Lily, Caden, & Gia Lovers: Italy - Day 17 (Amalfi to Rome)

We had taken two bags to the car in the parking garage to minimize the challenge of getting all of our stuff to the car. After enjoying coffee on the terrace and experiencing the third firework display of the morning in honor of the St. Andrea - fireworks no one can actually see due to daylight mind you, we packed up and headed to the car. We will really miss Amalfi! On to Rome!

Amalfi panorama (thank you Wikipedia)

Amalfi Cathedral dedicated to St. Andrew (the St. Andrea festival)

Toasting the success of getting the bags to the parking garage - Lily in her souvenir shirt she bought the day before. Passengers are not allowed to walk to the car, so we all waited at the parking garage exit for Corey.

Curvy drive down the coast, but so gorgeous!

Looking ahead at the coast as we head down to catch the freeway.

Quite the beach scene at this little city.

Love this blue!

Looking back at the road

One of the many lemon trees...

Arrival in Rome was filled with anxiety - not because of the traffic, which is a bit crazy, but because of the ZLT zones which stands for Limited Traffic Zones. We read about them online before leaving from stories of people who didn't know and didn't understand the signs and were treated to thousands of dollars in fines when they got home. The signs are ambiguous, so you really need to be on your guard. And once you do realize the sign mixed in among the others, you are usually driving by it surrounded by scooters zooming by on all sides unable to do a thing! As a result we played a 'fun' game with the kids where if anyone spoke, they would get 5 minutes deducted from their bank of screen time minutes. It worked. Although despite our fierce concentration, we are not a bit certain how many fines we will have once home!

Quintessential Rome. Two men, well dressed, sharing a scooter and a smoke.

We made it to our enchanting little Gate House that is right next to a portion of the Roman Wall. So amazing!

The Roman Wall

Walking up the drive

Looking down the driveway at our gate

The trellis of grapes up to home

Our cute little Gate House

Front door

Dining room

One of the bedrooms

The corner of the front yard

Looking at the side steps up to the roof

One of the bathrooms

The backyard

Running among the orange trees in the backyard :)

The lemon harvest

The side yard

The kitchen

Looking out the window at the orange tree

The dining room with the doors to the porch room and the kitchen opened

After our quick exploring we set off as a group to return the rental car, taking us by countless amazing landmarks! Stunning, and another interesting ZLT adventure '_'
After dropping off we decided to walk the 2 miles back to check out the neighborhood.

Passing time at the Avis rental car return

A cool little book stand we passed

Gia :) I can nearly see her in this same spot in another 15 years - hopefully with her mom!!!

We stopped off at a little mini-mart for some milk - we go through about a liter of milk each day - and also stopped to check out a gorgeous bakery. Still moony from the loaf in Amalfi earlier that morning, we picked up another loaf.

Admiring the cakes

Big displays - and the big nose of the waiter who didn't notice I was snapping a pic :)

My attempt to discreetly capture the Nun drinking from the public fountain. Corey and Gia are just to the left.

One of the beautiful displays of architecture we passed.

The girls filling our water bottle at the fountain

The walk home...

Once home, we got about to settling in. The kids collected more lemons to make lemonade tomorrow and spent a good hour playing in the bath. They are all such easy travelers, making the best of a long day.