Rome

Rome is magnificent and whacky all rolled into one. Cacophony of horns, squealing brakes and the roar of motorbikes careening down and around corners fills the air day and night. Rome is the political capital of Italy, capital of Catholicism and the center of the ancient world.

We arrived late afternoon by train and got situated in Hotel Borromeo. We arranged a night walking tour and planned to meet our guide at Piazza Vittorio Emanuele ll. We received directions from the hotel front desk and walked to the Piazza. We waited but the guide did not show up. We had started back to the hotel when the guide called saying he was waiting for us at Piazza Venezia – Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele ll. We were at the wrong Piazza!

On our stroll back to the hotel we passed the Santa Maria Maggiore Cathedral and wandered inside. It was built in 352 A.D. and has gold leafed paneled ceiling and a massive mosaic floor. The gold gild on the ceiling was brought back from the new world by Columbus. We ate a late supper at a restorante next to the hotel and enjoyed their house wine.

The next morning, we arranged with the same tour group to meet at St. Peters Basilica to tour the greatest church on earth and tour the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel.

We met Jared - the guide - and two other people in the tour and waited for Gilbert, a third member scheduled for our tour. Our guide, Jared, started telling of the columns that ring the square which were designed by the baroque architect Bernini. A gentleman joined our group and quickly three more men arrived to talk to our guide. They were the Vatican police! Apparently Jared was not a licensed guide with the city of Vatican. After much “discussion,” we noticed Jared fading into the crowd and we were left to join the thousands in line to enter the Basilica.

The impressive St. Peters Basilica and Michelangelo’s Pieta and the famed Basilica’s dome will be remembered forever. The Vatican museum has four miles of western civilization art, ending and peaking, with Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel.
It was an exhausting day but one filled with memories to last a lifetime. Good wine, bruschetta, gnnoche (dumplings) and steak, helped to heal the sore feet and back.

Last day in Italy we opted to take a hop-on, hop-off tour bus to get an overview of ancient Rome, trevi fountain and the Spanish steps. Early flights forced us to the airport by late afternoon in a taxi ride that did not live up to the harrowing stories I had heard about. We walked several blocks to an Enoteca and bought wine and went to bed early.

We’ve seen, experienced and tasted so much these two weeks and know in our hearts we’ve barely scratched the surface of Italy. We will return!!

Tuscany and Umbria

We left Riomaggiore with regret but also with excitement to experience Tuscany and Umbria areas. We rented a car in Pisa and quickly visited The Field of Miracles (leaning tower, cathedral and baptistery).

It was impressive to see the gently rolling green hills with vineyards, carpets of green hay dotted with the bright yellow of canola fields. Along the sides of the highways grew red poppies punctuating the Tuscan beauty. Large villas sat atop the rolling hills crowning this Italian experience.

Enotecas (wine bars) held wonderful examples of Tuscan wine. We found that asking at trattorias or pizzerias to sample their vino da casa (house wine) was inexpensive and really quite good. There are many hill towns of central Italy that retain their medieval charms and their atmosphere is a slower pace than the larger cities. We chose to stay in Volterra which sits high above the farmlands. It’s a city that was started by the Etruscan civilization 2000 years ago.

We stayed at a hotel that is an ancient stone structure but with modern rooms. Lisa and Giuseppina were our hosts. It’s standard procedure in Italy to give your passports to the desk on check-in and they are returned within an hour or two. This time our passports were returned with a small ice cream birthday cake with one candle. It was a perfect way to spend a birthday! It was interesting to talk to Lisa and Giuseppina and even more interesting that they knew about the Democratic race for the U.S. presidency and gave their opinions of the candidates.

The second night we stayed in Orvieto, a wonderful Umbria hill town known for its white wine, ceramics and cathedral. The old town sits majestically a thousand feet above the valley floor. We stayed at Hotel Picchio which is a family run hotel near the train station and drop off spot for the car. The owner was working in her garden just outside our room. When we opened our shutters she came around and offered us the first two ripe strawberries from her garden.

Italian Riviera

Cinque Terre means five villages and is considered the Italian Riviera. The towns are Riomaggorie, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso. A daily boat connects the little villages plus there is a trail that ties all of the towns and can be hicked in about 5 hours.

We stayed in Riomaggorie, which is considered the working town with fewer resorts. Our guide book by Rick Steves describes it a "fascinating tangle of pastel homes leaning on each other like drunken sailors." Once we read that, we knew we had found our village!

Vino delle Cinque Terre is inexpensive and is a wonderful white wine especially with the sea food. A sweet dessert wine is Sciaechetra which is very popular in the Cinque Terre region. The vineyards go straight up the mountains and were neat and well groomed. We especially enjoyed seeing the people work the vineyards with techniques similar to what we do with our vines. It also reminds us of all the work that awaits as the growing season begins in Missouri.

We are off to Tuscany! Think of us as we taste the wines and cuisines of the hill towns!

Florence

We left Vincenza for Florence traveling by train to the city where the renissance began. As we traveled the countryside, we were astonished to see how many vineyards were in production. Almost every house had a small garden and vineyard and of course some vineyards covered the valleys and hillsides.

We arrived at the hotel in early afternoon and used the terrace next to our room to enjoy the local vino. Sunday we visted the Accademia in the morning and the Ufizzi Gallery and the Dumo in the afternoon. Our hearts and souls were overwhelmed by the artistic abilities of the painters and sculptors of those centuries long ago. We were impressed and amazed at the number of people willing to stand and wait in lines to see these masterpieces.

By late afternoon, we were ready for our afternoon bruschette and Italian wine. In the Italian way, we dined late at a local trattatora followed by a glass of wine on the terrace next to our room. We went to bed happy, fueled and ready for our next adventure in Cinque Terra - the Italian Riveria.

Italian Vineyards & Wineries

Thursday we left for the vineyards and wineries around Vincenza and Verona. The vineyards are at least 3 weeks ahead of Missouri vines and they have begun their spray schedule in Italy. We visited two wineries -- the first was Contina Di Soave located in the Provence of Verona. The winery was sleek with a beautiful tasting room. The tasting bar was in a round. We snapped pictures to remember for future reference! The tasting room staff were chic young women who were gracious and helpful. Did I mention that the wine was good too?

600 years ago, Dante's family bought an estate where they made wine. For 20 generations, Dante's winery has existed and been in operation -- called Serego Alighieri. The present Count is a direct descendant of Dante, and lives in a beautiful villa next to the winery surrounded by formal gardens. We tasted some luscious dry red wines, one used by the ancient Romans. This wine was aged for 18 months in oak and then the last 4 months in cherry wood.

On our way back to Vincenza we took a side trip to Lake Garda. This lake is beautiful and bigger than Lake Como. We had a late lunch at a small trattitora with wonderful house wines. We finished the day by visiting the house where Galileo was exiled. Then on to Qui Zamboni restaurant for a 2.5 hour meal.

Venice and Vincenza

The trip started off with a bright and shiny sky as we headed off on our first leg of the trip to PHL. The flight was uneventful and we rendezvoused with our friends from Pennsylvania to enjoy a few hours of conversation and fun.

Our flight to Italy began on time at 6:25 pm but at 8:00 pm the pilots reported a snafu in in the onboard weather radar. They diverted the flight over Bangor, Maine, and headed us back to Philly. There we spent another 3.5 hours waiting on the plane as they swapped out the weather radar on the aircraft.

We finally headed for Venice again at 1:25am (EST), 6 hours behind schedule. Our second attempt to get to Italy was uneventful and we arrived in Venice at about 3pm Tuesday afternoon.

We hopped a water boat for downtown Venice arriving at St. Marks square to meet Kathleen's sister, Sharon, and her husband, Charlie. Waiting for us in our hotel room was a chilled bottle of Processco (a sparkling white wine popular in Italy). We toasted our arrival in Venice!

Our first night of dining, we enjoyed pasta with mussels, genocchi and a bottle of local Venician Chardonnay and Chianti.

The second day in Venice we made the customary tourist stops, visiting St. Marks square and Basilica, Doge Palace and Realto Bridge. Along the way we stopped at several wine bars and sampled red and white wines from the area. Our second night we enjoyed pasta with olive oil and hot sauce, bruscetta, local fish dishes and of course, Classico Chianti and Brunello. We finished our Venician stay with a gondola ride along the back canals where we saw the palaces of Marco Polo and Casanova.

On Thursday, we hopped a train to Vincenza to meet our niece and her husband. As evening approached we visited downtown Vincenza where the entire town turns out to stroll the streets and enjoy the twilight. What an experience!

Later we drove to the country to feast on local cuisine and wine. This was a true non-tourist spot where the room was filled with laughter, bottomless liter jugs of red wine and pasta. We ended our day enjoying an Italian star filled sky, before heading for bed.