January 17, 2013

Learned a bit about Chinese food that I didn't know (from Chinese class of course).  One of our favorite topics in class is food and we are currently learning a lot of words about it, and I was curious what Cha Su Bao translated into (meat stick wrap), and the topic turned to different types of Chinese cuisine.  I like it spicy and have always leaned towards Szechuan, but have been unable to find it here so far.  The teacher said it was very popular years ago when the economy was bad as it is considered low brow and cheap, coming from an impoverished inland province, but as the economy turned around, they fell out of favor and she knows of only a couple left (which we will be trying soon).  As the economy recovered, they were replaced in trend by Cantonese style with their (hard to find/more expensive) delicacies like shark fin and bird's nest soups.  With the recent unfavorable economic environment, those are falling out of favor/going out of business.  A current trend for the Taiwanese is pizza and you see these hole in the wall places everywhere.  Pretty similar currents of trends as in the US, and I am happy about the pizza trend as our neighborhood joint (Maya Pizza) serves up some of my favorite pie of all time.  In fact, of all the wonderful food we ate in Italy, the only disappointment was the pizza.  Good, sure, but we never hit one that blew us away.  And it's a bummer when you learn a food that you love is considered plebeian.  As mentioned earlier, I love a good wiener schnitzel.  During my school year in Melbourne in '83, we would go many days to the Frankston Hotel for counter tea (and a pint), and the schnitzel they served made an impression on me that is still visible when I look in the mirror.   Whenever talk would turn to schnitzel with our friend that was born and raised in Germany, she would dismiss it as being the food for poor people.  Probably says a lot about both of us.

So I wrote all about Venice in one posting below, and it's a long one.  So you know.

So after our 6 nights in Rome, it was time to head to our next destination...Venice.  We went their via train.  Train station was a 15 minute walk from our hotel, so we left at 8:20 to catch a 9:05 departing train.  After a smooth 3.5 hour ride (during which I dominated the Uno tournament), we pulled into the Venice train station.  Big thumbs up on the public transport system in all respects.  We took buses, subways and this train, and all were timely, clean and reasonably priced.  I would not hesitate to lean on them in the future.

Venice is not Rome.  You walk out of the train station and up to the Grand Canal where we purchased a 3 day pass on the Vaporetto.  The vaporetto is the water bus system that courses through the Grand Canal and the lagoon islands.   After a 5 minute ride, we found the stop for our hotel.  You don't need to ride the Vaporetto if you are staying in town  cause it's such a compact city, but each ride is a fun and beautiful tour.

 

That last snap is looking into Piazza San Marcos, which is the center of town.  While Rome had site after site all over town to see, most of the buildings that you "have" to enter are in San Marcos.  St. Marks Church, Doge's Palace and the Campanile line the piazza.  But it is the city of Venice itself that is the thing to see.  With all of the canals and buildings all from the 12th to 15th centuries, walking around (no cars) constantly transports you back in time.

There are some wider "streets", but most of them are similar in size to the one where our hotel was located.

Our hotel itself , Pensione Guerrato, was originally built in 1288. 

 

The hotel was right by the Rialto Bridge (one of two that cross the Grand Canal and is one of the main shopping and connection points in the city).  Right next to our hotel was the Rialto Mercato, which is the fresh produce and fish market in the city where the locals buy their food.  The selection of seafood was impressive, far out pacing the great Pike Place Market in terms of quantity and variety of fresh fish.

Do you see that gal with the mink coat in the last snap?  There were A LOT of mink coats in Venice.   One day we even saw a little doggie wearing one and damned if I didn't have the camera ready for that one. 

We did take a few hours one morning to do laundry...self service.

On one of our strolls, we crossed the other bridge (Accademia)that spans the Grand Canal and saw all these padlocks attached to the railings.  They all had love notes painted on them, like Luigi loves Laura.  Very neat.

The weather in Rome ranged from upper 40's at night, to mid-60's during the day, but Venice is further north and on the water, so it was definitely chillier.  On our first stroll around town, it was obvious that the article of clothing everyone was wearing was a scarf and I immediately purchased one...I see it in nearly every picture of me for the rest of the trip.

One of the days there, we used our Vaporetto passes and cruised through the main lagoon islands.  We visited and had lunch on the Lido, which is the 8km long island that borders the Mediterranean and keeps the waters of the Lagoon calm from storms.  It's the beach destination in the summer so was sleepy in December, but we were able to skip stones and write our names in the sand.

We also visited Murano island (home of their fine glass making industry for generations and through today).  There were a lot of glass items to buy, although I don't remember getting any, but I do remember a sign in one shop that said that while their prices might seem higher than other shops, theirs were guaranteed to contain only locally made products and not those imported from China.

Our final stop that day was Burano island, which was/is the home of a fine lace industry.  Smaller than Murano, its buildings were all painted in pastels, which gave it a unique feeling.

Then it was time for the 45 minute vaporetto ride home at sunset.  So pretty and tranquil.

We did the touristy gondola ride of course, as I'm sure you did or will when you visit.  Our gondolier had been on the job 14 years and said he had only fallen off once.  He showed us the birthplace of Cassanova, the family home of Marco Polo, and the mansion of Vivaldi...all Venetians.  He also explained that there were 400 gondoliers in town and that all were of Venetian birth and that most learned their trade from their fathers.  He did not sing O Sole Mio unfortunately.

While it is a traditional job, they do make way for modern technology

The food in Venice was also quite good, and by this point we had the rhythm down...grab street food for lunch and then sit down somewhere for dinner.  The street food across Italy was similar and uniformly good...they have these little walk up windows or small cafes where you can grab a slice or sandwich.  I mentioned them before, but found a couple of snaps of them in the Venice pile.  So great.

Another must do is having a drink at Harry's Bar.  Will let you click that link for the full story if its colorful origins, but is the bar that was Venician watering hole for the ex-pats Hemmingway, Bogart, Chaplin, Hitchkock, Capote, etc.  They are also the originators of the Bellini cocktail and carpaccio, so we had to have a drink (and 80 Euro tab) there one afternoon.

We paid to go into the Doge's Palace.  The Doge was the elected head of the city state of Venice and this was his home and the center of Venetian government.  I read a history book on Venice prior to the trip, and while I knew some about the Italian city states during the Renaissance, I was surprised at how much power and wealth they controlled, especially Venice, for centuries.  They truly were masters of all they surveyed for several hundred years.  The religious accoutrement that we had been bombarded by in Rome was far more subtle and subdued here.  While religious, they resisted any control by the Papacy.  We did not have a guide, but The Doge's Palace was a walking tour of how they lived.  In the Palace, you saw the Doge's residences, many of the rooms where their government met and the rooms where criminals were tried...all in exquisite condition.  My favorite room in the Palace was the Atlas Room where they had paintings from the 1600's of all the coasts of the world, including those with an incomplete knowledge of China and the coasts of the Americas.  The tour then took you through rooms that held their weapons.  The kids (and I) grooved on seeing suits of armor and all the unique weapons.  Some favorites of ours were the maces, spike filled hammers, and crossbows (Paul has been bugging me for one ever since) .

If one was tried and found guilty in the Palace, the prisoner would walk over the Bridge of Sighs into the prison.  I had heard of the Bridge of Sighs and had always assumed that you would sigh when you saw the beauty of it, but it is actually named that as the prisoners would look out its window at beautiful Venice and sigh that they knew they were leaving it and going into a cold dungeon...here is what they would have seen. 

Of course the kids loved walking through a jail cell.

I thought that the Doge Palace set-up was one of the best laid out from an interest perspective of any historical site I've visited.  Not too much of anything and it flowed various aspects of the palace ergonomically where it kept every one's interest...the two hours we were inside felt like 30 minutes.

The other cool building we went into was the Campaniele, which is the large bell tower that dominates San Marcos Square.

It was rebuilt in 1912 after collapsing unexpectedly...the collapse only killed the caretaker and his cat amazingly.  Not a lot to see building wise, but the views at the top are unmatched...we fortunately had a bright sunny day.

That last picture is of the stage in Piazza San Marcos where the city would party later that night for New Year's Eve.  We had a lovely NY Eve dinner at a family restaurant called Il Bepi (I had lobster lasagna).  There was this teenage kid working as a busboy and the poor kid had two left feet.  Couldn't do anything right...like taking the food to the wrong tables, dropping stuff, and we were all entertained by watching him make mistakes and then the dad and grandmother admonish him in Italian all throughout our meal.  We were calling him Jake from Two and a Half Men.

We then hit the Square for New Years and it was packed.  We all had on masks and just hung out while the band played songs while counting down for New Years.  Here's my mask...very Funkadelic

  All the songs they played were English or American...my favorite (and most curious selection) was the theme song to The Jefferson's.  Counted down with the crowd and rang in the New Year Venetian style.  Will share Paul's montage...

They put on a decent fireworks display after midnight and then it was time to head back to the hotel as we had an early wake-up call to leave town the next morning.  I mentioned that the streets are really small including those that feed the Piazza, so everyone in the jammed square having the same idea as us created this enormous traffic jam trying to get out of there.  We were literally sardined for a good 20 minutes...felt like a really crowded rock and roll show up at the front, which I have a decent amount of experience in, but as Sophie commented, it was her first mob scene.  Seriously, it could have been dangerous if the back end of the crowd started to stampede, but we survived and the kids got an experience they should never forget. 

One last observation on Venice...the people gave off such a different vibe than those of Rome that it felt like a different country.  I wouldn't call them rude, and no one was impolite to us, but they were definitely not friendly.  No smiles, chit chat or anything resembling a desire to interact with you more than the absolute minimum.  While the heart of Rome exists exclusively for tourists, Venice is a city with a local population, community and industry, so it felt as if there was a certain unspoken resentment that the tourists were there...like a necessary evil.  I also think a bit of it has to do with the fact that Venetians were one of the word's biggest powers for several centuries.  I think there is a feeling of lost glory and that they are truly a different and superior culture and a breed apart (and better) from other Italians, rather than just another city in Italy.  And don't get me wrong, once you got used to their nature, eliminating the little unnecessary pleasantries was quite liberating.  I know that's a big leap of judgement for being somewhere for 4 days, but there you go.

Next stop...Firenze.

January 16, 2012

The new Yo La Tengo album/disc/download just popped into the computer.  If you know me at all, you are aware of how much I love them...they have been my favorite band for a couple of decades now and are still putting out relevant music and are a tremendous live act.  They are a big chunk of the soundtrack of my life and am so happy to welcome new music onto it.  Everyone deserves their own Yo La Tengo.

First, have neglected to mention that joining us on the trip were our friends Ann-Marie and her daughter Sophie.  Ann-Marie is Paul's Godmother, and I am Sophie's Godfather, so we are close to the point of being able to disagree with each other open and honestly.  You'll see them in the pix from time to time, but here they are...

Before we move along to Venice in the diary, need to clean-up some notes on Rome.  You know the fish symbol for Christians on the back of cars?  I always thought it was related to the miracle of the fishes, but we learned that it was an ancient secret symbol they would use to show they were Christian that the authorities wouldn't understand.  The Greek word for fish (Ichtus) is a word puzzle that translates into Jesus Christ.  If two strangers met, one would draw a half circle and if the other was of the Christian faith, he would complete the fish with another half circle. 

Something you see all over Rome, mostly on public works projects like sewer caps and fountains are the letters SPQR.  They mean Senatus Populusque Romanus (The Senate and People of Rome) and was emblazoned on money and public projects as early as 80BC until today.  Like those kind of past/present links

The other part of that symbol is that of Romulus and Remus suckling a she-wolf.  They are the twin brothers that founded the city of Rome...they were considered illegitimate children of a goddess and abandoned to die on the river Tiber but were miraculously saved (one of the ways was by being fed by the wolf).  They later had an argument over the results of a contest to determine where the city would be founded and Romulus killed Remus and there you have the name of the city.  You see this symbol all about town as well (including on the paraphernalia of the local soccer team AS Roma).

Back to the SPQR thing for a second...water was critical in making Rome grow to the size (and therefore its later power), so the public works projects like the aqueducts were essential to its growth to over a million in ancient times.  When Rome was sacked and the aqueducts were destroyed by the invaders, the population fell to 50,000.  So during the cities rebirth in the Middle Ages and onward, they were fond of creating fountains to honor the importance of water to the city.  Fountains are everywhere and are running all the time.

And there are these taps scattered throughout the city that just spout water constantly...no off valve.  We drank from them although we relied on bottled water.  They did make good opportunities to stop and have a little water fight throughout the day.

After we returned home, we stumbled upon a documentary about Rome and how it has dealt with its water and waste issues throughout time.  I wasn't certain the kids were always paying attention to the sights, but as the doc showed the sights, we'd all yell "we saw that" at the TV.  One of the parts of the show was about how they dealt with waste in the late Middle Ages.  The Jews were relegated to a small, cramped walled quarter of the city where they were herded into at night and had the gates locked up.  The authorities then determined that this would also be the place in the city where they would dump their garbage and prohibited the Jews from any other occupation other than working with the debris.  They became the world's first Reuse/Recyclists and one of their biggest money makers was taking discarded clothing and turning it into paper that they would then sell back to the Catholic Church to print bibles that they would then send throughout the world. 

Side note:  First off, I am not claiming to be the smartest guy around, but I am 47 and have always had an interest in and have studied, history, politics and been a follower of world events, and I have never been able to understand why everyone has despised and treated the Jews so poorly.  Personally and publicly, they all seem like hard workers, are funny and kind, and while some of their decisions can be questioned, can never find any events past or present that would warrant the treatment they have received from virtually every society where they have interacted.  Paul has joined his Model UN team at school and he was recently assigned Israel as the country he will represent, so I am researching and looking for some justification for all the hatred they attract.

We knew that on Christmas Day that many sites and most restaurants would be closed, so made the old Jewish quarter our destination for lunch that day.  After walking around (and getting a bit lost in one of only two times on the whole trip), we finally found the restaurant strip and landed on the Taverna Del Ghetto.

Am calling out this meal as one of the top 5 we ate the whole trip.  We had delicious hummus/falafel, some of the best kebabs ever (rivaling our friend Susan's in taste), and they gave us a lovely plate of garbanzo beans free of charge that were sauced to perfection.  But the best dish was the chicken schnitzel ordered by Carolyn.  Have been a longtime fan of schnitzel/milanese since forever, but the version they served up that day was the best I'd ever tested by far.  When we ordered, Carolyn and I were supposed to share our meals, and I like to share with her as she doesn't usually eat a lot and I usually get one and a half meals, but this day, she became like a Mama bear with it, devouring it all with me only getting a couple of nibbles. 

The food throughout the trip was uniformly good to outstanding, and I could easily write up a day to day list of what we ate.  Am rambling on enough as it is so will limit the call outs to those meals that were life changing.  The other dish I ate in Rome that fits this descriptiion was on our last night at a restaurant called Target in the Quirinal neighborhood.  I ordered the gnocchis with clams and asparagus, which seemed a bit unusual accompanyment for gnocchis, but the texture and taste were sublime.  Gnocchis are typically a heavier dish, but these were so light and fluffy that I could have gone to sleep and dream happily on them.  I wish I had taken a picture of them, so will share these pictures of the big donut (slathered with nutella) that we got one afternoon.

A couple of other notes to share from Christmas Day...the Jewish quarter is next to the neighborhood that had the Santa Maria in Cosmedin church.  The attraction there for us was the Bocca della Verita (Mouth of Truth) that is featured prominently in one of Betty's favorite movies, Roman Holiday.  It is said that the monument was originally an ancient manhole cover but in the medieval period, the legend was that its formidable jaws would snap shut over the hand of those who told lies.  We went there on our first morning to take a picture of Betty with her hand in it, but later found they didn't come out well, so we went back this day.  Unfortunately, the ones we took of her again weren't any good (she was not amused), and this ended up being the best we took.

We were then kinda far from the hotel and loaded with yummy food and decided to take the metro back...but as it was Christmas Day, there was no metro (duh), so we decided to cab it back.  As there were six of us, the girls got in the first cab and Paul and I took the second one.  After hearing horror stories for years about the craziness of the Italian drivers, I found them to be fine...will go into detail about them another day, but as Paul and I climbed into the back seat of this one, neither of us buckled up.  Traffic was very light and we were just enjoying the scenery, until this guy turns into a combination of Ben Hur and Mario Andretti.  Careening through intersections, swerving to avoid pedstrians, and laying on the gas.  After making two girls dive out of his way (and then him muttering in Italian something that was obviously dirty), without words, Paul and I looked at each other and simultaneously grabbed and buckled our belts.  Fun times.

Finally, I found the people of Rome to be delightful.  The historic part of Rome has two indutries.  The Catholic Church and tourism, so it is their job to be pleasant to outsiders and we did not meet a sole that was not open and friendly towards us.  And they like to smoke...everywhere.  There wasn't a spot in town where you couldn't see or smell it.  I even smelled it at the Vatican.  The Taiwanese like to smoke too, but they will stop and smoke.  The Italians smoke on the move.  And it isn't just the dudes...I was surprised by the number of women that were puffing away.  Ann-Marie said a few times that the women looked older because of it.  I would have to agree, but (in my opinion) I think they pull it off.  If you break down their individual parts (a bit chunky at the belly and thick in the legs, flabby boobs, big noses, weathered greasy complexions), you would not consider any one characteristic attractive, but put 'em all together, package them in trendy fashion wrapping, and I found them to be quite sexy overall.  But I have always been partial to that look...Giada de Laurentis anyone?

 

January 15, 2012

Before we dig into the next trip report, the kids school, named Taipei American School (TAS), is directly across the street from Taipei Japanese School (TJS).  There was an incident at TJS yesterday and we received an email from our school's Superintendant excerpted as follows:

"This afternoon around 4:00PM outside the Japanese School, a man with a knife threatened a group of people and stabbed one of the parents waiting for her child at the Japanese School. She was stabbed in the thigh and taken for medical treatment. This happened across the street from us on the corner near the large intersection, and one of our faculty members witnessed the event. My account is based on his first hand report, and on what our director of security learned from the police and from the Japanese School security people. After the man stabbed the woman, he put the knife on the ground and lit up a cigarette. The man was arrested and taken away by police."

At first, had concern as anytime you put the word "American" on anything, it becomes a possible target for someone looking to make a statement.  Taiwan seems to be one of the friendlier nations towards America, but you never know.  But you have to wonder that if this nut job was in the US, he likely would have had a gun and the violence would have been worse, but my favorite part is that he put down the knife and "lit up a cigarette".  So the lesson obviously is less guns and more smokes.

I am a history lover...was always my favorite subject in class, will never switch channels on a good historical documentary...damn, I'll even READ a history book from time to time.  So getting the chance to visit Rome was special as it has played a significant part in European and World history almost continuously since they started writing the stuff down.  Everything I have and will relate that we saw in there (and tons more I am leaving out) is within a 20 minute walk from each other.  Have already done the Catholic/Church side of the trip, so now we come to ancient Rome.  There are gobs of ruins everywhere.  We walked the Circus Maximus a couple of times...is just a long vacant lot with an old tower and some walls now, but it was not hard to close the eyes and imagine 300,000 blood thirsty fans cheering Charlton Heston while he kicked some Roman (and Persian) ass.  We saw a pile of other ruins, like the Trajan Markets, Arch of Septimus Severus, and Temple of  Vesta that were severely decayed as ancient Rome's buildings were used for centuries as a quarry for new buildings and churches, and it takes a good imagination to recreate what must have been.  By the way, the Temple of Vesta was where the Vestial Virgins were housed...I had not learned about what they were before, but theses girls were recruited at ages 6-10, spent the first 10 years learning their duties, the next 10 performing their duties, and the last 10 teaching the new girls, and after those 30 years, they were free to lead normal lives.  They "enjoyed" high status and financial security, but had to remain virgins.  The penalty for transgressing was to be buried alive.  To be fair, the men concerned were flogged to death.

While most of the ruins were just that, there were three that were still in good condition that helped in making the others come to life in the mind.  The Coloseum is an image that is ubiquitous, but as with all such places, seeing it is more impresssive than you can imagine.  It's size is bigger than I had imagined.  It had a 45,000 seat capacity, the same as a Major League Baseball stadium, but was more vertical than a current stadium, so the fans were on top of the field and all had a great sightline.  My favorite part was how the floor was engineered, with two floors of rooms and cages below the field that housed the gladiators and animals that were going to battle above.  There was a system of elevators that would raise the participants onto the field when the games began.  It was easy to picture 45 thousand fans going nuts watching man v man, or man v beast action.  You can draw a direct line from the Coloseum to today and makes understannding the allure of the bloodlust that is the NFL easier.  Pics don't do it justice, but here you go.

After our tour, our kids were inspired to become gladiators (or beasts).

It was early morning when we went to the Coloseum and saw the horse drawn carrige vendors (and their beasts) getting ready for the day.

The next ancient site that impressed were the catacombs...all the kids said this was their favorite part of Rome.  We went to the Catacombs of Domitilla, which are said to be the largest in Rome.  This was the only site that we could not walk to as it is out of the city, but a 20  minute bus ride got us there.  The website said they were open on Wednesdays, but once we got there, there was a sign on the gate that said they were closed for the holidays.  We were bummed.

The gate was ajar, and we needed to go to the bathroom, so we went in to use the toilets.  As we're sitting there trying to figure out if there was another site we could walk to, a caretaker came out to see who was invading the space and he offered to take us in/under (with the entrance fee paid under the table).  We were then delighted.

The reason the catacombs are outside of the city walls is that they are the gravesites of the early Christians, who were considered heretics in the first three centuries AD and were not allowed to be buried within the city wall.  These are not above ground graves, but are a series of narrow tunnels that are lined with graves dug into the walls, or various crypts for families.  There were 4 below ground levels of these tunnels of this catacomb that measure a total of 17 km (10 miles) long.  There were a couple of claustrophobes in our group (including yours truly), and it was freaky walking into them, but with the history and excitement of the place, this was easily overcome.  There was artifical light, and we only went in a relatively short distance, but thinking about living back in the day and going to visit a loved one at the end of one of these tunnels with only an oil lamp to light your way made the hair on my neck stand on end.  Carolyn was impressed with the size of the graves...they were mostly small, which suggested that people were not only shorter then, but that a lot of children died young as well.  A must see on any visit to Rome for sure.

All of the tombs and graves were empty and our guide told us that in the 6th century, after Christianity became the only religion in town, all of the bones were removed to be given a proper burial in the City.  All of the bones were said to be buried under the third (and my favorite) ancient site in town, the Pantheon. 

It is impossible to refer to the Pantheon without calling it The Parthenon (even wikipedia says not to be confused with the Pantheon).  The Pantheon was a temple of the Gods built in 27 BC and is the one with the ocular hole in the ceiling.  I'll direct you to the link for the size details and history, but it is another of those things that has to be seen to be beleived.  Paul instantly recognized it from a video game of his where you have to descend from the hole on ropes to get at whatever enemy you need to shoot up, so he was on board with this site.  The adults loved this one so much that after a long day of touring, the kids were beat and wanted some alone time with their games at the hotel, so we gave them Metro money to go back and the parents walked back to commune inside the Pantheon in peace.  Of  course, we had a glass of wine before going in to assist with the communization.

 

There are two other "must-do" sites in Rome to mention...both were between our hotel and our other destinations so we were by and around them often.  The first is the Trevi Fountain.  It is the connection point in the city of three aqueducts, so its place in the city was symbolicly significant to deserve a great monument.  And you can drink the water.

I've said that it's got to be seen to appreciate a lot, but here is another one. Baroque to the extreme, high levels of detail in every nook, and just beautiful day or night. Like the Sistine Chapel, everytime we'd be there it was mobbed with people taking pictures and not allowing much room to just sit and enjoy, which lessend its allure a bit. However, on the night after the Mass at the Vatican, we had to walk back to the hotel as the buses/metro were not running due to it being NYE, and taxis were not only scarce, but were charging triple/quadruple rates as they were the only game in town. As we passed by the Trevi, we saw only a few people, mostly young (er than us), hanging out.  Since I had just made it through an entire Catholic Mass, felt a gelato as reward was in order. So we got one (mine was caramel cream) and enjoyed it by the fouuntain. As the clock struck midnight making it Christmas Day, our party friends opened their champagne and did some hootin' and hollerin'. Very nice moment to share.

The last site to see are the Spanish Steps.  They, and the Piazza di Spagna at their feet have been the meeting place for Romans for centuries.  Even in the end of December, people were sitting on them day and night talking, resting and people watching.  On the day we went to the catacombs, our intention was to get back and relax that afternoon at Babington's Tea Room, which is right next to the steps at their base, for high tea.  We had read about them and since Betty has a thing for the Royals and Mary Poppins, it was a no brainer.  As we're going in, we see a crew setting up speakers and a stage at the base of the Spanish Steps for what we would find out was to be an opera performance at 4PM.  That fit our schedule perfectly, so after our tea (which was quite good), we came out to watch members of the National Opera company perform.  I would have prefered some good ol' rock and roll or some jazz, and opera is in my top 3 of most despised musical genres, but the scene was just too perfect not too enjoy.  And they played the hits...I don't really know what are opera hits, but they sang all the songs from the Bugs Bunny cartoons, There is a lot of classical music in Looney Tunes, my only exposure to the classics, and since I have made it a point as a father to expose my children to these classic cartoons, we were all quite happy.  Very good times.