Swimming in the Tyrrhenian Sea!

I thought it was the Mediterranean Sea, but I was actually swimming in the gulf of Naples. It was absolutely beautiful. It was warm and the sand was soft and you could walk quite a ways out before it got deep. A perfect place to bring kids. But today there was very few people out swimming. It was a perfect temperature, right around 70 degrees, sun was shinning, water was clean!

I visited 3 towns today. The first was called Agropoli. This is where I went swimming. It had a huge beatitul beach. You could see the Amalfi coast and the island of Capri in the distance. The towns with houses built into the side of mountains it seems.

Today was a day I was so glad I rented a car. Today I totally enjoyed exploring and seeing these out of the way towns and public transportation doesn't go to little out of the way towns like these.

Driving in Italy is an challenge and an adventure in itself! But I feel like I'm starting to drive like an Italian!

The next town I went to was called Castellabate. When driving in Italy you totally rely on map programs. It's hard to trust them because sometimes they take you on roads that you think there is no way this is the right road, but what else can you do but trust it. Sometimes if I really have my doubts, I pull over the car and check other map programs. There is google maps, maps, apple maps and Waze. They are all pretty good.

So I typed in Castellabate just from looking at a map earlier as a random place to go. The map was taking me up on little tiny roads. turns out this little town is on top of a mountain ridge. When you get to the top the views are breathtaking. On the one side you are looking down to this beautiful valley, covered with greenery. Trees, farm land, houses spattering the valley. On the other side you are looking at ocean, from the top of the mountain. It's gorgeous, incredible, and indescribable. I kept stopping the car, taking pictures, and just enjoying the views.

The 3rd town I went to is called Acciaroli. It's a town that has been written about in magazines and such because people often live to be over 100 here. It's a very small peaceful town. I walked around making observations of why people live long here. I've come to the conclusion it's not so much what people eat, but a way of life. So here are my observations of Acciaroli.

Everything closes except coffee shops all afternoon. Typical in most small towns in Italy. About 1-5 or 6 pm, everything is closed. Everyone you see is sitting around visiting, relaxing, drinking coffee, checking their phone. No one is working that I could see. Also there are a lot of cats and kittens around in this town. Just seem to be like town cats! Kittens playing near my parking space was so cute. So that is my theory, is work hard all morning, live simply, take the afternoon drink coffee and visit with friends and enjoy kittens and beautiful veiws. Rest in God and enjoy life!

I tasted some nice treats from the coffee shop here. The best was a soft custard pie, but the crust was more like a cookie and those are pin nuts on top. The bun was full of a custard too, like a baked custard though. The other dessert was like pastry dough with a bit of custard in the middle. None of their desserts are sweet. They don't use a lot of sugar. I usually ask them to skip the powdered sugar on top, but forgot to catch him.

The church bell started ringing about 6 pm. I could actually see the bell swinging back and forth. It kept ringing and ringing for quite a while. Calling everyone to an evening mass. I was thinking I would get there and find it full of people but there were only 2 nuns and about 5 elderly people. It sounded like they were repeating the same thing over and over to Mary I think. It's so sad, Italy is full of such nice, moral, religious people, but I wonder if they really know God and how much He loves them.

At the Assembly of God church I went to in Mola the pastor told us how him and his family came to know God. He was young and his little sister got very sick. The parents traveled all over Italy looking for a Dr that could help her. They finally said there is no hope, she is gong to die. They went to the priest and asked if they would pray for her and the priest said, very very rarely does God ever heal someone. Then the went to Jehovah's wittiness and they said, God never heals anymore. Then they heard of this evangelical church and they went to see it, but they stayed outside just looking at the people going in. Finally the boy (who is now the pastor of this church) said, "why are we standing just watching, lets go in". So they went in and everyone greeted them and when they told them about their daughter, they all began to pray for her. The family was all so blown away that these strangers would care about them and spend time praying for them. They felt God's love there at this church. They brought her back to the Dr and he said she is completely better. They brought her to several Dr's to make sure, and each one said, she was very sick, but now she is well. Praise the Lord, He is truly alive and does still heal!

It's very hard to reach people for Jesus, when they have so much religion and are such good moral people. But it's sad, because they don't even know what they are missing, a personal relationship with God, joy of knowing you are saved!