Travel With Betsy

Our last day in Rome……what to do……what to do! In the last few days, we have had some experiences that would be hard to top! What an enjoyable education we have had about Rome. But, as we were coming to the end of our European adventure, we were getting tired and in need of an activity that was stimulating, yet less complex to organize and carry out than those we have had in the last few days. HMMMM……

Mike has a fascination with St. Francis of Assisi, but had never visited Assisi. As it turns out, our hotel had an arrangement with a local touring company. They offered several tours in and around Rome, and believe it or not, one of them was a trip to Assisi. Kismet! We signed up and were off for a fun day in Assisi!

I visited Assisi years ago on my first solo trip to Europe. A good friend of ours married a Spanish woman and a group of us went to the wedding in Spain. It was one of the best times I have had in my life. For days, we ate, drank, and mingled with the local Spaniards in the small town where we attended the wedding as we celebrated the nuptials of these 2 wonderful friends. I was between jobs at that time. So, when the celebration was over and everyone else went home to go back to work, I stayed on and did a month-long tour of Italy. Assisi was on my game plan.

It was an interesting experience that I will never forget. When I was doing my planning, I wanted to find a home base for myself where it would be convenient to do some side-tripping. I landed on Siena in Italy. From there, I could side-trip all over Tuscany, the area where Siena is located, and also reasonably get to Assisi, which is in the Umbrian section of Italy. After my solo time, I was meeting my sister and nephew in Florence to further explore Tuscany and take a cooking class. Siena was a great choice!

The best way for me to travel to Assisi from Siena was by public bus. I scoped it out the day before I planned to go and purchased my ticket, identified where to pick up the bus and outlined the timing for the day. Simple! Well, at least that’s how it seemed at the time…..

As it turns out, there was one bus from Siena to Assisi and one bus back. That’s it. I was a fearless traveler, so this didn’t bother me. I can DO this!

Had I known then what I know now about Italy (you know…..IT’S ITALY!….) I probably wouldn’t have attempted this adventure. But, I had gotten very good at using public transportation and figuring out schedules, so I never gave it a second thought. Why NOT visit Assisi by bus?!

The morning I planned to go, I got to the bus station in plenty of time, boarded the bus and was at the start of my 2 hour journey to Assisi! No sweat! When I left the bus, I confirmed with the bus driver (who had the worst B.O. I have EVER smelled), the pick up time and location for the trip back to Siena. Easy!

I decided that since there was only one bus back, I would be very cautious about getting back to the bus station in plenty of time to meet the bus back to Siena.

About 45 minutes before the appointed time for the bus to pick up, I went to the stop and sat down at the small cafe near the stop for a glass of wine while I waited. I waited….and waited……and waited….. 45 minutes, an hour, an hour and a half…..still, no bus. OH NO!!! What if the bus doesn’t come back, what if there was a problem. How would I get back to Siena?

All of this was running through my mind as I tried to get some information from those that were waiting around the bus stop. I saw a newspaper stand and went there to try to get some information. Surely, they would have some idea of why the bus wasn’t there. NOPE! Between my non-existent Italian and their non-existent English, I was no better off after asking than I was before.

So, I sat down on a bench next to the newspaper stand with some other people and calculated my next move. If the bus didn’t come in the next half hour, I would take the train. It would take me all night, as there were no direct routes between the 2 cities. But, at least I could get back to my home base.

In the next 15 minutes, the bus came, now about 2 hours late. I heaved a sigh of relief, boarded the bus and counted my blessings. From what I could gather, the bus was just running behind and arrived at the pickup location late. REALLY?! And, they weren’t going to share this information with someone?!

Anyway, I got back to Siena and decided to stop and have dinner in the main square, where I proceeded to have a half bottle of wine and a small glass of Grappa to settle my nerves. I had never tried Grappa. Why not!? I deserved this after the day I had just had. This imbibing led to a drunken call to Mike in his office when I finally figured out how to get back to my hotel,dial the phone and use the calling card (no cell phones in those days). The only thing I could say when Mike picked up the phone was HEE, HEE, HEE, HEE…….continuous laughing jag. HA! It’s a great story to tell at parties!

Our trip to Assisi this time was much less adventurous. We went on a tour bus that picked us up and dropped us off right at our hotel door. (In fact, that was part of the draw of this tour!) But, being in Assisi and seeing the exact newspaper stand and the bench where I waited for the bus took me back to that day in Assisi. It’s funny now….not as much then. But, hey, it’s an experience. If I could get through that, I can probably figure out just about anything.

I found Assisi to be as moving this time as I found it the last time. Despite my adventure there, Assisi has been one of my favorite and most moving travel experiences. The town reflects a chronology of the life of St. Francis. In the famous basilica, the painter, Giotto, demonstrated this through paintings that outline the path of St. Francis’ life. It is quite moving!

For those of you who don’t know, St. Francis was born into a wealthy family. As a young boy, he had a dream indicating to him that he should use his life to build churches. So, he built churches……and a lot more!

Much to the distress of his father, he renounced his worldly goods and began to focus on helping the poor and infirm. His father, as you might guess, was pretty upset and took extreme measures, such as locking him in a cell, to be sure that this kind of behavior didn’t continue. (Imagine, helping those less fortunate than you. How could someone stoop that low!?) Eventually, St. Francis’ mother freed him and gave him enough money and supplies to start out on his own. He continued his work and is now one of the best known symbols for kindness, compassion and humanitarianism in the world.

As we traveled along with the tour guide, we learned about some of the many things that St. Francis did for his fellow man, beast, and the environment. He was also a lover of animals and did what he could to protect and take care of them as well.

What a great day we had! It was a perfect way to end our trip! In a world where there are so many people ready to take advantage of their fellow man, it’s nice to know that there are some positive role models for people to follow. It gives me hope for the future.

Friday, we boarded the cruise ship and started our trip back home. (I’ll keep you posted on our activities as we have access to internet. Internet connections at sea are a little sketchy.)

We will have 15 days, mostly at sea, to reflect on all of our experiences of the last few weeks. We have lots to think about!

We have had a whirlwind few days here in Rome. I want to tell you about all the things we have seen and experienced, but there isn’t really enough blog space to write it all down. And, I think your eyes would cross about mid-way trying to read it all. But, I really DO want to tell you about all of it. So, I’ll do my best to point out some of the highlights in a concise and entertaining way.

Since last I posted, we have visited St. Peter’s, the largest church in the world and a very small church near the Piazza Venezia, where we attended a concert of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Today, we rubbed elbows with the common people at the forum, the heart and sole of ancient Rome, and we visited the great Colosseum, where the brave Gladiators fought great battles for the entertainment of the masses.

In between visits, we managed to find a Sicilian restaurant down the street from our hotel that was filled with locals and presented some of the best food we have had on the trip. As you know, food is very important to us. And, as I write this, I am using the last teeny part of my brain that’s not filled with fun and interesting facts about Rome to plan where we might eat dinner tonight. HMMM…..so much food, so little time….but, we are up for the task!

As you can probably gather, I am a pretty independent traveler. As a rule, it’s not my style to engage tour guides or do organized tours as I travel. And, I have followed this pattern as we have done our traveling on this trip….until I got to Rome.

As I usually do before we started on a trip, I picked the brains of every person I could find who had been to the areas we were visiting to gather tips on important and interesting things to see. I had lots of great suggestions from people on all of our target areas. But, when I started to talk about Rome, literally, everyone I talked to said, “You need to see the Vatican and the Colosseum, and you need to do an organized tour.” So, I did….for each….and, I slipped in the night walking tour of the city. I am so glad I did!

Rome is a mass of artifacts, history, and art. It’s overwhelming…and without someone to guide you through, I think it would be difficult to really appreciate all that it has to offer. There’s a big difference between seeing something and actually understanding it. I don’t know about you, but if I am going to spend the time to go somewhere, I want to do more than just look. I want to understand……and connect. Thus, I now have 3 new friends in Rome….Jeanette, Simone and David….tour guides extraordinare! The credentials of this group were absolutely incredible…one was a master’s prepared art historian, one was an archeologist, and one had and extended education in Roman architecture and history. I can’t think of a better way to get a Roman education. Can you?!! What an opportunity!

I have to say, though, the best thing about my new group of friends, besides their vast knowledge, was their enthusiasm around their subjects. I have never seen people more excited to share their knowledge. Kudos to all of them!

We happened to be at the Vatican and the Colosseum on days where they were not jam-packed. Don’t get me wrong, it was crowded, but you could actually move around freely and look at things and linger…unheard of in the summer. Both of the guides took this opportunity to move us back and forth in a systematic way so that we could put the together the stories of the art and history. They were like “kids in a candy store” running us from place to place so that we could see their favorite things. In a word, it was fantastic!

The Vatican tour included the museum, the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica. We also had a small extra, the Raphael rooms, which was an area of the Vatican that was painted by Raphael. For the Vatican, we had what I would call a private tour. There were just 4 of us in the group and Simone, our guide. Before we really got started, Simone sat down with us and her trusty iPad and walked us through some history of the Vatican and showed us pictures of its evolution. She also walked us through what we would be seeing in the Sistine Chapel with pictures, so that we could recognize the important pieces as we looked at the real thing. We went through panel by panel and looked at some of the nuances that make this work of are so incredible!

A fun fact……It seems the famous ceiling that we are all familiar with was actually a project assigned to Michelangelo in order to get him “out of the way” of another project that he had already begun…..a very political story. I won’t bore you with the details, but, definitely a long way around to getting this famous final product.

It took Michelangelo about 5 years to complete the Sistine Chapel. He worked alone on the actual painting and scheme, with some assistance only on building the scaffolding to support him as he worked on the project. As he came to the end of the project, there were many negative changes happening in the power centers of Rome, which touched him deeply and he became depressed. This is reflected on his work. Here, there is a self-portrait that shows just his skin being carried away by a saint. Historians felt that this was a depiction of his mood at the time. He felt that everything he respected was being taken away. How sad!

The Vatican Museum was just filled with a wide variety of pieces produced across a wide scope of time. There were sculptures with absolute perfect bodies that we learned Michelangelo had studied in order to get the Sistine Chapel work exactly right. There were some pieces by Matisse and Dali, which surprised me. There were also some pieces that were very modern……abstract, really. Simone admitted that as an archeologist, she had a hard time connecting with these pieces. But, she continued to study them in order to gain an appreciation.

In St. Peter’s, we saw the golden altar and Michelangelo’s pieta, which he created at the age of 23. The detail on this piece and the artistic flow was incredible. I don’t know about you, but I don’t know many 23 year olds that have the talent and insight to produce something like this. Phenominal!

In St. Peter’s we also saw the body of Pope John the 23rd. It was actually in view in something of a mummified state. His face was preserved with wax, Kind of creepy!

All in all, our day at the Vatican was amazing!

The Colosseum and forum tour was equally as good! Our guide, David, walked us through what life in ancient Rome might have been like.

The forum was the gathering spot of the people of Rome back in the day. All of the major activities were carried out here from lawmaking in the Senate to addresses to the masses to entertainment in the Colosseum. As you might guess, the remains of the buildings are not in tact as they were in Roman times. The remains are arranged in the form of what the buildings would have been like in ancient Rome, so as to give one an idea of the original buildings. David was a genius at connecting the dots for us and painting a picture of how things looked and felt in Roman times. When we got to the area where Marc Anthony presented his famous address to the masses (you know the one…..”Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears…..”) we felt like we were among those listening to the address. You could almost hear the words linger in the air. What an experience!

Our tour through the Colosseum was fascinating as well. This was the venue that was built by the Romans to keep the masses entertained. As it turns out, the Romans were a generous society. As long as you followed the rules, there were lots of tangible perks….food, clothing, shelter, entertainment… and, they were all free!

Gladiators, who were really slaves that were trained to do battle with each other and some pretty fierce animals, provided the entertainment “show” in the Colosseum. The job of “gladiator” was one that was actually sought after by the slaves. The death rate was quite high, but if they could stay alive and become popular contenders, they could buy their way to freedom. Such a deal!

The most fascinating thing to me, though, about the Colosseum was the vast size of the structure and the engineering done by the Romans stage these “shows” for the masses. As part of our tour, we looked at the underground area where the “shows” were staged. There were 12 or so underground elevators that lifted the large animals to the arena area and about 28 smaller elevators that lifted the Gladiators to the stage area from the underground. All of these were manually driven by slaves. Imagine this kind of technology being developed in Roman times. It’s incredible when you think about it. Those Romans were pretty smart fellas!

Throughout the Forum, there were other examples of forward Roman engineering that were equally as impressive. One was an aquaduct that was built by the Romans and was still in use today to carry sewage to the river. The other one that I thought was interesting was a space that was engineered under the marble floors where they could blow hot steam in during the winter to warm the floors. My mother’s retirement home used the same kind of engineering to warm the floors in her condo. Amazing!

My overall thoughts about my last days in Rome are this……the ancient Romans were engineering geniuses and Rome, in the time of the rise of the papacy, was the gathering place of some of the most insightful and talented artists in the world!

As Mike and I have walked the streets and observed the shoddy road repair, dirty streets and graffiti on just about everything, we wonder where the genius of this culture has gone. We’re hoping it comes back. Italy has a lot to offer.

But, for these times……”IT’S still ITALY”……

We arrived in Rome on Thursday mid-day. After our many train mishaps, we decided that we would leave from Bologna early and give ourselves enough time to meet the train as scheduled and still have enough time to account for any problems that could occur along the way. As it turns out, this was one of our only train experiences since we have been on the road that went without a hitch. Great!

We are staying at a very nice hotel called Hotel Relais 6. It is in a residential area in the north eastern section of Rome. The room is a tiny bit tight, but very nicely appointed with antiques, nice linen, thirsty towels and a pair of slippers for both of us….how nice. No tissues, though. Isn’t that funny?! They provide slippers, but no tissues. You would think it would be the other way around. Mike and I have both picked up colds and are searching for tissues everywhere we go. This could be a real hardship for us!

I can honestly say that this is probably the friendliest hotel that we have stayed in on our trip. The front desk staff is very attentive and eager to assist with setting up tours, answering questions, etc. I talked to one of the staff this morning about this and he said it is a condition of hire at this hotel. They want you to feel like you are visiting someone in their home rather than staying at hotel, which makes customer service a key factor. As he said, there are lots of hotels in Rome to pick from, they want to be a step ahead of the pack. In the hustle and bustle of Rome and as we are getting more fatigued as we wind up our trip, this is very refreshing and appreciated.

The hotel really is set up like someone’s home! There is a lovely sitting area near the main lobby that is also appointed with antiques and large comfortable chairs where you can sit and read your own book or pick from one that is available from the shelves that are scattered throughout the common area. There are also 2 smaller sitting rooms in the common area as well as a small breakfast room where we have had our morning meal in the days since we have been here. It really is delightful!

We also like the little neighborhood where the hotel is located and have found some really tasty food here, so far. We had pasta at a couple of little neighborhood places in our first days here that were good and at minimal cost. Last night, we had a fantastic meal at a newer restaurant near the hotel, which was quite different. I had the leg of a pig, which they called proscuitto. I don’t know about you, but the proscuitto that I know is the kind that is sliced wafer thin and served with melon, breads, etc. This was a different story. It was actually the upper part of the pig’s leg that still had the hip joint attached. It had been slow roasted in the oven and was so tender that it was falling off the bone. It’s been a long time since I have had ham/pork that was quite this tender and juicy. Just great!

The restaurant is also known for its antipasto bar, which we sampled. It was like a salad bar, but more. My 2 favorite things on the bar were a skewer lined alternately with fresh mozzarella and cherry tomatoes…..a little bit of a cappresse salad….really good. The other winner was an eggplant dish that was done up like an eggplant parmesan. We could have just done this for dinner. So good!

If there is a downside to our little haven outside of the hustle and bustle of Rome, it is that we are a little far out from the main sites. There is a close metro stop and pretty good bus connections, but it still takes a good long time to get to where you want to be each day. We have used taxi service a few times, but they are expensive and the taxi drivers are anxious to trick you with incorrect change, etc. So, we are trying to stay clear from using them if we can.

There are also few services for travelers available. Laundry is the most needed at this point, and literally non-existent. On our first day here, I did a walk of the neighborhood and found 4 dry cleaners. There were no laundry services, either self serve or those that will do the laundry for you. Hard to believe! But, true. The hotel will do laundry for you for about a million dollars. Since we don’t actually have a million dollars, we are recycling our clothing and hoping we don’t get too sweaty or spill anything, a particular challenge for me! Wish us luck!

In our first few days here, we have covered a lot of ground. We did an evening walking tour of the city that started at the Spanish Steps and ended at the Piazza Navona. We had a great tour guide who was a Floridian, of all things, with a Master’s Degree in art history. She was transplanted here through marriage about 10 years ago. She was a very interesting and entertaining host who guided us through some of the must-see sites in Italy. Although we looked at other things, the highlights for me were the Trevi Fountain, The Pantheon and the Piazza Navona……and, of course a stop at the best gelateria in Rome. All (including the gelato) are really great examples of the history, art and /or architecture of Rome. In these venues we saw sculptures by Raphael and Bernini as well as other lesser known artists and heard the stories behind the pieces. All were very moving and interesting…..and, experiencing this by night is also a treat with the lights of Rome in the background.

We are off to a great start in Rome!!

By the way, I stopped off in one of the bathrooms in a delightful wine bar near our hotel yesterday and had another “PRE” sighting (you remember this from a few blogs ago). This particular restaurant also chose to identify the men’s and women’s room with pictures. These were quite different from those in Bratslava that I talked about in my earlier post. They were much more sophisticated, with their antique look and feel. No one’s butt cheeks or cracks were hanging out. But, the very proper woman on the women’s room picture was bare-breasted…….HMMM….a little sexist if you ask me. But, again, no question on which bathroom was which.

We are off in a few minutes to attend a concert of the Vivaldi Four Seasons at an old church in the middle of Rome. We will go on the bus, which we haven’t used yet. I hope we get there……and on time! You never know in Rome!

Oh…..wrong Bologna. OOPS!!

Oscar Meyer has the best little ditties, don’t they? Since I stepped off the train in Bologna on Monday, this one has been in the back of my mind. I was just waiting for the right place to put it! Tee hee!

Mike and I had a few unscheduled days between Venice and Rome and were searching for something to do with them. After some research, some discussion and a little pressure from me, we decided on Bologna. For those of you who don’t know, Bologna is the food capital of Italy, serving up some of the best food in the country. After our food experience in Venice, I decided that Italy needed to vindicate itself in the food department. Maybe Bologna could help them.

We were able to find a 4-star Mercure Hotel that was right next to the train station for the whopping price of $70.00 per night. And, we could take the very luxurious “Frecciargento” train. Bologna is kind of the center of the Italian world…..food, university….good train connections. Can’t beat that! So, we were off!

Because of our several less than perfect train experiences in the last few weeks, I am now ultra-cautious about getting a reservation on the train. I decided, before we boarded the train to Venice in Bolzano, that we would get our reservations to Bologna from the friendly and helpful people at the Bolzano train information station. They were so efficient. (This, of course, was before my middle seat, stinky man train ride!) I explained to the nice ticket person, the issues we had so far with the train system and, in a nice way (really), stressed that we wanted to have a very nice seat on the very fast train to Bologna. She was all too happy to help us. Gotta love these train people!

So, on Monday, we boarded the train to Bologna. As we entered our cabin, we realized that we were not in first class, but in second class. This must be a mistake. Nope! This was our assigned seat. It wasn’t bad, but we had paid for first class.

I try to be flexible when traveling because things happen. It’s just the way it is. No matter how careful and seasoned you are, things STILL happen, and sometimes you just have to go with the flow. I thought that maybe this was one of those times. It was a short ride, after all, and what difference did it really make anyway? So, we put our luggage in the overhead rack and sat down.

The more thought I gave this and the more I watched the increasing numbers of people coming into our second class cabin, though, the more irritated I became. So, I decided to check out the first class cabin. If it was significantly different from where we were, I would say something about the seat.

What a difference! First class had a lot more room, nice leather seats that reclined and they were doing a coffee service that was complimentary….and, they were less crowded.

So, I found a nice female conductor that had very good english and explained the situation. Again, I got the blank stare….and then. “Did you pay for first class?”

I have a pretty long fuse, but as the discussion continued, my fuse grew shorter. I looked at her with my train pass and reservation in hand that reflected what we had paid and said,

“Yes. I paid for first class, which is significantly different from where we are seated. You WILL find me a seat in first class. I have paid for this and WILL be sitting in this section for the next 45 minutes.”

She fooled around with her scheduling device and finally came up with 2 seats that we could have. I looked at her and sweetly said, “Thank you very much.” …nasty woman……

We had a lovely ride, a nice espresso and arrived at our hotel relaxed and rested. Imagine, a non-chaotic situation in Italy.

The people at the hotel were SO friendly that I mentioned to Mike that the train people might have called ahead to tell them that a “bitch woman” was on her way to them and to be on the lookout for her. Is that possible? I don’t know, but we had a very nice stay at the Mercure.

We came across a few interesting things about the hotel, though. First, we were so happy with the hotel that we thought we would sign up for their “club”. You know the kind. You stay at the hotel chain and gather points toward a free stay. We had booked this stay through a travel agent and knew we couldn’t count these points, but we might book directly at the hotel for future stays. Much to our surprise, they wouldn’t let us join. Couldn’t do it! Really?! OK!

I also don’t think they have tourists like us. We had lots of questions for them. They were very nice and extremely helpful. But, we could see them scatter when we approached the desk for information, which was pretty often. There were about 3 people, 2 young women and 1 man who were always delegated to help us. They were very nice. KUDOS to them!

We LOVED Bologna. Bologna is kind of “old school Italy”. There aren’t many tourists here and it is obvious. There are not a lot of crowds and chaos. Just some friendly people and some good old fashioned cooking in spots that are frequented by mostly locals. Just great!

As we anticipated, we had some of the best food of the trip here. In fact, after the first meal, we decided that we would not take any side trips from Bologna, but just stay here and eat for 2 days….and, that’s what we did. We had tortellini and taglietelli with Bolognese sauce more than one time. We had lasagna with green noodles twice. These items are typical for Bologna and just spectacular made with homemade noodles and covered with lots of the parmesan cheese that this area is famous for! YUM!

We also had a very good artichoke salad that was sprinkled with a lovely vinaigrette. Just delightful!

The other winner in the food category was an eggplant parmesan that I had on the first day. The eggplant was sliced paper thin and just covered with a wonderful Bolognese sauce and lots of parmesan cheese. It was the best I have ever had. So good!

We had dessert each night, which we don’t normally do. But, it was pretty inexpensive and so tempting. The best of the desserts was a panne cotta with a burnt carmel sauce. I have never had anything this creamy and smooth.

One of the nights, I had a shot of Strega with my dessert. Mike insisted because I have never had it. It was a little better in taste than the Grappa we had in Vienna, but had the same effect. Couldn’t finish it. I am the navigator…..someone had to get us back to the hotel!

The other winner was the wine. This area is known for its Sangiovese. We had it with every meal and sometimes in between. I couldn’t get enough of it. We had bottles and just single glasses. Even the house wine was Sangiovese and tasted just great! And, it was cheap. We were getting this wine for between $10 and $18 Euro a bottle, which is between about $14.00 and $25.00. For those of you who buy wine in restaurants you know throw reasonable this is!. You could get more expensive wine, but why would you?!

OK, Italy, we feel better about you……or, at least the food. And, you have Bologna to thank.

My Bologna has a first name…..it’s Y..U…M….M….Y…….HAHA!

A weekend in Venice…a dream come true…..romantic walks by the water and over the bridges, leisurely window shopping in the many shops, a cup of coffee at St. Mark’s Square and great food! We were ready! Boy, were we in for a big surprise! WOW! Venice on the weekend (even in the off-season) is a carnival! Here’s what I mean…

We left our sleepy little mountain village on Saturday morning to head to Venice. Again, we were taking the train. This time, we planned ahead and were sure to have our reservations in hand before the day of departure.

READY……SET……..GO………..!!

Sadly, the 4 of us were not able to sit together…the train was too full. We were OK with that. We have been tied at the hip for the last few weeks, so breaking the group up for a few hours was not a big deal.

First, we passed Gene and Carrie’s seat. They had one of those nice 4 seat Business Class cabins with lots of room. Great! Then, we approached the cabin where Mike and I would sit. It was one of those cabins with the 6 seats. This one already had 3 people in it who had the biggest suitcases I have even seen…and lots of them. There was no room for our luggage. In the window seat, next to my middle seat, was a large, stinky, Italian man. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think he was dirty, but he smelled of old food. It was probably stuck to his clothing. (This was part of what inspired my “PRE” post about the toilets, etc.)

After some grumbling on my part, the stinky man got up and moved the luggage around so that we could put one of our suitcases up in the rack. Guess where the others went. Under my feet…UGGHHH!! Really??!! Again?!!!

I sat for the entire 2 hour trip with my feet propped on 2 pieces of luggage. What a way to start our dream-like trip to Venice. Oh well….these things happen when you travel as much as we do. So, you learn to brush them off and just continue on. The ride was OK, but I was glad to free my legs and feet when we got off the train.

Our next great dilemma was figuring out how to use the vaporetto when we got off the train in Venice. By now, Mike was frustrated about the Italian train system and tired of walking and we were all getting a little bit grumpy, truth be told! But, we had to get to the hotel and the vaporetto was the only way….no taxis here!

So as not to make it more difficult, Carrie and I separated to gather information and met back with the group in a few minutes. Between the 2 of us, we figured it out and headed to the correct vaporetto. In minutes, the 4 of us (and everyone else in the known world) were on our way to Venice. What a crowd! We were literally shoulder to shoulder with every tourist in Italy. And, it was hot! I needed a shower when I got off the boat! You don’t know stinky until you have this experience.

We (and our luggage) made our way to the hotel. The path was made up of Mike’s favorite cobblestone streets and a small bridge with several steps to climb up and then down. It wasn’t too far, but it felt like miles. Always does when you have luggage to tow along.

The hotel was right in the center of Venice, just steps from St. Mark’s Square and the Rialto Bridge. SWEET!! The door had a teeny tiny sign on it that was marked with the name. We almost missed it. Even when we identified the sign, we weren’t sure we were in the right place. But, we followed the directions and rang the bell and were buzzed in. WOW! Great security!

This was the good news. The bad news was that we were on the 3rd floor (top floor) of the hotel. There was no elevator and we had to negotiate our luggage up the very narrow and windy staircase. Gene and I knew this going in. We had discussed the fact, and agreed, that he would need to carry my suitcase because of my back. This was really best we could do! A 3 star hotel with no elevator and also no air conditioning for about $250.00 per night. Sticker shock!! Right?!! This is what you get at the last minute for a weekend in Venice.

Gene, Carrie and the very tiny, anorexic looking hotel clerk carried all of the suitcases up the steps. Again, a gold star for Gene. I am also awarding one to Carrie as well. The 2 of them were great sports in helping us with the luggage! There WAS a tangible reward for them, though. Gene and Carrie scored a junior suite that had a loft/balcony in addition to the main area of the bedroom. It was a mansion in comparison to the room that Mike and I had which was the size of a postage stamp with a telephone booth shower. Oh well, it’s only 2 nights!

By the time we got settled in it was late afternoon. Mike had had enough and announced that he would be staying in the room until we went to dinner. So, Carrie, Gene and I went out to explore the area. After we all had about 10 gelatos each and some pizza, we found St. Mark’s Square and the water front. We wandered back through the winding streets and over the many canal bridges that connect the city. It was stunning, very peaceful and pleasant and we 3 decided we liked this place.

I found Mike back in the room, lying on the bed in his underwear. No air conditioning, top floor, heat rises…oh, well. He reluctantly got dressed and we all went for dinner.

The very tiny hotel clerk gave us a recommendation for a restaurant around the corner. We were excited and hungry and anxiously anticipated what we would get for dinner. We were in for a real treat! The restaurant looked nice enough, so we went in. We all ordered. Mike ordered a beer and Carrie and I ordered a liter of the house wine that was recommended.

What we ended up with was 4 unpalatable meals, 2 beers, a bottle of water we didn’t ask for and a liter of wine that we couldn’t drink. Have you heard the expression “cat pee” when wine is being described? That was the quality of this horrible wine. The nose was so bad that you could barely get it to your lips. Carrie made an effort to drink some, but I just couldn’t do it. In addition, they added a cover charge that came to about 12 Euros for the pleasure of this rotten meal. We think the cover charge is comparable to a tip, which we would have been glad to pay if the service had been good or even mediocre. This particular restaurant targets tourists and takes them to the cleaners. Isn’t that nice? This was the worst and most expensive meal of the trip so far. YIKES!!

Deflated, we went back to the room and drank some of the very delicious wine that we brought along with us from the Alto Adige area. Then, we went to bed. Tomorrow is another day.

The next day, Sunday, is when the carnival really began. When we stepped out of our iron clad hotel front door, people started coming from everywhere. There was a cruise ship or 2 that had let people off, there were tour buses that had dropped people and all of the tourists in Italy were in town and out walking around. We could barely move as we negotiated our way to the main sights again. I have never seen such chaos. People pushing and pulling and trying to buy things. WOW!

At about noon, Mike announced that he had had enough and wanted to go back to the hotel, where he remained for the rest of the day. As for the rest of us, Gene and Carrie went to explore some other areas of the island and I did the same. I found myself wandering through the area where the museums were. As you might expect, this is a less populated area and it was quiet and very pleasant. I had a very nice afternoon looking around there.

As we got closer to the evening, the tour groups died down and it started to rain. Restaurant cover charge experts that we now were, we carefully searched for a restaurant that had no cover. It was adequate…..better than the night before…but, not great. We went back to the hotel and again sipped on the wine that we brought from the Alto Adige area and thought happily of our time there, where it was quiet and calm and the shop keepers appreciated the money the tourists brought in. Sigh……….

Gene, Carrie and I were all glad that we had visited Venice. We all enjoyed different parts of it in our own way. I decided that I would come back sometime during the week in the off season. I think it has a lot more to offer than I was able to glean in this short and busy time. As for Mike……well, let’s just say that I will be coming back on my own.

The next day our traveling group parted ways. Gene and Carrie headed back to Munich to spend a day before heading home. Mike and I boarded a train heading for Bologna, where we heard we would find the best food in Italy.

I hope so. I’m hungry…….

I have not told a “pooh” story on this trip yet, as I usually do. Truth be told, we haven’t actually had a really good “pooh” story to tell yet. But, we HAVE had some tales to tell that definitely skirt around the issue. I have been storing them up, waiting for an opportunity to slide them into one of the posts. Sadly, there hasn’t been a great opportunity, so I decided to dedicate a post to the “pooh related experiences” (or “PRE” for short). Fun times!

Our first encounter was on our very first ride from Berlin to Hamburg. We were on one of the best trains we have had so far on our trip (not the Rail Jet, but a very acceptable second). As this was our first ride together on this trip, we were all still fresh and were excitedly chatting about what we would see next, what we would have for dinner, etc.

As we chatted on, a slight breeze wafted into the car where we were sitting. It was followed a very pungent, sulfur-like smell. Carrie’s young nose was the first to notice. She looked at me and then I caught wind of the odor. I looked at Mike and then Gene, and then they caught on as well. Clearly someone had let a “fluffy” go!….and, it wasn’t one of us! Who was it?!

We all started to laugh and began to look around. There were only 2 other people in the car with us….2 larger women who were perusing the cafe car menu. Had to be one of them! There was no one else. And…..it was a cloying type. 10 minutes later, we could still smell this and were hoping it wouldn’t stick to our clothing!

After awhile, the women and the smell left us and we were glad. But, it did give us a group signal to use for other things to come! Group signals are very important when traveling in numbers. We have smelled some interesting things…mostly on the trains…and each time, we now perk our heads up, looking for the 2 women from the train. We never see them, but the memory lingers. HA!!

This is a traveling group that makes good use of the bathrooms as we travel. Carrie and I are avid water drinkers, so you know what that means. Mike, Gene and I are just aging and you probably know what that means as well. The 4 of us have probably visited just about every bathroom in the 4 country area that we have visited on this trip. We can tell you about all of them. But, here are some of the best ones that we saw:

In Bratislava, the bathroom in the restaurant where we ate was just fine. It was very clean and provided good facilities. And, it was free because we had lunch there. We always like this part, as you might guess. Gene was the first one to go. When he came back, he told us that we all needed to go back and take a look. We all did….

Because of the language barrier in the different countries (Bratislava was particularly difficult…buy a vowel….remember?!), it is sometimes difficult to know which bathroom is for men and which for women. This restaurant decided to remove all doubt by posting a picture on each door. The men’s room had a cartoon-like picture of a man turned facing away from the viewer. His pants were at half-mast and his substantial butt and “crack” were showing. He was slyly looking back at the viewer with a grin on his face. You could see the arc of a steady stream of “pee” heading right into the toilet.

The woman’s room had something similar, albeit not quite as graphic. It’s harder to get the point across with women, if you know what I mean. In this case, the woman was sitting on the commode and facing the wall. Her equally substantial butt cheeks were pointing out to the viewer. She wasn’t looking out at the viewer, but at the wall, with a strained look on her face. Wonder what was going on there?!

In any case, we found this depiction of the men’s and women’s bathrooms to be pretty amusing. It made me wonder about the size and countenance of people in this country. The butt cheeks on these pictures were quite ample and both had some interesting facial expressions as they were doing their business. But (or butt…tee hee!), we did get to the right bathroom. No questions asked and had a good laugh in the meantime!

The other picture we saw that was highly entertaining and gave us pause for thought was one that we saw as we were exiting a restaurant where we ate dinner in Castelrotto. It was one of those red circle with a line through it signs (you know the ones…indicating that you shouldn’t do something or another right there). This one had a picture in the circle with a line through that reminded me of the Mannekin Pis in Brussels, the little boy with the arc of pee. I guess they didn’t want you to go to take a pee right there. You don’t need to tell us twice. Although, it wouldn’t have been our spot of choice anyway…right there in the doorway of the restaurant. HMMMMM…..

The next encounter was on the train to Bratislava. We thought we were getting on the Rail Jet train. I talked about this one on the last post…..really nice, first class, leather seats, great service…….Sadly, we were not on this train, but on a Slovakian train that had no first class. It’s OK, there was lots of room and it seemed clean enough.

About a half hour in, Carrie announced that she would use the bathroom. A few minutes later, she came back with a pale face. She sat down and crossed her legs. After a time, she looked up and said that she would never need to go to the bathroom badly enough to use the bathroom on this train. She had checked out 2 of them, and they were the same. Gene didn’t believe her and went to check it out himself. He came back and confirmed that they were the dirtiest bathrooms he had ever seen and he would not be using them, either. Apparently, they had ring around the collar that ever a good dose of Clorox wouldn’t remove….a brown, thick scum, really. Nice…..

Lastly, yesterday, when wine tasting in Eppiano, near Bolzano, we all saw and made use of a Unisex type bathroom. There were 2 stalls, one was for men and the other for women. In between there was a urinal……no door! These Italians are not a very modest group! Oh well…..I was grateful that I was the only one in there at the time. I get those horrible laughing fits from time to time. Watching a strange man using a urinal as I exit my bathroom stall would surely have triggered one of these. I don’t really need this, as I have picked up a cold and am having some difficulty breathing. No reason to expire.

I’m sure we will have a few more of these “PRE” sightings, and I’ll try to keep you posted we do. I know you will be “relieved” to hear about them!

Cheers!

On Tuesday, we were up at the crack of dawn so that we could take the 6:39 am Rail Jet train from Vienna to Castelrotto, near Bolzano in the northern part of Italy. Mike and I visited Bolzano a number of years ago and thought we would like to come back to this area to explore the nearby Dolomites. This was our chance!

Castelrotto and Bolzano are in Italy, but they really span the border between Italy and Austria. As a result, there is quite a mix of cultures here. At any given time, you will hear Italian and German being spoken, sometimes in the same sentence. There is also a mix of Italian and German food, both of which we love. So, we are looking forward to this leg of our trip!

As you know, Mike is a train nut and has studied the different types of trains that are available for travel in different parts of Europe. The Rail Jet is an Austrian train that moves at lightening speed….maybe not quite that fast, but this little gem clips right along at about 135 miles per hour. Not too shabby! It also has great first class service. The leather seats recline a little and there is a decent foot rest. A very nice server comes around and brings you a snack or a drink as you zip along. Really first class!

We are glad about having this luxury to start the day out, as we would be on the train for most of the day! What we are NOT glad about is that we are only on this really nice train for the first part of our trip! We will be on an Italian train for the last leg, which we know will not be as nice. The Italian trains never are. We’ll see what happens!

The first leg of the trip was even more delightful than we anticipated. We lounged around in first class luxury drinking cappucino and eating a snack as we viewed the beautiful scenery. Some of us went to the dining car later on and had more coffee. Just lovely. But, finally, we reached Innsbruck, where we were required to change to the Italian train. What a change it was!

The train was laid out in the 6 seat compartment format that we had been in earlier, which was OK. But, this time, we were unable to find a compartment that was empty. Finally, we settled on one where 2 women were sitting. Gene and I had middle seats and Mike and Carrie were in the aisle. We all had about the same amount of luggage, which was too much for the overhead racks. So, Gene and I had our carry on luggage under our feet…not ideal, but certainly doable.

We all got comfortable and the woman sitting next to Gene looked at me and began to talk. You may remember my story about people telling me their stories. Well……..here we go again. UGHH!

After we all exchanged information about where we were from and where we were going, this woman began to tell us about her estranged daughter. About a year ago, the daughter had gone to a therapist and discovered that she had issues with this woman and had stopped talking to her. The woman went on and on about how this really wasn’t her problem, but her daughter’s issue. After all, if it really WAS a problem, why is this just coming up now. She went on and on and we all listened….blah……blah…….blah……….

UNTIL………

……….the conductor came in to check our tickets. Gene handed over his rail pass. The conductor looked it over and said, “Where is your reservation?”

You may recall from a previous post, that some trains require reservations, but not all. We knew this and had checked it out……actually twice…….with 2 different rail ticket offices. We were told…..twice…..that this train did not require a reservation. But, here we were face to face with the conductor who said that we needed a reservation. GEEZ…….

Gene and I both told the conductor that we were told we didn’t need the reservation. He looked at both of us and said, “Where is your reservation?” $11 Euros each later, we were still on the train in our middle seats with our feet propped on on our luggage. And, we got to pay for the privilege of doing so. See what I mean about Italian trains?!!

Mike is not always a fan of Italian trains….or Italy…for that matter. The fact that we will be spending so much time in Italy on this trip is really quite something. But, our train experience, is a good example of Mike’s issue with the Italians. His opinion formed early on while traveling in Italy in the 60’s. He had some experiences that were equally as mystifying as the reservation issue. When we settled back in after our confrontation with the conductor, Mike began to tell stories of his prior visits to Italy. He spoke of a policeman coming out from nowhere when he was trying to park a car (more than once) and forcing him out of the space, a hotel clerk chasing him down the street because he refused to pay a new tax that was imposed on the room as he was checking out, and a comical view of cars in a roundabout chasing each other and beeping their horns….they just continued to go ’round and ’round and beeping and beeping.

Carrie finally wondered out loud, “Why do they do these things that don’t seem to make sense.”

Mike said, “IT’S ITALY…..who knows?”

So, when we got to the car rental place in Bolzano to pick up the car that Gene had so painstakingly searched for so that we could drive into the Dolomites, and they didn’t have the reservation, we all looked at each other and said in unison…..

“IT’S ITALY”….

Finally, we did get our car and made it to our hotel. We were greeted by an Italian, who I’m sure is really a German. He handed Gene and me each a set of 3 keys that came with specific instructions. One key was for our room and one key was for the outside doors (they lock the doors at 7:00 pm). The other key was to release the gate for the parking area.

The Italian German looked at me and in a very clipped German accented English said,

“You will use this key to release the gate for the parking. No one ever remembers this and I am frequently awakened at 3:00 am to come down and let people in with their cars. You will remember this. I don’t want to be awakened because you can’t release the gate.”

“YA VOHL….YES SIR!”

Well…..”IT’S ITALY”……what can I say?!