The T3sk3y Defenestrator

Our plan for the day was to visit the Vatican since it was supposed to be a slower day at what is normally a very hectic tourist destination. Before heading off for the day, we were able to take advantage of the nice kitchen where we were staying by making egg sandwiches for breakfast. To meet our tour group, we’d have to take the subway to the Vatican. The closest stop was only a 6 block walk from our apartment.

We were able to find our guide at the Vatican subway stop without much difficulty. Our tour was about 20 people – all English speakers. I was quickly able to see the benefit of the tour as we were able to bypass all lines and go straight inside. Another great plus was that we were issued radio receivers so we could hear our guide clearly.

That’s-a the biggest-a church-a inna the world-a

The tour was pretty good – our guide was able to give some good context and explanation for the things we saw in the Vatican museum. She was also able to fast forward us past the non-important things so that we could focus on the best things to see. This is critical since the Vatican museum is completely overwhelming. You can spend several hours wandering the millions of pieces of art – and you eventually get numb.

Heather and William marveling at the works in the Vatican Museum

The one part of the tour that still leaves me flat is the star of the show – the Sistine Chapel. This was my second visit – and I still don’t see the appeal! Yeah, it’s quite the ceiling – but it’s not an enjoyable viewing experience. It’s 50′ up and unlit – so it’s not like you can see it well. The chapel itself is pretty much a grandly painted gymnasium that is loaded with tourists shoving their way through. As if all that doesn’t make it for you – the guards constantly yelling “NO PICTURES!!!” pretty much finishes off the mood.

Isn’t your wife running for President?

Note: I didn’t take this shot, but kudos to the guy that ignored the yelling guards: Sistine Chapel

For me, the star of the show was St. Peter’s itself. It’s so grand that adjectives fail me on this one. We spent about an hour in there between the tour and our own wanderings. I’m still amazed that they removed all of the fresco paintings and replaced them with mosaics that were exact copies of the originals. I still think the ‘dead guys on display’ portion of the tour (i.e. potentially canonized Popes) is an acquired taste. One of the biggest chances since my visit in 2003 was the makeshift shrine that had formed around the tomb of John Paul II. It was amazing to see the outpouring of love demonstrated there much like we saw in Krakow, Poland (his hometown) in 2006.

St. Peter’s Basilica

We finished our tour in mid-afternoon and walked to a nearby neighborhood for a late lunch since we were all starving. We went to a kebab shop and had.. kebabs. I love kebabs. Heather and I had combo plates with fries, rice, and all the fixings. After finishing dinner, we took the subway back to our apartment for a rest.

Our plans for the evening were to go to a pizza restaurant recommended by the owner of the apartment we were staying in. It was called “Da Baffeto” – or “The Mustache”. Judging by the logo of the restaurant, I think it specifically refers to the handlebar mustache. After eating, we were going to take one of the night walking tours in Rick’s guide. It was a pretty good stroll to Da Baffeto from our apartment, and along the way I played the tour guide explaining the sites that we passed. Unfortunately, it was then that I realized that I left the guidebook at home and it was too far to walk back to get it. We’d have to settle for just dinner.

We found Da Baffeto without any difficulty and squeezed our way into a very packed and tiny little pizzeria. The signature pizza at Da Baffeto was obviously a concoction that included both anchovies and a big fried egg right in the middle. I usually try to order the special of the house – but I just couldn’t do it. I went for some sort of meatza which turned out to be fantastic. Dinner was finished off with some lemon sorbet frozen in to the hollowed out husk of a lemon.

The Colosseum at Night

When we got back to the apartment, I spent a few minutes before bed booking a tour of the forum and the Colosseum for the next day. We enjoyed our guided tour of the Vatican so much – we decided to splurge on another tour. This one was a different company – so we’d have some comparison.

I realized as I put this post together that for some strange reason, the pictures of the Vatican tour never made it up to my SmugMug site.� I’ve now uploaded them for all to see.� See them plus the rest of our pictures on my SmugMug site right here: link

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The plan for today was to make it a leisurely drive from Siena to Rome – by way of Orvieto and Civita. Before heading on the road, we tried one last time to find breakfast in Siena. We found a cafeteria not far from our hotel that had a nice selection of pastries, sandwiches, cafe’, and more. By the time we got three egg sandwiches, three pastries, a couple of cafe’s, and a Coke Light, our bill came out to about 35 Euro. A $45 breakfast? Ouch!

The Ford Fiesta – ready to roll to Rome!

We loaded up the car and started making our way south. I had hoped for some great scenic vistas on the way to Orvieto – but the first half hour was in pea soup fog. We finally broke out of it and got on to a road where we could go faster than 20mph about an hour south of Siena. Just as we were coming out of it, we drove through an area loaded with agriturismos.. countryside B&Bs. I have no idea what they must cost – but what a view!

An agritourismo just south of Siena

The other unbelievable thing was the number of cyclists on the road – serious road racing types in full spandex and expensive bikes. It looked like a fantastic ride – but having crazy Italian drivers and lost Americans (ahem) whizzing by would be a little scary. Oh – I wish I had my bike!

We arrived in Orvieto in the early afternoon. Orvieto is one of the hill towns of central Italy – where the entire town is situated on a plateau several hundred feet above the valley floor. Before riding the funicular to the top, we had to make a quick grocery stop to get William some milk and diapers. Apparently it was the grand opening of the grocery store that day – so anybody that purchased more than 25 Euros got a free loaf of fruit bread much to my mother’s glee.

The view looking up the funicular tracks in Orvieto

At the top, we caught a shuttle bus that delivered us to the Orvieto Cathedral. According to the guidebooks, the cathedral sports one of the grandest facades in all of Italy. It did not disappoint! Even though it was a very gray day – it was busting with color and light. Apparently due to its natural fortifications, Orvieto was always considered a ‘hideaway’ for the popes – thus the grand cathedral.

The Orvieto Cathedral

After failing to find lunch on the square (darn off-season!), we set off on a wild goose chase following another Rick Steves hand drawn map that didn’t label any of the back alleys. Ultimately, we found what we were looking for – but, being November, it was closed. We settled for a little cafe’ where I had (guess what) – Pizza. We got some gelato after lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon browsing for souvenirs. One of the most comic moments was ditching my mother so we could buy her Christmas present – without realizing she was off shopping for Heather’s.

William waiting for his mommy and grandma to return from shopping

Our original plan was to visit Civita after we finished up in Orvieto. Since it was now late afternoon, there was just no chance we’d make it before sundown. It sounded like pretty much everything would be closed in Civita in the off-season – so if it was too dark to take pictures, there wasn’t much point in going there. We decided to spend the rest of the afternoon in Orvieto before going straight to Rome.

The view of the old fortifications in Orvieto

We hiked our way back down to the funicular stop after a quick tour of the Cathedral. We got back to the car right at dusk and hopped onto the Autostrada that went directly from Orvieto to Rome (all roads lead to Rome, right?). It took about two hours to get to Rome and another half-hour to drive around the north side of Rome to reach the airport. We pulled in to the airport about 5 minutes before our taxi was due to pick us up.

The interior of the Orvieto Cathedral

For whatever reason, we missed the “Rental Car Return” sign at Fiumencino airport and had a tense few minutes as Heather ran in to the terminal to find where to go. As it turned out, it was in the ramp located right next to where we were parked. After returning the car, our taxi showed up and drove us directly to our apartment. After a week of driving in Italian traffic – it was a big relief to not have to drive!

Our apartment turned out to be the biggest score of the trip. I booked it on VRBO – and it was about half the cost of a hotel. It was a very nice 2 bedroom, 2000 square foot apartment in a secure building about 3 blocks from the Colosseum. It included a full kitchen, living room, king sized beds, a nice bathroom – and a computer with high-speed internet. It was a great retreat in the middle of Rome.

Dinner that night was at the cafe’ on the corner that was recommended to us by our host, Paolo. We had a pretty large meal that night that was pretty inexpensive – though I could have lived without the fish antipasto. William was the star of the show as he kept making eyes at the eastern European waitress. The meal ended with some of the best lemon sorbet of the trip. I’m not sure if it was included or if we just got it because “Paulo sent us”.

Before turning in for the night, I booked a tour group for the Vatican. Having been to the Vatican before – the museum and the Sistine chapel wasn’t among my favorite stops. We figured that having a guide would help understand the overwhelming collection and appreciate the tour more. I had to do a little research to figure out the best one – and ultimately selected one recommended by Rick Steves.

Tomorrow: The Vatican – and the “little mustache”.

See the rest of my pictures over at SmugMug: link

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By request of my wife, today’s adventure was to be a road trip to Assisi. Assisi is someplace I had never been in Italy – so it sounded like an interesting trip. It’s about a two-hour drive from Siena, so we’d have plenty of time to look around before heading home.

Before we left, we made another relatively fruitless search for breakfast. We ended up at a small coffee shop where we had to make do with sandwiches. Shortly before we finished up, William uttered “GUCK!” again. That’s when we realized it was a total blowout and he was tracking it around the coffee shop. We won’t tell if you won’t.

On our way to the car, we made a couple of quick stops – my mother tried to go to McDonalds and we went to the post office. We’ve tried to get my grandfather some commemorative stamp sets on each trip – and that’s always an adventure. After trying to explain to several Italian postal workers what we wanted, we finally got to the correct person. She didn’t understand a word of English – and I think we had to wait for her to take her coffee break before she started showing us our options.

By late morning, we were finally en route to Assisi. Though it wasn’t the nicest day – it was great to be able to see the Tuscan countryside. After two hours of jockeying around crazy Italian traffic, we arrived and proceeded to park at the very top. It’s a good thing that Rick directs you to park there – Assisi is on the top of a steep hill.

The Umbrian Countryside as seen from Assisi

Our plan was to follow the Rick Steves walking tour of Assisi. The tour would take us past all the important sites and end up at the famous Basilica. As with many of Rick’s walking tours, it can sometimes be a challenge to navigate by his pencil maps that leave out a lot of details. This was about par for the course and we wandered for 15 minutes before finding the start of the tour.

The tour started us at the Roman amphitheater before giving us some views of the Umbrian countryside. Before continuing the tour, we stopped for lunch at a trattoria that apparently serves lots of tourists – I think a tour bus of retired Americans was filling the place when we got there. We got some pretty decent pizzas before resuming our tour.

One of the residences in Assisi with a great view

The tour then led us past the Cathedral of San Rufino on our way to the Basilica of Santa Chiara (St. Claire). While inside, we shuffled our way behind a good sized group of nuns to catch a timed glimpse of the body of St. Claire. No kidding, the curtain opens every fifteen minutes on the dot for about 5 minutes.

Side note: Wow, lots of saints in Assisi. Let’s count ‘em: Francis, Claire, Rufino, Maria degli Angeli, and I’m sure I’m missing some. That’s like one in a thousand per capita. My hometown of 8,000 certainly didn’t have eight saints. We did have some characters that apparently took the vow of poverty – but I think that was a different deal.

About the time we left the Basilica of St. Clair, it started to pour. It’s really tough to manage following a tour guide in heavy rain – and my Rick Steves book will never quite close again due to rain-wrinkled pages. I also kept the camera under wraps – so I didn’t get a ton of photos in Assisi.

Walking to the lower part of Assisi

By now, it was becoming late afternoon and we had to skip a few tour stops to make sure we made it to the Basilica of St. Francis while it was still open. One non-negotiable stop along the way was the gelateria, and I filled up on my daily fix of lemon sorbet.

It turned out to be a pretty good hike in the rain to get down to the Basilica. It was all the way across town and down a good sized hill. Our tour started in the lower level where St. Francis’ tomb is located. Apparently, his tomb was hidden for 500 years and was due to be revealed in the 1900s. The problem was that they forgot the exact location and it took a bit of digging to re-find him. Oops! William took the opportunity to befriend one of the many priests roaming around and he made off with a little piece of candy as a gift.

The Basilica of St. Francis

The upstairs of the Basilica is famous for the gigantic frescoes depicting the life of St. Francis. These were heavily damaged during an earthquake in the late-1990′s but have been mostly restored. Sadly, a couple of priests were killed by falling frescoes a couple of days after the earthquake while surveying the damage. The peace of the experience was somewhat marred by the guards running around yelling “quiet!” and “no pictures!”. Isn’t yelling “Quiet!” counterproductive?

The trek back to the car was a long uphill grind across the entire town with a couple of gift shop stops along the way. We made it back to the car and headed down the hill to Siena just as the torrential downpour hit again.

Once back in Siena, we walked to a small restaurant near our hotel. Again, we heard that they could fit us in without reservations – but we’d have to eat FAST! It was a great little spot and extremely cheap. My antipasto was great – my pasta was great – my main dish was.. really blah. I don’t know why I thought boiled beef with green sauce (turned out to be parsley in olive oil) was somehow going to be more exiting. My mother’s dish (some sort of spicy stew) was fantastic and I filled myself up on the rest of her dinner.

Before bed, I needed to make one quick stop at the Internet Cafe’ to sync up with our lodging arrangements in Rome and to verify our arrival time. The only problem was that both internet spots in town were closed. This was cause for panic – because I didn’t have a meet up time or place arranged – and we were staying in an apartment, not a hotel. I also didn’t have the phone number for our contact – it was on my e-mail!

In desperation, I fired up WiFiFoFum on my mobile phone and started warwalking to find an unsecured access point. It used to be that people would unbox their new wireless router and plug it in without bothering to set a password or encryption. Those days are gone – I had to walk around for an hour before finding one just off Il Campo that I could connect to. Before I lost the connection, I frantically tapped out a response e-mail, copied the phone number and directions, and breathed a deep sigh of relief. To celebrate, I bought a BIG Peroni and went for a leisurely stroll around Il Campo to enjoy my beer and savor nightlife in Siena.

I spent a little too much time strolling and realized at 10:55 that I only had five minutes to get back to Alma Domus before the allegedly rigid curfew at 11 PM. After a hard march across town, I rolled in door a little sweaty but just under the curfew and headed straight to bed.

See the rest of my images from the trip to Italy right here: (link)

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Like the Green Bay Packers, it’s the fanboys that drive me bananas.

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