Erika and Dylan's Quest For Aquino

 

              We basically covered almost the entire shin of the boot of Italy on our trip.

                                                     Ours is the blue line.

We missed our flight from Frankfurt so we had to catch the next available flight to Pisa. We arrived in Pisa around 1700 hours, and we knew it was about a 3 hour drive to Rome, so we immediately rented the vehicle and drove south to Rome. It only took us two hours and fifteen minutes to arrive there, but once we were there, it took us about two more hours to find the hotel. We finally found the hotel which was across the street from a university, and went to bed (it was a long day, we left at 0330 that morning from home).

The next two days in Rome were amazing (of course) Erika and I roamed (no pun intended) the city on foot the first day and pretty much covered everything a tourist can cover in one day; the Coliseum; Fontana di Trevi;

                                                              The Vatican;

                         

                                  Via del Corso (for shopping); The Spanish Steps; The Ruins,

 

                                                                       And Circo Massimo.

We knew the city, by this time, like the back of our hands, being as though we practically memorized it trying to find our hotel the first night in town. The second day was spent a little more leisurely. We drove into the Vatican and spent a considerable amount of time in St. Peters Basilica.

 

                                   

We spent the rest of the day walking around and finally had an amazing dinner someplace around the Fontana di Trevi's maze of alleys and streets.

                                 The next morning we drove from Rome to Naples.

Before we set out on our trip to Italy I had one request. That somehow we stop in the City of Aquino, the birthplace and home of Saint Thomas Aquinas.

                                 

Luckily for us our final destination was Naples and Aquino happened to be right off of the main autostrade that went from Rome to Naples. We pulled off the highway and navigated our way around to this very little town.

Very few people live here and it was the kind of place where everybody knows each other. There was one town Plaza,

                and in the middle of the Plaza of course is the San Tomasso Church.

             

We pulled over to the gas station (hardly a station, but more like gas pump), and told the guy to fill it up.

I asked him where everything was (St. Thomas' house, whatever, just anything to see while we were there). He waved a younger girl over to better explain where everything was. She told me and then she asked in part English, part Spanish, and mostly Italian, who we were and what we were doing there. So I told her my last name. When she heard this she almost flipped and immediately called her mom over to hear.

In a flash, I had the gas- pump man, the girl, and the mom all saying Aquino (pronounced A-QUEEN-O, with the typical Italian "O" at the end, said matter-of-factly). I didn't want to break their hearts and explain to them that in no way was I Italian, so I just let them act like the Prodigal Son had returned.

Erika and I followed the girl and her mom around till we finally got to what we were looking for. The city was beautiful and you could tell they have done their best to preserve it.

                          

                                                 

After we did all that we headed into a little cafe to get a cappuccino, and then we were on our way to Napoli. We were convinced that if we didn't leave after the cappuccino the whole town might know by then that some guy from the US named Aquino was in their little town of Aquino and that we might not be able to leave. Okay, not that serious, but we did get numerous stares of interest from the local bar where all the old men were hanging out.
 
As soon as we arrived in Napoli, the garage man asked Erika what her last name was. She told him it was Aquino, and he got all excited, repeated it a few times, and then he kept telling her that it was Italian. It sort of went like this:
 
"A-QUEEN-O, its Italiano, yeah, Italiano, A-QUEEN-O. You Italiano ? Yes, A-QUEEN-O, is Italiano, you Italiano."
 
He repeated this like five times, and Erika couldn't even get a word in otherwise. She tried to explain that it was my name, but he was so determined that we were Italian, she just gave up and said, "Yeah, he is", and pointed at me, and just like that he was content and flashed a huge smile. To make a long story short if you are an Aquino in the southern part of the Italian state of Lazio or the northern part of the state of Campania, most Italians will: (1) Be convinced that you are Italian, (2) try to convince you that you are Italian, even if you are not, and (3) love you very much because you share a name with a City that one of their most patron saints was born, raised, and will be forever referred to by.
 
The next morning we went straight to Erika's swim meet and following the swim meet met with most of the coaches and parents from her team at a restaurant in one of the nearby cities around Naples. After that we were on our way back up to Rome. We arrived in Rome, got our hotel, went to bed, and this morning we were up early again to catch our flight out of Rome to Frankfurt-Hahn airport. We had a really wonderful time in Italy, couldn't have asked for a better one, but we're glad to be back home with the pets, and sleeping in our own bed. We love you guys, all, very much, and we hope to hear from you soon.
 
-The Aquino (pronounced A-KEY-NO)