Hair Envy

In high school I was an artificial redhead. A ginger. Really.

I took the plunge after many years of playing around with home hair dye. I had my whole head highlighted every six months or so, and had touch ups very two months in between. It was horrifically expensive and I thank my mother for indulging me for as long as she did.

I went back to my natural brunette ways when I was 19, just in time for my sister's bat mitzvah.

But now, my old love has reared its gorgeous, lustrous,  flame-haired head.

De Lune

Christina Hendricks via Lucky

from Garance Dore via A Cup of Jo

Italy 2: Naples, Amalfi, Sorrento

Taking J to work, then off to Amalfi over the mountains!

 Lord and Lady L's street in Napoli.

 Napoli.

 Totally PC transvestite train advertisement. 

 Whoopsie! Wrong turn. Went too far. Need to turn back!

 Pretty accidental scenic tour.

 Ah! Amalfi Coast!

 Girls in the car!

 Though it is difficult to see in this picture, the mountains are terraced to grow agricultural crops. Grapes and lemons were very common.

 Posing in front of the car park on the beach in Amalfi.

What's up Amalfi?

Lovely town square, setting up for a musical performance.

 Lunch in a cafe in the walls of the crazy Amalfi Baroque cathedral.

Delicious little fishies with capers, parsley and lemon!

 Our meal!

 Cathedral. Coming up behind us were some of the Italian militarized police in their fancy dress uniforms for a wedding. The Italian military is very stylish, but I didn't really see them DO anything particularly useful. Things like examining their hats rather than monitor the site that they were supposed to be guarding.
Bless them and their fancy hats and custom made shoes.

I mean, seriously. Look at this. 

Not my picture.

 In the cloister gardens: Roman sarcophagi. 

 G. taking pictures of the Byzantine mosaics.

 In the museum: Fancy silver altarpiece.

 Carved bone box for... umm... something.

 Citrus peel candies in a candy and pastry shop!

We bought cookies at another place. All of the cookies there were supersized! The Amaretti were the size of a hamburger bun and deceptively hard. I discovered this as I struggled to break it and in shattered in my hands and on the ground. I wanted to walk away whistling.

 From the cathedral. Look at how the shape of the yellow dot with the red outline was used in the inlay!

Then we drove up the mountain to beautiful Ravello. 

The view from the parking lot.

 

Dear G looking at the town square. 

Inside the villa. 

Medieval style gardening. Brother Mathias would be pleased. 

On the drive home, G kept stopping for me to take pictures. We joked that it was a required part of the trip.

"Get out and TAKE SOME PICTURES, damn it!"

G cooked a lovely dinner for us and J and I devoured a ball of Mozzarella di bufala. If it was possible to marry cheese, I would marry mozzarella di bufala in all of its creamy, chewy goodness.

Italy 1: Naples and Sorrento

My first day in Italy was short. Lord and Lady Lambert collected me at the airport and drove me to Naples through the beautiful countryside. They fed me delicious treats from America.

The next day I woke up late and G. and I headed out to Sorrento.

The entryway of the Lambert abode.

Mount Vesuvius from the highway!

The fastest trip to Pompeii!

G: "YGirl! Look through those trees! That's Pompeii!"

YGirl: "Oh! Nice! I like that sidewalk!"

G: "Where's the highway?"

View from a look out.

La Fruitallina

G. with the camera that now lives with a Roman taxi driver. Whoopsie!

View from the drive.

Deliciously lemony Sorrento!

The site of YGirl's first Italian espresso!

Lunch. Green mini-gnocchi with smoked salmon sauce. YUMMY!
So civilized. The waiters waited on us hand and foot. So sweet!

Lemon fantasies outside the lemon grove.

Lemon grove in the middle of town.

We sampled limoncello in the garden. I brought some back with me.
Scrumptious! 

Islands!

Santa Maria of the Snow.

Real Neapolitan pizza!

Lord and Lady L in their tall, tall kitchen.

MY PRECIOUS!
Mozzarella di bufala and baby tomatoes. Why does everything taste so good in Italy?