The Amalfi Coast

Ok, I think I am running out of superlative adjectives here, so I will just say that this place is really, realy, really, pretty. And good. We took a hydrophoil

over the bay of Naples to Sorrento to catch a bus to our final destination, Priano. A small town on the Amalfi Coast that we heard was a little less touristy than the rest. This will be our vacation from our vacation, a time to just hang out on the beach and on our balcony and just loaf.
The bus ride from Sorrento to Priano was breathtaking. The road is about wide enough for a suburban, but somehow two buses manage to run past each other. Some times, buses come to a complete stop to inch past each other on these hairpin turns. Check this road out.

It is about 500 feet down and the road runs right on the edge of the cliff. Again, the honking around the corners so that you know a giant bus is barreling down the road.
This area is so beautiful it defies my poor vocabulary.

The sea is gorgeous and the mountains rise up out of it so dramatically and keep going up and up and up.


Cinque Terre seems like foothills compared to this place. Now, we didn´t even get to explore this whole area. An island called Ischia (is-kee-ah), the island of Capri (Ka-pree), we were told that these were not to be missed, but we have been running around enough, and find this little place to be as good as anyone could ask for. I mean, we went to use the Internet and this place was perched on the side of a cliff and we just sat there afterwards watching the most goregous sunset.

This place was truly paradise.
We splurged on a hotel
with a balcony

so we could realy enjoy our time here. Those vines in front are grapes, which actually dried up and became the sweetest raisins that we snacked on.
Some beach loafing, some fresh seafood dinners and some rest made us happy campers.


On to Espana....

Pompeii

In the morning we went to the archeological museum of Naples which everybody says is top notch and they do not lie. A lot of the easily transportable statues, mosaics and other works of art from Pompeii/Herculaneum are there. We really dig mosaics and their are some awesome examples. A piece called the Alexander mosaic has over 1 million individual mosaics in it. The Farnese Bull is there, which is thought to be the largest ancient sculpture. It is freakin huge. There is a really extensive collection of coins and almost all denomonations from about 1500 years are represented.

Now, another less scholarly section of the museum was dedicated entirely to sex. This part of the museum has been alternatively opened and closed to the public depending on the prevaling social mores of the era. Since the museum was founded in 1585, it has been open and shut several times, but thankfully it is now open to the rabble. Now sure, ancient people adored the human body and loved to represent it in an artistic manner. We can all sit around and nod at what equisite work was done on a statue of a nude Hercules or something, but this was basically ancient pornography. People in every imaginable position: in mosaic, in painting, in fresco, in sculpture, on the sides of amphoras. And just to add to the spicieness of the room there were phalluses everywhere. Ancient people believed the penis warded off evil spirits and brought good luck (I knew it was good for something). And apparently the bigger the member the more evil it kept away. Ok, on to the real deal and some more high brow sites.

So we are at Pompeii and after the forum, the center of the town and the heart of life. Everything is well preserved, from urns at lunch counters to the temples, to a few peoples bodies. You really feel that you could live in this city today. Then we make our way to the Lupanarium, litteraly ´the place of the she-wolves`. The brothel. Man, this trip has really taken a turn into the gutter. Basically a building divided up into about 6 rooms with stone beds (sex must have been uncomfortable back then), with more mosaics and frescoes of sex covering the walls.

We spent the rest of the time wandering from building to building in the enormous city of Pompeii. We were there about 4 hours and didn`t see half of it, you could easily spend a day or two there. It really is an entire city preserved. The whole place is in pretty good shape and you can really get a feel for what the city must have been like.

The stadium is very well preserved.


As is two theatres. Baths were well preserved and everything was labeled and explained in a way that really brought you into what life might have been like. These last two days were a real highlight and we had loads of fun at these ruins in these beautiful surroundings. And nothing is a better reward after a hard day of hiking around than delicious pizza pie, so big it falls off the plate.

Herculanium

Vesuvius and Herculanium are right next to each other so we checked Herculanium out in the afternoon. It was named as such because it was supposedly founded by Hercules. It is less well known than Pompeii because it is smaller and was less significant historically, but it is much better preserved because it was covered in mud while Pompeii was covered in ash. Second stories exist on buildings with the roofs intact, statues are preserved, things are in better shape but not as numerous. It was free due to the Italian cultural weekend so that just made it sweeter (entrance was 11 Euro each, yikes). Now this is what ancient ruins are supposed to be like. Well preserved buildings and all the sites were well labled. We got the audio guide and it was great (Rome, listen up). We really felt that we got a feel for the city and it´s past. Check out the preserved frescoes:

Good times, this was one of the better parts of the trip. Like a museum but one you could be a part of. A lot of work walking around today, so back to Naples and more pizza.

Vesuvius

We used Naples as our base to explore the areas around it. Vesuvius, Pompeii and the lesser known Herculanium.


We went to hike up Vesuvius first. Now this sounds more impressive than it really is. You ride up in a van or bus to a parking lot where you hike about 25 minutes to the crater. I think the most dangerous part was the van ride up. This guy was driving about 50 mph up a narrow road and honking before every tight curve. He would swerve every now and then to miss an oncoming car and sometimes we would come to a near stop while inching around a bus that was taking up most of the road. It was quite an experience. The hike up to the top was a little tough, but not bad. You used to be able to go right to the edge of the crater until a Belgium tourist fell in and that was stopped. We learned earlier in the trip that the Belgiums are basically the Aggies of Europe. There are jokes about them and they don´t have the best reputation. I am sure this didn´t help. Just stick to beer and chocolate guys.

When the moon hits your eye

Ok, so they say you either love or hate Naples, and I can say without equivocation that we absolutely loved it. Sure there was a trash strike for a year that left the city filthy and sure there was a riot the week before in the suburbs due to the harsh crackdown on the immigrants who did not secure mafia permission before opening up new drug routes, but the boundless energy of the city just overshadowed all that.
Yeah, it is a bit rough around the edges, a bit dirtier, more off-track betting houses and more insane traffic, but that just adds to the atmosphere. We read enough bad things about the city to almost keep us away, but we not only stayed two days, we added another one on. It was so different from the rest of Italy it was a bit refreshing. More ruggedly beautiful with Vesuvius looming in the background and the bay of Naples spreading across the heart of the city, grittier in the style of people, but with more families and comraderie in the street. People were so affectionate with each other, almost every girl walked arm in arm with her girlfriend, young couples were making out about every 15 feet or so, and there were more babies here than we had seen in the rest of the North. It was Saturday, and we just sat along a main shopping drag with a beer and watched the parade go by. I could have spent a lifetime there but pizza beckoned.

They invented pizza in Naples and it shows. We went to a popular spot and waited one and a half hours for a table. No worries, we had to wait in a narrow street with cars whizzing by, but cheap beer and fried zucchini kept us and 40 others in high spirits until our table was ready. This place was the real deal. Small and chaotic inside, when we finally sat we ordered to Margheritas and a liter of house wine. Now, this is what pizza is supposed to be. The crust was thin, but not too thin. chewy, but not too chewy and had a little bit of crispness and wood fire burning on the bottom and edges. The tomato sauce and cheese were light and the basil fresh. They all somehow almost melted together on the pizza and perfectly compemented each other. It was absolutely as pizza should be. It was 10 Euro for the two pizzas and a liter of wine and that just cinched the deal. We would return to this place twice before we left, and would have returned more if they weren´t closed on Sunday.

Southside

So we head off from Rome to the South. Roma is basically the dividing point between the rich industrious North, and the poorer agrarian South. This is a huge historical divide among some Italians and exists today still. You can tell that things are different down here. Even a couple hours south of Rome things were different. We stopped in Caserta on our way to Naples and the vibe was decidedly different. A little more rough around the edges and more laid back. We were about 15 cents short for some lunch and rather than break a bigger bill I had, the guy just waved me off and said it was fine. This was most decidedly opposite of Cinque Terre where I was 2 cents short for a couple of coffees and the woman opted to break my 50 note rather than call it even. We decided we were going to like it here. (Oh yeah, the pizza was outta sight too, a white sauce mushroom/proscuitto affair).

So we stopped in Caserta because it was on the way and it has a palace that was built to rival Versailles and it was right across the street from the train station. This was also the site were parts of 3 Star Wars movies were filmed so we thought it warranted a stop. There was no baggage storage, but the nice woman at the TrenItalia desk was happy to keep it for us in her office.
Now Versailles is pretty much the pinnacle in ´screw you we are rich´ palace building and Caserta definitely tried to mimic it but the interior didn´t leave the same impression upon me. Now, the gardens were another story.



There was about a mile of path with waterfalls flowing down into a series of 5 ornate fountains. This was some really intracate engineering as well as some spectacular scenery. The fountains were all stocked with fish so the kings could have fresh fish whenever they wanted. It was a gorgeous walk through the grounds and it was actually free since it was some kind of Italian cultural weekend where all sites were free (bonus).
So remember the end of the first Star Wars (Episode IV) where they are presenting Luke and Solo and Laia with the awards, this is where they shot it with this waterfall in the background.

Yes, I know I am a dork, but it was pretty cool. They also shot some of the Amidala palace of Episode I & II in the palace itself. I assume the intricate marble staircase was part of the scene, which was really stunning.
There was another acre or so of botanical gardens to explore but Naples and delicious pizza was waiting so we took off.

The Eternal City

Roma. Well, I am not sure what to write about Rome. We had a good enough time, but this was the only place that I felt we were checking things off a list. We spent about 4 days here, but it just never really gelled with us.

We went to the Palatine Hill and the Forum, the center of Roman life. It is fairly cool, but the audioguide we got kinda sucked. It was not very descriptive on where to go and nothing was really labled. It said things like ´walk two score paces west of the grey rock and look east, you see the column in front of you (um,no) good, that is all that is left of Apollo´s temple, now use your imagination to imagine what it lookéd like´. We commiserated with other people using the guides as they were wandering around aimlessly too. We could have probably used a tour guide here. It is good to see all these things since they were the center of Rome, but there are better preserved if less significant ruins elswhere. Good views over the city though.


The Coloseum is quite massive and well preserved for a 2000 year old building. We got a tour here because of our bad experience with the audio guide and it most certainly was not worth it. I am pretty sure our guide was a drunken hobo they pulled off the street and coached a few minutes before. Expensive and with about the same information you can get from watching a history channel special. These things left a bad taste in our mouth.

It is such a big and touristy city it was hard to connect with the ´real´ city. We even heard an older woman complaining about all the tourists, and this is not even the high season. We ate some decent food, but we ate better for less in other cities for sure.

The Vatican was something we were looking forward too and did not disapoint. The massive lines that were promised were not there so that was a plus. St. Peters Basilica is massive and stunning and deserves it´s place as Catholicisms big enchilada. Michelangelo´s Pieta is here which is quite a fine piece of work. We didn´t get to admire it as much as we would have wanted because somebody almost puked on Brooke. Whether overcome with the spirit of the Lord, or just nautious from some cruise ship chicken fingers, we won´t know, but we gave her some space. Plenty of other stuff to check out anyway, several massive sculptures by Bernini. Every time we were like,oh this is cool I wonder who did this, oh Bernini. He did some of his best work when he was 81. These popes really worked this guy till the end.

Brooke loved the adorable Swiss guards.

Although they do not look intimidating I am sure that they could still kick some ass,that is if they don´t trip over their tassles.

The museums on the Vatican grounds are enormous. We spent about 4 hours wandering around and could have seen more. Raphaels ´School of Athens´ was here which I didn´t realize, just turned a corner and like,oh check that out,there it is. Other notable and not so notable works by everyone you can think of, and Etruscan museum, an Egyptian wing. Little bits of everything when the Vatican controlled the known world. Of course the Sistine Chapel which is impressive and massive, but we are a fan of other of his works more (the Pieta or that Dave guy for instance).

On a lighter note of worlds colliding, we have been doing some anthropological studies on different cultures and their ability to wait in line. Ever since some old Italian woman (like 80 year old) pushed past us to get on a half full bus first, we have been taking note. Waiting patiently in line is something American culture has inherited from the civil, overly polite British. These people invented ´queing up´. Some cultures wait, others don´t. It is comforting to know that we are not the only travelers to ponder these facts as a quick Internet search will show. Now not to knock the Chineese culture, but waiting in line is not their forte. The Chinese government had to teach the populace on how to wait in line before the Olympics instead of just pushing their way through. (Don´t believe me, ask the NYTimes
It is just not their way. So anyway, we are in a crowd at a bottleneck in the Vatican museum and there is a Chinese family just pushing their way through, without a concern in the world. Brooke overheard a British woman who was in their way exasperatedly exclaim ´You pushed me, please, don´t push´ and I heard another British family basically saying ´well I never..´. Of course this really had no deterring effect. Even though we were in the same crush of bodies, all we could do is laugh it off.

We went to the Appian Way, the first highway out of Rome. It was a little pilgrimage for me since I have read about it a lot and carries some significance in my mind. Most of it is still used as a regular road and it is lined with ancient structures which could warrant days of exploring.

A highlight was meeting up with our new friends Rachael and Mark for dinner and sharing travel stories.


Spanish Steps, Trevi fountain, the Pantheon. This city is just littered with famous ancient relics. We managed to see most things but the city is big and even though we had a transport pass it was still some work to get around.

All in all a good time, although exhausting. Not our favorite part of the trip, but seeing what we saw is a must, unfortunately it was a must for every one else too.

Tuscany part due

So today we woke at dawn and headed out to try and catch up with a bike tour through the wine country. It is based out of Florence but it was booked up when we were in town, so we scheduled it for today and would head back from Siena. We would be cutting it close on the connections back to town, but we were pretty sure we would make it. Our first Italian train delay put a stop to that (late Italian trains, who knew?). Oh well, no bike trip but whatever, there are tons of experiences ahead of us. We stopped a bit before Florence to catch a return train. We had a little layover so we hung out in a little town called Empoli. It was quaint enough and we bought some fruit, some grapes and figs and lulled around the square. Getting fresh figs is great, because they are almost never available in the States and if they are they are too expensive. The figs were great and the grapes, man the grapes. I mean I don´t need to tell anyone that the Italians grow grapes. They export more wine than any other country on earth. These grapes tasted like drinking wine. The green grapes tasted like Saviougn Blanc and the ´red´ grapes were nothing like we ever get. I only see red grapes in the US, but these are purple, and small and the juice is so red it will stain your fingers. Now these are grapes.


We figured we were up early enough and we needed to salvage the day so we headed to a nearby hill-top Tuscan town called San Gimignano. We heard this was a can´t miss city and since our bike trip was out we were happy that we could do this. It took us a bit to get to the bus station and figure out the logistics but we finally were on our way with a group of high schoolers heading home. Except for the youngest children, most school kids ride to school on public transport, so if you are lucky/unlucky enough to get on the bus at that time you are treated to a chattering horde.

Now we are getting a bit deeper into Tuscany and it just keeps getting more gorgeous. Grape vines everywhere with hanging fruit (it is harvest time now) and castles and hill towns across the landscape. San Gimignano is beautiful, a perfectly preserved medievel hilltop town (you can see the towers in the background here).

It is in great shape and perfectly nestled in the countryside. Again, a town crowded with tourists but for good reason. I am still hell bent on getting a bike and riding around so as we hike around the town this is consuming my mind. I see some people with bikes and deduce that they are Canadian and they speak English. I am able to deduce this fact because all 10 of them are wearing the same T-shirt with the Canadian flag on it. What is the deal with the Canadians and their need to advertise where they are from, a blog posting/rant is coming on this topic soon. They actually brought their bikes from Canadia so they are no help, freakin´ Canucks.

We eventually find a bike place and I start making some plans to ride around. The guys that run this place seem so detached that I start to wonder if this is just a front to launder drug money or something. It is actually a car mechanics shop, and sure they have some bikes and even some scooters, and they have a map of the area, but they sure aren´t gung-ho about biking and certainly aren´t trying to help us out. I believe all of this is turning Brooke off from the whole ordeal, but I am on a mission. They give me a bike, and I have to ask for a helment and they point to a wall with some on it. They give me an idea of a route (about a two hour jaunt), but they also sell a map for 7 Euros that I think it would be wise to pick up. Brooke sagely advises me to buy the map and decides to stay in this picture perfect town, while I trundle off into the not so unhospitable wilderness.

I hit the road and it is pretty trafficy surrounding the town, but a few minutes later I am on some open road careening down a hill. I figure I remember the route good enough so I keep going. I eventually stop to look at the map and can´t make hide nor hare of it. First of all it is about 4 feet by 6 feet big, and sure it has all the topographic lines on it, but none of the towns listed that correspond to any of the signs on the road. Whatever, screw it, I am on a bike in the countryside and I am going to enjoy myself.


I head down the hill taking in the scenery, then cut off onto a side road that leads to some vineyards. There are a bunch of farmhouses, B&B´s and restaurants along the path and it is quite scenic. There are tractors around hauling loads of grapes to be processed. I eventually hit a dead end and turn around and get back on the main road. Some more gentle downhill in beautiful scenery and I can see San Gimignano in the distance. It seems like this road heads around in a circle and I feel confident that I can loop back and hit the town before sunset and the last bus leaves. Another half hour or so of downhill and no peddeling and I start to get worried. What if it doesn´t head back where I want to go, then what will I do? I don´t want to ride back up all of this. Ok, maybe just a little more. No, I am definitely headed in the wrong direction. All these signs point to towns that are nowhere near where I need to go and the map sure isn´t helpful. I do the rational thing and turn around. It is uphill nearly all the way, but even after all the extra weight from gelato and pizza I manage to make decently quick work of it. I actually get into town a bit early and tool around and take some pictures with the incoming clouds as an epic backdrop.


I meet up with Brooke at our appointed time and catch up with her. She has done what any good, respectable woman would do while her husband was away - she went shopping (and bought a lovely green bufanda, i.e. scarf), ate world champion gelato, and drank wine. Of course being the sweet wonderful wife she is (her words), she bought me the local specialty, a wild boar sandwich. It certainly was appreciated.

Tuscany - Siena

So we figured on our way to Roma, we would stop over in a couple of Tuscan hill towns, try and make our way through the throngs of tourists and enjoy a little taste of the dolce vita.

Siena is about an hour from Florence and it seemed like a good first stop. We made some reservations and headed on over. Only problem was, neither Brooke nor I wrote down exactly where we were staying. Ok, let´s chalk this up as a learning experience and move on. I find an internet cafe, get the directions, then we hike with our packs the 15 minutes or so to our place. Tuscany is expensive and we stayed a bit out of town to save some cash. We get our dirty laundry together because we just can´t put it off another day and head into the old city to explore and get some clean clothes (yeah, laundry in Tuscany, how glamarous). We grab a bite on the way. Brooke gets and ham and cheese Piadine (like a thin hot sandwich with thin bread almost like filo, we have only seen this in Siena). I see what looks like salami and some kind of bacony product and point to it. It turns out it was salmon and tomatoes. Dude, salmon on a pizza is not cool. This aggression will not stand. Ok, things are not going my way this day. Hopefully things will look up. Siena is pretty touristy and has lot´s of daytrippers from Florence. We assume that by staying the night we will get a little taste of the real city, and we were definitely rewarded.

I was getting a little travel weary, after the constant snoring and sex from our roomates in Florence, and the couple of curveballs thrown our way during the day but then something magical happened. We were about to head home when we heard some drums playing. Naturally we followed the sound and came upon a parade.

A huge contingent was out in their period clothing (which period we are not sure, it ranged from Napoleon era military uniforms, to nurses, to women who looked like prostitues from the old west and a ´Red Baron´type plane thrown in for good measure).


We learned later from some people on a Rick Steves tour (a very talkative women who lived in Hyde Park in Austin as a matter of fact) that it was a celebration for winning a horse race called the Pailo earlier in the summer. This is a race dating back hundreds of years where they fill the main square with sand then ride bareback around it. It is a pretty brutal race with an anything goes attitude and these people want to win bad. The town is divided into 12 different subdivisions each represented by an animal. They take these divisions pretty seriously and if you move away from one part of town to the other, there is no coming back into the fold. The armadillo part of town won the race this year and all the people were out from that neighborhood celebrating. The race is in July and after they win there are several celebrations up until the end of September or so. We were lucky to catch one. We hung around the main square for a bit watching the merriment then followed it later to another area where a live band was playing. Good times.

What a great little interlude and a great little pick me up. These are the little things that make wandering out your front door and dealing with all manner of setbacks and nuisances worth it.

Greve in Chianti

So I was in Tuscany at a wine bar listening to Wheatus. Yeah, I never thought I would begin any sentence that way either. We needed to get out of Florence for a bit so we took a trip out to the wine country to a place called Greve in Chianti. There is a tasting room there, and when we walked in they were playing some radio station that was playing some random music from the early 90's. That is one thing that we noticed about Italy, they always seemed to have American music on wherever we went, the 80's and early 90's were especially well represented.

Anyway, this tasting room has some reputation and it is well warranted. There are about 150 wines to taste and they are in a high tech tasting system. You can get a taste of wine by putting a card into the machine and then selecting what you want to drink.

There were several varieties of red, white, grappa, rose, and even olive oil and truffle oil you could taste. The wines are kept fresh by a system that pumps the air out of the bottles. You get a few sips of each wine, enough to taste it. Tastes are from about .80 to 8.00 for the expensive ones that cost upwards of $200 a bottle. This is much better in my opinion than going to a winery and getting a few tastes of each wine then feeling obliged to buy a bottle. We sat around and sipped on some wines we would never buy.

We didn't try the $200 a bottle ones, just because we couldn't get ourselves to spend 8 euro on a sip when we could try so many others. Our favorite was a Merlot/Pinot blend which we were like, yeah, this is really good, then we realized it was $45 US a bottle, hard to drink a bad wine when you are in that price range.

Anyway, this is a really novel idea in wine drinking, one that would really go over well anywhere it was implemented. Feeling good, we headed back to town, ready for our full on trip into the heart of Tuscany.

Firenze

Why we call this place Florence and they call it Firenze is a question that puzzles us. But no need to think about that with all the fantabulous art and architecture. Florence is one of my favorite cities and I think Brooke would agree. We stayed here 4 days to cram everything all in. It has so much beautiful art and architecture that it is just ridiculous. This statue of Perseus and Medusa by Cellini, considered his masterpiece, is just sitting in a plaza next to like 10 other gorgeous statues.


We happened to eat in a restaurant that night named Cellini. It was a rather unremarkable restaurant in a normal semi-touristy part of town. We mentioned something about the statue to the waitress and she was like ´oh yeah, this restaurant was Cellini´s childhood home.´ Well smashing. Incidentally we would return to this restaurant several times. It was delicious and well-priced. After spending time in Northern Italy and Switzerland, anything even remotely normally priced was a blessing. Florence seems to be known for Bistecca al Florentine, basically a steak. Now, I didn´t come from Texas to eat steak, I don´t care what kind of special cow it is. We were just fine with fresh salads, a variety of hearty Tuscan soups and pasta (with gorgonzola and speck). The only drawback to the food here is that they make bread without salt, and it is pretty bad. They had some fight with Pisa or something and they cut off the salt supplies back in the day, so they made saltless bread and I guess they do now just out of tradition. No thanks.

We went to the Duomo which is just enormous. They designed it to be big, then made it 1.5 times bigger. So much so that it eats up pretty much the whole square that it is in, which makes it appear a little out of its element, but spectacular nonetheless. The dome continues to be a feat of engineering, it was built without scaffolding and is so huge, even today they are not sure exactly how it was built. It is actually two domes within each other and housing and restaurants where built in it so the workers would never have to leave. We hiked the 500 or so steps to the top and were rewarded with sweeping views of Florence and the surrounding countryside.



Our hostel had some free walking tours in the mornings which we took advantage of and were really informative.

The Bargello, the old prison and sheriffs office, is now a sculpture museum. Among the Cellinis and Michelangelos is the main attraction, Donatellos bronze David. Unfortunately for us he was lying face down with his butt in the air while he was being restored. Too bad, but an informative restoration video was just as good....not really though.

On to the Uffizi. Sounds sexy in Italian, but it just means the office. It was built as an office for one of the Medicis, possibly I am guessing here but it is a safe guess, and then was turned into a museum in the 1700s or so, one of the first free museums open to the rabble. Not so free anymore, we made reservations to avoid waiting in an interminable line. The building is beautiful and it looks out over the Arno river and Florence. The main attraction is Boticellis masterpieces the Birth of Venus and Primavera. The Primavera might be my favorite painting. The size of these paintings just blow you away when you are in there.

Michel Angelos, Dave. The David. Nothing can realy prepare you for this statue. It is positively enormous. It was carved out of one piece of marble which another sculptor abandoned because he couldnt make anything useful out of it. The attention to detail makes it look as if he could come to life. The room he is in was built specifcally for this statue. There is some other statues by ol´ Mikey in there which are called the slaves because they look like they are trying to escape from the stone. It is possible they were not finished and also possible that he just sculpted them this way, I guess we will never know.

Allright, enough art and culture, let´s get some vino flowing!

Columbo

So, we took a day trip to Genoa to eat Pesto from the source and to visit Christopher Columbus´ home town. My Italian grandfather wanted to name me Columbo Giuseppe because I was born on Columbs day, October 12th, also our nephew Robert´s birthday. Now, we only took a day trip because the guide book made it seem that it was a wretched hive of scum and villany. We pretty much thought we would get shot after sundown. We should have known not to trust a book about Italy with a damn croissant accompanied with a strawberry on the cover. I mean seriously, with the pantheon of Italian food available to be on the cover, you choose the croissant!! I mean, it has been weeks and we haven´t even eaten a decent croissant. They all have ´marmalada´or ´crema´ in them.
Anyway, we found Genoa to be a grand, charming city (with castles, not mentioned in the book) which admittedly was a bit rough around the edges, but it is no Flint Michigan.


There is an aquarium there which is one of the biggest in Europe so we checked it out. We wandered around the city checking out the beautiful, grand buildings which were of an enormous scale, built when Genoa was a maritime power. We saw Christopher Columbus´ childhood home, which was anticlimactic at best, but a decent pilgramage nonetheless. We went to a church which was one of the most oddly laid out we have ever seen. At every corner it kept opening up into other cloisters and chapels that seemed to never end. There was some peculiar artwork in there which included a saint with a hatchet buried in his head and a freaky wooden jesus.

We bought some Pesto which was some of the best we have eaten, except for my mom´s of course. Pesto is made with both Parmesean and Peccorino here which gives it a bit more body. Bruschetta (pronounced Bruce-ketta) is from here and we got some of that with pesto and tomatoes and had a little picnic in our room when we got back to Cinque Terre.

Cinque Terre

A series of 5 little hamlets on the Ligurian coast of Italy. Near Genoa and part of a National park, this is just a beautiful little area. It was 'discovered' a few years ago by the tourist hordes and it is positively overrun. Now, this doesn't really detract from the place too much because it is such a spectacle. There are trails that connect the towns and you can get away from people for a bit, especially on the harder walks. It was raining when we arrive, but it clears up just in time. We hike about 3 miles to the next town on a path that hugs the mountain and provides absolutely breathtaking views.




These people have eeked out a living from this rather harsh land farming olives and grapes and fishing. Of course mass tourism now supplements this income. The slopes are so steep that they have been terraced in order to grow things. There are grapes growing everywhere and it is harvest time. There are these little tracks everywhere that look like a little roller coaster gear that they use to bring the grapes down the mountain. It is really something to behold, that people can actually use this for something. There are agaves here which make us feel better, because it has been like a week since we have seen them. I got some prickly pear (fruit of the agave) gelato in town later, I can't believe that actually exists.

Riddle Me This...

- What is the sound of one hand clapping?

- If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it still make a sound?

- If drunken Australlians have sex in your dorm room will it wake you up?

Well, the first two may always remain a mystery, but thanks to the alignment of the cosmos and an empty bottle of Rumpelmintz in our trash, we know the answer to the third. Yes. Yes it will.

Off now to a bar which shows the American Football matches. Geaux Tigers and Boomer Sooner!!!

Parma - Proscuitto Festival

So after loafing in Ferrara and some logistical snafus, we finally ended up in Parma around 7pm. We hustled to the info booth a minute before it closed and got some information on where the festival is being held this weekend. It was in a town called Sala Baganza, (say that in your best Italian accent, it is fun). She told us there were shuttle buses in the town to take us to the factory, so we got a bus schedule and were set. For some reason I didnt think this was going to work out, but things were looking good. There are a million salumeries selling Proscuitto and Parmesean and all kinds of goodies. They make a wine here called Lambruscco. It is a sparkling red that has a bit of sweetness. It makes a perfect accompaniment to the salty savory proscuitto and parmesean. It loses its fizzyness when it gets exported so they shoot it up with CO2, which makes it crap and relegates it to the bottom of the shelf next to the Cooks.

We headed out the next morning under a light drizzle and caught our bus. Now riding the bus in Italy, there are no announced stops so you are kinda flying by the seat of your pants. I finally walked up to the driver and asked him. He let me know the stop and even pointed us toward the town center, which I dont think we would have ever found. We see the town center and see them setting up some tents, sweet this is really going to happen. We see the shuttle buses and sign up to get on one. A few minutes and we are off. At the factory we don some sanitary gear and get ready to go.


It is just Brooke and I and a group of about 10 older Italians who are absolutely adorably perfect. If there was a movie and it called for a group of funny older Italians, this would be it. The tour is in Italian, but we dont care. We get the gist of it and the Italians are joking and cutting up and making for an entertaining time. We get into the source and it is great. Seeing how it is made and the thousands of hams hanging everywhere at every stage of the process is pretty cool.

At the end of the tour is of course, free Proscuitto and Lambrusco wine (and our first good bread of the trip). We indulge pretty happily. I start leaning against the wall with some wine in my hand cuz we woke up early and one of the Italian grandmothers comes up to me (she comes up to about my chest), jokingly asks in Italian if I am too drunk to stand, pinches my cheek and then gives me a little slap on the cheek. These people are priceless.

We are about to leave when we learn that the tour is going to be given in English next. Sweet! We hang out indulging in free goodies and wait for it to start. The woman is giving the tour in Italian, French, then English. She really just came to show her friend around the factory and got roped into doing a tour. We go through the tour again and thank her profusely. A few more free goodies and we head back to the town center.

We get a couple of plates of Proscuitto and Parmesean and a bottle of Lambrussco and hang out in heaven. The prosciutto (and factory) smells delicious and looks like it has flakes of gold in it. This is the best tasting prosciutto we have ever had. And the parmesan was pretty tasty, too.

This festival doesnt seem to wild, probably in part because it is raining. It looks like a stage is being setup, but we need some downtime and we head back to Parma.

Ferrara

We had a day until we needed to be in Parma for the Proscuitto festival so we decided to go to Ferrara. What a great little town. Not far from Bologna, nearer to the Adriatic, still in Emilia-Romogna. We got a nice little hotel right in the medieval center. The narrow cobblestone streets, a castle with a moat smack in the middle of town and 90% of the populace riding around on bikes all combine to create a magical storybook atmosphere. It has been Brookes favorite town so far and I wont disagree with her (I cant find the apostrophe on this keyboard if you havent noticed). Bologna was a little bigger and bustling than we expected and this was a nice change of pace. Not many tourists and just oozing with charm. No priceless works of art, but a feeling of really being in Italy.

While walking around we noticed an old wine shop. We passed it up and then decided to go back in. It looked like it hadnt changed since the turn of the century. Old wine bottles from floor to ceiling, old pictures, wooden antiquey stuff and just for good measure a flourescent green bottle of absinthe. There was also a little bar where we got our first Prosecco of the trip, man it was good. Now, sitting around for a minute we saw the guy preparing some food and chatting with the old timers that were filtering in. Now, what is Prosecco without some cheese. I ordered a cheese plate and our minds were blown. It was a Pecorino served with salt and pepper. Now, I always thought Pecorino was one kind of cheese, a drier, aged cheese with a consistency close to parmesean. We learned that there are about 50 kinds of Pecorino. From the fresca variety to the aged one we were familiar with. This one was aged a few months, just enough to give it some flavor but still keeping a creamy texture. It was a bit like a mild creamy aged cheddar mixed with a touch of parmesean. It was by far the best cheese either of us had ate. What a great little find, and to think we almost passed it up.

On our Prosecco and cheese high, we decided to go out for a nice romantic seafood dinner. We found a little place nearby with a pretty wicked looking seafood menu. It was dark and romantic, old stone walls with a stone well in the building, but finished in a modern fashion with white tablecloths and an attentive waitstaff. We sat down and they rolled a fresh fish cart towards us. I have never seen anything like this before. There were a bunch of fish that I could not recognize and they were jabbering in Italian and showing us each one and I can only guess describing it. We ordered some appetizers and put off the intimidating process of fish ordering. We got some Adriatic oysters and a swordfish and salmon carpaccio. The oysters where a little more compact than Gulf oysters. A little sweeter and a little saltier, but nothing like the sharp, bold taste of the Pacific variety. Real good overall, albiet pricey. No horseradish though. Heathens. The carpaccio was delicious, thin slices of really fresh fish on a bed of greens.

So they rolled the seafood cart back and I picked out a fish he seemed to recommend. Brooke steered clear of the hornets nest and got some of the local speciality, homemade pasta stuffed with pumpkin/cheese and a cream sauce. It sounds a bit weird but it was really good, with the sweet and savory flavors mixing well. The fish was absolutely perfect. Breaded and baked it was tender, white and flaky. Great dinner overall, but when the bill came, oh boy. This is no South Louisiana all you can eat seafood platter prices. The fish was priced per hectagram so there was no real good way to know what it would cost. Lets just say that renting a boat and two guides for a day of fishing in Pacific Mexico and catching our own fish was a cheaper alternative. No worries, it was romantic and delicious, and when the hell are we going to be in Ferrarra again.

The next day our hotel lent us some bikes and we cruised around the city. Riding on and around the medieval walls surrounding the city. We passed through a garden/park area and snatched a couple of purple grapes and a fig that were just too tempting to pass up. Passing through the narrow streets with all the other bikers, we felt like part of the crew. Now everyone in this city rides bikes. They ride while smoking, talking on a cell phone and we even saw a guy eating gelato riding his bike with no hands. It was really a great little diversion. We checked out the castle and then hit the road to Parma, Proscuitto festival here we come.

Gorgonzola is the New Black

Now, I have always liked gorgonzola, but never knew that I could love it so much. I always assumed it was from France. I don't know why, but I did. It is actually from a town near Milan, aptly named Gorgonzola. In Italy, they also love gorgonzola and these Italians know how to use it. I have had it in risotto, with honey, in ravioli and just plain by itself. It melts in your mouth. I plan on eating it several other ways, too, I just haven't figured it out yet. Perhaps gelato? hmm....

Bologna

Ah Bologna, affectionately referred to as La Grassa, or The Fat One by Italians, although nobody is really fat there. It is home to the oldest university in Europe and consequently is full of beautiful young people *B interlude...to say that everyone in this city is beautiful is definitely not an understatement*. I love being around fiery Italians. When I eavsedrop on people I cannot tell if they are mad and yelling at each other or are excited to see each other or maybe just making plans for lunch. It is all done in the same exaggerated loud tones, I am home.

Bologna is situaded in the region of Emilia-Romagna and is in the lush Po river valley. They grow lots of food here including a ton of wheat here and consequently there are about 40 different types of pasta. This town is famous for a lot of food and came up with Tortellini (my personal favorite), lasagna, pasta Bolognese, mortadella and nearby towns invented proscuitto, parmeseano and balsamic vinegar. Food is good here, really good. The first night we ate an antipasta plate (Mortadella, meats, cheeses, pickeled veggies), then I had Toretllini stuffed with sweet sausage and covered in Bolognese (meat) sauce. For lunch I ate two kinds of torellini, one with ricotta and sage and the other in a meat broth, kinda like Pho. Another night I ate lasagna that made me want to cry it was so good and I found another local speciality: It is a veal cutlet, breaded, fried in butter, coverd in ham, then cheese and finished with some sauce. Sweet jesus. Brooke got in on the tortellini train too, but does not remember with as much clarity the various things she ate. *I think I am still stuck on the Gorgonzola risotto that I ate in Lugano. Is there anything better than that? I had a big salad (it's like a salad, only bigger) and it was sooo yummy. In the land of all this pasta, I needed some greens.*

We went out one night with some friends that we met in Venice. We went to an Irish pub and talked about traveling and all kind of stuff. It was nice to share experiences past and present with new friends.

Bologna was nice but a bigger city than I had anticipated. A lot of the central area has porticos covering cafes and shops. It has a nice little old quarter with a Neptune fountain, cobbolstone streets and some towers that rich people pretty much built because they could. Bologna used to have around 100 or so towers, but time and the Allied bombing campaign of WWII has left only a handful. We climbed a tower, 500 steps or so *499 to be exact*, and got a good view of the city. I was talking to an older gentlemen on the way up and I asked if he was from Scotland. He said no, Northern England, York, if I was Scottish you would not be able to understand me. Right, noted. He said the best British beer comes from there and beer from London is crap. I want to explore Northern England a bit so Yorkshire might be in the cards.

Great city overall. Wonderful food. Nice to be away from the tourist hordes. Not a lot of tourists here because as one article I read said, the Colosseum is in Rome, the Boticellis are in Florence and the canals are in Venice. Bologna is great and well worth it, but on a limited time schedule people definitely bypass it. *If you love Italian food, and come on who doesn't, you should definitely visit this place. Everyone is so, so nice and friendly, it is gorgeous with arches everywhere (I learned the difference between Gothic and Roman arches), and lots and lots of churches. Next we went headed to what is so far my favorite town and the place I will someday move to - Ferrara. Now, we must go eat some Florentine food (which does not include spinach, but a lot of soup.) *

Venice

So we headed over to Venice. I mean what can you say really, every time you move there is a picture perfect view of a canal with and old bridge and a beautiful old houses in the background. It is like a story book. Venice was a world power for a couple of centuries and it shows. They spared no expense on their public works and flaunted their wealth with impunity.

St. Mark's Basillica is a prime example of this. I think half the place is covered in gold and jewels. It is spectacular. A lot of Venetian history is preserved and displayed in the Basillica and various other museums. Coins, armor, paintings, sculptures. The Doge's (mayor) palace was a good tour. It was a good history of how Venice was run as well as a stunning building with beautiful art including the largest oil painting in the world. I especially enjoyed the paintings of the naval battles. This was a well organized city with it's own code of law that was strictly enforced. There was a lot of money via trading on the line and keeping this money flowing was a prime of objective of the ruling council.

We had a Vaporetti (big water taxi's) pass and we used it a bunch. Heading over to various islands and around the city by boat. It is no Gondola ride, but for $120 the Gondola was not really a great idea. There is a cemetery island we visited and we also went to Murano where they blow artisinal glass. The glass blowers were kicked off the main island because their kilns kept lighting things on fire and they didn't want the city to burn. We picniced on Murano and watched the sunset one night. All the day trippers were gone and the tourist hoards had left and it was just us and some locals. A group of old women were gossiping near us and the teenagers were cruising the canal in their boats, some bumping their tunes and others just cutting up and checking each other out.

All the boats are so cool. Outside the canals the bays are divided into 'roadways' so that everyone is not just cruising around randomly. There is a lot of traffic and I am amazed that nobody crashes into each other. I would love to have a boat around here and just cruise around.

In our hostel we stayed in a room with another couple. They had been traveling for a few months and were on the last leg of their trip. We hit it off and ended up hanging out for a bit in the next city we went to, Bologna (more on this next).

It is a bit hard to find good food in Venice. There are so many tourists that places don't have to try very hard and so the quality of the food suffers. Now, when I say there are a lot of tourists, I mean a LOT OF TOURISTS. They outnumber the local populace at least 2 to 1. Fortunately people are crowded into the same area and if you take a little time to wander off the beaten path a bit, you can find the real Venice, with families going about their lives.

I am writing this in Bologna and will talk about that next. We are off to Ferrara next then to Parma for the Proscuitto festival.

Ciao

Road to Europe

Ok, I swear we are going to post more often. I still need to backfill a couple of stories in Mexico, having our raft flip on a raging river and drinking moonshine in the back of a truck with some Italians comes to mind. Hopefully when we have free internet somewhere we can do it.

(no pics this time, this computer is locked down tight)

So off to Europe we go. Just one more note on airplane etiquette: No cowboy boots on the tray tables, this includes you ladies. Ok, with that out of the way the flight went well. Landed in clean orderly Zurich and bought our train tickets to Lugano. I felt like Switzerland would be a good starting point. An amalgamation of French, German and Italian cultures with some order and cleanliness tying them all together. (Brooke`s note: Switzerland is the most gorgeous place I have ever seen in my life.) Brooke was pleased that she fit in a bit better here, rather than the giant white people that just stood out in Southern Mexico. In Zurich we bought our first food. Brooke purchased what I can only imagine is the national food of Switzerland, a giant pretzel (German), stuffed with Salami (Italian) and a little surprise inside, some French butter. Decadent, rich and a little taste of the great food to come.

The train ride is just gorgeous. It was a bit overcast, but it did little to dampen the spectacular natural beauty. Blue lakes composed of glacier runoff and snowmelt, soaring peaks, waterfalls, clear rock strewn rivers, green pines and pastures. Just stunning. Brooke was sufficiently wowed, and I couldn`t be happier to be back in this beautiful place. (B: Seriously, I do not know what could be more gorgeous than mountains, lakes that look like the water just fell from the glacier, white houses with brown roofs, and the feeling that Heidi or Swiss Miss was going to pop out at any minute. Am I going to survive the rest of this gorgeous continent?)

Arriving in Lugano, it just got nicer. Even the train station has a beautiful Italian facade and is on a hill overlooking a gorgeous lake surrounded by steep mountains. Lugano is a resort town just north of the Italian border where Swiss and Germans come on holiday. It is warm for Switzerland (in the upper 70`s when we arrived) and it rarely snows. They plant palm trees everywhere to add to the tropical feel (fuzzy, date palms, not the coconut palms of Mexico - Chrissy, there are a few pics just for you). Down the street from our hostel is Bar Cuba and Bar Siesta. Everyone is so polite here. When driving, people will stop and let others in, and pedestrians always have the right of way (B: ALWAYS! It is amazing how nice people are in this city, I cannot get over it.). It is a bit bizarre after having come from Mexico where the cops almost ran us over when we were crossing with the right of way.

We got to our hostel and it was clean and well run, we took a little cat nap and then hit the town. There is a pedestrian area downtown near the lake that is lined with high-end boutiques and cafes. The guide book recommended eating in the cafeteria of a department store. It steered us right for sure. Pasta bar, pizza made fresh in front of you, soups, self-draft beer. Just what we needed. You pick the ingredients you want in your pizza, then hand them to the guy and let him know if you want salami or proscuitto and he cooks it up in a few minutes. A little gorgonzola, mushroom and proscuitto and we were good to go. Back to the hostel sleep off the rest of the jet lag.

Day two we strolled around the lake soaking in the scenery and took a funiculare (cable car) up to the top of a mountain where you can see the whole lakes region for miles around. Lake Como is nearby, which Brooke never fails to remind me is where Clooney has a home. Noted. You can see Milan on a clear day, which it was not. There were some loud ass Germans on the trip up, they were actually dressed in liederhosen and just making a racket. No worries, we hiked around the top a bit and took in the views and had a little picnic.

Dinner was at a casual little restaurant in the basement of some building. Family-like atmosphere with house wine in carafes and great home-cooked Italian food. The wine was served into bowls that looked like teacups without handles and the water was served in wine glasses. Brooke had Gorgonzola Risotto (yeah, it is as good as it sounds) and I had a homemade sausage with Risotto (B: regular, boring risotto, not the bomb risotto that I had :-). We saw a Capoera troupe perform in the street, had some gelato and called it a night.

The next day we slept in (or I did at least). Still working off that jetlag. We were on our way to go visit the school I went to for a year in 10th grade (TASIS) in a nearby hilltop town (Montangola). We stopped for some espresso with cream, our new favorite breakfast drink, when it started to rain. We waited for it to stop for a bit and had a beer, a great way to start any day. It finally stopped and we went on our way. The school has expanded since I had been there. New buildings, but still retained the old charm. It is built in the middle of the town with narrow cobblestone streets winding all around it. I remember it being beautiful, but I think I appreciate it a bit more now. Perched on a hill overlooking the town of Lugano and the lake, it is really something. Brooke was blown away and just couldn`t believe it. Surrounded by grape vines, orchards and stunning hilltop homes. (B: Okmulgee High School, it was not. There will be descriptions in the pictures, but let me just tell you that I hit Sammer a bunch of times while saying "I can`t believe you went to school here." Wow, it is freaking beautiful. Have I mentioned that this is a gorgeous country?)

We have been stopped and asked for directions three times since we have been here. It is nice to fit in again. Brooke attributes it to her tan and European fashion sense, but I am going with the Italian blood running through my veins. (Brooke says "whatever".) Either way, everyone feels stupid when we say we don`t speak Italian. The water here is pure and delicious. It taste like God`s sweat and they have drinking fountains every so often that tap into underground springs. (B: The water from our bathroom sink tastes like what I imagine gold to taste like. It is so yummy and delicious. I bet the chocolate is just as tasty, but the only kind I have found in the store is Belgian, which was great, but I am in Switzerland and I want to eat some Swiss chocolate.)

Well, off to Venice tomorrow. Hopefully some pics will be up soon. Ciao!