It's a dark & stormy night

We had the first of our insurance-mandated doctor visits today. We have to see both a doctor and a dentist before we can get insurance, and without insurance we can’t stay in the country. So the dentist appt was at 3:00, as a consequence we were both home by 4:30. Had an early dinner and have been sitting on the balcony with a glass of wine, watching the storm come in.

From our perch we could see the leading edge of the storm coming from the west, dark and swirling. It had been a very hot day today, 37 C*, and as the storm started it was very hot and the air dead still. We could see the rain to the south of us, and hear the thunder start up as it got closer. There were darker wisps of cloud below the main storm, much darker and looking like dragons tossed in the wind. Then the wind picked up and the rain started and the temperature dropped. I’m now sitting inside near the balcony as it’s pretty wet outside as the main part of the storm passes overhead. It’s raining hard. I’m enjoying this because it may be the last time I see this perspective because we found an apartment! Yay! It’s in the city, in the neighborhood of Alt Schwabing, a few short blocks to the English Garden and close to all the city stuff. We go tomorrow to sign the contract.

The apartment does not have everything we wished for, but location location location. It has a great kitchen, with a decent size oven and an American- style refrigerator. This is a BIG deal, in both senses of the word. (We’ve seen places where the oven was merely 15 inches wide, and the fridge is what we’d call a ‘dorm fridge’. I even saw one place listed on the rental site that had no oven at all!) And the apt. is beautifully decorated, has big bedrooms. Only one bathroom, so we’ll have to adjust to that. And very little storage. But as Logan just pointed out, it’s bigger than our first house was. It’s on the second floor, no lift, so my legs will really get a workout. Saves me joining a health club.

Wahoo! Thunder blasting and the light just went dark for a second. Maybe I should sign off. More later!

* Celsius *2 -10% + 32 = Fahrenheit degrees.

Post-storm P.S. - all our clothes did finally arrive, Logan got his car registered & got new plates yesterday. I think we may be ready to settle in, after we get back from Rochester (Aug 3rd - 9th). All we need now is the residence permit (turns out we need that to get cell phone service, or 'handy' as they call it here) and the insurances.

Summertime! Parties everywhere!

For the past week, Unterhaching has been having their Burgerfest. Unlike the other towns around here, which have a 1-day 'Sommerfest', they put up a tent, and the carnival came in and the festival was on for a week, with a different band every night. A ‘tent’ here is like an Octoberfest tent. It has joists & metal supports, a wooden floor, a kitchen and several food vending counters, and a stage for the band. The tables are picnic style with benches, each table seats 8. There were 10 tables deep by 10 or 12 tables wide in this “tent”. The carnival stuff was mostly smaller rides for little kids, 3 shooting booths with the obligatory cheesy stuffed animal prizes, a cotton candy booth, an ice cream and chocolate covered strawberries, and a 38-meter high Ferris Wheel. These rides were the cleanest, shiniest and quietest that Logan or I had ever seen. Absolutely no qualms about going on one of these!

We had first gone to the fest on Tuesday, for dinner. The band was Cagy Strings, ‘rock & roll’, which started with Motown and the pop hits from the 50s & 60s, wandered briefly into AC/DC and Elvis, back out to ‘Rocking All Over The World’ and then, once again ‘Summer of 69’ (Bryan Adams, I think.) These older UK/American songs are extremely popular. There were some people ‘dancing on tables’, which is what they call standing on the bench of your table & bopping up & down in time to the music. Had 2 Mass bier (2 of the 1-liter gigundo mugs between us), and the most excellent rotisserie chicken. Yum, yum!

Speaking of that, like any good foodie, I have been looking for the foods that we like here. I have successfully found: molasses (key ingredient in the baked beans recipe I use); Hellman’s Mayo (Miracle Whip is much easier to find – bleech); Cranberry Juice (Logan likes it, Germans don’t); Peanut Butter (getting more popular here, can find it in most markets); and just today, Pepperoni (Germans don’t eat it, and apparently Italians don’t either. ‘Peperoni’ here means pepperoncini peppers.) We have eaten at excellent Italian and Indian restaurants and have a line on Chinese.

One thing that I have not found, however, is a good sandwich/sub shop. The Subway chain is here, which I may go to if desperate. But, bleech. So I have kept my eyes open for a sign of a good sandwich – the ones that are sold in most of the plentiful snack shops are OK, but they are all about the bread. A little roll (called ‘semmel’ here), buttered, with one slice of lettuce, one of tomato, one slice of ham or salami, and one slice of cheese. Not NY-deli style at all, nor even a proper Dagwood/sub/hero/or what ever you call it where you come from. I have also not seen anything in the delis except for salamis, and they have a zillion types, and ham, ditto. No roast beef, no pastrami.

So I thought I saw something very interesting at the festival on Tuesday night – a couple walked in with a long, paper-wrapped parcel, just about the size & shape of something yummy on a baguette, and sat down near us. (People who have been to one of these festivals are already laughing.) I watched as they unrolled it, preparing to mime ‘where did you get that?’ when it was revealed to be – a fish! Yup, a whole long fish. They put them on a stick & smoke them. They’re served up with little wooden mini-forks and people tease the meat off & eat it with the little forks. Needless to say, my disappointment was vast.

Capping off the festival last night was to be ‘grosses feuwerwerks’ – big fireworks – so we had to go for that. We also planned to get dinner there, and hang out until the fireworks. All the tables were pretty much full. We squeezed into a table, after asking ‘ist dis platz frei?’ and getting an affirmative. I ordered the chicken again, but it turned out the kitchen had just run out. Last night was the final night of the fest. So we had a medley of sausages instead. I was really jonesing for that chicken, though. The crowd turned rowdy early, by 7:30 there were several tables of people up dancing and bellowing along with the songs. The band was Manyana, and they played both English & German songs. The mix of tunes really surprises me. From Shania Twain, to Lynrd Skynrd, to Deep Purple (Smoke On The Water still gets radio airplay here!), with rock & roll oldies mixed in. Again, ‘Rocking All Over The World’ and then, once again ‘Summer of 69’. I think every band does them.

The waitresses were awesome. Mostly older women, I’d say in their late 50s to early 60s, in costume: dirndel and blouse, heavy skirt. Running up and down the aisles, carrying 6 to 9 Mass (how heavy is a liter of beer, anyway?) and running food too. I never saw them sweat, and they were always pleasant.

The fireworks were pretty good, they set them off over a cornfield. All in all, a pretty good party. And we needed it, too. The weather here has been cool & rainy for the past few weeks. Sure doesn’t feel like summer.

Ah, the bureaucracy

We have run up against the bureaucracy a couple times now. It’s not so much that there’s a lot of rules & regulations, it’s that each person in a process has a slightly different take on the rules and they could not care less about any other interpretation.

Logan shipped his sports car over here. To get it registered, he must take it to the TUV, so they can approve the car’s configuration or request changes. To do that, he needed temporary registration. To do that, he needed insurance. When he got the insurance card, he & a German acquaintance who used to work for the same company and is semi-retired, but still helps with insurances, together they went to get the temporary registration. Showed them the insurance card, OK, got a 5-day registration. Went to the TUV and got a list of minor things that need changed on the car, mostly all the light coverings. They need to be clear, instead of red or amber. So the next day, Logan took the car & the list to a local dealership. They had to order parts, and knew it would take a week to get them, so Logan made an appointment to bring the car back then. Meanwhile, the temporary registration ran out and he & Herr Kreefer went back to get another one. Got a different clerk this time, who took one look at the insurance card and said it was no good. What? But your colleague had no problem with it. “My colleague was wrong.” No amount of arguing shifted her. So Logan had to get new insurance cards, reschedule the appointment with the dealership, and keep the rental car for another couple weeks.

Then, on Tuesday, we took all our paperwork to the Landratsampt, to get our residency permits. We had registered at the local city hall in Unterhaching, had letters from Logan’s work, our passports and the application form all filled out. So, you go into a big waiting room, get a number, and wait until it’s displayed on a sign at one end. (A new number is accompanied by a chime like a doorbell, so you know to look up.) We waited for about 60 minutes, got called into the office, and scared the heck out of the clerk when we said our German was nicht gut, sprecken sie English? She said, in English, that her English isn’t very good. That’s OK, better than our German, we replied. So she started looking at our stuff. First thing is that I need to fill out one of these forms too, even though throughout the process until now, we had been assured that it was a family form & we only needed one. And then she asks, where’s Logan’s work permit? We had been told that, since he was working on a NATO project, he didn’t need one.

She needed to check with her boss, so out we went back to the waiting room, where I finished filling out my form. About 30 minutes goes by, and we get called in again. This time the first clerk’s boss is available, his English is very good. He asked us some questions about our forms, and it turned out that we hadn’t gotten some of the things right. For example, one date we thought was to be when we had visited Munich for our recon trip, but it was supposed to be the date we moved here. Since the move date was a couple months later, that made a big difference. (You’re supposed to get your residency permit within 90 days of moving here.) Then he said that Logan also needed a work permit, since he didn’t actually have a NATO badge. (Logan works for ESEA, and they’re contractors at NetMa, on the NATO projects.) We told him that none of the other people who work for ESEA in Munich had work permits. OK, he’s got to go consult with his boss.

Back we go out to the waiting room. Another 30 minutes or so pass. We get called back in around noon, and the final result is that they kept our application forms, gave Logan a form to be filled out & faxed to the department of work, so they can decide if he gets a work permit or not. The clerk said he thought it would be no problem to get the permit, but in the meanwhile Logan couldn’t work.

So that afternoon Logan went in to get someone at NetMa involved. (The overall organization that they work with is NetMa.) Someone there is taking the process and trying to sort it out, has already started calling into the Landratsampt and department of work on Logan’s behalf. We probably won’t hear anything until next week.

Other than that have had a low-key week so far, I went to an International Women’s Club new members coffee on Monday, and then stopped by an internet café in the city to clean out my auxiliary Yahoo email (too painful to deal with a month’s worth, on dial-up.)

Wednesday I drove the rental car to the BMW dealership and took Logan from there to work, then went on a big grocery shopping trip. Then I went into the city for an IWC lunch at a café, one of the activities is to try a new place every month.

I have been keeping touch with the family situation in Rochester, too. The folks are still at the assisted living facility, Dad now recovering from a fall he took last week when he & Andrea went to his house to get some things. (Halfway up the basement stairs, Dad thought he saw a light still on, turned around too fast, tripped and fell down onto the concrete floor. Split his scalp open. She called 911 and they carried him out on a back board. Luckily, no concussion or damage other than the split skin.)

I have been trying to help understand/organize the folks finances, too. Hard to do from here. I think the upcoming trip to Rochester will be a very busy one.

Having aging parents is not for sissies

So, Rochester and family. A couple months ago, people started talking Amos family reunion in August. The date got set for the 5th, I got my ticket for the 3rd – 9th.

Saturday, July 2, Dad went into the hospital with very high blood pressure. They did tests and a CAT scan seemed to show blood leaking in his brain. He’s been on Coumadin, a blood thinner, for heart condition for a few years now. Well, he stabilized pretty quickly. But, alone at home, Mom got extremely disoriented. I guess on Sunday morning she ended up calling brother Greg, who also lives in the Rochester area, asking “where are all the people who live here?” Greg scooped her up & took her to his house. She has as-yet-not-really-diagnosed failing memory symptoms.

Dad was in the hospital until Friday the 7th. Meanwhile, sister-in-law Andrea’s been working the phones. The hospital would not discharge Dad home, as he’s primary care for Mom. So, the veil of bluff and good show that the parents put up has finally been pierced, and this is a good thing. They were struggling along probably not realizing how much work taking care of the house has gotten to be, as it’s happened gradually. But they were also moving so slowly it was glacial in trying to find another place to live. Not asking for any help, of course. So Dad was discharged to an assisted living facility and with a walker which he’s now using. (From the bruises on his elbows & knees, he’s been falling down a lot.) Mom has been admitted too as her memory is much better when they’re together. This stay in the facility may just be temporary as Dad recovers. I’m not so secretly hoping that they will like the break from chores and climbing the stairs in their 3-level house (with the washing machine in the basement, notice I didn’t say dryer, they’re still hanging wet clothes on clotheslines) that they will either stay where they are, or get very serious & speedy about finding a place to their liking.

Meanwhile us kids are doing as much research as we can. Hopefully when we go back in August, we can make progress to getting them in a better place before the winter hits! Last winter, Dad was climbing a ladder to scoop the snow out of the gutters on the roof. “Want some help with that?” “Oh no, I’m fine.” “Pay someone to do that? “Oh, no, I can do it.”

And, this week Andrea has been going to Mom’s doctor visits with her. Due to lack of response from the previous doc, the folks switched to new doctors a couple months ago. Now the new docs are getting the full story, because the folks don’t like to talk about themselves and even if a shark was at that very moment biting their leg off they’d say “I’m fine” if asked how they are by the doctor. But with Andrea there to fill in the complete story, Mom is already off 3 meds that the new doc deemed not necessary. Plus, Mom’s blood pressure is very low. Funny, she’s been on high-blood pressure meds since she was in her 40s. She’s lost maybe 30 pounds over the last 3 years, but the previous doc never changed her medication. Maybe some of her memory problems are overmedication, we can only hope.

More as it evolves! Anyone with advice or who's been through this, I would love help. Email me!

Finishing in Florence

The last two days in Florence. Wednesday the 5th we woke up early. Sounds really bounces off the narrow streets lined with brick buildings, even with the air conditioner in our room working. (And hurray for that!) We ate breakfast and headed to the Duomo. Got in line at about 9:30 and were lucky to score a seat around the side of the cathedral, in the shade. It opened at 10, free admission. There are not many works of art inside this Duomo anymore, they have been moved to a nearby museum. (Florence has some 50+ museums). But it was interesting to be inside the big building, and look at the dome from inside. We only stayed inside for maybe 20 minutes, and then we decided to climb the dome. I made it up to the walkways that circle the dome – although I really wanted out by now, the stairs were narrow and the walkway barely a foot wide. The claustrophobia reared its head by then. I took a look at the climb up to the outside and decided I’d had enough. Worked my way around to the exit and was grateful when I got outside. Sara continued and got some lovely pictures from the top of the dome.

It was barely 11:30 by then so we dedicated the rest of the day to shopping. We browsed our way through the jewelry shops, looking at charms, and the leather shops near Santa Croce. Save room in your suitcase for something made out of leather! We had marked one glove shop near our hotel for a stop back later. In the window, they had, in cashmere lined leather: red, pink, dark pink, light yellow, dark yellow, terracotta, orange, light green, dark green, olive green, light blue, teal blue, navy blue, tan, dark brown, lavender, dark purple and grey. (They don’t bother putting the black on display). They had the same spectrum in unlined gloves with some piercing at the cuff that looked like lace, but was the leather of the glove. Then they had driving-style gloves with more of a mesh back, but all leather. Then they had heavy winder gloves in a spectrum of colors. The selection was mind-boggling! Good prices, too. The cashmere-lined ones were 35 Euro.

We saw shoes and bags and jackets galore. It was lunchtime, so we pulled into Trattoria Pallotino on the corner of Via Torta, and eventually ordered and got a good lunch. They were busy. We got a half-liter of wine but it took 15 minutes for the glasses to come. The food was good, when we finally got it. Time now for our after-lunch gelato, and we aimed at Vivoli, the most famous gelato place in Florence. Took a left out the door of the restaurant, (if only we’d taken a right) and using our map to guide us, set out for Via Isole della Stinche. We kept overshooting our turns, roads marked as main streets on the map looked like alleyways to us & we kept walking. Eventually we made a big circle, back to Via Torta, and I turned around & there was where we’d eaten lunch. And, right next door, was Vivoli! The gelato was great.

Refreshed, we settled into some serious shopping. Walked into one store and the sales guy took one look at Sara and said “I have the perfect jacket for you.” He was right. Beautiful light brown, short jacket that zips up the front. The leather is so soft. Well, it did go home with her. Further on she found the charms that she’d been looking for, and even a bracelet for one of them.

After this burst of energy, we headed back to the hotel to rest. After our nap, we wanted to get dinner, but first stopped in an internet café near the Uffizi (also very near our hotel.) So nice to use broadband, I cleaned the spam out of my inbox & caught up on the family situation in 30 minutes. Takes me hours in Germany on dial-up. We strolled past the Uffizi and found where we’d need to pick up our tickets the next day. The Uffizi sits at one end of Piazza Signoria, there’s a replica of David and many other large statues. We wandered around & looked at them, then decided to have dinner in a restaurant on the other side of the square.

After dinner we walked past our hotel in the other direction, overshot where I thought we were again, and came back by the river. We had our navigation down pretty good, throughout the trip one of us was right at all times and the other didn’t take too much persuading to change direction. I have learned that if I feel strongly that, based on the map, we go one direction, it’s usually the opposite direction we need to go. Sometimes I even remember that.

Thursday July 7th. After breakfast we walked back up half a block to the olive oil store we’d seen the night before. They had lovely oils and olive oil soaps & lotions. Then we went back to the glove store where Sara bought a pair of the cashmere-lined gloves. I was holding off making any major purchases to see what I need in Munich. Plus, all our clothes just showed up the Friday before I left – finally! – and I need to see what I’ve got again before I buy anything new.

We stopped back at the internet café for a quick email check, for me. The folks back in Rochester are not doing so well, more about that later. We had a light lunch at the café then headed to the Uffizi to get out tickets and browse the Renaissance. It is a great collection and well worth seeing. We were a bit tainted, however, by some of the sardonic commentary in the Birthday Boy movie (about the David). The lecturer, commenting on the maleness of the David and other works, says that ‘even the women are just men with breasts stuck on’ and shows a couple of pictures of sculpture that illustrate just that. And that’s what we kept seeing, in many of the paintings. We’re pretty sure, all issues of perspective aside, that the painters never really saw actual women. It got to be a bit funny.

We ended up spending over 3 hours in the Uffizi, which surprised both of us. We burned out on paintings of the Annunciation, Coronation of the Virgin and Adoration of the Christ Child by about room 25. So we started speeding past those.

Afterwards we went back to Carabe, and instead of gelato had Granita. It was wonderful. We then walked towards Santa Croce and found the leather school that shares quarters with the church. Beautiful, colorful, innovative products on display there. Sara was sure that, with all her shopping, she’d need to buy a new bag to take everything home in. She didn’t find anything that was quite right to fit her new jacket and her laptop, so we headed back to the hotel empty handed. Woke from our nap to the phone ringing, it was Logan calling to tell us what had happened in London that morning. He thought we might not have heard about it, and thought we might need extra time at the airport the next day.

We headed out for dinner, and ended up at Trattoria 13, on Via del Porcellana. It was a beautiful restaurant with an open courtyard in the back. We had a great dinner. The tip to the restaurant came from the Bon Appetite magazine that Sara lugged with her, along with Rick Steve’s Tuscany and Fodor’s Tuscany and the book about the Palio. I had borrowed Frommer’s Florence, Umbria & Tuscany from a friend, brought that with me. We decided that the Frommer’s is the best overall guide – it includes maps, hotels, dining, sights and shopping. Rick doesn’t shop, and Fodors doesn’t have maps. But it was nice having the others too. We’d read more about what we saw in the evening.

We walked back along the river and ended up back at the internet café, which has live jazz music. Sat there for almost an hour. It was nice to be out but jazz, yeech. Lots of solos with the tune and beat wandering around all over the place. Yeah, yeah, I display no soul. But I do like blues.

Friday morning we packed. It was another cool cloudy morning. Sara got everything back into the bags she had originally brought. We double-checked to make sure there was nothing being left behind, but it was a miracle. Got a taxi to the airport, and waited in a long, slow moving line. Finally got to the gate & the place was late coming in, and we sat on the runway for a while before heading out. But we finally got going around 2, getting to Munich at 3. Sara made her connection to get back home, and Logan picked me up at the airport. Yay, I didn’t really want to lug my stuff home on the train. Plus it was rather shockingly cooler in Munich. It must have been 28 in Florence, and the pilot announced it was 16 in Munich as we touched down through the rain clouds.

Again, it was a difficult re-entry to Germany. Italy is warm & welcoming, if inefficient. Germany, pretty much the opposite. Plus I caught a cold. But I’m doing better now and it has warmed up again here. Sitting on the balcony to write this report and we have a nice sunset going. This part I like!

Italy, Tuscany - what a great place to visit!

The trip to Italy was great. Caught a cold on the way back, however, and I have not been doing much of anything the first few days of this week. I’m feeling a bit better now and able to go whole minutes at a time without sneezing or blowing my nose, so I thought I’d do a recap of the trip.

A few weeks ago, I got an email from Sara B. with the subject “Coming to a country near you” and it started “Is me!” She was on a work trip that started in England & ended in Italy; Siena to be exact. Her plans were to take a week at the end of the trip & sightsee. We conferred over email & I decided what the heck, go. So I went on-line to Lufthansa and paid a small fortune for the 1 hour flight from Munich to Florence. (It’s high season! And I don’t feel up to taking the trains just yet, I will start that probably this fall.)

Much to my surprise, at the end of the transaction, I was informed that the paper tickets would be mailed to the address on my credit card. Hmmm, that can’t be right, it wasn’t what I intended. Long story short, Florence airport is not set up for electronic tickets, so paper ones are automatically issued. (Not set up for electronic tickets! I never imagined there was still an airport on the planet that wasn’t, but have been assured that if so, it would be in Italy.) The very helpful folks at Lufthansa were able to change the destination address for the tickets from the one that accompanies my American credit card to the new address in Germany. Whew!

In the midst of her work trip Sara was able to get us a hotel in Florence. She also was able to extend her stay at the hotel in Siena so we had places to stay.

On Sunday July 3rd, I flew into Florence. It is a very small airport. It didn’t take long for the bags to come out, I got through the security door & Sara was there. It was great to see her. We headed out to the rental car – a Ford Mondeo - & off to the Tuscan hills. We went to San Gimignano, about an hour’s drive away. Tuscany looks a lot like California, with olive trees instead of oaks in the hills. San Gimignano is a medieval town perched on a hill top, complete with brick wall fortification and many many brick towers. Quoting from Frommers: “The spires started rising in the bad old days of the 1200s partly to defend against outside invaders but mostly as command centers for San Gimignano’s warring families. Several successive waves of the plague that swept through the town (1348, 1464 and 1631) caused the economy to crumble, and San Gimignano became a provincial backwater. Because there was no impetus for new building, by the time tourism began picking up in the 19th century, visitors found a preserved medieval village of crumbling towers.”

We found a place to park on the other side of town from where the tour busses were letting people off. Walked up and up into town, through a doorway in the brick wall and onto narrow cobblestone streets lined with bring buildings. We soon found a small ‘enoteca’, a wine shop, that also housed a deli and had a light lunch along with a glass of the lovely local white wine: Vernaccia di San Gimignano. Yummy – dry, with great fruit aroma, light alcohol content. Great for a hot summer day.

We wandered around the streets, looking at the shops. As it was Sunday, most of the shops were closed. Probably a good thing, too, because there were a couple that featured beautiful works of alabaster: lamps, bowls, statues. I love alabaster and hope to someday have several light fixtures with alabaster coverings or bowls (for a hanging ceiling light.) But my suitcase was full to start. Unlike the dry heat of California, the humid European hot days cause me to sweat & want a couple tops for each day. I had forgotten about humidity in my 18 years in California!

We walked to the Rocca, the remaineder of the city’s 14th century fortress, and climbed the walls. Great view of the countryside from up high. I love the light, and all the farm fields & olive trees on the hills. It is just beautiful. On my first day, I was already making plans to come back.

The travel books advise to hang out in San Gimignano until all the tour buses leave. So we got a gelato and sat down in the shade in the main piazza – town square – and chatted until about 6. It seemed that there were even more people now, so we decided to head to Siena, We drove to the Hotel Patrizia which is on the outskirts of town, almost directly across the street from where Sara had been working. Convenient, quiet, with air conditioning and a pool. Dropped off my suitcase, and then headed out to walk to the heart of Siena. The walk was downhill, took about 30 minutes until we came to the walls of Siena center. Walking in, it seemed a lot like San G, except the streets were wider and there were a lot of shops. Then we ducked down this steep side street, down a flight of stairs and – O My! – entered the Piazza del Campo. This is the heart of Siena – a vast town “square” that is really shaped like a scallop shell, sloping downhill towards the Palazzo Pubblico, the huge town hall. The Campo is paved in softly worn brick, a beautiful terra cotta color. The walls of the surrounding buildings are various shades of warm stucco yellows and we had entered the Piazza just about twilight as the sky was deepening to azure. It was stunning. I wanted to take pictures but my little camera could not fit it all in.

People have said that il Campo is like the beach without water. It’s ringed on the upper end with 10 or so cafes, with plenty of outside tables. People sit there & people watch as the Campo fills up; groups just sit down on the bricks and talk, or they hang out down around the Palazzo Pubblico. I didn’t see any Frisbee or picnic blankets, but it really was like being at the shore. We got dinner at one of the cafes and had some more Vernaccia, sat there for a couple hours before we made the hike back to the hotel.

Monday the 4th we drove into Siena. My legs were feeling the effects of all the walking the day before, especially all the ups & downs. So Sara drove & I navigated as best I could. The streets are marked pretty well as to the direction that they go, although it’s hard to pick out the sign you’re looking for among the 6 or 8 that are on the poles. But we only severely annoyed a couple of other drivers, and we found our way to the stadium parking lot just outside the city walls. Up the flight of stairs out of the lot, and within a couple blocks we were at the edge of the city. We walked through the Piazza Santa Mother Theresa, and towards the Duomo. We stood in line for only a short while – a good thing too, it was getting really hot – and entered this church. Again, O My! Huge, ornately decorated from the busts of the popes lining the ceiling, about 60 feet up, to the elaborate mosaics on the floor, to the paintings and altars (one of which contains some carvings by Michalengelo) and the emotionally resonating chapel that contains the Madonna del Voto. This was surrounded by many charms? Offerings? Thanks? Of silver hearts, and some motorcycle and bicycle helmets. I definitely got the feelings of gratitude and thanks, vibrations, like I’ve felt no other place, not in Sedona, nor in the stone circle in the Lake District. (Plus, no sheep doots!)

We spent a couple hours in the Duomo. I would love to go back when it’s not so hot and crowded with a book to tell me more about what I’m seeing. A note: they really do want modest dress in the churches; will hand you a paper drape to cover your shoulders & torso if they think you need it. Mostly women got these, but we did see one teenage boy in a very droopy tank top get one too.

It was getting on about lunchtime, so we left the church and walked another way back to the Piazza del Campo. About Siena, it’s built on a hilltop, of course, the better to defend itself. But this hilltop is split into thirds by some severely steep ravines. So walking in Siena is down, up, down up. Great workout!

We had lunch at a café on the Campo. After lunch (by now it was about 3:00), we walked to the Gelateria, had great gelato, then found our way back to the car, went back to the hotel. Sara napped and I took advantage of the pool. It was a great way to cool down. We drove back into town at 6, parked on the street near the stadium and walked back up down up down to il Campo. Sara had a list of restaurants recommended by coworkers, a couple were on Via Jaques Dupre, which started at the bottom end of il Campo. And, of course, then veered sharply up. We got to the restaurant recommended just before 7. They open at 7, so we sat in a small square nearby to wait. By 7:15 they weren’t open yet, so we decided to walk a bit. We came upon a pathway that lead to a small park, on the ridge. Passed a couple young men working out with the flags. Saw part of Siena spread out beneath us, and were able to take a couple pictures of the tower in the Piazza, without the building cranes in the frame.

The sound of drumming led us back where we’d come from, it was one young man practicing on a snare drum, the kind you march with. (This and the flags are all part of Palio, more about that later.)

We checked the restaurant again, still not open. There was another recommendation for a place on the other end of the street, back down by il Campo, so we headed off towards it. As we got close to the Campo, we could see across it, up by the cafes, that there was a parade taking place. Flags and drums at the front, a large banner held aloft, and townspeople walking along behind. These were people from Bruca, the winning contrada from the Palio that had been held on July 2. Palio is a horse race, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, which is held July 2 and August 16 every year in the Campo, since at least 1310. The contrade are the neighborhoods of Siena center, each one gets a horse & jockey. A lottery is held to decide which 10 of the 17 contrade participate in the race. There is a week’s worth of preparation, much pageantry, pages in medieval dress performing with the flags of the contradta, parades, blessings, feasts all leading up to the race. Sara did get to the race on the 2nd, will link to her story & pictures if she puts them on line. The Palio is traditional, fraught with meaning in every step, flag, costume, gesture, and has had reams written about it. Sara had a book about it that we read bits of when we had time.

So this parade was the displaying of the banner by the winning contrada. They proceeded around il Campo. As they rounded the corner & came towards us, we could see it was the young men with the flags in front, all also wearing a scarf of their contrada, and many sucking pacifiers (they won, so it is like a birth for them, so the books say.) The men of the contrada were behind them, then the women. As the women got to the corner, they started singing a song. (Likely; we’re the best, we won, you didn’t, you disgust the city.) At the end of it, a woman in front shouted Uno, Duo, Trey and they all turned around and bent over to show they each had paper on their butts with 2 brown handprints. What a hoot! I’m sure it has great significance. The parade moved on & Sara and I found the restaurant. Had a great meal. Afterwards we walked back to the car & found our way to the hotel the short way. We’re starting to get somewhat familiar with Siena by now, it must be almost time to leave.

Tuesday the 5th it was actually cool & cloudy. Nice break! After breakfast we walked back towards town to a yarn shop that Sara had spotted. She was browsing the beautiful yarns and I was entranced by the hundreds of skeins of embroidery floss. Beautiful! I will pick that hobby back up again here. I refrained from buying anything as I don’t yet have a specific project in mind. There was a great book on the counter, the Italian version of the Embroidery Stitch Bible, which I plan to order from Amazon real soon. We walked back to the hotel, checked out, loaded up the car & drove back to Siena city. Parked again at the stadium – if you take the lower level, there’s parking in the shade. Walked up into the city, and started to buy souvenirs. Sara bought several Palio scarves and a snow globe. I bought postcards showing il Campo, to have some pictures for myself. We had lunch at yet another of the cafes on the Campo, and gelato afterwards. It was threatening rain, but never did. We departed Siena around 3, and drove to the Florence airport, where Sara turned in the rental car and we got a cab into Florence.

We arrived at our hotel, the Alessandra, around 5:30. in Florence, the streets are narrow, the buildings are 5 or 6 stories and many are right up to the street which is shared by cars, scooters & motorcycles, taxis the occasional bicyclist, mobs of tourists, horse drawn-carriages and locals going about their business. A hard city to drive in.

As we were checking in, they told us that the Accademia was open tonight, from 7 – 10, and FREE. This is where David lives. So, we unpacked a bit, changed and called to the Uffizi reservation line. (Got reservations for 12:45 on Thursday. This costs a euro or two more, but it saves hours of standing in line. You show up to the reservations area, buy your tickets, and go to the reservations entrance during yout 15 minute time slot, and get right in.) We then headed out at 7. Our hotel is a block in on Via Borgo SS Apostoli from Via Por S. Maria, which means we were one block from the famous Ponte Veccio. So we took a look. This is a low bridge across the Arno river that has shops on it. Originally they were the slaughterhouses, convenient to the river, but one of the early rulers had enough with the smell, kicked them out & installed goldsmiths. And the bridge is supposed to be beautiful, the best viewing spot in Florence, yadda yadda. To my eye it looked very Santana Row, except way more crowded. The jewelry was overwhelming, pretty much the same in all the shops and very gorpy. Think cocktail rings.

We fought our way back out of the crowds and stopped in a snack bar to grab a quick dinner. Continued up the street and came to the Duomo & bell tower of Florence. What a marvel – it is huge huge huge and clad in white, pink & green marble. Teeming with tourists at all times of day. It is beautiful and way over the top.

We continued on and got to the Accademia around 8, walked around it & saw the Piazza Santissima Annunziata, which the guide books say is the prettiest in Florence. Pah. Doesn’t hold a candle to il Campo.

We went into the Accedemia, and could see David down the long corridor. 2004 was his 500th birthday, and there were some modern art exhibits that were intended to pertain to that. Mostly we didn’t see the point.

The place was not crowded. It was amazing to be in the same room with David, walk around him (great butt) and have the time to really look at the sculpture. What a gift!

In one of the side rooms was a “multi-media” modern exhibit, a film of an art historian giving a lecture on David for his 500th birthday. It’s subtitled in English, sardonic and very funny. Lots of comments about the young white hero, and the machismo and sexism and racism of glorifying David. If you get a chance, see it too!

On our way back to our hotel we passed Carabe, the 2nd most famous gelateria in Florence. Since we’d indulged in Siena that day already, we decided to wait for another day to eat here. We walked back past the Duomo again, looked around & marveled, and then back to the hotel to pass out.

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Well, it’s time for me to rest & get lunch. More tomorrow!

In Italy!

On Saturday the 2nd, Logan & I went to a party on the banks of the Isar, in honor of the 4th of July. It was the IWC group, and there were about 30 people in our group. Great potluck and grills to cook on. It had been raining earlier in the day, but cleared out around 2 and we had beautiful weather. There were hundreds of other people there, it looks like a great place to head on a fine summer evening.

And, Sunday the 3rd I got on a plane to Florence. Was met by Sara Benson, who tacked a week of vacation onto a work trip that started in Oxford, on to Marburg Germany, then to Siena.

Will provide travelog & pics when I get back to Germany. Meanwhile - come to Italy. It is so beautiful. Katie, let's start planning your trip over here!!!