leaving levanto

Its the last night in levanto...







we plan to eat at a place we all like...again...the triangle place.







late at night sometimes just before we go to be we watch some italian tv. the game show on channel five...
it has made a real impression on us...trying to figure out the rules....and the length of the show..3 hours! it is all just really DIFFERENT.

they always seem to mix in random scanty clad girls and then weird humor at totally random times.

overall just bizarre tv.



as usual...more later

jim

Under the Tuscan Sun

I would like to be able to write all about what we did during our week long stay in the Italian region of Tuscany, but I think it would take about a day out of our vacation. We went to so many fascinating hill towns, and though they did start to all run together a bit, almost all were unique and very interesting. Then there is the beautiful Tuscan countryside, which just seemed to go on and on. We stayed in a small village called Scrofiano in a great apartment. Here is a View from our window.

The highlight of the week was definitely the town of Siena. It is the biggest hill town in Tuscany, and and by far the most exciting. The primary reason for that was we went there during the start of the palio horse race. It is a race between the town's contradas (neighborhoods) and it is a big big big deal for the sienese people. The race is three laps around the town square, the piazza del Campo, with riders riding bareback. The first horse to cross the finish line wins for its contrada, whether there is a jockey on it or not. You might think that is farfetched, but second place this year was just that, horse sans rider. Here is a picture of the huge town square with the cathedral in the background.

We were actually in Siena for the drawing of the horses and the first of 6 practice races. We watched the actual Palio race on TV a day after we left Tuscany. Siena was quite hot, it was probably our hottest day so far in Italy. We didn't really know about the horse drawing, but trillion and I figured it out, mostly thanks to a pharmacist. She said the drawing was at 1:00 pm, it would be crowded on the square, and to “stay away from the people of Siena.” A little more about the Palio, the history of the contradas goes back hundreds of years, and there are bitter rivalries. Ten compete in each Palio, and they are randomly given a horse, hence the need for the draw. Each contrada parades into the square singing their songs, and then when they are given a horse, they go crazy, and parade out with their hose back to their neighborhood. Some horses I guess are known to be better then others, so when those horses are drawn, there is even more excitement.

I was getting to the point where I thought the pharmacist must have been exaggerating, when all of the sudden, during the parade out of the goose contrada, the horse was leaving without the parade of people behind it. I knew something weird was happening, and just a second later the fists were flying. There was a huge fight of about 50 people from two rival contradas, and from our perspective (which was pretty far away) it looked like everyone was just waving their fists in the air. It was absolutely crazy, and definitely something you don't see everyday.

We toured Siena for a while, Trillion and I had lunch with the Snail contrada, and then we got our spots to watch the first practice race. The amount of excitement surrounding this race was astounding, especially considering there would still be five more practices and the actual race. Everyone was singing, chanting, and just generally going crazy. The horses paraded out, got in the starting area, and suddenly they were off. The race was unfortunately about what you would expect from a practice. We watched the actual Palio on TV a few days later and it was a wild race, watch it on youtube if you are interested.

Another highlight of Tuscany was the town of Cortona. There was an auto show going on and a town festival. We also got great meal there, which Jim had been looking forward to the whole trip. The restaurant had great homemade pasta. I got the pasta with spicy sauce and sausage, and it was amazing. We also visited a really small town called Civita Baggenario, which I think is actually in Umbria. I think there are maybe 11 residents, and you have to walk across a bridge to get there. It used to be a land bridge, but it was bombed in WWII.

It was a great, but also very tiring week in Tuscany. Hopefully Trillion will be able to upload some more facebook pictures soon, at least within the next week. Goodbye to Tuscany, at least until next time...

porta fino boats

this is lynda and i in the yacht pen at porta fino....more later!

levanto its hot!

Well we are here in levanto now....i will just skip capri and sorranto since barrett covered them well i am sure.





lynda and i drove to porta fina a super upscale hill town next to the ocean. it was filled with the rich and beautiful...much like a mini capri.


we enjoyed the drive there...we took the back roads on purpose.

yesterday we took the train to a couple of nearby towns here in the cinque terra and all jumped off rocks into the blue water....at least most places it was blue......

we are going out to eat as a group most nights and find the food good...but expensive.


7 has been the most daring ordering things with fish and other things from the ocean in it.
we all eat a lot of pizza!

this town hops until 2am, and our apartment is right over the town park. even young kids are out riding their bikes and kicking balls etc until 2 or even 3am .....there is a sign which says no bikes balls running on the grass etc which is ignored by EVERYONE.....its italy...

well off to the beach ...kids are already there.

jim

Sorrento!!

Ok, so it has been a while since I have had extended internet access, but i still want to write about Sorrento and the Amalfi coast, our stop after Rome. We stayed for 4 nights, and it was an amazing time with beautiful weather. Here is Trillion and I with some of the coastline in the background. Part of it is the city of Sorrento, where we stayed. Our place was about a two minute walk to one of the few sand beaches in the area. There was also a decent sized harbor there with fishing boats.

On our first day we drove down the Amalfi coast, which is on the south side of the peninsula (Sorrento is on the north, and across the bay from Sorrento is Naples). It was a crazy drive with the road mostly not wide enough for two normal sized cars. Then it was onto Paestum, some Greek ruins further down south, and then Trillion and I got dropped off at Pompeii. Pompeii, as you may well know, was a Roman city buried under ash from mt. Vesuvius after its eruption almost 2000 years ago. The volcano is still very much active, and many scientists believe a major eruption could occur soon. The roman city is incredibly well preserved and really interesting. This is me in the forum with the volcano ominously in the background.

The next day was our Capri day, and what a day it was. We rented a boat and drove it to the famous and Luxurious island, which is just off the end of the peninsula I discussed earlier. It took us about an hour to get there, but much longer if you factor in trying to find a place to port. Then We took a funicular to the city of Capri, bused to Anacapri, and took a single seat chair lift to the top of mt. Salerno for a stunning view.

We left port and boated around the island for a while to find good places to swim. Thanks to our spectacular captain and navigator (see my facebook profile picture) we were successful. Jim actually did most of the boat driving and did a great job. This is my first video upload onto here, so I hope it works.

Finally on our last day we stayed around Sorrento. It was a much needed day of relaxing after a bunch of busy days in a row. Sorrento is a great city with lots if interesting shops. The whole area is famous for its lemon trees, and Sorrento in particular is known for lemoncello. There are even a few shops that offer free samples! I found a good looking restaurant online called da Giginos, and it turned out to be a great place. They served us prosecco when we sat down and had great pizza and lasagna. All around it was a great time. I can't wait til I come back on my yacht in a few years!

sorrento/capri vacation central

We arrrived here a few days ago and picked up our keys at a house on a back "street" that was being gutted. The workers there called a guy who arrived on a scooter and said "follow me".....

He took us down a narrow street and then through an alley so skinny that i drug my mirror on the building.....

It is a nice place that is once again large enough for all six of us.

the first day here we drove down the amalfi coast....its known as a white knuckle drive...tight curves, narrow road. fantastic views.

four hours later we were at an ancient greek ruin place called pasteum that lynda has always wanted to see.

the next day we rented a boat and boated over to capri. docked for 10 euros and walked the city for a while....then rode a single chair lift to the top of mt salerno. then back down for a run around the island...with a few swims here and there. we also drove the boat straight through one of those big famous rocks.....well there was a hole there of course, but it was really neat.

lynda though we were going to die when a large boat wake came into the boat to visit us while we were stopped and changing fuel tanks. overall it was a fun memorable experience.

hopfully the kids will post some boat photos...i was too busy driving....

more later..off to tuscany next....

Rome!

I've finally got a chance to write about rome, so here is my take on it for those who prefer paragraphs and no ellipses.

I would have to say rome is my favorite city we have visited so far. It's an amazing mix of ancient, old and modern. We stayed right by the Colosseum, as Jim already talked about, which seems like it was dropped into the middle of a modern city. The drive in was crazy, but we managed to get to the place with no wrong turns thanks to our awesome navigator, and a little help from the GPS.

The first day Trillion and I got up early and took the incredibly busy subway to Vatican city. We had bought tickets ahead of time to the museum (which is supposedly one of the best collections in the world) and that allowed us to skip the line which spanned two city blocks. There were tons of statues of everything from animals to emperors. The coolest part was the map room. It was a huge room with big maps all along the wall. Here I am gazing at one of the many maps.

The museum ended with the Sistine chapel, which was packed with tour groups. We exited through the tour group exit that took us out by the entrance to the cupolo, which is the gigantic dome on top of st. Peter's basilica. There were over 500 stairs to climb, but it was definitely worth it as we got the most spectacular view of the city.

Walking down left us inside the basilica. I wish i had a picture that showed how big it was, but there's just no way to capture it in a photograph. We did the Vatican in less than 3 hours! leaving us plenty of time to see more of the city. After meeting up with everyone else, we walked to the Borghese gardens, kind of like the central park of Rome, except on a big hill. One the way was one of the best meals of the trip. I got a rigatoni carbonara, but trillion's pasta pesto was the best. And the portions were so big that I couldn't finish everything even though i wanted to. At the park we rented big pedal carts. It was really fun to ride them all around, and it makes for a funny picture.

The next day was the Colosseum and Roman forum. They are really old, and it's weird to think this was once home to the most powerful civilization in the world. The Colosseum was very impressive, but the forum was mostly fallen or taken apart. On our last day trillion and I went to the ruins of the nearby port of ostia antica, which was much better preserved and really neat.

In the evening we spent a lot of time at piazza Navona and the Trevi fountain. Piazza Navona is a huge square (though actually a rectangle) full of fountains, artists, and street performers. There are also tons of great looking restaurants just to the west, we ate at a couple. The Trevi fountain is weird because it is right up against a building. It was always packed. Also in that area is Pantheon, which is one of the best preserved roman buildings, mostly because it was converted to a church. It is so strange to come around the corner and right in the middle of the city is this ancient building.

We did much more in Rome, but there just isn't time to cover it all. We saw more churches, museums, piazzas, and all kinds of great food. The best was Navona Notte. The four cheese gnocchi was delicious, as was the pasta alla vodka. They also had the best chocolate mousse I have ever had. Trillion even liked it better than the tiramisu.

Time to say goodbye to Rome, until next time, that is.