Category: 2018 Europe

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April 23, 2018

We were up and out early this morning because we had a tour of the Vatican that began at 8:30.  It was about a 40 minute walk from our apartment and of course we got a little lost but eventually we found our way.  We located our guide and our group and entered the sea of people that is the Vatican.   

We started out in a courtyard.  Below are a couple of pictures from the courtyard.

While in the courtyard our guide talked to us about the Sistine Chapel.  They are strict about no talking in the chapel so she told us the history and what to look for ahead of time.  Then we went into the Vatican museum, which is overwhelming, and walked through the papal apartments. Here are a few pictures of the many treasures we saw.

Unfortunately we couldn’t take pictures in the Sistine Chapel but needless to say it is amazing.  We were in the chapel itself for about 15 minutes which really wasn’t enough time to absorb all there is to see because it’s visually overwhelming.  Another example of Michelangelo’s brilliance.

Then we went into St Peter’s Basilica which is the largest church in the world.  As with all the sights in the Vatican there were a lot of people and the tour felt a little rushed.  Here are some pictures of the Basilica and Michelangelo’s Pieta

Finally we ended the tour in the St Peter’s Square with its ring of columns, which symbolizes the arms of the church welcoming everyone—believers and nonbelievers—with its motherly embrace.

The tour concluded.  It was very good and really helped us understand what we were seeing.  

From there we walked over to the Spanish Steps.  

One thing I haven’t mentioned is that throughout the trip we have been very lucky and have had great weather.  It’s been much warmer than typical.  Today was another beautiful day.

After lunch at a restaurant that we ate at the last time we were in Rome, we walked to the Borghese Gardens, soaked up the sunshine and dozed in the grass.  

Refreshed we walked back to the apartment.  Here are pictures from our walk through Rome.  

That evening we went to a nice restaurant in Trastevere for our farewell dinner.  They even had a bike on the wall.  If you have been following our blog you know I like to include bike and door pictures.  I will close our time in a Rome with a bike picture from our farewell dinner.

 

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April 22, 2018

It’s Nancy and Mike’s first full day I’m Rome so it’s time to get out there and explore. We started by walking to the Pantheon.  We went through the Jewish Ghetto on our way.  

When we arrived at the Pantheon we were greeted by a fellow trying to sell us a guided tour of the Pantheon. We had breakfast in the square and agreed that we wanted to take the tour.  

It turned out that 12 other people wanted to take the tour too. Our guide was very knowledgeable and her English was great.  We learned a lot about the history of the Pantheon and the buildings surrounding it.  Here are some pictures.  

After the tour we walked over to the Trevi Fountain.  Following tradition and to assure our return to Rome, we all threw a coin in over over our shoulders and made a wish (some of us more joyishly than others).  

It was time to walk toward to the Colosseum for our 2:55 entrance time.  On the way we had lunch at a little sideway cafe.  We arrived a little early so we had to wait to get into the Colosseum. Once inside we listened to Rick Steves’ audio tour and tried to imagine what it was like in it’s prime.  Hard not to think about all the people killed there in horrible ways.  Here are some pictures. 

Our Colosseum tickets also gave us access to the Forum which is right across the square so we went to the Forum. Rick and I had been to the Forum 5 years ago when we were last in Rome.  We didn’t have a guide so it was just a bunch of Roman ruins.  This time we had a Rick Steves’ audio guide and it made a lot more sense. It really helped us imagine what Rome was like 2,000 years ago.  Here are some pictures (sorry no audio guide). 

On our way back to the apartment we walked by Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II, a monument built in honor of Victor Emmanuel, the first king of a unified Italy, located in Rome, Italy. 

That evening we stopped in the main area of Trastevere for a drink and some people watching.  Then we did a little grocery shopping and went back to the apartment for pasta with pesto.  😋

We walked 22,430 steps or 12 miles.  Here’s the result.  😉

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April 21, 2018

We left Florence this morning.  Next stop Rome!  On our way to Rome we decided to stop in Siena.  The ride from Florence to Siena was an easy one. 

We have found that the toll roads here are very expensive (similar to our experience in Spain).  Often you don’t pay when you get off one major road and onto another, rather you get a ticket when you get on the first major road and the pay when you get off the major road network.  

We had trouble finding a parking when we arrived in Siena but eventually found a spot.  After parking we headed into the old town.  We found Il Campo which is the main square in Siena and had some breakfast.  Many of the buildings are a orangish/brownish color, hence the origin of the color burnt siena. 

Twice a year they have horse races in the square. Here’s Rick Steves’ description of the race, “Ten of the 17 neighborhoods compete (chosen by rotation and lot), hurling themselves with medieval abandon into several days of trial races and traditional revelry. Jockeys—usually from out of town—are considered hired guns, no better than paid mercenaries. Bets are placed on which contrada [neighborhood] will win… and lose. Despite the shady behind-the-scenes dealing, on the big day the horses are taken into their contrada’s church to be blessed. (“Go and return victorious,” says the priest.) It’s considered a sign of luck if a horse leaves droppings in the church. On the evening of the race, Il Campo is stuffed to the brim with locals and tourists. Dirt is brought in and packed down to create the track’s surface, while mattresses pad the walls of surrounding buildings. The most treacherous spots are the sharp corners, where many a rider has bitten the dust. Picture the scene: Ten snorting horses and their nervous riders line up near the pharmacy (on the west side of the square) to await the starting signal. Then they race like crazy while spectators wave the scarves of their neighborhoods.  Every possible vantage point and perch is packed with people straining to see the action. One lap around the course is about a third of a mile (350 meters); three laps make a full circuit. In this no-holds-barred race—which lasts just over a minute—a horse can win even without its rider (jockeys ride precariously without saddles and often fall off the horses’ sweaty backs). When the winner crosses the line, 1/ 17th of Siena—the prevailing neighborhood—goes berserk. Winners receive a palio (banner), typically painted by a local artist and always featuring the Virgin Mary (the race is dedicated to her).“  It sounds like a crazy time.  

After our breakfast we went up to the Duomo, Siena’s 13th-century striped cathedral and bell tower, enjoying the medieval streets along the way. 

Every inch of the facade was decorated.  To me I  looked like a religious wedding cake.  Here are some pictures.  

Inside it was cavernous, filled with stripes columns and gorgeous art. The marble floor was paved with scenes from the Old Testament, allegories, and intricate patterns. One of the altars contained a statue by Michelangelo and a chapel contained two Bernini statues.  There were beautiful never-restored frescos painted by Pinturicchio in the library.

After leaving the Duomo we slowly made our way back to the car and got on the road to Rome. We drove to the airport and dropped off the car.  Our Airbnb host had arranged a taxi to pick us up at the car return office. The taxi whisked us into Rome and to our apartment which is very comfortable. 

After getting settled, we went out for a walk.  We went to Campo de’ Fiori and Piazzo Novana.  In Piazzo Novano we showed Nancy and Mike one of our favorite fountains, Bernini’s Four Rivers.  Here are some pictures.

We walked back to Trastevere, the neighborhood where our apartment is located.  We ended up eating in a restaurant that we had eaten in twice when we visited Rome in 2013.  We had a very nice dinner in the private courtyard.  

A long but wonderful day in Italy!

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April 20, 2018

Today we were up and out early because we wanted to go to Tuscany.  We started out our day long adventure in Montepulciano which was about 1 1/2 hours from Florence.  We drove through green rolling hills dotted with cypress trees and fields of yellows flowers.  It was spectacular in every direction.  It didn’t hurt that the weather was perfect.

Of course as soon as we arrived in Montepulciaono we had to have a coffee. Across the street from the restaurant was Ercolani, a winery store.  Below the store was an “underground city”, underground passages dating back to medieval times.  We went along their self guide tour which mostly has wine barrels in underground passages.

After we finished the tour we tasted some of their wine.  It was good but we didn’t buy any.  We continued up the hill that is Montepulciano.

The streets were winding and old.  Here are some pictures of the town.

While we were walking Nancy and I went into a shoe shop and found an awesome deal on a pair of boots for her (if you have been following the blog you know that we have been looking for boots for her).  We continued up the hill and came across a restaurant that we had wanted to go to but didn’t think could fit it in given the seating times.  The restaurant was featured in a Rick Steves episode and specializes in steaks.  Luckily they had a table available for us.  We ended  with a 3kg or 6.6lb steak for the 4 of us.  It was amazing, a little smokey and really, really tender.

After lunch we walked the rest of the way up the hill to Piazza Grande.

From there we had to rush back to the car because our parking time was expiring.  Once back in the car we followed Rick Steves’ Tuscany drive to Bagno Vignoni. Again the countryside was spectacular with its gently rolling green hills.

  Bagno Vignoni is a very small town with hot springs. 

Known since Roman times, these hot springs were harnessed for their medicinal properties in the Middle Ages.  Just outside the main square there is an area where we dipped our feet into the hot springs just before they plunged over a cliff.  We talked to a nice Canadian couple who were doing the same thing.  

Back in the car again and this time we set off of Montalcino so that Rick could do some tasting of his favorite wine, Brunello.  Once in town we went straight to the tourist information office where they can set up appointments for tastings and tours.  We wanted to go to Banfi which is the brand we usually buy.  Unfortunately it was too late for a tour but they were available for tastings so off again to Banfi.  Once at the winery we found the wine we usually buy and discovered it was about the same price, once we included shipping cost, as the price at our local liquor shore.  We decided to taste some wine that wasn’t available in the US and compare it to the Banfi that we buy at home.  It turned out that we like the wine that is available in the US the best.  The other wine might have been better if we bought it and waited a couple of years to drink it but we really don’t have a good place to store it so we ended up leaving empty handed.  Oh well!

We had one last stop on our big Tuscany day and that was Pienza.   By this time it was pretty late so we walked around a little bit but really we just had a very good pizza dinner there.  

After a long but great day we returned to Florence.  I think all of us came away feeling like we would like another week or two to explore Tuscany!  Maybe the next European trip . . . 

 

 

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April 19, 2018

We started off the morning going to our local bakery and getting some breakfast which we ate on the steps of the Basilica di Santo Spirito. This church is in the square near our apartment.  (Our apartment is located in the Oltrarno quarter which is a nice residential neighborhood that is close to all the tourist attractions.  It was a great location and I highly recommend it for people visiting Florence.)  After eating our pastries we checked out the church.

Our primary activity for the day was going to Michelangelo’s David at the Accademia.  Luckily Nancy had gotten us tickets in advance since the line for tickets was long.  Per Rick Steves, most of the other art there does not compare with David and his tour starts with David so that’s where we started.  It is incredibly beautiful.  So much expression in stone!  And the detail!

We listened to Rick Steves’ audio guide about David and then briefly looked at the other art in the museum.  By then we were hungry.  We went to a restaurant, Vino e Vecchio satori, recommended by our Airbnb host.  There was a wait but it was definitely worth it, one of our best meals in Italy.

After lunch we walked around and saw some of the sights we hadn’t seen.  We also walked to the magnum store and got a custom made magnum for Mike.  Here are a few pictures.

We had dinner in the apartment that night.

 

 

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April 18, 2018

Well today we are leaving Riomaggiore 😒 and going to Florence 😊.  We had to drag our suitcases down all 114 steps and then up the hill to the car.  Rick and I carried the large suitcase down the steps together.  Slowly but surely we made it.  We had a yummy breakfast of chocolate muffins in town before leaving.  Then we drove directly to Florence.  Of course we had several stops for coffee.

Our Florence apartment is located in the old section which had limited car access.  We got a ticket in Spain because we drove in an area with limited car access so we were very careful about where we drove.   Given that we couldn’t find our way to the apartment.  Eventually our host had to come to us and drive us to the apartment.  We had 72 stairs to the apartment but we knew that ahead of time so we packed accordingly and only brought in 2 suitcases instead of 4.  The apartment is very nice and our largest one yet.

After getting settled we went out for some lunch.  Our host recommended an excellent restaurant.  After lunch we went to the copy center because Mike and Rick were going to a soccer game that evening and needed to print out their tickets.  Then we just walked around the Duomo and Ponte Vecchio.  Here are some pictures from our walk.

The guys then returned to the apartment to get ready for the game.  Nancy and I stayed out.  We did a little shopping.  She was looking for a leather jacket or leather boots but couldn’t find anything she liked.

We wandered through the Palazzo Vecchio, today’s town hall which dates back to Renaissance Times.  Here are a couple of pictures.

We stopped at a magnum store where you pick out your ice cream flavor, coating, and tops and they custom make a magnum bar for you—delicious! After walking all afternoon, we returned to the apartment and relaxed.

The guys had a great time at the soccer game.  Here’s a picture.

 

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April 17, 2018

We were up and out early because we plan to go to Lucca and Pisa today.  It was about an hour and a half drive to Lucca.  We got lost in the Lucca town center so we just parked the car and decided to walk.

Rick Steves describes Lucca as “Italy’s most impressive fortress city, encircled by a perfectly intact wall.”  Our main goal in going to Lucca was to ride bikes atop the wall.  We quickly found a bike shop but decided we needed a little fortification ourselves before biking.  After a “coffee” we started our bike tour on the wall.   On top of the wall is a nice park with paved and grassy areas; it is quite wide up there.

It was a really nice ride.  There were lots of people out and it definite seemed like an area where the citizens of Lucca gather and commune.

After returning our bikes we went to a church, San Martino Cathedral, that we had seen from the ramparts.  It had a very ornate facade, a mix of architectural and artistic styles according to Rick Steves.  Inside it looked much bigger than it looked outside.  The Volto Santo, a wooden crucifix, is housed in a small, elaborate, birdcage-like temple in the church. It is said to have been sculpted by Nicodemus in Jerusalem and set afloat in an unmanned boat that landed on the coast of Tuscany, from where wild oxen miraculously carried it to Lucca in 782.   It also contains the tomb of Ilaria del Carretto.  This young bride of silk baron Paolo Guinigi is so realistically realized that the statue was nicknamed “Sleeping Beauty.” Her nose is partially worn off because of a long-standing tradition of lonely young ladies rubbing it for luck in finding a boyfriend. Here are some pictures of the church, the Volto Santo, and the tomb.

Then we went to Piazza dell’Anfiteatro to find a place for lunch. The piazza was originally a 10,000 seat Roman theater which sat just outside rectangular city wall.  With the fall of Rome, the theater was gradually cannibalized for its stones and inhabited by people living in a mishmash of huts. The huts were cleared away at the end of the 19th century to better show off the town’s illustrious past and make one purely secular square (every other square is dominated by a church) for the town market.  The square is really an oval.  We had a great lunch.  Here are pictures of the square, I mean oval.

Then we headed for Pisa.  We parked and immediately walked to the tower.  It was much more beautiful than we though it would be.  Here’s the history from Rick Steves’ book – “The Tower was built over two centuries by at least three different architects. You can see how each successive architect tried to correct the leaning problem—once halfway up (after the fourth story), once at the belfry on the top. The first stones were laid in 1173, probably under the direction of the architect Bonanno Pisano. Five years later, just as the base and the first arcade were finished, someone said, “Is it just me, or does that look crooked?” The heavy Tower—resting on a very shallow 13-foot foundation—was sinking on the south side into the marshy, multilayered, unstable soil. The builders carried on anyway, until they’d finished four stories. Then, construction suddenly halted—no one knows why—and for a century the Tower sat half-finished and visibly leaning. Around 1272, the next architect continued, trying to correct the problem by angling the next three stories backward, in the opposite direction of the lean. The project then again sat mysteriously idle for nearly another century. Finally, Tommaso Pisano put the belfry on the top (c. 1350-1372), also kinking it to overcome the leaning.  After the Tower’s completion, several attempts were made to stop its slow-motion fall. The architect/ artist/ writer Giorgio Vasari reinforced the base in 1550, and it actually worked. But in 1838, well-intentioned engineers pumped out groundwater, destabilizing the Tower and causing it to increase its lean at a rate of a millimeter per year. It got so bad that in 1990 the Tower was closed for repairs, and $30 million was spent trying to stabilize it. Engineers dried the soil with pipes containing liquid nitrogen, anchored the Tower to the ground with steel cables, and buried 600 tons of lead on the north side as a counterweight (not visible)—all with little success. The breakthrough came when they drilled 15-foot-long holes in the ground on the north side and sucked out 60 tons of soil, allowing the Tower to sink on the north side and straighten out its lean by about six inches.”

We tried to go into the Duomo but we couldn’t get tickets.  Here are pictures of the tower and church.

We returned to Riomaggiore and had dinner in the apartment.  Here’s a picture from our apartment of the sunset that evening.

 

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April 16, 2018

After breakfast, we took the train from Riomaggiore to Monterosso, the western most town of Cinque Terre and furthest from our home base of Riomaggiore.  The train ride was quick and easy and the view of the Mediterranean Sea was gorgeous.

Once in Monterosso, we went to the beach, which was right next to the train station, and all put our hands into the Mediterranean.  Then we collected rocks along the beach.

We wandered around Monterosso old town for awhile, including stopping at a little church.  Monterosso is very small so it didn’t take that long.  We made a coffee/gelato stop.

Feeling refreshed, we started our hike to Vernazza.  It started out as mostly up on rocks and stairs along the waterfront.  It was very narrow and often we had to stop to let someone pass.  After a long up it was relatively flat and then mostly downhill.  Mike was consistently out front and often waiting for us.  The views were spectacular.  The hike took us about 2 hours.

Finally we arrived in Vernazza.  Wow what a quaint little Italian town.

We had lunch.  Rick says it was the best lunch of the trip so far.  We wandered around town a little and then took the train back to Riomaggiore and our apartment.

We showered and relaxed a little while before getting back on the train to go back to Vernazza and dinner. We had a very special dinner at Belforte over looking the ocean.

Nancy is taking the picture and the waiter is sitting next to Mike

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April 15, 2018

Today was primarily a travel day.  We left the apartment and    caught the 9:00 water shuttle to the airport where we picked up our car.  We drove from Venice to Riomaggiore.

We began our trip by driving on very local roads, some were just one lane, through farms and small towns.  We stopped at a restaurant in Maglio, about half way, and had a wonderful pasta lunch with all the other Italian families out for a Sunday lunch.

After lunch we decided we were willing to get back on the highway and expediate our travel.  We arrived in Riomaggiore around 5:00 pm, parked our car in the town lot, and followed the directions, up 114 steep steps, to our apartment, lugging our suitcases all the way.

It was worth it.  The view from our apartment is magnificent.  It’s a pretty nice apartment too.

After getting settled we explored the town a little and got groceries.  Here are some pictures of the coast from town.

We got some pasta and pesto in town.  Pesto originated from the Italian Rivera, so it’s a specialty of the region.  We came back to the apartment and Rick and Mike made a delicious dinner.  After dinner we planned our day tomorrow.  Stay tuned to find out what we do tomorrow!  😉

Here’s a picture from our apartment of Riomaggiore at night.

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April 14, 2018

Nancy and I started our day by going to San Marco Square and San Marco Basilica while the guys went grocery shopping.

I think we got the better end of that deal.  We listened to Rick Steve’s tour as we walked though.  The mosaics are truly spectacular.  Unfortunately you can’t take pictures inside but here’s one I downloaded from the internet.

We went out onto the balancing overlooking the square.  Again spectacular. Here are pictures.

Then we walked back to the apartment past the bridge of sighs which is an enclosed bridge is made of white limestone, has windows with stone bars, passes over the Rio di Palazzo, and connects the New Prison to the interrogation rooms in the Doge’s Palace.

In the afternoon we decided take the vaporetti down the grand canal.  We walked across the island to the train station which was the start of the Rick Steve’s audio tour.  We stopped in a square for lunch, ordered our lunch and then waited 45 minutes and still no lunch so we left.  We ended up getting a sandwich at the train station.  Listening to Rick Steve’s audio I can visualize the grandeur of the grand canal at its peak.  It must have been amazing.

After our trip down the grand canal we went back to the apartment.  We packed up since we leave tomorrow and had some dinner.  In the evening we planned to take a vaporetti back down the grand canal because we heard that the palaces were lite up and it was amazing.  At my direction we ended up on the wrong line and instead went around the end of the island and only part way down the grand canal.  Frankly it was disappointing because not much was lite up.  Fewer and fewer people live in Venice because it is just so expensive.  It think it was obvious based on the number of dark palaces.  Here are a few pictures.

We got off at the bridge Rialto and walked back to the apartment.