Observations in Italy

While spending time in Italy, I made a few observations that I think are worth noting.

This is kind of an ongoing list that I am keeping as we travel.

1. Smoking. I don't think Italy got the memo that smoking is really bad for you. Seriously. They smoke everywhere, all the time. 

2. The Man-Purse is ok. Many guys have them. I have even seen a few that are really nice. I keep threatening Kim that I am going to buy one.

3. Radom, broke-down carnivals. I have seen a bunch of them. They are in weird places and they are kind of creepy. I never saw one kid taking a ride. 

4. Bus rides: It seems like it runs on the honor system. The ticket validation machines rarely work. The bus drivers never check. Go figure.

5. The Italians love kids. They talk to them, pat them on the head, and smile a lot - even to a stranger's kid. I'm totally cool with it.

6. Italians are like people from Phoenix. They think anything under 70 is cold. I will be sitting there, feeling perfectly comfortable - maybe even a little warm. The Italian walks up with a puffy jacket and a scarf, like it's a cold day. Brrr. 

7. Trattoria vs osteria. I still can't figure out the difference. A "ristorante" is clearly more of an upscale dining establishment, like you would expect. Both an "osteria" and a "trattoria" seem more informal and laid back. More like home style cooking. They both seem very similar. If you know the difference, please educate me.

8. High-heeled sneakers. They look like high top sneakers, but they are really high-heel shoes in disguise.

Trendy? Probably. 

Goofy? Absolutely.

9. Perfume. Everything has perfume in it. Everything. And sometimes it gives me a headache. Trust me, Italy, a little perfume goes a long way. You are not sexier if I can smell you from 6 feet (I mean, 2 meters) away! It doesn't stop with the stuff you spray on your neck, either. Just like in the US, it is in just about every product you can think of, but in the US, you can find almost everything without perfumes. I literally cannot find any products without it. They even put it on their toilet paper. Do they like to smell asses here?

10. Parking. If it fits, leave it! There doesn't seem to be many rules to parking, except that you need to pay. I have seen cars left in the intersection, squished into any little, tiny spot you can imagine, on the median, etc. The only time I saw them write parking tickets was when they didn't pay. They literally fit 2-3 times as many cars on the street that they allow anyplace in the US.

11. Food. There are no GMO's in Italy. Therefore all grocery stores are like Whole Foods, except they won't drain your wallet. In fact, it is quite reasonably priced.
The milk is soooo delicious! It tastes much better than anything you get in the States.
Eggs: You'll be looking for a long time if you are in the refrigerated section. They're not there. Look on the shelf. Eggs in Italy are never refrigerated and don't need to be. I think they are just about all farm-fresh. And the shells are super thick, too. It takes a good whack to crack one open, and oh my they taste good!

Final Day in Venice, and Italy

For our last day in Venice, our last day in Italy, and the last day of our vacation, we headed out to do the final things on our list.

First up is the Gugenheim museum. We visited here in 2011 and loved it!

Jules got to see all of the Peggy Gugenheim Collection located inside what used to be her home. What a place!

I think absorbing all of the art was a bit much for Jules. Picasso, Polluck, Dali, and the rest are a bit mind-bending for anyone. I think he was done after seeing the main part of the museum, but I wanted to head over to the visiting exhibit, which was Mark Tobey: Threading the Light. Mark Tobey was from Seattle and did much of his work in the 1920s through the 1970's. Pretty amazing stuff!

Next up was the Basilica in San Marco Square. Jules has been really interested in visiting churches all through Italy. He is wondering what this religion thing is all about. In any case, it is an excellent opportunity to get him to chill out for a little while. He is always VERY well behaved inside a church. He immediately, without question, removes his hat and stays very quiet. He always wants to go sit in the pew in the front row and look at the altar for a while.

Inside St. Mark's Basilca, Kim and Jules lit a candle by the altar. We sat quietly together for a while, then walked around looking at the paintings. Jules and Kim went in to see the treasury while I looked at all of the mosaic tiles on the floors. This place is amazing! No wonder it is so famous.

After visiting the Basilica, Jules wanted to play in the Square and feed the pigeons again. I wanted to drink some more prosecco, so we got a table at a cafe again. It was really pleasant just sitting there listening to the music and watching Jules and all of the rest of the people going by. Another fine day.

And for the grand finale of our visit to Venice... A real gondola ride.

We met with our friendly gondolier from the San Toma ferry and he hooked us up with one of his friends for a 35 minute evening ride. 

I guess that since I am a bit frugal (or cheap), I have resisted taking a gondola ride in my past visits. At €100, this was pushing the limits for my cheap-ness, but I am really glad that we did it. I am sure that Jules, Kim, and I will remember that ride for the rest of our lives. It was beautiful. It's also a unique way to see the city. Amazing. 

 

           

Murano

On our second day in Venice, we decided to visit one of the other islands nearby. The island of Murano is like Mecca for glass blowers. We got tickets for the Vaporetto, which is the local bus system - on water. After a quick 10 minute boat ride, we were on the island of Murano.

Wow! There is soooo much glass here! 

One thing we wanted to do was to see a demonstration of a glass blower at work. A word of advise: get away from the Vaporetto drop-off area. Everything seems very expensive for the average tourist. This includes glass blowing demonstrations. Instead, take a walk and get deeper into the city. 

We found a great little glass shop where the proprietor was hard at work making glass pieces. Anyone could walk in and watch. He made a great little glass cat that Jules really loved, so we bought it for him for only a few euros.

We spent the next few hours walking around the city and got some lunch before hopping back on the Vaporetto back to Venice.

After we got back to Venice, we made our way over to San Marco Square.

Over at San Marco Square, it was a bit late to go into the Basilica, but we could go up into the Campanile. Both of these are top on Jules' list of attractions to visit. We'll visit the Basilica tomorrow when it is open again.

In the Square, Jules found that there are thousands of pigeons! He had a blast feeding them and running around the square. Kim and I grabbed a table at one of the cafes that surround the square. The cafes give you some great people watching as well as some tasty beverages and a live band. It is a bit on the speedy side, but we decided to go for it anyway. Jules would run out to play in the square and come back every few minutes to check in. What a good kid.

The weather was warm and sunny. What a great day!!

 

              

Off to Venice!

It was a short, but pleasant stay in Firenze, but now it is time to move along to our final destination, Venice. 

Ahhh, Venice... This will be my 3rd time in Venice.

The first time I went there was in 1995 when my ship, the USS South Carolina, landed in Trieste for a week. My friend, John Pianka and I took leave and hopped on a train to Venice. It was early in the season, Feburary, as I recall, but we met a couple of local gals there and had a great time.

The second time I was there was with Kim in 2011 for our honeymoon. Jules was there, too, but he was barely the size of a golf ball at the time. 

This will now be my third time in Venice. Kim's second. And Julian's first.

Jules has been reading The Magic Treehouse series of books. In the series the characters visit a few places in Italy, including Venice. They go to many of the big attractions there. Jules really excited to see these places, just like Jack and Annie from the books.

From our apartment in Firenze, we had a leisurely morning and made our way to the train station. Kim had booked three tickets on the high speed train to Venice. It was a fast, smooth ride, and we arrived in Venice by mid-day. Near the train station, we met the woman, Michaela, who owns the apartment we have booked. It was a winding path to get to our aparment. If you have ever been to Venice, you know that it is extremely easy to get off track and get lost. I'm sure that's why she wanted to show us the way.

Our apartment was really nice, and the location was even better! It's in the San Polo area, which is fairly central. Michaela gave us a bunch of really good tips for the city. One of them was a little gondola ferry that takes you across the Grand Canal without walking all the way over to the Rialto bridge.

So that was one of the first things we did. We went from San Toma, directly across the canal and it is only €2 each and kids ride free.

The gondoliers were really nice and chatty. One of them let Jules hold his paddle and pretend to paddle the boat. That was pretty cool.

We explored the city for the rest of the day making a stop on the Rialto Bridge, and some wine and a bite at a ciochita. A ciochita is a small, walk-up style place that is great for wine and small plates of food. The one by our apartment had some of the best wines by the glass, as well as some tasty bites. 

I hadn't heard about these places before, but Kim read about them on the Internet. These places are a great find! If you are in Venice, you should check one out, but remember that they are cash-only establishments.

 

      

Firenze

The first day in Firenze was a Saturday, and jam-packed with hordes of tourists.

It dampened the appreciation a bit, but it appears that Saturday's are the big tourist days. The rest of our stay, the crowds were minimal and it was great!

Some other highlights to our stay in Firenze was our visit to the Leonardo Da Vinci museum. This is a "touch" museum, in which people have built working models based on Da Vinic's drawings. We all had such a good time running around in there, playing with all of the exhibits. This is another highly recommended spot for kids of all ages.

The big attraction for Jules was the Stibbert Museum - aka the "Armor" museum. Jules couldn't wait to see the inside of this place. It is an old mansion, filled by the ultra-wealthy Frederick Stibbert, with all kinds of art, artifacts, and antiques. He even had a couple of old Egyptian sarcophagus' (sarcophagi?). The big attraction here, though, is his massive collection of ARMOR from all over the world. What kid wouldn't love this place?? Mummies and knight's armor!

During our visit they had a large collection of Japanes armor on loan to them - think Samurai armor - in addition to the rest of the standard collection. 

This guy's collection of armor was incredible! It filled many, many rooms. It's a good thing his house was so huge. Otherwise his wife would have put the brakes on that collection! 

Take a look at the photos below. 

During our final days in Firenze, we relaxed our pace and spent time hanging out in the piazza near our apartment, drinking wine, eating food, and window shopping. 

On our previous visit to Firenze in 2011, other than the Galileo museum, I was not very impressed with the city. Our first day was similar, but after all of the crowds left, the city was very pleasant. Don't get me wrong - it was still very busy and active, but the hordes of tourists, stepping all over each other's shoes were no longer there. I ended up really liking the place.

Something I noticed about the city: A lot of people ride bicycles here, and you will see hundreds of them locked up to the metal racks next to the street. That's not so unusual. The unusual part was the fact that you don't need a fixed gear hipster bike to fit in around here. In fact there is a huge number of totally crappy bikes on the street. It seemed like the older your bike looked, the better! Kudos to them for keeping them on the road (barely).

Next up... Venice!

 

       

Funicolare Starts With FUN!

We definitely enjoyed our time in the Orvieto region. It was absolutely beautiful. And relaxing.

We stayed in our apartment in Orvieto for 5 nights, the longest stint during our vacation. Unfortunately, it was time to move along and make our way to Firenze! (That's Florence, for us American's) I wonder why we have to make our own spelling for cities around the world? I'll tell you this much, if you try to find a train to Florence, you will be looking for a long time - there is no such listing. Traveler's note: it's Firenze.

The first leg of our journey... The funicolare! It's a steep trip down the hill and the funicolare does make it fun. Like an amusement park ride. It takes you down to the train station where we hopped on the 10:15 train to Firenze. We arrived by around 12:30 and had a leisurely walk to our apartment over on "the other side of the river." Kim and I have been here before and staying on the "tourist" side of the river can me maddening. 

The walk from the train station to the apartment immediately reminded us of how maddening it can be. I could not believe how many people were out in town - and this is not even high season! What will it be like in July?

After checking in to our apartment and dropping off our bags, we headed back out to get acquainted with the city. A quick trip across the PonteVecchio bridge got us into the "tourist" area. Then we headed straight over to the Museo Galileo. When we were here 5 years ago, the Galileo museum was my favorite attraction in Florence. I was really stoked to take Jules there. I am proud to announce that he loved it too, my budding little scientist! Over 500 years of science is represented here, and it is absolutely fascinating. I highly recommend this museum to anyone with even one single nerdy bone in their body.

Galileo was famous - and to the Catholic Church, very INFAMOUS - for what he observed and deduced from using his telescopes. However, the museum had a big section on globes, including several geocentric celestial globes. In common language, celestial globes portray what is seen in the night sky (all the stars and constellations). Geocentric means that it was constructed by someone who still thought the Earth was at the center of everything.

Seeing these old globes was very thought provoking to me.

Before scientists figured things out, it was quite natural and quite reasonable to assume the geocentric view was true. That is what Aristotle observed, and for many centuries, he was the be-all, end-all authority on such matters. The problem was in explaining why things in the night sky moved in the way they did. The "geocentric" explanation turned out to be very, very, very complex. As were the geocentric celestial globes. They attempted to make sense of the motions of the "heavens," but these globes are a MESS!

It wasn't until Copernicus and Galileo - with the help of some brand new technology, namely the telescope - that people started to realize the sun was at the center. Actually, it took a long time for this idea to be accepted - like a couple of hundred years! Despite all of Galileo's observations, sound logic and deduction, and clear explanation of why the sun MUST be at the center, very few people believed him. It actually got him in a lot of trouble.

Copernicus' and Galileo's idea went against the status quo. The contemporary thought leaders of the time, including the Catholic Church, fully believed in the Aristotlian teachings, where the Earth was at the center. Contradicting this idea ultimately got Galileo convicted of heresy by the Catholic Church. He was mercifully sentenced to house arrest for the rest of his life. Otherwise, he would have been put to death. Probably by stoning or burning or some other barbaric treatment. Go religion! That was in 1633. It wasn't until 1835 that the Catholic Church realized they were WRONG and lifted the ban on Galileo's work. That's 200 years of progress wasted away by politics. It wasn't until 1992 - yes, 1992 that the Church finally admitted they made a big mistake with Galileo's conviction and pardoned him. That was 350 years later. To quote our new President, "Sad."

During this trip I have learned a lot about Galileo and his plight. The visit to his museum and looking at these geocentric globes really got me to thinking. There are many parallels in this story to modern science and modern politics. Our scientists are telling us and warning us about what they are observing. They have sound logic and a clear explanation, but the dolts in charge refuse to listen. Instead, they are attempting to marginalize science and dismantle scientific organizations like the EPA. Is this simply to retain their power? Is it that they cannot admit they were wrong? Or is it sheer idiocy? 

To re-quote our new Dolt-In-Charge: "Sad."

Have our scientists been excommunicated?? Will it take 200 years for the ruling power to realize and admit they made a mistake?? 

Whew. Sorry about the rant...

Up next... More Firenze!

 

Old pals...

 

Geocentric globes were beautiful, but what a MESS!

Yes, Earth is there in the middle.

Civita!

The next day after Jules was feeling better, we hopped on a local bus over to the tiny, medieval town of Civita.

We weren't really sure where or how to get tickets for the bus. We thought we could get them on the bus, but the machine did not work. Nobody asked for validation or tickets or anything, so we just enjoyed the ride out to the drop off area in Bagnoreggio.

The town is a bit of a distance from the drop off and there is a shuttle bus that can take you most of the way, but we are adventurous. We walked through Bagnoreggio to get there. It was about 30 minutes to the entrance of the town. It costs €1.50 for each adult to enter town.

The entrance is a small, but very well-built walking bridge straight up. If you are scared of heights, like my brother, this part of the journey might make you nervous. For me, though, I thought it was great! What a view!

Once you get up into town, it is one of the most picturesque places on earth. Every place you turn to look is like something you have seen in a magazine or famous photograph. It is ridiculous.

This town, similar to Orvieto, sits way up high on a very tiny hill. I am going to assume that it is also volcanic in origin. I don't know if these people mine their stone and concrete from under the city or not, but the place still looks and feels like you are in medieval times.

It takes less than an hour to see just about everything in town. After that we sat down for some wine and food. The place we stopped, Alma Civita, had THEE most AMAZING bruschetta I have ever had. Superb. If you ever have the chance, please stop there and try it out.