We are a truly global family, centered in Portland, Oregon, USA. At Villa di Nomadi, the Portland family included our hosts Eric, Rebecca, Max and Sophie (the FriedFish); Sherry and I; and neice Naomi and her husband Ken. Grandson Jake from Washington, D.C. was part of the FriedFish entourage. Nephew Pete and Amanda flew in from Amsterdam, where they now live and work. And our global-wandering neice Erin flew in from Istanbul, where she works and lives. (Assignment: find all of these cities on a world map.)
This is the only group photo I managed to capture during the week at the villa. I will say that we would travel with this crowd any time, anywhere. We had so much fun being together, sharing the beauty of the Mediterranean seaside, the small town nearby, good food and drink. We laughed a lot. We had passionate political discourse - and arguments - every day. We swam, lounged, played games, napped, lounged, ate, drank, lounged...you get the idea. Oh, and did I mention, we all had a lot of screen time?
Here are a few pictures of the 5-bedroom, 3 bathroom villa.
above: Sherry looking at the pool and beach from the roof. An outdoor spiral staircase goes to the roof, where there is a table and chairs and sun umbrella.
above: also from the roof, the decked patio with shade trees, garden furnoture, and where we set up for dinners al fresco.
above: the back gate to the beach, including shower and hose.
above: the cabana, just off the covered rear veranda.
above: the wood pizza oven, with Chef Eric pizzas baking. This is part of an outdoor oven, grill, sink facility that we used for a few meals.
Yes, the outside was the best part of the villa. Some of us spent time indoors with the AC on when we got too hot outside, but the pool, beach, cabana, decks.....well, outside was terrific.
The beach is smooth cobbles and stones (see below), with a few small patches of sand. Many people from the other beach houses, and probably other places, arrived in the early morning to stake out their space on the cobble beach, and lounged in the sun and under umbrellas most of the day. We soft Americans only walked across the stones to get to the water, and then lounged around our pool and on the back deck. Ah yes, the priveleged life.
Now, if you know me at all, you've been waiting for the underwater photos. Well, no worries, here they are! (Some of these were taken by Max and Eric with my camera.)
My left leg in the above photo is the injured appendage. By the time we arrived in Sicily, it was better enough to walk and swim, both of which seemed to help the healing. And I have to say that the 11 other people in the group made every effort to make me comfortable, not let me carry things, and etc. Thanks all. The result was a slug-like state - see below.
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