Vinci and Pisa - Day Six - Saturday - driving!

Thank goodness it was the weekend and not a lot of drivers on the road because Annie and I rented a car to get to Vinci to go to the Leonardo di Vinci museum and house. We got a little black fiat with a GPS that we called mio buddy. He immediately tried to take me the wrong way down a one way street which I fortunately didn’t take because with my dyslexia when it said right, I turned left. We ended up circling all of Florence before we finally got on the Fi-Pi-Li – the highway from Florence (Fi – Firenze) Pisa – Pi – Livorno - Li . It sounds like Fee Pill eee. Annie and I had a lot of fun saying it. One of us would say it and then the other and then the other – Fi-Pi-Li, Fi-Pi-Li, Fi-Pi-Li, Fi-Pi-Li, sort of like the seagulls in the movie “Nemo” saying mine, mine, mine, mine.
We made it to the Leonardo museum and I tried to parallel park but could not get the car into reverse – had a stick shift. Fortunately we found two spots and I just pulled in. The museum was cool because they had built models of many of his drawings. He had so many interesting inventions, including a flying machine and a scuba diving suite. He understood that there would be pressure from the water down deep. This was in the late 1400s??? When we came back to the car, luckily the car parked in front had left so it was easy to get out. We then drove to the next town to the house that he was born in. It was a pretty big stone house of three rooms. He was the illegitimate son of Ser Piero da Vinci and it had been later purchased by his birth father’s family. When we got back to the car, I had realized that I forgot to park in such a way that I could pull out, without reversing. I was parked kind of on the edge of a cliff. I kept trying to put it in reverse but I was not in gear and I inched forward. We were both sort of freaking out and finally I pulled up on this ring that held the fabric around the stick and I felt it go into reverse gear. Phewww! We also figured out that the way to lock the doors was to push in the door handles as there were no door lock buttons.
It was only about three o’clock so we decided to make the drive to Pisa which was about an hour and a half further west. We finally got there and were following the signs to Torre Pendante (tower leaning) which took us to the outskirts of town and out of town. We were kind of confused when we saw this HUGE McDonalds with free parking so we pulled in and decided to eat and figure out how to get to the Leaning Tower. Mmmmm, a filet-o-fish, hamburger, fries, chocolate shake and sprite really made us feel at home. We asked the girl at the counter and she told us where to go to park. After a few wrong turns we finally parked in a big supermarket parking lot and went to the Torre. Wow it really leans!!! We took some pictures and then went back to Firenze by way of the Fi-Pi-Li (fi-pi-li, fi-pi-le).
When we got back to Florence, we tried to fill up the tank on the outskirts of town where all the gas stations are. At 8:30 pm on a Saturday they were all closed and you had to use the machines. It wouldn’t take my visa or my atm and we had to use cash. I lifted the handle and rested it in the tank. I went and pushed 2, our pump, and put in 15 euros. I then went to pump and nothing. I pushed cancel and all kinds of buttons. A paper came out that said something like credit not usage. I only had 50 Euro notes left so I didn’t want to put them in. I was a little upset because they stressed that I should fill up the tank before I got back. I called Tom and he said don’t worry, so we headed into town using our GPS mio buddy. (Later, we learned that we need to push the button for the tank, pay, then lift the handle and pump. We were charged an 18 euro fine for not filling it up and about 50 euros for the half a tank of gas. oh, well. )
As we tried to make it back to the hotel, we eventually had to fire mio buddy (the GPS) because he kept taking us in this one area and bridge that the Polizia (Police, or the Po-po as we called them) had blocked off because of a big concert. (We later learned it was the White Nights (or Knights) whatever that is) It just kept rerouting us into this area and the bridge called Ponte Amerigo Vespucci – the explorer that America is named after. We were joking saying, come on, we’re American we should be able to go on the Ponte Amerigo Vespucci. We turned off mio buddy and went in the opposite direction. We started to go up this long dark winding road in a forest. Oh my gosh, where are we? Finally there was an area where buses parked and we pulled in to look at a map. We had just gone through a big park – giardino boboli. We turned down the hill on another street and saw a big derriere as we went past a large replica of the David at the Michelangelo Piazza. We eventually got across the Arno on the Ponte Grazia (and we were grateful) and Annie had to navigate us home. We were pretty close when we had to turn on this street that was very crowded with people walking in the middle of the road. There was a sign that said AREA PEDONALE, whatever that means. I was kind of annoyed at all these people – stupid tourists! Then two female Polizia walked over shaking their heads. I rolled down the window and they said something like you can’t drive here. I showed them our map and told them our hotel and they looked at it and discussed it. The younger one was trying to tell the older one something. Finally they said okay, yes turn right here and then next left. We were only a block away. Later we realized Area Pedonale means pedestrian area but it was actually the only way to get to our hotel. I remember the taxi had come that way. The hotel staff parked the car in a nearby garage that we had to pay $28 euros for, and in the morning we had to drive the car to the rental place which was another adventure, but we did it!

Firenze - Day Five - Friday

Firenza – Florence – day five – Friday
We were a little nervous about the train to Florence. I think somehow I had bought tickets to a station just outside and not to the central station. When we got near I asked someone if this train went to the main station (stazione central?) si, si. but then we stopped at the one I had tickets for and I asked her if there was another station (un oltra stazione?) si, si en un momento. So we just stayed on and got off at the main station. Oops! No one really checks the tickets but you need to buy them and stamp them before you get on the tren.
We were kind of tired after we checked into our lovely hotel so were rested. Our room overlooked the Arno and the Ponte Vecchio, the oldest bridge across the Arno and the entrance to Florence. On the bridge are small shops on each side that sell gold and jewelry. After a rest I dragged Annie out to the Duomo and she dragged me to the top of it. It was almost 5:00 and I think they stop letting people go to the top at 5:30 so we were some of the last people to go up. It is a long way up (463 steps) and my legs were burning but the view was great and we were proud of ourselves. I am afraid of heights but one has to make oneself do things. On the way up we had to squish up these narrow stairwells and passageways with the people coming down. Since were the last group, it was very open coming back down.
That night we went to a little place recommended by Fodors, called CasaLinga – which means housewife for a wonderful meal. Annie had the grilled T-bone steak – bistecca fiorentina that she loved and I had the mixed antipasto that included the crostini di fegatini (toasted bread with liver pate – a regional specialty) and assorted cheese and meats. It was huge so it was good that I only also ordered ribollita, which was a stew with celery or fennel, spinach and I think cannellini beans, which are used in a lot of Tuscan cooking. I also had quarter of a liter of chianti which was very nice. Annie had a sip and liked it. Then we walked back across the Ponte Vecchio where the people gathered and a young Italian man was singing John Lennon’s Imagine and playing his guitar with an amp. It was very pleasant evening.

Assisi - Day Four - Thursday

We took the train from Roma to Figlio and had to change trains to go to Assisi. after two hours we got to Figlio and struggled to get our bags from overhead and got off the train. Many people stayed on the train even though it was the last stop so that was kind of concerning. We bumped the bags down the stairs and had to go upstairs again to get to the platform – binario – for the train to Assisi. I told Annie to stay with the bags and I would find a conductor to find out what track/platform. We had just gotton off at two – due. “Escuzi signore, que es binario to Assisi” I asked. “ Binario due” “due?” I ask and hold up two fingers. “si, si” okay. so I go back to Annie and tell her we have to bump the bags back up to the same platform and I think we get back on the same train. But our connection was for second class so we had to move to the unair-conditioned car. Not too bad because it was short and we just stayed at the end of the train and met a nun and her companion. I saw that their bag was heavy and using sign language, I asked if I could carry their bag off for them. “oh Gratzi, gratzi” Then we had a little conversation somehow. They only spoke Italian, I said some words in Italian – mia figlia (fee-lee-ah) is my daughter and they were surprised that she was only 13. They thought at first I was Italian and didn’t believe I was American because I had parted on the side and pulled back and had big gold hoop earrings on. They asked if we were on vacation and if we were staying up in Assisi. They were staying in the town below, where the train stopped. St. Francis and St. Clare had founded a church there. After we got off they said something like thank you and have a great vacation. I didn’t know how so say you also so I said “et tu” hoping it meant and you or you too. They understood and smiled.
Assisi was peaceful and quiet. It is a medieval town with steep winding streets. The swallows cry “eee, eee” and swoop and dive all around the towers. Our hotel was in the center of town and you had to walk down a little alley to get it. Our rooms looked out over peoples gardens and from a terrace you could look over the valley. We walked down to see the basilica and stopped and had gelato. the young lady was listening to the world cup (which was on every TV and radio) and I asked if it was Italia. Si, si. Any goals? no, something in Italian that meant it just started. Good luck I said and she smiled. We sat at a table outside and we could hear her sing with the crowds on TV the Italian anthem. There are two churches at the Basilica one lower that is older and one upper that is newer. the lower also had some relics. It was interesting to see his cloak. It was really just an assortment of patches. The bottom has al kinds of frescos on the wall. It is nothing like St. Peter’s but is still very ornamented. In the upper church you can see the repairs above the door that had to be done after the earthquake in the late 1990’s.
We also went to St. Clares’s church which has a pretty red and white striped exterior. Annie called it the candy cane church. Inside in the right side chapel is the cross with the Jesus that spoke to St. Francis to rebuild his church. It is exactly like all the crosses that are in each classroom in the school at St. Francis in Raleigh.
We had a nice dinner – Annie had spaghetti carbonara (that had way too much pepper) and I had a carpaccio zucchini (shaved zucchini) and spinach and ricotta raviolis with black truffle sauce –(tartufe nero) which are a specialty of the region. the next morning after breakfast we went back to the train station to go to Florence.

Roma - Day Three - Wednesday

Coliseum, Roman Forum, Galleria Borghese, Spanish steps
A very busy day! We hopped on our tour bus and took it to the Coliseum. There was a long line to get tickets and get in. If you go, reserve your tickets on line or by phone ahead of time. The Coliseum is huge and one can see the floors used to be marble and the whole thing was faced with white travertine limestone and maybe stucco under the arches. Parts of the stairways still remained and the tops of ionic columns with their carved anthacus leaves were littered about. Young women sat atop them while their boyfriends snapped their pictures. You can see how our current sports stadiums are modeled after this first arena. The roman citizens had certain gates that they entered to go to their specific seats and could not get to other parts of the stadium. Entry was free but there was a distinctive class system that designated where one sat. There was a sign that said they are not sure if Christians were really martyred here but they were in other places. Annie really wanted to restore the coliseum and have “football” – soccer matches in it.
The Roman Forum is very hard to imagine because it is such a tumble of bricks and broken marble pieces. We were looking down on a place that had a small stadium and long entry way to it. I kind of tripped on something in the dirt and pebble pathway and looked down. It looked like an old metal door hinge and then there was another piece of curved half circle piece and then Annie noticed another half circle piece. We thought maybe there were very old so we turned them back in at the entrance. Annie laughed that maybe in the back there is a big box of “metal bits found by tourists” that they chuck them into. We hiked over to what was left of Augusto Caesar’s house and also to Livia’s gardens. I swear they had a kind of redbud growing there. We found this beautiful spot, where two kind of covered outdoor patios over looked a hill. Stairs ascended on either side and you could still see some murals on the walls and there was a big fountain. Across you could see the Basilica de Maximillus (I think) with its three huge half domes. After we “roamed” around a while we exited and headed back to hop on our tourist bus.
We got on the bus at about 3:15 and we needed to get to the Galleria Borghese at 4:30 to pick up our reserved tickets for 5:00 entrance. The bus took forever, stopping at all its stops and sometimes waiting for 15 minutes. Then there was traffic. We finally got off around the Piazza del Popola at 4:25. We climbed up the hill to the Borghese gardens only to find we still had to hike a long way to get to the museum. I called on my cell and asked them to please hold our tickets. They said okay but hurry. We raced down a maze of pathways – via de obelisk, via de magnolia (lined with Magnolia Grande Floras like the ones that grow in North Carolina), via something else and finally via Museo Borghese. One has to leave all their bags, purses, cameras everything downstairs before they can go in. That made me kind of nervous and I did take out my visa, license, money and cell phone. But Oh my goodness, the museum is lovely. Only a small two story house, all the walls are faux painted like marble that frame beautiful paintings and in the center of each room is usually a statue. There were several Bernini statues and the delicate work on Apollo and Daphne was incredible.
After the museum we wandered around the immense park – much bigger than central park that has three to four story high umbrella pines. They have very tall trunks about 1 -2 feet in diameter and no limbs until the top and then they have a cloud of branches and needles. We don’t have anything like it on the east coast of United States.
We went back down to the Piazza de Popola to see if we could get in the Cappella de Chigi which was in the Dan Brown book “Angels and Demons” but they were doing renovations just like in the book and we couldn’t get in. We headed down to the Spanish steps and bought some pastries – a chocolate filled éclair thing, a canoli, a little “bottle cap” sized pie with kiwi and another small pastry (like half a finger) with banana custard. We took our dessert and went and sat on the steps and ate and people watched. Annie and I both agreed that the Italian men and boys were Fine. After that we went back to via de la Croce and ate dinner alfresco at the pastry/restaurant. Annie had roasted potatoes and rosemary (Which she said was like pine needles) and spaghetti Bolognese (meat sauce) and I had gnocchi with gorgonzola and also fried calamari. We walked home and got to bed at almost midnight.

Roma - Day Two - Tuesday

Since my curling iron had broken, I rolled my hair up with curlers on Monday night. The next morning I had quite the mop head. We had breakfast at the hotel. They even had red orange juice and I wondered if it was from blood oranges (that are red). Breakfast was a buffet with meats and cheeses, scrambled eggs, bacon, yogurt, cereals, caffe Americano or cappuccino, tea and hot chocolate and fruit. There were these little 8 inch tall trash cans on each table to put sugar packets or yogurt cups in.
We walked over to the Vatican, which was a bit of a walk and ohhhed and ahhhed over St. Peters Piazza. We were looking for the Bernini bas relief that was a clue in Angels and Demons. I’m not sure if we found it. I thought it was these little circles around the main fountain. They are cleaning some of the colonnade and I thought it was interesting how they hang like a curtain around the construction and the curtain has a beautiful picture and words to the effect that they were renovating. We got in the long line to get into the basilica. You could choose to go to the cupola (top of the dome) or the tombs and we decided to go to the tombs. We did make sure we wore long skirts and covered our knees and shoulders. People were being turned away if they hadn’t. Lots of popes are buried down there. We saw Pope John Paul the first and second. People were praying at the II. “Sssssssshhhhhhh, silenzo per favore, ” the attendant has to say every few minutes to quiet the chattering tourist. And of course “no foto”. It is kind of cool to see Peter’s tomb. He’s been there a couple of centuries!.
After the tombs we went up to the basilica. It is amazing! All colors of marble in patterns everywhere. Paintings and gold and everything is embellished – not a plain surface anywhere. The Pietra by Michelangelo is there and it is so fluid, the way Jesus is slumped in Mary’s arms. After the church we had to walk several blocks around the corner to the Vatican Museum that has the Sistine Chapel. There is an entrance fee and then you start the almost never ending winding through galleries of precious paintings and sculptures before you finally get to the Sistine Chapel. I think it takes about an hour! The chapel was almost shoulder to shoulder with people and again .. “SSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHH, Silenzio per favore” After looking at many other painted ceilings and pictures before you come to the Chapel, it is interesting that you can say, “oh, yeah, this is even better than all the other priceless work we have been walking past.” I’m no art expert and even I can tell that it is that good.
It was raining as we were walking back so we decided to pay for a 24 hour pass on a hop on – hop off bus that stops at many different places and get back to the Fontana di Treva. Later we headed for the Spanish Steps to try and find a restaurant and then ended up a block from our hotel and had pizza and pasta. Annie had Quattro Formaggio (four cheeses – no tomato sauce) and I had lasagna with mushrooms that was suppose to have basil pesto sauce but it had hardly any basil. It was still good. Annie had Fanta which is not like in the States and I had Campari with orange juice. While we were on Via Condetta – the street with Gucci and the other prime shops, there was a bit of a mob for some grand opening or a movie star. Ahh, We are really in Roma!

Roma - Day One - Monday

Rome – Day One - Monday
Gosh I forgot how long international flights are. Had a difficult time sleeping on the plane because the head rest that curves in, doesn’t cradle my neck but juts into my head. Dinner was nice in envoy class– I had seabass with baby broccoli on rice. We also had melon and prosciutto, warm nuts, a selection of petit fours – a cheesecake, a raspberry chocolate layer, and a crunchy chocolate carmal candy like cake. Annie had a decent steak and mash potatoes. I had the earplugs in the, headset over that and the eye shades on. At one point I got claustrophobic and had to tear then all off. Also, my tv broke which was actually good because it forced me to try and sleep, but I hardly did. I never realized what a luxury it is to lie flat.
Anyways, in the morning we landed just fine went through a place where we only had to show passports before we got our luggage. No problems with our luggage (yeah! we would have clothes) and then went to find the train and an ATM to get euros. We had to figure out the double door secret protection entrance to the ATM. Annie was so funny when she saw the money. She was very excited and said “Oh my gosh, it looks like monopoly money!”
We needed a little help figuring out how to get to the train. We had to get on the one and only small elevator to go to the 2cd floor and then through the tunnel over the road. We figured out how to get tickets from the kiosk, got them date stamped and then got right on. Perfect timing. Then we got a taxi driver from the train station and he know right were our hotel – Hotel della Nazione was , which was right near the trevi fountain – Fontana di Trevi.
We were determined not to nap and to get on “Italy time” so Annie showered and then went to the lobby to use the wireless internet and blog. Well before she went she plugged in the adapter, then put in a three plug into that, plugged in the computer and the hair dryer. She turned on the hair dryer and POP! There was a burning smell and we quickly unplugged everything. We tried to just plug in the computer – didn’t work. same for the hairdryer. But we did find that they worked in another plug so we must have blown a fuse. Oh well, I’ll tell the front desk later. First I broke the TV on the plane, then the plug, what next? I took a shower and just used the hotel hair dryer attached to the wall. I plugged in my curling iron using the adapter. I went to pick it up and it bent in half. “Funny”, I thought, “ I guess I have to click it together. I don’t remember having to do that” Then I noticed a burning smell and that the plastic was melting. I quickly unplugged it took the handle over to the big window that we had opened earlier. Fortunately the smoke all went out and didn’t smell up the room. Hopefully, bad things come in three and we were done.
Annie came back from blogging and was laying down while I finished getting ready. She was falling asleep so I knew we needed to get out. We headed to the fountains and stopped and got pizza on the way. The little Pizzeria had oval shaped pizzas that were maybe 12 inches by 5 inches. we pointed to the kind we wanted and she placed the knife on it in different lengths to see how big we wanted. Then she cut it and weighed it. It was priced by weight. We got it to go and she folded it in half so it was like a square sandwich and wrapped in a something that was wax paper on one side and regulare paper on the other. We munched on it as we walked down the block to the fountains. The Fontana di Trevi is beautiful and grande. Huge horses lunging out of rough cut marble and I think Neptune standing over them all. We sat and ate and took pictures.
It was a little drizzly and cold so we went back and put warmer clothes on then headed to the Pantheon. Of course we went the wrong way and ended at Trajans column and the Vittoria … I made Annie climb up these steep stairway behind the Santa Maria in Aracoeli church and we came to Piazza del Campidoglio. Over to the side we could look out all Rome. We tried to figure out where the Pantheon was and let me tell you, there are a lot of domes in Rome. We looked at our map and figured out a route. Annie was really dragging and I finally talked her into some gelato – ice cream even though she kept saying she wasn’t hungry. She had a small bowl with scoop of “crema” and scoop of limone (like French vanilla and lemon) I had amaretto and rum raisin. Well, it was to die for and Annie started to perk up. We found the Pantheon and it was amazing. I had learned in my landscape architecture class how the emperor Hadrian was mocked for designing it and no one thought it would hold up without collapsing. It was the biggest dome in the world until the 1960’s and it was built in ad 120. the ceiling is concrete squares (Iearned in my class that romans invented concrete and that was how they could build such huge structures) that recess to thinner and thinner layers and this was how they managed the weight of the dome. Ingenious. The Pantheon was converted to a church of martyrs and this is the main reason it still exist, unlike many other old roman structures.
We headed back to the hotel and decided to go to Alfredo della Scrofa’s for dinner, the restaurant where fettuccini alfredo was invented. My mom and dad had eaten here and loved it so much that they went back the next night. We got there at 6:00 and found they didn’t serve dinner until 7:30. They asked when we would like reservations and we said 7:30 – we are hungry and they smiled. We wandered about and come to Ponte Umberto, the bridge across the Tiber that has the Castello dela Angelo on the other side. This was a prime spot in the book Angels and Demons and is also originally the Mausoleum for the Emperor Hadrian. We walked down a few more streets and came to Piazza Navona, a big oval plaza with fountains and artists selling their pictures and nice hotels, cafes and churches surrounding it. There were some street entertainers acting like statues and also some break dancers amusing the crowds and trying to earn money. We looked at the paintings and sketches and Annie fell in love with one that looked like our cat Fluffer-Nutter so I spoiled her and bought it. We then went back to dinner and I even have to say it was the best fettuccini alfredo ever, and I make at least once a week at home for the kids. They of course use fresh homemade pasta, that is light and delicate and authentic parmigianna cheese and butter. Annie wanted to eat there every night. I had seafood risotta that was nice and creamy and caprese salad (tomatoes, mozzarella and basil). Annie also had good French fries. After that we went home and finally got to go to lay flat and go to sleep.