Celebrazione di Amicizia

We, embarrassingly, began the day with a bottle of sweet (actually too
sweet) dessert wine that we had gotten from Carla Zenato back at the
Zenato winery near Lake Garda early into our trip. She had given it to
us in celebration of all of our birthdays. Knowing this was the last
time we'd have a chance to share it, we uncorked it.

We were shocked when the Italian women walked in the room and shook
their heads disapprovingly... not because we were sipping wine, but
because it appeared to be a sin to eat Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese for
breakfast. We were determined not to leave this behind, either,
knowing very well we wouldn't be able to bring an open package back to
the States.

Apparently, some cheese in Italy must be sacred. Being the rebels we
are, we ate it anyway. The ladies didn't complain when we left behind
another half bottle of wine and the rest of the Parmigiano.

We used the same taxi service that dropped us off at Sweet Dreams 2 to
drive us back to the airport. This time our driver was one of the
owners of the taxi service. He spoke perfect English. He drove us by
the Mussolini monuments which were very plain and geometric in nature.
We learned that he was born and raised in Rome, and told us, "I am a
true Roman." Because of this, we all had to touch him just so we could
say that we had touched a Roman. He thought this was funny.

We flew on Lufthansa to Munich, appreciating the Bailey's Irish Cream
offered for our coffee. Next we were on to Chicago, then Minneapolis.
Calls were made to those waiting, which got us even more excited to
get home.

Donna's sister and her niece both drove to pick us (and all of our
goods) up at the airport. Donna's nephew, Mo Mo, was also along and
smiled with joy to see her. In the three weeks we were gone, he went
from saying "Dah Dah" to a clear "Donna."

We went back to Sharon's to get Brenda's car. Beth and Mary were
fortunate to be able to ride with her to where they were going. Beth's
parents met them on route to Hector at a major crossroad; this saved
them from having to trek all of the way to the Minneapolis
airport. Mary was dropped off at her mom's house at nearly 1 a.m.

Donna and Brenda worked the next day, while Beth prepared to drive home
to Idaho with her parents. Mary drove back to the Twin Cities with her
mom and sister to fly to NYC for her brother's surprise 60th birthday
bash.

The trip was fabulous. Even 18 days were too short. Time flies when
one's having fun. Maybe that 's why we're already 50.

May you all be blessed enough to share 50 years of friendship with
someone. Thanks for reading : )

Day 17 - Rome's Colosseum and More

Today was a wonderfully fun day! We took the guided underground tour
of the Colosseum. This is a fairly new tour, and we thoroughly enjoyed
it. It turned out to be one of Brenda and Donna's favorite things on
the entire trip.

The guide brought us to the lowest floor and described how the wild
animals were pulleyed up in an elevator to the arena above. We were
told that emperors would hold 100 days of games, open to the public.
The people were also fed for free during the games. This is how the
emperor would keep favor with the people.

Christians and criminals were often the ones that fought each other
and/or the animals. Sometimes hides would be put on the people, then
they were put into the arena with carnivores. At other times, they
were burned alive.

We saw the Arch of Constatine which was built to memorialize the first
Christian emperor in Rome. He claimed he had seen God in the sky who
told him he would be victorious in battle. After this actually
happened, he became a believer. He was the one who put a nix on
Christians being persecuted in the Colosseum in 313 and told them no
longer to bury their dead in the catacombs outside of the city.
Instead they were told to live out in the open to be examples.

We visited the Roman Forum. It was amazing how our government
replicates the ancient Roman one! They had a public governmental
square, government buildings, and a Senate. You've undoubtedly heard
of Julius Caesar (buried here) and his nephew, Caesar Augustus, from
the Bible. He's the one who required the census when Mary & Joseph had
to travel to Bethlehem. Both of them were rulers here.

We made our way to the top of Palatine Hill. This is mostly ruins now,
but is where wealthy people, including Caesar Augustus, had their
homes. The hill overlooked the Forum, the Colosseum, and Circus
Maximus (the track where they held races like in Ben Hur!)

We took a taxi across town that brought us to the steps of the Capuchin
crypt, a small chapel where monks felt it was honorable to donate their
bones after death to decorate its rooms. For example, a skull was hung
on the wall with a hip bone on either side, and it looked like the face
of an angel with wings. They even had chandeliers made completely with
bones. Since Earl (Beth's husband) likes to hunt, Mary told her he
could put all of those bones to use now in their house. Kind of like
arts and crafts for a manly man. Beth was not humored!

By the way, "cappuccino" comes from the brown color of these monks'
robes.

We walked to Rome's famous Spanish steps. The Spanish Embassy's
nearby, thus the name. We then made it to Mary's favorite spot in the
entire world: a small piazza in front of the Pantheon. It has her
favorite fountain, complete with goofy heads that spit water out of
their mouths. What makes the fountains more enjoyable is that birds
love to sit on top of the goofy heads to make them look even more
ridiculous. It takes very little to humor some people, and --
obviously-- Mary's one of them.

Brenda took notice of a gorgeous Italian man in a bright teal jacket.
We think he was a model since he was walking with a Paris Hilton-type
gal with high heeled Stilettos. She'd turn around in a crowd and
there'd be a photographer snapping away. Brenda told us tat the man in
teal looked like a younger, taller, more handsome Tom Cruise, so of
course the rest of us waddled after him to get a look. Donna did a
stealth move and even photographed him.

We popped into a wonderful little restaurant for our last dinner in
Italy. For one last hurrah, we stopped at a gelateria called Della
Palma that is known for 100 flavors of gelato. Donna was as pleased as
punch to find a flavor (pine nut) that she had fallen in love with
early into the trip and hadn't been able to find since.

We ended the late evening with a half bottle of wine, and shared the
rest with our new-found Italian friends back at the apartment. Gaia's
grandmother and aunt had joined her mom and her for the evening. The
grandmother was hysterical, even though we had to mostly understand
through facial expressions and Gaia's limited translations. It was a
fun way to end our final evening in Rome.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Day 16 - Vatican City

Donna got whistled at by an Italian man early this morning. Mary and
she went to the ATM to get cash, and on the way back Donna saw a statue
through a huge arched doorway. As she entered through to take a
picture, she was reprimanded by a security guard...the whistling
Italian man!!

Mary turned fifty today!! Happy birthday, Mary!! Thankfully, being in
Rome (her favorite city in the world) has eased the pain considerably.

We began our day of touring with another treasured ride on the
over-crowded city bus, making our way to the Scavi tour underneath St.
Peter's Basilica. Here we saw the tomb of St. Peter and the
foundations for two other ancient churches built to honor him which
were beneath the current Basilica.

Upon completion of that tour, we stopped for a quick Gelato at the Old
Bridge Gelateria, then headed to the Vatican Museum and the Sistine
Chapel. We thoroughly enjoyed making silly faces and taking goofy
pictures by the many statue heads which lined the halls of the museum.
Occasionally, the other tourists appeared to find our antics rather
entertaining. We were always very respectful of the chapel requests
for silence, but would find a new way to view the statues when we were
free to do so. However, a very grumpy German tour guide was not so
amused by our smiling faces and told us to be quiet, and that we were
not "natural". We had to use all of our super human strength to
restrain ourselves from laughing out loud right then and there.

The hallway leading to the Sistine Chapel is fabulously painted,
especially the ceilings. We saw Michelangelo's famous creation
painting with God and Adam touching fingers. We also viewed his
wall-sized painting over the altar called "The Last Judgement." We all
felt a sense of satisfaction when the German tour lady was speaking
loudly and Donna calmly turned to her and stated, "You're not supposed
to talk in the Sistine Chapel."

We took the secret exit out of the Sistine Chapel. It bypassed the
actual museum exit and took us right back into the Basilica. This was
bliss, since we passed majorly long lines.
We climbed steps to the top of the basilica, stopping part way to view
the inside ceiling of the dome (painted by Michelangelo). We then took
more steps to the very top of the basilica to see the best views of
Rome from outside. we were told that no other building in the city is
allowed to be taller than St. Peter's.

We had cappuccinos near the top, then descended the stairs and went
into the basilica. It truly is breathtaking. Our favorite things were
Raphael's mosaic of "The Transfiguration" (done so well that it looked
like an oil painting) and Michelangelo's statue of "The Pieta" (Mother
Mary holding the dead Christ) which he did as a 24-year-old.

We waved goodbye to Vatican City and took a taxi to Piazza Navona to
see the Fountain of Four Rivers. It felt good to sit on a bench and
people watch. We ate at a trattoria called Cul de Sac on Piazza
Pasquino and the owner, Marco, was kind enough to print off our tickets
for our Colosseum tour tomorrow. It was quite a production getting
this accomplished, so we were thanking God to have them printed.

Our meal was different than others we had eaten, and totally delicious!
We had meatballs in white wine sauce with mashed potatoes, zucchini,
artichoke pie, broccoli pasta, salmon in paper, hard-crusted bread,
tirumasu, orange glazed almond torte with cream, chocolate mousse,
custard ice cream sprinkled with pistachios, and a fabulous bottle of
red wine.

On our walk back to the hotel, we visited the lit Trevi fountain and
threw coins in to ensure our return to Rome. Upon our return, we met
an Italian mother and her 19-year-old daughter who are also staying in
the Sweet Dreams 2 B & B. We learned that Gaia auditioned today for
David Zara's "Romeo and Juliette" and received the leading role of
Juliette. She was all smiles and finding it hard to believe that she
would be performing at the Grand Theater in Rome.

We giggle at how Gaia and her mom speak so loudly and with such
enthusiasm. Add a lot of hand motions to this, and they almost make
our group (okay, maybe not Mary and Donna) look quiet: )

Day 15 - Pope Benedict and the Catacombs

Today we piled onto a city bus (packed like sardines)to Get to St.
Peter's Square. One of Beth's requests was to see Pope Benedict XVI
wave his blessing from his papal residence window. We discovered that
he does this at noon on Sundays.

He was so high up that, even with binoculars, he looked like an ant!
We hadn't realized that he spoke as many languages as he did. He
delivered a message in Italian, English, German, French, Spanish, and (
we think) Polish. It was entertaining to see how crowds cheered, waved
flags, and clapped when he began speaking in their language.

We spent some time sitting in Saint Peter's Square. The sunshine felt
good on our faces! The square is oversized and spacious. It is
surrounded with rounded walls made of white columns, and the walls are
topped with 140 statues of saints. It is so expansive that it almost
feels overwhelming.

It began to sprinkle, so we dipped into a restaurant for lunch. The
pasta, pizza, dessert, and cappuccinos hit the spot. We walked by
Cast' Angelo (also called Hadrian's Mausoleum) with the bronze statue
of St. Michael on its top. This was used as a papal residency for
awhile and has a high outdoor passageway that leads all the way to the
church.

We crossed the Tiber River on the Ponte Sant' Angelo Bridge. It's
beautiful bridge with 14 marble statues of angels. Each one carries a
symbol of the passion of Christ: a nail, shroud, crown, etc. In the
Middle Ages, it was the only bridge connecting the Vatican to downtown
Rome. In 1450, the crowd of pilgrims became so large that it caused
the bridge's banisters to break and 200 fell to their deaths. We
thought that only happened at rock concerts...

None of us had seen catacombs, so we chose to visit the first ones in
Rome. The Catacombs of Callisto are 4 miles south of town, so we
hailed a taxi. Our driver dropped us off way at the bottom of the hill
and--still walking two miles later uphill with hoods and umbrellas-- we
were not humored. The good news is that we made the final tour and had
a wonderful guide named Brother Oberto, originally from the Philippines.

We laughed the whole way through because he kept telling us to hurry
through the tour saying they would shut the catacomb lights off on us
at 5:30. He was serious, but we kept giggling just trying to visualize
such a thing! The most humorous part of the tour was Brother Oberto
whispering, "Quickly now... The Germans are coming.". Again, he was
serious (there was another guide behind us with German tourists). We
especially started laughing when he asked the only man in our group,
"You're not German, are you?" Maybe it was so funny because Beth,
Donna, Mary, and Brenda all have some German ancestry.

The catacombs were fascinating. The Romans were into cremation, but
the earliest Christians wanted to be buried believing their bodies
would rise whole at the return of Christ. We not only saw empty burial
holes but also frescos of the walls and gravestones. We saw the
memorial to St. Cecelia who was a young Roman girl who encouraged early
Christians to sing about their faith. The Romans attempted to kill her
three times, the last time by beheading. It was law that one being
beheaded could only be chopped three times. This saint lived another
three days. When her tomb was excavated later, her body was curled onto
its side with three fingers being held out.

We stopped at the Church Domine Quo Vadis where it is said that Peter
was deliberating whether to leave Rome. Christ then appeared to him
and told him to stay. The church was very tiny, but had a moving
fresco of Peter being crucified upside down and another one of him
holding the keys to the kingdom.

Brenda loved the stain glass of an angel holding a sword over what
looked like Satan. Interestingly, there was a block of marble from
the old Roman road (Appia Way) with footprints. According to
tradition, they are said to be the prints of Jesus on the ancient Via
Appia.

Donna said we lost some more weight from all the jiggling our bodies
had to endure on the bouncing public bus on the way back to our B & B!
Hitting all those bumps in the road didn't put us in much of a mood to
eat: ( We ate lightly and headed off to bed.

Day 14 - Driving from Tuscany to Rome

We ate our last breakfast at Art B & B and said goodbye to Elisa. She
has gone above and beyond for us this entire week. In fact, since we
still hadn't found a Mail Boxes, Etc. (postal and UPS won't mail
alcohol) to mail Kent's wine, she has arranged to have it picked up by
them on Monday morning. She gave us a bottle of her favorite red wine
for our birthdays to take along to Rome. It was from her friend's
winery.

It rained the entire 3 1/2- hour drive to Rome. Unbelievably, the rain
stopped when we arrived. We safely turned our rental car back in to
Hertz at the airport on the outskirts of Rome. Using mostly charades,
we had a taxi pick us up right at Hertz and take us to "Sweet Dreams 2"
B & B in downtown Rome.

Our B & B is actually a second-story apartment on Via Nazionale, a busy
street between the Colosseum and Trevi Fountain. The Victor Emmanuele
monument (also called the "wedding cake" because it's big, white, and
decorative) is very close to where we are staying.

We wandered out to see some sights before having dinner. Luckily for
us, we happenstanced upon Lux in Arcana at the Capitoline Museum. We
had tried to buy tickets online, but were denied since it is a special
week in all of Italy where many museums were either free or having
reduced prices. We arrived two minutes before the ticket office
closed and found absolutely no line... a miracle in and of itself! We
were given an hour to view the display.

We had heard about this event a few months ago. The letters and
documents we saw were from the Vatican's Secret Archives and have just
been released to the public for the first time. The papers included
letters to the Pope from Abraham Lincoln, Confederate President
Jefferson Davis, Mary Queen of Scots (a.k.a. Bloody Mary), and Marie
Antoinette.

We viewed a letter sent to the Vatican asking that the pope would annul
the marriage between King Henry VIII and his first wife. He wanted to
marry his wife's helper, Anne Boleyn, instead. The letter had been
signed and/or wax sealed by nearly 80 political figures.

It was also interesting to see a document that Galileo signed saying he
took back his theory that the earth was round and that the planets
revolved around the sun. The Catholic Church would excommunicate him
if he didn't recant. Later his theories would prove to be correct.

The Edict of Worms was on display, famous during the time of Martin
Luther's Reformation. There was also papers on the Knights of Templar
and a document signed by Napoleon Bonaparte. We decided he had the
"little man" or "chihuahua syndrome" since his wax seal was almost four
times bigger than anyone else's on display!

We left the museum and stopped to look at the lit ruins of the Roman
Forum and Colosseum on the way to dinner. We ate at Enotecca Cavour
313, the only poor Rick Steve's recommendation our whole trip. The
service was horrible; we asked for our check four or five times...
and that's just one example of how we were treated. Thank the Lord we
had chosen a delicious wine, or we would have had to cause a scene
(like that would ever happen having been raised on "Minnesota nice"
etiquette)!

Now that we're in Rome, we're looking forward to doing what the Romans
do!

Day 13 - Fiesole

We were able to take our time getting ready this morning and loved
being able to sip and enjoy the warm, foamy cappuccinos at our B & B.
Donna's aunt, Silvia, had suggested spending time in Fiesole
(pronounced fee-AY-zoh-lay); it is a small village 5 1/2 miles
northeast of Florence.

The curvy road up to the town was Donna's greatest driving challenge
here so far. Most of the road was so narrow that only one car could
fit, and much of it had brick walls on both sides. It was an
experience driving there, but it was so worth it!

Fiesole sits on hills above Florence, so you can imagine the fabulous
views. Etruscans settled areas like these from 800 to 400 B.C. and the
Romans moved in around 400 B.C. It fascinates us to think who walked
here before us!

We wandered around the Roman amphitheater and baths that date back to
the 1st century. They were surprisingly well preserved. We snapped
goofy pictures while attempting to mimic the positions and facial
expressions of some of the statues! A couple of us tried out the
amphitheater's acoustics by singing at its bottom. We were impressed
by how the voices carried. Donna was in her glory taking pictures, and
Brenda couldn't get enough of the ancient ruins.

The village's museum had excavation findings from both Etruscan and
Roman times. Beth and Mary were fascinated by the relics. We went in
thinking that people from 500 BC were unsophisticated, and left
realizing that they were crafting bronze and glazing pottery that we
couldn't even do using a machine!

We moseyed up a steep hill for breathtaking views and San Francesco, a
small church. We climbed spiral stairs to see tiny rooms where the
Franciscan monks lived. Each room had a wooden slab bed, desk, and
chair. The largest room was about 6' x 6'. Inside the church was a
fresco of St. Elizabeth. Beth had her picture taken by it.

We meandered down the hill to view a public garden. As we crossed the
street Mary felt a splat on her forehead. She had been baptized with
luck by a bird flying overhead. We saw the 14th century Town Hall
decorated with several coat of arms and the small Church of Santa
Maria. Santa Maria is thought to be the 1st Christian church in
Fiesole, already in existence in the 900s.

We headed back to Art B & B mid-afternoon, and this time recorded a
video of our GPS exiting us to our village of San Casciano Val di Pesa.
We did this for memory's sake, knowing it will make all of us laugh
later. "Vera" not only sounds Asian when she pronounces it, but she
also sounds like she has a mouth full of marbles. No wonder we still
can't pronounce our village without locals grinning!

We took a final drive around the the village since we will be leaving
tomorrow morning : ( and stopped to look at a tiny church on the
outskirts of town. We were able to take brief naps before dinner.
Elisa had made reservations at a favorite local restaurant.

Cinque di Vino proved to be everything Elisa had said it would be. The
owners, Marco and Silvia, are passionate about the Tuscan food they
serve and just as passionate about pleasing their guests. We started
the meal with a local Chianti and an antipasti sampler that included
six unbelievable delicacies... everything from polenta to marinated
pork over chickpeas.

Marco recommended artichoke lasagna (which was out of this world) and a
moon shaped truffle pasta stuffed with cheese and pine nuts. At this
point Donna commented, "If we have dessert, it will have to be some
kind of liquid so that it can seep into the cracks." Soon after this,
the waitress walked in with a marinated--then breaded and deep-fried--
Florentine steak. This put the kibosh on ordering dessert, even if
those being brought to others looked heavenly.

The owner insisted on taking a picture with us near his wood-burning
grill. Silvia brought in the hugest bottle of Limoncello we've seen on
the trip. Sadly, we were so seriously stuffed that we only sip down
about a tablespoon each.

Whereas it took less than two minutes to walk TO the restaurant, it
took us longer to uncomfortably waddle our way back. Our last night in
San Casciano turned out to be a wonderful one.