October 20, 2013

Sorrento

Good morning everyone,

Had a great meal as usual last night here at the hotel linguini with clams & mussels in olive oil and garlic it was tasty they tend to cook the pasta a little on the underdone side (al Dente).  The seafood was fresh arrived that day.

Not anything new to report enjoying a down day just hanging at the hotel Robbie and Krista will be arriving this afternoon.  Might go into town in a little while and roam around, in the meantime I thought I would take the opportunity and download some of Deb's photos with a bit of commentary thrown in.


Tiles on the floor of the baths in Herculaneum

Fresco's on the wall of a home in Herculaneum

Cooking urns that were heated with rocks. They would cook food like beans, fish stew etc.  The original McDonalds ok here it would've been macdonuldus maximus

One of the streets in Pompeii

 Statue of Greek God Apollo depicted drawing a bow at the Pompeii ruins.   This area was originally inhabited by Greece.

A plaster cast of one of the bodies found at Pompeii.  While they were excavating they came to realize that when they hit a hollow area there was always skeleton in the hollow area.

They then started using rods to feel for when they would find a cavity in the ash while excavation.  Once found they would pour plaster into the vacant area that had been left by the body decomposing over the ages.  After the plaster had hardened they would then resume excavation.  The detail in the plaster shows facial expressions, folding in clothes quite detailed.

This is now at the farm we went to on Friday night,  an olive oil holding tank when the olives used to be pressed and filtered then the oil and water would be accumulated here. the oil skimmed off the top and the water drained into a cistern to be used later in irrigating the fields.

The stone pushed by hand to crush the olives prior to pressing to extract the oil

Oil and wine jugs

Lary Linda and I enjoying the home made pizza at the farm.

 Debbie and Marla making pizzas hubba hubba :)

The Verde (green) grotto at the Isle of Capri

Cave erosion on the cliffs of Capri, the one on the left looks like a Venetian carnival mask to me.

Narrow streets in Capri quite common in all of these towns.

Picture of Capri as we are leaving on the ferry to Sorrento.  A little dark as it was the end of the day

OK everyone have a great day.  Off tomorrow to tour Posatano and the Amalfi coast. Have a great Sunday.

D&D

Saturday October 19, 2013 

Sorrento

OK  Its Saturday night and its been a busy three days.  Left Montepulciano (Tuscany region) on Thursday.  Took the Autostrada which is the main Italian higway system down to Sorrento.  about 450 kilometers and traffic was no different than driving at home.  Speed limit was 130 km/h (80 mph) and you can see the size of vehicle I have been driving a full size (for Europe) 9 passenger Mercedes Benz Diesel. 

I can tell you in all the driving in Southern Italy I have not seen a single Ferrari or Lamborghini.  One Porsche though.   

Driving got interesting once we hit Naples.  Very aggressive, lanes and stop signs are mere suggestions especially for the motorcyclists and scooters.  Pass you on the left, right, into oncoming traffic.  They are the Honey Badger of the roads here, they just don't give a shit.  (look up honey badger on youtube).

Below are a couple of pictures from Tuscany one is of a dragon which adorn all the buildings there.  The other is of Deb and I in front of an Etruscan well from about the 3rd century you can see the wear marks in the stone around the well from ropes pulling up the buckets of water.   Well is a misnomer its more of a cistern as rain was collected in the cistern from all the rooftops and then everyone went there to draw their water.

 

This is the picture that says it best , Deb, Linda and Marla doing laundry when we arrived in Sorrento.  Please note the prosseco, they said its the only way to do laundry!!

Yesterday we spent the day tour Herculaneum a city that was nearer to Naples that was buried at the same time that Pompeii was by the Mt Vesuvius eruption.  Quite a bit smaller, we were told it was mainly the summer homes of wealthy Romans with not much industry in the area.  Pompeii is vastly larger with more extensive temples, baths, bakeries and brothels.  We may still go back for another day in Pompeii as we saw maybe half of the place. 

Last night was spent at a local farm where they grow olives, lemons (for their own lemon cello), nuts and milk their own cows to produce their own mozzarella cheese.  Here is a video link of their cheese making demonstration reminded me of mom making cottage cheese when the lady here made Riccotta cheese.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE_j5lr8ww0

We came here with Peter & Karen Thompson two years ago to the same hotel and farm.  I don't know what we pulled off when we were here but both the owner of the hotel Johanna and the lady at the farm (neither of which speak much English) stood and pointed at me and (in Italian, the main lady at the farm translated) points at me and goes "I remember him Trafalgar tours 2 years ago" pretty neat. 

Today we took a ferry over to the Isle of Capri. All limestone cliffs many caves and grottos that we toured around the island by boat. Water is an azure and green color very clear we were looking down into 30 feet of water and could see clear to the bottom.  

Then it was up to the top of the mountain to the main village of Capri via a funiculare ( cable car that is towed up and down the mountain 70 people at a time. Again great views of the bay of Napoli. 

Tomorrow we plan on hanging around the hotel most of the day.  Lary and Linda's daughter and son in law Christa and Robbie arrive around 2 so I will have plenty of time to add pictures to the blog tomorrow.  

It was great talking to Dad today was glad to hear all the crops were off.  We are making plans to go to the Ukraine for next year!

Good night all. 

D&D

October 16, 2013

Spent a great day touring the Tuscan countryside today left Montepulciano and started out driving  to San Gimignao about an 1.5 hour drive (dont ask me to spell them correctly I cant even pronounce them).  This town as all others here is on top of a hill/mountain and there are 14 separate towers that were lookouts in the 14th to 19th century.   Spent a couple of hours there then on to Volterra another couple hours of climbing hills and and staircases I SWEAR they're trying to kill me.  For all you Twilight saga fans this is where the main characters are based out of.

Both very pretty cities and the countryside is quite dramatic here are a few pictures

 Below is the main gate to the city of Volterra which was built by the Etruscans in about the 5th century

Deb bought a set of platters for our spaghetti dinner nights

After supper tonight the owner brought out her homemade chocolate lemon cello.  I have to admit it was delicious like drinking Nestlé's Quick with a lemon tang to it was REALLY good.

Well thats it for tonight we are off to Sorrento tomorrow and will be there for the next 5 days. Talk to you soon!

Gnite

D&D

October 15, 2013

Buona Sera,

Well on the 13th we  were making our way to the train station to tour the other 5 towns in Cinque Terra.  You can only get from town to town by boat or train and as we were walking down the train platform I couldnt believe.  Standing there were Brian and Joannie Ganske as well as Steve and Jan Massey from Sedro Wooley, WA.  We all know each other as Brian used to be with Snelson Companies and are a  great client of ours. Had supper with them later that evening at La Cantina the rest of the table had wine while I had my gin and Brian had his Jack Daniels a great evening was had by all.  We will be meeting them for dinner again in Sorrento on Friday the 18th.

So yesterday was a day of adventure.  Took the train from Monterosso to Florence with a connection in Pisa.  What that means is lugging luggage (now I know why its called LUGgage), up stairs down stairs, on the train off the train.  Arrived in Florence NOW we have to find the car rental location.  I tried calling them three separate times in the morning with no answer.  Load up the address in the iPhone (thank gawd for Iphones and their maps), leave the ladies with the luggage at the train station, Larry and I start walking to the car rental place about a 15 minute walk.

Now here is the cute part, in Florence there are two sets of numbers for addresses one standard (black) and the other red... so when the address reads 100R that means its 100 RED ... we added about 10 minutes extra to our trek finding that out.

Arrive at Thrifty Car Rentals a line up of about 6 people... half an hour later we make it to the counter.  I questioned if I had the right phone number and he goes "Si ees correct", I say well I called it three times this morning, he looks at me and says "thees morning?" and I say "Si thees morning" he goes "we too busy to answer the phones it slows down our business" Viva Italia!

Finally get the contract and he hands us the car and goes "hokay now you go about 3 blocks to get the car" so off Larry and I go low and behold its the car I requested when reserving the car a 9 passenger Mercedes van diesel with an automatic FINALLY something is going right.   And thank goodness for no fault insurance because the vehicle looked like somebody drove it by Braille.  In the words of a good friend of mine "Not my deal Man).  Picked up the girls and only a couple of minor wrong turns and we headed for Montepulciano in Tuscany.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montepulciano

Yes sirree boys and girls I drove that sucker right into the middle of the walled city built in the mid 1400's to the hotel Albergo il Marzoco    http://www.albergoilmarzocco.it/hotel.en.php  This hotel was built in 1510 as a palace and has been a hotel since 1860.  You know what that means?

NO ELEVATOR!!

It means hauling LUGgage up 61 steps.. yeah I counted them.  Good thing Lary was here to help me because they were going to have to get the oxygen bottle for me.  Beautiful spacious rooms and views though.

Had a fun evening last night went to a restaurant situated in the basement of one of the old wineries flour mills where where grain was stored.

 I didn't partake of the wine tasting but had some blackberry lemoncello the supper had some great antipasti and I had the pasta with wild boar meat sauce. The noodles reminded me of the thick ones my dads mother used to make with her creamy chicken noodle soup it was great.

Today was spent driving to Pienza and Montalcino, both hilltop fortresses dating to mid 1400s. Pienza was rebuilt in the mid 1400's under the direction of Pope Pious II with the direction of the first architects under the rennaisance period. Montalcino is known for its wines as are all towns here.  the drive the country side was quite hilly even mountainous in some areas 30-40 km/h in a lot of areas 10% grades it was a really intersting drive.  Vineyards, olive groves a lot of wheat and hayfields and from some postcards saw a lot of canola as well.

Back home this evening driving to Volterra and San Gimignano.  Will update later.

Bona Notte
D&D

October 12



Bongiorno!  Great word its like Aloha in Hawaii it can mean good morning, good afternoon, good day and good by, I like it :)

Checked out of our hotel in Florence yesterday and went to the central train station to catch the train up here to Monterossa al Mare.  The weather in Florence was great low 70s every day with Thursday night the only time we had rain.

 The trip was in two stages a commuter train from Florence to Pisa which was challenging with our suitcases and trying to get 5 seats together.  After standing for about 35 minutes of theone hour trip I was finally successful to obtain one.  The transfer in Pisa to the train was easy enough.... my legs ought to be in great shape by the end of this trip hauling luggage up and down steps... and the bonus was on the leg to Monterossa we had reserved seating in a club car style with 6 seats to a cabin.  Luggage racks, luxury, pure luxury :o)

Monterossa is situated in an area called Cinque Terra meaning the 5 villages. Quite cool yesterday here in the low 60s and very windy.  Until the 1890s these villages were only accessible by sea until the government put in a railway.  During WWII there were resistance groups that fought out of here against Mussolini and the Nazi occupation.  Check out the wikipedia page and the images very picturesque

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monterosso_al_Mare
monterosso al mare

The place reminds me of White Rock BC when I first saw it all kinds of small restaurants along the beach (which is not that great but it is rated one of the top in Cinque Terra). Went to a cafe called Mikys (Pronounced mickees) which was laden with seafood in their menu.   One of the items was salt encrusted fish. A table next to ours ordered it and out comes this plate with a fish completely encased in salt... the salt is mixed with water and surrounds the fish completely by about an inch and then baked in the oven.  The waiter had to almost chisel the salt off the fish, the couple that had ordered it said it was the best fish they had ever tasted.

Today friends of Larry and Linda's, Luigi and his wife Georgia came down from their home north of here to visit. Everyone went to go for lunch at the next town down the road (by train) to Vernazza.   I got hit with the Italian version of Montezuma's revenge and decided to hold back and will meet up with them a little later.

Hope everyone is having fun at home talked to my brother Gary last night and understand there are still about 10 1/4 sections of canola to harvest.  Hope it all gets off soon.

Ciao
D&D

October 10, 2013
Florence

Well its been an interesting last two days.  Yesterday Sue, Jill and Ann took the high speed train (260 KM/H), from their apartment in Rome to visit with us.  We started the day at the Piazzo Pitti (Pitti Palace) home to the Medici family since the 1500's until it was turned over to the Italian government in 1919.  Helluva place over 500 pieces of art in the bedrooms alone, statues and the ceiling paintings were made to look like tapestries in 3D with even simulated wrinkles.  The Boboli Gardens are here as well.  Check it out at    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palazzo_Pitti

After another delicious lunch at Toscanella's again, then onto the Piazza della Signoria where there are all kinds of statues including the one of Michalango's David.  The original is in the Acadamia but this one is an exact replica.  Walked the different streets and toured Il Domo the major cathedral in town.  Headed back to our hotel where we all had gelato and the girls all had prosecco (Italian champagne) prior to them heading back to Rome.  It was great having them come and spend the day here.

Today we went to Santa Croce a Franciscan order basilica built in the mid 1300's.  There are tombs here with the remains of Dante, Galellio, Michalango and countless others.  There is one tomb of an Italian artist that has the statue of liberty is based upon the only difference is the size and Lady Liberty is holding a torch where this one is holding a broken chain.

Here is the website   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_of_Santa_Croce,_Florence

Had some excitement both Debbie and Marla used their atm cards at the ATM machine around the corner from the hotel at the Banco Toscano October 7 at 4.45.  They both used their cards at the same machine within 1 minute of each other.  Today both of their cards were hit today in Venice (we are NOT in Venice)  both for the maximum daily allotted Marla for $750 and Deb's for $475.   Phoned and cancelled cards but interesting nonetheless.  I will be having a conversation with the bank first thing in the morning.

Tonights dinner was a really fun time a place called Celestino.  Our waiter was a gentleman named Stefano and made the evening a lot of fun. Lary and I shared a 1kg t-bone steak done Florentine style and it was quite tasty.  The beef that they use is supposed to be exclusively Chianina I am not sure if my family ever crossbred at our farm with those but do remember the breed.

We are off to Cinque Terra by train tomorrow and will check in with you later on!

Ciao!
D&D

October 8, 2013

Well this blog looks like it might still be working, several people have asked if we will be posting to the blog so here begins our next European vacation!

We are in Italy until October 29 with Lary and Linda Fisher along with Lary's sister Marla. The trip started at 2 AM Sunday morning from Topeka, KS where we visited with Debbie's family for her mothers birthday.  Original flight was to be from Kansas City at 7AM however flight was changed to 6 AM then upon arrival switched to 6:30 AM.  An auspicious start to the vacation and a harbinger of things to come.  Arrived in Houston in plenty of time to get on our noon flight to Washington, DC...... until it was delayed until 1:30....arrived in DC with about 10 minutes to our next flight leg to Brussels.  They did hold the flight for us and is was a helluva hike from gate 2 where we arrived to gate 39 for our departure.  I was lucky they didn't have to give me oxygen after that hike.

Arrived in Brussels 7 AM local time hung out in the Brussels Airline lounge until our first on time departure of the trip.  ALRIGHT things are looking up right?  Naaaaah ......

After circling the Florence airport for 1/2 hour the pilot announces that the plane is being diverted to Pisa as the weather is forcing the closure of the Florence airport. We land and announced that hey... were not in Florence but we are close averiderci!  

What truly amazed me about the trip was that our bags were actually there when we landed in Pisa.  There was to be a bus arranged for us but when I didn't notice anyone really talking to us in the arrivals area I saw that there was a shuttle to downtown Florence for 6 euros each and that it was leaving immediately.

I purchased the tickets and we within 3/4 of a mile from where the bus dropped us of, grabbed a taxi to the hotel and in the room by 3:30 PM Italian time.  We are at The Hermitage near the Ponte Vecchio, great little hotel.

So thirty hours later we arrived at our hotel... easy peasy right? We are at The Hermitage near the Ponte Vecchio great little hotel. I went (as usual) for a nap while the rest of the troupe took off to a wine bar where Deb had her first glass of prosecco at Le Volpi e L'uva  www.levolpieluva.com Deb stated it was the best Caprese salad she ever tasted and I am sure it won't be her last prosecco either :)

Went to eat last night at a great place Toscanella Osteria fantastic meal and it turns out it was the building where Christoper Columbus received his maps for his first trip the Americas. Check out their website at www.toscanellaosteria.com

This morning we decided not to do the regular tours but for Deb and I just to walk around the city met people from Wyoming, Vancouver and as we got on to the elevator in our hotel from League City, TX.

You know me no one I have never met a stranger.

Well we have until Friday here in Florence. Sue from our Edmonton Alberta office is in Rome with friends of hers and is meeting us here for the day tomorrow should be a great time.

Will update everyone later.

Ciao,
D&D