Lucca

Day thirty-seven, September 23, 2010

I sleep late today walking about 8:30. I have never the hours of the breakfast but most places it lasts until 10 so I decide to go on this assumption and I hang out in bed until 9:30. I put on my clothes and head downstairs. There are a few people still in the breakfast room so I am not too late. There is a big selection at this place, but no croissants, which is surprising. I am asked for my coffee order. I like this! And of course I get a cappuccino. I just get some yogurt, fruit salad and a whole wheat ( you never see this) roll to have with the coffee. This is my type of breakfast. I enjoy my little meal and then walk back up to the third floor. Since I am staying, I better do some washing. I will be so happy to using washing machine (and a dryer) when I get home. Doing laundry has never been one of my favorite tasks but this trip will make me appreciate the conveniences of doing it in Seattle ( I have to look at the positives). I turn on MTV and see a few videos and then a show comes on about bad dates that they video camera...it is interesting because they only have subtitles for the male although it appears both were speaking English before it was dubbed with Italian (another thing I don't get). I then a little watch CNN as I finish up the laundry duty.

This is good day for a run I decide...it is flat(although I run at hills at home) but there is good place to do it along the top ramparts of the walls of the old city. I wear decide to wear a new headband that I bought in Vernazza. I check my head near the beginning of the run and I have lost my headband….now I see why some cars were honking at more( I though perhaps it was comment on my nice thighs….silly me, they were just commenting that I was losing my head gear). I jog back hoping to find the bright yellow band of cloth and I do see it in the middle of closest lane near the hotel. I get a break in the busy traffic and rescue. It has a few black marks but it is not in too bad a shape for being pushed around by these Italian cars. I hold the headband now and start on my way. I get up to the ramparts in about ten minutes and then it takes me a little under forty to get around the whole thing so I jog on down below so I get in about a 55 minute workout. I then wander the town a little. Buy a fizzy water and cool down. I then start to walk back to the hotel. When I almost get back to the Napoleon, I decide to go down another road to see if this road could be used to get back to the train station versus going over the busy overpass. After a bit of wandering, I do find the train station. I check the train schedules and looks like I can get a train to the Pisa airport, which is my next stop on Sunday and it looks like it is only 2,40 euros(that is they was they do it here, they use a comma versus a period before the cents). I buy a lemon soda and now make my way back to hotel following this new route. I get back about 2:00. I take a shower and do more laundry( the sweaty jogging clothes). It is another sit down tub with the hand held shower method but at least the tub is more designed for full size human versus a munchkin. I go down and work on the internet and fill out my blog. I work until after five and now it is time to go! I go up and get a sweater for the evening and go out to meet my amica, Teresa.

On the way into town, I spot a bike shop that is featuring bike shirts so I go in. The manikin has on bike shorts so I decide to ask the shop worker if there are bike short for sale. I ask very nicely, “Parle inglese?” and he says “for sure”. After chatting with him, his English seems very good. After I find some shorts out of drawer and then try them on, he asks me where I am from. I tell him Seattle and his says, “ A fellow west coasters”. He is Matt from San Francisco here for six months doing the biking thing. He offers to give me a bike tour and I take his card if my other tour plans do not work out. I purchase the shorts, which are little pricey but I am sure my butt will appreciate this next week and will tell me it was worth the money. I then head off to meet Teresa at the designated spot. It is 5:50 and we were do to meet at 6 so she is early but that is great. It is nice to see here. She has had a fun time hanging out in Siena and Florence since we last met. We are both full of stories but I tell her to wait to tell me about her “death march” around Lucca and let’s do over a beer. We head over to the Piazza San Michael where there was some music playing last night. No music tonight but still lots of good people watching so we sit outside a gelateria and get a birra piccolo(small beer) each. We both talk a mile a minute and get caught up on our travels over the last five days( seems longer than that). We finish up the beers and decide to wander. We take a look at those machines making the chips and try a free sample. We decide it looks like a tortilla maker but the chips are like a thin fortune cookie with a slight anise flavor. I asked what they are called but now I forget but I wonder why they are specific to Lucca. Teresa wants to get something for her office mates. She considers these chip things but they would never make the trip home. She decides on some type of nougat that has nuts in it that the young girl says is very typical and good and Teresa goes for it even no taste is available. We decide it is for people at work “they eat everything”.

We are hungry but not sure where we want to go so we decide just to wander. There is shoe store having a grand opening. They have tables outside offering juice and prosecco in glass glasses. We get a sample and look over the shoes inside. I definitely want to get some boots but this will have to wait for the last stop of Florence. This are some very fancy shops in this town. We find the “amphitheater” that I thought I missed last night. Turns out is not an amphitheater anymore just a round space with buildings all around the circle where the amphitheater used to exist…..no wonder I thought I had missed it. Finally, we see a place off the main drag and decide we like the menu. They have a traditional pasta dish called tortelli and it is on the menu so this draws us in. They have a garden courtyard across the way and we sit here. It is very nice with luminary candles all around. We both decide on the same thing(this is like traveling with Debbie). We both get the tortelli (basically it is a type of ravioli) and it insalate miste ( a mixed salad). The waitress asks if we want the salad first, which we do because the Italians usually have it after the meal…..she gets a lot of tourists so she knows to ask us….very nice. And of course we get the house red wine. We have fine meal and fine chat. Teresa wants one more coffee for the road. I guess at her hostel in Florence that they fixed the eggs to order, gave you one free cappuccino (following ones only one euro). Teresa says she got four cappuccinos! (well guess this would be like getting a Venti latte at Starbucks). We decide to get the il conto (the bill) and find our cappuccino elsewhere. We wander back to the Piazza Napoleon and sit inside (we are little chilled) and get the cappuccini. Teresa gets a decaf and I get a “normal”. Teresa tells the waiter she is the one that is “not normal” but her joke is lost in translation. Teresa’s decaf is actually is from package but takes okay with the frothy steamed milk. We finish and say our goodbyes. “See you in Seattle!”

It is a little creepy at first to head outside the walls to get my hotel but then I am on the next to busy street so I feel better. I make it home about 10:30 pm. I head back to my room. I check my email on the Iphone…darn no wine and bike tours on Saturday. I think I will need to contact my little SF man Matt, I need to start getting my butt in shape and my bicycle legs in shape! I work on my blog and then I need to get to bed because my cooking class is at 10:00 AM tomorrow. I fall asleep to the peaceful sounds (hmmm) of a Pink Floyd biography on CNN.  

Day twenty-six, September 12, 2010

Day twenty-six, September 12, 2010


I wake up to my alarm but I lounge in bed until about 10:00. I make it to the breakfast and there is a large crowd today but I am the only one on my own. I get my favorite coconut yogurt and my cappuccino as well as a croissant and I am a happy traveler. I go back upstairs and shower and get packed up and barely get everything back into its appointed place before I check out at 11:00. I leave my bags and go to get my bus ticket. They sell bus tickets at tobacco shops(just a reminder from previous info in my blog). The closest tabacchi shop is closed of course on this Sunday morning. The next one I find does not sell bus tickets but finally on the third try I get my 1.20 euro ticket and I am now ready to get to my next destination. I go back to the hotel, reorganize my bags a little and give one last pat on the head to Catch and I am off to Santa Margharita Ligura.

I get to the bus stop and wait about 15 minutes but at least it is in the shade. The bus comes and it is quite crowded. There are two old ladies standing and a girl of about eight sitting in the first seat. I know the Italians kids are revered(especially now that they are having less of them, but come on you can't let an old lady sit down on the bus. A man helps me sit one of my bags down behind a seat. I ask him "Santa Margharita Ligura?" and he indicates it will be the third stop when he gets off. He helps me get my big bag off the bus....at least the men are gallant still to foreign lady travelers. I have looked up the map of this city on my Iphone and so I have a little clue where I am headed. There is actual a sign pointing the way to the hotel so that makes it very easy! It is very beautiful and interesting here. Almost all of the buildings have painted facades. I get to my hotel in short order and get checked in. I am up on the fifth floor, I know I need to practice stairs but with my bags, I will take the elevator. My roomie is already in the room. Her name is Theresa and she works for REI adventures and lives in Ballard. She is checking out this adventure for her work.

We both unpack a little and then decide we will get some food before the first hike. She has some left over pizza and wants to eat it. She wonders if the pizza will still be okay. I don't know but I ate a lot of day old pizza in my college days(granted this was in the USA so probably the pizza had a lot more preservatives in it) but I tell her I am sure it will be okay. It is different here in regards to pizza, when you order one here it is a cross between a small and medium size and it is just for you. No pizza sharing here...I would have loved this as kid because if you did not eat fast in the Wilson household, you would be only be able to nab a slice or two. But here, ordering 9 pizzas when on an outing would seem crazy!

We walk down the two short blocks down to the sea. We decide would like a beer because it is hot. We go in one place for a beer but we seem to be invisible (two women working here so I don’t get the same attention) so we head on. I find a place that has decent looking sandwich and we get beers and take them to a seaside bench. It is quite active here with people enjoying the sand and the warmth. We have our little picnic and now it is time to head up to the hotel so we can meet our hiking group.

We meet in lobby at 2:00 in the lobby as scheduled. We meet our REI guide, Stephanie (she is an ex-pat from the Bay area) and our Ilaria(Hilary in Italiano) who is the local guide. There are about 14 of us all together. We say brief hellos and then head out on the introductory hike. We walk through the town, which is very cute. A very beachy town. We head up some stairs. We spend about 45 minutes going up steps. I have this tendency to want to race up stairs after my Big Climb this year. One person has to drop after this short climb. Ilaria says that she sees old woman walking up this steep stairs to the houses along the way. I guess that keeps you young but that is impressive. The next portion is more meandering and not so many stairs. We meander and make our way to Portofino. Portofino means port of the dolphins but no dolphin viewing happens often here. Dolphins should be stars of the show but it is the celebrity stars that are the stars of the show here. We look for George Clooney or Sophia Loren but no such luck but we do some big ole yachts in the harbor here. We stop in the church Divo Martino...inspired by Dean Martin? A very nice with church with chandeliers through out. There are some neat mosaics outside the church made of black and white rocks. We head down for some gelato. I have not had any for days so I need to make up for some lost time. I try nutella with the old standard of Limone. Quite fine flavors when placed together. We have the option of taking the bus back or walking. I decide I could do some more walking after that gelato so I take the 45 minute walk back to Santa Margharita Liguria with Stephanie, Ilaria, Debra(the 19 year old Aussie traveling on her own, Theresa and Linda ( the engineer from Houston). Part of the trip back is shared with some cars, which leads to a few tense moments but these drivers are used to pedestrians in the road.

I make it back to the hotel with enough time to wash out a few things and have a quick shower. We then meet the group in the hotel garden for a little review of the trip. We introduce ourselves and enjoy a little prosseco, pizza and some type of fried olive ball( Ilaria says the olive with its “bone removed” and filled with meat). Then it is time to go to dinner. Dinners are included in this tour so it will be neat to see what we will be served. We take a short trip down the street to our restaurant. The appetizer is a shrimp dish with some white beans. (very nice). The next course is fish covered with these thin slices of fried potatos(quite yummy). And then of course dessert. I get a lemon tart type dessert and a cappuccino. And of course I had red wine with the meal. Boy these Italians know how to bring on the courses. We then roll ourselves back to our hotel, walk the stairs to our fifth floor room and head to bed about midnight ready to take on the challenge of the hills of these beach towns to

Ciao from Rapallo

I have now left Rome and traveled four hours by train to the Italian Riveria. Beautiful here by the sea. The weather is perfect. There was a little delay on the train with a medical emergency. I considered answer their call for a medico but since all I can do is count and ask for the location in the bathroom, I decided not to make my presence known.

Day twenty three, September 9, 2010


UGH! Somehow I wrote out this whole day and when Microsoft moved it out of Wordpad to Word, it all got destroyed! Did I say how much I hate computers! I should go back to writing in my journal.

I wake up at 5:40 AM. Did I ever tell you how I get mad when I have to get up early. Well I am feeling a little pissed off right about now but I hit the snooze and make it up by 6 AM so I can be ready for today’s adventure. I get ready in the weird little sit down tub/shower and get downstairs. They have made me a little to-go breakfast since I will be missing it today. Okay, the rest of the staff here are making high marks with me. I wait about 15 minutes for the shuttle to show up. The shuttle bus goes around to about six hotels in this downtown corridor. We pick up a couple from Australia (those Australians really get around). The wife gets confused and thinks her husband is getting in the driver seat. Funny, how did those English( and all those countries they controlled) end up with the drivers on the right and the rest of us on the left. Note to self…look that one up sometime. We then are taken to the Greenline tour bus office. I pay for my tour and then told to get on the bus.

I get on the bus and find a seat on the upper deck; only the best viewing for me. The seats are all in a reclining position, which might be okay for trip across the ocean but not so good for city viewing in my opinion. Some of the seats, the backs are broken and the person in front of you, practically has their head in your lap. May I do your dental cleaning?, you want to ask (actually this is quip from Ellen Degeneres so I will give her credit). A woman sits down next to me but she does not seem in the mood to chat so we don’t. I look around the countryside for awhile. I notice a Hummer dealership just outside of Rome with no Hummers in the lot (move over big boy, this is the land of the Smartcar and the scooter). It is a bit cloudy this morning so viewing in the distance is a little difficult. We pass the town of Cassino(famous for its monastery not its black jack wheels) and . I wonder why some words remain close to the same meaning and some are completely different. Here camera is a room and piano is a floor(like the second floor of a building). Another thing to ponder and Bing in the future. I sleep a little and then we make a stop for the bathroom and coffee. I wonder why these big tour buses do not have bathrooms aboard…I guess more excuses to stop and get your coffee since they don’t do that to go cup and linger thing with their coffee. Hint: Don’t order a latte here or you will get a cup of mile because that is what latte means in Italian. I go to the restroom here, one euro! Of course I pay because we have stopped here after all. I get a peach juice and water and then eat this weird prepackaged croissant in a foil bag( once again I think the French would be appalled but of course the Italians don’t care what they think!). Time for snoozing until we reach Napoli about about 10:30 AM.

I have always wanted to check out Naples but have head it is a sketchy place. There is a lot of garbage under the freeways here (This is not the Italy of postcards) but to be fair I know they had a garbage strike here recently(well, within the last couple of years and you know Italians have quite a different time perspective than we Americans). There are many old and new buildings down here on the waterfront. I guess 24, 000 bombs were dropped on this area during World War 2. One more reason to hate war…destroying all those great antiquities. Some buildings were destroyed but some just replaced with new buildings…its in odd mishmash. We are dropping of some of people who are going on to Capri. We had the option of going to Capri but I have been there before and I did not get much from it except the great sea views and the short pant style so I opted for Pompei again. Another thing to ponder, why do we put two “I” at the end of the word Pompeii and the Italians only one? It is short little tour around the Naples water front. The cute old Italian guy can’t remember a word said in English so he asks me what those thinks are called that they used to carry soldiers on The traffic is horrible here. Oh yes I remember the traffico intenso(no translation needed for this Italian term I would think) trying to get to my lovely flat in Positano but the snarl lead to a night in flop house in Sorrento( I think it all was San Francesco’s doing though).

We continue on and we make an unexpected stop at a cameo(you know, usually the profile of a woman may from a shell, usually worn on a pendant) factory. Not much of show here, would have been nice to see a demonstration, more of just a show room to hauck their wares. We stay there longer than anyone’s liking but at least they didn’t lock you and give you the big pitch like the rug merchants in Turkey.

Next stop is lunch in the town of Pompei(the new town). I sit at a table with Matt( a journalist from Miami here for one day with an AP assignment), an Australian couple(of course), two gals from upstate New York(Mary Kay the iron lady here for training) and a dude from Iceland. The man from Iceland gets everyone talking and we have a nice little chat over our meal. It is a preset meal. We get spaghetti with red sauce first, then a meat dish( some say it was veal but I vote it was pork with a few others) and fruit for desserts. Drinks are extra and I just want water and get a whole liter…now I can’t afford that many trip to the bathroom in this neck of the woods. We finish up and head for the bus. Out on the street, is a wedding party. The women are dressed in burgundy with these elaborate burgundy head sashes. The men are dressed in some type of black pleather numbers. I don’t see the bride. The maid of honor is in a brown and black lacey number…or I assume this is the maid of honor. They are about to drive off on the decorated party bus… actually a street car and they all getting in their smokes before the big event( or perhaps it is acceptable to smoke during the ceremony). Fun to see on this Thursday afternoon. Interesting that there are big weddings on weekdays but I guess they have to compete with the tourists for church times(but they do seem to have plenty of churches around here).

Off to Pompei now on our own party bus(not really). Pompei is as amazing as I remember from the first time. This town of 25,000 preserved by 25 feet of ashes. There is Vesiveus and its partner volcano looming out there in the distance telling these cities that they too may go the way of Pompei someday. Of course, I do live the shadow of a large volcano myself. We Washingtonians can imagine such a pile of ash. But hopefully someone would come to dig us out and not wait several centuries to be discovered that we were stopped in our tracks doing our daily lives (hopefully I won’t be caught in the pose of cutting someone’s toenails…not how I would like to be remembered for the rest of time.) We get to see the typical city elements including the theatre, the gym, houses(of the wealthy and the poor), the winery and of course the brothel. The baths were elaborate with different temperature rooms, but this was for men only. Funny how today that woman many socialize and dig a spa….guess we are making up for lost time. We see the first welcome mat and beware of dog signs…see things have not changed that much. There are a lot of stray dogs around this ancient city but not as much as the last time I was here. Matt says there are signs out front that there was a program to adopt Pompei dogs. Hmmm…I have been thinking about getting a dog, maybe an Italian dog with the dust of Pompei on his paws! We spend about two hours touring, this could take two days but this has been plenty. Our little guide Giuseppe does a fine job even singing a little rendition of “Oh Solo Mia” in the theatre. Bravo Giuseppe! Our little tour guide has taken a shine to me. When I give him a tip, he asks for a kiss so I add this to show my appreciation (Darn why couldn’t Giuseppe be a few decades younger). We stop for a gelati but I get a fresh lemon granita to wet my whistle…tart but tasty.

We board the bus again and head back to the port of Naples to pick up the Capri crowd. I get off the bus for a little bit since we have 20 minutes. I look at the pizza available here on the wharf but I don’t think is going to be a good representative of the Neopolitan pizza so it will have to wait for another trip. I have a chat with my seat mate. Michelle from Quebec Canada. She takes a trip on her own every year. This year leaving behind the husband but the two kids are grown (21 and 23) and she is three years younger than me. We have a nice chat. She thinks the best cities to visit are New York, Cairo and Vienna. I will have to consider the two later one in the future. She says she works at a store with 110 employees and she is the only one to speak English! Snobby French Canadians although we have a lot of Americans who won’t try another language so who are we to talk although we better start learning some Spanish (Rodriguez and Garcia surpassed Wilson on the top American names list this past year). Here she speaks French and it was not one of the languages offer in the laundry list of four languages that we heard all day long today.

We set out for Rome again and I chat with Michelle now. We stop for a short break again. I have a quick cappuccino for my dinner and Michelle has potato chips and a Coke. Not exactly the fine Italian meal this evening. We arrive back in Rome at 9:30 pm. I bid adieu to Michelle and then I get back to my hotel about 10:00. Time to use the internet one more time. Pietro is there to tell me now that I should have picked the package deal for the internet use but I tell him Claudia told me different advice but it seems hard to get my point across and get the better deal but oh well.

I pack most of my stuff because I am getting up early tomorrow to make it to the Villa Borghese and I will need to check out before I leave. Time to bed down at midnight for my last night in the Eternal city!

When in Rome: Sept 7th, 8:10 am

Buenasera all,

Life continues in Roma. I did not have internet acess at the last apartment so once again I have been out of touch. Mi dispiace ( I am sorry). I had a great time with Peggy, Randy, Vicky and Paul while in town this weekend. It was definitely fun to see Rome through Peggy and Randy's eyes since they have never been here before. We also had fun sharing all the good food, wine and coffee together. I had my first hangover out spent with the relatives. Go figure!

I ran into people I knew this weekend! (Darn, my family plays a game that everyone puts money in a pot and if they see someone they know that they did not expect to see, they win the cash. I could have been enjoying a jackpot!). I am down by the coloseum and I hearr "It is Suzanne Wilson"...this is just like being by stadium back home!:) And here is Mary Crawford and Gary Dockery (podiatrists from back in Seattle!) It is a small world.

Missing everyone!

Ciao andAmore,

Suz

Day twenty, September 6, 2010

Once again, no internet access for days.
Day twenty, September 6, 2010

I wake up to the alarm at 7:40 (Didn't I say I did not want to do this anymore?!) The relatives are planning to go the Vatican museum this morning before they pick up their car at noon and since is the last chance I will be see able to see folks from home here in Roma, I decided let that abrudt awakening of the alarm bell happen again. I get ready and take the walk down the street to the museum. There is already a huge line at the Vatican museum. For those who do not know, the Vatican museum is where you see the Sistene chapel and it is at the end of the museum after FOUR miles of paintings and decorations galore (it is definitely museum overload so by the end you are kind of "yea, yea. okay" about Michaelango's great work because are so ready to be done and ready to see the light of day again). I figure the relatives may want to pay for a tour guide so we can get to the front of the museum crowd. I have not eaten

Day sixteen, September 2, 2010

More catching up..

Day sixteen, September 2, 2010


This getting up to my alarm is for the birds...where did that expression come from I wonder. I am sure they have as many in the Italian language but it was intertesting to explain some of our expressions last week to Davide. I get ready, do my laundry, eat a little breakfast(no one in the little kitchen area today) and I am off to catch the bus. Things run very smoothly today and I make it to class with at least 10 minutes to spare. They do have great public transit here. The subway comes every five minutes and the buses every fifteen minutes( quite efficent, these Romans).

Day fifteen, September 1, 2010

I am going out of order just to get somewhat caught up!

Day fifteen, September 1, 2010

Wow, it is September. (Did you know that the Italain numbers of sette-7, otto-8, nove-9 and dieci-10 correspond to our calendar names ..September, October, November, December.. when the calendar was different??, Cool, huh?). I try to get up a little earlier today but I still hit my snooze several times (nothing new for me). Why did I want to take this class? I need a day of sleeping-in soon! I do a little laundry and then head out to try the breakfast. Just some girls are out this morning. From what I gather there is about four girls in one room and three boys in another room and then with me in my own room. The girls say hello but that is it. They do not even chat with each other. I have a little bit of cereal and some

Day nine, August 26, 2010

Day nine, August 26, 2010

I wake up to my alarm at 6:30 AM. Ugh, time to get ready for the bus again. Jane and I shower and clear out of our hot little hovel. The crowd arrives on time and we are off to the bus area. We get the bus to Pergia at 8:00. Davide asks me if I plan to visit the murderer. It is interesting what the Italians think of the Amanda Knox case (of course they think she is guilty). I try to give my perspective but I don't think I made much of a case with this native. Funny, before I left home, many people that I met who knew I was going to Italy asked, "Are you going to visit that Amanda girl there?". (strange I