Home Safely

We're back in New Haven, safe and sound. So I guess our Italy trip is now over; officially. It's good to be back in the Ol' US of A. Also, just to prove the boys weren't inventing bugs in their dreams, the picture here is a scorpion found on Ellen and my wall the last day in the castle.

Buongiorno y'all.

Almost Home

We're on our way from Knoxville to New Haven on this bright sunny morning and hope to arrive by dinner time after an uneventful drive.  Thus far it's been an interesting trek which is pretty much what we've called every transportation adventure for the last month.  

It began innocently enough with the Rome Cab Company picking us up promptly at 9:30 a.m. two feet from the door to our apartment.  This is worth noting since our street does not allow vehicles so we were expecting to have to walk a bit to the nearest piazza. Apparently we still don't understand the driving rules or, more importantly, when to break them. Anyway, as we piled into the van I heard Joel mention something about a perfect start to the day, how loading up couldn't have been easier, or something along those lines. Oops...spoke too soon.  

I was in my own world enjoying a last glimpse of Rome only vaguely aware that every once in awhile the driver would lightly pound on the gear shift.  Whatever.  Perhaps it's a bit temperamental, I thought. Palatine Hill, Trastavere, the restaurant we loved...all slipping by with my good memories when I noticed a little more frequent pounding on the gear shift sprinkled with some unsuccessful cell phone calling.  Hmmm. 

As the winding through Roman cobblestone streets lessened and the autostrada approached, I noticed him loosening his tie as he turned up the air conditioning.  More unsuccessful phone calls, more pounding on the gear shift, more sweating and loosening.  I asked, "Tutti OK?"  and he answered with a string of Italian words and gestures of which I understood, "Macchina (car)...autostrada...no..." Enough said. 

I fully expected him to pull over emptying us and our luggage on the side of the road, but no, we proceeded to drive the 25 km on the autostrada (think interstate) in the SOS lane (shoulder) with him revving it like mad in third gear, then popping it into neutral to coast as far as he could until he had to throw it back into third gear, then rev it and pop it into neutral again. I oscillated between worrying that the macchina's gear system might rebel and shut down entirely with this ongoing abuse (again, visions of us on the side of the road) AND giggling uncontrollably at the insanity of it all to the point where I had to turn my head out the window so the driver wouldn't witness MY seemingly insane laughter in this situation. He was after all, still sweating profusely with an occasional groan whenever heavy traffic was merging in.  Poor guy. 

We finally made it to the terminal giving him a little applause and receiving barely a smile in return. I don't think he had recovered as quickly as we had.    

The 11-hour flight to Atlanta went off without a hitch. Alex's to New York was equally smooth although it's a little strange to have four of five family members board a plane leaving one behind in the Rome airport. I only fretted about that for the first hour or so though knowing that she is a very capable city girl. Mostly we just missed her, feeling a little less 'complete' without her there.    

In Atlanta the fun began again.  We had plenty of time to get through customs and baggage claim and recheck for the flight to Knoxville, but soon found out that Delta had canceled that flight and booked us on an earlier flight which we missed due to that re-entry process noted above. When we got to the desk we found that we were already booked on the 7:30 a.m. flight Monday morning with an offer for standby for the upcoming 11 p.m. flight. You have to admit that they are efficient in managing their inefficiencies, yes? 

Given that we were numbers 15-18 on the waiting list, and that we were exhausted (Italy time was now 3 a.m.) we opted for staying overnight on Delta's dime each receiving some meal vouchers and a cute little gift pouch with those travel toothbrushes that make the roof of your mouth feel like you just ate a bowl of Captain Crunch or a toasted Reuben sandwich.  You know what I'm talking about.  

We had already checked our bags again before realizing our flights had changed so had nothing but carry-on luggage which, frankly, was kind of a nice perk to not to have to lug it all over one more time. It beat us to Knoxville and was waiting for us upon our arrival this morning.  Nice.    

We had planned on being greeted Sunday evening in Knoxville by our lovely Dongarra nieces and nephews and sharing a toast of limoncello. So sad that didn't happen. Some friendly faces would have been very welcome.  Instead, we called ahead to the airport hotel to make sure they had a restaurant. They did.  "It's authentic Italian," the hotel clerk said very proudly.  I was stunned.  I mean, really. What are the odds?  We're in Atlanta, the home of grits and soul food, and in the U.S.A. where you can get a cheeseburger on every corner, but we find ourselves perusing a menu that looks exactly like those we've read for the last month and eating pizza from a 700 degree oven.  Too funny (and admittedly quite tasty).   

So, we'll hopefully be grilling some burgers in a few hours, helping Rudy and Roxy recover from our return (we're sure they gave up on us long ago and will be frantic with our unexpected return), and sleeping in our own beds.  Drew plans to spend the night at a friend's house to get a little 'non-family' time and we may have to slide Calvin's plate under his bedroom door as he enjoys some of his own space.  The blog's picture today was taken at 5:30 a.m. this morning before taking the shuttle to the airport.  Notice the matching shirts lovingly provided by Delta in our overnight packs.  Nothing says 'team' more than matching t-shirts, don't you agree? 'Go Team Delta!'   

Rome, The Sequel

With Tuscany now well in our rear-view mirror, we've settled again in Rome, home of the ancients and where every sinkhole could turn into an archeological bonanza. Living up to its seedy hype, our taxi driver from the airport (after we returned the rental car) tried to change our agreed upon rate while en route! He didn't speak English so handed me his cell phone to talk with "his boss". Silly Romans!

Our apartment this time around is just steps from Campo di Fiori, an open plaza filled with farmer's markets during the day and youthful night life at night. As Calvin pointed out while guiding us on the map, "We're close to everything here"! Since we arrived late in the afternoon, for our first night we just had time to get to the hotel (apartment), unpack, shower, and then head out to dinner.

Dinner was just a short walk across the Tiber River into Trestevere to the same restaurant where we had our cooking class several weeks ago. Unfortunately our Chef, Andrea, was taking most of the week off, so Alex didn't get to meet him, which was a shame, but the food was still delicious. Andrea's mother took good care of us, just as he said she would. His older brother was our chef so we had dinner with Andrea's family; close enough! Did we mention ever how a sign on the door reading "air conditioning" must be taken in very loose terms?!? Mama mia!

Yesterday was what I'll call "power site seeing". Having been here before, we could take Alex directly to the city's highlights, allowing us to cram a lot more into a single day. So to start, we bee-lined to Vatican City and the Vatican Museum, which includes the Sistine Chapel.

You don't get to go directly into the Chapel, instead having to snake your way through the entire museum and millenniums of art. Being old pros, we spent much less time in the Map Room and Hall of Tapestries. Michaelangelo's ceiling didn't let us down -- again. The first picture is in the Hall of Maps before arriving at the Chapel (Drew cuts himself out, I didn't do that).

Once our necks sufficiently stiff from looking straight up, we headed out of the Chapel and over to St Peter's Basilica, just next door. What an amazing building and, like the Vatican Museum, loaded with priceless art including Michaelangelo's Pieta. We had intended to climb to the top of St Peter's dome, but after a quick poll had unanimous support for passing on the bazillion steps and heading on to the next site.

We departed Vatican City (see pic of my two beauties in St Peter's Square), expertly hopped onto a bus and within minutes were dropped two blocks from the Pantheon. If the Pantheon isn't

one of the Seven Wonders of the World, it should be. To think that it's nearly 2,000 years old and supports one of the largest domes in the world -- a technology lost for 1,500 years -- is just mind-blowing. Alex listened to a Rick Steve's audio tour while the rest of us just gawked. OK, the boys screwed around, but Ellen and I gawked!

The picture is taken directly below the

oculus looking straight up into it.

From the Pantheon we headed to Piazza Navona to meet up with one of Ellen's American friends, Regina. Piazza Navona is huge so we weren't sure how this whole rendezvous was going to work, but within about 30 seconds upon entering, heard Regina calling out "Ellen" from a shaded table. We had drinks and appetizers (antipasta) with Regina and her family, then spent the rest of the night enjoying the festivities of the Piazza, including street performers, art vendors (Alex bought an original) and beggars. The picture is of Regina and Ellen in front of one of the three fountains in Piazza Navona.

Today Ellen rose early to take in an Italian mass at Santa Agata in Trastevere. As part of a celebration, a statue of the Madonna is carried via processional from church to church. She is residing now at Santa Agata. While she was gone, I wrote this blog. In a few minutes we'll head out for Villa Borghese so Alex can see some of the incredible sculptures there and so Calvin can do his flips. Afterwards we'll ride segways in the park, which Drew has been dreaming about since our first round.

This is our last fully day in Italy. It's hard to believe a month has come and gone, but in such a beautiful place, I guess time will fly. So far, I think Rome is everyone's favorite, with so many different things to do. We may be able to get in one more entry tomorrow if the airport provides free wireless (probably only a remote chance). We'll be back in the States soon!

Ciao.

Florence, take two

We headed back to Florence today, again via a train from Bucine that brought us to the city center. Nice. This time we tackled a different part of the city where the Bargello, Uffizi, and Science Museum are clustered together, i.e. near the Ponte Vecchio. The Bargello houses sculptures so we had the chance to see some of Michelangelo's earlier works as well as some of Donatello's. The Uffizi Gallery, the former offices of the Medici family, is filled primarily with paintings and offers a really good glimpse of how art developed through that incredible period of time. And I was pretty delighted to find a temporary exhibit in place of Artemesia Gentilleschi's work...one of my favorites!!

Unfortunately lunch was somewhat mediocre...I guess they all can't be perfect, right?

The Science Museum perked us back up though. A good reminder that the Renaissance offered the world more than art. Calvin was in hog heaven!! And we got to see Galileo's finger mummified in a bell jar. Kind of an odd practice, but since we also saw St. Catherine of Siena's head and thumb in a church yesterday, we're getting used to it.

THEN Alex and I finally put our foot down and demanded some shopping time. We found a cute shop that had some clothes made by a Florence designer (similar to Hand Jive for you Fort Wayne people) and it had a GREAT sale going on, so we were on it! And of course we're in the land of leather, so a little purse shopping was imperative. The photo today shows Drew and Calvin being patient during this shopping excursion.

After Calvin's obligatory handstand photos and a few flips on the lawn of the Church of Santa Maria Novella, we headed back for a swim to try to get our body temperatures back to normal. Have we mentioned that it's hot here?

We head back to Rome tomorrow to show Alex around a bit, so this is the last blog from Tuscany. Everyone is staring at me now waiting to play hearts, so I'll sign off for now. More tomorrow!

xo

Castle Cookout

Red meat!! Tuscony is not on the coast so is known much more for its meats than seafood cuisine. To show this off, our castle hosts had an old fashioned BBQ for those guests who signed up. We did and enjoyed our first red meat (of any substance) since coming to Italy. Alessandro cooked up lamb chops, lamb on a stick, sausage and chicken thighs. In addition, there was bruschetta, pasta salad and all the wine we could drink. We got to know several of the guests very well over good food and spirits. The pic is of Alex and Drew "hamming" it up for the camera.

P.S. This is out of order by one day -- the cookout was the day before the 2nd day in Siena. This blogging is pretty tough to pull off!!

Time for Re-Runs; First Siena

Yesterday we spent a second day in Siena, mostly consumed by a 2-1/2 hour walking tour of the city. This was arranged by our castle hosts, so there were several guests from Montalto along for the tour. It was another scorcher day and Siena is like "the anti-Fort Wayne" in terms of hills, but it was a nice tour. Afterwards we sat on a balcony overlooking Il Campo, the main square of the city. It is very big and is shaped like a bowl, all funneling down to a focus point. The first pic is looking up from the Campo to the balcony and the second the Campo itself (or vice versa -- I can't control the uploads and formatting very well).

After some refreshment on the balcony, we walked back toward the soccer stadium where we parked and had dinner in a lovely little restaurant that was literally tucked behind an alley. We were actually looking for another listed in Rick Steve's Italy Travel Guide and stumbled upon this one. Turned out to be an excellent "mistake".

Once dinner was over it was pretty late and we were having to get up early for day 2 in Firenza (Florence), so we headed straight home and went to bed.

Sunday in Pisa & Lucca

Sunday we drove into Pisa to see the famous Leaning Tower, about 2-1/2 hours from our castle. There is a myth that the Tower is leaning because it was built on sandy sediment and one side sunk nearly four feet part way through construction. In actuality, however, the list was created when an American tour bus group, having just scaled the 280 steps to the top, suddenly bolted to one side when someone yelled "McDonalds"!

In addition to the Tower, we toured the Duomo (cathedral) and Baptistry (as the name indicates, place for baptisms), which are all in a row and are part of an area called The Field of Miracles. The Baptistry is a high-domed round building with beautiful acoustics. Every half hour one of the guards stands in the middle and sings, creating his own harmonies using the echoes off the walls. Very cool. Other miracles on the Field include Rolex watches for 12 Euro and Gucci purses for 15. Simply amazing.

After Pisa, we headed to Lucca, a very well preserved walled city on our route between Pisa and home. There we rented bikes and rode the 2-1/2 mile trek around the city on top of the wall. Construction of the wall began under Roman rule in the 2nd century and then took on its present form in the 15th century, making it cannon-proof. This last "remodel" consumed one third of the city's income for 100 years, but was worth the investment as the city was never attacked. The wall is 100 feet thick at its base and about 30 feet high. I guess there must have been some sort of medieval truce during the 100 years of construction -- "all ye, all ye in come free, we're not finished yet!".

Pic 1 is a tourist favorite, Drew pushing over the Tower and Alex trying to keep it upright. Pic 2 at the top of the Lucca wall with our bicciclete (bicycles).