That in Italiano means "My Beautiful" and that's how we feel coming back to Italy!
We are at our 3rd destination now which is Cinqueterre. As of tomm (Saturday) morning we will have been travelling for 2 weeks. Time is flying by, I think we will need an extra 4 months here so if not then count us coming back soon!
Some call this area the Italian Rivera. A quiet coastal space with 5 little towns perched either on a beach or the cliffs or both. We are staying in Montessori.
Our accommodations are small and quaint. A petitie (piccolo) two bedroom apartment. It is perfect and clean. 300 meters away is the beach. Boats come in almost every hour with tourists from other towns or cities. They are like mini cruise ships, they come in try to see it all taste some food and leave again. Yesterday after we arrive we watched several people who almost miss their boats leaving and couple more who did. I can't think of a nicer place to be stuck!
Befor I forget more than I already have (forgive me please) I need to go back and cover what I have missed so far and that means back to Roma (Rome). I am going to do my best to include some pictures of the right places (we have so many!) and keep this all in order. Please remember this Travel Blog idea started almost 5 years ago when our family wanted to follow our exploits. Then it grew, friends and more friends wanted to follow what we were up to so here we are. My personal reason is that we remember where the heck we've been, what it looked like and how it all felt. If I get carried away in my stories please again forgive me.
ROME
As noted earlier this is one of our favorite cities in the world. This was our third time to Roma and the feelings don't fade! So much to see and so much to experience. I am not a big city person anymore (by a long shot) but Roma is one of this cities you must see and experience. For us this will hopefully mean more visits!
Although we had been here before we wanted to see this again as did Julie and Tony for their first time. Google these if you are unfamiliar. Basically and quickly Christians back in Roman days were at best tolerated and sometimes made examples of (murdered). Burial grounds were outside of Rome to save space for the city. So outside the walls of the city are Catacombes. Often they will be found with or under churches. This particular one had many miles of tunnels under ground where people were buried. Tourists are only allowed to tour where the bodies remains were robbed/ removed already.
The above is a church built over top of many of the burial areas.
This reminds me, forgive my photos. Many of them are with my IPhone which has become less than ideal. The light and dark areas have a negative effect.
Rome has a bit of everything. You can hide in a community which feels like a small town or you can ride the bus and transit and see all you can squeeze in. It is a large city with everything from cutting edge technology to locations, buildings and artifacts from the time of Jesus Christ and even older! Some of our favorite finds have been quite by accident walking many miles up and down streets, alleys and through neighbourhoods. See the sidewalk cafés, hearing the sirens or the different languages just reminds you one more time that you are deep into Europe. In many ways as it should be - My Bella!
I could spend hours telling you why you should see and experience Rome. One of the best ways would be to sit on a couch and go through my pictures. If you were to keep awake you too would be looking for a deal on plane tickets.
Please also forgive my spelling or grammar. Many times as we post here I will be using borrowed internet and not able to correct and or check same.
This trip was a little different than the others. September is much busier than what we had experienced before. The cars, Vespas (scooters) and people are crazier than ever but in a fun way. Rarely does one ever see an accident although we finally saw our first. They all seem to know the rules (there aren't any) of the road and that means watch very carefully as anything can happen!
Besides driving you may need to take public transit. It is often excellent!
If you choose to drive like we are (I would not recommend this for the faint of heart) then be prepared especially in big cities, roundabouts and freeways, in fact add in all roads! No wonder the Italians produce such good Formula zone drivers! One almost forgets when away for four years!
Scooters will pass you on the left even when you are in the Center lane. They will pass you on the right in every lane and come down the middle of the roads with you or at you, so keep the mirrors adjusted!
Cars are almost doing the same things. They will pass you any chance they get no matter how much you are speeding. They will tailgate you and pass where there is no room for a Fiat 500 never mind their Mercedes! If you are aware this will all happen then focus, it is easier. Not simple but easier.
I have to nod to Tony here. By the way I am starting to call him Antonio now. Tony has been the sole driver to this point and quiet enjoys it with a couple of exceptions I won't get into at this point. We are travelling in their Toyota Rav 4. The luggage is piled near the ceiling and I am comfortable enough in the back that I often enjoy a Siesta when on the road.
Back to Rome! Where was I? (ADD?).
For the most part we travel in the city by transit. It is very efficient and gets you around cheaply and helps insert one into the local culture which we all enjoy. In fact I would say I like that part more than the touristy things which I'm sure I've mentioned before.
One such example was when Barb and I took the bus from our apartment to meet Julie and Tony one day. For whatever reason it was extremely busy. We found our bus and the only way we really knew where to get off was the bridge going over the River which is where the four of us would meet.
The bus becam so crowded after a couple of stops it went far past entertaining. We had no seat so we were staring for dear life holding onto whatever we could so as not to become a statistics. The bus would accelerate hit the brakes for a scooter and whatever in the hairy traffic. Just as it smoothed out and became comfortable it would happen again. Almost like it was there to remind you where you were living for the time being.
I think I read somewhere that Rome is about 3 million people. Excuse me if I am wrong here. It feels like it's at least 7 million with that many tourists again doubling the population. When you are in Rome it brings a whole new meaning to an international city! All the different languages and so much more.
At any rate we are riding the bus and as I said it was filling up. Well let me say this I am sure the tires were about to pop there were so many of us in there. I had not seen a transit spectacle like this since Istanbul,Turkey a few years back and this was much less organized. It go so bad that two ladies squeezed on and the doors would not close. In fact I was sure someone would have to leave as there was no way we could squeeze any more to make this work. The doors were on about their 6th or 7th try (to close) when the bus driver finally just turned the bus off!
That in Italian means either squeeze more or someone vacate this thing now!
I couldn't believe it! No one departed, I heard some grunts and voila the doors closed! We were on our way again. Never have I been so intimite with so many armpits. Most of them were nice and fresh the odd one not so. Finally we saw the bridge and we had to try to find a way to exit. There was no way to ring the bell never mind move. I couldn't even see where the bell was and another fear was one of us might make it off leaving the other on board.
I'm nit sure if I was finally able to ring the bell or not, my face was twisted and squeezed and my head was turned 167 degrees the wrong way. At first I started off with "Excuse eh" which I got many a smiling faces in return but no one would move? I tried that afew more times and told Barb to stick with me. Still no one would move even an inch! We were only three feet from freedom and yet it may as well been a hundred miles. Thoughts were running through my mind and finally I pushed blindly and it worked I got about a half an inch of movement. It reminded me of a football game, one being near the goal line, no one is moving no matter how big the shoves were, we need another play Coach!
One more time (the doors would close again any movement and we would be stuck to the next stop) I gave a 200 pounder and the seas parted! Barb followed in my shadow as we fought for our lives pushing and shoving for the door, I fell out and darn near landed down on my side but caught my balance just before hitting the sidewalk! We made it and everyone on the bus was smiling back at us as they drove away. It was like they were saying to us welcome to Roma, we hope you enjoyed our time together!
All I recall while I stood there was the pain in the big toe of my left foot. As we were pushing our way through with all our might someone (there were about 45 suspects per square foot) stood on my foot (I was wearing sandals) and my toe was now telling me all about it. Yaawzers!
I must say it was an experience and we began to laugh. Just think we never have to do that again, those poor people have to do that every day! We continued on and met with Tony and Julie who waited even though we were about 30 mins late.
I will greatly summarize Rome.
If you love pasta, beautiful scenery, history and friendly people stop by. We ate some great meals and although we love Cappacino we have drifted to Americanos in the mornings. If we eat out for breakfast it usually means a Danish of some sort as well. Sometimes we eat at home too.
We stayed in a Apartment and it was great. Far from the tourist area and surrounded by apartments it is clear only the richer people live in detached homes, most live in apartments. They surrounded us.
Fashion is very important in Italy and when downtown or in business areas it is made very clear. Whether looking at the women or the men it doesn't matter how much they have most of them dress for success, especially with their shoes. If they have enough Euros then it moves up from there. Add in the aroma of the perfumes and colognes. I had forgotten how prominent this was compared to ours. Sometimes one can smell the perfume of a well dressed woman a block away, it is simply amazing!
If you stop for a coffee or refreshment anywhere you need to understand that if you sit and want table service it will cost you more for the exact same thing. Walk up to the counter and order you Cappacino there it will be cheaper. Stand with the others and experience what many of the locals do, stand up have your fix and move on.
After a while you start to think about how small your world really is. There are people from all over the world here. After all this is Rome which at one time was considered the Center of the world. My little world is nothing compared to what happens here. There is so much and so many. The history helps put this in perspective too. You can be walking down a street and out of no where is a Roman column sticking up out of the ground or something laying in a fenced off yard in a neighbourhood. Modern Rome is basically built on top of the original and most anytime you dig (construction etc) you are likely to find something. It is amazing. I can not get past this part. Standing there and touching something that was built before, during or after Christ just puts my life into such perspective. We are merely a drop on the so called bucket and being here sure helps one to really feel it better than anywhere else I have been yet. I hadn't had those feelings since the last time we were here.
The map above will help you follow where we are.
The Cinqueterre is above Lucca along the same coast line just out of view.
Driving in Italy is not for everyone but we are doing it!
Vespa is an Italian brand of scooter and our favorite. It means "wasp" I would love to get a container full of old wasps to import to Canada and sell them. They are perfecto!
My reply could be "a Dink 125!"
Italians have so much history! We agree they should preserve and remember it. As well as being able to name their scooters so well here is a car called a "Picasso."
Do you like fine food?
If you do, you will love Italy!
The view from the window in our Roma apartment.
Mucho grande apartmento!
Or perhaps some Ruins at a busy intersection!
A gate of the wall around the old Rome.
When Rome was flourishing the city had approx one million people living there.
Someone lived in this home back in the day and they were prominent.
They had pools and underground heating, the Romans were very ahead of their time in the design and invention of various items to make life easier. You can see by the men working here these ruins are being cleaned up.
That about covers what I have to say about Rome this trip. To put it in one word I would simply say "Fantastico!"
So that's it for now.
I'm sorry I can not sit and write for too long as there is so much to do and see around us.
Since Rome we traveled to Tuscany (a week ago Thursday) and stayed there for a week in a small village called Brenna. This is a must do if you come to Tuscany! I will tell you why on our next post.
After Tuscany as recently noted (we drove just over 3 hours up to Cinqueterre (Chinc kwa Terra) which is the five little towns along the coast line. It's quite warm here and very beautiful. Quaint little places with the exception of the influx of tourists on the boats, they come and go. By supper time most of them are all gone and everyone slows down to breathe!
My next post will there fore update you on the hill top towns (and castles) in Tuscany, the famous city of Florence and then our current location Cinqueterre!
Arriveaderchi !!
