Ciao. I am writing this from the Rome Airport Marriott hotel, which is nice and Americanized.
We went to dinner at a seafood restaurant in Salerno that overlooked the ocean. I had...you'll never guess!...margherita pizza (it's so good and hard for people to mess up!), Mom had rock lobster linguine, Nana had a seafood pizza (it grossed me out with all of the tentacles), and Papa had sea bass. For dessert we had torta caprese (a chocolate almond cake), gelato, and perella (a thick custardy dish made with goat cheese).
We walked around downtown for a while, because we finally found the REAL shopping district. Everything was closing, though, so then we just went to bed.
Mom got up this morning and exercised while I exercised my right to sleep more. Then we went to breakfast, which was still yummy even though the nectarine I had was so hard that when I tried to cut it a piece flew across the room and almost hit the employee offering espressos.
Mom and I then headed to the beach for forty-five minutes of sun intake. It was only slightly marred by this really creepy beachgoer who would walk up and down the beach in front of us and run his hand over his chest whenever I accidentally looked his direction.
We showered and packed up, then took off toward Rome. There was a little bit of more bad rain, but mostly just sprinkling. However, at one point on the drive, lightning struck less than one hundred feet away from our car. We all made strangled gasping noises and leaned to the opposite side of the car before bursting into nervous laughter.
It took us five hundred years to find the Marriott, but we eventually did. It was a good thing, too, because any longer and I am afraid that my bladder would have burst. Mom and I threw on our suits and sunned ourselves out by the pool some more while Nana and Papa took the car back to the rental at the airport. We're going to take the hotel shuttle there in the morning. I hardly spent any money while I was here. :( I feel gypped.
Dinner was at the hotel. I had baked potato and a salad. But these people gave me JoJos!!! I didn't want JoJos; I wanted a real, fat baked potato. And then they didn't have sour cream. Or plain yogurt. So I ate my JOJOs with oil, vinegar, cheeses, salt, and pepper. Hmmph. Mom had zucchini pasta, Nana had seafood salad and a steak in truffle sauce, and Papa had chicken scallopini.
Desert was tiramisu, gelato, and cheesecake that was nowhere good enough or big enough to cost nine euro. But hey. Not every restaurant can have New York style cheesecake. :)
We leave the hotel tomorrow around eight, so this is the last Italian post. Sorry these all came so late; we just didn't have internet. See you all soon!
-Julia
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Sunday through Tuesday
**Tuesday**
I am in the car, on the way from San Giovanni in Fiore back to Salerno. Breakfast on Sunday was delicious- lots of fruits, breads, jams, eggs, and more. We walked around, looking for shopping, but it was Sunday and almost nothing was open. We just got sweaty from the humidity instead.
We did find a craft and flea market type of thing on the boardwalk, and I found some earrings in a style that I can’t find in the U.S. for one euro. Mom bought some jewelry, too. We grabbed some calzone things and some gelato that we ate outside in the shade, and then got in the car to drive to Castelsilano. Mom kept trying to say the name of the town, but she kept butchering it and trying to say it with an Italian accent. “Castahhhh solahhhno.” J
The drive down took longer than we expected, especially since tomtom, our GPS, didn’t recognize newer roads and kept taking us down backwoods and in circles that caused us to pay the same toll twice- we went through the toll, turned around, and paid it again. Lame. Finally, we got there after about five hours. We checked in at Dino’s, and they tried to give mom and I a room that smelled like death. Really. When a rat dies in your wall and it’s 100 degrees outside- that is the smell. Thankfully, we were the ONLY people in the hotel, so there was no shortage of other rooms that DIDN’T stink.
NANA’S SINGING OUT LOUD IN THE CAR WITH HER EARBUDS IN!!!!!!!!!!
Okay. After we checked in, we booked it over to Castelsilano and wandered through the cemetery looking for Lopez and Mangone people. We only found a few, because the cemetery was actually a new one and the old one had been built over recently. Which sucked, because that’s a lot of lost history. Then, as we tried to find our way out of the maze that is Castelsilano, Nana made Papa stop and she took the picture of two boys playing in the street. We were all getting nervous, because she was taking five hundred years to do it, and we were just waiting for an irate parent to come storming out of the house to yell at her.
We went back to Dino’s and ate in their restaurant. It was very nice and delicious, and actually really cheap compared to what we’ve been eating. We all had a starter plate with fried cheese, fried bacon wrapped around cheese, fried seafood, a pesto mussel, zucchini and cheese (similar to eggplant parmigiana), a sausage, and bruschetta. I traded people my meat things for their veggie/cheese things. Then Nana, Papa, and Mom all had the same entrée, a seafood ravioli dish that was apparently delicious and overflowing with good different kinds of seafood. I had…margherita pizza!!! But it was very delicious, made in their brick oven.
Then we went to bed, and slept in until nine fifteen. Mom exercised and then we went downstairs for breakfast, which was a pastry that we got to pick out from their cold case. I think we all had something that resembled an éclair, but had chocolate filling and white chocolate drizzled over the dark chocolate topping. Some espressos and cappuccinos, too.
Before we came to Italy, Nana had gotten into contact with a man named Rosario Cortese, whose wife was Maria Cortese (maiden name Aquila, I think). We are related to them somehow through greatgrandparents or something. I’m not quite sure, because we are similarly related to pretty much the entire town in a distant way. They used to own pizzerias in the bay area of California, so they both spoke English fluently.
Anyway, when Nana and Papa went down for breakfast on Monday morning, Rosario had already gone into Dino’s looking for the Americanos from California. We were not hard to find. He joined us for coffee, and then we all went to Castelsilano, Nana and Rosario in his car, and Papa, Mom and I in ours. First we went to his house and met Maria. She was very nice and hospitable, offering us cold beverages while we gave her the Murano glass dish set that we’d purchased for her on the Salerno boardwalk. We met their two grandsons, Daniel and Dinluca. They were cute.
And, let me just say, we picked an awesome guy to be our temporary close relative in Castelsilano. His house? Yeah, about six thousand square feet. Marble or hardwood floors from local trees throughout the whole thing. Six bathrooms, a kitchen on each floor, more bedrooms and sitting areas than I can remember. In the very lowest level, the Corteses’ daughter, her husband, and the two kids lived in a house within the house. You could freaking see the OCEAN from their deck. And this is not a coastal town. Rosario’s bankage comes from the pizzerias he used to own, as well as the 4,400 olive trees that he grows on his property, harvests olives from, and turns into extra virgin olive oil in commercial sized vats in his basement. Anyway.
Rosario, Nana, Papa, Mom and I went in Rosario’s car to the town hall, where Nana gave the employees the names and approximate years of birth of the relatives she could remember. Then we went to see a man whose name I cannot remember, but he was related. He owns a butcher shop across town from his house, and while we stopped to chat at his house, the smell of cooking peppers from their kitchen made me almost drool.
From there, we went to Rosario’s aunt-in-law, who is 87 and chair-bound. Her daughter and son-in-law were there as well, and while they also forced drinks on us, Rosario acted as translator between Nana and Angelina (the aunt) so that Nana could ask questions. We are also somehow related to Angelina.
Angelina’s house was on the street where Nana’s family used to live. We took pictures, and while Rosario talked to some of his buddies who also lived on the street, their beautiful little hunting dog trotted down to me and I got to pet him for quite a while. It was entertaining; you could tell that he was wary of me by his stiff tail, but every time I told him “buona” or called him “buona cani” his tail would wag like mad.
THEN we went to see a man named Falbo, who was the internet junkie who made the Castelsilano website. He and his wife made us drinks, too. He promised to try and help Nana look up her peeps when she got information back from the town hall. We left and went back to Rosario’s house to have lunch. The boys’ dad was there, a nice guy named Giovanni who spoke just a little English.
Let me see if I can remember all that Maria had on the table for lunch: homemade meatballs, pasta with homemade sauce, three different kinds of cheese, salad, brick-oven cooked bread, cantaloupe, and homegrown plums and pears.
From there Rosario took Nana, Papa, Mom and I on a tour through his production rooms, then we all piled into his car again along with Daniel (sitting illegally on Papa’s lap- he ducked down to the floor every time a cop car passed) to drive out to his property, where he showed us his piggies (which they slaughter themselves. I assured the pigs in a whisper that I, at least, would not be partaking in their flesh), his fig trees, his mulberry tree, his apricot tree, his little restored houses, and his olive trees.
We drove back into town and dropped off Daniel. We went to the church, where Nana directed my picture-taking of the mosaics and figures in the middle of mass. Then we went to see Maria’s sister, who is the village seamstress. She gave us drinks, and also let Mom and Papa try a drink that was almost fully alcohol. Mom got one tiny sip down before she started coughing and gave the rest back.
After we saw Maria’s sister, we went to see the one remaining part of the original castle built by Prince Roto. It wasn’t much; apartments had been built into the rest of it. It was still neat, though. Then we went to see the village loom person, who still wove the weddings blankets and things for hope chests. It was beautiful work.
We went back to Rosario’s house again. I just wanted to go back to Dino’s but somehow we ended up staying another six and a half hours until 10:30. I played with Daniel, communicating in his VERY limited English and my pathetic Italian supplemented with Spanish. They had a magnadoodle, and Daniel would tell me an animal and I would draw it, eliciting giggles. Then Dinluca climbed up next to me with an atlas and showed me different places in the world and I would tell him, “Yo vi Pisa. Yo vi Venezia.” (I saw Pisa. I saw Venice.)
Dinner was yummy too. The Corteses’ daughter, Rosy, was there, finally done with work for the day. She’s a schoolteacher, and since her subject is English, communicating was easy. We had more salad, more cheese, a meat dish (scrambled eggs for me), a ham dish, bread, bruschetta, olives from their olve orchard, their figs, more cantaloupe, and I’m sure more food that I can’t remember. Then Rosario gave us the tour of the house. Afterwards, we visited for a while. Mom and I got the names of popular music artists in Italy from Rosy, and then we all said our goodbyes, and left.
Bed was good.
Today I had the same pastry for breakfast with a macchiato. We packed up and left after walking around the streets and finding no good shopping.
It took us less time to get back to Salerno, even though we had to drive through the kind of blinding rain that makes people hydroplane and mom hyperventilate. The autostrade is the main highway (I can’t remember if I already told you this) and it’s lined with rest stops called Autogrill. They sell coffee, sandwiches, dried goods, drinks, DVDs, and CDs. They had a CD on sale by one of the artists Rosy gave us, so I bought it and we listened to it on the way back. Her name is Laura Pausini, and her voice is very pretty. My only complaint would be that her songs sound too much alike.
Now we’re back in Salerno, and it’s very muggy and overcast. Not good beach weather. It’s still a very nice room, but for some reason it’s smaller than the first. But it’s still bigger than all the rest! J
Mom’s exercising, and we’ll probably go to dinner soon after she comes back. I’m hungry!!
--Julia
I am in the car, on the way from San Giovanni in Fiore back to Salerno. Breakfast on Sunday was delicious- lots of fruits, breads, jams, eggs, and more. We walked around, looking for shopping, but it was Sunday and almost nothing was open. We just got sweaty from the humidity instead.
We did find a craft and flea market type of thing on the boardwalk, and I found some earrings in a style that I can’t find in the U.S. for one euro. Mom bought some jewelry, too. We grabbed some calzone things and some gelato that we ate outside in the shade, and then got in the car to drive to Castelsilano. Mom kept trying to say the name of the town, but she kept butchering it and trying to say it with an Italian accent. “Castahhhh solahhhno.” J
The drive down took longer than we expected, especially since tomtom, our GPS, didn’t recognize newer roads and kept taking us down backwoods and in circles that caused us to pay the same toll twice- we went through the toll, turned around, and paid it again. Lame. Finally, we got there after about five hours. We checked in at Dino’s, and they tried to give mom and I a room that smelled like death. Really. When a rat dies in your wall and it’s 100 degrees outside- that is the smell. Thankfully, we were the ONLY people in the hotel, so there was no shortage of other rooms that DIDN’T stink.
NANA’S SINGING OUT LOUD IN THE CAR WITH HER EARBUDS IN!!!!!!!!!!
Okay. After we checked in, we booked it over to Castelsilano and wandered through the cemetery looking for Lopez and Mangone people. We only found a few, because the cemetery was actually a new one and the old one had been built over recently. Which sucked, because that’s a lot of lost history. Then, as we tried to find our way out of the maze that is Castelsilano, Nana made Papa stop and she took the picture of two boys playing in the street. We were all getting nervous, because she was taking five hundred years to do it, and we were just waiting for an irate parent to come storming out of the house to yell at her.
We went back to Dino’s and ate in their restaurant. It was very nice and delicious, and actually really cheap compared to what we’ve been eating. We all had a starter plate with fried cheese, fried bacon wrapped around cheese, fried seafood, a pesto mussel, zucchini and cheese (similar to eggplant parmigiana), a sausage, and bruschetta. I traded people my meat things for their veggie/cheese things. Then Nana, Papa, and Mom all had the same entrée, a seafood ravioli dish that was apparently delicious and overflowing with good different kinds of seafood. I had…margherita pizza!!! But it was very delicious, made in their brick oven.
Then we went to bed, and slept in until nine fifteen. Mom exercised and then we went downstairs for breakfast, which was a pastry that we got to pick out from their cold case. I think we all had something that resembled an éclair, but had chocolate filling and white chocolate drizzled over the dark chocolate topping. Some espressos and cappuccinos, too.
Before we came to Italy, Nana had gotten into contact with a man named Rosario Cortese, whose wife was Maria Cortese (maiden name Aquila, I think). We are related to them somehow through greatgrandparents or something. I’m not quite sure, because we are similarly related to pretty much the entire town in a distant way. They used to own pizzerias in the bay area of California, so they both spoke English fluently.
Anyway, when Nana and Papa went down for breakfast on Monday morning, Rosario had already gone into Dino’s looking for the Americanos from California. We were not hard to find. He joined us for coffee, and then we all went to Castelsilano, Nana and Rosario in his car, and Papa, Mom and I in ours. First we went to his house and met Maria. She was very nice and hospitable, offering us cold beverages while we gave her the Murano glass dish set that we’d purchased for her on the Salerno boardwalk. We met their two grandsons, Daniel and Dinluca. They were cute.
And, let me just say, we picked an awesome guy to be our temporary close relative in Castelsilano. His house? Yeah, about six thousand square feet. Marble or hardwood floors from local trees throughout the whole thing. Six bathrooms, a kitchen on each floor, more bedrooms and sitting areas than I can remember. In the very lowest level, the Corteses’ daughter, her husband, and the two kids lived in a house within the house. You could freaking see the OCEAN from their deck. And this is not a coastal town. Rosario’s bankage comes from the pizzerias he used to own, as well as the 4,400 olive trees that he grows on his property, harvests olives from, and turns into extra virgin olive oil in commercial sized vats in his basement. Anyway.
Rosario, Nana, Papa, Mom and I went in Rosario’s car to the town hall, where Nana gave the employees the names and approximate years of birth of the relatives she could remember. Then we went to see a man whose name I cannot remember, but he was related. He owns a butcher shop across town from his house, and while we stopped to chat at his house, the smell of cooking peppers from their kitchen made me almost drool.
From there, we went to Rosario’s aunt-in-law, who is 87 and chair-bound. Her daughter and son-in-law were there as well, and while they also forced drinks on us, Rosario acted as translator between Nana and Angelina (the aunt) so that Nana could ask questions. We are also somehow related to Angelina.
Angelina’s house was on the street where Nana’s family used to live. We took pictures, and while Rosario talked to some of his buddies who also lived on the street, their beautiful little hunting dog trotted down to me and I got to pet him for quite a while. It was entertaining; you could tell that he was wary of me by his stiff tail, but every time I told him “buona” or called him “buona cani” his tail would wag like mad.
THEN we went to see a man named Falbo, who was the internet junkie who made the Castelsilano website. He and his wife made us drinks, too. He promised to try and help Nana look up her peeps when she got information back from the town hall. We left and went back to Rosario’s house to have lunch. The boys’ dad was there, a nice guy named Giovanni who spoke just a little English.
Let me see if I can remember all that Maria had on the table for lunch: homemade meatballs, pasta with homemade sauce, three different kinds of cheese, salad, brick-oven cooked bread, cantaloupe, and homegrown plums and pears.
From there Rosario took Nana, Papa, Mom and I on a tour through his production rooms, then we all piled into his car again along with Daniel (sitting illegally on Papa’s lap- he ducked down to the floor every time a cop car passed) to drive out to his property, where he showed us his piggies (which they slaughter themselves. I assured the pigs in a whisper that I, at least, would not be partaking in their flesh), his fig trees, his mulberry tree, his apricot tree, his little restored houses, and his olive trees.
We drove back into town and dropped off Daniel. We went to the church, where Nana directed my picture-taking of the mosaics and figures in the middle of mass. Then we went to see Maria’s sister, who is the village seamstress. She gave us drinks, and also let Mom and Papa try a drink that was almost fully alcohol. Mom got one tiny sip down before she started coughing and gave the rest back.
After we saw Maria’s sister, we went to see the one remaining part of the original castle built by Prince Roto. It wasn’t much; apartments had been built into the rest of it. It was still neat, though. Then we went to see the village loom person, who still wove the weddings blankets and things for hope chests. It was beautiful work.
We went back to Rosario’s house again. I just wanted to go back to Dino’s but somehow we ended up staying another six and a half hours until 10:30. I played with Daniel, communicating in his VERY limited English and my pathetic Italian supplemented with Spanish. They had a magnadoodle, and Daniel would tell me an animal and I would draw it, eliciting giggles. Then Dinluca climbed up next to me with an atlas and showed me different places in the world and I would tell him, “Yo vi Pisa. Yo vi Venezia.” (I saw Pisa. I saw Venice.)
Dinner was yummy too. The Corteses’ daughter, Rosy, was there, finally done with work for the day. She’s a schoolteacher, and since her subject is English, communicating was easy. We had more salad, more cheese, a meat dish (scrambled eggs for me), a ham dish, bread, bruschetta, olives from their olve orchard, their figs, more cantaloupe, and I’m sure more food that I can’t remember. Then Rosario gave us the tour of the house. Afterwards, we visited for a while. Mom and I got the names of popular music artists in Italy from Rosy, and then we all said our goodbyes, and left.
Bed was good.
Today I had the same pastry for breakfast with a macchiato. We packed up and left after walking around the streets and finding no good shopping.
It took us less time to get back to Salerno, even though we had to drive through the kind of blinding rain that makes people hydroplane and mom hyperventilate. The autostrade is the main highway (I can’t remember if I already told you this) and it’s lined with rest stops called Autogrill. They sell coffee, sandwiches, dried goods, drinks, DVDs, and CDs. They had a CD on sale by one of the artists Rosy gave us, so I bought it and we listened to it on the way back. Her name is Laura Pausini, and her voice is very pretty. My only complaint would be that her songs sound too much alike.
Now we’re back in Salerno, and it’s very muggy and overcast. Not good beach weather. It’s still a very nice room, but for some reason it’s smaller than the first. But it’s still bigger than all the rest! J
Mom’s exercising, and we’ll probably go to dinner soon after she comes back. I’m hungry!!
--Julia
Saturday evening through Sunday
**The next day- Sunday**
Ciao again. Our hotel is fantastic. Really. All of the floors are tiled in black, white, and yellow, and the walls and fixtures are pristine whites and creams while the furniture is dark woods or stainless steel. It’s very high-tech- the electricity in the room will only operate when your key card is in the slot by the door and you are therefore home.
Flat screen TVs, beds more comfortable than memory foam, motion detector lights in the bathroom that includes a MASSIVE tub in which I have already taken a luxurious soak. Everything combines to create rooms that have a very modern feel while incorporating some neat were-modern-in-the-80’s prints on the fabric. And the large size of the room compared to all of the others is nice. So is the balcony overlooking the Mediterranean sea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mom and I went down to the beach yesterday. Because it is, literally, RIGHT THERE. We sunbathed and read our books for a while, and then went in the water (but only about up to our knees). Then we went back to the room, where I took the aforementioned bath and she went and exercised. She came back, we got ready, and walked aimlessly around the immediate area before determining the nicest place to eat in the blocks surrounding our hotel was our hotel.
Papa had some sort of tortellini dish with clams, Nana had vegetable soup, Mom had black beans and rice pureed with shrimp and veggies- apparently it actually was delicious- and I had fresh fruit (kiwi, orange, and cherries). Then I went to bed and slept as long as possible (meaning until 8:45 am when Nana called to see when we wanted to go to breakfast). Now Mom is exercising again, and I shall go get ready for breakfast. Today we leave Salerno and drive further South to San Giovanni, where we’ll be staying, because Castelsilano is so small we doubt it has a hotel.
Ciao again. Our hotel is fantastic. Really. All of the floors are tiled in black, white, and yellow, and the walls and fixtures are pristine whites and creams while the furniture is dark woods or stainless steel. It’s very high-tech- the electricity in the room will only operate when your key card is in the slot by the door and you are therefore home.
Flat screen TVs, beds more comfortable than memory foam, motion detector lights in the bathroom that includes a MASSIVE tub in which I have already taken a luxurious soak. Everything combines to create rooms that have a very modern feel while incorporating some neat were-modern-in-the-80’s prints on the fabric. And the large size of the room compared to all of the others is nice. So is the balcony overlooking the Mediterranean sea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mom and I went down to the beach yesterday. Because it is, literally, RIGHT THERE. We sunbathed and read our books for a while, and then went in the water (but only about up to our knees). Then we went back to the room, where I took the aforementioned bath and she went and exercised. She came back, we got ready, and walked aimlessly around the immediate area before determining the nicest place to eat in the blocks surrounding our hotel was our hotel.
Papa had some sort of tortellini dish with clams, Nana had vegetable soup, Mom had black beans and rice pureed with shrimp and veggies- apparently it actually was delicious- and I had fresh fruit (kiwi, orange, and cherries). Then I went to bed and slept as long as possible (meaning until 8:45 am when Nana called to see when we wanted to go to breakfast). Now Mom is exercising again, and I shall go get ready for breakfast. Today we leave Salerno and drive further South to San Giovanni, where we’ll be staying, because Castelsilano is so small we doubt it has a hotel.
HI!!! Julia- Thursday night (6/25) through Saturday midday
Hola! It’s Julia. After rests and shopping on Thursday, we went out for Chinese food to shake things up- and even though it was the only food other than Italian or McDonald’s that we’d seen in the entire city (so we were wary) it was actually really good. Between all of us, we had spring rolls, vegetable/chicken chow mein, mixed vegetables, and sweet and sour pork.
On Friday, we had an all-day excursion to Pompeii. For some reason, we stopped for about ten minutes in Napoli (Naples). We didn’t see a lot of garbage, but with a certain breeze, we could definitely smell the effects of the garbage-collecting strike. Gross. And because some non-smart person had determined that we detour through Naples, we also got to detour through the really special traffic. Yay!
However, when we got to Pompeii, it was still awesome. Pretty darn hot, but neat. We walked through all different parts of the city, and saw about eight petrified figures. The doggy one made me sadder than the others, though. The other ones were just cool. The dog’s collar was even outlined!! We took pictures of a bunch of the mosaics, saw Vesuvius from the city, and toured the whorehouse, which had recently had its illustrations restored. I think that part was my favorite.
We had dinner at a small restaurant around the corner from our hotel. There was an accordion player outside. I had my so-far favorite meal, a delicious example of eggplant parmigiana. Papa and Kristina had lasagna, Nana had caprese salad (the mild cheese and tomatoes that I had had at one place earlier in Florence), and Mom had spinach ravioli. It was good! For dessert, I had tartufo nero, a sort of chocolate ice cream truffle, Nana had panna cotta, and Kristina had fruit salad.
Today, we got up and gathered our things. After lots of irritating being-forgotten-by-the-shuttle-even-though-we-confirmed-our-pick-up-at-eight-twice, we got Kristina to the airport and said our goodbyes. We’ll all miss you, Kristina! I think all of us were secretly hoping that you’d miss your flight, and have to stay for another week, too.
It was ridiculous getting our rental car. After waiting an obnoxiously long time to speak with someone, the rental agency didn’t even have our car reserved for us, nor would they care enough to help us get one. They just made us go around to other agencies, begging for a ride. Finally, about two hours after we arrived to get our car, we were able to load up and head south to Salerno. We’re about ten minutes away right now, and I can’t wait. Our hotel sounds really nice, and it’s right on the ocean. Whoo!
On Friday, we had an all-day excursion to Pompeii. For some reason, we stopped for about ten minutes in Napoli (Naples). We didn’t see a lot of garbage, but with a certain breeze, we could definitely smell the effects of the garbage-collecting strike. Gross. And because some non-smart person had determined that we detour through Naples, we also got to detour through the really special traffic. Yay!
However, when we got to Pompeii, it was still awesome. Pretty darn hot, but neat. We walked through all different parts of the city, and saw about eight petrified figures. The doggy one made me sadder than the others, though. The other ones were just cool. The dog’s collar was even outlined!! We took pictures of a bunch of the mosaics, saw Vesuvius from the city, and toured the whorehouse, which had recently had its illustrations restored. I think that part was my favorite.
We had dinner at a small restaurant around the corner from our hotel. There was an accordion player outside. I had my so-far favorite meal, a delicious example of eggplant parmigiana. Papa and Kristina had lasagna, Nana had caprese salad (the mild cheese and tomatoes that I had had at one place earlier in Florence), and Mom had spinach ravioli. It was good! For dessert, I had tartufo nero, a sort of chocolate ice cream truffle, Nana had panna cotta, and Kristina had fruit salad.
Today, we got up and gathered our things. After lots of irritating being-forgotten-by-the-shuttle-even-though-we-confirmed-our-pick-up-at-eight-twice, we got Kristina to the airport and said our goodbyes. We’ll all miss you, Kristina! I think all of us were secretly hoping that you’d miss your flight, and have to stay for another week, too.
It was ridiculous getting our rental car. After waiting an obnoxiously long time to speak with someone, the rental agency didn’t even have our car reserved for us, nor would they care enough to help us get one. They just made us go around to other agencies, begging for a ride. Finally, about two hours after we arrived to get our car, we were able to load up and head south to Salerno. We’re about ten minutes away right now, and I can’t wait. Our hotel sounds really nice, and it’s right on the ocean. Whoo!
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Julia's Thoughts: Venice to Rome
Venice was definitely everyone's favorite. Once we arrived in Venice by bus, we got out and took a boat taxi through the canals to the Piazza San Marco. I REALLY liked being there, because one of the movies I own, called "The Thief Lord," is based on a book set in Venice. The next time I watch the movie, I'm going to be all like, "I've been there!!" :)
We toured the cathedral and the Doge's Palace, both with an excellent tour guide. Everything was amazing and beautiful. Even the vendor carts on the streets were beautiful! A big seller on the carts were all kinds of intricate, beautiful masks. I wish that I had gotten a picture of them.
After our tour, we took a gondola ride. Mom posted a picture of our gondalier below, and we have named him Angelo (Kristina's name for him)/Gepetto (Mom and Me) because no one remembered to ask him his name. But he was very nice, super cute, and spoke English very well. Two generations of men in his family before him have been gondaliers. I thought that was neat. He didn't sing to us, but the mere existence of his presence kept our spirits up even when it started to rain.
After that, we wandered around for a while until we complained to Pierre about the cold. Then we took a boat taxi to our hotel, which was the most elegant one yet. Andrea, you would have loved the room that Kristina and I had- the decor was all the antigue-y, distressed kind of look that we both love.
Kristina and I collapsed onto our beds and set our alarm incorrectly so that we woke up to my mom knocking on the door to get us for dinner. Whoops. Dinner was vegetable soup or seafood with pasta, fried sole fillet, and a rectangle of ice cream with sprinkles. Then Nana and Papa and I walked around Venice at night for a while, and it was beautiful. I can't even begin to describe it, so I'll show you more pictures when I get home, or post them then.
I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow on my bed and slept hard until the next morning, when we had to get ready for breakfast and going to Murano island- actually just a section of Venice, which is made up of over a hundred little islands. BTW, the water didn't stink most of the time, which was nice.
Murano is home of the famous glass-blowers that have perfected the art of creation. We watched two demonstrations and then went crazy in the shopping area ( we got a 50% discount as part of a tour! Whoo hoo!). We then headed back to the main area for a little more shopping and then a bus ride back to Roma. :( Seven hours + in the bus, woot! Not.
It wasn't too bad, though. I read a lot. And napped. It was getting back into the hotel that was the problem. First we didn't have reservations, and then we didn't have rooms, and then the rude manager sent us over to their sister hotel about four doors down, at Hotel Impero, who was even more rude and insisted that we only had reservations and hadn't actually paid. He sucked, but we got rooms that were nicer and had better AC than the Flower Garden. We had dinner next door. Mom had sea bass, I had gnocchi with tomato sauce, Kristina had greek salad, Nana had some kind of seafood pasta dish, and I can't remember what Papa had. Sorry! Tiramisu and some unnamed chocolate caramel type of thing for dessert.
The next morning we went on the Vatican tour, which was neat. The best part was the Sistine Chapel, and seeing the Pope. The chapel was spectcular!!!!!! Then Nana and Papa got left behind at St. Peter's Square when the tour bus refused to wait for them, and they had to take a taxi back to the hotel. Mom, Kristina and I managed to get the bus. That afternoon, we went on the Imperial Rome tour, which took us to the Colosseum, The Palatino, and other places I can't remember because we really just walked by them. The main two were fantastic, and our tour guide taught us a few things that we didn't know.
We had dinner nearby our hotel. Nana had shrimp salad, Papa had pizza with salami and ham, I had four cheese pizza, Mom had clam and mushroom pasta, and Kristina had....a burger and fries. It was the smallest burgerthat was not meant to be a miniburger on the face of the planet, with a bun about seven times too big for it. It was pretty funny. Tiramisu and apple pie (italian style) for dessert.
Today was the Ancient Rome tour. We went to the Spanish steps, the Pantheon, and the Trevi fountain (which rocked). It was only when we were about to go St. Peter's when our guide said, "If you already went to St. Peter's and don't want to go again, this is where we say goodbye." We all look around. We're in the middle of a plaza with a couple fountains and living statue people. No bus to take us back to the hotel in sight. When we ask what we do, we're told that unless we paid for lunch and the afternoon tour as well, all of the the people who just took the morning tour had to find their own way home because a bus had broken down and they were short. We were ticked off. They hadn't told us anything until after the tour! All of the other tours had complete transportation.
So we had to take the public bus to the terminal, which was thankfully just a few blocks from our hotel. We stopped and had lunch on our walk back (me= margherita pizza, mom=vegetable pizza, Nana= tripe *GROSS*, Papa= salmon, and Kristina=spinach and cheese ravioli with mushrooms). Now Kristina, Nana and Papa are resting and Mom and I are going shopping. Ciao!
We toured the cathedral and the Doge's Palace, both with an excellent tour guide. Everything was amazing and beautiful. Even the vendor carts on the streets were beautiful! A big seller on the carts were all kinds of intricate, beautiful masks. I wish that I had gotten a picture of them.
After our tour, we took a gondola ride. Mom posted a picture of our gondalier below, and we have named him Angelo (Kristina's name for him)/Gepetto (Mom and Me) because no one remembered to ask him his name. But he was very nice, super cute, and spoke English very well. Two generations of men in his family before him have been gondaliers. I thought that was neat. He didn't sing to us, but the mere existence of his presence kept our spirits up even when it started to rain.
After that, we wandered around for a while until we complained to Pierre about the cold. Then we took a boat taxi to our hotel, which was the most elegant one yet. Andrea, you would have loved the room that Kristina and I had- the decor was all the antigue-y, distressed kind of look that we both love.
Kristina and I collapsed onto our beds and set our alarm incorrectly so that we woke up to my mom knocking on the door to get us for dinner. Whoops. Dinner was vegetable soup or seafood with pasta, fried sole fillet, and a rectangle of ice cream with sprinkles. Then Nana and Papa and I walked around Venice at night for a while, and it was beautiful. I can't even begin to describe it, so I'll show you more pictures when I get home, or post them then.
I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow on my bed and slept hard until the next morning, when we had to get ready for breakfast and going to Murano island- actually just a section of Venice, which is made up of over a hundred little islands. BTW, the water didn't stink most of the time, which was nice.
Murano is home of the famous glass-blowers that have perfected the art of creation. We watched two demonstrations and then went crazy in the shopping area ( we got a 50% discount as part of a tour! Whoo hoo!). We then headed back to the main area for a little more shopping and then a bus ride back to Roma. :( Seven hours + in the bus, woot! Not.
It wasn't too bad, though. I read a lot. And napped. It was getting back into the hotel that was the problem. First we didn't have reservations, and then we didn't have rooms, and then the rude manager sent us over to their sister hotel about four doors down, at Hotel Impero, who was even more rude and insisted that we only had reservations and hadn't actually paid. He sucked, but we got rooms that were nicer and had better AC than the Flower Garden. We had dinner next door. Mom had sea bass, I had gnocchi with tomato sauce, Kristina had greek salad, Nana had some kind of seafood pasta dish, and I can't remember what Papa had. Sorry! Tiramisu and some unnamed chocolate caramel type of thing for dessert.
The next morning we went on the Vatican tour, which was neat. The best part was the Sistine Chapel, and seeing the Pope. The chapel was spectcular!!!!!! Then Nana and Papa got left behind at St. Peter's Square when the tour bus refused to wait for them, and they had to take a taxi back to the hotel. Mom, Kristina and I managed to get the bus. That afternoon, we went on the Imperial Rome tour, which took us to the Colosseum, The Palatino, and other places I can't remember because we really just walked by them. The main two were fantastic, and our tour guide taught us a few things that we didn't know.
We had dinner nearby our hotel. Nana had shrimp salad, Papa had pizza with salami and ham, I had four cheese pizza, Mom had clam and mushroom pasta, and Kristina had....a burger and fries. It was the smallest burgerthat was not meant to be a miniburger on the face of the planet, with a bun about seven times too big for it. It was pretty funny. Tiramisu and apple pie (italian style) for dessert.
Today was the Ancient Rome tour. We went to the Spanish steps, the Pantheon, and the Trevi fountain (which rocked). It was only when we were about to go St. Peter's when our guide said, "If you already went to St. Peter's and don't want to go again, this is where we say goodbye." We all look around. We're in the middle of a plaza with a couple fountains and living statue people. No bus to take us back to the hotel in sight. When we ask what we do, we're told that unless we paid for lunch and the afternoon tour as well, all of the the people who just took the morning tour had to find their own way home because a bus had broken down and they were short. We were ticked off. They hadn't told us anything until after the tour! All of the other tours had complete transportation.
So we had to take the public bus to the terminal, which was thankfully just a few blocks from our hotel. We stopped and had lunch on our walk back (me= margherita pizza, mom=vegetable pizza, Nana= tripe *GROSS*, Papa= salmon, and Kristina=spinach and cheese ravioli with mushrooms). Now Kristina, Nana and Papa are resting and Mom and I are going shopping. Ciao!
Monday, June 22, 2009
Julia's Thoughts 6/19-6/22
Julia’s Location: On Bus to Venice
My flight sucked. The last five hours of the transatlantic flight had me wanting to die- my stomach hurt so BAD. It was better in Frankfurt (though I thought the airport was slightly gross) but on the plane to Italy my stomachache was back and worse. The food on the plane was good, though. They even gave me my first Mars Bar!! It’s like a cross between a Milky Way and a Three Musketeers. The Leonardo Da Vinci Airport was a little bit gross too, but but my perception might have been altered by the fact that everything seemed to be swaying and I was dizzy from the change of being on a plane with horrible turbulence and then on flat, stable ground. In Roma, it was very humid and our shuttle had no air conditioning. There were two other people on the shuttle, who were from Indiana. They were such BABIES about the heat, and kept being super rude to the driver and complaining and saying how much better Amsterdam was than Roma and I just thought, “Then why didn’t you do us all a favor and STAY THERE?” Anyway. At the hotel, Kristina and I passed out on our (surprisingly) very comfortable beds for as long as we could until we went to dinner on a rooftop garden restaurant. It was good, but unfortunately I was still feeling my phantom plane symptoms (which, unfortunately, would continue through my Saturday). I had risotto with mushrooms, Nana had a scallop dish, Papa had lamb, Kristina had tortellini, and Mom had pasta carbonara. There was limoncello and biscotti and other pastries on the house. I had tiramisu for dessert, Papa ice cream with strawberries, and Mom this anise-flavored drink.
Saturday we left on a tour bus. It had excellent AC and nice seats, and the bus was not very full. Our tour guide is Pierre (but he is NOT french) and he hates “inhumane Tuscans” (which is what he called them when they wouldn’t let me use the bathroom. We drove three hours to our first stop, a town called Assisi. We walked for a very long time,enjoying the architecture of the churches, which included St. Clare’s and St. Francis’s. We even got to see St. Francis’s tomb underneath the church proper! Then we continued on to a town called Siena, where our tour was interrupted by an hour’s worth of torrential downpouring, during which we were stranded in a museum giftshop (where the “inhumane tuscans” refused me the use of the bathroom for the first 45 minutes, and then changed their minds). We didn’t have much time left when the rain stopped, but we got to have our first taste of REAL gelato. I had white chocolate- cioccolato bianco- and Mom had chocolate, Kristina melon, Nana amaretto, and Papa strawbery and pistachio. It was YUMMY!! Kristina got a blue “Italia” sweatshirt at a shop nearby. We finally headed to Florence, known as Firenze. We had a bigger room, which was nice, and all of the towns in Tuscany (including Florence) were not humid like Roma, so we could leave the door that led to our balcony open and it would let in cool, dry air. All of our tour group ate dinner at a ristorante nearby, and a nice guy named Brian who’s a Nebraskan art major with a hairdresser girlfriend sat with us to complete our table of six. We had pasta in a cream sauce with mushrooms, a meat dish with french fries (I had a mild cheese similar to mozzarella with fresh roma tomatoes), salad, and a dessert similar to flan (but MY flan is much better J). Then we all went back to the hotel and passed out until breakfast.
Breakfast was quick and the coffee and hot chocolate delish. We drove further into Florence, got out, walked in the rain for a little while, and went into the Academia Museum. We saw Michelangelo’s David!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was AMAZING. There was a lot of other beautiful artwork, and we had a great guide that took us through Academia and into the city and told us about architecture, art, and culture. We saw Michelangelo’s house, the river Arno, the old Medici bridge, and wen t into fancy shmancy gold and leather factories that made me wish I wasn’t a vegetarian and could justify getting a really expensive leather coat that felt like butter. Nana, Papa, and Kristina went to Mass, while Mom and I roamed around. I bought some souvenirs for my friends and Mom bought a cute red leather purse from a street vendor. The two of us got lunch at a cute café called Oibo- margherita pizza for me, prosciutto pizza for her, and water, cappucino, and a macchiato for us to share. That took up all of the time until one o’clock while we left some of our group to shop in Florence while the five of us, Brian, a Spanish-speaking couple, and an Indian-American family of five with the two most irritating kids EVER took the optional tour to Pisa. That’s right- the home of the leaning tower. It was about an hour and fifteen minutes drive each way. Pisa was neat, and we had another good guide. The original village was outlined by a huge ancient wall that contained the cathedral, the cemetary, the hospital-turned-museum, a baptistry, and, of course, the leaning tower. All except the hospital were made out of the same beautiful marble, and all were massive and lovely. Everything b egan construction in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. We took a tour of the cathedral, and the best part for me was when we saw the body of a really old guy who was important to the church (but I can’t remember his name)in a glass coffin. Then we ate some more gelato (I had chocolate, Nana and Kristina lemon, and Papa strawberry) with a plate of cheeses and bread. After that, we walked and looked at the street vendors, but they were boring and all selling the same things. At five, we got on the bus and rode back to the hotel in Florence, where we napped for 45 minutes before going to dinner. The first course was a plate of rigatoni in a meat sauce and penne in a butter sauce with veggies, the second course either chicken and salad or salmon and salad (which I gave to Papa- Happy Father’s day! J), and dessert was panna cotta, a bland type of custard topped with a strawberry sauce. You might see a pattern, but then we went back to the hotel and passed out until our 6:15 wakeup call.
Breakfast today (our Monday) was fast and yummy like yesterday (with things like croissants, fruits, real yogurt, etc.) and now we are on our way Venice as I am typing this up. I am finished for now, so I am going to nap. Ciao!
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Saturday, June 20, 2009
June 20, 2009 Assisi, Siena, & Florence
Words will follow tomorrow. Too tired to come up with anything coherent tonight! R
Friday, June 19, 2009
June 19, 2009 We Made It!
In the end it was as wonderful as I thought it would be! (For the first day!)
As many of you know Ron, Julia, my mother, and Kristina traveled separately from myself to arrive in Rome. We all had issues with the shuttle to our hotel but were smart enough to navigate all of those issues. I arrived about 3 hours earlier than the other traveling party. I was the last to be dropped off my shuttle group and the shuttle driver treated me to another 45 min of private drive-bys of the local landmarks. Just the Coliseum etc.... I have attached some pictures. Romero the shuttle driver took quite a liking to me and left me with his # even though he spoke not a bit of English and had to be 75. What is with you mature men? After Romero dropped me at the Flower Garden I refreshed myself and headed out to explore and find lunch, I rested and awoke to the melodic tap of my mother at the door. Oh how I have missed her! Our entire party met in the lobby for to head for an outstanding rooftop dinner including Limoncello and Sambuca for dessert. Reminds me of other adventures!
Julie, some othe descriptions you gave me are so accurate!
Rachelle
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