Florence - Got the Feeling

We weren't much looking forward to having to be in Naples again, if only for a little bit, to catch the train to Florence, but it was fine in the end. The bus ride from Amalfi was fantastic, with cliff-hanger views, and misty mountain top villages. The mountains and water surrounding Naples and Capri provided us with quite a re-entrance to the city, and being a clear blue day, we could see all around. Once in Naples, we hesitated to get off the bus too early since that is exactly what we did our first time into Naples by train. This time, we actually passed our stop, at the Stazione Centrale, but realized it quickly enough to ring the buzzer and get off within a block or so. We snaked our way through the crazy maze of taxis, whistling drivers (at Vee of course), other tourists, scooters, buses, construction detours, etc., and went to the same ticketing office as before. The first two EuroStar trains were both full, so we took the InterCity costing just 5 EUR a piece...yay!!! We had just enough time to get a little coffee and sandwich snack and then run to the train for our 4 hour trip. Our seats weren't exactly together, but we could see each other, and were facing each other caddy-corner. Towards the end of the trip, we saw the train ticketing "enforcers" surround some young guy who had apparently stolen aboard and was trying to sell bootleg CDs to passengers, and they gave him a good hollering. It looked like they woulda tossed him off the moving train if they could've gotten away with it. The countryside on the way into Florence was so gorgeous, so much more beautiful than I was expecting. It's weird, because if you try and describe it to someone who has never seen it, it would probably sound pretty hum-drum, not so special. But, somehow, although it's just a bunch of green rolling hills, spiked with rows of trees, the occasional flock of sheep our pasture speckled with cows or horses, and farmhouses in the tuscan style, it is really something special to see. And upon coming into the city, I could immediately see that I was going to like it. I loved the design of the buildings. Most were within a limited range of height, with similar use of wonderful stone in the corners, offset by brown wooden shudders, typical terra-cota colored roofs, and mostly off-white, creamy and mustardy-yellow stucco. Another young couple from California tagged along with us to our hotel, which was only a few blocks walk from the train station. After checking in and getting situated, we found a piazza lined with ristorantes offering plentiful menus and outdoor seating, and had a fantastic meal. My favorite was the locally recommended soup called "ribollita" that I absolutely have to make when we get home. Every round was delicious, except that towards the end of the meal, our waiter was paying much more attention to the people walking by, then the people at his tables, and it took us forever to pay and leave.

Saturday morning, we took advantage of the wireless Internet connection available in the lobby and uploaded all of our blogs, pictures and videos that we've been unable to upload since our first trip to Naples. Around noon, we had finished with all that, had some coffees and pastries and went out to explore Florence. And that is really what we did, explore. We walked and walked and walked. We got inside of the Church of SS. Annunziata, which was absolutely gorgeous, while they were finishing up a service. We also went into the Duomo, and then paid for the opportunity to climb the twisting steps all the way up to the top, and it was soooooo worth it as the views from up there were staggering. From there we had 360 degree views of the city and all of it's surroundings. The sky was a hazy blue and we could see pretty much as far as we wanted. We saw the Ponte Vecchio which is a bridge built in the 14th century and is the only one in the city to survive the bombings during WWII. We hung out in front of the Piazza dei Pitti and people-watched in the warm sun, having just finished a loaf of bread we picked up during our walk along the river. There is so much more that we saw, and so much more we wanted to see. Having walked all day, we were looking forward to a relaxing night back at the hotel, and so we picked up some chianti, beer, bread, fruit, chocolate, etc. and finished off the day quietly looking forward to the next.

Sunday, we quickly jumped online to book our next stay in Siena, and then headed out to the Galleria degli Uffizi. Sunday is "gratis" day for the museums, and the length of the line reflected the absence of admission fees. We waited a solid 3 hours to get in. But it was worth it. What a fantastic collection of work. We saw Botticelli's Venus, Titian's Venus, Rembrandt's self-portraits, Carravaggio's Bacchus, Leonardo da Vinci's Annunciation, and a plethora of other famous paintings and sculptures. Afterwards, we were pooped. That is a whole heckuva lot of art to see in one day. We continued walking around the city, and stopped to people-watch on the steps of the Duomo in the warm sun. Another day of perfect weather, despite the questionable forecasts. Yesterday, we picked up two new books, "Saturday" by Ian McEwan for me, and "The Birth of Venus" by Sarah Dunant for Vee, and tonight we'll probably relax with some munchies, read, get to bed at a reasonable time, and confirm our reservation for Siena.

Really the one thing we do not like about Florence is the horde of tourists. The city is absolutely jam-packed with them (us). Otherwise, it is a fantastic city, beautiful, secure, orderly, etc. We'll definitely have to come back again as there is so much more to experience here. But, for now, we must move on. Next is Siena, then Pisa, then Venice, then Milan. Hopefully we can squeeze in a bit of Tuscan countryside too.

Amalfi - A Dream

Wednesday, I set the alarm for 6:15, and was out of the room by about 6:30 to see the sun rise and get some pictures and video. It was a beautiful morning, and I walked around a bit, then came back to the hotel to see what Vee was up to.
(Vee reporting) Our first full day in Amalfi was exploratory for the most part. We were happily surprised to learn that breakfast is included in the daily room fee, so we took full advantage of that. Afterwards we headed towards the city. Alfami is a very old town with a happy energy about it. Tourists and young students filled the small streets and stores. We walked all the way until reaching the end of town where we found an open market.
The views of the incredibly blue-greenish waters are so breathtaking that we decided to sit on the main beach and take in the beautiful view. At the same time we realized that an eclipse was scheduled to occur and we were able to witness a partial disappearance of the sun for a few minutes, as well as a pack of crazy kids running into the ocean for a swim.
After a delicious lunch break, where we shared pizza, calzone and dessert we decided to walk towards the next town (Ravello). We didn't get to the center of the town, but we escalated the Ravello-steps all the way to the top! We must've walked 1km upwards, even though it felt like 10 km. At the top were some beautiful views of the water and town below, as well as terraced lemon trees, orange trees, building ruins and waterfalls.
By the end of the day we stopped at the grocery store for some wine, bread, and all kinds of delicious toppings to share for dinner. The night ended quietly in our hotel room, just like we wanted.
Today, Thursday was the very first day in a long while that we actually relaxed pretty much all day. It was so needed. It gave me time to finally work on the videos that you'll hopefully enjoy very soon. Cliff spent his time sitting on our gorgeous balcony taking the warm sun and reading his 800+ pages book "The Historian".
Besides a short lunch break in town we stayed "home" all day. Tomorrow we are heading to Florence...the butterflies in my stomach are already flying high :-)
What would I say about Amalfi if anybody would ask me about it? It is truly a dreamy place, gorgeous beyond words, a piece of paradise, the perfect landscape for a fairytale. I've loved every second I have spent here with my prince.

Rome - Tuesday - To Coastal Amalfi

Tuesday, we got to know Sue and Ernie a bit better, as well as another mother-daughter team from Philadelphia (daughter from Lansdowne, mother now up in Maine) of all places. After hugs and goodbyes and settling up the bill with Anne and David, they took su to Zagarolo station, where we missed our first train, but made the second, and were soon back at Termini Station where we bought our tickets to Salerno on the Amalfi Coast. We had an hour or two to kill, so we went in search of a new electrical adapter since the one we've been using successfully for the last week or so seems to have kicked the bucket. Finally, we found alittle tobacco shop that sold them, and bought a "fancier" model that will work all over Europe. We had some coffees at our little "Illy" shop, and I had a sandwich, we browsed books in English at the bookstore, and then ran to the train. The train ride was very pleasant and comfortable, and once deposited at the train station in Salerno, we had to figure out what bus to take to get to Amalfi, where we had reserved a room for the next 3 nights. With some help from a few friendly guys in the station, we bought our tickets, found our stop, and then headed across the street for a snack while we waited for the next bus to arrive. Late, we boarded the bus, and were off to Amalfi. We learned about having to validate our bus tickets, by writing our origin and destination cities on them, and were reminding of the importance of doing this when the ticket validation agent fined the girl seated in front of us 35EUR or so for not having hers correctly validated. The ride to Amalfi was absolutely staggering. It was a full-size bus, and the road was a cliff-hanging twisty-turny hairpin-curvy little two-lane stretch populated with other buses, scooters, trucks, cars, and pedestrians. With only a little concrete wallk about 3 feet hight for protection from the rocky edge, we could look straight down the edge of the jagged cliffs into the waters below. The views were from the bus were some of the most amazing I've seen. The water a deep green-blue, with mountains that explode out from underneath. After about a breath-taking ride of about an hour and half, we arrived to the gorgeous seaside town of Amalfi. And, our hotel, "La Bussola" was right there, just a few hundred feet away, right on the water. I honestly was quite leary of how our accomodations were going to turn out because of how ridiculously cheap the room was (60 EUR/night) in comparison to how the pictures looked online. Well, it is much more than we could have expected. I guess because it is in the midst of some painting, and renovations, and because it is still off season, the price was lowered. But our view is amazing, and the whole place appears immaculate. What a find!!! And, when we got off the bus, and guy from Austrailia told us about a little pub, Willie's Place, just up the hill, that served bitters, ales, stoudts, lagers, etc., with free Internet, cheap long-distance International calls and all the sports on satellite TV...guess where we were going?!?!?! After checking in, taking some video, and unpacking, we headed out for a walk, and lounged out on the beach, and the pier, taking lots of pictures, and then hiked up the side of a cliff up to Willies. Inside, we met David, a friendly, but difficult to understand English chap, who set us up with a Tetley's better and a StrongBow cider. Eventually, the rest of his crowd, Steve and Willy, showed up, and another mother-daughter duo from the States (Alabama and Chicago) to indulge in a few pints. Willy was quite a trip, and actually quite helpful with restaurant recommendations and instructions about getting to the supermarket. After a few, we said our goodbyes and promised to return. It was dark, and so we carefully navigated our way back to the hotel, and called it a night.

Rome - Monday - Vatican Museum and Spanish Steps

Monday, it was back to finish Rome. Our goal was to do a guided tour of the Vatican Museum (Sisteen Chapel), and to experience the Spanish Steps. Despite our efforts to get their early, taking the 9am train and then the Metro across town, we did not get to the Vatican until after 10am, and by that time, the line was wrapped around the Vatican, block after block. We didn't get quite to the end of the line when a rep from a tour company told us about a tour starting in 10 minutes. Realzing that the wait in line would probably be a few hours, and already being prepared to spend the bucks on a tour, we quickly agreed to do the tour. Another rep lead us to an ATM and back to the tour office and within moments, we were rounded up with a group of 25 or so other folks, and lead into the museum without any further delay. With our tickets in hand, and wireless headsets on and functional, the tour began, our guide being a pleasant Italian young lady. I don't think I've every experienced a more crowded museum, in fact, I don't think it could have been any more crowded because if it was, you'd have to double-up on people's shoulders to get around. We litterally shuffled, shoulder-to-shoulder, nose-to-neck, down the halls, into the gallerys, until finally reaching the Sisteen Chapel where we were left on our own. I thought it was a shame, since there was so many amazing pieces to see. It is my opinion, in hindsight, and after talking to some other folks (specifically, Sue and Ernie, some super-friendly new guests at Anne's Place) that we may have been better off waiting until the early afternoon to get into the museum, when the lines were almost completely gone, and foregoing the guided tour. Maybe, at that time of day, there would have been fewer people shuffling around, and we would have been able to see more of what we wanted to see. On the flip-side, we would not have had the thorough explanations of the pieces we were looking at, but, we could have just rented the self-guided audio tour headsets, and accomodated that issue. Anyway, crowds and expense aside, it was a very worthy experience and the Sisteen Chapel is spectacular, as is the Rafael room, which I enjoyed even a bit more. We walked back through the other leg of the museum, and exited for a small snack, before walking over to another section of the city that Han and Trudie recommended, for an afternoon lunch. We loved this part of town, with it's plethora of sidewalk cafes, bars, pizzerias, and ristorantes. After perusing a number of menus, we finally found just the right spot, and for 10 EUR each, had a tasty 4 course meal of bruschetta, pasta(penne, lasagna), meat(chicken, veal) and dessert(flan, tart). To finish the day, we hiked it back over to the Spanish Steps and with the sun shining brightly, lounged on the steps and people watched for close to an hour. We got a kick out of the young Italian guy with his huge gold-rimmed dark sunglasses, tight blue pants and gold jewelry, playing his guitar and singing like he was an outtake from "Italian Idol" (if there is such a show). Also, the smooching German couple to our left had Vee in a tizzy, and they finally had to take their smooching elsewhere before it got even MORE out of control. We had a bit of ice cream, then crammed into the Metro for a quick ride back to Termini, and headed "home". Luckily, Anne's sixth sense kicked in, and she just happened to think that we might be there at the train station, and sure enough she was right, and we got a quick ride back from Zagarolo station. Since our lunch was quite filling, we weren't hungry for dinner, even though we had planned to go into the little town for a meal at the restaurant David recommended that everyone has been raving about. Once again, after some computer-work and reading, off to bed.
(Vee reporting) Adding on to Cliff's notes of the day, here are some of the highlights that personally had the strongest impressions on me. This section of the log might be a bit boring, so please feel free to skip this part and move on to the next day, since this is mostly a recollection of impressions meant to be a document for ourselves over time.
- Unfortunaley it was forbidden to take pictures in the sistine chapel. This explains the bad quality of the 2 most famous pictures that I was able to take (under the table). Sorry :-(
- Most of the Vatican museum's floors, walls and ceilings were decorated with marble and finished stones stripped from the Roman Coliseum.
- Michelangelo as well as Leonardo Da Vinci was obsessed with perfecting the human body in their sculptures and paintings. Most of their learning came from working with cadavers (forbidden at the time!) to understand the anatomy of men and women, and they also used as primary inspirations some of the original Greek sculptures of Hercules, Neptune and Ulysses.
- It took 4 years for Michelangelo to complete the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (alone!). He painted STANDING on his feet rather than laying on a hanging platform. The restorations of this same ceiling were done from 1981 to 1990 (more than TWICE the amount that it took to paint it).
- Raphael and Michelangelo worked at the same time in different parts of the Vatican Museum. While Michelangelo was charged with the Sistine Chapel, Raphael was assigned with painting the walls and ceilings of the preceding galleries. A strong sense of competition emerged between these two; however after Raphael saw some the finished ceiling in the Sistine chapel, his jealousy turned into admiration and respect towards his colleague. When painting an homenage to the greatest philosophers of all times, he used Leo Da Vinci and Michelangelo as faces for Aristotle and ..respectively.

Rome - Sunday - Small Town Living Outside the Big City

Sunday, we needed a bit of a break from all of the Rome activity. We got up for a bit of breakfast with the gang, then came back to our room to do some reading, and computer work, and get some more sleep. All of the late nights, relatively early mornings, and nonstop walking during the day has been taking a toll. Around 1pm, David drove us to the top of the mountain in town, which is just a few kilometers away. At the very top, we were able to see a 360 degree view of the area. David pointed out a few landmarks so that as we wandered back down the mountain, we'd hopefully end up in the direction that would get us back to their place. On our way down, we got all twisted up, and had a tough time finding the trail. A few dead ends, and we finally agreed to take the road down as far as we needed to just so we could know that we were going in the right direction. We got to see a side of little Italy that was quite interesting. Little old ladies struggling to get up and down the steep steps but then quickly slipping inside their front door, a little old googly eyed man poking his head out from his doorway to watch us go by, a young father playing with his daughter as she drove her toy car atop the bumpy stone road. We finally found our way, actually, by following some other folks that looked much more local than us. We found the museum, and the old temple, and did an audio tour. Once back into town, we tried to get into the restaurant David recommended, but it was not going to open for a few more hours. We were getting really hungry, since we didn't have any lunch, and we'd been hiking most of the afternoon, so we found a corner pizzeria instead where we shared delicious rectangular slabs of plain cheese, naked, onion, mushroom and sweet pepper pizzas, and the biggest can of Coke we've ever seen. With our bellies full, we found a little sweets shop and loaded up on a few munchies for late night, and then with Vee's amazingly detailed memory and keen sense of direction, made it back to Anne's Place, even foregoing David's offer to drive us the last two kilometers, as he just happened to be driving by with some new guests. It was getting dark by the time we got back, and it was not long before we were ready for bed.

Rome - Endless Sights, Humbling History, and New Friends

Our train ride to Rome from Naples was a snap, and after a few phone calls to Anne, who is the keeper of our next destination, "Anne's Place" about 40 KM outside of Rome, we arrived to Zagarolo, and were met by her wonderful husband David, and whisked off for a good nights sleep in the country. The kind of absolute silence in the middle of the night there is something I had not experienced in quite a while, and when the sun came up early the next morning, the views of the countryside and surrounding mountains were amazing and exhiliarating. She fixed a very nice breakfast, and we met the other two couples around the breakfast table, Han and Trudi from Holland, and Joe and Alex from England, all of them being fantastic people and alot of fun. Anne drove us to the train station and got us situated with our train tickets. The 6 of us stuck together and talked some more on the trainride into the city, and then went our separate ways for the rest of the day. It was so much fun to have a group of folks to be a part of, despite our different backgrounds, nationalities, etc., we all felt linked in our foreign-ness, and excitement of being here in Rome.

So far in Rome, it has been wonderful. Although the weather on Friday was not completely compliant, and we were soggy most of the day, we got to see and do alot. The highlight being a wonderful guided tour (worth every cent) of the Colliseum, Palatino and Foro Romano. Our first guide was and English-speaking Italian with a biting sense of humor and captivating in his own way. Our second guide, Tony, was a PhD student from England, having 22 years experience studying Roman history, and a first-rate whiz! Tony's knowledge of EVERYTHING Rome was astounding, and his passion was unmistakeable. Tony was able to explain, with dates, and names, and full context, just about anything you might want to know. As usual, most of the day was spent walking and walking and walking, and the next day, Saturday, was no different except that the weather was fantastic. We've been to and through so many important and historically significant buildings and monuments that it would be silly to try to list them all here. Alot of them, we've captured on video and in photos, so we'll let those explain. The main point is that Rome has to be one of the most extraordinary cities in the world. It is beautiful, and just so literally significant to so much of what we in the Western world take for granted. Our heads were spinning, literally and figuratively, from the get go. Around every corner is another amazing something or other demanding your attention. Just when you think you've seen everything you realize that you have hardly seen anything yet as there is always something more to see and learn about. Some of the highlights for Saturday include the Pantheon, Vatican City (we got to see the Pope himself during the 12 o'clock's service in Plazza San Petro), the Fontana di Trevi, the "Time Elevator" show and the walks through the lively piazzas. After an exhiliarating day, we were happy to meet up with Han and Trudi at the train station and spend some time getting caught up before Anne picked us up for the ride back to our "home sweet home away from home". All day long, we were kept looking at the tops of the sightseeing buses, hopeing we'd see Joe and Alex, and we were sad that they were leaving, as we would have liked to get to know them better.

(Becky, if you are reading this, you were right, the food and beauty here in Rome is amazing!!!)

Naples - Wrap up

After a long sleep, feeling mostly recovered from the travel follies of the prior 48 hours, we began our exploration of Naples, which took us through the next day, Thursday. Vee hit the nail on the head in her description of Naples as a FRENZY. The city is beautifully situated on the coast, but the large industrial-looking port is most of what you can see along it's coastline. There is a large castle that we walked through on Thursday, and from there, you have very nice panoramic views of the city, marina and water. The pizza in Naples is excellent, as that is where it was invented, and we had it for lunch both Wednesday and Thursday. Pretty much all we did was walk, when the weather cooperated. Actually, our first full day, Wednesday, it started raining, very heavily, early in the afternoon. We tried to brave it, but it was coming down so hard, with no letup in sight, that we decided to call it a day, and head back to the hotel to read, write, and relax. Finally the rain eased up, and we walked around some more, and had a very nice dinner, although not exactly what we thought we ordered. On the menu, we chose a "pizze", assuming it was just a different spelling for a pizza. But, it really was something different, a bit like a calzone, except it seemed to be fried, and had no sauce or veggies in it. Fairly tasty, just very rich. Thursday, we had to check out, but they let us keep our bags there, so we made a full day of it, exploring more of Via Toledo, the main shopping and business district in the old city, and the waterfront.

Overall, Vee enjoyed Naples more than me, and was better able to appreciate it's beauty than I was. I tried, and I wanted to like it. It was very hard for me to get past the city's overwhelming roughness. It is rough in its architecture. For instance, not even the trendiest, touristy streets were spared from graffiti, garbage, crumbling walls, dog crap, hanging laundry, etc. And the non-trendy/touristy areas, are dark, very narrow, dirty and just plain "shady". It is rough in it's manners, where we witnessed screaming, arguments, hand gestures, etc. It is rough in it's traffic. Whether you are on foot, in a taxi, or on a scooter, the rule is that there are no rules. It is just plain survival; try not to kill anyone, and try not to get yourself killed; always be first, at any cost. We felt pretty insecure the whole time, and always "on guard", so as not to be run over or mugged.

On a more positive note, eating is inexpensive, and pizza is good anywhere you go. It was a good experience for us, as it opened our eyes to the uniqueness of the South of Italy, and it's specialy personality, love it or hate it. Also, it was good for us in that it have given us more of an appreciation of the other places we've been, and those that we still look forward to visiting.