More than half a year ago, on a cold, lazy weekend, Tobia suggested that we consider going to Italy for the Spring of 2011. It was contrary to our decision to work from Eastern Europe to the West, but I shrugged my shoulders and said sure. About an hour or two later, Tobia even more excited this time, suggested we not only do a Rick Steves Best of Italy tour, but that Best of Southern Italy would start the next day, also in Rome and we should add that as well.

Over the course of the next couple weeks, our plan took shape, and we were set to head to Italy for 31 days!

On May 4th we flew out of SFO to London to Milan. We landed in Milan just prior to noon and took a taxi to our hotel.

Duomo in Milan

Buzzing square

It was a nice hotel, close to the Duomo, and afforded us the ability to walk out there really easily despite being tired. The plaza right in front of the Duomo was buzzing with people, street entertainers and plenty of shady characters.

We had lunch at one of the side restaurants just beside the plaza.

Right afterwards we headed to the statue at the square to meet a group for a 3 hour walking tour of Milan. With this group we walked into the Duomo, then continued on to the fashion center. We saw a Napoleon statue as well as one of Leonardo da Vinci around the city hall and then continued on to the Castello Sforzesco.

Milan fashion and shopping area	Inside the Duomo	Nice stained glass in the Duomo	Duomo
Newly designed shopping area	City Hall	Statue of Leonard da Vinci	Castello Sforzesco
Castle grounds	Castle	Castle

Santa Maria delle Grazie

The original ‘Last Supper’ fresco by Leonardo da Vinci

From there, we had an appointment at the Santa Maria delle Grazie to see the original “Last Supper” fresco by Leonardo da Vinci. It was huge and really impressive.

After our tour ended, right around 5pm, we took the tram towards the Duomo and ended up getting off at the next station, and walking out there because we hadn’t exactly figured out how the public transit ticket buying system worked. Once back at the Duomo Square area, we went into a small hole-in-the-wall restaurant recommended by our guide. We had a pizza pocket like dinner, which was delicious; it was us and about 2 dozen other folks all eating outside standing enjoying our food together.

We eventually climbed up to the top of the Duomo and got some nice views of the square and of Milan. After getting our fill up there, we came down, got some gelato, then turned in to our hotel lounge for some snacks and to finally get some sleep.

Duomo

View from atop the Duomo

Steeples

View of Duomo Square from above

First Bank of Italy, Milan

Despite holding out until 10pm the previous night, I struggled to sleep until about 4:30am. At 7am we went downstairs for breakfast and ate heartily.

Milan Central Train Station

After breakfast we walked to the “First Bank of Italy” very close to our hotel. From there we checked out and took the subway to the central train station in Milan. After getting train tix to Varenna, we went upstairs for coffee overlooking the whole terminal.

En route to Varenna

We left on our train at 10:20am. Most of the ride was not particularly beautiful, but when reaching the south end of Lake Como, the views turned really nice: mountainous and rugged.

We got into Varenna just before 11:30am, and walked up and down and through the little town, eventually climbing pretty hard to get to our hotel Eremo Gaudio. We had to take two funiculars plus an elevator to reach our 6th floor room with excellent views of the whole town, the lake, and the other side.

North side of Lake Como	Looking west across Lake Como	Our hotel room was up this funicular, plus another (that can’t be seen), then an elevator to the top	Terrace right below our balcony overlooking Lake Como
Looking across Lake Como	Standing at the terrace overlooking the lake	Typical pathway in the town of Varenna	Varenna town square

We wound down in our room, then headed all the way back down to get some lunch and gelato in town. We strolled and explored town for a little while, then came back to our to cool down and siesta.

Quatro Passi Restaurant (Varenna) dinner of linguine all’astice, one of the best meals in Italy

After the siesta, we went downstairs to meet our group. We got a quick orientation, met our tourmates, then had an informal walk through of town.

We had dinner at Osteria Quatro Passi. The food was amazingly excellent. There were 10 tables at the restaurant and it was quite lively. I had the lobster linguine and was shown the live lobster before getting to eat it. The sauce was also wonderful. For dessert, we shared a great panna cotta with caramel. This meal turned out to be one of my top meals in all of Italy.

After dinner we rolled ourselves back uphill to the hotel and turned in for the night.

We woke up a bit late this morning, hopefully putting jetlag behind us. We headed downstairs to have breakfast, and while at it, got boat tickets plus directions from our guide, Stephanie.

I was determined to climb up the hill to get to Vezzio Castle, so we headed up there, saw the castle tower, and got great views of Menaggio and the other side of Lake Como. We took a different path on the way down, reaching the dock to take a boat to Bellagio, across to the south from Varenna. But before we did, we stopped at a gelateria and I got 4 scoops of home-made goodness in a cone. I was also treated to 2 flavors the folks had just finished making while I was ordering.

Wood carving of an embracing couple en route to the castle	Looking across the lake from the castle	Castle of Vezzio	Town in the hills, visible from the castle
Atop the castle tower	Lake Como	More Castle of Vezzio	Excellent home-made gelato

The boat to Bellagio was pretty quick. We spent some time in Bellagio, then took a boat to Cadenabbia and walked on to Villa Carlotta where we saw the botanical gardens (not very exciting, I thought). But the art inside the museum in the ara was pretty nice. From there, it was a quick walk to Cadenabbia and then we returned to Bellagio.

Bellagio	Villa Carlotta	Villa Carlotta
I liked this sad art piece	Romeo and Juliet

We wandered the streets of Bellagio exploring the shops, waiting for the next boat to Menaggio. We then took the boat to Menaggio and continued back to Varenna. Had a late lunch right near the dock in Varenna- pumpkin gnocchi.

Bellagio

Nice street in Bellagio

Menaggio

Back to Varenna

A little tired afterwards, we casually strolled up to town and had coffee and some downtime in the town square. Checked into the room afterwards, got some rest and eventually met most of the group at 6:30pm for a casual happy hour. Tobia and I hung mostly outside because the bar was pretty small; we sat with Buck and Winona, and later Stephanie too, having a great and also funny conversation about our travel experiences.

Eventually Tobia and I went back to the same restaurant as we ate at last night for another great dinner, then turned in for the night.

First Auto-Grill stop

We started early today, having breakfast right around 7:30am. From there, we lugged our luggage down hill to the bus and got going just after 8:30am.

We had a quick rest stop in an Auto Grill. I enjoyed a Caprese sandwich which was delicious. From there we were off to Verona, known as the Romeo and Juliet town.

A local guide, Valeria, led us through the old town, showing us the outside of the arena, some of the streets, and even Juliet’s house and balcony from the outside. After that we saw Romeo’s family home.

Entrance to Verona	Roman Arena in Verona	Juliet’s balcony	Romeo’s family home
Verona town square	View from atop Verona’s clock tower	More Verona from above	Roman Arena
Adige River	Ancient city wall	Ponte Pietra	Clock tower
Juliet’s balcony and statue below	Tobia on Juliet’s balcony	Plaque commemorating Shakespeare

We then had free time, which Tobia and I used to climb the bell tower in Verona. It was 368 steps all the way to the top and we did it reasonably easily. Excellent views of the area, Verona, and surroundings.

We grabbed a quick pizza lunch on the go, and then got on the bus headed to the Dolomites. Again, we had a short break for 15 minutes, then about an hour or so longer to get to the Dolomites from there.

Village of Castelrotto; the air was so clean and clear

First group dinner- Kitty, Tom, Shelly, Mark and I

Castelrotto in the Dolomites reminded me very much of Swiss mountain homes I recalled from more than 20 years ago. Lots of green hills, high mountains and some were even covered in snow. Interestingly, they primarily spoke German there, then Italian, then English. It was geographically located very close to Austria and Switzerland, though still very much Italian in feeling.

After checking into our hotel we had our first group dinner of the tour around 7pm. I enjoyed our dinner group of 6 and our conversation.

We woke up just before 8am this morning and headed to breakfast. Shortly thereafter, we headed up the mountains here at Castelrotto to start a long hike. About 2/3 of the group showed up for the long hike, which turned out to be about 4 hours.

Our guide Kathy talked us through the region, the history, and we got to socialize with our group mates.

Start of hike along the Dolomites
		The folks from our group that came for the hike
	The lovely little joint was the only out-house on the hike

Around 1:30pm or so we got back to our starting point and had lunch (with Tony + Erika and Phoebe + Tom). The bus then took us back to town around 3pm. We leisurely passed some time walking around, surfing the web a bit and doing some laundry.

We stepped out to dinner and ran into Judy and Mark along the way at Saalstuben and had dinner with them. Shortly thereafter Mike and Lucille joined and the 6 of us dined together. It was a fun time, enjoyable conversation, full of good food and dessert.

After dinner we walked back to hotel together and turned in for the evening to rest.

We woke up at 7:30am, packed our bags, had breakfast, and left Castelrotto.

Church in Bolzano

Our first stop was Bolzano, a town where Otzi- the presumably more than 5000 year old mummy found in the nearby Alps in the early 90s- is housed in a museum. There was also a church, a nice town square, and a nice outdoor market that’s open everyday of the year, except on Sundays.

We had a self-guided tour of the Otzi Museum. They had the body housed there, in a -6 degree celsius chamber, along with his clothes, dagger, shoes, hat and crossbow. It was quite fascinating to see how science has helped to date and uncover the story of Otzi, as well as how he might have died.

It is believed that he may have died in a knife fight because his right hand was cut deeply. Also, his left shoulder is believed to have been penetrated by an arrow shot from a far away distance. It was really enjoyable to walk around all the exhibits and learn so much, though we were not allowed to take any pictures.

Outdoor market, Bolzano

We stepped out afterwards for a small meal in the market, and we walked around with our food. Then went into the church, explored and came back out where we met the group and headed out to Venice.

Before Venice, we stopped at an Auto Grill in Avia, just past Trento. I had a marvelous Caprese Panino sandwich.

We pulled into the outskirts of Venice just after 4pm. We took the boat line #2 from the dock out to Rialto where we got off and walked through the beautiful yet chaotic and very packed city for about 15 minutes before checking into our Hotel Mercurio.

In Venice Grand Canal, headed to Rialto Bridge		Rialto Bridge
Crossing under the Rialto

We got some orientation from our guide for Venice (it is really difficult NOT to get lost there) and headed out to a group dinner. Following dinner we had some free time and eventually met up with the group again at 9pm for a private group-special gondola ride. It was a really enjoyable and lively 40 minute Grand Canal ride, but felt like it was over in an instant. There was a lot of singing (by the gondoliers), and at some point all 5 of our group boats were moving right next to each other in parallel… really fun time.

	A common, narrow street in Venice	Piazza San Marco	St. Mark’s Basilica
Spaghetti al frutti di mare at Trattoria alla Madonna, Venice; group dinner & one of my favorite meals	View from Rialto Bridge	Tobia and I on the gondola	Rialto Bridge
Our entire group spread over 5 gondolas listening to the standing gentleman sing for us

Late night drinks in Venice

Everyone in the group turned in at that point, but Tobia and I joined our guide Stephanie for a walk to Piazza San Marco. We met up with our old guide Colleen (from Greece) at a cafe, then walked to the other side of the Rialto for some late night drinks right off the Grand Canal. It was great to catch up with her (she was leading a different tour that happened to pass through Venice at the same time as our group) and hang out late into the night, getting back to our room after 1am.

We woke up around 7am, had breakfast and headed out on a group tour of Venice with Elizabetta. She shared a fair bit of history about the area with us- talking about flooding and tides in particular- and also what every day life was like. We also had a chance to see Marco Polo’s home. Elizabetta also took us to a mask making demo where the artist showed us a live preparation.

Tobia on a small bridge in Venice

Hospital

Nice building next to hospital

Live mask making demo

St. Marc’s Basilica

St. Marc’s Basilica

During our morning walk we also saw the hospital and afterwards saw St. Marc’s Basilica on our own, after our guide let us through the quick line.

For our free time, we went up the campanile then ate at a restaurant just outside the piazza, followed by gelato. From there we continued to Doge’s Palace, where we saw Marco Polo’s maps (I really wanted to take pictures of the amazing, enormous maps, but it was not allowed and guarded quite tightly; and the postcards didn’t do the maps justice), some prisons, and much art portraying the power of Venice. We spent about 3 hours over there.

Piazza San Marco	View from Campanile
	St. Marc’s Basilica from above	Doge’s Palace
Doge’s Palace	Fancy ceiling, Doge’s Palace

Heading to Rialto Bridge in pursuit of Venetian Glass, we ultimately bought some wine glasses for Tobia’s mom. We thought about getting 2 small ones, but ultimately a set of 6 was really nice so we go those. We then stopped by a couple slices of pizza at a small pizza shop and enjoyed those while cooling down. Then we walked around for a long time, getting lost and enjoying it. Part of the walk included a search for cannollis, and when I found some they were great and worth the wait.

Piazza San Marco, sitting at an outdoor cafe

Lively atmosphere, with our group, in Piazza San Marco

Continuing to wander around, we ended up in San Marco Square getting some coffee and wine with chips. The table was really expensive, but the atmosphere was really nice. We listening to music bands, looked at the Basilica and just people watched. Some couples were even dancing in the plaza.

Eventually our tourmate Kim showed up, then Kitty and Tom, and eventually about half of our group wandered in and joined us. It turned out to be a really fun, social gathering; Tobia and I spent about 3 hours at the outdoor cafe. Eventually around 10pm we walked back to our room to turn in for the night.

We left Venice early this morning, again taking the boat #2 line to get back to main land. From there, we got on the group bus and headed to Florence.

On the way, we had a quick auto grill stop (near Bologna) then continued on towards Bologna. Apparently, this region of Emilia-Romagna is the gastronomic capitaly of Italy (though I found the bread completely devoid of taste in this area). Additiontally, the slow food movement is believed to have started in this region.

We got into Florence around 2pm, and it was really hot. I napped for about 45 minutes, then headed out to meet the group for a walking tour of Florence.

Duomo in Florence			Baptistry across from the Duomo
Baptistry		I loved this street sign	Castle in Florence, bottom right has a replica of Michelangelo’s "David"

The Duomo was very close to our hotel, and quite a site. Along our walk, we also saw the market area. Later in the afternoon, at the end of our walk, we went to the Accademia Galleria to see Michelangelo’s “David”. I found it quite magnificent. It was completed in January 15th, 1504. Later, I got to thinking that perhaps part of its magnificence is its home- the gallery where it’s housed makes it look more majestic than its outdoor copy counter-part near the Uffizi Museum. As I would go on to learn much more about sculpture on the rest of the trip, I would come to appreciate this piece even more (though it was not my favorite in Italy).

We had an enormous amount of food for our group dinner. Lots of different types of pastas in different sauces, meets and dessert. Tobia and I needed a nice long walk after dinner just to relax and digest. We also appreciated the smaller crowds and cooler weather.

We woke up before 7am, had an early breakfast and headed to the Uffizi Gallery for a group tour with a local guide. Primarily we were exposed to Renaissance work there, and our guide was excellent going at a good pace and taught me a lot.

Some pieces I enjoyed and particularly remember well were the Botticelli room, “Madonna with Pomegranate”. The famous “Birth of Venus” was also one of the memorable items there.

Uffizi Gallery	Birth of Venus	Vanishing Point style by Leonardo da Vinci
Adoration of the King – my favorite piece in the Uffizi	Michelangelo’s painting looks like a sculpture; serves as a reminder to us	View from the roof of the Uffizi

Undoubtedly my favorite, though, was Leonardo da Vinci’s “Adoration of the King” which is an unfinished work. I appreciated his scientific approach and his vanishing point style. The lines leading to a spot in the back of the picture. What I really liked about it- as the guide offered may be an explanation of this picture- is that Leonardo is actually painted into the picture, in the bottom right corner, looking away from everything. One possible suggestion for this may be that he doubts that Jesus is the son of God. This was really interesting to me.

Pendulum clock in the Galileo Museum

Planetary clock

After the Uffizi, we went to the Galileo Museum nearby. It housed some great clocks, telescopes, thermometers, weather gauges and other advances in science between 1000 – 1900. It was all very interesting to me.

Arno River and bridge

Heading out of the museum, we saw and walked along the Arno River.

We then had lunch not far from our hotel, good pizza and salad. Got excellent gelato right across from hotel: pistachio and strachiatella.

Following lunch, we stood in line and got tickets for climbing to the top of the Duomo. We climbed 463 steps to get up top. It was claustrophobic, cramped and steep in various areas of the stairways, but we made it up eventually. There were awesome views of everything: Arno River, other towers, Duomo itself and surroundings in general.

Nice stained glass in the Duomo	View from atop the Duomo
		It was a pretty cramped trip up and down the Duomo top

Following the descent we returned to our hotel to wind down for a bit, then headed out to the Duomo itself prior to closing time to explore inside it. It was quite impressive inside- apparently it is the 3rd largest basilica in the world- and had very nice stained glass.

Inside the Duomo

Tobia (and a hundred other people) in front of the Duomo

I decided to get a beard and head shave at a nearby barber’s. It was quite a cool experience as we could barely communicate with each other, and the guy wielded a pretty hefty straight edge blade at my skin level.

We took it easy at Scudiere Firenze Cafe right next to the Duomo afterwards. It was very pricey but charming. We sat there for hours, slowly sipping coffee, eating a bit of dessert and passing time reading Rick Steves’ book about Cinque Terre (the next day’s plans), preparing to do a long hike there, and Tobia wrote some post-cards.

Around 7pm we decided to turn in- I wrapped up my notes for the day, noted that the Sharks won their series in 7 against the Wings (following a 3-0 series lead) and afterwards headed out to a nice simple dinner.

Florence from the other side of the Arno River

Duomo, Florence

We woke up early, had breakfast and hit the road quickly in the morning. We headed up the hill above Florence, on the other side of the Arno River and got good looks at the city from above. It reminded me a bit of Budapest (being on Buda, looking at Pest).

On account of the good weather, we headed to Cinque Terre directly without stopping at Pisa first. Weather is more important at Cinque Terre than Pisa, so would happen on Monday.

En route, we stopped at an auto-grill in Lucca for lunch. I had my usual caprese panini, with OJ and some of Tobia’s potato chips.

The bus stopped at Levanto, just north of Monterosso. From there, we took a short train ride into Monterosso. Half the group was at one hotel close to the water, and the rest of us were up the hill a bit higher.

Cinque Terre, Monterosso

View from our hotel in Monterosso

Monterosso beach

It was very hot, I put on sunscreen, and we ultimately went on the group hike. We took the train all the way down to Riomaggiore and walked the trail of love to Manarola. Prior to the walk, we had gelato at Riomaggiore. The trail to Manarola was quick.

Riomaggiore	Looking back on the "Trail of Love" walk, headed to Manarola	The symbol of the "Trail of Love" near Riomaggiore
Looking at Manarola	Manarola	Manarola

To Corniglia the trail was blocked, so we took the train to Corniglia, and then walked to Vernazza. That was a long, tough trail with lots of uneven rock stairs going up and down. It was hot and humid, and there were lots of people on the trail. There were a few special spots with great views of the sea and the ports in the towns. But otherwise, not all that impressive. Mostly inland uphill/downhill walking, with not much sea.

Stairs leading out of Corniglia towards Vernazza	Looking back at Corniglia	I liked these public water fountains for drinking and cooling down	Cold water on my bald head
Looking back at Corniglia	Vernazza up ahead	Vernazza	Nice food and drink break after our walk: me, Marc, Hal, Gene, Stephanie and Dino

At Vernazza, we caught up with the few in the group who had also just finished and went down for beer, chips and peanuts. Then at 6:29pm caught the train back to Monterosso.

We had just barely enough time to wash up then headed off to lovely group dinner where we sat with Tony and Erika, Phoebe, Tom, Shelly and Kim. We had a nice conversation about travel and books. We also saw a cool pesto making demo by restaurant and hotel owners.

We had lasagna plus fish and small salad for dinner. And almost an ice cream/gelato cake like dessert, then sweet wine. We were really tired afterwards and turned in for the night.

We ‘slept in’ this morning, get up just before 8:30am.There was home-made foccacia as well as hand-made marmalade inside home-made croissants, the best I’ve ever had! And I had 4. Amazing!

The skies were dark gray and heavy, so it seemed like it was gonna rain, plus the weather.com said so too, so we figured we’d skip out on the walk today from Monterosso to Vernazza. But when alone ran into Stephanie in the hotel hallway who urged and convinced me to go with Tobia.

So we did, we headed out around 10am and walked the toughest stretch of Cinque Terre to Vernazza. It was challenging, but beautiful and rewarding. There were lots of hikers and English (as well as a bit less French) on the trail.

Monterosso beach from trial to Vernazza	This image reminded me of the coast back home in NorCal	Hillside vineyard	Looking back at Monterosso
Looking South down the coast	Tobia, en route to Vernazza	Vernazza

We pulled into Vernazza around 11:30am and went to the Castello restaurant, recommended by Stephanie, who knows the owner. We shared salad and spaghetti, delicious, and then cake and coffee. On our way out, we said hi to Monica, told her Stephanie sent us, and she insisted we sit down for some lemoncello and local sweet wine. We sat outside on the balcony and enjoyed that for a while.

Then said thanks and bye, continued up to the castle above, to the top of it and got excellent views of the towns to the south, as well as Monterosso up north.

Then went down to the harbor, walked around and ultimately took the 1:50pm train back to Monterosso. Once back, we walked through the tunnel, then went to the harbor in Monterosso, looked back at town, and took some pics.

We climbed back up to hotel and had gelato along the way. Checked back into room to dry laundry, wind down, internet, and capture the day’s events.

Then we went to the hotel lobby area to hang out. I read up about Sienna, Lucca and Pisa.

I called my parents, Tobia’s parents and my brother over skype, it was nice to catch up with all of them.

We went to dinner at Il Posso off one of the tiny narrow streets. Had incredibly good fish ravioli with excellent sauce and shrimp. Licked off and finished everything. Then went to small cafe for coffee and dessert. It was one of my favorite meals on the entire tour.

Then I sat around on the balcony watching twilight come in, relaxing. Then wound down for the night.

We woke up at 6:30am this morning, had an early and delicious breakfast again, and headed for the train station at Monterosso to get to Levanto. At Levanto Dino drove us by bus to Pisa.

We spent about an hour and a half in Pisa. It was really hot and also extremely crowded. More so than probably anywhere but the Parthenon in Athens as far as my travels go.

The Field of Miracles area which includes the Dome, the Church and the leaning Tower is quite nice. First we walked into the Church. Saw a lantern there looking like pendulum, related to Galileo and his experiments to determine the speed of light. I found that interesting.

Field of Miracles	Cathedral at Pisa	Baptistry at Pisa	Inside the Cathedral. In the center is the "Lamp of Galileo"
The Leaning Tower beside the Cathedral	The Leaning Tower	When we pulled up close to the Tower, I felt vertigo

Then we spent about 30 minutes taking pictures of the leaning tower and looking at it from different angles. It actually gave me vertigo to come close to it, I’m glad I didn’t even think about climbing it. Tobia and I each had a slice of pizza just outside the Field of Miracles. Frankly it wasn’t that it was bad, it was simply bland with no flavor. Still it held us up.

We hit the road for about 30 minutes and stopped at the small town of Lucca, a medieval town which was quiet and slower paced- not as many tourists there.

We climbed the tower in Lucca and noticed oak trees growing from the roof of the building. Never seen anything like that before. Came down and had lunch at an outdoor cafe. Again pizza, which wasn’t great but not bad either. From there continued to the amphitheatre. No longer one, but is a nice outdoor plaza with restaurants and shops. Tobia and I shared a gelato (95% me – 5% her) then walked the perimeter of Lucca (ramparts) until we reached our group meeting spot and just after 3pm we got on the bus again, headed to Siena.

Lucca Cathedral	View of Lucca from atop the town tower	Oak trees growing on the roof of the tower
Lucca town center plaza	Walking along the city wall through a tree-lined walkway	Italian country-side along our route to Siena

En route to Siena, Stephanie offered us marvelous almond and pistacchio cookies with almond paste inside them. Divine! She gave me an extra because I hounded her to the back of the bus for extras. Then at the end another, cause she still had more left (had 3!).

She talked to us about Italians being image conscious people. Recommended the book “La Bella Figura” to us. Had nice discussion with her about how it’s the families that are close here, not the same warm culture we seem to think of them from US.

There was road-work on our highway just before Siena, so we got off and took small roads to get there. Many jams in town, so we slowed down and got to see and take pics of beautiful Tuscan views, fields and homes.

Got to hotel in Siena around 5:30pm, at 6:15pm had welcome drinks at the terrace. Then group dinner at 7:30pm. Before dinner, we walked around the town, saw the Il Campo which was beautiful. Big plaza with lots of restaurants and the cathedral and bell tower right next to it.

Il Campo and Bell Tower, Siena

Amazing ribollita: reboiled soup made with leftover bread, beans and vegetables; one of my favorite meals in Italy

The beautiful Il Campo

Bell Tower and Il Campo

Dinner was excellent! Twice boiled veg soup with beans, then everyone had veal porcini, but I had chicken in olive oil. Dessert was home made almond cookies and sweet wine. Sat with Lucille, Mike, Winona and Kris. Enjoyed talking music and other stuff with them.

After dinner, stopped at Il Campo for pictures with Kim, then leisurely strolled back chatting.

Today was our anniversary. We woke up early and headed to breakfast, in preparation for our guided tour of Siena at 8:20am with Annalisa.

We talked about the contrada- the neighborhoods (17) and the sense of belonging to them and the competition between the different hoods. These competitions manifest most obviously twice every summer when 50,000 people collect in the Il Campo for a horse race involving the best 10 neighborhoods.

Romulus and Remus, the twins who according to legend were raised by a she-wolf and founded Rome

Church in the Turtle part of town

Video footage of one of the horse races in the Il Campo

Coffee shop with the best ricciarella cookies

En route to the “Turtle” section of town, I snuck into Nannini, a pastry/cookie shop recommended by Stephanie, for ricciarella cookies: a local delicacy with almonds and/or almond paste. In the “Turtle” section we pulled into a church and saw Il Campo horse races from the past, in particular those where the sea-shell won, because Annalisa is from there.

Then we went to the Duomo together as a group. Saw great stained glass of Last Supper there. Also saw “St. Paul” by Michelangelo.

Siena Cathedral	Inside the cathedral	Last Supper stained glass
St. Paul by Michelangelo	Inside the cathedral	Nice ceiling

After this, Kim and I climbed the city clock tower. Great views of Siena and country side as well as churches and Siena itself from above. Came down to see Tobia having lunch with Tony and Erika; all 5 of us had lunch together (Il Campo Plaza).

View from atop the Il Campo clock tower
Sea shell shaped plaza		Baptistry

Afterwards, Tobia and I went to the Museum, Baptistry, Crypt then back to the Duomo again. We stopped by a coffee shop, one we had visited earlier in the day as part of our group tour. We had coffee/tea and ricciarellas again, the best cookies I had in all of Italy.

Stained glass work in progress in Masimo’s studio

We found an internet center recommended in the Rick Steves’ book. We spent some time there catching up on emails and things. We then continued to the Il Campo waiting for our group, and then at 5:20pm headed as a group to a stained glass artist’s gallery. There, Massimo showed us how he does his work. It was quite interesting to see the cut glass, the fitting into the picture, soldering, painting and heating involved.

Afterwards, Tobia and I roamed for a place for dinner; we decided on a place, then returned to the hotel to clean up and go have dinner. We had a late night delicious dinner looking right at the big plaza. I had picci which was excellent. Then we had some gelato and turned in for the night.

Trasimeno Lake

Again we woke up early today, had breakfast and hit the road as a group by bus towards Assisi. En route, we drove past Trasimeno Lake. A big battle took place there and 24,000 Romans died. It was said the lake flowed with blood.

Following the lake, we drove past Perugia, known for its excellent chocolate. Perugia and Assisi, for historical reasons, have been competing with each other- and not liking each other very much- for a long time.

Just at the base of Assisi we got to see the Santa Maria degli Angeli Church. It houses the Porziuncola Chapel. We walked around the area, saw the rose garden and stopped at the store afterwards. We saw a couple of Korean Nuns, and I greeted one of them in Korean and got a friendly reply back.

Santa Maria degli Angeli Church	Porziuncola Chapel inside the Church	Looking up at Assisi on the hill from the bus	View from Assisi down the hill
Church in Assisi	Castle up on the hill	Town clock tower	Town plaza
Nice stairway path	St. Francis’ Church	Nice ceiling colors	Tobia outside the St. Francis

Afterwards we drove up the hill to the top of Assisi. We stopped at the main plaza and had lunch. We then had a group tour of the upper and lower portions of St. Francis’ Basilica. We ran into the mayor of town and took a group picture with him.

Poppies

We headed off to Umbria around 3:45pm. Around Pontecuti, we drove by a section of country-side full of poppies, so we stopped the bus and took a short break to look at and take pics of the flowers.

Vineyard in our Agriturismo and nice regional views

Just before reaching Orvieto, we passed by the beautiful Lake Corbara. There was even a dam on the far end of it.

This area of Italy is the only completely land locked part of the country. It is called the “Green Heart” of the country. It is known for its olive oil and good wine.

We checked into our various rooms which are distributed all over this tourist agriculture farm ‘hotel’. We met up at 6:30pm for wine tasting from their actual vineyards, then had a nice long dinner (Buck, Judy, Tom [his birthday was today], Kitty and Kitty).

Turned in around 10pm ending a long but action packed day.

We had a nice, slower than usual breakfast today. We had an optional activity to go into old town Orvieto to see the Duomo, market, and get nice views over the Umbrian region valley around us.

The bus took us up the hill and parked. From there we took a funicular to almost the top of the hill. A mini-bus that drives from the funicular station to the Duomo picked us up and took us to the top of the hill, right next to the Duomo.

The Duomo had quite a gaudy decorated facade, which was also quite tall and wide, tough to get a solid picture of it. We went inside as a group and I immediately noticed exceedingly high ceilings. We went inside the San Brizio Chapel and saw Signorelli’s frescoes there.

Church at Orvieto

There were many churches in Orvieto; I liked this tower next to the church

Afterwards we strolled around and eventually took a short break for coffee and dessert at the Internet Cafe there. Then continued walking to the market- lots of fresh fruits/veggies/nuts and even hats and clothes there. Strolling further, we saw more churches and plazas along the way.

Umbrian Region from above, in Orvieto

Eventually we stopped at a small pizza shop and ate outside under a small terrace at the front. From there we went down to the funicular station area, walked the city walls and appreciated the amazing views down below us.

Around 1:30pm, our group convened in the station, and we made our way back to our agriturismo hotel around 2pm.

Free time from 2pm – 7pm (dinner time). Gathered folks’ emails with Tobia so we can all share pics. Also rested, interneted, and read for a while.

Also found music on youtube from the musician Stephanie played for us in the bus yesterday: Eros Ramazzotti. In particular, I’ve known his “Ahora Tu” song for 20 years now, I think (never knew it was his, nor the language).

I spent some time reading my “The Nature Principle” book, then took a nap. Tobia created a group website album thing for all of us to share pics. Afterwards we stepped out for a long stroll, then sat outside gazing at the country-side while reading about Rome and the Borghese Museum.

Back in our Agriturismo, looking out at Orvieto

Dino and I

We had a nice group dinner at 7pm. At 9:30 we turned in and did some more reading preparation for Rome.

We left Orvieto early in the morning, leaving behind our Argiturismo. Our bus stopped about an hour and a half into the drive at an auto-grill, our last for the trip. I picked up a caprese sandwich to go.

We got into Rome at 11:30am roughly. We checked in and did a short orientation walk. At 2pm we walked to the subway and took the B line to the Colosseum. Our guide Francesca took us through the Colosseum, doing an excellent job describing to us how the Romans wanted to be remembered in time and to establish a sense of eternity. We also learned that the gladiators weren’t necessarily for violence, but for some level of control over the people. Apparently commoners got free tickets and free food to get them to come, then killings were to show obedience and establish a sense of fear. Then finally the gladiators were included for entertainment.

Colosseum		By some accounts, it’s believed the emperor would have sat here, on the short end of the ellipse, to get a good view and be in control
View looking out from the Colosseum	Arch of Constantine		Leaving the Colosseum

I really got the sense that it was hard to pass judgment on them, as all of these “ups and downs” were useful in the time of the Romans to keep society under functional order.

Following the Colosseum, we wealked to the Roman Forum area where we saw the Archs of Saturn and Titus, Arch Settinio, Temple of Vestel Virgins and Caesar’s funeral pyre.

Roman Forum
Arch Settinio	Arch of Titus in the background in the right; view of Roman Forum from the other side

After the long Roman Forum area, we continued on to the Campi Deglio which contained Michelangelo’s statues. We also saw the Victor Emanuel Church.

Our guide Stephanie treated our group to gelato, which was a wonderful and welcome surprise following the immense heat. After this short break we walked to the Pantheon. Its architecture is roughly 1800 years old, and was really impressive inside. Raphael was buried in there. But the most amazing thing to me was the open roof which is at the top of an enormous dome (which up until the 1900s was the largest in the world). The light inside and the whole sense of wonder in there all comes from the open roof, whose hole is roughly 5 meters in diameter.

Outside the Pantheon, I am intensely listening to interesting facts about it

The 5 meter diameter hole in the roof of the Pantheon

Magnificent lighting inside the Pantheon

One of the most memorable things for me in the Pantheon was seeing a bird feather swing back and forth like a rocking pendulum as it slowly made its way from outside, through the hole in the dome roof, and all the way down to the floor over the course of a few minutes.

It was said that Michelangelo came to the Pantheon every day for the last few weeks of his life, and I can see why he did so, the place was really magnificent and unique.

We stopped to rest as a group on the fountain beside the Pantheon, having been on our feet for the last 5 hours. Tobia and I had dinner alone at a cafe restaurant right next to the fountain.

Piazza Navona

At 8:30pm we gathered together at the fountain for a group walk of Rome starting at the Pantheon. We started by going to Piazza Navona. A concert was taking place there and it was really lively and lovely. We walked around the elliptical perimiter shape of the plaza.

Continuing to walk, we saw the Temple to Hadrian and surrounding plaza.

The city was full of nazones- water fountains shooting out water from the river below. In English, nazone means big nose.

Trevi Fountain

One of our final stops for the evening was Fontana di Trevi. It was quite large and looked beautiful lit in the dark. There were very many people there and was quite lively.

St. Peter’s Basilica

Finally, we climbed one of the 7 hills of Rome and go to Quirinale Plaza. From there were could see a lit up St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican a good distance away. It was beautiful. The president of the republic lives in the big building of the plaza we were at.

This marked the end of our very long day- Tobia and I walked the 15 minute stretch back to our hotel and checked in following a very very long and tiring day, but also an awesome and exciting one.

We woke up at 6am this morning, had breakfast at 6:45am, and were already headed as a group to the subway to get to the Vatican. We hopped on the A line and went 5 stops to get off at Octavio.

From the station we walked to the Vatican Museum. Already before 8am the lines were very long, but apparently compared to usual, quite short. Still, having a reservation ensured that we’d get in pretty easily, which we did.

There was so much art to look at: tapestries, paintings, sculptures and maps, it’s impossible to talk about them all. But prior to the Sistine Chapel, which is a good couple mile walk into the Museum, I really loved and appreciated the Raphael room (Stanze of Raphael) which has one of his greatest works- School of Athens- in which he honros the great pre-Christian thinkers. Apparently he added Michelangelo at the end after simply being moved by his greatness. He is the lonely, almost forlorn looking thoughtful figure in the front.

Vatican Museum	Garden at Vatican Museum	Right around the entrance to the museum, I really like the ceiling colors	Hallway full of famous statues
Laocoon Statue; the man who warned the town about the Trojan horse, his warning ignored	Dionysus
	School of Athens	Spiral staircase leading out of the museum

After that, we went up and down a maze of stairs and finally ended up walking into the Sistine Chapel. My first thought in there was how much taller the chapel was, than I had imagined. Also learning that Michelangelo worked in there for 4 years tirelessly, with his hand up, and how much it took out of him was very interesting.

It was absolute loud, chaos in the Sistine Chapel, but also amazingly colorful and full of classics with historical and religious meanings. The “Last Judgment” and “Creation of Adam” were most well known to me, but lots of others decorated this chapel.

We forced our way out as a group over the course of about 30 – 45 minutes, eventually working our way out of the Vatican Museum.

We took a walk along the Vatican Wall on the outside and entered St. Peter’s Basilica Piazza. From there Tobia and I broke off to get some lunch, tired from standing on our feet, and also hungry. It was also unbearably hot. We sat at a small pizza restaurant eating and cooling down.

Afterwards we went back to the Piazza and stood in line- it seemed it would take forever to pass the x-ray inspection + clothes inspection to get into the Basilica. The line was easily a few hundred yards long. Well, it took just a bit over 30 minutes from the end of the line until the time we saw Michelangelo’s Pieta behind bullet proof glass inside St. Peter’s Basilica.

In front of St. Peter’s Basilica	Michelangelo’s moving Pieta inside the Basilica
	St. Peter’s statue. Hundreds of folks constantly walk by him rubbing his big right toe believing it will bring them good luck		St. Peter’s Basilica

Jubilee door – gold cross that everyone wanted to touch. Bernini’s 7-story canopy: bronze taken from Pantheon. Dove stained glass window, 6 feet tall. Spot where St. Peter was crucified. There’s a chapel there now. Entombed popes. Also saw lots of people standing in line to touch the toe of the statue of St. Peter.

From there, I took the camera and headed to the Cupola, the Dome at the top of the Basilica. Different places list different number of steps, but I think it’s 551. I climbed them running up, often taking them as twos. Didn’t want to feel clostrophobic or uncomfortable so went at it fast. Took about 6 minutes to get to the top. Walked around the perimeter taking lots of pictures. Then came down just as fast.

View from atop the Cupola

I met Tobia, upon my return, gave her the camera, and she went back inside to take more pics. Then we went to get some gelato and took the subway back to our part of town in Rome.

Checked into our room, showered, rested, wound down in preparation for 7pm farewell group dinner near our hotel.

Our farewell dinner was nice, we had good conversation with most of our group, eventually said our goodbyes and turned in for the night.

We woke up at 6:30am to get to breakfast by 7am. We met Stephanie and a handful of our tourmates while having breakfast. We said our final farewells and headed out walking to the Borghese Museum for our 9am reservation there.

We got there at 8am, chatted with an American couple that’s traveling through Italy for a couple weeks, and eventually ended up taking a guided tour with them through the museum.

Our guide was great and showed us the great art there. The pieces I was most impressed by were the “Rape of Persephone” (by Pluto), and “Apollo and Daphne”. There were so many other great works by Bernini there, and the place was colorful, well maintained, and clearly the home of a rich family.

Borghese Museum

Rape of Persephone

Apollo and Daphne

Aeneas

David

Following that, around 11am, we walked to “Il Barocco” a restaurant we had eaten at 2 days ago, recommended initially by Stephanie. We each had a pizza and shared a salad. It was good to rest and get off our feet after all the morning walking.

From there we continued to the Victor Emanuel Tower, taking an elevator to the top and getting great views of “Rome from the Sky”.

Tobia in front of the Victor Emanuel Tower

View of St. Peter’s Basilica in the distance, "Rome from the Sky"

Roman Colosseum and Forum from above

It was unbearably hot, so we went to the same gelato place as from 2 days ago with the group when Stephanie treated.

Mamartine Prison was next for us, just outside the Roman Forum area. We had a loosely guided tour that showed the prison St. Peter was in and its harsh conditions.

Mamartine Prison

Building under which prison was found

Statue in Herod’s market

Herod’s market

After that, we walked to St. Peter in Chains Church not too far from the Colosseum. Michelangelo’s “Moses” is there, quite impressive with the statue’s long beard and seemingly pensive face.

St. Peter in Chains Church

Michelangelo’s Moses statue in St. Peter in Chains

Moses

St. Peter in Chains

We were right next to the Cavour Metro station, so hopped on the first line for one station (tremendously packed cars in the subway), then switched lines and got on to the 2nd line for another station before pulling into Republicca.

Once close to our hotel, we pulled in to a small pizza/pasta joint nearby, had some food and checked into our new room at the same hotel. Feeling tired and dirty, we wound down in our room, Tobia doing laundry and I jotted down the events of the day.

Quirinale Plaza

Went down to internet for a while. It rained very hard this evening.

Went out to dinner around 7pm or so, got recommendation from guy at front desk. Very nice, enjoyable dinner just the two of us, almost 2 hours. Had spaghetti and clams plus Creme Tartufo. Walked back to our room and went to sleep.

Slept in for a change today, still waking up at 7:45am. Had breakfast, ran into Larry and Wendy plus another woman here in Italy on her own.

Took the Metro out to Flaminio, walking through Piazza de Popolo. From there walked to the Spanish Steps, climbing to the top for good views in the heavy heat. Lots of people out and about there. Also, on subway, down the escalator, it seemed to me two guys had a pick-pocket plot against us, but I immediately turned around going down the escalator to watch Tobia plus the two guys and have a hunch I foiled their plot. Though speaking with Larry this morning, he got pick-pocketed yesterday 40 euros from his pocket. Seemed to have a good attitude about it though.

Flaminio area right outside the subway

Piazza del Popolo

Spanish Steps

We sat in Spanish Steps top area in shade, figuring out where to go next.

Saw the Tiber River from the Cavour Bridge. Then went to Ara Pacis where a monument for peace was built inside the building.

Tiber River from Cavour Bridge

Ara Pacis monument built for peace

Augustus’ Mausoleum

Saw Augustus’ Mosoleum afterwards (round, couldn’t get very close).

Piazza Navona

Had lunch at Piazza Navona (Tucci).

Piazza di Monte Citorio; statue erected in honor of Augustus’ victory over Cleopatra and Marc Anthony

Piazza Colonna; statue of St. Peter

From there walked around, saw a couple of monuments (lots of crowd, dude with loud speaker, and lots of police surrounding and enclosing the area). Piazza di Montecitorio: Obelisk commemorating victory over Marc Anthony and Cleopatra. Piazza Colonna Obelisk.

Had long walk back to Hotel Aberdeen, collected all of our stored belongings, asked front desk gentleman for a taxi, and stepped out to see the taxi come get us.

Took the cab out to the other side of the Tiber river and to the south some, and ended up at our hotel for the 2nd trip- Casa San Giuseppe.

Settled in, Tobia did some laundry, appreciated room size/air/space, and I went downstairs to internet and catch up on everything we’ve done in the day.

Piazza di Trastevere

Had welcome get together at hotel at 5pm. Met everyone and chatted. Then headed out for an orientation walk. Walked through part of the Ponte Sisto bridge. Passed Ponte Garibaldi and Isola Tiberina, an island in the Tiber river. We then walked around Santa Maria in Trastevere.

We looped back to our neighborhood and had a really excellent dinner at Il Fontanone. Chatted with our groupmates Ray and Karen. Had too much to eat, then walked to hotel + added an extra small walk because we couldn’t bear being so full.

Church on Isola Tiberina

Tiber River

Our group started on a walking tour headed to Isola (Island) Tiberina to meet our guide Francessca. Tobia and I also had her on our Best of Italy tour for the Colosseum, Forum and Pantheon.

We saw the church on the island as well as the hospital.

From there we continued to the Jewish Ghetto area, noting that Jews had been living there since 200 BC. We came across a Synagogue as well as a Jewish Art Museum. We walked through a Jewish neighborhood, also seeing the local restaurants there.

Jewish Ghetto

On October 1943, Jews were evacuated from this neighborhood. There is a plaque on the orange building with this date.

Jewish neighborhood

New homes built on top of old architecture

Afterwards we continued on to the Capitaloni Museum, right off the Michelangelo plaza, which we have seen a few times already. The Museum was great, with lots of statues and sculptures from as far back as 1800 years ago. There were giant statues of Constantine outside in pieces.

The first few we saw, of Aurelius, were absolutely amazing in their three-dimensionality, and expressiveness given the narow frame in which to work. Also saw copper version, enormous, of Aurelius on horse, giving mercy to someone after battle by raising his right arm (not allowed to take pictures).

Constantine

Nice, 3D Marcus Aurelius sculptural carving

Also saw bust of Brutus (not the Caesar one, but ancestor) with an intense look on his face, done very well. The eyes were very expressive and real looking, also from about 1800 years ago.

Twice fried artichoke in Jewish Quarters restaurant

Our tour for the day ended at around 12:30pm. We headed to lunch at the Jewish Quarter area, stopping at an artichoke specialty place. Their specialty is Artichoke prepared Jewish style. It was a twice fried artichoke with olive oil and salt, as far as I could tell. And it was delicous!

We also had fettucine with artichoke amazing pasta and a caprese salad which was great. Excellent meal. Then had gelato and walked back into our hotel to seek shelter from the excessive heat.

We ended up taking an afternoon nap for about 3 hours. We got up just after 5, slowly gathered ourselves, and eventually went walking in pursuit of some nice views of Rome.

We climbed up to Fonte Acqua Paola. Continued climbing up to Garibaldi Monument. Then Faro al Gianicolo. Great views of St. Peters and Rome from there. Walked down to see Castel Sant’ Angelo back down. Then Piazza di Giustizia.

	Fonte Acqua Paola	Garibaldi Monument
	Faro al Gianicolo	Castel Sant’angelo	Corte di Cassazione
Castel Sant’angelo	Campo de Fiori

Stopped at market to get bust of Caesar. Crossed Ponte Umbarto bridge. Walked down river again, on other side. Cut in to see Campo di Fiori. From there, walked around our neighborhood until we found a charming place to have dinner.

Pulled into a small place, sat outside and enjoyed a delicious, slow, good conversation dinner, just the two of us.

Came back to hotel, interneted for a while and called it a night.

We started the day off early, leaving Rome around 8am as a group by bus. We drove passed Cimitero Verrano, a large Cemetery in Rome.

Shortly thereafter we stopped to see the Tivoli Gardens and Hadrian’s Villa. We saw the Pecile, Philosopher’s Hall, Naval theatre, Niveum, Central Cammarelli, small/large bath, Canipus, Serapeum and the Museum. There were also two fairly large pools. It was also extremely hot there.

Model of Hadrian’s Villa	Teatro Marittimo		Philosophers Hall
	Common area

Following that, we drove through the Apuan Mountains. Many lovely towns on hills, and also valleys. We stopped at an auto grill for lunch: Civita Nord. The local treat here was a waffle like cookie (le ferratelle).

Had a quick bus stop around Sulmona. Passed through Chieti, Pescara, then headed south and saw the Mediterranean. Passed Tremoli, close to the sea. Had bus stop just past Puglia, 30 minutes. Passed by beautiful Peschichi, lots of cramped white colored homes on hill above the sea.

Peschichi

Vieste, Puglia on the Gargano Peninsula

We pulled into Vieste around 6:30pm, walked to our hotel, while our bags were brought in, and prepared for the apperitif at 7:30pm, while I interneted for a little while.

We woke up at 7, had breakfast, and headed to the port to take a boat ride south along the Gargano Peninsula coastline. Along the way we went into a lot of grottos and saw some old fishing posts. It was almost a 3 hour ride. Mostly, around the area were sandy beaches, and sparse rugged coastline too.

Vieste harbor			Fishing post
Monolith in next beach over			Inside grotto

After coming back to shore we went in pursuit of gelato and an ATM.

Then had pasta making demo for lunch. We learned how to make orchiette and a few other types of pasta local to this area. I actually tried to make them myself.

I’m not so good at hand-made pasta

But those two guys were

White beans and pasta, incredible meal!

We sat down for lunch with Jeff and Marci and enjoyed conversation. LOVED THE FOOD: ear shells with olive oil and broccoli looking thing. Then had extra thick spaghetti which was square, with tomato sauce (used a tool called guitar to make it). Finally had white beans with almost cork-screw pastas. Then had cherries, salad, biscoti + muscato. This turned out to be one of my favorite meals in all of Italy.

After that, went for an afternoon walk, since barber was closed. Walked to a castle. Walked down to sandy beach where monolith was in the next beach over. Then all the way back to main street- had artiginale gelato to cool down afterwards.

Vieste from above

Looking out from our roof-top restaurant

Then I got my head & beard shaved. Checked back into room, showered, cleaned up, and prepped for 7 o’clock happy hour.

Had a chance to chat with many of the tourmates during the happy hour.

Decided to head out to nice views pizza place above the hill from our hotel. Had very nice shared pizza, red wine and water dinner, lingering to chat for a long time before turning in after 10pm to go sleep.

We left the Puglia region early in the morning, driving south out of Vieste. There were lots of olive trees and olive oil in this area.

We passed Manfredonia on the way out as well, then got on the A14 autostrada towards Bari. At Foggia was the split south to Bari.

We had an auto-grill stop at Daunia, I picked up a caprese sandwich there which I ate later on the bus.

Then we passed through the city of Bari, not seeing much of its coast, but more of high rise apartment buildings and lots of industry. There was also a large stadium in the city.

We had our 2nd stop at Le Fonti with the bus.

Eventually we got to Alberobello, where they have the famous trullo houses. They are basically dry stone huts with cone shaped roofs. They are most well known in Alberobello.

We had group wine tasting with snacks in one of the stores beside the trulli. Most remarkable were the almond/orgit cookies, but also fig marmalade was excellent.

Wine tasting and snacks in Alberobello	Inside a trullo		Trullo
Trulli

Then went into actual trullo museum. Nice, cool and with thick walls and limestone cone roof.

Walked around after, took pics, then sat down at cafe before bus to Matera.

En route to Matera, we learned about Carlo Levi, an Italian-Jewish writer/activist (among other things) who wrote a book called “Christ Stopped at Eboli” criticizing the south of Italy, it’s backwardsness and poverty. It is believed the south has since developed due to his raising awareness about the area.

Just before Matera, we pulled up at lookout point of the town. When we got to town, we walked around for a little while and eventually arrived at our cave hotel. It was really hot and humid all around town, including our cave room.

Matera; looks thousands of years old

Our cave hotel room

A while later we had a group dinner and enjoyed some good food. From there, Tobia and I took a walk back to the town plaza and eventually turned in for the night.

We had a group walking tour of Matera from 9am – 12:30pm. We saw the Ancient Town called the Sassi. Homes were created inside the rock of this region, often housing a family with 8 kids and their livestock too.

We walked into a cave church, saw the old town (completely unchanged) and the new town (where we’re staying).

Sassi	Mini Sassi; a father and son built this… really impressive
			Church
Common family living situation		Main town square

Had gelato towards the end. Afterwards had lunch on a terrace overlooking the valley and the Sassi. From there went to the National Archaeological Museum in town, then to the Carlo Levi Museum.

Walked back to the room to wind down before the 6:15pm buddy meetup meeting, to be followed by the 8:45pm EUFA finals match.

Had siesta after taking a shower, then went down for buddy meetup.

Bar where we watched Barcelona win the EUFA cup 3-1 vs Manchester United

Met Dorothy, owner of the hotel we’re at. Chatted with her for a while, then did buddy introductions.

From there, went with Jerry+Barbara, and Jeff to watch the game (Barcelona vs Manechester United). Could not find bar, even after asking about 10 people for location, so watched at another bar. It was funny to stand there in the middle of the street and follow people’s hand gestures to try to guess and understand what they were saying as far as finding the actual bar. What was even funnier was how 4 friends might each point in a different direction then proceed to argue with each other, and then with me. I did really appreciate their good intentions though.

We had dinner while watching the game and afterwards walked back to the hotel to sleep.

We left Matera in the morning headed to the Campania region of Italy, in the south west. After a short break, and a total of about 3 hours of bus driving, we stopped at an Organic Water Buffalo Farm called Vannulo.

En route, we talked with our guide Nina about contemporary Italy. We talked politics, health care, government, differences between the cultures, Mama’s Boys “Mamone”, and how Americans view Italians and vice versa… interesting stuff.

At the Water Buffalo Farm we went on a tour, seeing the workers pinch smaller and smaller chunks of mozzarella cheese while showing the softness and richness of it. From there, we went to see the Water Buffaloes, and even saw how they get robo-auto-milked, whenever they want. It’s all clean, organic and impressive, the animals are treated very well- we got to see all the steps involved in the animals’ lives, including a massage brush they’re allowed to use.

Vannulo Water Buffalo Farm		Not a bad existence
Milking machine	After giving milk the Water Buffalo are free to eat

After this we got to sit down for a fantastic lunch consisting of all water buffalo based milk: riccota cheese, mozzarella cheese, excellent olive/anchovie bread, greens salad, and divine cherry tomato salad. For dessert, banana flavored yogurt, then either a choice of gelato or cappucino. All really great!

Riccota cheese (first time I ever enjoyed that)

The triangular mozzarella pieces were excellent

More food

Even more food

From there, continued down the road for 5 minutes to get to Paestum. Some of the best preserved Greek ruins can be found there. We saw 3 well preserved temples there. At the museum, saw slabs from tombstones from roughly 6th century bc. In particular was a diver image on tomb, looking like he’s jumping off the columns of the temple.

Paestum
		Museum; much of the art focused on various battles and killings
Face carved into rock	Tomb of the Diver, probably the most well known piece in this museum

After that, drove passed Battipaglia and Salerno, which overlooked the Mediterranean, big port city, from above. Salerno is just before the Amalfi Coast. Due to driving restrictions and only 1 lane in each direction, we had to drive around, and curve back the long way into Positano. Because of that, we were able to see the Bay of Naples in addition to Mount Vesuvius- the view from the bus was spectacular. We also passed Seiano, beautiful views of water and towns far away and below.

Bay of Naples and Mt. Vesuvius

The 3 Islands, said to represent the remains of the three sirens who tried to tempt Ulysses

Saw Li Galli Islands just prior to Positano. 3 islands, supposedly as a result of sirens trying to temp Ulysses on his way back home on sea. Presumably these 3 sirens tried to tempt Ulysses, but failed, so they died and became those 3 islands. Beautiful.

We got off the bus a few miles before Positano, as it was too large and not legal to drive, and got in a smaller bus (2 actually, div’d group to 2). Got in after 6pm, did some laundry, took lots of pics from nice view but tiny balcony. From there 7:15pm meeting with group, walked down to the beach, oriented and figured out where to get tix for possible activities tomorrow.

Positano

Lovely roof-topped restaurant where Tobia and I had a great dinner

After that walked up the only street in Positano up the hill about 20 minutes and had most charming, delicious, dinner just the two of us. “Il Capitano”. After that, came back to our room around 11pm, went to lobby to internet and catch up on the day before shutting down for the night.

We woke up late today, at 10:15am with no alarm. It felt great to sleep in, though we missed breakfast. We did some laundry and ended up walking outside of our hotel.

We walked to Positano harbor just in time to catch the “jet” boat to Amalfi at 11:20am. We got to Amalfi just before noon. Had lunch outdoors under umbrella then went into Amalfi Cathedral. We saw the Cloister of Paradise, Basilica of the Crucifix, the Crypt of Andrew and the Cathedral itself.

Leaving Positano for Amalfi	Amalfi		Amalfi Cathedral
			Mother-of-pearl cross

We got gelato on our way out, walked around, including the harbor edge, and then sat at a cafe in the shade drinking lemon ice tea until the 3pm boat came.

On the boat ride back we got great views of Amalfi and Positano as we got closer.

Coastline back towards Positano
The 3 islands said to represent the sirens	Positano

We got in around 3:40pm. Walked up to top to get the classic views of Positano. Then walked back to our hotel room, to clean up and wind down before heading down to the breakfast room to internet and catch up on the day while reading blogs and journaling.

My buddy Dona, and I. I’m sporting a tiny Canadian flag pin- she had just given me- on my hat.

We had a 7pm group dinner and afterwards went uphill for a short walk, where we got fantastic views/colors/pics of Positano from above. Then continued down to the beach, walking to the end where the last of the restaurants are, before turning back and returning to our room.

We took a minivan bus from our Positano hotel, and headed back up the hill and out of town. Just before 9am, we met up with our driver Maurizio, and headed with our group bus to Pompeii.

Entrance to Pompeii

We got there around 9:30, met up with our guide Guitano, and went on a fantastic tour of Pompeii! It turned out to be my favorite place in all of Italy.

I think we were there for about 4.5 hours. Pompeii is preserved because Mount Vesuvius errupted prior to 100 AD. Under the soil and rubble is an amazing glimpse into a Roman city, from about 2700 years ago, possibly longer.

It was amazing to see how water would have flowed from a mountain about 21 miles away with basic pressure principles into the city. The streets, and delineations of 2 way or 1 way and cross walks, as well as “dead ends” to stop ‘traffic’ prior to the city square/plaza where people could socialize… I could not believe how advanced they were, and how many of our basic city building fundamentals come from back then.

Street leading to town square	2-way street marked by 3 rocks, plus serves as a cross-walk		Mt. Vesuvius looms behind town square
End of street	Real body of person killed instantly by the volcanic erruption	Bath-house
Hot food brought out into these holes to be served in public	Major street. Bends so that when it rained the water would funnel to the sides and flow out through the side ‘gutters’		Water pipes sometimes ran just below ground

We saw a rich man’s home (would have had slaves, and those slaves had rooms, and right to worship whatever idols they wanted, as long as they worshiped the emperor too), a brothel, a bakery, Basilica, bath house, gym, average man’s house, ‘apartment building’, plaza and amphitheatre. Also saw Jupiter’s Temple. Absolutely amazing to think they were so “civilized” and, organized and practical creating very well managed cities.

Entrance to a rich man’s home	Inside this home	Mosaic of Alexander on the floor, probably close to the living room	Bakery
		Brothel	Brothel bed

We had a very rushed lunch, because after the group finished, 6 of us rushed to the amphitheatre, then rushed to get food and on to our meeting spot. We hopped on the 2pm train to Sorrento. It was packed and Tobia and I stood the entire time (30 minutes, 8 stops, roughly).

Amphitheatre

Lovely train to Sorrento

Once in Sorrento, we walked for a bit, then reached a gelato house, where we saw a gelato making demo. We got to taste the lemon/slightly orangey gelato… really fresh and delicious. Then had a chance to taste others, so had blackberry and pistacchio.

Gelato making demo

Looking across the Bay of Naples at Mt. Vesuvius from Sorrento

Men’s only club in Sorrento

We had an orientation walk across town (new and old) then checked into hotel. Exhausted from long day and heat, we relaxed a bit, interneted, and eventually headed to an early walk and dinner. Following dinner, walked around some more, went down to harbor and picked up some water at the market, and then came back to hotel lobby to internet, catch up on things before turning on for the night.

Leaving Sorrento for Capri Island

Most of our group headed out to the Sorrento harbor this morning to catch the boat to Capri Island. It started out partly cloudy and warm, so natually I wore my shorts, t-shirt and sock-less sandals.

Capri Island

About midway through our boat ride, the sun started coming out hard, so I stepped inside the boat where there was shade so as to avoid sunscreen or a burn. Well, about 10 minutes later, as we pulled into Capri Island, it was rainstorming heavily! We tried to huddle as a group in various areas of town, but inevitably we all got soaking wet (and I was still in my summer wear).

We hurried to take a funicular up the hill of town and in the process got even wetter. Up higher in town, it was raining so hard that we all scrambled in our own various directions with few instructions on where to go.

Tobia and I started walking in the direction of Villa Juvis where Emperor Tiberius kept one of his villas up at the top of the hill. There were few signs, and it rained exceedingly hard. So walking a bit, then hiding under some awning or natural shelters, we slowly made some progress. Eventually we decided we’d wait out the rain in a cafe- so stepped in for some cappucinos and dessert.

Afterwards, we made some pretty good progress for about 20 – 30 minutes uphill, periodically hiding from the rain when it got unbearable. What turned out to be about halfway there, we stopped at a small store and I bought a disposable slicker. It was the COOLEST THING!! It covered almost my whole body, provided a hood, which with my hat on top of it, helped a great deal. It also covered my travel pack on my back. Except that there was no rain, and instead I started breaking a sweat.

Well, eventually it started raining like crazy, hailstorming and thunderstorming, and then I really came to appreciate how great the suit was. For her part, Tobia was happily pacing us up hill, while altogether getting soaked with her small umbrella providing just a bit of relief.

Villa Juvis is atop a steep cliff

We got up to the top, bought two tix, then appreciated the amazing cliff views below, all the while rain dropping harder and harder. The rooms (ruins) in the villa were fairly well preserved, and were nice to walk around. The views everywhere up there were great, it’s no wonder the villa was built in that location.

Emperor Tiberius’ villa			Feeling slick in my slicker

After a while, we started walking down, the path down soaking wet, except that the clever Roman architecture from thousands of years ago was still effective, funneling the water ‘lanes’ to the right and left sides of the path, and the middle was totally walkable. We ran into Sarah and JoAnn shortly after our descent started.

The water effectively funnels to the two channels on the side of the road and it is safe to walk in the middle, despite hard rain

We made it back into town around 1:30pm or so, and had an extremely lovely and delicious lunch at Ristorante da Giorgio, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea well below us. It was still raining hard then, but at least we had shelter and were still on a high from our walk. We enjoyed a very long, leisurely lunch with good conversation, and eventually took the funicular to the bottom of the Island, then the boat back to Sorrento- our timing was random, but lucky as we didn’t have to wait for either mode of transportation.

Having gelato with the Walkers

Once back in Sorrento we walked to the gelato place where we saw the gelato making demo yesterday. We sat outside under the awning enjoying our desserts, when the Walkers: Scott, Elizabeth and Sarah showed up. We chatted and ate with them, then we walked back to our hotel to do laundry, rest and shower.

We left Sorrento this morning, headed to Napoli. After reaching Napoli, we headed to the Capodimonte Museum. We had a guided tour there. It had Medieval and Renaissance art.

This vehicle took all of our luggage up the hill in Sorrento

Capodimonte Museum

Then we pulled into town, said goodbye to our driver Maurizio, and walked to our hotel. Checked in our stuff, then headed off to lunch- ate with Karen and Ray (had excellent white bean spaghetti dish).

Went back to our room and slept for about an hour, then got up and went on an afternoon city orientation walk with our group. It was about 3.5 hour altogether and included dinner.

We saw Piazza Salvo, d’Acquisto [on a quick break, we went to Nina's recommended chocolate place and got some chocolates, plus Jordan almonds], Gesu (Gesu Nuovo Church, Church of Santa Chiara).

We continued on to Santa Dominico Maggiore. San Paolo Maggiore. Headed to dinner at local popular pizza place called Pizzeria di Matteo. Had mushroom pizza there and some of Tobia’s margherita. Sat in 4 big tables in small place. Pretty good, but not even best in this country. Napoli is the birth place of pizza (or so it is claimed) and they believe they have the best pizza not only in the country, but world.

Main center in Napoli		Almost identical to the one in Milan	Sort of the essence of Napoli here
	Gesu Nuovo Church	Church of Santa Chiara
Santa Dominico Maggiore

In addition to being known for pizza, Napoli is considered a poor, crime heavy city, which is dirty and crowded. I found it real, not hiding anything and not trying to appeal to anyone; authentic. Though the garbage situation is pretty bad in the city as it tends to just pile up in neglected mounds. It is very densely populated with very little space, and folks drive like mad, mad people.

After dinner we walked back to the hotel as a group. Most folks split back to hotel, but Tobia and I continued walking to the harbor, and ran into Molly and Steve, and we sat down at a cafe with them until after 10:30pm, enjoying conversation very much.

Then we turned in, interneted, and called it a night.

We took a group walk to the funicular station, took that up the hill, then took the metro to get to the National Archaeological Museum of Napoli in the morning. We met up with our guide once again Pina for a tour of the museum. The most magnificent piece for me was seeing the battle of Alexander again- except this time the real thing, not just the mosaic on the floor of the rich man’s house in Pompeii.

Atlas	Homer (?)	The Alexander Mosaic
	Caesar	Farnese Hercules

From there we walked to the Sansevero Chapel, where we saw the Veiled Christ marble statue. Not only was it one of the most precise pieces of marble art I’ve ever seen, it was actually really moving. Also saw Queirolo’s “Disillusion” which is the most magnificent piece I’ve ever seen in my life! The netting is so real looking it’s hard to imagine this was done in marble. I enjoyed reading more about it here.

After the chapel, we decided to go eat at Rick Steves’ recommended pizza place and also “Eat Pray Love” book mentioned Pizzeria Antica da Michele. We stood in line for 1:30 hours, took number before and just waited and waited with so many others. Finally sat down at table for 4. It was dirty, and two strangers sat beside us. Initially it was awkward for Tobia and I to sit next to random people, but then got to talking and had great time. Pizza was actually really good, especially the double mozzarella one. It is fair to say the double mozzarella cheese was the best pizza I’ve ever had (I think Tobia said the same thing).

The couple at our table invited us to coffee (after the meal), then took us around the city, showing us so many different piazzas, stores, and things. We continued walking around; they were gonna take us to the funicular station to send us off to the Castle Sant’ Elmo by ourselves. Eventually they decided to join us, so we all went to the castle together, got magnificent views of Napoli and the Gulf from above, took lots of pictures, then took funicular on the way down and walked to our hotel where we split off, said goodbye, but beforehand had exchanged emails/facebook/skype/phone number information.

		I couldn’t resist	Piazza Dante
			Laura and Francesco

We had an absolutely wonderful time with Francesco and Laura- totally impressed at how easy going they were, never feeling weird and getting along very well. I hope to see them again, but next time in San Francisco.

Mario entertaining the group

We showed up late for our group’s happy hour apperitif, where young Mario was playing guitar music for all of us. From there headed to dinner, but before took group picture. It started raining a bit initially, then really hard, so we ended up taking taxis to dinner. Great dinner: sat with Sarah and JoAnn, and Sylvia and Paul. Then said goodbye to almost everyone before coming back to hotel.

Sat around in hotel chatting with Nina in the lobby before wrapping up some things prior to turning in for the night.