Above: Cody and Brian underground, Me at Mt. Etna and the Palio boys !
Catch up time indeed! Stories to tell! Still no haircut! Europe is still a delight and I can’t believe we only have 2 weeks left of the seven day cruises. At dinner tonight we were talking about what we’d like to get done in these various ports and it’s so much! After the seven day cruises we move to the 11/12 day cruises which include Greece, Turkey, Egypt and Croatia. We also have an overnight in Venice that will be pretty amazing. It’s hard to believe there’s more to come.
Florence/Uffizi
A week and a half ago we went to Florence to visit the Uffizi Gallery which is Italy’s greatest gallery. This thing is insane. So was the trip there and back to Florence. Again, Florence is a real prickly pear because it is two buses to the train and then the train for an hour and a half. We got there just fine and since we bought tickets in advance we didn’t have to wait in line which was helpful. We did show up a bit late for our reservation but it all worked out. This day was also a ball because we were accompanied by two of the youth counselors on the ship that had spent some months living in Florence. They were also the lucky winners of two tickets to the gallery since Steve and Jenny didn’t make it. We ate at a great place beforehand called “Mama Gina’s”. I enjoyed more Gnocchi and everyone else had an amazing lunch too. After a little red wine buzz we headed over to the gallery. Again, we saw so many mind blowing historical pieces of art it was overwhelming. Things you see your whole life in posters, shitty album covers and the opening montage of “Desperate Housewives”, you can’t believe you’re seeing the real thing. I bought the guide for 10 Euro and was glad I did because it really pointed out the greatest hits and some fun facts. Here were the highlights in more bullet points. Some of these titles might not mean much if you can’t see them, so if you’ve got a sec Google them to take a look.
* The Birth of Venus and Primavera by Botticelli
* Annunciation by DaVinci
* Musical Cherub by Fiorentino
* Holy Family with the Infant St. John the Baptist by Michelangelo
* Diptych of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino by Francesca
* Medusa by Caravaggio
It was pretty intense and we did the whole thing in a little over two hours and we still felt like we had time to see everything. When we went to get the train we realized looking at the board the train left a little later than we thought. Still, no problem, we still had time. Until we got to the train station in Livorno. We got cocky and thought we had enough time to take the bus to the town center where we’d catch a cab to the port and boat. Well we took the bus and ended up in the square in Livorno at about 6:10 or so. All aboard is 6:30. We still thought we were ok. Until we told the cab driver the wrong port. Livorno is a HUGE shipping port with about 6 different ports. So we had to turn around, bust our ass through traffic and we got there at 6:40. YIKES ! We didn’t get reprimanded which was good and there were still passengers boarding so that was also good. Again, too close for anyone’s liking. Garg.
Nice, France
I blew 97 Euro at H&M and we ate Dim Sum. YEAH! Sometimes you need to get back to basics.
Messina
I escorted my first passenger tour in Messina! We went to Mt. Etna, an active volcano in Sicily. I think I’ve learned a few things about escorting I can now share. One: go somewhere where the bus only stops once. That way you don’t have to wrangle the animals as much (Brendan had a semi-shitfire on a France tour with like 4 stops and an obnoxious family from Jersey). Two: Escorting is boring. I like hanging out with my friends. It’s sort of snooze-a-tron to go someplace by yourself and not have anyone to share it with. I was glad I did it, but I think I’d rather do stuff with my pals from here on out. The volcano itself is pretty cool and we got to stand in one of the craters (see picture on top). Of course it wasn’t completely without incident. We had to stop on a very steep part of the mountain because a poor 12 year old girl was about to hork since it was a very twisty turny road up. I was right with her because I have a tendency to get a little car sick myself. No horking happened even though the guide looked at me a bit strange when I offered her a plastic bag I had in my purse. It was from a muffin highjacking scheme that didn’t happen at breakfast. I’m always concerned about when I’m going to eat again because the crankometer goes up if I don’t. I was able to enjoy a delicious croissant at the top of the volcano. The other thing that happened is that two people were almost 15 minutes late back to the bus. One of my jobs is to count heads once people have arrived back to the bus. Well, Paula the guide and I kept counting 36. We left Messina with 38. The tourist part of Mt. Etna isn’t that big so I offered to run to the bathroom and see if any ladies were still waiting. Nope. No one there. We count again, still 36. We run up to the other bathroom, no one’s there. We get back to the bus to count a third time and here comes dumpy drawers Dad and his son slowly entering the bus. Sigh. Come on people. 11:40 means 11:40 !!!
Naples
There was a holiday in Italy this week so a lot of things were closed. Including Presidente, our favorite pizza place. We did find another one that was pretty close and that Cody even blasphemously stated he might like better. Fool! The ghost of Presidente is going to strangle him in his sleep some night. It was a great meal though. It sparked a debate about how hot the stone ovens get to cook the pizzas and for how long since they always come out so fast. We found out that they only get cooked for 60-90 seconds at about 475 degrees Celsius. After guessing how hot that was Fahrenheit (guesses ranged from 1000 degrees, 6 inches and 8 degrees Kelvin) Brian and I realized we have no idea what the conversion is. We’ll keep guessing, it’s more fun that way. We also took a fun tour of the Naples Underground. Naples basically has two million square meters of empty space composed of tunnels and cisterns which included a pretty cool Aqueduct and a part of a Greek-Roman theater. I am currently typing this from the brochures we received since I couldn’t understand a damn word from our buxom young tour guide-ess. The best part of this is the dark skinny passage you get to go through only with candles because there is no light. At one point we let the group go ahead of us and we all blew out our candles. It was terrifying! The ceiling is very high but the passage is only about 3 feet across. We ended up getting separated from the group with our hijinx but the fun scare was well worth it.
Siena
We rented a car again (the exact same car we got a month ago) on Friday and packed the kids up to go to Siena which is another delicious Tuscan town. I drove again and finally have the hang of these roundabouts. We did it sans GPS so we were pretty proud of ourselves. If Italy is good at one thing it’s signage! We were excited to go to Siena on this particular day because on Thursday the Palio had occurred. The Palio is Tuscany’s most celebrated festival and it is a bareback horserace that started in 1283. It’s an intense race that is viewed by thousands crowded into Siena’s piazza. The jockey’s represent ten of Siena’s districts and the winner is rewarded with a silk banner. It was a real humdinger finding parking but it was great to be there the day after it had happened. We witnessed a great parade with all dressed in the winner’s silks (see pic above!) and got a couple of great souvenirs. There Duomo is also killer. Because of preservation the floor itself is only on display from the end of August until October so it was a real treat to see it. It is an inlaid marble floor that is incredibly beautiful. We made it back to port with a half hour to spare!
Ship Life
In France on Friday I purchased a pretty intense Paint-by-Number that I’m looking forward to starting. If anything makes me happier it’s OCD art projects! Give me a million tiny circles to fill in and I’ll be satiated for days. In response to my hobby Brian said, “You and the Unabomber”.
Brendan is currently sitting across from me typing up his article for the crew newsletter entitled “10 Movies You Should Be Renting”. I hope rentals increase for “An Officer and a Gentleman” next week!
I’ve been paying 7-8 Euros for “The New Yorker” every other week because we’re so starved for news/human interest stuff out here. Fox News is the only thing we get besides a little BBC and CNN. After I saw the Fox headline “What’s next for the 6 trapped miners?” a couple nights ago I almost punched my TV. What do you think is next for them Fox? Maybe they’ll all get that undergrad they’ve been wanting for so long? Get a grip you jags.
Penny is doing great and we miss her terribly. We’ve been on a dog petting kick here in Europe. My mom sent me a pic of Penny sniffing a picture I had given my mom as a gift, but the picture had been in our apartment for awhile. My mom says she smells it all the time and I almost cried. I miss my little girl!
Florence/Uffizi
A week and a half ago we went to Florence to visit the Uffizi Gallery which is Italy’s greatest gallery. This thing is insane. So was the trip there and back to Florence. Again, Florence is a real prickly pear because it is two buses to the train and then the train for an hour and a half. We got there just fine and since we bought tickets in advance we didn’t have to wait in line which was helpful. We did show up a bit late for our reservation but it all worked out. This day was also a ball because we were accompanied by two of the youth counselors on the ship that had spent some months living in Florence. They were also the lucky winners of two tickets to the gallery since Steve and Jenny didn’t make it. We ate at a great place beforehand called “Mama Gina’s”. I enjoyed more Gnocchi and everyone else had an amazing lunch too. After a little red wine buzz we headed over to the gallery. Again, we saw so many mind blowing historical pieces of art it was overwhelming. Things you see your whole life in posters, shitty album covers and the opening montage of “Desperate Housewives”, you can’t believe you’re seeing the real thing. I bought the guide for 10 Euro and was glad I did because it really pointed out the greatest hits and some fun facts. Here were the highlights in more bullet points. Some of these titles might not mean much if you can’t see them, so if you’ve got a sec Google them to take a look.
* The Birth of Venus and Primavera by Botticelli
* Annunciation by DaVinci
* Musical Cherub by Fiorentino
* Holy Family with the Infant St. John the Baptist by Michelangelo
* Diptych of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino by Francesca
* Medusa by Caravaggio
It was pretty intense and we did the whole thing in a little over two hours and we still felt like we had time to see everything. When we went to get the train we realized looking at the board the train left a little later than we thought. Still, no problem, we still had time. Until we got to the train station in Livorno. We got cocky and thought we had enough time to take the bus to the town center where we’d catch a cab to the port and boat. Well we took the bus and ended up in the square in Livorno at about 6:10 or so. All aboard is 6:30. We still thought we were ok. Until we told the cab driver the wrong port. Livorno is a HUGE shipping port with about 6 different ports. So we had to turn around, bust our ass through traffic and we got there at 6:40. YIKES ! We didn’t get reprimanded which was good and there were still passengers boarding so that was also good. Again, too close for anyone’s liking. Garg.
Nice, France
I blew 97 Euro at H&M and we ate Dim Sum. YEAH! Sometimes you need to get back to basics.
Messina
I escorted my first passenger tour in Messina! We went to Mt. Etna, an active volcano in Sicily. I think I’ve learned a few things about escorting I can now share. One: go somewhere where the bus only stops once. That way you don’t have to wrangle the animals as much (Brendan had a semi-shitfire on a France tour with like 4 stops and an obnoxious family from Jersey). Two: Escorting is boring. I like hanging out with my friends. It’s sort of snooze-a-tron to go someplace by yourself and not have anyone to share it with. I was glad I did it, but I think I’d rather do stuff with my pals from here on out. The volcano itself is pretty cool and we got to stand in one of the craters (see picture on top). Of course it wasn’t completely without incident. We had to stop on a very steep part of the mountain because a poor 12 year old girl was about to hork since it was a very twisty turny road up. I was right with her because I have a tendency to get a little car sick myself. No horking happened even though the guide looked at me a bit strange when I offered her a plastic bag I had in my purse. It was from a muffin highjacking scheme that didn’t happen at breakfast. I’m always concerned about when I’m going to eat again because the crankometer goes up if I don’t. I was able to enjoy a delicious croissant at the top of the volcano. The other thing that happened is that two people were almost 15 minutes late back to the bus. One of my jobs is to count heads once people have arrived back to the bus. Well, Paula the guide and I kept counting 36. We left Messina with 38. The tourist part of Mt. Etna isn’t that big so I offered to run to the bathroom and see if any ladies were still waiting. Nope. No one there. We count again, still 36. We run up to the other bathroom, no one’s there. We get back to the bus to count a third time and here comes dumpy drawers Dad and his son slowly entering the bus. Sigh. Come on people. 11:40 means 11:40 !!!
Naples
There was a holiday in Italy this week so a lot of things were closed. Including Presidente, our favorite pizza place. We did find another one that was pretty close and that Cody even blasphemously stated he might like better. Fool! The ghost of Presidente is going to strangle him in his sleep some night. It was a great meal though. It sparked a debate about how hot the stone ovens get to cook the pizzas and for how long since they always come out so fast. We found out that they only get cooked for 60-90 seconds at about 475 degrees Celsius. After guessing how hot that was Fahrenheit (guesses ranged from 1000 degrees, 6 inches and 8 degrees Kelvin) Brian and I realized we have no idea what the conversion is. We’ll keep guessing, it’s more fun that way. We also took a fun tour of the Naples Underground. Naples basically has two million square meters of empty space composed of tunnels and cisterns which included a pretty cool Aqueduct and a part of a Greek-Roman theater. I am currently typing this from the brochures we received since I couldn’t understand a damn word from our buxom young tour guide-ess. The best part of this is the dark skinny passage you get to go through only with candles because there is no light. At one point we let the group go ahead of us and we all blew out our candles. It was terrifying! The ceiling is very high but the passage is only about 3 feet across. We ended up getting separated from the group with our hijinx but the fun scare was well worth it.
Siena
We rented a car again (the exact same car we got a month ago) on Friday and packed the kids up to go to Siena which is another delicious Tuscan town. I drove again and finally have the hang of these roundabouts. We did it sans GPS so we were pretty proud of ourselves. If Italy is good at one thing it’s signage! We were excited to go to Siena on this particular day because on Thursday the Palio had occurred. The Palio is Tuscany’s most celebrated festival and it is a bareback horserace that started in 1283. It’s an intense race that is viewed by thousands crowded into Siena’s piazza. The jockey’s represent ten of Siena’s districts and the winner is rewarded with a silk banner. It was a real humdinger finding parking but it was great to be there the day after it had happened. We witnessed a great parade with all dressed in the winner’s silks (see pic above!) and got a couple of great souvenirs. There Duomo is also killer. Because of preservation the floor itself is only on display from the end of August until October so it was a real treat to see it. It is an inlaid marble floor that is incredibly beautiful. We made it back to port with a half hour to spare!
Ship Life
In France on Friday I purchased a pretty intense Paint-by-Number that I’m looking forward to starting. If anything makes me happier it’s OCD art projects! Give me a million tiny circles to fill in and I’ll be satiated for days. In response to my hobby Brian said, “You and the Unabomber”.
Brendan is currently sitting across from me typing up his article for the crew newsletter entitled “10 Movies You Should Be Renting”. I hope rentals increase for “An Officer and a Gentleman” next week!
I’ve been paying 7-8 Euros for “The New Yorker” every other week because we’re so starved for news/human interest stuff out here. Fox News is the only thing we get besides a little BBC and CNN. After I saw the Fox headline “What’s next for the 6 trapped miners?” a couple nights ago I almost punched my TV. What do you think is next for them Fox? Maybe they’ll all get that undergrad they’ve been wanting for so long? Get a grip you jags.
Penny is doing great and we miss her terribly. We’ve been on a dog petting kick here in Europe. My mom sent me a pic of Penny sniffing a picture I had given my mom as a gift, but the picture had been in our apartment for awhile. My mom says she smells it all the time and I almost cried. I miss my little girl!
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