Florence and Venice

We were only in Florence for about a day and a half, but we did the major tourist attractions. We saw the duomo (the big church) and the baptistry. Both were really awesome on the outside especially. The baptistry was beautiful inside as well, the ceiling is all gold with pictures of the last judgement. Very impressive! We also, of course, went to the Accademia to see Michelangelo's David and then head to the Uffizi galery to see the greatest collection of Italian Reinessance art. It was very cool, and Ed was especially impressed with the sculpture of David. What a masterpiece! We also went to San Marco church and monestary where we saw frescos from Fra Angelico which was very neat. I have some illegal pictures from this place, which is cool! I didn't know pictures were not allowed until a lady had to come up to me and tell me to stop taking them. Oops! BTW, you cannot take pictures anywhere in this town unless you are outside it seems.


We did some great shopping in Florence. There is a great outdoor market that we had a blast at. It was fun bargaining deals with people and buying some great leather goods and soccer jerseys.
We also had the best gelato EVER in Florence at this place called "Grom." If you ever go to Florence, you MUST get gelato here! He uses all natural, organic ingredients, and you could just see the difference (and most importantly, TASTE the difference) between this place and others. Absolutely amazing!


We had the best meal as well here at Osteria del Porcellino. We had this great pasta, tortillini filled with cheese baked with pears and walnuts. EXCELLENT! Then a great veal with orange peel. Soooooo good! Great meal, great wine, and great service. He even gave us some lemoncello on the house after our meal.

One great thing about our trip to Venice was that it was pouring rain when we arrived by train. It was so wet everywhere. We stood in the rain to get tickets for the boat ride to our hotel. By the time we had the tickets, the rain had stopped, and by the time we got to our hotel, the sky was blue and it had practically dried up everywhere. We didn't see a drop of rain on the rest of our trip. It was perfect. Our prayers were definitely answered on that one. I was so worried and praying like crazy when I saw the rain pouring down! So it was a wonderful thing when the rain completely stopped as soon as we arrived!

We spent the first evening just walking around. There is no way to NOT get lost in Venice. That is the thing to do there and you must expect it to happen EVERY time you try to go anywhere. It is just the way it is, and it is kind of fun too. Just wandering around that city is fun; there are so many little alleys and bridges. Following a map is virtually impossible. We went to a couple museums while there. First, we went to the Correr Museum, which has some Venetian art and history. We basically only went there because the ticket also covers the Doge's Palace, where the ticket line was long. So we only spent a short time in the Correr, then headed over to the Doge's Palace and bypassed the line! This was a cool place to visit. The neatest part was crossing over the Bridge of Sighs and touring the old prison.

We also had some great gelato in Venice! It's called La Boutique Gelato. Very very good! Almost as good as Florence. We also had a really great (and REALLY expensive) meal on our last night. We ordered flounder, so the server took a whole flounder right out of the case in the front of the restaurant and put it on a plate in front of us to see if we approved. Then took it to the back and cooked it up Venetian style. AWESOME! It had this wonderful sauce with tomatoes, potatoes, and olives. It was wonderful.

We finished out last night off by grabbing a couple of drinks to go (it's weird that you can just walk around the streets with a beer in hand there) and went out near San Marco square to watch a huge fireworks show. The next day (the day we were leaving) was the Feast and Regatta of the Redeemer, so to celebrate, there was this huge display of fireworks the night before. It started at 11:30 p.m. and lasted for a good 45 min. or so. It was so great! There were so many people there, and the show was magnificent. The fireworks seemed so close and just lit up the sky! It was a fantastic way to end our trip!

Cinque Terre

Cinque Terra was beautiful. The first day we got there, we did the hardest hike, from Vernazza to Monterosso. It took us about 2 hours total, was hard, but way worth it. Much of these hikes go right through people's vineyards and lemon groves. There was one man during the hike down a ton of steps who was selling fresh lemonade (making it right there in front of us with his own lemons), and lemoncello. We bought some of his lemoncello to take home, and had a nice refreshing break drinking some fresh, cold, lemonade. Yum!! We had a nice dinner that night outside by the sea.

The next day, we took a train to Riomaggiore and hiked from there all the way back to Vernazza. We stopped for a long time in Manarola to eat and then walk around the town and to the cemetery to pay tribute and spend some time thinking about Grandpa. It was a very nice walk and very nice place to do this. Then we hiked all the way back to our town, Vernazza. Wow, what a walk! It was very pretty! We really loved this place!

Remembering Grandpa Maitland

The funeral for Grandpa was Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. italy time. Ed and I were in Manarola in the Cinque Terre. We walked up the town around 4 to a church. There was a nice alter in the church. I lit a candle there and prayed for a while.

Then we took a walk through lemon groves and vineyards up through the town. It was beautiful. It lead to a cemetery overlooking the water. It was a beautiful place. We spent about a half hour just looking at all the pictures and tombs of the people buried there.

At 5:00, I sat on the ledge by the cemetary just overlooking the town for about a half hour. I thought about all the good times we had with Grandpa and just spent time thinking about everyone back home at the service and praying for all of you. I wish I could have been there with you and with Grandma.

The rest of Montepulciono and La Cicolina Vineyard

After Pienza, we had a few days left to relax in montepulciano, which was good, since we've been walking and running around a lot the past week. We did get a great tour (unofficial) from Allesandro of the vineyard. He's about 9 yrs old and he doesn't speak english, but he did a good job. I had to bring our Italian/English dictionary along! I also got to eat a bunch of kinder eggs with him which are always good. It was pretty cool walking around the vineyard as there were plum trees, and fig trees around as well. I think at one point Allesandro was telling us that some animals were around, so I told him we were scared so we went back. I'll throw some pics in here when I have more time, as Jenny is far better at writing about our adventures. And now we go to Cinqueterra!

Things that are cool and things that are not cool in Italy

things that are NOT cool:
-not being able to read bus/train schedules. when i finally think we've got it, we're riding in a bus and end up in the same place we started, or we end up in La Spezia train station from 11:30 p.m. until 1 in the morning instead of in the beautiful village of Vernazza. NOT cool!!!

-La Spezia (see above)

-we call it military time at home. here they just call it time, but after 12:59 p.m., i'm always confused about what time it is.

-all the cats in Cinque Terre. and the couple at the table next to us during dinner in Monterosso who kept feeding them . . . yeah, thanks for that . . .

-public and restaurant bathrooms. . . usually no toilet paper and sometimes even no toilet, just a hole in the ground. interesting trying to use those.

-walking or standing next to Italian women in very fashionable high heeled shoes, nice outfits, perfect hair and make-up. Yes, it makes me feel a little inferior in my now beat up tennis shoes, no make-up, and wearing the same thing I wore yesterday. (Their feet must be genetically made for these shoes and these cobblestone roads . . . i couldn't do it!)

things that are very cool about Italy:

-Picorino cheese from Pienza . . . a taste of heaven

-coffee . . . yes, its even better than Biggby!

-okay, so even though the bathrooms are not the greatest (see above), there most of the time seems to be plenty of soap and water, which is very very very appreciated.

-the Cinque Terre trail . . . my shoes and maybe even my feet will never be the same, but it was worth every second!

-Riding the bus in Tuscany successful. only happened once out of several tries, but it was a good feeling.

-SHOPPING! i successfully bargained down the price for a suitcase today in Florence at the market (15 euros!) by myself. Ed would have settled for 20. (we bought too much stuff here and need a place to put it all!)

-Lemon trees, olive groves, rows of grape vines, tiny villages on the edge of cliffs, clear blue water that you can see through all the way to the bottom, and the view of a pink sky over the water while eating seafood and pesto for dinner.

Pienza

Ciao Amici,

Its been so great here in Tuscany. We have had such a relaxing time. Last night we had dinner with Elsa, Grezelda, and her son Alessandro outside on the back porch facing the vineyard. It was so nice of them to invite us. The meal was malto bene, very very good!

Then today, we spent the day in Pienza, a small town just 30 min. by bus from Montepulciano. We loved it there. They are known for their Picorino cheeze, so we made sure to try some while we were there. We loved it so much, so we bought some of this cheese, along with wine, and very yummy italian bread (as well as some plastic cups!). We sat overlooking the beautiful tuscan countryside while we had this for our lunch. This was the best day yet in Italia so far. This little town is so beautiful. So many little niches and spots that we could never do justice to with just words or pictures. We also toured the palace of Pope Pius II, which was very interesting.

Before we left Pienza for the day, we went back and bought a bunch of cheese to take back to the U.S. with us, but hopefully we will not eat it all before we get there!

Back in Montepulciano, we tasted some salami at another shop. The flavor is still in my mouth and it is to die for!!!! We have not even had an actual meal today, but I have to say it is the best food that we have tasted here yet! I wish you all were here with us! We miss everyone!

euro-trash or euro-fabulous????

if you need a visual of some things i've seen, go to http://www.youtube.com/ and search for "gunther" and "you touch my". you wont be disapointed. still not sure if this is considered cool or not here. but im digging the shades.

Montepulciano

It's so wonderful here. Yesterday we spent some time in the market, bought some fruits and veggies. Then headed up, up, up hill to the main square in the town. We had lunch there and just enjoyed walking around the town. It is very nice and relaxing so far. We also went shopping for some groceries at the supermarket. We walked here from Le Coste de Cicolina, which was about a mile or so up hill and hot sun shining on us in the late morning, but on the way down, it was much better since it was downhill and shaded at that time.

The views here are amazing. We thought that maybe today we figured out a way to put pictures up on the blog, but it didnt happen. Oh well, we will keep trying, but if not, we will post pictures as soon as we get home.

Last night was a very hard night. While I was making dinner, there was this glass piece on the stove that totally shattered from getting too hot. I thought we were using it right, but, whatever, something happened and must have not been right and it broke. Yep, glass everywhere, small tiny pieces. It was so horrible!!! Dinner was ruined and we spent about an hour or so cleaning it up. Anyway, we just felt so bad about this and, me especially, spent all night nervous about telling the family about it in the morning. Ed remained calm, though, and told me it would be fine, and we would just make sure to pay for it. And he was right, it was fine. Elsa told us it was just a small thing, to not worry about it. So now we feel a lot better. It just seems like one thing after the other on this trip! Craziness!

I'm thinking maybe for us both to have good luck, we both needed to be crapped on by a bird!! As Ed would say, though, many things are also going well on this trip, so I shouldnt keep pointing out the things that have been difficult. Anyway, today is great! The weather is so nice here. Nice breeze, just the right temperature in the shade, its perfect! We will spend some time in town today, maybe do some wine tours and tasting. Maybe some shopping! Ciao for now! Thanks for all the comments. It's good to here from everyone back home! And thank you for the support and prayers for my Grandpa!

universal guide to waking up in the morning

1. get out of bed.
2. take a shower, unless you did so before going to bed.
3. brush your teeth.
4. PUT ON DEODERANT.

other than those things, everything else is optional.

Getting to Montepulciano

So we made it to the Montepulciano train station, however, we did not realize that the station was way outside the actual city. So since we arrived so late, about 9 p.m., it was a bit of a problem. I tried to call Enrico, the man we were staying with, as soon as we got there, but couldn't work the phone. It was not working no matter what i tried, so I walked to the corner where there was a small bar/cafe and asked if someone spoke english. There was one guy who spoke a little bit, so he helped me. He walked over to the phone and helped with calling, then talked to who I think was Enrico's mother, who told him that she couldn't come to get us. Anyway, we were stuck. He also then called for a cab for us. He told the cab driver where we were going and it seemed like they both had heard of the place we were headed, so we got in the cab and off we went, not really knowing how long it was going to take, and more importantly, how much it was going to cost!

When we finally pulled in, I had a feeling this was not the right place. Nonetheless, we paid 20 euros for the cab ride and he left, we brought in our luggage and talked to the hotel manager. It was a beautiful Villa with a few tourists walking around, small restaurant, basically a place renting out very nice rooms to tourists visiting tuscany. I knew it wasn't right, and sure enough, it was not. So now it was pretty late, and still we were not there and had no idea how to get there. Granted, it was not a bad place to be stuck, however, I knew we couldn't afford to stay there! Anyway, he ended up knowing what place we were talking about. His place is called "Villa Cicolina" while Enrico Toigo's place where we were going is called "Le Coste de Cicolina" He said that he sometimes gets his mail (only about 500 meters down the street). So he called for us and Enrico said he would come to get us. We sat for a while and enjoyed this beautiful place, especially nice in the night time. He offered me a great cup of espresso, which was very nice, and finally Enrico came! Oh boy, what a time. I know we need to expect some things like this to happen, but it is hard for me to relax sometimes when things are so uncertain!

But our place is very beautiful. Enrico said to us, "So now you will see the difference between Villa Cicolina and Le Coste de Cicolina" joking about how it is not nearly as nice, but I feel like it is even better. So simple, but very very beautiful. The view from our terrace is amazing, no words or pictures can capture it. We will take a lot of pictures, however, so you can try to imagine what it is like here. We are now in the main town of Montepulciano just walking around the city today. It is about a 1 mile hike up hill from where we are staying. More updates to come later. Ciao for now.

things that suck and things that do part 2

things that suck:
-getting crapped on. I hear its good luck in italy, so maybe ill find the nearest casino.
-the manpri: this is the male version of capri pants. seriously, guys are wearing them everywhere. Ill give em a free pass while we were on the island of Capri, but anywhere else, no no no! Im willing to try and wear some european fashion on this trip, but you wont catch me in those speedo, manpris or deoderant-less.
-train and bus schedules in italian only. its a little scary stepping onto a bus hoping its going the right direction.
-Rome. seriously, its a dirty, busy, crazy city. I already knew this, but i wanted to point it out for anyone planning to travel to italy and just spend time in rome. sure, it might be easier to travel here because most things are in english, but if your going to travel here, get away from this place. definitely see vatican city, st peters basilica, the romon forum and the collosseum while your in rome, but i would have to say a trip out to the amalfi coast is a must see for anyone.
-being here during the soccer off season. im not a huge soccer fan, but i think i forgot whats sports is already.
-not eating fried chicken for over a week.

things that dont suck:
-pizza. unfreakin believable! I doubt all have a hot n nasty from little ceasars for a very long time.
-kinder eggs. better than a snickers bar, and it comes with a toy!
-staying at a small town like montepulciano. its clean, the views are wonderful. less tourists. more time to relax!
-St Peters basilica, and the Sistine chapel Michaelangelo was not only my favorite ninja turtle, but a pretty good artist as well.
-looking out your window in rome and seeing a portion of the roman empires fort and city wall still intact.

Shout out to grandpa maitland

as you probably have read here recently, Grandpa just passed away while we are here. I just wanted to say, please keep the maitland family in your prayers, especially grandma. Im glad he's not suffering anymore.

Bye Darrell! I'll miss our euchre games at all the family get togethers. Even tho you thoroughly kicked my arse every time, getting you as my partner always made up for it! Show'em how its done up there!

Roma

As stated before, we arrived in Rome Tuesday morning and was able to see the Vatican Museum as well as St. Peter's Basillica. It was absolutely beautiful. The Vatacan was neat and we were able to walk right in, no lines or anything. We were able to be there for about 3 hours. Even though there were no lines, it was very crowded inside. Tons of people, which made it very hot during most of our visit. The sistine chapel was amazing. We were trying to read about things as we went along, but decided to just look and enjoy, and read about it later. It will be fun to do that since now we have seen certain things. I do have some notes from my last trip here, which was neat to read through. On the last trip, about 9 years ago, I was required to keep notes on the things we saw while my professor was talking about it. It was interesting to read through these notes again and remember what I learned in the art history class I took.

At the Basillica, we were able to sit and have mass, which was very nice. Even though I couldn't understand a word he said except for "christ" "God" and "thank you" maybe, it was still a good time to pray and also grieve the loss of Grandpa while in such a beautiful place, and think about how he is in a very beautiful place too now.

After visiting the church, we spend some time at the Vatacan post office! It was neat to send some post cards from Vatacan City, which is a totally separate country from the rest of Italy, so many tourists were doing the same thing as us.

We then took a very very looooong walk to all the touristy sights, which was a lot of fun, but then ended up being very tiring! We walked to the Spanish Steps and sat there for quite a while with some very yummy gelato just people watching with everyone else. We walked to trevie fountain (sp?), ate dinner outside at a small bar/restaurant, then walked down Via De Corso and saw a couple famous monuments up to Piazza de Popolo. From there it was about 10:30 or 11 and very dark and we had to figure out a way to get back to our hotel. Finally after more than an hour of walking, we made it. Tiring night, but the hotel was very good, so we had a pretty good rest!

The next day we took a tour for a little bit more money, but we skipped the lines for the colloseum, Roman Forum, and Palatine Hill. We really loved this tour because it gave us good information, and allowed us to not worry about knowing what to see or the lines to get in. The second tour guide for Palatine Hill and the Forum was very entertaining and funny. We especially enjoyed this tour! After the tour, we quickly headed to the train station and bought our tickets to Montepulciano. After our train was delayed for about 45 min. we finally were on our way.

Grandpa

We finally arrived in Roma on Tuesday morning around 11 a.m. We took a bus from Sorrento to Rome which was an easy way to go and very relaxing. I do have sad news, though, because when we arrived at our hotel on Tuesday morning, the lady behind the desk was trying to tell me something, but she did not speak any english. I thought she was telling me that she was sorry that we could not make it the night before, but we had to pay for it anyway or something. But instead she handed me a piece of paper which was an urgent message from home. My Grandpa Maitland passed away on Monday night. It was very sad to hear. I thought it was kind of ironic that this was the first day since being in Italy that I decided to wear all black, and then we planned to visit St. Peters later and ended up being there during mass.

It was a hectic day visiting the Vatacan and then the basillica, but it was nice to be there during a mass, and it was very nice that we were able to attend. We were able to sit and pray, which made me feel better. I will not be able to attend the funeral, which is very upsetting to me. Also, I'm not sure it really feels totally real yet, since I am away from home. Every once in a while I forget about it, then find myself remembering and thinking that it is so strange that he is no longer here. Anyway, please pray for my family. I know he is in a better place now and it is good because he was really suffering, i guess, the last few days especially. Anyway, we do not have much time now. Later on today, we plan on making it to another internet spot and updating you about Rome and our crazy experience getting to Montepulciano.

Things that don't suck about Italy and things that do

Here's my recap of my trip so far.....

Things that don't suck:
-Air France: don't get me wrong, i'm all about freedom fries, but this plane ride was awesome. i got my own personal tv, with 8 or 9 movies to choose from, and they started every 15 minutes.
-Gelato: think cold stone creamery on steroids.
-Food, every sandwich I've had has put subway to shame. every pasta dish makes olive garden seem second rate to white castle. wait, it's always been second rate to those jalapeno cheeseburgers, never mind.
-Towns built on mountain sides, and by the sea. I swear the pictures I show all of you when I get home won't do it justice. You have to be here to see how beautiful this country is. at least so far what i've seen.

Things that do:
-Jetlag
-Europeans wearing bathing suits. I'm not talking the women, im talking european men in speedos. very fasionable speedos, but speedos nonetheless.
-Why deoderant isnt mandatory.
-Being confused ALL THE TIME. But then again, whats new with that really?
-Not being able to watch tiger games on tv. I heard seattle used a catcher to pitch against us. are we really that bad now?
-Watching cable tv at our hotel. Its great that i can watch reruns of friends and lord of the rings, but why arent they speaking english?
-It's hot. i know you've all heard me use the term "Africa hot". But really, its only a short boat ride away, so that term applies here too. Did I mention the deoderant thing?
-Train/bus strikes. why? at least they said they were only striking part of today. and they told everyone when they would be striking well in advance. they coulve really stuck it to us, so im somewhat grateful. at least it got us to stay in sorrento one more day.
-Pompeii. Actually, this was a pretty sweet place to visit, but man, that volcano must've really really sucked.

-that's all for today. I hope all is well back home. I do get to check my email sometimes, so please keep this blog g-rated, and send the other ones to edpascual@email.com

ciao!

Trains and Buses ON STRIKE!!!!!

Okay, so today, July 7, 2008, is the day that ALL of Italy's trains and busses went on strike! So we were freaking out today. Basically we were told that there was NO way we could get to Rome today, only tomorrow. I felt like crying this morning as we found this out. We had a hotel reservation in Rome tonight, and we were going to visit Pompeii. I thought that, not only were we not going to make it to Rome tonight, we also would have to skip out on Pompeii. This was a major bummer! On top of this information, no one seemed to be able to really help us at first.

Anyway, as with everything, it ended up working out okay. The trains started running again just in the middle of the day only for about 4 hours. We still needed to cancel the Rome hotel since we could not make it to both Pompeii and Rome in that time. First, I found out that I left the phone number at home! oops! the tourist office was helpful and found the number, then I called and they didnt speak english! So the peopel in the TI also were very very helpful and called for me to take care of it. Then we found another cheaper hotel here in Sorrento and went to Pompeii for the afternoon. We barely caught the train back to Sorrento. It was the last train coming back today! whew!! Now we have rested from the walking we did in Pompeii and we are rested and almost ready for dinner!

What a story!

Capri

Sunday we took a ferry over to Capri from Sorrento. Capri is basically a huge tourist trap. It was crazy, full of so many tourists, almost all of them either American or Japanese. The island is beautiful, dont get me wrong, but it was hard to enjoy the whole time. Crazy lines for busses and trolly cars up the island made it tough to stand!

The blue grotto is the main attraction, so we wanted to do that, but it was closed because the tide was high, so instead we took a boat around the island. Then we took a chair lift up Monte Solaro, the highest mountain on the island. The best part, though, was the one hour long hike back down the mountain that we decided to take. It was great! No one else had this idea, I guess, because we were the only ones on the trail. We loved the views and even got some advice from a local man walking with his dog who told us to take a detour and visit a beautiful church down the path. It was very nice and one of the highlights of the trip so far.

Afterwards, we headed back to Sorrento. We sat out on our balcony to rest from the day, then packed since Monday we had planned to head to Rome. that is a whole other story though . . .