Vacation Recap

Last week we embraced the Italian culture and celebrated the 15 of August, “Ferraugusto” by going on holiday. Ferroaugusto roughly translates to everybody-gets-the-hell-out-of-town-and-goes-on-vacation-for-at-least-three-weeks. Since we didn’t have three weeks to spare, we at least took advantage of Josh’s office being closed and left Rome for the week. Have I mentioned that everyone goes on vacation in August? Our neighborhood is officially a ghost town, even the creepy bald guy across the street hasn’t made an appearance on his balcony for a few days. Almost every shop has the happy little sign on the metal security door, “Chiuso per ferie”, closed for vacation.

After much consideration we made a last minute swap in plans and decided to head north for the week. Our original vacation destination was to drive to Capri and spend the week on a beach, until everyone gave us a heavy sigh and warned us about the traffic and the mad rush for the beaches during Ferraugusto. Neither heavy traffic nor throngs of Italian vacationers sounded all that pleasing, so we began to envision a cool escape to the mountains. Being from the mid-west, both Josh and I have a strange fascination with the Alps, as anyone who recently viewed our vacation photo album can see. My friend Kelly once said that traveling is bittersweet, once you have been out to see the world, you realize there is oh, so much more to see. You can become pseudo obsessed with all of the places that have yet to be visited, and with our determination to “make the most out of living in Europe” this is especially true. So as not to totally “waste” any precious tourist time, we decided on a hybrid vacation, a few relaxing days in the nature of the Alps, followed by a few days touring Venice.

GETTING THERE:
We found a nice little national park about an hour or so north of Venice at the start of the Italian alps that would be a perfect spot for a little a nature intake. The name of the town is Belluno, population 35,000, a village compared to the metropolises that we have become used to. Our first vacation adventure is, as always, the journey. To get to Belluno, we took a bus from the Rome train station to the secondary airport, where we found tickets on a European airline (think of a Euro Southwest Airlines, no assigned seats, etc etc) to Venice for around 5 euro per ticket, yes that is 5 euro, about 7 bucks. The taxes were significantly more than the tickets. We boarded the bus at 4:45am to catch our flight a little before 8. A short flight and we were in the secondary Venice airport by 9ish. Another bus into Venice and a short walk to the train station by 10. After a quick check of the local train schedule we caught a train to Belluno through Padua, about a 1 hour, 45 minute ride. We forgot to “validate” or train tickets in our rush to catch the connection in Padua and learned that this is a costly mistake, a 25 euro fine, ouch! I am told the trip was quite scenic, but I wouldn’t know, trains knock me out cold with all of their gentle swaying and subtle click, click, clicking. Other than that, a smooth arrival in Belluno, a little town with 4 tracks at the station. Our Bed and Breakfast was just outside of town, about a 15 minute walk from the station. Our hosts were great, they spoke little English, which was great, a perfect time to practice our Italian. The husband was chatty and our language barrier didn’t stop him from giving us an hour and a half introduction to Belluno and Italian culture in general!

BELLUNO:Our original vision was two quiet days in a sleepy mountain town surrounded by nature. We were in a sleepy mountain town, but the nature seemed to inspire more activity than we bargained for. After a wonderful opening dinner, Josh claims to have had the best piece of meat in his life so far, and I am not far behind in my praises of the ravioli, we spend the next two days climbing up and down mountains…literally. We spent the first morning walking around the charming little town and enjoying the charming little mountain people, enjoying the most the charming lack of tourists. That afternoon we took a bus to Nevegal, Belluno’s mountain (can a town OWN a mountain)? Mainly a ski resort in the winter, people summer there and enjoy the fresh air and wonderful views. We took the ski lift to the summit and hiked back down to the resort. A word of advice, hiking down a mountain seems like the easy way to go, but descending isn’t as easy as one might think, there is a reason that people literally SLIDE down the side of the mountain in the winter, it is steep! A great day nonetheless, exhausted and tired we made our way back to the B&B where our hosts were throwing a party, and of course insisted that we stay to chat for awhile and share in some grappa.

The next day was officially Ferraugusto, the 15th of August, a national holiday in Italy. Our plan was to take the bus to Marmolata, the highest peak in the area, but after arriving at the bus station, we discover that the local buses don’t run on this sacred holiday of relaxation… in fact, the town was closed up tight. Upon conferring with the local tourist office, which by some miracle was open for the hour in which we were there, we discovered that there was only one way out of town, the train, further, the train schedule that day only went to two places. So we picked one that had a lake and decided to see where our Ferraugusto fate took us. In the mountains, everything and everywhere was new and beautiful to us, it didn’t matter that much which direction down the tracks we went. We ended up in an even smaller little berg called Callazo. Very cute, an hour north of Belluno, north enough that we were pleasantly surprised to see signs pointing to Austria! Every building in town could have been a postcard of what you imagine a village in the Alps to look like, Chalets with boxes of flowers overflowing off of verandas. We found a map and decided to hike it up the local mountain. We checked out the enchanting town and then walked up the trail for almost 3 hours and maybe made it ¾ of the way up before we had to turn around to catch our train back to Belluno. It is impossible to accurately describe the true sights and sounds of an experience. The scent of fresh pine was amazing, I have always been a fan of the detergent Pinesol, and I see where they got their freshness inspiration (I know, a very bizarre thing to reflect upon surrounded by such glorious nature). For most of the way up we followed a mountain stream making its way towards the valley below. The coolness of the air around the stream was incredible; it literally gave off its own breeze, and the cold water! We simply dipped our bottles into the stream for fresh, pure mountain spring water, it was incredible! Exhausted, not well rested, but happy and full of fresh mountain air, we had a wonderful time in Belluno and regretted having to leave, but were excited to continue on to Venice.

VENICE:
We caught a direct train to Venice out of Belluno at 7:30AM, our hosts were gracious enough to prepare an early breakfast, including some of the best coffee that we had yet to experience, and which I am somewhat obsessed with trying to replicate. We were back in the Venice train station by 9am and hoped on a waterbus boat for a ride down the Grand Canal to our hotel. Italy is a tricky country to navigate. Well developed before the invention of cars, streets often lead to nowhere and seldom go in any sort of straight line or direct route. Venice is even trickier; streets simply dead in at a canal, and the only way out is to retrace your steps and find a bridge. So after a few detours, we found our way to our hotel, dumped off our baggage, and were off to see the city. Already exhausted from climbing mountains and 6AM wake up calls, we simply wandered about the first day, taking in the lay of the land and enjoying sitting in the Piazzas and people watching. A shock to our senses that had been dulled by our few days in the mountains, the pure masses of people were overwhelming. There were tourists everywhere! We met up with some friends for dinner and then took a nice twilight walking tour of Venice. I won’t bore you with the details of just how many Venetian churches we saw and toured, but the next day was filled with as much sightseeing as possible. San Marco, San Giorgio Maggiore, Il Redentore, San Margahrita, lots and lots of churches. For a break we intertwined religious architecture with art, touring both the Academia and Peggy Guggenheim’s personal collection. The Academia was amazing, but Peggy provided a nice respite with her modern pieces. I cannot believe that one person owned that much art, she had Picasso next to Klee, surrounded by Pollack, it was a dream! If I am to ever run into millions and millons of dollars, I just may decide to be an art collector. It seems almost selfish that one person could own so much, but so thrilling at the same time. After getting a pretty good feeling for the mainland in Venice, we decided to take a boat out to some of the islands in the Lagoon. We headed for Torcello, the first inhabited island in the area, the birthplace of Venice. It was lovely, but we arrived too late, and literally, the island was closed, locked up tight. The boat dropped us off and there was no one there and no churches to see, so we took the next ferry back to Borano, the next island over. I highly recommended, an old fishing village, all of the houses are painted in bright colors so that the fisherman could pick out their homes from out in the sea. It was nice to see a quieter part of Venice, a perfect way to end our day.Alas, we had a plane to catch the next morning, but first we had to catch the 4:50am water bus to catch the 6:30 autobus to take us to the airport to catch our flight. A side benefit: watching the sunrise over the Grand Canal. An amazing vacation, tired but happy, we returned home to Rome, which is a funny thought… to go HOME to Rome.

A Typical Day in Rome

I have been taking Italian classes for two weeks now, I can speak a bit and understand even more. Gestures are still a big help and always a welcome supplement though. Today was my last day of classes and Josh's last day of work before vacation!

I have a nice group of classmates who have been toiling away with me everyday for our four hour lessons. Pietro is a priest from Poland, Kerri is from New Zealand and works on a cruise ship, Iuba is a Russian student and Ann Marie is a fellow American, currently studying law in California. Sandeep was nice enough to take our picture, he is Indian, his parents live here in Rome, but he has been living in the US and went to school at Virgina Tech. A most interesting group of characters. Our teacher, Simona speaks only Italian, the class is "complete immersion" which on some days translates to complete cluelessness.

Class starts around 9:30 each morning. We work on grammar until a little after 11:00. We have a 20 minute break and on most days we enjoy a bit of sacred English speaking over coffee and continue the lessons with conversation practice from 11:20 to 13:30.

On most days after class I meet Josh for his hour lunch break at 13:30. We usually have a mini picnic in the Campo on the statue of Bruno, or in the shadow of the Piazza Farnese and every once in awhile wander over to the Pizza Navona or the Pantheon for a bit of people watching entertainment during our lunch. More often than not it is unbearably hot, so our first priority is to search for shade!

In true Italian style we usually have a panini (tacchino o prosciutto con formaggio) and some fresh fruit and then perhaps followed up with some type of frozen treat or a cafe freddo at the local bar. After this it is back to work for Josh and off to an afternoon of Roman adventures for me.

Poor Josh...

Mi Primo Correndare a Roma!

This week the evening wind shifted ever so slightly to include a wisp of fall in the air, just enough to tease the soul. Perhaps this is just wishful thinking, but the break in the heat was a welcome friend, imaginary or not. This type of weather is good for all sorts of things, my favorite being sleeping, but as, literally, a close runner up, going out for a job in the evening breeze seemed to be an appropriate thing to do. Up until now, I had been unmotivated, too tired and uncomfortably hot to think about going for a run. I also have seldom seen anyone out running around the city. Although the younger Italians seem quite svelte, I don't get the impression that they are a culture of physical activity. They are lucky they have such a genetic code. My American genetic code said that I was eating too much pasta and gelato and if I didn't want to expand my code further, I had better get out there and get my heart rate up.

Finding a place to run is trickier than I thought. First, I like to be amongst "my own kind" when I run. I much prefer to at least see other runners if I am out there sucking the air and turning three shades of red. Misery loves company perhaps. Second, the area isn't well suited for these types of expeditions. The cobblestones are a constant threat to the ankles and sidewalks are nonexistent on many of the tiny streets. The hordes of tourists will stop most unexpectedly to look at a map or a site. They seem to have the uncanny ability to wander not in a straight line, but in a zig-ing and zag-ing path that is undoubtedly always in your way. They also don’t travel in orderly groups, but in clumps, preferably three or four abreast to ensure that the sidewalk is completely blocked. The vehicle traffic… I will not even begin to describe the nightmare that is Roman traffic. Let me just generalize and say that the traffic laws here are always "optional" and are loosely, very loosely, interpreted by the locals.

Despite all of these setbacks, I scoped out a route while Josh and I were on a walk the night before that I thought might be acceptable for a run. I left our house and skirted around the Coliseum, where the sidewalks are fairly wide and steady, to get to the Circus Maximus. The Circus Maximus is just like it sounds, a big circle. It was the site of ancient chariot races (think "Ben Hur"). Now it is big open field with a few lanes of circular track, perfect for a run! For the spiritual running types, it was fun to think of the essence of the place as I made my way around the track. Hundreds and hundreds of years ago, Romans were racing chariots around this track! I am going to ask Josh to upload "Chariots of Fire" on my iPod to really get the full effect on my next trip there. I think it will supplement current my Neil Diamond and Kanye West mix nicely (hey, whatever motivates you).

Even more exciting to me than the historical significance was the presence of a familiar species of man, “the runner”. There weren't a ton of them, maybe only ten or so, but the site of fellow runners was very comforting to me as we all trotted our way around the dusty circle. They weren't American tourist runners either, I am sure they were part of the small group of bona fide Roman runners. The dark socks and spandex give them away every time. A guaranteed way to tell if a man is not American is by seeing him in any type of spandex apparel. I was running with real European runners! How exciting, and very euro chic I think.

All in all, a very good run. About a 30 minute trip door to door, so I will have to make another loop or two around the circle or expand my route to add in some mileage, or kilos as we Europeans say!

As for an official running status report for my likeminded pedi-friends (Christine, Jamie and Pa), I felt pretty good. It mostly was just nice to get out there again, a little soreness the next day in the ankles, a memento from the sidewalks, but nothing that would put me on the bench. I'll need to add in some distance, and there are plenty of hills to train on as well. Although, Pa, none of them are nearly like the Peter's township mountain!

Charlie was pretty tired afterwards...

Caffe

A quick entry today, but an important discovery. The two biggest ways in which I think I have changed since moving to Rome. One, I have what I would call a tan. All of the endless hiking back and forth across the city in the Mediterranean sun has at least one advantage (except, of course for the cancerous UV rays). I think it is quite a lustrous bronze, although the Italians still comment that I should frequent the beach more. Still, due to my Germanic roots, even a little tan is an exciting thing for this girl.

Second, I arrived in Rome three weeks ago, and started drinking coffee two weeks and six days ago. I am now hooked enough to long for the caffeinated beverage if I have not yet partaken in the habit for that day. In fact, every day during the break in my Italian lessons, I am almost drooling in anticipation of my coffee fix. I started out strong and went straight to the hard stuff, the "caffe" or espresso. I started with it because it is basically a shot and I could slug it down without bothering to taste it. I moved on to the two or three gulp, cafe freddo. This is basically cold coffee and sugar, very good for a hot afternoon. Today I had my first cappuccino, a regular cup of coffee, steamed milk and my own addition, three packs of sugar. I had been reacting to the coffee pretty well. I felt more awake and alert afterwards and generally liked the Italian tradition of ordering from the barista and sipping it at the bar. Today I experienced a different reaction; apparently the cappuccino packs a bit more of a powerful punch. I spent the rest of the mid-morning and early afternoon on "pins and needles", nervous, anxious and all around just not myself. Will this reaction lessen with time, experience and practice? There is only one way to find out! Perhaps someday I will figure out how to use the Italian coffee maker that was supplied with the apartment.

Sabato Solo

With plans thwarted for a day trip to Florence, today I had to fend for myself. Around lunchtime yesterday Josh was put on a different project at work that meant working most, if not all of the weekend. Although frustrating at first and disappointing, we both were looking forward to a little excursion, it is important to remember that Josh’s job is the reason that I live an hour and a half from Florence that would make a day trip possible in the first place. So, when life hands you lemons, you make lemonade. In Rome, life hands you grapes, so you make wine! Today, my glass of Chardonnay was a visit to one of Rome’s newest tourist attractions, the Museo dell’Ara Pacis. Or the Museum of the Peace Alter. Thanks to the book that my friend Jamie gave me before I left, I was anxious to see the Ara Pacis, constructed in 13BC! It is a giant shrine basically and on its walls are some of the best preserved friezes with actual images of August and Agrippa!! Very exciting characters to us Romans! The Alter itself is a site to see, but making the trip even more interesting is the new museum literally built around the ancient site. The museum is the first building to have been built in central Rome since the fall of fascism. It’s ultra-mondern design of glass and smooth, sleek white walls stick out like the sore thumb of an ancient Roman Gladiator next to all of the crumbling ruins of the rest of the neighborhood, including the alter itself inside.

I do believe the architecture folk would call this an interesting juxtaposition. If you still wouldn’t care to see this clash of time, to further entice one to visit, was the current exhibition housed inside, “Valentino in Roma: 25 Years of Fashion”. Hundreds of wonderful Valentino dresses are on display, along with sketches and notes from the design guru himself. All of this combined for quite a spectacle, you have a barn of modern architecture sheltering an ancient pagan alter, kept company by hundreds of gold painted manikins wearing haute couture from the 60’s and 70’s. Now, my academically enhanced friends, that is jux-ta-freaking-pos-i-tion to the third power, don’t you think?

Part of the exhibit included a collection of Valentino dresses worn by celebrities. It was fun to see in person the dress that Halle Berry won her academy award in, a cute little number that was once owned by Princess Di and my favorite, a beautiful white beaded gown worn by Miss Audrey Hepburn, the room was oozing with glamour! It was a dream of any little girl who ever played with a Barbie.

The alter was astonishing, you could peer right up and see the face of Augustus! I think I bit of the majesty of the alter is taken away by the building. The alter is pretty snug inside of its contemporary house, so you never get a chance to feel the vast space around the alter that was part of its original character.

The building, which I am told was quite controversial in Rome, is nice to see as well. Designed by one Richard Meier, whom I am sure we have a book on somewhere. I shall not provide any architectural critique so as not to offend my loyal archi-type readers!