The Long Road Home

They got us up at about 3:30 AM to make a 6:45 AM flight up to Frankfurt, where we have an hour layover before we catch the flight back to Portland. We're scheduled to get into PDX at 11:20 AM. I hope to grab a moment in Frankfurt and post this for y'all when you wake up Wednesday. (Happy birthday, Jill!)

Photo: Assisi

Many of the kids were planning to stay up and get real tired so they could sleep on the planes. I slept a bit on the first plane and hope to get some snoring done on the second as well. I've never been able to sleep on planes or buses before this trip, but I've managed to get some solid snoozing done on the bus (and for an hour on the boat ride to Naples yesterday.)

Photo: Florence

Looking back, I have to say that Kate has gotten better and better at travel throughout our journey. She's also better about walking everywhere while we've been here. She's been an absolute trooper in the heat - and even the native Italians have been saying it's been extreme. Her working command of Italian is better than ever, and she's not shy about using it. She says "No!" to the hawkers of fake rolexes and purses with a finality I can only hope to emulate, and they leave her alone after that!

The other kids have similarly done great - they've all gotten along well with each other and with those around them. If they've missed home very much, they haven't shown it. But that's natural - there's been so much to see and do. Taking this trip has been good for their sense of independence and security in the world, in addition to showing them one of the great nations of Europe.

Photo: Fresco from the Vatican City

For myself, I'll be pleased if I walked off a few pounds over here. But with all the great pasta, pizza, and other yummies we've had, I'm not betting on it.

I'll post all this when we get home to Portland. Time for the last lap!


Photo: St. Anthony's in Padua

Pompeii - Sorrento - Capri

Pompeii - Sorrento - Capri

The smaller towns of Italy are much less developed than the cities, it seems. Or maybe it's just the major tourist cities. Where Florence and Venice and Rome had Internet cafes and Internet access in the hotels, that wasn't the case in Assisi, Termini, and for some unfathomable reason, in the last hotel we visited in Rome.

Photo: the forum in Pompeii with Vesuvio in the background

Then the lines for the Lufthansa flight from Rome to Frankfurt were so long that they were boarding our flight as we arrived at the gate, and the same in Frankfurt - so no time to buy an hour of wireless in the airports. Oh well, saves some money, and I'll just pick up from last time and string together all the posts I've written since then.

Photo: Sorrento view from the docks

Let's see - when I last posted, we were just leaving Rome for our extension trip to the southern part of Italy. We got on the road Monday morning and headed down towards Naples to visit Pompeii and then to stay on the Amalfi Coast near Sorrento.

Our Visit to Pompeii:

The trip to Pompeii was good - we had a nice lunch of Pizza and Salad just outside the ruins and then took our stroll through the ancient town. The ruins are remarkably well-preserved and worth the time to go and see them. But the town was redsicovered in the 1700s and was repeatedly plundered since. I expect that they keep the tourists out of the really significant and undisturbed areas.

One odd thing is that many feral dogs live in the ruins, and they are tolerated there. Most of the covered (and therefore shady) rooms had a dog sleeping through the heat of the day while we were there. But most of the ruins are open to the sky. We toured the theaters, markets, temples, and some homes. The Pompeiians actually had a pretty standard mediterranean idea for homes - an atrium surrounded by bedrooms and other rooms, and a garden out back. You can see the same basic design in use today in southern Italy and in California.

Photo: Kate in Pompeii

Of course, no visit to Pompeii would be complete without a visit to the elaborate Roman baths and to one of the many brothels. The brothel they have open to tourists has several frescoes showing explicit depictions of the services available to the ancient Romans. I remarked that it was the original graphical user interface - just point and er, um, click...

Then our Italian guide told us that the brothel was like McDonalds for Pompeiians, because the menu was painted on the wall. At that point at least 5 people simultaneously exclaimed "You want fries with that?"

Photo: The least pornographic Pompeiian brothel fresco

In fairness, I'll note that all the comedy came from the adults. The kids' responses ranged from silent to giggling to horrified. Kate told me she needed "extra strength mindsoap" after seeing that particular museum. The "EF" in EF Tours stands for "Education First" and I feel certain that education (of a certain sort, anyway) happened that day.

Sorrento and Termini:

After Pompeii, we went into the coastal town of Sorrento, bypassing Naples entirely (and after seeing it later, I'm just as happy about that. Naples is like the south side of Chicago with a dash of South Central Los Angeles, but without the friendly old world charm of those places.

Photo: Bouganvillea, Clock, and Kate in Anacapri

Sorrento, on the other hand, is the Carmel-by-the-Sea of the Amalfi Coast. We had a couple of hours to walk around and shop, which we did with gusto! Sorrento is all about lemons - they have these lemons the size of large grapefruit there, so you get lemon granita, lemon gelato, lemon on the pasta, lemon on the meat and fish, and of course, Limoncello to drink. And they have lemon t-shirts, lemons on the ceramics, lemon paintings - and of course, magnets, calendars, posters, and T-shirts of the Pompeiian brothel paintings! I would have bought a calendar, but poor Kate would probably have screamed and run off into the Appenines.

After our afternoon in Sorrento, we headed up the hills - and I do mean up! We took this little winding road up to the village of Termini, which is a couple blocks long and a block wide, perched up on the side of the mountains. We had a great balcony, great view of Capri, but no A/C and no Internet. Dinner was nice - fish and pasta with a cream and ham sauce, and the innkeeper was an English lady who came to visit and stayed. She's married to a local man, but she told us with pride that after 27 years, she still imports the hotel's tea from England.

Photo: Alexa Rodriguez, Aubrey Brown, and Kate Zurschmeide in their hotel room window in Termini

Isolo Capri

In the morning, we got up and took the bus back down into Sorrento and caught the big ferry to Capri. Capri is a small island, but part of the same mountain range that includes Termini. It's just a mile or two offshore. Once we got off the ferry we got right onto a small boat for the island tour. Like most limestone islands, the water has cut all kinds of grottoes and caves into the stone, and the boat was small enough to nose right into most of them, but not the famous "Blue Grotto" which can be reached only in a rowboat. There are many, many really truly expensive yachts all around Capri.

Photo: Anacapri view

After the boat ride, we rode the funicular cable car up to the town of Anacapri on the hill. It's a little breezier (but still sauna-hot) up there, so Kate and I declined the trip to the very hot botanical gardens in favor of a stop for lunch in the Ristorante Isodoro. The Aria Condizionata had much to offer us, and the Pizze we ordered were fabulous for 7 Euros each. Kate had Margherita (your basic cheese pizza) and I had Marinara, which lacks the cheese but includes slices of garlic, basil, and onion. Yummy! Then we went for gelato (of course) and I had the local Limone and Kate had mint chip.

But most everything else on Capri is even more expensive than Sorrento, which is more expensive than everywhere else, so apart from some Gelato and a birthday present for Jill, we just window-shopped.

Photo: Naples harbor - yes it was that hazy!

Our Last Night in Italy

About 2:30, we boarded a huge ferry for Naples and took a 2-hour ride into the city's harbor - the water changes distinctly from blue to brown in the harbor, and the haze was unbelieveable. In all the distance shots from Sorrento, Capri, and Naples, it looks like I'm shooting in fog, and that's just what the air was like! The saving grace was that we got right on the motorway and headed north back to Rome - we're actually getting some thundershowers - finally, after 11 days of steambath, the skies are ready to cut loose and cool us off a bit.

Our last hotel was very posh by Italian tourist hotel standards - It was the Hotel La Meridienne - and it was the second place with a pool. We had already purchased pool caps in Assisi, so we were all set. But we got in at 6:40, and for reasons known only to the management and the demons of hell itself, they close their pool at 6:00 PM. As the Italians say: Bastarde! And it means the exact same thing as in English!

But we were treated to a fantastic thunderstorm, with one lightning strike about 100 yards from the hotel. I happened to be looking out the open window when it hit and I about jumped out of my skin! Chris - my roommate - had his back to the window and said he saw the flash reflected off the wall behind me. The thunder was immediate and sounded like someone set off a bomb.

Photo: Aubrey Brown, Katie Platter, Megan Ferguson, Alison Hackelman, Shawna Hackelman, Kyle Smith, and Susan Smith on the boat tour of Capri

So, up to this point, this was supposed to be the last post from Italy, but for all its poshness, the Hotel Meridienne does not offer Internet access. Bastarde! So I'm posting this from Tualatin after a long journey and a longer sleep.

Photo: Kate with a tall ship in the background on the boat tour of Capri

Assisi, Spoleto, and back to Rome

Sorry for the lapse yesterday, but our hotel on the slopes of Assisi was without a functional Internet connection - but since it had a pool and a view worth a million Euros, we were happy. Not much time, so the photos are just here, not organized.

Photo: Our group walks down the main street in Assisi

We left Ponte di Piave in the morning and made a longish (6 hour) drive down to Assisi, saw a pottery demonstration (just glazing, really) and then up to the hillside village of Assisi - home of St. Francis. The basilica was beautiful, but we had only 1/2 an hour in the town. Still, a lot of "Pace e Bene" plates were purchased! I found a pair of egg cups that will see lots of use in our house.

The hotel overlooked the valley and the pool was cool - unlike we, who were forced to wear these goofy bathing caps that are now de rigueur throughout Europe. But when everyone's a geek, everyone's equal....

Next day we visited the medieval town of Spoleto, which bears a certain resemblance in spirit, if not architecture, to Ashland, Oregon. It's the home of a summer arts festival that draws people from all over Italy. Then it was back on the bus for an afternoon free in Rome. Some went to the catacombs, which seemed smart when we were in the roasting pan of the Piazza Espagna, but we had a nice walk through the whole Via Veneto neighborhood.

Photo: The Cathedral of St. Francis in Assisi

I spent my evening with the Miata Club of Rome, and will blog more about that later. For now, it's time for the bus. Everyone's well and looking forward to Sorrento and Capri!

Photos: The glazer at the ceramics factory,
an old doorway in Assisi, and the flying buttresses at the other church in Assisi - the one where St. Francis worshipped - not the cathedral dedicated to him after his death.

What's New on the Rialto?

Today was our day in the City of Venice, and we made good use of it.

Photo: View of the Grand Canal from the Rialto bridge

The day started early with a 5:45 wake up call and a bleary-eyed breakfast in the hotel - then on the bus (without my sunglasses, of course) for a 90-minute ride through the Veneto province to the shuttle boat station.

The weather this morning was overcast and about 75 degrees - a light breeze made it nice, but when the breeze died the air was as completely still as 95% humidity could make it. It was a steambath.

The ride out to Venice proper takes only about 15 minutes, and somehow the boat could be traveling about 20 knots and there was still no breeze up on the topdeck. Figure that out and earn yourself a Ph.D.

Photo: our tour guide Marina

Finally, the boat deposits you very close to St. Mark's square at the Gabriella Hotel (look it up - it's apparently very posh). We met our guide and took a short walking tour of St. Mark's square with a primer on Venetian history. Then we went into one of the leading glass houses (stone-throwing and throne-stowing optional) and watched a really cool (well, really quite warm) demonstration of traditional Venetian glass-blowing. The price of admission was a sales pitch about buying these 600 Euro wine service sets, which I politely declined (and you can all hear Jill breathe a heartfelt sigh of relief if you're real quiet right now).

Yet I did find a goodie for myself in Venice today -
substantially cheaper however. A set of proper string-back driving gloves. The funny part is that there are no cars in Venice, of course. I did take a lot of pictures of the amazing wooden boats they have, though.

Photo: Katie Platter, Megan Ferguson, and Megan Schucht

Of course, we all (except Chris Long, who promised his wife) took a gondola ride around the canals, which was a blast and well worth the E20 apiece. The gondoliers are masters of their art, and take the boats within millimeters of walls and other boats without a sound, except the "Ooay" they use to announce their presence around corners.

After our Gondola trip, we all collectively declined the Doge's
palace in favor of "getting lost in Venice" as Sarah put it. So
we noted our time and place of reunion and went off in search of Adventure and Shopping - and found plenty of each.

Kate and I went to a nifty little cafe for lunch and the spaghetti was handmade and cut - with a pomodoro sauce to die for. We took a big chunk out of the Venetian gelato supply as well. When the breeze blew, it was a lovely day. The sun wasn't out all the time and it could be pleasant. When the wind died, it was Sauna city.

Photo: Alexa Rodriguez, Kate Zurschmeide, Aubrey Brown

I was feeling deprived of caffeine (oddly enough, it is possible in Italy) and so I had three cappucinos through the afternoon. I parked Kate in an air-conditioned Burger King (But she had only a diet Coke, honest!) while I did some browsing through the bookstores and other sights of little interest to her.

One of us bought a nice silk tie, and it wasn't me. The mysteries of 14 year old fashion are opaque to me. But for E8, it was a
good deal, and in Fizzball Racing colors to boot!

Later in the afternoon we did succeed in getting totally lost, and almost crossed the Grand
Canal in the wrong direction, which would have imperiled
our meet-up with our group. But that was the goal, and I soon had us straightened out. The view from the Rialto towards St. Marks really is one of the greatest man-made shows on planet Earth.

Photo: Kyle Smith

The architecture of Venice is one of the highlights of the day. In any given square (or Campo, as they say - the only "Piazza" in Venice is that of St. Mark) - anyway, in any given place, you can see byzantine, gothic, baroque, and romanesque architecture, along with newer styles - but nothing is less than a couple hundred years old - or at least, that's the way it looks from the street or canal.

The others on the tour had a fine day as well, with plenty of shopping to go around. Those Venetian masks were a huge hit,
as was the Murano glass. And the gelato - Kate and I were not alone in our massive consumption of cioccolata and melone. I also had Limone and Pesca (Peach - not to be confused with Pesce, which would make pretty awful gelato, I think)

At the end of the day, we took the boat back and enjoyed the AC
in the bus for our ride home. Dinner was Risotto, followed by pork tenderloin and tira misu.
Tonight's blog entry is comparatively short, as I'm headed for my pillow early.
Tomorrow we get on the bus for a long ride to Assisi and a visit to the Basilica of St. Francis. I'm enthused about getting back into the small towns. I like Ponte di Piave, where we're staying.

Then we head south to end our trip around Naples, but stop off in Rome long enough to meet up with the Miata club again. We may be past the halfway mark, but there's plenty of life left in this trip, and everyone is doing well.

Photo: Daniel the glass blower shows off the pitcher he made as our demonstration.

Jill told me that I freaked some folks out mentioning that someone wasn't well - it's one of the folks from Texas, and she seems to have recovered nicely. Apart from some of the girls suffering from bug bites, we're all healthy and happy and having a good time.

Photo: Chris Long relaxes on the boat home after a long day of chasing kids.

Padua Affords Nothing But What Is Kind

"Padua affords nothing but what is kind," said William Shakespeare. Over 400 years later, that's still an accurate statement.

The plan for the day today was simply to drive from Florence to Ponte Di Piave, near Venice. Here we're staying at the Hotel Al Gabbiano (www.algabbiano.it). But it's really not that long of a drive, so we elected to kick in E5 apiece and take a side trip to Padua. Sarah Morris is great about making sure that we get to direct our own trip within the context of available time and distance. It costs E250 to bring a bus of tourists into Padua, but it was the bargain of the century.

(Photo: the main square and the "other" huge and amazingly gorgeous church - not St. Anthony's - in Padua)

Unlike Rome and Florence, Padua at this time of
year is practically deserted. It's a university town, and school's out for summer. There are a great number of pilgrims to St. Anthony's basilica, but other than that, we just about had the town to ourselves. It's a lovely classical Italian town, with narrow streets and interesting shops. I bought Jill a tea towel to ensure that I get a beating when I arrive home.

(Photo: a stream running through Padua)

The basilica is wonderful. They don't allow photography of any kind inside, so I have only the outside to show you. But inside there's art by Donatello and other great renaissance figures, and the combination of influences from the romanesque, gothic, and byzantine styles make it unique and visually striking. Also unlike the "big draw" cathedrals in Rome and Florence, pilgrims outnumbered tourists by a large ratio. It was almost silent inside because instead of chattering tourists, people were getting down to some serious prayer.

As a university town, Padua also has a selection of great bookstores. I didn't buy anything, but I was totally taken with the place. It's like Santa Cruz (where I went to school) as it would have been if the University was 1,000 years old.

Our great lunch food find of the day was the Pizza Cone - which is exactly what it sounds like. You order it like a pizza, and the guy takes a pre-cooked cone of pizza dough and fills it with your stuff - in my case, italian sausage, tomato sauce, and mozzarella cheese, and puts it in a little oven with a bunch of wire cone-holders. They rotate through the oven and in about 90 seconds your pizza cone comes out piping hot. It's the most fabulous way to have a slice of Pizza on the go.

(Photo: Aubrey Brown and Kate Zurschmeide on a tiny street in Padua)

Both groups of people who visited this place came back to the bus and said "We're going to open a franchise back home." Honestly, I think one of these could be a huge success on any college campus in America. I may work up a business plan.

As we collected to get back on the bus, I took more photos of beautiful old town Padua and there was a big fountain. Of course, it's still roasting hot here, and a dog was frolicking in the fountain and barking his fool head off at all the people gathered around, as if to say "Yo, dummies, get your butts in the water! It's lovely in here." So we all doffed our shoes and compromised by cooling our dogs in the fountain for a bit before we got on the bus for the
last ride of the day.

(Photo: Phil Platter)

As I said, we're at the Al Gabbiano in Ponte di Piave (look it up) - and it's a nice hotel. They've got free wireless internet included with your stay, so I'm blogging extra long tonight. They've also got a full bar, so I'm enjoying a Jack Daniels over ice. Some things from home are irreplaceable.

But some things are markedly better here in Italy.

There's a neighborhood grocery here in Ponte di Piave about a block from the hotel. I went there and it's about the size of a Circle K/Plaid Pantry/7-11, right?

So this tiny neighborhood corner grocery has got a
cheese and meat counter that would put the poshest - I mean the really poshest - grocery store in Portland, Seattle,
or the Bay Area to absolute shame. I bought
(for a total of 5 Euro) a couple wedges of the
most amazing locally produced cheeses you
never ate. One of them is called "Drunken" cheese - it's
a parmesan-type crumbly cheese, but more pungent and rich.
It's so-called because it's aged by soaking in the
fermentation sediment of the local wine.

Photo: Sarah Morris enjoys a gelato

Yeah, it's EXACTLY as good as it sounds.
It's unbelieveably rich and decadent.

Then I bought a wedge of this other cheese whose name I cannot remember,
but it's kind of a swiss or ementhaler-type flavor (gym socks) but creamier in texture, almost like a hard gouda. Yummy yummy yummy!

And the meats - they've got a dried smoked beef that's almost black, and lean as jerky. They've got smoked hams and sausage and salami and all kinds of good stuff. All at the ordinary corner grocery.

(Photo - Shawna Hackelman and Kim Essig)

Phil Platter bought some prosciutto and we got some nice crackers (with rosemary in them) and had a little antipasto out on the back deck before dinner.

Dinner was pasta bolognese, then veal in a nice sauce with roast potatoes, salad, and a shortbread with apricot jam on it. So we're all now happily enjoying our drinks of choice, checking our e-mail and getting ready for our 6 AM wake up call for the trip out to Venice tomorrow.

Ciao!

Kate Zurschmeide



Katie Platter and Megan Ferguson




Chris Long

Megan Schucht and Katie Platter

St. Anthony's

St. Anthony's

St. Anthony's and its square as you approach it

Pizza in Pisa

Today we went to the fabulous town of Pisa.
I had planned on spending the day by myself in
Florence, but Kate wanted me to come along,
and I'm sure glad I did! Pisa is a glorious and
fabulous town, and the cathedral there (with
the trademark leaning tower) is about the
nicest example of a cathedral I've ever seen.

Inside, the art is a combination of renaissance
and later works, with a strong eastern influence.
The painting of Christ the King behind the altar
is stunning. And the black/white marble stripes in the
layout are just gorgeous. The baptistry across the yard
is similarly amazing. They have someone who sings in
there and the acoustics are such that she'll sing two
long notes and before the echoes are done, you can
hear a third note created by the harmonics!

Pisa is a small town, so you don't have to walk far
for lunch and shopping. Apart from the 50,000
or so Nigerian guys walking around offering to sell
you a cheap "Rolex" every 2 minutes, it's great.

I think someone needs to give the Pisan and Florentine
street vendors a quick primer on "market saturation" -
I mean, if the vendors of fake rolexes equal the number
of tourists (and it's a pretty close number) and each
hundredth tourist *might* buy a watch, that's a lot
of watches chasing each interested tourist. Not a
great way to make a living, I think.

We had a fabulous lunch (I know, I'm saying that a
lot) and Kate had ricotta and spinach ravioli in
bolognese sauce, while I had Gnocchi quattroformaggio.
Topped that off with limonata and gelato. Yum!

Dinner back in Florence was Italian style pot roast
with mashed potatoes so creamy I thought it was
polenta until I tasted it. Yummy again!

Now we're posting in an internet cafe with soccer
on the TV. It's hot as a sauna in here - apparently
all of Italy is in one of those nasty heat waves where
they tell the elderly to stay inside. One member of our
tour group has stayed in the hotel the last two days
after being overcome by the heat. We're drinking
gallons of water and sweating it all back out again.

Hopefully it'll be cooler in Venice - but we've had a
small change in plans. Because the trip to Venice won't
take all day, but we'd arrive too late to head into the
city center, we've decided to make an unplanned stop
in Padua for most of the day - I'm all for it, as seeing
another great northern Italian city is just icing on the
cake for me.

(Note from Kate: During tonight's dinner, dad said that if we didn't stop in Padua, he'd wear a thong bathing suit in Venice. The mental images are too horrible to describe!)

We'll close the post with several shots from our tour group:

Megan Schucht

Alexa Rodriguez



Alison Hackelman

Aubrey Brown

Day 4 - >Rome to Florence

I woke up early today, so dashed off a few
more photos to the blog, and we got on the
road heading north - to Florence!

We passed through Umbria on the way up,
and it looks a lot like the Medford area -
plenty of old volcanic hills with ancient
towns perched on top. Then we passed into
Tuscany and it's all nice vineyards and
olive groves - and quite hilly.
Beautiful country.

We stopped for a bio break along the way
and the shop had cool italian license
plates - except instead of "Dave" and
"Susan" they said "Enzo" and "Giulia" - so
I bought one that says "Giulia" for my Alfa.
And I bought an 8C Competizione, but sadly,
only in 1/18 scale.

We pulled off again for lunch at an Autoexpress
- one of those rest stop places that spans the
freeway like a bridge. This is the Italian
equivalent of a truck stop with a Dennys - and
indeed there was a Burger King in the facility.
But I didn't come halfway around the world to
eat a frickin' Whopper, so Kate and I went to
the Ciao! restaurant in the skybridge. Ciao!
is like Dennys over here.

And yet, we had a couple helpings of the
Risotto with black olive paste and artichokes,
and for E4,30 apiece, it was as good as *any*
Risotto I've had in the nicest Italian restaurants
in Portland. And for another E3, I had a tennis
ball-sized hunk of fresh bufalo mozzarella,
straight out of the juice. So, yeah, it's true,
these people really do eat better than we do.

Then we got to Florence and walked our feet off.
We saw all the major piazzas and went in the Duomo.
We didn't go in the Uffizi gallery, which bums me
out, because tomorrow we're going to Pisa so we
won't get into the U this trip. But we had some
gelato and sweated our way through another day.
Dinner was Pesto on rigatoni and then a chicken
cacciatore with a spicy spinach side. Dessert
was a lovely tira misu.

Today happens to be the Feast of St. John the
Baptist, who is the patron saint of Florence.
So they had a big soccer match, people getting
all crazy all over town, and then a fireworks
show in the evening. We sat out on the roof
of our hotel and watched. It's absolutely
magical to watch the fireworks and then
look over and see the cathedral dome.

Kate is enthused about going to Pisa, and
asked me to come along. I didn't plan to
go, but she asked so I'm going. It's also
great to spend the time with her. I bought
her a little fan in the main square of Florence today.

So, next post will surely include about
a million photos of various members of
our tour group holding up the leaning
tower, so be prepared.