Be Back Whenever

Italy

11/2023 Rome and Home

Nepal is exactly halfway around the world from CO (12 time zones) so we could go east or west to get home. We found a repositioning cruise from Rome to NYC for cheap; that made the decision. We finished the Nepal tour and headed to Rome for 5 days before boarding the cruise and setting sail for NYC with planned stops in Naples, Livorno, Cannes, Barcelona, Cadiz, Lisbon, the Azores, Bermuda before finally disembarking in NYC.

We awoke to news of an earthquake in western Nepal around midnight. Mark and Susan slept thru it but Jutta felt it, heard the building creaking, and couldn’t go back to sleep. We headed out at 7 AM to beat the early morning Kathmandu traffic. Kathmandu International Terminal might win for the most chaotic airport we’ve been in.

The airport – where to begin?? Bhaskar dropped the three of us off and we couldn’t even figure out where the lines were to get thru security to get into the terminal building to check-in. We finally found the screen to tell us we needed the B line but Jutta needed to go to the A line. The line was huge! We figured it would take forever but only took 15 minutes. The one long B line broke into 2 security lines just to get into the terminal. After we showed our tickets to prove we were flying, we went through security. The mass chaos is partly caused by people seeing their friends off at the terminal.

After #1 security line, we were in the terminal and had to find the correct Qatar line – flight 649 or flight 653? Thank heavens Mark is tall enough to see signs over everyone’s head! We found the correct Business class line, checked in, got boarding passes, wound our way through the other lines and gaggles of people following the “Immigration” signs and rode our first escalator in 2 weeks after showing our boarding pass at the bottom of the escalator. The disorganized Immigration line at the top of the escalator took 13 minutes.

No gate yet but we went to security #2 which took 16 minutes in a very illogical set up. This one was belts and shoes off, computers, etc. After we cleared security #2 and put our shoes back on, we had our boarding pass stamped to prove we’d been through security #2 and then showed it to some guy 10 feet away in order to get into the gate area. Full employment! 4 people in front of us missed the stamp and had to return to the stamp guy.

Still no gate. We hung out by the TV monitor and met an American woman who was also looking for the gate. She’s from Fort Collins – Police department in Homeless Intervention. She’d done a trek to Everest base camp for 14 days.

We finally had a gate right where we were standing. When the boarding process began (no microphones, just loud voices that were not loud enough), no busses showed up to take us to the plane. We finally got to the plane and even that wasn’t organized. Told us all to line up at the steps at the back door but when we got to the bottom of the steps, that guy saw our Business Class seat and sent us to the front door. Then the flight left about an hour late because of heavy traffic. Huh?? Only one runway at this airport made for a short taxi to takeoff.

The flight landed at Doha about 45 minutes late. We went through security again to move from the A gates to the C gates but only belts taken off. They didn’t care about computers or phones. BTW … there is no one in Doha airport at 2 PM in the afternoon. Rome … here we come in search of a laundromat!

What did we do in Rome? Visited 8 different churches, ate gelato at least 5 times, bought Mark new tennis shoes after he tore the soles on the Nepal hike (Finding large sizes is hard.), did the laundry, bought toothpaste and visited the Italian version of the dollar store. John O and Sue from FC joined us in Rome before we all set sail on the Norwegian Cruise Line Breakaway.

We had perfect weather for the port visits until we got to the Azores. The wind was too bad for the ship to dock. This resulted in 6 sea days in a row from Lisbon to Bermuda.

Mount Vesuvius looming over Naples
Italian vineyards in the Fall
Sue H. and Mark in the hill town
Cafe lattes are a great way to use a cafe toilet and get a caffeine fix at the same time.
Cannes was ready for Christmas
Cadiz, Spain waterfront. I was enjoying the sun on our walk.
Another spot to enjoy the sun.
Monkfish! I have no idea how to cook one.
Cadiz fish market shrimp
More fish in Cadiz
On our stop in Lisbon we took the city bus to Belem just to buy Pasteis de Belem – custard tarts. The cafe has redecorated and gotten way more organized since 2002.
La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona
La Sagrada Familia might be completed by 2030.
Watching the port activity was almost as much fun as seeing the cities. This crane pulled up containers about every 3 minutes.
Port tasting in Lisbon. We didn’t know we enjoyed good port until we lived in Potugal for 3 months.

Our port of disembarkation was New York City. We crawled out of bed at 3:50 AM after the captain said we’d sail past the Statue of Liberty about 4 and joined other passengers whose cabins were also on the wrong side of the ship. It was COLD and WINDY!

First, the ship passed under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in New York harbor at 4:30 AM.
Lady Liberty at 4:45 AM. We can only imagine what immigrants felt when they finally saw her after a long, uncomfortable trip.
New York City

Everyone asks – How was the cruise? Our answer: This was the first large ship we’ve sailed on (4000 passengers) and it is the last large ship we’ll sail on, voluntarily. Too many people, not enough space to find a quiet place. This particular sailing for NCL was understaffed, food was average at best, the buffet coffee was undrinkable, but it was cheap for 16 days at sea with unlimited drinks (part of the package through Costco). The port stop in Barcelona was long enough to figure out we want to return for a week or so, we tasted port in Lisbon, and we arrived back in the U.S. safely. One of the day tours reminded us that we really don’t enjoy touring with groups of people.

Summary – great 2.5 month trip with only 1 severely delayed flight, good friends, fun places, and a few stories to tell.

11/14 The rest of the trip!

The overnight ferry from Palermo went pretty well. Lots of people use the ferry with their dogs and we met quite a few dogs as we wandered the halls.  We headed to Pompeii via train to Naples from the port. 

Pompeii is a HUGE site. We highly recommend NOT visiting Pompeii in the summer. Even though the temps were only in the 70’s, the humidity was high and there’s not much shade. According to our B&B owner, at least 2 people die every year from heart attacks. Mark and I are pretty sure more people than that break or sprain an ankle on the site.

All of the devastation was caused by Mount Vesuvius exploding. Only about 2000 people died from the heat and ash that buried the city. Excavations keep lots of archaeologists busy!
The forum where everyone gathered. This is the most visited part of Pompeii and walking around here is pretty easy. Mt. Vesuvius is in the background
A city street. You can see why walking is quite interesting!
The frescos are amazing. You find them in a variety of houses just wandering around.
Grand fountain
Mount Vesuvius in the background framed by one city gate.

After Pompeii, we headed off to Capri right at the end of the season (ends on 10/31). Many shops and a few hotels were already closed, not to reopen to around Easter.  Restaurants and bars also close for the winter and workers head off for 3-4 months of holiday.  Several waiters and owners told us they work 12-14 hours every day from Easter until the end of October and are more than ready for a break.

Closed for the season. Capri is full of high end shops which we did not patronize!

80% of visitors to Capri are day trippers and we can believe that! Cruise ship tour groups and “regular” tour groups crowded the center of Capri every day; when evening came, we pretty much had the island to ourselves. 

View of Capri Bay from the main square
On Halloween, the local kids went trick or treating to the local businesses. This King Charles spaniel helped greet the children.
The streets are VERY narrow in Capri. Special trucks pick up garbage, deliver goods. This one is a medical ambulance.
St. Michele Church in Anacapri with a tile floor painted with the story of Adam and Eve. It’s now a museum and not a church. You can see the walkway around the floor to walk around the floor.
We think the apple tree in Adam and Eve became a lemon tree in this floor. Lemons are all over Capri!

Rome was our last city. How do you get to Rome from Capri??  Not easily, if you’re not with a tour group.

  • Walk from your hotel to the funicular in Capri to get to the port.
  • Buy a ticket and take the ferry to Sorrento (about 30 Minutes).
  • Walk or take the elevator (1 euro) UP from the port of Sorrento to the main town.  Best 1 euro you can spend!
  • Walk to the train station, dodging tour groups.
  • Take the local train to Naples – think 24 stops and 50 minutes, standing the whole way unless you luck out and find a seat.
  • Take the highspeed train to Rome and figure out how to get to where you’re staying once you’re in Rome. We opted for a taxi to our AirBnB.

We arrived in Rome on November 1, All Saints Day, and a holiday in many countries. Rome was packed with people for the weekend but calmed down come Monday.

A carved foot from 200 AD
Sunday, we went to St. Peter’s to visit the church and ended up seeing Pope Francis giving his blessing – in Italian!
One of the many churches we saw. We met an Italian TV personality in Palermo (She does shows about important houses in Italy.) and she told us to stop in any church when we see it open. You never know when it will open again! So many churches are plain and boring on the outside but when you walk in – WOW!

To get home, we flew from Rome to Frankfurt, spent the night, and took the direct United flight to Denver with the crazy lady sitting directly in front of Mark.  Other than punching the call button ALL the time, ignoring her lap baby and 5-year old, and yelling at the flight attendants, she was your normal passenger.  Denver’s finest met her when she got off the plane and United supervisors were everywhere!  Mark told the flight attendants to call him if they need any backup for her behavior!

11/4 – A day in Erice

Erice is a tiny village perched on a mountain top above Trapani. You can reach it either by road or by cable car. We opted for cable car and spent a nice day wandering around the little town, losing our way in the lanes and streets with no names. Why would you want to know where you are??

We visited the obligatory church. This one had an amazing carved ceiling.
The truck fit, but barely. The streets were all paved in stones of various patterns. This was an easy one to walk on. Some of the others – not so much!
The view from Erice looking down!
Police station working hours. I guess you can’t report a crime any other time of day.

10/22 – More ruins in Selinunte

We booked a driver to take us from Agrigento to Trapani because we wanted to stop at Selinunte ruins and it’s impossible to do with public transport. Salvo picked us up about 9:30 and off we went through olive groves and vineyards. Salvo was full of good info about olive oil industry and answered our various questions about schools, olive oil, bridges, etc. in Sicily. Did I mention he looked like George Clooney, too?

Selinunte is on the coast and is packed with visitors in the summer when tourists come to spend a week or 2 or 3 at the beaches here. In October, not so much! We had the grounds pretty much to ourselves except for 2 tour groups who used a bus to move between the 2 majors parts of the park. We walked down the long hill and back up the hill to the Acropolis.

Our walk started here at the only rebuilt temple on the complex.
Every archaeological park seems to have piles of extra “parts” just in case you need to build another temple.
Just a few more extra parts
The temple at the Acropolis was destination #2. It wasn’t as far as it looks to walk.
View from the Acropolis toward the Mediterranean Sea
Use of a spell checker would go far. Another place I could spell my proofreading services.

10/19 – Agrigento

As we’ve traveled around Sicily, we’ve made some observations. Here goes!

  • Low to the floor beds!  5 out 6 beds have been ridiculously low to the ground.  Only one bed has had box springs. We wonder what someone who grew up here thinks the first time he/she sees a U.S mattress and box springs on a high bed frame??  Mark says all the pillows are flat, too!
  • “Transition” coats – We learned this term from a German friend who says there’s no good English translation for the German word but it amounts to a light Fall jacket.  We see people in puffy coats all the time; meanwhile, Mark has his shorts on and Susan is wearing capris and no jackets.  Sicilians don’t seem to be very fond of A/C or drafts either. Scarves are everywhere and not for decoration.  One of the ladies working in the Poste today had a heavy scarf around her neck. We couldn’t even tell any A/C might be on!
  • Signage in National Archaeological Parks or the lack thereof – After visiting 3 of these sites, we’ve determined no extra money is spent on signage to guide visitors around the sites in a logical or even illogical order.  One site had a pretty good map; one had a barely useful map; and one had none at all!  The ticket guy just shrugged when I asked for one. Why would I need a map? A few arrows along the way would help visitors decide if the track leads someplace – like to a temple – or if it’s just a track made by visitors? When they do have a “path”, let’s just say some of the paths would never quite be approved by the U.S. NPS!
  • Laundry  … just typical European washing machines – The wash and rinse process takes a minimum of 90 minutes. Why do our clothes need rinsed and spun 3 times??
  • Toilets – our grades for public toilets are based on 4 things: toilet paper, soap, water, and a hand dryer/paper towels. We haven’t found many that score 4/4. We carry TP and a hand towel with us along with hand sanitizer.
Agrigento is known for the Valley of the Temples, a large complex of important Greek/Roman/Byzantine sites. We walked all over the complex for about 3.5 hours and 4 miles in the sun!
Temple of Juno at Valley of the Temples
Walking up the hill to Temple of Juno. Toilets and a snack bar were at the bottom of this hill.
Must need a snack back in town after the Temple day. The cannoli shells are baked but empty when you order. The baker fills the shell when you order to insure freshness.
Later in the day, we visited the Cathedrale which was magnificent. The path we chose involved walking UP about 200 steps to wind our way through town to the top of the hill because where else would a cathedrale be built?
Mark walked up the inside of the church to get the view from near the painted ceiling. He didn’t go higher when he heard thunder and saw black clouds.
Sure enough! It poured while we had a drink on an outdoor patio. Thank heavens the umbrella over the table kept us dry.
Some steps with a few local cats hanging out!

10/19 – Ragusa

Ragusa is another hill city. It was destroyed by an earthquake in 1692; rebuilt up high but the aristocrats liked the lower part better. They rebuilt there, separated by a valley. Lower Ragusa is the most scenic part as far as tourists go.

We took the bus from Modica to Upper Ragusa (only place the bus goes); found the local bus to Lower Ragusa, guessing where to get off. The streets are narrow, winding, and all UP or DOWN. Lots of houses appear abandoned. You could buy one if you’re in the mood to deal with Italian bureaucracy for the sale and then all the workers to renovate it.

Of course, to return to Modica, we did the whole thing in reverse. Riding buses in Sicily would be MUCH easier if any of the bus stops happened to have a posted schedule on it or even show the bus numbers. In Ragusa, the bus route number was handwritten on white cardboard and placed in the bus window. The schedules must be passed from generation to generation!

Lower Ragusa from the bus as we drove to upper Ragusa
Duomo dome above the buildings in the narrow street
Narrow street to walk up to the Duomo.
For some reason, the duomo doesn’t sit flush with the piazza. It’s at an angle to the piazza which is on a hill! Notice the steps UP to the entrance to the church.
Table with legs on a block to level the table
When the tables sit on a sloped piazza, the only solution is to use blocks to make the tables level. Quite clever!

10/19 – Modica

Modica is a hill town in Sicily, famous for making chocolate! When the word “hill” is used to describe anything in Sicily, you can count on MANY hills and steps to move around the town. Modica is a lovely town; if you visit, make sure you check the location of your B&B or hotel. You could find yourself lugging suitcases up MANY steps to find the correct street!

Panorama shot from the overlook at the top of Modica. We took a little train around the city to get up high.
Upper and lower Modica with the cathedral. All the buildings are approximately the same color.
Church of San Pietro – 23 steps to get to the door. These steps are a popular place for local teenagers to hang out in the evening.
“Steps to nowhere” or up to the next street through the arch.
Modica chocolate tour factory. They make it without any added milk products. It’s pretty yummy! The tour had plenty of samples including a small sample of Italian hot chocolate. It tasted like melted chocolate to me – quite thick.
We saw some amazing bridges! This is the view from the balcony of our AirBnb in Modica. The train station is below the bridge and only entailed a short uphill walk pulling our carry-on sized suitcases.
The other great part about our balcony was watching the parking adventures below. Lines are optional and turning on the blinkers seems to make parking OK wherever you put the car.

10/14 Siracusa

Sicily is an island – check.  Sicily has LOTS of cactus (prickly pear, cholla) growing – check.  So what’s the climate like??  The island would make you think humid and the cactus makes me think dry.  You are correct on both counts.  The land is pretty dry, supporting the cactus, but lots of citrus orchards dot the island.  The air on the other hand is quite humid, at least by Colorado standards. 

We’ve had great weather with very little rain, lots of sun, and some major wind thrown in.  My hair has been pulled up many days because the air is so humid that when we’re in the sun, my hair is wet from all the sweat!  I’ve given up on curling the hair and just use tons of hair spray to keep it out of my face!

We spent 5 nights in Siracusa, staying on the island of Ortygia. At this time of year, abundant tour groups appeared every day in the narrow streets. By night, we had the streets pretty much to ourselves and were on a first name basis with the owner of Gusto, a gelateria!

View from our apartment in the Jewish Quarter of Ortygia.
Greek walls in Duomo walls
The duomo was built on the site of a Greek/Roman temple and incorporates the columns into the church walls.
A column or two are visible on the outside of the Duomo.
In contrast to the Duomo, this Basilica was built to our Lady of Lacrime in the 1990’s, I think. This pointy roof is visible from all over the city.
The archaeological park is the big attraction in Siracusa with a Roman theatre and a Greek theatre (this one). We wandered all over, up and down, waiting for the rain to come. The sky looks blue here but it quickly turned to black!
The day at the Greek theater Garmin told me I walked 37 flights of steps!
This board is the Funeral announcement board for Funeral masses and memorial commemorations.
As far we can tell, Michelin is a sponsor of this church – maybe some renovations??
Susan holding a wine galss.
I needed some prosecco after we got caught in a rain storm!

10/10 Blowing away on Mt. Etna

We wanted to see Mt. Etna and booked a day trip with a driver and guide, John Franco. He was knowledgeable about volcanoes as well as about local food. Mt. Etna has multiple calderas. We went to the South side which is set up for tourists – parking lot with shops and food, a cable car to the top which stopped a few times on the way up; a bus at the top to take us farther up the volcano where the guide walked us inside the caldera. He tried to educate us along the way but the wind was slo strong no one could here the guide.

All the guys working up on the mountain looked like they could be employed in Colorado ski resorts – down jackets, ski hats, scarfs.

Etna is rarely not windy; the day we went the wind was howling! The mountain guide cut the walk short when he decreed the wind was too heavy to walk safely. I’d been thinking the same thing for about 15 minutes!

The mountain was in the clouds when we got to the top. This rock is indeed helping to hold the little building in place!
Lava fields
Lava fields inside the caldera. The lava was warm in a few places and we could smell the sulfur when the wind blew in the “correct” direction.
Large boulder holding building down.
The wind was still howling at this point but John Franco snapped a picture. Thank heavens I had a hood to keep my ears relatively warm. Mark passed on the shorts for this excursion but lots of guys had them on and did not look very happy!

10/10 On to Taormina

Stop number 2 in Sicily was Taormina and we took the Interbus from Catania – not a bad ride for about an hour and only cost $7.50 each. Taormina is a very touristy town set on a hill with beaches below. At this time of year, it was crowded during the day with cruise ship gaggles and tour groups. At night, it was a little more calm. We stayed in a VRBO right outside the old town, making for a nice walk every day. Yes, we got at least 10,000 steps every day and many of them were on hills and actual steps to move between levels.

This was the view from our patio. They guess it was a bath but no one can find the source of the water. Watching traffic go by on a hill, stop on a hill, double park, blow horns was good entertainment.
The Ionian Sea.
Aperol spritzer and an arancini (rice ball with various fillings mixed in)
Seafood is huge here, given that Sicily is an island. We ate seafood risotto and seafood pasta one night. Yes, it was yummy!
Italian breakfast – granite (crushed ice, lemon and a bit of sugar) and a brioche. The pink one is a strawberry granite
Panorama of the Greek theater, a mere 2000 years old, with Mount Etna looming in the background
We were at the top of the Greek theater where you can see Mount Etna really well on a clear day. It’s not very far away!

10/9 – Bus riding lessons in Sicily

We’re in Sicily using public transport to get around the island.  Sunday, we needed to go from Taormina to Siracusa and decided to use Interbus again. With no direct bus except at 8:15 AM, we had to take the bus from Taormina to Catania and then take another bus to Siracusa.  Well, we learned one thing!  Check where the FIRST stop is for the bus on a busy route and board the bus there, if possible. 

We took Bus 1 all the way to the aeroporto in Catania, knowing that a bus goes to Siracusa from there.  Little did we know that the bus route actually starts in the middle of Catania.  By the time Bus 2 arrived at the airport, it was very full on a Sunday at 12:40.  (We knew this was possible since the bus lady said the bus was full when I asked about a departure time.)  Given that the next bus to Siracusa didn’t leave until 2:40 PM, we REALLY wanted on this one – didn’t want to hang out at the aeroporto for 2 more hours.

We did our best European/Italian “what’s a line?” act!  Mark took the bags to put them under the bus in the luggage compartment – it’s all self-service – while Susan stood as close to the curb as she could when the bus approached.  She was the third person on the bus when the driver muttered to the lady in front of her something in Italian.  I could tell by her expression it probably translated to “The bus is full”. I asked him in English and the driver replied, “I have only 2 seats”. (The lady needed more than 2.)  I quickly said, “We are 2” and motioned to Mark to push through the crowd at the door and get on the bus! 

It worked!  We were a bit squished for the 1 hour ride and Mark had to make some young lady move her purse out of a seat but we had seats and left everyone else to curse the Italian bus ticketing system and maybe us, too.

Mount Etna spewing smoke
We could see Mount Etna spewing smoke while we waited for a bus at the Catania airport.

10/9 – Catania, Sicily

We flew to Catania from Munich on an uneventful flight. The luggage people were as slow as Denver getting our bags! We figured out the Alibus, took it to town and walked to our B&B on narrow little sidewalks along streets with no street signs. Google maps was our friend at 7:15 PM as it was getting dark!

Catania is every stereotype you’ve heard of Sicily – old, lots of graffiti, and garbage in the streets – but it is pretty inexpensive to eat and drink in the neighborhoods and we had some good food during our 2 days here. Aperol spritzers were 4 euro and beer was 1 euro!

One day we went to the WWII Museum to learn about the British, American and Canadian invasion of the island. I would not have wanted to be one of those soldiers dealing with all the hills/mountains, heat and humidity.

Duomo square in Catania
The Duomo in Catania. We gave up counting how many churches we passed walking around the city.
Fish head with lie in fish market
Catania has a large fish market near where we stayed. This guy still had the fishing line attached to him while they cut him up.
Plates of oyster and half lemons
We’re not oyster fans but, if you are, you can buy plates fresh at the market. These are large oysters and there were also plates of smaller ones.
Pasta and seafood in a paper wrapper
This was dinner one night – seafood and pasta cooked in a paper wrap. It was yummy – and we assume fresh!
If you don’t want fish, you can always buy a chicken to cook.
Greek theater in middle of Catania
Greek theatre in the middle of Catania. Houses are built into the walls and the Church of San Francis of Assisi is just behind it. The numbers and directions to follow on the walking tour left a bit to be desired. This time of year is pretty slow for tourists. We had it almost to ourselves.
Just a few extra columns laying around.
Screen on a window attached with concrete
This is one way to have screens on your window! The top one is a “real” screen fitted in the window. The bottom screen is attached with concrete to the screen and wall.

More Rome 10/16

I forgot to add a story about not paying attention when you’re walking – no, not me!  At the street corner near our apartment in Rome, the city was repainting the cross walks on the very narrow streets.  A few barricades were set up, an orange truck was parked, 2 guys were painting .. you get the idea.  Everyone was walking around the wet crosswalk, the guys and the truck except for one man, clearly an Italian.  He was about to saunter right into the wet white paint when the Italian workers started yelling at him and waving an arm.  Did this get his attention? Not at first but ,finally, and he managed to avoid the wet paint and paint buckets and sprayers.  I would love to understand the Italian that came out of the painters’ mouths at that point as they shook their heads and looked dumbfounded that the guy was so clueless.

Then I forgot to put this panorama of the line around St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday of the audience.  It’s a bit hard to see but the lines were on both sides of the square – one for individuals and one for tour groups.

panorama line at St. peters

Lines on both sides of St. Peter’s Square for admission to the audience area

5 days in Rome

Rome … the eternal city or so the saying goes.  I’ll preface this posting by saying we’ve been to Rome four or five times at various times of the year – May, June, January and now October.  January was definitely the least busy as far as visitors go.  We thought May and June were busy but this visit tops them all.  Rome was crammed with visitors from all over the world.  We heard people speaking every language we can identify and a few we can’t.

The prior visits also mean we’ve been to all the “must see” locations – Coliseum, Forum, Vatican Museum, St. Peter’s, Pantheon – and didn’t HAVE to see them again.  Now on to our stories …

We both love seeing St. Peter’s Basilica. The size is awe inspiring, both inside and out, and the sculptures and altars are amazing. I always stop and consider how much time and money went into building it.

rome st peters at night

St. Peter’s Square is nice and quiet at night

One night we walked up to St. Peter’s Square at night and enjoyed the quiet.

The next afternoon we wandered past about 1:30 PM on the way back to our apartment and the line to get in was the longest we’ve ever seen – wrapped around the square clockwise.  We can’t figure out where all the people are coming from!  I would have been upset if that day was my only chance to see St. Peter’s and I had to stand in line for an hour or more.

Part of the problem is that everyone has to go through a metal detector and at any one time they may only have 4 or 5 open. The line moves pretty fast but we had no intention of standing in that line.

We looked on the Vatican website to find out that St. Peter’s opens at 7 AM. It seemed like such a good idea – be at St. Peter’s when it opened at 7 AM Wednesday morning.  To be fair to the Vatican, their website did say the Pope has an audience on Wednesday at 10 but no mention of any restrictions to St. Peter’s.

St. Peter's Square empty

The square was completely empty except for security before the Pope’s audience. Check out the little truck going down the steps of St. Peter’s.

We woke up at 6:30 AM, dressed, walked over to the Vatican just to see a long line, lots of Carabinieri, seats set up, bomb sniffing dogs, etc. We joined the line on the right side of the square, believing the Vatican website that says St. Peter’s opens at 7 AM. After standing in line for a bit, we noticed that the line wasn’t moving and no one was going into the church. And did I mention the tour groups showing up? As in lots of tour groups who were all funneled to their own line on the left side of the square.

The vendors were out in force selling rosaries, medals, whatever. They trolled the lines selling their goods. We checked the boundaries of the Vatican and they are clearly selling in Rome – no restrictions, it appears!

When the line moved at 7:40, we all were sent to a line a metal detectors (8 or 9 of them lined up) and saw people running to the chairs after they cleared security.  We went through the metal detectors, slowly sauntering our way nearer to the church. We finally asked some nice Italian police what was going on? Turns out the Pope was saying Mass or having his audience (a bit lost in translation) outside at 10 AM (it’s now about 8 AM) and St. Peter’s will not open until after the audience – about noon or 1 PM.  Since we had no intention of sitting for 2 hours to wait for the audience to even start, we bailed out. It explained why everyone was running – they wanted seats up front!

rome crowd Wed for audience

This was the line along the side of St. Peter’s that we went against to NOT go to the audience.

Getting OUT of St. Peter’s was just as hard as getting in – even following the EXIT signs. They led us to a long line of people who wanted in while we wanted out.  We finally made it out – lots of “Excuse me’s” -and stopped at McDonald’s for coffee and an Egg McMuffin. That McDonald’s may be the safest place in Rome – across the street from a Polizia station and the police all get their coffee and sweets in McDonald’s!

One idea for the Vatican – assign someone to keep the website updated with a few more details about opening and closing times!

St. Peter's Square at 7 AM is quiet when it's not audience day.

St. Peter’s Square at 7 AM is quiet when it’s not audience day.

This was the line at 9 AM when we came out of St. Peter’s.

The next day we tried the St. Peter’s thing all over again. This time, the line was just 20 minutes long to get through the metal detector at 7 AM.  One disadvantage of coming early is many priests saying Mass all over the church so some sections were blocked off. The basilica is still impressive, especially at 7:00 A.M.  when not many tour groups are around.

Again, we had coffee at McDonald’s and this time we sat by three American seminarians and eavesdropped on their conversations about coffee/espresso/café Americano and the seminars and shadowing they needed to do. I wonder what they would have done if I asked them what they are studying in Rome?

Keep reading … There’s more to come!

A week in Lucca, Italy

Lucca was a great place to hang out for a week – walled city, quiet or as a quiet as an Italian city can be.  Very few cars have permits to drive within the walls so most of the “traffic” problems occur when walking in narrow streets with pedestrians, bicyclists, dog walkers with small and large dogs, baby strollers, delivery trucks and the occasional car.  We saw one Belgian car driving down the main shopping street.  The passenger looked terrified, chewing on her hands.  We’re not sure whether they were supposed to be on that street but the Italians just went with the flow, getting out of their way.

lucca city scene

One of the many bell towers in Lucca on churches

lucca truck squeezing thru narrow street

This truck did manage to squeeze through but he rubbed the scarves outside the shop along the way.

The weekend before we got to Lucca, the Rolling Stones performed outside of the walls in one of the open areas.  We were told the city was crazy with 60000 people and all the hotels and restaurants were completely sold out.  One lady told us that Lucca negotiated for 2 years to get the Rolling Stones to perform there.

The walls are not what we think of when we say walls. These are very wide – wide enough for cyclists, walkers, runners, a park or two, benches, picnic tables.  The Italian life in Lucca seems to swirl around and on the walls.

lucca susan on walls

Susan standing on the walls of Lucca while we were out walking.

Lucca city walls

Lucca city walls

Lucca Wall scene

People walked, ran and biked all along the 4 km. of walls.

Lucca Gate

This is one of the gates into the city. The walls are surrounded by parkland requiring regular mowing.

We rented an apartment via AirBnB in Lucca and it was on the ground floor. It is ALSO across the tiny little street from a Bicycle Rental shop that, unknown to us, rents tandem bikes as well as regular bikes.  This part of the city is pedestrian except for bicycles and cars and trucks with special stickers. You can imagine the chaos at times – people, baby carriages, bikes, tiny cars, delivery trucks, store displays, you get the idea.

I have the front window open while I work on the blog and we heard a crash of metal and 2 girls laughing.  They had American voices and talked to the bike store lady.  Turns out they’d rented a tandem bike and were trying to ride it.  The shop worker gave them a few pointers and off they went again only to return in about one minute and tell the shop owner “We give up on the tandem bike. We can’t ride with all these people around . There are too many lives at stake!”

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A day trip to Pisa – the tower still leans

It was a Pisa sort of day and only 25 minutes from Lucca by the regional train.  After walking to the Lucca train station, we needed to buy a ticket.  Thank heavens, these ticket machines will actually print out a ticket!  A whole bunch of us got on the train we thought we needed and a nice female train driver came to tell us that they had to switch the train to a different track and we have to get off while they do it.  She kept apologizing but it was no big deal and shortly the train switched tracks and showed up again!

Lots of small villages dot the train tracks along with patches of tomatoes and beehives. Towers and big houses, old and new, could be seen in the distance. After arriving in Pisa and NOT buying a return ticket when there were no lines (more later), we walked to the Piazza de Miracoli following Google Maps and the Lonely Planet printed directions.  We would have lost a bet because no signs were posted at the train station or at a big plaza giving any indication which of many streets we should choose to walk down.  The first pedestrian sign pointing to the Tower wasn’t until we crossed the Arno River.

pisa tower sign

This is the first directional sign we saw and we were pretty close to the Tower.

Our route took us across the river and past the U. of Pisa Law School and more churches than we could count.  We stopped in one church for the obligatory visit. (No idea which church it was.)  We knew the Leaning Tower was close when the number of tourists increased dramatically as well as the number of gift shops and restaurants.

pisa Arno river

River Arno in Pisa

tower in the distance

A street scene as we got closer to Piazza di Miracoli and the Leaning Tower

The Duomo, Tower, and Baptistry are beautiful especially in the sun.  They all were bright white and, miraculously, only the Duomo still has some scaffolding on it.  Mark decided we should check out the W/C.   It cost .80 E  and the line for the Women’s room was really long – Surprise! –  but Mark just whipped in and out of the Men’s.  Lots of tour groups and individual tourists, like us, so I can’t imagine what it’s like in the summer.

Pisa Duomo

Pisa Duomo.

leaning tower and duomo

The Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Duomo.

Pisa Baptistry

The Baptistry described as a big cupcake.

Pisa leaning tower

Leaning Tower of Pisa. We didn’t do any of the pics holding up the tower.

susan with tower

Susan in front of the Duomo and Leaning Tower

We took pictures and picked up a walking map of Pisa from Tourist Information before we wandered our way through the city and the Piazzas. We didn’t visit the insides of any buildings nor climb the tower.

pisa big fancy building

This building was in one of the piazzas on the walk back to the train station.

The next challenge was getting a ticket to go back to Lucca.  All of the ticket machines in the Pisa station will only issue paperless tickets so even many of the Italians had to get out of the machine line and go use the ticket office line.  Of course, the non-Italians were all out of luck!  We queued up in the LONG ticket line, starting out with 4 ticket sellers; reduced to 3 when one of them served a guy and hung his “Closed” sign.  The line actually went pretty fast but Mark and I just commented “Full employment”.  We think Lucca machines sell tickets because the ticket counter closes at 8:05 PM.

Pisa summary – Ok for one visit but not someplace I’d go back to.  Pisa is a pretty busy city and didn’t impress us enough to want to return for another visit.