Post #27: Florence

The view from our cabin when we awoke in Florence. Running the photographer gauntlet on way to meet Guido. (Do people really buy those pix?)

View from the window of Tuscan countryside.
Yes, they have gas stations too...but if you think the price is high at home!
This sign means 'rest room' if you are a tourist! Thanks Mickey D!

Imagine commuting down this road everyday.
Ponte Vecchio bridge as we drove by.
Commuters and tourists scurryint the streets.
And bicycles too.
Little cars like this onie can park about anywhere...and they ARE everywhere.

Security to get in to see 'David'.
The ceiling of the entrance (no cameras allowed inside...right Gerry and Lynn???)
The mob outside as we left. One guy in this crowd had his wallet lifted.
So, I wonder if they really have to lock this one up...Jay, is this the Firenze team colors?
The group waiting for me...again.

Where I bought my pin.
The view down rivier from the Ponte Vecchia.
Us on the Ponte Vecchia
Lots of gold shops.
The Ponte Vechhia from the side road.

The famous magic pig...rub its nose for fortune and wealth.
Many leather vendors.
Basilica di Santa Croce di Firenze

A close-up of the artwork on the Basilica.
Guido giving Becky and Kelly and lesson on the making of extra virgin olive oil.

Indise the leather factory.
Guido describing the process.
Very nice stuff to choose from...but not today, thanks.
We ate lunch at this Wine Shop.
Our tasting begins.

The David 'knock-off' a the view point.
Great views.
Of course this David is not in marble.
Even the lamp posts are beautiful.
The birthday girl.

One of many cyclists we saw when we got off onto the side roads.
It was quite scenic driving to Pisa.
I'm glad Guido was driving.
This is how an Itlian tour guide drives....Whatsamattahyou, eh?
You mean there is more to see here than the tower? Signs everywhere.

A tram bring visitors into the area of the tower.
The streets around the Leaning Tower. You can see the bottom of it behind the sign post.
Ah, there it is.
From another angle.
Look how worn the steps are from YEARS of visitors.

It really is a bell tower.
Rich and Lynn enjoying the view after the nice walk up.
Interesting, the shadow is leaning too.
The view from the top.
What you see as you start down.

The US Military base.
One of the 'working girls'.
The line that awaited us when we got back to the ship.

I heard a yell from the back of the line (we raced to beat a couple of buses)It was Pat, Mary, Dan, and Joe returning from their adventure. (It must have worn them out since they were 'no shows' for dinner.)

We were greeted each time back with refreshing towels to wipe off with.

The sunset over our neighboring container ship as we got ready for dinner.
The nightly meeting for cocktails.
Aren't they cute (at the base of the stairs in the main dining room)
The birthday girl is presented her cake...notice the empty seats!
Let's dig in!

The Blog:

Happy Birthday Janna…what a place to spend a birthday!
Breakfast from Aqua Spa
Met at dock at 7:45am
Guido was our guide…his name fit him perfect!
Mercedes 9 person van
He has a 5 year old son, Lorenzo.
A walking hurricane to hear Guido describe him
(Hmmm sounds like grandson Zak to me!!!)
Quite a long drive from Livorna to Florence
Lots of explanations of stuff along the way
Guido knew his stuff, and was happy to share.
Stopped at Accademia to see the ‘Real’ David
Very impressive…but no pictures (bummer)
Some people did…bad karma…not me!
Drove by lots of places but didn’t stop.
One could spend a LONG time sightseeing here.
Stopped in a central location
Saw 2nd largest Basilica in Italy (outside only)
Basilica di Santa Croce di Firenzi
Walked to Old Bridge (Ponte Vecchio)
Gold shopping…Firenze (Florence) famous for that
Lots of entertaining stuff to look at
This place has been doing the same thing for centuries
Amazing
Bought another pin for my hat.
Bought JB a birthday present.
Great little tri-color gold flower pendent.
Walked back to the Basilica to take pictures
Too bad we didn’t have more time to go inside
Very impressive building!!!
And very crowded..
Needed a WC stop.
Guido said to go across the street to the Savoy.
Walk in like we own the place, go past the desk and bar
And go down stairs
Worked perfectly!
He took us to a church that is also a leather factory.
Car could barely get in.
Had to fold in the mirrors on both sides to fit…funny.
Too pricey for our blood…besides, we bought a rug already
The other Steve saw a leather jacket…59Euro
“Honey” he said, “come here…please”
Being a ‘shopper’ she pointed out it was 590E…NOT!!!
Guido had ‘friends’ (we kept joking about that)
Went to lunch at an interesting place
I think they opened early just for us.
Crazy wine lady…in a fun way.
Wine tasting and cheese pairing…for 4
Others watched…sprite and coke
Pasta from across the street
Olive oil and balsamic vinegar tasting
The olive oils all tasted the same to me
But the balsamic…well, it can be AGED TO PERFECTION!
Interesting lunch experience
Next drove to view point
Great views of Florence
Duplicate of David in parking lot…what a sculpture!
Drove around in front of other historical sites
Breathtaking, all of them.
Then headed to Pisa
Construction on road (just like at home)
Took side streets instead
Saw little neighborhoods we wouldn’t have otherwise.
Back on the ‘freeway’ then on to Pisa.
I’m not sure what I expected…but it was better than that.
It is said that if the tower falls down…well, why go there?!?
But for now it is quite the place.
JB felt it might be too claustrophobic so stayed planted on terra firma.
The tower is awesome. Great construction. Beautiful marble.
Lots of pictures!
Kelly in our group has an artificial leg…so double jointed.
At the top he twisted his knee and brought his foot up waist high and ‘kicked’ the bell
TOO FUNNY! Boy did he get some funny looks!
At the bottom had a gelotto and bought another pin (hat getting heavy)
Back in van for drive back to ship
Rural agricultural area…lots of dirt side roads.
Scantily clad girls standing at each one.
Large American airbase down the road
You do the math….
Hint…hookers will hook
Back to Ship
Worked on Blog
Met for Drinks
Dinner, just 4 (OK other 6, WHATTUP?!?)
A little disappointed with sommelier
Has taken up to 30 minutes for him to serve other tables then us
Last night I had to get up twice to get my own wine
Oh well, if that is the worst thing that ever happens to me….
Medallions of beef…OK, that made up for it!
The birthday girl had a BD cake and song…great cake.
Gee, too bad the other 6 couldn’t have joined us!!!! (more to come on this later)
Off too bed…this vacationing is HARD work.

Post #26: Rome, Day 2

Our room Nicolas Inn from across the street
Our first view of the Colisseum as we walked down the alley.
We found the Angel Tours umbrella.
The Colisseum (what more can I say)
An Arch de Triumphe (sp?) on the way to the forum.

So how many thousands of people over the years have tread on these stones?

Looking back at the Colisseum as we headed to the Forum.
Inside the forum...listening intently to our guide.
More of the Forum
And more
Meanwhile, back at the Colisseum...

We got to take the line on the left...phew!
Our first 'breath taking' view of the inside of the Colisseum.
Walking around to get a better view.
Yup, MUCH better....

Our guide at work with her captive audience.

So how do you know when to stop taking pictures?
This is where the ruler would have sat to give thumbs up or thumbs down.
I'd say thumbs up for these two (our guide had this cool book with transparencies)
Yes, I was there.
Rich and Lynn doing what tourists do.

More
And more...from the outside.
and more
OK, this was the last photo of the Colisseum I took.
Where we had lunch

Our table with owner in the background.
What a spread of food. The locals really loved it.
The owner took our picture.
The owner added all this stuff for me to add to my dessert picture.

Walking back to the train station.

The front of Termini station in Rome.
Inside showing the schedules.
A mini-shopping center inside as well.
On the train

About to go through security and finalize our visit to Rome.

Blog starts here:

Slept OK.
Our room was right on a major road, so there was some noise
Had left ear plugs on ship
The room was cute and efficient. Just what we needed!
And of course Melissa and Francois made it truly perfect.
They only have four rooms at the Inn
But it is really a great little place and in a perfect location.
We had a breakfast coupon for a little place just a few doors down.
It was sort of like a small Italian Starbucks
(sorry to demean it, but I had to make a point somehow)
It was full of Italians (Ya Think!) getting their caffeine fix
We selected some pastries and orange juice
I had a cappuchino, and JB had a hot chocolate
She had heard about Italian hot chocolates from watching
Samantha Brown on the Travel Channel
Very thick and rich, not at all like domestic hot chocolate.
We ate on sidewalk…well, on tables and chairs on the sidewalk
At that hour lots of commuters and school kids
We then met Rich and Lynn and headed to our final Roman tour
The Coliseum and the Roman Forum
We only had to walk all of about ½ a mile,
As we entered to the alley across from the hotel
We could see the Coliseum…just that close
We rendezvoused with our Angels’ guide
Just outside the Coliseum Metro station (upper level)
She was very nice and knowledgeable…more like Jimmy than Alex
We headed into the Metro and down to the ground level
Then crossed the street to the Coliseum (life threatening crossing that street)
The closer we got the bigger it got (I know…duh!)
Outside very touristy with posing gladiators (1 Euro for a picture)
and many vendors (hmmm, I don’t we bought anything from them)
After some discussion outside we moved on to the Forum
That is quite a place, but after Ephesus and Pompeii
I was getting a little ‘over filled’ with historical stuff
And what different people did, how they did it, and where they did it
And how they did it to, or had it done to by (you get the point) others
I wanted the Coliseum…size does matter!
In the Forum we bought our Coliseum ticket
Our guide called it a ‘secret’ booth.
No line, and we would by-pass the lines at the Coliseum
Boy was she right! As we just walked right in
(through another security check like at the Vatican)
They were forming up the tickets buyers in lines 4 wide
Long wide lines…and we just ‘zipped’ by.
We then took a ‘lift’ to the upper level (no, not from the ‘Ancients’)
And we then walked out into the expansiveness of the Coliseum
We are accustomed to Candlestick, PacBell Park (or whatever)
And Cal’s Memorial stadium,
but to have their size back in that era…impressive, truly impressive
You can see it on TV, and think you comprehend…but you can’t
Boy were those Romans the engineers or what?!?
And then to think they brought in the wild animals to fight
Well, I guess they were barbarians as well.
We stopped at several locations with great narrative from our guide
She had nifty little book that had transparency overlays
So we could see how it would have looked before it was ‘stripped’
Hard to believe someone could have ‘cannibalized’ the place so much
After saying good-bye to our guide
Walked around some more trying to absorb it all and taking more pix
Looked through some internal museums and then left
Then we went back to Nicolas Inn to ask for lunch recommendations
Melissa recommended a place down the alley across the street
Around the corner…no one but locals would have found it
Or tourists with recommendations
What a fun place
Very down to earth
The owner, his wife, their dog and one other employee (plus the cooks)
The dog barked now and then at passerby’s (passersby?)
The owner was very fun and ‘toyed’ with us a little
We could tell he probably spoke very good English (he understood us 100%)
But he made us use as much Italian as we could (which was not much)
They had quite a layout of antipasto dishes arranged as a buffet…
They all looked fantastic even if we couldn’t tell what they all were
One could have had quite a feast.
We wanted something lighter, so ordered ala carte
The other 3 had Raviolis, but I had muscles and clams in butter/garlic sauce.
If I could have any meal on this whole trip again
(including prime rib and lobster on the ship)
It would be this one. I have NEVER seen so many shells on one plate.
It seemed the others were half finished by the time I was done ‘shelling’
The owner just kept walking by and smiling at me.
We didn’t order dessert, but he brought us four little tarts.
I was taking a picture of them when he brought several large
Plates of cookes and other desserts to embellish the picture…fun.
After a full meal (so much for light)…and a liter and half of wine
we headed out, to head out (bummer)
Picked up our bags from our hotels
And walked back to Termini station
What a hectic place that station is.
Well organized and modern, but VERY busy.
I’m not sure, but I think I saw a train to New York!
(OK, so I exaggerated a little)
But they have 28 or 29 different tracks, so LOTS of trains.
We had exited by side entrance when we arrived,
So hadn’t seen the whole place then
We entered from the front just for the experience…impressive
Found an ATM, then bought our tix (4.5E one way vs the 9 w/BIRG)
The train was sitting in the sun with no air conditioning…VERY HOT
We sat up top to have better views…which was even hotter
Didn’t take many pix as once we started it was nap time!
The air-conditioning was the open windows, so at 120 KPH we were fine.
Walked back to port entrance
Only to get on a hotter shuttle bus.
That’s OK, right to ship is short
We were drained!
Got back to cabin and just vegged out
JB read nad SB downloaded pictures and wrote trip report
Met Rich and Lynn for a drink then dinner
Lamb chops again…oh darn! (only 3 little ones though)
Gede brought an extra plate of them a again…whattaguy!
Everyone at table had had a great time in Rome
Even though we had all done something different
Did not bring my camera to dinner…first time.
Gede did some napkin folding and coin tricks
No camera! Of course!
After dinner it was straight to bed
This is not good for the stomach!
While getting ready for bed,
Another bird flew into our sliding door
It dropped to the balcony floor then got up and flew away
What is up with these birds!?!

Out of sequence post: Barcelona storm

It is now 6:23pm Monday, Oct. 8th. We are in our hotel room in Barcelona after a full day of riding the HoHo bus (hop-on hop-off) and it is POURING down rain and there is quite a thunder and lightening show going on. What a perfect time to have balcony room (Continental Barcelona, right on Las Ramblas).

Las Ramblas was VERY busy when we walked up to our room about 45 minutes ago. After a few minutes we opened the doors to balcony and could hear screams...and then saw the rain drops and people running. Then the lightening, the wind, and now the rain.

We had planned to go onto Las Ramblas tonight, find a place with Tapas, and just eat, drink, and people watch...we have about 2 hours to see if this will blow over or we may have to change our plans (at least the Las Ramblas and people watching part).