More Annie Ramblings

I've been working on sorting through pics for our Facebook album and it is amazing how much we have done in so little time.  There are many things we have learned about taking a trip like this.  We are so glad we shortened our original itinerary.  You can't do every country in one two week visit.  Frankly, although we spent so many days in Italy much of it was by train and car and it really limits your time just getting to know the local spots more intimately.

Given that it's our first such trip it will help us in planning future trips....yes,...there will be more.  Last night we arrived in Zurich to the wonderful warm greeting of our friend Luzia Blaesi and her boyfriend Marco Rasp.  We walked on a brisk, foggy Zurich evening down to his parents' restaurant to be treated to very traditional Swiss cuisine (see pic above).  His parents couldn't have been better hosts and Luzia and Marco were great company.

Today after a very lazy start in the morning, Luzia took us around the mountain towns of Switzwerland.  We went to an adorable lakeside town and strolled around before having a wonderful lunch.  We then drove up into the mountains to see one of her favorite churches.  On the way home, she took a drive off the beaten path through the Swiss countryside that was stellar.  She has been such fun to be with and we just love her heart and it was a joy to meet the handsome, Marco!

Tonight, we are making homemade fondue....both cheese and chocolate from their awesome apartment. Their balcony gives awesome views all around despite the fog and we are so blessed to have warm beds, cold beer, fondue and a washer AND dryer! 

Tomorrow is a very early up and out to a train to a train and our closing days in Paris.  It's been a bit exhausting with how much we are doing and seeing but we have had such a wonderful time together as a family and the kids have a whole new sense of adventure!  Ciao for now b/c I can't spell afweiderswen....;-).

Tuscany to Zurich

Our amazing trip continued Sunday with an early wake up from Fabio who took us through the narrow streets of San Gimignano to the garage where our car was parked just outside the city. Fabio estimated in his broken English that it would be a four hour drive to the Stationze Centrale in Milano.  We put the train station in the GPS as our destination and it said we had about 330 kilometers to go, which I figured we could cover in less time than Fabio predicted.  The first third of the drive was on the twisty A1 highway toward Firenze and to Bologna that reminded me of driving through the mountains of Virginia and North Carolina but without all the Cracker Barrel restaurants.  The rainy and foggy conditions made for some tense driving, but once we got through Bologna and turned toward Modena, the terrain leveled out and the last two thirds of the drive toward Milano was uneventful and put us on course to get to the train station at around 11:30 with our goal of catching the train that left for Zurich at 13:10.  After filling the car with gas and and grabbing some snacks, we got into the city of Milano.  As that process continued, we never saw ANY signs that indicated  we were heading toward the train station.  That continued right up until we got to our destination per the GPS.  It had us at what looked like a big government building where we drove around and re-entered the destination into the GPS and then Ben spotted a small sign that said Treni, and sure enough that was the train station.  Hey Luiggi, how about some signage??  We still had no idea where to drop off the car, and it was getting to be around noon and our 13:10 departure was in doubt.  I pulled over near a square close to the station, and dug into our trip material, found the phone number of the National/Maggiore car rental office in Milano, and with me speaking English and the guy on the phone speaking Italian, I managed to get the street address, which happened to be two quick right turns around the block, in a tiny garage with a tiny sign over its tiny entrance.  We got the car returned, but then had to cross the street and go into the station to return the GPS (Mamma Mia!) and still get our train tickets.  Once inside the station, there was no obvious place for rental car counters, but we were near some ticket desks and machines, so Annie handled that transaction while I tracked down the Maggiore office by showing people the Maggiore pouch that contained the GPS.  I finally found the office where the clerk looked over the paper work and he said, "here's where we have a problem."  Seems we were about an hour over our 72-hour rental period and the price jumps by abount 75 euro for a fragmented day.  I gave the guy my best pleading "prego" which is Italian for just about everything, and mentioned something about "mi famiglia" and them having itty-bitty signs and he gave me a break and didn't charge any extra.  I scrambled to find Annie and the kids by around 12:35.  The tickets were amazingly cheap, just 178 euro for the whole family to get to Zurich, and after finding the right platform, we got on the train to say arrivederci to Italy.  We had heard from some people who spent a lot of time traveling around Europe that the trip from Milan to Zurich was their favorite and we now know why.  As you cross from Italy into Switzerland, each time you emerge from a tunnel, it's an "oh wow" moment with stunning landscapes of snow-covered mountains and villages nestled into the sides of them.

Ben snapped a lot of pictures while I scoured the terrain for cheese farms and chocolate factories and Marley recovered from the unpleasant experience of following a female passenger into the W.C. who had just hurled.  I think that damaged her more than the torture museum in San Gimignano haunted Annie.  Our friend Luzia and her boyfriend Marco met us at the train station and after a stop at their apartment, we took a 15-minute stroll to a restaurant that Marco's parents own. We had a sumptious, traditional and hearty Swiss-German meal with a variety of venison dishes since it's deer season here. Spatzel, cabbage and marroni were a welcome change from pizza, pizza, pizza.

A good night's sleep has us set up for a day in a cloudy, rainy Zurich before heading for Paris early tomorrow morning.

Pisa and Lucca

Even with clouds hanging low and some light rain fallling from time to time, the Tuscan landscape is beautiful.  We found that out as we headed out from SG towards Pisa in our rental car.  We were armed with a GPS which at times was disagreeable with her British accent and other times flat out inaccurate, but helpful enough that we got to Pisa and found a parking lot which was just about a five minute walk from the Tower.  Our first impression was that it was much shorter than we anticipated, but almost completely restored and was gleaming.

We took the obligatory photos of us holding up and pushing over the tower like the tourists we were.  After some good pizza at a crowded cafe a few blocks from the tower, we headed for the ancient walled city of Lucca.  On our way there, the same came out enough to produce the best rainbow I've ever seen and it spanned the highway giving us a colorful arch to drive through.

Lucca lived up to the reviews we've gotten from other people, just a magical place that is a step back in time, if that time includes shop after shop and cafes and restaurants.  Like our stop in Siena, this one was short, but gave us a great taste of the village and a definite target for a future visit.  With darkness approaching and Marley armed with a newly purchased adorable ruffled purple umbrella, we piled back into the rental car and headed back to SG.  There we had dinner at Antica Macelleria Tratorria near the main Piazza in SG and headed to bed early for the 8:00am arrival from Fabio to get us on the road to Milan and then Zurich.

Rome to Tuscany

Traffic lanes on the streets of Rome are more of a suggestion than anything as we discovered once we got in our rental car and headed for Tuscany.  The rental car process presented several challenges.  There were no obvious signs for rental cars at the Termini Station in Rome, plus I hadn't driven a stick shift in a while so it took me a few minutes how to get our Nissan Quaqhai in reverse and edge out of the tight parallel parking spot on the street and get into Rome traffic.  My fears over being overwhelmed by the busy traffic and seemingly lawless traffic circles proved to be unfounded and I called on my inner Mario Andretti and got into the rhythm of the driving and actually enjoyed following the GPS to get on the Autostrada and head north toward Siena.  We got there around 3:30, later than we planned because of the delay in the car rental process and traffic which was busy.  Siena is beautiful, with a gorgeous city center.

The square in the picture above is ringed by cafes and gellatorias, where we snacked and tried to warm up and dry out.  The highlight of Siena for us was the Duomo which impressed us more than St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.  Both inside and out the artwork on the Duomo is stunning, from the Michaelangelo statue to the Pisano Pulpit.

Annie adds:  Siena is very much like San Franscisco, with the hills you are often climbing up and down.  The Duomo is much "busier" than what you see in other Duomos, and inside, the marble inlays on the floors were fantastic and took 200 years to build.  There are also ties to Pagan beginnings and their aversion to the papacy which also made the antagonist in me quite happy there.  We lit two candles for our family and friends at the altar in the church.  (Yes, Bill lit one of them!-so you either get extra special blessings or are potentially cursed.)

We stayed until dusk although Siena had much more to see.  We were cold and tired and anxious to get to San Gimignano.  Our hosts in this medieval town, Fabio and Sara couldn't be more helpful and amazing with their suggestions and recommendations.  SG is a walled town with very few cars permitted inside the walls.  It is famous for its towers which were built by the wealthiest, most important townspeople.   At the height of its power, there were 72 towers, where now only 14 remain.  The higher your tower, the more wealth and prestige you represented.  (I am thinking this was a guy's idea....just saying) 

We had beautiful views of the Chianti hills with sunny skies on Thursday.  That gave us a chance to walk around and find the punto panaramico.

After a lunch with the worst pizza we've had in Italy at a cafe with pictures of the food on the menu at the entrance which should have told us something, we searched out some inside activities to get out of the light rain that returned.  We made the questionable decision of going into a museum of torture.  How disturbing, with artifacts of a wide variety of methods of torture and execution, including an iron maiden and a guillotine and everything in between.  The human race has been extremely creative on how to impart pain and suffering on its own.  Annie was bothered the most by the museum, which was somewhat surprising considering how much time she spends watching those real-life medical shows were people have been impaled by a variety of foreign objects.  In an effort to erase all those gruesome injuries, we stopped at a museum that re-created SG when all 72 towers were standing, with a painstaking miniature version of the village.  Modern-day SG is quiet in November, which was charming but also a bit frustrating as dining options were limited so we went back to the same restaurant for the second straight night, Trattoria Chiribiri, which was a 27-seat cozy cafe, with hosts that spoke enough English to overcome our limited Italian and get another nice meal.

Annie's input

So every city has a vibe.  Paris was elegant and wonderful. Venice was so unique and beautiful.  Roma - much more like New York City but with ruins scattered through out the city. We've had so many great moments and the scary one where I thought my wallet was picked but I had just put it in a different pocket in my purse.  Ben proceeded to be my guardian walking by my purse side all night.  Bill's already talked about our favorite pizzeria - REMO - where we ended up two nights in a row.

Sometimes in life you just feel drawn to do something as we did with this trip.  Only 6 days in it has been everything and more than we hoped it would be.  Our kids are great travelers.  The language barriers that were freaking us out have been minimal.  It has already been a great bonding experience just 6 days in to 14 days.  So off we go to Tuscany.  We decided as a family that maybe we could slow the pace a bit.  I never seemed to have adjusted to the sleeping and time...maybe because of radiation...just more tired. 

But overall...I wouldn't trade this for the world.  Perspective has been an important thing and this trip is helping me settle into that and what it means for us going forward.

Thanks for all of you who are having fun watching our blog.  So many of you have kids our age.  I know Siebert's have a trip planned and several of you may have already done this.  We aren't that unique.  But if you haven't done it and are thinking about it....time only passes....if you don't do it...you don't do it.  It's been a gift of a lifetime for me personally and I think my entire family would say the same thing.

Ciao Bella.....off to Tuscany with hugs and love, Annie

Roma

It's been said that Rome wasn't built in a day, so I guess you can't see it in a day, but we tried to do it in a day and a half.  We took the train from Venice to Rome on Monday and arrived around 12:45.  A quick bite at the train station gave us the energy to hail a taxi and go to our apartment in the Testaccio neighborhood of Rome, a little bit south and west of the Colloseum and other major ancient attractions in Rome.  Once we dropped our luggage at the apartment, we walked toward the Colloseum, a stroll that took about a half an hour.  By the time we got there, it was past the time to enter any of the major sites, so we just strolled around soaking in the history. 

And even though you've seen it however many times in photos, it truly is something to see in person. 

With that attraction and others closed for the night, we headed north to places that don't close, such as the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain.  The Spanish Steps were bathed in the fading sunlight by the time we got there, and we managed to take in the vista as the sun set.  Annie and the kids climbed the steps to see the Roman landscape as herds of tourists took their own pictures to take back to Japan and Spain and Russia and other points unknown.   

On our way to the Spanish Steps, Annie had spotted a Sephora store that she wanted to stop at, so once we were done with the Steps, we headed toward the store where she found what she wanted, but we had a moment that threatened to change the entire trip.  As she was getting ready to pay in the store, Annie couldn't find her wallet, and thought it had been picked by one of Rome's famous thieves.  After about 45 seconds of fear, she discovered that she had put it in another part of her purse, much to our relief, but giving us the catch phrase of having a Sephora moment for quite some time.  A short stroll took us to the Trevi Fountain, which was packed with tourists, even at around 6 at night.  After a few quick photos,

 we reduced the number of the crowd there by four and did some shopping and caught a cab back to our apartment in Testaccio. The woman who handled our renting of the flat we stayed in recommended a restaurant nearby called Remo Pizzeria which turned out to be the find of the trip so far.  Sorry, but we will never call 347-1111 again after having the pies there.  We had a great server in Angelo and the place was filled with people speaking nothing but Italian and it was a great night for our family.   The pizzas with their thin crusts and tasty toppings are unbelievable and we ended up ordering another for the kids.  Then, when we ordered the tiramisu for dessert, our lives were changed forever!!  We've never tasted anything as wonderful as that and even ordered another to finish off before we were finished off for the night.  What a meal!  With our appetites satisfied, we settled in for a full nights' sleep to take on a full day of Rome on Wednesday.  We cut to the chase and set out to the Colosseum first thing Wednesday, working our way through the fake gladiators and took the audio tour around the most famous arena in the world.

Ho fame, so we went to a restaurant that offered outdoor seating on a reasonably warm Wednesday, and had more fantastic bruschetta and pizza and caught a taxi to the Vatican.  After waiting in line for about 20 minutes, we went into St Peter's Basilica, which was stunning on a lot of levels.  Once we finished with the spectacle of that, we headed back to Testaccio for a return trip to Remo's where the kids were treated to some behind the scenes action of the friendly staff.

Remo's Pizzaria was our favorite spot of the trip so far, thanks to the great food and great staff there, the picture there was the idea of one of the workers, which shows how friendly they were to Americans who spoke no more Italian than a few basic phrases.  We have to say a special thanks to Angelo, who made us feel like locals. 

Roma was a special place on what has been so far the trip of lifetime, tomorrow, Tuscany and a rental car. Hope that CDW is worth the Euro!! 

Marley says..... Well HI!....

Hey peepsles of the world! How are you? I am really good! I love it here in Europe! BTW is it your rope or my rope? Get it? Well if you don't OH WELL! :) The reason why I love it here is because it is a NEW world and everythings different and they live a different life. Imagine having to dry your clothes on a line outside. Imagine waking up and seeing somthing amazing every day. That is how they live. Imagine NOT having stuff from other countrys. And only using what we have around us. That is how they live. Well now since I am done lecturing you we can talk about other things. Would you like that? I thought you would! So my favorite place would be Venice. It is so AMAZING! I want me and S.S. ( my "guyfriend" NOT boy friend Sam Smith) to live there together! It is awesome how they all use boats or walk. I don't like cars because they hurt the planet. I like cars because they take you from place to place without making you have to get exersize.  So now everyone in my family wants to live in Paris. Yah it is amazing and blah blah blah blah blah blahblah blah blahblah blah blahblah blah blahblah blah blahblah blah blahblah blah blahblah blah blahblah blah blahblah blah blahblah blah blahblah blah blah.... but I want it to be a big adventure everytime I see the Eiffel Tower. NOT a regular day thing! Agree or disagree? PLEASE AGREE. AGREE AGREE AGREE AGREE AGREE AGREE AGREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PLEASE! Or as they say here per fevore! I wish I could stay in Venice the rest of the trip. I say that when you really LOVE a place you will memorize how to get ANYWHERE! I navigated us home in Venice with THINkING! WITHOUT!!!!! Well my dad is telling me it's time to get off the computer.  BOO YOU dad!!! J.K.!!!!!!!!!! DON"T HURT ME!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
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BYE :) AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhh