40 bakeries, 30 brothels, 130 bars & more

This is (as I remember) the Forum, the center of religious and political
life in Pompeii. Trite as it sounds, visiting this ancient city was a dream
come true for me ~ from the first time I read about it, I wanted to see
this amazing place. As I wrote before, it is larger in size than I had
imagined, and even more thrilling to walk around and visualize how
people lived in this wealthy trading city and resort. We could see the
ocean as well as that troublesome mountain and it was a another
beautiful and sunny day for us. We drove in a big van ~ it's about 2
hours from Rome, a little south of Naples (where we had lunch).
Pompeii was a bustling city of 20,000 people before Vesuvius blew in
79 AD. Today they are still excavating and finding treasures. Note the
shelves (this is just a small sample) of pots, dishes, statues.
It's so easy to picture how people lived here, especially if you watched
the HBO Rome series. Quite a few beautiful mosaics remain along with
walls, columns, frescoes and courtyards. A v. special day for me!

cows in Panzano on Easter?

OK, we'll head back to Italy today. Here is a little bit of our "pinch me"
Easter in the hillside towns around Firenze. Adriana had made the
reservation, so of course we had the best table in the house. Before
this we had stopped at Michelangelo Point to see all of Firenze from
high up. After lunch Adri drove us to Greve where we walked around
the square and had an espresso. Then to the famous walled city of
Montefioralle ~ such a marvelous experience.
This guy is across from the butcher shop and much loved by the kids!
This is one of the famous butchers in Italy ~ his wife serves red wine and
snacks, opera plays in the background. Adriana bought yummy lard spread
and truffle cream and pate. (Ginger calls pate "liverworst". We cringe.)
Don't miss this butcher shop the next time you are in Panzano!
You may enjoy this view of the Tuscany Hills from our Easter table. The
restaurant, one of Adriana's favorites (and she of the owner and staff)
is Oltre il Giardino and of course we never would have found it without
our beautiful hostess angel. We started with hard boiled eggs that had
been blessed in the local church early in the morning.
This is the view from inside the restaurant. Lovely, but we were lucky
enough to eat outside on Easter.

Back to the most expensive black leather jacket in the world ~ it will
not photograph well, but I will try. My Tiapos writing group friends did
get to admire it last night and I even let them touch it. I basked in
their admiration yet NOT ONE offered a Euro to keep it from being
repossessed next month.

my city ~ from waaaaaay up high

Yesterday I worked an event on the 52nd Floor of the B of A. I enjoyed
the view, the woman I worked with and the lunches that the thoughtful
waiters brought us. The author was John Stossel and we sold maybe 40
or so of his books. After Italy, I'm making it a point to pay more attention
to our very own art & architecture, so in tomorrow's blog I will discuss the
12 unusual sculptures on the building at 580 California, across from the
B of A. (In the photo above you can just barely see the Golden Gate Bridge.)
It's really something, isn't it? This city of beauty and crazies ~ the best
and maybe the worst of humankind. Note the size of that cruise ship to
the right of Coit Tower, also the hill over there in the right hand corner
which slid down in the last not-really-that-heavy rain storm.

I love to check out the roof top gardens, the occasional swimming pool
and/or gym and the minuscule ant people walking down below.

fooled you, Blackbird...

Ha! You thought I was living in the past. No so. Last
night we went to the theater. First the usual sandwiches
at Lefty O'Doul's (packed with folks watching the
Warriors Game), then on down the street to ACT to
see >Blackbird, a little
85 minute one act gem that won Great Britain's Olivier
Award. A touchy subject matter (12 year old girl and
40 year old guy), but somehow it was handled so very well
that we weren't offended.

I wore the new leather jacket from Florence and it
felt wonderful and I wore it with all those memories
of that fun day. Yes, you're right, I'm sooooo glad
I bought it. No Visa bill yet, thankfully.

okay, you win

Here's the famous dome from inside the Pantheon. Let's all
remember that they didn't have cranes or any fancy
electronic scaffolding back then. Amazing. Awesome,
in the old fashioned sense of the word...

typical tourist photos, plus one

They say that travel is a new way of seeing. Yes, and also
another way of feeling. Here at the Colosseum, for instance,
I could picture the "ladies" up on the top row and the lions
and gladiators down on the floor. Even if we've seen this
structure hundreds of times, just being there makes all the
difference. And it's BIG, this 2000 year old structure...

OK, next is the view down from the Spanish Steps. Glorious Roma.

A native Italian corrected us when we asked where the Tiber
River was, but we found it with his help. I'm always happy to
be near water and it certainly helps with the lost/found
aspects of travel, doesn't it? (It is called Tibere in Roma.)

Next we have the Pantheon with the inside portico called
"Rome's umbrella" because when it rains or snows there is no
cover and it falls on the floor or the people or both. It
is amazing to hear how this dome was built back in 125 AD.
I didn't get a v. good shot of the dome, but I might include
it in the post a domani.

My favorite non-tourist shot is this fuzzy photo of young
priests hearing about the Pantheon and (I assume) getting
used to their new black robes.

For reasons too hi tech for me, the blog won't let me write
in between the photos. I think they want to move on to Venice,
but I'm not ready yet.

I had to close the big box last night. There was "an incident"
outside with our garbage cans. I love big city living...

now, please meet Joey!

Hey ~ we spent 14 days teasing Joey about never downloading
the 435 photos she was taking to her computer. And then last
night she emailed (!) many/many and I must say they are quite
wonderful. Better than mine in many instances (more expensive
camera and a great eye on her part) and here she is in those
gardens above the Spanish Steps. Check out the trees which I
neglected to write you about.

Joey was a flight attendant and has a million stories about
traveling with (ahem) Tommy Lasorda, Frank Sinatra, Natalie
Woods and a bunch more celebs. And she would grab my suitcase
and flick it into the overhead without breaking one long nail.

With the addition of her photos, these after-Italy posts
should last way into July. Thank you, Joey ~ Africa in 2008?

a little history with your artichoke?

We know most major European cities had walled districts and the Jews
couldn't come outside after dark. This lasted for about 300 years. Above is
the synagogue in Rome and below is the large menorrah. The Jewish
Quarter is located on the Tiber River and we had one of our best ever
meals here at the Ristorante Piperno. Thanks to The Great Plotnik, we
enjoyed our first fried artichokes. We never figured out why this is a
"Jewish dish", but I did find a recipe for them. Untried, as yet.

One can eat the entire artichoke. They look much better than in this
photo, by the way. Tender and crisp and superb.
From Red, White & Greens Italian vegetable cookbook:
4 artichokes cleaned and trimmed ~ keep in water acidulated w/ lemon
4 cups extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup flour in a bag
Sea salt to taste
Drain the artichokes and pat dry. Heat the oil to 325 degrees. Shake them
in the bag of floor and fry until golden brown. Drain.

ready for roma?

Open the window, then the shutters ~ here is the view from my hotel
room. I couldn't wait for the sun to come up so I could spend another
delightful day sightseeing and getting lost and eating, walking, looking
at everything and talking. Oh, yes, and searching for the ATMs and
laughing with my travel mates. I must return...
My tiny bed in Rome...cloister-like, no? Perfecto, no?
This is the view from our Hotel Mozart in the heart of Rome, about 2
blocks from the Spanish Steps. We all loved this hotel because they
served huge breakfasts and our rooms, though v. small, were perfect.

I'm glad to be reliving the trip here and now. This past work week was
one of the worst I've ever experienced. Or maybe I've just forgotten
all the other bad times ~ selective memory and all that. I try to keep
my head when all about me aren't, but I couldn't this time. I'm so glad
I had Italy to help keep me sane.

Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out
over and over again in the quietest chambers. The mind can never
break off from the journey. Pat Conroy

CURB YOUR GOD

I saw this bumper sticker on a car here in (surprise)
San Francisco. I agree...

ginger, fiamma and elisa

For some reason this didn't publish in the post, but you
all need to see these delightful people...

le lance on the hill above firenze

You might notice that I am using more than one photo (I
hope) today and I normally don't put my friends in, but
I know they want to be seen and admired.

Restaurants in Italy ~ don't be in rush, they are civilized.
cooking from scratch and everything is FRESH. Do not order a
cappuccino after noon and there is no such thing as a doggie
bag. Everyone is friendly and the portions are perfect ~
not built for trenchermen as in our country.

We never ate lunch before 1 or 2 (or sometimes 3pm) and the
restaurants did not even open until 7:30pm and then the other
diners would be mostly Americans until the native Italians
started arriving about 8:30 or 9:30.

And the families! Young, old, in between. Well behaved
children in every instance. An experience, not just a
delicous meal. I miss it.

molto motor scooters!

What with the Euro (high) vs. the Dollar (low) and the
whole litre vs. gallon vs. grams and kilometers business,
we could never really figure out how much a gallon of
gas costs in Italy. We would start the conversation,
then morph into 5 tangential American women w/o calculators,
and god knows we had problems just dividing the lunch
check evenly. But trust me, gas is MUCH higher in Europe
than it is here in the states.

People who know and love me realize that I sneer at SUVs
and gas guzzlers and the American me-first kind of greed.
Note the photo above with just a fraction of the thousands
of scooters in Florence. There is a helmet law for these,
but not for bicycles, interestingly enough. This was taken
as we walked once again along the Arno River towards the
center of Firenze.

In the present ~ I awoke with lovely work worries, so I
worked on the photos early and now I'll catch up on some
more TV. Watched 3 hours of The Sopranos yesterday, my
other Italian family. The sun is coming up and it looks
like a clear day here finally. Work worries too will pass....

breakfast for one, per favore

Don't you love it? We saved a TON of Euros on this trip
because our hotels all served breakfast. Then we would have
a huge and late lunch and (usually) a small and late dinner.
I figure I saved enough to splurge on a leather jacket...
photo to follow one day.

Our home base (6 or 7 or so nights) was the Villino Magnifico
in Florence. It is about 3 blocks from Adriana's and even
those without any sense of direction could move back and forth
to her place with ease. I was, of course, always the first
person down here for breakfast and I would grab the best table
near the window and write in my journal, scribble on post
cards and have too many cups of cappuccino with extra espresso
from that machine you see on the left. This was when I missed
my laptop the most, but also I loved just sitting here all
by myself reliving the day before and wondering what today
would bring.

It is my observation that one feels more deeply when traveling
without a Significant Other. Or maybe it's using different
muscles that lay dormant, being freer and yet not. Trying to
remember everything to report at a later date. I dunno, I
ramble this morning.

Finally a day off after 3 days at the big box. Not easy for a
woman who should still be in Italy. Sleep is starting to get
normal as I slept in until 5am this morning.

chalk one up for ginger!

On our trip Ginger was constantly comparing Florence to
her home town of Santa Barbara, and we were constantly
teasing her about this. There are a few similarities such
as the tile roof tops and maybe some of the trees on the
hills around the city...but that's it. An American city
can't really compare to an old and distinguished European
city and I've seen enough of SB to know that every strip
mall and shopping center is built to look just like the one
down the street, in an effort to keep it looking all clean
and uniform. And, yes, pretty.

Then we saw the chalk drawing here! "Just like Santa
Barbara", we said in unison. They draw down there at the
Mission for some festival or other, but this guy (and
several others) were here working for coins on the street
in Firenze. It takes a talent that I certainly don't
possess and I have a feeling that they have to erase their
work every night and start from fresh the next day.

my favorite photo, so far

This is the one I've selected for my desk top, replacing
the placid ducks floating on that little lake in Oregon,
if you must know.

I took more than 200 photos, some of the sidewalks in all
three cities. I am trying to arrange them ~ label and
organize and remember. (I hate to delete even the sidewalks)

This is the famous Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge) in Firenze,
shot from the 2nd or 3rd floor of the Uffizi Museum. I
spent many perfectly delightful hours in group and solo
mode, walking up and down the Arno River. Our B&B was
only 3 blocks away and having this as an easy focal point
was extremely helpful. I knew I would never really get
lost and there was always something to see along the
banks of the river. Picnics, families, vendors, dogs and
always the tourists, of course.

There are about 50 shops on this covered bridge ~ mostly
selling gold and silver. No cars, thankfully. We walked
across it the day we visited those lush gardens at the
Pitti Palace and Adriana also took us on a group walk
here (with Iside) on Easter Sunday. I could live here.
Send Euros....

be careful, pablo!

Some of my happiest moments were spent here in Adriana's
dining room in Firenze. Pablo has a habit of falling
asleep on this window sill (3rd floor) and tumbling
down onto the street. I've owned two tuxedo cats and
they are usually pretty sweet ~ with one exception ~
my aged Tosca who was (ahem) difficult.

Anyway, most of the shutters are this deep green, so
impressive with the soft mustard, peach and tangerine
buildings typical of Italy. Muted. Lots of those photos
to follow, but I thought you might want to meet Pablo
first. So fun to see how others live, isn't it?

Work today? Yawn. I fear that the morning meeting was
a travelogue, but everyone was polite and feigned interest.

back to work & jet lag

But first, a quick recap of Friday, our final day. We
took a two hour walking tour with Corine and saw lots of
little streets and canals including the Carampane District
which used to be where the prostitutes worked. They had
to dress as men and could not wear black or white. We
even took the local water taxi (for .50 Euros) back and
forth on the canal and we stood up in the boat so we
would look like locals. Went to the big outdoor fish market
and Strada Nova which is the largest street in Venice.
Then we had excellent pizza at an outdoor restaurant at
Campo St. Angela (Acqua Pazza). Campos are areas that
used to be fields in the city and each one features a
small church for the local people. After lunch my travel
mates enjoyed some Meloncello and pronounced it even
better than the Limoncello. They are now cello experts.

Our treno left at 4:30 and we arrived back in Firenze
in time for a late dinner at Adriana's. Then we said our
farewells and now it's over. A long and boring day on
airplanes, but I did get to see Beatrix Potter and of
course I got all weepy because it is such a sweet story.

Rainy and cold here in SF. Husbando had flowers and a
clean house waiting for me. Nice to be home, but, as I
said, another week of sitting/staring would have been
excellent. I really had a fabulous time and now join the
millions of people who say, "I L-O-V-E Italy!". My thanks
to Ginger and Adriana for this memorable trip...

the blog of sighs

I'm packed and ready to go and, of course, I finally
slept last night. Today was another fabulous one with
a 3 hour tour of the Doge (duke)Palace and all the
history of Venice that our guide Corine could pack
in. We crossed the Bridge of Sighs where prisoners
walked to their deaths, heard all about the rich and
unusual background here. So different than Roma or
Firenze!

Then, finally, one of my dreams. To tour St. Mark's
church with the tiny gold mosaics in the ceiling and
the famous hi fi sound system that I had read about
20 years ago. What an amazing experience. The church
is only lit for about an hour a day, and Corine was
aware of that and also the clanging of the old bell
down at the other end of the square.

We had a sandwich for lunch and walked around Venice
some more until it was time to have coffee at the
oldest cafe in Europe, Cafe Florian on St. Mark's
Plazza. Didn't know we had to pay an extra €17 for the
music, but it was such a great experience that we
didn't really mind.

Last night we sat outside at Bar Verde for a salad (!)
and sandwiches, then finally took the gondola ride
around the small back canals of Venice. What a perfectly
delightful experience. So quiet and peaceful. No car
alarms or honking. We could look into the backs of
homes and restaurants and the gondolier sang out a
"ohhhhhhoooooo" loudly when he came to an intersection,
but there was v. little traffic.

Another 2 hours with Corine this morning, probably a
walking tour. Then the 4pm treno express (we hope) to
Florence. Dinner at angel Adriana's and a domani un
giorno of airports and planes. Talk to you Sunday from
SF and msBook. Thank you for pushing me to do this
blog, even if it costs almost as much as the jacket.

glass, opera, peggy & fish grams

I have to get all of this down before I forget, so this
journal is really for me, but I am happy to have you
reading over my shoulder. Back at the expensive computer
so I will type quickly and forget about the commas...

Ginger had a bright idea and called the glass factory
on the Murano Island for a free pickup this morning.
We took the v. interesting tour and Boise bought a
gorgeous art piece (don't call it a vase!)and suffered
buyer's remorse all day the way I did with the leather
jacket. But she has recovered by now, I'm sure. The
free ride from Murano to Venezia did not appear until
Boise signed on the dotted line, however, so we didn't
get to Venezia until after noon.

Boise, G and I took off to sightsee while Linda and
Joey shopped. We saw the following:
.La Fenice Opera House, newly rebuilt
.Peggy Guggenheim's home and museum, filled with
some glorious pieces by many of my favorite artists
including Arp, Pollock, etc. She lived between two
canals and that was really a wonderful experience
.stopped for lunch (bean and pasta soup for 16€)at
Ristorante Alla Borsa on Calle delle Veste and
had some forbidden cappuccino (it was too late for
that officially in Italy)and rested our tired feet
.talked to a 50ish woman who had lived in Venice all
her life...so interesting
.took a million photos and stopped a hundred times
just to look up and down the alleys at all the
colorful and surprising twisting streets - some so
narrow that only one line of people on each side
could pass. It is heavenly quiet w\o traffic and
not worrying about being run over or losing an arm
to a side mirror like in Roma
.the canals are beyond belief and I would like to
spend a week just sitting out, watching people and
sipping espresso or cappaccino
.dinner at Fiaschetteria Toscana where 2 people (not
me this time, yeah) ordered fish by the gram (whatever
that is) and the damn thing cost €60...surprise!

After dinner we walked through San Marco Square - it
was overwhelmingly beautiful. No pigeons or tourists
with 3 bands playing. It is huge and magnificent and
it took my breath away. Alas, the photos would not
have worked. A fabulous day.

Our tour starts from here at 9:30 a domani, so I had better
get to bed. I appreciate the comments and your attention.
My feet hurt from walking and my stomach from laughing
Life is so good.

Down to that phase of travel where I don't have to worry
about laundry anymore. Soon I'll be home and will want
to burn my clothes, my 3 black outfits.