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| Carlo IZ8GNR at his radio. |
August 6, 2011 -- Rome Italy -- Today, was our day to head out to my "ham radio" friend
Carlo Capola. Carlo lives near a city in southen Italy named
Caserta -- not far from
Napoli. Yesterday we had bought reservations on a "fast train" to
Caserta and the trip was supposed to take 1 hour 15 minutes. Yet, the Italian train system has its own way of doing things and we stopped in the middle of no-where for 40 minutes. No explanation was given and we arrived late. Carlo was patient enough to wait for us, he found he is short order (I must look like to American tourist, because he picked me out immediately) and we got into his car bound for his home.
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| Lunch is Served!! |
Carlo lives in a farm-house in the
Alvignano area of
southern Italy -- about 30 minutes by car away from the train station and
Caserta. Linda and I met his mom and dad and we were told we were invited for lunch. Meanwhile, Carlo took me to his radio shack for a look at his ham radio equipment. He has a really nice setup, and we discussed the kind of activities he enjoys the most -- which is "chasing distant stations" on the radio.
It wasn't long before lunch was served and we joined his parents at the table in their home. Now, we were told we were "special" guests, so a multi-course meal was prepared! It consisted of "anti-pasti", followed by a main course of spaghetti, then salad and then ice cream! I gotta tell you, I don't have much of an apetite for large quanities of food, so by the end of the meal -- Linda and I were contentedly "stuffed". What a wonderful meal made by an Italian woman in the southern Italian countryside.
We returned to the train station at 3:30 for a 4:00 p.m. train and got back into Rome, also a bit late, a 5:25!! I have been having a battle with my "sinuses" for the past day, so I made a stop by the "Farmacia" to get some anti-histamine. In Italy -- Europe I think -- the pharmacists are trained to prescribe some medicines, so I was lucky finding a young woman who seemed to know what I need. NOW, I just need the courage to take the stuff!!
News at 11..
2 comments:
thanks a lot for visiting me and my family, we have been very happy to meet you and Linda.
Carlo Coppola (iz8gnr)
Love visiting Fellow Hams abroad. My expereince is that they are unfailingly nice. Ask to guy in NZ who was head of the reciprocal licensing for ZL who picked me up after a 3 day kayak trip (heaven knows how I looked or worse yet, smelled), too me to his house, allowed me to shower, put me up for the night, fed me dinner, and took me to the bus station the next morning.
Or the guys in Austria whose HAM club was just down the street from my hotel who I introduced to another HAM buddy in New Hampshire when I discovered they were leaving the next day for the US East Coast. Got a photo of them standing in his ham shack the next day via email.
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