In lovely Caserta, a Casa Woods

The Italian train service staff were on strike today, but they graciously scheduled the strike in advance so that you knew which trains were running before you bought your ticket. Thanks to this clever and thoughtful approach, I made it to Caserta today only 15 minutes behind schedule. It is so nice to be among friends, and not only because I feel safe walking around barefoot for the first time in 15 days or so. Emilia and Frederick live about 40 minutes from Naples. They are both FANTASTIC cooks and they have three charming daughters -- Olivia, who is 4 and much taller than last year, and the twins Isabella and Sophia, who now have a mop of black hair and a significantly larger vocabulary. I have yet to spring the finger paints and play-doh on them, mainly because I was afraid to be tossed out of the house before nightfall, but I hope we can get into messy fun things tomorrow. I will also take some photos to share how adorable they are. I almost fell over laughing today -- Isabella and Sophia use the (clean) bidet as a mini-sink to wash up before dinnertime. There is nothing funnier than seeing this brilliant American approach to European plumbing, especially by such small citizens. I think the soap they were using was bigger than their heads! I'll try to catch them with a photo tomorrow,

Drumroll, please...

Today we saw it. The famous, magnificent Taj Mahal. After a brutally early wake-up call, we took the train to Agra this morning (kerri’s first train ride!) past small towns, fields of sugar cane, and small grass-thatch huts. (Kerri adds: and cows. Of course.) As soon as we dropped our bags, we headed out to see it. Built by Shah Jahan in the early 1600s for his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, the Taj is a marvel of tromp l’oiel, in the sense that the architect carefully planned the building sites, angle of the minarets at the corners, and the approach to the Taj to make it seem far larger than it really is. As you enter the walls around the monument, you arrive in a courtyard surrounded by carved red sandstone walls and a red sand-stone gateway with pietra dura motifs at the top. Pietra dura is the inlaid stone technique that decorates the Taj Mahal – precious stones are inlaid into marble to make the floral and calligraphic designs. This technique hails from Florence by way of Iran, but Shah Jahan used it to great effect here. As you climb the steps of the sandstone gateway, the first view of the Taj Mahal is framed by the vaulted arches. It was just stunning. As Kerri pointed out, it was like walking into a postcard or onto the Discovery channel – you’ve seen the image so many times, it is very familiar – and yet, here you are, in the flesh! Okay, the water ways weren’t filled and the river was very low, both due to the heat, but it still looked postcard perfect to us!

The only down side to the Taj is that Kerri and I were a major tourist attraction ourselves. At least 15 families asked to take photos of us, and a few families had their children sneak up to us so that they could quickly grab a picture. This perplexed me , but drove Kerri insane. It is strange – here we are, in front of a stunning monument, and the tourists want to take pictures of two average American girls? Weird.

So here are some lovely photos. We’re off to see the Fort this afternoon and then to dine in view of the Taj – yay! So happy!