Today the kids and I met Paul in Italy for the beginning of our summer 2018 holiday. Paul has been here for a few days already, and he’ll blog about that experience shortly.

Driving from Rome to Caserta, we passed a field of hay bales and both kids remembered Damian’s first experience with a hay bale in Italy. It will be interesting to see what memories are jogged after their last visit to Italy six years ago.

After 3 hours we reached the LaReggia designer outlets in Caserta for some shopping, and then we continued our journey another 90 minutes to Minori where we’ll stay for the next week.

Paul fit right in with the Italian drivers speeding along the autostrada and navigating the winding amalfi coast drive. Pulled over at one point to get a picture of the sunset and mount Vesuvius in the background when Big D exclaimed “it’s Jesus coming down from the clouds!” It was a beautiful sight.

Waited about an hour in Minori for our AirBNB host to arrive. The WiFi is very spotty, there’s two bathrooms and two generous sized bedrooms, three balconies overlooking the beach, and super tiny kitchen. It’s the perfect spot for us.

At 9:30pm we finally grabbed dinner at Bar Europa, a half block from our flat where we ate six years ago. We saw Ana from Germany and her husband — they remembered us and Grandma Mary Ann’s leg brace that she was sporting six years ago. We dined on delicious pasta and bruschetta and finally called it a night.

Pictures to come tomorrow.