Ciao from Sorrento!
Well, we decided to take a little break from our hectic pace to do a little laundry today in beautiful Sorrento! Although laundry is not much fun, laundry with this kind of view is nothing to shake a stick at. So as our clothes tumble in the dryer, I'll catch you up on our latest happenings.
Day 13: I think we last updated you when we were blessed by an extra day in Riomaggiore, thanks to the national train strike. We did make it out the next day and arrived in Siena. But on our way, we took a little detour to the bustling town of Pisa and saw the famous leaning tower! Quite impressive (that it has not fallen over yet, that is...)! Lesser known but just as noteworthy are the cathedral and baptistery in the same complex. We toured the baptistery and while we were inside, they closed the doors and someone sang (the security guard of all people). It was magical! It sounded like sound was coming out of every corner of the room! Because the sounds reverberated for so long, the sounds actually harmonized with each other. Neat experience.
We stayed in Siena that night. Siena is an awesome little town in the heart of Tuscany. We arrived in the early evening and had just enough time to drop our bags and head to dinner. We found an incredible little trattoria right off the main square that was run by a delightful Italian named Alberto. He didn't have menus, but rather spouted the available items from memory right at our table. We let him pick what we were having and he did not disappoint. New favorite eatery is Trattoria La Torre in Siena.
Day 14: The next day we decided to take a bus tour through the Tuscan countryside and wine country. We left Siena and headed to a little winery outside of a small town called Montalcino. The owner of the establishment, Mario, and his wife lets us sample the wines that they made on sight. Molto Bene! We all ordered bottles and shipped them home! Next was a stop at a Gregorian Abbey tucked away in the hillside. It was very simple yet incredible moving all at the same time! Finally we stopped in the town Montalcino and spent the evening hours perusing the streets. All in all, a very nice excursion!
Day 15: We left Siena and headed to Assisi. It was a long day of traveling, so by the time we got there we were already beat. We dropped our bags and headed for the Basilica of St. Francis. Despite a little detour to the fort way up on the hill, we made it to the church and set up a guided tour with a Franciscan Monk name Fr. Noel. He gave us a lively description of the building as well as some of the history of St. Francis and the Franciscan Order. Very interesting tour. We wandered the streets of Assisi that night and were all very impressed. The least touristy and most deserted of all the towns we've been to thus far, Assisi has a slow and contemplative feel to it.
Day 16: We only had one night in Assisi. So the next morning, we started to make our way south to Sorrento. We were supposed to catch a 9:00am train to Rome and then from there change trains to get to Naples. Problem is, our 9:00am train never left until 11:57am. Oh well... It just put us a little behind. We had to cut out our stop in Naples (which was only scheduled for the afternoon anyway) and went directly to Sorrento. It probably worked out for the better as Matt and I were afraid that Eric might pick a fight with a mafia man... We arrived in Sorrento and an especially friendly woman named Maria showed us to our room. We walked in and were dumbstruck at the view from our little porch. A sweeping view of the Bay of Naples and Mt. Vesuvius looming in the background. Breathtaking! We had dinner and called it a night.
Day 17: We actually got to sleep in a little the next morning. After our 13 hours travel day the day before, we all needed it! We woke up in time to grab lunch before our stop in the ancient Roman town of Pompei! I'm not sure what we were expecting, but Pompei blew all of our expectations out of the water. The degree to which the buildings are still preserved, the complexity of the architecture, the sheer size of the city... it was amazing! The knowledge and ingenuity that these people had was clearly evident in the ruins of this city! We snapped lots of pictures and spent all afternoon exploring. We finally made it back to Sorrento in time for dinner and, of course, a gelato, which we enjoyed by the water.
Which brings us to today... Day 18: We woke up early this morning to take a little excursion down the Amalfi Coast, just south of Sorrento. Yet again, Italy has impressed us with its beautiful coastlines! We took a bus ride from Sorrento down the coast, along a road which is itself a feat of engineering. Clinging to nearly vertical rock cliffs, at some points we could see nothing but the raging water down below when we looked out our window. We arrived in the town of Amalfi, thankful to be back on level ground, and spent a couple of hours exploring the town before we caught a ferry ride back to Sorrento. The ferry ride was just as scenic and perhaps even more thrilling. The seas were a little rough today with swells as high as 10 to 12 feet (our very scientific estimation). Needless to say, it was a bumpy ride! We made it back, grabbed lunch and a nap and now we are here, doing laundry in Sorrento!
Its been an absolutely incredible trip. We've spent some time over the last few days reflecting on the experiences and trying to comprehend all that we've seen. Truly a once in a lifetime opportunity! And its not even over yet... Tomorrow we head to Rome and the event that Eric has been waiting for... The Boss! Yes, tomorrow we see Bruce Springsteen live from Stadio Olympico! Should be legendary! Then we finish up with the Vatican on Monday and ancient Rome on Tuesday. Wednesday, we'll be heading back home to inundate you with pictures and stories.
Hope all is well back home! We love and miss you all very much! Can't wait to see you soon!
lots of love,
EJM
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Ciao da Riomaggiore!
Buongiorno!
Well here we are in beautiful Riomaggiore, one of the Cinque Terre. For the second hiccup in our travel plans, we are staying one more night in this majestic village thanks to a national Italian train strike. Yes, as of 9pm last night until 9pm tonight, there are absolutely no trains running in Italy. It just so happened to be the day that we were scheduled to travel to Siena, so those plans had to be scratched. We are all completely devastated (not really) that we have to stay another night in this dreadful town (as its been our favorite town of the entire trip thus far) and eat their less than spectacular cuisine (the pesto and foccacia are amazing). No, in all reality, this should work out very well and thus far has given us a much needed day to sleep in (at least Eric and I, that is). We will take the train out tomorrow morning to Pisa to see the leaning tower and then head on to spend two nights in Siena (Monday and Tuesday). We had to eliminate our stay in Civita so that we could accommodate a stop in Assisi. Now that you are caught up on our new itinerary, lets catch you up on where we've been in the last few days.
Day 8: When we last spoke, we were leaving Venice on our way to Florence. We arrived in Firenze and made our way over to the Academia Gallery to see Michelangelo's David. Its fourteen feet of pure sculpting perfection. Really quite amazing... After that, we took a stroll through town on our way to our lodging for the night, The Franciscan Missionaries of Mary Convent. Matt was cracking jokes with the nun at the reception desk. We dragged him away and hit the town for the night. We hit up an all-you-can-eat Italian buffet that was run by pirates (don't ask questions) and then watched a neat street performer while enjoying our gelato.
Day 9: The next day was quite busy. We started off touring the 13th Century Duomo which was decorated with beautiful green and white Italian marble. Next was a stop at the Duomo Museum followed by paninis for lunch. After that we had a little time to kill so we people watched near Palazzo Vecchio, home of the famous Medici Family. We laughed at the old guy that who was the acting decorum police and was way too in love with his whistle. Next was the Uffizi Gallery and the greatest collection of Renaissance paintings anywhere in the world. We saw works by three of the Ninja Turtles including Michelangelo, Leonardo and Raphael (we saw Donatello earlier that day) as well as other masters such as Botticelli and Titian 'The Venetian'. Rick had a pretty good audio guide that we all listened to as we perused the museum. Last but certainly not least, we climbed the Duomo Bell Tower and enjoyed sweeping views of the Tuscan country side. Eric almost gave his new hat to the security guard at the top, have him tell you the story. We had an excellent dinner at an out of the way trattoria near the old city walls that was topped off by an excellent dessert called zuppa inglese (English soup).
Day 10: The next day we hopped the train to Cinque Terre and arrived here in beautiful Riomaggiore, the southern-most of the five villages. We dropped our bags and headed out to lunch. Let me preface this by saying that this region (Ligurian) is the birthplace of pesto ( a sauce made from basil leaves, olive oil, pine nuts, garlic and Parmesan cheese) and of foccacia bread. (pesto is also the love of Justin's life) Our first meal included both and it was absolutely spectacular. We finished our meal, checked into the hotel, changed and went for a dip off the rocky coast in the Ligurian Sea. Eric was very happy... We explored the coast line for a bit and found a neat park set on the side of a hill where we simply sat and looked out over the breathtaking vistas before us. Next was a much needed shower and then we headed out for dinner. At dinner we encountered a very friendly cat who seems to own this place. We've seen him several times since then and everyone knows and loves him. He goes were he pleases, sits or sleeps and no one bothers him except to give him food. We are all envious. We ended the night watching a little concert on an open deck. We were all surprised when we heard them playing all English songs including All Along the Watchtower, Come Together and We Will Rock You. It was a lot of fun.
Day 11: This day marked the official half way point of our trip and we decided to start it off with a bang... we decided to go on a long hike. There is a trail along the water that connects all five villages. At 9km long, with some serious elevation changes, it did not mess around. But it was the most scenic hike that I have ever done. The trail paralleled the coast and we had spectacular views of the jagged rocky coast and crystal blue water. Incredibly beautiful! We got to explore all of the villages of the Cinque Terre, each having their own unique personality and charm, but decided that the one we were staying in (Riomaggiore) was the best, hands down. When we got to the end of our hike in Monterrosso, it was not 3 minutes before Eric was in the water. We took a little breather and hopped the ferry back to Riomaggiore so we could shower up for dinner. We went to a little ristorante on the main drag and had the best meal of the trip (at least according to Matt and I; it was high on the charts for Eric but he could not say definitively whether it was his best). We all had amazing pasta dishes and topped the meal off with a plate of freshly prepared calamari fritti. Easily the best calamari any of us have had. Bellisimo! While we were at dinner we overheard the couple next to us discussing the train strike. It was after hearing this that we did more investigation (with our friend at the gelato shop who wore a Texas hat, but was not from Texas). He told us that there was no chance of us getting a train out the next day. Oh well... we discussed the changes in our plans over gelato and called it a night.
Day 12: Today is still young. Eric and I slept in and Matt was gracious enough to handle arranging for us to stay in our hotel room another night before the maid came to clean it. We finally woke up around 11am (Matt woke up much earlier, after being accused of having his alarm go off at 7 am--it was Justin's ) and had a nice meal of foccacia, which we enjoyed down by the water. We're not sure what the rest of the day will involve but it will surely involve a lot of relaxation in one form or another.
Tomorrow we are off to Pisa and then Siena which should be lots of fun. Sorry again that we have not been able to post pictures. The places where we have been connecting do not give us access to USB ports, so sadly we cannot share our wonderful pictures with you. But I assure you, we are taking plenty ( I would say over 1000 between the three of us so far) and we will be sharing them with you as soon as we can!
Lots of love to all! Ciao!
EJM
Well here we are in beautiful Riomaggiore, one of the Cinque Terre. For the second hiccup in our travel plans, we are staying one more night in this majestic village thanks to a national Italian train strike. Yes, as of 9pm last night until 9pm tonight, there are absolutely no trains running in Italy. It just so happened to be the day that we were scheduled to travel to Siena, so those plans had to be scratched. We are all completely devastated (not really) that we have to stay another night in this dreadful town (as its been our favorite town of the entire trip thus far) and eat their less than spectacular cuisine (the pesto and foccacia are amazing). No, in all reality, this should work out very well and thus far has given us a much needed day to sleep in (at least Eric and I, that is). We will take the train out tomorrow morning to Pisa to see the leaning tower and then head on to spend two nights in Siena (Monday and Tuesday). We had to eliminate our stay in Civita so that we could accommodate a stop in Assisi. Now that you are caught up on our new itinerary, lets catch you up on where we've been in the last few days.
Day 8: When we last spoke, we were leaving Venice on our way to Florence. We arrived in Firenze and made our way over to the Academia Gallery to see Michelangelo's David. Its fourteen feet of pure sculpting perfection. Really quite amazing... After that, we took a stroll through town on our way to our lodging for the night, The Franciscan Missionaries of Mary Convent. Matt was cracking jokes with the nun at the reception desk. We dragged him away and hit the town for the night. We hit up an all-you-can-eat Italian buffet that was run by pirates (don't ask questions) and then watched a neat street performer while enjoying our gelato.
Day 9: The next day was quite busy. We started off touring the 13th Century Duomo which was decorated with beautiful green and white Italian marble. Next was a stop at the Duomo Museum followed by paninis for lunch. After that we had a little time to kill so we people watched near Palazzo Vecchio, home of the famous Medici Family. We laughed at the old guy that who was the acting decorum police and was way too in love with his whistle. Next was the Uffizi Gallery and the greatest collection of Renaissance paintings anywhere in the world. We saw works by three of the Ninja Turtles including Michelangelo, Leonardo and Raphael (we saw Donatello earlier that day) as well as other masters such as Botticelli and Titian 'The Venetian'. Rick had a pretty good audio guide that we all listened to as we perused the museum. Last but certainly not least, we climbed the Duomo Bell Tower and enjoyed sweeping views of the Tuscan country side. Eric almost gave his new hat to the security guard at the top, have him tell you the story. We had an excellent dinner at an out of the way trattoria near the old city walls that was topped off by an excellent dessert called zuppa inglese (English soup).
Day 10: The next day we hopped the train to Cinque Terre and arrived here in beautiful Riomaggiore, the southern-most of the five villages. We dropped our bags and headed out to lunch. Let me preface this by saying that this region (Ligurian) is the birthplace of pesto ( a sauce made from basil leaves, olive oil, pine nuts, garlic and Parmesan cheese) and of foccacia bread. (pesto is also the love of Justin's life) Our first meal included both and it was absolutely spectacular. We finished our meal, checked into the hotel, changed and went for a dip off the rocky coast in the Ligurian Sea. Eric was very happy... We explored the coast line for a bit and found a neat park set on the side of a hill where we simply sat and looked out over the breathtaking vistas before us. Next was a much needed shower and then we headed out for dinner. At dinner we encountered a very friendly cat who seems to own this place. We've seen him several times since then and everyone knows and loves him. He goes were he pleases, sits or sleeps and no one bothers him except to give him food. We are all envious. We ended the night watching a little concert on an open deck. We were all surprised when we heard them playing all English songs including All Along the Watchtower, Come Together and We Will Rock You. It was a lot of fun.
Day 11: This day marked the official half way point of our trip and we decided to start it off with a bang... we decided to go on a long hike. There is a trail along the water that connects all five villages. At 9km long, with some serious elevation changes, it did not mess around. But it was the most scenic hike that I have ever done. The trail paralleled the coast and we had spectacular views of the jagged rocky coast and crystal blue water. Incredibly beautiful! We got to explore all of the villages of the Cinque Terre, each having their own unique personality and charm, but decided that the one we were staying in (Riomaggiore) was the best, hands down. When we got to the end of our hike in Monterrosso, it was not 3 minutes before Eric was in the water. We took a little breather and hopped the ferry back to Riomaggiore so we could shower up for dinner. We went to a little ristorante on the main drag and had the best meal of the trip (at least according to Matt and I; it was high on the charts for Eric but he could not say definitively whether it was his best). We all had amazing pasta dishes and topped the meal off with a plate of freshly prepared calamari fritti. Easily the best calamari any of us have had. Bellisimo! While we were at dinner we overheard the couple next to us discussing the train strike. It was after hearing this that we did more investigation (with our friend at the gelato shop who wore a Texas hat, but was not from Texas). He told us that there was no chance of us getting a train out the next day. Oh well... we discussed the changes in our plans over gelato and called it a night.
Day 12: Today is still young. Eric and I slept in and Matt was gracious enough to handle arranging for us to stay in our hotel room another night before the maid came to clean it. We finally woke up around 11am (Matt woke up much earlier, after being accused of having his alarm go off at 7 am--it was Justin's ) and had a nice meal of foccacia, which we enjoyed down by the water. We're not sure what the rest of the day will involve but it will surely involve a lot of relaxation in one form or another.
Tomorrow we are off to Pisa and then Siena which should be lots of fun. Sorry again that we have not been able to post pictures. The places where we have been connecting do not give us access to USB ports, so sadly we cannot share our wonderful pictures with you. But I assure you, we are taking plenty ( I would say over 1000 between the three of us so far) and we will be sharing them with you as soon as we can!
Lots of love to all! Ciao!
EJM
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Bella Venezia!
Ciao!
Well here we are in beautiful Venice, Italy and everything is tutto bene (all good)! We found a little Internet cafe on the way to the train station this morning so I only have a few minutes to give you all a quick update.
Lets see, where did we leave off...
Ahh yes, we were in Bolzano on our unexpected stop. By the way, Eric says he was under the influence of Tylenol PM when he wrote the last section of the blog post and apologizes for any confusion that may have occurred as a result. We did not assault a random Italian woman named Julliet, but rather touched the breast of the bronze statue of Julliet (as in Romeo and Julliet) which is supposed to bring one good fortune in love. But I digress...
We finally made it to Castellerotto in the Dolomites of northern Italy. This region is unlike anything we have seen thus far. I did not realize that we would be visiting a different country on this visit. Let me clarify, we did not actually leave Italy, but it felt like we did. German was the language of choice and the Austrian influence was unmistakable. It was like we were in an entirely different world. English was spoken more often than Italian and that was not very often. Anyway, we spent most of the following day hiking in a region called Alpe de Suisi. It is absolutely beautiful. We did about a 6 hour hike to the top of Mount Schlern (look up a few pics on Google, its amazing).
The next morning (Monday), we parted ways with Castellerotto and made our way towards Venice. Venice is breathtaking. We had all seen pictures before, but actually seeing it in person was surreal. It took a little while to accept that we were actually there. We took a water taxi down the Grand Canal to our hotel near Piazza di San Marco and marveled at the beautiful architecture and brilliant colors of the buildings lining the canal. We had a quick bite to eat and then headed out to catch a couple of museums (Chiesa di Frari and Scuola di Rocco). Both were equally impressive with massive frescoes by masters including Dante, Titian (Titian, The Venetian, as we like to call him), Tintoretto and others. We ended our sightseeing early so that we could partake in a Venetian Pub Crawl. We visited several side street trattorias and sample the house wine as well as plates of mixed antipasti. We ended the night watching the battle of the bands on St. Marks Square with, of course, gelato in hand.
The next day (Tuesday), was our heavy sightseeing day. We started out with the Piazzale Ducale or the Palace of the Doge. It was a massive building detailing the art and history of Venice's golden age, when it was ruled by a Duke (Doge). We saw his living quarters, beautiful courtyard, the armory and the prison to name few. Next was the Mueso Correr, full of art and archaeological remains from all of Venetian history. We took a short break for lunch and then headed to St. Marks Basilica. Massive and rendered in a Byzantine style, it was dark but beautiful with lots of ornate and intricate details.
I'm running out of time and Matt the travel director is telling me to wrap it up. We had a contest on the Rialto bridge to see who could get the most people to wave to them from passing boats, took an awesome gondola ride (we couldn't find any bellas to join us), climbed the bell tower in St. Marks at dusk, had a wonderful dinner on the grand canal and finished the day with, of course, gelato.
We are headed to Florence right now, so I'm sure we will have lots of great stories to tell in a couple days.
Love and miss you all!
Ciao!
EJM
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Greetings from Bolzano!
Hello all!
To those of you who are paying attention, we are not suppose to be in Bolzano right now. Thats because we took a fortunate detour in `fair Verona` and consequently missed our connection from Bolzano to Castelrotto. Ma, non ti preocupare (which Eric would tell you means `dont worry` in Italian). It has worked out beautifuly and we are enjoying our time here. Lets catch you up on the last few days.
Where did we last leave off? Ah, yeshi... we were just finishing our night in Milano. The next morning, Thursday, we caught an early morning train to Varenna on Lake Como. We had to be up and out the door by 7:00am so that we could make it Varenna in time to meet up with Chef Moreno Maglia, our cooking instructor for the day. We make it to Varenna, which is breathtakingly beautiful (I would add a picture here but we don´t have access to a usb port on this computer), found our Hotel and dropped our bags with a very friendly Signora Tosca, who we are assuming owns the property. We headed straight for the town square where we met up with Chef Moreno and he zipped us up the mountain side to his resturant in a little town called Gitanna. It was an educational, cultrual and culinary experience all wrapped up into one. We made gnocchi and tagliatelle from scratch, as well as fresh sauces to acompany them, and to top it all off, a red wine risotto. It was all amazing! The people in our class were very nice and Chef Moreno is incredibly passionate and hospitable. We arrived at 10:00am and didn´t make it back until after 4:00pm. Great way to spend the day; making and eating authentic Italian food.
We got back to our hotel and decided that we wanted to take a short nap, as we were all spent. We layed down around 6:15pm and set the clock for 7:00pm. Sometime after 9:00pm we regained consciousness and laughed at ourselves. We went out to grab a quick bite and, again, get a little more gelatto. Then, somehow, we were still hungry, so we went to get some pizza. Apparently, it was dinner and a show. There were two couples a few tables away from us that were playing "can you top this?" in terms of who could show more affection. Interesting?... good for a few laughs anyways--and we saw one of the couples continuing by themselves on our way back to the hotel.
Day 2 in Varenna: kayaking on Lake Como! (we were on a boat!) We took a ferry to Bellagio, where we rented kayaks from a really sketchy old guy. (btw, we´re watching Dirty Harry in Italian right now...and this keyboard is freakin screwed up!) ba bada badada--ask Eric for a translation... so we kayaked around Como for about 3 or 4 hours. Absolutely gorgeous. Eric got sunburnt, I (Matt) took pictures, and Justin got really thirsty for water (not vino, believe it or not). We then went and got stuff for a picnic. It was kind of fun because the lady in the store didn´t speak English, but she did speak Spanish, so I got to brush up a bit myself. We ended up eating hearty sandwiches while drinking vino straight from the bottle on the lake. We thought about how it would be illegal with open container laws to be drinking vino in a park inthe US...then we thought about how it is probably illegal in Italy too. We toured around Bellagio, went back to Varenna, and took a nap. Then we woke up (more specifically, Eric stayed awake while a stupid little fly woke both me and Justin) and went out for dinner followed, of course, by gelato. For whatever reason, none of us could fall asleep, so we ended up doing mind puzzles and a lot of stupid crap that I don´t remember until we fell asleep. I think a lot of it involved Eric singing Bruce. Tutto benne.
Day 4-Arriverdercci Varenna! Abandanza!-ask eric for translation. Got on a train to Milan where we met two nice ladies from Hawaii-Aloha! Eric has a handlebar mustache by this time-didnt shave on the train though-that would have been fun. Bought lunch@ train statzione-ate it on train. Abandanza! We then stopped in Verona which was not planned but turned out to be Awsome! Did a sweet walking´tour of Verona. Saw an Italian basketball game and touched Juliet´s boob! Abandanza!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Went to a sweet theater in Verona, got gelato, saw a church, got more gelato. Next, we met the most b.a. woman ever named Beverly. Beverly was originally from Chicago. She wanted to see the world but ended up just walking around and ended up in Verona! She married Oreste who owns a wine shop. His wine shop was recommended by Rick Steves. Oreste makes shirts that have a picture of himself dressed up as a cowboy! Beverly gave Justin, Matt and I some wine and then told us about Oreste´s wine shop and the surrounding area. She was hilarious! She told us about how she pissed off the Italian Mafia across the street-we can´t remember why. She also told us that when Oreste dies she is going to take all his money and party down with the first guy who walks by. She also told us how she doesn´t understand why there are so many churches around the area because she thinks everyone there is going to hell based on their behavior. She also told us she is not a counrty girl. One time Oreste took Beverly to the counrtry. There were cows there who started running-she follwed suit. We had a very good time getting to know Beverly. Meeting her has been our best personal experience to date. We left Verona @ exactly 17 ora 47 minuti and 23 seconds. We arrived in Bolzona @ 19 ora 34 minuti to catch the last bus going Castelrotto @ 19 ora 10 minuti-you do the math. Abandanza! So we missed the last bus to our destination for July 4-by the way, happy independence day-and I am now writing this blog from a youth hostel in Bolzano. Abandanza! However, this detour from our plans turned out to be great. There is a lot of Austrian influnce in Bolzano. We ate at an Austrian restaurant that was amazing! Matt ordered from the German menu-Eric and Justin were not man enough so they ordered from the English menu. This experience made us feel like we were visiting Germany or Austria. This pretty much wraps up our trip to date. We are having a great time eating lots of gelato and nutella and drinking molto vino! Abandanza for now and Ciao!
Love and miss you all,
EJM
p.s. can you tell who wrote which sections of this post?
To those of you who are paying attention, we are not suppose to be in Bolzano right now. Thats because we took a fortunate detour in `fair Verona` and consequently missed our connection from Bolzano to Castelrotto. Ma, non ti preocupare (which Eric would tell you means `dont worry` in Italian). It has worked out beautifuly and we are enjoying our time here. Lets catch you up on the last few days.
Where did we last leave off? Ah, yeshi... we were just finishing our night in Milano. The next morning, Thursday, we caught an early morning train to Varenna on Lake Como. We had to be up and out the door by 7:00am so that we could make it Varenna in time to meet up with Chef Moreno Maglia, our cooking instructor for the day. We make it to Varenna, which is breathtakingly beautiful (I would add a picture here but we don´t have access to a usb port on this computer), found our Hotel and dropped our bags with a very friendly Signora Tosca, who we are assuming owns the property. We headed straight for the town square where we met up with Chef Moreno and he zipped us up the mountain side to his resturant in a little town called Gitanna. It was an educational, cultrual and culinary experience all wrapped up into one. We made gnocchi and tagliatelle from scratch, as well as fresh sauces to acompany them, and to top it all off, a red wine risotto. It was all amazing! The people in our class were very nice and Chef Moreno is incredibly passionate and hospitable. We arrived at 10:00am and didn´t make it back until after 4:00pm. Great way to spend the day; making and eating authentic Italian food.
We got back to our hotel and decided that we wanted to take a short nap, as we were all spent. We layed down around 6:15pm and set the clock for 7:00pm. Sometime after 9:00pm we regained consciousness and laughed at ourselves. We went out to grab a quick bite and, again, get a little more gelatto. Then, somehow, we were still hungry, so we went to get some pizza. Apparently, it was dinner and a show. There were two couples a few tables away from us that were playing "can you top this?" in terms of who could show more affection. Interesting?... good for a few laughs anyways--and we saw one of the couples continuing by themselves on our way back to the hotel.
Day 2 in Varenna: kayaking on Lake Como! (we were on a boat!) We took a ferry to Bellagio, where we rented kayaks from a really sketchy old guy. (btw, we´re watching Dirty Harry in Italian right now...and this keyboard is freakin screwed up!) ba bada badada--ask Eric for a translation... so we kayaked around Como for about 3 or 4 hours. Absolutely gorgeous. Eric got sunburnt, I (Matt) took pictures, and Justin got really thirsty for water (not vino, believe it or not). We then went and got stuff for a picnic. It was kind of fun because the lady in the store didn´t speak English, but she did speak Spanish, so I got to brush up a bit myself. We ended up eating hearty sandwiches while drinking vino straight from the bottle on the lake. We thought about how it would be illegal with open container laws to be drinking vino in a park inthe US...then we thought about how it is probably illegal in Italy too. We toured around Bellagio, went back to Varenna, and took a nap. Then we woke up (more specifically, Eric stayed awake while a stupid little fly woke both me and Justin) and went out for dinner followed, of course, by gelato. For whatever reason, none of us could fall asleep, so we ended up doing mind puzzles and a lot of stupid crap that I don´t remember until we fell asleep. I think a lot of it involved Eric singing Bruce. Tutto benne.
Day 4-Arriverdercci Varenna! Abandanza!-ask eric for translation. Got on a train to Milan where we met two nice ladies from Hawaii-Aloha! Eric has a handlebar mustache by this time-didnt shave on the train though-that would have been fun. Bought lunch@ train statzione-ate it on train. Abandanza! We then stopped in Verona which was not planned but turned out to be Awsome! Did a sweet walking´tour of Verona. Saw an Italian basketball game and touched Juliet´s boob! Abandanza!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Went to a sweet theater in Verona, got gelato, saw a church, got more gelato. Next, we met the most b.a. woman ever named Beverly. Beverly was originally from Chicago. She wanted to see the world but ended up just walking around and ended up in Verona! She married Oreste who owns a wine shop. His wine shop was recommended by Rick Steves. Oreste makes shirts that have a picture of himself dressed up as a cowboy! Beverly gave Justin, Matt and I some wine and then told us about Oreste´s wine shop and the surrounding area. She was hilarious! She told us about how she pissed off the Italian Mafia across the street-we can´t remember why. She also told us that when Oreste dies she is going to take all his money and party down with the first guy who walks by. She also told us how she doesn´t understand why there are so many churches around the area because she thinks everyone there is going to hell based on their behavior. She also told us she is not a counrty girl. One time Oreste took Beverly to the counrtry. There were cows there who started running-she follwed suit. We had a very good time getting to know Beverly. Meeting her has been our best personal experience to date. We left Verona @ exactly 17 ora 47 minuti and 23 seconds. We arrived in Bolzona @ 19 ora 34 minuti to catch the last bus going Castelrotto @ 19 ora 10 minuti-you do the math. Abandanza! So we missed the last bus to our destination for July 4-by the way, happy independence day-and I am now writing this blog from a youth hostel in Bolzano. Abandanza! However, this detour from our plans turned out to be great. There is a lot of Austrian influnce in Bolzano. We ate at an Austrian restaurant that was amazing! Matt ordered from the German menu-Eric and Justin were not man enough so they ordered from the English menu. This experience made us feel like we were visiting Germany or Austria. This pretty much wraps up our trip to date. We are having a great time eating lots of gelato and nutella and drinking molto vino! Abandanza for now and Ciao!
Love and miss you all,
EJM
p.s. can you tell who wrote which sections of this post?
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
We Have Arrived!
Well, we have finally arrived in Bella Italia! We left Orlando yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon around 3:00pm and arrived here in Milan on Wednesday morning around 10:00am local time (4:00am Fla time). It was a rather long flight, but we all managed to survive despite the cramped quarters and crying babies. Eric sang Boss tunes, Matt read more in the guide book and I kept trying to learn Italian. We all managed to grab a few hours rest also. And it was a good thing to, as we have not stopped since we hit the ground!
We got our bags, went through customs and took a bus from the airport into downtown Milan which took about an hour. Milan is a very interesting city. It has the feel of a SoHo or Greenwich Village in Manhattan, but alot cleaner. Our first stop was the central train station where we wandered around for a bit, looking for the Metro station. We finally stopped and asked for directions... After finding the Metro, we bought our day passes and headed for the hostel. We dropped our bags, changed clothes and headed out on the town.
Matt had broken down our day into an efficient series of activities that Eric and I could not argue with. We made our way to the Leonardo "Nard Dawg" Da Vinci Museum of Science and Technology. It was a collection of his design concepts brought to life in 3d models as well as a few paintings and other random things that didnt seem to belong. But we didnt ask questions. We only had about an hour before we had to make our way to Santa Maria delle Gratzie, the home of Da Vinci's The Last Supper or Cenacolo as the Italians call it. After a short wait, we went through a series of closed rooms designed to filter out air impurities before reaching the painting. There is really only one word to describe all of our reactions; complete and utter awe. We learned lots about the painting, and I'm sure I could bore you with all the details some other time (my bed is calling me, so I will keep this brief... well, at least a little more brief). Suffice it to say that this work is truly a masterpiece, and one that you cannot fully appreciate until you are standing in its presence. Awesome experience!
Next was Il Duomo, Milan's main cathederal. We stepped out of the metro station and boom, there it was, in all its glory. This thing is massive. At over 150,000 square feet, it is the world's 4th largest church. It took over 400 years to build and can hold 40,000 people (the entire population of Milan at the time of its contruction). We were hoping to take a tour up to the roof, but it was closed due to restoration. We took a nice long stroll inside and gawked at all of stained glass and carved marble. There were giant pillars, 52 of them to be exact, all over 100 feet tall. The cathedral also housed relics of Jesus as well as tombs of old Italian kings and cardinals. We all decided that it was pretty extravagant and unnecessary, but incredibly beautiful nonetheless.
By this time we were all feeling a little run down, so we decided to stop for an early dinner. We found out later that it was especially early. We found a resturant and got a table around 6:00pm and were curious as to why we were the only ones in the entire place. Apparently, people who really know what they are doing do not show up for dinner until closer to 8:00pm. Oops! Anyway, we shared our first bottle of real Italian wine, a Niro Negro red from the Lombardi Region (which is the region we are currently in). We shared a plate of bruschetta and we each ordered a plate of pasta. Not sure exactly how it happened, but three and half hours passed before we got up from the table. Perhaps the friendly hostess that kept talking to us and then gave us free after-dinner drinks had something to do with it. It was a slow night for them and we decided that she wanted us to stay so that they looked busier. I prefer the theory that we were just particularly handsome young men and she wanted us around for her own enjoyment. Anyway, it was a long and very nice beginnig to our Italian eating tour.
On our way back to the hostel, we stopped for (what else) gelato. After we had gotten our goodies and walked outside the shop, we stopped to sample each others choices. Each held their own gelato while the other took a big lick. It did not really occur to us until it was too late that we looked like a flaming tourist trio during this little exercise. Oh well... We wandered in the direction of what we hoped was another metro station and found ourselves walking down a very picturesque pedestrian street. After a metro ride and short walk, we made it back to our beds. Speaking of which, mine is calling me.
Tomorrow we head to Lake Como and our cooking class. Should be interesting... Miss and love you all!
Eric, Justin and Matt
We got our bags, went through customs and took a bus from the airport into downtown Milan which took about an hour. Milan is a very interesting city. It has the feel of a SoHo or Greenwich Village in Manhattan, but alot cleaner. Our first stop was the central train station where we wandered around for a bit, looking for the Metro station. We finally stopped and asked for directions... After finding the Metro, we bought our day passes and headed for the hostel. We dropped our bags, changed clothes and headed out on the town.
Matt had broken down our day into an efficient series of activities that Eric and I could not argue with. We made our way to the Leonardo "Nard Dawg" Da Vinci Museum of Science and Technology. It was a collection of his design concepts brought to life in 3d models as well as a few paintings and other random things that didnt seem to belong. But we didnt ask questions. We only had about an hour before we had to make our way to Santa Maria delle Gratzie, the home of Da Vinci's The Last Supper or Cenacolo as the Italians call it. After a short wait, we went through a series of closed rooms designed to filter out air impurities before reaching the painting. There is really only one word to describe all of our reactions; complete and utter awe. We learned lots about the painting, and I'm sure I could bore you with all the details some other time (my bed is calling me, so I will keep this brief... well, at least a little more brief). Suffice it to say that this work is truly a masterpiece, and one that you cannot fully appreciate until you are standing in its presence. Awesome experience!
Next was Il Duomo, Milan's main cathederal. We stepped out of the metro station and boom, there it was, in all its glory. This thing is massive. At over 150,000 square feet, it is the world's 4th largest church. It took over 400 years to build and can hold 40,000 people (the entire population of Milan at the time of its contruction). We were hoping to take a tour up to the roof, but it was closed due to restoration. We took a nice long stroll inside and gawked at all of stained glass and carved marble. There were giant pillars, 52 of them to be exact, all over 100 feet tall. The cathedral also housed relics of Jesus as well as tombs of old Italian kings and cardinals. We all decided that it was pretty extravagant and unnecessary, but incredibly beautiful nonetheless.
By this time we were all feeling a little run down, so we decided to stop for an early dinner. We found out later that it was especially early. We found a resturant and got a table around 6:00pm and were curious as to why we were the only ones in the entire place. Apparently, people who really know what they are doing do not show up for dinner until closer to 8:00pm. Oops! Anyway, we shared our first bottle of real Italian wine, a Niro Negro red from the Lombardi Region (which is the region we are currently in). We shared a plate of bruschetta and we each ordered a plate of pasta. Not sure exactly how it happened, but three and half hours passed before we got up from the table. Perhaps the friendly hostess that kept talking to us and then gave us free after-dinner drinks had something to do with it. It was a slow night for them and we decided that she wanted us to stay so that they looked busier. I prefer the theory that we were just particularly handsome young men and she wanted us around for her own enjoyment. Anyway, it was a long and very nice beginnig to our Italian eating tour.
On our way back to the hostel, we stopped for (what else) gelato. After we had gotten our goodies and walked outside the shop, we stopped to sample each others choices. Each held their own gelato while the other took a big lick. It did not really occur to us until it was too late that we looked like a flaming tourist trio during this little exercise. Oh well... We wandered in the direction of what we hoped was another metro station and found ourselves walking down a very picturesque pedestrian street. After a metro ride and short walk, we made it back to our beds. Speaking of which, mine is calling me.
Tomorrow we head to Lake Como and our cooking class. Should be interesting... Miss and love you all!
Eric, Justin and Matt
Monday, June 22, 2009
The Itinerary!
After many moments of indecision and uncertainty, I think we have finally come to a consensus. Thanks to Eric "The Decider" Denyer, we have nailed down our itinerary. Please let us know if you have any suggestions on things to do or places to see along our route!
Date City
30th Tues Leave Orlando
1st Wed Milan
2nd Thurs Lake Como
3rd Fri Lake Como
4th Sat Dolomites
5th Sun Dolomites
6th Mon Venice
7th Tues Venice
8th Wed Florence
9th Thurs Florence
10th Fri Cinque Terre
11th Sat Cinque Terre
12th Sun Pisa/Sienna
13th Mon Siena
14th Tues Assisi
15th Wed Civita
16th Thurs Naples
17th Fri Pompeii
18th Sat Amalfi Coast/Paestum
19th Sun Rome
20th Mon Rome
21st Tues Rome
22nd Wed Leave Rome
I added this picture just to see if I could make it work right with the blog... but I think it captures the essence of each of us in a snapshot. Enjoy!
Until next time... stia bene (take care)!
EJM
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Hello Friends!
Hello Friends! By now you've obviously heard that we are taking a little trip this summer. Armed only with our cunning wits and dashing good looks, we (Eric Denyer, Justin Collins and Matt Kaufmann) will be taking on the best of what Italy has to offer! We'll be using this blog to bring you all the highlights and keep you updated on our latest happenings! From our gondola ride in Venice to seeing The Boss perform live in Rome, this is where we'll be posting our stories and hopefully a few pictures too! Please feel free to leave comments on our posts to let us know what you think!
We don't leave until June 30th, but there is still lots to do before then! Over the next few weeks we'll be getting ready and planning out our trip. We'll try to post our itinerary soon so that you all can see where we'll be going (and for those of you that have been before, hopefully give us a few pointers on things we shouldn't miss)!
Lots of love,
EJM
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