January 29, 2012

Betty has been on the road for ages...was in Seattle for two weeks, came home for 8 hours and took off for China for another week.  Just got an email from her this morning and she said her flight out of Qingdao was delayed several hours due to heavy pollution.  Jeez. 

OK...today is the day I put this Italy thing to bed. 

After Florence, we had one more night, and the plan was to hit a couple of Tuscan hilltop towns to close out the trip.  The decision was an AM (1.5hr) drive to spend the day in Siena, then another 1hr or so in the afternoon to spend the night in Montepulciano.

Siena is one of the largest hill towns in Tuscany.  They were built on top of hills with large walls as protection from the other city states.  History told us that the walls were not successful and they were conquered and controlled by Florence in the 14th century and that a building ban was imposed on them to ensure they did not gain enough power to later threaten the dominance of Florence.  What that left was a town whose historic core was frozen in architectural time. 

The town was a series of small streets...kinda like Venice only w/o canals and more hills.  There is an attractive central Duomo, similar in style to the one in Florence, but using black and white marble. 

Siena has two very cool traditions...first is the contrade.  Full history at that link, but briefly, Siena was divided into 17 neighborhoods that were used to supply the military in the middle ages.  Each contrade had an animal symbol representing it and you can see images of these animals on buildings as you cruise through town. 

The contrade bleeds into the second tradition that I loved about Siena.  In the heart of the city is the Piazza del Campo.  Very large and interesting...we grabbed a sandwich from this neat little shop (guess what was on the menu)

 

And then enjoyed a picnic in the Piazza.  Yet another lovely sunny day.

And we finally got a slice of the pizza with the french fries on top.

 

The Piazza is ringed by a road that you can kinda see in this photo

Every summer, they have the Palio horse race..  Each Contrade nominates a jockey and straws are drawn to see which neighborhood gets which horse.  The race dates back to 1283...the jockeys ride bear back, everyone gambles like mad and the whole scene looks just insane.  The winning Contrade brings home the Palio.  So awesomely barbaric.

We hit the road after lunch so we could arrive in Montepulciano before sunset, and the ride between the two was everything I had expected to see in Tuscany and more.  Even in the winter, you could see row after row of farmlands dominated by hilltop farmhouses or small towns.  Rolling hills back lit by a waning sun...every building painted in the same soft pastel palette.  I fell in love with it just as Diane Lane did in Under the Tuscan Sun. 

We rolled into Montepulciano late afternoon...it is the highest hilltop town in Tuscany and has a commanding 360 degree view.  Our hotel (Mueble Il Riccio) was everyones trip favorite....we were all lamenting that we only had one night to spend here.  Great common room where you can sit and enjoy a glass of the local vino

And their rooftop deck offered the view to die for.

The hotel was owned by a family and the owner said he was the 7th generation in it.  I offered to be adopted but he has a 14 year-old son that he is grooming to be the 8th generation.  Fabulous breakfast the next morning of meats and cheeses along with some freshly baked pastries made by the wife.  She even personalized our lattes.

The town was super mellow and a joy to stroll around.  Walking from amazing views to little handcraft shops was a great way to wind down our vacation.   That night, we had another superb meal at this place where the old lady chef (with boobs hanging down to the waist) would come out after each course to make sure we were happy.  We were.

Final day was the 2.5 hour drive to the airport for the long flight home.  I made the case at our last dinner that Italy is the best country in the world.  It has it all...unique towns, tremendous history, must see architecture, millenniums worth of amazing art, world class shopping, perfect climate and topography, the people were delightful, and they definitely get the Gold Medal for food.  Here is a short list of names that we directly came across on our trip:  Bernini, Casanova, Marco Polo, Ceaser, Donatello, Dante, Medici, Hadrian, Vivaldi, Galileo, Machiavelli, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, all the Popes (good and bad), Raphael, and Michelangelo.  I will admit personal bias due to heritage, but I have traveled a decent amount in my life and say without a doubt in my mind that it's the best place on Earth.  I expect to travel more and hope to be proved wrong, but cannot imagine another place that has so much to offer.

January 25, 2012

Paul is now taller than I am.  He is not tall as I am not tall, and we are going in different directions.  At my last physical, I was a 1/2 inch shorter than the year before but am noticing my ears getting longer (and hairier).  Gravity and age are a bitch. 

Am gonna make an effort to finish off the Italy trip diary today.  I know that listening to someone else's trip is boring, and I know I am bragging on it a lot, which can be annoying, but this diary is as much about documenting this period in our lives for the kids future enjoyment as it is helping to keep in touch with far away friends, so bear with me a little bit longer.

We wake up New Year's Day morning early and the plan was to pick-up our rental car at the Venice airport to drive to Florence for three nights.  Note to future me...you can rent a car at the Venice train station (directly accessible by the vappretto rather than trekking to the airport).  We grabbed our Ford Galaxy van (with manual transmission) and hit the road for the 2.5 hour drive to Firenze.

A quick word about Italian drivers...have heard forever, and was reiterated several times just in advance of the trip, that the Italian drivers are crazy and that we were just as crazy to consider driving in Italy.  As regular readers of this diary know, driving is one of my favorite things to do, and I was curious to compare the Italian's reputation to the a-holes that are the Taiwanese drivers.  Granted, we drove mostly on highways at a quieter time of year, but I found the Italians to be superb drivers.  Yes, they drive fast, which is always fine by me, but they know how to do so politely.  For one, on the highway, they get their butts out of the fast lanes rather than sitting in them going the speed limit (or less).  That has always been a pet peeve of mine in the US, and seems de rigeur in TW, so I was perfectly satisfied with the open roads.  They also wait their turns in the traffic circles rather than hurling themselves into intersections in the perverse game of chicken that I am becoming used to here.

The other thing about the roads in Italy is the almost complete lack of Japanese cars.  I assumed that Toyota, Nissans and Hondas were ubiquitous around the globe, but we only remember seeing a couple of each.  Fiats (especially the Fiat Panda) were the economy cars of choice, but there were also tons of Mercedes, BMW, Audis, Alfas, Saabs, Peugeots, and Citroens.  Coming in second to the European brands were a decent amount of Fords.  No Chevy's at all...there was a lot of Opel's as well, which we later learned was a German brand owned by GM, which made the non-existence of Chevy's understandable. 

One of the main reasons I wanted to drive was to see some of the Tuscan countryside, but our drive this morning was foggy beyond words.  I made the second navigation error of the trip by not studying the directions into Firenze better and later learned that the two sets we had were competing, so where we got off the Autostrade did not match the final roads into town.  Paul has been my TW navigator and has become slick with reading the Google maps, but without an internet connection, we became reliant on hard copy maps and he has a way to go in developing that expertise (which he will attain as that skill is in his DNA).  So after getting lost for a while, he got relegated to the back seat and Ann-Marie was promoted to shotgun.  She was thrown into the fire and it took a bit for her to get her bearings.  At one point, after circling the city (and a particular ugly ass building multiple times) for a couple hours, I lost my legendary behind-the wheel cool and "yelled' at her.  She says she found the way in spite of my screaming, but I think my tough love caused her to attain a laser like focus that would benefit us the rest of the trip. 

Pretty much everyone that has spent time in Italy says that Firenze and the Tuscan region in general is the best.  While there is more to see in Rome and Venice, and do not regret for a second in spending most of our time in those two cities, if I was to return to Italy, I would devote as much time as possible to that area.  They have the lifestyle that you envision...laid back, gorgeous landscape, and the best food of all.  There is no doubt I could go there tomorrow and spend the rest of my life.

Our hotel was the Torre Guelfa and is in a 13th century home a block from the Ponte Vecchio that used to be a fortress for an influential family.  A part of the fortress was a tower that dominates the local skyline and is now a rooftop deck with a perfect 360 degree view of the city.

Just an awesome place...at the desk was an elderly man named Luigi( of course) that was so friendly and hilarious that I wanted him as part of the family immediately.  The interior was modern and well appointed, and the rates were reasonable so highly recommend this place. 

The historic downtown of Firenze is compact, so a quick stroll can get you anywhere you want to be in 10-20 minutes.  Their church (Duomo seen in the first shot) is huge and made of lovely pink and green marble that is simply stunning.

That last shot is in the piazza in front of the Duomo and these two Italian girls were running around photo bombing the tourists.  If you can't beat 'em...  Photo bombing used to be much more fun in the film age as it would take days for the bomber to be discovered. 

A must see in Firenze is the Galleria dell' Accademia, which houses Michaelangelo's David.  Arguably the most famous sculpture in the world, it was more impressive than imagined.  No photography allowed although Betty snuck one of his butt that I cannot seem to locate. 

The Meddici's were the dominant family in Firenze for centuries, and we spent a good amount of time exploring their palace and gardens.  Fabulous art and architecture in the palace, and the (Boboli) gardens were huge and immaculate.  We ran the kids there one sunny/warm afternoon so they could burn some energy.  And some neat sculptures. 

As with Venice, we didn't go into a lot of churches, but one to note is the Santa Croce.  A nice church, but what was cool about it was that it held the tombs of Machiavelli, Michelangelo and Galileo. 

The shopping in Firenze was the best.  Betty had heard about an outlet place called The Mall, so we spent a morning driving out to it.  This was the only day on our entire trip where we had rain, so took the opportunity to spend it inside.  They had outlet shops for all the fancy brands (Gucci, Fendi, Armani, etc.), but the prices were still high and was the biggest disappointment of the trip.  The Mall was jammed with Asians too (they love the brand names), but we just travelled 10,000 miles to get away from them so made a hasty retreat.  They did have a Lindt outlet, which helped appease the kids.

We were more intrigued by the local fabricators and went into a bunch of shops in town.  Many of them had the owners as the salespeople, and they were not just owners, but the designers themselves.  On our last night in town, Betty came to the hotel and wanted an opinion on a handbag at a shop next to the hotel.  The dude (Eugenio) was the nicest guy and they had some of the nicest leather bags I've ever seen...and felt.  The leather was like butter.  Eugenio travels to the local tannery's to pick out his leather, designs the merch himself and then fabricates them in his workshop in the back of the store (he gave us a tour).  He says that he gets frequent interns (that pay him) from the US to come and learn the trade, and that the Italians are less interested in learning as they would rather make fast easy money shuffling papers in an office.  I felt a little humiliated to be a (former) paper shuffler.  Betty ended up buying two gorgeous bags from him, and I picked up a new wallet and dopp kit.  The perfect shopping experience.

The other thing we loved in Firenze was the food.  We did not have a meal that wasn't excellent.  The greatest moment of the trip for me happened at the Mercato Centrale.  It's the busiest food market in town and is not a tourist destination per se, but is where the locals and restaurants go to get their foodstuffs.  Pictures could never portray how absolutely beautiful and varied the offerings are, and I wish I was a poet to be able to convey the true majesty of it (but am going to give it a burl one of these days).  You can see the quantity and variety of the meats in the picture below, and in the case below the meat were enormous wheels of the fluffiest, creamiest cheeses you've ever seen.  I was just standing in front of this counter in awe.  Betty was talking to him and said to make us his favorite sandwich, and Ann-Marie and I said, "make it three".  I will forever compare any future sandwich (or any meal) with what he put together for us.  A generous selection of meats, cheeses, and marinated veggies drizzled with beautiful olive oil served on bread that was fluffy on the inside and perfectly crunchy on the outside.  They guy was a artist..seriously in the top 5 moments of my life.

In a little piazza near our hotel is this bronze boar, and it is said that if you rub his nose, you will return to Firenze.

 

We shall return.

January 21, 2012

I need to finish off the vacation trip diary, but am taking a break for a quick recap of our weekend in Changhua for a baseball tournament with Paul's local team.  Unlike previous tournaments when the teams were loaded with adults, this tournament was for middle school (grades 7-9) kids only.  Changhua is a couple hour drive south of Taipei near Taichung and we had amazing weather.  Mid-70's and blue skies both days.  Coming from Seattle, being able to play in prefect weather in January is a treat, although am sorry we did not do a drive by of the Big Buddha.


The boys did OK, winning two and losing two games...it was tough for them (and all of us) as their first games each day had a first pitch of 7:30 (so we had a 4-something-AM) wake-up call on Saturday). 

They won both their AM games, but came up flat in the afternoon ones unsurprisingly.  With 3-4 hour breaks between games, was hard to keep up an intensity level.

For his part, Paul was more than solid, going 4-8 with 5 walks, a bunch of RBI's, runs scored and stolen bases, and also played error free 3B with a couple of wily defensive efforts.  Paul is a very nice player overall and has learned how to play the right way...doing all the small things like watching a pitch all the way to the catcher's mitt.

 

It's a good thing that he has the knowledge as his coaches and teammates speak zero English.  He blew a sign at one point and got caught stealing, but the language of baseball gets him through for the most part.  It is kinda hard for him to not understand what's going on and can get bored being the only one not getting the joke.  At one point, a little girl asked him to open her Gatorade bottle and all the other boys started laughing at him and he still doesn't know why. 

For my part, there are a couple of parents that speak English and they are always very nice to me, explaining what's going on, making sure we get fed and such.  Everyone gets a lunch box that has a chicken cutlet, some cabbage, a 1000 year-old egg and rice...way better than it sounds.

And we all went out to dinner for hot-pot (Shabu shabu) that night.  We are familiar with the hot pot process, but the parents took time to make sure we were set-up before they ate themselves.

We are very fortunate to have found this team, not only for Paul to get to satisfy his baseball-jones, but also for all of us to experience things from a strictly Taiwanese perspective.  Going to an American school, everything is partially filtered through a Western lens.  While we relish these Taiwanese  experiences, it would be great to be able to make jokes...my humor is hard/painful to "get" for an native English speaker, but is close to impossible to translate into Chinese.

One of the mom's was wearing a shirt that cracked me up...

It's common for people to say that fellas think with their penis, but I've never heard of a talking vagina.  And I wanted to ask her what her vagina was asking that needed to be answered.  And if your vagina asks the question, is it in the first or third person.  Was killing me to not be able to talk through these pressing questions.

Another thing about Taiwanese baseball that is cringe-worthy and am dying to discuss is their cup wearing habits.  The boys don't wear them...I asked Paul if he was the only boy that wore one and he said, "yeah, but I'm the only one with something to protect."  That's my boy.  If you want to be a power hitter, you gotta carry a big stick.

The only other player on the field that wears a cup is the catcher, but only while he is catching, so they have a "team cup" that all the catcher's share.  And they wear it on the outside of their pants.

So if they have to change catcher's during an inning, in addition to switching the shin guards and chest protector, they will pull of this nasty yellow jock strap in the middle of the field so the new catcher can strap it on.  Definitely falls into the "just wrong" category.

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.