Rome, Venice, Florence - Benne

Tuesday night in Rome we took a bus to Trastavere, a neighborhood that use to be a Jewish area, was also a working man neighborhood, and now features many wonderful shops and restaurants. It was another of the string of beautiful nights we have had on the trip and the trattoria we dined at was also excellent. After dinner we took the bus back towards Piazza Navona. The Piazza Navona holds special significance for us because on our first trip to Rome when we stayed in a hostel run by Dutch nuns just off of the Piazza and the Piazza was the focal point of our first trip. It was a relatively quiet night in the Piazza but we still enjoyed the memories of previous trips.

On Wednesday morning, Lynda slept in so Tim accompanied Gerry and Cathy to the Coliseum and The Roman Forum. Each time we go to the Coliseum it is a marvel both architecturally and construction-wise. Unfortunately, it is a testament to what can be built if you have enough slaves. Tim did learn something new. He was always under the impression that the Coliseum is round when, in fact, it is oval shaped. In terms of history, the Roman Forum is without a doubt of considerable significance. However, seeing the ruins of it is less then moving. The rest of the day was spent either doing laundry (Cathy and Gerry) or lounging in our hotel room. Wednesday evening we were able to get to the Pantheon shortly before it closed for the day. Of all of the tourist sites in Rome, the Pantheon seems to fly under the radar. It should not. Gerry and Cathy were suitably impressed with the building, just as we are every time we see it. The tomb of Victor Emmanuelle, the first King of Italy is located in the Pantheon. From the Pantheon it was a short walk to Trevi Fountain. We, of course, took the required pictures of Gerry and Cathy throwing coins over their shoulders into the fountain. By doing this it assured them of returning to Rome. Don’t laugh. It worked for Lynda and Tim! Just a few steps from Trevi Fountain is L’Achetto Restaurant. We discovered this restaurant a couple of years ago on our trip here with Madison. The spaghetti was every bit as good as we remembered (and we sat at “our” table, Madi). As we prepared to leave Rome the four of us discovered that we were all a bit ambivalent in our feelings about the Eternal City. On one hand Rome is a wonderful place for a leisurely evening stroll; the food and wine are exceptional; and at least one of us becomes rapturous when discussing Gelato. On the other hand, Rome is a dirty city, and the people are very aggressive and pushy when in line for buses, tickets, etc. We all agreed that we enjoyed London and Paris more. But still, there is the Gelato!

Thursday morning we took a taxi to the airport where we rented a car. Tim went through quite an ordeal in attempting to rent the already confirmed car. It is too long a tale of woe to publish here but be sure to ask him about it when you see him. Once the car was procured we were on the road, the first stop being Assisi, of St. Francis fame. Assisi has a rather commanding location on the side of a hill. One can see the town from a great distance away. When we were last here it had been right after a devastating earthquake which did considerable damage to both the church and the village. Today there was little sign of damage and we were able to visit both the upper and lower basilicas, which we had been unable to do previously. The only problem with visiting Assisi is that, because of its location on the side of a hill, everything is either up hill or down hill which makes for tough walking. A stop for wine certainly made the climb easier. The drive from the airport to Assisi was about two hours and it was another four hour drive to Venice. We arrived in Venice about 8:00, parked the car in a car park just on the island, took a vaparetto, water bus, to the Rialto bridge and had about a 5 minute walk to our hotel. Nothing to it. Our rooms in Venice are downright sumptuous compared to all of our previous lodgings and the hotel was able to recommend a very good restaurant just a block and a half from the hotel. After the long drive we were all ready for the delicious wine that we had. The meal was also excellent: ravioli stuffed with smoked ricotta in a butter sauce, veal scaloppini, insalada misto, and sea bass.

Friday morning we walked to San Marco Square, fascinated by all the wonderful shops along the way. San Marco square is where the church of San Marco is located as well as the Doge Palace. Doges were the political leaders of Venice for over 800 years and the Doge Palace is where they lived as well as the seat of government for Venice. In its prime Venice was one of the most important cities in all of Europe which, in turn, made the Doge a very important political figure. From San Marco square, we took the vaparetto to Murano which is another of a group of small islands that makes up Venice. Murano is famous for its glass furnaces. We found the glass gallery where we have bought two pieces of murano glass on previous trips. We were again impressed with the quality of work done by the glass artist, Simone Celenese. We especially looked longingly at a spectacular chandelier that would look perfect over our dinning table. With great difficulty we decided not to buy it. We were also taken by our salesperson back to the furnace to watch the artisans working on the glass. Gerry and Cathy were very intrigued with this. After lunch (and wine) we took the boat to Burano, another of the islands. This island specializes in making lace. Cathy was particularly interested in this and bought several pieces as gifts for relatives. Tim and Gerry were not so impressed. In the evening we went to a restaurant that Lynda and Tim discovered on their first trip to Venice and have returned to on each subsequent trip. It may have been the best meal of the trip to this point. Lynda had an excellent Spaghetti Carbonara, Cathy and Tim had porcini stuffed ravioli in a truffle oil sauce, Gerry had a T-Bone steak, and Tim had slices of beef in a Balsamic Vinegar reduction. The highlight of dessert was Tim’s chocolate covered cream puffs. Cathy had an excellent Tiramisu but after one taste of Tim’s cream puffs was extremely jealous and may have even pouted a bit. We enjoyed a lovely stroll back to our hotel.

With a tear in Tim’s eye (Venice is his favorite city in the whole world), Saturday morning we left Venice and drove to Florence. We went directly to our hotel south of Florence as the website from which we booked the hotel had comments about how difficult a location it was to find and we did not want to try and find it after dark. This was in fact true but the hotel turned out to be very nice. Unfortunately, it was very quickly back in the car to drive into Florence. There have been many instances, we are sure, where Cathy and Gerry were convinced that we were crazy and the drive into Florence may have been one of them. We successfully found a parking garage next to the train station and set off on foot for the Duomo, the cathedral in Florence. We did not go inside as there was a long line but that was not a problem as the Duomo is one of the few cathedrals in Europe we have visited that is more spectacular on the outside than on the inside. The highlight of the day was visiting the Accademia Gallery where Michelangelo’s statue of David is located. A 16th century artist described David as “the most perfect sculpture of a man ever done”. We could not agree more. We sat for sometime mesmerized by the beauty and magnificence of this incredible work of art. There are many other statues in the gallery but they all pale by comparison. When we were finally able to pull ourselves away from David we walked to the central market. Upon arrival at the market we discovered to our dismay that the food and vegetable portion of the market was already closed. We managed to get over our dismay with a limoncello, an Italian liquor that tastes like real strong lemonade but will knock you on your bottom if you drink it too fast. Also around the Central Market is the leather market. There are hundreds of stalls with leather goods where the merchant has you try something on and then takes you back to his main shop where there are more goods on display. We were able to refrain from major purchases, think leather coats, but did buy some small items, Tim a new wallet and Lynda a wool cape. We went back to the Duomo where we did go inside the Baptistery located next to the church. This beautiful building has a dome that on the inside is covered in gold mosaics depicting many of the stories from the Bible. Again, we sat for some time taking in the beauty of the structure. We continued are walk about Florence by going to the Pont Vecchio. The Pont Vecchio is a bridge over the Arno River where for years all of the goldsmiths of Florence had their shops. This bridge still contains numerous gold and jewelry stores. You may also be interested in knowing that the Pont Vecchio was the only bridge across the Arno that the Nazi’s did not destroy during WW II. After all of this walking we were tired and hungry. We returned to the car and drove to Bagno a Ripoli, a little town just outside of Florence where there is another of our favorite restaurants. We won’t bore you with the details. Suffice to say the food and wine was excellent.

We have decided to stay a second night here in Florence, actually Impurnata, in the Villa Ambrosia. Sunday we will drive around Tuscany.

Buon Giorgno.