Italy 1: Guardia Sanframondi

Nov 22

Off on a new adventure: Southern Italy! After many years of thinking I should do it, we finally made plans to visit Calabria, in the toe of the boot, to visit the towns where my Italian great grandparents came from, 3 generations ago. Before getting down there, we flew to Naples, in Campania, and as luck would have it, a couple who were staying in our home as a home exchange had a house about an a hour and a half away from Naples. So we stayed in their home in a village called Guardia Sanframondi for five days before heading south.

Landed in Naples on October 1, picked up our car, and off we go!

View from our deck overlooking the Benevento wine region.

Sheets drying in the (very strong) breeze!

Bob walking up our very tiny street, towards the main drag through town.

Cool onion dome caps a tower.

Walking through the narrow streets of the medieval village.

Many buildings are nicely renovated.

Tunnel passageways everywhere. The village is on steep slopes.

These town dogs followed us all around!

Twelfth Century? Whoa, this place is old!

Of course, the castle is a ruin, but slowly being restored to some degree.

The grounds were fenced off, but this is a view through the fence.

Mural depicting leather dyeing, an industry that used to be in this town.

Fresh baked sfogliatella— traditional pastry of Naples! SO good…and we got 'em frozen to bake at home in the local grocery store!

Pizza box from local restaurant.

The pizza was fabulous! We ate here twice.

Pizzaiolo in action.

There was a steady stream of take out orders.

At a second restaurant. Excellent food, this seared tuna.

We were persuaded to try this drink with a local liqueur.

Fading light gives a lovely honey glow to the buildings.

Late afternoon light on decrepit buildings makes them beautiful to me.

A beautiful sunset sky.

Harvest truck rumbling through the main drag.

Our days in Guardia alternated between rainy cool and sunny warm. We lucked out with a glorious Saturday, when we took a walk to the largest winery operation in the area. Beautiful walk along country roads that flanked vineyards, olive orchards and plenty of pomegranate trees. We bought two bottles of wine and got to see many trucks coming in to deliver their harvests to the cooperative winery.

Beautiful and dramatic mountains rise in the Sannio valley.

A view back at Guardia, with the castle on the top.

Ready for harvest!

The Sannio wine region surrounds Guardia.

Walking past the town cemetary.

There's lots of cactus in this area, with ripe fruit this time of year.

Farmer tilling his recently harvested vineyard.

Entrance to the winery.

Bulk wine sales— wine dispensed from gas pump-like tanks!

A customer waits for the gal to fill his jug.

One of the many trucks bringing in their harvest.

It was a busy day for the farmers.

Farmers stop here for their grapes to be tested, presumably for sugar content…

The Apartment

This is the home exchange apartment we stayed in for five days. Our exchange partners were in our home in Bend for 5 weeks while we were in Barcelona. If it hadn’t been for the exchange we arranged, we’d never have come to Campania (further beyond Naples.) It was cool to be introduced to a completely new place!

Click the photo below to see a photo montage of the apartment.