Day 6: Under the Tuscan sun

Today’s plans required an early start so the alarm went off at 7am much to the chagrin of the younger set.  We grabbed our breakfast and the car and set off for Chianti for, guess what?  Wine tasting!  We started at the Verrazzano Florence, day 3 116Castle and Winery outside Greve in Tuscany. We got to hear the history of Giovanni Verranzzano who discovered the Bay of New York and many other areas of the east coast in 1524 and for whom the Verranzzano Narrows bridge is named. We toured the Italian gardens and the wine cellars in buildings dating back to 1000 AD. And the views over the Tuscan hills were spectacular!

Then came the wine tasting.  We got to learn about the sangiovese grape, what makes a wine a chianti classico versus a chianti classico reserva.  We even tasted a lovely rose from the same sangiovese grapes.  There was about 20 people in our tour group including us:  two from Israel, two from Portland and then everyone else seemed to be from Texas!  During the tasting, they brought out big platters of bread soaked in olive oil from olive trees on the property.  But I was prepared!  I had brought several slices of GF bread with me and so I only asked for some oil to dip it in.  When I explained about “senza glutine”, the guide popped into the kitchen then came out and told me that they’d see to me shortly.  I waited what seemed like an extraordinary amount of time to deliver some olive oil but what I got was freshly baked GF bread soaked in olive oil!  Ten gold stars for this winery! We decided to buy a bottle of the Chianti Classico Reserva, the rosé and the olive oil.  Ere squisito!

Then we were off to explore Greve in Chianti – often referred to as la porta di Chianti or the door to Chianti.  While we found the market place very quaint, the town didn’t speak to us so we moved on to Panzano.  And were very glad we did.  This is a charming village (about 1000 residents, but with 3 butcher shops!) built into a hill over looking acres of vineyards.  The views were incredible!  We stopped there for lunch and found a lovely little trattoria with a walled garden offering simple but delicious food.  I had a salad with tuna and olives, Frank had the best pasta with tomato sauce he says he’s ever had.  Gillian loved her chicken with olives and roast potatoes and Duncan’s beef strips and white beans were very tasty.  There was no searching for “senza glutine” menus or anything so complicated.  Just good, simple yet delicious food.

Then on to the next winery!  Fattoria Le Fonti – a family run winery down the hill from the church in Panzano.  No organized tours, no thousand year old gardens, no ancestors who discovered a new world.  Just the woman who works in the office and the four of us in the wine cellar tasting about 7 wines – including two vertical tastings for the Chianti Classico and their “Supertuscan” wine.  We decided that we really liked the rosé and the supertuscan wine and walked off with bottle of each.  No fancy bread or tasting fee but we did get to spend time petting the family dog.

Next stop:  San Gimignano, a medieval walled town to the west of Panzano.  We arrived in the late afternoon and parked outside the city walls.  The entire city is contained within the medieval walls and the town is a spectacular example of historical preservaFlorence, day 3 146tion.  We wandered the steep, cobbled streets and popped into many shops selling leather, ceramic, original art and other magnificent items.  We visited the cathedral which was really interesting:  there were frescos covering the walls on both sides of the church.  We did a great job playing “guess the New Testament story” for one set of paintings but didn’t do so well with the Old Testament version.

Then the obligatory gelato stop before the serious souvenir shopping began. I wanted to find a ceramic olive oil pourer that didn’t have “tourist to Italy” written all over it.  Duncan wasn’t looking for anything in particular but in one of the art galleries we stopped at, the work by Antonio Breschi really spoke to him and so he has an original work of ink on paper as his birthday gift.  I also got a smaller one to frame and hang in my office.  We got the obligatory water color of the town from a local artist and were all set to leave when….. it happened.  We wandered past a shoe shop which I normally wouldn’t have looked at twice but Frank noticed some boots that he thought I might like.  I decided to humor him and look at the boots when I saw them:  the cutest hand made Italian leather shoes ever created just for me.  I am so enamored of these shoes that I can’t even take a photo of them yet because they are just so adorable.  And completely impractical and not even something my podiatrist would countenance.  But I bought them anyway!  And as soon as I have figured out which clothes do them justice, I’ll post a photo but for now, you’ll just have to use your imagination.

Needless to say, we closed most of the shops in the lovely Tuscan town, so we headed back to Florence for our last night in Tuscany.  Frank is becoming quite adept at the Italian style of driving: no blinkers, ignoring lane lines, pretending scooters and motorcycles aren’t there, etc.  So we made it back into town with little hassle.  We were a little skittish trying to decide where to eat dinner tonight after last nights extortionately expensive fiasco so we picked a restaurant from the guide book we brought with us and headed out to find the designated trattoria.  And we never made it because within three blocks of the hotel, we found another restaurant advertising a “senza glutine” menu and we thought we’d try just one more time…

And we are so very glad we did.  The food was excellent and reasonable priced – as was the wine.  I had homemade GF tagliatelle with wild boar sauce!  And GF chocolate souffle for desert!  Gillian had roast pork, similar to what I had in Pisa yesterday, and the boys decided to go for the local specialty:  bisteak Florentine, aka a T-bone steak.  While they decided it was very tasty, it wasn’t anything  better than we could get at home.  But they enjoyed it just the same.

And so, our time in Tuscany comes to a close.  We head tomorrow for Lombardy in the north for our final days in Italy before battling the evil Ryan Air to take us to see family in Scotland.

Step count:  a measly 12, 945 or 5.57 miles (we spent too much time in the car on twisty Tuscan roads!)

Nun count: just one.  But a very happy and smiling nun she was.

Day 5: Dueling Duomos and a tilted tower

Another lazy morning as we didn’t have to be anywhere until 10am. It does take all my patience to share a bathroom with 3 other people – I would never pass kindergarten these days!  Breakfast at the hotel is a standard European affair: yogurt, pastries, cheeses, hard boiled eggs, cereals and a monster espresso machine!  No GF options for me – I knew that coming in – but I had a GF roll that I bought in Rome and just used that as an excuse to eat more Nutella with my egg and yogurt.

Then off to see Florence’s famous Duomo.  The exterior is spectacular: multicolored marble and ornate decorations.  It is a sight to behold.  The interior is, frankly, far less impressive.  While the literature explains that the stark design represents the severe religious beliefs of early Renaissance Florence, it is pretty boring inside.  Now, we are a bit hard to please having seen some of the great cathedrals and mosques in Europe as well as some amazing smaller churches.  And I did light a candle for my mom as I am accustomed to doing in all churches we visit.  But after 15 minutes, we were done.  Checked that box and now moving on.

To Pisa!  We discovered that the town with the tower trouble is about an hour from Florence so we hopped in the car, navigated perilously through the streets of the city to get to the autostrade and west to Pisa.  One hint about Italian driving:  lane markings are apparently only suggestions and not actually something that one is required to follow.  We listened to Italian radio (including one of our new favorites from the concerts in Rome) rolling through Tuscany until we reached our destination.  We opted for the free car park on the outskirts of the historic area and wandered into town.

And what a surprise we got!  The piazza outside the Leaning Tower, and the Cathedral for which it was meant to be the bell tower, sit in a lovely grass square.  We procured our (outrageously expensive) tickets to climb the tower at 3.30 in the afternoon and wandered through the town to find lunch.  With no street map or guide to where we were going, we nonetheless found a lovely little place (coincidentally named La Toscana as was last night’s restaurant in Florence) outside the main tourist area where the waiter spoke little but passable English, there was no “tourist menu” and he didn’t even roll his eyes when I asked about “senza glutine” – he just said “beef” and that was that.  Actually, I had roast pork, salad and white beans and the entire meal was lovely.  Add a liter of Tuscan white wine, light and dry and slightly fizzy, and we decided it was one of the better meals of the trip.

Then off to the duomo.  Gillian and I were not properly dressed to enter the church – we had bare shoulders – so I am now the proud owner of two new scarves made of the finest Italian polyester.  (They are actually very nice!) We decided that we liked this cathedral better than the one in Florence.  The paintings on the ceiling above the alter were spectacular and there were fabulous frescos all over the church.  We did acknowledge that architecturally it was probably not quite as fantastic as the one in Florence – even our untrained eyes saw some of the asymmetries that we suspect make purists crazy- but we decided it was the best cathedral of the day nonetheless.

And then it was our time to climb the tower.  Even Frank with his vertigo decided to give it a try and we wandered 250+ steps to the first platform more than 150 meters off the ground.  And that was enough for him.  He enjoyed the view, and scarpered back down to terra firma leaving us to head up the final level to the bell level.  And the view was spectacular!  I’ll post pictures shortly but they won’t do justice to the experience. After wandering around the top, looking like drunken sailors, we were herded back down the stairs which would have been uneventful if Duncan hadn’t gone over on his ankle on the uneven marble stairs – like mother, like son?

We then wandered about town looking for a pharmacy to get a wrap or brace for the gimp and eventually found one on our way back toward the car park.  Duncan got his ankle attended to and I found a cornucopia of GF foods – in the pharmacy! – and stocked up on rolls and muffins and the like.  It was then time for our daily gelato before heading back to Florence.

And of course we hit the city at rush hour.  I gripped the door handle repeatedly as Frank navigated through traffic to the parking garage (under my direction since Sally the GPS couldn’t understand “garage near mercado central” but I still know how to read a map).  We wandered through the markets as things were starting to close up.  Gillian got a belt, Duncan a wallet and I got a purple leather case for my sunglasses.  Apparently, Florence is known for its beef and its leather – there might be a relationship there…. 🙂

Then brief respite in the hotel room before heading out to dinner at a GF-friendly restaurant that came highly recommended.  While the food at Ciro and Sons was excellent, it wasn’t worth the *two hours* it took for the main course to arrive.  Granted, we did order appetizers (garlic bread and GF bruschetta) but even those took an hour after we were seated.  We tried hard to be patient and not be “typical Americans” but when the tables all around you are being served and moving on and you can’t even get more water or wine, one tends to get cranky.  Or at least I do.

However, the day in total was a hit.  I’ll leave the appropriate review on Trip Advisor and move on.  Tomorrow is our big excursion into Chianti so I need to make sure I’m in an excellent mood!

Step count: 18, 588 or 8 miles – some of which was upwards on uneven marble.

Nun count: 6 but we were in two cathedrals today so I shouldn’t be surprised.

Day 4: This post has no catchy title

Because I can’t figure out which part of today was most entertaining.  Let’s start with the departure from the hotel in Rome when Paolo arranged for a taxi to take us to the station to pick up our rental car.  There we found ourselves second in line and still waited far longer than one should have to wait for a single male to rent a car.  I think it took less time for me to write my dissertation!  When it was just about to be our turn, a woman walked up and politely asked if she could step in for a moment because her GPS wasn’t working.  I have never figured out how to say no to such requests but think I may need to do so for the future.  What ensued was an exchange worthy of bad sitcom status:  the guy behind the counter arguing with the woman – in English which was the native tongue for neither of them – about why he refused to fix her GPS unit.  He was trying to explain that there was nothing he could do because he did not have a replacement there; she was trying to get him to diagnose and fix her problem.  Reality TV couldn’t have come up with a better scenario – the rental car guy was now really upset because his line is growing and she is “disrespecting his customers” and she is upset because he wants her to go to the rental car counter at the airport which she can’t find without a GPS unit.  (Cue laughter.)

She is eventually pacified with a paper map and directions – how 20th century! – and we pick up our car and are off.  There are many who remember from my early driving days that my family has not had good luck with white Ford automobiles (1 totaled, 1 seized engine, 1 died of abuse) so I was less than enthusiastic that we had been given a white Ford CMax – which was plenty roomy and fit all our bags and I wasn’t going to drive anyway so I shouldn’t care.  (Repeated often under my breath as we headed out of town.)

Which was an adventure in and of itself – all roads may lead to Rome but few actually lead you out of it.  At least, it was a challenge for our GPS unit (belongs to us, not the rental car company!) but eventually we made it onto the autostrade for the 3 hour trip to Florence.  The scenery was everything we expected; I’m beginning to wonder if I’ve watched too many movies but Tuscany looked exactly as I thought it would.  And driving through Florence to the hotel was nothing like I had hoped it would be!  Even though we updated the European maps  before we left, Sally (our name for the GPS) didn’t seem to know which streets were one way which led to a lot of “Recalculating route” messages before hearing “your destination is on the right.”

But we were not disappointed!  Our room in the Hotel Collodi is magnificent – two floors with a staircase leading from the marble floored room with our queen-sized bed to the loft with the two singles for the kids.  The car is parked in a secure lot about 50 meters away and we are about 5-10 minutes walk away from just about everything.  We dumped the bags, parked the car and headed out to hit the Uffizi museum.  I had booked timed tickets for the afternoon assuming that there wouldn’t be much to do on a Sunday afternoon.  And I couldn’t have been more wrong!  There were people everywhere and shops open to cater to them.  We started dashing toward the river to get to the museum hoping to grab a bite to eat when we turned the corner at the end of the road from our hotel and there was a sign in the window of a pizza place with the magic words: senza glutine! 

Yes, we found a gluten free pizza joint around the corner from the hotel.  It turns out that Florence may be even better than Rome for celiac culinary choices:  the Celiac Society of Italy lists about 34 restaurants in Florence that cater to GF clientele.  That may not seem like a lot given than Tripadvisor says there are more than 1500 restaurants in Florence but it made me do a happy dance!  We had a quick bite of delicious pizza (and even a GF beer!) before heading to the museum to get some culture.

And we tried.  Really.  We wanted to appreciate all the great masterpieces in the museum.  But after the 20 or 30th painting of “Madonna and Child”, it’s really hard to be enthusiastic. We did enjoy comparing facial expressions and dimensions of Dutch artistis in the “Foreign painters gallery” but that didn’t last very long. So we started trying to connect sculptures with songs just to stay engaged.  That a bust of one of the de Medici’s reminded us of Beethoven’s ninth symphony would probably not surprise anyone.  However, there was a hall of Roman statues that launched us into choruses of 70’s disco music for which we are likely never to be allowed back in.{sigh}

After our cultural excursion, we got our daily gelato (so much more expensive here than in Rome!) and wandered through the market places of the city.  There was one market under some ancient columns that made it seem as if Jesus was going to come and throw them all out like a Biblical scene!  There’s my Sunday bible reference to make up for not going to church today.

We wandered extensively all over town and have become quite charmed with the city.  It did take us until 6pm to hit the minimum 10K steps but I’ll take comfort in the fact that we did spend 3 hours in the car today.  

After some respite and planning, dinner was at a family run restaurant nearby which advertised a “senza glutine” menu.   We had a fabulous antipasti plate – including my first pate (chicken liver not goose) with GF bread.  Then I had spinach and ricotta gnudi (not quite gnocchi but not quite dumplings either) smothered in olive oil and Parmesan.  The boys shared a special steak and arugula dish meant for two – apparently, Florentine beef is a specialty here – and Gillian had a stew with red wine an peppercorn sauce. Then various cakes and profiteroles for desert, including a lemon concoction for me which was lovely. 

Now off to bed before tomorrow’s adventures of many churches and possible a tilted tower.

Step count: 15, 418 or 6.64 miles (we’re slackers today)

Nun count: 0 but we didn’t get into any churches today.

Day 3: Questions, questions…

Like can you overdose on Nutella? Why is the Pantheon always closed? What kind of mother lets her kids wander around Rome in the middle of the night?Rome 022

No alarms this morning so we were slow getting up and out.  It was nice to get a full night’s sleep and not  have to rush through the morning ablutions.  We have now mastered the espresso machine and had a good supply of Nutella and jam for our toast (and GF rolls).  We even remembered to pick up some fruit while we were out and about last night so peaches were added to the morning feast.  As we had nothing planned, we did some research and some googling and determined that although the Museum Borghese came highly recommended all around, there were no tickets left for today so we had to go with other options.

We eventually made it up and out and headed for the Castel Sant’Angelo – a fortress like structure just outside the Vatican walls.  It was originally build to be the burial place for the Emperor Hadrian and then went through various phases as a papal residence, armory, and now it is a museum.  It was fascinating to wander through – with very few crowds (yippee!) – and see what changes the structure went through during it’s various incarnations.  It also provided a great view of the city from atop the walls.  We couldn’t do the parapet walk, however, as they were preparing for a fireworks display later on tonight – which we promptly decided we would try to attend.

Then another adventure on the city bus system to take us to the Trastavere neighborhood where we found quirky medieval architecture, streets, and shops – and the GF traveler’s dream, a restaurant called Mama.Eat which had an entire GF menu including beer, desert, pizza, pasta, paninis  – you name it!  I had a bacon, zuchinni, and provolone panini on a freshly made GF roll and the boys had regular panini and Gillian had more pizza.  I did try their GF pizza crust – as dessert!  It was a freshly baked crust covered with Nutella and sugar.  I ate nearly the whole thing and was almost sorry I had done so…. almost!

Then to get some more culture.  A wander around the local church, Santa Maria in Trastevere, which was just beautiful.  As awed as I was at the splendor of St. Peter’s Basilica, it was to be expected from a papal church.  This was more along the lines of a neighborhood church  but still had the most amazing ceilings, exquisite patterns in the floors and half a dozen small chapels off to the sides of the nave.  As old habits die hard, I lit a candle for my mother (haven’t missed a European country yet) and then we continued on to explore the west side of the city.  We walked all over including past the Spanish Embassy and through a beautiful park atop a hill – yes, whenever possible, I make my family head up – which had stunning views of the city.  More wandering brought us back down closer to the river Tiber, which is currently green and sluggish and not particularly an attractive site.  We grabbed a tram to get back toward the center of town to try again to visit the Pantheon.

And again it was closed! I’m beginning to take this personally. But there were other churches to be visited and sights to be seen so after a brief respite, we were off again to wander to the Basilica de Santa maria degli Angeli in the north east corner of the city center. By the time we got there, we were too tired to actually go in so it was back on the Metro to head toward the B&B and grab our daily gelato from a local place that had come highly recommended – and with good reason!  It was delicious and being away from the tourist attractions, it was not very expensive.  Just enough sugar to keep us going until dinner.

So we got organized and hung out for a while before heading out to dinner.  We started east to walk toward the Gardens Borghese and see what we hadn’t seen before.  What we saw was that there was not an abundance of restaurants that were open so we ended up heading back toward the Piazza de Popolo where we knew we’d find cafes and the like.  Italian schedules do confuse me:  I understand the long lunch hour thing – shops are often closed from 1 to 3:30 – but I confess that I am flummoxed by the number of shops and restaurants that were closed today on a *Saturday*!

I wanted to see if I could find somewhere to have risotto so the quest was on.  The first place we found that advertised risotto and looked respectable was not able to accommodate me.  As soon as I pulled out my Celiac Travel Card, the waiter rolled his eyes, muttered under his breath, and basically told me that I could have meat.  That’s all.  Meat.   A nice steak.  Not even the risotto because they cook the rice in the same water as the pasta.  ??? WTF???

So we moved on to the next place and asked before we sat down:  “Senza glutine?” Yes, I could have the risotto so dinner was on.  No house wine so we had a bottle of Chianti – the driest wine we’ve tried yet and the only one where Gillian actually drank more than her original glass even though she insists she likes sweeter wines. Dinner was lovely, including my risotto and we enjoyed sitting outside as the night air cooled. (Although it was probably still in the low 60s, there were lots of folks wandering around with jackets and sweatshirts on!)

Unfortunately, dinner finished too late for us to catch the fireworks we had hoped to see, even though we could hear them, so we bought more tiramisu from the shop down the street and sat on the Spanish Steps and ate it while we people watched.  Then another quick stop at the music festival where we arrived in time to see someone in a penguin costume rapping to a tune that sounded eerily like “Le Freak” from the 70’s!  When the Italian comedian came on making jokes we couldn’t understand, we decided to call it a night.  Well Frank and I did.  Duncan and Gillian opted to stay at the music festival a little while longer and come home later.  Eeeek!  All the mother in me was totally freaking out about letting them wander around Rome at midnight even though I did very similar things by myself at both 18 and 20.  (Deep yoga breaths… in through the nose, out through the nose… They were fine as I knew they would be but still….)

And so we bring our last day in Rome to a close.  Fabulous time, lots of excellent ancient history and papal trivia  but not so much art and more recent history but we have to leave something for the next visit when the Pantheon better not be closed!!! Now to try to get some sleep before we head to Florence tomorrow with Frank driving.  (Yoga breaths…. in through the nose, out through the nose….)

Favorite little detail about Rome:  water fountains everywhere.  Not just the spigot kind you get in elementary schools but pipes coming out of stone walls splashing cool drinkable water.  We must have saved 10-20 euro a day not having to buy bottled water.

Step count: 30,909 0r 13.31 miles.  Possibly a new record!

Nun count: 14 plus one monk.  Yup, just like Brother Cadfael.

Day 2: All of Rome was in the Sistine Chapel:

(at the same time that we were!)

Today was the only day for the entire trip where an alarm clock would be necessary.  We had tickets for a Vatican tour that required that we be half a mile from the hotel by 8:45 so the alarm was set for 7 am (yes, I am paranoid).  The morning routine was interesting:  it’s been a long time since four of us shared a bathroom!  I was first up and showered so I could be first to the espresso machine in the kitchen.  Duncan and I have decided to learn to drink coffee like the locals which means a short shot of espresso (think of how much coffee you use to make an 8oz cup and then brew it with about an ounce of water!)  We’re getting there slowly and even Frank is giving up the milk to go native!

After our basic breakfast of pastries, yogurt, and espresso, we headed out to meet the tour group and our guide Sarah, the art history major from a small town just outside Rome who was so excited to be showing us all the works of art in her city.  We skipped the horrendous queues to get in and headed through the Vatican Museum – or at least a small portion of it.  Apparently, you can spend days there but we only had 3 hours and had to get in the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s as well.  We learned that the museum has 20 thousand visitors A DAY and I think we had all of them with us this morning as the Sistine Chapel was closing at noon for the private use of the Pope.  The museum was pretty awesome and we got lots of inside info on the frescoes in the Chapel before heading in as there is supposed to be no talking in there.

Of course that is an excellent rule if you can actually make it stick.  There had to be couple thousand people admiring the works of Michelangelo and even if they all had been trying to be quiet (which I guarantee was not the case) there would have been substantial ambient noise.  Therefore, I shouldn’t have been surprised by the announcements for silencio!  that came approximately every 2 minutes.  (I think I was the only one who saw irony in the fact that they used a loud speaker system to tell people to shut up repeatedly but that’s me!)  I’m not good with crowds in general so today was particularly trying – especially since so many of my fellow tourists were downright rude. Either the Asian cultures are more effective at handing crushing crowds or those that travel abroad spend far to much time battling crowded subway systems at home but I have never experienced such stereotypical rude behavior as I did today.  I was repeatedly elbowed, shoved out of the way, and stepped on and all by people who shared the same cultural heritage.  No “scuzi” or any word of warning but push, shove and barge through.  Argh!

We did get to spend some time wandering around St. Peter’s and the square outside without too much jostling and admired the marble and the statues before heading back towards the hotel for some lunch away from the tourist crowds.  We picked a small wine bar near that hotel that had been recommended and had a lovely lunch.  Although there was a small eye rolling and some consternation when I asked what items on the menu were “senza glutine” I did wind up with a lovely steak salad while the rest of the family enjoyed their homemade pasta. With a liter of vino bianco, of course!

Then off to wander!  The afternoon was somewhat cool and cloudy and the forecast threatened rain but not until after we had wandered around a great deal of the city.  We climbed the Spanish steps – where we bought a lovely water color of a scene outside the Colosseum from the artist – and then wandered down what had to be the ritzy shopping street with Prada, Ferregamo, and other high end shops.  We found our way to the Pantheon, which was closed for the afternoon, so we headed through the rabbit warren of cobbled streets with shops and cafes to the Tivoli fountain – where some big fat raindrops did fall amidst the blazing sunshine.  We then wandered over to the Piazza Navona and got to see another hundred art stalls selling prints of Roman scenes but none like ours.  A little more wandering – we hit 10K steps before 4pm today – before settling down to dinner around 7:30 at La Scalletta.  This restaurant north of the Pantheon had GF bruschetta and GF pizza which was delicious.  We had a bottle of prosecco  with the antipasti and followed that by a liter of vino rosso with the pizza.  Another family sat next to us as we were finishing and asked about the GF offerings only to be told that they were out of both the bruschetta and the pizza – apparently I had the last of both…. oops.

We got advice on a shop nearby to get GF tiramisu so off we went.  As we wandered in the correct direction, we noticed that one of the piazzas in the distance was bathed in purple light with the occasional burst of strobe flashes. This must be investigated!  It turns out that this weekend is the Rome Summer Music Festival and tens of thousands of people were packed into Piazza del Popolo to hear some of the biggest names in Italian music – like Greta and Biaggio Antonnaci.  Nope, I hadn’t heard of them either but the crowd loved them and sang along, knowing all the words.

But alas, all good things come to an end and so does our first full day in Rome.  We have no concrete plans for tomorrow other than to *not* have the alarm go off at 7.  Still no luck with the Fitbit syncing or uploading the photos but I suspect I’ll have time to take care of that in the morning as I know I will be awake long before the rest of the family.  Bueno notte!

Update: 24,019 steps or 10.34 miles!

 

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Day 1: Airports, Ancient ruins and accordions (plus an assortment of nuns)

And so the adventure begins. First, I realize that I have booked a Washington Flyer cab to take us to Dulles yet our flight is leaving from National.  Crap.  Last minute change means no cheap local taxi but a great limo ride from Jay at Jay’s sedan service – where we sit in traffic on 395  because of construction but for once I planned for plenty of time to check in.

We had a short hop to Philly where we then changed planes for the flight to Rome – and the first nun appeared.  {sigh}  My kids keep reminding me that nuns in Rome should be expected yet I can’t help but take it personally because we aren’t even in Rome yet!

The flight is uneventful and we land nearly on time this morning after several snatched 30 minute catnaps.  Our hotel is supposed to have a driver waiting for us but although there are about 20 men in ties with names on signs, ours is not on any of them and I try to keep the panic at bay.  Twenty minutes, six laps of the arrival lounge and 2 phone calls later, we find the driver and are on our way.

The “B&B” is really a converted apartment about 10 minutes from the Vatican and Paolo gets us checked in and all set up for our 24 hours of stupidity.  We wander to an office south of the Vatican to pick up our pre-ordered Roma Pass and then head slightly west to visit La Pilotta de Mario – a restaurant I have found online that is supposed to be Gluten Free friendly.  We all have pasta – mine a fabulous carbonara – and a lovely cappuccino in the shadow of the Vatican.

Then it’s off to the Colosseum.  Our Roma Pass gives us free rides on city  buses so we brave the #40 express to the Plaza Venezia and wander down to the Colosseum where we get in free and avoid the lines – also courtesy of the Roma Pass.  We do cough up the extra 20 euro for the English language tour and spend the next 45 minutes learning about the construction of the double amphitheater as well as the debunking of several myths about the place.

We follow this up with a wander around the Roman Forum and Palentine Hill.  Wonderful gardens, spectacular views and artifacts and a great deal of walking was how we wound up the afternoon.  Oh, and our first visit to the gelato truck – pistachio for me!

So I should mention the nuns.  Again, one would expect to see holy women wandering around the city that is the seat of Catholicism but Holy Habits Batman!  We must have seen more than two dozen of them wandering around – and of all flavors!  Dressed in black, grey, brown, beige – even purple (I wonder what order that is and if they’d have me!)

Then we realize that lunacy is on the verge of setting in to our sleep deprived brains so back to the B&B we go – on the Rome metro during rush hour.  More crowded than the London Underground but less so than Japan.  No better way to get to know one’s fellow man….

We then spent far too long wandering our neighborhood looking for a suitable eating option for the evening meal.  Eventually we wound up at the local osteria with the Prix fix menu.  Twenty five euros each sounds like a lot until you see how much food they bring you for that  – and with no fuss over my GF status either.  I had to enjoy the primi piatti with no bread but the meat and other bits were fine on their own.  The pasta course was store-bought GF and not the home made pasta that the rest of the family enjoyed but we all agreed that my choice of sauce (tomato, bacon, and cream) won hands down.  Just when we thought we’d be ready to turn down desert, the main course came out!  I barely made it through the beef roulade with the mortadella cheese and carrot filling (plus the fried rosemary potatoes).  It was a joy to share a liter of wine with my adult children and laugh as the parade of street accordion players tried desperately to get us to support their endeavor. I am less fond of street accordion players than I am of wandering mariachi bands and there are many who know how deep those feelings run.

And so we make it through the first day on too much food, too little sleep, and a great deal of love and appreciation for the four of us being together for the first time in ages.  I don’t have the exact step count just yet because the Fitbit doesn’t want to sync with the laptop and I’m too tired to figure it out now – but I know we hit 10,000 steps at about 3pm today so I’m guessing we are in the 20K (about 10 mile) range for today.  I’ll give an update – and post some pictures – when I’m not so tired that I’m danger to myself and others.

Update:  Got Fitbit working.  Steps: 28, 070 steps or 12.09 miles!!!!

Are you ready? The Cannon family will be on the move again soon!

Danger Will Robinson!  The entire Cannon clan will be heading overseas for this year’s adventure starting next week.  Get ready for posts from Italy and the family visit to  Scotland.  We have done less planning for this trip than any other so I expect the posts to be entertaining at the very least! 

Day 11: And country roads took us home

Today was the first day of the whole trip that I needed an alarm to get me up – probably because I didn’t sleep very well.  Apparently, the word “Victorian” as a descriptor for a B&B means “AC doesn’t work very well” and our room was really stuffy and warm.  It apparently also means “not up to date on the electronics” as evidenced by the TV-in-the-closet arrangement!  Clearfield is also a town with bell ringer fever – the church bells on the Catholic church next door started ringing at 7am…. 46 times!

But breakfast with the proprietress Peggy and the two other guests was lovely: scrambled eggs with mushrooms and cheese, fruit salad, fried ham, home made bread (with GF biscuits for me), home made jam and banana bread.  One of our fellow travelers works at RIT so Gillian got to hear more about that school from the staff side – bonus!

Then we packed up the Saab for the final time, put the roof down, and took all the back roads home.  We did everything we could to avoid the PA Turnpike and the Breezewood interchange and got to see some of Americana along the way.  It seemed fitting to have John Mellencamp playing as we passed little houses (not pink though), trailers, mansions, cute towns, not-big-enough-to-be-towns, all while going up and down the foothills through Pennsylvania.  I confess that I never realized there were so many places with the words “Gap”, “Ridge”, and “Hollow” in their names!  The drive was absolutely beautiful with few cars around, plenty of green trees, quietly flowing rivers and impossibly blue skies with fluffy white clouds.  It was almost surreal.

But unfortunately, every mile was bringing things closer to an end.  We stopped for one last break in Fredericksburg where Gillian got some guitar bits (she is suffering serious playing withdrawals!) and then we had our sights set on the one thing we really missed this trip:  Ethnic food that wasn’t Chinese or Italian.  We hit an Indian buffet that was delicious and just what we needed to bring us back to reality.  Not that it would take very long for that to happen:  as soon as we hit the Beltway, we realized there was one other thing we had done without and hadn’t missed…. traffic!

But we made it home – and on a single tank of gas from Buffalo! Frank is quite pleased that the 94 Saab made it 386 miles on a single tank.  Here are some more stats from the trip:

Total miles driven: about 2100 (Frank isn’t as much of a numbers geek as I am!) Total miles walked: 66 miles
In steps: 153,018

(Miles San ran before anyone else was up: 38.8)

Number of calories consumed:  at least double what was expended!
Number of wineries visited: about 12
Number of bottles purchased: about 18
Number of bottles brought home: about 12 (the other 6 were delicious!)

Number of places we stayed with an Episcopal church called St. Andrews: 2 (weird eh?)

Number of days until the next blog post: approximately 350.  We think Gillian has decided on Italy for our next overseas destination as it is her graduation trip.  Tune in next June for those adventures.  Thanks for reading along.

Day 10: Ontario to the Alleghenies

And so we prepare to leave Canada.  It was a lovely morning – much cooler and dryer than yesterday making it much more enjoyable to cover 4.5 miles (even if some was up hill so I could run along a higher ridge of the escarpment).  Breakfast was lovely again – poached pears followed by rosti with cheese and ham.  I had a slice of raisin tea loaf from the Irish shop to add extra carbs because there just wasn’t enough on my plate already! 🙂

Then we say good bye to the Crown Ridge B&B and Ontario.  I can’t recommend this place highly enough.  Michelle took spectacular care of all of us, me especially, and the accomodations were comfy and priced right. We headed south to cross at the Fort Erie crossing into Buffalo which took 15 minutes instead of the hour it took to get into Canada at the Queenston/Lewiston crossing. We confessed that we had more than our duty free allotment of wine and the kind CBP officer just let us pass.  Then we really started living life on the edge and we headed for downtown Buffalo to go to the one tourist attraction Gillian was interested in:  The Anchor Bar, home of the original buffalo wings!  She got to enjoy a plate of the famous wings (which she confessed that she didn’t like as much as those at Glory Days!) and then we were back out on the road headed for home.

But home was still 8 hours away.  And because so much time in the car makes me cranky – even if we are in a convertible with the roof down on a gorgeous day – I decided we needed to split the journey so we have stopped for the night in historic Clearfield, PA.  I haven’t figured out why it is historic but all the signs say that so it must be true. We found our B&B and we have yet another room with a deck which overlooks the west branch of the Susquehanna river (and one of the main streets through town). Clearfield is pretty small.  It does have more than one stop light but the culinary choices are limited – if you don’t want pizza, Chinese or any thing served in an establishment with beer and NASCAR signs.  (Hint: there are more gun stores here than gas stations.)

We wandered all dozen or so blocks of the historic downtown, noted that there are at least half a dozen churches within 100 yards of each other, and found what the woman at the B&B recommended as “fine dining” – Moena, an Italian restaurant with plastic table cloths but more than pasta on the menu. Our waitress was a gem and worked really hard to make sure I had a nice meal that I could eat – greek chicken with green beans (canned?) and red skin potatoes.  Gillian had the steak and Frank had pork medallions with sour cherry chutney.  Add a bottle of Arrogant Frog pint noir and it was quite a nice meal even if it wouldn’t qualify as “fine dining” in many other parts of the country.

After dinner Gillian headed back to the B&B to text and play with electronics and Frank and I walked an astounding distance along the river to the next town where we just happened to find an ice cream stand.  Fortified with dutch chocolate almond and moose tracks, we made our way back to enjoy some Canadian wine on the deck and watch the traffic roll by.  Our post dinner jaunt really racked up the mileage on the pedometer: 17,747 or 7.65 miles.

Day 9: The Waterfall and wineries

The rain had gone this morning but it left behind a lovely humidity in the air that made my four miler a very soggy one.  But it was worth it to cover the calories in breakfast: pancakes (GF for me!) with “bananas foster” (really bananas fried in Kahlua!) with sausage and a starter course of diced fruit and nuts in yogurt. We ate a bit earlier and then put the top down and headed for “The Falls”!

We paid the exhorbitant parking fee to be right at Table Rock and wandered the along the edge of the falls.  Frank had visited before when he was in Buffalo with my brother for the Frozen Four but it was a first for Gillian and me. The sight and the sounds are truly breathtaking.  It’s almost inconceivable that there could be that much water anywhere let alone all in one place.  We stared at the Canadian falls for a good while before wandering down to the American falls (which unfortunately really aren’t as nice).

We then decided to see what was up with the “Maid of the Mist” that I had heard so much about.  For a mere $20 CAD each, we got bundled up in blue plastic and joined other lunatics at the front of a rusty bucket that gets as close to the base of both falls as one could want. As the day was getting progressively hotter, there were not many complaints when the spray soaked us and everyone around us!  It was truly amazing to look up at the 170+ foot wall of water crashing down just in front of us.

By the time we were done water gawking, it was coming up on lunchtime and the place had gotten frighteningly crowded.  I confess that I was amazed at the number of people with resort wrist bands and multi-day passes.  I enjoyed the 2.5 hours we spent there but can’t imagine basing an entire vacation on the falls!  Instead we meandered back west to Niagara-on-the-Lake.  Talk about quaint!  It was almost too much!

Of course, there were wineries along the way!  First stop was a small place called “Between the Lines” because it was on a diagonal street between 4th Line and 5th Line (which are street names – very odd!) They did a very nice Vidal so we bought a bottle of that.    This was the first winery we were at where they didn’t wave the tasting fee when we bought a bottle of wine.  There are apparently very strict laws in Ontario on how tastings can be done with limits on how many ounces you can serve at any one time and how many kinds of wine you can pour.  It seems that the standard rule of thumb is a flight of 3 or 4 wines to taste for $5 (or thereabouts) with some wineries charging 50 cents or $1 per taste ($2 was common for ice wine) and every winery (so far) waving the fee if you bought a bottle (or two for the fancier wineries).  So our nice Vidal was a tad more expensive than we had expected but still worth it.

We then moved on to the famous Inniskillen Winery – the one that at least 4 different people told me was a “must see”.  Well, apparently I’m not good with “must” as we stopped and saw but didn’t bother to taste.  It is big and well organized with grand buildings but when we went to taste their famous ice wine, we stopped and gawked:  $5-$10 per ONE OUNCE taste.  Yes, that is right.  Every other place we had been that offered ice wine had either no additional charge or a small extra fee but really…. I usually drink wine that costs $10 a BOTTLE so there was no way I was paying that for an ounce.  Now granted, ice wine is much more expensive to produce because the grapes are harvested in January while they are still frozen and it takes more grapes to get the same amount of juice (and the sugar and alcohol content are higher) but seriously, $10 an ounce?  Ice wine is only sold in 375 ml bottles (half of the standard 750 ml for wine) and Frank noticed that a 3 pack of the smaller bottles sold for around $120!  And we were outta there!

Lunch in Niagara-on-the-Lake (NOTL) was nothing special: we stopped at the first reasonable looking place we saw which sold burgers and salads and ordered those. (If you are keeping track, that’s a salad pretty much every single day for me – and still the shorts are getting tight!).  Then we wandered around the impossibly cute town where everyone was either an British or Commonwealth expat or was apparently visiting from London to escape the Olympics.  There were Union Jacks flying everywhere and both a Scottish and an Irish shop in between the dozen or so shops selling ice cream.  We did stop in to the Scottish Loft and picked up some Irn Bru for the road tomorrow as well as a Wallace and Grommit DVD which has all the movies.  We thought we’d skip the Irish Tea Room and wandered down to the lake instead where we found another shortcoming in either our parenting skills or our child:  Gillian can’t skip rocks either….. I blame Frank for this one.

On the way back to the car, I realized that the forsaken Irish Tea Room actually sold GF pastries – lots of them!  So I secured a slice of raisin tea loaf and zucchini bread with pistachios to have with breakfast tomorrow and got a cranberry orange crumbly thing to eat right then and there.  Delicious!

Then we were back on the road for the rest of the afternoon’s planned activities: winery visits!  Gillian had been looking forward to driving us around so she could a) make fun of us for being lushes; and  b) drive in Canada – but alas it was not to be.  To much sun and not enough water had taken it’s toll and she wasn’t feeling well so we dropped her off to have a nap and ventured out on our own.  We had complementary tasting cards for a few of the local wineries complements of the B&B so we headed to those places first.  At 13th Street Winery, we were glad of the complementary tasting card because we were not enamored of any of the wines enough to buy a  bottle to avoid the tasting fee.  From there we went to Stoney Ridge winery with a similar card.  There we actually found a Chardonnay that Frank liked – slight hint of oak was the key – so we didn’t really need the card since we did buy a bottle.  The white wines in this region tend to be very minerally so even the Rieslings taste very citrusy – to the point of not *really* tasting like Rieslings at all.

For our final stop, we wanted to go to a winery called Foreign Affair, mostly because they have a moose on the wine label, but it was closed and so we headed for the nearest alternative: Greenlane Winery.  And boy were we glad we did!
We got there just at the end of the day and had the small tasting room to ourselves.  It was $5 for a flight of 4 wines with the tasting fee going to the local animal shelter (bonus!) and since there was a possibility of eight wines, we got to sample all of them.  And 7 of them I would have bought!  The woman was very nice and she was the one who gave us the skinny on the tasting rules and how ice wine is made and all sorts of inside info on the Niagara wine region.  We even tasted our first (and only!) ice wine:  with 18% residual sugar, I thought Frank was going to gag!  2% is about as sweet as he can tolerate without comparing a wine to Robitussin. But there was no extra charge and we wound up with 3 bottles of very good Rose, Cabernet blend and a Pinot Gris – Reisling combo that could be wickedly dangerous to drink on a hot day.  We even got tips on which wineries do the best reds – too bad we’re leaving tomorrow… 😦

Then we woke sleeping beauty and headed to The Lake House – another restaurant recommended by the B&B proprietor.  We ate on the deck overlooking the lake (lovely!) and ignoring the biting flies (not lovely!) had a very nice dinner.  Not nearly the feast we enjoyed at August on Saturday night but I had a tasty lobster risotto, Frank enjoyed his steak and Gillian was content with a chicken Caesar salad.

All in all, the trekking by the falls helped us to rack up 14,461 steps or 6.23 miles.  Interesting food for today: my dessert tonight was a meringue surrounded by creme anglais and covered with caramel and almonds.  It had some Italian sounding name and was very yummy.