Definitely one of the best trips....ever!!!

Italy

Italy was another story all together after Malta. We absolutely loved Italy. Since we were spending the year in Europe, we didn’t want to go back to the states for Christmas because it is a great time to get away and travel. We told everyone that if they wanted to see us for the holidays they had to come to us…and we would all go somewhere. We found three takers, my dad, Tracey and Abby. Luckily for us they have friends, Lexi and Brad, who have a house in Umbria in Italy that we could stay in…for free. What a deal.

After Christmas, our plan was to meet them at the house in Umbria on the 28th. We booked a flight from Malta back to Rome on the 26th and then a flight out of Venice on January 5th. The rest we would figure out along the way.

Rome
We spent two nights in Rome. We wandered, we ate, we wandered, we ate. The highlights were a walking tour through all of the major sites from our hotel near the train station to the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel. Funny moment was turning a corner and stopping cold where I said, “wow, that sure is a pretty building” Erin of course shocked at my ignorance said “you mean the Pantheon” I guess I should know better. Dick, Erin’s dad, has talked a lot about the architecture and construction of the Pantheon and it lived up to all expectations. Amazing what they were able to do so long ago. The Sistine chapel was nothing short of spectacular as well. It was interesting to see the scale of the building and the paintings inside. I expected the famous paintings on the ceiling to be so much bigger and was surprised at how big the Resurrection painting was.

The next day we toured the Coliseum and the Roman Forum. Erin is dismayed that I don’t find history as “exciting” as she does. I think she sees it as a divorceable offense. It isn’t that I don’t find it interesting, it’s just that vivid images of past battles or culture don’t jump into my head. I find the architecture and engineering amazing, but that’s about it. It’s okay though because I’m dismayed that she doesn’t find cooking exciting. I guess we can help each other.

Umbria
We rented a car in Rome at the train station. The attendant drew a little map and said no problem to get to the highway. We just had to drive across the street and back a block or two to our hotel to get our bags. It took us 45 minutes. Rome is confusing to drive in.

Once on the road the trip to Niccone and Umbertide was beautiful and uneventful. The biggest issue we had was figuring out how to pronounce the towns. We finally all agreed on Ni CHON ay and Um BEAR ti day. Who knows if we’re right.

Regardless, the tiny town of Niccone, outside of the slightly larger town of Umbertide, was our destination. Both towns are about 3 hour drive north east of Rome above Lago Trasimeno (4th largest lake in Italy) in Umbria, east of Tuscany.

We were told it was a condo and had all kinds of images in our heads about what to expect. We didn’t expect a gorgeous stone building with three or four units at the top of a mountain overlooking a valley. Stone floors, wood beamed ceilings. WOW. It was truly a special place.

Day Trips
While in Umbria we explored the local area including a few day trips including Assisi, Gibbio and Multpulicano.

Assisi
Our first day trip was to Assisi where we visited the church of St. Francis. It was a beautiful town on a hillside with a breathtakingly amazing church with a few different levels all with amazing paintings. Of course the end of the day was satisfying Abby on another trip to a Gelateria…we all love ice cream after all. We told Abby it was a special treat for her, really it was a special treat for each of us.

Gubbio
Our next trip was to Gubbio. Gubbio was a small town which was known for two things. First was the amazing ceramics. We walked far and wide looking for something to bring home with us. We finally settled for a great platter that would we can’t wait to server Salmon on when we get home. The second was the world’s largest Christmas tree, which was actually lights all over the side of a mountain in the shape of a tree…really cool.

Montepulicano
Montepulicano can only be described as magical. Many of you may have heard of Montepuliano at the wine store. It is an area in Tuscany that is known for its fantastic wine. While the vino was fantastic, the town was even more amazing. It sits on a ridge between two valleys with breathtaking views on either side. We all meandered up the hillside through the town and were blown away by the views…and the wine. When we walked through the gate on the other side, we were all blown away by how magical and amazing it was. By far one of the best places in Europe, if not the world, that I’ve been to.

On the way home, on New Year’s Eve, we were on the search for what to have for dinner. As I was the resident chef, I had a chicken (plus pasta of course) in mind for dinner. I’ve never roasted a chicken before, so what a chance. If only I had a chicken. The only problem was that it was getting late. As we drove through town after town, we looked for a butcher, or a grocery store. Town after town we were disappointed by nothing being open. Finally, we found an open store. We quickly pulled in and I jumped out of the car. When I entered the cashier said, in broken English, you have one minute. I ran to the back and found the butcher, shutting down. There was nothing left in the display case so I asked for a pollo (chicken)..in as much Italian as I could muster. She nodded and proceeded to wrap up a cooked chicken. I shook my head and said no, but couldn’t figure out how to say not cooked. I tried squawking like a chicken and she got the point. She reached into the walk-in freezer and yanked out a raw chicken; head, feet and all still attached. I nodded profusely and she wrapped it up. Once we returned home we had a raucous time playing with the “dead chicken”. We took a hundred pictures chopping the head and neck off, laughing about the dead chicken. In the end we had a fantastic dinner of “dead chicken” since none of us had ever had a chicken so close to life. It was a blast.

Florence
The next day we packed up everything and began the caravan through the rest of Italy. After a long caravan drive we arrived in Florence. We checked into a hotel in the center of town…after an endless search for parking. We reconvened in the lobby for a day of exploration. It was amazing to see the copy of David, the Uffizi museum and the Ponte de Veccio. Unfortunately all the lines were too long for us to actually see any of the real art…such a disappointment. The next day we shopped and wandered more. Finally I was able to get Erin’s Christmas necklace as she found just the right store. Eventually Gar and I separated from the ardent shoppers (Erin, Tracey and Abby) for a couple hours of rest…and a trip to the Camper store for a couple of pairs of shoes…just what I needed, two pairs of Spanish shoes in the middle of Italy. As a Christmas present Erin and I gave the gift of an independent night of fun for Gar (dad) and Tracey in Florence, without Abby. After our requisite nap, Abby, Erin and I had Abby night. We had a blast walking through Florence after teaching Abby how to properly slurp spaghetti. Of course we ended with more gelato…unfortunately all of the horses (for the horse and buggy rides) were asleep…or gone.

Venice
The next day we got back in our cars and moved the caravan to Venice. Upon making it to Venice we decided to park our cars at the airport before going into town. We figured out that the quickest, yet most expensive, route into town was a water taxi. After piling in, we loved watching the breathtaking scenery of Venice unfold before us. It was amazing to see a town partially submerged in water; definitely one of my favorite places on earth. We checked into yet another magnificent hotel. We wandered, we got lost, we wandered, we got lost…it was great. I forgot to mention that we played Scrabble every night in the condo and became addicted to our nightly habit. When we got to Venice we remembered that we forgot to bring the scrabble board; so we had to find another. Eventually we found the Italian version…Scrabbeo. It was quite a bit different, as many of the letters were missing including Q, W, X, Y, J, and a couple other key letters. Nonetheless, we had a couple of ruthless Scrabbeo nights as Abby was mesmerized by Italian TV; who knows why.

The other highlight of the trip was our time in St. Mark’s square and St. Mark’s cathedral. We had an amazing time in the square feeding the pigeons and luring them onto our hands…and Abby and my heads. It was so much fun for the both of us.

The last night, Erin and I separated from the group for a last night of vacation dinner together. We had another fantastic dinner at a great waterside restaurant. The two highlights were a free bottle of wine after they accidentally poured a glass to the adjoining table, as well as an amazing salt baked sea bass. They showed us a whole fish baked under an inch of salt…something I had heard about, but never had. It was great and something I can’t wait to try to make.

The next day, Erin and I shopped all over town for something to bring back. We found an amazing mask that will surely grace our house when we return. It’s cool. Then we were off for the airport and our return to London. Another amazing trip in the books….absolutely fantastic!!!

Sorry for the long delay in posting, but it was a great trip and definitely marks one of my favorite trips.

Ted

Malta for Christmas

The big Christmas trip of 2006 took us to Malta. We spent about 5 days there between the 21st and 26th. While I had certainly heard of Malta before, I didn't know where it was or what there was to do there, but it fit our criteria of places to visit while we are here. Places we wouldn't be able to visit easily once we are back in Seattle. Malta is a tiny island south of Scicily in the Mediterranean. It is at the same latitude as Northern Africa. To get there we flew to Rome, for an eight hour layover, then on to Malta the next day. The weather in Malta was nice, about 60 degrees each day. Not hot, but certainly comfortable.

We stayed in a hotel in the city of St. Julians a small area on the outskirts of Valetta, the capitol. The entire island was small and could be crossed in 30 minutes or so. Malta is beautiful with lots of buildings and fortresses that date back to the 1300's. There were actually some ruins on the island that predate the pyramids in egypt by 1000 years. Wandering around, the architecture, was amazing and we did lots of wandering.

As for culture and the people, the island was interesting because the two languages are Malti, a derivation of Arabic and English. As a former english colony, everyone spoke english and there were lots of brits throughout the island. Disappointing, to say the least.

We have been avid fans of the Lonely Planet tour guide series and now have an impressive bookshelf full in London, but we were not in sync with the writer of the Malta/Goza version. The restaurant and hotel recommendations were generally not very good.

The benefit of staying in a largely English town though was that there was a good movie theater. As everyone knows, we love movies, so we hit the 16 screen multiplex pretty hard. I think we saw five movies in four days including: Holidays, Prestige, Deja Vu, Deck the Halls and Night at the Museum. We would have watched more, but the line on Christmas night was too long...for our third movie of the day.

The other highlight of the trip was walking through an old area of town and seeing a stage set-up in the middle of a square (really just a big intersection), where lots of kids dressed in Christmas costumes would get up and sing. Most would sing one Christmas song and one contemporary cheesy ballad. We enjoyed sitting at a table, drinking a couple of beers and getting in the Christmas spirit.

We also figured we should go to Christmas Eve Mass since we were in such a predominantly catholic country and we had passed so many beautiful churches. So we asked around and the hotel receptionist told us to go to a church a couple of blocks away because they would have a good "Christmas" mass, though it would be in Malti. We had dinner at another mediocre restaurant and made our way to the church. Of all the beautiful churches of Malta, we went to the 1963 version of ugly. It started out well with a live reenactment of the birth of Jesus that was quite festive so we had hope. Then once the sermon by the alter boy and girl was over, it all went downhill. Even though the service was in Malti, we remembered clearly why we don't go to mass. Oh well, we tried.

All in all, a disappointment, but better than sitting at home. Plus, I think we needed the disappointment and time to relax before heading to Italy for part two of the trip.

I hope everyone had a great holiday break.

Ted