are multi-family, rarely do you see a single family home near the coast. Mostly the families that live there are all related, in the case of my relatives, after World War II, a construction company approached them to pay them to build homes on their land and my family would get houses for themselves. My family agreed, so there are now about 9 multi-family houses on the property that the construction company now owns and my family was given 3 houses and storefront property.

After lunch and whatnot (5 course meal for lunch) and went to my hotel room.

This was my view.



It was pretty awesome to just sit out on the balcony in the downtime and do nothing. I really had never been so relaxed in all of my life.

I caught some Z's and later that night my family and I headed into Sperlonga, a town north of Formia on the coast, because they wanted to show me how the city had turned the archaic and medieval downtown area into a modern tourist area.

The beach of Sperlonga at night.





This was the central courtyard of the old city, turned into a modern day bistro.

Yes, people live in those houses. We sat around for a bit, ate some ice cream, shot the shit even thought they didn't speak English and I don't speak Italian but a couple of words. I was able to understand some of what they were saying, but luckily my grandparents were there to translate.




Day 2: Ponza and Ventotene

Early the next morning we jumped on a ferry and visited two of the Islands in the Tyrrhenian sea, Ponza and Ventotene.

Ponza:




The main port on the Island of Ponza, Porto di Ponza.


When I was walking around Ponza, I noticed in the parking lot what looked to be a Jeep. I thought it was a built YJ at first, then walked around the front and was like "Oh, it's a CJ", but then I got a closer look, turned out to be a Ssangyong.

I took a picture anyway.





After a few hours on Ponza, we got back on the ferry and headed over to Ventotene which was about an hour away by boat.



The beaches on Ventotene looked awesome. Right at the base of the cliffs around the island, there was enough volcanic ash and sand for people to throw down umbrellas and have a good time. What was really cool was the rocks in the small bay, people swam out to them, climbed up and either sunbathed or jumped off them into the water.


The other island is a former jail and if I ever wanted to build an Island Fortress, I'd look into buying that island.



The rest of the day was spent on the beach and walking through the town on Ventotene. I thought when I left America, I was leaving all that shitty music behind, but boy I was wrong. They have this unabated fascination with American Culture and pop music, so I found myself walking around this small island off the coast of Italy, and the music I head was what sounded to be white boy rap, like a mix of Eminem and Everlast. Luckily that was only in the market area...I heard 'Call Me Maybe' plenty of times though.

I'll post more pictures and chapters later on.

[Burton58]

looks absolutely gorgeous Phil. glad you had a good time. my family actually lives in Roccaforzata and keep bugging me to visit. might have to after seeing how nice this is

[92xjlaredo]

jesus, those are some amazing shots man! wish i had the money/time to do something awesome like that. musta been a damn good time.

[Buffalo Phil]

Alex, if you ever save up enough, just go, it's worth it, especially if you have family there that can show you around. The only thing I hated about Italy was actually having to travel there and back. Planes suck.

Day 3: The House in the Mountains

Wednesday, a cousin of mine, Vincenzo, invited all of us up to his mountain home in the Parco Naturale dei Monti Aurunci, which is the National Park and Mountain Range North of Formia.

The roads leading up to the mountain are not for the weak because they are just about 2 cars wide and there are only guardrails on the sharper turns. If you drive your car off the cliff, that's if for you because it's a long way down. Not only do you have to deal with the unguarded switchbacks and oncoming traffic, but you also have to deal with the livestock that is allowed to roam the roads and hillsides freely.



The view from half way up the Mountain overlooking Formia, Scouri, and Minturno.



When we got to my cousin's house, I was pretty blown away, it's an awesome little house that he built himself and powers the house with a generator because there are no electrical lines that run up the mountain. He gets hot water by running pipes over his outdoor oven and keeps the generator inside of a brick building with intake and exhaust vents to keep the noise down when it is powering the house. He also has a welder in there just in case he needs to weld shit together. He also built an entire outdoor kitchen.

The house. His garden is surrounds the house and is leveled off by concrete walls he made. He ran garden hoses throughout the concrete walls so all he has to do is hook up the correct hose to his water catcher and it waters that portion of the garden.




The outdoor kitchen.


That's Vincenzo making some awesome food in his custom brick oven. We had fish, potatoes, pasta and salad for lunch.


After that we decided to relax for a bit, I got a tour of the house and his workshop, all the garden and he explained what he did to the house and how he did it. Then we decided to take a hike up the rest of the mountain to see the Church and the Monument of Saint Michael the Archangel.

We did some wheeling in Vincenzo's Citroen most of the way there on some old dirt roads that lead close to the mountain, but from where we parked it was a solid 2 mile walk to the top.

This picture was taken half way up the mountain as well, looking up and the rounded peak on the far right is where the monument and church are.


That's the monument in the distance from the top of the mountain range.


Below the monument on a few more switchbacks, there is a Church that is built into the side of the mountain.


Vincenzo's daughter-in-law Roberta (who was one of the few who spoke fluent English) told me that the church was over 900 years old and that the only reason why the put wooden rails on the side of the trails on the mountain was that one year a priest fell off the cliff and died. They decided then that it would be wise to put rails up so that people of all ages could make the pilgrimage up the mountain to see the church.

This is the monument up top.


Unfortunately, because of the extremely dry weather, by the time we had gotten to the top, a forest fire broke out in the hills over Formia. The fire didn't spread very far, the the smoke completely obscured the view of Formia and the surrounding towns.

We hung around there for a little while, then we went back to Vincenzo's house and he made home made pizzas in his brick over.

They. Were. Delicious. He must have made at least 20 different personal pizzas for everyone to share. Eggplant pizzas, zucchini pizza, ham pizza, hot pepper and cheese pizza, potato and rosemary pizza, fresh tomato pizza...so much pizza...All the meat was fresh and all the vegetables where from his garden.





We gorged and then ate more, had some coffee and chilled in the cloudless night sky and drank Vino Rosa.

On the way back down, I got a picture of Formia at night.

[Buffalo Phil]

Day 4: Family History

The next morning we decided not to do too much, but my grandparents wanted to take me to see the town where they were born, which not far in the very small town of Tufo.

In the center of Tufo there is a church and across the street there is a monument to those from the town of Tufo who had died in the first and second World Wars.

I have two distant cousins and my great grandfather's names on that monument.



The first distant cousin died in the first world war, Giovanni Larocca, the other cousin died in the first major offensive in the Greco Italian war, Michele Larocca.

On the other side of the monument there is the name of my great grandfather, Gieseppe Albano, who is listed under Vittime Durante Lo Sfollamento which translates to 'Victims during the Displacement'. When the Germans occupied Italy, they created labor camps for the Italians to fuel their war machine and my great grandfather was put into one of those camps. When my great aunt was being born, he escaped the camp so he could see his family. Needless to say, when the German's found out he had escaped, they captured him and beat him to death.


The second world war is a very sore subject in my grandparent's household.

Tufo itself is a very very small town and the streets are just wide enough for one car to pass and all the homes are connected. The front doors of the homes open right up into the street and there are scrap marks from cars on the buildings.

This is Tufo from the Highway.


Minturno.


The rest of the day I decided to relax and go swimming in the ocean. The water is clean, crystal clear and as warm as bathwater. We had dinner with more family and just relaxed, nothing fancy, nothing else more to report.

[Buffalo Phil]

Day 5: They built a Church where the Mountain Splits

I always remember hearing about it, but never gave it any thought. They say that when Christ died, three mountains moved, one of those mountains, happen to be right in the next town of Gaeta. I had always heard about the Turk who didn't believe in Christ had stated that he didn't believe the mountain moved because they are not liquid, but when he put his hand against the rock, his hand fell into the rock and it left an imprint.

Well, that's what legend says, and even though I'm not religious at all, I like cool stories. We took a trip to see that very imprint and the Church built into the Split Mountain, and the home of St. Philip Neri.

From the top of the hill, the beach of Gaeta.


Now, if you're wondering why the umbrellas are all in pretty little rows, you must understand that some of the beaches in Italy are private, private in the terms of that you spend 6 Euros and you are buy yourself a spot on the beach under an umbrella for the day. The money goes towards maintaining the beaches and it prevents clutter. There are regular public beaches as well, but they aren't as common in the area.

This is the split rock, during an Earthquake that supposedly happened when Christ died, the mountain quite literally split.


This is the famous hand print of the Turk who didn't believe in Christ.


Down through the crevice that is no more than two people wide, there is the small church and sanctuary for St. Philip Neri.


On top of the Church there is just a small area where people can walk around what looks like an old lighthouse, but really it just helps gather light and directs it down inside the church. At the top though, there are thousands of locks all around the railings. Many newlyweds come from all around the country and they put their name onto the lock and close it around the railing, signifying their love for each other.



There is also a shrine in another cave that is dedicated to that Turk pirate who didn't believe in Christ, but used to be a hiding place for many Turk Pirates. I think it's 277 steps that lead down to the bottom of the cave.




After that, we decided to relax some more and head over to a family friend's house for lunch. They came with us to the monument and church and they wanted to feed me fresh fish and pasta. How could I resist??

This is Erasmo and Luisa's house.



Two story home with a completely finished basement in which Erasmo and Luisa live, they built that 'underground' patio which was so fucking awesome because it's really cool in the summer. Behind me in the picture was a swimming pool surrounded by palm trees.

Erasmo and Luisa have two daughters, both of them live in the upper two floors of the house with their husbands and children. I called it the Compound di Erasmo.

When lunch was done, I decided to hit the beach again and work on my magnificent tan and go swimming some more. In fact, I didn't even swim, I just fucking floated around for a good 3 hours. The only thing that made me get out of the water was a tropical storm that rolled in like a hurricane. In the matter of 2 hours, we got so much water that it actually destroyed the beach at my hotel.

This is the view of the beach from my hotel room.


All the water from the hills behind us rolled down to the beaches like rivers and carved away the sand.

When the rain and thunder had settled, I asked the person at the front desk if they would allow me onto the observation deck on the top floor of the hotel. He asked me why and I just told him I wanted to take pictures. He still didn't understand why I wanted to take pictures at night, he said the best time to go was in the day. I didn't say anything, but he let me go anyway.

That hill on the far left is Gaeta, where the Church in the Split Mountain resides.




It was a pretty beautiful sunset. Maybe he should look up once in a while after a storm.

[Lawn Guyland]

one day, we shall meet so jealouuus

[Buffalo Phil]

Day 6: The Coastline

On my final day there, despite the spotty weather and the clouds that loomed overhead, I more or less demanded that we take a trip to Amalfi. Erasmo had a better idea, he suggested that we drive the whole coast from Solerno to Napoli (Naples) and make a day trip out of it. Others protested because of the weather, but I was able to convince the others and it was totally worth it. It's up there with one of the coolest day trips I've ever done.

This is the coastline we traveled. Solerno is marked Point A. We drove the entire coastal road all the way to Napoli.


In the morning we headed out early, around 8:00 in the morning. We took the main highway inland and drove through the mountains to Solerno where we would take the coastal road from the south to the north, making a big loop.

This is the major shipping port and city of Solerno.


Through the winding roads there were farms on the side of the mountains, the biggest crop here is lemons.

Lemon trees under cover just outside of Solerno.


A house on the edge of the cliff in Amalfi.


Center of Amalfi.


The Church in the center of Amalfi.


Fountain outside of Amalfi.


After we ate a hearty lunch in Amalfi (I had zuppa di pesce and a steak) we continued on our road trip on the coast.

Positano.


A one way street in the center of Positano.


People legitimately live on top of each other when you're forced to build a city on the side of a mountain.


In the last leg of our journey on the coast before we went inland a bit to head towards Mt. Vesuvius and Naples, we stopped for a bit in Sorrento.


We decided to get off the coastal road and headed to a major highway to speed things up a bit on our way to Naples. We passed right by Pompei and the foot of Mt Vesuvius, once again, not realizing how close one of the most famous volcanoes was to where I was staying. I wanted to see Pompei, but by the time we got there, it was already 6 at night. We passed through the slums of Barra, just outside of Naples, it it looked like a third world country.

There was more garbage in the streets than I have ever seen and I saw three different groups of prostitutes, one group had lit cardboard on fire in the middle of the street to keep warm. I kept the camera in the bag and feared my life. Luckily we didn't stay in the wanna-be-somalian city very long and drove right into Naples, which was pretty clean in compared to the bordering towns.

Mt. Vesuvius at night.


A castle in Naples.


The main drag on the coastline in Naples where at night the street shuts down and all the restaurants put tables in the middle of the street.


I got a personal margarita pizza here with fresh mozzarella di bufala cheese.


The pizza and the shitty Italian beer, but the pizza was so fucking good.


After that, it was a smooth ride back to Formia where I packed my shit and got ready for the plane ride home the next day.

Just a few notes that I took over the course of the week when I was there...
-Italy has some of the worst drivers with the best luck. People on Mopeds ride on the double yellow line in the center of the street and are constantly weaving in and out of traffic. Turn signals mean nothing, people simple drive into traffic and hope someone stops. When you want to make a turn at an intersection, no one will stop for you, you must force your way across traffic. The aggressive drivers in Italy put people in New York City to fucking shame.
-Everyone and their mother drives a Fiat Panda from the 1980.
-Alfa Romeo makes a fucking mean looking car
-The women are hands down beautiful. I could have counted on my hands how many women under the age of 30 were bad looking.
-The men under 30 dress and act like fucking homos
-They all wear American shirts that have American phrases on them that I don't think they know what the American words says. One of my cousins was wearing a Utah Salt Flats t-shirt and I asked him if he even knew what or where the Salt Flats in Utah were. He didn't have a clue.
-They listen to the same music we do on the radio.
-They are more interested in our politics than we are. One lady approached my grandparents and I when we were waiting for our ride and notices we spoke English and Italian and began talking to us. Right off the bat she asked if we like Obama or Romney and my grandfather almost had a stroke. He yelled at the top of his lungs in Italian that if she had an opinion of American politics, she could move to America, become a citizen and vote. He also stated that we weren't interested in talking about politics because we were on vacation in another country. She was pretty taken aback and walked away. No skin off my back.
-Would I go back? In a heartbeat.

Oh well, thanks for looking, I'll upload more random pics later on.

[Buffalo Phil]

one day, we shall meet so jealouuus

It's worth the wait, trust.

[hoggie101]

dude fuck pictures of the pretty landscape i want pictures of hot women, food, hot woman eating food, and other various actives of women with food



and not of any pooping..i already know about you sick fucks on hurrr

[Lawn Guyland]

dude fuck pictures of the pretty landscape i want pictures of hot women, food, hot woman eating food, and other various actives of women with food



and not of any pooping..i already know about you sick fucks on hurrr

w. t. f.

[Buffalo Phil]

I don't know why you have to come in here and ruin my threads, Matt.

[hoggie101]

w. t. f.

he went to Italy and only posted one picture of food...

[Buffalo Phil]

he went to Italy and only posted one picture of food...

Sorry, I was too busy fucking eating it to take pictures.

[ct67_72]

Awesome. Glad it was a good trip, sounds like you had a great time. The politics thing got me though, I think thats funny as hell, and a great response.