| "I haven't been everywhere, but it's on my list."

June 19, 2015
by crawfordeg 1 Comment

The Hike to Vernazza

I find it very ironic that the final words of my last post were, “Should be fun!” Fools.

We started the day exuberant and joyful; enjoying our breakfast and excited for our “adventure”. It was only supposed to be a high of 65 that day so we opted for jeans, tennis shoes, a ¾ length light shirt and a light jacket; it might be chilly in the shade so best to be prepared. We thought about wearing workout clothes, but with a high of 65 and our plan to “stroll, not hike” to Vernazza, we opted for the more stylish option of jeans. Fools.

It was about a 15-minute walk to the start of the trail to Vernazza. When we got there we were both thinking, “Hmm…, it’s kinda warm, but, YAY we are about to start a gorgeous, scenic stroll on the Cinque Terre trail. We won’t need these jackets, but that’s ok., we’ll just tie ‘em around our waist and start walking.” Fools.

It was about 20 minutes into the hike when we realized, HOLY FREAKING MOLY this is a legit hike. There is no “stroll” option. We trudged along, hating our suffocating jeans every step of the way. Towards the end of the hike, we saw two young 20 –something’s heading the opposite direction, dressed much more appropriately in shorts and tank tops. As they approached us, we heard them saying, “Damn, this is really hard.” And as they passed us, Michelle heard them saying in a college, know-it-all tone “but I’m so glad we didn’t wear jeans.” We wanted to hate them in that moment, but we also wished we weren’t wearing jeans. One point for the college kids.

Our projected 2.5 hour hike took us almost four hours. We literally climbed over a mountain to reach Vernazza. The train would have taken 5 minutes. Please don’t mention that to us. Ever.

Our only consolation was that there were a lot of people on the trail who were clearly planning on taking the non-existent “stroll” option. Only the super-efficient Germans – walking sticks in hand- were powering through. The Monterosso to Vernazza trail duped many of us. However, we were the only ones in jeans.

Vernazza was undeniably beautiful, but it’s widely touted as “the pearl of the Cinque Terre” and the shear number of people visiting really spoiled its beauty. There are a lot of people who come to the Cinque Terre area on day trips and, in their limited time, I think they all hit Vernazza. We were SO grateful we were staying in Monterosso. It was much more of a low-key, hometown vibe.

Vernazza

We ate lunch and bought a ticket to take the boat back to Monterosso. Ah, a relaxing boat ride. Well, we got on the wrong boat and went an hour in the opposite direction. We had no idea where this boat was going; we just knew it wasn’t going back toward our town. At first it was fun, “Yay, a long boat ride that we didn’t have to pay for! Go, us!” After 1.5+ hours of making our way back to Monterosso on the train, we were over our “free” ride.

There is a listed timetable for the trains, but I think it is more of a goals sheet. They are SO unpredictable. Switzerland was the exact opposite. You could literally set your watch by the train schedule. When the second-hand on the train clock clicked over for to the appropriate minute, the train pulled up. It was freakishly accurate. Here, they are 10-20 minutes late. However, the tickets are ¼ of the price, but I guess you get what you pay for.

Once we got back to Monterosso, we went to our hotel terrace and broke out the leftover wine we stuffed in our suitcase from Michelle’s tradeshow. We knew it would come in handy! We kept hearing this great music from a distance – it sounded like a band warming up. We walked to town later and came up on an orchestra that was playing in the square. One night a disco, the next an orchestra – Monterossso is the place to be! We ended the night with a huge pot of seafood risotto that was delicious. It almost made us forget our “stroll” to Vernazza. Almost.

Our last day in Monterosso was the exact opposite of our “stroll”. We vegged on the beach most of the day with mojitios and books in hand and then ended the day with some shopping before we packed our bags to head home.

The Italian trains proved to be our nemesis once again on our 2+ hour ride to the Genoa airport. We jumped off at Levanto and then frantically jumped back on when we (by we, I mean Michelle) realized that we needed to stay on until Levante. I might still be in Levanto if it weren’t for Michelle; I thought we got there awfully quickly. At the Levante station, we couldn’t find our train to Genoa. We only had 10 minutes. We saw a lady frantically looking for the same train. She spoke Italian, so surely she knew what she was doing. We followed her blindly and ran like crazy people; lugging 50 lb bags up and down stairs like our life (or flight) depended on it. We got on our train seconds before the departure time. And then we sat there for 20 minutes before it left the station. Good times.

The crazy, not-so-perfect stories are what make the trip so fantastic and memorable. I had a blast, and I’m so grateful that after 35+ years of friendship, Michelle and I get to keep experiencing these things together!

Looking back at Monterosso

Ticket booth for the trail

Sign at the start of the trail

Just starting the hike to Vernazza

View of Monterosso

Stopping for a break!

First glimpse of Vernazza

Lady handing out high-fives to the hikers

Two-man band welcoming all the hikers to Vernazza

Fried seafood cone – yum!

Tunnel to the beach

Vernazza beach

At this point, we don’t know how far out of our way we are going.

Riomaggiore

Steps, steps and more steps!

Hike recovery

seafood risotto

Serving up our risotto

Anchovies

May 24, 2015
by crawfordeg Leave a comment

Made it to Monterosso!

After a LONG day of train travel we finally made it to our hotel in Monterosso around 11 pm on Friday. The town is so cute, and we were so excited to learn that they were having a Lemon Festival on Saturday. Sign us up!

Everyone was out in full force decorating and selling anything and everything lemon: soap, bread, pasta, drinks, and desserts. There are lemon trees everywhere here and the lemons are huge! We had the best time strolling around and checking out everything. There seems to be a lot of town pride that goes into putting on the festival, and you can tell it is a community effort.

We checked out a few old churches and an old cemetery. Michelle read that due to space constraints, they keep the bodies in the cemetery for 100 years and then they have to move them to allow room for others. We didn’t see any graves older than 100 years so that may be true.

It rained in the afternoon, but we had a reservation at a local winery at 4 pm which turned out to be perfect timing. We spent the rest of the afternoon under a huge porch looking out at the vineyards and tasting local wine. This family has owned this winery for the last 10 years and three generations are involved in the process. The 14 year old daughter/granddaughter was the one who served us, and she was fantastic! A couple from Vancouver sat at our table, and we had the best time visiting with them. It was the perfect spot to spend the afternoon and avoid the rain.

We had a fantastic meal and tried the local anchovies. That’s the specialty here (along with lemons, pesto, and focaccia) and we both really liked them. They are so different than what we have at home – they are fresh and prepared a million different ways. After dinner we walked back to the hotel and found that the town square had turned into a dance party! Everyone was dancing in the streets to the Beach Boys and they had lights and a smoke machine. They really go all out for the lemon festival! We looked across the square and saw our Vancouver friends from the winery waving at us – so fun to see them again! It was a great, celebratory end to a really, really fun day!

This morning we are going to hike to Vernazza, the next village over. It should take us about 1.5 hrs and the views are supposed to be spectacular. Should be fun!

Our hotel building a map of Italy out of fruit

Our hotel

PTA booth in action!

Monterosso

Kids getting in on the lemon festival action

Pasta trio

Lemon trees everywhere!

Little girl working her lemonade stand!

Confederate jasmine covered walkway on hotel terrace

Hotel Terrace

Wine vending machine on hotel terrace

View from hotel terrace

Our room at Albergo Amici

Hotel Terrace

Entrance to Buranco winery

Daughter working at her family’s vineyard

Hotel Terrace

Our favorite red

Our new friends from Vancouver

Perfect spot for a rainy afternoon!

View from our table – that’s Monterosso in the distance

With our hostess – she’s 14!

Lemons everywhere!

We ran into our Vancouver friends again

Late night lemon festival dancing

Lemon festival fun

May 23, 2015
by crawfordeg 1 Comment

Switzerland Wrap Up

Wednesday I went to France for lunch 🙂 I took a boat across the lake to Yvoire (free with the Swiss Pass!), which is a tiny town right on the water. There’s not much there but all the buildings were covered with flowers and vines – it looked like a postcard! I grabbed lunch and wandered around for a few hours before catching the boat back to Nyon.

I took the train to Rolles, which is two stops from Nyon. The waterfront there had large homes with HUGE backyards that went right to the lake. It was so different from the other towns that primarily had shops and restaurants along the water. I got so turned around and couldn’t find the train station so I popped into a café to ask someone. The lady was so nice – she got her check, paid for her coffee and walked with me. She stopped a bus in the street and confirmed it was going to the train station. She then moved a barricade so I could get on it right there. The bus driver looked at my Swiss Pass, nodded his head, and said with a smile and thumbs up, “Let’s Go!” I don’t think they see many tourists in Rolles!

That afternoon I made myself at home at a tapas restaurant that had free wifi and blankets and checked emails, read, etc. until Michelle met me there for dinner. It was the perfect spot to pile up wine and good food and spend a few hours catching up!

Thursday (my last full day in Switzerland) I went to Lausanne (crazy hills!) and Geneva. These are the two biggest cities along the lake . I definitely prefer the small towns but am glad I went. I was telling Michelle about Lausanne and how I somehow ended up at a carnival. She said, “The Mexico carnival?!” Apparently, she and Chris also ended up there last year! We ended our time in Switzerland getting completely ripped off on fondue, and then taking a cab to a random (but delicious) Chinese restaurant.

Switzerland was fantastic – so beautiful and peaceful and definitely lived up to my expectations! We are on the train now headed to the Cinque Terre and can’t wait to check out that area of Italy. We have beautiful hikes, great food and wine, and relaxing beaches for the next three days!

On the boat to Yvoire, France

Yvoire, France

Fresh gingerbread

Lunch – Croque Monsier!

Great neighborhood on the water

Nyon

Tapas dinner

At tap

Goodbye Nyon!

Snacks for the train ride

Fondue

Sign in Geneva showing you how to use the sign and bench to do an 9 minute exercise routine

Watch anyone?

Geneva

Mont Blanc Bridge in Geneva

May 21, 2015
by crawfordeg 1 Comment

The Alps – Up Close and Personal

Tuesday morning I decided to get up early and head East to the Berner Oberland region. This is the area that is most famous for the Alps. Switzerland is smaller than the state of Georgia so you can cover a lot of ground in just a few hours. There are three official languages here: French, German, and Italian. We are staying in the French speaking region and the Berner Oberland is in the German speaking region. It was neat to see the names of the cities change from all French (Geneve, Nyon, Rolles) to German (Lauterbrunnen, Gimmelwald).

I wanted to get to Gimmelwald which is an Alpine village of about 120 people and sits high in the mountains. It took me about 3 hours and a few train changes, but I made it to Lauterbrunnen around 10 am. Lauterbrunnen is in the valley and the jumping off point for the other villages. The landscape is so different here than in the Lake Geneva region – you are right in the middle of the mountains!

Lauterbrunnen was SO small and this was the largest “town” I went to! The guide book says it is the “valley’s commercial center and transportation hub.” There was just one main street and some shops to buy necessities. There was a huge waterfall spewing out the side of the mountain. I saw a ton of these – there are so many because of the snow melt from the Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau mountains. The Jungfrau is the mountain in here and had the weather been better, I would have gone to the top.

I took a cable car and then a tiny train up to Murren. It’s a ski resort in the winter but was pretty empty this time of year. It’s crazy small and just sits on the side of a mountain. I had lunch there and got the Swiss specialty, Raclette. It’s melted cheese that’s served with pickles. Since it’s a well-known Swiss dish, I had high expectations. The sum was not better than the parts – it was a plate of melted cheese with a few pickles that tasted just like melted cheese with a side of pickles. An odd lunch to say the least.

From Murren it was a 40 minute walk down the mountain to Gimmelwald. I only saw three people on the entire walk – two were mountain bikers from Lake Tahoe who were going up the mountain and were about to pass out! I can’t even begin to describe how remote it was. The only thing around me were cows, some wooden sheds that held tons of firewood and the amazing Alps. There are A LOT of cows in Switzerland.

Gimmelwald was just a collection of a few buildings. There are a few people who rent rooms to visitors. One family rents out the two rooms that used to belong to their son and daughter. It’s a no frills kind of place, and the people that are there are there to experience the Alps and all they have to offer. To get groceries or any necessities, you have to go up the mountain to Murren. However, they still get mail everyday that is delivered by a four-wheeler to a communal mailbox. It was an amazing experience to be in such a small place that’s tucked into the side of the mountains!

I stopped in Interlaken and Bern on the way back. I thought Interlaken was over-hyped, but I liked Bern. It’s the capital city so it’s busy but has a pretty river running through it. They also have shops that are down in cellars. The cellars used to store household supplies, then wine, and are now shops.

It was a fun and busy day and I’m so glad I went. I wish the weather would have been clearer so I could have seen more but it was still a great experience! The photos don’t do it justice.

Heart of Gimmelwald

Walk to Gimmelwald

Gimmelwald: That’s a kids’ playground slide to the right

Path down to Gimmelwald

Little place in Gimmelwald giving away books from previous visitors

The only little store in Gimmelwald. She sold had knitted items and gave away books. The space was no bigger than a small walk-in closet.

The poles protect the tree from the snow and then will rot by the time the tree is mature enough to not need the protection.

Resort town of Murren

Raclette – not my favorite

Cemetary in Lauterbrunnen

Lauterbrunnen Pub

There are a ton of Asian tourist and Murren has gotten in the game!

Hang gliders in Interlaken

Train ride to Lauterbrunnen

Lauterbrunnen train station

River in Bern – so blue and clean!

Bern

Cellar Shops

Swiss Chocolate

Bern has my kind of train station – good wine glasses!

May 20, 2015
by crawfordeg 1 Comment

Loving Switzerland!

I’m loving Switzerland! After an uneventful flight with a connection in Amsterdam, we landed in Geneva Sunday around 1:30 pm local time. We are staying in Nyon which is a small town about 20 minutes outside of Geneva. This is where Michelle always stays for this conference. This year she thought she may stay in Geneva, but when she found out I was coming she decided to stay in Nyon. She knew I would love it, and she was right! It’s such a picturesque town that sits right on Lake Geneva and has its own castle and beautiful terraced gardens. The mountains and towns you see across the lake are actually in France. It’s so peaceful and is the perfect place to stroll around and relax.

Sunday afternoon we just walked around Nyon and grabbed some lunch and gelato and checked out the castle. Michelle had warned me that it’s really expensive here, and she wasn’t kidding. My lunch was $50! If you go to a restaurant with table service, you’d better be prepared to pay at least $25 for an entree. Luckily the grocery stores and bakeries sell good sandwiches for a few dollars. I’ll be taking advantage of that for most of my lunches moving forward. Oh, and the wine is cheap – a major plus!

Monday Michelle had to go set up her booth at the show and I decided to take the train to some of the towns along lake Geneva. I bought a 4-day Swiss rail pass which lets me go anywhere in the country and is good on trains, buses, and boats. It also lets you get in some of the sites for free. It was $250, and I debated on if it was worth the value of if I would be better off just paying as I go. I’m SO glad I bought it. Michelle spent $70 on train tickets today and we just stayed in the Lake Geneva area. I will definitely come out ahead with the pass. Not to mention that you don’t have the hassle of buying tickets everywhere.

I started the day in Morges which wasn’t where I intended to go (wrong train) but it was great! I then met up with Michelle and we went to Montreax and the Lavaux wine region. We walked a ton and got to sample some great local wine while sitting on the bank of Lake Geneva – not a bad way to start vacation! The vineyards go straight up the hillside and there aren’t any guides/signs on where to go. Basically, you could walk through the vineyards halfway up a mountain and not really know if you are actually going to find the winery. We didn’t get very far up the mountain before we turned around and went back towards the water. We figured a safer bet was to sample the local wine in the restaurants. Our plan worked, and we got to try the wine from Cully and Lutry, the two small towns we visited.

We saw a ton and did a ton of walking – we finally made it back to the hotel at 11 pm and our legs were aching. These hills are no joke! I went to the Berner Overland region today to get up close and personal with the Alps. It was amazing, and I’ll try to post pictures of that soon!

Restaurant serving local Cully wine

Chateau de Chillon

Vineyards

Home in Cully

View from inside Chateau de Chillon

Chevron was popular 800 years go too!

Chateau de Chillion

Swimmer climbing up the side of the castle

Selfie Sticks are out in full force here!

We were touring an 800 year old castle and this guy jumped from the side!

Vevey

Love the chairs mounted into the rocks! Fork sculpture celebrates their food museum.

Morges

Beef Tartare Vending Machine!

Morges

Love all the water fountains!

Downtown Mogues

Locals with picnics at lunchtime

Oops!

Gardens outside of our hotel

There were no tables available, but we found a spot!

Nyon, our home base – our hotel is the white building on the far left

Our hotel is the white building on the left

From the top of the castle overlooking Nyon – that’s France across the water.

May 1, 2013
by crawfordeg 5 Comments

Rome Wrap-Up

This is a much overdue wrap-up post on our trip to Rome. I’ve had the majority of this written for weeks, but it’s amazing how busy life gets once you’re back home! Below are some interesting things we encountered that we didn’t capture in our other posts. We want to make sure we remember them so we thought we’d share with everyone!rome

Catholic Church: Julia, our guide to Tuscany, had some interesting comments on Vatican and the Pope. We will never know the full story, but it was certainly very interesting to hear the perspective of a native Roman. That’s the wonderful thing about travelling – it opens your eyes to things you never thought to question!

Vatican: There is a lot of resentment from the Italian people toward the Vatican because they don’t pay taxes and don’t disclose their finances. (According to Julia) the Vatican has a lot of money in Swiss bank accounts but doesn’t disclose the amount to the Italian public. Apparently, a few years ago, Switzerland was forced to disclose all the money it had from Italy. However, the Vatican was exempt from this.
Pope – Julia said that it was obvious that the Pope was forced to resign. Hmm. .. most of us non-Catholic tourists did not find this so obvious. We’d read in the US newspapers that he’d left office because he didn’t feel he had the mental capacity to continue in his position. Also, that it was a testament to his leadrership that he recognized this fact and resigned. Well, Julia (whom I am assuming at least represents the position of quite a few other Romans) had a different view. She indicated that he was going to open up the Vatican bank records and be more transparent. Then, all of a sudden, his private diary goes missing and he then resigns. Was the diary stolen and something found to blackmail him? Who knows, but she felt he was somehow forced/blackmailed out of office. Another interesting fact is that the pope resigned right before the Italian presidential election. The pope apparently plays a huge role in the election of the next president. There was already a lot of unrest in Italy before the election (30% unemployment) and the pope’s resignation added fuel to the fire. As an FYI, the last pope that resigned was over 600 years ago.

Hmm.. is that all there is?

Coffee: Italian’s love their coffee. And by coffee, I mean espresso. In the mornings, they go to their local coffee house (bar), order an espresso, and drink it like a shot. Seriously, the cup has no more than 3 tablespoons of liquid in it, and the entire transaction takes less than 2 minutes. They walk up to the bar, order the espresso, down it like a shot, and leave. There are no “to go” cups available. Coffee is meant to be consumed in

the bar. For a city that loves coffee, surprisingly there are no Starbucks. That just goes to show that their ritual of coffee drinking is very different than ours and is not something that is likely to be changed. I don’t see paper Starbucks cups in their future. However, we missed our “big cup of joe” and the option to take it with us!

Piazza: A piazza is like the living room of the neighborhood. People gather here to chat, eat, play,etc; there’s always something going on there! Piazza’s were one of our favorite things about Rome – especially “our” piazza, Santa Maria. All day, every day there was a mix of some type of performer (bubble maker, fire dancer, clown, etc) kids playing soccer, gelato eaters, and just residents hanging out on the steps of the fountain. It really was wonderful and truly seemed like the heart of the neighborhood.

How Do You Say That?: Our neighborhood is Trastevere, pronounced “Tras –TAY- veh reh”. However, Aunt Cindy lives in her own neighborhood that’s pronounced “Tras-tee-VERY”. She says it with gusto and a fake Italian accent so it must be right. For some reason mom is capable of saying pizza correctly (the zz = T ), but she must pronounce piazza as “pee-ahh-zuh instead of “pee-ot-zuh”. Somehow the “zz=t” isn’t translating for her!

Our Neighborhood: We stayed in the Trastevere neighborhood which is just on the other side of the Tiber river in Rome. We absolutely loved the neighborhood – it’s been described as the Greenwich Village of Rome. There were great restaurants everywhere, and people were always in the Santa Maria Piazza. It really felt like a great community, and we were lucky to be a part of it for a week!

Our Apartment: Apartment rentals are the way to go! We had a great experience from pickup/return at the airport to the actual apartment. It was so nice to have space to spread out and the free wi-fi was great – it’s a must have for future trips. There were certainly things that were different: the washer was outside and there was no dryer, the shower wasn’t great and we had to use the handheld shower most of the time. There were no washcloths (thankfully, we brought some!), and there are multiple bins in which you put your trash: organic, plastic/glass, other. They all had separate days that we were supposed to take them outside. We should have taken notes at check-in because we couldn’t remember the rules for all the bins so we left our recyclables on the counter. Hopefully the cleaning person put them in the right spot! Also, the artwork was very “Roman” – see below. Overall, the place was fantastic, and I wouldn’t hesitate to stay there again.

Our “Roman” artwork in our apartment!

The Food: Italians love their carbs! Each meal starts with bread and restaurants typically charge € 1-2 ($1.5-$3) per person for this “service charge.” I guess this is fair given that tips are really small (you typically just round up to the nearest Euro or leave a couple of Euros). Pasta is the first course followed by a meat/seafood for the second course. We never ordered both the first and second course – we just picked one and skipped the other! The house wine is fairly cheap (yay!). It ranged from 8 euros to 18 euros for a bottle of the house wine. Much less than what you would pay for a bottle in the States! Limoncello is a popular after dinner drink – it’s strong but refreshing and delicious!

Needless to say, we all had a fantastic time and are already planning our next trip. I’ll officially sign off from our Roman adventure with the photo below. Here’s to Uncle Don!

This one’s for you, Uncle Don!

April 14, 2013
by crawfordeg Leave a comment

Arrivederci, Roma…What a Great Trip!

How can our wonderful trip to Roma be over already?? We had four goals for our last day: shop, eat great food, enjoy more wine, and have gelato one more time. I’m happy to report that we achieved all four of our goals. We are such overachievers!

Campo de’ Fiori Market

We started the day at the Campo de’ Fiori market. We went earlier in the week but got there just before the market closed – this time we went early and ready to shop! We tasted all kinds of jams, truffle spreads, olive oil, and cheese. Mom and Aunt Cindy both bought some ParmigianinoReggiano cheese and mom also got some chestnut honey. The honey is different than anything I’ve ever tasted – it’s wonderful but not very sweet which is odd for honey. I bought some fresh Roman artichokes which are all the rage this time of year in Rome. Seriously, they are EVERYWHERE – in every market stall and on every menu prepared a variety of ways. Apparently Rome is very famous for its artichokes -who knew! I bought a vacuum sealed pack of them, and the guy promised me that I could bring them back to the US. (This, it turns out, is not true. After being one of the lucky people selected to have their bag searched at US customs, my artichokes were confiscated. )

We all bought some great watercolor paintings in Piazza Navona. There were tons of people selling artwork there but only 3-4 of those were the actual painters of their artwork. We were lucky to buy from the actual painter. We got a great deal, but I’m sure the framing will cost about 5 times the amount we paid for the paintings! We hit up San Crispino, a gelato place that Julia our Tuscany tour guide recommended, for lunch. Gelato for lunch = vacation! This place had the best gelato we’ve had – they only use cream, sugar, and seasonal ingredients. We all had pistachio, Julia’s favorite and recommended flavor. It was different, delicious, and did not disappoint!

Painting Purchases

We confidently walked back to our apartment without the use of a map (we’ve been here a week, surely we can get home!) and got lost. It was astraight shot so I’m not sure how we ended up in the wrong place. One piece of advice – don’t believe Aunt Cindy when she brags about having a great sense of direction! (Jeffrey – she threw you under the bus many times about not having a sense of direction, but she doesn’t have a leg to stand on. Here’s your ammo if she says that again, and, if you need more, I’ve got it!)

We ended the day with two more great meals. We had pizza at Dar Poeta where we met a great family that used to live in Smyrna, GA and the dad’s parent’s live in Milledgeville. We told them we did a day trip to Tuscany and the mom said, “That sounds great, but that’s a trip that is better without the kids.” To which the teenage daughter replied, “Is that where the naked beaches are?” No, that’s where the wine is! We ended our last day in Rome at a restaurant on the Piazza di Santa Maria – “our” piazza! This piazza was in our neighborhood and was such a wonderful square – lively without being touristy and crowded. We ordered a delicious Roman chicken to share (a dead ringer for Giada’s Roman chicken, which is one of my favorite recipes) and capped off the night and the trip off with Tiramisu and limoncello!

Last dinner in Rome

Our driver picked us up from our apartment at 6:45 am the next morning and took us on our last drive through Rome to the airport. After chatting with him, we found out that he was going to Savannah, GA in October for his brother’s wedding. Such a small world we live in!

We all had a fantastic time in Rome. Even though it’s a huge city, its personality comes through: it’s lively, friendly, and has a great sense of community all while having a history that we can’t begin to imagine. What a great way to celebrate mom’s 60th birthday and Aunt Cindy and Uncle Don’s 34th anniversary!

Ciao!

Emily

Slideshow pics are below – iPad/iPhone users, click here.

April 11, 2013
by crawfordeg Leave a comment

Off the Beaten Path

We are now Rome metro experts! Well, not really, but we know more than we did yesterday. We ventured out to Aqueduct Park this morning – it’s on the south side of Rome and on the edge of the city. It’s definitely not a touristy spot but Mom, Aunt Cindy and I had all watched a YouTube video of Rick Steves at Aqueduct Park before we came. We decided it was a place we wanted to see if we had time.

We wanted to take a picnic with us for lunch so we hit up the cheese shop next to our apartment and got some fresh mozzarella, focaccia, pesto, and some other cheese that the lady told us was good (it was!). We already had some cured meats and mushroom pate in our fridge and that rounded out our picnic. Bag packed, we walked to the metro stop.

The metro (subway) in Rome is fairly simple. Julia, our guide to Tuscany, said every time they try to expand it, they hit an ancient ruin and they have to stop. There are layers of ancient cities underneath the current streets of Rome which makes expansion difficult! She also said that she came home from college once to her parents’ house and the street in front of the house had completely been torn up. A water main broke, and her parents called the city to fix it; when they were fixing it, they found an old Emperor’s house under the street! Archeologists studied it for about a month and the sealed it up and put the street back over it. She said if you excavated all of old Rome, that there would be nothing left of the current city and all the people would have to go live somewhere else!

Our metro trip was easy enough, and the park was just few blocks from where we got off the metro. The park was wonderful! Ruins of old aqueducts were everywhere, and there were people out strolling, exercising and even sunbathing. Aqueducts still provide water to all of the major fountains in Rome (Trevi, Four Rivers, etc.) as well as all the public drinking fountains around town. Everyone carries a water bottle with them and fills it up with the water from the fountains – the same water that Romans have been drinking for over 2,000 years! We walked for a while and then found a spot for our picnic. The food was great and a much needed change from the heavy lunches we’ve been having. However, we missed our daily bottle of wine with our lunch! Oh, well, we probably needed a break anyway!

Aqueduct Park

Picnic time!

We packed up our picnic and headed to our next stop: the catacombs. To get there, we really tested our public transportation smarts because we had to take the bus. We found bus #660 and were planning to take it to the St Cecilia stop, but it had two, back to back, St. Cecilia stops. Hmm. Now what? We chose the first one and got off on the side of a lonely street with no actual bus stop and the sign for the stop covered up with trees. Some nice guy on a bicycle told us to walk 500 meters up a hill and turn right to get to the catacombs. We turned right on Appian Way – this is one of the earliest and strategically most important Roman roads. The first part of it was built in 312 B.C. – crazy! Most of it is not open to cars today, and those cars that do drive on it are in for a bumpy ride. Nothing has been changed, and the stones are large and uneven. It was hard to walk on so I can’t imagine it in a car!

We found the catacombs of St. Sebastian, bought our tickets, and waited on the English group to be called. You can’t tour any of the catacombs without a guide. I’d never heard of the catacombs before this trip, but in ancient Roman times, no one was allowed to be buried within the walls of the city. While pagan Romans were into cremation, Christians preferred to be buried so they could be resurrected when the time came. Land was

Catacombs

expensive, and most Christians were poor. A few wealthy, landowning Christians allowed their land to be used as burial places. They dug tunnels under the ground and carved out spots to bury people. In the catacomb we visited, there we seven miles of tunnels and over 80,000 people were buried there! They just removed all the bones in 1980 – now you see the empty spots where the bodies were placed. Over 30% of the bodies in this catacomb were children.

We caught the #118 bus (metro pros we are!) back to our neighborhood, Trastevere. Mom’s student is here with her daughter’s school and their group was singing at Santa Maria in Trastevere tonight. We’d planned all week to go hear them sing at 9 pm. We decided to grab dinner first – mom has been wanted gnocchi and read that Thursday nights are the night everyone has it. Turns out this isn’t true, but we were able to find some anyway! Our dinner was delicious, and we topped it off with dessert and limoncello!

We headed to Santa Maria church, one of the most famous churches in Rome and right around the corner from our apartment. When we got there, the sign said they were doing prayers until 9 pm. The church was packed!

Prayer service at Santa Maria church

We grabbed a pew at the back and listened to the beautiful singing and watched the local people participate in this weekly service. We’ve toured so many churches this week but they all had tourists with cameras and guidebooks (us!). It was so wonderful to see the church full and people worshiping.

At 9 pm, the service ended and everyone got up and left. Wait?? Where are the singers from Augusta? We tracked down someone who spoke English, and she said she didn’t know of any singers performing tonight. Mom reread the email from her student when we got back to the apartment, and we realized that they were at Santa Maria della Scalla, not Santa Maria church. We’re 0 for 2 for meeting up with people on this trip! Even though we missed the singers, we were so grateful we were able to see the prayer service.

Tomorrow is our last day in Rome, and it’s come way too quickly!

Fancy car with eyelashes

Church of Santa Maria in Trastevere

Prayer service at Santa Maria church

Limoncello cheers!

My tortellini was served in a pan!

Roman artichoke – famous dish in Rome and is in season right now.

Proof we took the bus!

Mom and Aunt Cindy at the “bus stop”

Aqueduct Park

Our picnic spread

Picnic time!

Walking to the aqueduct

Circus Maximus – where they used to have chariot races, built around 500 B.C.

Buying cheese for our picnic

“Our” water fountain where we fill up every morning

April 11, 2013
by crawfordeg 3 Comments

Tuscany: Wine, Cheese and New Friends

An update from Aunt Cindy …

———————————

We had a tour to Tuscany planned for today and had to meet our group at 7:30 AM. We had to get up by 5:00 AM because we had planned to walk the three miles to our meeting point. We left right on time, but shortly after leaving, we asked if anyone turned off the gas to the stove. Of course, no one remembered doing it; we sent Linda, the runner in the family, to check on it. After a while, Emily and I went to see where she was and spotted a taxi station right across the street. We decided we would definitely take a taxi to our meeting point so we wouldn’t be late. We finally found Linda – she was unable to open the door from our apartment building to the street! She’s the one carrying the key so she is always locking up the apartment while we open the building door to the street. She didn’t know how it worked – we were certainly glad we went back! The gas was off, by the way.

We met our group and were expecting at least 20 but were very excited to find only two other couples with us in the group.

Our tour group with Hugo and Maria and Julia, our guide

Julia, our guide, was fantastic, and we continued on our journey to Montepuliciano, a quaint little Tuscan town of 15,000 and nicknamed the “Pearl of the Renaissance”. The town is set up on a hill so we had some wonderful views of the Tuscan countryside – it is exactly what you picture in your mind but even more beautiful! We then continued to Sant ‘Antimo Abbey where we were able to witness the monks say their Gregorian chants. After this, it was time for lunch at Poggio il Castellare winery.

The authentic Tuscan fare was delicious, and we were able to sample five different wines, three of which are locally produced. One was Brunello di Montalcino, and it must remain in the barrels more than five years and there are only 35 families that have permits to produce this wine. With our first course, we were served cured meats and cheese as well as a “poor man’s dish” known as pappa pomodoro, which is Italian bread and tomato soup. This is a dish we want definitely to try to make at home. They also produce an olive oil which tasted like butter; we each purchased a bottle to bring home. After lunch we continued to the next town of Pienza, well known for Pecorino Tuscano cheese (that’s Tuscano, not Romano, because we are in Tuscany and not Rome) which is made from sheeps’ milk. In this town, we purchased some of the cheese, fig marmalade and balsamic vinegar to bring back to the states.

One of the couples on the tour with us was Hugo and Maria, a wonderful couple from California. They were here to celebrate their 30th anniversary, even though it was not until August. (Maria is a Headstart teacher). After the third glass at the wine tasting, she confessed she was not supposed to be drinking wine!

Tuscany

We arrived back to Rome around 7:30 pm and said our goodbyes to our tour group. We all agreed that it was wonderful to have a day where we didn’t have to navigate the streets and be glued to a map! We took some side streets back to our apartment and found some wonderful restaurants to try along the way. We dropped off our purchases and set out to find dinner. Linda and Emily spotted a sidewalk café. It caught their eye because of the good wine glasses, and we decided this is where we should eat. After being seated and ordering our wine, Emily realized the wine glasses were being used by the café next to the one we had chosen. Oh well, we decided to stay and even though the wine glasses were not the nice ones we wanted. The food was delicious!

Tomorrow, we plan a visit to explore the catacombs and then take picnic lunch down the Appian Way to the Aquaduct Park. Julia, our tour guide, was excited to know we wanted to visit the Aquaduct Park. This is one of her favorite places to visit and is a place not many tourists visit.

This has been a fantastic vacation, and it is hard to believe we only have two days left before going home. So glad I came and am looking forward to our next adventure!

Cynthia

Fire entertainment in the piazza

Notice the really good wine glass in the background – yep, not our restaurant!

Dinner in Trastevere

Grilled veggies with gorgonzola sauce

Sign outside our restaurant

Our tour group with Hugo and Maria and Julia, our guide

Tuscan countryside

View from Pienza

Mom buying her Pecorino Tuscano cheese – all cheese is made by the woman’s father

Prunning the olive trees

outside of winery

You dip the biscotti into the dessert wine – delicious!

Dessert wine dunking!

Homemade pasta – very different noodle that’s unique to Tuscany region

First course at winery – the delicious papa pomodoro is in the middle

Our lunch table!

Getting ready for lunch

Abbey

Twilight (New Moon) was filmed in this town – store is proud!

Aunt Cindy and the Fiat that was discontinued in 1973 – her graduation year!

Church in Montepulciano – facade was never applied to building

Montepulciano

View from Montepulciano

Montepulciano

Meeting our group and getting ready to head to Tuscany!

April 9, 2013
by crawfordeg 6 Comments

Yes, We Went to the Vatican

And now, an update from mom…
————————
Today was the day for our tour of the Vatican. We got up at 8:15 and were excited to have coffee and cereal available after finding the grocery store yesterday. Cynthia put the coffee on and soon we heard, “Fire, I’ve got fire!!” She had turned the flame too high and caught the handle on fire!! The coffee was good but a little hard to pour with the abbreviated handle. Needless to say we have a coffee pot to buy! The coffee pot is neat, though; it is called a moka pot and is used to make espresso—we just add more hot water to our cup to make it American coffee.

our moka pot with the newly melted handle

We have a tour booked to Tuscany for tomorrow. Since the bus leaves at 7:30 tomorrow morning, we decided we needed to make sure we knew where to meet the tour bus. This turned out to be a perfect decision because we found the most awesome place for lunch! The menu was completely in Italian so we knew we had found authentic Italian food. I recognized ribolitta on the menu and quickly decided this would be my menu choice –this was one of three dishes I planned to have while in Rome. Ribolitta is an Italian soup that I frequently make at home. Emily told the server that she had questions about the menu choices so she summoned Carlos, the owner, who was awesome!!

with Carlos, the owner

It turns out his restaurant has been open only five days although he has several restaurants in Florence. Carlos offered to bring me some ribolitta as his gift. Since he was bringing this as a gift, I chose osso bucco (called Oscar after too much wine!!) for my entrée—this is the second dish I promised myself while in Italy. Carlos, however, said I needed to try the pork with sauce from France, and I could choose between it and Oscar. Cynthia decided on the meatballs and Emily (once Carlos interpreted) chose the turkey rollatini. We were happy diners, enjoying our wine and bread. Shortly our ribollita, my pork dish, Emily’s turkey, and Cynthia’s meatballs arrived. The ribollita was delicious (according to Em much better than what I cook!!); the pork was AWESOME and I had to fight Cynthia and Emily away! Emily’s turkey was so-so—good but clearly no comparison to my dishes which explained her wanting my pork! Cynthia’s meatballs were most unusual—nothing like meatballs we’ve had before. These were much meatier (not ground meat) and with a bone in them. Soon the server comes out with another dish, and we asked, “What is that?” She said, “Your meatballs.” Surprisingly, what we thought were the meatballs was osso bucco!! Now, osso bucco is made with veal and Cynthia had said she does not like veal but she was chomping down on it!!

We had our picture taken with Carlos and Em is going to write a good review on Tripadvisor for him. While we were waiting on the check, two more ladies came up and were looking at the menu. I gave them a thumbs-up and said they needed to try this place. They are from California and this was there first day in Italy. Already we are recruiting business for wonderful Carlos! It turns out that he even has his own dishes (plates, platters, bowls, etc.) that we absolutely loved. He gave us the website but told us to email him if we want to order and he will give us a better price. We are going back tomorrow night after our Tuscany tour to get the third dish I promised myself while in Rome—Tiramisu!!

Our wonderful meal!

We left wonderful Carlos and headed toward the Vatican. On the way we met a Mom and daughter from Chicago—the daughter is teaching Kindergarten in Prague, and her mom is visiting. We had a wonderful talk with them; their situation is so similar to mine and Emily’s—the daughter had been everywhere and this was the mom’s first trip out of the states!!

I know today was the Vatican tour and, yes, we did go. The Sistine chapel was absolutely beautiful –I cannot imagine how Michelangelo created this beautiful work all by himself in only 4 years! It was truly amazing and the huge crowd was so very respectful of the holiness of the place. The chapel was much smaller than we expected, but only because the rest of the Vatican is so huge!

Next we planned to have dinner in Monti, a neighborhood where Woody Allen filmed To Rome with Love. Now keep in mind that our walk from our apartment to wonderful Carlos was at least 3 miles so we are starting back on our 3 mile return trip. Well, once we realized that Monti was too far across the Tiber River in the opposite direction, we hailed a cab who took us to Monti. Cynthia and I have no trouble letting Emily sit upfront with the cab driver who more frequently than not speaks no English. We know that when Emily says, “Got it!” she is politely saying, “I don’t understand but don’t want to try any longer!”

Once in Monti, Emily and I found a wonderful spot for a glass of wine but Cynthia quickly spotted the pigeons amongst the diners and said (with no real remorse), that she was sorry but no—no drinking there!! We settled on a neat little out-door trattoria(our requirement) for a meat and cheese tray. It was a very pleasant afternoon watching the people and the cars pass by right in front of us!

Breaking news!! We have a bidet in our apartment bathroom—I thought it was a urinal but Cynthia tells me otherwise!!!

Ok…..back to our day.

Everybody has been extremely nice! We left the trattoria and headed back toward the Colesseum to our apartment. We rested for awhile (while I worked on the blog) and then went to a small Pizzeria for some authentic Italian pizza. We have to be up at 5:00 in the morning to catch the bus for Tuscany. Tomorrow will be a pleasant bus tour—we will be back around 7:00. On Thursday we plan to go to the Catacombs, the aqueduct park, and to eat gnocchi (a traditional Thursday meal).

Needless to say, we are having a wonderful time. Hoping Masters’ week is treating you equally well.

P.S. Cynthia says she is not going home.