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  Volterra, Italy
Saturday, June 23, 2007

The Walls family Europe 2007 Journal

June 8, 2007

The Trip Over: We had a hurried morning getting together the final packing. We planned to leave around 1:00 but finally left around 1:30. Got to Bart and arrived at the airport about 3:30,went right through check in and security and were boarding the plane by 4:10-nothing like cutting it close! We flew on a British Airways 747 from SFO to London Heathrow. The fight was very pleasant. Micki & I watched a movie, "The pursuit of Happiness" while the kids watched their type of movie, had dinner and slept for about 4-5 hours. We arrived in London at about 1:00 am our time (9am London time) and went through a fairly long security line and immediately boarded our flight to Athens. The taxi driver drove extremely fast and reminded me of being in New York City. We finally made it to our hotel. The cab ride was 28 euros, but he charged us 38 because of luggage, I had 40 and he took it and was off. Welcome to Athens.

June 9, 2007

The Best Western Museum Hotel was quite nice to stay at. It was very clean, had an excellent private bathroom and adequate beds in a smoke free room. We were on the 5th floor and had a view of the private apartment building next door as well as the street. That night we walked for about 40 minutes to the more ancient part of Athens near the Plaka for dinner. We meandered through town and ate at Zorba's since Laney was complaining how hungry she and we were at wits end at that point so just sat down at the first place we came to.

Dinner in Roma, Trastevere

We ate outside next to the restaurant at a slight decline and the table rocked back a fourth. Micki and I shared a1/2 liter of house wine which tasted quite nice after all the traveling. Dinner was OK, but nothing special. I had lamb; Micki a chicken dish which was better and Makenna had chicken Slouvaki. Delaney, after being so hungry couldn't find anything to eat, so we ordered her a cucumber dish and something else which she didn't like either: she ended up with French fries. I was wondering if this was going to be a very long vacation. It was about 10:30 pm and we had a nice walk back to the hotel and we went to bed.

June 10, 2007

The next morning Laney and I went down for coffee and breakfast. The coffee was actually very good! The food however was very European and a continental type breakfast: very different from the USA. Hard-boiled egg, meats, a little fruit, Olives, tomatoes, and some short of breaded thing like French toast with white toast with jelly. We ate a little and I had several cups of coffee. Micki and Makenna joined us later.

Then we were off for the National Museum and the Acropolis. We walked down the street to the Museum and there were several shady characters lining the streets though none of them bothered us. We arrived at the front entrance about 11:15 am to find out that the employees were on strike until 12:00. So we decided to skip the museum and go to the area around the Acropolis.

We visited the Parliament building with its guards dressed in traditional outfits.

Kenna & Micki in villa Borghese

The Temple of Zeus, where there were only 16 of the original 104 columns still standing (still, showed how big it once was) and the Haridian Arch. From there were went to the Stadium built for the 1894 Olympic games, which was made out of Marble and was quite impressive. From there we walked to the Acropolis and surrounding structures. The amount of ancient history was amazing. The history of building by one culture, then the destruction and rebuilding by another and another and finally the attempts at restoration in the 1920 & 30's only to have to do it again now due to poor building techniques. The structures were pretty amazing though the marble was brown from all the pollution just the past 50 or so years. Prior to that, the marble was white. Both kids at that point were tired of seeing "old rocks" and artifacts (this IS going to be a long trip!) so we worked our way down the hill to the streets below through the Roman agora or old market place. In the streets we found a Hagen Daas ice cream shop! The kids and Micki had an ice cream while I had a Heineken beer on tap. At that point it was about 5:00 in the afternoon so we took the Metro back to our hotel for a rest. At about 8:00 pm we took out again to see the Plaka and have dinner. The Australian man (Kostas) who managed the ice cream shop told us about a restaurant called Psaras that he recommended. We finally found it and it was just up the steps from Zorba's, where we had eaten at the previous night. We sat on a small porch overlooking a small street.

laney & Chuck at the villa Borghese

The restaurant had been there since 1893. The food and ambiance were much better here. We met a very nice German couple who had a 17 year old daughter. They had traveled extensively as many Europeans do. They spoke wonderful English and were very nice to chat with. We finished dinner about 11:00 and walked through Plaka to the metro and went to bed very satisfied with our Athens experience that night.

June 11, 2007

The next morning we were up and out of the hotel by 9:00 am to take the metro to the port, Piraeus. The Metro in Athens is much cleaner and seems to be more efficient than Bart, also really cheap! It took us about 35 minutes to get to the port terminal. As we got off we realized we had no idea where we needed to go nor did anyone else we asked initially. So we walked over the over-pass to the port and looked for ships, which were numerous. We could not however tell which way to go or which ship was ours. We now had 30 minutes to board so we started walking to the left, which was lucky. We repeatedly asked the Greek personnel which way to go but they would shrug and grumble something and point to the left. Then we found someone from Hellenic seaways who at least knew that we were in the wrong area and pointed us to the Cruise ship area which looked close by. We now had 15 minutes to get on board. They said it was about a 10 minute walk. So we walked hurriedly, maybe too fast for Laney and it seemed as if we were not going to make it. Then we found what appeared to be the departure terminal and went right through security, which was pretty lax, got our boarding passed and went on board.

Laney's luggage carrying service in Athens

I think we were some of the last ones on board. In less than 20 minutes after boarding we were off to sea! I still can't believe how close we were to missing the ship. If we had gone right instead of left when we initially got to the port, we probably would have missed the ship.

The ship was not the one we had originally signed up on, we were on the Orient Queen, which was an older and I believe smaller ship which seemed to be about 20 years old but was updated in 2005. Our original ship was the Sea Diamond, which had sunk in February off Santorini! When I had originally heard of the sinking in February, I thought what are the chances that this was our ship and didn't worry about it not knowing that it was our ship. So we got under way heading for Mykonos that evening.

Mykonos was a beautiful little Greek town on the sea. It was one of the more high end shopping areas within an ancient Greek village. The views were incredible as was the water. The Aegean is a turquoise blue sea that was for the most part flat and calm. You could see 40-50 feet down with no problem. The village itself was small with many interconnected white-washed building, churches, shops with small restaurants and bars. We stopped for a drink at one of the pubs in what was called "little Venice" since it was built right on the edge of the water and the porches overhung the water. It was an absolutely beautiful spot. We took a lot of pictures of the old Wind Mills on a close by hill then walked through the village. Of course we could not help but buy something so Micki and Makenna bought light sweaters to wear over their dresses.

Leaving for Europe

We continued shopping and walking through this incredibly picturesque town over to the Wind Mills. The girls found a small play ground and played with some other kids. We watched to sun go down then walked back through town to the shuttle and ship. On the way back we took some pictures of a few local Pelicans who walked around the town. You could get right up and touch them if you wanted.

Overall we really liked Mykonos and wished we could have stayed there longer but this was a short, 4 night cruise and each port was only 3-5 hours. Micki and I would come back here in the future if we could. We had a late dinner and went to bed around 10:30-11:00. That night we sailed to Kusidasi, , Turkey.

June 12, 2007

It was Tuesday morning and we woke up at 6:00am, which was too early for us, but we were scheduled to leave on a tour. We hurriedly got ready and ate breakfast for about 5 minutes before we had to disembark at 6:45. We had signed up for a tour of the Virgin Mary's house and ancient Ephesus. This was the house that it was said that the Mary spent her final years on a secluded hilltop. The stone house had been rebuilt but it gave you a good impression of how it was at the time. A few priests and nuns now lived there to maintain the religious site. It was a large draw for tourists. We left there to go down to the ancient city of Ephesus. This was a large seaport at that time that connected the West to the East for trading. The Ephesians, then the Romans, built a beautiful city of marble which had a sewage system, wall heating through pipes in the stone walls as well as a small and large amphitheater, public and administrative building, library and an agora or marketplace.

mopeds and cats everywhere!

Only 40 percent of the town had been excavated and most was in ruin but you got a good idea of how it once was. The sea over time has been silted in from erosion and earthquakes, so the Aegean Sea is now about 2 miles away. People abandoned the city after the earthquakes, the retreated sea, and a malaria outbreak.

On the way back to the ship, we were taken to a Turkish rug shop and shown how they make Turkish rugs. It is an ancient technique that the women from nearby villages go to school to learn the technique. We were shown a large assortment of rugs and of course, bought two small ones! We talked them down but still probably paid too much. We were also given little charms with the evil eye on it, which is supposed to protect us from, well, evil. We started noticing these charms all over Turkey and Greece. Back on ship we sailed to Patmos that afternoon. The Greek Islands are really barren with low rolling hills, a lot of rock and scrub brush. Most of the islands are all not that picturesque until you get into the towns.

Patmos was where St. John reportedly wrote the book of Revelations after a vision with Jesus. He wrote it in a cave or grotto that we visited. There are many religious sights on these islands with biblical meaning from the days of Jesus. Both St. Paul and St. John were here as well. When we got off the ship we looked at renting mopeds but thought that it would be too dangerous with the fast cars and buses, narrow roads and Micki had never ridden one so I was not willing to take the risk with the kids.

Mykonos

So we took a taxi, which was offered for 24 euros to take us to the Grotto of St. John then the Monastery at the top of the hill. He dropped us off at the Grotto, which we toured for about 20 minutes and then we waited for about 10-15 minutes for him. He finally came back and said he would be back in 5 minutes. So we said forget it and walked up an ancient stone road to the monastery about a mile up the road (so far, this is the cheapest taxi ride we have had). The Monastery was which was built around the time of St. John was now surrounded by a Medieval wall to protect it. It was pretty neat with frescoes painted on the ceiling and many small doors, rooms and chambers. The monastery was surrounded by many small buildings and shops. We walked back downhill to the port village, about 2 miles.

Makenna had stayed on board to read and write in her journal since she was tired of walking. Laney however had gone with us. She was great and a real trooper. She walked with us the whole way and did not complain at all. We walked through the small village which surprisingly again had many high-end shops as well and local shops. We avoided all the taxis since we had ditched the taxi driver and had not paid him, which was probably the right thing to do since it was clearly a racket-it was supposed to cost 7 euros up and back! We got back on board and got ready for dinner. We switched back to the first sitting so that we could go the earlier "Greek" dancing show at 9:30. Dinner was very good with more traditional Greek food.

Our apartment in Roma

I had a fish dish, Micki pasta and Makenna a hotdog and rice. Laney poked around the food.

The Greek dancing show put on by some of the entertainers & crew members was quite good. Laney and Kenna really enjoyed it. Micki and Laney got up and danced with them for the final dance. That night we sailed for Rhodes.

June 13, 2007

It is Wednesday and we are up again at 6:00 am. I got up first and took a shower and got coffee while the others slept. Then we were all up for a quick breakfast and off for our tour at 7:15. In Rhodes we toured the ancient Medieval city of Rhodes. It was built by the knights of St. John: knights in the Crusades who had left Jerusalem after the Crusades had failed (the timing here is a little unclear-this was built in the 1500-1600's. They initially built hospitals but then developed into 3 arms, religious, medical and military. The city was pretty fascinating, though we toured it very quickly and were back on the bus to Lindos. On our way we stopped at a ceramic shop were they made hand made bowls, plates and vases. They were beautiful and we bought a small decorative plate. I hope it makes it home! In Lindos, we walked through yet another cute ancient city and climbed up to their Acropolis, which means city on the top of a mountain or high place. They were built there for both safety from invading peoples as well as monuments to their gods. As with most of these places, repeated invasions, looters and earthquakes destroyed most of the buildings and temples. They were in the process though of rebuilding them by hand.

Psaras restaurant in Athens

The Acropolis was very crowed and hot though not as hot as it could have been if we where there in August where it could be 110-120 degrees! The kids and Micki had hand made ice cream and we were back on the bus for an hour drive back to Rhodes. There we had lunch and went back to the Medieval city where Makenna bought and pair of sandals (a deal at 10 euros) for her dress to be worn at our formal dinner that night. Then we went outside the walls of the city to the beach for a swim. The water was incredibly clear and clean but still a little cool for my taste though all of us except for Kenna went completely in. Makenna saw an 8-10 inch fish in the water and completely freaked out and went on shore. After the swim, we went back on board to get ready for the Captain's cocktail and the elegant dinner which I did not have a coat or tie for nor did many others. Dinner was pretty good, the Avocado salad and shrimp bisque soup were excellent. The Phili cheese steak sandwich that Makenna & I had were marginal however. That night we went to the show which was a "musical revue" style night club show with many singing and dance routines. It was a little risqué but the kids enjoyed it a lot. The last act the 3 dancers came out with thong type outfits over their fishnets and Laney tried to cover my eyes and draw my attention away from the girls since she felt it was inappropriate for me to see this, but not her! We went to bed very tired and planned on not going ashore in the morning. We sailed for Crete that night.

Riding the donkeys down from Santorini

June 14, 2007

The girls and I slept well though Micki continues not to sleep that well. Laney and I got up around 7:00 for breakfast and Micki and Makenna slept. Makenna slept until 10:15 while I wrote my journal. We stayed on board in Crete since we were exhausted from getting up early and staying up late as well as all the walking. Besides there really was not a lot to see in Hiraklion. The port was ugly and the city was not really that interesting, we were told. We are off at 11:00 am for Santorini! The girls and I are going to play Yahtzee and Rummy.

We met a couple of teenagers, Tori and Sam who played Rummy with us. We were off to Santorini after a nap. We used local "tender" boats to get to shore. Unfortunately, we forgot to bring money with us so Micki got off the tender but it left before she could get back on. Laney fell apart and wanted her mommy! Fortunately there was another boat coming behind us that she was on. Then we were off of a tour of Santorini Island. It was a beautiful island compared to the others since it was formed by a large volcanic explosion that blew out the center of a large island creating a large cliff rim of the island with the towns built on top of the cliffs overlooking the caldera. The buildings are built right into the edge of the cliff and look as if they will fall off. We first visited Oia which in Greek is said "E-ah". It is a picturesque village with many beautiful shops though much more high end compared to the other islands and pricey. We walked around and took many pictures.

Temple of Zeus

Then we were back on the bus to Thira, pronounced "Fee-ra", which was a larger village. We had a very Greek male guide-Chuck liked him (dark glasses, a small braid in his graying goatee), but he drove the rest of us crazy with every other word being "umm." Many, many shops here, and we wandered into a remodeled hotel with a meandering pool inside, maybe 3 feet wide, wrapping around a wall, and into the adjacent room, where it got a bit wider. It was beautiful! We went to the top floor and there was a spa pool overlooking the cliffs. It must have been pretty pricey since the owner would not tell us how much it cost only that it is booked well in advanced.

We had iced tea and lemonades at the tropical bar which was run by an American with whom we could speak easily then we were off back to the ship. We all took a donkey ride down the cliff road. It was quite an experience. There were at least a hundred donkeys lined up that would take people either up or down the road. We had tickets that we could use for either the small overhead tram (like the sky ride at the Oakland zoo), or the donkeys-they took the same ticket! The Greek men who ran the place were stereotypically Greek men who were not very polite, yelled a lot and love to smack the donkeys with sticks. It was complete chaos! I am surprised that no one got hurt. Many of the donkeys turned around and started going back up the hill. When were at the end, he simply yelled "OFF" repeatedly. We walked the rest of the way down and got back on the tender back to the ship.

The Acropolis

That night we had a nice meal and packed to get off the ship the next morning.

June 15, 2007

We were up at 6:00 to have breakfast and were off the ship around 7:30 or 8:00. Now that we kind of knew are way around the port from being lost the week before, we easily found our way back to the Metro station. Laney attached her suitcase to her backpack then at her request we all attached ours to hers and she pulled them. It was quite funny and others around us laughed. We took the metro back to the Omonia station and walked back to the hotel we had stayed at since we were going to try to go to the Archeological museum again but ran out of time. So we took a break, did email and wrote post cards. Then it was back to the Metro and to the airport. It was a pretty easy trip to the airport, which cost us 16 euro on the Metro compared to the 40 euros for the taxi.

Overall impressions of Greece & Turkey

I felt like the Greeks have a pretty strong national identity and a very different language from ours (including their alphabet!). They really didn't like having tourists in their country except that their economy was based on tourism. They are fairly abrupt and short in their manner. Maybe it is just the language. When we said the food was good, they would say "I know" rather than saying thank you. Matter of fact they rarely said thank you ("Epheristo" in Greek), except for in the hotel. They weren't particularly impressed when we tried to say epharisto, either, though maybe because it was hard to say and they couldn't understand us! The food overall in Greece was OK.

The Library at Ephesus

The best part was the Greek salad with a large slice of Feta cheese over lettuce, tomato, cucumber and a light Olive oil dressing. The rest of the food was marginal for our tastes. The best place we ate at was Psaras the second night. Athens itself is a dirty, loud and large city with a lot of graffiti on everything. The streets were narrow and with a lot of traffic. There were very few large cars or SUV's and lots and lots of mopeds. Gas prices were very high. The ancient ruins and history were very interesting but I don't think I would choose to go back to Athens. I would go back to Mykonos, Santorini or Patmos for a few days or a week to explore the islands on mopeds. One thing we noticed on our way out of the city is that Greek women in general do not have pierced ears nor wear earrings. Not sure why.

Turkey was surprisingly modern and nice. The people that we encountered spoke much better English than the Greeks and were more accommodating. The weather was very cool for this time of year, which made it nice as well. Our excellent guide said that the area was going through a population explosion the past decade with a lot of new housing. One of the highlights of the trip was Ephesus. Even the girls liked it. They also really enjoyed the cruise just for the enjoyment of something new and different. They could go around the ship on their own and have some independence and they actually were quite cute and got along well. Micki and I agree that we are not cruise type people but it was nice to be able to see a lot of places in a short amount of time.

Toilets of Ephesus

That afternoon we flew to Rome. We took the train from the Rome airport to Rome and finally got to our apartment/hotel room about 2-2 1/2 hours later. We were pleasantly surprised at how nice our flat was. The place was called the Sunset Roma and we were in Interno 5. It had two fairly large rooms with Queen sized beds and a wall with open door way separating them. The kids bed was a fold out couch. There was a small but cute kitchen and a nice stone bathroom with a bidet. The best part is that there was a hammock hanging from a large wooden beam in the center of one of the rooms, which the kids were constantly on. Kenna even fell asleep in the hammock at night and slept there much of the night. The street our flat was on was right down the street from the Colosseum which you could see about 2 city blocks down to the left. There were numerous local shops, markets and small restaurants in our area. We were in one of the oldest parts of Rome. We had dinner that first night at a small restaurant right next door and enjoyed a glass of wine! The food was OK but nothing to right home about.

June 16, 2007

This was our first full day in Rome. We took a tour of the Vatican with a private tour guide which end up being way over priced! The tour was aimed at kids and our guide was good, but not fabulous. We toured the Vatican museum--incredibly interesting but overwhelming. The Vatican has a tremendous amount of artwork that the Cardinals and Popes have accumulated over the centuries. The tour culminated with the Sistine Chapel.

Views of Santorini

It was amazing to see it in person and was truly spectacular! Michelangelo was a true genius at such a young age-he was 33 when he started the Sistine Chapel ceiling, and 26 when he carved the Pieta! From Vatican City, we walked for about an hour through the streets of Rome after having a delicious lunch in a small café. We opted to wait on going into St, Peter's Basilica, since everyone was hungry-more later.

When we got back to our flat about 5:00, I went and did some laundry while Micki and the kids went to a local market to buy some food and supplies. That evening, Laney was tired of pizza so we went to a local Chinese restaurant. It was surprisingly good. It was weird to hear the Chinese waiters speak fluent Italian and actually spoke very little English. We slept very well that night!

June 17, 2007

This morning we are taking it easy and I am having a cup of coffee and catching up on my journal. Today we walked for about 3-4 hours from our hotel to the Villa Borghese (a little like NYC Central Park or SF Goldon Gate Park) and up to the Galleria Borghese museum. We were able to get reservations to the museum for Tuesday, which we were afraid we were not going to be able to do since we neglected to read in the guide book that we would need reservations weeks in advance. We had some lunch there and rented a couple motorized bicycle carts and rode throughout the park. The girls really enjoyed this since it did not involve walking or looking at old buildings and museums. From there we continued our walk from the Villa Borghese to the Spanish steps (Spagna). The Spanish steps were less impressive than I thought they would be but there were a lot of people there. This is also where the expensive Italian shops were located (Yves St. Laurent, Versace, Armani, etc. We walked up the Via del Corso to the Piazza Popolo and located a restaurant that Andrea, the owner of our apartment, recommended and made reservations for 7:00 pm. Since we had a few hours until dinner, we walked about 45 minutes down the Via del Corso to the "Time Elevator" theater which had a movie of the history of Rome set on 3 screens and the seats moved like an amusement park ride. It was quite cheesy but the kids enjoyed this as well since it again didn't involve walking (they at least learned a little history about Rome in an easy to follow manner). Ask Laney who Remus and Romulus were-the purported twin brothers born to a Vestal Virgin, and raised by a she-wolf when they were taken to the forest to be killed. Alas when we finished with walked up to the Trevi fountain. Now this was a spectacular fountain designed by Bernini. The fountain area was packed with people and Laney and I put our feet in the water, which was frowned upon. We also went up into the building which was an art museum associated with the fountain and looked out on to the scene. We saw some of the street artists and standing statues in the area. From here we continued our walk back up to the Piazza Popolo and the "Brillo Parlante" (loosely translated as the drunk talking guy) Restaurant. Here we had our best meal in Roma. We all had great food. I had hand made egg pasta with Bufalo mozzarella, tomato and basil. Micki had fresh pasta with zucchini flower, pecorino cheese and pepper. Laney had a tomato and Bufalo mozzarella pizza. Makenna had a basil pasta in a very powerfully tasting parmesan-made bowl. Micki and I shared a bottle of Chianti. This was a highlight of Rome for me on Father's day. From there it was getting late and we were all too tired to walk so with took a cab back to the hotel and collapsed into bed.

June 18, 2007

We had another slow morning. Laney and I walked around to three local markets to get milk, fresh little bread rolls and some sunscreen. The internet was still not working in our apartment, so we all went to an internet café to catch up on emails. Then we tried to go to the Colosseum but we were out of euros and it was getting too hot so we went back "home" after exchanging some dollars for euros. Maybe the Colosseum tomorrow morning. We had lunch in a local take out pizzeria, which many of the locals ate at on their lunch break so it was getting quite busy. From there it was back up to our room for a couple of hours nap before striking out for the evening to Basilica of St. Peter and then off to dinner.

St Peter's Basilica was awesome. Both in size and presentation. The Catholic really knew how to impress people. You really get a sense for the importance of St. Peter as well as the influence, power, and money of the Catholic Church in the 1500 to1700's. The church itself is truly inspiring. It is huge with incredibly tall ceilings beautifully painted as well as multiple cupolas with a central dome which was 120 meters high from the start of the ceiling to the top which made it probably at lease 200 M tall. By law, nothing in Rome can be taller than St. Peter's Basilica. We also saw the tomb of St. Peter in the center, as well as numerous statues and busts of the many Popes and cardinals. Kenna thought it was OK but not really interested whereas Laney thanked us for bringing her here. She thought it was great and inspiring to see. From there was walked for about 45 minutes along the river Tevere (Tiber) to the Trastevere ("across the Tevere") district for dinner. This was a little more meaty/"real" part of town with a younger and more rambunctious crowd. We had dinner at a place Andrea (did we mention Andrea is a man?) recommended that was typical of Roman food. It turned out to be fine but very expensive. We walked back through the city via a number of small streets interspersed with small restaurant & cafés to the Piazza Navona, which was also filled with people, vendors, musicians and fountains. From here we tried to get the Pantheon but ended up at the Ponte Umberto I. We backtracked and finally found the Pantheon. Unfortunately it was getting late about 11:00 pm and we were done! Kenna's feet were killing her and Micki who did not get a good nap was very tired. We got a taxi and went home. At that point we all collapsed into bed.

June19, 2007

This morning our plan was to get up fairly early and set out for the Colosseum before it got too hot. We got out about 10:00 am. Fortunately on the way out we found out that we needed cash for the apartment, so in addition to the Colosseum we needed to find a bank to get euros. We walked to the Colosseum. There are hustlers who try to get you to take an English speaking tour by saying that there is an hour line to get in and that they by-pass the line. In addition, you get a 45-minute tour. We decided to pass on this and just get tickets ourselves, which did not take an hour and we got right in. The Colosseum was pretty cool. It was an amazing bit of architecture and construction. It could hold about 50,000 people and was built on a site that was previously a lake that King Nero (crazy, barbaric leader) had created for himself. You could see the halls and rooms where the Gladiators and wild animals were prior to being lifted up via pulley system elevators onto the floor of the Colosseum to fight to the death. We heard that the animals would not be fed for 2 weeks and that the Gladiators were painted with blood just to make the fight interesting. This was finally abolished in the 400's AD due to the influence of the Church. A lot of the Colosseum had been torn down and used for building material for other projects until one of the Popes deemed it a monument of Rome. From there we walked around trying to find a way to get euros to pay for our apartment. Finally we were able to go to a money change facility and get it using our VISA. From there it was a bus ride to the Borghesi museum. This was a spectacular museum with many sculptures and painting. The most famous of which were Bernini's David and the Apollo & Daphne statue where she turns into a tree. You could see his brilliance in the sculpture. Lots of Caravaggio paintings as well as a tremendous number of others. The walls and ceiling were worth the visit, even without the actual paintings and sculptures. The kids were great though mainly just traipsed around the museum.

After the museum the kids talked us into renting the motorized bicycle carts again which we did. We went throughout the park and had a great time. It was now late in the afternoon so we decided to take the bus back to the apartment. We started on the 116 bus which went just outside the park then it stopped and the bus driver just got out and visited with other bus drivers who had stopped there for a smoke. No explanation, no idea of when it would move again. Nothing! So we waited, and waited. It was swelteringly hot, especially inside the bus! Others just started walking but we were too tired of walking so we waited and eventually we were off again to get a transfer somewhere to another bus. We missed the transfer point and had to ask for directions back to the 117 line which fortunately stopped right on our street and right in front of our favorite Gelati shop. The kids and Micki each got Gelato and I a tall, cold Peroni beer. Ah!!! After a very short walk back to the apartment, we stopped to relax and read prior to dinner.

For dinner we stopped at a local pizzeria that Andrea said had some of the best Pizza in Rome and was just a few block away. It was tucked at the end of a small ally that was not easy to find if you were not looking for it. We ate at an outside table in the ally way. The service and presentation was not nearly what we had the night before, but the pizzas were great. Micki and I had one with mozzarella, pomodoro (tomato) & basil leaves. The kids had pizza margarita as usual. A couple of poor street musicians played in the street and the restaurant owners seemed annoyed. After a nice and less expensive dinner, it was only a short walks home. The girls took showers and we were off to bed since we were leaving the next day.

Overall Impressions of Rome:

I think we all loved Rome. Even me! For a big city and at least where we were, the people in general were more friendly than in Athens. The city was old as expected but not as dirty and filled with graffiti as was Athens. The Italian/ Roman people were overall beautiful people. The older people had character and the younger people were just plain good looking. It was neat to see businessmen ride up in nice business suits on their mopeds in the morning right next to our building. The mornings are slower in Roman and things don't get going until 9:00 or so. Then the tourists start doing their thing. It is the late evening however that Roma really comes alive. Most people start eating around 9:00-10:00 and people are walking around and socializing in the Piazzas until midnight and beyond.

It was nice to be able to walk down the street or around the corner to a local café or local market to get coffee or bread or supplies. Taxis were easy to get and the bus/ metro system though not as modern or easy to use as in Athens, still worked well. It was much easier to pick up the Italian language than the Greek language. We would say Buon giorno for good morning. Buena Sierre for good evening. Grazie for thank you and Prego for you're welcome or even, here you go, or can I help you....

The weather was warm but pleasant for this time of year in Rome for the most part though one day was just plain hot! The evenings were always warm and very comfortable to walk and eat outside late into the night. The apartment we stayed at, "Sunset Roma" Interno 5 was fantastic both in location as well as amenities. You could tell that Andrea took pride in his place. The hammock was a big hit and kept the kids for the most part entertained though they did fight occasionally.

Overall however, our experience in Rome was fantastic and at least Micki & I would come back in a heartbeat.

June 20, 2007

This was our last morning in Rome and I got up early to go down to the local café for a Cappuccino. I went to two different places to see the difference. One was more expensive, 2 euros for a cappuccino but the coffee was better. The second you got a Cappuccino and a croissant for 1.60 euros. Then we hurriedly got packed and were off walking to the metro station by 8:30 am. I lead us down the wrong side of the metro so we had to hike back out of the station with our luggage and back down the other side, and then explain in very broken Italian that we had inadvertently stamped our tickets on the other side and could we please use the same tickets... The metro train was packed and we barely fit in. We took it one stop to the Terminali station and we again picked up the Leonardo express to the airport. Overall it was an easy though hot trip even in the morning.

At the airport was called Auto Europe and they shuttled us over to pick up the car. The car pick up area was in a dusty, old building and small gravel parking lot. We were wondering if they were really taking us to pick up a car or steal our goods. On the ride over we met a family of 6 who were from Australia but lived on the East cost of the US. They unfortunately had a large amount of luggage and were planning on driving about 2000 miles around Italy, including Rome, into Croatia, and then over toward France, a few other countries were listed but I don't remember. When we got to the car pick up area we saw that the car they reserved was too small to fit them and their luggage. So either they got rid of a lot of luggage or they were going to some how get another car. Our car on the other hand was perfect. It was a Peugeot Partner which is similar in concept to a Honda Element. All our luggage fit in the back under a cover and there was plenty of room for all of us and the air conditioner worked great.

So we were off for Tuscany, which was about a 21/2 hour drive north along the A1. We stopped at a medieval hill top town called Orvieto for lunch. Laney was falling apart at this point, we think it was low blood sugar since once we finally sat down for lunch and she drank a Coke, she sprang back to life. We had a typical Caprese salad and pizza/ pasta lunch along with a glass of wine since well, their specialty in this area is wine. The town was very quiet (but lots of English speaking tourists) since we were there during their mid-day break. We met an Irish family from Dublin (they have met Bono several times, and say he is nice! They had 4 kids (ages 11, 5, and identical twins who were 7). Then we were off to Tuscany again. We wound our way though Tuscany, by Siena and then finally found the place we were staying, outside of a small town called Colle di Val d'Elsa. The "Borgo Santinovo" is made up of a number of old stone buildings/ rooms, a pool and a small vineyard and olive trees. It is seven apartments from a renovated farm house/outbuilding type of place.

The place was amazingly quiet compared to Rome and we had a little trouble adjusting. But once more people started arriving and we met a few of them, the girls seemed OK. They tried to go in the pool but they were afraid of the wasps and flies. The place were staying in was called the apartment and was quite small. It had two rooms with one bed and a pullout bed. Absolutely no ventilation so the rooms were hot in the late afternoon sun. That night we went to the next town over, Casole Val d'Elsa. They did not let cars in after 7:00 pm so we parked and took an elevator up to the town and the single restaurant. It was on the edge of town and overlooked Tuscany from the patio where we ate. The food was OK and a bit over priced and of course we ate too much. Again. Then it was back to our rooms for bed. It was still hot but we were able to sleep with a few interruptions from the kids.

June 21, 2007

This was our first full day in Tuscany. We had a slow morning then decided to go to Siena about 20 km away. We finally parked the car outside the inner city wall since no outside traffic is allowed in the city centre. We took along laundry as well as there were supposed to be "American" type Laundromats in Seina. We finally found them and after some orientation to the token system and machines we washed our clothes. At first Makenna and I put 7 euros in one token machine and it spit out 10 euros so we went to another machine and bought our token (pretty good deal!). Then it was off to find an internet café and hangout. We ended up spending most of the afternoon at the internet café, especially Micki and Makenna catching up on email and paying bills. Laney and I hung out in the street and watched the people go by. In the late afternoon we walked to the IL Campo or centre plaza which was a large medieval plaza which looked like half of a pizza with restaurants around the edges focusing toward the center with a large cathedral. This is where they have the Palio horse races twice a year. In July and August, there are 17 riders representing the 17 city districts that race around the piazza in an all or nothing race. The ground is filled with dirt and there are mattresses placed at sharp corners in case the horses or riders fall. It is a big event here but unfortunately we are too early in the season to see it (it happens 8 days after we leave). From here we walked to the Duomo, which has Michelangelo and Bernini paintings and sculptures. But it was getting too late to go in so we decided to head for the car. The problem was we were all turned around and went the wrong way, but eventually figured it out and got back to the car with our clean laundry. There was a music festival in town that evening and on our way out we saw a band perform made up of very young kids. They were not that good. Laney found a little arcade game place and won a small stuffed elephant. Then we were off to go back to the place we were staying. On the way, we stopped and picked up some food for dinner. At home we cooked our first meal of our trip. It consisted of, of course pasta, prosciutto and melon in addition to some wine. It was really nice not to eat out! We played cards until about 10:00 pm and them off to bed.

June 22, 2007

Another slow morning though Micki and I woke up around 7:00, the kids not until after 9:00. I think we are tiring them out with all the walking. I caught up on my journal and Micki wrote some post cards. Daniela who was someone Micki was corresponding with here stopped by around 9:30 and they went off to check out horseback riding. Today we may go to San Gimignano. After checking out the stables, Micki and Delaney came back, while Makenna and I relaxed here. On return, we all hung out playing cards and Delaney (mostly) swam. Laney, Makenna and I napped while Micki checked my log before trying to get this on the travel blog. The internet part has been harder than we thought, since we have our pictures on our laptop, and when we are at the internet cafes, we haven't easily gotten things transferred.

Well, that's all for now. We are having trouble formating the blog so hopefully it will make sense to those who read it. Pictures to follow soon.

Ciao,

The Walls family!

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