the vacation: Italy

Click on the panoramarama for an extra large view (our building on the right).

Ah Italy! Finally! After two plane trips (8 hour and 1 hour flight), a crazy taxi ride through downtown Florence (half hour in traffic), two trains (1 and half hour and half hour chug interspersed with an unpleasant walking tour of Sienna with all of our luggage in a futile search for a rental car), and a nice car ride (15 minutes), we wearily arrived at the castle :)

The room we stayed in was the size of a small loft space with a living room and a kitchen. The kitchen was key, because we were way out in the middle of Tuscany (boo hoo) and would need to buy groceries for making our own meals in between touring nearby towns. I actually loved the grocery buying part of the trip because I got to visit small towns that were completely non-touristy and shop with Italians doing their daily thing. It of course helped that I love product packaging and poking around to see what they've got that we don't. The short answer is that they've got a lot more tasty, unprocessed, or less processed foods than we do (I can go on and on about their delicious eggs, meats, and cheeses).

The castle grounds are amazingly beautiful, and like many of the nearby towns, it was built at the top of a hill so there are incredible views of verdant, sprawling valleys and farmland. This place really makes you want to get a $3000 camera because everywhere you look there are postcard shots to be had. After a while, you run out of adjectives to describe things - amazing, incredible, unbelievable, breathtaking, astounding - I'm sure the natives are used it and it's just home, but for me it was definitely a welcome change of scenery!

This is a fortress in Sienna. Aside from their podunk train station, I love this town! There's lots of stuff to see, but it's not overrun with tourists. There are plenty of shops which have reasonable prices for not just souvenirs, but textiles, antiques, crafts, silverware, and clothing. Remember how I mentioned that towns are built on top of hills? Sienna is no different. Be prepared to walk up and down hills and always have water on you to stay hydrated (imagine an entire town built of stone, baking in the blazing sun, then imagine walking through it).

Ah Montepulciano - the town I could never pronounce the same way twice (mon-teh-puhl-chee-AH-no). I came across this funny sign in the park where apparently, you are only allowed to discard refuse properly. All other fun activities are strictly prohibited! (Actually, I don't think anything in Italy is strictly prohibited. Parking signs like this one are merely for show or to hold up other signs).

Here's a shot from the Ponte Vecchio in Firenze (Florence). I keep writing about how blissful non-touristy places are because you'll have to deal with things like a slack jawed yokel ruining an otherwise decent shot through the arches. Oh yeah! I forgot to mention that all the sidewalks are tiny tiny, so you'll not only be dodging people, but cars and mopeds that are trying to push through. Italian drivers are crazy, but surprisingly patient and civilized when they have to wait for a traffic obstruction to move on.

Florence, while having major attractions, was probably my least favorite town. It reminded me why I hated traveling with my parents when I was younger; it's a zoo and the food prices are unsurprisingly exorbitant. It's not all bad though! There is a cafe right next to the Duomo that's fair and quite delicious (B. Gallo) and all the shops on and nearby the Ponte Vecchio have more knock off purses than you can shake a stick at.

There's LOTS more to write about of course, but I'd have to write a short novel about the experience. I skipped my friends's wedding ('cause you don't know them), eating Kosher meals, cooking class, sweating through my clothes on trains planes and automobiles, doing laundry, waiting in the car rental line, waiting in the airport line, waiting in the food line, waiting in the train line, waiting in the church line, waiting in the waiting line, finding the miracle 20 euro in my shorts*, our Modanella room not having a shower, so we were stuck taking baths the whole time (I either need to get a whole lot smaller, or bathtubs need to get a whole lot larger), our room in Florence having a shower that folded up like a phone booth, our taxi arriving at 5:00am sharp, and us relishing Mexican food and an ice cold Pepsi at JFK on the way home.

My favorite line from the entire trip (besides the "yes, I'll marry you" one of course), "See you back at the castle!"

The vacation was an amazing experience all around - even the tough parts - and I think the only way it could have been better is if we were able to share it with more of our family and friends and of course able to stay longer, too :D

*While cooling our heels in the Leonardo Da Vinci Museum, Cathryn asked me if the many pockets of my cargo shorts were secure. While showing her the various pockets, I miraculously found 20 euro that I had mistakenly tucked away in an auxiliary pouch pocket next to my velcro one. At the time we had just enough for the taxi ride to the airport and a night's stay at the pensione. We figured that we'd have to reluctantly pull out the charge card again or find an ATM, but the twenty took us through lunch and we had enough leftover for water and snacks :)