Travel Diary: Italy

I am not big on journaling normally, but I find when I'm traveling, I take so much in, I need an outlet. Since so many people have asked me about my time spent in Italy, though I think my pictures tell the story much better, I thought perhaps these entries from my travel journal would well supplement my photos. Enjoy!

(Please note, this is NOT in story format. I have made no editing. These are my thoughts in the raw. It is a diary after all!)

ITALY: April 11-22, 2008

Traveling Companions: Brian Barbre, Nate LaBate & Sara Roberts

Itinerary (Preliminary): Milan, Venice, Volterra (2 nights), Orvieto, Sorrento (3 nights), Rome (2 nights).

Preliminary because, well, as of April 12th, we still don’t have any hotels booked except for in Milan.

Milan:
-bustling, hip, modern
-on the same street where the age-old gothic Duamo sits is a panel-wall of modern brilliant (as in bright!) colored signs along the side of a building.
-Got into town, with enough time to catch the train to Milan from the airport. Discovered, while on the train, that its last stop is not our stop like we thought. Brian navigates us to the subway where we manage to find Statione Centrale but we had a whole ‘nother 30-40 minutes meandering around the plaza, asked for directions twice, before finally finding the street with our hotel! Turns out Statione Centrale had a lot of hotels to choose from, so in many ways, bummer that we picked the one on the raunchier side of town. But no worries – the beds are clean, the showers hot – and “free” breakfast!
-ate dinner at Pizzeria and took some shots of the Duamo – 4th or 5th largest church in Europe and impressive! Fine dining & 6 Euro house wine – and I didn’t even get carded!

So…can I move to Italy?
On the train and even flying in (over the Alps mind you!) I observed that even modern Milan retains an oldness and rural feel. There are simply no concrete jungles to find in Italy. Off to Venice…we hope!

**Note: we went to Venice, but it was such a whirl of a trip that I was too tired to journal while we were there. Fast forward to…

3rd Day: Arrival in Volterra, April 14th

After an ever-exciting morning in Venice of way-too-strong-yet-it-does-the-trick caffe at a wine bar, a few calls to banks (for Sara and Nate – only one of which was successful) and some spare time at the train station for some photo shoots, we finally hit the road, er, tracks for Volterra. Brian, our faithful navigator, managed to get us the train tickets and figure out which buses to take from Florence. We eneded up missing the first bus by 5 minutes so instead checked our bags and began a quick-paced tour of Florence – in the rain. Saw too much to capture in words, though my camera might have done the trick.  Ate some too-expensive gelato at a gelaterria and rushed back to catch our first bus to Colle D’etre (?). From there just barely made it on the final bus to Volterra, Tuscany – at least what I’ve seen from the bus-is everything I imagined it to be. The vineyards on the hillsides with rows and rows of vines, the stone mansions making themselves known at the top of the hills. It is beautiful. Green, rural, alive, quiet, peaceful.

First impressions of Volterra – its like living at the foot of a castle – just like one sees in the movies. Everythings connected, still everyone walks and everythings made of stone. So 2 nights here – lets’ see what Volterra has to offer! 

4th Day: Meandering the streets of Volterra:

Sleep makes all the difference in the world when it comes to how much one can appreciate what they’re seeing. After a nice loooong 8-9 hour sleep – the first real night of sleep for me – we woke up to a scrumptious – fresh from the nearby pastry shop – pastries and cappuccino and nice conversation with the hostess, we hit the streets to explore this castle-like hill town. Narrow streets mini-archways and two-three gates in and out of the city. Later, we lunch at a local restaurant where I have the most incredible pesto…how will I ever eat American-Italian again after this? Conversations taper off and we meander back towards the hotel for a siesta and for me to empty my memory cad on my laptop – only to find I lack sufficient memory on my hard drive! Commence disk clean-up! Argh! Siesta turns into a longer wait for the rain, thunder and lightning to stop so we can go “see the ruins”. Sara and I end up parting ways with the boys and head down some side street to find the ruins by ourselves. After detouring into a couple of churches, we end up meeting back with the boys at the hotel for more conversation and avoiding the rain. After a minute or two, Nate & Sara & I hit the streets to enjoy the ruins. More to come soon!

5th Day: From Volterra to Orvieto (still in Tuscany) April 15th

-Did my wine tasting today. 2 Euros for 4 different samples. Nothing like it, especially when served and explained by a man with an Italian accent and when you just walk up to the bar!
-Volterra has a collection of ancient Roman ruins reminiscent of a theatre and bathhouse. We saw them briefly last night but because of the rain could not go down for a better look until today. By the time we ate breakfast (mmm…cappuchino – I will never be satisfied with Starbucks again!) and I had already packed, we hit the streets, Sara and I, to explore – find her a money changer and some dry shoes, both of which we were wildly unsuccessful, though we did manage to enjoy our lovely morning stroll, interacting with the local store owners trying to find a shoe store and money changer and simply taking in a waking Volterra…more to say for sure on that!!
-Did our exploration of the ruins and our wine tasting and caught our next bus which took us on a beautiful tour of the countryside on our way to the next train station that would take us to Orvieto.
-The train stations were grubby, ghetoo, homeless men begging for money from us. This is the Italy that probably most tourists avoid…but I enjoyed seeing Italy’s darker (and in my mind, a bit more normal) side. It made for a deeper appreciation when we finally got to Orvieto.
-you take what they call a Funtina (??) up the hill like a mini-bus, going up train tracks, so steep! You get to the top and its almost a city at the top of the hill – perhaps equivalent in size to Plymouth, NH? We found our hotel in no time, tough exhausted and ready to eat, yet nothing was open and we still wanted to see this city-town at least in part before the sun went down. Explore we did – discovered the Duamo, with its spectacular façade and then walked around it to a castle of sorts and the rest of the city walls. What a view of a Tuscan valley. A castle sits on the hillside…
-Dinner was an adventure of its own. Took us forever to find a place that was even open…but it was good! Friendly, English-speaking waitress, recommended us a grilled beef dish – the regional dish for Orvieto, along with some of the best wine I have ever had, also regional to Orvieto – Classico Bianace, I believe. Fruity finish but light, tastes better after every sip. The beef was huge – one kilo for us all – the conversation fun – we connected, the server sweet, friendly – we made an Italian friend.
-Orvieto is much more of a modern hill-town than Volterra. Cars drive on the narrow, steep cobblestone roads, and it’s a town of its own, not just built to cater to tourists, but also lacks the small town feel of Volterra. But hill town nonetheless.
-Tomorrow: Civita and the train to Sorrento…but only after (prayerfully!) a good night’s sleep, for we all need it!

Day 6 – On the train to Sorrento (Naples first)

Italian countryside is dotted with ruins of medieval castles and remnants of vineyard mansions. Brilliant, green grass or even brighter yellow flowers carpet the ground where the vineyards don’t run across in narrow rows. Every once in a while you spot a patch of white – sheep, clustered together as they munch on fresh green grass.

Some land owners orchard olive trees instead. According to Somalia (?) the waitress from Orvieto, Italians sample their oil with bread, but rarely mix vinegar with it as well. As much we suspected, for the servers don’t typically bring us oil and vinegar unless we ask for it.

Brian and I’s cameras have been put away, freeing us to enjoy the sights without the distraction of trying to capture it all to take home with us.

Italy has some strange trees. I’m not sure how to describe them. Tall, thin, wavy, their branches tend to bend easily at a gentle breeze. But it stills retains pine – just like back home in the US as well. Dad would like that.

God has graciously preserved our belongings thus far. We now look forward to three nights in the Sorrento region. Every Italian we’ve met brags at the beauty of Southern Coastal towns, despite the purported rivalry between the North and South.

Oh, and P.S., we missed the bus to Civita, much to Brian’s dismay. But we’ve experienced two hill towns and observed a good many more from a distance on the train. As much as I will miss the quiet rolling hills of Tuscany, the change of geography will still be much appreciated. Arieva Dierche!

Day 6 continued: Arrival in Positano/Amalfi Coast

Highlight of the evening: walking into local grocery store where Rick Steves (otherwise known as Rickster, Stevie Boy, Stevensimo, Stevenski, Ricardo, and otherwise) guided us to a grocery store woman (I fail to recall her name now, but Brian knows) who dished us up (after giving us samples) bread, cheese, salami, regional smoked ham, and her recommended red wine, after offering and proceeding to chill the recommended regional white wine for us tomorrow. If I could only have th energy to describe the way this small coastal town inspires me – puts all the things I love together in one place: mountains, ocean, steep, narrow, small-town like Volterra streets, with wine and cheese and bread and good friends and conversation that made us laugh so hard our next door neighbor had to ask us to be quiet please (that part non-verbally, with his stare) because “people come here specifically for the quiet and it is after 10 and all and really…”  Can it get any better than this?

Day 7 Positano to Pompeii (and back again)

Leisurely morning along the Positano beach along with massive waves on the rocks and picture taking. The ocean is turquoise blue and clear and when the waves crash on the dark brown (but not looking like soil at all) sand, it creates a mosaic like effect on the beach. Positano approaches breath-taking but Pompeii literally did take my breath away. It wasn’t until after 3 that we finally got on the steep narrow curves to Sorrento to catch the Pompeii train. In fact, we didn’t eat our spinach calzone and more gelato (oh so good gelato) breakfast until after 11.

The people here are so friendly, talking in English, but also being incredibly helpful in every way. Even tonight, Amelia from Delicatisso, brought food from the back to make us sandwiches and then told us to buy the 8 Euro limoncello that came in a bigger & cheaper bottle. This is the first place I feel we’ve made some Italian friends – despite the numerous American & Canadian tourists we’ve conversed with as well.

So Pompeii…what words are of use to describe how well-preserved these ancient ruins. Pompeii as a city is huge!! Much bigger than I expected. Every step I took literally seemed to surprise me with something new. Of the 250 pictures I took, I think the only repeats were of the spectacular and oh-wow-I-can’t-believe-how-amazing sunset. I’d love to go back again to Pompeii. I feel we only got a taste of it. Couldn’t find any casts like it is famous for, but everything else…well, just look at my pictures.

P.S. Tonight Amelia made Sara and I a proscuito sandwich with mozzarella and tomato and oil and salt – oh so good. And we tasted limoncelli – what the Amalfi coast towns are famous for.

Day 8 Capri (Argh!) (P.S. Pronounced KAP-hree)

-Got up with the sun this morning but didn’t get any good pictures. Quiet morning nonetheless…
-Almost spur of the moment decision to go to Capri. Girls were ready to go before the boys. Got served Nutella croissant and espresso on our balcony then hit the road to get some sandwiches and our boat tickets. $30 later, we find ourselves stuck (next boat out was at 5:30pm, so we had all day).
-Capri is a tourist sardine can. All the cruise ships drop off their passengers here but I not once could figure out why! It wasn’t Italy – at least compared to what else we’ve seen & experienced. It was more like cruise ship atmosphere put on an island and shamefully associated with the beautiful country of Italy by its name and “language” though Italians here knew English & didn’t like it when you spoke to them in Italian. Shops are everywhere as well as finely (and some not so finely dressed) tourists with their tiny digital cameras and short skirts and caps.

It was everything I hate about tourism lumped in one place and mistaken for Italy! Though I must give Capri some credit – we took the chair lift to the top of Mt. Solarno and had some beautiful views and took a pleasant hike back down which both dehydrated and sun burned us so our gelato for the day tasted all the better. Hours were sadly wasted on this tourist trap and I’ll never recommend it to anyone.

Day 9 Arrival in Rome / Day 10 Rome

In Tuscany, I was awakened by church bells. In Rome, its trumpets. We got in last night in time for an orienting stroll to Capitol Hill with a fabulous look at the Forum. We may not have time to walk around the Forum today with all we are attempting to squeeze in on our last day here.

Rome captures me. Stepping off the train, we enetered a bustling city, riddled with tourists galore, though not as obtrusive as the Capri cruise ship tourists. Everywhere you look, an ancient building or statue or sculpture beautifully crafted greets your eyes. It’s majestic, despite the tale it tells of man’s glory that once was and is no more.

We had an incredible time on the train getting here. Stuffed in a car with three Italians, one brunette woman struck up a conversation with us. Pretty soon everyone in the car – the older middle aged woman and the teenager – joined in the chaotic attempts to understand English and Italian. By the end of the hour we’d also borrowed some French and Spanish, but we had ourselves a working conversation between the six of us and it was quite fun. Saralee (??) led us through the train station and then kissed us goodbye. It was wonderful to have made an Italian friend. From that experience, I’d safely conclude Italians are a friendly people.

P.S. I enjoyed a leisurely morning yesterday before departing for Rome. Got up and showered and packed and with time to spare, sat with my Bible, a cappuchino and a Nutella croissant – just what I’d been wanting to do since I’d gotten to Italy. Read through the Sermon on the Mount.

Day 10 cont.

How many times on this trip has my breath been taken away (literally) by the sights I’ve seen? On our last full day in Italy, we squeezed in the Coliseum, the Vatican, countless Piazza’s, St. Peter’s Basilica, the Pantheon and the Forum, oh and don’t forget the Spanish steps at the end of our Rick Steve’s Night Walk, and the Rick Steve’s special service at one of his recommended lunch stops. By the time we got through the Sistine Chapel (which actually brought me to tears!) I was wiped – couldn’t take much more in. Listened to part of a mass in session at St. Peter’s. Avoided most of the long lines at both the Vatican and Coliseum. Enjoyed a Roman marching band in front of the Pantheon. My camera battery died right before we entered the Raphael rooms, so my postcards and Brian’s awesome pictures are all I have to show for St. Peter’s and Trevi fountain and our dinner at the Tre Scalini on Piazza Navona where we enjoyed per Rickster’s recommendation, “Death-by-chocolate” after our meal. Brian & Nate got more gelato and we stopped off at the Café Tazza (?) for Rome’s world famous and rightfully so cappuchino. I bought some grounds home as my souvenir. Sore feet sent us home in time to watch lightning light up the Roman skyline as rain poured down on the city. Rome is a bustling city and for all impressions, still trying to hold onto its Roman pride and glory.