Caltagirone- A Girl's Day Out!

When Greg returned home from a 2 week visit to the States, I jumped at the first opportunity to have a day out.  A couple of friends and I went to Caltagirone for a day of shopping and lunch at a nearby agriturismo. 

 

 

Caltagirone is known for hand painted ceramics and displays handpainted tiles on every step of the beautiful staircase in the center of town. 

 

 

 

Shop after shop displays their handcrafted wares.  After visiting a couple different shops, we settled in to a small place with a very friendly owner who showed us his workspace and let us take turns painting one of his unfinished pieces!

 

 

 

 

 

We decided to buy some tiles as gifts for loved ones and began digging through piles of tiles.  When I say digging, I mean we planted ourselves on the floor in the showroom and went through hundreds of tiles.  It became a game of stacking and restacking until we found perfectly matched sets.

 

As our reservation time for lunch approached, we made our way to the agriturismo.  The GPS led us down some questionable roads with significant mudslide action and sharp turns where we had to honk the horn to let the other side know we were there.  Driving is always an adventure here!

We enjoyed our lunch inside a cave!  The restaurant is actually carved out from the side of a mountain! 

 

To complete the adventure we met some goats in the street and saw a giant bird fighting with a bush.  I didn’t get a picture of the bird… I don’t do birds.

 

We had a fun day with lots of laughter and I’m ready to go back!

Our Little Stay in Rota, Spain

The academy would have been proud.  I'm certain the performance I pulled in the lobby of the Gateway Inn in Rota would have earned me Best Drama.  The clerk told me I couldn't stay because Juliette was under the age of 12 and I immediately went into the "ugly cry."  You know the one... bright red face, snot, hyperventilation, and where your nose seems to widen at least 2 or 3 inches.  It could have been the stress leading up to our travels, or perhaps the fact it had just been a long day, or maybe because it was midnight and all three seem perfectly reasonable reasons to have a complete emotional breakdown.  I even pulled the "you're going to kick me and my baby out in the middle of the night in a strange country" card.  Oh yes.  I did it.  It didn't work, but by the end of it I had one of the hotel clerks crying. 

But here's the good news and here's how I know God cares about the details in my life... I mentioned in the previous post that one of the women at the desk was on the phone when I walked in the door.  Guess who she was talking to?  Greg! (although you probably already guessed that).  How's that for timing?!  He had already made us a new reservation at a hotel in town, and yes, he is always that wonderful.  One of the clerks drove J and I in her own car to the front gate, helped us with our paperwork, they called a cab to come get us and told them where to take us.

Both of us were crying as we walked out to her car and she said "I want you to know there are nice people in this country.  You will see that the people at the gate and at the new hotel will be very helpful.  My cousin is living in another country and I would hate to know that she was in this kind of situation and people did not help her."

Our new hotel was very nice and had beautiful views of the harbor.  A family we knew in Georgia are in Rota and took great care of J and I as we waited to check in to our flight.

We had a great flight, sleeping most of the way in a sleeping bag on the floor.  I'm telling you, cargo flights are the way to go!