Tour of Italy

As Lauren said in her last post, she's "allowing" me to be her first (and last?) guest blogger. How thoughtful.

"Your honor, I'd like to submit this evidence of our vacation."

"I'll allow it."

In an effort not to repeat too much of what Lauren already said (you can thank me later for that), I'll focus on some of the out-of-the-ordinary highlights.

Started with a nice one-stop trip from San Diego to Venice. Delta makes it pretty easy -- except for a 5-hr layover in JFK, which we turned into a positive. We paid (half-price ... what, I'm still Jewish) to get into the Delta Sky Club where they have comfortable chairs, wi-fi, electrical outlets, free food, and free alcohol. So we spent the 5 hours in luxury. What's interesting is these fancy lounges apparently have private showers. So we partook of the elegant airport shower to be a little more refreshed for the 8-hour flight across the pond. Wasn't SO bad, hundreds of free movies and TV shows -- who needs Netflix?

[2 paragraphs in, and I still haven't gotten to Italy ... this is going even worse than the skeptics feared.]

We met Lauren in Venice. See her blog post. What's interesting is how easy and safe the train system is. Originally thought we'd need a car to get to some of the smaller cities, but trains go everywhere. At the end of the day, we took the train to Forli (pronounced for-LEE). It's a small town, where very little English is spoken. Fortunately, our Hotel was one of the exceptions, so we could check in, in English.

Lauren talked about Ravenna, but it's interesting enough to mention again. Located 30 mins from Forli, it's a small hidden gem of a city known for their Mosaics. Italy guidebooks rave about it, but most Americans have never heard of it, because it's not really near anything (2 hours from either Florence or Venice). The highlight is the Basilica of San Vitale, stunning mosaics throughout this church. Across the courtyard, is the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, which has even more impressive mosaic art. No one ever gets to this part of Italy, but if you do, consider a visit.    

That night, we watched her team play for the first time (other than LiveStats on the internet). Team is very competitive and currently in 2nd place. We met her coaching staff, the President of the organization, scorekeepers, etc. Most spoke no English, but made us feel welcome. Everyone was super nice. One of the scorekeepers, Mattia, is an English translator, so we were able to talk with him when we had any questions. Team won both games, and Lauren played well, even hitting a home run for us to see.

Lauren talked about our next visits: Pisa and Cinque Terre. Pisa has the tower. Took dorky pictures holding up the tower. Enough said. Cinque Terre is another of Italy's hidden gems that most Americans don't know about. Again, guidebooks rave about it. Five picturesque hillside villages, on Italy's western coast overlooking the Ligurian Sea, are separated by hiking trails. Depending on how far the villages are, some trails are easier

than others. We went on one of the "others", from Monterossa (village #5) to Vernazza (village #4). It only took 2.5 hours, but it felt like 2.5 weeks, uphill both ways. But as much as I enjoy complaining (it's my defining quality), the views of the sea and of the colorful villages were stunning -- well worth the effort. Funniest part was climbing down to Vernazza and seeing the poor saps starting their trek going the other direction to Monterossa. They were already complaining, and they had barely started. That night at dinner, in Vernazza, we sat next to an older Danish couple. Must have been 60+ years old. They made the same hike we did. Took them over 6 hours, but damn, good for them!

Last several days we spent in Rome. As some of you know, Robin and I took a Mediterranean cruise 5 years ago for our 20th anniversary. It was supposed to stop in Rome, but due to high winds, they had to skip that port. So we finally got there. As Lauren mentioned, she was able to join us the first day and see the main sights: Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, Vatican City, etc. I'll just say that I didn't think it was possible to see more crowds than at the Trevi Fountain. Oh. My. God. But our next stop was the Colosseum. I was wrong. In general, I was surprised at how busy Rome is -- lots of hustle and bustle, all the time. We planned several English-speaking tours. Here are our favorites:

Vatican Tour: Really interesting and impressive. St. Peter's is the largest Catholic church in the world. To give you perspective, the letters in the band encircling the dome are 12 feet high. There are no paintings in St. Peter's Basilica. Anything that looks like a painting is done with mosaics. 

A painted ceiling in the Vatican Museum.
It is a flat surface, painted with a technique
to make it appear to be three-dimensional. 

TIP: There are many outside companies that give Vatican tours of course. But if you book early enough, you can get the best prices by going directly thru the Vatican website, and doing tours with their own guides. We chose not to spend $5 Euros to climb to the top of St. Peter's Basillica, but supposedly there are terrific views of the city. Hopefully, Lauren will get to do that with Chelsea.

Walking/Eating Tour: This was a fantastic experience walking around the Rome neighborhood of Trestevere (pronounced tres-TEH-va-ray). Tour took us along side streets where locals live, work, and eat. Tour guide told us about the neighborhood and about the great restaurants we ate at: pizza (at the best pizza place in Rome) which included a behind the scenes look at the pizza ovens, fried artichokes, wine tasting in a 1000 year old wine cellar, cookies, full 3-course pasta dinner (with more wine), and gelato for dessert. Again, most tourists never get to this part of Rome because the easy-to-use metro/subway doesn't go here. Definitely recommend doing this if you get a chance. 

Tivoli: Taking advice from friends, we took a bus tour to see Villa Adriana and Villa d'Este in Tivoli, outside of Rome. Villa d'Este featured hundreds of fountains and amazing views. 

Tuscany Tour: Maybe the best tour of the entire trip. This was a 2-hour bus trip north of Rome to the middle of the Tuscany wine country. Absolutely beautiful views of rolling hills and acres of vineyards. Stopped at several places, toured the walled mountainside city of Montepulciano with quaint streets and great views of Tuscany, an Abbey where we heard monks singing daily chants, and a winery where they served as appetizers and a complete lunch in the wine cellar while we did wine-tasting. Our 20-person group was a lot of fun. 2 girls were study-abroad students from U of Alabama -- one from Cincinnati who saw my Ohio Softball jacket and said she had lots of friends at Ohio, while the other was 19 years old ... on a wine tasting tour. Gotta love Italy, where the drinking age is around 7.

 

 

On the final Saturday, Lauren's team traveled south of Rome, near Naples, to a city called Caserta. We met them there, but unfortunately, it was pouring rain in Caserta which canceled the games. Instead, we got to spend the last night with Lauren and the team at dinner. Not a bad Plan B.

Other observations and tidbits:

• Robin wore her step tracker during our trip. During our 10 days, we walked an average of 9 miles per day.
• Wine in Italy is excellent and very inexpensive. For €6 (about $8), you can get a half liter of house wine which pours about 4 glasses and is better than in the States. 
• When you order fish, it is often served whole. Fortunately, you can ask your server to fillet it for you. At one restaurant, the fish was ridiculously large and could have fed a small family. 
  

• Because I'm obsessed with breakfast, we chose hotels that provided it with our room. In Rome, the spread was particularly impressive. We enjoyed it all three days.

• If you want to see more pictures, click here to see the 700+ photographs from our trip.

All in all, we had SUCH a great time seeing Lauren, seeing the sights off the beaten path, and watching softball. Now, I'll allow Lauren to take back control of her blog.