Pastries and Coffee

We've been gone

To Italy and back

For a whole month!

And what a month it has been

Husband Jim started the tradition

of pre-breakfast pastries and coffee

on the balcony

of our hotel in Sorrento, Italy

A boutique ten room hotel just a half block from the main piazza in Sorrento.

We watched Sorrento wake up as we nibbled our pastries and sipped our coffee.

The week before Sorrento

we spent a week in Positano

In that pink villa on the hill

We did have breakfast each morning on the terrace

with a view of the hills of Positano while we watched the sun come over the hill.

But we did not have pre-breakfast pastries and coffee

For to get pastries

We had to climb 93 steps.

These are the "first" 60 something -- which leads down from the road to the first urn

and more steps.

No, we ate our yogurts and cereals with our tea or coffee or leftover cheese and salami

from the night before's antipasta.

No one wanted to climb to the top for fresh pastries!

The pastry and coffee tradition continued once we were on the

Celebrity Reflection.

As we cruised across the Atlantic, first one up would go for pastries and coffee

We'd sit on our balcony and watch the ocean.

And then we came home.

We have no balcony.

Our "pastries" on the prairie for the most part are doughnuts.

But Sunday morning (after arriving home late Saturday night)

I went to the market

For two important things . . .

Flowers for the table

Pastries for "pre-breakfast"

Alas, they are doughnuts

But they're cute pumpkin shaped ones

And I did set the table nicer than our two mugs and a plate of pastries

that we enjoyed on those balconies.

My beloved blue and white, of course,

which I so missed the month we were gone.

And no city waking up to view

And no ocean waves to watch

But we did gaze out on our very needy garden

Full of plants that need pulling,

leaves that need raking.

But that will be tomorrow.

For today, it was a chore that everyone who goes to Sorrento does . . . 

Make limoncello!

It's good to be back!

We left with green leaves on the trees and warmish temperatures

We arrived home to bare trees, cooler weather, and pots full of dead annuals.

There was a heavy frost while we were gone!

The begonias are gone for this year!

It is Tuesday and it I'm joining Sandy at Rose Chintz Cottage for Tea Time Tuesday.    For my morning beverage both on ship and at home is tea!      And Marty at A Stroll Thru Life for Inspire Me Tuesday.