Number 1 question we get is, "Who are those
people with whom you are traveling and how did you get tangled up with
them?" (Actually the question asked is "Are these friends of yours or
are you on a tour," but we know what you are thinking.)
Yes, they are friends and, while not on a tour, we did have tour
guides. Many years ago when Captain was an upstart fresh from college, he went
to work at Texas Utilities in Dallas where he met Bill.
Through Bill he met Cindi. After Captain left TU, they lost
contact for several years. About six years ago they reconnected. Bill and Cindi
have a group of the most amazing friends with whom they frequently travel.
Three years ago the group had an awesome trip to Italy. Sharing the stories and
photos with us we were intrigued and said to let us know if they decide to do
it again. They did and here we are. Truly they are a talented and fun loving
group. Most of them were members of their church choir and have beautiful voices.
At the mention of a topic they will burst into song. We are so happy they
allowed us to join their adventure and made us feel part of the group.
"Did you drive in Italy?" Are you kidding? In a
small country with narrow streets flooded with autos being driven aggressively,
motorcycles and scooters squeezing into the tiniest gap in traffic, tour buses
taking up more than half the road and where traffic signals and signs are a
mere suggestion, I think not. We were extremely impressed and appreciative of our
bus drivers whose skills were very well tuned.
"How did you pack for three weeks?" We packed
for one week and tossed in some laundry detergent.
Every couple of days we washed clothes in the sink. Sometimes our
hotel actually had a clothes line.
(If you got bored seeing
photos of us wearing the same clothes, just imagine how tired we were looking
at each other!)
Here is a tip; choose to take clothes that are wrinkle free,
place them in Ziplock bags, while sitting on the bags to squeeze out the air,
zip the bags and you will not be packing air. It is kind of like vacuum packing.
Since you don't speak Italian, how did you communicate and how
did you manage to find your way around?" Tourism is one of the major
industries in Italy, so most folks can speak some English and most signs are in
Italian and English. Actually all one really needs to know is , buon giorno, a polite greeting
meaning something like "good morning/day," grazie meaning "thank you," ciao, a
term similar to "see you, later, etc." and toilette. If one can't remember an Italian term, I think all one
needs to do is add a vowel to the end of the word in English. (Just kidding, but sometimes it seemed that way.)
"How did you get around?" The
first couple of weeks we traveled in a minibus, the last week by train.
The first two weeks, in Cortona and the Amalfi Coast, were arranged by our friend, Cindi. After the Texans returned home, we
stayed another week to see Venice, Florence and Rome. For the last week, we
reverted back to our earlier travel days. With Rick Steve's Travel Italy we embraced the challenge of figuring out train schedules, staying in smaller,
private lodgings, scheduling tours and searching out authentic Italian food. We
did a lot of walking! Captain found the CityMaps2Go
app on his iPhone to be a tremendous help.
How did you know what you were
seeing? Tour guides! We made advanced reservations with Walks of Italy for
the sights in which we were most interested. The groups were small, 6-15 in a
group, and the guides were quite knowledgeable. Being with a guide we were able
to avoid the long lines for tickets and, in some cases we could enter before
the attraction opened to the public.
Did you find masses of other
tourists? We were traveling in highly popular areas and there was no lack
of fellow travelers. Knowing tourism is one of the major industries of Italy
and we were traveling during the most popular season, it was about like we
expected. For us, getting out early (a little
tough for Captain), taking a break in the afternoon, and going out later
in the evening, it seemed to be less crowded. Well, except for Trevi
Fountain; it did seem that all the tourists in Rome gather at Trevi
Fountain in the evening. From what we could see, it is quite a lovely fountain.
How was the food? Hmm, that is a tough one. Sometimes it
was very good, sometimes it was the same as eating pasta at home (only more
salty and they used a lot of canned mushrooms.) The best was in Cortona (probably because our villa came with a chef that
previously worked for a celebrity.) We ate a tremendous amount of
starches; think pizza and pasta. And of course there was always gelato! (Which Captain agrees, it taste better than Blue Bell
ice cream.) ABN enjoyed the strong coffee, especially with warm milk. We
liked that fennel was used often in salads. We were pleased that the lemincello
ABN makes taste very much like the authentic limoncello of Italy.
What about security?
From what we had read, violent crime
seems to be rare. We felt perfectly safe walking after dark in Florence, Venice
and Rome.
On the other hand, we understand pick
pocketing and petty theft is rampant. Following Rick Steves' advice we did not
carry anything in our pants pockets. Well, for the most part; Captain insisted
on carrying his cell phone in the zipper pocket of his cargo pants (which sometimes he neglected to zip.) He carried
his cash, credit card and passport in zipped shirt pockets. ABN carried her
cash and cell phone in a small, cross body purse which has a wire cable in the
strap (to prevent the snip and run theft.) Not taking any chances, ABN
kept her passport and credit card in a sleeve pinned inside her pants. (Yes, all of our hotels had safes in the room, but what
if we ran into trouble and couldn't get back to our room???) Rick Steves
advised that pick pockets typically look for elderly Americans distracted with
bags or looking at maps. We can't help the "elderly American" part,
but when Captain needed to look at a map, ABN assumed the responsibility for
watching his pockets.
To help prevent identity theft and
compromised bank accounts, we kept our passports and credit cards in RFID
sleeves. Supposedly these sleeves will prevent information being read by electronic
devices. Also we paid for everything with cash, except our lodging. On several
occasions in the states we have had our credit cards compromised while
traveling. While inconvenient, we could get new cards overnighted. Not sure how
that works in a foreign country, besides it is a bit less expensive to use
cash.
What differences did you notice with
the Italian culture? Besides the language?
Food, they eat things we don't think
about eating like octopus, wild boar, cured ham that wasn’t cooked and hog
cheeks (yep, we ate those, too.)
They tend to eat heavier meals, first
course or apertief; second course, pasta; third course, main dish (usually some
kind of meat with a side dish;) fourth course, salad; and fifth course, dessert.
After lunch they usually take a couple hours for siesta and dinner time is
around 9:00 p.m.
Bathrooms, even the smallest, had
bidets. To conserve water, toilets had a choice of flush, large or small.
Some of our hotels had linen towels
instead of terry and no wash clothes (just lather up the hands,) While not the
norm, we did encounter a number of non-gender public toilets--didn't seem to be
much of a problem.
To conserve energy, in some of our
hotels the electricity was initiated when the room key was engaged in a slot.
In other words, when we were not in our room, the electricity was off. Forget
charging the iPads while we were out touring.
To Captain's dismay, dessert spoons
were often very tiny.
As for the people, we can't really say.
Sometimes we felt welcomed and accepted; sometimes we felt as though we, as
tourists, were tolerated because we were a needed part of their economy. With
all the tourists, and there were thousands, the local folks cannot enjoy their
country's treasures, like the islands, the fountains, their cafes, their
museums. Although Americans, especially when traveling in groups, are loud, we
did notice that most are very polite. Not always the case with Italians and
travelers from other countries. It isn't our nature to push and shove. Perhaps
it is a passive aggressive response to the dependency of tourism.
What was our favorite thing/place?
Now this is another tough one! There
was the lip sync contest at Villa Laura; even though we were awarded the prize
for the act that no one ever wanted to see again, there were some very good
acts. And then there was the really fun evening at La Trattorria Antica in
Sorrento with the Joe Cockerish mandolin player. And the 3 ½ hour Best of Florence Walk with Ishmael, our
fantastic guide.. I think we would both agree, the most beautiful area is the
villages along the Amalfi Coast and we totally enjoyed the Bar Tour with Alessandro in Venice.
Would you go back to Italy? Well,
yes, if we had unlimited funds and we had many more years to travel internationally;
we would go back to the Amalfi Coast and explore those wonderful little
villages like Ravello. However, there are other places in Europe we have not
explored, (Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, to name a few.) Chalk it up to age, but we
really miss the comforts of our little cottage and The Wanderer. Living
out of a backpack/suitcase is just not as appealing as when we were younger.
So, now we are home. Our souls have
been fed with adventure, new friends and with the satisfaction of knowing we
are still able to wander around in a foreign country.
Inspired by Tuscany, ABN insisted we
stop at a favorite nursery on our way home from the airport.
Arriving home, we were greeted by Peggy Martin.
We were afraid we would miss her show
this year and we almost did.
(So happy to have consistently fast internet again! And blogging on the computer is so much easier than on the iPad!)
(So happy to have consistently fast internet again! And blogging on the computer is so much easier than on the iPad!)
