(Over the next week I'm going to post about our recent trip to Italy, so follow along if you'd like. If you want to see the pictures from the trip, you can view the album on Picasa here)
First off, I'm proud of the fact that we were able to fit two weeks worth of clothes into our carry-on bags. I know for some people this doesn't sound like a big deal, but Tricia and I are particularly high maintenance when it comes to packing and we tend to plan for every contingency, thus leading to giant suitcases. Still, we fit all our clothes and toiletries in, I packed about 4 more books than I would ever read in two weeks, which led to the "backpack" part of my suitcase leading to it being way too big to fit into the overhead compartment. Oh well.
DAY 1 FLORENCE
After our flights (9 1/2 hours from Portland to Amsterdam, a 3-hour layover, and then 1 1/2 hours from Amsterdam to Florence) we knew we were going to take a city bus from the airport in Florence to where we were staying. The fact that we had little-to-no sleep and were very exhausted did make it difficult to figure out how to orient ourselves upon landing and we spent the first 20 minutes or so simply trying to figure out where it was that we were supposed to catch the bus. After asking at a tourist info kiosk, we were pointed in the right direction and were on our way.
Our experience with bus rides has never included bulky luggage, so that made this an interesting time -- the doors barely close and the driver is on his way...so if you are standing up then HOLD ON. The extremely narrow streets in all Italian cities also makes for some excitement while on the bus as you constantly look like you are about to sideswipe cars/bikes/pedestrians. We got used to this as the days went on.
We got to our hotel and it was great to find out that the manager was very nice -- he helped us with our bags, made a phone call for us to confirm our cycling excursion the next day, and went over a map of Florence with us with some suggestions (which came in handy later).
Now, having not slept since Portland, we were extremely tired, yet determined to get on Italy-time by not falling asleep until 9 PM or so. We went to Santa Maria Novella, one of the churches, around 1:30 and were so tired that every time we sat down in a pew to observe we almost fell asleep (I'm pretty sure that I did at one point). It was a cool looking church though (and a beautiful day out)
Honestly, writing about this now I barely remember what happened this day! Pretty much we were zombies roaming the streets of Italy (which I find to be a cool tie-in to Italian horror movies). We went back to the hotel just to take a shower, since the airplane grime on our faces was starting to sprout growths. Here's the proof
We went out to eat some food and as we wondered about, we stumbled upon a free organ concert at Santa Maria Ricci, just down the street from our hotel and listened to some Bach. We found a cool place called Il Fratellini where we had great fresh sandwiches and wine for only €8.50 total.
Now, when I say "found" it's not like we happened upon it. For those that know us it should be NO surprise that we copiously research all of the restaurants we would want to eat at so that we don't have too many surprises. This generally helps us to stay away from too many bad meals. Of course, there are times when we don't have a choice but to just eat somewhere, but our work prior to the vacation usually pays off in that we eat some fairly good food at mostly non-touristy places and at reasonable prices.
I'll take this time to make a side note -- eating is quite different in Italy than it is anywhere in the States. Generally speaking, breakfast is not much more than a croissant, a yogurt, and a cappuccino. Italians tend to sit down and eat a big lunch, often lasting up to two hours. However, we usually went the quick and cheap route, eating a panini or pizza to-go (sitting down usually costs you extra, so you'll want to either stand at the bar and eat it or take it to-go). As for dinner, the menus are arranged by course -- antipasti (starter/appetizer/salad), primi (first course, which is a pasta dish), secondi (second course, which is a meat dish), contorno (side dish), and dulci (dessert). In the old days, apparently, you were expected to order one thing of each course. How anyone could eat that much food is beyond me, as typically the pasta dish alone and a shared antipasti was enough to fill us up. Fortunately you don't get any "ugly American" looks if you choose to just get one course and split an appetizer and dessert and we even noticed that most Italians did the same.
Which is the other thing I bring up -- the cost of the food. We found out that eating a whole meal for €8.50 is hard to do, especially near the attractions that tourists frequent, so you simply have to be okay spending more. Still, we did pretty good, spending on average for two-people (and we are by no means big spenders), €8 for breakfast, €20 for lunch, and €40 for dinner. Those aren't bad prices in Euros but due to the poor exchange rate, it becomes a little more.
Back to our story...
After dinner, I got us lost for the first time on the trip (those who had Day 1 in the betting pool can collect their money now) as we walked in a giant circle to get to the gelato place we were looking for. I'll let everyone take a guess as to how many times I get us lost on the trip -- put your guesses in the comments :) We also learned that you have to watch your step, because apparently no one cleans up after their dog when they poop (this turned out to be true in every city we visited). I narrowly escaped a full on poo-foot
And with that we went back and got some sleep (and watched some TV -- there was always a plethora of dubbed 70's detective shows like Quincy and Columbo on. Tricia would like when I would "translate" what they were saying back to English) -- not the most exciting day, but we were starting to feel oriented to Florence and were ready for an exciting and awesome bike ride through Tuscany the next day.
First off, I'm proud of the fact that we were able to fit two weeks worth of clothes into our carry-on bags. I know for some people this doesn't sound like a big deal, but Tricia and I are particularly high maintenance when it comes to packing and we tend to plan for every contingency, thus leading to giant suitcases. Still, we fit all our clothes and toiletries in, I packed about 4 more books than I would ever read in two weeks, which led to the "backpack" part of my suitcase leading to it being way too big to fit into the overhead compartment. Oh well.
DAY 1 FLORENCE
After our flights (9 1/2 hours from Portland to Amsterdam, a 3-hour layover, and then 1 1/2 hours from Amsterdam to Florence) we knew we were going to take a city bus from the airport in Florence to where we were staying. The fact that we had little-to-no sleep and were very exhausted did make it difficult to figure out how to orient ourselves upon landing and we spent the first 20 minutes or so simply trying to figure out where it was that we were supposed to catch the bus. After asking at a tourist info kiosk, we were pointed in the right direction and were on our way.
Our experience with bus rides has never included bulky luggage, so that made this an interesting time -- the doors barely close and the driver is on his way...so if you are standing up then HOLD ON. The extremely narrow streets in all Italian cities also makes for some excitement while on the bus as you constantly look like you are about to sideswipe cars/bikes/pedestrians. We got used to this as the days went on.
We got to our hotel and it was great to find out that the manager was very nice -- he helped us with our bags, made a phone call for us to confirm our cycling excursion the next day, and went over a map of Florence with us with some suggestions (which came in handy later).
Now, having not slept since Portland, we were extremely tired, yet determined to get on Italy-time by not falling asleep until 9 PM or so. We went to Santa Maria Novella, one of the churches, around 1:30 and were so tired that every time we sat down in a pew to observe we almost fell asleep (I'm pretty sure that I did at one point). It was a cool looking church though (and a beautiful day out)
Honestly, writing about this now I barely remember what happened this day! Pretty much we were zombies roaming the streets of Italy (which I find to be a cool tie-in to Italian horror movies). We went back to the hotel just to take a shower, since the airplane grime on our faces was starting to sprout growths. Here's the proof
We went out to eat some food and as we wondered about, we stumbled upon a free organ concert at Santa Maria Ricci, just down the street from our hotel and listened to some Bach. We found a cool place called Il Fratellini where we had great fresh sandwiches and wine for only €8.50 total.
Now, when I say "found" it's not like we happened upon it. For those that know us it should be NO surprise that we copiously research all of the restaurants we would want to eat at so that we don't have too many surprises. This generally helps us to stay away from too many bad meals. Of course, there are times when we don't have a choice but to just eat somewhere, but our work prior to the vacation usually pays off in that we eat some fairly good food at mostly non-touristy places and at reasonable prices.
I'll take this time to make a side note -- eating is quite different in Italy than it is anywhere in the States. Generally speaking, breakfast is not much more than a croissant, a yogurt, and a cappuccino. Italians tend to sit down and eat a big lunch, often lasting up to two hours. However, we usually went the quick and cheap route, eating a panini or pizza to-go (sitting down usually costs you extra, so you'll want to either stand at the bar and eat it or take it to-go). As for dinner, the menus are arranged by course -- antipasti (starter/appetizer/salad), primi (first course, which is a pasta dish), secondi (second course, which is a meat dish), contorno (side dish), and dulci (dessert). In the old days, apparently, you were expected to order one thing of each course. How anyone could eat that much food is beyond me, as typically the pasta dish alone and a shared antipasti was enough to fill us up. Fortunately you don't get any "ugly American" looks if you choose to just get one course and split an appetizer and dessert and we even noticed that most Italians did the same.
Which is the other thing I bring up -- the cost of the food. We found out that eating a whole meal for €8.50 is hard to do, especially near the attractions that tourists frequent, so you simply have to be okay spending more. Still, we did pretty good, spending on average for two-people (and we are by no means big spenders), €8 for breakfast, €20 for lunch, and €40 for dinner. Those aren't bad prices in Euros but due to the poor exchange rate, it becomes a little more.
Back to our story...
After dinner, I got us lost for the first time on the trip (those who had Day 1 in the betting pool can collect their money now) as we walked in a giant circle to get to the gelato place we were looking for. I'll let everyone take a guess as to how many times I get us lost on the trip -- put your guesses in the comments :) We also learned that you have to watch your step, because apparently no one cleans up after their dog when they poop (this turned out to be true in every city we visited). I narrowly escaped a full on poo-foot
And with that we went back and got some sleep (and watched some TV -- there was always a plethora of dubbed 70's detective shows like Quincy and Columbo on. Tricia would like when I would "translate" what they were saying back to English) -- not the most exciting day, but we were starting to feel oriented to Florence and were ready for an exciting and awesome bike ride through Tuscany the next day.
4 comments:
My guess is that you lead the way in getting lost 5 times during the trip! My three favorite things from this post: poo foot, falling asleep in pews, and translating tv shows fromthe 70's! Hee hee! YOu guys are funny!
Poo-Foot is permanently in our lexicon now. I'm glad you're around to think we are funny :P Thanks for commenting :)
Troy, you are a terrific guy! Loved seeing the pictures of both of you and of reading this spectacular account here in Florence. You are one enviable guy. I love dthe report there on the food! Yes, there are different courses--Italians make eating part of their daily existence, but glad to read you partook. Ha, I'm not at all surprised you got lost! I'll say five times?!?
Sam -- yeah, by the end of the trip, the food was definitely the best part. We've missed it since we've been home and where we live, there aren't a lot of great Italian restaurants.
I'm fairly certain five times getting lost is a good guess. And this is just counting the times where I have us going in the complete opposite direction -- I'm likely in double-digits if you count every time I led us down the wrong street and then had us turn around 100 feet later.
And yet Tricia still lets me have the map :)
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