TOD:
I have had some good birthdays and some forgettable ones (mostly all the birthdays since I turned 50), but my most memorable birthday was my 40th. I was in Naples, Italy, serving with NATO. My mother and Aunt Doris (her sister, who lives across the street from her) had visited me in the late spring and we'd had a wonderful time. And about a month before my birthday, a good friend from Oakland (Bill, with whom I had served on USS Carl Vinson from 1984-87) asked if he could come for a week or so.
I met Bill in Rome where we "did" the Eternal City, including the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican, and trampled the grounds of the Forum and the Colisseum and the rest of Rome's ruins. We also had our "Roman Holiday" moment at La Bocca della Verità, which is an image carved from marble of a man-like face, located in the portico of the church of Santa Maria. (In thye movie, it's the big face with the open mouth that Gregory Peck sticks his hand inside and pretends he can't get it out).
Then we took a train to Florence were we "did" everything all good tourists there do, including leisurely tours of the galleries/museums and taking photos with famous objets d'art. My birthday fell somewhere during our time in Florence. From Florence, we went to Naples to my villa.
Bill then called a friend of his who lives part-time in Australia (he owns a 3,000-acre ranch outside Perth, and my friend had been hosted at that ranch with other officers from my ship when we made a port call in Perth). Jorg is a native German from a family very big in industrial goods. He has a villa on the Isle of Ischia off the coast of Naples. Happily, he was in residence at the time, so we were invited there for a day...so I drove us to the port of Naples and we took a ferry to Ischia where we were met by Jorg in his boat. We got a tour of the island from the boat, swam in spots where thermal springs arose from the ocean floor and then had lunch at a ristorante that is only accessible by (1) water or (2) down the sheer face of a cliff. The lunch easily lasted three hours during which time a lot of white wine (wine served in carafes with sliced peaches inside them) and fresh fish was consumed. When we finally docked, we took a jeep ride to Jorg's villa. The scenery was quite spectacular (much of the landscape of Ischia is rocky upthrust and all the houses/villas/apartments are carefully planned/built for maximum appeal).
I was immediately attracted to a white multi-level villa much higher than where we were. The villa was half-covered in bright purple bougainvillea. I nudged Bill and pointed it out. Five minutes later we were at that same villa...Jorg's villa! I did mention Jorg was from a German family big in "industrials", didn't I? Apparently, they're loaded. The villa is spectacular. We roamed the grounds, got a tour, discussed the landscaping, and then rested (napped) before dinner which his "kitchen staff" prepared. A huge market umbrella was set up over the table laid out for dinner on one of the villa's three beautiful terraces. The dinner was traditional, with salad and pasta, wine and cheese/fruit, and, finally, cafe! It was a wonderful evening. The next morning, breaksfast was laid out on a table under an umbrella on another terrace (which captured the morning sun).
We returned to Naples that afternoon and laid out our plans for my friend's two remaining days. We toured, extensively, the remains of Pompeii and Herculaneum (modern-day Ercolano) over those two days. I finally put Bill on a train back to Rome where he had booked a room in the hotel where we'd stayed upon his arrival...and he treated himself to one more day of sightseeing before going to the airport.
It was a wonderful "birthday week" for me, too. My "present" from Bill was the OBC to "She Loves Me" on CD! Very memorable time.
