Historic Paris

Today we woke early and were excited for clear skies, though still cold weather. We walked around through our neighborhood and found a nice little cafe for breakfast. We had quiche and tea and coffee. It was very good and a nice little place. We then walked over to the Eiffel Tower and looked at it up close.

We bought our museum passes and then caught the subway to the Notre Dame. We walked around inside and then walked down into the crypt to see original walls and ruins of old buildings from the founding of Paris. It was very similar to the ruins at Pompeii and Ercolano that we saw in Italy, but it was completely underground, right beneath the Notre Dame.

Then we took the subway to the Louvre. It was pretty amazing as well. We saw the Venus de Milo, Winged Victory and the Mona Lisa. The Mona Lisa is a bit strange. It is very small and is in this enormous room as the single item on a large wall. It is behind protective glass. Kind of weird for a small painting, but it is very cool to see in person. We also saw two old sculptures by Michaelangelo that were similar to his "Prisoners" sculptures that are in the Accademia in Florence.

We rode the subway again down to the Arc de Triomphe. It is large and magnificent at the end of the Champs Elysees. It was all lit up at night and had a huge French flag flying in the middle. The arc was actually closed when we were there for a special military ceremony, which we actually saw marching to the arc. They had the entire Champs Elysees closed and an old marching band was leading a parade of old military folks who were carrying old flags. It was cool to see, especially with all the traffic stopped behind.

We walked up and down the Champs Elysees and looked at all the shops and stores. They have just about every high-end store you can think of, as well as many car dealerships. The car dealerships are inside the buildings; it is quite odd.

After the military ceremony, we walked underground to the Arc de Triomphe and looked around at it. We saw the large French flag and an eternal flame that was lit, surrounded by bouquets of flowers.

We then took the subway home and found a nice take-away restaurant to get some late dinner before bed. We watched Marseille versus Monaco on TV. It is nice because since there is no English-speaking TV, if we decide to watch TV, then we watch soccer.

Tomorrow we have more sightseeing with the Musee d'Orsay, Eiffel Tower and others. It will be our last full day in Europe which is a little bittersweet. We have loved our time here in Italy and France, and would like for it to continue. But at the same time we are quite worn out and are missing our families and friends (and of course, Bruno). So while we are sad to have our time ending on this side of the pond, we are, in a way, ready to be baak home and share our experiences with everyone.

'Til then, au revoir!

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!

Today we made our trip to Disneyland Paris. We were so excited for this trip; Jessica LOVES Disneyland, and I have only been to Disney twice, and both were a long time ago. This was shaping up to be a great time of play and relaxation.

We left the hotel bright and early this morning, and walked to the Metro station. To get to Disneyland, we had to take the subway, and then transfer to an RER train. The whole trip took a little less than an hour.

The train station was right in front of the main gate for Disneyland, so we walked right in to the park. We loved it right from the start. Everything was already decorated for Christmas (can you believe that it is about a month away?!).

We started down Main Street U.S.A. and then headed for Frontierland. We rode Big Thunder Mountain first and got our first thrill-ride of the day. There was also a ride called Phantom Manor that was a scary ride. I got Jessica to ride it even though she hates scary things.

We then made our way to Adventureland and the Pirates of the Carribean, Indiana Jones and Swiss Family Robinson rides. Then on to Fantasyland and It's a Small World, Mad Hatter's Tea Cups and Peter Pan.

After a quick stop at Sleeping Beauty's castle, we ventured into Discoveryland. We rode Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear and Star Wars rides and saw the Captain EO 3D show with Michael Jackson.

We went back and rode Space Mountain again because it was so awesome.

We also saw all the Disney characters and saw their Christmas parade and "end-of-the-night" parade. The production and attention to detail of everything at Disneyland is so amazing.

We also realized that going to Disneyland in the off-peak season is the best idea. The park was not super crowded though there were more people there than Jessica or I thought would be there. But even with the number of people who were there, we never really had to wait to ride any rides. Literally the longest part of the line experience was walking from the entrance to the loading area for the ride (five minutes at the most).

Toward the end of the day, we decided to splurge a little bit and have a nice dinner. There was a full service restaurant inside Pirates of the Carribean that was called Blue Lagoon. The seating area was "waterfront" and boats from the ride came right by the restaurant area.

We had a wonderful dinner. Jessica had a shrimp cocktail and carribean chicken with rice. I had a sampler platter appetizer and crispy mahi-mahi with large shrimp. We split the flaming creme brulee for dessert. It was wonderful and a great end to our visit at Disney.

We got back to the hotel and went to bed to rest up for a big two days of sightseein in Paris. We will see more historic sites tomorrow. Au revoir!

Welcome to Paris

This morning marked the end of our time in Italy. We enjoyed our last half a day in Venice before heading off for another whirlwind of travel to Paris, France.

This morning we really wanted to take a gondola ride. We woke up nice and early because we thought a sunrise cruise would be a good idea. The weather was a bit chilly but clear, but there were no gondoliers around. We checked several gondola stations, but there was no one to be found.

We found a small café and had some coffee and a pastry and then returned to the hotel. Our concierge said that the gondola rides do not start until 9 a.m. so we decided to wait until then. We walked around some more of backstreet Venice.

Around 8 a.m. it started raining. We continued walked around, and saw that a lot of the gondoliers were working on their boats, tying and untying them to each other, fixing the tarp coverings and bailing out water that had collected overnight.

It kept raining, so we decided that we would walk a little more. We saw some shops near the Rialto Bridge before we came back to the hotel. Our hotel has a little terrace off the main lobby that is situated right beside the gondolier station. There is enough room for two people on the terrace, so Jessica and I sat there and watched the gondoliers at work.

We decided not to go on a rainy cruise, but there were some people who were still doing it. The gondoliers were still pretty busy. We sat there and watched them for about an hour. We were starting to get hungry, and we wanted to get a quick lunch before we left for the train station. We found a little cafeteria and got some soup and pasta.

We said our farewells to Venice and boarded the No. 1 vaporetto back to the train station.

We rode a train from Venice to Milan, then took a chartered bus from the Milan train station to the Milan airport. Then we flew from Milan to Paris. We got to Paris and rode the train into the city from the airport, and then walked to our hotel.

It was indeed a whirlwind, but we are here in Paris. Our hotel room is a lot smaller than the ones that we have had previously on this trip, and we are in a double bed instead of a queen like our other stops. But we have an unbelievable view of the Eiffel Tower out our fourth-floor window, so that more than makes up for it.

One main difference is that today we are not only in a new city; we have done that change before. But this time we are in a new country with a new language. Right when I was getting used to using a tiny bit of Italian in conversation, now I have to totally switch my thinking to French. Luckily I took two years of French in high school so I have the most basic of ideas about the language, but it is tough switching from Italian to French in a matter of a couple hours.

Tomorrow we are having a fun play day and spending the day at Disneyland Paris. The tickets were my anniversary present to Jessica, and she is really excited about going. We are already planning to get up early to make sure we are at the park when it opens. Au revoir!

Lazy Day in Venice

Today we had the best, lazy day in Venice. We woke up this morning and decided that today was going to be a day to explore. We had no agenda, we had no plans, we were just going to walk and see where the city brought us.

We started out in St. Mark's Square. It is even more magnificent in the morning than it was last night when we arrived. The square is massive with buildings on three sides and the basilica on the fourth. The whole inside of the piazza is wide open with just some tables from local cafes set in the middle.

This morning we also experienced acqua alta for the first time. When we were taking our usual route to St. Mark's Square we discovered that after we crossed the only bridge between the square and our hotel, the walkway was completely underwater. Since Venice is at sealevel, and sometimes under sealevel (similar to New Orleans), when the tide is just right, and especially in the fall and winter, the water comes right up onto the streets.

We went back the long way around to the piazza and saw that most of it was underwater as well. There was a small walkway through the middle of the square that was dry, and then once we got right in front of the basilica, there were some risers that we could walk on to keep us out of the water. They led all the way from the basilica all the way down to the edge of the water.

We walked along the water for a little while, stopping to get some morning coffee and a breakfast sandwich. Then we continued on our walk. We were just wondering along, looking in different shops and glancing at the menu for different restaurants.

Eventually we came to the Rialto Bridge, the main crossing of the Grand Canal. Is is very similar to the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, in that the bridge has a lot of shops on it. We were able to look at the jewelry and clothes as we crossed the bridge. We also got some gelato and took some photos.

On the other side of the Rialto there was an open-air market. During the week there is a produce and fish market as well, but since today was Sunday we just saw the rest of the market. Tons of stalls were set up with people selling clothes, food and souvenirs.

We left the Rialto area and walked to an area called San Polo and Santa Croce. There was a restaurant in San Polo that we wanted to try. We walked to an area called Campo dei Frari and ate at a place called Frary's.

Frary's was a Mediterranean restaurant specializing in Greek and Arabic food. We had some wine to go along with hummus, keftes (spicy greek meatballs) and dolmades (rice wrapped in grape leaves). Ken Pettus would be so proud of us (Elizabeth, be sure to show this to him).

We walked on through San Polo and through the edge of Dorsoduro to the Accademia Gallery. We crossed the bridge across the Marina Grande and headed back toward San Marco.

We got back to St. Mark's Square and decided to be tourists for a little while. We took the elevator up to the top of the Campanile, the tall clock tower in the middle of the piazza. From there we had a wonderful bird's-eye view of the city. Even though it was overcast and starting to rain, we still had great views from the top.

We came back down and walked into the St. Mark's Basilica. This basilica was different than some of the others we had seen on our trip in that this basilica was in the shape of a Greek cross instead of a Latin cross. A Latin cross has one long end, and three smaller ends at the top. The Greek cross is more of a "plus-sign," with all of the edges an equal length. The entire ceiling of the basilica is covered in mosaics, small pieces of colored glass or metal put together like a puzzle to form a scene. The audio guide we listened to said that covering the ceiling of St. Mark's Basilica in mosaics would be like paving an entire football field with contact lenses. Pretty impressive.

We walked around some different areas of San Marco, and found a nice coffee shop where we stopped for a little while, and then a nice little restaurant where we shared a pizza for dinner. We walked back to Piazza San Marco and had a slowdance in the piazza before heading back to our hotel for the night.

Today is our final day in Italy as we head to Paris tomorrow afternoon. We have loved Italy, but are excited to see what Paris has in store for us over the next few days. Ciao!

On to Venice

This morning was our last in Florence, which is a little bit sad. We have really enjoyed visiting Florence. It has really grown on us in the last couple of days. We like that Florence is a little slower paced than the other cities we have visited so far.

For our last morning in Florence, we decided to climb the dome of the cathedral, the Duomo, all 463 steps. That’s right, there are 463 steps to get to the top of the Duomo.

I was really excited to climb to the top because of the way the Duomo was constructed. There are actually two different domes, one that is seen from the outside and one that is seen from the inside. When you climb to the top, you are actually climbing steps that are in between the two domes. It is really neat to see how the two domes relate to each other, but it is also a bit claustrophobic.

We made it to the top, but did work up a little bit of a sweat. We were greeted with a brisk Tuscan breeze and a wonderful view of the city. We spent about 20 minutes on top of the cathedral, looking across the whole city, taking in the landscape and taking photos.

It was absolutely beautiful, and we were able to point out all the sites that we visited the previous days. We took lots of good photos as well.

After the easier climb down, we walked around a little bit of the city center, one last time. Then we stopped at our little café beside our hotel to get something to eat and use the internet.

We then walked to the train station and boarded our train to Venice. Our trip was only three hours, a little less than the train ride to Florence, and we had some good time to nap and read on the way.
We arrived in Venice and boarded the No. 1 vaporetto to cruise the Grand Canal on the way to St. Mark’s Square. The ride took about 30 minutes or so, and we were able to get a quick glimpse of the city. We stopped at St. Mark’s Square and were wowed. It is very big and wide. It seemed to be a lot bigger than most of the piazzas that we have seen so far.

Luckily our hotel is close-by. Literally right across the “street” from St. Mark’s Square. We are about a 30-second walk down the street and over a bridge to get to the piazza.

We were able to walk around a little bit tonight after we checked into the hotel and got settled. We found a nice café to eat dinner. Jessica had potato gnocchi and breaded pork chop, while I had meat lasagna and scuttlefish Venetian style with polenta.

We walked back to St. Mark’s and took a few photos and are now retiring to the hotel after a long couple of days running around. We are looking forward to sightseeing in a relaxed manner on the island of Venice. We will start tomorrow morning with St. Mark’s Basilica. Ciao!

Bust a Move!

Today was a day on the go! We woke up early and had a fantastic breakfast. This breakfast was the best so far. We had fresh sliced ham and salami to go with freshly sliced cheese. Several types of cereals and yogurt as well as an assortment of croissants and other breads. We also had tea and coffee and fresh orange juice and grapefruit juice.

After breakfast we made a beeline for the train station. We were on a mission to go to Pisa to see the leaning tower. We had reservations to tour the Uffizi Gallery at 12:30 p.m. and we were planning to leave the train station around 9 a.m. for our side trip.

Pisa is an hour train ride from Florence and then the leaning tower is another 30-minute walk. So we knew that we were going to be a little crunched for time, but we also knew that the leaning tower was something that we definitely wanted to see.

The train ride was easy, and soon we were arriving at Pisa Centrale station. As we were walking the streets of Pisa, there were some local college students celebrating some type of festival. They were walking around with felt hats and blowing whistles. If they blew the whistle at you, they wanted you to put something (money or something else of “value”) into their hat. So for about three or four blocks we heard our fair share of whistle blowing.

We soon arrived at Piazza del Duomo in Pisa, home to the Leaning Tower of Pisa along with a cathedral and baptistery. The tower is unbelievable. It leans so much, you really think that it will fall down. We were trying to take photos to show how much it was leaning, but many of them just look like we were holding the camera off-center. The tower is leaning big time. Of course we took the cheesy photos of each of us “holding up” the tower, but so were 5,000 other tourists so it was ok.
We spent about 20 minutes looking at the leaning tower before we started heading back to the train station. Another hour later and we were back in Florence and arrived to the Uffizi Gallery just in time for our reservation.

The Uffizi Gallery is an art museum made up of a lot of the personal collections of the Medici family, who pretty much ran Florence during the Renaissance. There were mainly paintings, with a few sculptures mixed in. There were paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, Michaelangelo and Brunelleschi, along with other popular Renaissance painters. There were some altarpieces that were as big as an entire wall. We were fascinated by the bright colors and attention to detail that is sometimes lacking from modern art.

We had a great audio guide from Rick Steves to bring us through the gallery, but unfortunately, the museum did not allow photos. Our memories will be enough for us though as we saw many masterpieces.

We left the Uffizi Gallery and walked a few blocks north to the Accademia Gallery. The Accademia is home to Michaelangelo’s David. There is not much else in this museum, but the David alone is worth the price of admission.

You walk through the main entrance and make a turn into a long hallway, and at the end of the hallway stands David. He stands on a five-foot tall base, but he stands 14 feet by himself, a lot taller than you would think by seeing photos in a book or online.

The attention to detail on the David is beyond compare. Michaelangelo has taken every detail into consideration, including veins in David’s hand, and the placement of the sling and rock that David will use to slay Goliath.

We sat in some chairs around David and just sat there for about 15 or 20 minutes, just looking and trying to take in every detail. We also took a few illegal photos with our iPhones as we pretended to listen to our audio guide.

There are also some unfinished works by Michaelangelo called the Prisoners. These four sculptures are still in a raw form, but allow you to see the process by which Michaelangelo created his statues. You can still see chisel marks in the marble as the people seem to emerge from the stone. Even in its unfinished state, these works are still a sight to behold.

We came back from the Accademia and decided to pack some of our clothes in preparation for our trip to Venice tomorrow. Then we left the hotel to go on our Florence night walk. We decided that we wanted to go for a walk like Florence natives would. We walked through a market of clothing, purses and jackets, and saw some other shops as well; we even got lost and had to ask for directions. But it was really nice to get out in the city and see it how a native of Florence would.

We went to dinner at a place called Trattoria Anita, which was a block behind the Palazzo Vecchio. We started out with Ribollita, a Tuscan bread soup, that was not very appealing to the eye, but was very appealing to the tastebuds. It was a vegetable soup that contained peas, spinach, cauliflower and beans that had been mixed with pieces of bread. The bread had soaked up some of the soup, so it was very thick. It was very good and we ate it all very quickly.

Our next course was a pair of spaghettis. Jessica had Spaghetti alla Carbonara that was spaghetti with egg, bacon and cheese to form a creamy sauce. It tasted a little like alfredo sauce in the United States, but with a little twist. I had Spaghetti alla Fiaccheraia, which had a spicy tomato sauce, onions and bacon. It was very spicy and the bacon gave it a nice meaty flavor.

We were stuffed, so we opted to leave without dessert. I grabbed some good gelato on the way home, pineapple and coconut (to make a version of a pina colada). We tried to find a canoli for Jessica, but were unsuccessful, so we will try again tomorrow.

Tomorrow we tour the Duomo and climb to the top of the dome in the morning, and then leave to go to Venice in the afternoon. We are excited for our next adventures. Ciao!

The Renaissance City

This morning we left Naples bright and early, and managed our longest train ride of the whole trip: a five-hour train from Naples to Florence. We arrived in Florence and immediately fell in love.

Coming out of the Florence train station was an experience unlike any other we have had on our trip so far. Most of the time, the train station isn’t in the nicest part of town. We saw that in Rome and Naples; we had to get away from the train station before we got to the “nicer” parts of the city.

But Florence was different. We came out of the train station to a nice little piazza with some grassy areas. There was some traffic, but not as much as we have seen in other cities. Instead of a plethora of buses and taxis we saw only a handful of each with a large number of bicycles.

Florence is the least motorized of the three cities we have been to so far. The main part of the city center, near the Duomo is pretty much vehicle free. The buses do not travel within the main city center, and there really are no cars to be seen. It is mainly people walking and riding bikes.

Our hotel is about a ten-minute walk from the train station. On the way, we passed right by the Duomo. It is way bigger than I thought it was. The dome and the attached church are so big, you literally cannot even see the whole thing. You can see parts of the church and the whole dome, or parts of the dome and the whole church.

Our hotel is about 20 yards from the main piazza. We really lucked into this hotel with about as prime a location as you can get. The posted room rate on the back of the door of our hotel room is 300 Euros per night. I will tell you that we didn’t even spend that much for the room for our two-night stay.
After we checked in, we decided to go exploring. We dumped our bags and took just a couple of cameras with us as we walked around the city center. We went past the Duomo and down to the Palazzo Vecchio (where the original statue of David once stood, and where now there stands a duplicate). We then walked over the Ponte Vecchio (a bridge that crosses the Arno river that is lined with jewelry shops) and made it across without Jessica making any purchases.

We caught a bus on the other side of the Ponte Vecchio and rode to the Piazzale Michaelangelo. This piazza is high up on a hill and overlooks the entire city. We got up there right as the sun was setting and it made for a picturesque view of the city. We snapped lots of photos and stayed at the piazza until the sun completely set. We then haggled a man down from 55 Euros to 17 Euros for a perfectly real and new Burberry purse for Jessica. I’m sure that it is as real as Jessica’s Fendi sunglasses.

We walked back down from the piazzale and stopped for some pre-dinner drinks at a little sidewalk café. We each had an Italian draught beer and I also had a Campari and soda (a famous Italian pre-dinner drink that is supposed to prepare you for dinner). The beers were very good, and tasted a little like a Blue Moon (but they didn’t have an orange because Jody wasn’t there to invent the idea), but the Campari and soda was not all that great. I think I will just stick to beer and wine.
We then walked a little further into the city and came to a restaurant called

Il Gatto e la Volpe (The Cat and the Wolf), a local eatery for college students. We had a half-liter of house white wine and an order of bruschette to start.

We couldn’t really decide what to get, so we decided to order three different pastas and just share all three. We had ravioli with ricotta and spinach Bolognese, risotto ai quattro formaggi and spaghetti “gatto e la volpe.”

The pastas were incredible. We ate every bit of all three of them. I think that the house spaghetti was my favorite. It had a meaty sauce that had a little bit of a kick to it. Of course the others were good as well as we basically licked the plate clean.

We came back to the hotel to grab the laptop to go in search of some internet. Our hotel does not have internet access, so we are going to be a little out of touch for the next two days. We will try to find a café somewhere that has internet access so that we can post our blog entries and keep in touch with everyone.

Tomorrow we are going to catch an early train to Pisa to see the leaning statue (and take the requisite photos of us pretending to hold it up) in the morning before we visit two museums in the afternoon.
We already love Florence and will get to see more of it tomorrow. Ciao!

Isle of Capri

Today was our day to explore the island of Capri. We got up this morning and had breakfast in the hotel. We walked up the street to a piazza and found Jessica an authentic pair of Fendi sunglasses for only 8 Euros. I am pretty sure they are the real thing.

We then had a gelato and walked to the port, just down the street. We caught a boat to Capri and 45 minutes later we had arrived in one of the most beautiful destinations I have ever seen.

The Marina Grande at Capri is set in a valley between two towering mountains. There are many small boats throughout the marina, and multicolored houses all the way up the mountain.

We bought tickets for a funicular ride up to Capri Town. There is a nice little square right where you get off the funicular, with a lot of little shops and cafes. We walked around for a little bit and looked at the stores and restaurants.

Then we bought bus tickets for a ride to Anacapri, on the other side of the mountain. Our bus was very small; about half the size of a normal city bus. The roads in Capri are also very small; about half the size of a normal road. The roads were classified as two-way traffic, but the width was the exact width of two buses, so our trip to Anacapri was exciting to say the least.

At one point, we had to stop and back up to a wider part of the road so that another bus could get past. We also scaled several switchbacks that were literally 180 degrees. As you were going up the hill toward the switchback, the wall beside your vehicle was the same wall for the road after the switchback. No wide, rounded switchbacks like you find in the mountains of North and South Carolina.

There was also a portion of the road that was a straight drop off a cliff. We were probably 400 or 500 feet above the sea level, but luckily we had a nice metal hand railing between us and disaster. I was even getting a bit queasy looking over the edge as we hurtled forward on the way to Anacapri.
The bus dropped us off at a small square in Anacapri. We walked down a nice side street and found a small café to get some lunch. We splurged and Jessica had a Sprite and I had a Peroni.

After lunch we walked to the Villa San Michele and the Axel Munthe museum. Munthe was a Swedish doctor who dabbled in architecture and writing. He built a lovely house on the side of the mountain in Anacapri. The house was three stories, with several walkways overlooking the sea and gardens all around.

After the museum, we got tickets to ride the chairlift to the top of Monte Solaro, the highest point on the island. At the top, 589 meters (1,932 feet) above sea level, we had stunning views of the whole island, including several smaller surrounding islands. The chairlift ride was really neat too, as we were able to enjoy more views and the setting sun as we glided through trees down the mountain.

We caught the bus back to Capri and had a nice cappuccino at a sidewalk bar before riding the funicular down to the marina. We bought our return tickets on the boat before I took some last minute sunset photos of the marina, while Jessica looked for some souvenirs.

We got back to Naples and got a couple of slices of pizza and a bottle of wine and had a relaxing dinner in the hotel while we watched soccer highlights with Italian commentary. I made a quick trip to the corner café for some late night gelato and canoli.

Tomorrow we travel to our third destination, Florence. Since the train ride is the longest of our trip, we opted for the early departure, so we will have a bit of an early morning tomorrow. But we are excited for Florence and more of the Italian renaissance. Ciao!

Ancient Ruins

What a great second day in Napoli! We woke early and ate breakfast at the hotel buffet. We had yogurt, cereal, coffee and tea and lemon and chocolate cakes. We left in the morning and started toward the ancient ruins of Pompeii and Hurculaneum.

First, we went to the ancient ruins of Hurculaneum (Ercolano Scavi). It was actually a long walk to the entrance of the ruins from the train station, though we were able to stop along the way to get Jessica some new shoes (her ballerina shoes and sandals weren’t doing much for her feet with all the walking). We made our purchase and continued on to the ruins. They were really amazing. Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D. and the volcanic ash and mud from the eruption covered the city of Ercolano and perfectly preserved the city and its buildings.

We saw lots of preserved houses and even a tavern. There was a shrine inside a cave with lots of tunnels leading away from it. It was really cool because it looked like people could have still been living there. There was even a grove of lemon trees still growing in the courtyard at a house.
We left Ercolano and continued on to Pompeii, but unfortunately we boarded the wrong train at the train station. We realized our mistake and got on the right train. We made it to Pompeii at 4 p.m., but they let the last people enter at 3:30 p.m. because they close at 5 p.m.

We were a little bummed out because we weren’t going to be able to see Pompeii, but we saw a ramp to the side of the exit so we figured we would walk along this ramp and take some photos of the ruins we were not going to see. We continued on the walkway and saw some stairs, so we decided to climb them. We got to the top and took some more photos, since the edge of the ruins was right uphill from the city center of Pompeii. Then we saw that we were right beside the exit to the ruins, but there was no guard at the exit. So Jessica and I decided to try our luck and enter through the exit gate. We made it through with no complications because there were several tour groups coming out at the same time. So even though the man at the ticket window said that we had to come back tomorrow, we made it in to Pompeii!

Pompeii was awesome. I had read in almost every travel report on the internet that Ercolano was the better set of ruins because it was so much closer to Mount Vesuvius and therefore was more perfectly preserved, but Pompeii was just on a totally different scale. Pompeii was a city of about 60,000 when Mount Vesuvius erupted, so it was a lot bigger than Ercolano.

We saw houses and taverns, shops and a governmental forum. We even decided to test our luck by walking to the end of the ruins to see the amphitheater, even though the warning sirens were blaring, signaling the end of visiting hours. The amphitheater was awesome; like a smaller version of the Colosseum. We even got to walk inside it and got some amazing photos.

We walked back around the ruins to the train station and took the train back into Napoli. We dropped our stuff off at the hotel and went in search of some good seafood dinner.

We walked down to the Castel dell’Ovo, because there were a few seafood restaurants in that area, but none of them were very busy, so we thought we would try our luck somewhere on the seaside.

We found a restaurant called Gusto & Gusto. We got a table for two on the sidewalk overlooking the
gulf and it was beautiful. When we sat down, they brought us two glasses of Prosecco (sparkling white wine, think Italy’s version of champagne). We ordered an Ischia salad to start. It was lettuce with parmesan, small mozzarella and prosciutto. We made our own dressing with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Then Jessica had Veal Lemon Scalopene and I had Linguini with Octopus and Tomatoes.
Jessica’s veal was cooked perfectly and had a nice, sweet lemon sauce on top. My dish had linguini with an entire octopus and tomatoes, olives and capers. I thought that the dish would come with slices of octopus, similar to how you would have with calamari. But no, it was a whole octopus. I ate the legs, but not anything else. Jessica told me not to eat the head or she would get sick.

After dinner, we had a lovely tiramisu that was very good. It was not as sticky as normal. It wasn’t soaked and wet, but dry (in a good way). Also, our waiter brought us two shots each, one of limoncello and one of limoncello that was made with cantaloupe (we will call it meloncello). We had already had two half-liters of house white wine, but we had the limoncello and meloncello as well. They were delicious. Jessica said that she would be in trouble with any more of the meloncello. When our tiramisu came, our waiter refilled our glasses with another shot of limoncello and meloncello each.
I said, “Are you trying to get us drunk?” To which he replied, “Little.” We finished the extra servings of limoncello and meloncello, paid our smaller-than-you-would-think bill and walked home.

We were feeling a little inspirational from Louie, who is the king of cleptomania, so we took the carafe that our wine came in. It is a nice half-liter sized momento that we can bring back to the United States.
Tomorrow we are headed to Capri. We are planning a nice fun trip to the island and are looking forward to another great day in Naples. Ciao!

Naples Coastline

This morning we awoke and were a bit sad to be leaving Rome. We had such a good time that we really didn’t want to leave. But the trip continues and our next destination is Naples, about two hours south of Rome on the coast.

Today we had our first experience with the train system in Italy. We pre-bought all our tickets the other night, so we already had today’s ticket. We just had to find the train. The departure board said the train would be on Track 14, so we lugged all our bags to Track 14. Of course when we got there we found out that our train had moved to Track 11. So we lugged all our bags some more. But we found the train with plenty of time to spare, and first-class seating allowed us plenty of room to store our stuff and spread out. We had an entire four-seat block of seats all to ourselves.

The two-hour train ride to Naples was very enjoyable. I did some reading on our Kindle, and Jessica looked out the window and managed a few power naps on the way.

We got to Naples and bought our ArteCard, the Napoli version of the Roma Pass. This pass allows us free entry to our first two historic sites (the ruins at Pompeii and Hurculaneum, in our case) and also gives us free transportation on all public transport (bus, Metro, local trains, funiculars).

Of course the hardest part, like we found out in Rome, was trying to get our bearings and figure out how to find the way to our hotel. We asked the tourist information office how to get to our hotel and they said to take bus 601. We got to the main bus depot and realized there was no bus 601. So we asked someone else and they said to take bus 1. So we got on bus 1 and the bus driver said he didn’t know where we were going, so we got off that bus. Then another bus 1 came by and that driver knew where we were going and said we were on the right bus.

So we finally got to the right bus stop and had a ten-minute walk to our hotel. We soon realized that we were going to be right on the waterfront. Our hotel is about 50 yards off the edge of the water, down a little side street. We were able to check in immediately, so we dropped off our bags and decided to go out exploring.

We found a sidewalk restaurant called Anema e Cozze and stopped to get something to eat. We were able to sit outside at the edge of the sidewalk with a great view of the Gulf of Naples. The restaurant had a heavy-plastic tent with sides to keep the wind from blowing us away. We found a nice, smaller bottle of white wine, which was fantastic. We followed that with a great caprese salad (bufalo mozzarella and seasoned tomatoes) and a fantastic cipracciola pizza (ham, mushrooms, mozzarella, artichokes, black olives).

Naples is the birthplace of pizza and now we know why. That pizza was amazing. You could tell that the ingredients were the freshest available. Even the black olives were more of a purple because they were so fresh. I said that they probably were grown just over the hill.

We finished lunch with a cappuccino for Jessica and a caffe for me. They hit the spot after a wonderfully filling lunch.

Since we were already on the edge of the water, we decided to take a nice walk by the gulf. The area we walked was similar to a boardwalk, but was paved, not boarded. It was nice and wider than a sidewalk, allowing plenty of space for many people. Some were jogging, others walking and many were taking photos of the amazing views.

Between the walls and the water was a large barrier of huge stones. These stones helped to break the waves before they reached the wall. It must have been high tide, and the wind was blowing really hard. The waves were really high and crashing hard into the rocks. They would crash and shoot water high into the air, and then the wind would blow the mist right into our faces. Some of the waves were really high and really close and seemed just inches from coming over the edge of the walls. We got really scared a couple of times and misty wet many times.

We walked about a mile down the edge of the water, passing several overlooks on the water side and a nice public park on the other side across the street. The mountains that form a border around Naples rose up above the cities, with houses all the way up the mountains. The houses were an assortment of bright colors and made for great views and photos.

We ended up sitting on a bench by the water, just watching the waves and looking out across the water to the other end of the bay. We had a nice stroll back to the hotel, stopping for a bottle of wine and some gelato along the way.

We have opted for a nice evening in tonight, catching up on laundry and downloading photos from our cameras onto the computer. Tomorrow we are planning an early trip to Herculaneum and Pompeii to see the ruins following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius (which we can see from the waterfront). We will update more tomorrow. Ciao!

Roma Finale

We awoke to a wet and rainy morning here in Rome. We got up and got dressed and headed out to finish our explorations. When we left the hotel it was dripping a little bit, but the rain had stopped for the most part.

We stopped at the corner bar for a caffe (espresso). It was very delicious and only 1,60 Euros to drink it at the bar, compare that to easily six dollars at your local Starbucks.

We walked to Termini Station and caught a bus headed for Piazza Venezia, home to the Vittorio Emmanuelle monument and behind that, the Capitoline Museum.

The piazza was incredibly busy today. There was a lot of cars and buses in the streets and a lot more foot traffic than I remember seeing yesterday. It seemed like everyone was going to see the Vittorio Emmanuelle monument today.

We climbed the tower of marble staircases, at least 150 stairs in all. We got to the top and were treated to an excellent view of the Roman skyline; one of many we would enjoy today.

We walked behind the monument and came to the Piazza Campidoglio, a smaller piazza surrounded by three buildings on the top of the Capitoline hill. In the middle is a bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius on horseback, ready to lead his troops to battle. The fourth side is a ramped stairway back down to the street level.


Also today, they were having an antique car show at the Piazza Campidoglio. There were many 1950s American-made cars on display around Marcus Aurelius.


We walked inside to the first building of the Capitoline Museum, the Palazzo dei Conservatori. This building gave a lot of Roman history starting with the founding of Rome. There were busts of famous Romans, and larger-than-lifesized marble and bronze statues.


In one large, glass-roofed room, there was the original bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius, along with a 10-foot tall head from a statue of Constantine and an original bronze statue of Hercules. There was also an original wall from the Temple of Jupiter, that once stood on the same spot as the Capitoline Museum.


One room was a fresco covering the entire wall. Not only was the painting the main scene, but it also included a frame around the painting, a chair rail with crown molding and other decorations that looked like they were attached to the wall. The artist had even painted the interior around the windows and the frame of the doors.


There was also a temporary display of an original marble sculpture by Michaelangelo that was on loan to the Capitoline Museum. The sculpture, Two Wrestlers, was in a glass case in the middle of an exhibition room. It was only about two feet tall, but was an amazing piece of art to see.


We continued to an underground passage that held many tombstones and epitaphs from ancient times. It was a little eerie to see all these grave markers while you were in an underground showroom.


In the second building, the Palazzo Nuovo, we saw many more marble busts and statues. These were mainly of emperors, senators and gods and goddesses. Several rooms held 20 or more busts and statues.


After leaving the Capitoline Museum, we decided to head over to Piazza Navona. On the way we decided to stop by a small restaurant to have a little snack. We got a nice table inside alongside many locals. We ordered a half-liter of house white wine (which was excellent again) and a pizza with fresh prosciutto. The pizza was hot, with a thin, crispy crust. The cheese was melted just right and the prosciutto was amazing.


After we left the restaurant we decided that we needed to have a little gelato, so I had Straccitella (chocolate chip) and Fior di Nutella (Nutella), while Jessica had two different types of caramel that were delicious.


We walked along to Piazza Navona and were amazed when we got there. It was probably the largest piazza that we had been to. It was literally double the size, or more, of the Trevi fountain area or Spanish Steps. The whole piazza was packed with people, mainly locals. There were little kiosks where people were selling trinkets or drawing portraits or caricatures. There were also  people playing instruments, a magician and many nearby restaurants. There was a great vibe there, with many families getting together to just hang out. No real agenda, just locals coming to the neighborhood piazza to see their friends.


We then had a short walk to the Pantheon. Again, we were treated to a wonderful piazza, though quite smaller than Piazza Navona. The Piazza della Rotunda was also slam-packed with people, with mainly a similar crowd as Piazza Navona, just on a smaller scale. Unfortunately there were some restorations going on to the Pantheon and half of the front of the church was covered with scaffolding. But the magnificence of the Pantheon was still there as crowds of people flocked and pushed toward the entrance to take a glimpse inside.


Then we sat on the wall right beside the Pantheon and people-watched and took a short break ourselves. We made some good photos with our tripod and then decided we were hungry again and decided to look for some more food.


We had decided yesterday to go to the Trastavere neighborhood for dinner tonight since it is supposed to have the best mom-and pop type restaurants in Rome. We knew that we wanted some good home cooking and some traditional Roman cuisine.


We took a tram across the Tiber river into Trastavere and walked a few blocks to the Piazza de Santa Maria in Trastavere. On the way to the piazza we saw a nun and a priest sitting together at a table, and both were drinking a Guiness beer. Only in Italy! The Piazza de Santa Maria in Trastavere was a quaint little piazza with a small fountain and plenty of nearby restaurants. We found one just a half block off the piazza called Ristorante la Canonica.


We started with a bottle of white wine and a bowl of pasta e fagioli. Then we shared calcio e pepe (spaghetti noodles with cheese and pepper; a classic Roman dish) and Saltimbocca alla Roman (sliced veal with prosciutto cooked in a white wine sauce). The pasta was very good and had an unexpected spice and bite to it, while the veal was melt-in-your-mouth good. We finished off the dinner with a helping of tirimasu.


After dinner we walked back to the tram stop and changed to our connecting bus back to Termini Station. We got back to the hotel and packed up for our trip tomorrow to Naples. Luckily, we discovered that the European Union has switched back to Standard Time as of this afternoon. That means that we are now only five hours ahead of the East coast and we get an extra hour of sleep.


Tomorrow is our first train trip, and we are heading south to Naples. We are looking forward to the ruins at Pompeii and Hurculaneum, the island of Capri and, of course, lots of pizza. Hope all is well in the United States. Happy Hallween! Ciao!

Ancient Roma

This morning we struggled around a bit in the morning, still shaking off some of the jetlag. We ate breakfast and showered and headed off to our first stop on our Ancient Rome journey: The Colosseum.

There is a Metro station that opens onto the street directly across the road from the Colosseum, so as you are walking to the door you can already see people gathered around at the base of the amphitheater.

The Colosseum is a lot larger than both of us expected. We knew that it was big, but this was HUGE. And to think that it was constructed by hand about 2,000 years ago. That is a pretty impressive feat. We walked around to the entrance to purchase tickets. Luckily we had bought Roma Passes yesterday, so we walked right past the hundreds of people waiting to buy tickets, easily saving ourselves two hours wait in line.

About 10 days ago the Colosseum opened a new portion of the amphitheater to the public. They now offer guided tours of the subterranean levels as well as the third level of seating. These had to be reserved ahead of time, and apparently not a lot of people knew about it. There were 15 people in our tour and thousands of other people confined to the area for “normal” people. The crazy thing was that they were charging four Euros to rent an audioguide for the normal portion of the Colosseum. But we paid eight Euros, got our own personal guide and were able to see two extra areas that had never been open to the public before. We think we got a good deal.

During the first part of our tour, we got to walk out onto the wooden portion of the main floor of the Colosseum. It was pretty cool as you got a first-hand look at what the gladiators would have seen. The walls are so high around the main floor, they seem to stretch up to the sky.

We then walked down to the subterranean portion of the amphitheater. The guide showed us where wild animals were led into the Colosseum and the cages where they were held. We also got to see where the Ancient Romans had trap doors and elevator systems to lift gladiators and animals to the main floor. It was very eerie to be down under the main floor, almost like you were close to the death that came before.

We walked up to the third floor next and were treated to a spectacular bird’s eye view of the whole stadium. It is crazy to think that there were more seats in the original Colosseum that would have still been 75 feet higher than we were at the top.

After the Colosseum, our next stop was the Palatine Hill. This is the area where all the Emperor’s built their palaces. The house of Flavian was easily the largest and most ornate, even 2,000 years later. He had his own smaller stadium in his house along with gardens, reception areas and plenty of rooms.
I was very excited to see Circus Maximus, the old chariot race course that is seen from one of the terraces at Flavian’s house. Once we got there we saw that it was completely covered in white tents and military vehicles and equipment. There was apparently some sort of festival or demonstration that was taking place right on Circus Maximus.

Next we walked over to the Roman Forum (the Colosseum, Palatine Hill and Roman Forum are all connected, so it is very easy to go from one to the other). We had downloaded an audio guide from Rick Steves, so we listened to this guide as we walked around the main street of Ancient Rome. Huge arches, large basilicas and temples stretched around the main square. We saw the temple for Julius Ceasar and the Temple of the Vestal Virgins.

These ruins are still spectacular to see, even in their somewhat depleted state. It gets your mind racing, trying to imagine what life was like in Ancient Rome.

When we left the main area of Ancient Rome, we had planned to run back to the hotel to drop some gear in the room and then go to Stadio Olimpico to watch the AS Roma soccer match, we even bought Forza Roma scarves to wear. We made the slightly out of the way combination of Metro and bus routes to the stadium. Unfortunately the match had already started and they stop selling tickets ten minutes before the match begins. Bummer.

Oh well. We decided to go back into the center area of Rome to look for a nice place to eat dinner. To take away some of the pain of not going to the soccer match we decided that we whatever amount of money we would have spent on soccer tickets, we would instead spend it on dinner.

We took the bus and Metro back to the Trevi fountain area. We walked up toward the fountain, and could hear it before it was even in sight. Between the rushing water and the throng of people around it, the Trevi fountain is extremely loud. It is also very magnificent to see in person. We walked down to the edge of the fountain and each threw in some money, guaranteeing our return to Rome. We started walking down a side street, intending to walk to a restaurant we had noted that was in the area close to Piazza Navona. But as we were walking a restaurant caught Jessica’s eye. It was called L’Arte della Pizza and it was located on Via della Sabini. It was a very “mom and pop” type place; just the kind of place we were looking for.

We started out with an order of bruschetta and a half liter of the house white wine. Both were unbelievable. The wine seemed to be similar to a pinot grigio and the bruschetta was to die for. There were three large pieces, not the small bite-sized pieces of bruschetta that we were used to in the United States. One piece had an olive paste, one had artichoke paste and the other had quartered tomatoes. All three were amazing, but I think the winner went to the tomato bruschetta. The tomatoes were quartered and had a little dressing and a lot of herbs and spices. Even Jessica agreed that it was the best, and she doesn’t even like tomatoes.

For our main course, Jessica ordered lasagna and I had tortellini with meat sauce. Both were very good. You could taste how fresh the ingredients were that they used. We ate every bit of both dishes. We finished the meal with a couple glasses of limoncello. This is a lemon-infused alcohol mixed with a simple syrup. Everyone’s is homemade and everyone’s is the best.

We finished the night with the Rick Steves “La Dolce Vita” walk up Via del Corso to the Piazza del Popolo (an open piazza with no cars). We then walked back down Via del Babuino to the Spanish Steps. In front of the Spanish Steps is a smaller fountain, and there were plenty of people out enjoying the night by sitting on the steps, even though it was already past 11 p.m. We sat along with them and enjoyed the moment before walking back to the Metro and taking our ride back to Termini station.

We are resting up from our first full day in Rome and looking forward to tomorrow when we visit the Pantheon, Piazza Navona and the Capitaline Museums, among others. Until then, Ciao!

Vatican Museum/St. Peter's Basilica

Off we go on our first sightseeing tour of the trip. We made the easy, two-block walk to Termini Station (it's amazing how much easier it is to find something when you know where it is). We then descended the labyrinth of stairs and escalators to the Metro Linea A.

A few stops later we exited at Cipro station and made a short walk to the Vatican Museum. On the way we stopped for our first Roman meal. We ordered a tomato and cheese pizza that was folded over on itself (sort of like a calzone meets a panini). It was hot and delicious and easy to eat on the move.

We met our tour group at a hosteria near the Vatican Museum entrance and started our tour. Our tour guide was a younger, American female. She was a lot of fun and very knowledgeable on art history and Vatican history. There were eight of us in the tour, including a family from Dallas with a daughter who was a sophomore at Baylor.

We went through room after room of amazing frescoes and paintings, followed by the piece de resistance, the Sistine Chapel. If you have never been to the Sistine Chapel before, then there is really no good way for me to explain it to you. If you HAVE been to the Sistine Chapel, then you know what I'm talking about. It is way higher, way bigger and way more detailed then you can imagine. The Last Judgement, Michaelangelo's altarpiece in the Sistine Chapel is equally brilliant. Unfortunately copyright laws prohibit the taking of photos inside the Sistine Chapel, so I have nothing to show. But the Sistine Chapel is something that you will never forget.

After the Sistine Chapel, we made our way to St. Peter's Basilica next door. If the Sistine Chapel was amazing, then St. Peter's was equally so. It is massive; I have never been inside a church that big. The dome is enormous. There is a large bronze structure that stands over the main altar that is the largest bronze structure in the world. St. Peter's is very cool and they were starting mass while we were there; also very cool.

After leaving St. Peter's and setting out on our own, we realized that we had not eaten any gelato since we arrived in Rome, which was going on 10 hours, so we made a stop for our first taste of the gelato goodness. Jessica had menta and ciccolato (mint and chocolate), while I opted for ciccolato and pistacchio (chocolate and pistachio). Wow, was it good. And eating it while sitting on a bench on Via della Concilliazione, not 100 yards away from Piazza de San Pietro made it even better.

We continued walking down the street and came to Castel Sant'Angelo. Jessica's comment was, "it's not every day that you turn the corner and see a castle."

It was a very impressive stone and brick structure, situated on the banks of the Tiber river. As we were crossing the street (never an easy task in Rome), Jessica yelled, "It's our first day, please don't kill us," to one of the crazy guys on a moped.

We crossed the Tiber, headed toward Piazza Navona in search of food. Of course we found another gelato shop first and had round two as an appetizer. We then found a restaurant called Il Piccolo on Via del Governo Vecchio that had an aperitivo special (think Happy Hour, but instead of drink specials, you get free food with your cocktails). We each had a wonderful pinot grigio and a heaping plate of porketa, pasta, polenta with tomatoes and some very tasty prosciutto.

We walked part of the way home and finished the night with a bus ride back to Termini Station. We are having an easy and early night tonight due to the long travel day yesterday and the slight sleep deprivation we are currently working on. We hope to wake relaxed and refreshed tomorrow morning for our tour of Ancient Rome. Ciao!

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Well, it has been a whirlwind tour so far, but we are officially in Rome! After three flights, a train ride and nearly 24 hours of travel we are in the Eternal City.

Yesterday started out with a 3 a.m. wake-up call at Rick and Jody’s house. We left their house in Suwanee right at 4 a.m. We arrived at the Atlanta airport at 4:45 a.m., even though our flight was scheduled to depart at 7 a.m. Jess said, “better safe than sorry!” We were at the airport so early that the TSA security lines weren’t even opened yet. That’s early!

We set up camp at the Burger King right beside our departing gate. I was reading one of my travel guides while Jess charged her laptop and transferred some stuff to her iPhone. All we needed was a table for two, a power outlet and a $2 cup of Hi-C fruit punch with unlimited refills.

Side note, walking down the terminal in Atlanta we passed Da’Sean Butler, the former basketball player at West Virginia. I had heard that he was just cut by the Charlotte Bobcats because his knee was not fully healed from a devastating injury suffered last year at the Final Four. So that was cool … he is a big dude.

After a quick stop at my old stomping grounds at DFW (I almost expected to see the Baylor track and field teams waiting in the terminal) and a visit to McDonald’s for a biscuit, it was off to New York City’s JFK airport.

Another short layover and it was time to board our final flight to Rome, Italy. We were very fortunate to have emergency exit seats on all of our flights, and we will have the same on our return flights in a couple of weeks. It was a bit daunting to get on a plane knowing that you will be on that plane for the next eight hours. But the anticipation of our destination quickly made up for that.

We arrived in Rome and quickly made our way through customs (which apparently in Italy is a freakin’ joke). The agent quickly glanced at Jessica’s passport and waved her through the line. Then I got up to the counter with my passport and he did not even look at it before he waved me through as well. We didn’t even get stamps and we are a little ticked.

A crowded train ride on the Leonardo Express to Rome’s Termini Station and we were officially in Rome. The next challenge was to find our hotel. I had the address of the hotel, but in a city where the roads are not clearly marked and street numbers are virtually pointless this proved a little harder than expected.

I had Google Mapped the location before we left, so I knew that it was at the intersection beside a piazza with an architectural building. Unfortunately, we were in the wrong piazza and spent about 15 extra minutes taking an impromptu tour. But we made it to the hotel and are checked in, showered and ready to start exploring.

We are off to grab some lunch, followed by a guided tour at the Vatican Museum and St. Peter’s Basilica. Back with more tonight. Ciao!

Packing and Other Preparations

Well, after a year of planning, it's finally here. Our trip to Italy and France! Follow along as we hop from city to city, exploring Ancient ruins and viewing modern art. We hope to update this blog daily and hopefully will be able to provide some photos to help commemorate our trip. We will be six hours ahead of Eastern time, but will be able to respond to your comments and questions. Be sure to check back often to see what we are up to each day.


Even though we will be traveling for 16 days, our plan is to bring one carry-on piece of luggage apiece. No small feat: for a light packer like Jon, and definitely for a not-so-light packer like Jessica. But amazingly it seems like everything is fitting. As evidence, here is a photo of Jessica's carry-on...

And proof that it actually DOES close...



(thanks to Jim and Jean Brown for the use of their extra carry-on bag)


We are heading to Atlanta on Wednesday after Jon gets off work. We will spend the night with Rick and Jody, and then leave from the Atlanta airport bright and early on Thursday morning.