Lago di Bracciano: Anguillara Sabazia, etc. Lazio, Italy

Anguillara Sabazia, ever heard of it? We hadn't either. One of the best features on airbnb is you can search for places within a certain radius. We were hoping to get a place by the Med for a couple of nights, but that didn't work out so we had to look inland and thankfully we did. The little villages surrounding Lago di Bracciano were fantastic, low key, and non-touristy. We got to roam around Anguillara Sabazia, Trevignano Romano, and Bracciano. There were other villages and campsites along the lake. An added bonus is that both Rome and the FCO airport are 30-minutes away. Our luck would have it is that we arrived on Good Friday and took in a nightly procession that started at the cathedral on the hill. It was an ideal area to spend a couple of days. 

Anguillara Sabazia

A view from the cathedral.

Procession.

Takeout box from Vapoforno Anguillara-excellet food.

Bracciano-Castello Orsini-Odescalchi

View from Bracciano.

Dahab, Saint Catherine, Sinai, Egypt

Dahab sounded like the right destination to escape for a long weekend. Thanks in part to the sizzling hot deals on Egypt Air and the short distance made it the best "escape from Alex" option. It was a hard week indeed that involved miscommunications between a student's art project and "The Man." Yes, that is code. You can read all about it in my one-day-to-be-published memoirs. As for now, it's a little too hot for social media...but I got a preview of what life will be like under Trumpism if the red team gets full rein of making the USA a police state.

Most of the gang we traveled with played it safe and stayed on the shore skipping out on the world famous diving at the Blue Hole and snorkeling. Wind plus cold=no bueno. We took advantage of Indian, Thai, pork, and other food options that Alex largely lacks. A half-day trip to Saint Catherine's Monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai and the home of the burning bush made famous in the Old Testament (Exodus 3:1-15) happened as well. 

The company, food, setting, reflexology session, and the lack of internet connection was what the doctor ordered. Below is the evidence.    

Dahab Paradise Hotel, our home away from home. We were well taken care of.

Back view of the hotel.

Scott and Jen directed Ximena towards the puppies that were born under the giant LOVE sign in the back of the property.

Nope, we skipped this part.

X doing her impression of Swan Lake

Photo from the back of the pick-up

A sad reminder at the Blue Hole of the potential hazards of diving. The makeshift "tombstones"

A bridge to the hole.

"Toilet" in blood red letters.

Jeep and camel races are all the rage.

Illegal in all 50 states. Riding in the back of a truck.

The next set of photos are along the shore across the street from our hotel.

Saint Catherine's Monastery taxi

We drove two hours each way to spend an hour at Saint Catherine's Monastery. We didn't get to climb around or see all that there was to see within and outside the walls. Time was an issue as we were assigned to a convoy on the return drive to Dahab. We thought it was strange since we didn't have a police escort there. As our friend Brandon said, "I guess the kidnappers work on only one side of the highway." Maybe so.

The bush on the right is the burning bush...the least the original site of it.

Saint Catherine's Monastery

Our police escort.

The drive between Saint Catherine's Monastery and Dahab had a wide range of landscapes including the White Canyon that we only saw a little part of.

More beach shots in Dahab.