Today we got up at the crack of dawn to take the metro and then the train to Charles de Gaulle Airport. We had a direct flight from Paris to Los Angeles with a stop in Chicago to go through customs. We arrived at the Charles de Gaulle with plenty of time to spare and boarded the plane without incident.
Upon arriving in Chicago, we were supposed to be issued priority passes, enabling us to get through customs and back onto the same exact plane that we had just been on so that we could finish our flight to LAX. As luck would have it and as is usual with United Airlines, we were not given our passes due to lack of organization on United's part. This shortcoming caused us and several other passengers to be delayed, thus resulting in all of us missing our flight back to LAX. We ended up on the next flight out two hours later. Considering the number of planes, trains, and buses that we took this month, having only one missed connection was pretty remarkable.
Here is the final tally of our trip.
• Airplane Flights: 4
• Trains: 8
• Tour Bus: 3
• Tours: 10
• Hotels: 9
• Beer/bratwurst meals: 3
• Castles: 5
• Churches/Cathedrals: 9
• Museums: 6
• Funicular Rides: 2
• Souvenirs: 7 (3 sweaters, 1 purse, 1 Christmas ornament, 2 refrigerator magnets)
• Luggage: 2 carry-ons per person, there and back. YEESS!
• Pictures: 10 gigabytes
• Gelatos: Countless
In closing, we hope that you had as much fun reading about this adventure as we had living it.
Until next time, Ciao!
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Museum Day and a trip to the Opera
Today, was “Museum Day”. We were up early to get to the Musee d’Orsay at 9 am. After a short wait in line, we were able to get in without much drama. We spent a pleasant few hours in the Museum looking at the impressionist paintings, but preferred the sculpture collection and the Art Deco wing, which had some gorgeous furniture and objects d’art. We weren’t allowed to take pictures in the museum, so no pictures to post here.
From the Musee d’Orsay, we took a tour of the Paris Opera. Marianne (Antonia’s stepmother) had recommended this tour, and it was one of the highlights of our trip to Paris. Our tour guide was excellent. Half-French and half-American, he was thoughtful and witty while showing us around. He was also studying to be an opera singer, and his passion for the art form and for the building was palpable and infectious. The tour is quite extensive, although we were unable to go backstage because they were rehearsing a ballet for that evening (we were able to watch a bit of the rehearsal, though). For those going to Paris, this is a must-see.
After the Opera, we headed for the Louvre. A tip: The entrance fee for the Louvre goes down by two euros after 4 pm, and the Museum is open on Wednesdays until 10 pm. 4 pm on Wednesday is the time to go.
We stopped for a café au lait to fortify ourselves before heading in, and met two charming Canadians, Tina and Pamela, who were leaving Paris that day and gave us their Museum Passes, which gave us free and accelerated entry to the Louvre. (We liked the Canadians before this trip, but are HUGE fans now. They are the nicest people ever!)
The Louvre is enormous. Like the Smithsonian, if you looked at each exhibit for a few seconds, it would still take you a few years to get through the place. If you have a Museum Pass, you do not enter the museum through the glass pyramid, but through a side entrance. The museum has an excellent map that shows you were the highlights in each wing. At first, I rebelled against this map, thinking we would find our own highlights. We went through the lower level first, but soon realized that in fact the museum map was the right thing to follow.
We headed to the first of many Egyptian wings, where we checked out the mummies. But the highlights for us were the two “Captives” of Michaelangelo (There are six “Captives” in total, four in Florence and two in the Louvre. We were lucky to have seen all six), the Venus de Milo (flawless), Psyche and Cupid (romantic, with a real feeling of movement), the Winged Victory of Somothrace (which has powerful energy), and the Lacemaker by Vermeer. (The Smithsonian has a large collection of Vermeer in their 17th Century Dutch wing, and it was always Antonia’s favorite wing when she lived in D.C.)
We finally stumbled out of the glass pyramid and made our blurry way home to finish packing for our flight back to Los Angeles.
From the Musee d’Orsay, we took a tour of the Paris Opera. Marianne (Antonia’s stepmother) had recommended this tour, and it was one of the highlights of our trip to Paris. Our tour guide was excellent. Half-French and half-American, he was thoughtful and witty while showing us around. He was also studying to be an opera singer, and his passion for the art form and for the building was palpable and infectious. The tour is quite extensive, although we were unable to go backstage because they were rehearsing a ballet for that evening (we were able to watch a bit of the rehearsal, though). For those going to Paris, this is a must-see.
After the Opera, we headed for the Louvre. A tip: The entrance fee for the Louvre goes down by two euros after 4 pm, and the Museum is open on Wednesdays until 10 pm. 4 pm on Wednesday is the time to go.
We stopped for a café au lait to fortify ourselves before heading in, and met two charming Canadians, Tina and Pamela, who were leaving Paris that day and gave us their Museum Passes, which gave us free and accelerated entry to the Louvre. (We liked the Canadians before this trip, but are HUGE fans now. They are the nicest people ever!)
The Louvre is enormous. Like the Smithsonian, if you looked at each exhibit for a few seconds, it would still take you a few years to get through the place. If you have a Museum Pass, you do not enter the museum through the glass pyramid, but through a side entrance. The museum has an excellent map that shows you were the highlights in each wing. At first, I rebelled against this map, thinking we would find our own highlights. We went through the lower level first, but soon realized that in fact the museum map was the right thing to follow.
We headed to the first of many Egyptian wings, where we checked out the mummies. But the highlights for us were the two “Captives” of Michaelangelo (There are six “Captives” in total, four in Florence and two in the Louvre. We were lucky to have seen all six), the Venus de Milo (flawless), Psyche and Cupid (romantic, with a real feeling of movement), the Winged Victory of Somothrace (which has powerful energy), and the Lacemaker by Vermeer. (The Smithsonian has a large collection of Vermeer in their 17th Century Dutch wing, and it was always Antonia’s favorite wing when she lived in D.C.)
We finally stumbled out of the glass pyramid and made our blurry way home to finish packing for our flight back to Los Angeles.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Versailles and the Japanime'
We were up early to go on our day-long tour of Versailles and were at the tour office at 8 am. Unfortunately, the day-long tour was overbooked, and they moved us to the half-day tour instead, which started at 2 pm. Eric was really annoyed. To distract him, we went to Saint-Chapelle, the palatine chapel in the courtyard of the royal palace on the Île de la Cité. This chapel has some of the most famous stained glass windows in the world, many of which were unfortunately being restored while we were there. The chapel also houses a large collection of saints' relics and papal treasure (we have seen a lot of the Roman Catholic Church’s collections by going through the museum of St. Peters and the Vatican Museum in Rome, the museum in Notre Dame, and then the museum in Saint-Chapelle). Unfortunately, it was overcast that morning, and the windows were not as luminous as they are in direct sunlight, but it was definitely worth the visit.
From Saint Chappelle we took the metro across town to go to the Catacombs. The Catacombs of Paris are a famous underground ossuary in Paris, France. (An ossuary is a site made to serve as the final resting place of human skeletal remains, frequently used where burial space is scarce.) The ossuary fills a rennovated section of caverns and tunnels that are the remains of Paris’s stone quarries that were used to build the city. The Catacombs collected the bones of all the cemeteries of Paris from 1786 to 1814. They hold the remains of approximately 6 million Parisians. (There are catacombs in Rome as well, but we didn’t have time to see them while we were there, so Eric was really looking forward to seeing the Paris version.)
To get to the catacombs, you walk down an incredibly narrow, windy staircase until you get to the quarries. You walk quite a long way through underground tunnels and caverns until you get to the Catacombs (and the bones themselves). The bones are artistically arranged but very hard to photograph due to the dim light. (For better photos, google “Paris Catacombs”.)
The tour took longer than we had expected (two hours), so we had to hop back on the metro and make it back to the heart of Paris to catch our bus to Versailles. After touring several Versailles replicas in Germany, it was interesting to see the real thing, which is on an enormous scale. Still, the sheer number of people everywhere took the pleasure out of it a bit, much like it had in Venice. Versailles should be seen once, but I don’t have any desire to go back.
At the palace, there was an exhibit of the Japanese artist Takashi Murakami, who specializes in manga and pop culture. While we applauded the idea of bringing together the modern with the historical, we found the exhibit to be pretty jarring. (Although we thought the gold statue in the garden was kind of funny. It reminded us of Napoleon.)
As our bus made its way back to Paris, we got caught up in a strike for something or other. (Paris was always on strike during the month of September. We weren’t sure if we would be able to fly into Paris because the air traffic controllers were on strike. The train conductors were threatening to go on strike the day after we left, which was the start of fashion week in Paris. One of our fellow shuttle passengers to the Milan airport made the immortal remark: “A strike in Paris – what else is new?”) We snapped a picture of crowd control from the bus. Our bus driver did a masterful job of getting us back to the tour agency.
From Saint Chappelle we took the metro across town to go to the Catacombs. The Catacombs of Paris are a famous underground ossuary in Paris, France. (An ossuary is a site made to serve as the final resting place of human skeletal remains, frequently used where burial space is scarce.) The ossuary fills a rennovated section of caverns and tunnels that are the remains of Paris’s stone quarries that were used to build the city. The Catacombs collected the bones of all the cemeteries of Paris from 1786 to 1814. They hold the remains of approximately 6 million Parisians. (There are catacombs in Rome as well, but we didn’t have time to see them while we were there, so Eric was really looking forward to seeing the Paris version.)
To get to the catacombs, you walk down an incredibly narrow, windy staircase until you get to the quarries. You walk quite a long way through underground tunnels and caverns until you get to the Catacombs (and the bones themselves). The bones are artistically arranged but very hard to photograph due to the dim light. (For better photos, google “Paris Catacombs”.)
The tour took longer than we had expected (two hours), so we had to hop back on the metro and make it back to the heart of Paris to catch our bus to Versailles. After touring several Versailles replicas in Germany, it was interesting to see the real thing, which is on an enormous scale. Still, the sheer number of people everywhere took the pleasure out of it a bit, much like it had in Venice. Versailles should be seen once, but I don’t have any desire to go back.
At the palace, there was an exhibit of the Japanese artist Takashi Murakami, who specializes in manga and pop culture. While we applauded the idea of bringing together the modern with the historical, we found the exhibit to be pretty jarring. (Although we thought the gold statue in the garden was kind of funny. It reminded us of Napoleon.)
As our bus made its way back to Paris, we got caught up in a strike for something or other. (Paris was always on strike during the month of September. We weren’t sure if we would be able to fly into Paris because the air traffic controllers were on strike. The train conductors were threatening to go on strike the day after we left, which was the start of fashion week in Paris. One of our fellow shuttle passengers to the Milan airport made the immortal remark: “A strike in Paris – what else is new?”) We snapped a picture of crowd control from the bus. Our bus driver did a masterful job of getting us back to the tour agency.
Monday, September 27, 2010
A fun filled day - Cafe, Sewers, Cemetery, and Eric's 3 hour misadventure in the Metro
Monday we slept in a little bit and then walked up the Boulevard Saint-Germain to Les Deux Magots, a famous café which supposedly has the best hot chocolate in Paris. It was the best hot chocolate I have ever had! We sat outside and watched the people, and had a stereotypical surly/snooty waiter, the first “attitude” we had received from a Parisian since we had arrived. We were initially turned off but decided to see if we could shift his perception of American tourists by leaving him a generous tip, which earned us a genuine smile from him.
From there, we headed out to Montparnasse per Christophe’s instructions. Since it was overcast and grey, we did not bother to go up the tower for the view. Instead, we headed back towards the Seine to take the Paris Sewer Tour. Sewers have been draining wastewater in Paris since the beginning of the 13th Century, when the city's streets were paved and drains were built. Covered sewers were introduced during the reign of Napoléon Bonaparte, and the current network of more than 2,100 km of sewer tunnels was begun in 1850. The sandstone tunnels carry drainwater from the streets, sanitary sewers (now in separate pipes), mains for drinking water and the water used for streetcleaning, telecommunications cables, and pneumatic tubes between post offices.
The tour goes along the tunnels where the sewer pipes run. After descending the stairs from the aboveground ticket office, we entered a long gallery beneath the Quai d'Orsay that runs parallel to the Seine. We saw pipes and a five-ton "flushing boat" in what once was the main sewer line between the Place de la Concorde and the Pont de l'Alma. We also passed a large basin that traps solid material from wastewater (the sewers recover more than 15,000 cubic meters of grit per year). The main exhibit area is built above the sand trap of the main sewer.
We also saw sewer-maintenance equipment from past and present, mannequins of sewer workers in underground gear, huge wooden balls used to clean tunnels beneath the Seine, fascinating exhibits about the history and design of the Paris sewer network, and rushing drainwater from the streets above. You can also watch a video in the small theatre and browse through the gift shop. We had never contemplated how a sewer system works, and it’s amazing that a system that is over 100 years old is still supporting the millions of Paris inhabitants and modern engineering aboveground. It was very interesting, and we enjoyed it. (It’s dry, but it does smell a bit….odd.)
Antonia was eager to see the Pere La Chaise Cemetery. It took us forever to find it – we didn’t realize that there was an actual Metro stop for it since the guidebook we had neglected to mention the fact. We finally found the stop and we got on our way around 4 pm. By the time we arrived, we only had an hour to explore the Cemetery, and we didn’t find a map that would show us where some of the more famous people were buried (like Sarah Bernhardt, Honore de Balzac, Isadora Duncan, Jim Morrison, Edith Piaf, and Oscar Wilde), but we did spend an amazing hour wandering around the gravestones. The weather was grey and overcast, and the cemetery looked just like a movie set: gothic, ominous, but with incredibly beautiful details. We could have stayed for hours taking photos. Unfortunately we were kicked out at 6 pm.
From the Cemetery we took the Metro to the Arc de Triomphe and walked down the Champs Elysees, past the Tuilleries Gardens, and back to our apartment. It was getting dark. Although the Champs Elysees is famous, it was not a highlight of our trip for us. Perhaps because we had now walked so many “main streets” (in Munich, in Rome, and all over Italy), the charm was somewhat lost on us. In addition, it’s clear how much global commerce has taken originality out of shopping. We expected to see some extraordinary fashion in Paris and Milan, but we didn’t see anything that we didn’t think we could get in Los Angeles, for cheaper. Perhaps you need to know where to shop. It was distressing to see a Gap on the Champs Elysees, that’s all we’re saying.
Back at the apartment, I was exhausted, so Eric volunteered to get food for us. I should have known after the two nights in Munich and Rome, but there were so many cafes in our neighborhood, I didn’t think it would be such an ordeal. 2.5 hours later (I was freaking out!) he returned, bringing….Subway sandwiches. He couldn’t find anything to bring home, got on the metro and got turned around. Good grief! He was forbidden to go anywhere else by himself after that. (‘Course, we only had two more days of our trip, but still!)
From there, we headed out to Montparnasse per Christophe’s instructions. Since it was overcast and grey, we did not bother to go up the tower for the view. Instead, we headed back towards the Seine to take the Paris Sewer Tour. Sewers have been draining wastewater in Paris since the beginning of the 13th Century, when the city's streets were paved and drains were built. Covered sewers were introduced during the reign of Napoléon Bonaparte, and the current network of more than 2,100 km of sewer tunnels was begun in 1850. The sandstone tunnels carry drainwater from the streets, sanitary sewers (now in separate pipes), mains for drinking water and the water used for streetcleaning, telecommunications cables, and pneumatic tubes between post offices.
The tour goes along the tunnels where the sewer pipes run. After descending the stairs from the aboveground ticket office, we entered a long gallery beneath the Quai d'Orsay that runs parallel to the Seine. We saw pipes and a five-ton "flushing boat" in what once was the main sewer line between the Place de la Concorde and the Pont de l'Alma. We also passed a large basin that traps solid material from wastewater (the sewers recover more than 15,000 cubic meters of grit per year). The main exhibit area is built above the sand trap of the main sewer.
We also saw sewer-maintenance equipment from past and present, mannequins of sewer workers in underground gear, huge wooden balls used to clean tunnels beneath the Seine, fascinating exhibits about the history and design of the Paris sewer network, and rushing drainwater from the streets above. You can also watch a video in the small theatre and browse through the gift shop. We had never contemplated how a sewer system works, and it’s amazing that a system that is over 100 years old is still supporting the millions of Paris inhabitants and modern engineering aboveground. It was very interesting, and we enjoyed it. (It’s dry, but it does smell a bit….odd.)
Antonia was eager to see the Pere La Chaise Cemetery. It took us forever to find it – we didn’t realize that there was an actual Metro stop for it since the guidebook we had neglected to mention the fact. We finally found the stop and we got on our way around 4 pm. By the time we arrived, we only had an hour to explore the Cemetery, and we didn’t find a map that would show us where some of the more famous people were buried (like Sarah Bernhardt, Honore de Balzac, Isadora Duncan, Jim Morrison, Edith Piaf, and Oscar Wilde), but we did spend an amazing hour wandering around the gravestones. The weather was grey and overcast, and the cemetery looked just like a movie set: gothic, ominous, but with incredibly beautiful details. We could have stayed for hours taking photos. Unfortunately we were kicked out at 6 pm.
From the Cemetery we took the Metro to the Arc de Triomphe and walked down the Champs Elysees, past the Tuilleries Gardens, and back to our apartment. It was getting dark. Although the Champs Elysees is famous, it was not a highlight of our trip for us. Perhaps because we had now walked so many “main streets” (in Munich, in Rome, and all over Italy), the charm was somewhat lost on us. In addition, it’s clear how much global commerce has taken originality out of shopping. We expected to see some extraordinary fashion in Paris and Milan, but we didn’t see anything that we didn’t think we could get in Los Angeles, for cheaper. Perhaps you need to know where to shop. It was distressing to see a Gap on the Champs Elysees, that’s all we’re saying.
Back at the apartment, I was exhausted, so Eric volunteered to get food for us. I should have known after the two nights in Munich and Rome, but there were so many cafes in our neighborhood, I didn’t think it would be such an ordeal. 2.5 hours later (I was freaking out!) he returned, bringing….Subway sandwiches. He couldn’t find anything to bring home, got on the metro and got turned around. Good grief! He was forbidden to go anywhere else by himself after that. (‘Course, we only had two more days of our trip, but still!)
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Psst!!! Christophe is gonna show us the Antique Market. Come on!!! :)
Christophe and Kirsten met us at our place in the morning. We had a quick petit dejouner and then took the metro to the outskirts of Paris to tour the Antique Market, which is enormous. We walked around countless kiosks/shops, some large, some small, full of incredible things: Louis XVI furniture, lifesize pigs and roosters, modern furniture, antique lace, dishware of every imaginable pattern. It was overwhelming. There was a lot of English spoken, but the people there were not tourists but professional antiques buyers. Kerstin and I were distracted by a two storey store that sold antique clothing, but we were too intimidated to try anything on, as everything looked very fragile and very expensive. Also during this time, Eric discovered the black and white feature on the digital camera, which was perfect since Paris was so grey. ( I thought some of the pictures look like they were taken during the Sixties.)
For lunch, Christophe took us to a restaurant in the heart of the Market. He knew the head waiter there, and we got a great table by the window looking out into the street. During an excellent lunch of steak, Christophe regaled us of stories of his youth. Christophe’s mother is German and his father French, and he grew up mainly in Germany. When he was a teenager, his mother would send him to the Paris Antique market to buy antiques and smuggle them back to Germany, so he got to know the dealers (and this restaurant) really well. He remarked on the irony of the EU and the euro now – you can no longer “smuggle” antiques in this manner. He had great stories about this time. Kerstin actually knew Christophe during this time as they were in high school together, but she had no idea that he had such a lucrative side business – she just knew he wasn’t in school much.
After lunch, we left the Antique Market through the much less glamorous flea market, and then took the metro to the train station to say goodbye to Kirsten and Christophe, who were going back to Germany together. Suddenly, we were bereft. What were we going to do without our incredible tour guides? I cornered Christophe in the Metro and asked him what we should do, and he gave us our itinerary: the Moulin Rouge that night, breakfast the next day at Montparnasse with a trip to the top of the Montparnasse tower for a view of Paris, and the Pere La Chaise cemetery. A trip to Versailles.
With those instructions in mind, we said goodbye to these dear friends of ours, who had made Paris so wonderful for us. After they left, we felt like we needed a little downtime. It was grey and wet, and we did not want to go to the Moulin Rouge. We didn’t have anything to wear that would suit that kind of evening. We went back to the apartment and had a relaxing evening.
For lunch, Christophe took us to a restaurant in the heart of the Market. He knew the head waiter there, and we got a great table by the window looking out into the street. During an excellent lunch of steak, Christophe regaled us of stories of his youth. Christophe’s mother is German and his father French, and he grew up mainly in Germany. When he was a teenager, his mother would send him to the Paris Antique market to buy antiques and smuggle them back to Germany, so he got to know the dealers (and this restaurant) really well. He remarked on the irony of the EU and the euro now – you can no longer “smuggle” antiques in this manner. He had great stories about this time. Kerstin actually knew Christophe during this time as they were in high school together, but she had no idea that he had such a lucrative side business – she just knew he wasn’t in school much.
After lunch, we left the Antique Market through the much less glamorous flea market, and then took the metro to the train station to say goodbye to Kirsten and Christophe, who were going back to Germany together. Suddenly, we were bereft. What were we going to do without our incredible tour guides? I cornered Christophe in the Metro and asked him what we should do, and he gave us our itinerary: the Moulin Rouge that night, breakfast the next day at Montparnasse with a trip to the top of the Montparnasse tower for a view of Paris, and the Pere La Chaise cemetery. A trip to Versailles.
With those instructions in mind, we said goodbye to these dear friends of ours, who had made Paris so wonderful for us. After they left, we felt like we needed a little downtime. It was grey and wet, and we did not want to go to the Moulin Rouge. We didn’t have anything to wear that would suit that kind of evening. We went back to the apartment and had a relaxing evening.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Here come Kerstin and Christophe, YAAAY!!!!!!
Saturday morning, we got up early and went to see Notre Dame, just a small bridge away from us on the Ile-de-la-Cite. Notre Dame is enormous and there was a lot to see.
We took a leisurely stroll from Notre Dame to the Hotel de Ville, which had a big outdoor festival promoting heart health. There was a colorful violinist playing there, jumping up on the stage and walking around in the crowd while she played. From there, we walked along the Seine to the Boulevard Henry V, and turned northeast to the Bastille, where we met our friends Kerstin and Christophe at their hotel.
We had met Kerstin and Christophe initially in San Francisco, and they had spent two days with us in Los Angeles in the spring. Christophe is an excellent cook, and had made us a wonderful meal in L.A. While they were with us in California, we made plans to meet up in Paris. Kerstin lives in Germany and Christophe lives in Strasbourg. They have been to Paris several times, and we were really touched and grateful that they agreed to spend a weekend with us and show us around the city.
Once we connected with the two of them around 2 pm, Christophe took charge. And thank goodness he did. By this point, we had had a number of professional tour guides, but Christophe was one of the best guides we had, for two reasons: one, he knows a lot about the history of Paris; and two, he has a wonderful sense of timing. It was great to turn the reins over to him, because he knew exactly how the day should go.
After a coffee in the Bastille neighborhoods, we hopped on the Metro and went to Sacre Coeur. We climbed up the stairs so we could take in the view of the rooftops of Paris, and then walked through the church. From there, we walked through the winding streets of Montmartre, past the Moulin Rouge and the Musee de l’Erotisme, the Erotic Museum. (We used to have an Erotic Museum down the street from us in Hollywood which we had already toured, so we didn’t feel the need to visit.)
Eric was ready for a crepe at this point, so we stopped at a creperie in the Latin Quarter for dinner. Then it was back into the metro to the Trocadero.
There are two main ways to approach the Eiffel Tower. One is to come down the Champs Elysees, where you see the Tower the entire way. The second is to come up on the Tower’s backside, through the Trocadero, which in my opinion is much the better way. You exit the metro station and climb a flight of white marble stairs. As you climb up, the Tower appears right in front of you, from the top down. It is a beautiful sight. The sky was dark, and we had a wonderful view of the city.
A short walk from the Trocadero we caught a river boat that we took along the Seine. We were on the last boat, which departed at 11 pm. We were on the prow of the boat, directly under the Eiffel Tower, when the clock struck 11 pm and the Tower lit up with thousands of twinkling lights, which it does every hour on the hour after sunset.
The boat ride along the river was lovely, with all of the major landmarks lit up for the night. There was an audio tour of the route, but Christophe’s narration was more interesting and informative. We got back to the dock at midnight, just in time to see the Eiffel Tower light up again.
We took a leisurely stroll from Notre Dame to the Hotel de Ville, which had a big outdoor festival promoting heart health. There was a colorful violinist playing there, jumping up on the stage and walking around in the crowd while she played. From there, we walked along the Seine to the Boulevard Henry V, and turned northeast to the Bastille, where we met our friends Kerstin and Christophe at their hotel.
We had met Kerstin and Christophe initially in San Francisco, and they had spent two days with us in Los Angeles in the spring. Christophe is an excellent cook, and had made us a wonderful meal in L.A. While they were with us in California, we made plans to meet up in Paris. Kerstin lives in Germany and Christophe lives in Strasbourg. They have been to Paris several times, and we were really touched and grateful that they agreed to spend a weekend with us and show us around the city.
Once we connected with the two of them around 2 pm, Christophe took charge. And thank goodness he did. By this point, we had had a number of professional tour guides, but Christophe was one of the best guides we had, for two reasons: one, he knows a lot about the history of Paris; and two, he has a wonderful sense of timing. It was great to turn the reins over to him, because he knew exactly how the day should go.
After a coffee in the Bastille neighborhoods, we hopped on the Metro and went to Sacre Coeur. We climbed up the stairs so we could take in the view of the rooftops of Paris, and then walked through the church. From there, we walked through the winding streets of Montmartre, past the Moulin Rouge and the Musee de l’Erotisme, the Erotic Museum. (We used to have an Erotic Museum down the street from us in Hollywood which we had already toured, so we didn’t feel the need to visit.)
Eric was ready for a crepe at this point, so we stopped at a creperie in the Latin Quarter for dinner. Then it was back into the metro to the Trocadero.
There are two main ways to approach the Eiffel Tower. One is to come down the Champs Elysees, where you see the Tower the entire way. The second is to come up on the Tower’s backside, through the Trocadero, which in my opinion is much the better way. You exit the metro station and climb a flight of white marble stairs. As you climb up, the Tower appears right in front of you, from the top down. It is a beautiful sight. The sky was dark, and we had a wonderful view of the city.
A short walk from the Trocadero we caught a river boat that we took along the Seine. We were on the last boat, which departed at 11 pm. We were on the prow of the boat, directly under the Eiffel Tower, when the clock struck 11 pm and the Tower lit up with thousands of twinkling lights, which it does every hour on the hour after sunset.
The boat ride along the river was lovely, with all of the major landmarks lit up for the night. There was an audio tour of the route, but Christophe’s narration was more interesting and informative. We got back to the dock at midnight, just in time to see the Eiffel Tower light up again.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Arrivederci, Italia! Bonjour Paris!
We made our way downstairs 10 minutes before our shuttle arrived, not thinking we had time for breakfast. We were corrected by the desk manager (“In Italy there is ALWAYS time for a cappuccino!”) and sat down for a quick breakfast before getting onto the shuttle. The flight from Milan to Paris is not long, and we soon found ourselves navigating the French train/metro system to get to my great-aunt’s apartment on the Ile-St.-Louis.
Arriving in Paris from Italy was the reverse of arriving in Rome from Germany. It was twenty degrees colder, grey, and drizzly. Brrr! The train/metro ride was fairly long, but we were soon lugging our bags across the Seine to get to the apartment. We had the keys to the apartment, but what we did not have was the front gate entry code. We couldn’t figure out who to call, and weren’t sure what to do next until a kindly neighbor who lived across the street let us in. (Why she knew the code was a mystery to us, but we thought it best not to ask and just be thankful she did.)
We greeted the landlady of the building with flowers and let her know we were there, and hauled our bags up four flights of steep, windy flights of stairs before letting us into Rosamonde’s charming artist “garret”. It was very “La Boheme-esque”. We took a walk around the neighborhood and bought some bread, cheese and wine for dinner at a local grocery store, and some lovely dessert at a local bakery, including a crepe. Thus started Eric’s Paris-long crepe fixation, echoing our” gelato-at-two” Italian fixation. From this day forward, Eric had to have at least one crepe per day.
Arriving in Paris from Italy was the reverse of arriving in Rome from Germany. It was twenty degrees colder, grey, and drizzly. Brrr! The train/metro ride was fairly long, but we were soon lugging our bags across the Seine to get to the apartment. We had the keys to the apartment, but what we did not have was the front gate entry code. We couldn’t figure out who to call, and weren’t sure what to do next until a kindly neighbor who lived across the street let us in. (Why she knew the code was a mystery to us, but we thought it best not to ask and just be thankful she did.)
We greeted the landlady of the building with flowers and let her know we were there, and hauled our bags up four flights of steep, windy flights of stairs before letting us into Rosamonde’s charming artist “garret”. It was very “La Boheme-esque”. We took a walk around the neighborhood and bought some bread, cheese and wine for dinner at a local grocery store, and some lovely dessert at a local bakery, including a crepe. Thus started Eric’s Paris-long crepe fixation, echoing our” gelato-at-two” Italian fixation. From this day forward, Eric had to have at least one crepe per day.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Last full day in Italy
This morning we packed up our bags and caught a street car back to the Duomo to take some pictures of the fashion week preparations before a street car to the main train station. Once at the train station, we had to catch a bus to go out to the Milan Airport, which is far outside the city. From there, we had to take a little airport shuttle to finally find our hotel, which took a good chunk of the day. We ended up relaxing in our hotel room for the rest of the afternoon and updating our blog, waiting for the restaurant to open in the hotel. We were really out in the middle of nowhere. The whole time that we had been driving through Tuscany, I was trying to get a picture of a run-down farmhouse, but since we were in a moving bus the whole time, we had a tough time getting a clear picture. I looked out the window of the hotel in Milan, and low and behold, a run-down farmhouse. Unfortunately, there was also a thick screen in the window that we had to shoot the picture through.
We were starving by the time the restaurant opened, so we ate quickly, confirmed our booking on the airport shuttle for the next day, and rolled into bed. Italy had been amazing, but our last two days in Milan had made us ready to get to Paris.
We were starving by the time the restaurant opened, so we ate quickly, confirmed our booking on the airport shuttle for the next day, and rolled into bed. Italy had been amazing, but our last two days in Milan had made us ready to get to Paris.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Milan - Welcome to Pre Fashion Week
In the morning we packed up our bags and took a train for 45 minutes from Como to Milan. We wanted to have one day in Milan before flying out to Paris. We arrived around 2 pm and found our hotel, a little dinky place that unfortunately did not have a map of the city, so we decided to wing it and make our way to the Cathedral and what we hoped would be the center of town.
The Cathedral was beautiful, one of the largest in Italy and a great example of Gothic architecture. An organ recital was in progress as we walked in, and we were able to sit and listen to the organist for a while. It is a fantastic experience to hear such beautiful music in such a setting. but my favorite part was watching a young boy, fifteen or so, play the organ there. He played a number of pieces, but the best one was one by Enrico Morricone from the soundtrack of “The Mission”. It’s a wonderful piece, at the same time very modern and very fitting for the space.
After the Cathedral, we wandered the city for a bit until we found ourselves in a crowd of people and paparazzi. It was then that we realized that Fashion Week is beginning in Milan tomorrow, and we were in the middle of the group of people exiting from the Alberta Ferretti runway show.
Milan is not only fashion, though. A few blocks later we encountered several large black men wearing suits, sunglasses, and passes for something. They all went into a building with a sign proclaiming a conference for treating Hepatitis C.
As we rounded a corner, we ran into Guido Montaldo, an industrial economics student who had just moved to Milan from a small town outside of Rome. He was looking for the Duomo, as he had just arrived a few days ago. We helped him find it, and then he agreed to show us a few more highlights of Milan (and get a gelato!) before all of us headed home.
First, we walked through the Galleria (a large mall) where we stopped to see the preparation of the stage for the Dolce and Gabbana fashion show. In addition to Fashion Week starting, a conference on Digital Media and a music festival were both just ending. We caught the tail end of a digital media exhibition before getting down to the serious business of finding some ice cream.
Guido walked us to the Castello Sforzesco, which was unfortunately closing when we arrived. Still, it was great to make a new friend. We enjoyed learning more about why the south of Italy is so poor, the role of Mafia in politics, Berlesconi’s mysterious popularity. (None of the native Italians seem to like him, and the guides constantly made fun of him, but he’s been re-elected three times. Perhaps the fact that he virtually controls all media here has something to do with it.)
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We found our way back to the Duomo and said goodbye to Guido, who was going home via the Metro while we were riding the street car. (Ciao, Guido! Multo Grazie!) No dinner for us, we were too tired and called it an early night. We will be up in the morning to check out a fashion show or two before heading to the airport to fly to Paris.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Como, we like it! We really, really, like it!!!
Day Two in Como was a pretty quiet day for us. After sleeping in, we did mounds of laundry. We have mastered the art of doing laundry in our hotel sinks. (If you ever get the opportunity to try this out, I highly recommend it.)
We finally left the hotel a little bit after noon and went to the local supermarket to shop for a picnic lunch, which we ate by the lake. We shared some of our lunch with several local ducks, who were quite happy to lend a “helping bill”. After lunch we made our way to the Funicular, a cable car that takes you up the side of a mountain to a small town named Brunate. On our way up the mountain, we sat across from two Italian nuns, who seemed to be enjoying the ride and looking forward to the view at the top.
Once at the top of the hill, we wandered the old town a bit before finding a good outlook from which to take pictures. Two beautiful Russian girls were also taking photos (Eric was jealous of their camera) and took one of us as well. We had the option of taking a bus around the top of the mountain, but decided instead to come back down and have a leisurely afternoon.
We sat next to the water for a while and looked at the passersby and the lake. Eric also reviewed all of our journal entries so we could be ready to post them. We again strolled through Como, this time during the day, to get a closer look at the cathedral, and to check out some of the shops. Back at the hotel, we caught up on some paperwork and emails from home until we realized that it was 10 pm and we needed to eat! We went to the local pizzeria, ate and left without incident to come home and post some additional photos. Tomorrow we are on our way in to Milan for a day before flying to Paris. Suddenly, we are present to the possibility of our trip ending. No, no! Italy has been fantastic, but we are excited for our week in Paris to begin.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Slowing it down in Lake Como
Eric did a heroic job of finding us reservations in Como and Milan, and we were able to have half a day in Rome to catch up on emails before taking a cab to the station and taking a 6 hour train ride to the San Giovanni station at Como.
Lucky us! Tuscany for a second time – this time by train! It is so difficult to describe how stunning the scenery is here. We have tried to take pictures but from a moving train or bus it is impossible to do the landscape or the crumbling yet highly photogenic farmhouses justice. The train took us the same route as our bus tour, through Florence and Bologna. We then changed trains in Milan for another train booked for Zurich, with a short stop at our station ½ an hour in. Suddenly, we no longer heard Italian, but rather Swiss German. I could recognize that it was German, but couldn’t understand a word.
We arrived at the station at 5:45 pm, in time to help two ladies from San Diego with their luggage. Eric was a trooper, helping both of them plus one other random passenger with their bags up two flights of stairs before carrying ours up.
Our hotel, the Park Hotel is close to the train station and just a few blocks from the lake. Although Eric had not slept well the night before, we took a leisurely walk around the beautiful lake, watching a family feed a swan, before trying to find a restaurant for dinner.
We had walked through the main square and had taken a side street when we found It. The Restaurant. The one we had been sent to Italy to find. Ristorante Nerochina. Italian-Asian fusion. Eric’s first thought was that it sounded weird, but we figured, where better to try Italian-Asian fusion than in Italy?
Let me tell you, everyone should try this place. To start: appetizer with fish tartare on a seasoned rice cake, with shrimp. Delicious, light, with complementary flavors. Then, the piece de resistance, as Eric would say. Antonia’s gorgonzola pasta with pears, and a hint of vanilla, served in a baked cheese bowl made out of Romano and Pecorino. Crazy, crazy good. Eric had the sea bass with tomatoes, potatoes and olives, which was also fantastic. But, the gorgonzola pasta was really the best. Eric was in ecstasy!
For dessert, Chantilly cream and strawberries in a dark chocolate bowl. We had lovely service – a great waiter, and a brief, complementary chat with the chef. We took two cards – one to give to the hotel for referrals, and one for us!
Check out their website here: www.nerochinacomo.com. If you are in Como, you must, must go here.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Rome 3.0
The next morning, we packed up our stuff and headed from our second Rome hotel (the Hotel Polo – bah! No good!) to our third, a short distance away. (The Best Western – much better!) As we mentioned previously, we were bound and determined to see the Meridian Line at Santa Maria degli Angeli, and we knew that it was going to go off at 1:03 that day. We dropped off our bags at the hotel, and hightailed it down to the church, using a cab for the first time in Rome since we had been there.
We had missed this Meridian line three before, once by only a few minutes. Today, we saw it. And it was worth it. It was a lovely sunny day, and the church had beautiful light streaming in. An organ recital was just finishing. A fantastic experience all the way around. We made sure to email Sam, our friend from our first day in Rome, with the pictures.
From the church we made our way via city tour bus to the Campo di Fiori, an old marketplace dating back to the Romans and still in use today, although there was no market that day. We also passed by the Area Sacra, another huge ruin of what they think are three temples, before heading to a shopping district we had discovered during our first few days in Rome. Unfortunately, everything was closed, but it was fun to window-shop.
We had a quick Panini and waited forever for our bus to come again. We finally got back to our hotel (far away on the other side of the Villa Borghese), where we changed for dinner and caught a cab back to the center of town, the Piazza Barbarini. I had been planning to surprise Eric with dinner with our friends Dustin and Megan from Austin, who were also in Italy, but we had a mix-up in scheduling and unfortunately they did not get our message in time, so they did not meet us. We made the best of it, going back to the Da Olympio Restaurant which was close by and had been such a success our second night in Rome, and sat next to a couple (obviously recently engaged and already stressed out about planning the wedding) and a group of tourists from Whittier (really, the SoCal contingent is out and about on the Continent in September!) who were groaning with pleasure over the pasta, just as we had the first night.
One crazy but exhilarating cab ride later, we were back at our hotel ready to update our blog and make travel arrangements for the rest of our trip. We had reserved three days to either revisit a location if we wanted more time there, or to go somewhere new. By now, we had spent almost a week in Rome, which was fabulous, but we had seen more than we thought we would get to. We liked Florence and Capri both equally, but for different reasons. Frankly, we were too monument/museumed out to go back to Florence, and Capri was too far away from Milan, where we were flying out of on the 23rd. A few days of rest and relaxation were definitely called for. We had had a wonderful time, but our feet are (literally) swollen and our eyes are tired from taking in so many sights. We opted instead for two days at Lake Como, followed by one day in Milan before flying out the 24th to Paris.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
The beautiful island of Capri.
We had a relatively late start time for Capri – 9:50 am. Yay! We needed the sleep. We took a bus down the perilous hill to a boat and headed for Capri. Our guide, Sascha, was quite” fabulous” and really on top of things. He had great hair and a good sense of humor. He was wrangling 46 people speaking English and Spanish, so it was a challenge!
It’s a 45 minute boat ride from the mainland to Capri, and Sascha told us that we would try to see the Blue Grotto immediately upon arrival. We had to make sure that we were all lined up at the front of the boat so we could get the heck off of it and get to the front of the Blue Grotto line. Trying to be first in a group of Italians is tough to do, but we managed it.
Unfortunately the Blue Grotto was closed in the morning, so we took another precarious bus ride to Anacapri, the village at the top of the island. Once there, we rode a rickety chairlift to the very top. The view was amazing, the steepness of the hill energizing, and the ability to stare into people’s gardens strangely intimate. It was a much needed respite from seeing so many buildings and artwork, and to just look at nature and beautiful scenery.
Then it was back down the hill, hurry hurry, to catch a boat to the Blue Grotto, a small cave discovered in Augustus’s time and used by the Emperor Tiberius as his private swimming pool before being rediscovered in modern times. We waited for 45 minutes to get in. Finally, a small rowboat pulled up and took me, Eric, Anders and Lauren in. We thought that having Eric and Anders in the same boat would be smart (they are about the same height), but in retrospect it might not have been the best idea, because there were a lot of long legs in this small rowboat. To get into the grotto, you have to lie all the way down in the boat, and the boatman hauls you in using a rope. They have to bend all the way backwards, because there is just enough room for a small rowboat to fit, and not enough room to stand up. After our trip in, Eric and Anders know each other on a much more personal level. LOL
Despite the wait and the short boat ride, the Blue Grotto is really worth it. The water is electric blue and otherworldly. Antonia’s grandfather had told us that there wasn’t much worth seeing in the south of Italy, and we would agree, but Capri was definitely worth the trip south for us.
On the bus on the way back, we had a great time with Zoe, Jennifer and Dora, who were telling us wild tales of bachelorette parties. (Zoe’s mother-in-law’s battle cry during Zoe’s bachelorette party: “Feed the penises!”)
Once in Rome, we spent the last night with the tour in the Polo Hotel. (Thank God!) Tomorrow we have one day Rome before deciding what to do with the rest of our days in Italy.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Naples, Pompeii and Sorrento
The morning came rather early today. We had to be up by 6:45am to meet up with the rest of the tour group. Today we were headed to Naples, Pompeii, and Sorrento.
As we were checking out, we realized that our transfer bus was already in front of the hotel. Even though we were on time, we were concerned that the rest of our group was waiting for us. Thankfully, we were on time, but it was the start of what was to be a number of hiccups, the first that we had experienced on the tour.
Our transfer bus took us to the tour office, where we boarded another bus bound for Naples. We assumed we would be on the same bus as those people from the first leg of the tour who were going south (some people, like Michel, Lou, Rosey, Marie and Joan, ended their tour in Rome), but ended up on a different bus with people from a different tour altogether.
We stopped quickly at a roadside “Autogrill” (something we were getting used to seeing on tour) before ending up at the port of Naples, where we had a quick walking tour. For those of you who have never been, Naples is not a pretty city at all. It was disappointing and I think shocking for those people who were starting their tour here. In addition, there was plenty of tour bus/luggage confusion, really the first and only breakdowns we had on the entire tour.
From Naples, we went on to Pompeii, which was an excellent site to visit, but we had a guide who was difficult to understand, and whose audio kept going in and out. But, really, Pompeii did not disappoint. After a week of seeing ruins that were more or less only the foundations of buildings, Pompeii gave us a sense, for the first time, of how people actually lived during ancient times. Of course we took a tour of the ancient brothel and the erotic frescos (a Scottish woman on the tour called them the “naughty paintings”), but the most moving images had to be the casts of the people who had suffocated from the ash.
While in Pompeii, we fell in with three women from Oregon, Zoe, Jennifer and Dora, all former college friends who were taking this trip together, and Anders and Lauren from Chicago, a married couple visiting Italy before going off to visit Anders’ family in Norway. They were tons of fun, and we were happy to make some new friends.
From Pompeii we drove up an incredibly steep hill with a gorgeous view of Sorrento, a beautiful city up on the cliffs by the Adriatic Sea. We arrived at dusk, and realized that George and Michelle from our earlier tour were in this hotel with us, but no one else we knew. We had dinner together, and then went out to walk the main square and to look at the shops of this lovely resort town. When one goes out on the town, there are many things to see. Some things are commonplace and some are rather noteworthy. While the four of us were walking, George and Eric got into a conversation about the street vendors that sell glow in the dark toys at night, all over Italy, but mostly in Rome. We were curious how someone who was doing this as a job could actually survive, as the demand for the toys that they were hawking was pretty much nonexistent. We also passed a street performer that sits really still and acts like a statue. You may have seen these types before, but this one was exceptional, because it had no head. We felt that it was so clever that it deserved a couple of Euros, simply for the creativity. As we tossed in our coins, we were thanked with a wave of the hand. Out of nowhere, a very short, old, curmudgeonly man admonished us in Italian. I expect that because he was a local and probably saw this performer every day, he felt that we shouldn’t be tipping. I don’t speak Italian, but It seemed that he was either saying, “Don’t feed the animals” or ”That’s not art and does not deserve a tip.”
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Rome, take # 2
I never would have guessed that doing a tour would be so involved. We have been having a great time, however, we have not been getting a great deal of sleep.
We were scheduled to do a walking tour of Rome, which was interesting because we got some historical background information about some of the things that we had seen for ourselves two days prior to the start of the actual Italy tour. Antonia and I also decided to take a tour of the Vatican Museum later in the day.
During our walking tour of Rome we visited St. Peter’s Basilica, Piazza Nivona, the Trevi Fountain, and the inside of the Pantheon, which we had walked by on our second night in Rome. This was a world-wind tour of many things that we had already seen, but we were happy to go again because there are so many details that one misses the first time through. For example, the tour only gave us about twenty minutes in St. Peters Basilica, but we learned a lot about the history and artwork. Still we were happy that we had spent at least an hour in the church by ourselves earlier in the trip.
Once finished with the walking tour we quickly made our way to the Basilica St. Maria degli Angeli to see if we could catch the sunlight falling on the Meridian line. I had mentioned that I really wanted to see and photograph this event, so Antonia really wanted to make it happen. I don’t know if there is anything cuter than to see Antonia jogging up the street trying to get us to the basilica in time. It was very sweet of her. This was our third attempt and unfortunately we were two and a half minutes late. Bummer….I guess we’ll try again on the 19th when we get back to Rome. After our failed attempt, we decided to grab a quick bite. We did the total American thing and went to McDonalds in the Piazza de Republica. I thought perhaps we could take advantage of free wi-fi so that we could do a little comparison shopping for hotels and update our travel journal. Alas, I was wrong. I found that one needs to set up an account and in Italy you need an Italian SIM phone to take advantage of free MacDonald’s wi-fi, as they text message your password to you upon account setup. The trip to McDonald’s wasn’t a total wash though. We tried an Italy-centric McD’s burger (the “Mozzarillo”) that had a focaccia type bun, lettuce, tomato basil sauce and mozzarella cheese. It wasn’t bad, but I won’t disappoint any of you by visiting McDonald’s for more food while in Rome.
At 3pm we met up at the tour company, boarded the bus and headed over to the Vatican Museum. If you ever get an opportunity to go to the Vatican Museum, go and definitely do it with a guide. One of the many things we saw was the Sistine Chapel. It was so beautiful and awe inspiring. To think that one man painted all of it was just amazing. It was also interesting that Michelangelo, who was an amazing painter, but disliked it compared to sculpting, dropped all of his sculpting projects to work on the Sistine Chapel for nine years. Imagine nine years of painstakingly detailed painting on the ceiling of a structure like the Sistine Chapel. MADONNA!!! But, when the Pope says jump, I’m not sure that there are too many people in Italy who would ignore him, especially in Michelangelo’s time.
One of the funny things that I experienced on the tour was witnessing our tour guide, a fantastically knowledgeable and beautiful woman, deal with a nagging American tourist. Our tour guide handled this other woman with such grace and ease and even though the American tourist complained the whole time about the speed of the tour, and the accent of the tour guide, she ended up tipping our tour guide at the end of the day. I guess patience is rewarded. (The other interesting thing about our guide was her extraordinarily long eyelashes, which she was constantly grooming. We sat next to her on the bus and watched her stroke and separate them constantly. She had beautiful blue-green eyes and dark hair in a sleek bob, and was wearing a lot of eye makeup.)
We closed our day out by visiting the Spanish Steps and going to eat with some friends from the tour, George and Michelle. We ate at the restaurant that we visited on Day One with Sam. I had a wonderful carbonara and Antonia had a chicken and mushroom dish. Here’s to new friends, good food, and a great day. Buena Norte Tordos!
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Lunch, a serenade, and wine tasting, in Montepulciano
We left Venice today for the long bus ride back to Rome, with a quick stop in Montepulciano. We were lucky enough to sit with Michel and Louise on the bus ride as well, and they joined us for lunch along with three Filipino women, Rosey, Marie (two sisters), and their friend Joan. These three women have been so much fun on tour, taking silly pictures of each other and making truly hilarious comments, especially in the bus. They were always cheerful and easy-going, and they inspired us to take more pictures of ourselves and people, rather than just landscape, building, landscape.
Lunch with Michel, Lou, Rosey, Marie and Joan was so much fun. We found a little restaurant whose prices were reasonable, and walked in, taking a seat at a large table close to the end of the restaurant. At the front of the place, a TV was playing “Pavarotti and Friends”. As we sat down, Pavarotti began to sing with Celine Dion. We already knew that Lou LOVES Celine Dion, so she was really into the music. Our proprietor noticed her interest and proceeded to serenade her, over the sounds of Pavarotti and Bryan Adams (he was a better singer than Bryan Adams, for sure!)
Lunch was amazing. I had cannelloni with ricotta in a truffle cream sauce, topped with pecorino cheese and an Imperial prawn. Antonia had vegetables in a pecorino cream sauce. Antonia thought her meal was more of a side dish, but it was good nonetheless.
After lunch, we had a quick wine and cheese tasting at a local winery. The wine and cheese was good, but it was more interesting to explore the basements of the building, which you could wander at leisure. At first, you saw all of the wine barrels of different shapes and sizes, but as you got further under the building, it appeared that they had a little exhibit of torture implements as well. Hard to tell, because all the signs were Italian, but the various things in the cases (one looked like a bear trap) looked sufficiently ominous.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
The maze they call Venice
The next day in Venice was a different story. After a visit to a Murano glass factory in the morning, we made our way to St. Marks Square to discover that thousands of people had descended on Venice that morning. The crowds were unbelievable. We could not even get in to see St. Mark’s Cathedral, which was a disappointment (one of the few on the tour). Instead, we teamed up with a couple from Ottawa, Michel and Louise (“Lou”), who agreed to explore the city with us, even though we were American!
If you are going to get hopelessly lost in a foreign city, I highly recommend doing it with Canadians. Eric and were impressed with how well we were able to navigate Rome using the little map the hotel gave us. Even with the four of us and the map that Lou had intelligently taken with her, we still felt like we were constantly lost, and must have passed the same square five or six times, which kind of took the romance out of the experience for me.
Still, the day gave us the opportunity to get to know Michel and Lou, which was one of the highlights of our trip. (This has been a great by-product of being on a tour.) Throughout our trip, we have been picking up some great one-liners that have encapsulated our stay. In Germany, Eric learned an important German phrase to use at Sam and Katrin’s party: “Ich spreche kein Deutsch, Ich shaue nur gut aus!” (“I don’t speak German, I just look good!” – yes, I taught him that one.) Michel actually provided us with two great lines. The first, after I apologized to him for leading us down yet another blind alley, was “That’s ok. I don’t pet the sweaty stuff.” (Like “I don’t sweat the small stuff.” Had to be there in the moment!) And the second, courtesy of his sister, was “I’m not the smartest tool in the shed.” Classic!
Michel and Louise also indulged me in trying to find (and eventually succeeding in finding!) the Fenice, Venice’s opera house. Before coming on this trip, I had read a few books, one of which was by John Barendt, the author of “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
”. He wrote a second book called “City of Fallen Angels
” about the destruction of the Fenice by fire in 1996 during a restoration project. The ensuing political corruption and cultural tensions, especially between Venetians and wealthy foreigners sponsoring the restoration of artworks, was really interesting. We didn’t tour the inside of the Theatre, but it was nice to see it in person. When I saw how far away it was from the water, I could see how easily it would have burned, and indeed how fragile the city really is.
”. He wrote a second book called “City of Fallen Angels” about the destruction of the Fenice by fire in 1996 during a restoration project. The ensuing political corruption and cultural tensions, especially between Venetians and wealthy foreigners sponsoring the restoration of artworks, was really interesting. We didn’t tour the inside of the Theatre, but it was nice to see it in person. When I saw how far away it was from the water, I could see how easily it would have burned, and indeed how fragile the city really is.Rather than take an expensive gondola ride, we opted instead to take a Vaparetto around the city before heading back to the hotel on the mainland. (The Vaparetto is like the Venetian city bus.) The weather was glorious and it was great to see the outside of Venice after being lost in the inside of Venice all day. We have been very lucky. With the exception of our first day in Rome, every day has been sunny and glorious.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Headin' to Venice
Today we had an early departure to Venice, by way of Bologna and Padova. Bologna was not that interesting to the uninformed (our) eye. We had about an hour and a half of free time, most of which was spent by Eric cleaning out a local Benetton. Two sweaters and a sweater vest later, we emerged to just catch our tour bus to get to Padova (Padua). On the way, our tour guide Maria (did we mention that she looks eerily like Antonia's Aunt Annie?) announced that we were going to Padova to get a tour of St. Anthony’s Bascilica. I will be honest and say that our first thought was “Another church? Really?”, but St. Anthony’s was well worth the visit. It was one of the most beautiful, but also one of the most interesting, churches we visited. It has a very colorful collection of Relics from the Saints, all prominently displayed in gold altar pieces, including St. Anthony’s jaw and voice box.
When we got to Venice that evening, we had time for a quick dinner at the hotel before beginning our “Venice By Night” tour. This was an extra tour for a small group of us, and it was absolutely worth the extra money we paid for it. First, there were no crowds. Second, we had a tour guide, which was essential. (Just how essential was confirmed the next day – Venice is a very confusing place to find your way around if you don’t know it.) Venice is beautiful and peaceful by night, and we enjoyed seeing the canals, crossing through narrow passageways so small you can only go through one at a time, and breathing the night air.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Florence
Today we opted for a morning tour of the Galleria dell’Academia, one of two large art galleries in Florence. The tour was led by a guide, who showed us a number of famous artworks by Caravaggio and some lovely Byzantine art.
The Galleria houses the largest collection of work by Michelangelo. Here we saw his unfinished sculpture work, as well as the Statue of David. There is a copy of the original statue outside the museum, but he original is in the Galleria to protect it from the elements. The “David” is really impressive. First, it’s huge. Second, it is carved out of a single block of marble. Third, they have never discovered any drawings or plans for this statue, so it appears that Michelangelo did it without a dry run, which is incredible. It’s anatomically quite correct – our guide told us that Michelangelo secretly dissected cadavers at night to master bone structure and musculature – except that David’s right hand is slightly larger than it should be in proportion to his body. No one knows why this is, but our guide said it was definitely not a mistake, since the rest of the body is not only perfectly proportioned, but also perfectly balanced so that it can stand on its very small pedestal without falling over. The expression on David’s face when you look at it straight on is quite intense, but when you look at it from the side, he looks quite peaceful. It was fantastic to see.
Somewhere along the way we lost Eric, who was sidetracked by an art exhibit that was placed off of the beaten path in a small grotto- type area. It was an exhibit of triptychs depicting stories from the Bible. The interesting thing about this particular exhibit was that it seemed to be painted during the point in time where artists were moving away from Byzantine style art and moving into three dimensionality and the Renaissance.
In the afternoon, we decided to explore Florence by ourselves. Our hotel had provided us with a map to the “Top 10” places to see in Florence, and we hit 9 out of 10 that afternoon. Of course, Florence is known for its art collections, but if you have only 1 day your options are either to go to museum after museum, or to explore the town on foot. We chose the latter.
From the Galleria, we made our way to the Duomo, the Cathedral. All of the churches were closed that day, so we couldn’t go into any of them. We did look at the Giotto Bell-Tower and the Baptistery of San Giovanni with its beautiful golden doors. (The original Golden Doors are in a museum and took the artist 7 years to make. We asked how long it took to make the copies and the guide shrugged and said, “It’s Italy – six months.”) We then visited the Piazza della Signoria and walked past the Galleria degli Uffizi, which has a fantastic art collection we did not have time to view.
We then crossed over the famous Ponte Vecchio, or covered bridge, that spans the Arno river. The bridge itself is not actually covered, but instead has shops lining the bridge on both sides that are enclosed, giving the allusion that the entire bridge has a roof. Most of Florence’s jewelry merchants have stores along this bridge. (We didn’t buy any jewelry, though I did buy a handbag earlier in the day.)
Once across the bridge, we passed the Palazzo Ponti, the local palace-cum-Museum, but eschewed walking through the Boboli Gardens (the only thing on our top 10 list we skipped) to walk along the Arno to the Piazzale Michelangelo, the highest view of the city. We finally made it up what seemed like two thousand stairs, and rewarded ourselves with a gelato and the view. (We suspect that all of our petty cash has gone to gelato, bottled water, and restrooms, which you have to pay to enter everywhere.)
After our photo session, we went back across the bridge, passing the Church of Santa Croce on the way back to the hotel. (Fans of the book or movie “A Room With a View
” will be familiar with this church.)
” will be familiar with this church.)¾ of the way back to our hotel, we stopped for a coffee and eavesdropped on two British tour guides, who were gossiping about their fellow co-workers (one was having an affair with another) as well as some of the people on their tours. They told a great story an American woman who had gotten gallstones while in Rome, ended up in the hospital for five days (her husband was very attentive, going to sit with her every day), but who still wanted to rejoin the tour in Naples when she got out, much to the guides’ amazement. Given that we were on a tour ourselves, it was fun to hear the other side of it. I was dying to ask who the most problematic people were on the tour, what it was like taking Spanish speakers and English speakers on the same tour, cultural differences, etc. , but refrained.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
So this bus full of tourists goes to Asisi...
We woke early so we could meet our tour at 7:40 am in the lobby of our hotel. We joined several other tourists on our bus, and headed out of Rome towards Assisi. While we were in Rome on our tour of the Palatine, we learned that tour guides need to have 3 years of experience and to pass a state test. Our guide, Maria Consuela, has been working for 10 years.
At our first rest stop, we met Barry and Sue, a couple originally from England and now living in Sidney, Australia. Barry and Sue were great fun. Barry has many colorful stories to tell and we are looking forward to getting to know them better over the next several days.
Maria has a lot of knowledge about the surrounding countryside, and regaled us with facts about olive oil and wine exporting (each small city in Tuscany has their own type of wine). She also gave us some background on St. Francis of Assisi, who was born into a wealthy family, and was a “playboy” before hearing the voice of God in a church and converting to a life of poverty and chastity.
Assisi is the home of the St. Francis Basilica, and the resting place of the Saint. It is an important pilgrimage location for devout Catholics, and one of the few areas we have been so far where there were actually more Italian tourists than foreign tourists (though I must say the Germans, Japanese and Americans are the most ubiquitous. While looking at the ground so you don’t trip on a cobblestone, you can tell each group by their socks and shoes without looking up.)
The Basilica is quite large, with three different stories. Franciscan monks and nuns roam about in significant numbers, with a surprising (at least to me) number of Asian monks. As you walk through, you see scattered about small glass-enclosed booths with a Franciscan monk inside, usually reading. It’s crowded in the Bascilica and can get noisy, so periodically a deep voice booms out over the crowd: “Shhh – Silenzio – shhh”. It sounds like the Voice of God, but is really the monks in the glass booth over the P.A.
The Bascilica is famous for two reasons: 1) it is one of the few examples of Gothic architecture in Italy (A good example of Gothic architecture is the Notre Dame in Paris – pictures to follow in about a week and a half! - and is characterized by large stained glass windows and vaulted ceilings.), and 2) The frescos painted by Giotto, which detail the life of St. Francis and which also ushered in a more realistic painting style after the Byzantine period. The buildings are painted in a true-to-life 3D way, and the faces of the people look like they are made out of porcelain. We were not allowed to take pictures inside the cathedral, but you can google all of the images.
On our way out, Eric and I sat down on a bench to let a large tour go by. We were able to look at the seats for the monks to sit during services, which were intricately detailed with carving and inlay, in a way that made the inlay look three-dimensional.
In Rome and also here in Assisi, we saw several beggars with clubfeet. Since clubfeet can be corrected fairly easily with surgery these days, it did make me wonder what the background of these beggars were, especially since many of them were not old.
Siena
Cheering crowds greeted us. I thought it was because of my great hat, but no, they were cheering a soccer game in progress. (Crowds of police were managing the crowds on the way back to the bus.)
Siena is famous for its ceramics, for which they invented the color “siena”. You can see it in the walls of the buildings and the tiles of the roofs. It is also famous for the Basilica of St. Catherine of Siena and the Piazza del Campo. Siena also has a square called the Piazza del Campo, where for approximately 200 years they have been having a famous horse race. Each neighborhood in Sienna has its own flag, and all of them have one representative in the race. The winner is allowed to display their flags in the Piazza del Campo and around the city hall for 6 months. (All of the flags for the different neighborhoods are in the Basilica.)
We paused to eat a snack at the Piazza, which looks like a dry lake bed. There were lots of attractively dressed Italians attending what may have been a Saturday evening wedding at the town hall in the Piazza del Campo.
On the way back to the bus, we paused to take a look around St. Catherine’s Basilica. St. Catherine’s body is in Rome, but her head, in a glass box on an altar, is in the church. Eric found it a little creepy. Personally, I didn’t find the head nearly as disturbing as I did the perfectly preserved, but exceptionally large, bronzed “finger” of St. Peter in St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. At 8pm, we rolled into Florence, had dinner, and were off to bed for an early morning.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Classical Rome
We were up early ready to check out of our hotel by the train station and transfer to our next hotel by the Villa Borghese, where we would start our 10 day tour. We decided to do “Classical Rome” today since I did not want to be creamed by my dad, the ancient history professor, when we returned.
Leaving our bags at the hotel, we first made it back to Santa Maria degli Angeli to catch the Meridian Line for Sam. We thought that this would happen around noon, but in September the phenomenon occurs around 1 pm, and we did not have time to wait another hour. Foiled again! We will be back in Rome once during and then at the end of our 10-day tour, so we were confident that we would see it.
From Santa Maria, we made our way via metro to the Coliseum. As we exited the metro, we found a reasonably-priced tour that took us throughout both the Coliseum and the Forum. We had two good guides, and enjoyed both locations. The Forum is one of the other Seven Hills, and is considered to be the birthplace of Rome. The oldest ruins of the city can be found there. In addition, almost all of the Emperors of Rome had their residences there. I wanted to take a tour of the villa of Augustus while we were there, but it was getting dark and we had a long walk back to our old hotel so that we could check out and get across town to check into our new hotel, north of the Villa Borghese.
At 4:20, we were back at the Metro station, experiencing the Roman Underground. In Munich, we used the undergrounds all the time, and they were fantastic. In Rome, everyone shoves into the cars as tightly as possible, and the smell is, frankly, profound. We missed our first train by not being aggressive enough, but squeezed into the second train 10 minutes later. I was concerned at first that I couldn’t reach a pole to support myself, but you are squeezed in so tightly that it doesn’t matter if you are holding on to something or not; you don’t move.
We emerged, relieved, two stops later and stopped for a pizza before picking up our bags and climbing onto a city bus at the train station to make our way uptown, basing our trip on the vague directions to our second hotel which we found online. Our trusty map, now pretty worn out, did not show us this neighborhood. After a moment, we realized that Italian buses do not announce their bus stops, and the bus stations are not well marked, so we had no idea where we were going. Fortunately, three women from Belgium were sitting in front of us and overheard our conversation. They introduced us to a Philippine woman who lived in the area, who not only told us where to get off, but got off the bus with us and walked us to our hotel. Thank God, because we would never have found it otherwise.
Our intention was to check into the hotel and go back into town to our little shopping street, but we were too exhausted. Instead, we repacked our bags for the next four days (we are going to Assisi, Siena, Florence and Venice, and then coming back to Rome for a few days, so we only took our small bags with us), and then Eric went out to see if he could scrounge up some food. He was gone for quite a while, because this second hotel (Hotel Polo) is in the middle of residences and, it appears, people who do not need to eat. He finally returned with a Panini and gelato. (Our favorite combination so far is pistachio – but not the bright green stuff! – and cherry.) Technically, the Hotel Polo is a three star hotel, but we missed our Hotel Ariston, which was cheaper, friendlier, and in the middle of everything.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Onward to Vatican City
After a late start (hey, it’s a vacation!) we decided to go to walk to Vatican City via the Palatine. We made it to the Palatine and looked at the ancient Roman ruins from a distance, but somehow got turned around and ended up by the Circo Massimo. We crossed the river quite far south of the Vatican City, and made our way north along the Tevere River. We figured that if we just keep going uphill, we would eventually make it to St. Peter’s Basilica, and elected to take side streets, which took us through a small university area (John Cabot University, an American liberal arts university) It was nice to be away from tourists and making our way up the narrow streets. We also stopped for some excellent gelato, sold to us by a vendor that did not speak English. Fantastico! (We had the real pistachio, a light green, not a bright green one.)
For part of our journey, we walked behind a young couple, obviously just getting to know each other. He was British, she American. He was doing his best to impress her with contrasts between U.K. and U.S. culture, and we caught the moment when he brushed her hand in the hopes of holding it, but was, alas, rebuffed. A subtle transfer of his water bottle from his left to his right made the best of the awkward moment. Still I hoped that a beautiful September day, lovely surroundings, and his accent would lead to success for him later in the evening.
While lost on our way to the Vatican, we found a great view behind the Children’s Hospital, across the rooftops of Rome.
Finally, we arrived at the Vatican (terribly complicated, have to go through a parking garage, blah blah. If you go, we recommend going with a tour). St. Peter’s Basilica is exquisite. Every single surface is decorated with bas-relief, mosaic, painting, etc. The detail is overwhelming and you could look for hours, which we did. Two and half hours, to be exact. Still, I preferred Santa Maria degli Angeli, which is more intimate.
Unfortunately, we did not have time to go to the Vatican Museum on this visit, so we headed back down the hill and over the river, crossing the bridge at the Castel Sant’Angelo. There was an opera performance going on which we could hear but not see. As we crossed the river and looked down, we saw that the Rome Film Festival will be starting in a week or two, and they were hard at work setting up meeting places along the banks of the river.
As it got dark, we made our way down the Via del Giovanni Vecchio, which had some intriguing stores. They were closed as we passed them, but we resolved to come back that evening and take a look (we later discovered in our guide book that this was THE place to go for good deals). We also took the time to see the Piazza Navona and the outside of the Pantheon, which we will also see on our tour in a few days. They were both lit up at night and were quite striking.
Walking up the Via Corso towards the Trevi Fountain, we passed a small covered side street with an altar to the Madonna built into the wall. It is thought-provoking to be in a country where religion is so integrated into daily life. As you can see from the photo, people light offerings to the Madonna on a daily basis. While we stood in the alleyway, trying to get our camera to focus properly, a man came down the cobblestone path, crossing himself as he passed the altar. I have never felt more like a dorky tourist then in that moment.
Desperate with hunger at this point, we ducked into a small restaurant just off of the main street. Inside, we were greeted by a cheerful Asian man, who ushered us into a back room. As with many things in Italy, one often struggles with the concern that you might be taken advantage of as a tourist. However, the presence of one other young Italian couple, clearly on a date, made us feel more confident.
While waiting for our food, I looked around the restaurant at a few newspaper articles. One small clipping was a letter from Gourmet magazine from 1979 saying that one of their readers had visited the restaurant and had written a letter to Gourmet extolling the virtues of “squid ink pasta”. The magazine was requesting the recipe. Unfortunately, we had already placed our order and couldn’t try it, but our food, when it came, was delicious. Eric had the gnocchi gorgonzola (it beat Trader Joes hands down, with a much smokier flavor), and I had the waiter’s favorite dish, a pasta with tomato sauce and ham, among other mysterious but delicious things.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Ahhh Roma.
We were up early in the morning to take the train to the Munich Airport to catch our flight to Rome. We had to take the U-Bahn to the main train station, and then transfer to a train to the Munich airport. After a week abroad, we were already running out of travel toiletries, so my brother Sam suggested that we buy some in the Hauptbahnhof (main train station). We found a treasure trove of cool European toiletries. (Eric particularly liked the Nivea deodorant we bought.) All of our purchases ended up in my carry-on, which elicited a search at the security checkpoint in the airport. (We learned after that to divvy the toiletries up in four plastic bags, one for each carry-on, and we were ok after that.)
We arrived in Rome’s airport from Munich and were immediately struck by the comparison (to Rome’s detriment) between German and Italian transportation. The Munich airport has been voted “the best airport in Europe” for the last 5 years. It is spotless, efficiently laid out, with well-marked locations. In Rome, we had to find the train to the center of town. A train station in the airport – should be easy, right? Ha! Finally, after wandering through multiple levels, “directed” by uninterested security guards, we found the correct train, which stood in stark, grimy contrast to the German U-Bahn and StraBenbahns. An unshaven, rumpled conductor took our tickets. As I said to Eric, the Germans gave us the freeway, and Italians gave us spaghetti. Basta!
We arrived at the main train station, and, after getting turned around a few times, found our first Rome hotel, the Ariston, which was modern, hip and comfortable. After getting settled and receiving a cheap map (now our well-worn “bible) from our hotel, we set out on our first Rome adventure, around 1 pm.
We made our way down one of the main streets, Via Cavour, learning early on that it is easy to find your way around Rome as long as you consult your map every two blocks or so. Just past the Santa Maria Maggiore Cathedral, we consulted a street map posted on the corner of the block, and met our new friend Sam, an Armenian by way of Glendale. Sam is a media artist and was in Rome for a few days before he went to the south of Italy for an exhibit of his works. (Check out his website at www.samsaga.com!) Sam had to go to the Armenian Embassy in the Piazza della Reppublica, and then find the Geghosian gallery in the Quirinale, and he graciously allowed us to join him and explore the city together.
We took a circuitous route to the gallery, passing first the Santa Maria degli Angeli, one of the four main Basilicas in Rome, along with St. Peters. Mass started while we were there, and the singing was beautiful. Inside, the cathedral had a very interesting exhibit of the relationship between Galileo and the church. We spent a considerable amount of time here, looking at the frescoes and the exhibit. Santa Maria degli Angeli also has a meridian line in the floor, which captures the light at a certain time each day and illuminates a design on the floor (those of you who have read the Da Vinci Code will be familiar with this). We were too late to see it that day with Sam, but we promised to come back to the church and photograph it for him. Little did we realize what a commitment we had made…..more on that later.
From there we made our way down the Via del Quriinale to the Quattro Fontane. At the intersection of two streets, there are four fountains, one on each corner. We also found the Fontana del Tritone, a fountain of Triton, which we came back to several times during our wanderings. Rome really is “the City of Fountains”, with one seemingly on every corner – each one beautiful. We also passed the Trevi Fountain, and resolved to return at night, when it was lit.
Eric and I have become dependent on having a cappuccino around 4 pm – essential after walking all day. We stumbled upon a small café in an alleyway around 4:30. My stepmother had given us strict instructions NOT to sit down at any cafes or the prices would double, but we were so exhausted (it was raining) that we found ourselves sitting down with coffee and a Panini before we could help ourselves. The price was very reasonable, fortunately, and we were able to see some of Sam’s artwork, which he had with him and which was lovely.
We ended our day with a walk down the Via Corso, a main eating and shopping drag, and had a delicious dinner at the one outside table at a café. At the Piazza del Popolo, we said good-bye to Sam, but are looking forward to seeing him again in L.A. and having one of his famous Armenian omelettes!
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Crazy King Ludwig's Castles
Today (Tuesday) everyone had to work, so we took Sam’s car and drove to Neuschwanstein and Hohschwangau, two castles close to each other, and about 3 hours away from Munich. Before we left, we had breakfast with Antonia’s father and stepmother Marianne, and said goodbye to Marianne, who was going back to her mother’s house. Marianne had been a fantastic tour guide for us and very generous with her time. We were sorry to see her go.
Once we said goodbye, we hopped into the Audi started on our two and a half hour drive through scenic countryside. It was a little harrowing getting out of Munich (there are a lot more bicyclists in Munich than there are in L.A., so you have to watch out for them), but once on the Autobahn, Eric did a great job keeping up with the speeding traffic.
Neuschwanstein is probably the most photographed castle in Germany, and is the one that Walt Disney modeled the Cinderella castle on. It was built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria
, who grow up in the nearby, but much older, Hochschwangau Castle. We were able to tour both buildings, which are quite different. Neuschwanstein was not completed before King Ludwig II was mysteriously “drowned” at the age of 44, and is one of four castles that Ludwig built or was in the process of building when he died. (We have been feeding Eric with a steady diet of progressively more impressive castles, leading up to the Big One, Versailles, at the end of the month.)
, who grow up in the nearby, but much older, Hochschwangau Castle. We were able to tour both buildings, which are quite different. Neuschwanstein was not completed before King Ludwig II was mysteriously “drowned” at the age of 44, and is one of four castles that Ludwig built or was in the process of building when he died. (We have been feeding Eric with a steady diet of progressively more impressive castles, leading up to the Big One, Versailles, at the end of the month.)Hochschwangau is a smaller castle, much simpler in design, and much “homier”, if a castle can be homey. Neuschwanstein, on the other hand, is decorated to the hilt, very romantic in feel and design, and very extravagant. It was great to see, but hard to imagine living in.
The two tours, though excellent, took longer than we had expected, and we got back to Munich shortly after 7 pm. Dinner was a quick bite at Sam’s local Thai place next door to his apartment, followed by excellent gelato. Then early to bed, as we had an early flight to Rome the next morning.
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