Saturday, May 27, 2006

The Cinque

Very little time today! Cinque Terre actually has an internet spot!!! Amazing, but bad news is they charge by the minute! It looks exactly like the pictures! Beautiful tiny villages on the coast of the Mediterranean.

We started the day with a hike. YES WE HIKED!!! Across these scary scary mountain passes barely wide enough for two people and with no handrails, but the view was AMAZING! It was about a four mile hike in all and it pretty much wore us out. See Vernazza behind us from the trail leading to Corniglia.

Below is an example of the views you see from the trails high above the sea. Corniglia is in the background.

After our hike we put on our swimsuits and actually got into the Mediterranean. Ok, we just put our feet in, it was cold! That didn't stop the crazy Europeans in their white speedos from jumping on in.


After putting our feet in the ocean we hung out on the rocky beach and enjoyed the unbelievable weather.

We're headed to a late dinner and then some sipping of red wine from our room that faces the beach. We have a great view right in the middle of the hustle and bustle, if you can call it that...

Strangely, there are many more Americans here than anywhere else we've been. It is weird to hear English so much again!

We're off for a five hour train ride at 7 in the morning! Ah! So we'll be resting up tonight. See you tomorrow for our next to last post!

Ciao from Cinque Terre!

Friday, May 26, 2006

Heaven on Earth

So much to say, so little time. Greetings from Pisa! And yes, we just had pizza in Pisa. After two fun filled days in the Tuscan sun we have landed in town for a short stay before heading to Cinque Terre. More on the Tuscan sun later from Kristen. Pisa, unlike many of the places we have stopped, is not spectacular in any way. Sure, the leaning tower is here (and amazing I might add), but outside that it leaves much to be desired. We landed here around 6:30 p.m., took the famous "holding up the tower" pictures and plan on calling it an early night. But you can put another check on the life's list of things to do and see for us.

Mom, I know you're waiting for it, so HERE IT IS!!!
                                         

Tuscany, or where you can find me when I never show back up for work, is probably THE most beautiful place I've ever visited. WE started down the Chianti Road two days ago and it just got better and better the further we got in. Our first stop was the vineyard called Vignamaggio. Mona Lisa was born here and they filmed the movie Much Ado about Nothing in it's garden and villa. The views were BREATHTAKING. The pictures are NEVER going to be able to do it justice.


WE stopped and had a yummy typical Tuscan lunch in Greve, the tiny capitol of the region. Tomato soup and crostini. The Tuscan country was typically very poor, except for the rich rich lords who owned the vineyards so the food is very simple. It's probably the best we had eaten so far!!! WE followed the Chianti Road and it's brilliant views to Siena. We didn't have long to stay but got a feel for the walled city. It sits on three hills and is a bear to figure out. It feels almost like you're in a theme park! It still very much has a medieval feel. Everything is gray and hilly.

The ABSOLUTE highlight of the trip so far has got to be the Castle del Serre! We drove out to this little tiny town called Rapolna Della Serre. The castle sits at the TOP of the town, up a VERY steep incline. We were met at the castle gates by Salvatore and his son Antonio. Little did we know that we booked the castle on it's way to the top! Salvatore is basically a millionaire entrepreneur and this is his bachelor pad! He bought the castle for 1.8 million euros and has spent god knows how much updating it!!! We stayed in one of the five rooms that have been renovated. He took us on a personal tour of the rest of his castle that he still has to update. That's SIX STORIES of castle that will all be updated to it's 1500's glory. Did I mention that he also collects priceless antiques and the castle's going to be full of them. He's also built a modern bar complete with glowing embers to resemble the burning embers that used to be the castle's defense, a wine tasting room built out of a WW2 bomb shelter, and a castle top swimming pool and bar. This place is AMAZING and Salvatore made the experience wonderful! He loved Blake and kept calling him his Texan friend without the Stetson hat.


Salvatore made a fortune in the restaurant business in San Diego. He evidently has a place named Salvatore's still there. We're going to google him and see how famous he REALLY is. We also had the BEST dinner at an old farmhouse. We had the place all to ourselves and the dinner included champagne cocktails, filet for both of us and creme brulee with fresh blueberry gelato for dessert. All this for the price of crappy pizza in Rome. Let's just say that we were happy and relaxed enough when we left the castle to just call it a trip right then. You guys DEFINITELY need to come when you visit Italy next year. He's opening up some amazing suites in September.

After waking up to an early breakfast this morning we hit the ground running again making a trip to San Gima...Gima...GimaBuBu as Kristen calls it. Really the name is hard to say. They call it the Manhattan of Tuscany. This medieval walled city at one time had 72 towers with guards on patrol. These days that number has been reduced to 13 but it is still an impressive sight from far away.


Leaving San G. we took the scenic route towards Lucca and Pisa. It was a drive filled with small towns a plenty where the streets were only wide enough for one of the two lanes of traffic. A definite driving adventure. We stopped in Lucca (see the picture below), a city surrounded by 40' walls to ward off attacking herds. The walls are still intact today, all four miles around the perimeter. People come from far and wide to ride bikes and walk the walls. This is a picture of me with the Lucca Lion high above the city walls.


Of course, after Lucca we arrived in Pisa. We look forward to our next adventure on the Italian Riviera. Glad we can take you guys along with us. Finding an internet site in C.T. may be difficult tomorrow, but we will definitely be back in Venice. CIAO FROM PISA!!!

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Buena Serra

We re-read our blogs and realized how many spelling errors there are in them. Please forgive us, the keyboard is a little wacky and we're typing quickly. Grammar can wait when there is Italia to see!

Tonight we took the goodnight tour of Florence. I think these midnight walks are going to be one of our favorite memories. We stroll along and imprint everything in our minds. Everything is almost magical by night. Blake said goodbye to the Duomo. It was a long, sad goodbye. This boy loves his architecture! We've taken almost two hundred pictures already, and I would guess that over half of them are of the Duomo or the Colosseum!!! I seriously have to tell him no more pictures!!!


We started out the day with a our of the Medici tombs. This family was the Bill Gates of The Renaissance. The Chapel of the Prince was shunned for it's "trashy opulence" in the day. Again, no pictures, but just the marble in the tombs was beautiful! Imagine being so rich that you could pay a sculptor to work ten years on ONE ROOM of your tomb, and that sculptor is Michaelangelo. Michealangelo's famous Night and Day sits on one of the tombs.

After the tombs we shopped the market for a while and eventually made it to one of the best finds of the entire trip. That's right, Vivoli Gelateria! One thing we've learned about gelato... the more they give you, the lower the quality. Below is a picture of most of the gelaterias in Florence. There is literally one every other shop.


Vivoli gives you LITTLE TINY portions and they are MMMMM MMMMM YUMMMYYY!!! They are so good in fact that we actually went there twice today. YES, TWICE!!! And we're not ashamed... ok maybe a little...

With only a day left in Florence, Kristen and I made time to take in the city that is so rich in history. Many of the people that we spoke to at breakfast were concerned with the fact that they were becoming "museumed-out". Whn you spend time in areas that have the most fascinaing art and architecture and want to see it all, you tend to over-stimulate your senses with what is around you. This afternoon we visited the Uffizi Museum. There are many famous paintings in the museum, the most famous being one "Birth of Venus" by Botticelli as well as Leonardo Da Vinci's self-portrait currently in an exhibition at the museum. Seeing paintings such as this one is awe-inspiring and should not be taken for granted. Take sometime to google these paintings if you are not familiar with them.

We were totally pooped after five days of running through Rome and Florence, so we spent an hour or so on the roof with the other couples staying in the B&B. We swapped stories and had a bottle of wine and enjoyed the breeze and the afternoon sun.

As Kristen said, our night walks have become a major part of our trip. We have enjoyed seeing not only the major attractions but the side streets and alleys with their trattorias, gelaterias, and bars filled with those lounging during vacation or after a hard days work. It truly is easy to see why people fall in love with this place and wish that they could stay forever. Me, being an architectural history enthusiast, cannot get enough of what I see around each turn in the places that we have been. In fact, see the picture below of the statue of a wild bar that tourists visit. It has been said that those who rub the snout and put a coin in the grate below will return to Florence one day. We did both in hopes of returning.


We have so many stories to tell about the places we have been and we still have half our vacation left. We look forward to leaving for Tuscany tomorrow and relaxing after a whirlwind few days. Because of our location tomorrow, we may not be blogging. There may not be a place to do so at the castle. Hope to hear from you guys. CIAO!!!

PAPA...HAPPY BIRTHDAY EARLY!!! HAVE A GREAT ONE!!! SAY HI TO UNCLE GEORGE FOR US!!!

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Kristen, We're Not In Rome Anymore...

After blogging last night and then eating a fabulous meal in the shadows of the Colosseum, Kristen and I made our way over to the perfectly lit up Colosseum for a few photo opportunities. Apparently, many of the visitors to the city had the same idea. See the picture below which will not do the building the justice it deserves. Kristen had read that The Forum was also a great place to see at night. The ruins of the empire in The Forum at night are an eerie sight and can give you chills beyond imagination. Fortunately, an Italian movie was being filmed in the area and had a portion of the ruins lit up. The actors must have been terrible because it was "action this" and "cut that" for what seemed like an eternity. We decided that to truly do Rome you have to do it twice. Once during the day, and once at night.


We then hopped the metro home (the metro closes at 10:30 p.m.) and made it an early night because of the train we were catching for Florence at 8:30 a.m. 

The train ride this morning through Tuscany was breathtaking and quick (1.5 hours). We found ourselves outside yet another train station in no time but did not have the same issues as before. We quickly found the route to the bed and breakfast (a long, long walk) over cobble stone streets and through heavy foot and pedestrian traffic.

We're wondering if you guys can tell where one of us stops typing and the other one starts. I think we write pretty differently...

So rule number one of European travel learned today. DON'T PACK A FIFTY POUND BAG! This bed and breakfast is wonderful, but it's up three LONG flights of concrete stairs. I would like to say I was a champ and did it all, but I wussed out and made the bed and breakfast owner carry it.

This bed and breakfast is really cute. The owner is actually from Montreal and speaks French, English and Italian. It's SO nice to have someone who is able to answer our questions! Also for the first time we have a computer in the B&B so we can log more pictures now that were not watching the clock while we type! The best thing about this place is the rooftop terrace. Tonight after dinner we plan on opening a bottle of wine and enjoying the terra cotta rooftops of Florence.

After getting the workout of the day, we decided we hadn't climbed enough stairs. So we went to the HUGE Duomo in the center of Florence. The cathedral is SO ornate, full of small patterns and trim. I forgot about not having bare shoulders so they gave me a nice pancho made out of hospital gown material to wear. And yes, I was the ONLY idiot wearing one in the whole place...


We decided to make it a two dome week and took the 500 steps to the top of the Duomo. Yes, we're crazy. The view from the top made it all worth it. You could see the hills of Tuscany with the castles and villas. It was back down the same way we came up an out we went into Florence... The picture shows the bell tower next to the Duomo.

And us from the top. That's the hills of Tuscany behind us...


Florence feels VERY different from Rome. Small narrow streets and piazzas with no fountains, just sculpture (piazza's in Rome all have fountains). I say just... just Michaelangelo's and Boticeli's and Raphael's. There is also a lot of shopping finally! Florence is famous for EVERYTHING so I expect I can find a lot I need!

Like the overachievers we are, we decided to do a foot tour of the city of Florence all in one day. Just a few of the things we happened to see, the Piazza Vecchio, The Ponte Vecchio, Santa Maria Novella (under restoration), Pitti Palace, and of course THE DAVID! The David is in the Accademia Gallery in the north part of the city. Apparently, the country felt bad for the gallery with its priceless but not famous works of art and gave them the TOM CRUISE of the art world. He can carry a museum by himself. In fact, they built him the nicest part of the museum. Several people paid the $15 entrance fee, stood by David for 20 minutes and left. We were two of those people. Like the Sistine Chapel, no pictures are allowed, so feel free to google Michaelangelo's David at this point.

Funny thing is the fact that Kristen and I are so vegetable deprived that we fought over a plate of peas last night at dinner. We keep wandering around looking for broccoli! But of course, this did not stop Kristen from ordering the world's largest and oiliest calzone at lunch. 


Day Two in Florence is tomorrow. We look forward to every single second. We enjoy reading the comments. Keep them coming. Thanks so much for saving the dogs from the great escape. Please watch one half Basset, he is the true culprit of the digging issues. And Tony, has it rained? CIAO FROM FLORENCE!

Monday, May 22, 2006

The Best Laid Plans

So Blake has done a wonderful job of planning ahead and getting us tickets to all the attractions. Everything has gone almost according to plan until today. Today was supposed to be a tour of The Vatican museums and a tour of the Excavations under St. Peter's. The problem is, the church scheduled both of them at the SAME TIME!

This morning we got up early and headed to the Vatican Museum to see if we could change out tour. We thought, surely ONE of them would change. After talking to a couple of the least accomodating people we've spoken to the entire time, we decided that one of them was going to have to go. We decided we couldn't come to Rome and not see the Sistine Chapel. So we decided that we would see if we could give away our tickets to the Excavations (which you have to register for months in advance and are some of the hardest tickets in Rome to get). Problem is a) English speaking people are few and far between and b) people think you are trying to steal from them if you go up to them. We had a couple of people run away from us. So after a couple of attempts, we pretty much gave up and headed off to the SAME restaurant we ate at yesterday for lunch (Gnocchi count = 4). Since we were a little early, we sat down on the Fountain of the Four Rivers and took a little break. When I sat down on the fountain I noticed that my ankle was bleeding from a blister...

So yesterday we randomly met a couple from Memphis at the Spanish Steps. We talked to them for a few minutes while we were resting, wished them well and left. It was a pretty brief encounter. While we were looking for someone who wasn't scared of us to to give the tickets to, Blake was like "man those people from Memphis yesterday would've taken them."

While I am sitting on the fountain looking at my ankle the lady from Memphis randomly walks up and hands me a bandaid! What are the chances?! So we decided to give them the tickets, which they happily took. We figure it was meant to be, and we felt a little better about missing what was probably an awesome experience. Karma comes back around!

Also in news of karma, it was BLAKE who was up for target practice today. Yep, the pigeons strike again. They were nice enough this time to poop on his white shirt!

So at 2 we finally entered the Vatican Museums. Below is the picture of the famous staircase that you exit the building on.


We were a little upset about having to give up the tickets to the Excavations, which a priest we talked to described as unbelievable, but the works of art in the Vatican Museums more than made up for what we had missed. Just another reason to one day come back to Rome for more excitement.

The most unique experience of the day was staring up at The Sistine Chapel. It took Michaelangelo four years to paint the chapel ceiling, two of which he laid on his back staring at his blank canvas. The main attraction I felt in the chapel was the enormous wall behind the altar which is the famous fresco "The Last Judgement" also by Michaelangelo. It took him six years to paint the chapel wall some thirty years after the ceiling had been completed. Sorry... the guards in the museum do not allow pictures or talking for that matter... but I know that each one of you can see them in your head.

For those keeping score, here is a list of items that Kristen and I have knocked off the things to see and do before we die list:

1. The Colosseum
2. The Roman Forum
3. St. Peter's Square
4. St. Peter's Basilica
5. The Vatican
6. The Sistine Chapel
7. Trevi Fountain
8. Seeing and being blessed by The Pope

That's just in Rome. Off to Florence in the morning. Give you guys an update then. CIAO!

Sunday, May 21, 2006

Papa a Spagna

WOW! What a day! After dinner by our hotel, where we discovered the half liter of wine (twice) served in a tiny pitcher, we slept off the jet lag and got a start around 10:30 a.m. When The Pope is in town he gives a short speech and blesses the pilgrims who have gathered in St. Peter's Square. It becomes almost festival like with groups holding up banners and marching bands playing. When he spoke from his study everyone began cheering. Since he was speaking Italian, we didn't understand everything, but we could come up with bambini (abortion rights) and Sudan (because Sudan is Sudan in Italian or English). So now we have been officially blessed by The PAPA! St. Peter's Square itself is awesome. HUGE marble arches surround the square and are topped with statues of saints by various sculptors.


After we had been blessed by The Pope, we went inside St. Peter's. There's really no words to describe it. You walk into the most massive and ornate structure. Every single inch is decorated with mosaic or scultpure or very detailed trim work. The altar over the grave of St. Peter is massive and dominates the space. We topped off the visit to St. Peter's with a trip to the top of the basilica. That's 320 steps and Blake counted every single one and ended up two off. Below is a picture of Blake with 70 steps to go.


They advertised that you couldn't go up if you were cardiopathic (a new word they invented evidently) but they didn't advertise that if you were over six feet tall or about 18 inches wide you weren't making it either. The steps were tiny, full of slanted walls where you had to lean over to make it and strange angles. The last set of steps were actually so tight that they had to put a rope down the middle to help you get up!

The view from Michaelangelo's Dome was breathtaking. You could see all of Rome and several of the surrounding areas. We were able to get up close and personal with the statues that line the top of the Basilica. Huge! After our descent, we walked to Castelo San Angelo and crossed the Tibor. Of course by now, we were starving. Several hours of walking up steps and waiting in the Square for the man himself will do that to you. So, yep, we got lost. Lost in one of the most unique areas of Rome filled with cafès, trattorias, restaurants and gelato. TONS OF GELATO! We picked one and had a meal better than the night before and at half the cost. For those interested, two meals, two gnocchis and three gelatos, but whose counting. Funny thing Rome, two Coke lights at lunch = 6 Euro ($7), one half liter of table wine = 1.5 euro ($2). Go figure. No wonder everyone here is happy.

After eating, we saw several piazzas and several churches. We have learned many things to this point, the most important, food and drink around major attractions will kill you. Mom, we have been keeping our eyes on our stuff at all times, waiting for a pickpocket to try anything. Our journey lead us to The Pantheon, which unfortunately does not hold a candle to St. Peter's so we Brown Centered the entire place and left. One interesting note, there is a hole in the Pantheon. It rains in the building. They have cut 22 small drain holes in the floor to keep the place from flooding during a storm. One secret to Roman life is, don't go to mass at The Pantheon when it rains.

A short walk from The Pantheon is the Trevi Fountain. Again, our words and pictures will not be able to provide any of you with how magnificent the area and the fountain really are. It is a thrill to be able to sit and enjoy the number of people taking pictures, laughing and throwing coins, as long as you keep from putting your feet in. The police will not allow that. Believe Me! The best thing about the Trevi Fountain is that Kristen is now two for two on our last two vacations for getting pooped on by a pigeon. I am staying away from her currently for fear of the bird flu. Mrs. Sansom... bird poop and bird flu... We each tossed a coin in and made wishes for our moms.


We finished the day at the Spanish Steps, a gathering place for many of those who are tired of walking around this city. Another impressive sight in a long list of impressive sights we have been a part of since coming to Rome. We look forward to a third gnocchi meal this evening before we have to do the "Deana Face". Many of the sights we are told are even more beautiful at night. We plan on taking a tour this evening before shutting it down.

Stay tuned... tomorrow we visit The Vatican museums (pictures not allowed) and Excavations. CIAO!!!