Boy, have we been had! Two of our best friends, Mary and Sal joined us last year in SienaMary to go to Scuola Saena Iulia with us and study Italianand Sal to do other things, such as researching his father’s career as a Carabinieri, or federal police officer, back before WWI, and to go on …
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How do know when you are back in Siena?
Well, when you see the Duomoyou begin to be suspicious, but other towns have Duomos. When you hear the drumsand see the flagsyou are pretty sure, especially when you notice that all the females have been relegated to the back of the paradeyou begin to think this must be it, although other towns have drums …
Before you dig . . .
Back home, before you do any construction related digging, everyone knows ya gotta call “Miss Utility” who comes and marks all the utilities. It’s not so easy in Rome! When you dig there, you don’t know what you’ll find, but you know you will find antiquities buried over the past 2,000 plus years, and if …
An exquisite sculpture
We had read that the Santa Maria della Vittoria Church had a wonderful sculpture done by Bernini in about 1650. We tried to visit last time we were in Rome, but there was a wedding going on. Since we had not been invited, it seemed wrong to go in. Yesterday, there was no wedding, so …
Brick By Brick
Brick by brick, slowly but surely, the language barrier is coming down between us and the friendly people of Italy. The hard work that we have invested in learning Italian is allowing us to learn about and go to places that formerly would not have been accessible to us, or within our comfort zone. We …
Did we mention we took a cruise?
When the record breaking heat of August in Italy this year made serious trekking imprudent (impossible? Potentially life threatening? Definitely marriage threatening!) we were able to score the last cabin on Jewel of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean ship sailing out of Civitavecchia, the Rome port. The first thing we noticed after boarding was that …
Busses and Mountains
Karl does not enjoy bus rides in Italy. Invariably, our bus rides take us over zig zagging mountainous roads and jaw dropping drop offs.We have seen cars pass our bus at high rates of speed on impossible curves.We have thanked God when a car has blocked our kamikaze bus driver on a winding downhill. We …
Fountains, Pines and Obelisks
The fountains of Rome are romanticized in Hollywood movies. The pines of Rome are evoked in Resphghi’s orchestral work, “The Pines of Rome”. Fountains and pines, art and nature, have enraptured me during my previous journeys to Italy. But this journey? In 2019, given what is happening in the world today? For me, the objects …
A culinary adventure!
On our first night in Bari, as we wandered through the little streets and even littler alleys, of old town, we found ourselves in a little square filled with no one but local peoplesocializing, drinking beer, and eating pizza from the Pizzaria di Cosimothat looked really good. The next day, for lunch, we set off …
Boy, were we wrong about Bari!
As mentioned earlier, we are on a bit of pilgrimage to visit San Giovanni Rotondo, the home of Padre Pio, a saint we have been learning about. To get there, you pretty much have to go through Bari, in the Puglia region. As we all learned in grade school, Italy is shaped like a boot. …
ITALY, GERMANY, AND MORE! 