Italy Retreat

Dennis over at The Cinque Terre blog posted a comment on my March 28 entry, leaving a link to his videos of the 5 villages of the Cinque Terre. If you'd like to see, click http://www.cinqueterre.com/blog/tag/video

Portofino is the most famous little harbor in the world. It's a port on the Italian Riviera, known for its harbor filled with yachts of the rich and famous and streets adorned with expensive shops, selling Gucci, Pucci and other designer fashions. However, local wares are sold alongside the designer fashions. Although I prefer more quaint areas of Italy, I'd still like to experience Portofino and stock up on the fine olive oil, balsamic vinegar and fruit products from the local growers.
You may view more photos of Portofino here.
From Portofino we can take a boat to the abbey I wrote about in an earlier post today at S. Fruttuoso Di Camogli.

Although our day trips will be planned during the Italy Retreat, the most fun part of traveling will be the unexpected discoveries. I remember when my husband and I were in Cortona, Italy two years ago, (we won't be visiting on this trip) we visited Bramisole, the home of Frances Mayes that she wrote about in "Under the Tuscan Sun". At the end of her book, she did invite her readers to visit! Needless to say, she doesn't live in that particular house anymore because she didn't know there were going to be so many readers responding to her invitation. Anyway, on our drive back to our hotel inside the walled town of Cortona, we passed an interesting sign, "Le celle di San Francesco." We pulled in and in a moment we had walked into a sort of Shangri-la. A brown-robed monk happened to walk by and invited us to visit the small chapel where St. Francis used to stay on his visits from Assisi. They had built this monastery into the side of a rocky hillside, and a waterfall ran down in front. Pine trees provided the backdrop. We walked into his cell, and another monk was sitting with eyes closed, so we did the same. After about 20 minutes, he spoke very clearly in English, "St. Francis has given you a gift." I opened one eye to see if he was talking to us.

He answered my one-eyed stare with, "The 6 other tourists left you alone here so you could sit in silence, as St. Francis did so many years ago. Come with me and I'll show you where the monks live and eat, even though we usually don't show people this area." So we went back into their simple living area behind the small cell. Then he invited us to vespers where we sat in a pew with 2 older Italian women in black. The pews in front of us filled with about a dozen Franciscan monks in brown robes. We all began singing in Italian or Latin, I'm not sure which. We were just filled with so much joy and awe.

I'm not sure how we went from Under the Tuscan Sun to singing with the monks? I only know it is a treasured moment in my life. I am also sure that our adventures together in this La Dolce Vita Retreat will catapult us to lots of possibilities while in Italy and....for the rest of our lives.

Abbazia Di S. Fruttuoso Di Capodimonte is an abandoned monastery on the banks of turquoise water.

At the foot of Monte Portofino, this medieval Abbey of San Fruttuoso—built by the Benedictines of Monte Cassino—protects a minuscule fishing village. It is only accessible by a 20-minute boat ride or two hour walking path from Portofino and also reachable from Camogli, Santa Margherita Ligure, and Rapallo.

My friend, Jan, spent an afternoon swimming here on her trip to Italy last year. We can swim or just enjoy, depending on the weather in mid-September.

Join me and other women on our adventure to Italy. Deadline is April 4.

Check out this SlideShare Presentation. It takes a minute to download, then click the center arrow button. If you'd like to hear Pavarotti accompanying the slideshow, email me and I'll send you the link. :

Robin at My Melange Blog shares some wonderful information about Italy, France and European culture, so please check it out. She's also posted information about my Italy Retreat on her blog.

Check out Robin's blog to find lots of travel resources including delicious recipes, language study ideas, travel tips and more.

Would you like to share some tips for traveling in Italy? Just click 'comments'

The Italian language is so musical and beautiful that I feel a thrill in my heart every time I hear it. It matches its surroundings! It was interesting to then discover that I was not the only one who felt this way. Originally I thought my response was because upon hearing it, it conjured up happy childhood memories of listening to my grandparents speaking their native tongue. But, come to find out, many people learn Italian because they like the way it makes them feel.

If you'd like to hear Italian music and radio hosts speaking Italian, you can listen to World Italian Radio 24/7 online at Radio Italy Live. Just click on the ascolta/listen link on the left to choose the format needed to listen. It's fun and worth it. If you'd like to listen to other Italian songs you may listen here also. In order to hear correct pronunciation of particular Italian words check out this site.

Like the other Romance languages, Italian is based on Latin. However,the history of the Italian language is pretty interesting. Italy did not become a unified country until 1861 as it was composed of many independent city-states with numerous dialects, governed by various local princes and an assortment of European rulers. For centuries, Italians wrote and spoke in local dialects,so most of them could not understand anyone from another region. It would be like us traveling from Florida to Georgia and not being able to understand each other.

In the sixteenth century, some Italian intellectuals got together and decided to choose a universal dialect and call it Italian. They found the most beautiful dialect ever spoken in Italy. This just happened to be the personal language of the great Italian poet from Florence (Firenze), Dante Alighieri of Divine Comedy fame, 1321.

Dante did not write in Latin because he felt it was an elitist language that could be learned only by having an aristocratic education, not available to everyone. So, he began using the real Florentine language spoken by the residents of Florence.

As Elizabthe Gilbert says in her book, Eat, Pray, Love, Dante "wrote his masterpiece in what he called dolce stil nuovo, the 'sweet new style' of the vernacular, and he shaped that vernacular even as he was writing it, affecting it as personally as Shakespeare would someday affect Elizabethan English....No other European language has such an artistic pedigree. And perhaps no language was ever more perfectly ordained to express human emotions than this forteenth-century Florentine Italian, as embellished by one of the Western civilization's greatest poets.....scholars call his pretty Florentine vernacular a 'cascading rhythm'."

That being said, I'm happy the language is so poetic and beautiful, but I find it difficult to learn! Any tips on learning more easily? How about I live in Italy for awhile and study there?! Join me? At least for a week in the Italian Riviera?! Sept. 12-20, 2009.

Join me on the phone so we can discuss the details of sitting under the umbrellas on the beach in Monterosso al Mare on the Italian Riviera.
This is part of the email I sent to women who expressed interest in traveling to Italy in September for the Workshop.

Even if you aren't sure that you'll be able to attend, you can call in to get more information. However, you will need to make a decision by the end of March and there will be a limited amount of rooms available.

Please note that you have 2 different times available to call in and you only need to call in to one of the times, but I'm making a time that's easier for those of you outside the U.S.: BUT EVERYONE MUST REGISTER FOR THE CALL BY EMAILING ME BACK NOW PLEASE.

I would like to talk with all of you by telephone for 1 hour.

Thursday evening, March 12 at 9pm eastern, 8pm central, 7pm mountain, 6pm pacific).
OR
Sunday, March 15 at 12:00 noon Eastern, (11am Central, 10am Mountain, 9am Pacific, 5pm London)

CALL 712-429-0700, then you will be asked for a PIN number. (you will be paying for a long distance call)
PIN 849 333 followed by # sign. Please call in a few minutes early.

WHEN: This week
Thursday at 9pm eastern time. OR
Sunday at noon eastern time. (5pm in London).

You must email me to confirm which call you'll be on so that I know you've received this and are able to attend one of the calls! If you cannot attend either call, let me know that also.

I'm so excited to share Italy with all of you! It will take our breath away. Have a wonderful day and talk to you soon!

P.S. I highly recommend that you subscribe to this Italy Retreat Blog so that each time I post an article and updates, it arrives in your email box. It's easy to do. Just look at the right hand column, then scroll until you see "subscribe by email." Then you'll add your email address and decipher the code letters written in a funny way, and send. Then please check your email inbox for a verification message from “FeedBurner Email Subscriptions”, the service that delivers email subscriptions for Italy Retreat. You will need to click a link listed in this message to activate your subscription. Thanks in advance.

Ci vediamo, see you soon,
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

Quote of the week: Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

Today's photo will take your breath away! (Wait till you're there in person). It's the Aerial view of VERNAZZA in Liguria Italy with the Mediterranean in the background. Vernazza is the second most northern town on the Cinque Terre area on the Italian Riviera. This is one of the towns that we'll visit during our Retreat in Italy.
It always amazes me to think that Italy is a country that measures time in a century. They are willing to wait 45 years to produce balsamic vinegar and 900 days to produce cheese.

This post is Part II of my interview with Fred Plotkin, author of Italy for the Gourmet Traveler and eight other books about Italy. He also encouraged me to quote him from his books.

I asked Fred about the weather and food of Liguria. I, of course, can't cover all of his information, so if you want to learn a whole lot more, I encourage you to check out his books, Recipes From Paradise--Life and Food on the Italian Riviera, and the newest edition of Italy for the Gourmet Traveler. Liguria is said to have more sunshine than any other Italian region. Even though Liguria is a northwest region of Italy, the climate is temperate due to the warming breezes from the Mediterranean which is an inland sea not subject to the turbulence on the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans. In September, it is usually around 75 degrees F during the days and 60 degrees F in the evenings with sunset occurring quite early around 6:30pm.
The most famous Ligurian sauce is pesto, made with basil, olive oil salt and cheese. The basil and olives are produced in Liguria and it's recommended to make it by hand with a mortar and pestle. Thus, the name pesto. You can buy mortars and pestles in the local shops. I've made many batches of pesto from basil in my garden, but always in my food processor. According to the Ligurians, it's so much more superior made with the mortar and pestle. Additional ingredients, such as pine nuts, walnuts, and garlic, have appeared through the years. If you store it in jars and top it with a little olive oil, it can last for several montsh. I can't wait until summer when I harvest my basil to try this method. Maybe I can be patient like the Italians who will wait 900 days for the parmesan cheese. I love pesto and I freeze it for use in the winter. I always tell my husband I'd wear it for perfume if I could.

I think I'm going to like Liguria. Want to join me? Have you been there? Any suggestions or comments?

The best way to enjoy your stay in Italy is to keep your feet happy! Here are two highly recommended brands for good walking shoes: Merrells or Ecco.
When I walked 12 miles one day in Rome, I was wearing my Pesaro Merrell sandals and my legs and feet felt great, maybe a little sweaty, but hey that’s to be expected. They come in all colors!
Another brand of sandals was recommended by my well-traveled friend, Virginia. Ecco sandals:
“We bought our ‘Offroad’ Ecco sandals at Brown's Shoe Store. At full retail of $125, I felt after wearing them for one day in Italy that they were a bargain. We wore them everywhere and hardly took them off. They are so comfortable. And I wore them all summer too. They still look practically new and I know I'll be able to wear them for years. I have a pair of Merrells, but these were really a whole new level in comfort.”

Do you have any suggestions based on your experiences walking long distances? Please share your comments.