Travel Monkeys » Becky Blogs

Our “Crack” - Florence, Italy

Becky — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 00:00:00 +0000

We had been denied Internet in Tuscany, and by the time we got to Florence we were wanting badly to check our email. When we got to our hotel and noticed that right outside our window was an Internet cafe, Internet Train, that had wi-fi, we thought what the hell, lets buy a couple of hours and see if it works from our hotel room. It was pretty cheap at 2.50 Euro for an hour. We had a pretty good signal and the first night I posted six blogs that had already been written and were just sitting on my hard drive, and also responded to my mother who now probably thought I was dead as I had “ignored” two of her emails. Two hours went by too quickly. The next thing I remember was looking at the clock and seeing that I was out of time. Shit, I used up 5 Euro and Chris didn’t even have time to do anything. So, next A.M. there we were buying 4 more hours.

I am sure, by now, you know how the story goes. The Internet Train is like a drug dealer. Sure you can have an hour ma’am. Here is your bag of www “crack”. Go have fun. But then, when your time is up you need another hit. Over the next few days, we made several trips to that counter to buy more time. There were so many things we needed to do, like pay bills, blog, email, call family and friends on Skype, not to mention, it is ridiculous how much you need the Internet when you are overseas trying to arrange/research future traveling sites, like hotels/hostels, language classes, car rentals, etc. So, how much did we use over 3 days/4 nights you ask? Well, I am ashamed to say, but it was 15 hours, and truthfully, we probably would have bought one more hour had they not closed early on the weekend. We are sad aren’t we? Here we were in Florence, Italy and we spent 15 hours of it on the Internet. LOL

Two Nice Things - David’s Ass and Vivoli’s Gelato - Florence, Italy

Becky — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 00:00:00 +0000

11/10/06 Today we went to the Accademia. It is small compared to all the art galleries I have drug Chris through in Europe so far, but it houses one of the most notable sculptures in the world, DAVID. Yes, THE David. Michelangelo sculpted him in 1501. He was originally supposed to be on top of the Duomo (cathedral), but everyone in Florence liked him so much that they put him outside of the Palazzo Vecchio (He was eventually moved inside the Accademia to get him out of the polluted air). Because of the fact that he is not on top of the Duomo though, his proportions are a bit off, as he was originally created to be looked at from far below. From a lowly piece of marble, that all the other sculptors had dismissed as too tall, shallow & flawed, he was born. I mean can you believe that? Michelangelo created a masterpiece from a hand-me-down? For you that don’t know the biblical story, David was a simple shepherd boy of the Israelites who took down the mighty giant Goliath with only his sling and a rock. To find him, you have to go through the first smaller part of the gallery and then you wind around to this second hallway, where there are several other unfinished sculptures called The Prisoners by Michelangelo, but at the end is this HUGE rotunda in which he stands. He is huge. I did not know it but he stands 14 feet tall, not including the huge pedestal. You can walk all around him and this was the first time in my life that I got to see his “behind”. It is quite nice and perfect, almost pinchable if I do say so. LOL It was a NO PHOTO ZONE, but Chris managed to sneak a few snapshots of his backside for me. For those of you that want a better photo op, there is an exact duplicate of him in the Palazzo Vecchio where he used to stand. Chris of course tried to recreate his contrapposto stance, where the person’s weight is centered on only one half of the body, while the other half is relaxed. I think to truly compare though, he should have been naked with a sling shot.

Today we also went to Vivoli’s. Vivoli’s is the BEST gelato that I have ever eaten. We shared a medium size but had them mix chocolate and banana together. I would have liked more banana instead of the super rich chocolate though. Chocolate is Chris’ favorite flavor, not mine. Next time, if ever I go back, I get my own serving, NO MATTER WHAT, and he can’t share! Silly Chris trying to cheat me out of gelato. What was he thinking? Is he insane? What’s wrong with him? Doesn’t he know by now that I am a gelato connoisseur?

The Renaissance - Florence, Italy

Becky — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 19:10:02 +0000

Today was a day of art. We were in Florence (Firenze in Italian). It was the birthplace of the renaissance in the 1400s. The word renaissance itself means “rebirth”. It was fueled by the money of the Medici family in Florence. It was the time of Michelangelo, Leonardo DaVinci and Raphael to name a few. It was when Europe started coming out of the dark ages and back into the age of enlightenment that was ancient Rome & Greece. Art became more realistic and three dimensional. In were the Greek & Roman gods & goddesses and out were the themes of Christianity. We as humans sought to become more of individuals in control of our own destiny instead of just letting it occur around us while we thought of more important things, like what the church promised awaited us in heaven.

To get an appreciation for this renaissance, we visited the Uffizi Gallery. It is loaded with most of the great artists. Botticelli’s famous Birth of Venus painting, that I LOVE, is here along with several of his others. I found myself just sitting down and staring at her beautiful face. There were also unfinished paintings by Leonardo DaVinci, and even more impressive, in a special exhibit, were some of the actual pages from his notebooks documenting his studies of flight, architecture, and even more fascinating for me, his studies of human anatomy. His detailed drawings look pretty similar to my anatomy textbooks in college. It made me a feel a closer connection to him. I think I was in the DaVinci exhibit almost an hour before I even entered any of the official Uffizi galleries. They were actually my favorite part of the museum.

Goodbye Little Smart Car - Pisa, Italy

Becky — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 23:45:00 +0000

We rented a car for our time with La Mia Toscana. It was easier and allowed us access to some of the hill towns in Tuscany, plus it allowed us to feel like normal U.S. tourists if only for a short amount of time. The cars in Europe are smaller, probably because of gas prices, and our rental was no exception. It was a 4 door Smart car. The make 2 door Smart cars but they are super small and I doubt that our luggage would have actually fit in it. It was fun to actually be in a car after not riding in one for over 2 months. We got an automatic, but it was a weirdo automatic. It had a stick shift just like a manual but the stick shift kind of reminded me of something that belonged in a video arcade because you could also operate it like a manual transmission with out the clutch. The stick did not actually “shift”, it just “toggled” it to the left and that changed gears between automatic or the manual levels 1-4. There was a LCD display on the dash that told you what gear the car was in. I told Chris he had full car driving responsibility, as I was nervous about driving in a foreign country, and he did really well after getting his bearings with the dimensions of the car, turning radius etc. He actually drove the car more in the manual gears because he was able to shift it smoother than the car was actually trying to do itself. He even navigated multiple roundabouts without killing anyone or damaging any property. I was so proud of him. It barely used any gas and was quite a treat. All in all definately the way to see Tuscany.

La Mia Toscana Part 2 - La Rosa, Tuscany, Italy

Becky — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 10:51:34 +0000

The second day was a free day and we took the opportunity to explore one of the hill towns near La Rosa called Volterra. It was an Etruscan city (Pre-Roman) but there were also Roman ruins. It was very charming. There were lots of cobblestone winding roads to walk around. Volterra wasn’t as touristy as some towns we have been too. We got to see alot of the locals in action as they visited with each other on a Saturday night. We also went to a fall festival while there and got to taste all the fresh olive oil that was just harvested along with various other meats, cheeses, cookies, and even roasted chestnuts (which I had never had before but are now a new favorite).

The third day, 11/6/06 was a Welcome dinner that had been delayed until today at one of the local restaurants, and we also got to do our own wine tasting at Il Selvino’s neighbor, Fattoria Fibbiano with it’s owner Giuseppe. We tasted the five wines that his winery produces and also got to tour his factory and grounds. Quite a special treat.

By day four, 11/7/06 we were becoming quite used to our perfect Tuscan world and had the chance to experience our second cooking class with Arianna and Marisa. This time it was a lunch and we learned how to cook 4 different types of Tuscan lunch dishes. On top of that we learned 2 different ways to cook chestnuts and also learned how to make HOMEMADE tomato sauce. YUMMY. It was great. We of course got to eat all our creations when we were done and they were all fabulous. I am going to have to definitely try out Marisa’ s recipes for our friends when we get home! Chris also did well in the kitchen despite some slower starts with chopping spices with this special crazy knife things called a Mezza Luna. Marisa said he improved greatly from day 1 to day 2. Me, well she said repeatedly to Chris that “She make very good wife someday” while referring to my cooking skills, and I took this as a big compliment. You know you have succeeded as a chef when you impress a lovely Italian cook.

We were sad to leave La Rosa and La Mia Toscana. I had the best time, as did Chris, and we wished we had more time here. This has certainly been one of the highlights of my trip and I would recommend this cooking class to anyone. I am sure I will share stories about Arianna, Marisa and Il Selvino with people for years to come.

The Land of Siesta - Tuscany, Italy

Becky — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 18:45:39 +0000

Italy and Spain have this entity called the “Siesta” It is a break in the middle of the day where businesses shut down and everyone takes a break. They go home to be with their families and eat etc. It is usually between 1 P.M. to 4 P.M., although it varies greatly. It is very hard to try to do any shopping between these hours and if you forget about it, even going to the grocery store can be challenging. Today was one of those days. We wanted to grab a snack from the grocery store, as we had missed lunch, but they didn’t open up again till 4 P.M. and I was STARVING.

The other problem comes in that they eat mucho later over here. Some restaurants do not open for dinner until like 730 P.M. So, the end effect is that if you miss lunch, you aren’t going to find much to eat until alot later. I still have not quite figured out what you do in between the gray zone. If it is after like 3 P.M. but before 7:30 P.M., just pray that you have some snacks in your pocket, or you are going to be a hypoglycemic mess by dinner.

La Mia Toscana Part 1- La Rosa, Tuscany, Italy

Becky — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 10:51:06 +0000

We wanted to do something special in Italy. We had talked about doing a cooking class, but after searching and searching online while in Bratislava, I thought that it may not happen because so many of them were sooooo expensive. We figured that they were only for rich tourists on massive vacation packages with no budgets. BUT, then we found www.lamiatoscana.info (La Mia Toscana) on a web page called www.slowtrav.com. They had a 4 day Tuscan cooking class that sounded perfect and the price wasn’t in the thousands. I dropped them an email and the rest is history.

Our host was Arianna.scany-italy-11406 She works for La Mia Toscana, but also has her own agency that you can see at www.ariannaandfriends.com. She was wonderful and I highly recommend her. We were set up to stay at an olive farm that also was a B & B. It was at an Agriturismo, which is Italian for agricultural tourism. Per our guru, Risk Steves, they were apparently set up in the 1980’s as a way for farmers to stay on their land and start a B & B at the same time. It was a great way to see some of the country side and also an excuse to rent a car and explore some of the surrounding hill towns in central Tuscany. Our B & B was at Agriturismo Il Selvino, www.ilselvino.it, run by Alessandro near the small town of La Rosa.

It was heaven. We had our own room. It wasn’t loud and crazy and I didn’t have to shower with other naked women in the room like at the hostel! It was in the countryside and there were beautiful hills and pine trees all around. The sun shine was beautiful and was 360 degrees all around me and not blocked by any “city” buildings.

They put us to work pretty quickly after we got there the first day, 11/4/06. It was our first cooking class and we were learning some typical Tuscan dinners. Arianna was our interpreter, while our chef, Marisa, gave us some of her secrets. Marisa didn’t speak much English, but I was quickly able to understand her “sign language” of what to do in the kitchen. It was so much fun. The longer I am in Europe, the more I realize that for some things you don’t need a language to communicate, hand signals work just fine in the kitchen, and lots of smiles and great laughs are always universal. We cooked for about 3- 3 1/2 hours and produced 8 different dishes, including a local desert. The dishes were being served not only to us but also to the other guests at the ranch. EEK the pressure! Everything turned out splendidly though. It was soooo good. I of course wrote all the recipes down, although I am sure I need to tweak some things since I know Marisa uses generous “pinches” of her spices and I am still not sure how much olive oil she was using sometimes aside from it looked like “gobs” as she just poured it into the pots LOL Olive oil flows like water in these Tuscan recipes!

The Tower is Falling! - Pisa, Italy

Becky — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 18:46:55 +0000

We took a train from Venice to Pisa as it was to be the start of our Tuscan cooking adventure over the next few days. As we were going to be spending the night, the next a.m. on the agenda was of course the Leaning Tower. Our schedule was tight and we did not have time to climb it, but we did have time to wander all around it and create funny poses beside it. The tower is in the Field of Miracles (Campo dei Miracoli) with the cathedral (or Duomo). The Leaning Tower is actually the bell tower for the nearby Duomo. It is nearly 200 feet tall and 55 feet wide. It weighs 14,000 tons and leans at 15 feet off the vertical axis. It rests on a shallow 13 ft foundation and is sinking on the south side. There are 8 stories to the tower, 294 steps to the top, and it took 2 centuries to complete with at least 3 different architects. As an aside note, it was at it’s summit that Galileo Galilei performed his famous experiments with gravity.

The first stones were laid in 1174 by Bonanno Pisano and the tower started to lean almost right after construction was started due to the marshy multi-layered unstable soil. The first four floors were completed and then construction was stopped for unknown reasons. In 1272, a second architect began and built the next three stories but this time angled them backwards to try to stop the lean. Construction was then stopped again for unknown reason, but then finally restarted/finished in 1350 when the belfry was added.

There have been many attempts through out history to try to correct the tower’s lean. In 1550, one architect tried to solve the problem by reinforcing the base and this actually worked until 1838 when they tried once again to fix the problem and pumped water out of the ground. This then destabilized the tower more and worsened the lean by 1mm/yr! In 1990 they closed the tower and spent 30 million to try to fix the problem. First they used anchored steel cables, then 600 tons of lead on the north side as a counterweight. Nothing really helped until a breakthrough came when they drilled 15 ft holes in the ground and sucked out 60 tons of soil! This then straightened the tower by 6 inches. It turned back history by a couple hundred years. But, there are still some trouble spots due to the lean. On the side that sees less sun, more moss grows that breaks apart the mortar and stones, and on the other side that sees more sun there are more problems with wind and erosion. Alas the tower continues to fall, but hopefully it will still be around for awhile!

Chris’ Quest for Crappy Candy - Venice, Italy

Becky — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 17:02:36 +0000

Chris is a candy-holic, although I did not realize this until we got to Europe. He was keeping his tendencies toward this very hidden. He says because he was too cheap. Apparently, although too cheap for U.S. candy, he has a weakness for buying random European candy, and has done so for the last 2.5 months. This is all well and good, until you realize that in the last 2.5 months he hasn’t bought any “good” candy as all of the random brands that he picks up to “try”, are all very crappy. I do have to hand it to him though, even though he has seen nothing but candy disappointments, he keeps coming back for more. Every time we enter a store, his eyes are immediately seeking out the shelves for the cheap price of a brand he has never seen or heard of before. Sometimes he picks out the particular candy based on the feel of the package, sometime based on the strange picture on the outside, but other times he just watches to see what other people in the store are buying and “trusts” them, that if they like it, perhaps he will also. Poor Chris, alas no success of yet. Perhaps this last month he will find something worthwhile the first time so he can then buy it a second time as a new favorite. In the meantime, I will have to continue to watch his face as he takes that first bite only to realize it was an error in purchasing.

Me myself, I stick with my faithful “regulars”. There are Snickers, Twix and M&M’s everywhere, and after eating them, I have had any of the faces that he usually has after his “candy adventures” LOL My regulars never leave me disappointed.

Murano Glass - Murano, Italy

Becky — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 17:00:25 +0000

Today we went to nearby Murano Island by Vaporetti, about one hour ride with lots of stops in between. Murano is the island where all the glass creations that are all over in the shops in Venice are made. The glass blowers were moved here in the 13th century from the island of Venice to try to decrease the huge fire risks all the glass ovens created. I guess they were ok with the possibility of Murano burning down, but not dear Venice. Anyway, it is overwhelming how much glass is made in this area. So many sparkling creations to catch my eye and make me wish I had millions of moolah so I could buy them all. There are necklaces, rings and earrings, sure, but there are also lots of glass artworks. There are statues, and plates and chandeliers and recreated high artworks, etc. It was all a pretty and amazing day where I got to go shopping for some souvenirs. To Chris’ happiness (since he is a stoopid boy who doesn’t like to shop) there where also glass blowing demonstrations at the factories on Murano island so you can get an idea how these creations are brought to life. It is very hot and hard work indeed. There is usually a team of 2-4 people all working on one object. Each person has his/her own job and does one particular piece of the object. It is kinda like an assembly line in a factory, although alot cooler to watch!