Italy photos cont'd...Cinque Terre

Here are a few shots of our time there....

 

MANY steep stairs up to trail!

 

 

Stairs down to village

 

View of Vernazza from trail

Monterosso (old town)

Monterosso al Mare (where we had lunch near the beach)

 

More photos of Italy

Hopefully you will see some additional photos from our trip. This is a test in using my new iPad mini.

 

Venice market

Impressive seafood at Rialto market in Venice

 

Floating market in Venice

Venice Gondolier

 

Funghi!

 

Naples- Pizza & Dioramas!

Very basic menu-two types of pizza

Naples Pizza

Typical street in Naples

Everything you need to make dioramas!

We arrived here yesterday around 6pm, probably the craziest time to be in the Naples traffic! There was gridlock on the main streets near the train station, and although two policemen were in the middle of the road attempting to direct traffic, people were pretty much ignoring them. It was quite entertaining and I enjoyed it even more after doing up my seatbelt!! I gather this is typical of Naples, so we were lucky enough to
experience it firsthand.
This morning we walked around the area near our B&B - we were both surprised to see the number of shops & stalls selling "dioramas"- either manger scenes or just everyday life scenes. Some of them had amazing detail.
The highlight of our walk was finding the oldest (1870) pizza restaurant in Napoli (pizza was invented here), and having both a marguerita and a marinara, the only types they make. The guy putting them together must have been 80 years old, and it was great to watch his assistants baking them in the wood oven. I'll post a few photos.
This will be my last blog post - it's been fun to write about our experiences- hope you have enjoyed it too!
Ciao,
Linda

Photos of Civita in the fog & Russ's lunch!

Orvieto & Civita di Bagnoregio

After spending a few more days in Rome (picking up our temporary passports), we are now in the province of Umbria in the hill town of Orvieto. This is a very appealing town- just large enough to have a good selection of shops, restaurants etc but still retaining the charm of a medieval walled city.
Yesterday we got an early start and took a bus to Civita di Bagnoregio, known as "the dying town". The town is built on a pinnacle of volcanic rock that has been eroding over the years, as well as suffering an earthquake which caused further damage...in a nutshell the edges of the town are crumbling and buildings are cracking and becoming unstable. The population is now approximately 11 full time residents. A footbridge connects it to its sister city Bagnoregio.
Today we will take in the sights of Orvieto- we are really enjoying the food here, and it's a good thing the holiday is almost over, as our waistlines are expanding rapidly!! Last night I had duck breast in wild fennel sauce- it was scrumptious!!
Tomorrow we head to Naples and fly home on the 30th. We are both really looking forward to being back home.
Here are a few photos!

Pompeii photos - major road with "stepping stones", main forum with Vesuvius, and amphitheatre

A few days ago we had a wonderful time exploring Pompeii, which was a one-thriving commercial port of 20,000 residents. At noon on August 24, A.D.79, the city was buried under 30 feet of hot volcanic ash from the eruption of nearby Mt Vesuvius. 3/4 of the 164 acres has been excavated, and it is extraordinary to walk through the town and see the remains of houses, bakeries, fast food joints, and even a brothel. Russ has a zillion photos on our camera, but here are a few from the iPhone!

Vesuvius from Sorrento, Amalfi Town, lift to transport people from highway to ??

Sorrento - Ups & Downs

First the ups-
We are in sunny (average high of 24) Sorrento now - this town reminds us of Hawaii- it is full of tourists (mostly our age or older) who seem to be spending a lot of money on souvenirs and clothing, and there is a great choice of restaurants also. The scenery is dramatic with the town perched up high on cliffs, and marinas down below for the boat trips to Capri and Naples. Mt Vesuvius is clearly visible in the distance and I am happy to report that it is not smoking at the moment! The cruise ships are moored offshore so that adds to the number of tourists downtown.
Today we took a bus to the town of Amalfi, and Rick Steves describes this drive as follows: ..."one of the world's great bus rides...will leave your mouth open and your camera's memory full".
Try to imagine a 500ft sheer drop to the Mediterranean, a road so windy and narrow that the buses sometimes have to back up to get past each other, and villas clinging to the steep cliffs. It was impressive! We went through the town of Positano and spent several hours in Amalfi Town, which also had a cruise ship offshore and was overrun with tourists! We had originally planned to stay in Amalfi and use it as a base to go hiking, so we were glad we had changed our plans. Not to mention that the hiking would be pretty challenging, with the trails going straight up!
Now the downs-
On our way to Sorrento a few days ago we took two different trains, one from Rome to Naples (comfortable & pleasant) and the other from Naples to Sorrento (overcrowded, standing room only, 35 stops!). I had read of the risk of being pickpocketed on this train but nonetheless Russ was nabbed and partway along the way he realized he no longer had our passports, some cash, as well as his credit cards. It was a sickening feeling. We spent the rest of the day with Russ on the phone as well as filing a report with the local police, which was extremely frustrating, as they had to call in an interpreter. The financial matters are sorted out but we have to return to Rome next week to meet with the Canadian Embassy staff and get our temporary passports, which we need to travel home. Our family and friends have been wonderful...we are blessed to have them! We are staying in a small hotel and the staff here have been very kind as well. We were feeling pretty shocked for the first few days, so it was nice to just hibernate in our room! So things are better now and we are enjoying ourselves once again.
We have not yet been to Pompei and the only way to get there is the same train, which also was on strike yesterday. We plan to make that trip tomorrow, as it's a priority to see that.
When we return to Rome we will take a bus...for some reason there are no buses to Pompei.
I will post a few photos of Sorrento and our hair raising drive today!

Ciao for now,
Linda




Linda Haas
Sent from my iPhone

Photos - Walking Ancient Roads, Donkey Stew, 32Euro beers & Rome

Rain & Roma!

Since the last blog entry we have experienced both of the above! Our Danish friends have now left us to return home, but during the week we were with them we shared some great walks in the countryside as well as some challenging walks in the pouring rain. There was a broad band of rainy weather across Europe all last week, so it was unfortunate timing for them but we still managed to have fun.
We also had some wonderful meals, including wild boar, donkey stew, and of course pasta. The pasta has been a real treat that we are not yet tired of, as it is so different to the pasta at home. We have learned how to manage the Italian menu- at first it is overwhelming, as there are so many courses- the antipasto, primo, secondi and then dessert, all of which the Italians eat. We now usually order a secondi dish and a salad, and that's about the right amount! (I frequently break down and have dessert...the tiramisu is my favorite..that will be no surprise to anyone!)
We have been in Rome for three days and leave tomorrow for Sorrento. Have seen all the main sights here- the Coliseum, Forum, Pantheon, St Peters Basilica, and Sistine Chapel. Went to the latter two yesterday and cannot even begin to describe them so you will have to come and see them for yourself! Tonight we plan to spend our last evening by doing a "nighttime walk" that Rick Steves recommends, so we'll see the Pantheon and Trevi Fountain lit up. Rome has amazed me- old ruins everywhere you look, and the many beautiful buildings adorned with statues and Roman columns. It is tiring as the traffic and crowds are challenging, but magnificent nonetheless.
I will post a few photos of Rome - will post again from the Amalfi Coast.
Ciao ciao,
Linda

Linda Haas
Sent from my iPhone

iPhone photos - Siena & countryside near Radicofani

Siena street scene

Wet but happy pilgrims

Radicofani behind us (castle tower visible)

Radicofani

The last few days have been interesting! We spent two nights in Siena, where we met our Danish friends Eric & Margit. The weather Gods were not kind to us, and the entire day we had planned to sightsee it was torrential rain. We were sloshing around in sandals so as not to get our walking shoes wet, so had to warm up in cafes etc just to stay comfortable. The highlight of that day was getting into the Cathedral for free (thanks to our pelligrinos credentiales) and admiring yet again, a gorgeous cathedral certainly on par with the cathedrals we saw in Spain last year.
Yesterday we had originally planned to start walking with our friends on the Via Francigena, but due to the weather we decided to take a train to Montepulchiano and stay one night to enjoy some wine tasting. We visited several cellars and bought a bottle of Nobile "reserve" which was very good. Unfortunately our meals in that town were not up to the quality we have had in other places...maybe the fact that it was a very touristy place had something to do with it.
This morning we hired a taxi to drive us to a small village where we were able to reconnect with the Via Francigena. The weather was nice, but we had to ford three streams that were high from the recent rains, so that was fun! A lot of our walking was uphill and on roads, with the Tuscan rolling hills to look at, but they were mostly brown fields that had been plowed.
We are in a small town called Radicofani for the night..tomorrow's stage is 32 Kms and we have no taxi to help us out, so will see how it goes! By the way there is thunder and rain happening again as I write!!
Ciao for now,
Linda


Linda Haas
Sent from my iPhone

iPhone photo of San Gimignano as we left it on our walk this morning

Linda
Sent from my iPhone

Firenze pix

 Ceiling of the baptistry where Dante was baptised

The famous Ponte Vecchio

Venice photos from camera via very slow computer

Here are some of our camera pix, along with captions (I hope!)

No, we're not in the gondola.

Heartland of the carnivale masques and Venetian glass

San Miniato

Yesterday was a 26km walk which took us through some peaceful rural trails and roads. We enjoyed passing an equestrian centre where they were training sulky horses. Unfortunately we didn't have the video ready when four "buggies" tore past us, very close to the trail. It was quite pleasant to see horses in their corrals as we passed.
A large part of yesterday's walk was on elevated tracks beside rivers and canals, and we saw several great blue herons, a muskrat swimming, and a turtle.
We had some trouble both with missing critical signs and veering off the trail, as well as with our guidebook and the iPhone VF waypoints not jiving with the signs we were following on the trail, so that was frustrating. Seemed like the signs were taking us away from the busier roads, but in doing that we were walking further! We made out ok by using a combination of signs, guidebook directions and the iPhone ap (which is our lifesaver).
One highlight yesterday was meeting three more pilgrims who actually speak English! That brings our total number of pilgrims met to 7 so far. Quite different than the Camino!
Our destination, San Miniato, is a "hilltop village", so that meant a lot of uphill climbing at the end of a hot day! We could not even face walking around the town to see the old church with its famous tower..our feet just couldn't do it. We did however have a wonderful meal of eggplant parmesiana, deep fried rabbit, bean casserole, and tiramisu, all washed down with some great red wine, for the grand total of E38. It was actually a "pelligrino" menu, and these pelligrinos sure appreciated it.
This morning we were awakened by a thunderstorm-it stopped by the time we left and we had a wonderful walk through remote countryside, with perfect Tuscan scenery...then the thunder storm caught up to us and we walked the last two hours in the middle of it-fortunately our rain ponchos served us well.
Tomorrow is an easy 12 km day to San Gimignano where we are having another rest day! It is another hill town, known for its many towers, so should be fun to explore.

Russ
Sent from my iPhone

Lucca photos

Altopascio, Tuscany

Yesterday was our rest day in Lucca, and we sure needed it. Our feet were ok for sightseeing though, so we walked the entire 4km wall which surrounds the old town. It was great to see so many locals out running and walking, and it obviously is a favorite place for them, much like our Dallas Road is in Victoria. The wall is actually wide enough to have a tree-lined road on top of it, thus it was built well to withstand cannons, etc over the years.
The old town inside the walls is quite interesting to explore, with shops ranging from high end designer clothing to little delis and cafes. We went inside a lovely old church that had been built specifically to encourage pilgrims on their way to Rome on the Via Francigena, so it had many beautiful Roman columns inside, the idea being that it gave the pilgrims a glimpse of what they would see in Rome at the end of their pilgrimage.
I really wanted to get our credentiales (pilgrim passports) stamped there, and was lucky enough to find a man who helped us out. We've been getting stamps (timbres in Italian) from every town we stay in, so it makes a nice keepsake.
We also climbed 200+ stairs to the top of a tower that has trees growing on top, quite bizarre looking but great views.
Both evenings we ate at a great little "trattoria" across the street from our b&b. Wonderful food and the menu was all in Italian which apparently is the sign of a good restaurant here! It was not a touristy place...seemed like everyone who came in knew each other and the owners and staff.
Today we were up early and on the walk by 7:30-cloudy and cool which was perfect. It was only 18 km to our destination, so we made it by 12:30. The scenery wasn't that interesting but we were expecting to be on busy roads for most of it, and were pleased that part of the time was spent on quiet smaller residential roads. This town is pretty small however, so we couldn't even find a bar or restaurant open. They take siestas here as they do in Spain. We have the window open in our hotel room and have been listening to dogs barking nonstop, and people yelling at them to shut up!! Russ has nicknamed this town Altoshithole!! Gave us a good laugh anyway.
I will post a few photos of Lucca, including the wall, the tower & a few food related shots!
Til next time...
Linda


Russ Haas
Sent from my iPhone

More pix - all iPhone