Our Trip to Italy

Our last day is done and now all we have is travel. Travel was more exciting 19 days ago. On our first plane. Only 11 hours until we land again.

We started the day at the Capitoline Museum. Lots more 2000+ year old statues. They must be everywhere if you dig. This is one of the most famous pieces in this museum. Romulus and Remus nursing from the wolf. We also walked through the hall of inscriptions where they had ancient Roman writing translated. Greg's favorite was a tender "Here lies my beloved"... and ends with "if you are caught stealing this plaque you will be fined." My favorite was a list of vendors who were caught "sitting in seats without tickets" - a public notice to shop elsewhere, I guess. They also had a great view of the Roman Forum from the opposite direction. Then we walked to St. John Lateran - with only a little detour. It was quite beautiful.  Then we went to the Pantheon again. On the weekend they require tickets. So we went back today... so we could say we did. Now I have seen the final resting place of Raphael.  We came acro...

We just went to Mass in St. Peter's Basillica. It was incredible to celebrate in such an amazing setting with one of the most famous and beautiful alter decorations behind the priests. I counted 37 ordinary ministers. 7 were bishops, 1 was a cardinal, wow! Then we moved into St. Peter's square for the Papal Audience at 12. He came out and gave a brief homily about today's gospel. Then led some prayers of the faithful style prayers. We downloaded the Vatican App so we could hear a live translation into English.  See the open window behind us? That is the pope! We have tickets to the Borghese Gallery this afternoon. Until then we have a nice relaxing stretch to eat and relax and maybe walk a little.

It is Saturday.  We spent the morning at the Coloseum and the ancient sites around it. We walked all over the ancient forum.  We went through 2 different walking tours and we went all over the place. When we had finally looked at all the really old stuff we could stand, we walked to the most touristy part of Rome. We went to all the "must see" places including the Trevi Fountain and I threw the obligatory coin into the fountain. We walked the steps, we ate lunch, we went into several churches that I had read about in advance. It was all very nice. We had no time pressure and just enjoyed everything.  We decided to do the last Rome walking tour that we had... the Jewish Ghetto. So we walked to the starting point and did it. Then we came back to our airbnb to cool off before dinner again. Wow! Such a beautiful city.

Yesterday (Friday) we spent all morning in the various Vatican Museums. We started with a "before they open" guided tour. That took us through all the big stuff, including the Sistine Chapel and the Raphael Rooms where "School of Athens" is a fresco on the wall. We had breakfast inside the museum grounds and then went in search of the Raphael and di Vinci paintings they have. It took a while but we finally found the right place. As we are working our way through we can see one room blocked off, chairs set up inside and the occasional sound check coming over speakers. Can you guess what room is closed? Of course, the one with the Raphael's! But we could see the Transfiguration through the doorway. However, I realized in Vinci (the town) that there aren't that many di Vinci paintings and I had already been in museums to see most of them. I really wanted to see "St. Jerome in the Desert" - which would leave only 3 di Vinci pain...

We walked out of Lucca this morning to the train station. Here we are at the 400+ year old city wall. It is fun seeing the bike trail out the window that we were riding yesterday. We are taking a slower train route that follows along the coast of Italy. Hopefully we'll be able to see the sea out the window as we go. Rome is only a few hours away! We are in our airbnb in Rome! Here is the view out the window. We are off for a walk to Vatican City.

(Coast in Venice) We did the last day of our bike trip today. We rode from Lucca to Pisa, to the coast, to Pisa, to Lucca. It was our record for longest distance - 94k. I was tired by the end. It was the right day to wear ourselves out. Tomorrow we sit on a cushy train to take us to Rome. My legs can rest. We stopped at "the rock" where the people of Lucca watched the people of Pisa to see they were invading back in the 1200s. Greg was very naughty. Then on to Pisa for pictures and gelato. Then on to the coast with my sweet man. Then all the way back to Lucca. What an incredible trip! Venice feels like a long time ago. And we aren't done yet! 4 days in Rome coming up!

The ride was great. We stopped at this shop with chairs that say "gelato" on them. But they had no gelato! We enjoyed coffee for a quick break. Then we had an uphill climb to MonteCarlo. The view was amazing. We had tiny pizzas and a creme donut for lunch.Yum! And we found gelato. (Whew!) We rode on to an Italian Villa from the 1600s. It was very cool. We got the grand tour inside. The same family has owned it since it was built. Now they made the ground floor a museum and charge for tours. I'm sure that the upkeep on a place like this is a lot. Then we rode into Lucca. The last 2k were on the wall that was built in the 1600s. It is still in very good shape. Lucca doesn't draw that many tourists. So the city caters more to Italians and Greg's Italian work has come in very handy.

The ride today was beautiful. Everywhere you looked it was all countryside and distant views. I don't think we can do justice in a photo.  We walked to the Leonardo museum and then to his house. The house was kind of what you'd guess, the building remains, but nothing else. Still, We walked right where young Leonardo di Vinci walked. We walked back to the hotel to go on another "bonus" ride. We started out but it started raining and we decided we'd already biked enough. Dinner was great. They just kept bringing out more amazing food, including ravioli with boar meat. Then the group gave us a 25th anniversary gift... Michele had asked everyone to sign a card celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary (when Greg told me we were going to finally make the trip to Italy happen). They gave it to us with dessert, and our own personal candles.

We started the day early with a sunrise ride around Florence. Michele, one of our bike guides, gave us a tour. The city was still sleeping, the roads were empty. It was really nice. We road across the ponte vechio and up to Michaelangelo square. The climb wasn't hard enough so Michele let us back down and up a different steeper path. And then he didn't think we were tired enough so we took a third path down and up again. And we took these... The ride felt great. I hate missing a day on the bike, so it was perfect. We had breakfast at the hotel and then the group did a guided walking tour around the main district, Ponte vecchi, el dommo, Uffizi (outside), history etc. It was very good.  Then we had a guided tour of Accedemia- just us, not the biking group. It was very good. And then we did Rick Steves walking tour. And then our feet hurt so we came to soak them in the pool on top of our hotel. Wow, what a full 2 days. ...

So far we have been dashing everywhere. After the museum we dashed to Santa Maria del Fiore for Mass. The internet said there was a 5PM. But the internet failed us. It wasn't until 6. So we found a table at a gelato shop and relaxed a little. Although our tour group was meeting at 6:30 for dinner... so more dashing planned. Here is the church closer "el domo " to locals. We read about it while we waited. The building was completed in 1380 but the interior dome painting wasn't finished until 1434. It is white, pink, and green marble on the outside. And crazy huge... 3rd largest church in the world.  Next we dashed off to meet our group again. We found the restaurant before the first food arrived. It was the best meal we have had in Italy. Everything was amazing. We started with deep fried zucchini stuffed with anchovies and mozzarella cheese. Oh my goodness that was good. Then soup that was phenomenal. Then chicken in raisin sauce... wow! So good. Then for ...

We got to our hotel at 2 and had tickets to Uffizi Museum at 3. We had just enough time to change clothes and fast walk to the museum. The ride in was crazy beautiful. We stopped in Fiesole for lunch.. We were ahead of the other bikers so we also went to the museum there. The view of Florence from this hill was incredible.  If you zoom in you can see the Doma down there. (We went to Mass there too.) Fiesole is another 2200 year old Town. We sat in this thousands year old amphitheater that has a modern stage and is currently in use. We finished the ride in to Florence, changed clothes, and dashed to Uffizi. It was pretty incredible. Lots of paintings by Botticelli, lots of amazing ones by other Renaissance artists. And a couple by Da Vinci, Michaelangelo, and Raphael.

We had our climb day and we survived. In fact, it wasn't bad at all. We were well prepared.  It is cold and wet today. It did rain but only while we were indoors for lunch. Not much to do in Ronta. We are excited for our day in Florence tomorrow though. We'll have to get some extra sleep here while we can.

Faenza is known for its ceramics. We got a little lesson in ceramic painting. It looks very hard. The results are amazing though. After we settled in we walked around town a little. Greg claims this was written for me. I didn't even know he brought spray paint on the trip. How romantic. And I don't read Italian so I can't be sure what this store sells. But if it is anything like what it looks like.... I'm not sure how they stay in business. And here we are with old stuff... Greg saw a flavor of gelato that he hadn't tried and couldn't translate... mystery gelato... so he ordered it. The gal dropped cherries into the hidden tub and stirred it around. Out came vanilla and fresh cherry gelato, it was the most delicious so far, and that is saying something! Still an hour until dinner. We may take a nap. (We didn't take a nap. We watched our racing teams have disappointing results without us.) Tomorrow we climb over the mountai...

We had our first rain this morning. It was just getting a bit cold when we arrived at "the farm" where the tour company started. We had a couple of good flat spots to test how fast we can go again. The first one had a head wind and we weren't warmed up well. We hit 42kph again, but couldn't get any more. The second time we had a tailwind and hit 48. Then I got scared of crashing again. Greg wants to try for 50kph. We will see. The government paid the farm to stop growing wine grapes. They had to tear out all the vines... except they could keep 50 for personal use. 50!  Now they grow fruit. Apples, peaches, plums. They gave us a lesson in homemade pasta. And a local history lesson that began with... in 203 BC Hannibal came over the alps and into this region. And we crossed the Old Roman Road that is now a paved major highway through Italy.

Here we are outside of the Basilica di San Vitale. It is about .7km from our hotel. The interior is decorated with mosaics, which is what Ravenna is famous for. Well, also it is where Dante died 700 years ago last week. We went and saw his resting place. Ok, do an internet search if you want a good picture, but this one has us! Ceiling  And alter. We went to a museum where they have a Christian burial marker from 200AD. So this was an early town to convert to Christianity.  Greg keeps eating pasta with seafood at nearly every meal. But it is so good here. I had rabbit for dinner. I've never seen it on a menu at home, so I thought I ought to try it. We also saw a movie being filmed. We looked for Chris Evans... but I guess it wasn't his movie. Got gelato! Here is the link for our bike rides again ridewithgps Tomorrow Faenza.

We drove back to the east coast of Italy this morning and walked around Comacchio. It was very pretty. We took pictures at the "three rivers bridge". Most of the buildings were from 1600 or more recent.  Although the town has existed since 600 BC. So the buildings are babies compared to the town.  Our bike is the red one. We left the bikes here with a guy watching them while we walked around. The city is on the coast, so they have to have a fresh fish market. It smelled... very fishy. Then we biked on to Ravenna!