Georgia on my mind

We beat the volcanic ash and made it home Tuesday evening at 9pm daylight savings time but 3am Venice time. After tight connection in the Frankfurt airport with a really stern customs officer we were pampered by the wonderful service on the Lufthansa Airline flight. Free wine great food and warm hand wipes throughout the trip, I give them two thumbs up.
So now that the bags are unpacked and fridge restocked, I've had time to reflect on our 3 week adventure. Italy is old and beautiful. The tourist towns are crowded and expensive but worth the effort. Our favorite time was the 5 days we spent in the Cinque Terra. The beautiful harbor in Vernazza welcomed us every evening to watch the sunset. The days were filled with hiking and exploring the other towns in the region.





Sorrento Amalfi and Capri took 2nd place in my heart. My pulse and stomach still remember the bus rides along the narrow and winding roads high above the Amalfi and Capri coasts. I can still see the waters of the blue grotto and the views from the top of the chairlift in Anacapri.





I have a growing fascination with Italian door knockers,





lizards,gardens



and tile house signs.


I have learned to carry my own toilet paper, expect really small showers and a healthy respect for long and narrow stairs. Oh and now my coffee seems like child's play after the mud like substance we drank every day.
Ron and I had a most wonderful adventure.

Location:Dunbar Creek Point Saint Simons Island

Home Again

It is with a sad heart that we leave the beautiful country of Italy. However we are ready to be in the good old USA. If all goes well today we face the 3 flights and 16 hours of travel with wonderful memories, about 300 pictures (don't worry we will only bore you with about 200 of them). The word looks good from Iceland and the Italians did not go on strike today, what more could we ask for.

Location:Marco Polo Airport

Stuck in Italy

Well Ron and I left for the airport happy to be on our way home. Not so fast buckos! Continental changed our flight from Venice to Philly till tomorrow but kept the Philly to Jacksonville leg scheduled for today. As Ron said if we were time travelers maybe it would work. So we now we have to find out what went wrong and how to fix the flight for tomorrow. The problem is that there is no Continental office at the Marco Polo Airport.So a kind travel advisor gave us a # to call. Next we purchase a calling card and with great optimism we head off to find a pay phone. After about our 4th or 5th try we finally get a person at the Continental # only to be disconnected after about 10 words. Suffice it to say after 4 hours we finally got every thing straightened out and we are in our hotel room. Till we turned on the BBC and found out about the volcano in Iceland. To be continued......

Location:Hilton Garden Inn in the middle of nowhere

Working our way back home

Well, we started the day confident that it would be smooth sailing. We were sorry to leave the delightful Sister Emma (I still think she has a crush on Ron).



But we had our train tickets booked on the fast train to Venice and all we had to do was find our Hilton Hotel near the airport. Well the train pulled out on time and three minutes later pulled to a screeching halt. We watched the conductor run through the train talking on a cell phone and right away we had a bad feeling. We soon heard rapid Italian over the loud speaker with no English translation. The gist was that our EuroExpress train (for which we paid the big bucks) broke down and we would now switch to the regional train for the rest of the trip. So Ron had to extricate our luggage from the overhead rack without killing any of our fellow passengers so we could board another train that was booked with it's own passengers. We found a seat squeezed our luggage in the overhead rack again and off we went. So we are about 90 minutes late but at least we were almost there till the train screeched to a grinding halt 10 minutes from our stop. We were sure we were going to be playing train musical chairs again but the train took off and we arrived at our destination and found our hotel with relative ease.
As much as we have loved the B&B's it is nice to be in a hotel with an elevator. We had a beer by the pool went for a swim and now we are ready to face the 4 flight 16 hour travel day tomorrow. Let's just hope the workers don't go on strike.

Location:Venezia

Last Day in Rome

On our last day in Rome, we started early and got to the Vatican Museum before the crowds got crazy. It was amazing and we absorbed as much religious art as humanly possible. But we did not get to see St. Peters because the line was about 1500 people ahead of us and it wasn't moving, so we opted to visit the Church of San Angelo which offers the same panoramic views but no lines.



I was disappointed that I did not get to see the Pope because I was going to ask him to pray that the Italian people would be saved from the toilet seat and toilette paper shortage that is plaguing the country.
After the Vatican we trekked back across the Tiber River to check out Piazza Navone and the Pantheon.



I could tell Ron had reached his Italian site saturation point when he left me in the dust working his way back to our room and a glass of wine. Our feet are blistered, our legs are tired and we are ready to give up these 12 hour walking days for home and our own bed and luxurious shower.

Tomorrow we head back to Venice then on Monday home. We miss our friends and family but this trip has been (as I am always telling Ron), "an adventure"!

Location:Vatican Museum

Roman Holiday

I know that most of this post has been a travelogue, but today I want to share a few of the logistics. Throughout this trip we have negotiated many steps, heavy suitcases and tight travel
vehicles, but nothing prepared us for the shower from hell. Ron as always paves the way setting the handle at the right temperature and reporting on the idiosyncrasies. So when I heard him struggling in the bathroom I knew we were in for a treat. Imagine if you will a 2 x 2 square base with folding doors on two sides. Now add a base that is 2 inches deep and a bath mat that sticks to the bottom and clogs the drain. To try an shave your legs requires the balance and agility of a Cirque du Soleil. Once you try to escape from this enclosure the folding doors refuse to open.




Next if I may let me describe our room. I was pleasantly surprised that we had a queen size bed. I found it amusing that it had a leopard print spread. When we pulled down the covers to get into bed we found an array of print and color combinations that would not be featured on HGTV. The good sisters of the Sacred Heart need to contact Candice Olsen for some Devine Design.




We spent the morning touring the ruins of ancient Rome and the afternoon and evening checking out where the locals hang. We found a delightful little coffee shop that serves lunch and has free Wi-Fi so it is our new daily hang out. I made three wishes at Trevoli Fountain too.




So tomorrow it's off to the Vatican. Maybe it will be our lucky day and the Pope will check on my hair. Ciao

Location:Santa Caterina di Policelli

Pompeii and Roma

Well we made it to Rome and sadly this is the last stop before heading home. We left our B& B in Sorrento this morning and stopes to see the ruins of Pompeii. Those people knew how to live. The one home was 37,000 square feet and covered a whole city block.



Another had a beware of the dog sign tiled into the front foyer.




We hit the road to Rome by noon and aeries on the fast train
by 2pm. That is the way to go. We found our Monastery hotel and met a charming nun who seemed to have a soft spot for Ron. This is the place that has the 10:30 curfew and no Internet service so I have to make this fast. We do not want to be locked out in Rome. The place is lovely and serene but a bit regimented.




Breakfast is at 7 am sharp and checkout at 9am. we are off to the colleseum tomorrow. Caio.

Location:Rome

Capri and the Blue Grotto

Today was the perfect day to take the boat to Capri. The weather was sunny and warm and the seas were calm. ( very important for Ron)




We arrived and rode the Funicular to upper Capri then took the walking paths to Villa Jovis where the Emperor Tiberius had his palace. Along the way we passed some amazing villas with fabulous gardens.


We worked our way down on a hiking trail to a villa owned by an incredibly wealthy gay opium addict.


The caretaker was very informative and we truly enjoyed discovering this hidden gem on the island.


Next we took an extremely overcrowded bus to the heart of Anacapri. There we took the chairlift to the top of Mount Salerno.




Much to my husbands chagrin I convinced him that we should walk down the mountain on a trail that turned out to be nothing more than loose rocks. After that adventure we took a bus to the Blue Grotto and this time we were the only ones on board.




I got in the line to take the row boat into the Blue Grotto and met a mother and daughter from DC. The daughter is a Junior at The College of Charleston and had just spent a semester in Florence. After we all enjoyed the Blue Grotto we shared a cab back to the harbor to catch our return trip to Sorrento. It was a perfect day.


Tomorrow we are off to the ruins of Pompeii. Talk about people who had a really bad day on August 24th. The hell with the Ides of March this day in 79 AD was a real killer.

Location:The Isle of Capri

Amalfi Adventure

As the travel from Sorrento was not for the faint of heart the road to Amalfi was not for the faint of stomach. Ron armed himself with Italian motion sickness medicine and I was sorry I didn't join him as the last 30 minutes of the trip were brutal. We waited two hours before we actually got on the bus to begin our adventure. We watched everyone board luxury buses and we were actually thrilled to be one of the first on line for the next bus. That way we could be on the right side of the bus for the best views. Well as our bus finally pulled up we were dismayed that it was an older version covered in grafitti. But we got a good seat and we figured oh what the heck!!! Well about 20 minutes into the trip we hear a beeping alarm sound. Our driver pulls over and starts walking around the bus. He comes back to announce that the bus is no good and another one is on it's way. So now all the last on board who chose to stand rather than wait for another bus have jumped off the bus and are now getting all of the prime seats on the rescue bus. We did manage to get a seat and we proceed to follow the scary winding road to Amalfi.




We made it 4 hours after we left our hotel so our first priority was food and a bathroom. Once our basic needs were met we walked around the city. Then we went to the poor excuse for a beach and I met a fellow beach glass collector. We both found some great pieces and I collected my sand and we were ready to begin the journey home. This time we only had to wait 30 minutes for a bus and we got prime seats for queasy travelers. Also looking up from the safe side of the road is so much more relaxing than looking over the cliffs with inches to spare between you and eternity.




Back at the hotel we met a young couple from Middletown NJ and another couple from Wisconsin. We shared a bottle of wine and ate hors d'ourves for dinner. Tomorrow is set aside for the Isle of Capri.

Location:Sorrento, Positano and Amalfi

Schlepping to Sorrento

The trip from Siena to Sorrento is not for the faint of heart. We left our hotel at 8am and caught a bus to the train station. From there we caught another bus to Chiusi. It was a lovely trip through Tuscany and we arrived to find the train we were taking went straight to Naples but our tickets were just to Rome. So I asked the ticket agent if we could upgrade our tickets to include Naples. She said si we could go to Naples no extra cost. Well apparently she did not understand so as we are on our way to Naples the conductor asks to see our tickets. He said you will have to pay 144 Euros because we didn't buy our tickets at the station. I did my best to plead our case and the three non-English speaking Italian women we were riding with in the same car came to our aid so we were only charged 33 Euro. (Folks, this is Ron speaking.....please note that this was entirely my wife's doing.....in her infinite mastery of the Italian language and culture, she assured me that we could just play dumb if we were caught.....sure, we could laugh about it all the way to the jail in Naples.)
We arrive in Naples at 4pm and now have to take the Circumvesuviana train to Sorrento an hour and 10 minute ride. We get to the platform and think of Times Square on New Years Eve but everybody has a large suitcase in tow. So we squeeze on the train and prepare to stand for the next 70 minutes. All was well till 10 members of a high school soccer team got on the train with their gear bags. Good times had by all!
We finally arrive in Sorrento 10 hours after leaving Siena. But our B&B is lovely and for the first time in two weeks there is a TV in our room. I thought Ron would pass out from joy.



In my search for a wine opener we met a great group of fellow travelers who invited us to have a glass of wine and we ended up going to dinner with them.



It was by far the best meal we have had so far and we watched the sun set over Mt Vesuvius.



Tomorrow we are off to the Amalfi Coast.

Location:Sorrento

Siena Adventure

Siena Showers

Today was our first rainy day. We had planned to go to Mass at the Doumo. It was not far as the crow flies but Siena is the most convoluted place I have ever encountered. So we opted to go back to St Catherine's "head"-quarters! We found that Mass was at 12:00 but had the hardest time finding it because it was being held in the crypt. Now picture this......we are under the church in a small area with a priest who is as wide as he is tall speaking in Italian and after his sermon, there was a guest missionary who droned on asking for money of course. We could figure that out in any language.



After Mass, we donned our rain gear and ventured
to see the Doumo, it's museum, the Baptistery and another crypt. There were some amazing sculptures and paintings. (Lauren if you are reading this the was a Baldassare chalice in the museum). Also many more saint's body parts. Lower jaws, skulls and other assorted bones in the most ornate receptacles of gold encrusted with rubies and sapphires.



We checked out an open air market selling the wonderful flowers that adorn all of Italy. They were so reasonably priced that you can understand why there are flowers on every porch and terrace. After the market, it was off to find another great dining experience.


We are in our room at a reasonable hour so no worry about curfew tonight. While Siena was interesting, we are glad to be planning out trip to Sorrento tomorrow.

Location:Siena

Ciao Siena

We arrived in Siena today after bidding a fond farewell to Vernazza in the Cinque Terre. It was five wonderful days despite the many mille steps and hills we climbed. On Thursday we took the train to Santa Margherita Ligure and walked the two miles along the waterfront to Portofino.



We spent a few hours mingling with the yachting crowd and admired their villas. But we actually found Santa Margherita to be more charming. However, no beaches can compare to the Jersey Shore.


On our way to Siena we stopped in Pisa for a quick look at the leaning tower. I can't say it was one of our favorite places.



So on to Siena where we are staying in a church run hotel with twin beds and shades of Chestnut Hill dorms. We are next to the Church of San Domenico which is the home of Saint Catherine of Siena head and thumb. Yes it is a bit creepy but they distributed many of her body parts as relics all over Italy but Siena got to keep her head and thumb.

There is some kind of festival going on and we have seen a race car rally and student made floats and all kinds of singing in the Il Campo. We met a Canadian couple on the train to Siena and we met them for dinner. We left the restaurant after 10:30 and got hopelessly lost trying to find our hotel. I thought that this hotel had a curfew and we were going to be locked out. It was reminiscent of the many nights flying back to Chestnut Hill from Villanova. Luckily the door was still open.

Location:Siena

Cinque Terrence

Not to worry, we have not been kidnapped by terrorists. We are in a no-WiFi zone. This is our third day in the Cinque Terrence and it is spectacular. Did I mention our 77 stone steps up to our lovely camera? When we checked in, a nice man in his late 80's carried my suitcase up those 77 steps and I'm sure he was cursing the entire way (in Italian).



We have walked the trails to Monterosso and to Corniglia and have strolled the via Dell'Amore from Riomaggiore to Manarola. Today we swam in the Ligurian Sea in the cove by our place. Tomorrow we plan to go to Portofino.



We have met many nice (mostly non-Italians) including a couple from Melbourne, Australia. It was surprising how much we had in common with our families. Train travel here takes a bit of getting used to, since much of the ticketing instructions are in Italian, and you getta bigga fine if you no havva da proper ticket!!



Talk to you again once. We are in Siena.



Caio.

Location:Vernazza

Arrivederci Firenze

As the sun sets over the River Arno so we wind our two day visit to Florence to a close. We woke up to the sound of a 5 K race being started in the piazza below our room. Had I known I would have registered and run. However we just ate our breakfast to the music of Chariots of Fire and the Rocky Theme. Since the line at the Uffizi Gallery was impossibly long we went around the corner to the Galileo Science Museum. Ron and I and about 3 other people were interested in early telescopes and science experiments.



Although I missed seeing the Botticelli's angels I found one outside the museum who was eager to welcome me to Florence.


We then walked to the Piazzale Michelangelo which offered an amazing view of the city.


A few thousand steps above the Piazzale was the church of San Miniato. As we were sitting in the church admiring the the paintings a really cranky monk started telling everyone to be quiet and started blocking off stairways. But shortly after, we were serenaded by Gregorian Chants. For those of you unfamiliar with St Minias as was I, he was beheaded on the banks of the Arno River. He picked up his head and walked up the really high hill without benefit of the thousand steps I referred to earlier and died on the site of where the church is today and was buried in what became the first Christian cemetery in Florence.


My friend Tommaso told me it is good luck to rub the nose of the boar outside the Uffizi so that was next on the list.


Then Ron and I went back to our room for a short nap and when he awoke he was inspired by all of our religious experiences and did his best imitation of il Papa.


So I leave you with the glorious sunset from the Ponte Vecchio and bid arrivederci to Florence.

Location:Florence

Ciao Firenze

We sadly departed Venice on the fast train to Florence this morning. Never did see il Papa but I may get my chance in Rome. The train was fast and while somewhat crowded but got us to Florence just before noon. We found our new B&B easily but then realized it was on the 4th floor and no elevator. But troopers that we are we dragged our bags up the 60 marble steps. However when we looked out our window we were thrilled to be on to the main Piazza of Florence. We were treated to a parade of medieval musicians marching through the Piazza.



We then met up with a charming Italian architecture student named Tommaso who had been an exchange student at Communications High School.



Tommaso took us to a quaint cafe for lunch then gave us a quick tour of the city. We made plans to meet for dinner and Ron and I tried to go to Mass at the Duomo.


There we were met by the church Gestapo. All the doors were locked except one and you practically had to beg on bended knee to go in for Mass. After mass we reunited with Tommaso and had a great dinner and listened to a street concert before crashing for the night.

Location:Florence

Arrivederci Venezia

We started the day looking for a glass artisan in Venice. After a few wrong turns we stumbled on Mauro's shop and he was busy creating a mouse. After watching his creative technique, we found a piece that fits our home. It is a chameleon and since many scamper across our deck we felt it was a fitting momento. While it can't be classified as Murano it certainly is Venetian glass. On our way to the next stop we walked though a fish and produce market.



Then we went to an exhibit of Leonardo DaVinci's machines. Who knew he was the first to create fun house mirrors.


Next we were off to the Doge's Palace. Those guys really knew how to live. However as we crossed the Bridge of Sighs we found out how the less fortunate spent their last days....... although some of the dungeons were bigger than a New York City apartment. Tired and hungry we walked through some beautiful neighborhoods (Did I mention the workers went on strike today) as a vaporetto ride was not in the cards. Tomorrow we head to Firenze. Those of you from CHS will be interested to know that I am meeting Tommaso Francucci. He is studying architecture in Firenze and will be our tour guide and dinner guest tomorrow.



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Location:Venice