Italy: A Small, Fun Tour Group

(... Mark is wondering what street to explore next....)

We are strangers in a land overseas.  I barely have the language (although people are patient and wonderful communicators, as I will have discussed in another post). Aside from the obvious landmarks, which are teeming with tourists---where do we stay?  Where are the best, out-of-the-way eateries?  How do we get from one wonderful destination to another?  In fact, where are the can't-miss but hidden destinations, given a limited amount of time?

A guided tour is a terrific way to be introduced to a new place.  But then, large groups are difficult to corral, and hard to keep together, with more potential for delay.  It is more difficult to get into smaller restaurants or shops.  A large group can't travel as quickly together, and members have less freedom to explore on their own.

Our little group, coordinated by a travel-tour agency called Outgoing Adventures, was a hearty six people, plus our leader. The group was all guys, men of about the same age, with similar interests and political leanings. 

Along with Mark and me, there were: a professional couple from Washington, D.C, Michael and Paul; a retired nurse from China now living in Vancouver, also named Michael; and a photographer and dog-lover from San Francisco named Steve.

We had varied backgrounds and personalities, and widely diverse travel experience and expertise.  Still, we shared many common interests in art and "beauty"--we were always on the lookout for the most aesthetically pleasing men: 

We shared our stories, often personal details about our lives, which bonded us. We got lost in small towns together, consoled a lost wallet together, and endured teasing together.

For 10 days we became a family, under the caring and hilarious guidance of our heroine and guide, Yvette.

Yvette was an astonishing storehouse of knowledge about European and North African history and current politics.  I learned everything from the state of the Italian economy and political turmoil, the role of Gadaffi investments in Italy, the sources for unrest in areas around her home country of Tunisia, the long-standing feuds between Italians and Turks, and the roadblocks for journalists in reporting of everyday life in Israel.  All of this she made part of a world-community, rather than isolating it to just Italy.

She effortlessly provided us with bits of information that enhanced our travel, and that were also easy to digest.  She facilitated our easy entree into our hotels, our restaurants, and our destinations (like the Vatican, the Volterra museum, and the Colosseum.)   She toiled behind the scenes to line up drivers, boats, trains and small vans for our cross-country treks.  She provided us with guides who gave us fascinating histories of the small towns, as well as a wealth of art appreciation.  She arranged for our last dinner to be a group cooking class in a country house in the Tuscan countryside. 

Yvette knew EVERYONE.

And she assisted us with things like using ATM's, tipping the hotel workers, and ordering authentic food.

Our dinners, after some wine (every night!) were laugh-fests, one more festive than the next.  We always had red and white wine from the region, which enhanced our giddiness and a natural wit that emerged from around our table.  I may have to devote an entire post to our dinner-table hilarity.  For example, who knew that a proper "drag" name should combine one's first pet with the name of your childhood street of residence?  (My name, Bonnie Robert, was cause for one of our most extended laughs.) 

And the food was always diverse, and we never had to go over our budgets.  Italian food, the authentic stuff, is a lot more than spaghetti and Ragu, and pizza loaded with mozzarella and sauce.  Ingredients are fresh daily from various markets.  Bruschette could come topped with mushrooms, or "lard" (like a bacon) as well as tomato.  A "first plate" usually meant a small portion of pasta with a variety of sauces.  A "second plate' was a simple entree, either a cut of meat or piece of fish.  Side dishes like fresh vegetables were ordered a la carte.  We were often too full for dessert...but indulged all the same.  We were on vacation, far from home.

I shall miss our traveling family.  We shared an experience many real families often do not. 

Rome: A City Of Contrasts, Contradictions...I Belonged There

The famous sculpture of Romulus and Remus, twin babies abandoned and then raised by a she-wolf.  Romulus grew up and conquered his brother, and founded Rome in the Palatine Hills. Another personal connection....I live and work near Palatine, Illinois.

(More original photographs to follow the essay below:)

Rome has reinvented herself over the centuries.

After only a day in Rome I was struck by its contradictions, its contrasts, the very old and legendary traditions next to modernity that is ignorant of history; opulent wealth next to horrible poverty; religious tradition and sexual heat. 

From my diary written one night in Rome, Friday July 22: 

"Ancient architecture and structures have been preserved, even as young graffiti artists deface them.  There is a typical Italian complacency about neatness and of the infrastructure. Italians are more concerned with relationships, and less so with the repair and efficiency of their buildings and public spaces.  Unlike Germany, whose people, while friendly, seem almost cold in comparison to the impetuous, generous Italians.

"I am a child of a German father and an Italian mother.  Seeing in myself the two very different world views that are my heritage gives me more layers of insight into my  lifelong interior struggles.  I am a study of opposites, just like Munich Airport vs. Rome Airport.  I love both countries.  The Italian way of life seems to be a better fit and will likely take over."

I tried to  capture in photographs this idea of the diversity of Rome, almost ad odds with herself at times:

Modern vehicles line up outside of a "modern" apartment/retail building, which connect to an impressive, ancient structure that is a remaining section of the original Roman baths. The ancient building now contains a restaurant and rooftop garden.

I was thrilled when I saw the word CINEMA across the street; when I ran over to see what was playing, I found to my disappointment that the "Cinema Moderno" had succumbed to hard times.

A tastefully ornate and gorgeously designed luxury hotel building takes a back seat to a McDonalds on the front stairs.

This sign reads, "SITTING ON THE STAIRS IS FORBIDDEN".  This fronts a Cathedral a block away from our hotel.

This sign in a square in Vatican City reads, in 4 languages, "PLEASE DO NOT WALK ON THE GRASS."

People seemed to respect the grass request better than the stairs request.

I noticed that there is almost no landscaping or grass along the busy streets and quiet narrow walkways of Rome. Maybe it was the scarcity of grass, or perhaps the feeling of a watchful godly eye inside the Vatican, that caused people to obey the second sign.  (Was God sleeping at the cathedral?)

While the crowds closely studied the Vatican's exquisite buildings, the buildings seemed to be closely studying the crowds.

Caffe Vaticano, just across the street from the Vatican's main gate.  Giving us this day our daily snack and coffee.

A pop-culture open-air market,  a carousel in the next plane of vision, with a stately office building in the background.  The layers of contrast are quite pleasing!

This was seen from a high plaza near the forum, looking onto the street below.  I regret not going into this shop.  I wonder who it was intended for?



Italia On-Location--Our Ports of Call (An Introduction)

Mark and I joined a small tour group to navigate the areas we would visit in Italy.  Here's a sneak preview of our destinations, about which more will be described in upcoming entries:

ROME. This was our first taste of Italy, a city of amazing energy, interesting faces, great wealth and poverty, antiquity and zeitgeist.  It is a city of contrasts.  It is a stunning city where history lives on in custom.  It is a city of religious devotion,  great beauty, and passionate people.

We stayed for the first three nights in a modest part of town, within walking distance of most attractions.  We would see the Vatican, the Forum, the Colosseum and the Pantheon;  walk the Spanish Steps, and be lured to world-class shopping on the same street where Valentino has his studio; and, as custom and tourism dictate, we would throw coins over our shoulders into the Trevi Fountain. 

Rome is a popular location for many films, especially "Roman Holiday", "Gladiator", "La Dolce Vita", "Eat Pray Love", "The Talented Mister Ripley", "Three Coins in the Fountain", "Angels and Demons", and "Ben-Hur".

SIENA and SAN GIMIGANNO. Peaceful and silent, achingly beautiful vistas of vineyards and mountains, dotted with stone farmhouses dating back centuries.  Medieval towns each with their Duomos and squares (in Sienna, the square is round!)  Hospitality unmatched anywhere, giving Italy its reputation for great wine and food.  We did a good deal of shopping in the small shops within the walled towns. 

"The English Patient","Under the Tuscan Sun", and "Tea With Mussolini" had scenes filmed  in these Tuscan locations.

VOLTERRA AND PISA.  Volterra's history is read in the 600 funerary urns depicting Etruscan customs and beliefs.  The walled city also contains a first-century-BC Amphitheater that has been well-preserved.  Pisa, of course, is home to the famous Leaning Tower--actually considered a minor structure in its day, but now is the most recognizable building in Italy.  It is surrounded by other buildings more significant for their art and history, many containing the original frescoes, some having been destroyed during WWII.

Althought the "New Moon" movie takes place in Volterra, it will be filmed in another medieval town called Montepulciano.

THE CINQUE TERRE.  Or, the "five lands", the Italian Riviera coastal towns of Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, Riomaggiore, and la Spezia.  From our window in Lerici, the view of the harbor was as colorful and romantic as you could wish it to be.  We took a boat trip along the coast, where we had an interesting encounter, and walked in some light rain along the cliffs of the "Lover's Walk".

I haven't uncovered any movies that have been filmed here; the cliffs and rocky terrain, and occasional landslides, would make it precarious going for a film crew. 

FLORENCE.  More crowded than I expected at first, Florence grew on me for the three days we were there. Once Mark and I were on our own, walking toward Syracuse University and cabbing it to Piazza Michelangelo for spectacular skyline views, the magic took hold.

The city tourism bureau ought to pay the makers of "A Room With A View" a generous fee for so charmingly promoting this Florence, a city I want to visit again some day.

Coming up: Our Group of Six (plus One); The People We met; A day-to-day diary.

Italia: A Fun Image As We Prepared to Leave Chicago

Sometimes, an image so perfectly describes a life event that it is pure serendipity.

Just before we left O'Hare Airport on July 20, this image appeared before me.  A blazing Chicago logo gave way to the word "Ciao!" just visible in the distance. (Click on the image for a larger picture.)

At that moment, I felt like I was in exactly the right place, at the perfect time. 

It was us:  Typically Chicago, and looking ahead to the Italian experience that welcomed us on the horizon...

Goodbye to Italy...Hello Reality

I am back home from a transforming ten days in Italy.

Just now I finished watching "Roman Holiday", with Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck having a breezy fling in Italy's Capital City...and sharing a tearful goodbye.  It perfectly captured the heartbreak of leaving a beautiful, historic country of many contrasts.

Today we shopped for the kinds of food we enjoyed regularly in places like Rome, Sienna, Volterre, the Cinque Terre, and Florence.  I made sandwiches from flat bread, tomato, arugula, fresh mozzarella, prosciutto, fresh basil, and olive oil.  I washed it down with "frizzante", or gently sparkling water....here, I could find only Pellegrino...but it was fine.

After being filled with awe at the incredible architecture of the Renaissance cathedrals, the ancient stone Forum and Colosseum, and one incredible painting after another, in a place where the doors of restaurants opening in back alleys can be adorned with images by Michelangelo, and where exquisite shops and restaurants pop up on dusty streets that look like back alleys, it hit me hard when we got back to Chicago's O'Hare airport.  In spite of the jingoistic attempts, by video, to portray the United States as the sentimental amusement park of the world, the first image travelers saw upon entering the customs area at O'hare were dingy bare walls, flat surfaces, and harsh lighting.  Welcome to Chicago.  Welcome to the U.S.

Along with the latest film reviews and current events, I will devote the month of August in this journal to sharing stories and original photos of our travels: The people we met; the local customs, from the hotels to the way food is served; the way history suddenly felt alive to me for the first time; the humor of our tour group; the unexpected delays and annoyances; the terrain as well as the layout of the streets, and the beauty and neglect of the buildings...and yes, even the dogs.