Why Was I Thinking Of Gilligan Today?

First of all, it was a thirteen hour tour, not a three hour tour.  Secondly, despite their efforts to make the island feel like home, there was never a burger chain involved with Gilligan.  But I thought of him just the same.  It may have had something to do with the fact that our tour included travel between and among five "islands" of a sort, specifically, the Cinque. d' Terre.  Who would have thought Italy would even have a national park? It just sounds to American somehow. Cinque d' Terre is a collection of five fishing villages that typify such places as they existed for centuries along the Ligorian shore of the Mediterranean Sea.  Italy has created a tourist attraction that is beautiful and majestic.  Walking their streets and boating between them gave a splendid pair of perspectives.  One close-up and touching the stone streets the shops, the churches and the homes of its inhabitants.  The other offers a view of these villages perched on the sides of mountains, green with vegetation, even trees that seem to rise out of the sea.  Their vibrant colors add to the natural beauty of the place.  It was a joy.

However, it was a thirteen hour excursion.  And it included lots of walking and stair-climbing.  It was an ordeal in some respects.  Who can blame us for the moment of weakness that put us in a Burger King in Florence, Italy (not to be confused with Florence, Alabama, where Burger King visits are much more common).  On average, the eight of us probably averaged four years since our last visit to any Burger King.  Yet we took some TEMPORARY comfort there.  I say temporary, because after walking home, we data in our living room groaning about how our stomachs felt.  It all made.me wonder  if we might not have been better off on one of Gilligan's three hour tours, even with the risk those entailed.

A Bigger Get Me To The Church On Time--The Vatican Tour

Waiting at the Foot Locker store next to the Piazza of St. Peter's Basilica.  Domes, ceilings, walls covered in art.  Some in mosaics, even underfoot.  People, people, people. Shoulder-to-shoulder and cheek-to-cheek, literally. Popes entombed, one pope's corpse on display.  Twenty-five thousand people a day take the tour. Nine million people.  Lines snaking behind your guides as they dodge each other.  Ready to fall down at the finish.  But lunch revives us, and we resume the role of lost travelers trying to follow maps deliberately not made to scale.  Why would your hotel provide a map deliberately not made to scale?  Why to minimize the distance from.the hotel to the various major attractions to the casual eye.

We limp home--Ah, but dinner under the moonlight.  How many times have we done that?  The restaurant had a bit of sadness to it.  The hotel building attached to the restaurant but always a separate entity had failed just a year ago, and the empty building shielded the restaurant from our view on the side from which we approached.  But dinner err was excellent, and, as we stepped away from the building to look at an olive tree, and turned back toward the restaurant-we saw what this restaurant building had once been before the hulking hotel was added-a vine-covered inn bathed in the light of a full moon.

Touring and being lost have walked our legs off.  Next day we'll know the territory better--how bad can walking be when you know where you're going?

Am I Walkative Or Talkative?

Am I Walkative or Talkative?

Caught a cab to the Colisseum to start the day.  Walked up to the top of the plaza of the king,  celebrates the unification of Italy in 1861 .  Honoring Victor  Emanuel...after the fall of the Roman Empire, the first time Italy was re~unified was in 1861, folllowed by designation of a rebuilding Rome as its capital in 1871.  Decided to sit at a cafe across the street. waiting for our more  walkative lfriends who walked the Forum~including the Colisseum, Palatine Hill and the Pantheon.  When their stretched from.two hours to four, we opted for returning to the hotel to talk and relax with a wee bit of wine in lieu of studious pursuits.     Dinner at the hotel with several more bottles of wine for our thirsty walkers  was surprisingly good.  We all relaxed, enjoying our last night in Rome.


Jim B

Erupting From Rome

Erupting From Rome

Spending the day remembering Vesuvius And Pompeii is important. They built their city on lava, created their streets using old lava stones and forgot Vesuvius towered over them. They didn't know what a volcanic eruption was when it struck.

In a way it is similar to the way in which we regard the whole miracle that surrounds us here and now.  We take it for granted.

Another Fast Train To Firenze

Another Fast Train To Firenze

Another fast train back to Firenze, then a "couple of blocks" rolling our suitcases. Turned out to be the longest couple of blocks in recorded history. Arrived to a staircase of 20 steps. Once up there, we relaxed (which required a trip to the grocery for wine and cheese, etc.).  

Wandered the plazas nearby and found a cafe down an alley where we enjoyed a dinner with wine at a reasonable price. We made up for that with breakfast where we were charged $50 for coffee.  Thirty minutes later we found a small cafe with coffee for one Euro.  From there we managed to resolve never to eat breakfast at that place, and headed for home, on the way we decided to do laundry.

talk about fun.

Irascible Italian and The Two IQ Tests (New Add 10/15)

Irascible Italian and The Two IQ Tests

You might think one against eight might penetrate even the feeble~minded.  Picture this: a cab driver drives along a street filled with tourists on foot.  In the noise and distraction the tourists aren't getting out of the cab's way quickly enough to suit its driver.   Instead of tooting the horn and rolling forward smoothly, he guns his engine and then accelerates into the gap he does have.  Not unexpectedly, the tourists are at least startled, if not frightened.  One responded by slapping the fender of the cab as it rushes by.  The truly Italian driver slams on his brakes, jumps out of his cab and charges into the group of eight tourists he just tried to run over, thus failing two consecutive IQ tests.  What possessed him to confront us when he was outnumbered eight-no-one? Cooler heads prevailed and he drove off cursing, but....


P.S. The Irascible Italian passes a real-life IQ test on his third try--Central Florense is a small town.  Two days later, we called for a couple of cabs for early the next morning to take the eight of us somewhere.  Imagine my surprise when the first driver to pull up was the irascible Italian himself.  Faced with the choice of accepting a profitable fare or recalling the tantrum s of several days prior, he wisely chose to.pretend he did not remember it at all. Passed that IQ test.

Raised On Amtrak

Raised on Amtrak

Raised on  Amtrak and the CTA, I don't think I have ever ridden  the rails faster than fifty or sixty [miles per hour, not kilometers].   But no more.  The electric sign at each end of each car provides a stream of information about next stops, special offers, the time, the speed at which we were traveling, and this  statement "this train is on time."   

Little wonder they can stay on schedule, our speed ranged from two to three hundred kilometers per hour.  in terms of miles per, that's 124 to 186.  Easy to make up time when you can dial up an extra fifty or sixty miles an hour.  

Although we rode those rails apace, we spent all day making the trip,  A cab ride to the station was followed by a quick lunch, standing, of course.  All the seats were occupied by people who were not eating. There are really no seats at the station for those who have to wait, so people take whatever seats are available.  This might  explain the pay toilets, but it does not, however, the missing toilet seats inside,  Unless people are thinking, "hey, I paid one Euro..."  They may have something there.  Way back in the 1960's, there were pay toilets at O'Hare Airport in Chicago.  The devices that collected the payment were manufactured by a company named "Nik~O~Lok, and the price was...yes, a nickel.  To raise the price to one Euro. is 2600 percent increase.   

Where was I?  Oh, yeah, it took all day and we were still looking  for a good pasta meal.  Our hotel's desk personnel recommended a place nearby, but we are still looking.