ruined

As I slice tomatoes in the kitchen, preparing for some version of a sauce, a strange familiar sound wafts in, along with a steady stream of wasps I have been annihilating one at a time.  I am not generally a violent person, but my aim with a hard-to-find flyswatter, has become deadly accurate as I defend Smalls from the potential attackers.  Live accordion music from a neighbor's window narrates these activities with "Big Night" flair.  This is Italy my friends.  How beautifully cliche. Well, except for the wasps, I suppose...

The sauce passes muster with the Major, and Smalls tests her new teeth on the long ribbons of pasta.

Over the weekend we ventured down the hill to the harbor.

Our mission was to find the fish market.

We put Smalls in a carrier, "the bag" as the Italians call it, so that we could explore the staircases and shortcuts down below.

We pass by the famous sinking ruins on our way down.

Pozzuoli is known for bradyism - a condition that causes the earth to rise and fall.  So water now stands where the floor of this temple once was.  We marvel at the marble columns, and what it must have taken for them to have been placed here.

We continue to the water's edge.

I am in awe of the cleanliness (yes, those black shadows are fish) of the water,

and admire the worn wooden boats docked along the edges...

We find a nice quiet restaurant, near some ruins by an inlet.

Apparently there used to be a little palace here, but earthquakes did damage.

Walking around you get a bit of a multicultural vibe - Irish, English and American pubs mingle with Italian bars.

An extra bonus, on our way home, we discovered a park only a couple of blocks from the house.

A beautifully manicured green space bordered by... you guessed it - ruins (what a surprise!)

It's really a gorgeous place, and I imagine lots of walks will happen for us here.

Finally only a couple of blocks from our place, we pass some of the most famous ruins in the area, an amphitheater (behind the facade pictured), the third largest in all of Italy.

I look forward to visiting this site.  Apparently you pretty much get the run of the place to explore at your own pace, unlike some of the more popular sites in Rome.  For years I have taught my students about the theatre that took place in places like this.  It's pretty amazing to live next door to such an important piece of history.

Last night we broke out the stroller and attempted to join the locals for passeggiata. Smalls had just finished her dinner, and I decided to ruin mine with gelato.  I'm on the hunt for the best shop in walking distance.  There is one about four houses down from us in the square, and the ice cream there is good, but I have had better, so I will keep exploring.

Down a windy road, across the railroad tracks and across a small square, there is a restricted zone for pedestrians.  I remember visiting many cities in Italy previously where streets were shut down like this, providing a nice area for walking and shopping.

Children playing, families out for walks, people frequenting gelatarias, groups of men and women hanging out at coffee bars, people shopping for dinner...  It is an aspect of Italy that makes it unusual from anywhere else I have been.  I imagine this is when the news of the day travels around town, from one mouth to the next.

We duck into the gelateria I spotted last time we passed through.  It has many of the warning signs of less-than quality, but we have come all the way down the hill.... so I pick one called "Bounty" after the coconut candy bar.  I am given the pleasure of a fresh-from-the-oven cone, providing a warm vessel for the icy treat.  The ice cream is satisfactory, but not excellent.

We pass another gelato shop on the way back home.  I have a feeling it won't be too long in the future before we give that one a shot...