the carnivale is over

So, here we are at Fiumicino airport, Rome, all set to leave Italy #sadface

Campo di Marte was a great station to leave from - calm and peaceful cf Firenze SMN

We have had a fantastic holiday here - amazing weather, beauriful sights, delicious food, copious drinks...

G on platform 24, Roma Termini

Looking forward to our short stop in Tokyo.  All I can really offer today are some limited travel picks and some excellent advice, courtesy of trenitalia

Never mess with the doors #ouch

ciao

stuff we've loved in Italy (a short list)

- peanut butter gelato - who knew it would take til the last night in Florence to find it? #yum

getting stuck into my ice cream #asyoudo

- our first afternoon in Rome - after wandering about Trastevere for quite some time lost - then finding the apartment and moving in - and sitting down at Ombre Rosse for the first of many spritz - and realising - crikey we're on holiday - bliss

- cycing in Rome and cycling in Lucca - both days lovely - probably should've cycled more - bikes here are awesome - often old rattlers worth less than their padlocks - perfecto

- Venice, Venice, Venice

- my birthday in Cinque Terre - best spaghetti vongole and a wonderful day sussing out the towns along the coast

- fetching up in various parts of Italy to the tunes of Lorde and Pauly Fuemana - global citizens, eh? 

- i'Gottino - our first night there the barman was so accommodating and brought us the most generous "leetle snack" to go with our drinks.  Alas it's Monday and they're closed or we'd have finished our evening there - but everyone needs a day or two off...

- Venice, Venice, Venice

- geocaching - as ever it caused us to find places we wouldn't have otherwise - everyone should add it to their holiday must do lists 

- John Grisham's Bologna - our pilgrimage along the porticos was a blast - as was our day trip to Parma - highly recommended

the view - Fiesole

- making like Lucy Honeychurch and heading up the hill to Fiesole (and Siena, and Lucca, and the other day trips).  Lovely - views, lunches, Giottto frecoes, you name it

- G Childs, travel companion extraordinaire x

G Childs - travel buddy par excellence

- see yous all in Tokyo

- PS i have a tan 

i will seriously be rockng that tan - under my tights - when we get back - hah!

a long story about the coffee and the room

we like it at forte 16 - that's the name of our apartment.  like all the apartments we've stayed at, there is a bit of a kitchen, complete with pots, plates, cups, saucers, etc.  This one even has a dishwasher (a first).  

Forte 16 kitchen

But what forte 16 doesn't have, is stuff for making coffee or tea.

This startled us a bit, given the cups and saucers, and also because our place in Rome included a stovetop espresso maker and copious amounts of ground coffee; Venice, a machine in our room; Bologna, one along the corridor - you get the picture.

Geoff duly toodled off for a chat.  Could we have something with which to make coffee?  No, not included in our apartment.  Hmmm.  Why ever not?  Short discussion ensued.

Forte 16 have now supplied us with a coffee machine (nespresso styles) and a microwave - also previously absent.

nespresso machine - now with pods

happy now, we make two coffees.  Less happily we discover that there were only two pods.  now gone.  We go back for a further chat.  They will sell us (sell us - I kid you not!) pods for 0.50 cents.  Hmmm.  we buy four.

Last night on the way to our cooking class we walked past the nespresso store.  Today we went back. Ten pods for 3.70.  Ok. no more 'cost price 0.50' pods from forte 16 thanks v much.

But the nespresso shop - what a kurfuffle - you have to get a ticket and then go to the appointed counter, but we don't know this because we are stupid foreigners.  So after lots of hmming and hawing about what type of pod we want - as there are dozens - we go to the counter - but no ticket - back to the door for the ticket.  Sod that.  Talk to the demo man and cadge a coffee while we wait.  Attempt to flog a packet of sugar to take back home (there is none of that in our apartment either) as we have started taking sugar in our espresso - at least we're not smoking so only a few bad habits picked up in Italy - success - one packet of sugar lifted - and we emerge, equipped.

welcome to our store, please take a number

The nespressos are pretty good, but large on waste, so we'll be sticking with the big ol' pavoni on our return.  and yes, it's not far to a caffe, but sometimes you just want a drink in your room.  god knows what will happen if we decide we need a cup of tea...

cooking class

jo Nicol told us about the cooking class she had done when she was in Florence.  Sounds good, we thought.  And it was.  We chose pizza and gelato partly to get the low down on a decent base, partly to support my campaign for a halladale road ice cream machine, and partly because G wasn't keen to spend a whole day at school - and this one started at 6pm.

That meant we had plenty of time to (a) do our washing (previous post), (b) check out David at the Accademia - very impressive, not too many people - don't know how we managed that - no photos allowed, (c) have another nice lunch - pics already posted of caprese and ravioli - and (d) have a nap.  With all of those items ticked off it was time to meet up at Florencetown HQ.

Clearly the first part was not going to be great - a bunch of strangers hangs around waiting for the beginning and G and S regret involvement in this group activity not of our own devising.  Anyhoo... finally we were underway and off we trotted through the streets of Florence, following our chef to the kitchen.

The walk was good as we found a couple of new places to check out later.  The group included a family with a toddler (girl in pushchair) and two unruly primary school-aged boys.  Watch out, we thought.  But, they were great.  As soon as we left the boys stopped being terrors and wandered along happily with the chef.

Possibly we'll have to settle for a smaller ice cream machine than this one...

Once there, god knows how, we found ourselves at the same table as the boys.  Parents were elsewhere in the room.  Potential downside - having to help them and/or not being able to stop them flood the table with their flour/water wells.  Actual upside - fewer adults to share the bottles of wine in our part of the room.

The boys were great - got stuck in - and the chefs (and their mum) sorted out their dough.  The kids had a great time and did a pretty good job all up.

We also did a pretty good job.  G was praised for the consistency of his dough and my pizza was the roundest - finally got the shaping technique sorted.  Yay.

Very good dough, Geoffrey...

The gelato part was more demo than class, but I'm happy to report that the sampling was very hands on.

The class was extremely fun and we did learn some stuff as well.  All up, time and money well spent.  Thanks for the recommendation, jo :)

Lost and found bar - covers band - loud but good

Even tho we'd had plenty to eat (pizza and chocolate gelato) we still had room for a quiet drink at I'Gottino and then a coffee at Lost and Found, where a duo was playing pretty useful (but very loud) covers.  

All in all a good day.  Suddenly there are only a couple more days til we up sticks for Tokyo.  How did that happen?

oh Siena

Yesterday we went to the Museo Galileo and then to the Boboli Gardens.  The museum was a welcome change from art, tho (as the trip advisor reviewers mentioned) there is rather a lot of scientific equipment on display - and not a lot to do with it.

G with the largest telescope he could find

There is a small interactive area near the end - Te Papa it ain't - which G and I enjoyed.  Especially as a couple of the things needed minor repairs.  We happily devised schemes for finding the missing ball, re-attaching the bell that had fallen off, as well as enjoying the experiments on offer - mostly to do with speed, velocity (is that the same thing?) and stuff like that.  Alas, my scientific knowledge is still well under par...  Or, in golfing terms, I guess, well over...

Siena - lovely

I have just looked at facebook and Penny has reminded me that we forgot to look for Galileo's *actual* finger.  big disappointment.  not sure how we come back from that...

Boboli gardens - also lovely

The Boboli gardens were lovely - not stunning, but large and relatively tree-y.  Not huge amounts in the way of cultivated gardens, but very enjoyable and relaxing.  And, also, the weather remained fine throughout giving G plenty of opportunities to comment on the lack of thunderstorms.  Well, I could only go by the forecasts, couldn't I?

In the end we covered a fair few kms - which had not entirely been our intention - but so it goes when wandering about Italian cities.

best fountain, water feature, thingy, in Siena IMHO

Thursday we jumped on a bus to Siena.  It's a lovely town and we found it easy to while away the day, touring a couple of churches (inevitably), the inner city, bits of the wall, stumbled across a fabulous water feature - remnant of the town's early industries and need for water distribution, etc (tanning I think) - and circumnavigating the old fort which, troublingly, now contains a Luna Park.  Just like the one in Sydney only smaller and lamer (I think).  Then, back on the bus and off to G's new favourite place, I'Gottino.  It is just round the corner, very humble, and generous with the drinks.  What more could a traveller want?

washing day (again)

Today is washing day (again) - hopefully the last one before home - although that realisation is a bit depressing too - and then we're off to see David, before a cooking class - nothing too fancy, pizza and gelato.

being a single language barbarian and what you learn in queues (yes, queues again)

In Florence, of course, we have to visit the Uffizi.  Aware of the crowds, the queues, the need to book, we have organised our tickets online.  However, that does not mean an easy stroll into the gallery.

No.  We arrive well ahead of pick-up time and work out which of the several queues is ours.  Turns out we have to go across the way to the other building so we can turn our printed voucher into printed tickets.  That done, we may proceed to the next queue and, after various security procedures, enter the museum.  So, book ahead and earn shorter queues.  Still, there are compensations.  We fell into conversation with a young woman in front of us during queue number one.  She is an American, who speaks Italian, working here as a guide, between art history degrees.

We talk about the difficulties of being single language barbarians abroad, and how next time (yeah right) we must study the language before leaving home.  She has learned Italian to help her art history studies.  Soon she will move to Chicago to begin a doctoral programme.  Meanwhile, she lives in Rome and educates other single language barbarians like us (well, currently 13 college students from Michigan), as they take in the sights.

We talk of the different accents and dialects around the country, and she tells us there are Roman words and phrases that would be unacceptable in Firenze.  

-- If I said those things here someone would probably punch me in the face, she says.  

Suddenly we are at the front of the queue and the time seems to have been well spent.  We wish her well - and she us - and we will never see her again.

We do see quite a few paintings and sculptures in the Uffizi, though.  I suppose the Botticellis are the highlight for me.  Certainly the bloody tour groups aren't.  Geoff is now a winning partner in derby style pair blocking (still no elbows allowed) as we navigate the mobs.  We may only speak the one language but at least we're not being herded around the city like sheep, following umbrellas, flags, flowers, sticks of various kinds...  We also saw paired visitors strung together by their shared audioguides.  I can't see that working for us either ;)

Actually, another highlight was a cool painting of Leda with a very old and lecherous looking swan (can't remember by whom), and her babies hatching from eggs.  I hoped to see it as a postcard or similar in the shop, but no such luck.  No photos allowed at the Uffizi - hence the boring blog with only one picture - the merry go round at the piazza della repubblica (between the Duomo and the Uffizi).  

No, I didn't have a ride. But I did admire it from afar...

There were a few rain showers today, mostly they happened while we were indoors, or we could take ourselves into a shop or cafe to wait it out.  Like Auckland weather, methinks, gets muggier and hotter, then rains and cools down, and then it gets muggier and hotter... 

Ok, I'm an idiot.  Of course there are pictures (yay interweb) and the artist was Francesco Melzi - after a lost painting by Da Vinci, apparently.  Anyway, here it is:

I recommend embiggening it so you can better enjoy the details

Tomorrow, we're off to Siena.

Queuing up

This morning approx half the tourist population if Italy snaked around the piazza waiting for the Duomo to open. Crikey, we thought, and headed elsewhere.

Later, about 4pm, we strolled in for a look. No queue. Feeling smug.