August 31 travel update: We find out at the last minute we need negative tests to go to Italy. Many thanks to Dan Leahy for finding this out. I was able to text Mark and Chris what he had found so they could get tests (they were already at Ohare). Last second change by the Italian government. We have to use our travel kits to get the results. There was nothing close by we could get in on time. Kits were easy to use and we had the results with 15 minutes to spare of the limo showing up The funny part was no one at the airport or in italy ever asked to see them. I think the change was so recent not everyone was up on the new regs. Once at the airport we get on the plane no problem. Well except for the bomb sniffing dogs catching someone at the loading ramp. We leave 40 minutes late because they have to offload these idiots and their luggage from inside the plane. We spend sometime in the Swissport lounge before lifting off. Swiss Air again doesn’t impress me. The lie flat seats have very little foot room. Zurich Airport was easy to navigate which was a good thing. Arriving late gave us only 10 minutes to spare once we changed terminals and got to the next gate. Sadly our luggage did not get to the next plane. Once in Florence we waited and waited and the luggage never came. Lost and found was not a pleasant experience. 2 hour wait then the rental car shuttle bus left just as we got there. 20 minutes later the next bus shows up. 1 hour later we are still waiting to get our rental car. Very talkative Italian man at the counter just wouldn’t shutup. Once we get inside we have our car 10 minutes later. Now driving to the Leahy rental 1 hour away. Time is 3:30 pm.
Road contruction causes a short delay but we finally arrive at the house. So good to see Mark and Chris again.
Thursday Sept 1. The airline has found our luggage but we can’t pick it up until 6:00 pm. They will deliver but 24 hours later if you are lucky. We spent the day detoxing. Mark and I drove to Empoli to get his Sim cards clarified. Debbie and Chris went to the supermarket for more food.
We drove into Florence got lost at the airport once then on to the ristorante for pizza o spiggetti. Drove back to rental and by then it was close to 10pm.
Friday Sept 2. We have reservations for seeing the Uffizzi Gallery at 2:30 pm. We take the wrong road. The one to Pistoia. The one we were warned not to take. Very twisty, windy narrow, scary. Then get on the A11. 130 Kph then get to the tram station. We had trouble getting tickets but were helped out by a friendly Italian woman. The tram was fast. Total trave time about 1:00 hour from house to train station. Tram station was right next to Santa Maria Novella Train Station. Lunch at Trattoria Za Za. awesome! Walked around Florence a bit.
We met the tour guide right on time. There were just Deb and myself on the tour. She knew a lot but spoke 99% of the time to Debbie. She had ear units for us but was hard to hear. She had her mike clipped way down on her blouse and not closer to her mouth. The tour took about 2 hours. Getting out of the Uffizzi took a while. We kept hitting barriers and having to backtrack. The walk back to the tram station took about 10 minutes along the Arno river. Another 10 minutes and we are back at the parking lot. The ticket was in the car. I should have kept it with me because you have to validate it in the tram station before you leave. Another walk to and from the car. Just a note you have 30 minutes to leave the lot after validation or they charge you additionally. Traffic was heavy on the way home. Friday and rush hour. Mark and Chris had supper made for us. They are wonderful.
Saturday Sept 4th. Debbie and I take a walk in the Tuscan country. Very few people out. Mark and Chris are coming with us into Florence. Mark will drive. We will take the tram from Scandicci. After a few adventures on the road we are in the tram. Our tour to climb the Duomo is at 1:30 and we arrive in Florence at 12:30. Mark and Chris will shop while we are touring the Duomo. 463 steps up. A little trouble finding the place but we are there on time. Guido is our guide. We really like him. The audio is great, he actually uses the microphone. Below is a slideshow of the tour.
After the tour we wander a bit. We found leather alley and I buy a belt for 35 euros. Inadvertent bargaining. We get to Trattoria ZA ZA at 5:00 and get a bottle of the house red and I contact Mark and we wait for them. The food was good, Debbie still having to be careful about diary products. It is hard to trust how the food will be prepared. We have a picture taken see below
We get started back to the tram with an hour drive back to our house. It has been a late nite. In Larciano the police put up a barricade just for Mark to add to the drive home. We make it by 10:00 pm.
Sunday Sept 5th Debbie and I are up early for a walk. Pictures below.
Today we are going to do the Da Vinci Museum at 10:00 with a wine tasting at 1:00. No other plans so far.
The Da Vinci Museum was awesome. I may have to get a book to read. Sorry no pictures.
Next on to the winery. What can I say. Claudio was great. Lots of info on the tour. He was very patient with us especially me when I was practicing Italian. The wine and the meal were great. See pictures below.
Monday Sept 6. 7:00 am start to Cineque Terre. I had been planning this ever since Debbie and I saw the Rick Steves Video on it. Mark and Chris decide to join us. 1 hour and 25 minutes according to Google Maps. Real travel time was close to that. Parking under the station no problem. Mark and Chis purchased tickets at the park office. We already had ours. No one ever checked for a ticket. the train ride to Monterossa di Mare was short maybe 15 minutes. The clerk at the park office said we should go to
Vernazza and walk to Monterossa. About a 2 hour hike which agreed with my data. My resource for the hike was Gaia Maps. It was wrong on several counts. The trail was steep and hard to navigate on the way down, petered out to almost non-existent, and took considerably more than the 2 hours indicated. It was a steep climb and took closer to 4 hours (we stopped a lot). It was quite strenuous especially on the way down. The trail on the Gaia app was marked but in truth the trail on the way down was almost non-existent. We left the trail and had to go thru a vineyard. (private property) and climb two fences. I went back and checked the Gaia data. The hike on Gaia measures at 4.1 miles and they estimated 2mph walking speed. Our speed was 1.1mph. I will check other sources next time I plan a hike. The picture below is almost what Chris and Debbie looked like. Sadly I have no pictures.
We stopped and had wine in Monterossa. I had a compari and orange juice. The first taste almost shriveled my tongue up. The Cinque Terre wine was awesome but slighty salty. The waitress said it was because the vineyards were so close to the sea.
We did have some awesome views of our hike. See the gallery below
After the first drink in Monterossa di Mare we took the train to Vernazza where I got a sea food cone. Then on down the line to Manarola where we had dinner a Nessun Dorma (supposedly a 4 out of 5 star place). I had trouble with scanning the code to get a waiting in line number. Mark finally figured out just ask for one. The dinner did not impress me. We were in the sun and the food was just OK. Finally on the way home. Coming out of the garage google maps did not connect immediately. Got lost once. Finally on the way home. Arrived by 9:00 pm safely. Exhausted and filthy.
Tuesday Sept 7th Debbie and I opted not to do the Festa Di Rificolona today as we had planned orginally. Mark and Chris went into Florence to see the Festival. We chose instead just hangout, do shopping, chores, and then went up to the castle we could see from the house and take pictures. I cooked veggies and fish on the oven. Veggies were great, not so much the fish. (I have a lot to learn). the Castle was 500 feet above our house (see picture below).
Wednesday Sept 8. I booked the tours and bullet train tickets several months ago. When I had booked the train tickets I could not get seats together. Finally dawned on me. The train company was staggering the seats because of Covid. We took the tram into SMN no problem. Mark suggested an earlier departure which was a good idea. Grabbed the bullet train from Florence to Bologna. 193 MPH on the Ferricrossa 1000. 38 minutes on the train. After seating in the correct seats we moved to sit together. 2 hours and 45 minutes after we left the house we were in downtown Bologna (we didn’t have to find and pay for parking). Mark and I hiked up the tower. Debbie and Chris did not. Chris gave up her ticket to a fellow American who was getting ready to get Married in Tuscany. We found a place and had birra and caffe. Then we met Isodara our guide just where she said she would be. Spend the next 2 hours walking around being entertained. The whispering corners were interesting. One person would stand facing the corner and across the walkway in a diagonal the other person facing the corner could carry on a conversation and hear each other speak in whispers. The statue of Neptune was very interesting seen from a different angle
Seen at this angle (picture above) his hand is stretched out. Walk around a little further and it looks like something else is sticking out. It seems the sculptor and the Pope at that time were feuding and he did this to indicate his displeasure.
After more birra we caught the bullet train back to Florence. I met some women from Louisiana and their accent made me a little homesick. Once back in Florence a short walk back to Trattoria ZA ZA and we had a wonderful supper. Debbie had the chicken and rosemary potatoes. I had grilled Beef with truffle sauce. Of course we had another bottle of the house red. (vino rossa della casa). By the time we drove back to the unit it was 10:00pm.
Thursday Sept 9th. Lots to do today. Debbie and I first learned of this place 3 years ago and wanted to share it with Mark and Chris. We leave for Castello Di Verrazzano at 10:00 and arrive about 11:30. Mark drove even though I offered. The road was twisty, steep with wonderful views. Watching Mark use the stick shift on the steep road was like watching a man row a boat. The tour starts at noon. Our tour guide was the daughter of the owner. She is the bee keeper for the Castello. Very personable and gave us a very interesting tour. She kept making fun of herself for using that word.
After that we had a wonderful lunch. They had asked about allergies and I had told them about Debbie’s. They made an effort but It could have been better. She was able to taste several things though. The wine tasting to start the meal was presented by the daughter. Whenever I spoke Italian to her she would speak whole sentences in Italian to me and I would be lost very quickly. Oh well. We left the winery at 3:30. 3 1/2 hours for the tour and lunch. We had to get back into Florence for a covid test for our flight.
We barely made it with minutes to spare. Debbie’s sharp eyes found the short term parking and the covid test tent. There were two traffic jams on the way there that sucked time away. The test was quick but somebody didn’t know how to get out of the parking lot and spent too much time driving in circles. We did make it back home by 7:00 pm.
Sept 10 Friday. We lazed around the rental until about 10:30 then off to Lucca. This is a great little town. Old fortress walls from the 1600’s . You can walk completely around the town on top of the walls. They are about 30 yards wide with a bike and walking path. Bike rental is a big deal for tourists. There are great little shops to poke into also. The walls are not shaped like a rectangle but more like a trapazoid. About 1 mile north to south and 4 miles east to west. We had difficulity getting out of the parking lot. 1 ticket to get in. take that to the machine to pay. you get a reciept that means nothing, You still need the first ticket to get out.
Back to the rental and home by 2:45pm. I took a short nap then tried to checkin for the flight home. Very stressful. Several false starts because the website is tricky to navigate. Finally done but we have to fill out the Swiss locator form for each of us. Saved to the gmail account. Now that is done,. Ok Debbie and I are cooking for the Leahy’s on our last nite. I am grilling with charcoal, something I have not done in 30 years. Hamburgers, Italian sausage, and mixed veggies all on the grill. The burgers were just so so. Oh well. I gave my hat to Chris. See below. It was going to stay in Italy anyway.
Sept 11 Saturday, Up really early 4:30 am. We leave the rental at 6. Mark and Chris get up to see us off. I think Mark will go back to sleep. Several things of note about the trip back to the Airport.
1. The signs for rental car return are hard to see. We got lost 3 times.
2. The gas station declined all three of my cards. It took Debs but wanted the pin code which she did not have.
3. We got lost on the way to the car return again. 4. Once we were there the process to return the car was confusing so more time wasted. Total wasted time about 50 minutes. Now at airport typing this up. Checked in behind an old American woman who had too much luggage but made up for it by having no clue. Currently in the nice lounge with free food, charging stations, and comfy chairs. Time is 9:20. We will be here for a few minutes more then down to the gate. 1:25 minute layover in Zurich then on to Chicago.
