We're All Back Home in Portland...Almost

Wednesday was an extremely frustrating day! Getting home was quite a chore. We arrived at the Venice airport 2 1/2 hours early for our 7:15 am flight. There was already quite a line when we got there. Let's just say, there wasn't an organized line. Remember the people from the cruise ships we talked about on the last few blogs of Venice? It seems they were all at the airport trying to get to Frankfurt with us. And as all the new folks arrived, they simply made their own line (those cruisers have been pampered for more than a week and must have thought they shouldn't have to stand in line at the airport). It felt like we were at the end of the line for all 2 1/2 hours. At any rate, we figured the plane wouldn't leave without us, right?

Well, I'm not sure what time the airline staff was scheduled to report to work, but it definitely wasn't 2 1/2 before our flight. Somewhere around 5:35ish the line began to move...slowly. By the time we made it up to the desk to check in (which was well past our scheduled boarding time), Tino & Collette got tickets, but Tom & Theresa did not. Since Tino & Collette were already issued tickets, they had to run to get to the plane. Tom & Theresa still have ticket issues to work out. We didn't even have time to find out what was going on with the Jarmer's tickets.

As soon as the plane touched down in Portland, Tino was able to reach Theresa by phone. Turns out, the Jarmers were routed through Philidelphia and were just going through customs. They were expected to reach Portland later in the day. Here's where the Italian journey ends, or so I thought.

As I sit here catching up on the blog on Thursday, I learned that the Jarmers did not make it home on Wednesday. (Guess they just needed one more day of vacation.) Turns out, after clearing customs they sat on the plane in Philidelphia for four hours waiting to take off. When they were just two planes away, the crew discovered a problem with the plane. They were sent back inside the terminal (along with 200 other passengers). Between the storms in Philly and now plane issues, their flight was rescheduled. Unfortunately, the flight isn't scheduled until Thursday. They ended up sleeping at the airport (not a single hotel room in town!) and finally made their way to Portland today around 1 pm this afternoon, via San Francisco. Their luggage is expected here on Friday. Will the fun ever end?

Thanks to all for following our journey. It was an amazing trip and we'd love to get together to share photos and more stories.

Ciao' for now!
Tom, Theresa, Tino & Collette

Greetings from Venice

It is Sunday (11 days into our trip) and we're heading to Venice. We were able to sleep in a bit today before we have to head down to breakfast. Hotel checkout is at 11:30 am and our train reservations are at 12:50.

Since we're not sure what type of food will be available on the train, we stop to buy a few snacks before boarding the train. The train ride is five hours with stops in Florence, Bologna, and Padova before reaching Venice.

Venice is absolutely breathtaking. When we arrived we purchased our vaporetto (water taxi) passes and jumped on. The vaporetto system is basically the city bus. Each line is numbered. All you need to do is determine the direction you want to go--to the left-a or to the right-a (Italians seem to add an "a" to the end of each word. Got to be quite a joke for us!) Some of the vaporettos make more stops than others. We definitely did not take the direct route. It was a very slow ride, but it gave us a good chance to take it all in.

Our hotel sits directly on the Grand Canal. Tom scored us rooms at the Westin. The rooms (and especially the bathrooms) are very spacious compared to the smaller rooms we've been staying in on this trip.

We got checked in, dropped our bags, and set took off to explore. The streets are very small and lined with shops and restaurants. We were headed for San Marco Square. After some navigating, we walked through an archway and there it was. It takes your breath away. The Doge's Palace on one side and the Basilica at the end. All the bells were chiming, the orchestras were all taking turns playing music around the square, and pidgeons everywhere!

We found a little place called Fakiani to eat dinner and watch the sights of Piazza San Marco. During dinner, the rain moved in. Luckily, we were under an awning so we managed to stay dry (for the moment). There was a break in the rain, so we were off to see more sights. The Rialto bridge is very cool. Not as many people as you'd imagine (here's where the Oregonian in us pays off...a little rain never hurt anyone!) We found it funny that as soon as the rain began, all of the annoying street vendors that were selling roses suddenly seemed to have umbrellas for sale.

We really enjoyed the thunder and lightning storm (amazing how many people still used an umbrella during the lightning storm). We headed back to the hotel, found some wine, and settled down for the night. The wines of this region are not as good as Tuscany. Although the whites are good. A chardonnay from the Fruili region is good, but not like ours. More like a Savingnon Blanc.
On Monday, we spent more time exploring and shopping. We watched the cruise ships bring people in by the boatloads, so we caught a Westin shuttle boat and went over to Lido beach. The weather wasn't so good, but it was beautiful. So much so we decided we needed some wine. What a surprise, right?

Tuesday is our "lay by the pool day." We had an amazing breakfast overlooking the Grand Canal. The sun was shining, weather was warm, view was amazing...what a great trip! We are heading over to Lido beach (Westin Excelcor) for the day. It didn't take us long to figure out that Venice by day is a zoo with all the cruise boats dropping off tourists. It makes Disneyland seem peaceful. So we are escaping the crowds and will come back for our last glass of wine in Italy, after the sun goes down.

We are missing all of you and look forward to seeing you soon!

Tom, Theresa, Tino & Collette

ps...still no baby!

I Need a Vacation

Here we are, sitting on the train getting ready to leave Rome for Venice. Yesterday was a great day. Very warm again. We took off from the hotel about 10 am to find the Campo de' Fiori (field of flowers), which is where Caesar was assassinated. It is a wonderful outdoor market where they sell flowers, fruits, vegetables, and a few touist items. We found a nice cafe and enjoyed some snacks and watched people.

As it started getting warm, we headed out to try and hit as many fountains and squares as we could. This was our last day in Rome, so we wanted to make the best of it. We went back to Trevi (pictured here), Novonna, and lastly we went to Piazza del Popolo. The area seemed to be the Goth part of the city with all the young people in black and piercings etc.

Vinnie was working again today after a couple days off, so we went back al Nuovo Fagianetto for dinner. Tom and Tino really liked it for the food. Collette and Theresa liked it for the waiter, and maybe the food. Once again, Vinnie treated us right. We had gnocchi, saltimbuco, and other specialties of Rome.

Next stop, the Grand Canal in Venice. But that is jumping ahead a bit. Ciao for now.
Tom, Theresa, Tino & Collette

On the roam in Rome

We're back!
Well yesterday (Friday) we walked all over Rome. It was about 90 degrees, so it was a very sweaty day. We woke up to our routine Italian breakfast...cappuccino, yogurt with musli (granola) and croissants. Collette and Theresa love Nutella on their croissants. Then we were off to the Colosseum. We decided to take the subway, which is notorius for pickpockets. No problemo for us. The guys got a tip to use a rubber band around their wallets so that it is not so easy to get out of their pockets. Too bad for girls, less trinkets. Ha! Just kidding!

We used our Roma passes at the Colosseum and went right to the front of the line (sure saved us lots of time not having to wait in the long line!). The Colosseum is huge. It is so hard to imagine how they could do this way back then. It its day, it was covered in marble. You can see where the marble was removed (where it was taken to be used at the Vatican).

Then we went through Palentine Hill, the birthplace of Rome and the home to Roman royalty. The shade there felt so good. They were getting ready for a jazz concert, so we were able to overlook the Roman Forum and listen to some very cool music. The Forum is amazing. The original stone road is still there. Think about it, the same roads that Jesus, Cesaer Augustus, and Nero all walked on. We even stood below the temple where Nero played music while Rome burning.

We ended up at the Pantheon for a rest break, photos at the fountain and then off for a tour of the Pantheon.

Next up, Piazza Novona, where it was time for more wine. We bought some beautiful paintings that reminded us of Tuscany. We also had the famous Tartufo (chocolate ice cream ball) from Tre Scalini, an outdoor cafe in the piazza. Since we were near we watched the sun go down at the Spanish Steps. Beautiful! We had dinner nearby. By the way if you ask us over for dinner when we get home, we prefer not to have pasta or pizza.


Tomorrow, we're off to Venice. We'll be able to update you on the train ride as we'll be riding for five hours.


Ciao for now.
Tom, Theresa, Tino & Collette

Off to Rome

Today is Wednesday and we woke to a sunny and warm morning. We had breakfast in the garden at the villa for one last time and said our goodbyes. We can't think of a place that makes us so sad to leave. The peacefullness. The lovely people. The beautiful landscape. There must be a way to stay here the rest of our lives. Even the staff at the villa was begging us to stay. They were planning a huge party and wanted us to be there. But Rome was waiting, so off we go.

Along the way, we decided to take a side trip to the coast and had lunch in a little port town near Orvieto called Porta San Stephano. It is amazing how blue the Mediteranean is.

We drop the rental car at the Rome airport and took the train to the hotel. When we got to the hotel, there was a little problem with our reservations. Seems we had reservations for two single rooms. The hotel was kind enough to make some arrangements to get us into two double room (very small doubles). We dropped our stuff and decided we could fit in one more sight before ending the day. We decided on the Trevi Fointain. What a spectacular thing to see all lit up at night. We made sure we kissed the special person in our lives and threw our coins in the fountain to insure a trip back to Rome.

For dinner, we stopped at a restaurant called al Nuovo Fagianetto, which is right next to our hotel. We were referred by our friends Steve and Katy who are very familiar with the restaurant. In fact, they shared a bottle of al Nuovo Fagianetto house wine with us recently that they brought back from Rome. Our waiter, Vinnie, was thrilled to see a photo that we'd brought with us that pictured the bottle (pictured). We were given the VIP treatment. It was the biggest (and best) meal we'd seen the whole trip and turned out to be the least expensive. Before we left, we assured Vinnie we'd be back before we left Rome.

Today is bright and early Thursday morning and we're off the Vatican. Every fun adventure is sure to have a little snafu or two, right? Well, this one does! The Vatican snafu was Collette's fault. The confirmation/ticket (which we were told you absolutely, positively, without a doubt have to have) to get into the Vatican was left behind at the hotel. Oh, did I mention that we didn't discover this until we were due to be in line at the tour (also, we were told time and time again that you can't be late for your tour) so there wasn't time to go back and get it. UGH! Turns out, there is a little wiggle room. Our tour group was waiting for us in front of the Vatican. Whew!

It is not humanly possible to describe the Vatican. Between the Vatican museums and St. Peters we were there from 8 am until 5 pm. Collette managed to convince the group to climb the Duomo here also. This one hosts 552 stairs up to the top. What an amazing view of Rome! Exhausted, we decided to take a little break from pasta, pizza and vino and take in a little Americana and went to Hard Rock for a beer, burger and fries (and a very cute waiter that looks a little like Chris Daughtry).

What a day. Try to update you tomorrow.

Tom, Theresa, Tino & Collette

Off to Monteriggioni & Siena

Ok, let's try to catch up. Still working from the crackberry so please excuse typos. Today is Tuesday and we're off for Siena. Again we took backroads to find adventures.

Collette really wanted to stop at a little medieval town she'd read about called Monteriggioni. It is supposed to only take five minutes to walk from one end to another. We had a cappuccino in the piazza while we watched a preschool group sing an Italian song.

Not much time to rest as we're of to Siena. See the comments from Kacey. Parking was indeed a nightmare. We followed Rick Steves' suggestion for finding parking. It took over 30 minutes to find a spot. And the worry of the photo tickets when driving in the wrong area was extremely stressful. Did we mention that we purchased treasures from the glass vendor in Volterra? A couple from the wine tasting tour at Dievole told us about the Mail Boxes, Etc. in Siena where we could ship our treasures home. We were on a mission to find Mail Boxes. (The couple made it sound a lot easier to find the shop than it turned out to be!) After wandering the streets for quite some time, we finally found it. Guess what? Closed for siesta. Luckily, we weren't too far from the Campo so we stopped for lunch. We knew this would be a costly meal since we were looking right at the Piazza del Campo. The service was okay. Food was was fine, but spendy. The waiter tried to short change by 20+euro (like we wouldn't notice?). They finally brought the right change. Very expensive city...even had to pay to use the restroom. We won't even go into the cost of the Mail Boxes, Etc. I think Tom is still trying to survive the heart attack from the cost of the bill.


The city itself is very cool. Very medieval looking. We decided to head over to the Duomo (pictured here). It is so beautiful (even more than Florence). There was a man playing a violin out front. So beautiful! Enough to calm us all down.


Can you believe that Siena has a wine museum called Enoteca Italiana? That's not the surprising part. What we found amazing is that vintners send in cases of wine to museum (no cost to the museum) and the museum sells the wine. How's that for a business venture? We have all decided that Nobile de Montipulciano is one of our favs. Especially the reserva.


Headed back to San Gimi for dinner. Boy, what a day!
Tom, Theresa, Tino & Collette

ps...no baby yet!

Seeing the sights of Tuscany

Sorry for the lack of updates. The connections here in Tuscany seem to be very poor.

Our day on Sunday began with with breakfast in the garden (just as wonderful as it sounds). Unfortunately, the weather is not the best today. We set off to visit Volterra (known for alabaster and for being loftiest of the hilltowns in Tuscany) and San Gimignano.

Huge thunderstorms moved in while we were in Volterra. We ducked onto a cafe and had a cappacino, gelato and cannoli. Can you believe they actually serve Red Bull gelato. We were too afraid to sample that one though!

We found a glass making shop with amazing pieces and simply couldn't refuse the urge to buy a few local treasures.

Once the rain stopped, we strolled the town and headed down the road to San Gimignano. Before leaving San Gimi, we sat on a terrace looking over Tuscany (pictured here) and drank German Beer.

Monday was our day to tour the Chianti Wineries. Before we left Portland, we made reservations at two locations--Vignamaggio and Dievole. We headed out to Vignamaggio, a winery where Mona Lisa was born. Guess we should have looked at the schedule a little closer before leaving the villa. Our tour guide Tino got a little confused and took us to the afternoon reservation in the morning. The wineries are not very close together and you have to travel really small backroads to get to them. It took us about an hour and a half to get to the first location. Needless to say, we wouldn't be able to make it to the next stop on time. We phoned Dievole (where we should have been) and they were able to get us in with an afternoon tour. Vignamaggio was very gracious also. They gave us a private tour of the grounds, talked with us about Tuscan history, walked us through the wine making process and let us sample several of their wines and gave us a wonderful feast of meats, cheeses, breads & olive oil. We couldn't have asked for more!

Then we set off for Dievole for our second tour. The two tours were so different, but each were amazing. What a wonderful day. Next adventure, tomorrow we head to Siena.
Ciao for now...

Tom, Theresa, Tino & Collette

Last day in Florence and heading to Tuscany

We spent our last day in Florence at the Ufizzi museum. After hitting the second major attraction, we're now thoroughly convinced that taking time to make reservations ahead of time is the way to go (a suggestion that Kacey Baxter made a last time we came...thanks for the great tip!). You get to go right to the front of the line if you have reservations.

The Ufizzi houses the famous Botticelli picture Birth of Venus and many other works by famous people like DaVinci. Amazing! And, we're only a couple days in and our feet are killing us. Hard to believe you can walk this much in one day!

Next adventure, Avis Rent-a-Car. After seeing how our luggage fit into a taxi, we weren't quite sure how we would fit everything into a rental car. Most of the cars here look like little smart cars. We had visions of looking like clowns spilling out of a vehicle at the circus. It was a nice surprise to see a little station wagon. It took a few tries to get the back to close around the suitcases, but we managed.

Next stop, Tuscany. We hit the road with a set of brief directions from Avis...take a right-a, then a left-a, then go over the bridge-a, and you'll be on your way to the villa. Sounds easy? Well, not quite that easy, but the (long) drive was so beautiful.

We kept looking for "vendita diretta" (or direct sales) signs to find a winery to try. We decided to stop at a little winery just outisde Gambasse Terre called Santa Cristina (pictured above). They have some really great wines. And the best part is that their most expensive bottle was about 15 dollars. After a short stay, we were off to the villa.

Our villa, called Tenuda Quadrifoglio, is located just outside a little town called Il Castagno. The villa is amazing. They host weddings nearly every weekend during the summer. In fact, there were two while we were there. After checking in to the villa, so decided to head to the pool for a rest. Boy, there's nothing like watching the sunset over the Tuscan hills. For dinner, we ventured up the road for dinner to a trattoria about 1/2 mile away from the villa. The restaurant doesn't look like much, but the the food is great. We shared several dishes, including a huge T-bone steak (about 40 oz.) and our first taste of Chinghali (wild boar).

Whew, what a day. Will catch up more next time. Miss you all.

Tom, Theresa, Tino and Collette

Seeing the Sights of Firenze

Good evening! Hard to believe we're only one full day into our trip. We've already seen and done so much. We're staying at a little place near the Duomo. We took a cab from the airport to the hotel (normal driving should have taken about 30 or so minutes to get there...our driver made it in 15...YIKES!). I must admit that I am so glad that we were not driving (or having to find our hotel). Tino sat next to the driver and described how to find The Hotel Centrale were we were staying. When we turned down a very narrow, one way street, I thought there must be a communication error and that we were lost. We stopped in front of a very small door, in front of a very narrow, tall building I was convinced that we were lost. But, turns out it was the right place.

Before I describe anymore of the hotel, let me tell you about our (or should I say Collette's) luggage. Before we left home, we all decided that we would take one bag each. We all managed to get everything in one suitcase each (Collette's seems to be the heaviest!). Tino kept saying that he couldn't imagine how we were going to manage it in Venice on the water taxi. But we'll share more on that later...

Remember when I mentioned a very narrow, but tall building? Tall means that the hotel begins on the 4th floor. The "lift" is so small that you can barely fit one person and one bag in it (not to mention that it is very slow). Up the stairs we went. We managed to get everything up the spiral staircase and into the lobby. Remember that I mentioned that the hotel begins on the 4th floor? We still had another two flights to get to our room. We all managed and the rooms turned out to be very pleasant.

Now on to today (Friday). We woke to sound of church bells chiming and birds chirping at 7:45 am. This is the day we get to visit the Acadamia. We got to see the Michaelangelio statue of David (we were disappointed to learn that you can't take photos of statue) and many other fabulous works of art.

Afterwards, we were off to see the Duomo which meant we had a 414 step climb to the top. By lunchtime, we were at the top. The climb was not as bad as we expected, but in some parts the stairs we narrow and vertically challenging (in other words, in some parts it was .75 Tom tall and .50 Tom wide). Collette barely survived the claustrophobia issues. The climb was sure worth the effort as you can see from the attached photo.

We feasted on pizza before we visited the Santa Croce Church where the tombs of many famous Florentines, like Michelangelio and Galileo rest. Right afterwards, we trekked over to Note di Vino (right outside the Piazza della Signonia) for a snack and cold drink.

After a brief siesta, we were on the run again. Once we discoverved that we were missing a cell phone (which is our primary contact with blogging, kids, baby updates, etc.), so we knew we had to retrace our steps. Tino remembered last using it at the Note di Vino. Hopefully, it would still be there. The hotel called over and confirmed that it was right where he left it (next to the empty bottle of vino). We walked over and retrieved the phone (whew!) and were off to make dinner reservations. Someone recommeded that we try a little place called Aqua al 2. We stopped in to make a reservation. The earliest that they could get us in was at 9:30 pm. We snapped up the time and set out to wander around a bit. We settled in at a little cafe called Pallaza Vecchio for a little snack before dinner. We watched the sunset over the Piazza and then headed off for dinner.

Amazingly, even at 9:30 at night, the restaurant was packed! We tried several sample dishes. Very good feast and the service was great. TC had her first taste of grappa (a very very strong aperatif that she says she may not ever try again!). Now we're back at the hotel and getting ready to settle in for the evening.

Tomorrow, we're off to see the Uffizzi and then to the villa in Tuscany. So long for now. More tomorrow.

Tom, Theresa, Tino & Collette

First Day In Italy

Well we made it safe and sound with no problems. The flight was very long. We had about an 1 1/2 hour layover in Frankfurt. Even though it was only 8:30 am Portland time, there was no way we were going to leave Germany without having a beer and brat. The wonderful waiter at the Frankfurt airport served us several sausages with two kinds of mustard, bread and beer. Pretty good vacation breakfast.


We arrived in Florence at about 1:30 pm Portland time. Got to the hotel, checked in and ventured off. We wandered over toward the Uffizi. In the courtyard, we found a little outdoor cafe for our first taste of "true" Italian wine and cheese. After a short rest, we wandered over to see the Ponte Vecchio and ended up at the Pitti Palace (in 1550, it was the main residence for the Medici family and subsequently all Florentine rulers lived here). However, instead of focusing on the inside of the Palazzo, we set our sights on the gardens. I know, you're probably thinking that we're passing up a great opportunity to see a wonderful museum, but it was about 90+ degrees outside and we couldn't stand the thought of going inside a hot museum during the late afternoon. So, we toured the Boboli and Bardini Gardens just outside the palace. Very cool! The garden overlooks the city and Tuscan landscape. We stayed as long as we could. I think they were closing the gates after us.

We wandered a bit, okay it was just across the street, and came to a wine bar for a glass of wine. Wine selection for us seems to be prsenting a little bit of a challenge. None of the labels are familiar and you can't go by price, as some of the cheaper wines are very good (and some, not so good!) We all settled on a recommendation by the server (it turned out to be a very nice recommendation!).

For dinner, we found a nice ristorante overlooking a Piazza. Before we left Portland, we put together a tentative schedule of events, so we are currently planning tomorrow's activities. We're barely able to keep our eyes open. We woke up 4:30 am your time yesterday and have been awake until 1 pm in the afternoon the next day your time. So, we wish you Buena Sera (good evening) and will update you with a clearer head tomorrow.

Tom, Theresa, Tino & Collette

Getting Ready to Leave

Well, just a few days to go and we will have the pleasure of security checks, airline food, stale air on the airplane-you know the drill. But then Florence! Firenze, if you speak the language. By the time we arrive at our hotel, it will be dinner time. We will wander a little, find a nice little ristorante, pizza, wine and maybe gelato.



If you want to see an overhead view of where we will be staying., click on this address to Google Maps:
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=duomo+Firenze,+Italy&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=17

via de' Conti, 3-red, 50123 Firenze, Italy


Click on the satellite view and zoom in. Amazing! Look how close we will be to the Duomo. That's a picture of the Duomo.




We will keep you updated. right now we are just trying to figure out how to pack two weeks of clothes in a small suitcase!


Ciao'