Blog entry July 12:
• Don’t hold up your index finger when you’re ordering
one of something in Italy or you’ll get two. Hold up
your thumb if you want one item.
• There are no salad or bread plates in restaurants.
• Bills are paid in a Post Office and stamps are bought
in a tobacco shop.
• Don’t ask for separate checks or doggie bags; it makes
us Americans look cheap.
• Breakfast here is more like lunch—rolls, cheese,
meats, fruit, yogurt
• In years past, rich people used to be buried under the
floor of churches. Often the bricks would separate, and
the smell would come through the floorboards. This is
where the term “stinking rich” comes from.
• The price marked on an item includes tax. Now why
can’t we do that in the States?
Blog entry July 15: In one hill town, Montepulciano, we stopped at a wonderful but small cheese and wine shop. They key word here is “small.” Kristin, of course, is very tall. Well, she bent over to examine some cheese, and her backside bumped into the biggest wine bottle she had ever seen. As she watched in horror, the bottle wobbled—and wobbled—and wobbled—and . . . . finally stopped! Lucky girl!
One of the best parts of traveling from city to city in Italy on a Rick Steves tour is stopping at interesting little hill towns. In Orvieto, I bought some wine which my family loved!
Legend has it that if you rub the boar’s nose, you will return to Florence!
The cheese shop was built over caves that have held wine since the 1300’s.
Andrew, Jennifer and Kristin shop for bargains in leather. All our suitcases were a little heavier when we left Florence! There were outdoor markets everywhere, but the largest, the Mercato Centrale, was very close to our hotel.
On Karin’s recommendation, some of us had dinner at Za Za’s. It’s hard to find a bad meal in Italy!
Blog entry July 12:
Karin, our tour guide, told us we should be bartering at the market in Florence, so Kristin offered to pay 1,50 Euros for a 2,50 Euro item. The shopkeeper told her to forget it. I think Karin might have had bigger ticket items—like leather jackets—in mind when she gave us that advice!
Blog entry July 11: I know I keep pointing out the highlights of the trip, but there really were so many! Seeing Michelangelo’s David in the Accademia Gallery was absolutely one of those “WOW!” moments for me. It was absolutely breath-taking! It took Michelangelo three years to complete it, and he was only 26 years old! Whenever he began a sculpture, he didn’t really have a plan. He started in the front and ended in the back. He said he was just freeing what was inside. Our guide asked us to decide whether the pose is before or after David threw the stone. When looking at him from the front, he seems to have a confident look on his face. When you look at his face from the side, his brow is furrowed, and he looks worried. I say it’s before.
This David reproduction is in the Pallazo Vecchio, where the original once stood.
The detail on the Baptistry doors was incredible.
Michelangelo’s tomb in the Basilica di Santa Croce pays homage to his work as a painter, sculptor and architect.
Florence is “the” city for art. We got but a small sample of it’s treasures. One could spend days here visiting the various museums and churches. It is an easy city to navigate on your own, and we did quite well with just our maps and a few instructions from Karin.
This is the Ponte Vecchio and the Arno River as seen from the Uffizi Gallery. We had a very informative tour by a museum guide, highlighting some of the museum’s masterpieces. Afterwards, the moms stayed to explore on own, while the girls headed for the outdoor markets and shops.
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