Day 15 - Rome wasn't built in a day-but it was conquered by Kat and Rich in a Day

Early morning wake up call for our visit to another country...Vatican city. No passport required. We did something completely unlike us, and booked with a tour agency, because we were warned by our hotelier that Saturdays at the Vatican mean very long lines, and we might not be able to do anything else all day. So we were herded to a bus with many other tourists, given our identification stickers, counted off like kindergartners on a field trip, and hustled over to the Vatican Museums. We also had to wait for all 49 people to go to the bathroom, get coffee and snacks at the cafe, get their headphone systems all lined up, etc. This is not our kind of travel. Still, all in all we are glad we got in to see the Vatican collections, and in particular, the Sistine Chapel. It was restored in the late 1990s, and Michelango's masterpiece is vibrant and alive with God's creation of earth and humankind. We also got into St. Peters Basilica - we've seen a lot of churches in Italy, but this is by far the largest. It also houses priceless art and artifacts. We ditched the tour, and set off on our own after that, and made it to the Colleseum and Roman Forum sites for the afternoon. Though both sites are only relics of their former selves, it was still pretty amazing to stand to all this preserved antiquity, knowing Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Nero, Caligula, etc. also trod this same rocky pathway. One thing Rich and I have found interesting most everywhere we've been through Italy is the offhand way pillars, columns, and other building debris is just lying around in a field - no sign, no explanation - like so much antique garbage. Rich thought this picture sums it up.

A true Roman dinner - complete with caffe and dolci, and then on for our last Italian gelato, and it was back home. Tomorrow we return to the US - it's been a fascinating journey. Hope you've all enjoyed it too!


Ciao,
Kat (and Rich)

Day 14 - All roads (and tracks) lead back to Rome

Breakfast in Venice, and a quick shopping trip around the market to buy a picnic for our travels, and it was goodbye to Venice. We were back to the trains, and on our way back to Rome for the end of our journey. We left in the morning, and didn't get into Rome until 3, so it was another day of travel. Time for Rich to do some photo maintenance, and Kat to read and nap. And eat our picnic - which was delicious. In addition to cheese and some sort of pizza sandwich, we had some peaches - which were absolutely delicious. My brother Phil had told me that though the food is often simple here, it just tastes better, and I agree. We haven't had a bad meal since we've been here (unless you count the sometimes minimal breakfasts that have been included with our hotels). With another evening in Rome, we did some further exploring, getting to the Parthenon (and the famous gelato shop Gioletti) before dark. We also took in the Capechin Crypt - we are unable to take photos, but check out this link for the macabre details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capuchin_Crypt

After dinner, we did some nightime wandering, taking in some of the famous sites like Trajans column and the Colloseum lit up for maximum spectacle. We walked by this enormous monument, and figured it must be important, but our guidebook tells us it's a tribute that Victor Emmanual built for himself in the mid-1800s to celebrate his unification of Italy - but most Romans think it's a bit of an atrocity, calling it the "Dentures" or "the typewriter" We also learned that it's the largest equestrian statue in the world, and that Mr. Emmanual's mustache is 5 feet wide. That's some mustache.

We have an early morning wakeup call tomorrow to get to the Vatican Museum, St Peters and the Sistine Chapel. We're also hoping to take in the Forum/Colloseum by daylight. Arrivederci.

Day 13 - Venice and Beyond

Another beautiful 80 degree day in Venice. We talked to our hotelier about how best to get to Murano, the Venice island known for it's glass. He (very exuberantly) said that he could now offer us the same opportunity that the fancier hotels get - which is basically to get a free water taxi ride to Murano and a tour of a glass factory if we submit to a sales pitch. Since our tour book warned us that we'd probably get the sales pitch anyway, even if we took the public water bus there instead, we said yes. It turned out to be a good decision. We had a water taxi to ourselves...they are really kind of like limousines, and then had a nice tour of some glass makers making glass chandelier pieces. Then it was a tour of their galleries, which were really like a glass museum, full of absolutely stunning pieces. Well out of our (and probably many Kuwaiti tycoon's) budget, so the tour ended at the "trinket" gallery - lots of glass beads, pieces of "candy" and bizarrely plain Christmas ornaments. We opted out, and were shown the door, but really, it wasn't painful - the limo to the island was great, the tour was nice, and the galleries were beautiful. One quick "no" and we were off to explore. What we learned is that this indeed an island of glass - every store offered up jewelry, vases, glassware and more. The public art is all glass - even the street side saints (present in every city we've been to in Italy) have offerings of glass flowers instead of real ones. This was my only day of shopping...as Rich's mom can attest, he isn't one for shopping on vacation. But we didn't linger long. We were off to Burano, another island - this time via vaporetto water bus. This island is known for lacemaking, but from what we've been told, most of what is for sale comes to Burano via China and Taiwan. What Burano is also known for is it's charmingly painted houses - similar to what we saw in Cinque Terre or Amalfi, but with more vibrant color choices. It was a very pretty town. After a very expensive but delicious lunch including the local seafood risotto, and some boat peeping (which is a vacation hobby for Rich) we hoped a big ferry back to Venice. Time for our daily gelato fix - and this was one of the real winners of the trip - really good stuff. Which is good, because navigating anywhere in Venice is close to impossible. Streets change names midway, but may not be labeled anyway, and things that look like just the empty space between 2 buildings are really streets that are listed on your map.

A stop back at our hotel (built in 1288), and then it was off for more of the chichetti pre-dinner snacks. Then some exploring, using our vaporetto pass, and finally dinner canal side by the Accademia bridge. Ciao, Venice. Til we meet again.

Day 12 - Kat's Birthday in Venice

Okay -it's already quarter to twelve, so I'll make this brief....we did everything. The Venice Fish/Produce Market, St. Mark's square, the Guggenheim museum, a neat exhibit that recreated Leonardo DaVinci's many machines from the drawings in his Codexes, lots of wandering lost on canals, a tour of the Grand Canal via Vaporetto (a bus...and a boat). My birthday was busy. We haven't taken a gondala ride, but to be honest, to me it looks kind of like a Disney ride, with the gondolas lined up almost like they were on a cable under the water. We caught lots of interesting moments on film - from ambulance boats, to this workaday delivery, with the driver tossing boxes to the back of the boat, and then him tossing it to the "land."














For anyone following at work, I was busy here in Venice overseeing the delivery of our goods...someone report the old logo box to the Xerox police....It was a beautiful sunny day in a city like no other. A birthday I'll remember forever.

Day 11 - The long commute -and arrival in Venice

This trip has been wonderful....but not very restful. Every morning it's the same routine...Rich wakes up, calls me a sleepyhead, asks if it would help if he takes a shower first, he turns on all the lights. This morning, he was even packing before I could be roused. But we made our 9:30 train even taking time for pastries from the Canoli Brothers, so my lazy morning ways weren't too troublesome. We arrived back at our car for the cross-country commute - literally from one coast to another. All was going well...perhaps too well. Somewhere outside of Bologna, we hit a very serious traffic jam. So serious we were tied up for over an hour, with emergency helicopters landing on the other side of the highway. The Italian truck drivers were aware of what we were in for right away, instantly hopping out of their trucks and getting together to smoke and shoot the breeze. Did I mention it's like 80 degrees here? A long hot wait on the highway...but with gratefulness that our luncheon picnic may have delayed us sufficiently to prevent us from being up ahead in the pileup. Or maybe it was just my morning laziness.

We did finally arrive in Venice around 5:30 pm, turned in our car - and entered the world of water. I love it here - it's marvelous, full of boats, decaying palaces, gondolas and canals. It's completely unique, and even having seen videos and pictures doesn't really convey what it's like to actually be here in this improbable water city.

We had arrived just in time for the local chicetti habit - that's having little finger foods with a glass of wine around 7 pm (because of course Italians don't even think about dinner until at least 8 or 9 pm) It was fun picking and pointing to the appetizers we wanted, and a nice way to explore the food of the region, which is heavy on artichokes and seafood. Twilight only makes the city more attractive. Rich was the first to be baptised by the pigeons - maybe it will be my turn tomorrow. Ciao from Venice.

Day 10 - Rich's Birthday-Cinque Terre

Breakfast with the Canoli Brothers - 2 Sicilians with big personality who run a restaurant/bakery in Vernazza. We had some yummy pastry for breakfast - a birthday treat for Rich. Then it was train to Riomaggiore for the start of our hike. The trail in the Cinque Terre follows the sea through five towns on the Mediterranean shore, just south of the Italian Riveria. The 5 towns are all charming, painted in the pastel colors of much of the coastal housing in Italy.

The first 2 towns were fairly easy hiking, but then the going got rough. The trail was steep in places, and long and some degree of Celcius that translates as VERY HOT. But it was rugged and beautiful...Rich described it as Maine's Marginal Way with cactus. It also had lots of German tourists wielding walking sticks and hiking aggressively. We found Manarola to be the most beautiful...it was hard to stop taking photographs.


In addition to all the colored houses it was surrounded by vineyards and olive trees and roses. Rich also liked the boat storage - you just pull them up to your doorstep.
We had lunch in Corniglia, along with some gelato, and then hit the trail again. After much sweating and stopping to let the aggressive German hikers pass, we finally arrived back in Vernazza. After a brief respite to post other days travels here on the blog we went down to the sea for a dip, and returned to our room in time for Rich to get a long distance birthday serenade from his Mom. The water was a bit colder here than Capri, but it was nice to soak after our strenuous day. We had dinner in the only town we didn't hike too, which is a bit more upscale. We walked along the sea in the twilight afterwards, before heading back home for an early night (and this post). We considered a beer for the road from this vending machine, but decided to just head home.

Tomorrow, it's more vehicular travel...destination Venice.

Day 9 - San Gimignano and arrival in the Cinque Terre

Back on the road in the Golf. Today we stopped in another hill town, this time San Gimignano. This town is famed for it's many medieval towers - I think 11 in all. There used to be over 60, and they kept the rich owners safe from marauding and feuding villagers. This town was very picturesque, but also pretty touristy, full of trinket shops and tourists. Still, we managed to have a nice simple lunch - a wild boar prochiotto sandwich for Rich, and vegetable bruschetta for Kat, with the local white wine.

Then the final stretch to La Spezia, where we parked the car for free, and hopped the train to our Cinque Terre destination town of Vernazza. The Cinque Terre is a region of five hillside towns on the northern Mediterranean coast (Vernazza is #4 of 5). It's more rustic then the Amalfi coast towns, and though occupied with many American tourists, they are more the backpacker type, and not the cruise ship/tour bus crowd we ran into further south. Our room is 63 steps up from
street level (Kat got lucky and the owner of our Italian rental room carried her bag up all the flights of stairs....Rich wasn't so lucky with his bag!). The harbor is steps away, and we've had a pleasant evening getting to know the town.
This is the birthplace of pesto, and Kat had that for dinner, while Rich experienced some stuffed mussels and fried cod cakes. Food is as regional as was predicted by our pre-trip reading. Once you leave Tuscany, you leave the wild boar behind and enter seafood territory.

The Cinque Terre is a destination for it's coastal hiking, and that is the plan for tomorrow. It was some delicious gelato for dessert (Pesce and Coco for Kat...Peach and Coconut, and Lampone and Ananas for Rich...Strawberry and Pineapple), and
then the writing of this, and now we're planning to rest up for the long hike tomorrow.