Buon Giorno!

We just returned from a beautiful trip to Italy where we had the opportunity to tour the Amalfi Coast, Pompeii, Rome, Tuscany, Florence, and Venice. It was the trip of a lifetime! We purposely chose the last two weeks in April because May is undoubtedly the biggest month for gardening tasks. In doing so, we probably sacrificed flower photo ops in Italy.  Blossoms were few and far between. But that is okay - we were there for the Art, History, Culture and Food!

There were so few flowers that I jokingly took this picture of five somewhat sad little tulips as proof that I was indeed looking for flowers and found them!

I was able to catch the Mediterranean through a cluster of flowering shrubs.

And here is the biggest floral display I saw in two weeks -  a clump of flowers that was a nice foreground to this little town in Cinque Terre.

If you look very hard, you will indeed see flowers in a window box.  But in all honesty, I took this picture for the clothesline.

   
And that is it! Of the two hundred or so pictures of Italy, there were four of flowers.  But our time there was absolutely unforgettable.  We returned to a nice display of creeping phlox and candy tuft along our patio, and to the task of edging and mulching.  Team Cardinali is hard at work on that.  I also returned to a very different blogspot.com.  The format for composing a post is completely different from the one I left and I do believe it will be a challenge for me to become accustomed to it.  (For instance, I have spent many minutes trying to center that tulip picture.  It's not going to happen.) I'm not a big fan of technological change.  But I will return.  Last night I made out my wish list for Garden 2012 and I'm eager to share it with you!