Bonjour, Ciao

Tonight we had a reunion of the group that went to France and Italy. Well, not exactly a reunion of the whole group, but Char and her daughters, Jeri and myself, and Sheri, who is the mother of Ashley (who brought "Bongo," the stuffed monkey on the trip), all got together. (Pat was supposed to come too, but things got too complicated and she was unable to join us.) The occasion was that Jeri was in town and what better way to celebrate?

The day started with my taking Polly to the vet to see about starting her on Prozac, which she probably will do next week, in the hope of mellowing her out to allow her to actually make friends with a potential forever family. After hearing her story, the vet looked at me for a long time and said "YOU can't adopt her, huh?" A logical question, since she's lived here 9 months already. Jeri is convinced we should adopt her. I'm not convinced and I know Walt really isn't convinced.

Polly shook like a leaf all the way to the doctor, and fell asleep in my lap on the ride home. I'm hoping Prozac will help that a bit.

Anyway, I then got in the car and took off for the Bay Area. Jeri was at my mother's and I was meeting them for lunch. Except that I got stopped on the highway for a good 30 minutes due to an accident somewhere up ahead. I was an hour later than I wanted to be when I arrived, but we had a nice lunch, a nice visit, and then took pictures before we left.

Then Jeri and I took a leisurely drive over to Charlotte's house, which included meandering through the UC Berkeley campus and reminiscing about my memories of being there in the 60s. We avoided the always horrible back-up line of traffic going through the Caldecott tunnel by going over the mountain, which was also fun.

We got to Char's not horrendously early and sat around chatting until the others arrived. We had wine and clam dip and other hors d'oeuvres and it was just really nice seeing everybody again.

There were few of us so that we could all fit in one car.

We went to an Italian restaurant, Incontro, which had been reviewed by Check Please, Bay Area, and which lived up to the praise it received on that television show. The wait staff in particular was very friendly and one cheery waiter took a group photo for us.

The food was good (my gnocci with truffle oil was fabulous, if not exactly photogenic), we laughed a lot, shared memories and updates on current events. Just a wonderful, relaxing evening with good friends, after which Jeri and I drove back here to Davis.

All in all a very good day.

Crawling Back to Life

I think I'm going to live. My temperature got up to 101 yesterday and I spent almost the whole day in the recliner sleeping. When I felt OK, I'd come to the computer and start another batch of photos uploading to Flickr (fortunately it took so long to upload a batch that I could get in a nap while waiting!)

By Jeopardy time, I was starting to feel human again. I still didn't want any dinner, and I fell asleep during the show Ned suggested I watch (but taped it so can watch it later). At about 10 p.m., I woke up and knew that my fever had broken and I was going to live. (Well, that's a bit melodramatic--I never really thought I would die.)

Unfortunately by the time this happened, I'd been sleeping all day, so it's now 3 a.m. and I'm still here at the computer finishing up stuff.

All of the trip photos are now on Flickr. Several are also posted to Facebook.

What I want to do tomorrow is clean up all the entries I wrote on the road, adding extra details and including photos to make them read more interesting.

Then I'll tackle all the video I took. The videos won't be spectacular, but just slices of life that I happened to think to record at the time. (I know you can't WAIT to see the worm in my salad in Avignon!)

I still haven't had the chance to cook any of the Trofiette that we bought in St. Margherita Ligure in a mad dash to the grocer's on our way out of town. According to my on-line research, Trofiette is "a traditional, and one of the most popular, Ligurian pasta shapes."

Jeri had it with pesto in Portofino (while I had the fabulous pesto lasagna) and everybody decided they wanted to bring some home. Again, the internet tells me that it's "made using durum wheat semolina and water. This thin, tight twist shaped pasta has the appearance of being hand rolled and then “pinched” at each end. It is commonly served with basil pesto or walnut pesto since its twisted shape holds these sauces nicely."

I have some of the fabulous olive oil I bought in Siena that I want to use to make the pesto and I think I will be up to going to the store in the morning to buy some basil and then we can try it out. (Gee...maybe I can pick up a few chocolate croissants. I am really going into withdrawal here!)

The dogs are a little confused (and perhaps a bit annoyed) with me because I just am not where I'm supposed to be. At 3 a.m., I am supposed to be lying down on the couch in the living room with Sheila by my side and every time I get up from the computer to do anything, Sheila is right next to me, hoping I'll go into the living room so all can be right with her world. Lizzie doesn't understand this "always in the recliner" business and wants me to get up and interact with her RIGHT NOW, though she is very gentle as she steps on my stomach, experience having taught her that I do not react well to having her full weight on those pointy paws grinding into my fleshy abdomen!

Oh...apparently we had a celebrity on our flight back from Paris. Sully Sullenberger and his family were on the plane, our tour organizer reports. . Someone else on the trip said she saw him going to use the facilities and decided not to stop and talk to him.

Some final thoughts about the trip. I've been going back and looking at the web sites for all the hotels in which we stayed. Shortly before we left Jeri called to ask where all her money was going. The trip was about $6,000 each and now that we are home it's clear that a bunch of it went into upgraded hotels. The hotel in Paris that ripped me off on internet access is $226 per night; the hotel I loved and wanted to live in forever in Arles is $185 per night. The hotel in Nice that was OK, but nothing special was $155 a night.

Two person rooms in the hotel in St. Margherita Ligure list at $320 a night (and you have to pay to use a chair on the private beach and pay 5 euro an hour to use the internet).

Rates at Casafrassi, the lovely winery in Siena, were "from $203.91."

I think that pretty much explains where our $6,000 went. When you're paying those prices to a company that arranges the tour, it seems a bit petty to have to collect 5 euros a person for use of the Paris metro or not provide wine at the "upgraded dinners."

But this was a once in a lifetime adventure. I loved seeing the places I saw. I hated having no leisure time to explore and feeling overwhelmed all the time. It was great having a half hour lecture on what to look for in Notre Dame, but it would have been nice to have been given more than 15 minutes inside the church itself to see things up close and personal.

It was lovely seeing the buildings at Pisa, but we were shuttled in and out without ever having the opportunity to look inside any of the buildings, including the church where some lovely music was playing.

I've never been on an organized tour before and maybe that's the way things are. The "if it's Tuesday it must be Belgium" mentality. But I'd rather go to one place, stay in a cheaper hotel, and take my time exploring the area. I don't know that I ever want to go back to Paris again, but I wouldn't mind spending a week in the Avignon/Arles area and savoring all the places where Van Gogh painted ... in the springtime, when it's cooler!!!

But it's all a learning experience, right? I have great memories, made nice friends, and learned a lot about the history of France and Italy, some of which I even remember. But I probably wouldn't do it again, at least not this kind of tour.

Firenze

So. Florence. What can I say about Florence, one of the worst, if not "the" worst day of the trip for me. (How quickly I forget the first day in Paris!) Florence is a beautiful city -- I think (didn't have much chance to actually look). But I was just so uncomfortable all day that it colored everything.

The day started out innocently enough. We left the hotel around 8 and stopped near a Gold/Leather shop where Ian said he could get us a good discount on merchandise. Of course the discount came with demonstrations of everything, and an "impromptu" (put in quotes because I'm sure it was not "impromptu" at all!) fashion show using some of our group.

One saleswoman was quite insistent that she "even" had MY size (elephantine) in a beautiful leather coat and insisted I try it on. Just what you want in 80+ degree weather, to wear leather! Yes, it fit, but didn't look all that great and would "only" cost me 650 Euros after the discount. The saleswoman seemed highly incensed that I wouldn't go for that bargain and later in the day, when I went back to use the facilities (we had been told that was one of our "perks") she glared at me and made some nasty comment about how I had made it clear I hadn't liked her coat.

Most of us did buy something leather. I got Walt a wallet, for example. They offered free stamping with gold initials and when I asked Ian if we had time to do that, he said that of course we did.

Well, of course we didn't. Char had ordered tickets for the Accademia Gallery (where Michaelangelo's "David" is) that had to be picked up at 10:45. By the time we left the leather shop it was so late Ian had to sprint to Accademia. I am not a sprinter. Before we had gone 3 blocks, I was out of breath, had a pounding headache, and couldn't breathe. Jeri, bless her, got me a huge bottle of water and stayed with me while the others disappeared in the distance. We finally caught up with them just in time to enter the museum.

Accademia is a decidedly unassuming looking building!

While we were waiting to enter, Kate McGovern, one of the Morning Stories transcriptionists, who lives on the outskirts of Florence, was there to meet me. We hugged and she said she'd come back in about an hour after we were finished in the museum. We went off to see David. No photos allowed inside, but who hasn't seen "David"? It is truly an impressive sight--and I don't just mean the naughty bits. To capture that much living flesh in stone is amazing. What I found almost more impressive -- because everyone expects David to be impressive -- was that there was a showing of photos by Robert Mapplethorpe on "Perfection in Form." The statue of David was flanked on both sides by Mapplethorpe photos and some of the ones in the exhibit itself were amazing. The description reads, "Twenty years since the artist’s death, the Accademia Gallery celebrates his talent with an exhibition of 91 images, for the first time compared to the most emblematic Renaissance icons." I don't know why I was so moved by that.

Anyway, after we left Accademia, the others went off with Ian, who said he was going to be eating at a certain restaurant at 1 p.m. Kate had earlier said she knew the place and would get me there. While the others went on their way, I waited for Kate to arrive and we had a leisurely stroll to the Duomo and then through back streets to the restaurant. We made one stop at the church Orsanmichele, which had been a grainery in the 13th century and, after a fire, was rebuilt as a church in the 14th century. It's an oddly shaped building, but beautiful and, on this hot, hot day, nicely cool! (This was, for me, the best part of the day, having time to spend leisurely doing anything--and getting to know Kate was a delight.)

Kate and I got to the restaurant about 15 minutes early and I asked if any of our group had arrived. I was told they had not. We stood and waited and waited and eventually the staff let us sit at one of the outside tables.

We're sitting there and I glance at the door to the restaurant and out walk Char, Pat and a couple of others. Turned out they had decided to eat at noon instead of 1, so they were all finished, except Ian, who was finishing his dessert. I went in and was seated at a table all by myself (Kate had another appointment that afternoon). Ian came and sat with me for a few minutes while he finished his tiramisu but then went off and I finished my lunch alone.

Then I decided to visit Vivoli, which Ian had told us was the place where ice cream originated and that "a visit to Vivoli is to pay tribute to ice cream." Now how could I not pay tribute to ice cream! I managed to find the place by myself and enjoyed a lovely strawberry gelato.

As I was finishing, Char, Pat, Jenny and Shirley showed up and got their own gelatos and then we all decided to go to the Duomo. It wasn't that far, but we didn't know exactly how to get there, it was hot and I was grumpy. We finally made it but once again, i was a block behind the group, sweating like a stuck pig and making good use of the cloth napkin Jeri bought for me in Nice to wipe the sweat from my face!

The Duomo is beautiful--somehow smaller than I thought it would be. I wasn't as overwhelmed as I expected it to be, having seen it from the outside.

But it was cool and there were seats around the side, so I sat down to cool off. They had blocked off the altar section, so you couldn't stand directly under the huge dome, but could only get a taste of what it must look like.

Several of the younger set had paid money for the opportunity to climb up the ~400 steps to the dome itself, something Jeri had very much wanted to do and was glad to have done.

The others in my group decided to leave and head back to the church Santa Croce, where we were meeting Ian, but I chose to stay behind for a bit. Good decision. The crowds cleared out and I had a better view of the dome and then when I finally decided to go out into the heat again, I saw four beautiful letters: T A X I. I asked the driver how much it would cost to take me to Santa Croce and he said 5 Euros. I would have paid 10. It was a short ride and fun to be with a driver on those narrow, bending streets. And I made it to Santa Croce in comfort. Another high point of the day!

We picked up our purchases at the Leather dealer and Ian suggested we get a head start walking to the bus. It must have been a mile. Maybe half a mile, but after the day or running around the town in the heat,a it felt like two miles. I could see the group getting farther and farther away. The sweat was dripping down my face. My clothes were drenched. All I wanted was to go home back to my recliner and air conditioner and water cooler and never, ever travel again.

If I ever go back to Florence, I hope it's to spend a much more leisurely time there and actually get to SEE this beautiful city!

We had a picnic dinner this night and all turned in early, since we had to leave for the airport at 4 a.m. But I'll save that story for tomorrow.

What? No Croissants?

Now. Where were we when I was interrupted by that 2 week Bataan death march?

I slept last night. A good 8 hours and awoke refreshed but confused because there were no chocolate croissants in the kitchen waiting for me. I'm sure the dogs must have stolen them.

I've spent today (until I went to the airport to pick up Walt, returning from Santa Barbara) working on photos. It takes a LONG time to upload them to Flickr, even having discarded as many as I've discarded. So as of this writing, I have only completed three sets of photos, but they are linked on the left.

Over the next several days, I am going to be going back through all the entries that I wrote on the trip and adding photos to them, and occasionally other details. Not that I expect anybody to go back and re-read everything, but this is my trip diary so I want to make it as complete as possible. I will let everyone know when I've done anything worth looking at.

When I was last writing about the trip itself, I was saying that I was going to stay home from the trip to San Gimignano and Siena and enjoy myself around the hotel. And I did! I took a 2 hour nap, then went down and swam in the wonderful pool, then relaxed by the pool, then picked up a book in the hotel library and read that until everyone came back from the trip. Char said that it was just as well I didn't come and that Ian had to practically drag her up to San Gimignano. But I'm kind of sorry I missed the Siena part of the day because that sounded like fun.

The group came back and got into the pool

After pool fun and enjoying the wine that David (the only man left in our group by now) brought, we got dressed for dinner and went to the hotel's restaurant for what was billed as a "wine tasting and Tuscan dinner."

The wine tasting was great. We had 3 of Cassasfrassi's Chantis and an olive oil tasting. Jeri and I both bought olive oil to bring home (she also brought home wine, but I didn't).

The dinner itself was held overlooking the amazing valley.

And then the dinner started. First there was the prosciutto and the bruschetta. Had I known how much food was to come, I wouldn't have enjoyed the prosciutto quite so much! Everything comes with bread, of course. In this region of Italy, they don't cook bread with salt because they feel it changes the flavor of the food, so you get the "salt" for your bread from the food with which you eat it.

Then came something we thought was going to be a pasta dish, but which was a kind of crepe with a cream sauce.

Next came a pasta with wild boar sauce.

And just when you thought you couldn't possibly eat another bite, they announced that they were ready to serve the main course!!!

This was pork ribs and guinea hen, some sort of beef dish, potatoes (and spinach).

But wait! There was dessert too!

Tiramisu, of course. And coffee. Over the evening (about 3 hours worth of eating), much wine was consumed by many people. I pretty much stuck to water most of the time. It was an absolutely fabulous dinner--but I wish I had had a menu beforehand so I could have paced myself better! (I told Ian I understood the concept of the "vomitorium" much better after that meal!)

It being our last big meal together, there was lots of fraternization and we so enjoyed getting lessons in Italian from our bus driver, Antonio, who was a real gem. Jeri really got into learning from Antonio and says her "fake Italian" is much better than her "fake French."

(Jeri, with Shirley and Antonio)

(I still haven't quite wrapped my mind around the fact that it's not "geLAto," but "JAYlato.")

The next day it was on to Firenze for the day but that should take its own entry, so I will write that tomorrow -- complete with photos!

My Vacation

Full day excursion to Siena and San Gimignano. Return to the villa for evening wine tasting and a Tuscan dinner.

I am actually writing this entry ahead of the end of the day and it will be my last "live" written entry. I will write about our day in Florence (tomorrow) after I get home.

In yesterday's entry I said that Casafrassi is a 4 star hotel. As you can see from the itinerary, today was scheduled to be a visit to another hilltop town and then wandering around Siena. I was so wiped out when I got back to the bus last night that I decided -- dammit -- Walt and I are not 4 star hotel people and when am I going to be able to enjoy a 4 star hotel again? So I have opted out of the trip today and am sticking around the hotel.

There was some problem with the internet connection at first, so the kind lady at the desk has given me TWO hours for the price of one. And when I finish here I am going to go upstairs (we are on the top floor...it is 30 steps up and down. There is an elevator but it never seems to be turned on), get a towel, and head for the pool. I enjoyed the pool in Margherita Ligure so much but had so little time to stay in it. This one is much larger and I might actually learn how to keep my body afloat again...it was all coming back to me when they shut down th last pool for the night!

This place is so far from everywhere that you can't pop down to the local market to get a gelato, but the dining room is open for lunch, so I will be able to eat something and will be nicely rested when the others get back from their travels. Jeri will take pictures! I'm always sure that Ian is delighted when I decide to skip something, though he has been nothing but supportive. But I'm sure I cramp his style.

Tomorrow we have the whole day free. We are going to wander around Florence. We have tickets for the Academia (where David is...though there are several versions of the statue around town--last night we took pictures of our group's "David" standing under the bronze David overlooking the city. Jeri helped him pose and I'll be glad to see how the pix look on a large screen). Anyway, our Academia tix are for 11 a.m. and my friend Kate McGovern, from the group that helped transcribe Tony Kahn's "Morning Stories" is going to meet us and we'll see where we go from there. There is so much to do and see in Firenze and I know we will barely scratch the surface.

And then it will be all over. We have to leave the hotel at 4:30 a.m. to get to the Florence Airport (named the Amerigo Vespucci airport) to catch our flight to Paris and from there home.

Char's husband is meeting us and will drive Pat and me home to Davis and Sacramento, respectively. "Home" is starting to sound like a nice word...but first there is "pool" to experience and the rare opportunity to be the kind of person who stays at a 4 Star hotel!

A Slice of Hot Pisa

Travel to Pisa to see the famed Leaning Tower, one of the buildings that make up the Campo dei Miracoli (entrances are not included). Continue to Florence, capital of Tuscany, for an upgraded dinner. Lay your head down for a night's rest at the villa in Siena.

Pisa is hot. Hot and humid. Hot and humid and full of West Africans trying to sell you "genuine" faux name brands of watches and purses or one of the 20 hats they have on their heads.

We checked out of our hotel in the morning and drove about 20 minutes to an auto rest stop where we had lunch at a buffet. Very confusing trying to figure out the system, but I'm sure it's quite logical when you know what you're doing.

Then on to Pisa, where Antonio parked the coach with the rest of the buses and we hopped aboard a special shuttle that took us to the road to the leaning tower and all the other buildings. Ian told us we were about to have an "around the corner moment," which it certainly was, rounding the corner and seeing the Baptistry, the church, and, of course, the famous leaning tower. What all the photos don't show you are the zillions of vendor stalls across from the Tower. It reminded me of our first trip to Windsor castle where the very first thing I saw was a Burger King (or my brother in law's experience climbing the Arc de Triomphe and seeing a McDonald's). No American fast foods, but just about everything else you can think of. And isn't Pisa just the very first place that comes to your mind when you think of buying African masks or pictures of Edridge Cleaver?

We walked up to the tower, a bit of a schlep, where Ian gave us the background. Apparently they had been monitoring the "lean" starting in about 1900 and discovered that the degree of tilt had been increasing, so they began righting it to the tilt of 1900 about 18 years ago and now it is stabilized. You can go up in it, but I didn't want to tempt fate!

Sadly, we didn't have time to go IN any building. I think Ian wanted to get the hell out of there. I was sad that there was glorious organ music coming from the church, and I never even got to peek inside. Char's favorite moment in Pisa was when she passed some students. She was wearing her Cal Berkeley visor and the students gave her a thumbs up and said "go bears!"

Back to the stop to wait for the shuttle, all the while brushing off the West African vendors like flies. Then back to the bus, which Antonio had wonderfully air conditioned, and then we were off to Siena.

Our arrival in Siena was greeted by torrential rain, lighting, and rolling thunder. The road to Casafrassi is narrow, dirt, and even in the best of conditions not wonderful for a huge bus. What's worse is that it goes on seemingly forEVer. But Antonio did a masterful job, even in spots where I was sure we were going to tip over the edge and roll down into the vinyards below.

Casafrassi is a 4 star hotel and it is magnificent. Not so much opulent but peaceful and just beautifully rustic. It is a working winery (so we will have a wine and olive oil tasting tonight...and the sign says we will also taste "salami, lard, ham and bacon." I can't wait to sink my teeth into some of that gourmet lard!)

There is a huge beautiful pool, and amenities such as back massage, full body massage or something called "lymph cleansing." I think I will pass on having my lymph nodes manipulated!

Jeri and I have one of the smaller rooms, but it has a gorgeous view overlooking the whole valley and a dove was sitting on the roof outside our window when we opened the shutters.

Jennifer, our tour organizer, had been feeling bad all day, so Ian and Antonio took her (by bus!) into Siena to find a doctor. Unfortunately this was the day of a huge festival in Siena, so the town was kind of full of people and vehicles, but they did manage to get her some medical attention and returned in time to get the rest of us in to Florence for dinner

This was an "upgraded dinner" (I think that just means that ACIS pays for it) in a little cafe not far from the piazza. Jeri was thrilled to be standing in the piazza that "Light in the Piazza" was written about (she played the run of the show in Boston). It's pretty impressive and the huge Duomo is apparently only a couple of blocks away but because of the way the buildings are laid out, we didn't see it from the piazza level.

However, there are lots and lots of statues around. More marble penises than you can believe. But, with Ian, time is always of the essence and once the history had been explained, we had to rush off to meet Antonio and the bus. I was sad because they are preparing an operatic performance for the piazza tonight and rehearsal was in progress and I would love to have spent at least 5 to 10 minutes listening to the guy who was singing, but no...time to move on. Since I am always the last in the group anyway, staying behind for a few minutes was not an option for me.

I have to admit that I am walking much better, but so is everyone else, so I am still the tail end of everywhere we go. Everyone is SO good to me, and so conscientious and patient (and if they are complaining about my inability to keep up, it is not within my earshot.)

When we boarded the bus again, Ian asked Antonio to stop at an overlook so we could take in the view. It is breathtaking. Breathtaking on two accounts...first just the beauty of it all, and secondly looking at the piazza and seeing where we had been and how far I had walked to get to the bus. I was damn proud of me! (Walt will appreciate that it was a real Mauldin moment!)

There was another hour back to the hotel, in the dark, which was even more scary, but Antonio was equal to the task. Our beds were so comfortable I was e even able to sleep almost all night without stabbing pains, though we are at the point of the trip where I am starting to long for the recliner at home, a glass of ice cold water, and a dog in my lap!

It's hard to believe we are nearing the end. This has been a really wonderful experience, which I suspect is going to seem even better in retrospect!!!

HOTEL

Villa Casafrassi
Casafrassi, 40
Tuscany

Converted Tuscan farmhouse surrounded by vineyards and woods, ten kilometres from Siena and 50 kilometres from Florence. We will be here 3 nights.

The Triathlete

"You did very well today, my dear," said Ian, as we were returning to our hotel this afternoon. I felt like I had just done a triathlon! I HAD done very well.

The day started with climbing aboard our bus and having Antonio drive us to Portovenere, kind of the door to the Cinque Terre area. "We'll get off here, ladies and gentleman," Ian said. (we only have one man left in our group, the others having headed off to Spain) He explained that the bus could not actually go into the town of Portovenere, so we would "have a little stroll" into town.

I was feeling pretty good. my knees were OK. My legs were getting used to Ian's "little strolls" and all was well until I saw the group make a turn and Ian told me "there are a few steps, I'm afraid." FEW steps? Jeri guestimated about 220 and Char thought it was closer to 250 to 300 steps. Fortunately all down, but STILL.

It took me awhile, but I DID make it all the way to the bottom and then we had to march half a mile or so to the center of town, where Char, Pat, Jeri and I stopped for beer and gelato (that's 3 beers and 1 gelato). Then back to the boat to take the sea tour of the five hamlets of the Cinque Terra.

This is absolutely gorgeous. The villages are Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso. We were taking the boat to Monterosso, where Antonio would pick us up in the bus. Many, many photos were taken. Each town clings to the cliffs and as you look up to the top it is amazing that anybody actually built "a" house there, much less a collection of houses...and that they grow crops on the terraced hillsides. We couldn't figure out how they GOT there.

Some of our group (including Jeri) got off in Vernazza and planned to hike to Monterosso, and we went on with the boat. (It turned out that because you had to pay to walk the trail and some thought it was too much, they ended up hiking and then catching the next boat)

In Monterosso we had a lovely lunch at a cafe overlooking the ocean, wandered around the town, had some gelato, got more money from that nice machine that just gives you whatever you ask it to, and then Ian suggested we "get a head start" walking to the bus, which was over half a mile away. NOBODY can say I didn't get my walking in today! And the best part was that I really felt ok, once I had made it down those damn stairs.

When we came back to the hotel, Char, Pat and I went to the rooftop pool and had a swim. I can't remember anything feeling so good in a long time. It was heavenly swimming around and looking out the side of the pool to check the activity on the beach below. Jeri and Char's girls had gone swimming on the beach.

When the swim was over, we cleaned up, met Ian in the lobby and took the city bus to nearby Portofino, where we had dinner. My favorite dinner of this trip so far, a simple lasagne with pesto. Fabulous. Pesto is the specialty of the region and lots of basil is grown here.

After we returned to the hotel, we sat around with Antonio, and later Ian, drinking and laughing. I'm not drinking much other than water this trip, so I didn't join in on the drinking, but really enjoyed the laughter and camaraderie.

Now it is time to pack up and head for Pisa tomorrow morning and Siena (and a new hotel) tomorrow night.

Oooo...as I am sitting here there is a lovely fireworks display outside the window. They say this is the anniversary of some battle..but Ian told us that this morning and what battle against whom has lng since disappeared from my memory banks. But the fireworks sure are pretty.

Oh, and BTW, if anybody has sent me mail on my DCN account, I won't see it until I return on the 5th. DCN mail is ridiculously slow on the internet and at these prices, nothing non earth shattering can wait another few days. If it is vitally important use basykes@gmail.com

Journaling in a Sauna

Morning departure for Italy. Drive to the Cinque Terre area. Dinner is not included today.

For once the itinerary is right. We left for Italy. We arrived in Italy. We are on our own. This is going to be a short entry for several reasons, not the least of which is the cost of internet time. The sauna-like conditions of this room are also a big factor.

We left Nice around 10 a.m. with our new driver, Antonio, who has photos of a priest, Pope John Paul XXIII and the infant of Prague by his head in the bus, but he looks not unlike a mafia hit man.

The drive was lovely over the Highway of Tunnels. Ian says there are "hundreds of them" and we certainly went through our share, passing past lots of terraced hills covered with greenhouses and gradually getting into more popuplated areas. The first thing I saw crossing a bridge into the Genoa area was an Ikea.

We are discovering that the vagueness of the information prior to departure about the Italy portion of our trip were because there dont seem to be any plans. We are in a gorgeous 4 star hotel about a mile from everything. When we arrived Ian said we were on our own and that he was going to go off and study what he could do with us tomorrow.

Jeri and I have a gorgeous room with a fabulous view, but no balcony. Char and Pat have not quite as gorgeous view (but almost) with a balcony that wraps around two sides and comes with a table and chairs.

There is a private beach covered with chairs which you pay extra to use. There is also a lovely pool on the roof with a pool boy so straight out of an Italian soap opera that Im afraid to go up there alone for fear he will be giggling at me behind those dark sunglasses.

We hiked 1/2 mile into town and found some pizza to eat (we arrived during the mid afternoon siesta time and almost everything in town was closed) and then the younger set plus Pat went on a hike while Char and I came back to the hotel.

I think this is my second time staying in a 4 star hote and I am even less impressed than I was in the first. It is assumed that because you can afford a 4 star hotel, you can afford to pay for just about everything. Jeri is of the youth hostel and farmers market set and I am perfecty fine with a comfortable bed close to something interesting. This expensive amenities stuff is for the birds.

However, that said, Cinque Terre is beautiful and maybe Ian will have learned enough about the area that he can give us more direction tonight and we will have a better plan for tomorrow.

HOTEL:

Hotel Regina Elena
Lungomare Milite Ignoto, 44
Santa Margherita Ligure, Italy
(2 nights)