St. Martin and Anguilla Pre Hurricane Irma

As many of you know, my family is from the Caribbean with the majority living in St. Martin and Anguilla.There have been plenty of articles in the international press, and videos, showing the complete devastation and aftermath. As of today, we're still waiting to hear about one of our relatives.  We are sick with worry but thankful that most of our friends and family are safe.  Many have lost their homes, or have sustained major damage, and the non-retired members, their jobs (for now).It may take up to three years for St. Martin to rebuild.  I haven't heard any estimates yet regarding Anguilla.I know these are tiny islands so no one really cares what happens to them.  I was speaking to a Hollywood exec friend of my mine whose parents are also from the Caribbean and she noted the overall silence from well known African-American celebrities, including the ones who are from the region (seriously?) and the ones have vacationed on the islands.Perhaps this will change in the coming days.    

Life in Rome - An Escape to Sperlonga to Beat the Heat

Of course there was drama.My friend Marta and I decided to get the heck out of dodge as this heatwave is one of the worst on record.  There are no signs of relief.  I understand week or so with these kind of temperatures.  It is, after all, July in Rome.  However, an entire month of highs in the 90s and low 100s is not a good thing.Did I mention that I don't have air conditioning? I cannot keep my windows open at night as my pretty side street is filled with demonstrative high school Italian students, and drunk American exchange students until dawn.I'm waking up at 4:00 a.m. as it's impossible to sleep.  One of my clients is started a major construction project this week so I cannot work remotely in the mountains or at the beach as some friends have suggested.All this to say Marta and I were READY to get out of here on Saturday but alas, Trenitalia had other plans for us.It was one of those classic only in Italy moments.  The train was on time but then got stuck on the track just a few yards away from Termini Station.  There was something wrong with the current.  We couldn't get off the train as we were on the tracks.  There was no place to safely walk.  They worked on the train and tracks for TWO hours.  Mind you, the train ride to Fondi is an hour or so.At last, the train returns to the station and that's when all hell broke loose.  Folks were not happy.  One woman was going off on the police.  I thought if she were in the States they probably would've tased her, then arrested her.It's funny, when we on the train things were pretty calm.  While there was some muttering, "ma che cazzo sta dicendo" (but, what the fuck is he saying?) when the conductor walked through our car to give us updates, people kept reading or chatting with their friends instead of complaining.They did have another train waiting for us, on a different track, right away.  Trenitalia employees handed out bottles of water, which I thought was a nice touch.Finally, we were on our way.  Instead of waiting for the bus (at this point we were starving) we hopped into a taxi mini-van with several other women who were going to Sperlonga.  They had been on the same train as us. When we saw the beach, they started clapping.  We kept cracking up because the driver was having a super animated conversation.In a bizarre way the timing worked out better for us.  We arrived in time for lunch.  The restaurant, Scylla, was on the north side of the Historic Center and we wanted to be on the south side beach.  To climb back and forth wouldn't have made sense.  So we sat down, had a lovely lunch, and then braved the sun to walk up and over to the other side.Everyone was snapping photos of this sign.I forgot all about the start to our day once we arrived.Still thinking about this dish.Sperlonga is a Blue Flag beach between Rome and Naples.Starting our climb back up to the Historic Center.  I have written about Tiberius's ruins HERE. It's a great day trip from Rome.A quick aperitivi in the main piazza before returning to Rome.  I didn't want to leave the fresh air and cool breeze.Fantastic signage.The view from the bus stop.