Arriverderci Bella Italia!!!

Today is our last full day in Bella Italia. As I pass the fields of sunflowers, wheat and corn fields, and the many vineyards of Tuscany on my way back to Rome, I revel in the peace and tranquility that is in the countryside of Italy. It seems as though every square inch of land bursts forth some type of vegetation that has a purpose. Along side all of these fields are century old farm houses of stucco and red tile roofs as well as towns and villages seen in the magazines or movies of a typical Italian countryside. As we drive along the autostrada, I try to soak in the sunshine that has graced this trip to the country that my grandparents called home and is the land of my roots. Right now on the bus, they are playing the movie "Roman Holiday" with Gregory Peck and Audry Heburn, who played a princess who escaped the confines of a royal life to enjoy the simple pleasures of a typical day in Rome.
Life in Italy in general is very practical. We just passed a truck carrying dairy cows and within each cow's stall on the truck there was a fan placed their for their comfort. So typical Italian.
We just are coming from our last stop on the tour which was to visit the town of San Gigimignano. It boasts to be Italy's best preserved medieval town complete with all types of shops and spectacular views of surrounding fields of sunflowers, vineyards and olive groves. It gives and excellent picture of what Italy looked like in the Middle Ages. The best gelato in Italy can be had in its town square at a place called Pluripremiata Gelateria Artigiana. I had the passion fruit and pineapple flavors and it was phenominal and deserved my ranking as the number one gelateria in all of Italy (at least on this trip!!!) What was also cool about this town is that near the top of the town, they set up an outdoor screen along with a bunch of chairs and that is their cinema. It is a one movie town!!
We stopped for lunch in Siena which is where they have the Palio which is a horse race in which all of the 17 neighborhoods of the town compete for bragging rights. I purchased a panforte which is a local delicacy sort of like a heavy one inch fruitcake. I purchased one with just figs and nuts which tasted like a crunchy fig newton.
We headed to Rome and to our hotel called the Sheraton Golf as it has one of the few golf courses here in Italy. It costs about 60 euros per round. After freshening up, the entire group drove on the bus back into the center of town for our group picture which was taken in front of the Coliseum near the Arch of Constantine. Then we headed for dinner at the Opera ristorante which had an opera singer and accordion player who entertained us while we ate our dinner of pesto cavatali with pears, followed by chicken with arugala and rosemary potatoes with lemon sorbet for dessert. Then we went across the street for some gorgeous nighttime photos of the Castle San Angelo as well as St. Peter's in the distance. After returning back to the hotel, we all gathered near the pool to share the bottles of wine and food we had purchased during the day and to say our goodbyes as it was the last day for our tour group.
From the time shared with our Italian cousins to the time spent with strangers who became our friends on the tour, I have come to learn to love the simple joys of living that exemplify life in Italy. Life in Italy centers on the three F's of food, family and friends mixed with a lot of love, a little bit of vino and a daily portion of gelato!!! Life is too short for anything less!!
As I try to savor and store in my memory bank all of what I have seen and done on this journey to Italy, I realize once again that it is in all of our differences that we are all the same. And that we all want the same things in life. As we drove passed one of the American cemeteries here in Italy from World War II, I realize that the price for our life, liberty and pursuit of happiness was paid by those who came before us and that they deserve to be remembered and appreciated for what they did for us and the world we live in today. God bless them and God bless us all!!

One hot body or buns of marble!!!

Today we left Lake Maggiore and headed for Pisa. It was a long bus ride which was complicated by some minor traffic detours. In traveling along the way, we saw rice paddies...not exactly like it might be in Asia...but rice paddies nonetheless used for the making of risotto. Also passed mountains which looked like they were snow capped but in reality they were mines for marble..Carrare marble specifically which is the marble used by Michaelangelo as it usually has no veins in the marble which leads to no cracking when sculpting.
When we arrived in Pisa, for the first time in Italy the weather and sun was hot. There was no breeze like we had been used to so far. Of course, we did the obiligatory pose in from of the Leaning Tower which is 15 feet off center and is 200 feet tall and 55 feet wide built by three different architects. Had to pay 30 cents to use the toilets which were fine. Except for the first time I used the public toilets, the rest of the toilets have been pretty normal.
Then we headed to Florence to make sure we got into the Academia which is the museum that houses the David. Most of the the big museums are closed on Monday so we had to make sure we got in on Sunday. David is truly magnificent. His eyes are dreamy, and he has a great butt.
Michaelangelo's philosophy was that the sculpture is inside the marble just waiting to come out and he was just the instrument used to release it from its marble prison.
Then we traveled out to a restaurent in the Tuscan countryside to have an authentic Tuscan dinner and was serenaded by a trio consisting of two guitar players and one singer named Gino.
Today we went to the Duoma in Florence. Every city calls their cathedral a Duomo. It had a beautiful distinct facade made of white, green and pink marble from the surrounding areas. We visited several other churches, one being the church of Santa Croce which is the burial site for both Michealangelo and Galileo. We also went shopping for leather and gold. Bought a little of each!!! Of course, we had the obligatory gelato with the best so far being Della Palma in Rome.
Tonight I think we will go to another prix fixe dinner for 12 euros nearby.
Tomorrow we head to Sienna and then Rome to get ready for the trip back home.
It is weird to note that by now I do not feel like a foreigner here. Nancy and I have become honorary Aussies thanks to the 11 that are a part of our group and we all feel like native Italians. I think it is because of all the food we have been eating and the wine we have been drinking.

George forgot to leave the light on!!

The first picture is a view outside of our window at the Hotel Dino at Lake Maggiore. We started the day early with a boat ride on Lake Maggiore to go to one of the small islands on the lake that has a palace and gardens that belongs to the Borremeo family, the same family that St. Charles Borremeo comes family. The wealth has been in the family for years and although their coat of arms contains the word "Humility" there was opulence in every one of the 22 rooms of the palace as well as the step gardens that were behind it.
We then came back to the hotel to board a bus that would take us to Lake Como, the home of the infamous George Clooney. I kept looking for him, but he was no where to be found. We took a boat ride to see some of villas, but his villa on the lake was beyond the point where we were going. However, George is a motorcycle enthusiast and after we had a bite to eat in the town of Como, we headed to Lake Lugano which is just over the Italian border in Switzerland. To our surprise, there was a giant gathering of the Pan-European Harley Davidson Motorcylists. Maybe my friend George was here, but all I saw in abundance was black leather, booze and body piercings and tatoos as well as tons of traffic. So we did not get to do the shopping we had antipated. I only had the time to be able to pick up a bar of swiss chocolate and then head back to the hotel minus a George Clooney sighting!!
Tomorow off to Pisa and Florence.

A Lake Plus Spectaclar Views (ALPS Views!!)

We took one final boat ride from our hotel on Lido to get to our bus that was waiting for us at the bus terminal in Venice. We passed several cruise ships and saw many of the morning work crews with produce etc. setting up their wares. We headed on the autostada 4 for Verona, the home of Romeo and Juliet. Along the highway, we saw many manufacturing plants. When we got to Verona, we were surprised to learn that it is the fourth largest tourist destination in Italy after Rome, Florence and Venice. Name any of the brand name stores, and they were along streets near the main square area. They also had a Roman Coliseum that is more preserved than the one in Rome and still has its seats of about 22,000 and is used for opera productions. There is also a large statue of Dante who was ostrasized from Florence and was taken in by the people of Verona. Saw the balcony of Romeo and Juliet(which was built in 1890 by a business entrepreneur) and the Embroidery shoppe that houses the Juliet club that answers letters to the lovelorn.
We then headed to Milan which is the financial capital of Italy. It is basically just a big city except for the main square area. First, you start with La Scala opera house which was completed gutted and reopened in 2006. You also see a huge statue of Leonardo da Vinci who is from the Florence area but applied all of his invention and ideas in the city of Milan (which was the capital of Italy for a couple of years at one point in history). Then you walk into the Galleria which is an open shopping area covered with a beautiful glass ceiling. At the center where there are four corners, you have the stores of Louis Vitton, Prada, Gucci and then McDonald's!!!! I just laughed to think that McDonalds rates up there with the designer labels. I guess Armani is desperately trying to buy their space. As you walk out of the Galleria, you immediately cast your eyes on the magnificent Duomo, the great cathedral of Milan. There are over 2,000 statues as well as 52 hundred foot granit columns inside the church. It contains the largest stained glass windows in the world. It is of a gothic style and is the fourth largest cathdral in the world. In Italy, all of the stained glass windows and statues on columns were designed to tell stories to the people who could not read or write. We ended with a visit to La Rinascente which is a 7 flooor department store similar to Neiman Marcus which has all type of designers having a set location on the various floors.
We headed and are staying at Lake Maggiore. Our room faces the lake with the mountains across from us. We will do more exploring tomorrow as there was a light rain tonight when we arrived. We are staying at the Hotel Dino which is definitely a spectacular resort hotel. Talk more about it tomorrow. Ciao!!

Venice Shopping Extravaganza

We started the day taking the boat from our hotel on the Lido Island to the island of Murano for a glass blowing demonstration at the factory and of course shoppping for bargains there. I bought a necklace and matching earrings along with a vase. Would have liked to buy some wine glasses but I already have too much stuff to pack and lug around.

Then we went to St. Marc's square where our tour guide pointed out the significance of many of the structures and their coumns and mosaics. Then we went shopping specifically searching for a shoe store recommended by our guide during our wine tasting tour. We finally found the Keyes shoe shoppe on Camp S. Lio and a couple of the girls found bargains. I just went and got my obiligatory gelato for the day which was a spectacular fig flavor.

We then piled into a water taxi to go over the lagoon to the island of Burano which specializes in lace and mask making. In addition, had a fabulous fish feast dinner complete with a fish spread on bruschetta, salad, fish lasagna, white fish, calamari, shrimp, fish risotto and almond candy and cookie and fruit for dessert. Of course, every meal has wine and coffee included.

Bought some more purchases.

Doing wash and trying to get the clothes to dry. Leaving tomorrow for Lake Lugano near the Swiss border with stops at Verona and Milan.

Venice revisited.

Today we traveled from Assisi to Venice stopping at several churches along the way. As we travel, we have seen fields of rolled wheat, tons of feed corn and acres of tobacco plants. When we got to Venice, we boarded a water taxi for our trip down the Grand Canal to St. Marc's Square. When we got there, we all ordered a spritzer drink that is a tradition here made with proseco wine in an orange drink. It was very refreshing.
We decided not to go on the gondola ride with the rest of the group. Since there was a short line to go into St. Marc's, we stood in line only to be told with about 20 people to go that the church was closing. Then I took Nancy on an Amazing Race adventure in trying to find a shoe shop that was given to us by Rebecca who was our wine tasting tour guide. There are tons of twists and turns going through the streets of Venice. We finally made it to the square we were looking for only to realize we needed to turn back around to our starting point as we had to go back and meet up with our group. Then I tried to use the ATM machine and it just kept spitting my card out. So far our day was not going to well.
We then took another water taxi over to the Lido Island across from St. Marc's Square which is where we are staying for the next couple of days. It has a little more of a relaxing pace here, not as crowded and a beach is right down the street. The Hotel Biasutti is an older hotel taken over by the Best Western. First we did not know how to turn on the air conditioning. Then Nancy went to take a shower in a bath tub with no curtain only to have it spray over the entire bathroom with water everywhere. Then there was a beeping sound every five minutes. After much searching, we finally figured out that it was Nancy's phone battery needed to be charged. All in all it was sort of a comedy of errors kind of day.
Went to a great restaurent called Two Crazy Guys. Started out with a salad, followed by lasagna, then chicken, rosemary potatoes and carrots ending with tiramasu. This was an included dinner and was tasty and over filling as usual with all of our Italian dinners.

Peace and Good health to all!

Today we left Sorrento and headed for Assisi to see the Basillica of St. Francis which was very inspiring. We also stopped at one of the cemetaries where the servicemen from all the English commonwealth countries fromWorld War II are buried. That, too, was very moving.
I may have forgotten to mention that in Sorrento there were thousands of olive and lemon trees. The olive trees have huge nets rolled up and tied to the trees so as to catch the crop of olives when they are ripe. The lemon trees are used to make limoncello which is an after dinner drink. there are also hundreds of sunflower fields which are used in the production of sunflower which is lighter and cheaper than olive oil.
Also food in restaurants are pretty expensive here. Yesterday all I got were some grilled vegetables I ate at a take out type of place for 7 euros. And today all I got was a bowl of soup for 8 euros. They also upcharge if you eat in the restaurant compared to taking it out. You can get sandwiches or pizza on the run for 4-6 euros depending on what you are getting.
The hotels we have been staying at are nice. The towels in the bathrooms are really thin which is suppose to be the sign of a fancy hotel. We are staying at the Roseo hotel in Assisi and it seems like a really nice place because the towels are paper thin just like the airline blankets they give you on these overseas flights.
Yesterday's dinner was at Casa Esposito, a family home in Sorrento and we had to get there in really tiny mini buses as it was one way streets with huge stone walls on each side that our only fit a small car.
The lady grew her own produce and we ate just like we were in the house of one of our relatives.
She made a great eggplant using Japanese eggplants she grows in huge pots. They are really thin and little and the just rolls them up with a little cheese inside and sauce on top. She had a buffet table of antipasta and the main entree after the pasta was a type of white fish, sausage and lamb chops. She made a lemon sponge cake as they have an orchard of lemons and ended the dinner with some limoncello.
Tonight we had a huge buffet at the restaurant that also had a band playing afterward.
Tomorow we head back to Venice.

Ferniculi, Fernicula...

Happy Fourth of July to all of us!!! Today we arose to take the hydroboat over to the Isle of Capri. It was an extremely smooth ride. Then we immediately boarded a boat to take a tour around the island and see that it is an tall island made of limestone. There are no beaches on Capri. But lots of beautiful scenery and shopping!!!
Took the Funiculare up to the center of town and walked around the gardens donated by the Krupp family, the coffee maker people. They have sold their house and is now a hotel. Also saw the house of Sophia Loren and the hotel where the Marshall Plan was signed.
There are nine 5 star hotels here and at least that many four star hotels here too. It is the land of the beautiful people. However, they don't come out until night and we will be gone by then.
I did not get up to Anacapri which is the top part of the island to see the view.
Went back to Sorrento to do some more shopping as the prices were a lot cheaper than Capri.
Tomorrow we leave for Assisi. Hope all of you enjoyed the fireworks on the fourth back home.

Pompeii and Positano

We got up early on July 3 to head to Pompeii. What a fantastic find! We really haven't progressed much with modern time. They had take out, crosswalks, sliding doors, street markers, illuminated roads, water supply. The city was preserved because when Vesuvius erupted in AD79 the volume of ash asphyxiated everyone who was there and the amount of ash protected everything from the elements so archeologists could learn many things from them. I was warned by my friend Mary that Pompeii was really a brothel stop for sailors coming into port as well as the gladiators in a training school there. In total there were about 20 brothels according to experts. There were fresco pictures on the walls in order for sailors to point out what they wanted. Like Mary said they were the first McDonald's Happy Meals!!!!
Then we came to our hotel in Sorrento and then took off for a ride on the Amalfi Coast and the town of Positano which is the town where the girl in Under the Tuscon Sun found out her new Italian lover had another girl in town.
It is exactly what you picture about Italy in all the postcards. Bella Italia!!

All Roads lead to Rome, but you can still get lost!!

On the first official day of the tour of Rome, we went to see St. Peter's Basillica and the Sistine Chapel. It is different from when I visited with my cousin Ginny in 1972 because you have to pay to get into the Sistine chapel which has been cleaned since we were there so the colors are much more vibrant and the main altar of St. Peter's is roped off. I remember being able to go right up to the altar then. But it was still magnificent none the less to be there.
Everything about Rome is magnifcent. When we went to the forum, we found that the center of the forum was mile market 0 in Roman days meaning all roads lead to Rome. But Nancy and I got lot anyway and with every missed turn, we found another masterpiece of architecture or history.
What I thought was the Pantheon was really the Italian National Monument with Victor Emanuelle on a horse in front of a huge white column structure. They call it the "wedding cake." Then we went into the Pantheon which really was originally a temple to all gods then a church built over the top. The top of this dome is totally open and it will rain in so there are slits in the marble floor directly below to catch the rain water and later use it.
The Italian really waste very little and are really very efficient. Many places do not have air conditioning because the buildings are so old. If they do, the a/c shuts off when no one is in the room. Also no kleenex. I guess they figure you use a handkerchief or toilet tissue. The cars are small or people ride vespas to get the most gas mileage. In fact today, I saw a man riding on a vespa with his beagle resting by his feet on the bike while he rode.
We also saw the Coliseum and Arch of Constantine who was the first king to recognize Christianity. Lots of bride and grooms were there using both as a backdrop for their wedding photos. I took a side tour to the catacombs which were totally cool...literally. There are 11 miles of catacombs. The reason they existed and started is because the Romans cremated their dead and since the early christians believed in the resurrection, they wanted to bury their dead. There was no room to do this as well as the persecution issue. So the catacombs were really their burial grounds as well a chapel to perform services.
July is sale month in all of Italy so many clothing items are up to 50% off. So when we went to the Spanish steps, there were hundreds of people waiting to get into stores like Valentinos, Lacoste etc. to get their bargains. Of course, we did the obligatory Trevi Fountains. Legend has it you throw one coin to return to Rome, two coins to fall in love with an Italian and three coins to marry that Italian love.
Then we headed to Piazza Navona. It has the best fountain in Rome...the one of the four rivers that meet and was made by Michealanglo and was in the Angels and Demons book I think. Also the church of St. Agnes that is there is one where are the dignataries get married. It is a happening place. I think I saw the best mime I have ever seen there. Best gelati ever was near there. It is called Della Palma with 100 varieties of gelato to choose from. The Pizza Buffeto had lines so we just got some pizza at a local place which was good.
To me, overall Rome is a fabulous place...it is the total package of history blended into the present.

Buon Compleanno to me!!

To continue on my eating odyssey here in Rome, we decided to take a cooking class. We were met at 9 a.m by our chef and driver Monique. She drove us to the small medieval village of Mazzano Romano about one hour from Rome where we shopped for our dinner as well as went to a garden to pick fresh produce.
We arrived at the apartment of her boss chef Fabio and began chopping all the vegetables--zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes and potatoes. The butcher had already deboned, skinned and pounded the chicken we would need. We then made balls of flour and water which we would use later to make the pasta.
Bread was toasted and tomatoes and basil mixed with some olive oil and salt were placed on top for bruschetta. Then we stuffed zucchini flowers with mozzerella and anchovies and then lightly battered and fried them to make the crispetti my Grandmother used to make. Then we took the time to eat our antipasta with some white wine.
We took some of the pasta balls and cut them in half and then rolled them like a long stick. We then cut them in tiny pieces and then flattened and curved them into cavetelli. We cooked more tomatoes and the eggplant for the sauce for the cavetelli.
Then we used a rolling pin and pasta machine to flatten out the dough for ravioli stuff with cooked zucchini and riccota mixed with one egg yolk. We used the egg white to keep the edges of the ravioli together. We made a butter and sage sauce for these noodles.
We made a marinade of balsamic vinegar, apple vinegar, cane sugar and seasonings for the chicken and then cooked the chicken later on the stove for about 20 minutes. We also had potatoes we cut and cooked in the oven with rosemary and olive oil.
We ended with peaches tossed with sugar and white wine along with some cantaloupe.
The food was fantastic, the views were spectacular and the people were fascinating. All in all a good birthday except I did not have all the rest of you here with me to share in this experience.

Eat, Pray and Love has been officially changed to Eat, Eat, Eat!!!

I have a longer version of Thursday, June 30, but have had problems with the internet at this hotel. Will post longer version later.

We said our goodbyes to all and headed to the train station with Joey and Drew who were a big help to us in getting our bags to the right platform. They left from the same platform as us to continue on their journey to Cannes. We left a little while later for Rome. Our hotel was one block from the train station. We were hungry so we booked a reservation to Ristorante del Pallora which was recommended by my nephew Mike who just finished a little backpacking adventure of his own after graduation from Miami in May. The owner is a woman named Paula who looks like Strega Nona from the children's book. It is a prix fixe of 25 euros and she cooks what she gets at the market that day. We had antipasta of lentils in a special sauce, tomatoes and basil with olive oil, proscuitto and salami and Italian bread. Of course, we were served wine and water with our meal. Then we had a meatball made with minced veal along with a couple of rice balls fried and served plain. Then we had two types of pasta one with carbanara sauce and one with a yellow sauce of some type. This was followed by roast veal slices and potatoes along with a couple of mozzarella balls. Desert was a peach custard pie along with some peach juice.

Of course, after this we had to go to get our obiligatory gelato. We went to the famous Gioletti gelateria. I had watermelon and mango and Nancy had chocolate and lemon. It was good but nothing to rave about. An Italian lady told me about Della Palma which she said is the best gelator in Rome and is around the corner from Gioletti.

We have built our tour of Rome so far on our food selections. But with evey turn, there is another magnificent church or impressive government building or Roman ruin. It is magnificent and breathtaking. When you come out of the Termini train station, you see the city through a huge wall of windows. You realize you are in a truly spectacular place in the world and you are not in Kansas anymore!