A day of training, ugh!

Today we awoke to an early am wake up call from Diana. Yeah, just like at home. :) We packed and dressed and met them for our final breakfast in Siena at our hotel. Then we were off to the Wednesday Central Market. Let's put it this way, imagine the biggest swap meet you have been to, then at least double it. And everyone and his mother was there. Little old Italian ladies are so cute walking down the street arm in arm, but get them in this market and they can push and shove with the best of them!

While we were there Michelle and Diana picked up a few shirts. Diana bought an apron and some cheese, and Michelle bought a new laundry basket for Zander. It is a pop up kind that has a chicken design on the top. Even Tim thought it was cute. Getting it home will be fun, but we think it will fit in one of our packs. Tim also picked up some olives, which look delicious. 

By the end we were all a little exhausted and needed to rest our feet. We left the Central Market in search of food and found a little cafe that sold pizza. We intended to get 4 pieces, but somewhere in the translation we ended up with 6. Which ended up being fine as we needed some food for the train to go along with our olives.

After our market expedition we headed back to the hotel to pick up our bags and slowly make our way to the train station. Michelle and Tim's backpacks have already gained considerable weight. We figured out how to board the closest bus and which stop to get off on. When we got onto the bus, which was about the size of the shorter school busses, there were 3-4 people already there. At the first stop we added another 15 people. At the next stop, around 20, then 2-3 at the next two. So by the time we started leaving the city for the train station (which is a steep downhill slope) we were packed in tighter than sardines. Michelle was wedged up against at least 3 older gentleman, who all laughed at her facial expressions every time the bus jolted forward or to a stop. Once we reached the station, one of them looked at her and said "Sazione" with an empathetic expression, to which she replied "Si, Si Si" with a grateful face.

At the station, we booked our tickets for Venice, and found ourselves with about an hour to wait. We enjoyed the time with a bit of people watching, then determined that our train was already in the station, so we could board early and find some good seats. Unfortunetly, this particular train was running late, so we ended up sitting at the track with 20 of our closest friends who were in our compartment until we were almost 25 minutes late. And since our connecting train in Florence leaves 30 minutes after our train is supposed to arrive, we are guaranteed to miss that connection and need to rebook our tickets. We don't know what it is with planes and trains and making our connections but we just can't seem to do it. Grrrrrr!

So, it is official, we missed the connecting train. Both because our original train leaving Siena was late, but then also because the train broke down in Empoli. So we hopped off one train, then boarded the next train through Empoli. The only problem was, so did everyone else on our very full original train. And we all boarded a train that was already packed and about half of the original trains size. So yet again we were sandwiched tighter than sardines with about 100 of our closest friends. :) This time, for a longer period and with our packs on. Thankfully we were able to find a seat for Ed, which made the trip a little less painful. 

Once in Florence we were able to visit the red ticket booth where missed trains are rescheduled. We arrived with just enough time to change the ticket, take a quick bathroom break and jump on. The nice thing is, this leg of our trip has reserved seating, so we were not stressed about finding our seats, only about getting our luggage in their very small overhead bins. Once settled we realized that we had three of the four seats in a shared seating area, and one seat was in an adjacent area. We were easily able to ask a young woman to switch seats with us, which she was gracious enough to do. 

And we thought we were off and running at that point, having gone through one train delay and come out on the end only one hour behind. And then the real fun began. About an hour into our final train to Venice, there was a rapid announcement in Italian that had all of the people around us groaning and hitting their heads. We asked someone what happened, and they said there would be an hour or more delay, with no details given. We all looked at each other and rolled our eyes, score one more for the Italian train system! But what can we do? So we made the best of it. Michelle pulled out a book and bought a water on board, Ed and Diana began watching a movie on our Ipad and Tim took a nap. So all in all, instead of arriving at 6 pm, we arrived in Venice exhausted and starving at 9:30 pm. We found our hotel (finally) and by 11 we were out to grab a quick bite. Back in the rooms at 11:30 and off to bed. Tomorrow we will all be sleeping in a little. :)

So there you have it, we are safe and sound and in Venice for the next two days. See you tomorrow!

Scenic Siena. . . .

We slept in late on Tuesday (if you can call 8 am late) and had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel. Most of the hotel breakfasts in our previous trips were instant coffee and a packaged sweet roll. This trip we have been surprised to find milk, cereal, a variety of breads, jams, yogurts and coffee options including fresh made cappuccino. This breakfast was no different, and was a great way to start the day.

After breakfast we hit the road, looking for a leisurely walk to see what the town was all about. Siena is built on a hill, so even with a slower pace, it still involves a lot of uphills and downhills. We tried to find the soft slopes versus the stairs, as you can find some steep staircases here.

We did find a shop that specializes in kids toys, which was a fun one. There are so many things we would have liked to buy, but with limited space to pack it home, you really have to think carefully about what you want to cart around for 8 more days. Tim found a toy lance made of soft padding that he thought would be fun for Zander, and Diana found some things for the grandkids. The shop itself was fun to explore, as the Italians have very different toys than we do in the states. Not many things with lights and batteries, which I guess is a blessing and a curse depending on the child you have. :)

After the toy store we continued walking around town, this time in the direction of one of the old entrances to the city walls called Porta Romana. Seeing something so old, that has gone through different uses was fun. Diana and Michelle kept asking each other questions like "I wonder what that door was used for" and "Why did they have the holes all the way around". Maybe we should have been history majors, because questions like that fascinate us.

From the Porte we walked back to the main square of town and found the restaurant we ate at the night before. We continued to try different dishes, and after looking, we noticedthat we had tried almost everything on the menu. Michelle had a spaghetti with a boar shank sauce, Tim had a spicy pici pasta dish, Diana had the lasagna special again and Ed had the mushroom and spinach ravioli. They were all delicious, and it was soon determined that the ravioli and lasagna were the favorites of the group.

After lunch Ed and Diana went up to their room to rest, and Tim and Michelle went to visit a small bazar that was set up in a little square. Tim bought some sunglasses (to replace an earlier pair he left in Florence somewhere) and he shared a gelato with Michelle. They window shopped down a few streets and found a little ceramics store. It is a tradition now that they buy a tea cup from a town on each of their European vacations. Once inside, they saw the shop was staffed by an adorable little old Italian woman. With her limited English, our limited Italian, and a lot of hand gestures we managed a good conversation, all about the china, our families and our travel plans. Her name was Franca, and she even allowed us to take a picture with her.

After our visit to the china shop, we went on a hunt to find the meat and cheese shop we had seen on our first trip to Siena with Brandon (our nephew) and Duane (Tim's brother). We had a vague idea where it was, but were not too sure. After a bit of searching, we did manage to locate it. Though the same gentleman (the owner) who waited on us last time was not at the shop that day, we had a great experience with the man behind the counter. The last time we were there we had bought some hard cheese to take home. They wrapped it in paper and we were on our way. The only problem was, it was a stinky cheese, so it made all of our clothes smell! This time when we bought cheese, they made sure to shrink wrap it, so we won't be smelly for the rest of this trip! To which everyone around us applauds with joy. :)
When we returned to the hotel a few hours later, Ed and Diana were waiting in the hotel lobby. They were ready to go out on the town again, so we dropped our bags and made our way to visit the Duomo. On the way Tim and Diana went into the meat and cheese shop and Diana bought some cheese too. By the time they were finished, it was getting late, so we opted to do dinner and make it an early night.

Dinner was at the Ristorante Le Campane. This was a fancier place than we had been to the night before, and finding something on the menu was a little tricky. They had an English menu, but their foods were a little exotic for our tastes. Tim and Diana had the risotto, Michelle had something called pasta with Angelfish (she almost doesn't want to know what an Angelfish is, as it looked like a sardine) and Ed had the sea bass. We all thought the meal was just . . . ok.

After dinner we took the short walk to El Campo, the big open square in the heart of Siena and sat under the stars. We ate some of the cheese that Diana had bought and some of the meats from Tim and Michelle. We sauntered back to the hotel and said goodnight. Michelle and Tim spent a bit of time researching trains for the next days trip to Venice, and Michelle had a chance to skype with Susanne and see Zander. While talking with Susanne, she had the camera trained on Zander so that she could see him. And as she was watching, he got up on all fours, rocked himself back and forth and then took his first two crawling motions forward! He has always worked himself backwards in a slow belly scoot, never on his knees and never forward. She was glad to get to see that moment, even if it was from halfway around the world. Isn't technology great! We are sure that he will be off and running by the time we finally get home. :)

Well, that's all for today. Tomorrow we make our way to Venice, so pray for safe travels!

Ciao Firenze (Florence), off to Siena

Today (Monday) was our last day in Florence, and we are going to give you the abridged version of the events. :) We ate our last amazing breakfast at the hotel and headed over to the Santa Croce church. The church itself is amazing, and they also have a leather school attached to it which trains artisans in how to make leather goods. We thought this would be a good place to pick up a few things, but the prices were a little out of our comfort zone. Like $750 euros for a purse, over $1,000 euros for a jacket. The quality of the leather was amazing, but we just couldn't see paying that much for a luxury item.

After the church we crossed the Ponte Vecchio and visited the exterior of the Pitti Palace. There was no time to visit inside. We had lunch at a little cafe in front of the palace, nothing too spectacular. The one thing we are missing on this trip is mayonayse and mustard. We have had our fair share of sandwiches, but they are always so dry without any condiments. And it seems the Italians like it this way. What we woudn't give for a few little mustard packets!

After the Pitti palace we headed back to the hotel to gather our bags and see if we could call the credit card company to have a replacement card sent out. After about an hour on the phone, we were able to speak to a suprovisor who was able to make it happen. They were going to overnight it to our hotel in Venice. Fingers and toes crossed that it actually arrives! While Tim was on the phone working on that, Ed, Diana and Michelle had a lovely conversation with the hotel clerk named Alex. His English was excellent and he was very interested in learning about the partculars of American culture. It was a treat to be able to pick his brain on Italian culture as well.

With our bags we headed out to the San Lorenzo market. It is a huge market with 200+ vendors who have little roadside carts. Every night they pack it down and lock up their goods, some of them leaving their carts right there on the street. Others you can see hauling their carts back to their store front, sometimes blocks away. Tim bought some belts and ties and Diana and Michelle bought some gifts for the family. We had a divided approach. Ed and Michelle initially stayed with the bags so that Tim and Diana could shop, then once they were done Diana and Michelle went off and looked for their things. It kept us from all having to pack around 30+ lb packs in the middle of a crowded market.

After the market we were off on a train to Siena, a small little hill town closer to the western coast of Italy. The train station has changed drastically since the last time Tim and Michelle were there. They have added an entire underground path that takes you out of the train station, and under the main street in front of the train station to the underground bus terminal. Tim and Michelle were so turned around. After asking a local for bus information we headed on a very rocky bus ride to our hotel.

We arrive at the hotel, Albergo Cannon D' Oro and paid 240 Euros for two rooms for two nights, which is a steal. We love Booking.com, a website we use to book our rooms. They give great last minute deals, and have reviews from past guest that you can read before making a reservation. We checked into the rooms - Ed and Diana were on the ground floor, Tim and Michelle were on the 3rd floor. We asked for a recommendation of place to eat from Brian at the front desk and he said he eats at Ristorante Guidoriccio, which is just to the right of the parliament building in El Campo. This was the best recommendation for food we have received so far. It is set in an old wine cellar, which makes the ambiance spectacular. Michelle had the rissoto, Diana had the lasagna special, Ed had the steak, and Tim had the gnocchi bolognase. For dessert, Diana had the lemon cupcakes, Michelle had the panecota (a close cousin to creme brulee), Ed had some assorted Tuscan cookies and Tin had a chocolate cupcake with liquor on top.

Fully stuffed to the gills, we went back to room and tried calling Zander. He was napping, which was a bummer, but I am grateful that we are able to talk to him at all during our trip.

Wallets, bikes and . . . ah crap our credit card!

As we checked in last night we learned that there would be a time change the following morning, with us loosing an hour. Yes, not only did we go through our own time change in the states, and struggle through jet lag for 2-3 days, we now have another time change. This caused us to wake up a little later than usual.

We also had the very nice surpise of an e-mail the night before from one of the main credit cards we are using while here saying there was some supicious activity on our card. We had tough time trying to get a collect call into our credit card, so we had Tim's sister try to call and determine what the problem was. She was not allowed any information, but was told that it could be an issue that the card company just didn't know we were traveling. Tim was certain that he had called and let them know of our plans.

We finally got through to find out that someone had double swiped our card, i.e. we paid for a purchase using the card, they took our card back and swiped once to pay for our purchase, then a second time in a second machine to gather the information on our card. They then swiped a second blank card to store our information on, and used that card at various places in Rome to make almost $6,000 worth of purchases. Yeah us! As if we had not already had enough drama, now we needed to deal with this. It was easy to dispute the charges as we were in Florence by the time they were made, but was a pain to have to waste time getting it sorted out.

As we left the hotel, we bumped into an outdoor antique market that had been set up overnight right outside of our door. There were 3 blocks of wall to wall vendors, with a lot of different things for sale. We spent about 2 hours slowly cruising up and down the aisles trying to see if there were any good finds that we would be willing to pack back to the US. If Michelle lived in Florence, she would have bought much of the furniture there. As it was, she was seriously thinking about trying to get a set of 6 Danish looking chairs into her luggage. :)

We meandered our way to the train station and caught a train to Pisa. Once there, we walked to the monument, all the while experiencing off and on showers. So for people who bring 2 unbrellas, 4 rain ponchos and 4 rain jackets, we were woefully unprepared. As in we had none of that. But we did have the ability to stand in doorways until the rain subsided and lucky for us, it was off and on showers. After the tower, we stopped for pizza at a local cafe. While we were there a man came in to use the phone. He had just been pick pocketed, and needed to call the police. It added a little drama to the afternoon, and we were glad, for once, that it was not our drama! We were hoping to hit the beach too, but by the time we finished with the Leaning Tower, we were all exhausted and decided to head home.

On the train back to Florence we were in a compartment (the last one on the train) with a couple who had obviously just finished with a long bike ride. They were the serious riders, with the fancy pants and shirts. Their bikes were road bikes, and obviously not cheap. They put their bikes on the bike racks on the train, then went past the handicapped compartment and took a seat in our compartment. During the train ride a gypsy woman came by begging for change. She then hid in the handicapped bathroom. We knew she was there because she had not come back through our cabin yet and the handicapped bathroom door was locked. The next thing we know, as the train is stopped, the woman biker is screaming at the man, and running off of the train. He jumps up, runs off the train, then back on the train, grabs his bike and takes off riding in one direction while she goes running down the platform in the other direction. It turns out, her bike was stolen, and she just realized it at that stop. She thought someone took her bike and was trying to find them. While they are both running down the track searching, the train pulls away. A few stops later, Tim figured out what happened. The gypsy took the woman's bike and went into the handicapped bathroom with it to hide. The woman biker realized her bike was gone, she and the man got off of the train in search of it. The train then pulls away. At the next stop, the gypsy got off of the train with the bike and road in the opposite direction of the train, so no one on the train would see her leave with it. Pretty smart, and made us realize that, yet again, you should never be separated from your belongings and should always be on your guard.

Once back in Florence we had kababs again for dinner (what can we say, they are delicious!) did some laundry, made a facetime call to Zander and fell asleep. Tim and Michelle are convinced that the homesickness has been kept at bay because we are still able to see Zander each day through facetime. We can also get pictures and short videos of him from Tim's sister Susanne (thanks Q!).
What would we all do without modern technology! More updates to come on our most recent days, stay tuned!

Daylight savings time strikes again!

As we checked in last night we learned that there would be a time change the following moring, with us loosing an hour. Yes, not only did we go through our own time change in the states, and struggle through jet lag for 2-3 days, we now have another time change. This caused us to wake up a little later than usual.

We also had the very nice surpise of an e-mail the night before from one of the main credit cards we are using while here saying there was some supicious activity on our card. We had tough time trying to get a collect call into our credit card, so we had Tim's sister try to call and determine what the problem was. She was not allowed any information, but was told that it could be an issue that the card company just didn't know we were traveling. Tim was certain that he had called and let them know of our plans.

We finally got through to find out that someone had double swiped our card, i.e. we paid for a purchase using the card, they took our card back and swiped once to pay for our purchase, then a second time in a second machine to gather the information on our card. They then swiped a second blank card to store our information on, and used that card at various places in Rome to make almost $6,000 worth of purchases. Yeah us! As if we had not already had enough drama, now we needed to deal with this. It was easy to dispute the charges as we were in Florence by the time they were made, but was a pain to have to waste time getting it sorted out.

As we left the hotel, we bumped into an outdoor antique market that had been set up overnight right outside of our door. There were 3 blocks of wall to wall vendors, with a lot of different things for sale. We spent about 2 hours slowly cruising up and down the aisles trying to see if there were any good finds that we would be willing to pack back to the US. If Michelle lived in Florence, she would have bought much of the furniture there. As it was, she was seriously thinking about trying to get a set of 6 Danish looking chairs into her luggage. :)

We meandered our way to the train station and caught a train to Pisa. Once there, we walked to the monument, all the while experiencing off and on showers. So for people who bring 2 unbrellas, 4 rain ponchos and 4 rain jackets, we were woefully unprepared. As in we had none of that. But we did have the ability to stand in doorways until the rain subsided and lucky for us, it was off and on showers. After the tower, we stopped for pizza at a local cafe. While we were there a man came in to use the phone. He had just been pick pocketed, and needed to call the police. It added a little drama to the afternoon, and we were glad, for once, that it was not our drama! We were hoping to hit the beach too, but by the time we finished with the Leaning Tower, we were all exhausted and decided to head home.

On the train back to Florence we were in a compartment (the last one on the train) with a couple who had obviously just finished with a long bike ride. They were the serious riders, with the fancy pants and shirts. Their bikes were road bikes, and obviously not cheap. They put their bikes on the bike racks on the train, then went past the handicapped compartment and took a seat in our compartment. During the train ride a gypsy woman came by begging for change. She then hid in the handicapped bathroom. We knew she was there because she had not come back through our cabin yet and the handicapped bathroom door was locked. The next thing we know, as the train is stopped, the woman biker is screaming at the man, and running off of the train. He jumps up, runs off the train, then back on the train, grabs his bike and takes off riding in one direction while she goes running down the platform in the other direction. It turns out, her bike was stolen, and she just realized it at that stop. She thought someone took her bike and was trying to find them. While they are both running down the track searching, the train pulls away. A few stops later, Tim figured out what happened. The gypsy took the woman's bike and went into the handicapped bathroom with it to hide. The woman biker realized her bike was gone, she and the man got off of the train in search of it. The train then pulls away. At the next stop, the gypsy got off of the train with the bike and road in the opposite direction of the train, so no one on the train would see her leave with it. Pretty smart, and made us realize that, yet again, you should never be separated from your belongings and should always be on your guard.

Once back in Florence we had kababs again for dinner (what can we say, they are delicious!) did some laundry, made a facetime call to Zander and fell asleep. Tim and Michelle are convinced that the homesickness has been kept at bay because we are still able to see Zander each day through facetime. We can also get pictures and short videos of him from Tim's sister Susanne (thanks Q!).

What would we all do without modern technology! More updates to come on our most recent days, stay tuned!

Mama Gina's, Mama Gina's and we wish more Mama Gina's

Ok, so we have a bit of catching up to do! Know that we are alive, well, and having so much fun (and so many late nights!) that we have not kept up on the blog as we should have. Sorry for that. Today is a down-time day, so we should be able to catch you up on the adventures of the last three days.

Last we left off we were headed to Mama Gina's for dinner. Ed decided to stay and rest in the room, so we made him some chicken noodle soup from some packets we brought, plugged him into the only English channel we got on the tv (yeah BBC news!) and headed out. We started with some appetizers of bruschetta and pate which were recommended. They were . . . ok. Tim had a steak with cream and green pepper sauce, Michelle had a chicken with cognac and mushroom sauce, and Diana had the chicken Mama Gina. We also had the white (canallini) beans, some wine and 3 different desserts. Yeah, we were a little hungry. We all loved our main meals, the sides and white beans were just ok. After dinner we took a long hike home, zig zagging around town. We want to say that it was because we intended to take a long walk home, but there may have been a little bit of wine involved in the navigation. :)

The next morning we were off to the Academia. Ed decided to stay and rest again, so he missed this museum. The Academia is a little museum, but its prized possession is Michaelangelo's statue of David. You can see pictures of it all of your life, but there is something about seeing the massive sculpture in person that just takes your breath away. Michelle also likes the unfinished sculptures that are also on display from Michaelangelo. You can see the creative process at work here as these figures seem to rise up out of the marble, but never quite escape. Plus, most other sculpters did cermaic models of their work and then copied from there. Michaelangelo (they say) is one of the only ones who worked directly on the marble, no pre-work done. Which is just astounding.

After the Academia we did some shopping, and met a woman in a wine and olive oil shop who was from Chicago. We got to chatting with her, and ended up buying some olive oil, basalmic vinagrette and some local spice mixtures. Afterwards we went and picked up Ed, and slowly made our way to the Ufuzzi gallery. The Ufuzzi is a large horseshoe shapped gallery full of all kinds of paintings and sculptures. Unfortunately, the rooms that Michelle was most interested in (where there are a number of large sculptures) was closed for restoration. But overall it was fun to take the Rick Steves tour version and hear about the history of many of the works.

After the gallery we walked around and did some shopping, ate a late lunch of kababs, and went back to the room. Ed decided to stay home and relax with another bowl of soup, the rest of us headed back to . . . wait for it . . . Mama Gina's! For appetisers we had an avocado and shrimp with thousand island dressing dish, and a dish with raw artichoke with olive oil and slices of paremsean cheese. We have to say, the avocado/shrimp dish was interesting, we could have done without the raw artichokes. :) But, life is an adventure, right, you try new things and the worst thing that happens is that you don't like it. Tim had the steak again, Michelle had the chicken again (what was that we just said about trying new things?), and Diana tried chicken tuscany style with fried zuchinni. This basically meant fried chicken and zuchini fries. We also had fried artichoke as a side with dinner. Dessert was for Michelle, and was a traditional tiramisou. Overall, another wonderful meal!

We walked back from the hotel, this time in more of a straight line than last night, and took a moment at the Arno river for pictures. While there, we met a couple from New York who were having dinner with their friend from Texas. The woman from Texas was there for a semester as a student. It was fun to meet some random people and share a laugh and travel tips in such a beautiful location.

A short walk brought us home and to bed. All in all, a good day!

The Photo Bomber strikes again and again

First appearing in Rome a couple of days ago, the Photo Bomber has been striking tourist cameras throughout Florence. The typical motis operandi of the Photo Bomber is to appear like an unsuspecting tourist gasping at the wonders of the city as she strategically maneuvers between the photographer and their subject. The Photo Bomber likes to display a shocked expression as she attempts to fill the viewfinder of the photographer, but with the number of instances authorities believe that this is just a rouse to prevent a confrontation. This reporter has been unable to catch the Photo Bomber in action, but when possible a picture of the subject will be posted to warn others of her presence. Luckily, in this digital age the damage caused by the Photo Bomber is usually quickly erased with a push of the delete button.