Julie comes to Italy

My sister Julie didn't hesitate to make plans to come visit us once we found out we were moving to Italy for 3 months. I mean, really...who needs much of an excuse to go to Italy, right? Her visit with us was a quick one but we made the most of it and put our tour guide skills to work.Jackson was excited to see his Aunt Julie and this time around he actually said her name so that was fun.
Our Aunt Marilyn in Minnesota had arranged to treat us for an auntie-nephew/sister-sister lunch date and so we headed to Martina Franca for lunch at "The Green Door" (that's not the real name but it's the name we call it - we always forget what the actual Italian name is). As anticipated, Julie loved The Green Door's ambiance (the restaurant is a converted horse stable).
We ordered the seemingly endless antipasto and enjoyed every bite - seriously, it's practically bottomless. We were there for 3 HOURS! As each plate was delivered to our table, Jackson's eyes grew as wide as saucers and he exclaimed an excited "Oooooooooooo," fully anticipating that each plate would be for him. Then he'd go back to playing with toys.Here we are in Martina Franca - post antipasto and dessert.We had a couple of days to show Julie around Grottaglie. We took her to see the ceramic district in centro, the historic part of town. She bought some Grottaglie originals there from Antonio Fasano (who just so happens to be one of the Pottery Barn manufacturers).We took her to Brindisi to show her the end of the Appian Way and of course to pose with a gelato and a moto, as every tourist in Italy should do.We showed her lots of vineyards and olive groves - they're pretty much everywhere so that was easy.Our friends PietroPaolo and Maria Teresa gave Julie (and us) the native-guided tour of Grottaglie, including a moonlit panoramic rooftop view of the city and its castle. Here's Jackson and PietroPaolo.And of course we took Julie to Jackson's two favorite spots in all of Italy, one being the Grottaglie fountain. He was napping in his stroller when we snapped this photo but rest assured, Julie did get to see him wide-eyed and squealing with delight at the gushing streams of lamp-lit water.And Jackson's ultimate favorite location in all of Italy is Sunrise Bar -- which is our twice-a-day hangout for the best cup of coffee in town served along with a huge dose of friendship by Francesca and her family. Here's Francesca winning Jackson's heart with a fior di latte gelato cone.By special request, we took Julie to Sorrento for some sight-seeing. From Sorrento, we boarded a bus to the Amalfi Coast region for a nail-biting, cliff-edge, scenic ride to the town of Amalfi. Jackson preferred playing peek-a-boo with Aunt Julie between the seats rather than checking out the scenery.Well...that is, until he fell asleep in Dan's lap.He missed some pretty amazing views while he was snoozing.We had lunch in Amalfi before taking a boat back to Sorrento. Back in Sorrento, we went in search of the organic lemon grove we had read about in our handy Rick Steves' travel book. We found the grove... the lemons...
and the free samples of lemoncello -- which is a VERY STRONG liqueur made from the lemons.Cheers, Julie!This is what your face does after you taste it.We also tried some lemon granitas at the grove's cafe. Yummy!Dan looks like he's modeling for GQ Magazine here but really he's just enjoying the refreshing delicious-ness of his lemon slushy.Even Jackson liked it!Here are some more Sorrento photos.We inadvertently met up with the Italy version of Mickey & Minnie outside a store that sells Disney gear. (Those mice show up a lot in Italy.) Jackson was pretty unsure of what to make of them and kept a close eye on Minnie.We topped the night off with a trip to the gelateria, of course! Jackson was once again given his very own gelato cone and he ate it like a pro. Francesca has been trying hard to teach him to say "gelato" so we worked on that a little with him and caught it on video.

On Julie's last day here in Italia, we took her to see the ruins at Pompeii. She was naturally impressed by the ash-preserved 2,000-year-old city.Speaking of ashes, Jackson really likes playing in them.Here are some more Pompeii pics.
Dan and I enjoyed our second go at the archeological sight. This time we didn't get lost in the expansive ruins and we actually were able to find the ancient amphitheater we had failed to discover during our last visit.At last it was time for Julie to head back to the airport in Rome so we escorted her to sketchy Naples where we waved goodbye and bid her "Arrivederci!" from the platform at the train depot.