Category Archives: Italy

Italy and the Path Less Taken

Having spent a significant part of my childhood in Italy has left

an equally significant part of my heart in Napoli.  
It meant so much to share this corner of the world
with the man I love and with whom I share life. 
I cannot wait to bring my sons home to Italy
To watch their eyes light up as they taste pizza.
To which Napoli is the birthplace.
Though I may be biased I always recommend Napoli as a travel destination.
There are so many sightseeing stops for tourists.
The islands of Capri, Ischia, and Procida. The coast drive of the Amalfi Coast and Sorrento.  
Mt. Vesuvius, Pompeii and Herculaneum. Not to mention all the museums and churches.
Sometimes its about taking a more organic approach to traveling
which gives you a more rounded experience in another country and culture.
Take the path less traveled or not traveled at all.  
One of my good friends Liisa, from our time together in Hawaii,
was living in the heart of Napoli last summer when we visited.
She took us on a walk I had not experienced in my time growing up in that city.
It was on narrow pathways up to the top by way of many cobbled steps.  
There was both beauty and destruction to be found.
Art to behold in many facets on our walk.
I was constantly snapping photographs with my camera
just to remember and nto let any details get missed.
We saw some posters of a self portrait put up by a local photographer my friend knew.
Remnants of old mixed in with the fingerprints of the modern world.
To top it all off was the stunning view from the top before we made our way down.
The bay of Napoli with Mt. Vesuvius in the background.
Perfection not to be missed.

*All photographs belong to Bonnie Rose Photography © 2013 All Rights Reserved | www.bonnie-rose.co.uk
** If you are interested in using photographs or for more information about photographic services, contact bonnie@bonnie-rose.co.uk 

The Island of Capri

I lived in the Napoli, Italia twice for a total of six years as a young child and young teenager.
So far that has made it the longest place I have lived anywhere on earth in my lifetime.
One of my favourite things about Napoli is the islands off its coast: Capri, Ischia, and Procida.
Today for Travel Thursday I am going to take you on a tour of Capri.
The Island of Capri is one of a few islands off of the bay of Napoli that you can visit.  While I also highly recommend Ischia, the bigger island of Capri has so much to offer. 
See the island from the the outside on a boat tour that can give you a close and personal look at the infamous Blue Grotto. 
The island is quite large and I do not recommend trying to cram it all into a few hours.  Spend the whole day at Capri and enjoy it at your leisure taking in all the wonders the island has to share. Buses are also available if your feet get tired from the walking.  
There are many passageways and if you do not have a map it can be easy to get a bit turned around. Do not fret if you do.  There are a lot of beautiful sights to behold along the journey, like these handmade ceramic street signs.  Even the signs for the electric and gas lines were made in the same fashion. How italian. 
We went to Capri last time in August and the blooming flowers with their pops of colour in the mass of green were quite pleasing to the eye.  
If you decide to forgo transportation you can easily get around on foot. Just be cautious of the mopeds. 
We passed a lot of beautiful private gardens on our walk, including this one with a beautiful fountain. 
I reccomend earlier in the day making your way to see the infamous Grotto Azzurra, the Blue Grotto.  If you get there too late and the tide is is you will not be able to go inside. You get to ride in a little row boat inside the grotto and trust me it is not to be missed! 
You can also enjoy a bite to eat and a refreshing drink at the small cafe near the entrance to embarking towards the Grotto. Then walk up the hill and get a view from down below. 
Whether you plan to soak up the sun on a boat tour or get in a work out hiking around the island, it is one place you will not forget.  As glamorous as life in Capri can be, remember sensible walking shoes,  your hat and sun protection. 

*All Photographs belong to Bonnie Rose Photography © 2013 All Rights Reserved
** For more information about the photos or for purchase: www.bonnie-rose.co.uk 

Back from Europe Trip

Military brat.  Born in England to American parents and grew up moving around Europe, from military base to military base, until I was about to graduate high school.  Quite a lot has happened in my life since I moved ‘home’ to the United States.  A decade later and I am returning ‘home’ to Napoli, Italia a place I lived twice for a total of six years.  With the grandparents watching our kids, this time I bring my husband for an adventure on our 9th anniversary.  


My husband I in Paris on our 9th Wedding Anniversary 2.8.12

An Adventure it was.  No luxury cruises or hotel resorts for this free spirit pair.  Off the train in Napoli we met our predicament of finding no  place to get a sim card, to a broken pay phone, and no wifi to contact our host upon our arrival.  When our taxi driver dropped us off at the address we requested to get to my friends’ home, he dropped us off in the wrong location. Standing in a darkened alley way with all our luggage and absolutely no sense of direction to where we are and where we need to be, our outlook was quite foreboding. Our options were to go further up the winding road, or down the cobblestone street to hopefully a busier area of town.  We chose the later and finally found a working pay phone where with our last 50 euro on hand called my friend for a rescue.  Bottle of wine later and we are outside on my friend’s veranda overlooking the city of naples, the beautiful bay lit up in lights, and Mt. Vesuvio looking magnificently in the backdrop. 
Despite the less than romantic arrival, the majority of our time was seeking out the hidden beauty of the city, savoring every bite of the delicious southern Italian cruising, and capturing the beauty we saw in photographs. An early evening after viewing collections of antiquities excavated from Pompeii at the  National Archaeological museum, we  were walking through the narrow streets of the city.  I was on a high of being surrounded by the sights and sounds of my childhood.  With my DSLR safely guarded in my arms, I captured street photography with the ease of my android phone.  In the process of taking a photo of a pizza being made at a pizzeria, my phone was grabbed out of my hands.  I turned in shock to see an obnoxious grin and then the back of a man as he ran away with my phone down another alleyway.  While my head and my feet questioned each other with whether I should run or just scream, the man jumped on a back of a moped with a driver.  In less than a minute my phone was stolen and gone out of sight. It was not even the phone that I was upset about but the number of photos I had taken on our journey. So many of them documenting my husband’s first time in Napoli: his first taste of pizza from the birthplace of its creation, his first time on the funicular, an incline railway, and his first time shopping the street markets in Vomero. However our adventurous night did not end there.  I had my first time in the back of a police car, as we were whisked away to the nearest police station to make a report on the incident.  I regret feeling too comfortable being home in Napoli that I had my phone out at all.  Still shaking, I answered the questions using the best of knowledge of the Italian language.  I was asked to look at photographs to see if anyone looked like the man who had stolen my phone.  Afterwards I can now draw from their questions that they were hoping I would say it was this man in one of the photographs who was wearing a white shirt.  However he was the opposite of my initial description.  I soon found myself in a small room for a ‘line up’, however the actuality of the situation scared me more than having my phone taken from me in the first place.  I stood facing a man, and although a wall with a glass window was in-between us, he was literally inches away from me. He was not the man I had seen.  Bloody, amped up on adrenaline, and looking like he could have come out of a Guy Richie film, I looked at the man in the white shirt and instantly the fear kicked me to my core.  I wanted to run, to move, to close my eyes.  At that moment I was more afraid of him punching through the glass, especially when it was apparent he could hear my words as I spoke ‘Its not him”.  
I will be honest I cried when we got back to the room for more questions and information about the scene.  I wish now I had checked the photographs on my DSLR.  When we had gotten home all the feelings from that night came right back in a spiraling anxiety attack as I found a photo taken minutes before the crime.  The man in the white shirt, whom I had been asked to identify, was up ahead of where I was taking photos, talking to a man who very much fit my description of the man who had taken my phone.  Bone chilling.  Perhaps the other man was just a man, innocent in his own right.  However there was no mistaking the man I had to view at the police station, for I cannot get him out of my mind.  Whatever he did from when that photo was taken to when I saw him at the police station, I will never know.  
I may have been without the ease and connivence of taking photos with my phone, I did however have my camera to document the rest of our trip by and I did not let the incident ruin our time.  Perhaps if I had not grown up in Napoli, it would not be the case but I still love my beautiful city.  The old buildings, the cobblestoned streets, the laundry hung out all the windows, and the women who lower baskets from tall apartment windows to retrieve recently purchased goods.  Inside a cave we visited Fontanelle cemetery, a final resting place for thousands of anonymous corpses. These were victims of the great plague in the 1600s.  We took the train to see Pompeii where we too a scenic tour and I did an imprint self portrait session in the ruins. Another day we took the ferry out to Capri and walked around the beautiful island to the Blue Grotto.  We spent an evening in Sorrento, eating the best seafood and speggeti of our trip right on the water with an equally refreshing white wine.  The best was being able to start every morning and end every day with the beautiful view from where we were staying.  It may have taken me many years to return, but no one can take away from me the love I have for the city of Napoli.  Ci Vediamo bella Napoli! “

Starbucks

Starbucks. 
I used to go to Starbucks all the time.  More so when I lived in Hawaii and basically because it was the main meeting place for me and my best friends.  To be fair in Hawaii there is practically a Starbucks (nestled next to a Jamba Juice) on almost every street corner.  I am exaggerating (slightly) but there are enough of them on the island that you have to be quite specific when determining which Starbucks you are meeting someone at so that you show up at the right place.  I had pretty much two drinks at Starbucks.  If it was cold I would get Hot Chocolate.  Forget tea…I can never get anyone in the USA to make a proper cup to enjoy it enough to warrant the $ of buying one. If it was hot out I really liked ordering either an iced green tea with strawberry puree and one splenda in replace of the sweetener or a tall iced black tea with no water (so it was strong) and two splenda.  It would be a very rare occasion that I ever ordered anything with coffee in it because after growing up in Italia, Starbucks expresso is pretty burnt and revolting.  Its not the ‘real’ stuff.  When I moved to England I was introduced to a new chain called Costa and if I need to order a hot drink when I am out, that is my first choice to go to.  The whip creme that they put on hot cocoa has marshmallows in it and it is divine.  But definitely trying to stick to mostly hot green tea with nothing added to it or a typical English tea, white.   
One of my friends from Hawaii, who now lives on the mainland, was asking about the regional mugs from Starbucks.
I found the England versions this morning at the Starbucks in our grocery store and took a photo.  (£6.75)
Kinda wish I had gotten an awesome mug from Hawaii now. :(