Italy 2011 continued

Italy 2011, continued

So after Aaron was released on bail, we--
OK good, now we have your attention.

Our new landlady for the house we rented just outside of Florence, was extremely kind, but had a penchant for giving us "Dora the Explorer" style directions. For example, "turn left at the white van" (which was no longer there), "if this works, finish the road and then turn left", "go across the river, which isn't a river", etc. Add to this, she spelled the name of her town wrong, so our GPS could not recognize it. Also on the way there, we passed our first automated toll booth. The toll was 2 Euros. There was an "attendant" standing next to the toll booth, who kindly took our 10 Euro bill, inserted it in the machine, and gave us back 6 Euro. Now we're no mathematicians, but we have a hunch that he pocketed 2 Euros for himself. Perhaps the fact that he was in jeans and a t-shirt shoulda been a tip off to us that he was up to no good.

Somehow we got to our house and settled in fine. Our landlady took us back into town and brought us to a community dinner hosted by Casa de Poppolo. All across Italy there are these community clubs created by various socialist/communist parties. On the way in we saw many signs and communist posters from a different era, and even more current stuff too. The meal was very homey, with picnic table type seating, and loud families all around us. It was lovely.

The next day we headed off to Lucca where we rented bikes and rode on top of the walls of the city. Just to clarify, the city walls are very thick (15 meters wide), and have been turned into a park that you can bike or stroll on. We also relaxed in the park and read aloud our book, Brave New World.

Florence: the first day there was a tad overwhelming. The place is flooded with tourists and it was almost impossible to walk anywhere without being accosted by Schnochus venders (definition of Schnochus: crap that people sell to tourists); E.g., "10 Euro authentic paintings by Leonardo Davinci." Near the end of the day, we took a tour of the Santa Maria del Fiori and all climbed up the Duomo, including Diane whose fear of heights was relatively contained that day....she only asked a few times "What if there's an earthquake?" and when Rob reassured her, "This building has been standing for over 600 years," she replied, "Oh no! That's really really old, the railings could break". We were all rewarded for the 450 step trek with amazing views from the galleries and from the top of the Duomo. The next day we went on a tour of the Uffizi with an amazing Dutch tour guide named Klaus (artviva.com) who basically taught us Renaissance Art History 101. We went to the Academia to see Michaelangelo's David, with a different tour guide who must have missed her calling as a host of a children's TV show (she was super enthusiastic and cutesy) although the information was excellent, and at the end of the day, we got to stand in the presence of the David, very impressive. That day we learned that Boticelli's "Birth of Venus" was commissioned to hang in a 14 year-old boy's bedroom. If that's true, then as Aviva pointed out later, The David shoulda been commissioned for a 14 year-old girl's bedroom!
Dinner that evening was one of our funnest meals because we made it ourselves back at the lovely house we were renting; linguine with porcini mushrooms and tomatoes with basil from the garden.

A word on Gelato: It only takes one of us to convince the rest that we NEED to have gelato. Usually we've been able to keep it to once every one to two days. Usually.

Cinque Terre. We now understand why people say this place should be on your Bucket List. We did a 3 hour hike with spectacular vistas, winding through three of the five towns here, ending up at the beach at the end of the day. Oh, and we scored a free meal here too, although not on purpose: At the hotel, we had our worst meal ever in Italy - boiled flavourless vegetable mush, potatoes from a bag fried in reused oil, you get the picture. At the end, we politely let them know that we were not impressed and they refused to accept our money. On the last night here we had great pizzas and ended again with Nutella Pizza. Yum.

Now we're on a super high-tech train headed for Switzerland, enjoying spectacular views of the lakes and the alps, and trying to behave ourselves, but that's not really possible.

With love,
RANAD