Italy sep 2007 pt2

italy days 1-9

few stories from italy.

matt and i knew we wouldn't get to see everything we wanted to in any location, so we decided we'd enjoy what we saw and take the time to see it, and if that meant we missed something else, oh well, put it on the list for the next trip. for the most part we managed to do that. we took the hotel shuttle to st. peter's each morning and back after dinner. in fact, we were at breakfast at 7 am so we could make the early shuttle to be in town when everything opened. oh my what a breakfast! they called it an "american buffet". the only thing american about it was it was a buffet breakfast. there were cheeses, meats, over a dozen different types of pastries and rolls, fruit, nuts, cereals, grilled zucchini, scrambled eggs, juices - blood orange juice!! oh it was sooo good! and of course coffees and teas. we managed to avoid the drip and get a cuppa almost every morning which was good. i know i've forgotten quite a few items, but you get the idea. if any of these people came to the states expecting to get this for breakfast anywhere they'll be very disappointed. anyway, we had a pseudo-plan for day 1. go into town, start walking, stop when we see something that looks interesting.

day 0: leaving for italy. had a fairly early departure out of seattle into cincinnati. but when we arrived in OH for our 4-5hr layover we had a great time. arlene, aunt marilyn and grandma came down to the airport and we had lunch and visited together. they all looked good. grandma was looking as strong as she ever has. it was such a short visit it was kind of sad it went by so fast, but oh well. eventually we said goodby and we made our way to the international security checkpoint. our flight across the ocean was in business class - man, now that i've done that its the only way to travel! yeah 1st class might have a few more frivolous luxeries but business has the extra room and private movie screens and that's all that was important to us! we arrived in rome around lunchtime, took about ah hour to get a cab large enough for the tandem. once we had one and were off, i noticed we were passing most of hte other cars, but i didn't think much about it. matt however, was white-knuckled by the time we arrived at the hotel. he said we were going over 100. of course! it's in clicks - 100 = about 60mph. "no, we were doing almost 200clicks, 100+ mph". well, that explained that! we checked in, after they couldn't find our reservation (just like what happened in firenze as it turns out!) and had lunch in the restuarant, then crashed.

day 1 pics #0001-0320 (named not actual): walked past vatican city, st. peters, saw castel st. angelo, crossed over trastavere (tras TEV er eh) or the tiber river. we headed across town, past the pantheon, through piazza navona, got a gelato, visited the altar of peace, marveled at some fugly versace gowns, walked around augustus' mausoleum, then headed towards the spanish steps, climed the SS, headed west towards villa borghese (a museum but also a huge park) then down to piazza del popola. had lunch at a tratoria and then went into the church, then headed back to trajan's column, sat and looked at hte ruins for a few minutes, then climbed the hill to campidoglio and went into the capitaline museums. after that we got food and walked all the way back across town to st. peters to catch the shuttle back. you'll notice i've numbered the obelisks. there are 13 obelisks which were brought back from egypt during the whole Antony and Cleo time. today there are only 5 obelisks in egypt.

day 2 pics #0321-0525: we took our 1st ride on the Roman subway. 2 lines is all they can manage so far becuase they keep running into ancient ruins! we started at campo cestio, then walked back to the arch of constantine passing the mouth fo truth, outside the colosseum, where we were meeting up with morgan, our private guide for ancient rome. she took us through the forum, colosseum, circus maximus, palantine hill, pantheon, trajans column, a few other forums, and the odd place in between places we asked about. yes it was expensive for 4-5 hours, but it was worth it to us. we really enjoyed the one-on-one attention. did we learn stuff we couldn't learn with a big 'bus organized' tour? maybe, maybe not. you can ask yourself the same Q? in comparing 2+ of those 'big bus' tours even. this might be a good time to mention that with all the walking in rome, even though i was wearing very comfy shoes that fit well, i had managed to get 2 very nice blisters on the ball of my foot - on both feet. top off with the fact that my feet and ankles were very swollen. enough so i was actually having thoughts of lymphodemia! - except it was my feet, not my arm...

day 3 pics #0526-0701: matt put together day 3. it's basically rick steve's "pilgim tour" if you have his book. it was a day of churches and cathedrals. the only thing we hadn't thought of was this was also sunday, so we were limited in what we could see or where we could gain entrance depending on if a servicewas being said or not. at 1 church we managed to get back to later in the day, 1 we couldn't see it in the am, and it was closed in the afternoon. we had lunch at a trattoria across the street from 1 while we waited for services to end. we didn't make all of the tour - ran out of time as we were meeting up with the santana tour that afternoon and all the time we'd take with what we did see. oh well. it gives us something to look forward to next time. we did see santa maria maggiore, st peter in chains; which has michelangelo's moses, st clements - which was actually 3 in 1, san giovanni in laterna; which is actually not in rome but is part of the vatican. it holds the throne the pope must sit in once being named. then to trevi fountain to meet up with the tour. they took us to 1 of the catacombs, piazza navona, briefly to the pantheon, then up to an overlook/park of the city.

day 4 pics #0702-1025: this day couldn't have been a bigger fiasco. a year ago i'd've been so stressed and pissed. don't get me wrong, i was still pissed but i was able to laugh at the incompetence of various people. we started out trying to get into the vatican museums. after that didn't wok we walked to the pantheon, to lunch, then back to the vatican museum where we were able to get inside. afte being swept along with the flood of people matt and i got seperated, which is what really upset me. our tour was supposed to spend at least 3 hours there (per a phone call i had to clarify this) but instead everyone headed straight for the sisteen chapel. matt and i wanted to see the museum, and i so wanted to share the experience with hiting sperated just totally did me in mentally. after barely being able to breathe in the sisteen chapel we headed to st. peters. it was here that i said screw the tour, we'll meet them at trevi ftn at 8. we'll miss the dinner, but i'm going to wait for matt here, and that i did. it was at least 30mins before he showed up in the basilica, and we enjoyed walking around together and climbing the dome. we ate at yet another little trattoria - mind you, sitting outside every time! then made our way to trevi ftn for the night's "lit-up monument tour". which was yet another fiasco! there were quite a few people that had arrived in rome that day, and so many people were tired and sleepy that after about 5 monuments they took us back to the hotel. what a jip of a pretour tour.it was that night matt and i decided we were never going to book a pretour with a group again. he said our 1st 3 days before meeting up with a large group was so much more enjoyable.

day 5 pics #1027-1043: up early we loaded onto coaches for a 3 hour tour...no really, it was a 3 hour ride to piombino, where we were to catch the ferry moby lally to the isle of elba's port town of portoferraio. matt takes me 1/2 way around the world for a ferry ride! we got there just in time for sailing. they were hollering at us to "run on board!" or something like that, instead of waiting for the coaches to board and then going up on the decks. as another couple and us reached the topf hte gangplank one of the officers was taken a bit aback at the number of us running onboard. when he found out there were 3 busloads of us, his jaw hit the floor, eyebrows shot up and all he dould do was exclaim "tres bus?!?!" oh it was a great moment. the mediterranean was such a gorgeous color! it was basically a relaxing day. the trucks carrying all bikes didn't make the ferry so our afternoon's schedule was all rearranged. it was a very relaxing place we stayed - hotel hermitage. 1 of many resorts on the island. it had it's own private beach which we enjoyed for a couple hours. i was laying on one of those beach loungers, sun umbrella shading me, and matt went into the ocean. i actually thought it'd be a bit cold, so i was just going to watch. matt talked me into going in and doing a little bodysurfing. there was a nice surf breaking, and it turned out the water was really quite nice. so we were out about 30 minutes maybe less when i went to put my foot down on the sea floor and i just 'fell over' in pain. i couldn't put any weight at all on my left foot, and my right foot was very tender. i told matt i needed to get out of hte water but couldn't stand, and it took us both a good bit to get me on shore... the surf pounding in and having trouble putting feet on the ground made it very interesting. i felt like a bit of flotsom being tossed on the sand. we eventually got me back to the loungers and when i showed matt my feet - he couldn't believe it. what happened was both blisters had collapsed, split, and then flled like overstuffed pita sandwhiches with ocean sand. OUCH! matt went back to get nail scissors water and bandages, and we washed out my feet as best we could. i got in a tub (or my feet did) to try and wash out the blisters while he joined the others to put the bikes together. after that i went and had a massage. the list of offerings were so different from the states! there was a breast anti-sag massage! i had the lymphatic drainage one. it was quite nice. no modest american would be relaxed tho. i was given a pair of paper panties - just to give the appearance of modesty, but the masseuse was in the room as i was changing. and whil we were on our belly she pulled them up and out of the way to get to the glutes. she couldn't believe i had had a mastectomy. she didn't speak a lot of english but we were able to communicate well enough. it wasw pretty much a fullbody massage.

day 6 pics #1044-1120: wow. that's about all i can say about elba. wow. we left the resort after an absolutely fantastic breakfast. this was probably the best breakfast place on the trip. the pastries were outta this world! of course it didn't hurt that you could smell them baking from our balcony! we learned 1 thing about staying at a resort on the beach though. it's quite a climb on a bike getting to the main road! you couldn't have asked for a more perfect day. clear sky, the bluest water you've ever seen, being with someone you love, doing something healthy... we were warned to stop for gelato in a town 'at the bottom of the hill'. it took about 45 minutes to climb the hill into poggio for lunch. instead of taking the turnoff to the resort we continued on to portoferraio to see the napolionic sites.

day 7 pics #1121-1215: it was up early this day. we were to ride to the dock board the ferry to piombino, and then continue biking to volterra. the ride to lunch was pretty flat and matt and i felt pretty good with our performance. we stayed in the lead group, which was moving at a pretty good clip. it also consisted of the couple that runs the tour! thanks to him we ended up in a 'timing line'. he's shouting instructions to people on what to say when, how to pedal, how to adjust speeds, give up the lead and take the lead. all we wanted was to get in a line and draft a few minutes! after lunch we slowed up a bit. joined the middle ranks. but we were still in the front 1/2. there was this real cool village on a hilltop off in the distance. it was so far and so high, there's no way that's where we're going... the tour had a rendevous for a sag van to take the stragglers up the hill - a 10 mile, 1600' or so elevation. turns out it's a cat 1 hill in cycling. just looked it up: if you've got a stickshift car, a cat 4 hill = super easy, you're driving the car in 4th gear. if you have to shift down into 1st gear, you've found a cat 1 hill. make sense? we were cruising up the hill about 6 mph and we start to get passed by show cars, people parked along the road, police closing off intersecting traffic. something was going on but we couldn't find anything we could understand to tell us what. finally a police car comes by and waves us off the road. that we understood! we get onto the shoulder and dismount just as a peleton of female cyclists come pedalling up the hill at like 20 mph! they were flying! not only were we sidelined while all the racers went past, but the rest of our tour group, too! oh well, so what if you're the last one into town. it was already late enough we weren't going to get to climb the tower, see the cathedral or museums... we skipped the walking tour of town which i would've like to do but our hotel was so far out there's no way we could make the timing especially as we both wanted to shower. we were treated to an exhibition by the town's flag throwers which was fun.

day 8 pics #1217-1273: we had to rise early and get across town (all 10 minutes of walking) for the ride talk. we were on our way to sienna, but stopping in san gimingano for lunch and shopping (the van stayed to stash and haul purchases) and for those who wanted, a stop mid-afternoon in montereggione. San G was cool, very crowded with tourists though. Many of these towns you have to park outside the walls and only bike or walk in. and you know, there are so many people and such narrow streets, i wouldn't want to try and drive! Once San G. had mucho torre, but now only about 14 are left. We climbed the belltower - 300 or so steps for a great view of the town. Mat and i chose to stop in Montereggione for a gelato as well. the last little bit up to that town was a horrid cat 1 - but hey, it was only about 50 feet. ok maybe it was a little longer, but nowhere near as bad as the climb into volterra! this is the town immortalized in dante's inferno. it was a wonderfully quiet place! the piazza was surrounded by 1 or 2 trattoria, an enoteca (wine shop), little gift shop, gelato shop, and church. it was just so simple, unburdened or caught up in today's modern world. alas we must get to sienna... because we really lingered we were almost the last to arrive at the hotel. by then we just decided to crash until dinner.

day 9 pics #1274-1416: we had the option of taking "dagmar's ride" or having the day totally on our own. yeah. we've seen dagmar and wolfgang. they can do the ride, i'm staying home! we were actually up pretty early and out the door. it was off to see as much as we could of sienna. we ran into services at our first cathedral, and it was such an open room, which echoed loudly, so we actually didn't stay inside long. we were planning on trying to get back but ah well, that didn't happen. we saw the church of St. Catherine, patron saint of sienna i believe, which was a really small place and way cool. walked the back roads to the duomo, saw the baptistry, the crypt, the main cathedral and a little bit of the duomo musuem. the cathedral was amazing! the piccolomini library was off the left nave (apse?). anyway, wow, the frescoes in there were so fantastic! they've never been restored! after we walked up to the Piazza where they hold the palio and had lunch al fresca as we wathced tourists walk by. my gosh that was a good pizza! we decided to take it easy. we were actually pretty wiped from all the cycling. we walked up to anotehr church and cloisters, then back to the hotel. i crashed for a couple hours and dinner was on our own.