In the Process of Updating...

Those of you following the blog already ought to know I'm back (been back for about a week and half now). The jetlag kept me down til about Wednesday, along with some stomach trouble as I switched back to U.S. food. I've slowly been getting caught up on everything, including this blog, and now have added pictures to all the existing entries.

Of course, there are still a couple days of our trip left to write about! So hopefully I will get a few more entries up in the next couple of days (with photos). I do have a complete trip diary that I wrote in pen, so my memory will stay fresh.

Happy holidays to all and check back in a bit for the end of the Italy saga!

City of Food & Art

Liz on top of the Duomo & the Ponte Vecchio (as seen from the Uffizi)

Hello everyone!

Neha & Burzin and the cat made me LOL. Today is Thanksgiving. So far we have had coffee, gelato, pizza, ceceni (will explain that one later, but it is deeeeelicious. Made with chickpea flour, olive oil, and water), chocolate & pear torte, and I think we will finish off with another round of pizza after I post this. What happened to the indian food plan mom?

We made it to Firenze without too much trouble. Pretty scenery, and we ended up chatting most of the way with a gal from the UK who is teaching English in Orvieto. Florence is just as pretty as I remember it, but I think now that I have had a week here, I would not need to come back for more than a couple of days if that. It is smaller (less to see and do) than Rome, but not nearly as charming as Orvieto or even Lucca, which is where we went on our excursion today.

Backing up though. Orvieto is darling, as I have mentioned several times now. I kind of wished we had one more day there, because we made it through just about every sight, and it would be interesting to see if it would have gotten boring, or if it is one of those places you can just wander about forever. As for protein, our first night in Orvieto I had cingahile (I need to look up the spelling) which is wild boar, and it was fantastic, done in a caccitore style gravy. We climbed the Tower in the middle of town which is only a measly 200-something steps, but got some nice views. The weather has been so good, it's hard to believe it is November here. Except it is cold, especially here in Florence, and even more so when the wind blows.

Here is the somewhat famous cathedral in Orvieto. Like the ones in Florence, pretty outside, boring inside except for some chapels.

So, as I said we got to Firenze midday on Sunday and made our way down to the hotel which is in this old 13th century tower building. They put us in a 3-bed suite, which means we have our own separate rooms, although dad has to come through mine to get to the bathroom. We all met upstairs in this large sitting area to start the tour. Our tour guide, Jamie, is from Bath, England and now lives in Lucca (hence going there today). He is pretty amusing, though slightly prone to repeating himself! The first night we went straightaway to see David, which was a lot more impressive than last time when I saw him at the end of the day and was probably 'arted' out. Dad and I got in an argument about the 'cord' running down David's back which is actually the sash of his slingshot or something. It looks like an electric cord from one angle, but once you go the rest of the way around it is obvious it is part of the statue. So there, dad :-P

This is City Hall. David used to stand here before they decided that weather and marble don't get along. Now there is a fake copy, but it was fenced off for repairs!

Then we went off for our first group dinner. Real food! (We have been eating food prior to this, but mostly pastas). This is the proper Italian courses though. Two kinds of pasta to start, one a giant tortellini type thing and the other I don't quite remember. Then a choice of steak or rabbit. I had rabbit. Like everything else, it tastes like chicken. Really it was fine, but the steak was better and the rabbit was on the skeleton and so it was far too much work to get the meat off. We finished off with panna cotta, which is cooked cream, similar to flan. Not surprisingly, we did NOT eat gelato today.

Monday we toured around town, including a museum of maps showing what the city used to look like. The schedule has been all tossed around by a strike that is occurring on Friday, so tonight we go for our wine & cheese tasting, which is a misnomer. It is three wines, the first with crostini (toast with various toppings. You would be surprised how good chicken liver tastes!) The second with meat, hams and the like. And only with the third one do you actually get cheese! Several people stuck around at the restaurant for some spagetti or dessert, but dad and I decided we had to get our gelato in. And we did, but I was not that impressed with the place, despite it being the new hotspot in town. We also did our laundry this day and had a delicious artichoke heart panini.

Tuesday was art overload. Did San Marco in the morning, which is the monastery where Fra Angelico painted frescos in most of the monks' cells. It is a much different style of art than most, so it was quite interesting to see. Then dad and I hit the musem of precious stones which is all about mosaics. That was stunning. They would paint something, then use the painting as a template for building the mosaic version. After eating some leftover pizza at the hotel, we went to the Uffizi which...it is impressive as always, but the local guide talked far too long standing in one place and physically it was exhausting to do that. I started wandering around, especially since I have already seen most of it, and that was rather nice actually.

After the Uffizi, we went to the Leonardo museum where they have built working models off of Da Vinci's sketches. The point of the museum is that you can push the buttons and make (most of) the machines work. Great for kids and dad really enjoyed it. Dinner was on our own and we did talk about coming back online but ended up hooking up with a group of fellow tour members for an entertaining and lively dinner together. This time we had more crostini (with black cabbage on top), and I had pappa al pomodoro which is the wonderful Tuscan bread and tomato soup I had here last year. I finished it off with a sliced steak which was cooked quite rare. Goodness, in both senses of the word.

Wednesday was the Bargello statue museum, the Duomo museum, and a group dinner. We made it to all the events but it was a bit touch and go as the food seems to be fighting back for dad. See? there is a reason to only eat gelato and pizza. For a bit there, I was not sure he would make it, but thanks to some strategically placed bathroom breaks, he survived to not only do the tour but even climb the Dome. A lovely view up there, and a lovely day (after getting rained on Tuesday), and the wind kicked up so hard I nearly fell over. Dad is still a bit shaky but has been eating immodium like candy and is much better today.

The interesting thing about being on our own vs. on the tour now, is that while I appreciate having the guide and all the arrangements made and so on, it is really quite chafing to be tied to someone else's schedule. I certainly would come back here on my own but definitely not on a tour, and funnily enough dad feels similiarly (though his is, he would come back here with me so he does not have to do any planning!)

Anyway, just about out of time, so that is all for now.

Ciao!

Hitting the Rails

Ciao a tutti!

We went to Saint Peter's in Chains first, which was quite near our hotel actually, and a good thing we did. It was nice and peaceful when we went in, but as we were leaving 2 tour groups were coming in. Trajan's area was kind of a bust though, as most of it is under construction/excavation.

At the train station, I got the self-service machine to give us the correct tickets (whoo-hoo!) then we had to wait to find out which platform our train left from. Since we ended up in Orvieto and the conductor punched our tickets, we must have had the right one! I realized just in time we had an assigned carriage/seats so we did not embarrass ourselves by sitting in the wrong spot.

Orvieto is lovely. Their pay phones are a pain, but the town itself is quiet and charming. We basically did without a map here, getting terrifically lost--but that was the whole point. We did hit most of the major sites in two days--there are only about 7 or 8 and half of those are like 3 rooms each. I think we're up to about 800-900 pictures taken and those danged batteries keep dying like fleas. The apartment we stayed at was in a really good location. On a quiet side street that connects to the main road through town...if this town can really be said to HAVE a main road.

Orvieto doesn't need street names! You just navigate by landmark, hotel, and restaurant! (Actually the street name is above, but we saw these "tourist" signs everywhere and they were a lot more useful than a map!)

The apartment itself is a good size, though the bathroom is laid out a bit oddly with no storage (and unfortunately, no spare rolls of toilet paper). Lots of napkins in the kitchen though. The 'hostess' picked us up at top of town and was very nice, though we only saw her the once. Her english was better than my italian but not by much, which was a lot of fun as we fumbled our way through two languages. It was a nice change to have people talking to me in broken english and italian, whereas in Rome, my 'buona sera' got "good night" in response. Argh!

This is why Orvieto was built where it was. See those cliffs? Straight down!

There really wasn't any food in the apartment, so we adopted the charming Italian custom of going across the street to the bar for our morning cappucinos. We also had our first caffe lungo, as it was quite a bit colder here, though still sunny. And we tried the hot chocolate, which is sort of a chocolate sauce/weak pudding rather than an actual drink! All this warmed us up to have two rounds of gelato on Friday! See Hannah? You just have to know how to time it. ;-)

Almost the first thing we did was go down St. Patrick's Well which was quite interesting, though probably only needs to be done once in a lifetime. We also found a small little church on Saturday. I've forgotten the name but it was a charming little place with frescos painted on the columns as well as the walls. I think dad and I liked it better than the main Duomo even.

Orvieto is the city of cats. I think we saw over 30. Lots of pics for you Kitty!

Almost out of internet time so that's it for now--next time I'll tell you all about Firenze!

Poked by a ... Ghost?

Ciao a tutti!

No, we didn't fall into a gelato vat. But while we did find an internet cafe in Orvieto, we were having too good a time to go in. Now we are in Florence, but more about that in another post. Let's back up to Thursday.

Thursday morning, we got up a bit late and had breakfast in the room before heading to the Vatican. Dad had told me the night before to poke him if he snored too loud. He did, but me, kind and wonderful daughter I am, just put my earplugs in. So imagine my surprise when he accused me of poking him--and not from the side of the room my bed was on. We decided that either I'm sleepwalking (sleep-poking?) or he was poked by a ghost.

We just missed the first metro train to the Vatican, but it was stuffed full of people. The second train was almost empty, so I felt pretty smug after that hehe. Now I was back on my 'home turf'from last year. We did wander over to the food street market but didn't buy anything and ended up at the Vatican about 30 minutes before our reservations. They had almost no line though, and we were able to walk right in. The Vatican is as huge as ever, but they have it set up in a very orderly, strict fashion. We did the painting gallery first, as I had to skip it last year, then worked our way through 2 miles of museum and multiple tour groups to the Sistine Chapel. We found a spot to sit and listened as Rick Steves told us about the Chapel, then we used his sneaky 'shortcut' out to St. Peter's Basilica and explored that. Then, of course, we climbed the Dome as it was a beautiful day. The climb seemed much easier this time--perhaps because I built it up too much in my mind? Anyway, it's still quite a hike and even more of a view. Well worth doing if you have the stamina.

Which of these statues are scarier? I think #2!

Believe it or not, although we started off about 10:30am, it was now after 4pm just doing those three "tiny" sights. We walked down towards Castel Sant'Ángelo, aka Hadrian's Tomb and saw hundreds of starlings swarming overhead. They looked like giant insects.

We walked across the Ponte Sant'Ángelo as dusk fell, then worked our way back up the river towards the neighborhood of Trastevere. After a quick pizza stop, we simply wandered in circles around Trastevere and found the church. We went in, not realizing they were doing Mass (in English no less) and ended up staying to watch/listen. Finally we found the best gelato we've had so far in Trastevere. Gelato is gelato--the temperature outside doesn't mean anything!

The last challenge for the last night in Rome was managing the bus system. I was determined to use at least one bus correctly, and while we wanted the 271 (haha) it never came, so we caught the 280 to the metro station instead. We turned in somewhat 'early' to begin packing and decided we'd try to hit Saint Peter's in Chains and Trajan's Forum before catching the train.

Buona Notte from Roma!

Ciao a tutti!

Dad and I are now in Rome, the Eternal City. My feet will hurt for eternity--I think that's why they call it that. Or maybe because the layout on this keyboard is odd, making it take for eternity to write this post? Our flights were fine, hit a bit of turbulence, especially on the second flight, but otherwise it was smooth. Neither of us got that much sleep, but we seem to be managing pretty well.

We managed to get to our hotel with a minimal amount of hassle. Sorting out directions is always a challenge. Just because we know which metro stop to get off of, doesn't help us decide whether to go left or right once we leave the metro station! The hotel itself is tiny, but the room is a good size and the bed is quite firm, almost uncomfortably so. We were so tired though, it didn't really matter. But before heading off to bed, we almost immediately went out sight-seeing, making our way to a quiet little church: Santa Maria della Vittoria. From there, we worked our way up to the Spanish Steps, then took an awkward roundabout path to Trevi Fountain. After the required gelato stop, we meandered our way down to the Pantheon, which was happily still open.

From there, we tried to get to Piazza Navona. It should have been a straight shot, but all roads in Rome are curved and I think we overshot it. Or, more accurately, I knew where it was "on the other side of that building" -- the one we couldn't walk through or around! Finally though, we made it there, and it was very quiet. No Christmas market like there was last time I was in Rome. From Piazza Navona, we went to dinner as we were both tired and a bit cold at that point. We ended up walking past the Colosseum on our way back to the hotel, which should have worked just fine except we took the wrong street and ended up ABOVE the street we wanted to be on. Fortunately there was a ramp that dropped us back down to where we needed to go.

Today we got up and visited the Colosseum, which was actually more impressive than last time. They had a temporary exhibit about different art that had been lost or stolen, then recovered over the years which was quite interesting. On our way to Palentine Hill, we went the wrong way (big surprise) and stumbled across a tiny little church that was rather neat. I probably should have taken some pictures, but its best feature was a stained glass window featuring the Colosseum, and stained glass does not photograph well.

Finally we made it over to the Palentine Hill, which I hadn't been to before, so that was exciting. The weather was great, and we got a gorgeous view of St. Peter's Basilica. The Palentine has far too many stairs, though this isn't entirely unexpected given that it is on top of a hill. We then dropped down into the Roman Forum, which is always a treat, although being in ruins it requires a good exercise of the imagination. And a willingness to climb more stairs to get out!

While we had hoped to tour Trajan's Forum next, everything took longer than expected, so we decided to put that off til Friday and return to the hotel for a few minutes before setting off for the Galleria Borghese. We had just enough time to change our clothes before hitting the streets again, stopping for a necessary gelato (in place of lunch) and then working our way up to the Borghese. We were doing quite well until I made a stupid turn that sent us deeper into the park that surrounds the Borghese Gallery and got us totally lost. I was slightly nervous we would be late for our reservation, but it turns out I needn't have worried. They lost power, plunging the entire museum into the dark, and forcing them to shuffle everyone outside until power could be restored about 15-20 minutes later. It got a bit cold sitting there waiting, but the statues and paintings at the Borghese are well worth the wait.

I've probably taken about 100 pictures or so thus far. And of course! My camera battery died at the Trevi Fountain again! This is becoming a habit. Fortunately, this time I DID have a spare, and my battery charger DOES work. Hallelujah! I don't have any way to upload any pictures right now, so I will hopefully be able to add more later.

Tomorrow we are off to tour the Vatican and St. Peter's. My feet are rebelling just thinking about it!

Ciao for now!




Added: Pictures of our hotel room in Rome.

Pondering Plans

You know that you have the Italy bug when you start planning your return trip while in Italy! Sure, I knew I had more places I wanted to see--Venice, Pompeii, Siena. But after I skipped out of the Rome tour for a day and took the train up to Florence, I knew where I'd be going next. One day in Florence is nowhere near enough to appreciate the beauty and history of the city, especially when you're freezing to death the whole day. I vowed to return, properly armed with gloves, scarf, and long underwear!

Perhaps because I was only there for one day, but physically, Florence seems to be Rome after a run-in with a trash compactor. It's much smaller, the streets are tiny, and the sidewalks are worse! There is literally only enough space for one person to walk on the sidewalk, which means when another pedestrian comes from the opposite direction, you turn sideways and flatten yourself against the building. You don't dare step out into the street (if you can even GET to the street, see picture below), or you'll lose a limb or at least a few toes to the madcap Vespa riders.

Being smaller, the key sights are much closer together, and there aren't as many places to wander off to. This doesn't improve your chances of not getting lost, however! Hopefully the tour orientation will make it easier to navigate around, as it did in Rome.

So, that's why we're going to Florence. Why Rome? Well that was a bit of an accident. Originally, I intended to go to Venice, but the combination of having Dad along (go with your father to one of the most romantic cities in the world? uh, no.) and wanting to go back and experience Rome "on my own" changed things. Once Rome and Florence were set, well, it made perfect sense to build in a short stop at Orvieto in-between. Venice will be there another day--as long as it doesn't sink, that is!

30-Day Countdown

Buon Giorno e Benvenuto!

Hello everyone, and welcome to my new blog.

The primary goal for this blog is to record my (mis?) adventures through Italy next month. It may or may not continue past that point, depending on my mood and if I have anything to say. It also may or may not be updated while I am actually IN Italy, depending on how much internet access I can locate.

For anyone who doesn't already know, my dad Mat, and I will be going to Rome for three nights, Orvieto for two nights, and Florence for six nights. The first half of the trip is being done independently, and planned by me, and we will join a Rick Steves' tour for the Florence portion.

I went to Rome alone on a Rick Steves' tour last December, and absolutely loved it. I've also really enjoyed planning our portion of the trip this time, even though it can often be overwhelming. In addition to hours of research, I have been preparing for the trip by learning Italian (ciao Laura e Charity!).

Some people may be wondering about the title of this blog. I wanted something a little more expansive than "Liz's 2008 Italy trip" and I really enjoyed Verdi's quote "You may have the universe, if I may have Italy." I've had a life-long fascination with Italy that only grew stronger after going there. I am sure this next trip will be every bit as wonderful as the last.

A presto!

Liz