Monday, July 25, 2011

Marche

Daniele's parents have a beach house in the Marche region. Marche is directly east of Rome on the other coast, about a 2.5 hours drive give or take. In fact the road we live on, Salaria (one of the ancient Roman roads named for it's use in transporting salt) takes you right there. We have been meaning to make a trip and this week his shifts happened to have an extra day off right on the weekend. This meant that his brother, who works normal hours, could join us too. We also were able to coordinate with their cousin Giuliano and his wife Mariagrazia to join us for a day. They live a bit closer, actually very close to Assisi.


(The boys keeping dry under the beach umbrella)

The house itself is in Marina di Altidona part of a sort of condo complex. It is two floors with a small garden two minutes from the beach, super cute (I can't believe I didn't take a picture). The neighbors are all really nice and Daniele and Emanuele know all of them from when they would spend entire summers there.

We had 3-ish (7/22 – 7/24) days there. The day we arrived had the nicest weather and Daniele and I spent it on the beach. We also went around the nearby town of Torre di Palme. That night Emauele got in. He took a bus that came into Pedaso, which was a cute town, too. The next day Giuliano and Mariagrazia spent with us, but it rained on and off all day. We made the best of it and had two short beach trips and one long meal all together. The next day Daniele, Emanuele, and I walked around Montefiore dell' Aso during the day and the busy San Benedetto del Tronto at night.


(View of hills outside Torre di Palme)

The rest of the photos from this trip are in my Marche album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110722Marche

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Corrine's Visit

My cousin Corrine, her daughter Celina, husband Anthony, and Anthony's father recently made a trip to Italy. They spent most of the time with Anthony's family and attending a wedding but we did get to spend one day together in Rome. They arrived late the night before and had an early flight the next day, so it really was just one day. Also it was at the end of their trip, so they were a bit tired. I met up with them to walk around a few of Rome's sites. Once he finished work, Daniele joined us too, and we all had a good time. It was the first time Daniele got to meet them, so it was extra nice. I was hoping to bring them to one of the great restaurants around here, but they wanted to be back at there hotel near the airport by 9 PM and were sick of walking. Since Italians don't eat dinner before 8PM (“only the waiters eat at this hour”) we just ate at the first touristy place we saw right by the Trevi Fountain; while they told us how much cheaper/better things are by Anthony's family. What's that? Things are cheaper in the countryside than they are in the city? Food isn't that good at touristy restaurants? You don't say, I had no idea!

I wasn't caring a camera, giving it a rest after all the shooting Fabs and I had just done. So I didn't get a picture of the group of us. I think one of them did, but I'll probable never see it, like that wedding photo of Corrine and I have been asking about since May...

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Places in Venice

This is a post just for me to remember my favorite places in Venice, I hope to add to it over time.

Franca (Store that makes the masks)
San Marco, 477 or San Marco, 592/B, 30124 Venezia
(Chiesa di S. Zulian)
Tel. 0039.041.5226482

Stefano Minucci
Fondamenta Vetrai n. 59, 301 Murano-Colonna, Venezia
Tel +39 041 739.133

Monday, July 18, 2011

Fabiene's Visit - Trip to Venice

Venice is the most beautiful city I have ever visited. This was my third visit. Continuing from Fabienne visiting me in Rome, we took the morning train from Florence, spent a day and a half in Venice and took the overnight train back to Rome.

Our first half day we spent in Venice itself. The only real sight we wanted to do was the Duomo; we did that first. We had seen museums in Florence, here we wanted to see Venice. We also found a cool shop that is one of the last two that hand makes the Venetian masks. They had all different beautiful kinds for men and women, adults and children. Then we just walked around and enjoyed the city.


St. Marc's Cathedral in St. Marc's Square, Venice

The next day we visited the other islands in the lagoon. We did them in order of distance, so we started with Murano. Murano is the most famous of the islands in the Lagoon of Venice after Venice itself. They are famous for their colored glass works. We went to a demo of one of the workshops and saw three men hand off getting the glass out of the oven, molding it into a vase shape, and finishing it off. The streets here are lined with glass shops. Some talked a bit about the glass. There are different types of glass, any of the colorful glasses are Murano, but the most traditional are the mosaics. The artisans who make the glass specialize in vases, lamps, or jewelry.


Murano glass master works a vase

After we went on to Burano. Burano is slightly less touristy, but so much more adorable! All the houses are bright colors. The island is famous for lace making, but it is the island itself that you should go there to see. Some shop owners there were nice and explained about the lace to us as well, for example some of the ways to tell hand made from machine made lace. The easiest is to look at the back and if it is different from the front, it has a clear front and back side, it should be hand made.


Houses in Burano

We also stopped at Torcello. I knew the story of the of Venice's origin; that the settlers came to the lagoon escaping barbarian hordes but I didn't know anything about Torcello until this visit. Torcello was the original settlement of Venice. Today only 20 people live on this small grassy island. It boasts some ruins and the oldest church of Venice, Santa Maria Assunta.


(Santa Maria Assunta on Torcello island, the oldest church in Venice)

All the pictures I took of Venice during Fab's visit are in my “Fabienne Visit's -Venice ” album: https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110710FabienneSVisitVenezia

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Places in Florence

This is a post just for me to remember my favorite places in Florence, I hope to add to it over time.

Trattoria I' Raddi
Via dell' Ardiglione 47/R
Tel 055 211072
(Via Sant'Agostino and Via dei Serragli)

Flavio Pelletterie
Piazza Duomo, 37/R, 50122 Firenze
Tel 055.283503

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Fabiene's Visit - Trip to Florence

During Fabienne's visit to Rome (see last post) we went up to Florence for a day trip. We took an early morning train in, spent the night, and took a train the next day to Venice.

Florence is a small city and most of her sights are right in a line from the train station, but we didn't do them at all in order. We were all over the place juggling opening hours and lines. But again, it's small so no big deal. Rome about the ancient Romans, Vatican, and the political capital; Florence is all about museums and churches. It was the center of the world during the Renaissance. While Venice is overall the most expensive city in Italy (IMO), we actually spent less money there because we spent more of our time walking around enjoying the city's beauty. Compared to everything we did in Florence which had a fee attached. Fabienne wanted to see as much as possible and they all nickle and dime you with their three to ten euro entrance frees.

Since we only had one day, I made Fabienne choose between the Academia and the Uffizi (the two largest museums in Florence). We went with the Uffizi, which I think was the best choice, but that meant we didn't get to see David. I've seen him before, but it would have been nice to catch up on old times. We did see all of his replicas in various places so that is almost as good. The Uffizi is a great museum filled with works even a uneducated schmuck like me can recognize, but is was crowded. July is a busy tourists season in Europe.

Naturally we went in the Duomo with it's beautiful pink and green marble facade. This was the first domed ceiling, if you don't count the Pantheon, which no one ever does. It was built in the Renaissance and the technology of how the Romans built domed ceilings had been lost in the dark ages. The Florentines were so confident someone would figure it out that they build their church without a roof and waited for the technology to be invented. It took many years, but eventually Filippo Brunelleschi was visiting Rome and saw the dome of the Pantheon and immediately knew how to complete the Florence Cathedral. It took several more years for him to convince the city to give him the contract, but eventually Florence got their Duomo.


(Inside Florence's Duomo)

We visited Opera di Santa Croce, the church where there are the tombs of Michelangelo and Galleleo. There are also some important fresco and the cowl and girdle worn by St Francis of Assisi. There is also a leather school attached to the back. We got to walk around old men hand making leather goods as well as a very expensive store.


(The tomb of Galleleo)


(The cowl and girdle of St. Frances of Assisi)

In between we saw some other important sights. We saw Basilica of Santa Maria Novella, Palazzo Pitti, Palazzo Vecchio in Piazza della Signoria, the Baptistry of the Duomo, and a few others.

Ponte Vecchio is the covered bridge that goes over the Arno. There are stores here, especially goldsmiths, and people hang out at night. There was a band performing on the bridge when we were there.


(Ponte Vecchio)

For a while now I have had the benefit of having Daniele tell me all the best restaurants, but he doesn't know Florence. So I followed all the general rules: away from the main tourist hub, not right on a square or anything touristy, better if the menu is not in six languages. So as it got closer to dinner time we wondered away from the Duomo and on the other side of the river. There were still some churches near the Ponte Vecchio, so we walked some more. Just as Fabienne was saying maybe we should start working our way back, a presumably drugged out man did what I call the “zombi walk” out of a side street. That's when I knew we were close! That street had a restaurant. A very drunk British woman who had just walked out saw us looking at the menu and gave it a recommendation. So we went for it. We split a bottle of their house white wine and a cheese platter. I got a zucchini crotchet thing, and Fabs got ravioli-- best meal I have had in a long time! They had both Italians and foreigners eating there. It was called Trattoria I' Raddi. Next time I'm in Florence I'm definitely going back... so good!

All the pictures from this day are in my “Fabienne Visit's -Firenze ” album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110709FabienneVisitSFirenze

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Fabienne's Visit to Rome

My friend from high school, Fabienne made a special trip to Rome to visit me. We had lots of adventures in the center and area around Rome. We also took a trip to Florence and Venice.

Originally I had misread her flight itinerary and thought she was coming in the day before. That day Daniele was off work so I figured we would have a fun beach day and break into the touristy thing gently, shake the jet lag, also Rome's airport is like a five-minute drive from the beach. But the actual day she came in he worked, so I couldn't pick her up by car. It's easy to take the train to the center. So I sent updated instructions once I realized. She saw the email, but did not open it. It was a pretty stressful morning for both of us waiting and not knowing where the other was. We found each other eventually.

At that point Daniele was actually done with his morning shift. So we stashed her luggage in his car and were able to drive to some of the parts of the city less famous than the Colosseum. We went to Gianicolo Hill, one of the original hills of Rome. More of a residential area now, but the top is a park with fountains and great views. We also hit up Aventino hill which also has a great view from its gorgeous orange garden. I think that night we had diner at home, but I can't put the pieces together perfectly now.

The next day Fab's and I had a jam-packed sight seeing day in the center. After we all had breakfast together at home, Daniele dropped us off near the Vatican before heading to work. First I had us pick up some slices of pizza and mini-pizzas from my favorite baker/pizzeria. For about 3-euros a piece we each had a bag of yummy goodies. We checked out the Vatican after that. Checked out the square and then got in line for St. Peter's Cathedral; it was the perfect amount of time to eat our lunch. We stayed a really long time in the cathedral. It's just so beautiful. Took most of our day and it was too late to go to the Vatican Museums after. Fabs was also on the border about doing that anyway. From here we grabbed a snack at Mondo Arrancini and brought it to Castel Sant' Angelo to sit by the water and eat them. We took some pictures of the castle and bridge of angels before crossing over the river to the other side of the city. We walked along the river, stopping briefly at the Ara Pacis, on our way to Piazza del Popolo. From Piazza del Popolo, you can follow Via del Corso through the historical center and hit most the sights. Unfortunately it was late in the day. We quickly stopped by the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain when Daniele called saying he was waiting for us at Piazza del Popolo. I made Fabienne through 3 quick coins over her shoulder and we hurried back. That night we walked around the San Lorenzo area and had dinner at my favorite pizzaria, Marotoneta.

UPDATE:
Fabs has a italian-speaking opera-siniging bf now. They met in the US, but I have to give some credit to those Trevi Fountain coins.

There is more after all these pictures...



(Inside the Vatican)


(The Bridge of Angels in front of Castle Sant'Angelo)


(The fountain Barcaccia in Piazza di Spagna)


(Fabienne tossing her coins in the Trevi Fountain)

The next day we went to Lake Bracciano. We visited two towns on the lake: Bracciano and Anguillara, both medieval hill towns. First we went to Bracciano. It is set farther back from the lake and has a castle. In between we went to a restaurant that serves fish from the lake where Daniele's family always goes when they are here. I've mentioned Italians prefer going to the same restaurants over trying new ones. After we walked through Angulara, which is small and still elevated but set closer to the lake. We took a path down to the lake and walked along the path there. There are houses along the cliff edge between the old center and lake; many were covered in flowers. Farther down the river road there were sun bathers on the narrow lake beach. Some of the swimmers harassed the swans that were there.


(Castle of Bracciano)

(Lake Bracciano and surrounding area)

The next day we spent in the center doing the sights we still hadn't seen. We started with the Roman Forum which was awesome. It was actually my first time going inside, too. Then we hit up the Colosseum. From there we went to Piazza Venezia, then the Pantheon. There we got some of the original frozen espresso at Tazza D'Oro-- delicious! After we passed by the statue of Pasquino. This statue was unearthed in the 15th century and in the 16th century became the first talking statue. People would attach poems written in the Roman dialect to the statue criticizing the Pope or denouncing injustice. The tradition continues today. Then we went to Piazza Navona where we took lots of pictures and bought some small original paintings. Then wondered to Campo dei Fiori and eventually Tibertina Island, where we met up with my friend Ben who is on a trip around the world now that he finished school before he enters the working world and just happens to be in Rome now, as well as Daniele who's birthday it was! Daniele picked my favorite place for dinner: Momo. When we got there we found that they had little baby bunnies in the front lawn area, for no reason just hopping around being cute.


(Roman Forum)


(The Roman Forum. I'm waving in this picture. Can you see me?)


(Piazza Venezia with Altare della Patria)


(Street artists in Piazza Navona )

The following day was our beach day. I took Fabs to Ostia because I think it is a great experience and has a great culture. Ostia is “Rome's Beach”. There are several beaches near by, but this one is actually considered a suburb of Rome and the trains come here from the center. It's the most crowded, but that's some great people watching. Every woman in Italy wears a bikini. Size or age has no restrictions. The modesty bar is wayyyy over from were you are used to it being. Tops are optional all over the Mediterranean, you don't need to be at a special nude beach. Tops are optional for young girls any age young enough were she is not developed, so 10 year olds with out tops sometimes. Butt coverage? I don't really want to get into it, but there is not much there to describe. Men are not exempt. Sure smaller bathing suits are much more common; we all already know about that. Those who do where the style of swim trunks common in the US hike up the legs to make sure their thighs tan. Then there are the vendors. Vendors are so much more common all over Italy, but at the beach you really notice them. You are a captive audience. They just walk around offering their goods, from clothing to inflatables to coconut, normally kicking some sand on you or your towel as they pass. I hate the vendors. Anyway, Ostia is Italy at it's most guido. We took lots of pictures of cute boys, because that seemed funny to us at the time. Fab's and I had a lot of fun this day.


(Vendor at Ostia Beach selling hats and other things)


(In case you didn't believe me about those shorts...)

The next three days we spent in Florence and Venice. I'll write about them separately.

After that it was basically time to say goodbye.

All the pictures I took of Rome during Fab's visit are in my “Fabienne's Visit -Rome” album
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110704FabienneSVisitRoma#