Greece and Italy Recollections

 The trip home had a treat.  We got some unexpected refunds from our trip that was cancelled due to COVID.  I used some of the refund to upgrade to first class on the way home.  Besides the benefit of travel lounges, getting of the plane first puts us ahead of 200 other people going through customs, which allowed us to catch an earlier bus home.

In Greece, we rented a car to drive through Peloponnesus (unless you take a bus tour, there is really no other way to travel).  It’s beautiful.  We avoided the National Roads (like freeways, except there are tolls) and stuck with the backroads.  They can be a little intimidating, especially driving through towns.  Parking is a problem, everywhere.  Double parking is a way of life!  Having GPS was essential because roads were not well marked, and many of the road signs were so heavily “tagged” that they were illegible.  Greek food (especially lamb) was delicious and inexpensive, but there are unwritten rules about what to eat, when, that we never really got.  We learned that noon was time for coffee, and dinner was about 7:30 or 8:00, breakfast was pretty early.  Everything else, we just winged and suffered the huffs of the wait staff.

We did not rent a car in Italy, and probably never would.  Most towns and cities are restricted to residents only.  The trains go everywhere, but you need to figure out what train system you need to take.  Travel is on the honor system, except when it isn’t.  You can either buy tickets ahead of time and have them on your phone or get a paper ticket from a machine.  The paper tickets need to be punched by another machine before you board, but obviously you can’t have your phone punched.  It took us four nights to get from Peloponnesus to Cinque Terre:  a night in Patra, GR, a night on the ferry, a night in Bari, IT, and a night in La Spezia, IT.  Not sure what we could have done differently, but it was the only part of the trip that seemed to drag.

Pisa was not on our planned trip, but was fantastic.  We were really glad we went.  We took a wine tasting trip into the villages of Tuscany.  We went through little towns, they had a few hotels and a few eateries, it might have been fun to spend a night at one of them.   Especially since Cinque Terre and Florence (the two places that we stayed for about a week, each) were very crowded. 

Next trip is the Rideau Canal in Canada.

San Lorenzo Market - Florence, IT (Day 8 of 8)

 

Our final day in Italy.  We have a few rules here.  There must be at least one garden tour, one lemoncello spritz, and a Negroni. There has to be at least one meal of Tuscany beef, at least one gelato.  There must be a visit to the Mercato Centrale.  Besides that the day is pretty much free.  

Deb is concerned that we might have to throw food away, so we need to finish off the cheese, the wine, the Tuscan salami and the the potato chips.  It’s gonna be a full day!

Today there was a 24 hour train workers strike, but no worry it should all be over by tomorrow.  To add to the day, it is the first completely sunny day that we have had since we arrived with temperatures in the 80’s.  

Tomorrow we head home, let the adventures begin!

San Lorenzo Market - Florence, IT (Day 7 of 8)

With only two more days left in Italy, we decided to go on a little adventure to see the tower of Pisa.  It’s about an hour train ride from Florence to Pisa, but we are pretty comfortable taking the train to get around. The Florence train station is very busy with cars and busses everywhere, the sidewalks are narrow and crowded.  Yesterday, we found a network of tunnels (unmarked so the tourists don’t know about it) which goes right under all the commotion.

From the train station to the tower of Pisa is about a mile, but it’s flat.  We were awestruck by the tower, itself.  It sits next to a huge basilica and baptistery on a large green.  Everything is in marble and incredibly ornate.  We climbed the tower which was a weird experience.  From inside you can feel the lean of the tower because the steps and the walls slant even though it’s only 5 degrees, although you have no frame of reference.  But it’s standing away from the tower and viewing juxtaposed with the basilica that makes the trip worthwhile.  

From the tower we saw the walls of Pisa with people walking on the top.  Unbeknownst to us when we started up the stairs, the walk is actually nearly two miles long, with stairs at the beginning and at the end fairly near the train station. We were somewhat concerned that the ending stairs were closed, since we never met anyone coming the other way and there was no one else on the wall for the last mile or so.  But  yes, the stairs were open, we got off the wall, crossed the river, got to the train, and arrived safely back in Florence.

 So here’s a little known fact.  Tripadvisor tops out at 2,000 restaurants “near you!” The place just below our apartment, Trattoria de Guido is #557 out of 2,000+.

San Lorenzo Market - Florence, IT (Day 6 of 8)

 

Today we “live like Italians” (well sorta).  First agenda item in the morning is to buy pasta and pasta sauce for dinner, bread, salami and cheese for lunch.  A trip to the market with a little haggling and we have everything we need.  Next agenda item is to get rid of our accumulated trash.  The guy who checked us into the apartment, showed us where to dispose of the trash with a broad sweep of his hand, pointing somewhere to the southwest.  Needing to be more specific, we scouted the area and found the trash receptacles in the Piazza della Unita Italia (where else could it be).  Next on the “live like an Italian” agenda is to find a caffeteria for an Italian cup of coffee (latte, cappuccino, etc).  Then a light lunch, siesta, another walk, and then to find an osteria (tavern) for an aperitif before dinner.

All we needed to do for dinner was heat the sauce and cook the pasta.  The apartment was well stocked with pots and pans, but we couldn’t get the stove to work.  After much head scratching, we realized that we had an induction stove and a kitchen full of aluminum pots and pans.  Back in the corner, we found two unused hot pink pots (apparently made of steel, because they worked!). The “revenge tourist” in me stuck the pots all the way in the back again…snicker, snicker!  The dinner, once cooked, was molto buono!

For tomorrow, our second to last day, we plan to see the tower of Pisa.

San Lorenzo Market - Florence, IT (Day 5 of 8)

 

We have tickets to the Boboli Garden behind the Pitti Palace. The garden was started in 1549 and was the inspiration for future European gardens.  

Yesterday, we went to our favorite place for lunch, the Mercato Centrale.  This was probably our fourth or fifth time there, but this time the first floor was open.  The second floor has food vendor, while first floor is more like a farmers market with produce, meat, raw pasta, and cheese  So, this morning we headed over to buy some fruit and cheese.  The fruit was easy to buy, but how do you say a quarter pound in metric?  Google calculator to the rescue, it’s about .15 kg.

Although we had been to the garden’s before, we had more time to see other parts of the garden this time.  Our favorite was the “Fountain of Little Snouts.”  A series of 16 little waterfalls on the top of a low wall with each little waterfall coming out of the mouth of a different character.  

Allium and dusty Miller

3 boys playing tag

Tomorrow our plan is to return to the Mercato, buy real Italian ingredients and cook dinner.

San Lorenzo Market - Florence, IT (Day 4 of 8)

 

Just another day in Florence.  All the street vendors store their carts in a warehouse just down the alley from us.  Every morning they roll their carts along the alley.  Not quite like hearing the birds singing, but close enough.

Today is our wine tour.  Although we are not “tour people,” a tour was probably the best way to see a little of the Tuscan hills and taste some Tuscan wines.  To minimize the risk of being seen as a tourist, we selected the “small group” tour, and selected the half day tour.

As it turned out, the tour was great, we learned about IGT  and “Docg” wines.  As a vineyard, you need to make IGT wines for five years, following all the rules, and then you can make “Doc” wines for ten years before you make “Docg” which is Chianti.  In other words, it’s very complicated, and you should be honored to be allowed to drink it.  We bought a few bottles along the way, with the promise that we would sip it slowly with a fine meal!  Just for the record, the vineyards we visited were Tenuta San Vito and Villa Ilangi.

The wine tour also offered a charcuterie which was either a meal or a snack depending on who you ask.  For dinner, we split 1/2 a chicken.

San Lorenzo Market - Florence, IT (Day 3 of 8)

Firenze Duomo

Sometimes it’s just the simple pleasures.  We packed 10 days of clothes, and carefully planned laundry stops.  Today we washed enough clothes to finish the trip, simple pleasures!

The last time we were here, we could not get into the Uffizi Gallery because the lines were too long.  COVID brought timed admission, so getting in is much easier.  The gallery was built in 1581, and was officially opened to the public in 1769.  It’s immense, with well over 100 rooms.  I sometimes wonder what aliens would think when they landed their spacecraft in places that we have been.  If they visited the Uffizi Gallery, they would have thought that we didn’t invent clothes until the 19th century!

Tomorrow, it’s a Chianti tour through Tuscany.  Originally, I was going to rent a car to see rural Tuscany, but seeing that things like driving on the right side of the road is merely a suggestion, I have decided against it.