didsomeonesaygo

[didsomeonesaygo]

The last suppers

Today was a whirlwind of Milan's tourist attractions! We started at Castello Sforzesco, which was built in the late 14th century and today houses multiple museums in addition to a few rooms that still have original frescoes and patterns on the walls. The collection includes religious art (of course), plus medieval armor and musical instruments. Mary was of course in residence, but we swear we also saw Lord Farquaad.

Then we met up for a tour with Andrea that started at the opera house, Teatro alla Scala, where we were lucky enough to spy on a rehearsal!

Then we walked to Il Duomo di Milano, where Andrea showed us a pinprick of light in the ceiling that shines through at noon and lands on a zodiac symbol on the ground - the light moves depending on the time of the year. The Catholics didn't used to hate scientists so much, and there are many places where religion merges with math or pagan traditions without anyone batting an eye.

Then we all piled onto a bus to cross town to see The Last Supper. You can see why it was so groundbreaking for the time - it really does look like they are set into a nook in the wall. It's not like most frescoes - DaVinci used an experimental technique and painted on dry plaster instead of wet; combined with the damp environment and proximity to the kitchen, it started fading within a few decades, and has been in a state of conservation/restoration since the 1700s.

Leaving, we saw the tiniest car ever and then caught a cab to dinner. We were a little early, so we stopped for a glass of wine at Bicerin. Finally, to our last supper at Joia, the first Michelin starred vegetarian restaurant in Europe. It was much fancier than we are, but the food was excellent, and we had a great time giggling as each course arrived.

The menu tells you nothing about the food, so we flipped a coin and ordered The Zenith. Here's what we remember:

An almond that you plant in a tiny pot of mousse with "dirt" on the top and some kind of fruit jelly in the bottom. It came with a little paper with the definition of the word sow (v). When they cleared the plates, they asked if we wanted to keep the paper, so it seemed like we should.

Three tiny spoons of different sauces that you used to eat a foam.

A sweet potato(?) fritter or similar

A really rich risotto with tiny shreds of fried artichoke on top and a swipe of beet puree around the plate (honestly, we were full after that)

A hunk of ginger marinated carrot cut on the bias and standing on end

Turnip, onion, mushrooms with really finely sliced pickled artichoke heart

A dot of lemon sorbet on top of something blue (?) that we can't remember. This was to "freshen the palate," and the way he described what it would do was exactly what it did.

Three tiny chocolate things with dots of ice cream

Another dessert we can't remember - perhaps it will come to us in a dream.

It looked not that far to walk back to the hotel, but the map had us cutting through a park that was closed, so it took longer than we thought. But we ended up back at the Galleria and there were only a few people waiting to stomp the bull's balls (for luck), so we got a good stomp in.

It was a very long day, and by that time, our balls were stomped. Off to bed.

[didsomeonesaygo]

You can't go home again, but you can get close

Went on another post office quest, which ended up harder than we expected - the first one had a lot of people waiting, so we went to another one that looked close, but was... not really. (Pro tip: you take a number when you get there, and then sit down. Nobody will tell you this. I did get to use Italian, tho!)

Stumbled across the church/musesum housing Juliet's tomb, which is empty since she is a fictional character. (Many of the tombs here are supposedly so-and-so, but it was a long time ago, and... stuff happens. So going to see a definitely empty sarcophagus is not a big stretch.) Anyway, it was closed, so we did not get to see where Juliet, who never existed, is not buried. (I should note here that while R&J came from Shakespeare's imagination, the story is based on an actual family feud between the Montecchi and Capuleti, who are referenced in literature dating long before Will got hold of the story.)

Noon train to Milan - I stayed awake! And was rewarded with a view of what we assume was another marble mountain!

Arrived about 1:30 - Milano Centrale feels a bit like Grand Central, but then we stepped outside. Throughout our trip, all of the Italians we talked to were like "Milan? Meh, ok." Yes, it's "just a city," but we love a city, and this feels just like OUR city. We had been commenting on Italy's influence on San Francisco for the whole trip, but Milan is like Market Street and the Financial District, only in Italian - we instantly felt at home.

The hotel is really close to Il Duomo, but that's on tomorrow's tour, so we headed for the Basilica de Santo Stefano Maggiore, which has been the site of a church since 417 AD. But the real highlight here is Il Ossario - the Room of Bones. While building the cathedral and surrounding buildings, several graves had to be, ahem, relocated. So rather than desecrating the bones (what do you do with the Body of Christ if you're not a Catholic?), they built a room to house them. It is eerily beautiful, and beautifully eerie.

Had some time before our dinner reservation, so stopped for wine at Bravo Bistrot, where wine came with pizza and salami and potato chips (which are somehow a thing here? We've seen them all over the place - cool, but they are just... chips.)

Dinner was at Risoelatte, which is named for the rice and milk dish that was popular in Milan before risotto became the big thing. (Note: risotto/risoelatte is pretty much always going to be cooked with beef broth; I had a really good polenta with griddled cheese. P went for it on the risotto, and it was really good and really rich - beef broth will do that.) The restaurant is super cute, decorated like a 60's kitchen, and our server was adorable ("I learn my English") and made me feel better about my Italian. My date was cute too.

Wound our way to the L.O.V.E. (Libertà, Odio, Vendetta, Eternità) statue, which is either a big middle finger to the fascist salute or a big middle finger to financial institutions, but either way, it's a big middle finger. We tried to get a perspective shot showing it as P's hand, but it's such a big middle finger that even he is too small.

We'd had rice pudding at dinner, so skipped gelato - though we haven't seen it nearly as much here as in the other towns. We're guessing it's more a tourist thing. I don't care - I will still eat it every time.

[didsomeonesaygo]

Ma-ma-ma-my Verona

Cabboated to the train station for a short trip in which I (surprise!) slept off and on. Got to the hotel about 12, and they were able to check us right in, so we headed out to explore the city.

Started at Museo di Castelvecchio, which is inside a castle built between 1354-1356, and is €1 on the first Sunday of the month - yay! The art was mostly Mary Mary, but we did have a few faves. It is clear that some of these artists have never seen a naked woman.

At the end of the museum, you end up actually in the old castle, which is awesome - we got to walk up on the wall and bridge and pour hot oil on the marauders. (Have we been watching too much LOTR? Maybe.)

After the museum, we crossed the Ponte Scaligero and marveled that you can climb all over the walls and discussed how Americans would never be allowed to have something so cool because we would write on it and hurt ourselves and sue someone. Just down the river, we crossed back into town on the Ponte della Vittoria and closed the loop back at the Arena, which was built in 30 AD and still has shows and events!

Walked around the square and happened upon a sign pointing to Juliet's balcony, so we figured "why not?" (Verona has a total of 9 "things to do," and 3 of them relate to R&J.) We did not pay to go up and selfie on the balcony, but we did go into the courtyard and do the Romeo part. There is a pretty bronze statue of Juliet - remember how Europeans rub the nose of bronze statues? In this case, the nose is safe, and the tourists act decidedly American, rude.

We tried to go the Arche Scaigere (dead people), but it was closed. Very cool gothic building, though. (It seems the architecture is getting more gothic as we go north.)

Poked around the square a little more, then stopped for cheese & wine at Casamatta. Went back to the hotel to rest before dinner and decided we were wiped out. Ordered pizza delivery (*hangs head in shame*), and turned in early under the watchful gaze of this chick in the hotel room.

[didsomeonesaygo]

What's a little rain?

We had the whole day free until our 4:30 gondola tour, so we set out looking for a mailbox. The hotel sent us out away from the tourist area, into the northwest side of the islands (plural - Gabi told us there are 118 islands and 435 bridges; every time you cross a bridge, you're on a new island). We found the mail box in Campo San Polo, got sandwiches, and then wandered through town until we ended up back at the train station - lots of dead ends at the water, and a few not-P-friendly walkways. Crossed the Ponte degli Scalzi and wound our way back to the hotel.

When it was time to head out for the gondola, we were on the phone with J, and it was juuuust sprinkling. Should we go back and get the rain ponchos? Naaaah - it's not even supposed to rain today, and we've seen people with umbrellas on the gondolas - they'll have them. They did not have them. So the gondola ride was kind of miserable - we probably could have asked to postpone it or just take us to the hotel, but that didn't occur to us until we were already halfway through. So the ponchos will never leave my bag again.

Since our coats were still drenched, we had dinner at the rooftop bar of the hotel, which actually, was quite nice, with heaters, blankets, a good cheese plate, and a view of the grand canal. Tried to go back to Suso, but the line was ridic, so found gelato at the market on the way home. (It's ok, but no Suso.)

[didsomeonesaygo]

Venice vibes

Started the day with a walking tour with Gabriella, who is probably 80 years old, wears fuschia eyeshadow, and suffers no fools. We started at Piazza San Marco - this is the only piazza in Venice; the other squares are all called campo because they used to be grassy areas. Caught the bells ringing on the hour - the bell is unusual because the figures hit it rather than the bell moving. And then we were off through the tiny winding streets!

We loved Gabriella because she didn't bother with any of the tourist spots or the area right around the hotel, and she gave us some excellent food recs and a good workout keeping up with her. She told us a lot about the history of the city, but P missed most of it because her mouth is about 3 feet below his ears. Stopped for a caffe, where she muscled her way to the front and then muscled us into a counter spot to have our drinks ("perMESso!").

Gabriella's tour ended at the Murano Glass Factory with a demo of glass blowing and the strength of the glassware. We don't have stemware at our house because it breaks too easily, but I think Murano glass could handle it. However, at €150+ per piece, we decided not to risk it.

Then we were on our own, and decided to go back to the Basilica San Marco. We'd been feeling pretty well churched, but a basilica is more than a church, and this one lets you walk out on the roof terrace, so we were able to see the clock tower even closer.

The four gilded bronze horses on the front of the building were originally part of a quadriga looted from the Hippodrome in Constantinople. They're copies, but the originals are inside; a lot of the gold was scraped off to make them lighter.

Had a great lunch at Sepa, a little choose-your-own adventure place recommended by Gabriella. We got alllll the veg things.

Then we hopped on a traghetto to Isola San Servolo to visit the Museo del Manicomico, a former mental asylum, which was interesting, but mostly reading, without a lot of artifacts. We did learn about la pellagra, which we initially assumed referred to the plague, but later learned that it was a disease first identified in 1760, and almost exclusively affecting the poor. It caused rough skin, dementia, and eventually, death. Pellagrosi were often brought to San Servolo at the dementia stage, where they usually recovered fairly quickly; however, on returning home, they would relapse, often returning to the hospital several times over the course of their (often short) lifetimes. La pellagra turned out to be not a virus or fungus, as initially thought, but a deficiency of vitamin B3 caused by a diet consisting almost exclusively of maize; the improved nutrition in the hospital cleared up the symptoms, but going back home to an all-corn diet brought them right back.

Visited San Zaccaria to see the flooded crypt, which was smaller than we expected, but creepier.

Then continued down the Atlas Obscura list to the Libreria Acqua Alta, which keeps many of its books in bathtubs and boats in constant preparation for... la acqua alta. We did not see any of the resident cats, sadly. (For all the talk of the cats everywhere in Italy, our cat count has been disappointingly low.)

Dinner was at Taverna Remer, another Gabriella rec. Great ambience, wine, and cheese plate, though the pastas were unremarkable. (We've had "the burrito dilemma" a lot here - at home, the Mexican food people rave about is often just ok to us because most people are judging by the carne asada. If you get the vegan beans and no meat, stuff sometimes isn't as delicious; ditto with food in Italy.) BUT, we did have the best gelato to-date at Suso - I had black stracciatella (chocolate orange) and P had suso (caramel with caramel ribbon). YUM.

[didsomeonesaygo]

Our taxi is a boat

We would have liked to have one more day in Firenze - it was my fave so far. Luca (yay!) picked us up to take us back to the train, and then off to Venezia! (Must... Not... Slee...zzzzzzzz. Maybe it's just that the trains here are so efficient, even Perfect World can rest!)

Call us cheesy, but our arrival was magnificent. Beatrice met us right off the train, and walked us out to the taxi. Boat. Cab. Cabboat. The weather was beautiful, and we were on a boat. AND, we have a proclamation balcony. (We put the P in proclamation?) Maybe we should have realized it would be hard to go up from there. 😂

P was Out Of Undies, so after checking into the hotel, we hit the laundromat, an adventure detailed in another blog post. But a nice man at the laundry showed us his business card and said we should come to his restaurant for dinner. :)

Once laundry was (finally, mostly) dry, we took it back to the hotel and proceeded to get lost in the city, as is our custom. However, in Venice, getting lost means a lot of cute windy little roads that end in the water. (Really, the steps just go right down into the canal, and the moss shows how the water line changes through the year.) In this town, "You can't get there from here" is no joke. But even if you can't get where you're going, you can see some really cool stuff.

After some googling, we decided we could do worse than hitting our laundry friend's restaurant, Trattoria Cea. He wasn't there; dinner was fine, the wine was fine, the limoncello was neon yellow and from a bottle, but since the place was tucked away and not completely overrun with tourists, we felt that it was probably no worse than getting taken in by a barker on the canal (but what a canal it is!).

Had ok gelato from a borderline rude guy. So far, Venice is cool, but it feels a lot like the Wharf. Headed home to catch up on the blog!

[didsomeonesaygo]

C'é una lavandaria qui vicino?

We packed only carry-on bags, so we had planned to do laundry halfway through. (Pro tip: do it on the last day in a semi-familiar place, vs the first day somewhere completely new.) The hotel was fairly unhelpful because they would rather do it in house and charge 14 euros per t-shirt and 6 euros per pair of underwear. (Boxers I can kind of understand, but you should at least get a twofer if your undies can fit inside a plastic easter egg.)

✔️ found laundromat

✔️ figured out how to pay (no small feat)

✔️ washed, then realized

🚫 soap, though the machines say in multiple places that soap is already included, it is forbidden to add any more soap, do. not. add. soap. 😭

So we have some not-exactly-clean-but-very-well-rinsed clothes for the second half of our trip. New formula: U=.5 days +1

[didsomeonesaygo]

Lean on Me

We don't usually go in for bus tours, but Jewels of Tuscany sounded good since we'd only be in the area for a few days. Piled into the van with Edison driving, and Brian and Dolora in the back seat, who are originally from Minnesota, but now live in Montana.

Pisa is about 1.5 hours from Florence, and though Edison had promised narration, we drove silently for most of the trip. Tuscany looks a lot like California - more hills, but same kind of vegetation - you can see how we grow a lot of the same stuff. But we also saw a white hill that looked like it had steps in it - marble! (Janet Langon had suggested the Carrara Marble tour, but we didn't have time on this trip. Edison, this would be a good thing to point out!)

When we got to Pisa, Edison said he figures we can do it in about 20 minutes, so meet him back at the van, yes? He's correct that there's not a lot to see, but there IS the tower, a museum, and a cathedral, all of which require tickets and timed entrance. The signage gives a lot of info about the area and the pope, but we had to hit Wikipedia to find out WHY DOES IT LEAN? (We have notes for the marketing department.) We were worried that maybe our itinerary didn't allow for stopping longer than 30 minutes, so we didn't go up in the tower (or do anything else) - just took a few pix, got a coffee, and piled back in the van.

Then we drove about another hour and 15 to San Gimignano, a little medieval walled town on the road to Rome. It used to be a stop for pilgrims, but today it's mostly tourist shops. BUT, we did successfully buy stamps at the post office, in Italian! (I was laughing because I had just listened to an episode of Coffee Break Italian in which they go to the post office! Which is why I knew the word for stamps.) We didn't do the full loop of the path around the town but did find a vista at Rocca di Montestaffoli.

Next stop was at a winery called Palagetto, where we tasted four wines and had what turned out to be a pretty light lunch - wheee! This had a high possibility of being extremely awkward, but we all got along and enjoyed it. (Wine always helps!)

Made a very short unplanned stop at Monteriggioni, since we could see it from the road. Dolora showed us a cool panoramic pic trick in which we photobomb ourselves.

Finally, on to Siena, which is one of Janet's favorite places (we named her car after it!) Edison gave us an hour there, and he recommended visiting the cathedral, which is in the same style as the one we didn't get to visit in Florence; he said this one is actually better. Not sure how he determined that, but this one is pretty spectacular. P was like What's with this horrible one where they're killing babies? (The Slaughter of the Innocents - we both are way behind in our bible study.)

On the drive back to Florence, Edison finally starts to chat a bit, then we drop off Brian and Dolora, and he says we still have the car for an hour, if there's anywhere else we want to go. DUDE. So we could have spent time at Pisa. We were over him at that point, so just had him drop us off. He did grudgingly recommend Osteria Pastella for dinner ("I've never been there, but it's always busy,") which turned out to be great. We almost bailed when we got there and there was already a crowd waiting ("People with reservations to the left; people without to the right"), but once the doors opened, they got us in quickly and the food was lovely. They make their pasta in-house all day - the pastaia is stationed in the front window - and of course we ordered the one they serve by scraping it around the parm wheel - deeelish. Got gelato and headed home!

[didsomeonesaygo]

You're giving me a art attack

Started off the day with a tour of L'Accademia di Belle Arte with Francesca from Firenze. She was an art history major, and it shows. She was not only knowledgeable, but also a great storyteller, and she lived in New York for a year, so her English was fantastic. She walked us through how religious art changed from the middle ages (portrait style with a gold background representing heaven, flat/2D images that stare you down without emotion, the Baby Jesus is like a doll) to the renaissance (story scenes with realistic background and images using perspective, the Baby acts like a baby). This change meant that for the first time, the (mostly illiterate) populace could begin to engage with the stories on their own - they no longer needed the church to "translate" for them. (I might have been more fascinated by all of this than P was; we have no photos of this part. But you can google it - I did.)

And then, 🥁🥁🥁, David ! As usual, our photos do little justice. We did not expect him to be so big - 17 feet tall. The detail is crazy - veins on the backs of his hands, dimples on the sides of his knees... It's enough to make a girl Feel Things. Francesca also pointed out that his hands and head are slightly oversized to represent that man can shape his own destiny by his thoughts and his actions. (David is Deep.)

There was more to the museum, but really, what can follow David? Well, a lot of people wanted a lot of things to follow David - MA was a hot commodity at that point, but still couldn't really say no to the church. So when they commissioned a set of sculptures for the pope's grand mausoleum, he took the job, but also took his sweet time on it. So there is a series of sculptures that he never "got to" finish before he died. #quietquitting 😂 (There is also some speculation that he liked them this way because it represented the form emerging from the marble. Which you can also see.)

We don't usually get that excited about art, but Francesca made us want to learn all about it - she's now the bar against all which all other tour guides are measured. After L'Accademia, we stopped at the caffe where she used to get coffee on the way to school, and then rolled right into the walking tour with her. She explained that it wasn't just a coincidence that so much art and science came out of Florence - being far from Rome (i.e., the church) actually enabled the free thinking that led to the works of Galileo, Michelangelo, DaVinci, and many other (often STEMmy) creatives.

We had a couple of hours before the Uffizi, so we walked over to the Santa Croce to see the tombs of our dudes Michelangelo and Galileo. (Dead people are our fave, and there have been surprisingly few really interesting tombs on this trip. I'm sure they're out there, but we've missed them, apparently.) The church is beautiful (shocker!), but if I'm honest, they're starting to run together (Mere was not wrong)- every single one is gorgeous, and there are over 100 just in the little town of Florence.

Then we toured the Uffizi Gallery with Norma from North Hollywood, who came here in the 90s to study art, and never left. Of course there are tons of beautiful art pieces, but we called this day Mary Here, Mary There, Mary, Mary Everywhere. One of the Marys was this round one, Michelangelo's first painting on canvas. He always said he was a sculptor, not a painter, but when a nobleman asks you for a painting, you give him a painting. Shortly thereafter, he went on to paint a little thing called the Sistine Chapel.

We also saw Caravaggio's Medusa (P got the shirt. No, really.) and a couple of Judith beheading Holofernes, including Artemisia Gentileschi's, which I had read a book about, so that was cool. The word uffizi has become uffici in modern italian - offices. The building was originally sort of a civic center, and Cosimo I de' Medici used to invite nobles and visiting dignitaries to his office to see his private collection. It opened to the pubic in 1769, and officially began operating as a museum in 1865.

Afterward, we found a little bar in the alley around the corner from the hotel (have I mentioned that alleys are my jam?) - I don't remember the name of it, but we met a couple from Alabama and a Canadian, and the server gave us an excellent dinner recommendation for dinner at Il Ricettario. He was not wrong, and we were stoked for THE best veg soup we've had in a long time. (And it wasn't meat stock making it taste good - we asked!)

We skipped dessert to get gelato at the place Francesca had recommended, but it was closed, seemingly for the season, mahr. But while on the gelato hunt, we ran into street musicians playing trad jazz! I may or may not have commandeered their megaphone and sung "Dr. Jazz" in whatever dude key they were playing it in. Which seemed like a good note to end the night on.

[didsomeonesaygo]

On to Firenze

Got up early to get coffee and train snacks, and got to see them cleaning out the Trevi Fountain, which they do 3 times a week. They pull out about €3000 per day, which amounts to about €1.5 million that is donated to Caritas, a Catholic charity that helps people in homelessness and families in financial difficulty.

We had a ride to the Roma Termini station and were glad that Pietro told us how it all works - the station is quite bustling. Got on board uneventfully, and I tried to stay awake - really, I did, but it just was. Not. Happening. Train pix courtesy of P.

Luca drove us to the Hotel degli Orafi, on the water and just up from the Ponte Vecchio. Our room looks out at the river, and above us we can see the Vasari Corridor, which was a private walkway for the Medici family to cross town and the river. It connects the government seat at the Palazzo Vecchio to the Medici home at Palazzo Pitti, and runs along the top of the Ponte Vecchio. (Side note: P has announced that in our next home, he would like a balcony from which to issue proclamations.)

Atlas Obscura told us we could see Galileo Galilei's middle finger in a museum right down the street, so off we went. In even happier news, it's in the Museo Galileo (Space! Science!), which houses over 1000 early scientific instruments, including several very cool old globes and very creepy wax figures of variously deformed/malpresented fetuses in utereo (not pictured). We wished Ted were here to geek math with us.

Everyone had told us about the great market in Florence, so we went there for dinner. Petted Il Porcellino on the way (reminiscent of Greyfriar's Bobby in Edinburgh - Euros seem to like to pet the noses of bronze animals). Unfortunately, the market is only open during the day, but upstairs there's one of the hipster food courts that seems to be popping up everywhere. We had fried cheese and suppli, which Rossella had recommended, and are basically arancini. Both were... fine, but much improved by the fact that we could walk around with our wine.

Much intrigued by this church - the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore - it's unlike any others we've seen so far! We had missed the open hours, but want to investigate tomorrow. Gelato on the way home (natch), and off to bed!

[didsomeonesaygo]

The Steps of Rome

Started with avo toast and coffee at Tre Cafe, right around the corner from the hotel. No plans today, so just wandered (which, tbh, is our fave. Plus, we like to count our steps). Found the Mary column we had seen the night before, then headed back toward the Roman forum to catch the parts we missed. It turned out we didn't miss them - we just saw them from a different angle, so we poked around a bit more and learned that the padlocks we see everywhere are for love - you lock it onto something and then throw the key into the river or the ruins or whatever, which sounds very romantic, but the city hates it, and they are not alone.

Then more wandering, during which I made P go into basically every church we saw (which was a LOT). There's a church every couple of blocks, and they are all spectacular inside.

P also had a few Atlas Obscura suggestions in mind, so we hit those:

The balcony where Mussolini announced the plans for many of his atrocities. (Have we mentioned that the entire city seems to be under construction/excavation?)

Roca Tarpeya, the rock from which criminals were thrown to their deaths as a form of execution, and Santa Maria della Consolazione, the church next to said rock. (I also drank from a street fountain here.) The rock itself is sort of fenced off, but you can walk to the top of the hill for a fantastic panoramic view that was great for getting our bearings with places we'd been seeing.

Isola Tiburina, where we tried to see the Sarconi Rossi crypt, but it was only available by appointment, and we didn't even go in the church because there were nuns at the door (creepy). So here is the only church in Rome that I did not make P go into.

After the failed crypt attempt, we saw la Fontana dell'Acqua Paola pretty close on the map and aimed for it. It truly was not far, if you are a crow, but it turned out to be very high up, at the top of Janiculum Hill, which, as the second-highest hill in the city, gave us another spectacular panorama in addition to glutes of steel.

Walked down the hill toward Castello Sant'Angelo, but missed the sunset at Ponte Umberto and had the worst snack meal of our trip at Ristorante Giovanni, confirming our suspicion that the quality of the food declines with proximity to a big attraction. Decided not to see the Castello, but did get a great evening bridge shot.

Went on a donkey hunt in the alleys near the castello, and I pretty successfully read the accompanying protest proclamation - in Italiano!

Homeward bound gelato near Piazza Navona, to cap off our most daily steps to-date: 9.89 miles and 21 floors! Then off to bed - train tomorrow am!

[didsomeonesaygo]

Rome is old.

Woke up to a sunny, cold morning for a Colosseum tour. Our guide Rossella grew up in Rome, and reminded us of a lot of history we probably learned in 4th grade - we were wishing we had done some homework before coming, but she did a good job of setting context for us to understand where the Colosseum complex fits in the picture of the ancient Roman empire. (Speaking of elementary school, we were wishing Suzi was here to translate the roman numerals for us!)

Colosseum construction started around 69-79 AD, and was completed in 80 AD. Old. At one point, it could seat 80,000 people (though the term seat is used loosely here). The keystones in the arches bear a lot of the weight, and the building materials get lighter as you go up, which is one of the main reasons it can still stand today. It really is unbelievably huge, and you could easily spend a whole day there, but it's so popular that they kick you out after 90 minutes (60 in the high season!) So we felt like we had just grazed the surface before we went to the Piazza di Colosseo, which includes Palatine Hill, Titus' Arch, the Temple of Venus, the Roman Forum, the Temple of Antonius and Faustina, and countless other ancient structures and gardens.

The Rome of the Roman empire was basically demolished in an earthquake around 443-484 AD, and was abandoned. But, as Rossella reminded us several times, in Rome, nothing is destroyed; it is re-used. So when the city began to reestablish itself, they just built on top of what was already there, often re-using some of the materials. (Which is why the archaeologists have to show up basically any time you dig a hole here, and why you can turn a corner and bump into ruins.)

After Piazza di Colosseo, we had lunch with tourmates Michael & Gabi from Wisconsin, then made our way to the Vatican Museum. Like the Louvre, it's really too big to do in one day if you want to feel that you saw everything. There are also different ticket levels, so some rooms are intentionally skipped, and they really keep you moving - tour groups are only allowed to stop for a few minutes before being shuffled along. (However, coming in January helped - apparently in the high season, they're not allowed to stop at all.) The internet has better pix of the art than we could ever take, but here are a few of the elements we liked. Strange/creepy tidbit: most of the statues were originally in color, with eyeballs and everything; a few still have some of it.

The guides are not allowed to talk inside the Sistine Chapel, so Rossella gave us the rundown on the major features before we went in. You could spend a whole day just in that room - and many art historians have done exactly that. We contented ourselves with looking up until we got dizzy, and then moved on. Also, no photos are allowed there.

St. Peter's Basilica is huuuge (Rome is old, and also large), and even though some parts were blocked in preparation for the Sunday service, it takes a long time to see all of it. (I skipped the pope-in-the-box, but P went by.) The Pieta is behind glass, unfortunately, but again, much better pix already exist.

After the Sistine Chapel, we decided to skip the pope tombs and stopped around the corner at Il Ristorante de' Penitenzieri for vino ed uno spuntino. Then headed to Trastevere, a neighborhood the hotel had recommended as being less touristy. (They were right that there were fewer Americans, but it was not not touristy.) Terra Satis was able to get us right in, and the food was yum, though the deconstructed cheesecake gave us a giggle. (Maybe they were laughing at us too? Unclear. 😂)

Walked right out and got a taxi, and when the driver heard us talking about the Teatro di Marcello, which looks like a mini-Colosseum, he started explaining... In Italian! I had had just enough wine to carry on a conversation - he was definitely what we'd call a "sympathetic interlocutor," and was very excited to tell us about his city. And bonus (pro tip), he took us around the back way to the Trevi Fountain, so I was finally able to toss a coin in for Mere. 😍

We'd had, ahem, some wine, so we weren't ready to turn in just yet. The driver had pointed the way to the Spanish Steps, so off we went. It's 135 steps, really steep unless you're from San Francisco. So we popped up, selfied, popped back down, and had just one more glass of wine. (Discovery: prosecco rosso is less sweet!)

Our main takeaway so far is that it is extremely humbling to be somewhere with *recorded* civilization going back 3000 years. The US is basically a toddler; nothing going on at home is surprising or even unexpected at this stage of the game. To quote the Barenaked Ladies (apropos in Rome, but P will hate me for it), "It's All Been Done Before."

[didsomeonesaygo]

Quando a Roma...

Finalmente, siamo in Italia! 🇮🇹 Early morning out of LAX with a stop in Montreal. Got to Rome about 10 am, at which time any Italian I had went straight out the window. Luckily, people weren't joking when they said everyone speaks English - even if I try Italian, they answer me in English. But that's molto bene with P. Our driver Pietro took us to the U Visionary - we were early, so they held our bags and we headed out!

The hotel is right around the corner from the Trevi Fountain, so we decided to start there. Everyone had said this is not high season, but it IS a Jubiliee (Giuboleo) year, so the city is busy. That was... true. The whole time, we kept saying we couldn't imagine what the high season would be like - P's eye might not agree, but it felt like we dodged a bullet not going in August. So we went to the fountain, but couldn't get anywhere near close enough to throw a coin in - figured we'd try again later, and just started walking.

Rome feels like San Francisco, only more so. (Yes, I know that's backwards.) Tiny winding streets and great architecture, and with the fountains, statues, and churches e-ve-ry-where, there is something beautiful no matter where you turn. But the craziest thing is the ruins right in the middle of the city. So you walk down a major road, and suddenly there are 2000 year-old ruins RIGHT THERE. And oh, yeah, that's the Colosseum in the background, nbd. (Fun fact: they've been working on a new metro line for 20 years, but keep having to stop for archeological digs.)

We roamed around looking at ruins for a bit, and then wound our way toward the Chiesa di sant'ignazio in Campo, which was recommended by the hotel desk clerk. There's a mirror you look into to see the full ceiling, but there was (surprise!) a long line, so we checked it out old school and lit candles for Sweet Pea, Aunt Judy, and Uncle Kevin. (I'm a heathen, but I love the churches - Mere said Daddy did too, and she eventually started waiting outside for him because they're all beautiful, but they all start to look alike. Shh - don't give P any ideas.)

Then on to the Pantheon, which was originally a Roman temple (pan = all, theo = gods), but is now, you guessed it, a Catholic church. (It turns out the church adoptappropriated a lot of ancient structures - shocking, I know.) But this is the only one with has a 9-meter oculus (~36 feet!) - the better to talk to (the) god(s). Apparently when there is light rain, the oculus creates a warm updraft like a chimney, and the rain becomes mist before ever reaching the floor, but there is still a sloped floor and drains, just in case. (The Romans were good at drains.)

Then we figured our room would be ready, so we headed back to the hotel (Trevi Fountain even busier) to change and figure out dinner. We had a couple of recs from the hotel, but we think every hotel must have recommended the same places to every guest, because the lines were ridiculous - so we romed around until we found something open. We eat way too early by Italian standards; a lot of the places on our go-to review site don't even open until 7:30, but jet lag + we are old = ain't nobody waiting 'til 7:30 for dinner. We finally got lucky with the patio at Il Falchetto, a little place at the end of an alley (alleys are my jam), where we had great wine, ravioli, and cacio e pepe. (In Italy, I can eat butter noodles without getting grief about it, and I intend to take full advantage.) Got gelati on the way home, at one of approximately 1000 gelaterias within a mile of the hotel - I had strachiatella, and P had the best pistachio ever. Considering we didn't even hit town until 11 am, we did pretty well!

[didsomeonesaygo]

Pismo we go

DDE was booked for the whole weekend at Harry's! Friday was great because we had a ton of dancers from Nexus Studio; Saturday cleared out about midnight, but that gave us an excuse to bring up a special guest - attababy, OurLadyKaty!

[didsomeonesaygo]

DDNYE

The Tribute Tribe got to add another pin to our states map with a trip to Oregon! The morning started out unfortunately quite eventfully - on the bright side, my gas gauge was not broken, and we learned that I can go 89 miles after the gas light comes on. Jen saved the day and waited with me for AAA while everyone else rushed to LAX. I juuuust made a later flight and hooked up with everyone at PDX. Then a 3-hour drive to Pendleton (where the shirts are made!) for NYE at the Wildhorse Resort & Casino.

Up early the next morning to trek back to LA - it was a looong trip for being less than 48 hours. Worth it, though!

[didsomeonesaygo]

Merry Christmich

Missed Magley, but had a dominion of Danfords at Tina's! Bonus: Chester finally made friends with us. Unbonus: Liam is taller than I am 😭

P took me to the famed Zingerman's in Ann Arbor, then we drove to Detroit and stopped (in the name of love) at the Motown Museum, which was sadly about to close - def on the list for next time! (Also: Canada!)

Libby was sick, but we caught up with Jeff and the kids at Qahwah House and had allll the desserts, then had wine and multiple forms of bread and cheese at Alchemi in Royal Oak.

[didsomeonesaygo]

S&W Copenhagen

P went to Copenhagen & Amsterdam for tatoos and a pod meetup. Dutch pancakes were had.