Padua was perfect

We were a bit apprehensive about traveling to other towns after the debacle that was Rome.  Thankfully, Padua was AWESOME!  It is high on my list of places to go back to.  We went to see the Scrovengi Chapel.

Here's some history on the chapel.  We had reservations, which were a pain in the butt to get!  We made them online, and it was the least user friendly website either of us have used in awhile. However, it was worth the hassle!  It was absolutely beautiful. Giotto did the frescoes inside, and it had the highest security of any of the art we've seen on this trip so far.  We had to leave our bags at the coat check, then go into an airlock type thing for 15 minutes so they could bring the temperature to a certain level.  They only allowed 25 people in at one time. They showed us a video about the art while we waited.  Rebecca and I were impressed that the paintings were still so clear, considering how many traumatic things that the chapel has gone through over the years.  This includes the general being bombed in WWII and the attached palace being torn down in the 1800's.  We were not allowed to take pictures, and we were only allowed to stay in the chapel for 20 minutes, but I think I could have stayed there all day.  Rebecca said that if there had been less people, she would have just laid down on the floor and looked up, but that seems to be frowned upon here.  Here's some pictures that I found online, but they in no way do it justice.  It was one of the most incredible things I've ever seen.

After our too short viewing, we went in search of our lunch place.  Rebecca had located a gluten free pizza place in her Gluten Free Italy book, so we walked to it from the chapel.  We even got there without getting lost, which is pretty much the first time we can say those words on this trip.

The pizza was delicious!

They even had gluten free beer, which was a rare treat for Rebecca. 

We also popped into a grocery store and found Mr. Clean! We decided he seems friendlier on the Italian bottles of cleaner.  We took a moment to look like the silly tourists that we are to snap this picture.

Cathy enjoyed the day a lot, and managed (somehow) to stay awake on the train ride home.  We stopped for a gelato and came back to the hotel to crash.  Padua is absolutely on the list for our next visit to Italy.  We both said how much we wished we'd had more time. There was a LOT of stuff to see, and it was such a pretty town.  It's a happy exhaustion. 

*insert witty title about Rome here*

In our memory of this day, we will always be waiting for trains.

We headed to Rome with optimism!  We had our lunch stuffed into Rebecca's purse, tickets to see the Sistine Chapel, and faith that we could navigate the maze that are Rome's streets.

Instead we got the gritty Rome experience, got lost in the ghetto, and tried to breathe and clung to Cathy's belief that help is on the way, 100% of the time.

Our adventure started when we were sold train tickets for a train that left three minutes later. It was not the train we would have chosen, but that is all we could get the lady to understand.  We BOLTED to the platform, hopped on the first car we saw, and promptly got stuck behind a tour group that seemed to think that riding on a train=standing in the aisle with their suitcases, chatting about nothing in particular.   It was a stressful way to start a trip, but we finally got to our seats and were on our way!

We arrived at Termini Station in Rome, and headed to a commuter type train.  However, it was confusing, and we were unsure if we needed the F1 Train or the Metro.  After staring at a map/consulting Google Maps, we decided it was the Metro, so we ran down to catch a train.  Rebecca went in, but Cathy's ticket refused to work.   She went over to the booth, and had a chat with a lovely, kind English speaking woman did an interpretive dance until the bored lady in the customer service box understood that her ticket was not working.  She stamped the ticket and let me in just in time for us to realize that we did need the F1 train.  We ran back up the stairs just in time to hop on our train a train going to opposite direction.

NOooooooOOoOooO!  We realized that we were in the wrong train fairly quickly, so we decided to get off and take a bus.  We got off in a quaint neighborhood the ghetto and found a bus station.  However, the information at the station made ZERO sense.  We finally decided to ask a lady waiting at the bus. She did not speak English, but Cathy remembered that she had a translator on her phone, so she did that, and it helped enough for her to tell us that we were not even close to where we thought we were and wanted to be.  She gave us directions to the nearest bus that would get us closer, and we started the trek to the bus.

This is when it started raining.

We walked and walked and walked and walked, and finally got to the bus stop and were able to get on the number 64 bus.  The number 64 bus, as we later learned via Google, is known as the pickpocket line, which explains the guy that shoved into Rebecca and seemed a bit odd.  He'd been playing the violin before that, and then went around begging and "falling" into people.

We got to our first bus transfer area and got on a bus and promptly missed our stop.  Luckily we realized this fairly quickly, so we got off at the next stop and walked back.

We decided to depend on Google maps to get us to the Vatican, and we made it, but we walked around the ENTIRE Vatican first.  The. Entire. Wall.   By this time, we'd missed our reservation, we were hot, we were sweaty, and we were hungry.  We smelled fresh and clean like dirty, wet goats, and looked as happy and friendly as we felt.   We were not even sure we were in the right place, but we figured that we would go with it, and if we were in the wrong place, they'd tell us.

We were in the right place.  They kindly agreed to accept our reservation and we were on our way to the Sistine!  It was C-R-O-W-D-E-D, but amazing.  It was stunning how much art they'd crammed in.  Even the building itself was art.

The Sistine Chapel was packed and loud.  The guards kept shushing us, and at one point, pulled out a bullhorn to shush the crowd, but we think it just made everyone louder.  Despite the crowd, it was amazing to see the art and stand under it.  We were not allowed to take pictures, but you can find lots online.

After we saw the Sistine Chapel, we ran to the Vatican to see the Basicilla. We had to fend off vendors and some guy who kept trying to sell us a secret entrance map or something.  The dude was NOT hearing no, and kept insisting that it would take us at least three hours.   We ignored him and headed to the line:

We were able to get through security in about an hour. We realized that we may have accidentally cut in line, but then decided that we did not care. :)

Here's a fun aside- years ago, Rebecca's parents came to the Vatican and her mother's clothes did not meet the modesty standards.  She bought a dress at a nearby store.  Rebecca wore that very dress for our Rome visit!

After our visit, we decided to just ask the best way to get back.  We were directed to the Metro.  En route to the metro, a woman giving a tour poked Rebecca with the flag she was using to guide her tour group, and then used the flag to physically push her out of the way.   Really?  Really.

We made it to the steaming, stinky, crowded metro and promptly got on the wrong train.  The trains here look like a prop from a 1980's movie about New York City, graffiti and all.   We decided to ride it out, thinking that it would go in a circle.  Nope.  We got to the last stop, got back to where we were, and got on the correct train the wrong train.  It was close- but it branched off into another area.  So we got off, waited around for yet another train.  That train was crammed to the brim with people. We tried to stuff ourselves in, but we would not fit and were left on the platform.  I will neither confirm or deny both of us bursting into tears at this point.

As we were not NOT sobbing on a platform of the grosses subway ever, we decided that we were getting on the next train no matter what.  We had finally reached that zen moment where you simply no longer care what had to be done to get out of the situation.  We shoved ourselves on to the next train, and in turn were shoved further in by people behind us.  There was a woman in front of us that did not appreciate the crowding and elbowed Rebecca's chestal area really hard, which was unfun.  She also yelled at Cathy when Cathy uttered the super rude words of "Excuse me" as she tried to pass her to get out of the train.

Rebecca cannot eat gluten, and there was no gluten free food that we could find while we waited for our train.  She had potato chips.  Cathy had an okay sandwich.  We were so tired that we sat on the ground near on our platform.  Rebecca narrowly saved Cathy from sitting in gum, so it could have been worse.  We'd like to take a moment to formally apologize,  in writing, to the good people of Train Car 9, who had to endure our "sweating through Rome" aroma.  This excludes the DudeBro who:

• spent the entire trip dancing (if you can call it that),
• ignoring the obnoxious ring on his cell phone except when he was talking loudly on it
• rolled a cigarette (we think) getting tobacco on the floor due to dancing and talking loudly on his phone.

Rome didn't burn again thanks to the following people

• The nice lady at the bus stop who did not speak English, but did her best to help us anyway
• The nice lady at the Vatican who helped us find our way back to the Metro
• The ticket taker at the Vatican who did not notice that we accidentally (but did not correct our mistake when we realized it) cut in line
• Our train ticket taker, who for reasons that we cannot explain here, totally had our back.

Our take on Rome in selfie format:

We're not sure we look despairing enough, and we're aware that you cannot smell us through the internet.  However, this is the best we could do.

Good morning Florence! #blog

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Mr. Clean seems friendlier here. He must not live in Rome. #blog

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Cheese, lemon yogurt, and espresso for breakfast in our apartment, then off to Rome! #blog

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Best. Breakfast.Ever. #blog

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Relaxing in Rimini

We're having a fabulous time in Rimini.  It's a beach town off the Adriatic Sea.   It's not really beach weather time, but we're still enjoying ourselves.

We had our first experience with being harassed by men on the bus.  Nobody touched us, but an old man kept yelling something  loudly and repeatedly at us.  Per Google, it translated roughly to "cheese whore."  It was both funny and unsettling.  Luckily he got off the bus before we did.

Our hotel is right on the beach!  It's the off season, and we got an amazing deal on the room. We're pretty sure we're the only guests right now.

We walked along the beach and watched this dog play in the water.  He was having a great time digging and running in the surf!  It was a bit chilly, but we were able to sit in the sand and enjoy some people watching.

Of course, we had to have our daily gelato and coffee.

Rebecca had an espresso.  I think she likes it. :)

Cathy had a cappuccino.

Next, we stopped at a grocery store to pick up a few snacks.  We did not buy this, but we were curious what made this cheese like substance "special toast".

That was pretty much it for that day.  We were pretty dang tired from all the Florence stuff, so we made a choice to have a few days relaxing.  We also did some yoga- this one for our calves, and this one for our back.  It made a HUGE difference- I'm linking them here just so I have them in the future.

We had planned to eat dinner at the gluten-free hotel restaurant, but that is not open in the off season.  Surprise!  It was fine- we snacked on our grocery store foods.

We got up the next morning ready to go to the castle!  The front desk lady gave us great directions on how to get there on a walking path.

There was a dog park along the way.

There was this very old arch- here's some great history on it.  It's amazing to think that it has stood there since 27 BC!

                                        

The castle was closed on Mondays, but it was a nice walk and we got to see the outside of it.  Here's some information about the castle.  Cathy really liked this door.  There was a brick wall behind it.

There were lots of pigeons, but this one was our favorite. 

These lemons were growing outside someone's apartment, the same way you'd have an herb garden or a small patio tomato.  Lemons.  Like it ain't no thang.  Cathy was possibly way more impressed than she should be.

On the way back, we noticed lots of stickers on telephone polls and the like. Here's two of our favorites:

There were also pretty flowering plants everywhere.

And rat traps. Don't forget about the rat traps.

Rebecca modeled this red...frame (?) for us- I thought the picture turned out nicely.

And this historical looking item.  Rebecca modeled it for us.  Note the guy in the lower right- he was playing the accordion, which made the visit to this square have a real movie feel.

Cathy was there too.  It had been raining.  My little purple jacket has come in handy on this trip!

It has been a quiet two days, but we're headed back to hectic Florence tomorrow!  We rented an apartment for the remainder of our stay, and will be taking day trips to several destinations from Florence.   We think this is a brilliant plan, but time will tell if we are right on this one. :)

Cathy made a shirt from a cheap tourist stand scarf. #blog

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Adriatic sand. #blog

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She sells seashells by the seashore. #blog

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Cathy, modeling the wind and the Adriatic Sea. #blog

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Yesterday's News

This is a bit behind, as we pretty much fell into bed after we got back to the hotel, but it won't be any less fantastic. :) I'm afraid I don't have many pictures for this post, as we were in lots of places where you were not allowed to take pictures.

We started the day a bit late.  We were a bit too optimistic about how awake and non jet lagged we felt, so we did not set an alarm. Subsequently, we did not wake up until 10 AM!  We had an ambitious agenda, so we ran and got breakfast and started the day.

We went to the great little place with a whole gluten free floor.  Rebecca was able to get a gluten free croissant!

Cathy even ate a gluten free breakfast.  She also ordered a latte (she thought) but an espresso arrived, so she drank it.  It was STRONG and not her first choice of coffee drinks, but it was also a nice experience.  The texture was almost creamy- like a Guinness beer or a thin pudding.  She's going to have to figure out Italian for "latte" because those are truly delicious here.

Cathy got her cell phone set up as well!  A friendly  and very helpful guy at the TIM cell phone store got her set up with a prepaid SIM card with data for 20 Euros.  Cathy was most interested in the data plan so she can use her iPhone turn by turn directions, which she did today with somewhat limited success.  It is so nice to have, and she continues to wonder what we did before Smart phones.  (Well, before her smart phone, she depended on her smart map reading husband!)  The prepaid SIM was easy to get and it did not take long at all to get set up, so she thinks that she will be doing it on future trips. 

We started by heading to San Marco.  Rebecca wanted to see a particular painting there, and it was a neat tour.  It has been both a convent and an abbey, and we got to tour the cells.  Each cell had an incredible paining on the wall.  The floors were smooth from years of people walking over them.  The courtyard was filled with flowers and incredible art.  Cathy was particularly amazed that the paintings in the courtyard had survived hundreds of years of the weather!

After San Marco, we went to the Gallery de Academia to see David.  We did not have reservations (and were not able to make any- we waited too long) so we had to stand in line.  It was about a 45 minute wait, which was not so bad.  However, we had to endure three couples ahead of us continually making out.  It was quite a show!  We got through security with no problems, and Cathy did not even steal anyone's glasses this time! :) 

At this point, we were SO tired of walking, so we decided to take a bus back to the hotel.   We accidentally got on to the wrong bus, so we enjoyed a mini tour of Florence while we waited for it to loop back to our starting destination.   (Cathy is very fond of buses when traveling.  Her travel pro tip: When in doubt or lost or overwhelmed to the point you can't think/figure out where you are, get on a bus.  The tickets are generally cheap, and even if you get on the wrong one, it always loops back, so you have some time to reflect and figure out your next move instead of wandering around getting increasingly lost. )  By the time we got back to San Marco, we'd figured out which bus we really needed to be on, and we waited at the stop in the pouring rain for it to arrive.  An old lady invited herself to our umbrella party, and chattered happily in Italian at us until someone with a bigger, nicer umbrella arrived.  We got on the proper bus and proceeded on to our next destination- the Ognissanti church.

The Ognissanti church was overwhelmingly beautiful.  We almost missed the door- it was hiding in plain sight along the wall of a big building filled with shops.  When we went in, we were both stunned at how HUGE it was!  It was very quiet, there was soothing sacred music playing gently in the background, and for the first time that day we were not being jostled around in huge crowds.  Since we were unable to take pictures, we recommend you check out this site to see some.  It was phenomenal. It was a restful way to finish a hectic day.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped and got our daily dose of gelato.  Cathy got chocolate, and Rebecca had a cream flavor.  Gelato never disappoints.  The store we went to even had gluten free ice cream cones, so Rebecca was able to have a cone!  

After the Pizza Man Dr. Pizza getting lost fiasco, we decided to *start* on a bus this time around when we headed out to dinner.  We were unsure where the first  stop was, so we decided to walk to the nearby train station to catch one there.    We got on a bus, and immediately thought it was the wrong one,  so we were going to loop around.  However, as we kept going, we realized it was the *right* bus.  The stop that we should have gotten on was literally across the street from our hotel!  We laughed and laughed.  Then we pulled up to our stop.  We got off, started walking...and realized that our stop was where we had gotten on the bus in the first place.  We totally outed ourselves as uncouth tourists by laughing until we cried, then set off for our restaurant.  We only got a tiny bit lost (thanks, step by step talking Google map!) but it was worth the wait.

In Italy, you order meals in courses.  We decided that tonight we were going to go all out and order everything, from soup to nuts.  

 Cathy started with onion soup, which was so good she literally nearly cried.

It was followed by a cheese course (AMAZING)

and then ravioli with spinach and tomatoes.

Rebecca started with a caprice salad...

followed by wild boar and polenta.  

and a side of roasted potatoes with rosemary.

The boar was recommended to us by a woman that we were in line with at the Uffizi museum. It tasted a bit like pot roast with a hint of bacon- very good! 

 Rebecca and Cathy shared a cute mini jug of house wine, which was delicious!  It was a much more reasonable size than the one we got at the pizza place- about a glass and a half each.

We had a mild heart attach adventure about halfway back to the hotel, when Rebecca realized that she'd left her purse at the restaurant! EEP!  We ran back there, and they were expecting us!  They brought it back out, and we all had a good, nervous laugh about forgetting bags.   At least we realized it was gone fairly quickly and were able to get it back.

We got back to the hotel to pack and book a hotel for our next destination- Rimini!  It' a beachy tourist town, and we're looking forward to a day or two of just relaxing.  We're considering trying to find a spa to deal with our sore calves and shoulders, but we'll see how that goes.  We're booked in a hotel that is on the beach, includes breakfast AND has gluten free options, which will be nice and easy.

Rebecca celebrating the fairly short line. #blog

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A Day in Florence

We started the day with breakfast!  Rebecca is gluten free, and has found it reasonably easy even in the land of bread! We ate breakfast at a place that had a whole floor full of gluten free options.  A whole floor!  It was advertised at the door- gluten free area!  Rebecca had a gluten free apple strudel. 

Cathy picked a sandwich that looked good, and pretty much was, but what she thought was a nice, thick layer of cheese was actually a nice, think layer of mayonnaise. Blegh.

f We went to the Uffizi Gallery.  On the way, we got this shot of the Ponte Vecchio on the way.  We did not have time to stop and admire it properly but it is on our list.

We had a date with the Uffizi. We tried to make reservations, but there was not anything until March 25, so we went and stood in line.  It was only about an hour, which was not so bad considering!  We met a nice lady from California in the line.  She ended up leaving before we got there because she was leaving for Rome today and did not have time to wait.  We went through it in about three hours, and we did not look at every tiny thing.  I think you could easily spend a week in there and not even touch everything worth seeing!  My favorite paintings were the medieval portraits of Mary adoring the Christ child.  Cathy called them the "Side eye Mary" paintings, because all of them really looked like Mary was giving him the side eye!  Rebecca liked Venus on the half shell The Birth of Venus.   It was really neat.  We were not allowed to take pictures inside, but I got this picture of a window outside!

We also took this charming joint selfie.

Spending three hours considering the ramifications of Mary's side eye on future artistic generations makes one hungry.  We stopped at the first place that seemed reasonably priced and enjoyed an amazing lunch.

Rebecca had salami stuffed with marscapone.  Seriously delicious.  

Cathy had cheese gnocchi.  She asked Rebecca at some point how rude it would be to pick up the plate and lick it clean. :)  (She settled for using some bread to mop up the sauce.)

All this was followed by a latte.  Even if you're not a coffee drinker, you have to order at least one in Italy.  They're just so pretty!

Lunch was eaten at a leisurely pace, but soon we were back on our feet and headed to the Duomo.  Rebecca really wanted to head the nearby museum, so we went there first to see the original doors that were once on the church.  It was so detailed. And here they are:

We then popped over to go see the top of the dome.  They are very serious about modesty in churches in Italy, but we found the signs saying that  you can't wear sleeveless tops/shorts kind of funny and confusing!  Doesn't it appear that they are requesting no shirts or pants/skirts in the warning sign?

Holy staircase batman!  The stairs when ON and ON and ON!  Cathy had flashbacks to climbing up cathedral steps on European trips as a child. :)

We thought we were at the top here, but it was just a stopping point to see the painting on top  of the dome.  It was so realistic.  It was all paint, but it looked like a lot of the pictures were actually sitting on the edge with their legs dangling down. It was almost like statues, but it was just paint!

We climbed and climbed and climbed until we reached the top and were rewarded with an amazing view of Florence for our efforts.

Rebecca was not 100% thrilled with the heights, but said she was glad that she made the climb.

Cathy tries to show what it feels like to climb 463 steps by facial expression alone. 

After we made it down the 463 steps, we stopped briefly by the Baptistery.   It had a nicely painted/gold leafed ceiling.

Our next stop was our hotel, where we tried to recover and stretch.  We will feel this day in our calves for a few days I'm sure!

For dinner we decided to go to Pizza Man Dr. Pizza.  Rebecca found it in her gluten free Italy book.  It did not look like it was far, so we decided to walk, and that's how we ended up hopelessly lost in the rain.  Cathy's emergency backup plan in such cases is to get on a bus, which turned out to be a good move.  We were able to get back to the train station, and then take the tram to the pizza place.  It was worth the wait!

The menu was in Italian, so we had to wing it a bit.  Rebecca got a pizza with eggplant and a gluten free crust.

Cathy got a pizza with a delicious, smoky provolone and tomatoes.

We finished off the meal with dessert.  We ordered gelato, and they brought out an amazing blueberry mouse.  It was not what we were expecting, but it was creamy and wonderful.

We may have had a tiny sip of wine as well.

Andy guarded my tram fare.

Off to bed now- we have another crazy, packed day ahead of us tomorrow!