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8 Oct |
Our trip to Italy - Final Report Italy, Vacations
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I know I said I was going to give a complete report on our trip to Italy, with lots of pictures, but I just can’t seem to get motivated. And when I tried, all I could motivate myself to do, was change my blogs appearance. (Comments would be appreciated!) Besides, I think I’ve already given a pretty good account of the trip in my previous 4 posts.
Instead I uploaded all the pictures to my Picasa web page, and captioned all the pictures. It does a good job of chronicling our trip through Italy, and it was definitely a lot easier to finish.
So just click here, and you’ll be transported to Italy. You can view it as a slide show, and the pictures will advance automatically at what ever interval you desire, or just click on the first picture, and advance them manually. Enjoy! 
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4 Oct |
So much to do, so little time! Day to Day Life, Italy, Vacations
Comments (3) |
Ever since my diagnosis, I feel as though I need to accomplish so much before it is too late.
There was even an old television series starring Ben Gazzara, called Run for Your Life, which dealt with the issue of a successful lawyer diagnosed with a terminal illness, setting out to do everything he never had time to do before.
I didn’t realize at the time, just how much I would be able to relate to his situation, but my recent trip to Italy put that entire perspective into reality. It was a hectic and tiring trip, and now even after being at home, I have still not managed to get my body clock in order.
And we even flew business class. I can’t even begin to imagine what it would have been like had we flow coach!
Now the trip was not a total downer, and I am glad I went, but had I known what I know now, I doubt I would have gone, or at least I would have done it a lot differently.
I would have skipped all the tourist attractions, not made any reservations ahead of time, except for a rental car, and just toured the countryside, stopping at what ever bed and breakfast or hotels we would have encountered along the way. That is what we did during our trip to France in 2003, and loved it. Of course the food is much better in France.
I don’t like being tied down to a schedule, and that’s what I had done for this trip. I had heard so many stories about accommodations being at a premium in Italy, I thought it was important to book in advance. We didn’t discover that to be the case, even in high season.
There were so many bed and breakfasts and hotels along the route, I am certain we could have easily found a place. They might not have been 5 star rated, but that’s what makes traveling an adventure worth doing. (And there is always the car.) Just like Ben Gazzara in Run for Your Life.
I also think I set my expectations up too high. I had heard from a few friends just how wonderful Italy was, and how great the food was. Well the countryside was beautiful, but if you’ve seen one town built on a hillside, you’ve seen them all, that is except for one little town called Civita in Bagnoregio only accessible by foot bridge! It was almost worth the entire trip to Italy, just to go there.
And as far as the food goes, all I’ll say is Italy can’t hold a candle to France. Except for dinner at the Costello Banfi winery restaurant, in Montalcino, which was a French restaurant, I can get just as good Italian food right here in good old Long Beach, California.
My only real regret about the trip was planning too much. Prearranging all our accomodations just made the trip seem more like a job, with deadlines to meet, rather than a time of relaxation and enjoyment. I won’t make that same mistake again.
Oh yeah, and I still promise to chronicle our entire trip, with lots of pictures, once I can get my body clock back in sync, but in the mean time, you can view all the pictures we took (not captioned) at my picassa website.
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30 Sep |
Last Day in Rome Italy, Vacations
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Well, here it is the last day in Rome, and Edie is sick. So she is lying in bed resting, while I decided to come down to the lobby, and play on the internet.
I guess it’s a good thing she waited till the last day to get sick. It would have been a real bummer if she had gotten sick earlier. It must have been all the walking we did in Rome, Florence and around Tuscany.
But all the walking is done now, since we’re staying at the Rome Airport Hilton, and it is only a short walk to the terminal.
Once out of Rome, things calmed down considerably. We even found a wine festival, in the city of Panzano in Chianti, which was having a tasting of all the various wineries in the area. There were about 20. And as you might expect, some of the wines were very good and some not so good. It was still fun and a good way to taste a lot of wines without driving too much.
We only stayed in Tuscany 4 days (originally scheduled for 7) and then headed south towards Rome, and visited Montalcino, and then a little town called Bourgneggio in Civita. Both towns were really quaint towns, and made the entire trip to Italy worth while.
Next time I think we’ll go some place that is not so hectic. Maybe to Tahiti or Hawaii again, we’re we can just lie around the beach, and do nothing except eat, drink and sleep, and maybe play a round of golf if the urge should hit.
Ok, that’s it for now. I just wanted to give a quick update since it has been a while since I had found easy access to the internet. I will give a complete report, with lots of pictures, once I get home and back to work, where I can really relax.
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22 Sep |
Update from Italy - Part II Italy, Vacations
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Now that we are away from Rome, things are slightly better, but even Florence has too many tourists (and Americans), but if you stay away from the major toursit attractions, The Ponte Vecchio, Uffizzi Gallery, and the Galerie d’Academia it really is a pleasant city.
Our hotel is just on the outskirts of Florence, not far from Ponte Vecchio, the most famous bridge in Florence. Not sure why it is so famous, since it is simply lined with jewelry shops. You don’t even realize you’re walking over a bridge, until you get to the very middle, and there is gap left open for viewing.
While there are some historical sites, and some beautiful architecture, basically Florence is just one great big factory outlet mall. But the food is better in Florence than in Rome, and if you stay away from those majror attractions, it’s not nearly as crowded, and Florence is a relatively nice city.
Tomorrow we’re off to the farm house in Tuscany where we’re staying. We are really looking forward to that. A chance to taste some good wines and sample some traditional Tuscan food, and maybe relax just a little, although today we are just going to relax and people watch.
High season ends today, so we’re hoping things will calm down considerably.