Goodbye

Thanks to all of you who have followed along with us on our expedition. We are headed home with lots of pictures, a few souveniers, some gifts, and most of all, with fantastic memories. If you're headed to Italy, contact us for good ideas of where to go (and how to stay out of trouble.) Now we are discussing ideas for our next trip! We'll be in touch. Love to all: Liz, Janna, and Spring

Saving the best for last

Thanks to our B&B host, Mario, we got admission tickets to two of the museums we were really interested in seeing in Florence. In the morning, we walked the four blocks to the Uffizi, the huge warehouse of European art, mostly paintings, that is housed in 58 huge rooms. After lunch and a nap, we hiked the other direction and visited the real David by Michelangelo. You think you know what he looks like until you see the real sculpture. He is incredible. After seeing David, we walked back to the Bed&Breakfast, stopping at some stores on the way there. Janna went in for the night, while Liz and Spring went out and enjoyed their last, and best, gelato (featured here). After hanging out in the square a little longer, we also went in and packed up as we're leaving early tomorrow morning.

Market Monday in Firenze (Florence)

Sunday, we said goodbye to our friends and home in Cetona and took a train from Chuisi (just outside of Cetona) to Firenze. After an evening of exploring and getting a feel for the city, we retired to our bed and breakfast, which is right in the middle of the action. Monday, we headed towards the Central Market and did some souvenir shopping on the way there. This photo features Spring and Janna in a Florence crowd, buying paintings of Florence from a local artist. The market was the ideal grocery store, with fresh&local meats, cheeses, and produce. After enjoying lunch there, we went down to Piazzale Michelangelo to enjoy the view. We had a siesta at our B&B before walking down to the Duomo di Firenze, where Janna and Liz explored the outside and Spring ascended 463 stairs to see the view at the top, which was magnificent. Afterwards, the three of us continued on to enjoy dinner at a restaurant in the Piazza della Signoria, where we also enjoyed a dessert of Tiramisu and a cioccolato, before retiring once again to our bed and breakfast.

Recovering from the Roman Holiday

It was so great to get back to our sleepy little Tuscan village after our city experience. It indeed took us 24 hours to decompress again and be ready for more sight seeing. The next day, Liz and David and Spring went to Sienna to pay respects to St. Catherine. The town was filled with young Italian tourists and similar to Perugia (both college towns) but seemed warmer and more inviting than Perugia. Spring and David climbed the 400 steps to the top of the Hunger Tower.

Take a Day for the Vatican Museums

Our B&B was very close to the entrance to the Vatican Museums (there are many) and we indulged in a museum tour with earphones and a guide. She spoke excellent English, born and raised in Rome, and appeared to have an advanced art history education. The tour lasted all morning and we ate at the museum and went back for more. Finally in the late afternoon Liz, David and Spring hiked around the Vatican wall to attend mass at St Peter’s Basilica while Shan and Janna retired to an excellent gelateria. Then, to balance our collective cultures we took a cab to the Jewish Ghetto and indulged in our new favorite food (fried artichoke) before catching yet another cab to the train station and finally home to Cetona. What a great Roman holiday. Our deepest thanks and gratitude to Shan and David for helping us experience it so deeply.

Il Papa and the Pantheon

After what we went through to obtain "required" tickets to the Papal Audience, we were surprised by the lack of security and scrutiny at St. Peter’s Piazza. We arrived an hour early to get seats close to a barricade where he would pass close by. He came bareheaded through the crowd on a modified Mercedes landing craft – no barrier. The photo shows the back of Spring’s head. (He was that close!) He presented greetings and a teaching on St. Theresa of Lisieux in seven languages. The crowd was jubilant and at moments, downright rowdy. Some groups came with song offerings which were acknowledged. Like at any good demonstration, the banners of parishes from all over were propped up against the walls of the Basilica. They were blessed by Il Papa, as were any objects brought (Spring had Gran Grans’ rosary; David and I had St Anthony/Francis medals; Janna had her Donna Leon book), us, and our relations, which we suppose extends to most of you reading this blog. Afterwards, we shopped at the Vatican Post Office, sent off a few post cards, and took ourselves to a Taverna off the tourist track for lunch. (Click here for more photos of the day)

After lunch, David retired to our B&B to recuperate, and the three of us got on one of the ubiquitous tour buses. We were disappointed by the lack of interpretive information imparted over the uncomfortable earphones, and it was too hot a spring day to sit in Rome traffic. So we jumped off near the Piazza Venezia and happened onto a delightful demonstration for peace in Kurdistan which involved dancers and leafleters. Then we wended our way through back streets and Vespas to the very impressive Pantheon. By then all our feet had given out and we staggered back to where we had caught our neighborhood bus the day before...but then we made a BIG mistake: we got on the bus without tickets. We won’t bore you with the rationalizations, just suffice it to say we got off with a €50 bill to the bus police that busted us (and threatened us with €100 fines EACH). We hope this serves as a warning to anyone else who might be tempted. TAKE THE TIME TO BUY A TICKET.

Public Transportation to and Around Rome

This morning we continued our adventures into modern Italy by boarding the train in Chiusi with second class tickets to Rome. Ever since we began eating peccorino three times a day (or more) we've been wondering where the sheep that produced the cheese lived. Now we know: Italians appear to keep most of their sheep, goats, and chickens...down by the railroad tracks!

Arriving in the big city we caught the Metro to our B&B near Vatican City. Janna, Spring, Liz and David then boarded a crosstown bus for a euro and rode in rush hour traffic over to the Trevi Fountain area to pick up tickets for the Papal Audience tomorrow. On the way we discovered two interesting women from Colorado who were also going. One of them was 86 years old and thought she was in Tucsan. Rome is VERY intense after our peaceful sojourn in the Tuscan countryside!