An uneventful flight from Charlotte to Rome marks our summer 2014 return to Italy. The beginning of our summer odyssey of sun and islands, the countryside and world class jazz and finally a long overdue reunion with one of our first Italian friends who now resides, of all places, in France. Strap on your seatbelt, make sure your tray table is in its full, upright position and get ready to join us for five weeks as we dolce vita our way through the land where the term was invented.

Our (nearly) on time arrival in Rome brought not just warm late morning temperatures and blue skies, but also our associates Corrado and Wendy, who had driven down from Umbria to meet us and to whisk us away to Napoli, a two hour drive to the south and our point of departure for the hydrofoil that would take us to Capri, the island paradise that will be our home for the next several days.

But no visit to Naples would be complete without a stop at Starita, our favorite Neapolitan pizzeria for lunch. Our third visit to Starita, we once again devoured four pizzas among the four of us, with our all-time favorite, the Montanara (a take on the margherita but with a lightly fried and then baked crust) thrown in as an appetizer. How about a pizza before your pizza?

And so we made our way to the ferry terminal at Molo Beverello for the short trip across the

Bay of Naples, hoping the rainy weather of the past
week clears out for us and looking forward to a relaxing start to the island phase of our visit.