Trip to Europe

So sad the trip is over…how did that happen?

Been a but of a roller coaster day…
Flight from Rome to JFK was wonderful. I sat next to a really nice woman, ate surprisingly good food…for an airplane, and got to watch 4 great movies I’ve wanted to see. Jackpot! Saw one that I don’t know the name of and can’t seem to find, Secretariat (ESP fun after Palio), The Adjustment Bureau, and Arthur. I really didn’t want to sleep on the flight bc it was during the EST hours of 4am to 2:30pm. Tried to power through until I reach a queen size bed…by myself…in ATL. ahhhh

Flight was great but all good things come to an end. I had to get my bags to go through customs and in had a bit of a scare that my bags didn’t make it. All bags were out and mine was not on the belt….I then somehow realized that ll of the bags that were not conventional suitcases-like my giant backpack were put against the wall, never sent down the belt. Oh thank goodness. Things were improving but then I found out my flight is delayed 2.5 hours.

Plus side? I need to pay all my GSU student fees and make a change to my schedule. Good thing I now have free time and free iPads at JFK. Needed them both!

Anyway I’ll get home at a somewhat reasonable hour and then I’ll jump into bed!

ATL: I’ll be home soon.

It is our last day in some, so we were up early ready to take in the day. First stop was the guided tour of the Colosseum and Roman Forum. It wasn’t too far of a walk compared to some of the other walks we both willingly and unwillingly had taken. Once we got there (which was fairly obvious) the trick was finding where to meet our group. We only walked about 1/2 way around around the Colosseum before we realized that we had overshot what we were looking for. I was fairly sure of where to go, but mom wanted to ask. At this point in the trip I thought it was blatantly clear that I have in fact stolen my mothers sense of direction and left her with none. But she was still reluctant to believe me. HOWEVER…we ultimately found the group…no need to comment on where or how or who was right :)

We got going pretty quickly because we had a “special” tour where not only did we see the Colesseum and Roman Forum, but we got to go to the Colosseum’s underground chambers and its third tier. Very special. We learned about what sections of the structure were the real ruins, what had been restored, and was was new. The new sections were built in brick so that there was no confusion that it was NOT part of the real thing. It was interesting to see the diff between the original and restred sections nc the stone was so porous that it has since absorbed all the pollution, so it appears very dark, where it used to be nearly white. Once inside, we immediately went down to the underground chambers where they used to keep the gladiators and the animals. They were raised up on lifts to the main floor of the arena where they would compete. From the “basement” we climbed our way to the main floor, the second floor, and then finally the third tier where the emperor would sit, which had unbelievable views of the Colosseum and city around it. 

From the top we quickly climbed down the VERY steep steps. They were designed this way in order to slow traffic in and speed it up when leaving. Next stop: Roman Forum. In comparison to what it used to be…it was very little, but the history that went along with it was fascinating. It was blazing hot and by the end of the 3.5 hours we were ready to be done. An Australian woman in our group who I was sitting with commented that if she knew how to get the hell out of the Forum she’d leave. Sun makes ppl cranky. 

Once we were set free, we walked back to a salad resto near our hotel, which I boldly turned down yesterday, but in the heat and after all the eating of the trip, the salad was calling my name. We tried sitting outside, which lasted all of 10 minutes before we ran inside to eat our lunch. It was really just TOO hot. I got arugula with hearts of palm, parm, mushrooms and shrimp. Delicious- I devoured it. And all that about wanting a light lunch? That was pointless because after I ate the salad (which could have been dinner for a fam of 4) I inhaled all of the bread. Mom essentially had to fight me for it. It was good bread!…when in Rome.

After lunch we were so we hopped back down the road to the hotel and i jumped right in bed and took a 2 hour nap in the AC. After almost 4 weeks of being on vaca I was tired- i just needed a little snooze. Around 5pm we headed back to Trastevere- we really liked it there. We then of course scoped out some restos for dinner but then sat and had a drink first. 

We originally chose the place because there were musicians outside. Unfortunately, they were street performers and moved on very quickly and then we had to listen to this awful awful awful magician that we heard the other night and thought was SO annoying. Well much to our enjoyment, he plopped right next to us and we got to see him again. I literally couldn’t keep a straight face. Terrible. haha. I survived with my Bellini in hand and enjoyed moms company enough to try not to look at him. 

Once we worked up our appetites and went to a resto we found right down the road, call La Scala. The restaurant was chosen solely because they had ravioli with butter and sage and I was DEAD SET on getting it. Luckily we got the last table outside, despite not making a reservation. We got wine, the app for 2 (rosemary flatbread, many different meats, roasted tomatos, eggplant, zucchini, and mozzarella) and the raviolis. I had a near breakdown when we found out the ravioli only came with TWO. Slightly concerned whether I’d be fed enough for my LAST meal in Italym I paniced. But fortunately my mom knows me pretty well and assured me it would be ok :) Turns out each of the were the size of my head. So we were okay PLUS we got some amazing chocolately tiramisu- and yes mom ate just as much of the chocolate as i did- ok, maybe she didin’t lick it clean like me. 

In the end, we decided it was probably our BEST dinner in Rome, and was def in the running for best of the trip. It turned out the resto was super fancy, which we only realized after going inside to go to the bathroom…and it really wasn’t THAT expensive. 

After dinner we went to the shops/boardwalk/bars that were lit up and lined the Tiber River. It was really cool! and we also found a great present for Mariel that we had been searching for and we were really cutting in close. We shopped til we dropped and we needed to head back before it was too late. We had early flights at the airport in the am. So- what else to do but walk by one of my fav gelato places (with fig) and had out second dessert, and FINAL gelato of Italy :( Makes me want to cry just writing about it. The last memory I have of Italy was my fig and mint gelato as I strolled back to the hotel…with my favorite mother in the world. Can’t think a better way to remember it. 

We woke up early for bfast- and then hiked over to a whole different state- Vatican City- for our guided tour of the Vatican Museums including the Sistine Chapel, Raphael’s Rooms and St Peter’s Basilica. Our tour guide, Emmanuela was wonderful and super knowledgable, contstantly claiming Michelangelo was her boyfriend (those are 2 separate and unrelated facts about her). She made all the walking around enjoyable and was able to answer all of mom’s many questions- which was really impressive. Mom absolutely loved her. #1 because she knew a lot. #2 because she was pretty adorable. AND #3 BECAUSE SHE GOT A DAY OFF FROM BEING MY TOUR GUIDE. One of the more interesting things about the tour was learning how much of the Vatican was built with parts and materials from the Colosseum. It was the Pope’s way of flaunting that the Roman Empire was no only in charge, now HE was. The tour was great, a bit tiring- i wish i knew more about the art beforehand, so I would have been able to pay attn and appreciate everything a little bit more. One of my favorite facts had to do with the relationship between the Pope and Michelangeo. Michelangelo was a sculptor and despite this, the Pope asked him to paint the fresca in the Sistine Chapel. He agreed, bc no one says no to the Pope, but there was some resentlment towards the Pope. This became obvious with some “hidden” images in the painting. The more obvious of the two is right smack dab in the middle of the painting there is a person with him butt hanging out in a very blantant way- literally saying kiss my ass to the Pope. The other one mentioned was that Michelangelo painted the prophet Zechariah in the pope’s likeness, and behind him, one angel is making an extremely obscene hand gesture at the back of his head. Turns out, mom has a necklace with this obscene hand gesture on it. She claims she got it in Portugal and apparently to them the gesture means good luck….I’m still yet to check in on that.

St. Peter’s was the final stop on the tour, which was truly beautiful aaand a bit over the top, but that was the point- it was built to be the biggest church in the world. There is currently a 7 year wait list to get married there. I’m not surprised. 

Once the tour was over it was so HOT so we went to Piazza Nuova for some lunch where we sat outside and there were misters overhead to cool us off. We got a mixed salad and a capricosa pizza. It def hit the spot.  

From there we went back to the hotel to rest and change. I had been wearing capris bc I wanted to be approp in the Vatican- not ok for being outside. I took a quick nap before we journeyed on to the Borghese Gallery. We headed there by way of the Spanish Steps and continued north to the Borghese Gardens. Our biggest mistake: asking for directions to the Borghese Gardens…not the Gallery. It is the second largest park in Rome and is 148 acres. What did that mean for us? We entered the gardens possibly at the furthest point from where the Gallery…with no real idea of where the Gallery was. This meant a few things: we left the hotel at 3:30 and got there at 4:45, we entered the garden so far from the gallery there were no signs telling us how to get there, we asked someone for directions and she looked at us like we were crazy bc we were NOT close. At the end of it, we were fine. We made it there before our reservation and we able to get our tix, the audio guide, and water- bc we were dying after are walk/run through the gardens. Regardless of our exhaustion, hurting feet and the heat in the gallery, it was AMAZING. Could have been one of my favorite things in Rome. Throughout the trip in Rome, mom had been raving about Bernini, but I wasn’t overly impressed by what we had seen from him. This changed my mind. Now I get it- I can see why she had such vivid memories from being here when she was 17. I absolutely loved Apollo and Daphne. In the sculpture Apollo is chasing Daphne, she runs and screams for help from her father, and to rescue her he turns her into a tree. It was AMAZING how the sculpture portrayed the story as you walked around it, viewing it from each and every angle. The detail and way that the marble seemed to defy gravity was fascinating. Pluto and Proserpina and Davide where also unbelievable. So impressive- worth my aching feet. Once we finished the first floor with all the sculptures, we skimmed the second floor.

Next destination: find a place for dinner. We left the gardens on the more “appropriate” side. We walked down via Vittorio Veneto which is one of the most famous and expensive streets in Rome. There where there were fancy hotels, even fancier restos with outside patios glassed in and financial type buildings like the US Embassy. Really glad we were able to take the detour down that road. We ended up near the Spanish Steps for dinner. We got a bruchetta sampler, gnocchi with tomatosauce and basil and triangle shaped ravioli with ham, zucchini and some type of vodka sauce that was sooo full of flavor it was delicious. After dinner we shopped on out way home to try to find something for Mariel, but we were forcing it. With that not going well, we opted to find some desserts for ourselves :) We felt like all of our desserts were gelato and pignoli look a likes…which we know are fab, so we wanted to try something new. We found the bakery that DID have the closest things to Pignolis and figured they knew what they were doing. Turns out we may have gotten the wrong impression- or we don’t know how to choose italian desserts. We got what is called a lobster tail in Boston (not the seafood), a tartine de coco (pie crust with apricot jam and coconut and raisins-thought those were choc chips) and a pistachio cookie. All in all, I’d describe it as disgusting, and we probably finished 95% of it? Then we found our way back to the hotel - the only trick was getting my mom to go to bed when i was already there. She needed to write down everything she spent, everything she did, call dad, and of course read. It was a nightly feat for me- usually minimal yelling required. 

The last of our home cooked breakfast included a raspberry apple pie and biscuits filled with peaches. Boy am I going to miss those. We called a cab to take us to the train station after we said our goodbyes to all of our new friends at Agritourismo Marciano- employees and other visitors. We got to the train station just before our 9:45 train….that didn’t exist. Bizzaire that Eurail allowed us to book the tickets, but during August (their holiday month) that train doesnt run. So, our journey to Rome was slightly delayed, everything was pushed back by about 1 hours. Not too bad. Luckily, our other connecting train transfered over well and we were still able to get our seats on the next train. Once everything was settled we went to the mall conveniently located across the street, I bought some cheap sandals, because the one pair I brought for the trip, broke in BCN- so I’d been forced to wear chucks with dresses, and lets face it- that was getting old. I wasn’t too concerned, but I’m fairly confident I looked silly (at least my hair was ok). Mom got a nice sunhat in the mall in anticipation of the hot sun in Rome. Then we headed to a coffee shop in the mall, where we got cappuccinos and sat outside, until we needed to catch our train. 

Before we got on the train we stopped at a grocery store located in the mall….we were going to have our first homemade meal. We get cheese and crackers, which turned out to be PERFECT. It was similar to cream cheese with different spices and faro crackers. Great idea. Well done Mom. We transferred trains and had a nice little upgrade to 1st class. We both napped most of the way to rest up for all the crazy walking we were going to do in Rome. 

Once there… we hopped in a cab to the Hotel. Yes, hotel. This was the only hotel we stayed in on the trip. Had to make sure we had as easy transition from our FAB farm house in Tuscany to the big city. We got to Rome slightly later than initially planned, so we dropped our things off and headed out. Before we got too far, we went straight for gelato. After our great, but relatively small lunch, there was no way we were going to make it to dinner without some food. Lets face it, I’ve now been on vaca…eating my way through Europe…for 3 weeks now. My stomach is approx 3x what it used to be (hopefully not in a visable way). At this point I required A LOT more food than usual. Thank goodness for walking. So anyway, we got gelato and I was thrilled when I found fig gelato! In light of my recent revelation of the wonders of figs I couldn’t be happier. So I obvi got fig and good old coconut. Mom got fig walnut & something else fruity. 

First stop (aside from the gelato) was the Jewish Ghetto, or quarter as they now call it. It was right around the corner and we quickly found the synagogue and museum. We got to explore the museum and got a tour of the 2 synagoges. There were a lot of Jews in Rome! In this small ghetto there were about 5,000 jews way back when and now there are approx 14,000. The jews lived in the ghetto for a very long times, were given equality at the end of the 1800s. The synagogue was built in 1904 with a beautiful square dome to distinguish it from the style of the churches. Then WWII happened and over 2,000 jews were taken from the ghetto, with only 12 returning. Amazingly, the synagogue was untouched during the war, only closed. 

After the museum, we crossed the Tiber River into Trastevere for find a place to eat dinner. We walked through Piazza Santa Maria and then ate at Hosteria Otello. We got 1/2 a bottle of wine (for clarification and reminder to mom- that has half the number of glasses of wine as a FULL bottle), mushroom and tomato bruchetta, Carbonara (a def fav), and veal marsala. Yum Yum Yum. 

From there we started our walking tour of Rome. Tourguide= mom with the assistance of Rick Steves. Our route:

• crossed the Tiber river to Campo de Fiore 
• Piazza Nuova: found REAL pignola cookies…or the closest we had come. Went to Tres Scali for the infamous Tartufo gelato which is pretty much crazy crazy chocolate. Mom opted for a different flavor
• Trevi Fountain
• Spanish steps

We ate our (second of the day) gelato on the walk and then ate our cookies at the end of our walking tour at the spanish steps. When in Rome…. 

We woke up a litter later today because we really hadn’t rested since we got to Italt. We had another fab bfast- the cakes we black cherry and more jam filled croissants- fresh from the garden obvi. I tried NOT to eat too much bec I was still full from dinner. I stuck with lots of fruit (the fresh black cherries we unlike anything i’ve ever had) and the “5 cereal” bread, which I interpret as 5 grain..with rasp and peach jams. yum yum. We took our time getting ready and then walked to Siena, which was about 3 miles. We brought poncho which was genius because of course it started raining about half way there. Thank goodness for moms willingness to carry my poncho. I love being a kid :)

When we got to Siena, I was slightly cranku with all the stops and pictures my Mom was talking because…par for the course, I really needed to go to the bathroom. Always am obstacle. hah. So…we found our way to NANINI which was the bakery where we found the closest things to moms cookies yesterday (Ricciarelli). Not only do they have cookies, but they also had a bathroom…oh! and cappuccinos which we obviously didn’t leave without having. So now that I was relieved and refueled we headed to the infamous Piazza del Campo that was all set up for the Palio races- bleachers around in entire square. There were sections separated for each of the 10 contradas participating in the race. We looked at lots of pottery and ceramics and kept our eye out for good gelato and pizza for later— our staples of just about every afternoon in Italy. 

We then found our way to Siena’s Duomo…slightly confusing that there is not one Duomo, but many. Anyway, we actually went into this one which was def worth it. There was hardly a line, we just had to wait for them to open the doors, and we were in on the first try- it was magnificent. It had high vaulted ceilings and a large dome (like most churches). The dome was painted with an optical illusion to make it appear even bigger. There was beatutiful stained glass and all the B&W marble and murals all over the walls. There was also a lib where the murals were as bright as they were the day they were painted. Truely amazing. In the center of the lib stood the 3 graces. Luckily, I brought my personal tour guide with me this day too, so I learned lots about what we were looking at. I’m really glad we ended up going in.

The holliness of the church really worked up our appetites. We sat down at a pizza place where it looked like there were good pizzas with nice thin crust. Accurate observation. We ordered our usual fizzy water (or as some would say “with gas”), a salad, and the capri pizza. The style of pizza we got didn’t have tomato sauce, which totally worked out (moms not a huge fan), but it make it a little lighters and I could have used a little more substance.  

We then sxplored more of Siena, shops and such, bought more Ricciarelli (of course) but this was for Mike and Dad’s Italian dinner that mom is planning to make them when she gets home. Let’s see if they make it there. The best…and I mean BEST was a small organic food store called La Biotegga dei Sapori. The owner spoke zero english, which made the experience tough and 100x better. I was on a hunt for chestnut honey that they had been feeding us at the farm. We managed to communicate to the owner with a little help from another customer who turned out to be one of the wine and olive oil providers for the store. I FINALLY found my honey and then mom wanted to get some fig spread (she has a sandwich in the airport in Philly that had set her heart on finding some). It turned out they didn’t carry any BUT the owner brought out a whole tray of HUGE fresh figs. I thought her intention was just to confirm that she understood what we were asking for, but no…she wanted us to have one! So there I stood, in the middle of her little store chowing down on a fig the size of an apple- it was so sweet- and now I need to go on the show Best Thing I Ever Ate….because this is up there. Luckily I got to take a pic with my 2 new best friends…the fig…and the owner. 

From there we headed to Piazza del Campo again to get our contrada dinner tickets. After the trial on the night before the race, each of the contradas has a huge dinner in the streets and we were invited!!! Well, not really, but we got tickets to join them! Point being…we had to go pick up our tickets for dinner, and then we got some gelato and staked out our seats for the Palio trail. It was about 5pm and the trial didn’t start until 7:15m but we figured we needed to get good seats early and hold on tight. So, me mounted the bleachers and despite all “reserved signs” we found our stop on the top bench with a great view. We both took a little snooze after devouring our gelato (i got chocolate, vanilla, and mint- Our first medium gelatos..3 flavors). I was only slightly frightened mid nap bc the bleachers we ever so slightly tilted forward, and as a watched mom nod off I could only think she was going to nod once to hard and send herfelt tumbling down the bleachers …and then we might lose our seats! After holding our seats, via our naps, we got kicked out! Apparently the reserved signs were there for a reason. The bleacher seats were in fact free, which mom had read, bit they were reserved for the members of the contradas- not American tourists— note to Rick Steves: you should mention that. I guess the people of the contrada deserved the seats. As it is, we are going to crash their dinner party later…so I’d say its fair. 

Sending us down into the growing crowd, we searched for a good spot in what would be considered the infield. The track is not flat nor is it a circle. It is more of a D shape with 2 right angles. We tried to find seats near the outside at a higher location so we could look down at the other sections of the track. We sat down and now held on tight to THESE spots. Mom stood and I stayed seated to make sure I was standing for the shortest time possible in order to be optimally happy and to preserve as much personal space as possible, for as long as possible- i was convinced I could take up more room sitting, so when I stood I’d have some elbow room. I was truely amazing that all these people were going to fit…as I watched person after person flood in and fight their way to a spot. It was SO packed, I cant even begin to imagine what race day is like if this is one of many trials. 

Despite the long wait for the trail and all the people we had to fight for our spots, it was really one of the coolest things I have ever been a part of. The contradas paraded in with their horse, followed my men, women, and children. The children had their own sections where they filed in and shout and chanted against their rivals. I felt like it was color wars times 100 and only about a million times cooler. As the time of the trial came closer and closer, louder and louder chants filled the stadium. Finally some horses appeared- grey horses with men mounted wearing very official attire. They took one slow lap and then they picked up the pace and started racing! We were like WHAT!? Is this the race! …but just a false alarm. The first horses exited the track and then the racing horses and they jockeys trotted in! They wore their contrada colors and it became very clear that THEY would be the ones racing. It took many attempts and wuite some time to get the horses all lined up at the start bc unlike more “modern” horse races, the horses were not in any sort of gate. They literally just put them in a very small area restricted by a rope and essentially hope the jockeys can get the horses in the area and key: facing the right direction. Eventually they manage, and they were OFF! Almost immediately we noticed one horse was without a jockey! In the Palio, a horse can win even without a jockey on its back…so I guess its not unusual. But….as I watched them circle I noticed I saw no orange (which was the color of our contrada). Our jockey fell off literally a second after he crossed the start line. Great. This is going to be a fun dinner. At least it was just a trial. The race was all of 90 seconds, but tots worth it.

We followed the parades out after the race and continued with our contrada…to the contrada…about 1.5 hours early. No biggie. We sat…and sat…and then some people joined us at our table, who spoke almost exclusively Italian and wanted nothing to do with us. Ok….

Then another group of people came and sat on the other side of us, and then dinner FINALLY started, 2 little girls sat with them…next to mom and I. At first, we were hesitant, but they were our saving graces. Their mom luckily spoke a little English and they were also visitors, on vaca from Naples. The two girls were twins, Jordana and Francesca who spoke no enligsh (other than counting to 10 and yes/no) but were so much fun to try to communicate with. They definitely “saved” our dinner experience and made it truely unique. Otherwise, we would have been stuck just glaring at the Italian woman next to us who smoked a total of 10 cigs in the course of our dinner. Rude. 

Dinner was great, esp considering the hundreds of ppl they needed to feed. We had bottle and bottle of wine… apps of faro salad, spinach pie, and chicken and speck. Then meat lasagna, veal, and spinach. And finally…we waiting a long time for some delicious pastry with cream with champagne. What an experience! There was also a near death experience on one of the young (20s) contrada boys who was drinking a little too much wine, and practically died on the table, before his friends dragged him down the street to await an ambulance. That description is no exaggeration. He literally passed out at the table and then they dragged him. Do what you gotta do. The party went on with out him…not a pause in the chanting and singing :) 

After a long LONG long day in Siena….we cabbed it home. Woo!

We decided not to go into Siena for the parade and palio trial. Instead we stayed at the farm and had a personal winery tour and lesson from Christain (one of the farm owners) and then had our magnifacent dinner. The winery/vineyard at this location is where they make all of their red wine. They have another winery where they do white. I learned so so so many interesting facts about how to make wine and different characteristics, but Iàm not even going to pretend like I can repeat them all. 

The dinner was great and it was nice to have a huge feast with all the other people staying here, too. The dinner menu was as follows:

• Caprese salad
• small penne pasta with pesto and tomatos
• zucchini fritters
• zucchini salad
• Invultini: turkey stuffed with ham, cheese, and sage
• Parmesean tomatos
• Steak with fresh herbs
• goat cheese with chestnut honey
• peaches in sugar with peach cream (like gelato)
• chocolate cake

There was a different wine with each course that paired perfectly…including a dessert wine. At the end of the meal we got to finish it off with homemade limoncello. PERF.

I can’t really say much more other than that it was delicious and there was SO MUCH FOOD. And of course I ate it all. Amazingly fresh homecooked Tuscan dinner. 

So our main activity of the day was to ride bikes to this small medieval town (name I will add later) that was about 10km away. We were told it was a 500ft climb round trip and figured we could handle that!

First step that was a slight struggle was mounting the bike. But once we got over that hurdle it was…okay. The ride there wasn’t too bad, once we started getting tired the town was literally just down the hill. The only troubling part was that the majority of our ride was downhill, so we didn’t even want to think about what was to come in the afternoon. The town was small and so old! Part of Dantes Inferno was actually modeled after it. We definitely worked up an appetite riding there so we sat down for some lunch outside within the walled town. There was great bread and then I had a salad with tomatos,  mozzerella, corn, carrots, and tuna & mom had a caprese. It really hit the spot.

We then rented an audio guide for the town do we could learn a little history. After about 3 of the stops on the map, we pretty much quit…just so tired and i guess it just wasn’t just that interesting for us. Now I would have felt bad not listening, but if my mom was giving up on it too, I felt much better about it. We decided a gelato would be much better than listening to some man talk- so we had that instead! This time I got coconut and yogurt in a cone. Yum yumyum.

Then came the ride back….

As I mentioned earlier we speculatred it would be a lot of uphill and boy were we right. Mom had 2 mishaps, one involving a guardrail and the other…i dont know. She was awesome as we speculated on the best ways to set to gears in order to climb these giant hills. About half way through mom tried to rest and was seemingly hesitant about getting back on the bike, but I reminded her the quicker we do, the quicker we get back. With only a slight hesitation we re mounted our bicycles and continued our tour back to the agritourismo marciano. In about an hours time we made it back. About 13 miles logged for the day and I donàt think mom will ride the bikes again haha.

It was tough! but also something different to do. What an adventure.

Shower time. We are heading into Siena to see the parade and trials for the Palio.