Yesterday, at a neighborhood block party, I found myself chatting with Al and Joyce Morgan. They are among the first people that we met in Mesquite, and are ex-pats from Washington state. We sometimes hike together in the Desert Fossils group.
Anyway, the Morgans are about to go on a European river barge tour from Budapest to Amsterdam. They are very excited, of course.
We got to talking about traveling and Al recalled a nice vacation that they’d had (last year I believe) in Italy. They’d rented a car and had explored Rome, Tuscany, Venice and such. Their favorite spot was Cinque Terre, which is a hilltop town near the ocean in northwest Italy.
I’m jealous: that is one of the places in Italy that we have not visited, in addition to the extreme north (Milan, Lake Como, Italian Alps). Maybe someday we can go see George Clooney’s Lake Como villa.
Charlie and I have enjoyed several vacations that took place wholly in Italy or included Italian stops in the itinerary (like Rome, Naples, and Venice).
Our favorite Italian destinations are Tuscany-Umbria, the Amalfi Coast, Taormina (Sicily) and, of course, Venice.
Charlie and I, along with my brother and sisters and their spouses, did a Greek Isles cruise many years ago. Prior to joining the group at Civitavecchia (the cruise ship port), we flew into Rome, rented a car, and headed north up the E-35…destination: the small Tuscan town of Chiusi, where we had lodging reservations.
The first thing that I realized about Italy is that: (a) the roads are very good; and, (2) the speed limits are “advisory”. There are two lanes on the big rural highways: the right lane is for sane folks; and, the left one is for wanna-be Formula One drivers. Even old Italian grannies drive drive like bats out of Hell, and quite a few imbeciles pass you going well over 100 MPH in their Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and Ducati motorcycles. I didn’t see one cop on the highway.
Our first stop was a hilltop town in Umbria named “Todi”.
As I recall, like a number of hilltop towns in Italy, automobiles are prohibited within the city walls, so we had to hoof it about a half mile up a steep, cobblestoned street to get to the top of the town. It just about killed Charlie, particularly when 90 year-old women with bundles on their back strode past us on their way home.
That’s one thing about Italy…not many 300-pound fatsos in sight; lots of walking, climbing stairs, hoofing it to the local market, etc., and virtually no “Handicapped” concessions anywhere. If you’re physically challenged…tough luck for you!
Todi was a small, but very pretty hilltop town and had a great view of the surrounding Umbrian landscape. I could live there…except for my bum left hip.
We retreated to A-35, minding our business and heading north, when we happened upon “Orvieto”. It is another hilltop town, but much more substantial. It even has a cable car that takes visitors from a parking lot near the highway up onto plateau of volcanic tuff where the town sits. It looked interesting, and we had some spare time, so we drove up to the town.
My Frommer’s guide book revealed that Orvieto is famous for its cathedral, the fact that several dozen Popes had lived in the town, and that St. Thomas Aquinas had taught there. At one time, in medieval times, 30,000 people had lived in the town. It is also a cold, stark place, as much of the town architecture and dwellings are constructed of dark basalt and tuff.
We were there too early to enter the Duomo (the imposing cathedral in the center of the town), but we took some photos of the exterior and some of the unusual artistry on the walls which depict a lot of unfortunate souls in Hell.
It was a pretty place once the sun came up and lightened up the alleys a bit. Quite a neat place to wander around.
After spending a few hours in Orvieto, we detoured east to explore Perugia and the spectacular town of “Assisi”. The huge church/monastery/tourist mecca dominates the gorgeous countryside as you approach.
There were lots of people there when we arrived midday, and we had lunch at a nice outdoor café near a piazza.
Then, we wandered down to the cathedral complex. It was quite beautiful; but, St. Francis would be embarrassed if he were still with us due to the vast resources that were poured into this extravagant monstrosity through the tithes of poor Medieval wretches who hardly had enough food to eat.
From there, we headed up to our lodgings in “Chiusi”, where we would reside for two days. It was a several-story hotel located just outside the town itself, in a beautiful location, looking out over the Tuscan countryside.
Absolutely perfect, it was, except for the handsome but sweaty Italian lad who helped us take our bags up to our room…and totally stunk up the elevator with his B.O.
Our accommodations were great, and they had a nice restaurant in the basement where we enjoyed a fine dinner.
The next day we headed north along some scenic roads. The countryside itself is a major attraction in Tuscany.
Then, we arrived in “Siena”. It is a spectacular walled town, with a great piazza and cathedral.
Everything in town funnels toward the vast Piazza del Campo, which is considered one of Europe’s greatest medieval squares. It is a vast area, surrounded by tall buildings, monuments, and such.
(If you’ve seen the James Bond movie “Quantum of Solace”, you might recall scenes from the Palio di Siena, a colorful horse race that occurs in the Piazza, with competitors from the city’s 13 wards competing in vibrant colors. Unfortunately for us, there was no race this day, but we had read about it and could imagine how exciting it must be.)
The enormous cathedral was under repair when we were there. Much of the exterior was rigged with scaffolding, so we didn’t see it in its full glory. However, the inside was magnificent (as were all of the Italian churches that we’ve visited).
As I mentioned, Siena is a walled town, with automobiles (except locals, early in the morning) prohibited. As I was approaching the town, looking for parking, which was scarce, I somehow found a way to get inside the city walls, by accident. Oops, what a fuck up, I’m in big trouble, I thought.
Visions of spending a night in jail went through my mind, as I frantically tried to extricate myself from the interior maze. I don’t know how I did it, but I found an exit…before the Carabinieri found me.
Siena is also a very popular tourist trap. There were a lot of people there, as it was the Summer season. It was also hot, as the entire town is made of stone, and there’s nowhere to hide from the sun and the radiant heat. Bottled water and gelatos, not cheap, were being gobbled up by the hordes of parched visitors.
From Siena, we headed north through some more remarkably beautiful countryside.
After a wonderful ride in the country, we approached our next stop, a hilltop town called “San Gimignano”.
It is an unusual looking place (for rural Italy) because of the remnant Medieval multi-story structures that look like apartment towers.
According to our Rick Steve’s guide book, there were once 72 of these towers in the town, built by two opposing families attempting to “out do” the other, with the tallest at about 230’.
It is a peculiar place, but quite striking, as it sits amidst a peaceful rural area featuring olive orchards and grape vineyards. We spent a bit of time there, taking photos and imagining what the place looked like when it was in its full glory. There are only 12 surviving towers, including the Torre Grossa, built in 1310 A.D., which is 177’ in height. Can you imagine how much money was spent on this foolishness?!
We had a very nice dinner that night in the little town of Chiusi, just down the road from our boutique countryside hotel. The restaurant was fairly small, and was owned by a gregarious fellow who went from table to table chatting with his guests. He could speak (he told us) twelve languages, and he used them as he went from table to table, linguistically shifting gears seamlessly. He was quite an impressive host, and the food was good, too.
The next day, we headed over to the port of Civitavecchia to join the Manning family for our 12-day Greek Isles Princess cruise.
As I recall, before heading toward the Aegean Sea, the cruise ship went north a bit to make a stop at Livorno (i.e. the port for Florence). Charlie and I had been to Florence before, but my siblings had not, so we suggested that the group could see more in the day if we rented cars instead of taking a tour bus. It turned out to be a bad recommendation.
They had also not been to “Pisa” (or anywhere else in Italy), so we headed up there, getting lost on the way. My siblings weren’t happy with me. When we got to Pisa, we had to park a considerable way from the objective. It was a long walk into the park-like setting, and my sisters Claudia and Kellie were grumbling.
When we arrived at the Piazza del Duomo, and could see the Leaning Tower in the distance…
…we found it necessary to walk a several hundred-yard gauntlet of pushy vendors on the sidewalk leading into the park.
We got close enough to see the Leaning Tower, when, abruptly, my tourist companions decided that they’d seen enough. That was OK with Charlie and I, because we’d been there before, and we had other things to do that day. So, we beat a hasty retreat to the rental cars.
On the way to Florence (which Charlie and I had visited previously), we stopped at “Lucca”. It is another walled city, with some beautiful views and an unusual tower in the middle of the town. I think we had lunch there in Lucca.
From there, we headed into “Florence”, looking for some place to park two cars. We finally found a parking structure and headed off toward the Duomo.
I can’t recall exactly what overyone did that day in Florence, but I know that we split up: those that hadn’t been there before went one way, and we went our own.
Charlie and I wandered off in the direction of the Uffizi Gallery to sightsee, and I recall that we investigated the Ponte Vecchio and Boboli Gardens, from afar, as well.
I do recall that the main touristy part of town (near the Duomo)…
… was overrun by street vendors, much worse than anything that we’d seen before.
It was amazing that the local merchants could sell anything at all, and doubly amazing that the local police and politicians were allowing this unseemly chaos to ruin their city. Somebody must be getting bribed, I thought; it was horrible. I made a promise to myself to never again set foot in Florence.
We eventually hooked up with the other Mannings, who’d seen what they need to, and got the Hell out of Florence. It was sad that my siblings had to see it that way, severely debauched by the hordes of street vendors. So sad.
Later that day, we hopped aboard the cruise boat and headed out to sea, to enjoy a wonderful family vacation…which would end up in “Venice”, one of our other favorite Italian destinations.
Venice is…magnificent. We’ve been there a couple of times, and each time there are new, wonderful memories. The amazing architecture, the magnificent cathedral, the pigeons, the canals, the gelato, the gondolas, the food, and the smell…it’s a one-of-a-kind sensual overload. And, no automobiles allowed…at all.
Of course, St. Mark’s Plaza is where all of the tourists congregate, usually for their one-day blitz on the town, coming off of a cruise boat.
And, if all one saw of Venice were those famous sights (the Basilica, the Doge’s Palace, the Bell Tower, the Main Canal, the dock with scores of moored gondolas), it would probably be enough visual stimulation.
But, the real good stuff in Venice, in my opinion, is outside of the Piazza San Marco. We like to head out the back side of the Piazza, through one of the exit arches, and just go get lost in the Venice neighborhoods, where the locals live.
There’s lots of good stuff back there, like cozy outdoor restaurants, art museums, shops, little picturesque bridges spanning small canals, and small neighborhoods with undies hanging from clothes’ lines. It’s La Dolce Vita; we love it.
There’s a number of spectacular art museums out in the Venice boonies…
… and a photo op around every corner, mainly because of all the canals..
Great gelato, too.
And, a chance to do some bargaining with gondola operators.
In addition, you can tour a glassmaking shop; very interesting.
And, when you are tired of walking, you can hop on a water taxi and speed off on a cheap, wonderful sightseeing tour of your own making.
When we were there with my siblings, there was some sort of strike going on by the local seaborne merchants, and they had all of their boats chained together, blocking one of the main canals, trying to make some point with authorities, I guess.
We’ve never been to Venice when the tide was super-high. However, in very high tides, the water in the Piazza can be a couple of feet deep, and they must put pallets out to enable folks to get to and from.
This scene from last October is a reminder that the entire city of Venice was built on land reclaimed from the sea, and, with climate warming, sea level is slowly rising. It could very well be that Venice, as we know it, will be submerged, like Atlantis, in 50 to 100 years.
What a shame that would be!
Another shame is the presence of those pesky street vendors. Just outside of Piazza San Marco, on one of the pedestrian alleys heading north, is a fancy avenue with pricey merchandise on both sides: it’s the Rodeo Drive of Venice, with all of the big name designers represented.
When we were there on this trip, there were armies of street vendors sitting right in front of the storefront windows…selling rip-off versions of the designer products right inside! The vendors were mostly (from appearances) Somalian “skinnies”, hawking cheap Chinese-made handbags, wristwatches, and such.
As I’ve mentioned before, there seems to be no local law enforcement effort being made at all to combat these crimes; it’s amazing that the Prada, Louis Vuittan, and Rolex establishments put up with this, because their store rent costs must be astronomical. Go figure. Maybe they know that real high-end customers won’t buy rip-offs, and those folks that do couldn’t afford anything in their store, anyway.
As I said, Venice is awesome once you get away from Piazza San Marco, particularly at night.
Our group had a wonderful outdoor candlelight dinner at a small piazza in one of the neighborhoods where we got lost one day. It was a great, romantic experience, and the food was excellent, as well.
Speaking of romantic, we did not do a gondola ride on this particular trip to Venice, but my siblings did, as I recall.
Gondola rides are very expensive, and, as the saying goes, “You get what you pay for!” We did an economy gondola ride some years before, only to find out when we got to the dock that we were SHARING the romantic ride with another couple! Not so good; it kinda took the specialness out of the thing. We probably saved $100, but…how many times are you going to do this, anyway? I think that it is important to do it right…damn the cost.
Anyway, I think my brother and his wife (who have more money!) enjoyed a much nicer gondola on their visit to Venice Charlie and I had many years before. Dammit.
We did, however, get the best of them when the ship stopped in Naples. As I recall, they did a tour of Pompeii, which we’d seen before, while we spent the day enjoying a spectacular visit of the “Amalfi Coast”.
Our tour (on a huge, deluxe bus) started in Sorrento, where we were able to enjoy the beautiful coastal overlook, tour a factory where they make inlaid wood products (we bought a nice box!), and consume some of the local specialty liquor…limoncello. What great stuff that is!!
From Sorrento, we headed south on the Amalfi Coast Road, which is a narrow (did I say NARROW?) road with huge drop-offs to the side toward the gorgeous coast below. It would be scary to drive this road…on a bike!
We were in a huge bus, and it literally “takes a village” to organize the bus tours along this dangerous road. Local residents and vendors help guide the buses around tight spots, where there may only be a few feet of clearance between bus and buildings. At certain times of the day, the road is “one way only” for tourists…southbound, as I recall. It is a hot mess, but very profitable for the locals, as each bus brings in a bunch of disposable income to be spread between the merchants hawking their wares.
The bus ride was an E-ticket, for sure. I was on the inland left side of the bus, so I wasn’t looking down at the ocean so much. But, I did notice a lot of the local residential property hugging the steep cliffs. They all had a lot of gardens, growing all manner of fruits and vegetables. Our guide told us that this is because property taxes on residential property in Italy are high, but not so bad on agricultural. If a residential property has a certain amount of coverage in plantings, then they are considered farmers. So, everyone has lemon trees, tomato vines, and such scattered wherever things can grow.
(It reminded me of the tax law in Mexico, where one sees many structures in rural areas and small towns with rebar sticking out of the top of the structural walls. The property tax is only levied when the structure is completed, so many projects are left “almost done”, with rebar clearly visible to the inspector…avoiding the finished project property tax.)
I recall a doofus going wrong way on the highway, causing all sorts of problems with oncoming traffic. Some stupid tourist, ignoring signs, I’m sure.
We ate a very nice lunch in a cliff-side restaurant somewhere between Sorrento and Positano.
Good food, plus our waiter was a cool guy who looked like he could be one of Charlie’s lost Italian cousins. He was shaped like a brick…short and squat, probably had a 50-inch chest. Couldn’t speak a word of English, but…who cared!
Positano was quite picturesque, with lots of brightly colored homes perched on hillsides all the way down to the aqua blue water. What lucky folks live in that paradise!! I think we just stopped there for a few photos and a chance to flex our knees.
Our last stop on the southbound leg was Amalfi itself. It is a substantial place, with a beautiful harbor and beach, a striking cathedral, and plenty of shops for the tourists.
We wandered the wonderful place, taking lots of photos and exploring the nooks and crannies.
The beach strand was covered umbrellas, which are put out by the many cafes which serve the beachgoers, some of whom are…nude, I discovered.
The cathedral, which appears to be built right into a cliff, has a massive staircase leading up to it, and is clad in an unusual mix of stone colors. Very cool and impressive for such a small town.
As I recall, the “coast” part of our tour ended in Ravello, which is known for its flowers and gardens, mixed in with the normal cliffside homes, restaurants and hotels. Very pretty.
We finished our nice day on the Amalfi Coast by heading back up the main highway to Naples. Along the way, we drove right by Mount Vesuvius, which is huge and scary-looking. It’s probably just a matter of time before it blows again and buries a lot more people, as the area has grown many-fold in population since 79 A.D.
On a different Mediterranean cruise, this time with my parents Rich and Bobbie, we had the opportunity visit “Taormina”, Sicily for half a day.
This is a real cool place, way up on a mountain above the azure waters of the Ionian Sea. The cab ride up the cliff in a taxi looks impossible, but they make it, somehow.
Taormina was founded by the Greeks more than two thousand years ago. Later came the Romans, the Carthaginians, the Moors, the Normans, the Spanish, the French, and, later, the Italians. Everyone has taken their shot here.
The most outstanding architectural relic in the town is the Roman amphitheater.
The town has a large plaza with obligatory Catholic church, and many hotels, restaurants, and shops. It’s like the town of Laguna Beach in Southern California, but up on a mountainside in Sicily. Very pretty, lots of tourists, lots of sun…what’s not to like?
Of course, the real reason people have been coming here for thousands of years is the view: spectacular!
This interesting town is definitely one the prettiest places that we’ve ever visited. I’d love to live there.
The Mediterranean cruise with my parents was the last vacation that I spent with my Dad, who passed away within six months of this wonderful visit to Taormina.
I miss him.