Last Day of Vacation!

May 29, 2009

We awoke knowing it was our last day of vacation but determined to make the best of it. We walked over to the Piazza San Marco which is the historic center of Venice and within seconds realized it wasn't where we wanted to be. Boatloads of tourists were disembarking and lining the streets awaiting entrance to the Cathedrals and museums. Knowing how difficult it would be to take in any more of Venice while standing in line we opted to skip the tourist attractions to walk the streets instead. Fast forward three hours and we'd found ourselves a lovely park, meandered through the winding streets and over nearly a hundred footbridges. Leaving that afternoon we really felt that even in such a short visit we'd feasted on much of what the city had to offer, its people and its spirit and charm. We spent the rest of the day fighting immense traffic on our nearly 7 hour (should have been 4) drive back to Rome. Exhausted at nearly 11PM, we checked into the airport Marriott for what felt like a quick cat nap before our 4AM departure for home.

The amazing jasmine blooming all over Venice

A Venetian streetscape - this is one of my favorite pics from the whole trip. The hanging laundry just screamed, "real people live here!" to me and I loved that!

The fountain in one of the parks we stumbled into during our walk around the city

The Grand Canal

A blooming waterlily

A floating paradise

May 28, 2009

We woke early, grabbed a quick pastry breakfast in Florence, said goodbye to the lovely city and headed north through tunnels and over elevated highways toward Venice, stopping in Bologna for lunch at my friend Amy's suggestion. We dined in an old wine cellar enjoying delicious local fare. We arrived in Venice in the late afternoon and parked our car in one of the many structures that line the outside of the city. And then we crossed the bridge into wonderment!

Venice is a dream world. Really, I've never seen anything like it, and regardless of how I'd imagined it in the past, I'd imagined it wrong. This city is the most incredible combination of tourist attraction and real life. After getting lost, finding our way, and getting lost again we made our way to Hotel Alex to meet our host. We actually stayed at a small B&B only peripherally related to the hotel, the B&B is just too hard to find in the winding streets and canals without assistance.

After settling in we ventured out for a twilight gondola ride and a dinner of fresh fish and homemade gnocchi. The gondola ride lasted about 45 minutes and gave us a great tour of many of the internal canals as well as the grand canal. I was in love with this city! After our ride and our dinner (at a cute restaurant recommended by our host) we just walked around the city, soaking in all the Venice we could in the one night we had.

A friend we made during our stop in Bologna

The fountain in Bologna's Centro


On our way beneath one of the more than a hundred footbridges scattered all over Venice

More incredible scenery

Our gondola buddy. I normally hate birds, especially seagulls,
but he was very docile and just chattered to us

Tipsy People and Tippy Towers

May 26, 2009

This was our wine tasting tour is the Tuscan country side - AMAZING! Castello di Verrazzano is nestled on top of a hill surrounded by incredible valleys of vineyards, olive trees and persimmons. The country is gorgeous and the wine was delicious. About 45 minutes of actual touring through the winery including lessons on what makes a REAL chianti, etc. were followed by a "light lunch" and wine tasting. There was nothing light about it but we couldn't have been happier. Seated with three other couples we enjoyed their table Red, Chianti, Chianti Reserva, Super Tuscan and Vino Santo. Unlike most wine tastings you find in the States, they poured us each our tasting portion and then left the bottles on the table for us to finish. Just look at the plate, too! After our tasting and more than an hour of trolling around the grounds making absolutely certain Ben was sober enough to drive the mountain roads, we headed for Pisa to check out the Leaning Tower. What we learned was that, unfortunately, while the tower is in an old, fortified town, there isn't much to see apart from the main attraction. So after a long day of drinking and touristing, we headed back to Florence for the best dinner of our lives at Cibreo.

This dinner deserves its own paragraph. Actually, it deserves its own Oscar. Our evening began as we were seated in a lovely dining room complete with high backed leather chair and an eclectic collection of tables. Rather than handing over menu and standing before us to rattle off a list of specials, our waiter joined us at the table by pulling up a chair. As the menu varies based on a combination of fresh ingredients and the Chef's whim, there are no menus. After chatting with the waiter on the evening's menu we settled in to await the three course meal we'd just ordered. And then the house antipasti arrived. This is served to every table, unbeknownst to us, regardless of whether or not you order another appetizer. Brined peppers, perfect pecorino cheese and fava bean salad, tomato/garlic aspic, homemade potato bread, chicken pâté, i've lost track there was so much deliciousness. We followed this with traditional parmesan polenta for me and ricotta and potato flan for Ben. Then perfect chicken ricotta meatballs with bone bread for me and a spicy fish dish (that I can't remember the name of because it's September as I write this) for Ben. Our dessert included a delicious flourless chocolate tart that has been a house specialty for 25 years and a bitter Sicilian marmelade ricotta and mascarpone cheesecake.

What can you possibly do after a meal like that except meander through the streets of Florence and marvel at its wonders which seem to be as well represented in the kitchen as they are in history!

One of the many olive trees of the Vineyard's property

Persimmon Tree

Wine barrels on our tour

The bottle room at Castello di Verrazzano

Our fantastic "light lunch"

The Vineyard

The leaning tower

I can count to 462, can you?

May 26, 2009

We spent our day enjoying the sites and sounds Florence had to offer. Stepping into the Duomo we marveled at its simple decoration as compared to the many cathedrals we'd already seen. But the trip to the Duomo wasn't complete until we climbed the 462 narrow steps to the top of the dome, to look out over the whole valley. An incredible sight! Before the Duomo we stood in another museum line to see the David. The hilarity ensued when Ben picked up his camera to snap a photo and this giant woman came screaming at him in heavily accented english, "NO PHOTO!" Now, we're good tourists and we heed signs that prohibit photography and we hadn't seen one. After five minutes of searching, we finally found one sign printed on a normal piece of paper hanging high on the wall. Perhaps you wouldn't have to employ that absurd woman if you invested in a decent sign people.

Our illicitly obtained photo of the statue of David

The outside of the Duomo

The dome

The view from the top of the Duomo, worth every step

No "kid"ding around...

May 25, 2009

This was the most frustrating day our trip by far. Knowing we couldn't leave Rome without seeing the Sistine Chapel we waited the hour required to enter the Vatican museums. And we saw the Sistine Chapel. And that was about it. So packed in with tourists, with barely enough room to move our elbows, the museums were so crowded that we found our tour difficult to enjoy and after a short time we decided our best bet was to make our way to the Sistine Chapel and resolve to come back in the off season to see the rest of the museum. After our Vatican jaunt and a delicious neopolitan pizza lunch, we picked up our car and headed for Florence. Three hours of beautiful Italian countryside, followed by a quick, late dinner and off to bed, exhausted from our travels.

Because it was so crowded, it was difficult to get any high quality pics,
but I couldn't leave without a pic of the goat, I heart him

Our Roman Holiday Continues

May 24, 2009

Sightseeing galore. St. Peter's, both the tomb of the Popes and the Basilica, the Colosseum by day, the Spanish Steps, the Pantheon and a walking tour that took us along the beautifully tree lined river and through some Roman neighborhoods that made me wonder what it would be like to just pick up and move. We ended our day with some of the best food of our trip (not THE best, hold for Firenza on that but certainly close). Eating on an open rooftop patio, we enjoyed carpaccio, authentic carbonara, perfect, flaky sea bass and delicious Italian wine with each course.

The length of St. Peter's Basilica

St. Peter's assembled for a Papal Mass

This inset was called "Conversion of the Pagans" - last I checked the best way to get someone to do what you want is to stand on them, literally or figuratively. okay, off my soapbox, this one just one of those things that irks me.

Ben was getting photo happy and snapping lots of me. Ignore the crazy hair, but notice the cardigan, worn especially for the modesty police.

The Spanish Steps - clearly quite full of tourists, but we made our way to the top anyway

The exterior of the Pantheon

The dome of the Pantheon

The interior of the Colosseum

An Italian Whirlwind

Yes, I realize it has been, I hate to say it, nearly three months since I last posted. And I'm still catching flack about not having said anything about our Italy trip. So starting here is a whirlwind tour of our Italian vacation.

May 23rd, 2009

We arrived in Rome on Saturday after a few hours spent waiting in the airport. We caught a terrifying* cab ride into the Centro Storico to our hotel (*Italian cabbies are like Greek ones, they believe death and/or maiming do not apply to them while behind the wheel). Checked into our lovely, air conditioned hotel without incident then set out on foot in search of dinner. We stumbled into a place just up the street that had a touristy vibe but the food possibilities seemed worth the risk. Three delicious courses later we found ourselves back on the street meandering our way through the tourists at the Trevi Fountain. After the fountain we wound our way through the quieter streets toward the Colosseum, which all lit up at night, is a sight to behold. After we'd looked our fill, we headed back to the hotel for some much needed rest.

The Trevi Fountain at twilight (thanks to Ben you can't see the throngs of tourists scattered in front of the fountain, pays to be tall)

The Colosseum at night