Tuesday July 13th
We flew from State College to Rome via Philadelphia. (At the USAir lounge, we were surveyed about what we'dlike to see in the first class section of transatlantic flights when USAirgoes to a separate first class section on the AIRBus.) A retired USAir pilot sat across the aisle from us on the international flight. While Craig was using the GPS to track our position across the ocean, the retired pilot was telling us about the landmarks. (See that island on your left? 30 degrees W is the halfway point of the flight. ...)
Wednesday July 14th
We arrived in Rome on-time. Thereare no arrival lounges. :( Once we got through customs, we got money- cash advance from a bank. (The ATM machines we tried had some "link"problem) The interesting feature about the bank is that it has "transporter"doorways. You press a button, and a round door slides open, you get into a tube, and then when the round door on the outside of the bank closes,a round door on the inside of the bank opens. It does seem like it would make getaways for bank robbers rather difficult.
We went over to the train station, boughtour tickets (one set to go from the airport to the central train station - Termini - and then a ticket for two to go from Termini to Orvietto). Once we got these tickets, we called Joel Snyder (our host) to let him know our schedule. He wanted us to arrive in Orvietto earlier than these train schedules allow, so he urged us to grab a taxi to see if we could get to Termini sooner. No trouble finding a taxi, but with traffic, we still missed the earlier train to Orvietto. A big benefit of the cab ride, however, was the commentary provided by the taxi driver. He drove us past several landmarks, including the Pantheon, Colloseum, and other old structures.
Once we got to the Termini train station,
we took the next train to Orvietto where Joel and Jan picked us up.
We went to lunch in Bagnoregio at the Hosteria del' Ponte, from where we
had a view of nearby Civita. A couple small cats wandered among us
as we ate a liesurely lunch (I assume this is setting the pace for all
meals we will encounter here). I took a photo of Civita as seen from
the dining area at Hosteria del' Ponte.
After lunch, we crossed the bridge
over to Civita, and wandered around the old town.
(Views of the city are shown here: 1, 2.)
There is also a picture of Craig and I in front
of a Hydrangia bush, and also a view from the
city.) According to 'Tuscany and Umbria - The Rough Guide", CIVITA
is known as "La citta che moure" - the city which is dying - due to the
crumbling of the rock below it. People have been emigrating from
these disintegrating dwellings since the seventeenth century, leaving a
population in 1997 of approximately seven. The only access is via
a precarious bridge from the nearby village of
Banoregio.
Jan then drove us over the windy roads
to the house. It has a beautiful view across
the Tiber Valley to Todi.
After spending some time in the pool,
we ate leftovers for dinner.
Thursday July 15th
We hung around the house until mid-morning, then went over to Todi. We went to a fruit stand, and then to a supermarket. After shopping, we ate lunch at Osteria de Valle. After lunch, we walked around the walled town of Todi. We strolled across the piazza del Popolo, looked at the view from Todi (pictures from end of roll 1), posed at the statue of Giuseppe Garibaldi (Italy's first king), Craig and Joel checked out a pay phone, and then we went into the Duomo (a cathedral). There was a really nice stained glass window above a fresco. (pictures from start of roll 2 and post cards). We then went to Vini Tudernum (a wine store) - it had huge vats of wine, and a "gas" pump for customers who wish more wine (see pictures from roll 2). There was a scale for weighing vehicles near the exit.
Once we got back, we had our daily splash in the pool.
For dinner Joel showed us how to make mushroom and ham sauce which was served over penne rigate. For an appetizer we had fichi e prosciutto (figs and ham).
After dinner, we sat out on the terrace and ate dessert while overlooking Todi and viewing the stars.
Friday July 16th
Today was a "lazy" day. Aside from Craig and Joel taking a run into town to get a phone card, we stayed home all day. Jan made scones for breakfast, which we enjoyed out on the terrace. Lunch consisted of fruit, cheese, and sausages, and the dinner consisted of assorted leftovers - stuffed eggplant, spaghetti with "Amy" sauce, and the penne rigate from the previous night. Jan's uncle Bill and family arrived late at night after spending a few days in Florence.
Saturday July 17th.
We went to the market (marcato) in the morning, and then spent most of the day relaxing again. Jan and Joel's freinds Ellen and Carlo arrived from Rome in the late afternoon. We went to dinner at Ristorante Umbria in Todi, following which we listened to some folk music in the square.
Sunday July 18th
Another relaxing day. I took some pictures of the house as seen from the pool (1, 2), and also of the flowers around the house. Next to the house, there is a second building, which used to be used as a pig sty. Today is also laundry day. Since Jan and Joel strongly encouraged us to travel with only carry-on luggage, we need to do laundry. It was nice, however, to not have to worry about retrieving checked baggage.
In the afternoon, we went to Perugia with Bill and Sara. (This was a last-minute decision.) We had decided to park at the Plaza Dei Partigiana which is located near a stadium. So, as we entered the town, we followed signs to the stadium (Stadio), and ended up at a large stadium outside of the town. A jogger gave us directions (in Italian, of course) to get back to the proper stadium, and even so, it was very confusing. After giving up on finding it, we decided to head towards the town center (Centro), and we staumbled on the parking area we were originally looking for. It was next to a small track stadium.
From near the parking area, we took an escalator up a level, where some street vendors were hawking their wares. We entered a tunnel, and went up several more escalators and ended up in an underground medieval city. According to the guidebook, this is the Via Baglioni Sotteranea. It's houses, built over Etruscan ruins, now form part of the foundations for the Piazza Italia, but they were once part of the Rocca Paolina, a colassal sixteenth century papal fortress. This underground fortress includes ten churches and four hundred houses, and was connected by tunnels to strategic points throughout the city.
There was also an art gallery underground, The Perugia Centro Espositivo della Rocca Paolina. The featured display was titled "Le Soglie Della Pittura" and for anyone wishing to translate the brochure from italian, it is available. This art gallery included some older items, such as cross bows, and also newer artwork, such as this painting over some sort of netting. The setting for the museum was in the old medieval underground town. This photo shows one of the stairways. One of eshibits included a wall of photos showing various arrangements of sticks and corrugated metal. We then went into the next room and found some examples. Bill and Craig then decided to became part of the art exhibit. There were huge air and electrical conduits, so although the entire area was underground, it was well ventilated and well lit.
We went up one or two more escalators,
and ended up outside. I took some pictures of some nice views.
As we were at the railing overlooking the Archeological
Museum, a car pulled up and the passenger asked "Parlo Inglese?" (Do
you speak English?) Craig answered, "Only English." These folks
were wondering where to park their car. It turns out that they are
New Yorkers who had just gotten into Rome the day before.
Next, we walked past a fountain,
past a couple shops, and I found a shop with some postcards, and Craig
found a shop which sells Baci chocolate - chocolate which Perugia is famous
for. Joel had requested we get some for that evening's dessert, so
we did. It was then time for an ice cream break. There was
a very small car parked in front of the Gelato
store. After a trip to the ATM for more money, we went to Gelateria
2000, which, according to the guidebook, has some of the best ice cream
in the area. We walked past a shoe store with good prices, so Bill
stopped in to buy a pair of sandals. While he was shopping, the rest
of us continued down the Corso Vanucci, which the guidebook tells us is
a good place for people-watching. We stopped and listened to some
musicians from southern Italy playing some music
(sounded like popular Italian music to me -- the audience centainly knew
the songs and were singing along). On some numbers, the audience
was dancing.
Bill still hadn't joined up with us, so after the musicians were done playing, we headed back to the shoe store to find him. He was just leaving the now-closed store, and had bough 3 pairs of shoes to take advantage of the VAT refund for spending in excess of 300,000 Lire in one store (about $170).
Once Bill joined up with us, we continued down the Corso Vanucci, past some jugglers, a sidewalk artist (1, 2) and other musicians that were setting up. At the square at the other end of the Corso Vanucci, there was a large stage setup next to the Fontana Maggiore, in preparation for another concert during the Jazz Festival. Since we were due back to the house in Todi for dinner, we didn't stay around to hear the big attraction for the evening.
We strolled down some side streets, and then headed back down to the parking area (There were no running "down escalators", so the trip back down took a bit longer than the one up). Craig's GPS helped us find our way back out of Perugia - we made no attempt to leave the city in the same manner as we arrived - we just headed in the general direction until we got back onto the main highway.
For dinner, we had pasta with a tomato sauce made by Carlo, and for Antipasti we had figs with prociutto and melon with prociutto, along with assorted bruschetta. Following the pasta course, we had beans with lemon juice. For dessert, we had the Baci chocolate. We heard some booms as we were clearing the table from dinner and Carlo told us there were fireworks. So, we headed out to the terrace from where we watched the fireworks - some were coming from the valley directly west of Todi, and some were coming from and area north of that. Most of the fireworks from the North didn't go high enough for us to see -so we just saw the glow from the fireworks rather than the fireworks themselves.
Monday July 19th
At the crack of noon, Bill, Sara and Amy headed off to Rome for a full day of sightseeing there. The rest of us then headed to Montefalco, another small hilltown. On the way, we passed through the town of Bastardo (the sign shown here is for leaving Bastardo.) and past some fields with grape vines, olive trees, and sunflowers. After taking pictures of the views from the parking area, we headed through San Bartolomeo Cathedral, and then went to lunch at Ristorante Coccorone. We then walked up to the main square (Piazza Del Commune) and wandered through some wine stores and some fabric stores. We got some dish towels and a small tablecloth from one of the fabric stores -- the material is woven locally. The Montefalco post office is the main feature on the square. We wandered through many of the narrow local streets. (1, 2) One of the alleys had an interesting combination of archways. Other alleys had nice gardens. (1, 2) Here is a "no parking" sign on "Coffee Street". Some of the doorways on these old buildings are on the small side.
We took the "mountain road" back to Todi, which was much shorter than the way we came.
We had a light dinner, consisting of figs with prosciutto, and assorted bruschetta (some with a tomato/garlic sauce, and some with gorgonzola cheese and sardines). A stray cat wandered up to us as we were eating dinner, so he got his share of sardines.
Tuesday July 20th
We (Craig, Jan, Joel and I) got up early and headed out to Firenzia (Florence) for the day, while Ellen and Carlo stayed in Todi to work on their farmhouse. We parked at the Fortezzo Del Bazzo, near the train station, as suggested in the guidebook. We walked through the train station, and bought tickets (and reserved seats) for our train ride this Friday from Orvieto back to Rome.
We exited the train station near the Santa Maria de Novello cathedral - which is closed for renovations (except to worshippers). We wandered down the Via Del Panzini, and did a lot of window shopping. We stopped in a pizzaria for lunch, where pizza is ordered by the 0.1 kg. I had mushroom pizza, Craig had pepperoni pizza, Jan had pepper pizza, and Joel had some pizza with tomatoes and tuna.
After lunch, we continued down the Via Del Panzini past the Baptistry and the Duomo, which each had long lines to go in. We walked around the outside of the Duomo, (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) walked through the Piazza Della S. S. Anninziata which had this statue of rams, and then headed to the Accademia, where the Michelangelo scupture "David" is located. It had a very long line for admisison, so we decided to stroll around for a while and then come back in a few hours. There were some statues along one wall of the building. We went to a garden just past the Accademia (Giardino della Gherardesca). A large portion of is was closed. We were in a small section near a medical facility. The best I could tell from translating the sign is that the garden entrance we went in was near a physical therapy office.
We then went over to the University to see the Botanical museum and its garden (Giardino dei Semplici) - but alas, they are only open Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. We walked past, and I took a picture anyway. We decided to head towards the Boboli gardens, possibly doing some shopping along the way. We walked through the San Marco piazza, and then we walked past the Accademia again, and this time the line was much shorter, so we went in. Besides "David", there were many other sculptures and paintings, (this one by Pietro Perugino is called "Assumption of the Virgin with Saints John Gualberto, Bernardo degli Uberti, Benedict, and Michael") mostly from the 1300's to the 1500's. One of the paintings on wood was severly faded, due to being "cleaned" with soda. There was a room full of plaster casts. These had nails in them which were used to mark the key points in the sculpture for measurement purposes.
Outside of the Accademia museum, we cameacross these cell phone geeks. There isan amazing number of cell phones in use in Italy.
Once we exited, we shopped in several stores, including a kitchen gadget store where we bought an interesting kitchentimer. After going through several shops, we went to a chocolateshop which Ellen had recommended. We sat down outside (on the Piazza Della Signoria) and had dessert and drinks while watching the people in the square. After a rest, we wandered among the statues on the square (here's a statue with Jan standing next to it, and here's a statue of King Neptune), and then headed towards the River Arno, walked along it for a couple blocks, and then crossed the river on the Ponte Vecchio (a bridge with lots of shops on it). Since it was after nine by then, the shops were closing. There was a nice view of the sunset from the bridge. (1, 2)
By the way, along many of the streets and in all the squares, there were street vendors, many of them selling Luis Vitton look-alike bags, silk scarves, or prints of paintings. It was amazing how many of these street vendors had exactly the same selections!
We wandered along the streets on the southern side of the river, and then ate a liesurely dinner. We had assorted antipasti to start with, and then pasta for our first course, and then a light second course. (I had a plate full of shredded carrots which was photographed for Kevin's benefit - it came with a wedge of lemon - the lemon juice on the carrots was really good!) After dessert, we got a taxi back to the car and drove back to Todi, arriving at 2:30 AM.
Wednesday July 21
We slept in late today, and had a breakfast of scones (which Craig made - 1, 2) at about noon.
Thursday July 22
We had a lazy morning, and then after the
afternoon siesta, we went to Monte Castello, yet another hilltop town.
On the way, we stopped to take a picture
of one of many fields of sunflowers, and then
stopped at the cemetary in Canonica. ALthough from the outside it
looked old, I was surprised to find inside that the oldest grave I found
was from 1910. There was a section of the cemetary which had traditional
headstones and crosses, but most of the cemetary consisted of a series
of mausoleums. Each one had photos
of the deceased on them, and the great majority were adorned with fresh
flowers. A few had rooms to enter.
After wandering among the narrow streets in Monte Castello, we had some gelato near the town square, looked at the artwork in the cathedral, and then headed over to the Hotel Monte Castello for a delicious dinner. I had spaghetti with a pesto sauce, Jan had lasagne, Joel had cheese ravioli with a butter and sage sauce, and Craig had two-colored gnocci (spinach and tomato) with a cheese sauce.
Friday July 23
Alas, vacation is over. Early in the morning, Jan and Joel drove us to the Orvietto train station from where we caught the train to Rome's Termini train station. From there, we took a cab back to the airport, and along the way we had yet another glimpse of some of the older sites in Rome.
Our hosts, Jan Trumbo and Joel Snyder, also
took some photos during this vacation and previous ones.
To see pictures of the house where we
stayed, click here.
To see their photos from this summer's vacation, click
here.
