First Harvest

Here is the first of our tomatoes! In a couple of days we are going to be absolutely over run! But that's ok...we have plenty of room in the freezer!!

Home Sweet Home

Welcome to our casa! Our Villa Allen sign has taken a few beatings in the wind we get up here, but it's still hanging in there!

Buon Giorno Napoli! This is our front yard...

The Bay of Naples with the island of Ischia on the left.

And this is our backyard...That's the cone of Mt Vesuvius looming in the distance.

This is our new patio that was just added on a couple of months ago.

This is the eggplant section of our garden.
These are lettuce, peppers and tomatoes...

and these are the unruly zucchini and wild arugula.

Our grapes are doing great this year, we might even try our hand at a batch of vino!

We have been throwing our "kitchen" trash into these scallops since we moved in and now we have lots of voluntary veggies, potatoes, tomatoes and my favorite (which explains why we have so much of it) butternut squash!

If you look really hard you can see the starts of two sweet potatoes at the bottom of the picture. I forgot to mention they were started in a bowl in the kitchen!

More volunteers going nuts!

Our Kumquat trees in the front and squash in the back.

Stu just tilled, leveled, weeded and planted grass in these two areas, I wish I has some before pictures, wow what an improvement!!!

Another improved area, this was our puny garden last year, we have moved on to bigger and better things! Now if I can only get Stu to eat anything we grow, we'll be doing great!!

This is the wooden planter box that Stu and Santo (the landlord and dear friend) built together. We are still working on getting just the right plants for it, but so far, so good!

Another shot of the planter box, looking good!

Stu bought a couple of Tufo Stone vases last month I think they fit right in!

And what Italian house would be complete without the Virgin Mary to watch over everything??

Are you looking at me??

This is Kitty, she adopted us when we moved in. She's a good kitty and a killing machine...we've found all kinds of things on our doorstep, unfortunately not all dead...

Ahhhhhh, it's good to be the Queen!

Desperate times...desperate measures!

Lisbon, Portugal

The last week in May we went to Lisbon, Portugal, probably our favorite city yet! It's a fantastic mix of old architecture and new keeping with style and culture, clean, easy to get around by taxi and metro, multi-cultural foods, with a nice mix of tradition and art.

This is a fountain in the middle of the avenue across from our hotel.

This building used to be a theater, but now it's a beautiful hotel.

We found a great bar called the Chinese Pavilion. It's the coolest bar we've been to--a definite case of sensory overload!
They have chamber pots hanging above and in front of the bathrooms!
It has multiple rooms brimming with decorations and knick-knacks--amazing to even the avid collector! Statues, wood carvings, ceramics, photos, etc...

Stu with his White Russian...ummmm creamy!

And Theresa with her Mojito...

Even the ceiling was decorated (we really didn't get drunk enough to enjoy it all but gave it a good try anyway)!

When we were leaving the bar we asked the waiter if he knew of a good Sushi joint, he recommended this place, right down the road from the bar... It was so good we went there twice!

While Stu was working Theresa got a chance to explore and do some sightseeing, what a beautiful city!

This is the bull ring, they still hold bull fights there, but they have declared it illegal to kill the bull. Not sure exactly what they do instead, but either way, that's event we decided we could miss just the same.
This is the Docas Santo area, a beautiful spot by the water with cool restaurants, bars and marinas. And just happend to be right next to where Stu had to work, so we would meet there for lunch. Theresa enjoying a refreshing glass (better yet--a pitcher) of Sangria!


This is the main arch on the waterfront as you entered into the old (touristy) part of town. Great shopping and little sidewalk cafes.
Tamarind was a great Indian Restaurant we found listed in a city guide close to the hotel. The food was outstanding and the owner, Indian born, but raised in London, was a riot!

Our last night in Lisbon we went to an awesome restaurant...the Kais. It's an old renovated factory with big olive trees growning in front of each window. Is huge, the food is fantastic and the Port wine is even better!


There are mountains of candles all over the restaurant. In the center of each of the two bars is a cluster of candles that have obviously been burning for quite some time! The heat generated from the candles when added to the sun torched room made the expansive room an inforno-- the bartender even joked that it gets so hot that the employees call it the "Krematorium"!!

Crete, Greece

The end of April we went to Chania on the island of Crete just off the coast of Greece. The weather was great and the island is absolutely beautiful!

This is the view from the restaurant we had lunch at everyday with Paolo and his crew. The food was delicious no matter what we had, of course we had pasta being with Italians, what else would they eat! And the location was great!!

This is the Port area in downton Chania. Very touristy, but also very quaint with lots of shopping to be done!

This section right on the water was lined with tourist traps and lots of restaurants.

A great place to just hang out and have a glass of wine!

The night be for we left we had dinner with Paolo (at the end of the table) and his crew. We, as usual, ate way too much and had a blast!