Cedar had an opportunity to attend a Judo competition in Abruzzo, a mountainous region in central Italy.  I jumped on that idea and booked an apartment in the country for a couple of nights.  Italy is so beautiful, covered in hills, farms, fields, and mountains and dotted with homes and villages.  I adore driving through it!

It turned out that Matt had a gig in Abruzzo the first night, so after the Judo competition we were able to have dinner with him.

This area is especially wonderful because it contains both mountain peaks and blue sea, right next to each other.  We drove to the top of the snowy peaks in Gran Sasso National Park, then one hour later we found ourselves on a sunny beach covered in sun-bathers.  Cedar hurt his toe in the competition, so instead of doing some hiking like I had planned, we ended up doing a lot of driving.  It was super beautiful.  I can’t wait to bring Matt back here to hike later this summer.