I guess I had better hurry up and get home as it seems I may be running out of room for pages. I would put these photos in as a embedded slideshow so you would not have to wear out your scroll button but Google changed their photo app to "something new and better" and that function is not available. How can less be better
FLORENCE
We have been in Florence for a few days and will be here a few more. Vicki loves this town, me not so much. More like a Disney park to me. It is small and jammed with people even now. Lots and lots of Chinese. Or yea, and Americans. The people here are starting to hire Chinese and put signs up in Chinese as they know that is the next wave of tourist.There are lots of little side streets to walk that are not crowded but for my money, send me to Paris.
We will be here a few more days and this will a picture visit. There is a lot to write about here but I ain't gonna. You will have to happy with pictures.
This is how you drive to our apartment.......
..........get out and walk 30 yards on the right. If you pass the first red light and your tag is not registered with the city it is a $105 a day fine and is all done automatically.
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| this guy, all dressed in black, I guess was washing this car outside a church. It is gong to take him awhile has he only had a little ball of water on a stick. |
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| lots of people following little flags |
This is the European sign for DO NOT ENTER.....
.....someone decided to have fun with them in Florence.
October 30 Sunday
As of today the Europeans have stopped saving daylight. Exactly were do they store the daylight and what do they do with. Last night we celebrated my birthday with a progressive dinner with Lisa and Shawn from Ohio. The main course was served at the Il Maggazzion Osteria Tripperia on Pussy Square. Named Pussy Square because that is where the brothel for the royal staff used to be." ... cosy and the fact of being located in piazzetta della passera (pretty much translated as pussy square."
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| the coolest jeweler I have ever seen. |
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| last night I paid $24 for two drinks and this vies. tonight I paid $15 for a whole bottle of presco and some nibbles. |
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| a lot of getting married around here |
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| there is a huge private garden behind that wall. We got a glimpse when the gate opened. I very kind little old lady explained it all to me Italian. So, most of the explanation was lost. |
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| This a art project installed on the wall of a very upscale hotel |
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| Did I mention people? |
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| We hid the Clio in a under ground garage at a price for a first class hotel. |
Parma for Halloween
We had a day free between the Florence
apartment and the one in Venice so we decided to spend it in Parma.
The interesting thing, as we were driving here, Vicki realized we had
spent the exact same night, Halloween, in Parma with Michael Struass
the Soloscooterist in 2014 . Modena would probably been a better
choice for a day to kill when I remembered it is the home of Ferrari
and other famous cars and people and has great food. We wandered the
back roads from Florence to Parma and once over the mountains the sky
turned gray with a thin layer of fog or smog. Not sure which. I had
used Booking.com to book a Mecure room in Parma for convenience, thus
taking away any chance of negotiating a “deal”. So, no breakfast,
which was OK, and pay parking, not OK.
The plan for Parma was to go back to
the restaurant that we had dinned with Michael. The problem was I did
not have the name in my notes. But, after a little walking ,my
internal GPS righted itself and we ducked down the back alley and
turned right to find the Trattoria Tribunal. It was a few minutes
before opening but we were seated anyway. Our first table was next to
two small children and I asked to be moved. Good move. It was not
long before the kids started screaming. To the parents credit they
picked up the small yeller and walked her around to keep it quite.
We ordered parma ham, of course, and
pickled artichokes for anti-pasta and quite happy. The Italians order
a anti-pasta, a primi plate, usually a pasta, and secondo plate,
usually a hot dish of meat of some nature. I ordered risotto off the
primi plate menu and Vicki ordered “roast beef and vegetables”
off the secondo menu. She was less than happy when the plate arrived
and was cold sliced beef over lettuce. The menu listed it in two
languages as “vegetables” and that is what she really wanted.
That put a chill on the wine, a good thing, and a chill on my
risotto, not such a good thing. Almost thought I was going to have to
pick her up and walk her around like the baby. We are getting close
to going home and I guess a vision of momma's roast beef is what she
imagined the plate was.
Tomorrow is a bank holiday, All Saint
Day, and so the street was full, but not like Florence, of people
some dressed as trick or treaters. Several bars, favorites of the
younger crowd poured out on the street.
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| A very serious game of dominos in the park. One of several |
Venice
I had a nice relaxing coffee at bar
right out of the movies. Crystal chandler and Louis like furniture.
Little walk through the quite streets with just a few residents and
the street sweeper. Vicki called about 9 and said she was ready to
hit the road so I meandered back to the Mecure. I had a cross country
journey planned but after a hour and a half of fog, I gave it up and
hit the autostrada for the Venice Marco Polo airport. There was no
problem turning in the rental early and at a different airport. We
caught the water taxi from the airport into Venice. Aboard was,
small world, a couple from Clayton, NC. Clayton is in the hood were
I grew up. He is Palestinian and she is British. They were coming
from Turkey where they have been vacationing for over ten years and
own a villa. They owned a gas station and tire shop just down the
road from my parents and we had many mutual friends. The station was
at McGees Crossroads which was just that, a crossroads, but is now in
the suburbs of Raleigh. He told of the problems of being a foreigner
from the Mideast, but over time, won over people by being kinder
than they were. Hopefully our paths will cross in Venice again.
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| Arriving to Venice via water taxi |
We have been in Venice several days
now. We had some gray days and some sunny days with rain threatening for the weekend and
temperatures in the 50's. We have walked a lot here. If I had one
of the walking app's (they have been proven to terribly inaccurate,
yes even the apple one) I am sure some days it would have shown over
20,000 steps. Ten thousand of those steps were taken just trying to
find our way out of the back ally's. There have been, relatively
speaking, not a whole lot of tourist. Lots of the cruise ships have
moved on to warmer climes. One guide book said “if your lucky you
might even see a cruise ship at the port”. I threw that one away.
My spirit was unsettled in Florence but
is very happy here. Might have been the crowds in Florence, but I
think it was something that happened there in my past life. You
remember that in my last life I was a Frenchman running a coffee
plantation in Dalut, Vietnam. Something happened in Florence that was
bad when I was traveling from France to Brendise Italy to catch the
boat through the Suez Canal to Vietnam. Street robbery, angry
husband, not sure but something.
Our ballots for the November 8 election
have failed to reach their destination. Is this some type of plot to
rig the election? What to do? Internet cafe's where I could print
and fax the ballot are non-existent here. So, I walked into the posh
hotel next to our apartment and explained my dalima and asked for
help. By all means they said, “please use our business center”.
They are afraid of the “hair” as much as I am.
Later, at the Tre Arches restaurant we
met a resident American and discussed it with him....a little and
only in general terms. “What is American up to?” he says he hears
over and over. I just said I do not know were those other Americans
live, my America is pretty damn great and no one has taken anything
away from me. In fact, as I travel the world, I see every day more
and more that my country has given me.
About the Tre Arche
restaurant. Vickie and Deb had spent a week in the same apartment a few years ago and across the canal "was a great restaurant", but she could not figure out which one it was. There are only four and I can tell you one is horrible. However, as soon as we walked into the Tres Arche's she declared "this is it". Finally.The dinner was excellent.
It is one week before we come home so I go online to check our Lufthansa flights. Glad I did as they had canceled the flight to Tampa. They had such great offerings to fix it, such as fly four legs in coach on brand x airline, fly us Lufthansa to Miami or Orlando and walk home. With pressure applied around the agents neck we were able to get on the orginal flight plan just a day earlier. Actually I tried to be nice. Then I started changing hotel dates. The best response was from the front desk of the Rialas 6 hotel in Rome when I told him the airline had canceled our flights with out hesitation he said “those bastards!”. And that is just how I feel about them. Well, any airline really. They said they sent a email, but I sure did not receive it.
Back to the good times in Venice......
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| holiday garbage, all gone the next day |
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| the yellow boat is the ambulance |
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| those are tables for dinning but walkways for when Venice floods as it is doing more often |
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| Tuesday..... |
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| ....same wall thursday |
Progressive dinners seems to our new way of touring. Vicki did two in Florence. One excellent and the one I joined her own was only fair. But, I had good first hand reviews of Venice Bites run by Adam and Maija from the U.S. They have been doing the tours for just a couple of years but have become very popular. Their enthusiasm for teaching tourist not only about the food, but the history of Venice and the Venice of today, of how to be polite and proper manners in Venice and Europe in general. Their image and history would lead you believe they would be as good as they are at this. Adam is 6'3" and Maija has died red hair. Both have extensive "body art". Not surprising as her history is owning a biker bar and tattoo parlor and a HR person for Rubert Murdoch (don't hold that against her). Adam has a mixed background of truck driver and carpenter and voice over work. The voice over makes him a great presenter of the knowledge and they work together in harmony almost as if it is scripted and to some point it is, but just their emotional closeness make them work almost as one person. This is another example of how you should never judge one by how they look. These are two of the most wonderful caring people I have met. Even if Maija's mother has other opinions of her son in law.\
They were kind enough to add us 'to their normally six person tour. The other six were from Vancouver Island and great company. They are here for a few days and then join the dreaded, to me, cruise ship world.
I can not recommend Venice Bites to highly. They are the best. So if travels find you in Venice look them up, even if their calendar says it is full. Tell them "the" Lostboater sent you.
http://www.venicebitesfoodtours.com/
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| Maija and Adam at the end of the evening explaining "spritz". |
Venice has two problems. One is it is losing population. Not just the declining birth rate that all of Europe is having, but the young and old are moving away. The young want more excitement and the old are being priced out of the commercial and residential real estate as foreigners are buying at super high prices.
The second is the city is sinking and water levels are rising from global warming. (You know, that thing that many people say is not happening or if they do believe it is not related to the world population growing exponentially). There are elevated walkways stored all over town. Doors have high water door inserts and business's have drains built in their floors.
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| the temporary walk ways stored in st. marks squire |
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| flood door |
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| flood drain in business |
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| laundry truck |
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| pickup truck |
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| Georgia? |
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| Venice used to collect all it water from rain water and it drained into these cisterns. Venice was being overrun with rats in modern times so they brought in cats. You could not feed them as they were to live off the rats. Every cisterns had a hole cut in it like this for water for the cats. Soon the rats were gone and the feral cats became the problem. So they brought in cat wranglers and gathered them all up and moved them to one of the islands. |
Venice-train-Rome-Home
The rain started on Friday and lasted
on an off until we left Italy the following Wednesday. Our last night
in Venice we went back to Tre Arches for a grand dinner. It is nice
when you walk into a place and the owner yells your name “Wilson!
How are you? Come in out of the rain” and he immediately finds you
a table and you step around everyone else standing in line in the
rain. As always the dinner was great, the service even better, and
the restaurant staff a lot of fun.
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| venice in the rain |
Sunday we made our way to the train
station and boarded the 11:25 fast train to Rome. In Italy you have a
choice between the state owned railroad or a private railroad. We
chose the state railroad for it's schedule. Our car was extremely
comfortable and clean and we whisked our way to Rome at 240KMH or 150
MPH. Rain greeted us in Rome at a very, very busy train station in
the middle of town. We caught a cab to Relias 6 hotel in a
residential neighborhood were Vicki and Rich had stayed. Dinner was
at the hotel happy hour that was less the staler, but the rest of the
hotel lived up to it's four star rating.
The next day I bought some bus tickets
from the front desk and we headed into town in the off and own rain.
The plan was to walk and when we were tired we would hop the bus. We
never hoped the bus and walked the three miles into to town, around
town, and the three miles back. We stopped for a presco at the fancy
fountain, a coffee on a little side street, and lunch about a mile
from home. The restaurant was called “Piccolo” and was in a
semi-basement. There were two people tending forty tables though only
about half were occupied. Arnold, the waiter and chef, and Sherland
busboy, dish washer, and server. Everything flowed smoothly between
the two. Arnold was a lot of fun. We shared a pasta and bean soup and
a pasta and broccoli pasta with cream sauce. Both were great, but the
soup was stellar. The prior week some high mucky mucks from the US ate here. Can't say who they were but Arnold was afraid he might get shot with all the FBI, Secret Service, Italian security not only inside but on the whole block outside. They gave him a challenge coin.
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| the guy in the funny hat lives over there |
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| Arnold showing Vicki which post to use and why. "All the good stuff gets in the big hole" |
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| This is strong and great after dinner drink introduced to us by Arnold |
There will be one more post on Friday.
Friday (well not really)
OK, so I am a little late in making the Friday promised post. I am sorry. I am recovering from shock to what you people did to my country while we were away. Check in was easy on the flight from Rome to Frankfurt except they gave me faux-bulkhead seat that I asked not to have. On decent to Frankfurt the Captain announced the new president of the United States. There was huge sound of sucking air and a lot of curse words in several language. There was one cheer, to be honest.The flight home was to Tampa was excellent and Lufthansa continues to my flight of choice.
Landing Jane met us with black ribbons of mourning that she presented to us. I have decided to do my best to not discuss politics for awhile until the dust settles. The ugly heads of racism and bigotry are arising across the land. I have seen it coming for awhile. It was under control until we elected a black president, one of the greatest in my opinion despite being totally body blocked by the GOP.
So, after being home for a few days I get to go on a solo scooter trip to clear my head. Until next time, thank you for coming along.
A map view is available here......
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