"How did it get so late so soon? Its night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?"
Dr. Seuss
I don't often quote Dr. Seuss, but this time his was the most fitting I could find to describe how I am feeling at the moment. Although we have been in England almost six months and our time here has come to an end, I feel as if we only just arrived. And although I have been meaning to blog about a trip that transpired three months ago, I have only just begun. So I ask myself "how did it get so late so soon?" But before the later comes any sooner, I shall commence a story of our time in Italy.
There is one word that sums up Italy...
Magical
This is the country where the seeds of love were first planted in my heart for a certain Caleb Pendleton over three years ago. As we returned to the city of Love--Rome--married, with our precious little baby, and accompanied by four good friends, we found the city and the rest of the country just as magical as the first time we were there together. From rich history, to fabulous food, irresistible gelato, breath-taking landscapes, and awe-inspiring ancient structures, Italy has it all!
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| Need I say more? |
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| Resting at the Forum |
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| Castello at night |
We had one week in Italy, and it was a wonderful week at that. On our first day, we flew into Rome from Prague. Aside from catching trains, subways, and buses with a group of six adults and one baby, plus all our backpacks, we managed to get checked into our apartment, grab a bite of tasty Italian Pizza, and then were off to see the sights. We walked about the city from about six o'clock in the evening till at least one in the morning! A few of the highlights included the Roman Coliseum, Illy cappuccinos (only later did we find that Illy coffee was, in the words of one Italian, “for snobs”), Piazza Navonna, the famous Treve Fountain, the best gelato in Rome, many a beautiful cobbled alleyways, and the most diverting jokes of the pence variety. Let me explain the pence bit, my brother Ryan during his two week trip abroad visited four countries, three of which used different currencies. So by the time he arrived in Italy, he was entirely confused with all of the different coins that had accumulated in his pockets. We did our best to explain that the English bills were called "notes," and that the change was called "pence," that the Czech currency was called "Crowns," and the Italian currency "Euro;" this was all a bit overwhelming and so he called almost every coin a pence, whether it was a British, Czech, or Italian. And thus began one of the most comical aspects of our entire trip...pence jokes, the other being "special privilege flashers." Late into the night, as our exhausted and crippled group (from bum knees to blistered feet, we had all varieties of ailments by this point) shuffled through the streets of Rome, someone would through up the next joke to lighten our weariness…a
pence for your thoughts,
pence we are on the subject, well I’ll
pence-il this into my journal, we’ll have to add that to the ex-
pence sheet, let me give you my two-
pence, and many many more.
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| 2011 C & C |
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| 2008 C & C |
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| Cappuccino + Corneto = best breakfast |
The next day, after the essential capaccino and corneto (Italian pastry), we headed to Piaza del Popolo, were we rented bicyles. Cycling around the city is the best way to see Rome, and so this is what we did, all six of us with little Justus strapped onto Caleb’s back.
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| Bike riding in Rome is the best way to see it |
With Caleb in the lead, we had moments where we held our breath, like when were in the middle of crazy traffic and where we lost our breath, ascending the hill that never ends to look out over Rome’s skyline. Sadly, Caleb left our camera in the basket of his bicycle upon returning it to the rental shop. And although we searched all the bicycles and reported the loss to the owners of the shop, our little camera was gone for good.
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| Caleb is an amazing photographer |
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| Civita - So rustic |
After two non-stop days in Rome, the time came to move on to our next destinations, the spectacular Civita di Bagnoregio
and captivating Assisi. But before we dive into explaining the wonders and beauties of Civita, let me first mention that Caleb procured a good sized van so that our merry group could traverse the desired roads of Italy at our own pace (this piece of information is critical in understanding the upcoming stories including “special privileges flashers”). Upon exiting Rome, we soon arrived at one of the most incredible little villages I have ever beheld. Perched atop a lone peak in the midst of a giant valley, sits the beautiful city of Civita.
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| Best food in Italy + sneaking in a kiss |
The only way to get to the tiny village is by a footbridge, thus it is essentially untouched by time. There are no cars, no sirens, no traffic lights, only a plethora of stone homes, restaurants, and a cute town square. It was at one of these little restaurants, Osteria Al Forno di Agnese, that we enjoyed the best of Italian hospitality and food. A sweet lady by the name of Manuela served us some of the tastiest lasagne and ravioli plus she brought out a mat and blanket to lay Justus on so that he could rest while the rest of us ate.
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| Caleb having fun w/jumping pics |
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| City of Assisi |
From Magnificent Civita, we were off to another lovely place, the city of Assisi, named after the saint, Frances of Assisi. We were awed by the ancient city on a hill, complete with a towering castle, an enormous church, innumerable cobbled alleyways (our van hardly fit through these narrow streets), cute little tourist shops, and an ambiance that breathed peace and beauty.
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| Church of Saint Francis of Assisi |
We bid farewell to Assisi after a short day and were off to San Gimignano, a town known for its towers (there are 14 remaining of the former 72) and world famous gelato (the frozen nectar of the gods). To our dismay, we arrived too late to get our hands on a cone.
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| San Gimignano at night |
Thus, we changed our plans of staying in Florence to include spending the night in San Gimignano, all so we could try that gelato. Everyone was in complete unison on this decision, who wouldn’t when world-renown gelato was at their fingertips?
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| San Gimignano - Sunrise |
Miraculously, we found a place to stay, due to a crying baby and Caleb’s dashing good looks (I had to get a little possessive after three American women fawned over him and even took pictures of him!). But back to the story, the first place we checked was far to ex-pence-ive for our budget, as was the second and third, however the forth place we tried was a convent and we had a little better luck here. The nun told us her convent was full, but seeing our motley crew and me holding a crying Baby Justus (it was 10:00pm by this point) took pity on us and sent us to a nearby hotel, whose owner had already gone home for the night. Gratefully, the lady at the restaurant next door called the owner who returned to the hotel and put us up for the night. Of course, none of the communicating would have been possible without Caleb’s stellar Italian speaking skills. We were so grateful to finally have a place to lay our heads. Which is what we did, well…after we had a goodbye service of toasting and feasting on corneti for our dear friends Ryan and Casy who would be flying home to Texas the next day.
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| Gelato - World Champ 2006-2010 |
When the gelato shop opened at ten o’clock we were the first to come strolling through the doors with an enthusiastic “buen giorno!” (Good morning). Every single one of us ordered a large cone with three delectable flavors, and after consuming said cones, marched right back inside for another round. The servers thought we were a little weird, eating six scoops of gelato each, but hey, it’s not every day that we Texans can enjoy Italian nectar of the gods.
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| Group with Florence in the background |
After making ourselves half sick with all the gelato, we were off to Florence, where we drove illegally through “authorized vehicles only” streets, ran through the city for the two-hour mini-tour of the highlights, danced to italian street musicians, and best of all, hit up the hill overlooking the city for a gorgeous sunset.
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| Caleb danced here solo in 2008 w/me in 2011 |
From there we hit the road for Pisa, the city from which Ryan’s and Casy’s plane departed. We were down to the wire on time, so it was a bit tragic that we made a wrong exit on major toll road, did a uturn before the toll booth, almost ran out of gas, and had to stop for a nursing session. Thanks to the good Lord, we got them to the airport just in time for take-off!
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| Sunset of Florence |
Besides the Leaning Tower, Pisa does not have much to offer in the way of beauty, atmosphere, and attractions so after a less than peaceful night in less than desirable accommodations, the remaining members of our group, Ashley, Christopher, Caleb, myself, and Baby Justus hopped on the train and headed to a more desirable, and even lovely locale, Cinque Terre.
But not before we illegally parked near the Leaning Tower of Pisa (this was one of those times we used our “Special Privelages” status), dropped the van off at the rental place, forgot our back-up camera in the van that we had just dropped off, and made a dash back to the car rental place where we secured said camera.
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Pisa
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Cinque Terre
Beautiful ocean views and a string of five quaint villages, surrounded by terraced vineyards greeted us as we stepped off the train into the Italian Riveria region known as Cinque Terre (five lands).
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| View from our balcony |
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| Night view from our balcony |
The only way to access these remote villages are trains, plains, and boats, but not cars. Some of the locals own cars that are transported there via trains, and it was in one of these that the owner of an apartment for rent picked us up and drove us part of the way to our humble yet perfect accommodations (she only drove us part way because the roads narrowed into footpaths).
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| View of Corniglia |
Our time in Cinque Terre was dreamlike, days of walking along the scenic paths between the villages, eating tasty pasta, drinking a bit of their famous wine, watching gorgeous sunsets over the ocean, and of course, eating at least one cone of gelato and drinking at least one capucino per day (this was a tradition we were very vigilant in keeping over the course of our time in Italy).
One of the more comical events of our trip took place on the way from Cinque Terre to Venice. Caleb had secured online a large rental vehicle for us in the nearby city of La Spezia, but we arrived to pick it up, the car rental representative informed us that we would have to take a smaller vehicle.
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| Riomaggiore |
This news did not suit Caleb’s fancy, so he spent the next HOUR arguing in Italian with the representative. By the time he was finished, we all knew a bit of Italian, other customers had gotten involved in the dispute, Caleb had asked to speak to the president of the company (his request was mainly to emphasize that he wanted to speak with someone important, but the representative responding first with a shock and then told Caleb that “the president does not talk to customers”), we had lost an hour, and we drove away with the smaller vehicle. Oh the adventures of traveling abroad! Next time, we will take the train to Venice.
Venice
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| This is where we had our romantic dinner |
Venice was everything we imagined it would be, and although we had a very short time to spend in this magical island of a city, we took full advantage, eating a romantic dinner along one of the canals, getting lost through the myriad of beautiful alleyways, dancing to a symphony in the magnificent St. Mark’s Square, sipping capaccinos, and riding to and from the island on waterbuses. This place definitely deserves more than half a day’s visit, so we hope to return someday.
From Venice we headed back to Merry Old England, where the two men of the group (Caleb and Christopher) had arranged for us to stay in a luxury castle on a romantic getway. Thus, ended our memorable second trip to Italy.
Lessons learned while in Italy
- Drink Illy cappuccinos everyday (it is the coffee of snobs for a reason…it’s really really good!)
- Eat gelato at least once per day (the best gelato is in San Gimignano)
- See the sights of Rome from atop a bicyle (but don’t forget to take your camera out of the little basket)
- It’s ok to eat gelato for breakfast, only if it’s world famous though
- Don’t rent a car from Maggiori’s car rental if you are in a hurry, just take the train
- If you are tired and weary, try to think of some pence jokes
