La Nostra Villa . . .

. . . I could have said "La Nostra Casa," but that would been confusing for affecianados of the "Godfather" trilogy. We seem to be about three weeks from move-in.

View from the driveway.

The pool - so far.

The island of Ischia and the Tyrrhenian Sea from the top floor balcony

My father . . .

. . . the Pacific, 1944.

He told me he never fired a shot in anger, nor did he receive one. He didn't storm a beach or charge a machine gun. He did, however, quit an exempt job in an ammunition plant in St. Louis to enlist. He was a good man.

22 SEP 1914 - 27 DEC 1991

Plus . . .

. . . and minus.

Plus: Our Ford Escape arrived today, exactly on time.

Plus: It was in exactly the same condition as when it was shipped. Not a ding or dent or scratch.

Minus: When I went to the depot to pick it up, the very nice lady at the front counter said: "We'll inspect it right after he hoses off the dust." Before I could say NOOOOOOO, I heard the spray from the hosed. Why would I say NOOOOOOOO, you ask? Well, because the water at NSA Naples is full of minerals. The water is so hard that you can drive nails with it. The water is so hard that it will stand up without a glass around it. Result? Sun-baked mineral spots everywhere. Everywhere on the new wax job I painstakingly completed the day before we shipped.

Plus: That aside, we finally have a comfortable, reliable vehicle to use.

Minus: The day before the car arrived, I received a recall notice in the mail.

Plus: Our express shipment also arrived today. It was shipped by air freight so we would receive it quickly.

Minus: It took one day longer by air than the car did by boat.

Minus: The shipping companies don't use wardrobes for clothes any longer. They take up too much room. So, how do they ship items like dress shirts and suits? They roll them up arond the hangars and toss them in the bottom of a packing box. Marino wool suits wrapped up like a painter's drop cloth and buried in a carton. Nice.

Plus: Uncle Sugar will pay for the laundry and drycleaning.

News flash . . .

The term "illegal aliens" will no longer be tolerated. The superceding term is "undocumented Democrats."

. . . we now return to our regular programming.

With all due respect . . .

. . . Sir Paul, shut up and sing!

I'm a big fan, he's a great guy. So lay off him, he's doing great.
- Paul McCartney on B. H. Obama

I don't know how you feel about someone coming into your house and criticizing it, but it doesn't sit very well with me. So, take your award, accept it gracefully, then stfu.

Thank you.

That is all.

Fotographia . . .

. . . Casuale

The villa on the left is ours - or will be in a few weeks. We have a contract signing on 12 Jun. No one was around, so I had to take the photo over a fence down the lane.

This is the view from our back terrace. I would rather have had an ocean view, but the villa we looked at with a nice view of the Tyrrhenian Sea and Ischia just wasn't right for us.

This little establishment, oddly named "Champs Elysses" is about a half mile from our villa. Specialties are pastry and gelato.

This is one of their two pastry cases. Four of my arteries clogged just during the creation of this photograph.

We couldn't bring it all home . . .

I snapped this photo of two rather foreign-looking types sampling the gelato.

Osservazioni . . .

. . . da Napoli

Uno: As DoD civilians overseas, we have "commissary and exchange privileges. The commissary (food store) has just about everything carried in U.S. supermarkets, the prices are less, and there are no taxes - sales or VAT. The exchange is like the largest K-mart you ever saw. Clothes, electronics, furniture, tools, sporting goods, jewelry, hardware. No taxes there either.

Due: We're trying to learn and use Itialiano, and the locals are trying to improve their English, which leads to some odd situations. A clerk will say "thank you," and without thinking I'll say "prego." Or, I'll say "buongiorno," and he will say "hi!" The real problem with knowing only a little Italiano is that when I say something that is pretty much correct, they assume that I speak the language. Wrong. I NEED my Rosetta Stone diskette.

Tre: Cell phones here are really cheap compared to the US - assuming you don't call the US or other countries. I've had my cell for a month, and only spent €15. Of course, I don't have that many people to call.

Quattro: For calling the U.S., we use both MagicJack and Skype. MagicJack is a bit scratchy, but, since it thinks we're still in Virginia, all calls back to the states are free. That has been a lifesaver, since I have had to call the Virginia DMV, our health insurance company, and several other critical contacts. Skype to Skype video calls are great for family contacts.

Cinque: I spend less than half the time travelling to work as I did in Virginia Beach. Even with the "interesting" habits of Italian traffic, it's a half-hour or less each way. That saves me an hour per day. In a working year, that amounts to about 230 hours, or almost 10 full days of time that I can use productively rather than sitting in traffic. What could you do in 230 hours?

Sei: Garmin, Google Maps and Bing are among the greatest inventions of all times.

Sette: Napoli may be the allergy capital of the civilized world. Of the 30 days here, I have had sniffles, coughing, sneezing and sinus drainage for more than half of that time. I am seriously hoping that it is a virus.