This blog post is written by my grandma, just back from her whirlwind tour of Italy with my 2 aunts- including a jaunt around Naples. Many new memories were made, but I want to have her tell you all about it. So, here's my grandma's debut guest blog, her take on the trip, and our monthly family letter (slightly edited so you don't get all the family details) penned by her.
Is it time for a Family Letter? Katie says it is! I will review my notes, and write before my memory fades! I will probably remember this trip just fine, it was great!
Janet and I drove to Portland Tuesday evening to stay at the Radisson, left the car there. We worried about meeting up with Sandy in Chicago, she was coming from Los Angles, but it worked great, and soon we three were on our way to Frankfurt, Germany, on a Lufthansa flight. Not much room, our long femurs made our knees touch the seat ahead, but we survived. Didnʼt sleep much though, and arrived at midnight our time, six am German time. The trek across the Frankfurt airport was long, up and down escalators, from one end of the airport to the other, plus passport check. We barely made our Venice flight. Janet ran ahead to hold the plane, and they were looking for us!
Venice airport gave me another new experience. As we looked for our airport transport to the island of Venice, I saw a guy holding up a sign reading GUFFY, MANGIN, BITTER. It was our boat guide, so we loaded in and sped across the water to the Grand Canal of Venice. The driver stopped, pulled up to a concrete wall, and we were to unload. Sandy made the leap to the dock, followed by me, then Janet. It was like a four foot jump. Pretty good for an old lady!
We walked to our hotel, about six blocks, maybe, but the streets are so narrow, no cars there. Cobblestones, and steps leading up and over the many smaller canals. We were dragging our suitcases, and I need to add that Janet insisted on picking mine up and carrying it when there were steps, sure helped. Since it was about 9 am, we werenʼt sure the hotel would let us into our room, but they did, and since weʼd been up for 24 hours, we rested for a couple hours. We were on Formose Square, a real happening place all day. Small outdoor cafes, a fruit market, and lots of people coming and going. We enjoyed it. We walked to St Marks square, the main square where the big cathedral, the Doges Palace, and other historical buildings are.
The next morning we set off for Murano, the glass factories, where Venetian glass is famous. The island of Murano has the glass factories, and we enjoyed that, I bought my souvenir rooster. Then we got back on the boat and went to the island of Burano, my favorite. All the houses are painted different colors, a charming place. We had memorable pizza at lunch, we walked a lot, and then returned to Venice and our hotel. People eat late here, so after dark we walked to the Grand Canal area, for dinner. Janet said we needed to have our veggies and fruits, and weʼd only had pizza for lunch so...we sat at an outside cafe and the spritzers looked so attractive (an orange drink with Campari) that we decided to order those. They had a slice of orange in the glass, and they brought potato chips, so we had our fruit and veggie. We did eat healthy on this trip, and all lost weight! That walking will do it! Linc even lost weight, he missed me and my cooking! !
We left Venice and took a high speed train to Florence, then to Siena. Our one experience with the Roma (gypsies) was at the Florence train station. We found our car, and was going to get on the train when a young man and girl grabbed our suitcases, and swung them aboard the train and into the luggage rack, then held out their hands! We gave them one euro each bag, although he said he wanted five! We met an interesting lady at that point. She explained that she didnʼt mind giving them the euro, they “worked for it” instead of begging. She was an English woman artist who had lived in Tuscany 30 years. She had just returned from a trip to the Seychelle Islands, off the East coast of Africa. She and artist friends were there painting. She told us about the various hill towns we passed until she got off before we reached Siena, our destination.
We taxied to our hotel in the Old City, near the famous Il Campo square. Every town has a square, a cathedral, and a dome...The churches are beautiful, huge, richly decorated. I never saw a protestant church, but I know there must be some.We spent 4 hours in the Siena cathedral, Janet and Sandy climbed to the very top of the tower, but I stopped about sixth floor. I had a new soup for dinner, bread soup! It was good, beans, some savory broth, and chunks of coarse bread. I will say we never had bad food in Italy, the bread was wonderful, and we had wine with lunch and dinners. The wine seemed a bit watered down, but good.
On Monday we had booked a private tour in Siena, and the guide arrived in her van and it
was pouring rain! We saw the hill towns, wonderful old ruins of churches, built in 1100 and 1200 AD, and saw the sword in the stone. Ask me about that!! We ate lunch in a small village in a cafe where the guide knew the people, then visited a sheep farm , again a personal friend of our guide. He owns 120 sheep, which he said was the number that his 3 dogs could protect from the wolves. He milks them and makes cheese. Showed us all his equipment, took us into his kitchen and gave us wine and his cheese with bread. Interesting to get to go into a localʼs house !
The next day we caught the bus and went into Florence, where we went to the museums, shopped.Walked a LOT. We all bought scarves, aprons, etc here, then bussed back to Siena before dark, Passes a US military cemetery from WW II just outside Florence. Remember, the Allies invaded Italy and fought their was up through as a second front, and we lost lots of soldiers there. More good dinners, ravioli for me. We also enjoy the gelato. Better than ice cream!
Onward to ROME! I think we walked more in Rome than anywhere, to the Coliseum, all over the Vatican Museum and St Peters Square, and church. There must be thousands of sculptures and paintings in the museum, the Sistine Chapel. All those things I've always read about, Iʼve now seen. The coliseum is huge, but I canʼt believe the cruelty of the Romans who enjoyed watching slaves, Christians, being torn to pieces by lions. They had Gladiators (costumed men) who wanted you to pay to take a picture with them. We didnʼt! Ha!
We were disappointed to find St Peterʼs church was closed that afternoon due to a special mass. That night I thought about it, and got everyone up at six thirty am and said, “St Peterʼs opens at seven am, lets get up, take a cab, go see it, and come back for breakfast” so we did, and we were all glad we did! No crowds, got to see the most famous church in the world, the Swiss Guard, etc. You notice my offer was to “take a cab” I was learning that I didnʼt want to walk everywhere! Cabs were good, and only about $15 each way to the Vatican. Walked that evening though, to the Trevi fountain, the Spanish Steps other sites Iʼve read about in novels and movies. (Remember Roman Holiday with Audrey Hepburn?)
We left Rome and trained to Naples. Southern Italy is different than northern. Dirtier, less neat, but a charm of its own. Every apartment window has laundry hanging out of it. Katie met us outside the train station, and we drove to her home in Monte di Procida, about a 40 minute drive. I was so impressed with her home. Three levels, at the top of the building. Views from her balconies of the Mediterranean. Capri, other islands just off the coast.
I was just as impressed with her driving. I havenʼt said much about Italian streets and drivers, but, crazy! People drive small cars, mopeds, scooters, and fast! I couldnʼt drive here at all, but Kate is an expert! I was in awe! Katie took us to her favorite local cafe, Mariella's, where the specialty was chestnut soup...chestnuts were everywhere, roasted on the street vendor carts, and on menus. All Italian dinners begin with antipasti, appetizers, then follows a pasta course, called first plate, then a second plate, or meat dish, then ensalada, or salad, dessert and espresso. Of course wine and a plate of bread. We left the next morning to drive south, Vesuvius, Amalfi, etc. We went to the Herculaneum ruins instead of Pompeii. Both Katie and Kristen said it was better. Fascinating, and grim to think of all those people buried in the ash from the volcano.
The next day we rested in the am, followed the coast to a seaside cafe for lunch, and shopped in a French owned equivalent of Super WalMart in the pm. That store was huge, and very interesting. Very different from our markets, lots of pasta, frozen foods were displayed different, etc.
Our travel home was long! Good from Naples to Munich. At Munich we were delayed over 2 and 1/2 hrs due to an AC problem, so sat on tarmac , no AC, stuffy! Of course that made the plane late to SF, instead of an 11 hr flight, it was almost 14. We missed our Portland flight and were put up in a airport hotel, booked for 6 am, so got to the hotel at midnight, up at 4 to shuttle to the airport. Glad to pick up my car and drive home to Roseburg!
I surely am glad to have gone. I had fun, it was wonderful being with Katie, Janet and Sandy. We were compatible travelers, liked the same things-I liked taxi rides! Ha !
