We're Home!

Writing this as I'm sorting through a haze of laundry, suitcases and jet-lag. Headed to the grocery store soon... ah, back to the real world.

Our trip ended with an overnight stay in Frankfurt, Germany. Nothing to report, except we've both decided we're happy to not return there. Maybe a good way to end the trip, it emphasized that we were ready to come home.

We got home late Sunday night, our luggage was NOT there to greet us, but was delivered Monday morning. Our girls were up and awake waiting for us to get home, though, and that was great! We missed them so much.

Thanks for reading along and joining us on our vacation! Until next time...

Montalcino

Rome, Italy, Friday, July 14, 21:51

We had a wonderful and relaxing time in Montalcino. We picked up our rental car in Florence and it wasn't too much trouble navigating out of town and getting on the highway. Some lucky guessing in Siena helped us get on the proper two-lane road from there to Montalcino.



A small town on a hill in Tuscany, it is a beautiful location. Our hotel had a great view of the valley below. We walked down the main street to find some lunch, then upon returning spent a couple hours lounging by the pool. After all the hustle and bustle of museums, sites, and big cities, Montalcino was the perfect way to spend our last couple days. Just relaxing.





On Friday, we drove up to a winery called Frattoria de Barbi. Frattoria means "farm", which is more accurate for this place because in addition to wine they raise olives for olive oil, pigs for various pork products, and sheep for milk to make cheese. We took a tour of their wine cellar, did a tasting, and then purchased some wine and olive oil. (Did I mention that we had to buy a new duffle bag to put our clothes in so we have room in the carry-on for gifts?)





The drive from Montalcino to Rome took about 3.5 hours as we wound around small two-lane roads through the Tuscan and then Lazio countryside. It was a nice way to see the country you wouldn't normally see if you just visited the major tourist locations.

And driving into Rome during Friday afternoon rush hour wasn't as bad as we thought it would be. Though, you must always be on your toes, that is for sure, with people stepping off the curb, scooters swerving in and out and between traffic, and cars merging left and right. Then, every so often, the three lane road would suddenly lose its lane markers!

Tonight, we worked on consolidating our luggage for the trip home. We drive to the airport in the morning for our flight to Frankfurt, Germany. We'll arrive about 12:30 there and stay the night, leaving on Sunday morning at 10:25.

Firenze Shopping Spree

Florence, Italy, Wednesday, July 12, 22:55

Today was shopping day in Florence. After sleeping in a bit, we first grabbed a late breakfast of a pastry and cappuccino at a café around the corner from our pension.





Then we started the shopping adventure at the Mercato Nuovo (New Market), home of Il Porcellino. Katie was looking for a purse, while Kevin needed new belts and perhaps some Italia soccer shirts.



After success with the belts and shirts (along with a new duffle bag to put some clothes in for the trip home so we could free space in luggage for gifts etc.) we headed back to the room to drop the items off and rest our weary feet. Then, we headed to the Ponte Vecchio, the famous pedestrian bridge across the river that contains shops. Mostly high end jewelry places we didn’t buy anything but did have our photo taken. That’s the Uffizi in the background.



Next we headed for a pottery store that Katie had spied our first evening here. It has hand painted Tuscan pottery. On the way, we stopped in a bookstore to pick up some more gifts. When we got to the pottery store it wasn’t open yet, even though it was 15:00 and that is what time it was supposed to re-open. Disappointed, we walked down the street a bit and then doubled back, just in time to find the shopkeeper opening back up. She is the artisan that fires her own pottery in the shop, then paints and glazes it. We picked up several items, and she was happy to pose with Katie in front of the shop.



After a late afternoon siesta – much needed – we dashed over to a leather vendor at the Piazza Republicca (near our pension as well) to see about a purse that Katie had her eye on. After a bit of negotiation, she bought it. Oh, and Kevin got a new leather wallet/moneyclip.

We went to dinner outside of town at a restaurant up in the hills. It was a lovely setting to end the day. Our waitress, a young Italian woman, was enjoying practicing her English on us. We were the only American tourists in the place.

Tomorrow, we rent a car, do our best to get out of Florence, and drive to a small town in the Tuscan countryside called Montalcino. We may not have internet access there, so there may not be an entry tomorrow. But we’ll try to post one last time on Friday night from Rome.

Ciao!

Famous Old Stuff

Florence, Italy, Tuesday, July 11

The day started early as we headed to get in line for the Uffizi museum. We arrived at about 8:05, ten minutes before the museum opens. Already, there was a line 100 yard long from the entrance. So we took our spot and began to wait. While Katie waited, Kevin went to a local café to grab cappuccinos and pastries for breakfast.

After a 90 minute wait we entered the museum. One of the great museums in the world, it includes Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus”, the earliest known painting on canvas. Also present are two Da Vinci paintings, as well as one by Michaelangelo. The latter is the only complete painting by Michaelangelo in his home town of Florence, and is also the only painting he did prior to the Sistine Chapel. Despite a ban on photo taking in the museum, Kevin sneaked this picture of Katie looking at Da Vinci’s “The Annunciation”. Is she trying to crack the Da Vinci Code?



The museum is located in an old palace that housed the Medici administration which governed Florence. (Uffizi means “office”.) It is located on the Arno river and boasts some very pretty views of the famous Ponte Vecchio.



Katie, who has been grading public bathrooms in Rome and Florence, give the highest of high marks to the bathroom in the Uffizi. Housed in the basement, it is a must visit!

We left the museum, stopped briefly to drop off some books and postcards we bought in the gift shop, and then walked toward the Piazza San Croce for lunch. After a good lunch in a small restaurant/wine shop on the piazza, we toured the church. The Basilica San Croce is famous for being the final resting spot for Michaelangelo, Dante and Galileo. The founder of radio, Marconi, is also buried inside, though the tour guides don’t mention that. Michaelangelo's tomb is pictured below.



We grabbed some water for the walk across town to the Accadamia, home of Michaelangelo’s statue “David”. Upon arriving, we waited once again in a line to get in. Fortunately, in the mid-afternoon heat, we only had to wait less than an hour before getting in. Like other Italian sites like the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s, while impressive in photos “David” is even more impressive in person. Katie risked being yelled at by a short Italian woman who was trying desperately to enforce the “no photos” rule and sneaked a couple of shots.





The museum also includes several unfinished Michaelangelo statutes called “The Prisoners.” He began them for the tomb of Pope Julius II, but never finished and left the partially completed works in the Piazza St. Peter’s in Rome. They were eventually brought back to Florence.



(Note: Kevin has noticed several changes since he visited 12 years ago. One is the no photo rule at the Accadamia, the other is that it now costs to visit the Basilica San Croce.)

We are happy to be finished with the museum portion of our Italian tour. Tonight, we will be eating dinner near our hotel and then going to watch a free concert with pianist Phillip Glass in the Piazza Della Signora. (The original “David” first stood here, now a copy does.)

Il Porcellino

Florence, Italy, Monday, July 10, 20:55


After packing this morning we checked our bags at the hotel and spent an hour or so walking around the area near the Vatican looking for a camera shop and a travel agency. While we found several camera shops we weren’t satisfied with the selection, so we opted to wait until Florence. When we finally located a travel agency, the customer service was quite lacking (we sat for about 10 minutes and the woman helped someone else who came in after us) so we left and found another. We purchased our train tickets to Florence and headed back to the hotel.

We opted for a cab to the train station – no more Rome Metros for us thank you – and caught the 14:55 (2:55p for you westerners) non-stop train to Florence. Well, there was one random stop in the middle of Tuscany for no apparent reason.

Once here, we cabbed it to our pension’, a wonderful place run by a mother/daughter team (though neither was here, another employee checked us in). Called Relais Cavalcanti (www.relaiscavalcanti.com). Our room is called Donatello, which is coincidentally Kevin’s favorite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.

The pension is located right by the Marcato Nuovo (“New Market” with stalls of leather goods, bags, etc.) which is famous for the statute called Il Porcellino (The Little Pig). A bronze statute, it purported to be good luck to rub its snout, which is a shiny brass color from the thousands upon thousands that have done so.



Turns out the little pig was pretty good luck for us, too. Out our window, in addition to the tower of the Palazzo Vecchio, which shares the piazza with the Uffizi Museum, we spied at street level a camera shop! And they had just what we were looking for.



For dinner, we selected a spot not too far from here called Acqua al 2, which was recommended by Let’s Go. (Sorry, Rick, we didn’t get your Florence book…) It turned out to be great. Kevin rated his second course – the filet in a balsamic sauce – the best of the trip. And it was the best deal so far when comparing cuisine to cost. An excellent place.



We don’t have internet access in the pension, but there is an internet café just around the corner, so we’ll go there to upload today’s entry and photos.

Tomorrow, we are getting up early to be in line at the Uffizi by 8:00, it opens at 8:15, in hopes of beating some of the crowds. There can be waits of up to 2 hours midday to get in and we are trying to avoid that. In the afternoon, we plan to see Michaelangelo’s statue of David. And perhaps in between squeeze in a visit to the Basilica San Croce.

World Cup Champions

Rome, Italy, Sunday, July 9, 2006, 23:55

Italy is World Cup Champions.

Really nothing more to say from Rome. We watched the game from a small family restaurant a couple blocks from our hotel (Piacere Molise, highly recommeded if you're looking for lunch or dinner near the Vatican). Mom, son and daughter worked the tables, dad cooked up dinner, various friends were there too. To say they were excited when Italy won is an understatement.

The city shut down for 2.5 hours as soon as the game started. The restaurant is on a pretty busy street near the Vatican, but not a single car or scooter went by during the game. Only the occaisional bus. Then, moments after victory, the street was flooded with vehicles honking their horns, yelling, waving Italian flags. The son in the restaurant put on "We Are The Champions", as well as an Italian version of the White Stripes's "Seven Nation Army. Turns out the latter is something of an unofficial theme song for the Italian team. We keep hearing the crowd singing the main guitar rift.

It's been about an hour now and the noise on the street hasn't subsided. It's a big big night in Italy.

Oh, we visited the Colosseum and did another RomeWalk as well. Before that, we got to tour the Polizia station to fill out a theft report, someone pickpocketed our camera on the Metro today. Hence no photos this time. And yet another reason Kevin has a general disdain for most mass transit. (Don't worry, one of the main reasons we brought the computer was to download photos each night in case this very thing happened. We'll just have to replace the camera tomorrow.)

But the day ended fabulously. Italy are world champions!

Steps, Shops, Tower of the Monkey, and Dolls

Rome, Italy, Saturday, July 8, 22:50

We spent today walking around Rome and saw a lot of the city, and quite a bit of it was off the beaten track. We started the day, though, at one of the biggest tourist spots in the city: The Spanish Steps. After having our photo taken by some Irish tourists, returning our favor to them, we climbed to the top. The view from above is nice, the best part being that you can survey the mass of tourists moving around the streets in this area.



On the way down we were accosted by two street vendors who insisted on selling us this thread bracelets they tied on our wrists, with a great pitch about three wishes and one promise. One asked Katie if she had a sister for him, to which she replied "Yes!" So, Jane, there is an Italian at the Spanish Steps waiting for you.

Aside from a set of steps (Kevin wasn't impressed 12 years ago when he visited here and still isn't, what's the big deal?), the blocks around the Spanish Steps are full of prominent - and mostly expensive - stores. Gucci, Prada, Dulce-Gabanna, even Nike and Timberland have shops. Though we ducked into one of the Gucci stores, Kate decided not to spend 600 euros (almost $800) on a small purse. Good choice. (Besides, she can get a knock off from a street vendor for pennies on the Euro to that price and just tell everyone, "Look at the purse I got in Rome!")

We did find some cute Italian dolls in a shop that we thought the girls would like, but decided to try and find them another place for less.

We then walked toward the Piazza Navona in search of a shoe store called Petrocci which Kate had heard of before coming over. They measure your feet and make custom shoes for you after you've selected a style. After they make them they ship them to your home. Alas, it was closed, even though the hours we found listed in a magazine said they should be open. The note on the door was in Italian, so we copied it down to try to translate later. Since we go to Florence on Monday afternoon, and they are usually closed Sunday and Monday, we'll have to try to visit Friday evening when we get back in Rome.

After that, we took a very interesting audio tour of the area around Petrocci and just outside the Piazza Navona. It was part of an audio book called RomeWalks that we downloaded to our iPod before leaving. The tour took about 90 minutes and showed us areas off the normal tourist haunts. It also filled us in on the history and architecture of the buildings. It was very interesting. For example, this tower is known as the Tower of the Monkey because legend has it that the family's monkey kidnapped the baby and took it to the top of the tower. The child's father prayed to the Virgin Mary for the child's safety and the monkey brought it back down. So he built a shrine to the Virgin Mary at the top, on the right corner.


There are three other audio tours from the book and we are hoping to do at least one more before leaving Monday.

The tour ended at the southern end of the Piazza Navona, so we walked to the north end to a little toy store we'd visited briefly our first night here. They had the same dolls as the shop by the Spanish Steps, only less expensive. So we picked up one for each of our girls. (Proving that the Spanish Steps are a little more of a tourist trap than the Piazza Navona. We joked that if we found a toy store near nothing touristy that we could save even more.) They are an Italian collectors series of dolls called My Doll and you can see what they look like at their website www.MyDoll.it. Just don't show our girls, we want them to be surprised!

Next we searched for a dinner spot, finally settling on a restaurant on the piazza containing the Pantheon. Dinner was good, but didn't top last night's. The long walk home included our traditional stop for gelato (Katie had caffe, Kevin had cappachino, and there is a difference. Caffe was more coffee flavored.)

Tomorrow: More walking and sight seeing! Oh, and more eating, too.

History and Crowds

Rome, Italy, July 7, 22:50

Friday morning was casual, sleeping in until 9:00, breakfast at the hotel, and then finally heading out about 11:30. Originally, we were trying to fill the morning with another activity, since we had already planned to visit the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica in the afternoon. But last night we just couldn't come up with something nearby to fill the time. Which turned out to be fortunate. The extra rest in the morning helped with the jet lag and we needed it: the day of holy sites really took its toll.

The themes for the day were beautiful history and crowds.

First was St. Peter's Basilica. As we walked to St. Peter's Square we passed by the entrance to the Vatican Museum, our afternoon destination. The line snaked 150 yards down the block, the around the corner for another 50 yards. We were hoping it wouldn't be as long later in the day! Upon arrival at the square, however, we quickly realized the line to get into St. Peter's was probably twice that long wrapped 2/3 of the way around the square. But it was moving at a pretty good clip, so Katie saved a spot and I headed several yards away to grab us bottled water. It's been low 80's here, but high humidity.

We're using Rick Steve's "Rome 2006" guidebook, (which will make Matt Muenchrath happy) which provides the back drop and narrative you need to see the most important things and not get overwhelmed. The enormity and grandeur of St. Peter's basilica could easily do that! Approximately four football fields long, and in the dome a football field high, it is massive. It is also very beautiful and some of the most incredible architecture you'll ever see. The dome at St. Peter's was designed and mostly built by Michaelangelo, his last work as he died before it was finished. Legend says that St. Peter is buried directly below the dome, a few yards from the spot traditionally understood to be where he was crucified upside down.

Fortunately, the church can hold 60,000 people standing, since it felt like it was as least half full today.



After we finished the tour, we headed toward the Vatican Museum, stopping to get a bite to eat for lunch, "take away".

When we turned the corner and couldn't see the long line to the museum, we were hopeful that we'd made the right call. In fact, their was hardly any line, we were in line for maybe five minutes, and moving forward the whole time. Once inside, though, it became quickly clear that it was still VERY crowded.

We wound through the museum portion, hitting the highlights according to Rick Steves, and as we got closer to the "payoff" of the visit - the Sistine Chapel - the crowd got thicker and the way got slower. It was "Disneyland at Spring Break" crowded and the heat and humidity made it feel even more so. Many blow right through the rest of the museum just to get to the Sistine Chapel, hence why it was more crowded the closer we got. On the way, though, we were able to see Raphael's "School of Athens" fresco, a particular favorite of Kevin's from his visit in 1994.


Finally, we made it to the Sistine Chapel, perhaps the greatest piece of art in the world. It is truly amazing and pictures can never do it justice. (Speaking of which, you can't take photos inside). The only downside, truly, was the crowd. It was packed shoulder to shoulder in there, and despite the rule that you are to be quiet in the chapel, it wasn't. The vatican museum guards kept shushing everyone and announcing to be quiet.

After, we headed back to the hotel to rest before dinner. We selected a place just on the other side of the Tiber, about a 30 minute walk. It turned out to be wonderful, and a much more true example of Italian cuisine. And, of course, gelato on the way home! (For those scoring, Katie had what was supposed to be white chocolate - for J. Beau - but neither of us could taste that flavor in it and Kevin had biscotti and cream.)


Tomorrow: the Spanish Steps. Not for poetry, but for shopping.

Arrival in Roma

Rome, Italy, July 6, 23:26

We made it. After nearly 20 hours of planes, trains, subways and walking we finally arrived at our hotel, the Spring House in the shadow of the Vatican walls. And promptly took a nap. It has been a long day and a half. Particularly draining was the flight from Washington DC to Munich, which took nearly 8.5 hours. Sleep was hard to come by, so we've had little of it since leaving Portland at 8A on June 5. Hence the nap. But we limited the nap to two hours so we can more quickly acclimate ourselves to Rome time.

Some may be surprised that we were able to pack everything in our carry-on luggage. Here's Katie in the Denver airport, a mere 10% into our odyssey.


After our nap, we headed out to see the Pantheon and Piazza Navona. We took the scenic route from our hotel and strolled through St. Peter's Square, taking in St. Peter's Basilica from the outside. We arrived at the Pantheon just in time to go inside for a couple minutes before it closed at 19:30. You can see the sunlight just catch the rim at the top in this photo.


Outside, the square was packed with locals and tourists, it's pretty clear that we aren't the only visitors in town! Here is a photo of the outside, as well as one of a horse drawn carriage where the horse is wearing a little hat. We thought our girls would get a kick out of that!



We ate dinner at a little sidewalk cafe in Piazza Navona, spaghetti and meatballs for Katie and homemade ravioli with spinach and cheese for Kevin. It went from daylight to dusk as we ate. After, we picked up our mandatory evening gelato, Kevin went with carmel and cream ("My goal is to have a different flavor every night!"), Katie had cappachino ("It was so good, too!"). And a little kid in town with his folks showed us how it's done when he asked to sample a taste of the tiramisu flavor.



We walked back to the hotel, and on the way got an awesome glimpse of St. Peter's at night from one side of the Ponte St. Angelo bridge, and on the other side the orchestra and opera were giving a performance on the banks of the Tiber River.



A perfect end to two very long days! Welcome to Roma!

Here We Go

Portland, Oregon, 5:45AM

Heading to the airport shortly to begin our adventure! Flight leaves at 8AM and by tomorrow - yes tomorrow - we'll be in Rome. And that's not just because of the 9 hour time difference between the American west coast and Italy. We'll land at 12:30PM Rome time, which is 3:30AM west coast time. It will actually take about 16 hours of flying. Books, movies, iPods, travel Scrabble and, hopefully, some shut eye will help pass the time.

We have three stops on the way:

Portland - Denver - Washington DC - Munich - Rome

Next blog entry will be from Roma!

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We're planning on bringing our friends and family to Italy with us!... Through the convenience of a blog, that is. Check this site daily for our adventures in Italy this July!