Calendimaggio Day 1

The first week of May we made a long weekend and headed north to Assisi for their annual Calendimaggio festival. One of my favorite colleagues, Maribeth, has gone to this festival for many years.  After hearing her rave about it, we decided to join the 2016 trip!

First stop on Friday morning: the Basilica of Saint Francis

Beautiful view of the lower town's red flags

Trip planner extraordinaire: Maribeth

Mel, Sherri, Me, and Emma with the Umbrian countryside behind us

These 2 crazy kids celebrated their 27th wedding anniversary

Ready for the afternoon festivities

Flag throwing

Drumming battle between the upper town

and lower town

We met up with the rest of the NES travelers at a wine bar and had a prosecco toast for Ron & Sherri's anniversary

Nighttime performance

Fire banners coming from the upper town

The evening performance ended in some (unplanned) dramatics when the tower you see the girl standing on, caught on fire.  Thank goodness for the fast moving Assisi fire department!

Baseball & Softball 2016

4 weeks (boy I'm behind) ago we kicked off the 2016 Spring Sports Season. Mother Nature did not cooperate that day and the kids both got in about half a game before the fields were too water logged.

Here is Emma (being silly Emma) dancing at 2nd base before the inning started

 Soggy softball players

 Camden at bat

 I took cover on the patio near the field.  Can you see Camden out in left field?  The other team did not have enough players, so he was kind enough to help them out and play for their team.

 Flash forward one week...

Emma is thrilled I want to take her picture before opening ceremonies

 Our amazingly brave and talented girl sang the National Anthem!

 Teams ready for Opening Ceremonies

 Introducing the A's

 Introducing the Red Fusion

 Thanks to a friend, he has captured some great pictures of Camden over the past 2 games. Thanks, Tim!

 

Taormina

We slowly started making our way back towards the mainland on Tuesday.  We stopped in the town of Caltagirone and wandered through the ceramic stores. The town is famous for these ceramic tiled steps. 

We made it to the top, Mom!

Sherri took us by her old stomping ground near Sigonella and then we headed to our last stop of the trip: Taormina

Afternoon treat: Aperol Spritz and cannolis

Beautiful views...

Finding our hotel was a bit of an adventure and we may have ended up driving down this road and through this arch. SCARY!

Vino on our hotel balcony with Mt. Etna in the background

 Time to head home! This road trip was one for the memory books :)

Donnafugata Tour & Joppolo

On Monday we left the kids with Madds' Zia Angela and took a side trip to Marsala. In honor of our magnificent Melissa's birthday, we toured the Donnafugata winery.

This is where the magic happens...

 I've visited many wineries, but this was the first time I've actually seen the bottling assembly line up and running.  It was so cool!

Tasting and lunch

Meanwhile, back in Joppolo, Camden, Emma, and Gabriella spent the day with Zia Angela and the rest of Madds' family.  When we got back to town, we had a drink in the piazza.

It was so much fun to meet Madds' big crazy family and see the town where her parents grew up.

Joppolo countryside

Agrigento

Sunday morning we were welcomed with spectacular Sicilian scenery as we drove south to Agrigento

Look who we found at the famous Greek temples?!?! 

Actually, Madds and her family found us driving (lost) around town. After leading us to our hotel we explored the Valle dei Templi

I just happen to be teaching a unit on Ancient Greece right now, so visiting this piece of amazing history was a highlight of the trip!

Seafood lunch by the sea

 After lunch, we visited the Turkish Steps. Madds (of course) knew the owner of a beach bar along the way so we grabbed beers and sambuca.

 Picture pit stop on the rocks

Love this girl!

Favorite picture of the trip: 

I decide this is a great place to stop and get a group selfie.  I sit my (nearly full) beer next to a rock. Everyone gets in place and Camden says, "Mom, your beer just blew into the ocean."

Click

Road trip superstars!

 

Sitting on the Turkish Steps

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Girlz

Emma thought the water was COLD

Camden chasing people with seaweed