final thoughts

Some final thoughts and reflections on our trip to Italy.

We ate amazingly well throughout our trip - we usually enjoyed one restaurant meal per day and then the other meals were either at home, picking up a slice or sandwich, or replaced with gelato and pastry. It's so silly to say, but really, the pizza and pasta were truly amazing. But by the end, we were a little full of bread and pasta, and Steve and I were definitely finished with the daily gelato. It was good! But I can't eat like that regularly and am looking forward to more vegetables.

Given the amount of food we ate, it's probably good that we averaged 7 miles a day of walking during our two weeks in Italy (according to my inaccurate phone, anyway). My feet were certainly sore at the end of most days. Plus, we climbed so many hills and towers - all the Tuscan cities are on hills! - making even my legs tired. Our kids are such troopers.

Liesl has definitely gotten the taste for travel - we've sown the seeds of future wanderlust. She loved the castles and towers, loved seeing new things every day, loved the food in Italy. We talked (jested) about moving to Italy for six months, and she was all in for that, and for learning the language. And then we started dreaming about our next vacation, and where we would go and what we would see, and she was full of enthusiasm and ideas. She's also become a food snob, which tickles us immensely - talking about how the pizza, pasta, and ice cream in Portland just can't compare. 

We did not plan out much of our trip ahead of time. We picked our locations in March, but then didn't spend very much time after that deciding exactly which sights to see and when, and which restaurants or gelaterias were recommended, etc. But that just meant that we enjoyed a nightly ritual in Italy: Steve sat on his computer, researching and figuring out the next day’s itinerary, including food destinations, and I sat on my computer, culling the day’s photos and blogging about our adventures. I think he did an amazing job of finding us fabulous places to see, adventures to have, and food to eat. The swimming pool in the mountains near Bagni di Lucca stands out as a particularly amazing find.

I am so glad to be back in Portland, enjoying the clean air here - so many people in Italy still smoke cigarettes, and I was tired of walking through a cloud of it on the streets, of smelling it in some of our apartment buildings, of people puffing e-cigs in restaurants. What a dreadful scourge cigarettes are. 

Steve and I were so happy to walk into so many lovely old churches. He is particularly fond of the more simple ones, with less ornamentation and pomp. I love the feeling of being in a vaulted space, and looking up to see the ceilings. We had some good conversations about the amazing things that people can accomplish when they work together and are collectively committed to a project, and some sadness about the current state of infrastructure and collective action in the United States.

We were amused by the many tour groups in the most prominent sight-seeing areas, shuffling along as a pack, each person with their headphones on and thus collectively silent, looking like a zombie horde. The lack of chatter was the most distinctive thing - these huge groups, all silently listening to the voices in their heads.

We saw many dogs, but for the most part, they looked different than dogs here in Portland - different breeds, possibly, or the same breeds and yet somehow still different in appearance. Also, compared to Portland, many fewer big dogs, but that makes sense given size of dwellings and density of neighborhoods.

On a less happy note, there were a lot of mosquitoes in some areas - particularly Florence - and no screens on any of the windows in any apartment. So we got bit, especially Sebastian, which added an unfortunate itchy element to our first week.

At lunch on our final day, I asked everyone what their top 5 favorite experiences had been from our Italy trip. No one could limit themselves to only 5, which I think is a totally accurate summation of our amazing trip, so we decided on no limits - 

Sebastian's list:
Ferrari museum
high speed trains
climbing towers
seeing Sistine chapel
bike riding (family ride and Lucca ride)
gelato

Liesl's list:
family bike ride in Rome
swimming (both lake and pool)
climbing towers
looking at castles
the cats in Montepulciano
Lucca apartment and city
gelato

Stephen's list (making a guest appearance on the blog):
*Churches (never got tired of walking into them, loved how many there were, how different they were, how beautiful, old, grand...)
*driving through beautiful landscapes (around Montepulciano, the Alps, Emilia-Romagna)
*walking around hill towns (Montepulciano, Cortona, San Querico, Rocca D'Orcia, Barga)*Michelangelo piazza (first awe-inspiring experience of the architecture and beauty/grandeur of Florence)
*Meal at Bistro 3 Tavoli
*Cortona lunch, walk up to church, evening drive home to Montepulciano
*Montepulciano (the walks, alleys, views)
*San Querico, Rocca D'Orcia
*San Gimignano sandwich shop
*Biking in Lucca
*Barga: lunch, views
*Alps
*ease and comfort of train travel
*Rome - diversity, life (similarity to NYC), differences from NYC and Paris, Rosciolo, geography hall at the Vatican, Le Levain bakery, Trevi Fountain, Piazza Navona, dinner at home during thunderstorm, the walk I did alone (stopped in unknown but beautiful neighborhood church, Piazza Navona, Steelers bar, live music in each plaza, pedestrian bridge across the Tiber to/from Trastevere with live music and a bunch of people hanging out on a beautiful evening)
*Driving thru Emilia-Romagna
*lunch in Maranello
*gelato
*how much everyone enjoyed being in Italy and exploring

Brianna's list:
climbing towers
biking the wall in Lucca
exploring Montepulciano's side-streets and back-ways
driving in Tuscany, especially to Cortona
the geography room in Vatican City
jumping from the high diving board in Bagni di Lucca
the morning and evening light in Rome
Castel dell'Angelo
the lunch in Maranello

car museums, castle capers, and a decadent lunch

For our final day in Italy (sob), we left Bologna directly after breakfast and headed west toward Modena. We had a surprise in mind for Sebastian; visits to the Lamborghini and Ferrari museums. He loves the idea of driving, and fast cars, and Formula One racing (especially Sebastian Vettel), and he was so happy and thrilled when we pulled into the parking lots (both times, because we kept the Ferrari museum a secret until we arrived there as well).

The countryside of Emilia-Romagna was a pastoral wonder -- makes sense, given the region's reputation for outstanding cheese and meat -- and was delightful to drive through.

The Lamborghini museum was mostly a car showroom, with cars from the past to the present, and then a special exhibit on Lamborghinis in the movies. That was the best part, actually — seeing clips from a dozen movies in which their cars were featured, and then replicas of those cars. Sebastian has some new movies on his list of things to watch, including a campy old classic, Cannonball Run.

The Ferrari museum in Maranello was next, and that turned out to be even better - cars from different eras, trophies from Formula One racing winners. We took a lot of happy photos of Sebastian with all the various cars. It was good to see how enthralled Sebastian could be when given the opportunity to be in a museum tailored to his tastes, and we were happy to make his final vacation day so special.

 And then it was lunchtime, we were hoping for something especially delicious for our last meal. Steve found a well-reviewed restaurant right in Maranello and we walked into an amazing experience. The proprietor and his wife (making pasta in the kitchen) were so kind and cheery, so helpful and welcoming - we didn’t actually order from the menu, we just put ourselves in their hands and an unbelievable tasting menu arrived. We had pears, cheese, and walnuts, cabbage rolls, carpaccio, and a vegetable flan; we had ravioli with black truffles and a pasta roll with leek and sheep cheese; we had pork milanese and guinea fowl. The wine was divine. The children had a sausage ragu over pasta (amazing), and then some of the best prosciutto I’ve ever tasted, wrapped in puff pastry. We stayed for two hours, laughing and talking, playing hangman and making lists of our favorite experiences in Italy. It was a truly memorable meal to close out the vacation.

Steve and I could have used a nap, but instead we drove south toward our next destination, the castle of Rocchetta Mattei. We had seen photos of it online, a truly remarkable and whimsical folly from the 1800s created by someone with more money than sense. We walked in the door and started wandering around, admiring the crazy structure, the domes, the views, the ornate internal decorations. It was like six different kinds of castles in one, the creation of an owner who couldn’t decide on an architectural theme or era or geographical reference. After ten minutes or so, it became clear to us that everyone else in the castle was part of a tour group. And they were all Italian. We decided to try and avoid the tour groups and guides, half in seriousness, half in whimsy. The children were utterly thrilled to be sneaking around a castle with us - we were all whispering and creeping and listening for the sounds of groups coming toward us, and giggling of course. Sebastian insisted that I call it the castle caper in my blog post. We managed to see nearly everything, and take some lovely photos, before a castle employee caught up to us. We played dumb (bathroom?) and were ceremoniously escorted (threading our way through all the other tour groups!!) to the exit — visits are only allowed by pre-arranged, timed tour, and none of the employees spoke much English. We apologized and departed, and then giggled madly once we were free of the castle walls. So funny. So naughty.

After that, it was a gorgeous drive weaving around and over hills to Florence, to a boring Best Western near the airport. We found a playground for the kids to get out some energy; we found a grocery store to buy picnic supplies for dinner (bread, fruit, yogurt, carrots, nuts); we packed for the long plane ride home and our 4 am wake up call.

 At the airport, at 5 am, leaving Italy behind.

Bologna

On Saturday morning, we packed up and left Rome, taking our second high speed train north to Bologna. We arrived at midday and picked up a rental car, checked into our apartment, and prepared to go into the old city to eat lunch and see the sights. We were starving and Bologna is known as "fat city" for all of its wonderful pasta, meat, and cheese. But all of the historic Italian cities have ZTLs (zona trafico limitando) covering their central districts, areas where only residents can drive. We were prepared to walk the 25 minutes in, but when we opened the doors, there was a thunderstorm crackling overhead and rain pouring down. Clearly not weather to walk any distance in, and especially not with children who were still traumatized by the sprint home in Rome under lightning strikes. So since the buses were not convenient, we called a taxi (which took longer than expected to figure out - various apps did not work, etc etc., but we finally made it.)

We had a terrific pasta lunch of some local specialties - lasagna, tortellini in brodo, cheese tortelloni, and tagliatelle with ragu. And then we set off on foot to explore - the rain had stopped while we ate, and in any case Bologna's old buildings all have amazing porticos covering the entire length of the sidewalk. You can walk most of the main streets in the old city under uninterrupted cover, which we would find delightful in both blazing sun and rain. We loved peeking into the many food markets and specialty stores with fish, meat and cheese, truffles, mushrooms, olives, and of course freshly made pasta.

Bologna's main piazza is huge, with imposing buildings on every side and a Neptune fountain in the middle. The cathedral forms one side of the square and is enormous and unfinished - it was intended to be one of the largest in the world, but they ran out of either money or political will, or both, and it presents a strange appearance both inside and out.

Our next stop was St. Stephen's church, for obvious namesake reasons and because the church is not one building or structure but seven separate churches, separately constructed in an odd nested arrangement, on one site. You wander into one and then out and into another, each with its own name and purpose. But the real highlight for me of Bologna's old town was the beauty of the buildings -- their warm color, the ornately decorated covered walkways, the angles and curves of the entryways -- it was a photographer's dream. I had a lot of fun playing with angles and shots.

Of course, it wouldn't be an Avery/Raab city visit without a climb up a tower, and Bologna's ancient tower is very tall - 498 steps to the top. It was so steep and unrelenting, straight up inside on old wooden steps, but then we could enjoy beautiful views of the surrounding hills and the city. Sebastian loved seeing the road beneath us run off forever into the distance, in both directions. There is another tower, directly next to the one we went up, that leans, just like its more famous counterpart in Pisa. Having earned our reward, we walked to a gelateria (Steve had a list of ideas, of course), and then to a second gelateria. It was good to be on our feet exploring, admiring, running, playing in the early evening, watching the people come out to dine and drink wine at the many restaurants.

We saw many signs and edifices with Sebastian and Stephen, but Brianna and Liesl are always harder to come by. We decided this was as close as we were going to get.

A pink church for Liesl!

We returned to the main piazza, hoping to see the library (sadly, it had closed at 2 and wouldn't reopen until Monday) and check out the whispering wall - a place where if you stand in one corner and speak quietly, someone in the opposite corner can hear you. And finally, we admired the Neptune Fountain, about which I need say no more, as our photos speak for themselves.

And from there we walked home - it was dark by the time we arrived, dark enough to admire the rising full moon over the river - and tucked into bed. We hadn't been quite sure what to expect from Bologna, other than good food, but it did not disappoint.