Italy 2019

Introduction: Santiago de Compostela Day 1 Saturday 9/21/2019

Here we sit at the airport in Santiago, Spain.  We have just completed the Portuguese Camino, a walk of about 400 miles.  We arrived yesterday afternoon, got our hotel, ate supper, and got a good night’s sleep.  Our plane leaves for Italy at 9:25 PM.  We are here at 1:00 PM.  When we decided to check out of the Hotel Universal it was raining.  It is supposed to rain all day.  We asked each other if we wanted to walk around in town in the rain or just go on to the airport.  Since we had seen Santiago when we walked the French Camino last year, and walked around the town for several days, and felt like we had seen enough—you can’t see it all in a few days—-but we both decided to head to the airport.  We just don’t like being soaking wet and waiting.  It is much better, if you have to wait, to wait in the dry.  So off to the the airport we went on a bus with about one hundred other people. Mostly pilgrims on their way home.

The story behind this trip started in 1970.  Larry had the awesome privilege of traveling with his uncle John on a spiritual journey trip. He was a new young pastor at the time and his uncle at the time was also a pastor.  He told Larry that this particular trip would be worth a year of Bible college. The sixteen day trip included, Israel, Rome, Athens, Greece, Paris, and London. Not sure where Paris and London fits in the Bible, but any trip through Europe in those days included those two places.  I could not go because I had a three-month old to take care of—Doug. Plus, we did not have the money. That $1000 was hard to come up with and we could not have done it by ourselves,  but our church gave a little and parents gave a little and we finally came up with it.  Fifty years ago a $1000 was a lot of money.

I Remember when Larry got home, he looked me in the face and said, “I will take you back.”  He said he could not really enjoy the trip knowing that I was missing everything, and there was no way that he could describe what he saw.  I must say, he tried. He bought out the pictures and I looked at them, but to me it is never fun to try to live a vacation through another person’s eyes.  He also added, “I will never go anywhere without you again”. He has kept that promise, but the promise of returning to these places seemed impossible. Life came along—two babies, $100 a week salary.  Even when Larry started teaching school when we started a church, he brought home $300 a month.  Then came along older children, marriages and grand babies.  All of that is expensive. I never in my mind held him to the promise of returning, because I just thought it could never happen.

There is a long story as to how we changed our mind set about making money and hanging on to it—that is a book in itself.  But as the years passed I knew it was possible, I just didn’t think about it being when we were in our 70’s.

So Last year we added Paris to the list, and with Kari’s senior trip we added London and here I am sitting here on my way to Rome.  Now is the time. Plane fares to Italy are around $100 each, so that is a lot less than coming from home.  We are also going to Pisa and Florence in the region of Tuscany, and Venice.  Now it will be a whirlwind trip to get it all in, in a week, but if you care to see the sights with us, come along.  You can enjoy it along side of us.

Italy Day 2 Rome Sunday September 22, 2019

Today was just a little different.  We left Spain at about 9:30 last night and arrived at about 12:15 this morning in Rome.  After getting our packs and finding a place to settle in for the rest of the night, Larry began to get hungry. I was having a little stomach issue and I was trying to hold off on food to see if it would correct itself. He made a little trip to the bakery/coffee shop.  There was so much to choose from, so he kept it simple.  He got a grilled ham and cheese and a cup of coffee.

We didn’t want to waste a hotel stay for just a few hours so we thought that

we would get some sleep there in the area of the coffee shop.  We claimed our table for the night along with the other airport dwellers.  The problem was, we couldn’t go to sleep.  It was, to say the least, very noisy.  A young man was riding a floor tile cleaning and polishing machine back and forth by our table/bed.  I really think that he was doing it on purpose.  He would ride by and smile.  We gave up on sleep for a while, and checked out the Auburn game.  Then Larry switched over to the Georgia game.  That kept him occupied until about 4:30 this morning.  Finally, we both fell a sleep until someone started moving the chairs around, making an awful screeching noise on the floor.  We just gave up and began preparing for our first day in Rome.

It was Larry’s job to go find the train station so that we could take about an hour ride into the center of Rome. At this time it was about 7:30 and the airport was getting very busy. We did not want to go too early—there were no tourist attractions open before daylight, and our hotel room did not allow us to check in before 12:00. We found out that there was an express train, that did the trip in about 30 minutes, but it cost more.  Enough said about that. But this time it had as much to do with time as anything. We were not in any hurry to get out in the rain!!

Yes, when we went out of the airport terminal there was a very steady rain.  The type that was not real hard, but drops are extremely close together and it just wets you very quickly.  To our surprise, we had a roof over the walkway almost all the way to the station.  We only had to cross the street in the rain.  We boarded the train and made our way to Rome’s Grand Central Station.  This is where all the buses, trains, metros, and taxis converge in one place. It was huge and amazing. It was more like being in a mall. Stores of every kind were everywhere. Stores that you would recognize by name.

We were supposed to get off the train, go down into the metro and ride

almost to the front door of the Colleseum (how they spell it here).  The only problem was that they had shut down the metro line that we were supposed to ride. So here we are with about a million people converging on the buses that they had designated to handle all the customers that had been turned away.  This seemed like a great solution, but there were not enough buses to accommodate all the travelers. We got on a bus that they told us to get on and we were packed like sardines.but after a short ride they stopped the bus and told us to get off and get on another bus, but guess where it took us—back to where we had started.  It was supposed to have taken us to the Colleseum.  At this point, we just start asking for directions to walk to the Colleseum, Larry’s phone said the Colleseum was about thirty minutes away by walking—-so we set out. By this time it had stopped raining and actually a few blue skies appeared. Now thirty minutes is nothing compared to all the walking we do and have done, but this morning it was a little more difficult. We are still carrying our backpacks and they seem to weigh a lot more after thirty hours of no sleep. I was dragging and still feeling a little queasy in my stomach. When we got to the Coliseum, there was a very long line to get our tickets.  And after about an hour wait, we got to security.  There we were told that we couldn’t enter to buy the tickets, because our packs were too big.  I don’t know why the guys directing the lines could not have told us that. There was actually a place at the train station where we could have stored them.  There was nothing to do but leave and go get rid of our packs at the hotel. It was getting close to twelve by this time anyway.

Then the rain began again and we walked back to the station. It is not a heavy rain at all, so we did not really even gear up for it. We boarded the metro on another line to our hotel.   I have never seen so many people in one small area in my life.  We were literally laying up against others bodies. The phrase “packed like sardines” on the bus ride was nothing compared to this. We could have kissed the other person mashed next to us and no one would have ever known it.  My queasy stomach was now faced with the heat from all these people and I thought I was going to throw up on them.  I just tried to look down as much as possible and not think about it. It was about a six station ride that took a few minutes, but I made it. This ride took us within five minutes of our hotel.  Such a relief!

We had a little trouble getting into our place for the night.  We keep calling

this a hotel, but it is actually Elenoire’s Rooms and Suites. When you rent something on the internet, and look for a price that you think is affordable, you never really know what you are going to get. The last hotel we got in Santiago had a bad review or two, but we had stayed there the year before and we knew it was very nice. So you cannot always count on reviews. But when we got here—we were blown away. It was brand new, totally remodeled and except for a few very special places I have stayed—like the Parador last year, it is the nicest place ever. Now it is not large, just nice. The shower has a full body shower. We have an area for a variety of hot teas, and they gave us a whole cake. I feel like I am living in luxury tonight and it only cost $87.00. That is excellent for this area.

When we got there I was still not feeling too well, so I asked Larry to see if we could stay another night just to get rested a little. Our plan was to see a lot of the attractions today, finish off tomorrow and then train to Pisa. But I am thinking that is too much with the way I am feeling, This room is not available, so that means finding another place. I sat down on the bed while Larry was doing a few things—looking for train—schedules, and I fell asleep in minutes. I slept only a few minutes and I knew Larry was hungry,

so we decided to go find some authentic Italian food from one of the little café’s that we had seen along the way to our room.  Larry had some type of dish that was an Italian stew and I had chicken and broccoli.  I didn’t think I could handle anything strong right now. I ate very little. We went back to the room for Larry to search the internet for a room tomorrow night and to plan out the rest of the week, since we were a little off track.  While he was working on this I feel asleep again and slept for several hours. I guess I am more exhausted than I think, and I think that has something to do with my queasy stomach. Anyway, after that long nap I feel some better.  Maybe after a real night’s sleep, I will be good to go.

Italy Day 3 Rome September 23– The Sistine Chapel

We slept a little late today, because we could not check into our new hotel until 10:00 and we didn’t really have time to go see anything before then. The place we stayed was a classified as a bed and breakfast, but what they had did not qualify as breakfast, so we skipped that, I did make me a cup of tea. We got to our new place and got settled in around 11:00 so we headed out to find the Sistine Chapel.  Just outside our hotel they sold tickets to get in so we would not have to wait in line. We bought tickets also for the Coliseum while we were at it.  But we just paid here, we were to get the tickets at another location.

On the way to that location, there were restaurant people standing all along

the side walk giving out brochures to try to get you to eat with them.  We looked at one brochure and it looked good because it had soup as one of the courses and I felt like that would be somewhat gentle on my stomach. It is still very tender feeling and I am trying to be careful.  So I got the soup as my appetizer and Larry got the bruschetta. Then for our main dish, Larry got fettuccine bolognese and I got roasted chicken—once again to go easy on the stomach. It was all very good.  And it just so happened that the place we were to pick up our tickets was just down the street. So we are ready to go see the Sistine Chapel.

I could not even begin to describe this place in words. It is huge and filled with ancient art of all kinds.  You don’t just walk into the Sistine Chapel, you literally walk for hours through art history to get to it.  I thought it was a rotunda type cone shaped ceiling with paintings on it. So the first one I walked into, I was admiring the work of Michelangelo.  Larry said that he didn’t think this was it. He was here 50 years ago and he said he remembered it being a larger space.  So that conversation extended throughout the next few hours—is this it? Is this it?  Every door would have an arrow that said “ The Sistine Chapel”. But all the way across the gigantic room it would have an arrow leading out saying “The Sistine Chapel”. I didn’t want to miss it. After literally hours, we finally got to it. It was nothing like I imagined. I guess I didn’t remember my history very well. Although I have seen many pictures of it, it had not really hit me that the room is rectangular and massive.  We were rushed through the room to keep people from just standing and staying for hours. Plus, we were not allowed to take pictures.  Before we really knew this, Larry got a couple of shots.

 It was very hot today. I wore a top with spaghetti straps and a shirt on top.

The shirt did not stay on long, I tied it around my waist. And even with that I was in a full body sweat. The body heat from the literally thousands of people created quite a heat. There were a lot of fans situated around and when you walked by them you got a little relief. The reason I am telling you this, is because before I could enter the Sistine Chapel they made me put on my shirt. I wondered what ladies did who didn’t have a shirt because I saw a lot of shoulder-less attire.  I was thinking maybe they would give you something to put over your shoulders, and then take it back once you were out of the chapel. I don’t know.  I just know I would have been very upset if I had gotten to the end and had been refused entrance. No where did I see anything that said your shoulders had to be covered.

After hours and hours of walking through buildings and then going to find the Metro, we were exhausted and headed back to our room to rest. We rested until dinner time.

At dinner time we went to look for a place to eat. We could have just literally walked out our door and sat down.  We are staying in a very central location that is convenient to everything, but we decided to walk down the street to restaurants who had menu’s outside that

had English words on them. We found one and Larry got Italian pizza and I had tortellini with a white sauce.  It was very different than anything we have ever had, but very delicious.

After dinner we headed back to the room to get ready for a big day tomorrow. We are going back to the Coliseum and this time get to go inside. Just from the size of it, I know it is going to be a long day.

Italy Day 4 Rome September 24 The Coliseum

Breakfast was served at our hotel this morning at 8:30, so we were not in a real hurry to get dressed. It was nothing special—you know, yogurt, croissants, coffee, fruit—-but very sustainable. We left around 9:00 to go to the Metro and ride out to the Coliseum. We had bought tickets the day before, but when we got to the office to pick up the tickets, we decided to join a tour as well. There was just so much history behind the Coliseum that we did not know, we decided to let someone who did know tell us all about it. 

We met our group at 10:30. Little did we know that this would add so much our trip. You sign up with the groups by language, and of course we choose English. That placed us with a group of mostly Americans, but also some from England and Australia. So, along the path, we got to know some very interesting people, many of whom had the same experiences we have had. There were a couple of hikers from Seattle. They had never walked the Camino, but they had been on one hike in France that had lasted several days. We had fun trying to get them to walk the Camino. Then there was the Harley Riding couple from Australia. They were an interesting pair, as well. They fly to work!!  They work two weeks, fly home for a week and fly back for two weeks–over and over. But we probably spent most of our time and conversation with the couple from Los Angeles. I would not take anything for our five years of motorcycle riding in every state, because no matter who you meet from the states, you can have a conversation with them about their state or if you’ve been in their country, same thing. You might not have visited their particular city, but everyone knows their state or country beyond where they live and it just makes for great conversation. For example, the two couples from England. We told them we had been there in June with Kari, our granddaughter, and had visited Framlingham, where Ed Sheeran lives. They live not too far from there and we got to share a conversation about a lot of the same things that we had seen when we were there. It just made for an interesting tour all the way around. Well worth the money we spent.

And then there was the tour itself. The guide would tell you about an area

and then you would walk around by yourself and explore. Then meet together again and explore again. Each time if you wanted him to follow with you, you could pay a little extra. We did not do this until it came time to actually go into the Coliseum. We just wanted to know more than we could just see. Oh the history!!! I just want to go back home and read all about what went on during those years. Our guide gave us the overview, and it was wonderful, but there was no way he could tell it all. It just whetted our appetite for more.

I look at my life as a Christian sometimes with mixed emotions. I’m never afraid to tell a person that I am a Christian, especially if they ask. But if they don’t ask, I will sometimes hesitate to just come out and say it because of their reaction. Most times, in the South, they smile and most all know exactly what you are talking about, because they are Christians themselves. But even in the South, you get different reactions. And I’m not necessarily talking about strangers. I’m talking about people in your neighborhood or maybe even family. You don’t always know if you are going to be completely accepted for who you are and no one likes to be rejected. But then I come to the Coliseum and hear the details of what it really meant to be a Christian. It meant DEATH. They burned

Christians at the stake to make lights for the Chariot races. It makes me wonder if I had been hesitant to do it then. Just how strong is my faith, or a better question is—how strong was their faith?  I think we all know the answer. I thank God for those people who were willing to give their life for a cause, so that I can be a follower of Christ.

And then there is the story of the Gladiators. It is estimated that in all—Christians and the Gladiators that there were a half a million people killed in the Coliseum all in the name of sport. How tragic.  And oh, the wild animals being hunted and killed there, and some turned on people to kill them!!! The coliseum had a wood floor, but it was covered with deep sand to absorb the blood of animals and humans. Thank goodness this is not all we learned today. We heard some good things that happened when they had good kings in power and how they h

elped the people.  But the fascinating part of the tour was the actual construction of this colossal building—colossal—where the name came from. The construction and the detail to construction was unbelievable. Only one part will I mention. Can you see in the pictures the holes everywhere on the walls? The original coliseum was built with metal bars as part of the construction. In the Middle Ages, someone drilled holes in the walls and removed the metal to make weapons of war. I just thought that was an interesting explanation as to the pictures that we always see of the Coliseum. If you are reading this, it is because you are on facebook. I have added a lot of pictures and videos on facebook today to show some of what we have seen. You can take literally thousands of photos and never get it all in. I would encourage anyone to make a visit here.

After the tour we went to find some lunch.  By this time, it is after 2:00, so

we are a little hungry. We found a café along the sidewalk with a daily special that included—of course—pizza and pasta. I got pizza and Larry got pasta and then we split. It was good as usual, but just way too much food. Of course we finished it all, and waddled back to the room for a little rest. Also Larry had to find us a place in Pisa or Florence—depending on the details of tomorrow and when we get finished with everything we want to see. We just can’t make plans too far in advanced, because we do not want our housing to determine how long we can stay in a place and visit. Of course this is extra work on Larry’s part, and a little time consuming, but it is what it is. We thought we would be in Rome a day and a half or two days at the most. But we saw that it was going to take three nights and four days. If we had already made reservations for Pisa, our next town, we would have missed something that we thought was important to see. And really that is rushing it. I would really like to come back some time, but I really don’t see that happening. There are just too many other places on my bucket list and time is a wasting.

So, waiting until as late as we thought we could to eat, we decided that all we wanted for dinner was some fruit. We are still full from lunch. So we go down to a deli/restaurant and buy a container of chopped watermelon and a huge peach. That and a cup of water filled us up.

We then headed back to the room to finish the blog and finalize are plans for the rest of the week. From here on out, we are limited as to how long we can stay in each place because we have plane reservations for Sunday night to arrive home on Monday.

Italy Day 5 September 25  Rome and Pisa

This has been one more hectic day. It was literally like putting a puzzle together. And if every piece did not fit together, there were no do-overs. Looking back now, if we had known how close we would be with everything, we would not have even had the courage to try. We just depend on God to help us old fools out.

We set an alarm for 6:30 this morning. This is new for us since we finished

the Camino. We have been sleeping until about seven every day. But we had to get packed and ready to leave after our 8:30 breakfast at the bed and breakfast to get ready for the adventure. Yesterday, we decided that we could squeeze in a visit to the Catacombs, and we had to get to our van by 10:30. This part was easy to do. In fact. we were an hour early.so we looked around a little, then found us a shady spot to sit down.

While waiting for the van we met a couple from Phoenix—Christiana and Jack. This was one of the highlights of the trip. Jack was originally from Montgomery and went to Auburn for a while before joining the Air Force. We talked about some common Alabama things and some things we experienced when we were in Arizona and the surrounding area, when we were there on one of our motorcycle trips.  Jack had the experience of driving a school bus for a year, and since Larry had that experience too, we shared a lot of bus story laughs. It was just great conversation and connection.

The van arrived on time and we were off for about a thirty-minute ride to the Catacombs. I’m sorry to say I do not have any pictures of everything we saw. Photographs were not permitted. I did, at the end, snap a couple of pictures of pictures in the gift shop at the end of the tour. As I’m sure you know, the catacombs are underground burial places. There was no place above ground to bury people, so they went underground. They would carve holes, the size of the body and bury it in these carved out areas and then

cover the hole with stones and seal it up.  There were holes of all sizes, from infants to adults. And in the case of adults, they would stack bodies on top of bodies. There were thousands buried here. The rich could afford to be buried here in family rooms, but a lot of people could not afford a family room of graves, so the Christians would take up money for the poor to have a decent burial. In a later century, someone discovered the catacombs and stated excavating them. At this time there were a lot of grave robbers who would open the tombs in search of money, jewelry, anything of value. When they found none, they would take out the “bones of the saints” and sell them as religious items.  Know one knew if the bones were actually from saints or not. Not all of the graves were robbed, so there are still bones buried in some of the graves today.

We had always heard that Christians hid in the Catacombs to escape persecution, but out guide said that is a myth. She said no one could have possibly stayed there with the stench of dead bodies. There was no ventilation and it just would not have been possible to survive. There was one story that was fascinating. There was a wealthy lady who gave all the land for the Catacombs. She later became a Christian, so they exiled her to some island and she did not even get to be buried in her own family catacomb. There was an underground church there also. I wish I could tell

you more. There were a lot of facts presented today by our guide, who did as best she could with English, but there were times I did not understand what she said. I hope everything I said above is exactly the facts. I am going to read about them when I get home.

After we got back on the bus, we headed for the train station to go to Pisa to see the leaning tower. It was a four-hour ride and we made it with forty-five minutes to spare—we thought. We had to go get our backpacks that we had stored at the train station that morning, but they would not store our trekking poles, so we had to carry them. We did not know we could have carried the

backpacks on the van left them there during the tour. That would have saved us $13.00. Larry tried to get that information the day before when we bought the tickets, but I don’t think she understood what Larry was asking, so we did not take a chance of being kicked off the van. That had happened a few days early at the Coliseum. So after we got our backpacks we thought we had time to maybe get a little lunch. Larry headed for McDonald’s to grab a sandwich and then we went to find a seat near where we were supposed to board. But before sitting down, we asked which platform we would be on. Little did we know that it was fifteen minutes away. So, we hurried as fast as we could and got on the train and ate our lunch. We had fifteen minutes to spare. So glad we asked the question before we sat to eat. We saw lots of people running for the trains that got left. I’m sure the same thing happened to them.

We rode for four hours. The scenery was beautiful along the way. It just

made me realize how much of an area you really get to see when you walk through towns. On a train it is just a blur.  We did see the Mediterranean Sea. That reminded me of last year when we actually rode a boat on the Mediterranean Sea when we were in Jerusalem. The coast line was beautiful. Then we arrived in Pisa.

As soon as we got off the train in Pisa, we headed for the bus lines. We got on one pretty quick and after about a fifteen-minute ride, we arrived at the tower. A famous architect constructed it as a bell tower for the church. And then of course it began to lean. It has actually leaned more than it is today because a couple of years ago they straightened it up a little. We did not go up into the tower. It is a thirty minute walk up many

steps, and they give you only thirty minutes. If you have not made it by then, you have to turn around and go down. At the end of a long day, we questioned whether or not we could do it in time. I know we have walked 500 miles and 400 miles, but walking up steps is much harder. Plus there was the issue of the next train ride. We were not sure what time it was leaving for Florence. So, we took our pictures and headed for the bus stop. We had to wait about fifteen minutes for the bus to come again, before heading to the train station. Larry sent me to McDonalds again while he bought the train ticket. But I was in line and he told me to leave, we had ten minutes to get on the train. I can’t say I was sorry. McDonalds food in not on my eating list and I had already had it once today. I am going to have to go on a total body cleanse when I get home.

So we missed dinner and headed for the train. The train ride took an hour

to get to Florence. It was dark when we arrived. Right beside the train station was a cafeteria style restaurant, so we grabbed some chicken, green beans and potatoes, water and wolfed it down. We then had to find a cab to take us to our apartment. We were not familiar with their subway, besides we did not want to be looking for a place in the dark. So we got a cab and he brought us to the front door. After getting checked in we headed for our hotel (that turned out to be an apartment with a kitchen)  and it was 10:00. So we made it! It was been a wild hectic day and the puzzle all fit. Larry made us some great lemon tea, I washed out a few clothes, and here I sit, all geared up, and working on the blog.  But no alarm tomorrow!  We have one day to experience Florence.

Italy Day 6 September 26  Florence

Today started around 8:00. We dressed and headed to a café for a light breakfast before heading out to the tram to get to our Hop On Hop Off bus tour that Larry reserved last night. Florence is so huge and we didn’t have a clue as to where to get started to see anything in particular, so we decided to do the tour and let someone tell us the history. The blue line was an hour and the red line was two hours, so for three hours we could see everything. We rode the blue line the whole way and then picked out where we wanted to stop the second time. It was getting around 1:00 at this time, so we got off along the

river for lunch. We had to wait about thirty minutes for a table on the water. Little did we know that this was going to be a loooooong affair.  The food was delicious, but there were a lot more tables than the three waiters could keep up with, so everything was slow and we were there over two hours. It didn’t bother us during the process, but time just got away, and it was getting late. So late, that we only got to make two major stops. One stop included a little shopping and the second one was just so huge, that it took a long time to get around and see everything.

Along the way we learned a lot of history about people whose names we recognized, Michelangelo, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Galileo. They are all buried here for one thing. Of course, there were many others pointed out that we did not know, but their houses or burial places were beautiful. And of course, we saw beauty and scenery beyond belief. But our greatest story for the day came at a bus stop.

We made one stop to see Galileo’s house. Larry taught Earth Science in school and of course taught about him every year, so we thought it would

be more interesting to see this than his grave. For some reason—I guess so we could get our stories—- the bus we were transferring to got delayed and we were on top of a mountain for an hour. While we were waiting, we walked over to a guy to ask him a question, and Larry spotted a red Ferrari. Larry asked him if it was his car and he said no, he was a test driver. People hired him to drive the car for a price. Anywhere from $65 for three kilometers (about 1.86 miles), up to over a $1000 , depended on the distance and the speed. We asked him all kind of questions about the job.  He told us of one person who

took off so fast that it scared him and he took his hands off the steering wheel and  rear-ended a bus. $45,000 damage to the car. But the driver had bought insurance with a $5000 deductible, so he only had to pay $5000. He said his scariest moments are when someone from England wants to drive and they are used to the steering wheel being on the other side of the car. In fact, he was waiting for his next client who was from some country that drove on the other side. We stood there another thirty minutes waiting on the bus and talking to him, hoping the client would come up and we could watch. But during this time, we decided to switch to the red line bus, so we had to cross the street.

On the other side of the street we met a couple from Bulgaria. They spoke perfect English, so they asked where we were from. When she found out we were from North Carolina, she said I went to college in North Carolina, and of course we asked where and she said she went to Duke. I asked her how she happened to pick Duke from Bulgaria and she said they picked her. I’m not sure how Duke knew about her, but that is what she said. Upon further investigation we found out that it was for only one year and it was her junior year. We asked he why she didn’t stay and graduate. She said that her school in Bulgaria wanted her to come for one year, but if she didn’t come home to Bulgaria after that, she had to pay back the scholarship. So she went back home, of course.  Larry asked her if Duke was hard, and she said yes, she cried after every test. But evidently, she did well, because she got her degree in business and finance and is now a CEO of a company. This made time pass fast and we met some new people with refreshing stories. It is amazing what comes from asking—“Where are you from?” And by the way, you can get the whole story of the Ferrari on facebook. I put it on there especially for Doug, my son, who loves cars.

It was getting around 6:00, so we decided to head back to the room and get something to eat. We had eaten so much at lunch that we were not very hungry for dinner. Larry and I got a small sandwich and after that we headed for the mini-supermarket.  This was an experience in itself. We were checking out the cantaloupes and the honeydew melons. We wanted the regular cantaloupe, but it did not smell ripe, but the honeydew did smell ripe. So the owner, who spoke no English, decided to give us both for the price of one. We finally understood what he was talking about, so we left with both—one for tonight and one for in the morning. When we got home, we cut open the honeydew and to our surprise it looked and tasted just like the cantaloupes we get at home. So I hope in the morning the other

cantaloupe is not green inside and taste like a honeydew melon.  We will see.

Then, we headed back to the room to do the blog and let Larry look for us a place to stay in Venice and also book a ride on the gondola. After Venice, we will be heading home.

Italy Day 7 September 27  Venice

We did not have to check out of our hotel until 10:00, and we did not have train tickets yet, so we took our time getting packed up.  We had bought a cantaloupe the night before (yes it was just like we expected), and the room had a coffee maker—-so that was our breakfast. Larry used this time to check on train tickets to see how often they ran to Venice. We could not check into our hotel until 2:00 so we had plenty of time. The train ride to Venice was an hour.

We went to the train station and it was packed to the brim. You literally

could not walk in a straight line. We were weaving in and out of people, almost pushing our way to the ticket booth. We found out that first of all there was a local train strike.  And second of all there was a Green Peace protest planned for a little later in the day, so the schools had let out so they would have a lot of protesters. Built in success. Students look for any excuse to be out of school. They could care less the reason. At least that is the way it was when I taught.

We got a little shock when we heard the price for tickets. Larry had thought he had seen them on-line earlier in the week for $9.00. That was about the going rate for other tickets we had bought between cities. But when we got to the booth, they were much more.  We don’t know if that was typical for the week-end or what. But we decided to upgrade to a straight shot to Venice. Otherwise, we would have had to change trains and wait between trains, and we would have gotten to our motel much later.  Long story short instead of paying around $20, we had to pay around $100.  That is a shot in the old budget for today. But we made it to Venice around 1:00.

We got off the train right onto the water. After all Venice is an island. It was

absolutely beautiful. Buildings on both sides of the canal right beside the water. I could have stayed there for hours, but our journey was not over. We were staying on an island off an island. So we had to go on a boat taxi to our island.  This was very exciting to me, but that is not why we are staying here. We are staying out on this island because the rooms are so much cheaper. Our hotel bill is $59.00 a night.  Those on the island of Venice are very expensive, some as much as $2000 a night.

We found our hotel and it is a Sports Resort. There are clay tennis courts and there are inside tennis courts as well,  all around the property. There were students practicing and students taking lessons. There is also a soccer field, weight room , boxing bags  and a beautiful swimming pool. This is the off season, so there are not a lot of people in our hotel—which is probably why it is $59.00 a night.

After looking around our resort for a little while to see what all was here,

we went back and dressed for dinner. This area does not have a lot of restaurants so we knew we were going to have to walk a ways or take a bus. The Mediterranean Sea, or the Adriatic Sea (which is a portion of the Mediterranean), is right behind our hotel, so we decided to go look at the sea. What we found was a rock/brick walkway or bike path that went around the whole back side of the Island, so we decided to walk to dinner. We could see the busy

part of town in the distance, but little did we know that it was probably two to three miles. We walked for over an hour. But the views were beautiful so it did not seem that long.

We finally reached a restaurant and it was gorgeous. We had spaghetti and pizza—the best we have had so far. We ended the meal with dessert—tiramisu and what they called their house cake—with coffee. I’ve never tasted anything like that cake. I would give anything for the recipe. But the lady that made it

could speak no English. She could barely take our order. When I told her how good it was, with a thumbs up—she pointed to herself and we understood her saying that she made it. I later ask the son and he said yes, it is not on the menu—we just called it the house cake. Larry had seen it earlier in a glass case, that is how we knew they served it.

After eating—way too much—we headed back. It was dark by now, so we found a bus stop and waited for the bus. The Island is very narrow, but it is

quite long. While riding back on the bus, we realized how long we had walked. It was at least fifteen minutes on a bus going pretty fast.

Now to bed. The only schedule we have tomorrow, is an appointment at 4:00 to ride on a gondola.

 

Italy Day 8 September 28 Venice

Today started around 7:00. The hotel served breakfast at 7:30. We made it by 8:00. It was buffet style with almost 100% carbs. So, Larry and I got our sugar high.  I can’t wait to get home and get my body cleaned out with some good food. That is the thing I hate about traveling. All the food is good. I can honestly say that we have not had anything that was bad. It is just mostly too much and filled with carbs.

After breakfast we came back to the room and got ready for the day. The

hotel tram actually took us to the water boats, so we

were able to save the bus fare for this morning. We arrived at the ticket office and bought our water taxi tickets.  They are $7.50 every time you get on the boat. I’d like to know how much they take in on these boats in one day.  They are all packed to the brim every time we get on one. I don’t think there is a limit to the number of passengers.

We arrived on the island and the first thing we did was go find out where

we were meeting for the gondola ride. Larry had booked it earlier this week and we needed to find the spot where our group met. The ride wasn’t until 4:00, but we just like to be prepared. After that we walked around. We ended up in San Marco Square where there was a beautiful church. The ornate buildings in Europe are so fascinating. I can’t imagine the materials and work that it takes to build some of these monstrosities. While we were there, the street started getting wet. Then they got wetter, then it was “over the shoe” deep water. We looked around and water was coming up through vents in the roads. This happens quite often when the tide is up. They just allow for it. When this happens, they have stacks of raised platforms sitting around that they place around the square for people to walk on. The stores have metal barriers that they place on the front door of their store to keep water from coming into the store.

We asked one merchant if the water ever came into her store. She said, “Oh

yes, but it won’t today.” We wondered how she knew. It was already up to the floor, but not in yet. I guess they know their tides. I’m glad I had worn my sandals because I was walking in water. We finally got to a little higher ground on some of the back streets. And then we got really lost. There are no sidewalks that go along the buildings on the canal. The water literally touches the building, so you just have to weave around the streets hoping you find a bridge that will take you back to the main canal. After walking for about two hours and getting nowhere, we realized we were going to have to take a boat to get back to the train station area where we came in yesterday. I had seen a restaurant there that served octopus. Yes, I have seen it on menus ever since we have been in Europe and I had to try it before I went home.

When we finally got to the restaurant I asked they guy how they served the octopus. He said it was a pasta dish that had all kinds of seafood in it—clams, shrimp and octopus. So that is what I ordered. When I got it, it was spaghetti with red sauce and the seafood. Octopus does not have a real distinctive taste itself, so I was just really eating seafood spaghetti. It was kind of a chewy texture, but other than that it was fine. As always, meals over here are an event, so time was getting late for the gondola ride. We had to ride another boat to get back to the tour, and we had no idea how long that would take, so we began to rush.  We made it in plenty of time, in fact with forty-five minutes to spare. I don’t think we have ever been late for anything in our life.

While we were waiting for our tour guide to get there and get everything

organized, a couple walked toward us. It was obvious they were from America, and the man—John, had on a cap that said, Lake Norman. I asked him if he lived on Lake Norman and he said yes. Lake Norman is about an hour from Baden, where we live. Small world. They were in Italy for a few days before leaving on a cruise to the Greek Islands. Conversation really got interesting when she said her daughter-in-law graduated from Auburn in veterinary medicine. We spent about thirty minutes with them sharing stories and pictures, etc. Then it was time to get on the gondola.

We rode with four other people. It was a lot of fun. We took the cheap ride, but there were others who had accordion players and some even had gondola drivers who sang.  I played a little music on my phone, until I realized that others may not appreciate my style of music, so I turned it off.   It was just a short thirty minute ride, but a lot of fun.

After the gondola ride, we went back to St. Marcos square to do a little

shopping and to our surprise, all the water had receded. It is just unbelievable that this happens probably every day. But they have made the adjustments to keep it from interfering with life and especially tourism. While there, I fed the pigeons and got into trouble. A guard came over and told me that if I didn’t stop he was going to fine me.  Spoil sport!!

After this we headed to the boat to get back to our hotel.  It is not very late, but except for the short lunch we had, we have been on our feet all day and we were tired.  We would like to get a little extra rest tonight, because tomorrow is going to be a long day. We are looking forward to tomorrow because we are heading home.

Italy Day 9 and 10 September 30, 31  Venice (Lido) and Lisbon

This is titled day 9, but it might be day ten, but I guess it is a combination of both.  The last day and a half have been a blur moving from one location to the next, preparing to be home. We only have sporadic internet during travel, and I can’t load pictures into the blog, so I guess I will end with a two day blog.

We woke up around 8:00, and decided not the eat the hotel breakfast. It was $16.00.  We had it yesterday, and it was not fantastic. It was good, as it goes, but unless it has eggs—it is not fantastic. We decided to try to find a restaurant on the island we are staying on.  Our plane did not leave until 8:00 tonight, so instead of boating to Venice, we decided to explore Lido the island we stayed on. We have just been sleeping and boating to Venice every day, so we really did not know anything about Lido. Our hotel had a shuttle to the boat, so we did not have to pay for a bus ticket. When we arrived at the boat station, we just took off walking through the city.  We stopped for breakfast at a little café and believe it or not, we had scrambled eggs instead of a ham and cheese sandwich.  After breakfast, we just started walking. We knew we would eventually reach the Mediterranean because, after all, we are on an island.

We did reach it, and what a beautiful sight. It was Sunday, so everyone was

out on the beach for the day. The sand was almost like powder, very soft and not grainy at all. I had on my rubber sandals, so that was perfect.  I got my wish!  I had wanted to actually go swimming in the Mediterranean ever since I found out we were walking along the shore on the Camino, but it just never seemed to work out. I had already decided that my pajamas/extra walking shorts could also be a bathing suit, so I was all set. But it never happened.  This was my chance. We were carrying our backpacks all day, so I had everything with me to change. We walked to the

edge of the water to check it out, before I went through the process of finding a place to change. I stood at the edge and waited for Larry to take my picture to document that I had been there. While standing, waiting for him to give me the 1,2,3 snap!, a small wave hit my feet and I literally screamed!  That was the coldest water I have ever felt in my life.  Another wave came and I screamed again. My next words were, “Larry!  What is taking you so long to take a picture?” Well, that answered my question, as to whether or not was I going to change clothes—I was NOT going to change clothes. I am satisfied with saying, “Yes, I have been in the Mediterranean”.

After this, I went to find a place to wash the wet sand off my feet. We sat

down and ordered a fruit drink. It was delicious, and they brought out snacks to eat with the drink. They are geared for tourism, and it is little things like this that make traveling so much fun. Little did we know that the little snack (that we didn’t order) and the drink was $18.  Yes, they are geared for tourism.

After staying at their table and enjoying the beach for a couple of hours, we decided to walk and explore some more. By this time, it was getting close to lunch and I had noticed a restaurant that served octopus. I was not really satisfied with what I got the other day—the octopus spaghetti, because it tasted like chewy spaghetti. I wanted to know what

octopus actually tasted like, so I thought an octopus salad would be the route to go. We found a restaurant, and Larry asked questions this time and the waiter showed Larry an octopus and said it would be served on top of a salad. So that is what I ordered and I was very pleased.  Octopus actually taste like chicken.  NO, I am kidding. It tasted a lot like scallops. It was just not as soft as scallops, and if you could get around the little suction cups on the rim of the  “scallop”, It was delicious. I am not a finicky eater, so things like that do not bother me.  I asked the waited how they cooked it and he said “very quickly in boiling water.” So, I can now say, I love octopus, and I would know how to order it if I ever get another chance.

After lunch we headed toward the boat that was taking us to the airport. It

was an hour-long boat ride. Of course, there was beauty all along the way. We made three stops along the way, and one of them was to the island of Marino. This island is known for the world-famous Marino glass. They make beautiful glass articles of all kinds, from sculptures to jewelry.  Most all were very expensive. They sell it all over Venice with many, many shops dedicated to just the glass. We arrived at the airport. It just seemed odd to ride a boat up directly to the airport. We had a about a two hour wait before we headed to

Lisbon. I used this time to buy me two coffee cups that said Portugal and displayed the tiles for which they are famous. I had wanted them earlier, but of course I did not want to carry them for 400 miles. While in the airport we noticed that the mulching around the plants was made of Marino glass. I got a handful of it and put it in my backpack as a souvenir.

Then it was time to fly to Lisbon. While in the baggage line, we met a mother/son who was from Portugal, the US and several other places. We had an enjoyable time talking with them. The mother, Connie, is originally from Portugal and the son, Arthur spends time with her traveling and staying with her in Portugal. Very nice couple of people with lots of stories. We could have spent hours talking, but unfortunately only had about thirty minutes.

In Lisbon we had an eighteen-hour layover. This was the price to pay to save $1500 on our plane tickets, well worth the Holiday Inn Express for one night. We were blessed to get a room at all. We looked through a lot of websites before we found this one, and it was the last room here that was anywhere near the airport. I don’t know if someone had a late cancellation or what. But it was located right at the airport, and that was nice. We had to get a taxi and it was only $7.00. If we had called the hotel, their shuttle would have been $8.00. Our SIM card was only for 30 days, and it had run out a couple of days ago, and we really did not want to renew it. Glad now that we didn’t have access to a phone. It saved us $1.00.

Our hotel was nice and served a great breakfast. We got to enjoy some

Portuguese specialties that we had learned to love while walking the Camino. I guess every country has their food specialties, and some of them do not bleed over to countries that border them. We would ask for certain things that we had had in a neighboring country and they would say, “We don’t have that—that is only in Spain, or only in Italy.” I just wish we knew all the recipes for the different soups we have had. I guess we are just going to have to experiment.

We headed to the airport for the final flight to the states. Of course, we have had on the same clothes for twenty-four plus hours at this point. By the time we get home, we will have had on the same clothes for thirty-seven hours or more. We did get a toothbrush from the Holiday Inn. Other than our teeth, we are not too fresh. I didn’t keep out any make-up either—except for my lipstick—can’t do without that!!! I pity our friends Tonia and Mike, who are picking us up at the airport. We will probably scare them with our looks, and I’m sure we will not smell very good either. When we got to the airport, Larry said, “I have $25 Euro’s that we need to spend. So I went shopping. We are cup collectors from the places we visit, so this time I got two cups that said Italy. Then I had enough to buy a bag to put all my cups in, but I still did not go over the $25 euros.

Our flight from Lisbon was seven hours which means we did a lot of movie watching. I’m not a big movie watcher, so I usually let Larry pick the movie and then we both watch it at the same time. This way we can stop the movie and talk about anything interesting as it goes along.  Larry picked the movie, Head Full of Honey, starring Nick Nolte. It was about a grandpa who had Alzheimer’s. He lived in the United States, and his son, daughter-in-law and grand-daughter had moved to England. After his wife died, be began to lose his memory, so his family moved him to England to look after him. Of course it was sad and hilarious at the same time. After things got much worse, they decided he probably needed to go to a nursing home, but his granddaughter, Tilda, wanted nothing to do with that, so she kidnapped him to take him to Venice where he had spent his honeymoon with his wife, her grandmother. As a side note, the girl who played Nick Nolte’s

granddaughter is his own daughter in real life. The reason I am telling you this and the reason that it was such a special ending to our trip, is because at the end it showed many scenes that we had seen in Venice the last two days. It even showed the square with all the pigeons around and landing on people just like they did on me.  What could have been a better movie and a betting ending to our trip. Larry, you did good!!

With all that time, we had time to watch a couple of movies, and of course eat. People complain about airline food, but I love it. You know by now I am not a picky eater, but honestly airline food is great. We had a salad, roast beef chunks with mashed potatoes, rolls, and pudding for dessert. It was served hot from the oven and very satisfying. Later on they served us a vegetable wrap with crackers and a brownie. What is there to complain about??

I thought we might would sleep some on the plane, but I guess we were just too geared up about getting home. We arrived in New Jersey on our plane and now we had to find our next plane to Charlotte. With all the long lines and protocol you have to go through when you land, we are always just a little nervous about making the next flight. We have only really had trouble one time making the connecting flight, but once you miss a plane, there is always that fear. But we made it in plenty of time, and even had time for dinner at a Ruby Tuesday’s at the airport. Now only one flight to go and we are home.

It was just a two hour flight and we arrived in Charlotte almost on time. We were coming in for the landing and when we were close to the runway, all of a sudden we started going straight up again. The speaker came on and the captain said that the plane in front of us was having some trouble landing so we had to circle Charlotte again. After the circle, we landed and was only a few minutes late. Mike and Tonia were there to meet us. How wonderful it is to have good friends. Having them pick us up saved a couple hundred dollars that we would have had to pay for long term storage. We were so glad to see them, and so glad to get home to Cecil.

Cecil was laying on the front porch when we got home. Cecil is old and

retired, so he does not show a lot of emotion like jumping up on people, licking them, etc. In fact, the seven years I have known him and as much time as I have spent with him, he had licked me only once, and I really think it was because I was right in his face and it was an accident. But last night he showed all the emotion he could muster up by wildly wagging his tail. He walked straight into the front door and laid down on the rug and watched us. When we went into the bedroom he followed us. When we went out on the back porch, he followed us—in the kitchen, everywhere. He was glad to have us home.

You might think we would at least take a shower after being in the same clothes for forty-three hours, but we did not. We climbed straight into bed. It was only 11:30, but on our old time, it was 4:30. We had not slept in twenty-one hours and we were exhausted. 

Of course, we are old folks, so at 4:30 in the morning I work up, hit the shower, made a pot of coffee and went on the back porch to spend time with Cecil. He was there waiting for me. I love that dog and I love being home.

Introduction: Santiago de Compostela Day 1 Saturday 9/21/2019

Introduction: Santiago de Compostela Day 1 Saturday 9/21/2019