At the Car Wash with the Windows Down in Sorrento, and Crazy Ride to the Amalfi Coast

We awoke this morning to find yet another day of wetness and gloom upon us, but the seas are calmer than at any time in the last 3 days and the boats are now running.  We check the schedule and Alilaura Boat Lines has One Hydrofoil going to Sorrento from Ischia (just started up their service for the season last week) today at 5:25 pm. This is great news because otherwise we would have to take the boat back to Naples, catch a bus up to the Naples Train Station, and then take the train to Sorrento.  We get online at our hotel in Ischia and book a hotel in Sorrento in about 5 minutes. We check out, do some last minute shopping in Ischia, and then catch the Hydrofoil  for our ride to Sorrento.

I said the seas were calmer, however, in the channel as we jet along, there is an 8 foot swell along the way. The water is 8 feet below us and then the water rises level with the windows on our deck and we bob and roll between the swells all the way over. Terri thinks this is fun because she grew up on a boat, Jim, however, is really focusing hard on the land in the distance, so as  not "toss his cookies" from sea sickness.  We both survive with our lunches in the proper places. The water in the bay is incredibly clear down to maybe 35 feet, clear enough to see the anchor at the bottom of the chain on the boat. We arrive in Sorrento and it, like many other towns next to the  Amalfi Coast is built on the cliffs above the harbor. We pay our 1 euro to take a bus up the hill to the town and unbelievably, the first stop in Piazza Tasso is our Hotel, the Antiche Mura. Boy did we luck out. This is one of the best hotels we have stayed in our whole trip. The place is completely full and we get one of the last rooms, in the garden area . This place is built next to a huge ravine that used to be a fort built in the 1500's and has one of the original towers of Sorrento on the property that was used to defend the city, complete with a cannon at the top. First class joint with an included breakfast, with, oh my, real hot eggs in the morning!  Breakfast in Italy has been very alien to us. It has consisted at every hotel we have stayed at, of: Expresso coffee, yogurt, canned fruit, croissants, cold Parma Ham, Salami, some cheeses, and hard boiled eggs. So at this point of our trip we are very happy to see cooked eggs, a huge selection of pastries, fresh fruit, and bigger coffees that take longer than 2 gulps and you are done. It has been thundering and lightning all night long, and the rain, she keeps a coming down. We manage to do some shopping and attend a local folk dance, songfest at the Teatro Tasso. Very campy, couldn't understand much, but a lot of fun with sing alongs, skits and such. Sorrento has the same type of Old Town as Nice and the Trastavere area of Rome has, that is, very narrow streets with a lot of shops, restaurants, and cafes scattered throughout. A very nice town and I hear that it has really nice views, of the coast and water,  if we could only see it through the clouds, fog and relentless rain. We get up in the morning and decide that the rain will not defeat us, so we are going to take the bus to the Amalfi Coast. We are off to the train station 2 blocks from our hotel in a sputtering rain and now we are on the bus, off up out of the city to the other side of the coast. The Amalfi Coast officially starts on the other side of the mountain from Sorrento and runs a little over 30 miles through the larger towns of Positano, Amalfi, and finally ends in Salerno. This is some of the most beautiful views of a coast we have ever seen and most of the towns are built right into the cliffs and rocks above the water's edge. The view is wonderful with photo opportunities at every turn, however the bus ride, is an adventure in itself. This is like a ride at Disneyland where they built the road too small for the vehicles traveling on them.

 We are hurling down the road in a bus that is around 35 to 40 feet long and driving on roads originally built in the 1800's for horse and wagons. As a consequence we are traveling at 35 miles an hour, and then down to 10 as we negotiate a ninety degree turn. A few honks of the horn to warn oncoming traffic and we speed up and then slow down for the entire ride. Periodically there is race between our bus driver and oncoming traffic to see who will make it to the turn first. There are also the stubborn drivers on the other side of the road that will not yield to our sled on wheels, and so we have to stop and let them go first before we can proceed. This tortuous process is made worse by the fact that at every turn there is another photo opportunity. Reviewing our pictures from that ride I see many of them wind up being photos of air, mountains, and the inside of our chariot. We rode the bus to Amalfi and got off to shop and have lunch. I have to say that we have only had one "bad" meal on the entire trip and the one in Amalfi was a very good one. The rain is still coming down, off and on, so it is difficult to really appreciate this beautiful location. We head back to Sorrento for one last night, and tomorrow we journey to Naples and then onto Rome for our last night in Italy.
Got up this morning, had the wonderful breakfast and checked out of the room. Onto the Circumvesuvius train to Naples, transfer onto the TrenItalia for the trip to Rome which is uneventful.  We arrive in Rome's Termini Station and check into our last hotel. I would like to say that we saved the best for last, but that would be a bold faced lie! We decided that we should stay close to the Train terminal so we could catch the first train to Fiumacino airport in the morning. In this regard Rome is like Los Angeles, in that the area is not the greatest and in Los Angeles I am afraid, the Hotel Viennese would be one that might be rented out by the hour and not the day.  Room was clean but the bed was a real double bed for 2 larger Americans. As an aside, during the entire trip we have been staying in Hotels advertising double beds only to find that they are usually 2 single beds shoved together. This is also the smallest room we have stayed in our entire trip. Room for the bed and little else along with a small bathroom. Last night in Italy, stop complaining, so we drop our bags and take off for one last tour of Rome. Other than a few Metro Rides, and a couple of  bus rides, we have walked all over Rome. You see so much more walking than sitting on a bus. Took in the Trevi Fountain, the Piazza Navona, a few more churches, a museum and had dinner and then back to the hotel. Up at 5:00 Am and onto the Leonardo Express train to the airport to start the journey home.

A word about recommendations from the airlines. Our carrier, Delta, suggested that we allow 3 hours before our departure time, to be processed through passport control, and baggage drop off, etc. We held up our part of the bargain and arrived at the processing terminal 2 3/4 hours before our departure only to find that we and 50 other people are the only ones in the building. 30 minutes later, the employees show up to start their day. Let us just say that it was a very long day with us missing our 2nd flight because of late luggage delivery and customs processing in Atlanta. We ran for a plane clear across the airport to get on a standby flight into LAX. We arrive around 8pm but alas our luggage took the road less traveled and are in Burbank. Oh well, I am home, they can take as long as they wish to get our bags to us.

Home at around 10 Pm and straight into bed.

We really enjoyed our time out of the country but it was real nice falling into our own beds after 28 days away.

Last thoughts. Even though we were gone almost a month, there is still so much that we missed throughout our journey. There is just so much to see, hear, feel, and experience, that we would probably reduce the number of cities that we visit next time. 3 or 4 days in one location seems to work really well for us. Staying 7 or 8 days in Rome turned out to be the right amount of time in that history rich city to see all of the "biggie" attractions. Our plan to decompress and relax in Ischia and Sorrento was a good one, however the weather didn't cooperate with us to fully take advantage of the laid back atmosphere we craved at the end of our trip.

Our trip to the Val D Aoste area of Northern Italy and Chamonix, France was incredible and made us want to return for a ski only trip though Italy, France and Switzerland, sometime in the future.

We made this blog for 3 reasons, number one was to share our experiences with everyone. Number two was to let our kids know that we were okay, and the real reason we wrote the Blog was to REMEMBER WHAT THE HELL WE DID IN ITALY FOR 28 DAYS IN 2012!

When we are older and grayer, we will still have this memory on paper of where we went, and what we did on our trip to Italy.

Thanks for checking in us from time to time and so we are signing off one last time

Ciao, Ciao from Jim and Terri
April 21, 2012

Finally at home and I am posting from a computer instead of the Ipad so I can add some pictures to spice things up in the coming days.

Ischia, and Giardindi Poseidon Terme or Soak time with the ancient Romans

Woke up this morning after listening to the shutters on our balcony chatter all night to a real show in the bay. Overcast, ominous clouds, sporadic beating rain, and whitecaps in the bay. Not exactly the paradise We were looking forward to but, still having a great time. Last night we walked up the beach and had dinner right on the water, probably best Lasagna of the trip. Also shared some time with a couple from Switzerland that have been here several times, Francesca and Martin. It is one of the best parts of the trip meeting people from around the world and seeing things from their perspective. Walked into town yesterday and got drenched with rain, there and back. We find that waterproof anything is really only a concept because our "waterproof jackets" weren't and we were soaked through and through. we reaffirmed the fact that we can't relax with a good book on a bad weather day and needed to do something, which is why we are walking into town in a driving rain. Again everything in the south of Italy is done in a window of opportunity, that is, you have to eat and shop within certain time periods or you don't,,,,eat or shop. As I started the post, we woke up and the bay is really nasty looking, so we are going to take a bus ride to the other side of the island, Forio. We get dressed, put on our rain slickers and head to the Piazza Della Ero to buy our bus pass for the day. Pick up the CS bus to Forio, and we are off with a bus full of very vocal Italians. We arrive in Forio to check out the town and window shop. It is now really raining and we ask for directions to some local eateries. Go down this street and to the right, or so I think that is what she said, and we are off. As Yogi Berra said, "when you come to a fork in the road,,,,take it!". Unfortunately, the directions made no mention of a fork in the road. A street with nothing on it, or a passageway to the right. Decision made and we are on the passageway to the right and down 2 flights of stairs and voila, we are now in a beating rain with a beautiful view of the ferocious ocean, but no restaurant, in fact nothing but ocean and a busy road. We turn to the left and walk through a tunnel, at least we are not getting rained on, and 10 minutes later we are back in the same spot we started at, passing the bar we asked for directions from. Ah, I can hear the bartender telling her friend, hey look stupid Americans, can't follow simple directions. We come to the fork in the road and wisely choose the left this time and we walk for 1/4 mile and in a little corner next to a church is our restaurant we want. We are the only ones in the restaurant except for the owner's family. We order and receive Pizza, and some wonderful veal scallopini, and still no one else is eating here. Refreashed with some Acqua Minerale Frizzante and a little vino we decide to take a bus to Cattia, where the Thermal pools are located. Ischia, is a hugely volcanic island with thousands of thermal hot springs bubbling up through the soil all over the island.The Greeks and Romans, besides being really into orgies, wine, and conquering anyone and everyone they could,,,well,,conquer, really like to soak in the hot pools. We headed over to the Holy Grail of hot springs, Giardini Poseidon Terme hot springs resort. Acres and acres of umbrella covered, ocean viewed, and of course the main attraction, the hot pools. 8 different pools of different temperatures, from 28 to 40 degrees Celsius. The weather has cleared and with no rain, we are in heaven. Start In the 28 and end up in the 40 degree pools with hydro jets to massage aching backs and joints. This place is huge, so huge that we walked around for 20 minutes after we entered just to find the changing rooms and lockers. Got changed and we on in soak heaven. Spent 3 hours there and then went into the greenhouse enclosed pool room to take a break with a bottle of mineral water. This is a multilevel facility with probably 8 different levels for lounging and soaking. We spy steam coming out of a level we haven't been to and we need to check this out. Up to the top and we are at double doors to a cave filled steam room, wow, this place is unbelievable ! After several minutes here, it is over to the plunge pool into 15 degree Celsius water. I wonder how many people they find at the end of the day dead from heart attacks in this place. Check out the photos on facebook. They are taken from a web site as I had put ours away in the locker. Couldn't have this place in the US because of liability issues. No lifeguards, no handrails, and steep stairs,,,Sorry TMie and Megan, but this place would be a lawyers paradise for litigation. Back to Ischia Porto and a walk back to our hotel. Tomorrow we leave for Sorrento, weather willing and if a boat goes directly to Sorrento from Ischia. If not, then back to Napoli and ride the train down to Sorrento for 2 days then back to Rome for our flight back to reality. Caio, caio

Pompeii lost again (in my blog)

In our haste to catch up on our blogging, Pompeii got lost and buried once again. When we arrived in Naples by train, instead of heading right to our hotel, we stored our baggage at the train station for a fee, and got on the famous Circumvesuvius train bound for Pompeii. Naples Central train station has 3 levels to it. First level is the Trnitalia which is the connector between Naples and the rest of Italy. 2nd level is for the Metro, or the local trams that go throughout the city. The third and final level down is our famous, or infamous Circumvesuvius or as Rick Steve's calls it, The Pickpocket Train. This is the local train connecting Naples with several stops in the city, then onto Pompeii! And finally Sorrento. We have never seen so many shifty characters in one place, in our lives. Be cautious or your money will be in someone else's hands. Keep your purses zipped and in front of you, use your money belt and stay alert. We didnt see anyone with sticky fingers so it must have been a pickpocket union holiday. No problems and we arrive at Pompeii Scavi to begin our tour. A thriving community of 35,000 people with a large city, central government area, theatre, and Coliseum for sporting events, was snuffed out by an explosive eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD. A full 2/3rds of the mountain erupted one night and the next day blew away in an instant 5 miles away and the resulting debris and Pyroclastic cloud swept down the mountain and killed the populace. The photos on Facebook show fast food joints where people went to get there evening meals from insulated pots full of soup, stew and of course, wine. The grain mills in several locations in the city show the huge wheat grinders that were people powered to grind the wheat down into flour. We also toured the largest house in Pompeii at 29,000 square feet, with bronze statues, marble lined bathes, and formerly beautiful mosaics on the grounds. Toured the large theatre area and coliseum used for sporting events. Because of the quick moving gas and debris, everyone was smothered, killed, and entombed. People encased in this volcanic ash were exhumed and preserved and shown in their last moments. One touching set of remains shows a man shielding a girl with his own body; alas to no avail. A very sobering day, while at the same time, we were amazed at how advanced this city was. We left Pompeii and headed back to Naples to pick up our luggage and brave the crazy streets of Naples. We arrived safely and checked into our hotel. One last thought on Italian labor practices. It seems that Italy must have a 2 person for every job rule. Police always walked their beats with a partner, someone performing work anywhere, always had a partner with them, no matter how menial the job was, and Police in Piazzas drove in a circle around and around in a tiny Fiat never leaving the vehicle. The trash is taken out to the street by apartment dwellers and left on the street in stacks to be picked up by, you guessed it, 2 trash collectors who then placed it in the mini trash truck. Caio caio

Goodbye crazy Roma, onto crazier Naples, and on to paradise

Its our last full day in Rome and we have been averaging 7 miles of walking a day, unfortunately we have also been enjoying the pasta, the bread, and of course some wine, so we haven't lost any weight but we are slimmer. We got up this morning and decided to start our day at the Villa FarnEsina right here in Trastevere. It seems everyone in Italy really likes Michelangelo's work but Loves their boy Raphaello. Raphaello who died at the age of 35, has a very large body of work to his name including works in the Vatican, and at the Villa Farnesina. As the photos on Facebook will attest to, his work is unmistakeable for it's clarity, depth and vibrant colors, even after 500 plus years. Beautiful ceilings and upper walls are done by Raphael, and the lower walls were done by Peruzzi. Take a look at the Facebook photos, truly wonderful. Finished up the day, packed and got ready to move to Naples for one night. Got up this AM, said goodbye to our "cozy" apartment in Rome and jumped on a bus to the main train station. Reserved some seats to Naples and settled in for 1 1/2 hour journey to Naples. Jetting along at 185 miles an hour we had our free cup of coffee, and either "sweet or salty" snack (cookie or breadsticks). We arrive in Naples and into a culture shock because Rome was chaotic but Naples is chaos x 10. Traffic signals are "just guidelines" to be loosely followed, meaning, just because there is a red light, we might stop or we might not. Pedestrians never wait for lights, they just throw themselves into traffic to cross, and trust that the driver of the car or scooter will see them in time and stop. Watching from our hotel window I realized that this reminded me of the 1980's game of "Frogger". The object of the game was to move your frog through traffic and across the street with cars buzzing everywhere and not get run over. Must have been a Naples pedestrian that thought up the game. Onto the R2 bus for a 10 minute ride down Umberto II road and onto via Depretis to our Hotel Mercure. Check into our room and we have a very nice room with balcony facing the street and a ? Balcony outside of the bathroom showing the back of the hotel. Again, as the photos on Facebook will show, chaos x 10, ruled the day. Horns honking all afternoon and evening, people crossing the street in front of cars, and I thought Los Angeles was crazy! Walk around that night to find a spot for dinner and back to the hotel for our next stop in Ischia in the Bay of Naples. A beautiful Green Island with crystal clear waters and a laid back atmosphere; just the place to unwind from the previous frantic 3 weeks. Up in the morning, packed, and literally walking across the street into the mooring area for our hydrofoil ride to Ischia. One last editorial on the traffic/pedestrian situation. There is construction near the harbor, so there is a lot of traffic, so getting across the street could be a life or death situation. As the travel guy, "Rick Steves says, just follow a native across the street, and you will be fine". Well, okay, we do, however there is a traffic cop directing this traffic mess, and he runs up to the "natives" and tells them to wait for the light. At this point both of the "natives" tell him something I couldn't quite understand but the look they gave the cop said everything, basically, Really? You expect a Napolitano to wait for traffic, I don't think so, and we all just moved on. Real choppy waves on our 3/4 of an hour ride over to Ischia. Even with only 2 small sections of hull in the water we were being bounced in the air by the waves. Finally arrive in Ischia and now a 1/2 mile walk to the hotel Ulisse. I wanted to stay at the same hotel I stayed in with my family back in the dark ages in 1961-62, when my dad was working the movie Cleopatra, but it is closed for renovations. We settled on a hotel just down the beach a little further and we got an ocean view room with a view of the ancient Aragonese Castle built in 1301. Dropped our bags in the hotel and we are off down the beach to explore. We stop at the hotel Miramare e Castello to take a picture, and noticed workmen at the back of the hotel, and one guy looks like the manager. We introduce ourselves and tell him that I stayed there 50 years ago. He says, come in, I can give you a tour, we are closed, but you can look around. He had one of his assistants show around the hotel; very nice of him, and it brought back a lot of memories for me. Afterwards we went up to take a tour of the Castle Aragonese. Up we go on a circular stairway built through solid rock back in the Renaissance with no power tools and about 1/4 of a mile long. This castle was used as a prison, nunnery, and of course a defensive castle throughout the ages. We walk down into an area with what I at first thought were some Medieval toilets but I see that the sign says something about morte or death so we need to rethink this. Turns out that the nuns that occupied this space wanted to emphasize the soul and minimize the physical being. When someone died they brought them down and sat them in this chair with a hole cut out in the bottom and pretty much left them to decompose. As they decomposed their humor or liquids that drained out of them were collected until they were completely dried out. As if this wasn't bad enough, they would come down and pray everyday over these decomposing nuns. Many contracted disease as well, and then it was time for them to sit in the "draining chairs". Ugh! Away from this nonsense and into an old church built in 1301 and up to the highest point for a photo opportunity at the restaurant located there. 300 degree view of the Bay of Naples and all of the surrounding islands (see Facebook" As the photos will show, a wonderful day with great visablity. Throughout our entire trip, we have been very fortunate to have missed any bad weather including wind or rain. Our luck has changed, as we woke up to 2 foot waves in the harbor and winds gusting up 40 miles an hour. Good thing we got our tour in yesterday along with great photos. Got up this morning, had our "Continental Breakfast" of croissants jams, juices, yoghurt, and cheeses and prosuito hams. Decided to walk back into town and go shopping. A driving rain soaked us there and back. Had lunch and hiked back as nothing is open until 6:00 pm tonight. We have 2 more days and hopefully we will have more blue skies to enjoy before moving onto Sorrento. Caio caio

Goodbye to chaotic Rome, one day in Insane Naples, onto Paradise Ischia

Greetings form Ischia, We finished up our stay in Trastevere, Rome by visiting Imperial Fiori area including the Palatine hill where Rome was born with Romulus and Remus on a hillside to the House of Augustus, emperor of Rome, to the Roman Forum where Julius Caesar met his untimely death outside the forum at the hands of his senators "et tu Brutus?" after hiking throughout the area including a walk across the Circus Maximus where chariot races were the weekly action. Leaving the Forum we walked the streets on Sunday that were closed to traffic to the church Santa Maria Cosmedin to the " Boca de Veritas or Mouth of Truth. legend has it that if you were lying when you stuck your hand into the mouth, it would snap shut and cut off your hand. happy to say we passed the test as our photo on Facebook will attest. After this it was back to our apartment in Trastevere for dinner and sleep. More later when we come back. Running out of vacation, back to the real world soon, damn!

Breakfast with the Pope, wafers and alas no vino

What an incredible day with il Popilo. Woke up around 7:15 to get ready for the Easter mass at the Vatican. We are staying in an apartment in the Trastavere area in Rome just south and east of the Vatican sohee had our morning coffee and biscotti (god we miss a full cup of coffee that you can take with you on the way) and we are out the door heading to the Vatican. Arrive at around 8:15 just as they start letting people in for seating in the piazza. Terri got through security first and headed out to find seating. We figured that we would be all the way out in the piazza, but incredibly we found seats in the 14th row towards the center on the aisle. 2 hours to wait but we are at the Vatican for Easter mass, when will this ever happen again? We watch the Swiss guards march in and set up for protection of the pontiff and then this is followed by the italian guard on the other side of us. At 10:15 the pontiff arrives for the service. As the pictures on Terri's Facebook page will attest, we couldn't have gotten better seats, and they were free! The pomp and circumstance was something to see as they performed the Mass in Latin with. Readings in Italian, English, and Greek. And unbelievably they are going to give communion to everyone in the seated area. After Mass, the pope leaves and reappears in the center window overlooking St. Peter's Square to give his blessing in Several different languages. All together an unbelievable experience, actually we have had several times on this trip where we have shown up at the right time and in the right place for great things to happen and we are thankful for this good luck! As I said earlier, we are staying in the Trastevere area of Rome in an apartment that we found until the 11th when we will leave and go to Naples for one night and then onto Ischia for 3 days and then to Sorrento and finally back to Rome for our flight,,,,sigh, back to reality. Don't know how we will get back into the swing of things in the US after so long a time away........

Bye bye Florence, hello Chaos aka Rome

When we last left enthusiastic globe Trekkers they were finishing up their stay in Florence, birth of the Renaissance. Got up early and headed over to the acadademia to visit Michelangelo's David, and we not disappointed, it was incredible. It literally looked as if someone was posing up on the platform, albeit a very large someone, and would leave at any moment. As my daughter Megan attested, it was a very emotional experience seeing the soul of a master like Michelangelo set in marble. It is also amazing that this was a block of Carrara marble that had been laying around for years before Michelangelo was commissioned to create this statue. Definitely the highlight of Florence. Because of our line cutting ability with our Florence card, we were able to finish up the academia where David was staying and then move onto the Pitti Palace built in 1458 and the adjacent Bobili gardens behind the palace. The Palace was an beautiful depository for several great paintings, ceiling paintings, and of course the Roman Statuary. Late dinnr and onto Rome in the morning. Rome by train, then on to Metro trains and over to our first stay in Rome, the Hotel Cicerone. Great location for seeing everything in the northern region of Rome. Arrived at hotel, threw down our bags and it is off to see stuff. Hop on hop off bus to familiarize ourselves with the city, check. Go around second time and get off at tomb of the unknown soldier and hoof it back to our hotel after visiting, the Trevino fountain, the Pantheon (almost impossible to believe that this structure was built so large and with the worlds largest unsupported concrete dome created in 125 AD, and then onto a cigar store where my wonderful wife bought me a Cuban Cigar for my birthday, then took me to dinner at a restaurant at Piazza Navona. Great birthday with my special girl. Only thing that would have made it better would have been having my "bambinos" here as well. Walked back to our hotel, around 2 miles and fell into bed. Tomorrow, the Vatican city tour. When we arrived in Rome, we immediately booked a skip the line tour for the next day because with Easter approaching time slots would be tough to get. We lucked out and got one for the next day in the afternoon. Arrived at our tour location and fell in with 18 other lost souls for our tour of the Vatican Museums and St. Peter's Basilica. Had the extreme pleasure of having a wonderful tour guide that really loved sharing this holy place with us. Learned a lot of behind the scenes things that went on between the "masters of the day" and even where these master painters hid there self portraits in their wonderful paintings. I was in the Sistine Chapel back when Edison was still toying around that light bulb thing and boy has it changed. Since the renovation in the 80's they were able to peel back the soot and pollution damage caused by using candles and the soot they created. Just to show the difference, they left a small section of the ceiling untouched to compare before and after. The colors are so vibrant and alive, it is almost like they were painted yesterday. on our tour, Terri asked the guide, Francesca how would one go about getting tickets for the Easter Mass. She replied that you get them from the Swiss guards but was sure at this late date that none would be available. Leaving the Vatican area we noticed a small church in the Vatican city that was guarded by the Swiss guards so Terri started up a conversation with one about the church and then she asked if there any tickets to Easter mass left to which he replied let me check and went over to a little box and came out with 2 tickets for Easter mass. So we are having a light breakfast with the Pope tomorrow (along with 29,346 other people at the Vatican. coliseum is being used for the Procession with the Pope tonight and will be closing at 3:00 pm but we are gong to see if we can get in, amazing, with the Roma card we go to a special line and gt right in. After this we decide to try to find the apartment I stayed in with my family back in 1962 when my dad was working on the movie Cleopatra. Found the right bus and headed off the official Rome map past villa borghese and we didn't fall off! Got off 2 stops after the gallery and walked 2 miles to find it but there it was in a graffiti covered neighborhood. Found a bus back and got dropped off at a metro station. As we got off the bus we saw a church across the street with a line. Let's investigate, it is the Capuchin Monks burial crypt. You pay your donation of 1 euro and you get to see one of the most macabre and at the same time fascinating sights. The remains of 4,000 monks from 1631 until the 1800's are in this crypt. Their bones have been arranged in different fashions like Floral arrangements with all skulls are and various other pieces of skeleton. In and out in 15 minutes, enough to see here. We movethe Trastevere area tomorrow.

Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink except acqua minerale gas or no gas

Hello fun seekers I am writing this from Florence after a 10 mile day of hiking, walking and dragging our old bodies through the streets of Florence. Add to this we just had a beer waiting for the restaurants to open at 7:00 pm and a 1/2 liter of vino Della casa rosa to sooth Our aching joints. We had a nice time in Venice and saw the biggies there, notably St. Marks and everything on the southern portion of Venice. We have seen some beautiful sights and it is hard to believe that Venice is a water borne society. i can visit but could never live here as it is too foreign to everything we know. But incredible sights nevertheless. Getting a hotel on Lido island south of Venice turned out to be a great idea as this is Spring break and is almost as crowded we are told as the high season of July/August. Lido island is very laid back and although there are people, it is mostly locals and not as crazy as Venice. We were in Venice 2 nights and walked all over the island, literally from the southern portion all of the way to the tip of the island at the train station. We were staying at the Hotel Pannonia on Lido and it is a recently refurbished 4 star hotel with very nice king sized beds and a good breakfast. All of this at there spring special rate of 70 euros a night; very nice! We woke up in the morning checked out and took the water taxi to the St. lucia train station for our journey to the cradle of the renaissance, Florence. Lucked out and got our train to Florence, leaving in 20 minutes from the time we arrived. We have a Eurorail pass, but on most rides you have to reserve a seat for an additional cost. We said goodby to Venice and hurled at 200 kilometers per hour towards Florence. Arrived in Florence and exited the train station and followed the google map I had printed out; found the hotel on the first try; the Hotel Consigli' right on the north bank of the Arno river. Didn't get the room overlooking the river and instead got the back of the hotel;not so nice but adequate. We are on the second floor and have the king sized bed in a very large room. Walk out the room, turn left and you have your very own patio overlooking the Arno river; quite nice. We are about a 15 minute walk to pretty much everything Florence has to offer. Got up this morning determined to make the best of our time in Florence. Struck out after breakfast to purchase the elusive All Florence pass that allows you for 50 euros each to bypass all of the lines and enter 50 different museums or exhibitions, etc. we march back to the train station where the largest Tourist information booth is located only to find out that they are sold out. Undaunted we march down to the Palazio Strozzi where we are told they will have the now endangered Florence pass, but alas, this prey has alluded us once again; sac're bleu! Once more into the fray we continue our march another 1/4 mile to the Pallazo Vecchio, and we bag the now near extinct, Florence card. After waiting in line to purchase this illusive beast we are told we must go to another line to activate it. Monday, several of the big museums are closed, no problem, we will see the smaller ones today and the rest tomorrow. The Florence pass also gives you unlimited access to the bus system but, sorry they don't have the bus schedule where you buy the pass, you must walk all the way back to the first place we tried to purchase the pass to the Train station. I guess we really don't need the "stinking bus" schedule after all. Walked over the Ponte Vecchio bridge and plunged into the Easter break mass of people and kids on tour where Terri purchased some gold ear rings and a Bella purse from the the vendors close to the bridge. I was able to buy a sweet leather belt to hold up my now very baggy pants. more proof that God is a man because I walk around the block and lose a pound, Terri walks 20 miles and gains a pound, totally unfair. I eat 2 scoups of gelato, Terri eats 2 bites and gains. Really sucks. We hit Galileo museum where a lot of his scientific ideas and devices are stored, we saw the Palacio Vecchio where the Medici family castle is, and of course, the Duomo of Florence, a beautiful example of renaissance architecture. Florence seems to have more churches than you can shake a stick at. We ducked into several, and they are all incredible. We have to say that the Duomo is wonderfully from the outside and the dome is a magnificent feat of workmanship but the Milan Duomo is much more interesting from a detail side. We stopped a few times to rest our tired dogs at restaurants for lunch and finally for dinner. Left this morning at 9:00 Nd arrived back at the hotel around 8:00 pm. Long day but rewarding. Tomorrow the David. As the ItLians say when they end a telephone conversation,,, ciao, ciao, ciao.

Side trip to Chamonix, France and goodbye to our Ski Vacation

Greetings and salutations, We got up on our last morning in Courmayeur and set our sights on accomplishing three trips today. Our first goal, a 1 hour hike into the stone village of Verrand right next door to Courmayeur. After getting directions from our helpful desk clerk Laura, we set off on our first adventure of the day. Hike up the road from the hotel through the forest over a bridge and voila, you will be there. On paper things look so straight forward, in reality we hiked up the road into the forest for about an hour, seemed almost straight up in some sections following a trail until we came upon an old man driving down the road. We asked him in our not too pretty Italian, if we were close to Verrand, to which he shook his head and pointed the complete opposite direction. So back down the road and turned left at the junction instead of the right and we were at Verrand in about 30 minutes. A beautiful mix of a medieval stone village with new condominiums in the mix. Nice side trip and now for our second trip; the Monte Blanc funivie or tram up the side of Mont Blanc. Jumped in our Jennifer Lopez inspired Fiat 500 and sped up to the end of the road in Enteves to ride the tram. The ride consists of 3 separate tram rides up to the summit of Mont Blanc and the Glacier. First tram holds 20 people and up we go dangling by one tiny cable up the mountain. Out at the platform we pile into tram 2 that holds 12 people and up we go with a bunch of skiers to the second level. Out at the next platform and we squeeze into a gondola that holds 8 people and we arrive at the top. We step outside and watch as a group of skiers head out and down the glacier to Chamonix which is on the other side of the mountain. We had a cafe in the snack bar where the Pope visited in 2005 so basically we had coffee with the Pope. We will hopefully see him on his porch at his own crib AKA The Vatican city, next week for Easter. I'm told this is a small gathering of around 50,000 people or so. Nice trip and as always great scenery. The hotel we were staying at had a special pass through the tunnel between Italy and France that would save us 20 euros off of the normal 48euros to go into France. So we are off to the ski village of Chamonix, France. This is a 11.6 kilometer tunnel to France that comes out in the ski village of Chamonix. When we arrive and park we immediately have to make arrangements to come back for a ski vacation in France; incredible! The entire village surrounded by several ski resorts and the view into the mountains from town is of a massive glacier on one side and a couple of ski resorts on the other side. Walked the town and had lunch in Chamonix and then headed back. Mission accomplished, three adventures completed. Tomorrow we leave the Val d' Aoste and drive back to Milan. Up on schedule, checked out of the hotel, and on our way back to Milan central train station. Getting the hang of driving the J'Lo mobile, she's somewhat sassy and a little sexy until a 6 series BMW comes blasting by us at 200 kilometers an hour, now the Sexy J'Lo mobile is just a little car. We both agree that our bitch gps Garmin nuvi really saved our bacon again getting us back to the station with only 2 mistakes on my part. We arrived at the Milan train station and turned in our little J lo mobile, I have separation anxiety from my bellisimo Fiat. Into the station and reserve our seats on the train to Venice And get our final cost for little car; 130 euros for the car and 58 euros to fill it up ; a little expensive but only way to get to mountains easily. On the train and dashing along at up to 200 kilometersan hour we arrive at Venice, St. lucia station and then onto the water taxi for our trip through the Grand Canal and onto the southern island of Lido. We found a 4 star hotel on Lido island just recently renovated and for a lot less than the Venice hotels and a lot fewer people. Had a nice dinner after stRolling through the main street of Lido island. Tomorrow the sights of Venice starting at St. Marks church. 2 days in Veniceand onto Florence. I am able to post pictures on Facebook on Terri's page, but not tonight. Ciao from Bella Venezia, Italian.

Goodbye Cote D Azur Hello Italian Alps

Good afternoon everyone, After spending 2 hours trying to get this blog post to go through, I find that it all went poof when I published it. A brief synopsis of our journey from Nice to Milan central station and from Milan by car to Val D'Aoste in the Italian alps. Got up early in Nice to take the train to Milan central train station. We really enjoyed Nice quite a lot and were sorry to leave. Got on the train at a little before 7:00 am for the journey to Ventimiglia, the first town in Italy where we changed trains for our journey to Milan central train station through Genoa. Arrived in Milan and looked for our National car rental office located in the staton, sounds simple enough, right? For those of you that haven't been through the Milan central train station it is a massive building constructed in 1931 to handle the huge amount of passenger traffic through Italy. Each day 330,000 passengers go through the station and There are 4 levels to the station so finding this little car rental booth was no easy feat. Of course they had a map of the statn but the rental booth has been relocated since the map was put up. I left Terri with the luggage and scoured the station for this booth. After talking to several people in my terrible Italian, I located it, went back and got Terri and went down to pick up my internet reserved car. After 45 minutes of working with, waiting, and waiting some more, we finally got our papers to pick up the car,,,,,,,where is the car,,,,,just go outside, turn right and you can't miss it. Went outside, turned right and spent the next 20 minutes looking for the rental pickup area.......oh wait, there is a parking sign and in little tiny letters it says Rimaggiore / national car rental.....finally. Picked up our stylishly compact Fiat 500 and we are on our way.....kind of. Took us 30 minutes to get to the Autostrade for the trip to Courmayeur in the Italian Alps. To add to our stress level, the Fiat has this nifty little feature that turns off your motor every time that you stop and let out the clutch. I kept thinking this piece of crap keeps stalling out at every intersection..no they built it that way. We finally get to the Autostrade and we are on our way out of the city. You pick up a ticket at a dispenser much like a parking structure when you enter the highway. As the city buildings slowly faded away, we we now in the countryside. After we got to the city of Aoste things really got interesting. Every little ancient town we passed has it's very own castle guarding the town. Simply amazing wondering how they built they beautiful structures with no power tools. Now the toll road ends and we must pay for our ride on the road,,,,28 euros, and I had 1 and 2 euro coins for the toll, I don't think so! We arrived in Courmayeur and even Terri had to give our "bitch" Gamin Nuvu 350 kudos for helping us find our way. We now appreciate the US for the conciseness in their freeway signs. We are at the Hotel Cresta A Duc in Courmayeur. I lucked out again, choosing this hotel because it has excellent accomodations, king sized beds, and is 100 yards to the tramway up to Courmayeur ski resort. Nice little village with lots of shops and restaurants, and of course, Gelaterias. Got up this morning and went up to ski, rented all the equipment on the mountain and, they have a discount from the hotel and a discount for women (sounds like descrimination to me). Rent equipment and purchased lift tickets for less than 100 Euros. The snow is not the greatest but for gods sake we are skiing the Italian Alps, what'sm not to like. We wound up skiing all day and it was quite nice. We took the tram up to the very top and skied down from the top, very nice. We are back in the hotel and planning tomorrows adventure, either a d at trip to Chamonix, France to see the village and ski resort or visit the hot springs at St. dicier in La Palud up the road.. The following day we head back into the insanity called Milan, to return the rental car and catch the train to Venice. Good night all and thanks for allowing us to share our adventure with you. ciao

Nice is Nice and Monte Carlo is proof that some people have way too much money and time on their hands

Hello all, Greetings from Nice, France, a beautiful town in France. Our idea of Nice was that it would be this nice sleepy little town on the French Riviera with a few quaint restaurants and some souvenir shops. Uh wrong. By a long shot. This is a town with a beautiful history, new area and fascinating Old Town area with miles of winding little streets full of shops, gelaterias, restaurants, and bars. We lucked out booking our hotel, le meurice as it right in the pedestrian section of town full of people packing the restaurants and bars until wee hours of the morning; how do these people get up in the morning?

Some of the feedback from Trip advisor complain of the noise but it is full of life, we left our windows open to take it all in after we retired to our room for the night. Got up this morning late and decided to take the bus from Nice to Monte Carlo, Monaco, set us back a whopping 1 euro for the trip. They should be charging 20 euros for the view along our route, it is the most amazing view We have ever seen of a coastline. Jumped off the 100 bus and found the hop hop off tour around the city to get a back story on the town. Jumped off at the Palace. The view of the marina with all the million or should I say multi million dollar yachts, boats and ships was a sight to see. After that, we walked over to the Casino Monte Carlo to try our hand at baccarat, roulette, and how you say, Le Braque jaac. Again, after reading articles in trip advisor about the rudeness of the people working in the casino, we were pleasantly surprised to find that everyone was very friendly and more happy to explain the history of this unique building. Truth be told, we walked around the casino and dropped some money in the slots and were out of there. I did see one gentleman that was playing 50, 100 euro chips at a time,and losing the entire time we were there. The best part for us was grabbing a chair at the adjacent cafe and just hanging out watching the maserati's, Aston Martins, and Bentleys arriving and departing. Oh yeah, there were also several of those lower end cars, Mercedes there too, they didn't even get a spot in the front.

                                             View of the Grand Casino in Monte Carlo.

After spending the day in Monte Carlo we headed back to Nice and decided to hike to the top of Castle Hill, the highest spot in Nice. Put over 10,000 steps on the pedometer today and a big part was this hike. Went up ancient staircases built in the 1400's to finally arrive at the pinnacle of the castle. We were treated to a 360 degree view of Nice, the mountains, and of course the azure colored waters of the French Riviera, cote d azur. It's starting to get dark and we haven't seen a soul the entire time we have been on this hike. We hotfoot it down the mountain onto the road into old town and hear someone using a whistle,must be a criminal about somewhere,,uh no, it's the guard for the castle whistling that the park is closed and why are we there, and he was not haaaappy that we are preventing him from his dinner.

                                                         View from Castle Hill of Nice

                                                         Waving to all of my "subjects"
 

                                                        Inside of Church in Monte Carlo

                                                 
                                         Terri Smoozing with Doorman at Casino Monte Carlo

                                         Some of the cars parked in front of the Grand Casino

 We walked down into old town and found a French provincial restaurant to have dinner at. It was the best meal we have EVer had in our lives.

This quaint little restaurant with a few outside tables and some inside seating along with one table in an alcove at the front of the restaurant that Spoke to Terri. Glass of wine, French onion soup, the lady had pork medallions with a grain mustard reduction sauce and the man, a wonderfully tender Filet Mignonette with foix GRAS (not the pâté but the whole liver on top with a reduction sauce, ci magnifique!

This has been such a wonderful stay that we are extending our stay one extra day so that we can see the stone city of eze and the summer residence of the garibaldis in Antibes. They have museums of Picasso and Matiss that we would like to see before we head up into the Italian Alps. I promised to share pictures with everyone, however Apparently Blogspot hasn't figured out to upload pictures from an IPod. If I get an answer on how to do it, I will share our pictures, until then, ciao!

Best laid plans of mice and men

Buone Giorno all and greetings from Milano!

Well we made it to Milan malpensa airport right on time after starting our day in Moorpark at 3:30 am. We rented a car in moorpark to take the trip to Burbank Airport because the shuttle wanted to pick us up at 3:20 am for a 7:00 am flight. Car to airport, check.

Arrived at airport with plenty of time to spare, check, turned in car, and literally walked 75 feet into the airport, and checked in, Nice!

On the next leg of our journey from Salt Lake City to Atlanta we sat behind a couple that was also going to Milan for a late honeymoon
Terri taking over...ok, The guy had served as a missionary in Italy and spoke fluent Italian, which came in very handy as our flight from Utah to Atlanta was late, we all made a mad dash across the airport to our connecting flight to Milan, however, our luggage did not. We had to fill out paperwork so that they could deliver our luggage in the am. Being the world travelers that we are, we were prepared and had all we needed for a day or so in our one carry on we brought. Ten points for the old folks, zero for the newly weds, they were left with not even a toothbrush, chalk one up to experience...
It is now 9a.m. So we stow our luggage in a locker for ten euro and head off to see Milano. Choose a hop on hop off city tour, then headed to see the duomo, lots marble and frescoes, just amazing detail.

They had two mummified cardinals where you could actually see the hands...rather Erie. Lit a candle for all my deceased family and relatives.

So much to see in there we spent several hours looking around then left to go eat. Next to the duomo is this huge area with a glass/steel framed overhead built in 1865, it was spectacular. We had lunch there an picked up a sweet ashtray for Tam, literally, blame her she made me do it. It was her only request we had to oblige.

After close to 30 hours without sleep we decided to head to our hotel. Jim decided it would be faster to walk then wait for the bus.....let's just say some of us were more than crabby. Took a Train to rho, but got off at the wrong exit there are two Rho's, had to backtrack on another train,finally made it to our hotel, showered and went to bed EXHAUSTED!

Notice the ashtray at the edge of the table; not there when they cleaned the table. Tamie made us do it!

Got up the next day and decided to go to a real Castle Sforezesco in Milan that in addition to being a castle,  housed a couple of museums.

The museum was a whole treasure house of Renaissance paintings, sculptures, and most notably, Michelangelo's Pieta Rhodonini, an unfinished Pieta that was one of the last sculptures he worked on.

In one of our walkabouts we saw a Ferrari store and had to snap a picture. Pay 120 euros and you can drive in this Ferrari a mile and a half around the city; for 200 euros you could drive 2 miles around the city. Problem is that this is Milan and it was Rush hour, why would I want to drive 15 miles an hour in a Ferrari.

Jim and Terri hurl towards their grand vacation starting March 21, 2012

 Hello Everyone,

Thanks for looking in on our adventure!

After talking and talking, and talking some more, about a return trip (50 years ago for me), I finally got off the dime and booked a month long journey to Italy for Terri and I to celebrate our 35th Wedding Anniversary this year.

As Terri would say, "This marriage thing is starting to sound like a life sentence to me".  I sure hope she is kidding!

As you can well imagine, the logistics of planning a 29 day trip are staggering. Booking the airfare was the easy part, everything that follows is well,,,,,not so easy.  There are so many pieces of this jigsaw puzzle that have to go together just right, or disaster could ensue. Hotels, Train Passes, Ferries, Car Rentals, and Tours, arghhhh!

After putting this trip together, Terri and I have a new found appreciation for my daughters going to Europe a few years ago, and planning everything 1 or 2 days in advance and "on the fly"

I have found that type of planning which is basically, "casting all cares to the winds and just winging it",  is not in my nature!

So here is the plan, not cast in stone, but nevertheless a good start.

Fly into Milan, Italy
Spend 2 days exploring Milan,
Take the train to Nice, France spend 2 days on the French Riviera.
Stop in at Monte Carlo to try our hands at Baccarat (I had my Tux dry cleaned to fit right in with the beautiful people and in case I run into Daniel Craig)
Return to Milan and pick up a car for a drive up into the Italian Alps to snow ski and stay in the beautiful little village of Courmayeur, Italy, for a few days.
Back in the car and drive back to Milan.
Trade in the car for a train and head over to Venice for a few days of sightseeing.
Leave Venice and travel by train down to Florence for a few days.
After Florence we head down to beautiful Roma where we stay for 3 days near the Vatican (over Easter)
We move our digs to the ancient area of Travestere on the southern side of Rome for 4 more days.
After Rome, we head down to Naples, Pompeii, Sorrento and on to the incredible paradise Island of Ischia as well as a day visit to Capri.
After several days of unwinding and relaxing in Ischia, we head back to Rome, and after a month, finally come home.

I get tired just writing about it! Not really, we are so looking forward to our upcoming journey and glad that you could share it with us!.

Anyways, this is a start..my first blog ever......Wednesday 7am, we start the grand adventure!

Ciao Bello!