Raining in Rome, cab to hotel was cramped, but only 25 Euros including our bags. Wait a second, for the less than 1 mile trip, that’s pretty extortionate pricing… but it was raining…

Hotel Solis is quaint… meaning 1968 called and wants our room back. At least it is clean and the A/C works. We are a short walk from the Colosseum. Sill no laundry service at the hotel (!?) and Wi-Fi is an extortionate 7 Euros for only 3 hours. Ouch!

Erci’s dad and his wife were initially given the wrong room, and they had to move and re-unpack. They lucked out though, their new room is next to ours and was redecorated in the early 1990s; a vast improvement in lighting and fixtures.

We had a quick bite at the Enotecha across the street, and a walk to Colosseum to see the metro stop in daylight and experience traffic free Sunday a little; people watching was fantastic. We found the metro stop, scored week-long all-you-can-ride public transport passes and then we walked back to the hotel, and then went out for our first non-Italian food of the trip, Chinese at Citta in Fiore, and it was excellent, and very, very busy. Standing room only to get in, and the line kept growing and growing.

May 16th: Vatican Museum

Hotel Solis breakfast is very continental; meaning you should find your own breakfast somewhere else to augment the scone, cereal and coffee they provide.

Metro from Colosseo to Termini then from Termini to Cipro and walk to Vatican Museum.

Guided tours pretty much all suck. The guide may be wonderful, but you will be rushed by things you want to spend more time on and waste precious time waiting for long explanations of things you don’t care about; and waste time for groups to gather and be herded about. We spent 5 hours in the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, and Saint Peter’s Basilica; and yet I feel both rushed and exhausted… only 10 minutes of that was in the Sistine Chapel itself and the crowds were intolerable throughout. When finished with the tour, our guide said good-bye and collected the radios outside St Peter’s Basilica; and the museums in Rome do not accept re-entry; effectively forcing us to pay a second time if we wanted to examine anything in the museum at our own pace afterwards. Frankly, for me, because of the crowds, the Vatican Museum was a ripoff; though there are wondrous things to be seen there if you could ever figure out how to see them with no crowds.

Walk from St Peter’s Square to lunch at random place with seats, shade, and water; then on to Ottaviano/San Pietro to Metro to Spagna where we got out and walked around looking for the Mandarina Duck store Sutragirl wants to shop at. Rode Metro again to Repubblica and got out to get sprayed by the fountain of the Naiads. Got back on to exit at Cavour for gelato and back to the hotel for a siesta.

Dinner next to our hotel at Enoteca Cavour 313, was spectacular. Tapas style items on the menu were delicious and allowed us to taste many things, and the wine selection was heavenly. We learned that a proper Cannoli is really good and not overly sweet like in the States.

May 17th:
We supplemented the parsimonious hotel breakfast with yogurt from a grocer a few doors up the street, then went over to the Forum to explore. We found ourselves at the Capitoline Hill end of the Forum as noon approached, and decided to exit to examine the Capitoline Museum and get lunch. Capitoline is nice and cool with ambient music in most rooms, and we went to Bar Rudy for lunch, it being pretty much the only choice close to the hill, and it was less than thrilling. We walked back to the hotel via the monument to Victor Emmanuel and Trajan’s Column and market. Then the exhaustion caught up with us and we napped until dinner time approached.

I could exhaust my entire lexicon of superlatives to describe the dinner we had at Il Pagliaccio on Via dei Banchi Vecchi in Rome, but I will skip that and just say that it was the most expensive meal I have ever eaten, and it was worth every penny. Fantastic. Rob picked excellent wines, we have amazing service, and epicurean delights.

May 18th:

The Forum tickets we had, supposedly good for two days would not let us re-enter the forum to finish the tour. Moral of the story; to get your money’s worth out of Rome’s expensive museums; do NOT leave until you are done with everything you want to see. That means planning ahead for marathon sessions in some of them and ignoring pushing museum people and tour guides who try to trick you into leaving early.

So we went to the overcrowded Colosseum to get some value out of our combo tickets.

To try to minimize walking (one member of our group has bad knees) we took the metro to Barberini, then caught the Electric Bus #116 to Piazza Farnese. We stopped for a tasty lunch at Hosteria Farnese, then walked through Campo de Fiore, browsing the open market, and walked back to the spectacular Pantheon.

The Pantheon, used continuously since the 2nd century is very impressive. I did not cry like I did at Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, but one does get filled with a sense of awe at the engineering marvel that makes a building last so long. We spent a good deal of time here and I made another PhotoSynth panorama with my iPhone while inside.

We proceeded to Trevi Fountain and then to Spagna to let Erci and her father shop at Mandarina Duck.

We rested our feet and had a little wine at L’EnotecAntica where I wish we had more time to sample the many wines they have by the glass. From there it was a short walk back to Metro at Spagna and a quick ride to the hotel for a nap and a shower.

We stayed local for dinner, walking only two doors from our hotel to enjoy Restorante Argentino Baires for some fantastic Argentine food and a Malbec of course.

May 19th:

We are starting to figure out the bus system, and took bus 84 to Piazza Venetia and then split our group. Erci and the others went to some Capitoline churches and a second Forum visit. I got onto bus 46 to Lago Argentino and then street car 8 to Trastevere to explore. Trastevere, is more lived in than the areas of Rome we have been seeing; the neighborhood is alive and thriving. I found Glass Hosteria, where we will be dining Friday night. I got addressed by a man in rags and debated Christianity and Buddhism with him for some time on the banks of the Tiber near the Sisto Bridge.

I crossed the river and wandered through Campo de Fiore again and found Salumeria Roscioli, where we will have dinner tonight. Then I walked to Santa Maria sopra Minerva and enjoyed the statue of Christ Bearing the Cross by Michelangelo.

After cooling off in the church for a bit and enjoying the gothic architecture I walked to Piazzo Navona to see the Four Rivers fountain and grabbed lunch at Tucci Ristorante; and had spectacular Insalada de Mare and mixed grilled fish.

After lunch I walked towards Trevi fountain and found a store with some gifts of Murano glass. Then I caught the 117 bus back to Via Cavour and the hotel for a shower and a nap. It’s hot here in Rome, at least when walking briskly.

Salumeria Roscioli was fantastic for dinner, excellent black ham, cheese, beer, and some of the best lamb I have ever had. I feel we may have missed out on Rome’s best carbonara spaghetti as well… I could very easily go back to this place again. Yum!

May 20th:

We decided to visit Ara Pacis, which is a very modern museum with the reconstructed arch pf peace. The day was getting pretty hot and we enjoyed the air conditioning, before walking to Campo de Fiori for shopping and lunch at Fratelli la Bufalata (which is quite good for pizza). We had very bad luck trying to catch a bus back and got seriously overheated.

Glass Hosteria for dinner was spectacular; each dish more amazing than the one before. Excellent wines, and even the pettifores got devoured, where usually we skip them.

Trastevere is alive with magic and romance on Friday night; a several blocks of street party. Sadly, Erci, has definitely caught some bug and is not up for an evening of fun. I definitely want to come back to Trastevere.

May 21st:

Our last full day in Rome and in Italy; I have finished re-reading The Diamond Age and enjoyed it very much, even the second time around. I am almost out of clean clothing, and I miss my friends, my cats, my own pillow, my own shower, and unlimited internet of a decent speed. Erci has filled the 4GB flash card in the big camera, and we’ve started on an older 2GB card. I have had to delete a movie from my laptop to make room for all the iPhone photos we are collecting.

Erci is definitely ill, so we are staying near facilities. We went to the National Museum of Rome and thoroughly enjoyed the sculptures, frescoes, and mosaics. The coin collection would impress even Les.

Lunch was at Argentina Baires and was good again.

Dinner was at Enoteca Cavour 313 again because it was so very, very good. The pistachio gelato with black pepper was simply divine.

We have begun the mad packing session for the trip home.

May 22nd:

There is now a 2 Euro/day/person Rome city tourist tax at hotel, in cash only.

Airport Limo picked up two other couples and delivered us to Rome’s Fiumicino Airport efficiently.
Nothing in the airport was open and edible, so we missed breakfast.

Heathrow Security is annoying and oppressive and panicky for no obvious security features I feel harassed and abused, not secure and we barely made it to the gate before the end of boarding out connecting flight.

BA 747 was packed, over-warm, and rank; we all stank by the time we arrive at Dulles 7 hours and 20 minutes later.

We did not know it at the time, but the extra length of flight time might have been dodging a new volcanic eruption in Iceland.

I watched “No Strings Attached”, “The Tourist”, and could not finish “I am Number Four” because the flight crew kept interrupting the show. It looked pretty horrible anyway.

Dave picked us up and dropped us off at cars; barely made it home awake; but it is good to be home to do
loads of laundry, shower, give/get lots of cat affection, and house recovery.

We are trying to stay awake to shift to Eastern Time.

Our train from Venice to Rome was full of American tourists and honeymooners from Venice to Florence; then became less crowded approaching Rome where we transferred to EuroStar 9515 to Napoli Centrale.

At Naples we were met on the train platform by Antonio, our arranged van driver, who showed us to his minivan and drove us to the
Hotel Gardenia in Sorrento acting as tour guide along the way. He even stopped briefly at a scenic overlook to let us get out and photograph Sorrento, Sant Agnello, Piano di Sorrento, and Meta from the cliffs to the East, and gave us a quick tour of his favorite places in Sorrento.

Sorrento Peninsula from the road:

Hotel Gardenia is very modern, very cramped, and right on a very busy street over 1.1 kilometers from the center of Sorrento along the suicidally busy Corso Italia. The hotel website flat out lies when it claims 500 meters from the central square, 500 is not anything close to 1100 meters. It has no laundry service!!! Ugh… It is not as close to the train station as we were told it would be, station and square are both about a 20 minute walk down a suicidally busy street.

This is the view from our balcony if you gaze alongside the building:

The hotel Internet access, while free, is frustrating. Web based userids and passwords that cannot maintain session for very long and must be logged into every few minutes.

The hotel staff did recommend Il Leone Russo, which turned out to be an excellent choice, if a bit crowded and noisy. Delicious meal and wine, and complementary Limoncello afterwards, I think because we ordered four healthy meals and a bottle of wine and four apéritifs.

May 10th:

Hotel Gardenia breakfast is a relief, protein without gluten, huzzah! We caught the Circumvesuviana train from Sorrento to Pompei Scalvi; and ended up waiting a long time at Meta for trains to clear the tunnels ahead of us. Pompeii is large and hilly and hot and dusty. We went to the Baths, the Forum, the Temple of Apollo, and the Villa of the Mysteries and hopefully our photos come out.

Villa of the Mysteries, Pompeii:

We lunched at Bacco e Arianna right outside the back gate to Pompeii and enjoyed the caprese salads, melon and prusciutto salads, and salami antipasto. We caught the train back to Sorrento, once again being held up at the tunnels.

We braved the busy and loud streets back to the hotel and napped, after cooling off by the pool (too cold to swim, but it is nice enjoying the breeze under the lemon trees and palms).

Hotel Gardenia Pool:

I figured out some of the problems with the internet system here, it is timed, and your browser must allow a pop-up with the timer and the logout button to display; normally my browsers block pop-ups… now that I am allowing theirs I can end a session rather than using up all my allotted time and I can more easily switch from computer to phone to ipad for access. Logging in frequently is still annoying, but mitigated some with a note with the strings to cut and paste. Connections are just slow.

Dinner at Il Buco was fantastic. I really need to order what Sutragirl’s Dad orders; he continues to get fantastic dishes at every restaurant we go to. Beautiful restaurant, fantastic service, and excellent food. We tried dark grappa after dinner and enjoyed it, apparently grappa, like tequila, vodka, and soju, is getting more refinement and attention these days. The lighting in the restaurant and in the bathrooms was stunning; they have mastered elegant, indirect lighting in some of the finer restaurants in Italy to levels I have never seen before. Beautiful and amazing.

The 20 minute walk back to the hotel was more pleasant as it was so late that traffic had mostly died down, thankfully.

May 11th:

Up way too early for vacation to catch a pre-paid excursion to Herculaneum. Having done that once, I will not join a guided tour without knowing the size of the tour group up front. Our group was far, far too many people for the guide to keep track of and we could not all fit around any one site or room in the ruins. Tour groups should never be so damned large; too large a group to see anything but the other members of the group. Photos were virtually impossible and we spent most of the tour waiting for the group to assemble and reassemble. Most of the guided tours are separate from the site fee itself, so you end up paying for the site anyway and the bus was much slower than trains, even if the views from the bus were more spectacular. Herculaneum is great, but you can skip the excursion tours and take the train and hire a guide if you must, but only for a group of 4-8 people; not for 60 people.

Herculaneum:

Once back in Sorrento, we grabbed a bit from the first tourist trap with shaded seating, and regretted it later. It pays to know ahead of time where you want to eat. We walked around Sorrento’s small old quarter a little bit and feel much better about the town now that we have. It is overpriced tourist shop after tourist shop, but the motor vehicle traffic is restricted and traffic is almost nil; making for vastly more pleasant walks around the shops and restaurants.

The really long walk along Corso Italia and noisy location of Hotel Gardenia is really beginning to wear on me. There are several hotels much closer to the train station, the tour bus excursion departure point, and the restaurants and shopping. Hindsight is 20/20, and I wish we’d been steered to a better location. Without scooters or a car; this location is no good.

Dinner at La Pizza del Poeta was fantastic; this may be my personal favorite meal of the trip. Shrimp on tomatoes with capers and chili oil, followed by scallopini in lemon sauce… Amazing wines in a local white and a chianti, and a licorice flavored drink to finish the meal, which was much better than ouzo or rake; and different than the better limoncellos we have had.

May 12th

Enjoyed a glorious sleep in, not meeting for a leisurely breakfast at the hotel until 9:30. The we walked to Piazzo San Antonio to catch a bus to Marina Piccolo, stopping at several tobacconist shops on the way and they were all sold out of bus tickets. Odd, and frankly, suspect. The bus driver took our Euros anyway.

At Marina Piccolo an English honeymooning couple I have met a few times at our hotel pool showed to me a fascinating iOS application on his iPhone called PhotoSynth that stitches together many photos you have taken from one spot to create a fully immersive panorama. Splendid idea, I wish I had this at several locations in Venice!

Sorrento on the cliff, from it’s Marina Piccolo:

We caught a “jet” boat to Capri, which does not appear to technically be a hydrofoil, but it is very fast. Once at Capri’s marina we caught a ride up their famous funicular railway to walk around Capri town a little bit.

Funicular Railway on Capri:

We had a glorious lunch and view at Capricorno, which was perhaps the best buffalo mozzarella and tomatoes I have ever had, and excellent risotto. The Insulata Caprese did, in fact, have love basil on it too.

Gorgeous view of Capri from Capricorno restaurant:

We enjoyed a short walk through winding, twisting, pedestrian only streets of Capri before taking the funicular back down to port and the “jet” boat back to Sorrento. We caught the Sant Agnello bus from Marina Piccolo to the Sorrento train station, and a taxi back to the hotel as we were tired, but I wish we stayed on the bus. It turns out that there are public busses running right in front of our hotel to and from the town square and the harbor. I wish I’d known that sooner.

I finally dipped into the pool under the lemon tree and it felt fantastic! A great way to wash off the heat. Then I downloaded PhotoSynth from the iTunes App store and began playing with it on my iPhone.

Dinner was at Il Leone Russo again, and it was delicious again, and once more they favored us with complimentary pizza bread, and a whole bottle of limoncello that is much better than some of the other limoncellos we’ve had. I am becoming aware that if your party orders multiple courses, wines, and cocktails; and makes an evening of dinner and quiet conversation the staff loves you and showers you with extras; but if you try to budget only one dish each with no wine, you get perfunctory service, still good, but unremarkable. Slow down and joy life a little, and magic happens.

May 13th

As arranged, Antonio from Caruso Limo picked us up at the hotel to drive us in a mini van to Paestum and then back along the Amalfi coast. Going to Paestum we took the normal road to Pompeii and then A-3 expressway to Salerno, driving through new terrain that was visually interesting and Antonio sporadically told us a little more about the Italy he knows.

At a scenic overlook just before Salerno, we stopped and took pictures of Vietri sul Mare below us and we tried our first real panorama vista shots with PhotoSynth. I have not figured out how to share the panoramas yet, so a regular photo will have to do for now:

Antonio took us to the back gate of Paestum, where there are smaller, or in our case, no crowds and a fancy restaurant. We went into Paestum and were amazed at the site. Temples of Hera and Neptune were just inside the back gate and have remarkable structure still surviving, more than just the outer ring. Temple of Athena is a longer walk across the forum, but is also lovely and remarkable. The whole site is beautiful and peaceful, birds singing, little lizards catching bugs. I am not sure why the local signs switch between Greek names for the gods Athena and Hera, and Roman for Neptune, but they do.

I suspect our driver made a minor navigation error, because we drove back to Salerno on surface streets without finding the expressway until almost there, but we got to see industrial and rural areas of Italy we would not have seen otherwise and I was struck by the similarity of land use and basic post-war architecture that one sees in Japan and Italy.

Once through Salerno began our tour of the Amalfi coast from the van and it is stunning.
Vietri sul Mare is home to a thriving ceramics industry and so there are ceramic tiles everywhere, including the dome on the local churches all through the Amalfi region.

We diverted from the coast and began serious switch-backs to climb about 1000 feet to Ravello on the slopes of the mountains where we walked around the town square and grabbed a tourist sandwich. I did not make it to Villa Cimbrone to see the famous Belvedere because we were behind schedule already, but it is enough to have seen how lovely Ravello is.

At that elevation, looking up the valleys at whole villages perched precariously on the slopes above us in the clouds I could only think of this as an Italian Shangri-La.

The drive back down to the coast road was even more a white-knuckle ride as we had momentum behind us and we could see the huge drops involved.

Amalfi is one of the few towns where there is a small beach and perhaps a kilometer of flat space to have a town centre, and it was packed with tourists and traffic. We scurried through as fast as we could as it was mobbed.

Positano was truly stunning, and had sights I had mistaken for being in Amalfi. I wonder and marvel that people would live at such different elevations from their car, their grocer, their church, their nearest bar. You really have to think in three dimensions to get around and no map on a flat sheet of paper is sufficient to figure it out.

From Positano we saw a few more vistas of the Amalfi coast and then quickly passed over the Lattari Mountains into Piano di Sorrento and then our hotel. Antonio (aka Tony) is an excellent driver, courteous and considerate of our needs, and exceptionally alert to the traffic of both vehicles and pedestrians and even the idiots, typically on scooters, but a few times in cars, trying to make the road three lanes wide by passing where they should not and ending up facing off with a bus.

Dinner at L’Antica Trattoria was good, but two of my three dishes were overly salted, and that was a disappointment. Additionally we had a rude couple of smokers light up in the no-smoking area where we were sitting and they refused to put them out until the wait staff intervened.

Something has happened to the last 50 pictures I took with my phone on the Amalfi Coast trip… very frustrating. Hopefully these shots are clear on Sutragirl’s big Canon camera.

May 14th

Slept in again, then walked around Sorrento casually. Bought linen shirts at Sartoria Saracena for both Sutragirl and myself, and lunch at Old Taverna Sorrento. Took photos from the community center overlooking the harbor. Back in the pool again for more cooling.

Went to Ristorante Pizzaria Tasso for a fabulous meal and spectacular dessert wines.

Saturday night is strolling night for Sorrento, when the main streets are closed and families stroll in the pleasantly cool evening air without concern for the traffic.

May 15th

Time to pack for travel to Rome. Caruso Limo to Naples, train to Rome.
Napoli Centrale 13:50 Eurostar AV #9526 to Roma Termini 15:00

Wow, British Airways owned Boeing 777 planes are amazingly quiet; you can actually have a normal conversation and I did not need my canalphones to block out the noise of the jet engines. The seats seemed a little wider too; perhaps 19″ wide instead of 17″ – and that two inches makes a world of difference for my shoulders. Watched Burlesque with Cher and Christina Aguilera, who is hot in the show… wow; she really can sing.

Heathrow is annoying in that nearly every flight needs to stop well away from the terminals and they bus you to the terminals where you have to pass through security again for all connecting flights. On the plus side, the food places take virtually any currency you have and you can do vodka tastings at the duty free stores in the airport even though it is 7am local time.

Our second flight was a little more cramped (A319) but we had spectacular views of the alps in bright sunlight coming into Venice airport. No problems with customs nor our luggage. We met Erci’s Dad and his wife and caught the Alilaguna to Sant Angelo stop on the Grand Canal in Venice. A short walk from Sant Angelo and we arrived at Locanda Art Deco. The hotel is a beautiful little hotel with clean, comfortable rooms, free wi-fi, clean bathrooms, and it is located in San Marco at the North end of Campo San Stefano; one of the larger and more casual open spaces in Venice. The room comes equipped with a shuttle PC running Ubunto and Gnome that is wired to the internet!

Campo San Samuele near our hotel in Venice:

We are hearing the bells of San Stefano church regularly, and have taken to meeting each other at Le Cafe or Gelateria Paolin in the square because it is so convenient to the hotel.

The staff at the hotel have been very helpful in many languages and they recommended we try Rosa Rossa for dinner; it was excellent: stunning lighting, beautiful decor, very good food and wine. Perhaps the music was a bit lame.

May 6th:

The Locanda Art Deco has a very small continental breakfast, and with Erci being gluten-free, we have taken to augmenting the breakfast in the hotel with yogurt, cheese, or sausage from the grocer next door.

We walked to Piazzo San Marco and toured the Basilica at length. We stopped at Trattoria da Nico for lunch, and then bought Murano glasses and a gecko at Atmosfera Veneziana, The Bead Shop di Caponsacco De Lorenzi Theresa, and purse hangers and glass snake at another shop (across from Rosa Rossa).

Piazzo San Marco from the Basilica; preparations already underway for a papal visit:

We walked to San Salvadore church to see it’s interior and then to the Rialto bridge where Sutragirl bought a new purse and we exchanged a little gossip.

Our specially arranged meal was at Fiaschetteria Toscana and it was splendid. I should have copied Rob’s order as his meal was fantastic, where mine was merely very good.

After walking back towards the hotel, we stopped at Osteria Al Bacaro for a late night drink.

We heard from the hotel staff that the Pope will be visiting Venice this weekend and that will force some plans to change (certain sites and vaporetto stops will be closed).

May 7th:

We walked across Accademia bridge into Dorsoduro searching for Ca’Macana Venezia looking for masks, we ended up ordering from Alesia di Bognolo Silvia at L’Arte di Alesia on Campo San Barnaba instead, but they had beautiful masks at Ca’Macana and workshops too. The lady at the smaller shop was delightful and had the plague doctor mask Sutragirl was looking for, and she was happy to arrange shipping, which many shop keepers are not as willing to do.

Dorsoduro is far more comfortable and lived in than San Marco which is overloaded with tourist shops and empty buildings. The natural beauty of the quiet streets and canals of Dorsoduro is breathtaking; and I want to spend weeks sipping coffee in the various squares and taverns in the area.

Campo San Barnaba in Dorsoduro, Venice:

We then walked back through Dorsoduro to the church of S. Maria della Salute, and discovered it closed for security to prepare for the Papal visit and music was blaring really loud preventing normal conversation; so we wandered back to Dei Rossi, a small bar at Campo San Vio for lunch of salad, fried fish and beer. They had beautiful, but practical glasses of Murano glass that were translucent blue. We caught a handsome gondolier at the Accademia bridge and paid for a pleasant tour in a gondola through parts of the Grand Canal, San Marco and back.

Once off the gondola, I finally got to explore the SouthWestern end of San Marco district around our hotel and through Campo San Samuele and back to the hotel for a nap. I have always enjoyed walking around whatever lodging we find to get a feel for the small details of a neighborhood.

Grand Canal from a gondola, Venice:

Dinner at Vecio Fritolin on Calle dell Regina in San Polo near Campo San Cassiano was amazing! Our favorite meal so far in Venice, and that is huge praise as we have been very fortunate so far. Our waiter, Mauro, was amazing and the wines and the grappa were delicious. The staff at Locanda Art Deco is to be praised for such excellent recommendations.

View from the Rialto:

Romantic walk back over the Rialto where we all decided this trip is amazing. The absence of car noise, traffic, and gas fumes is a delight. The small noises of Venetians going through their routines and laughing and making fun of each other is music to the ear.

May 8th:

The staff at our hotel arranged “free” water taxi to B.F. Signoretti Murano glass factory where we toured and bought some Murano glasses and a serving dish at prices that paid for the convenience of water taxi service to and from Murano island. We walked from Fondamenta Nove through Cannaregio, Rialto and to our hotel, stopping so that Sutragirl could buy some sleek Italian shoes. Cannaregio, like Dorsoduro, is also more lived in and comfortable than San Marco. I must come back and explore and enjoy this district more thoroughly. We walked through one square that was beautiful and relaxing, and I wished to stay longer; I think that was Campo Dietro la Chiesa; and it had trees, and a cafe, and children playing.

Canals in Cannaregio:

We grabbed a quick lunch at Gelateria Paolin at Campo San Stefano, then tested out the excellent Vaporetto service to Ferrovia (the train station) to get our EuRail passes stamped and verify the ease of use of the Vaporetti. Then we took the Vaporetto back to Rialto to wander and shop a little more.

Grand Canal of Venice:

Dinner at Met in Castello was new cuisine and we chose the tasting menu, which really was too much food. The dishes were very experimental, and quite surprising; but some of them I did not like very much and others were spectacular. The carbonara cuttlefish “fettucini” (no pasta involved) was spectacular and worth the price of the meal by itself. The scallops were delicious, and the venison was a delight. Service was so formal I was a little uncomfortable. The walk to and from Met was right along the water as far as Piazza San Marco and it was briskly windy and chilling. The Bridge of Sighs was so wrapped in advertising and renovation sheeting that it looked quite silly suspended in the clouds of the sheet poster material. There were obscenely massive cruise ships in the water off San Marco, setting out to sea.

As we packed up for travel to Sorrento, we were serenaded by the season’s first mosquitoes and suffered a few bites before Erci loaded the pest deterrent that was in the hotel room since our arrival… Not sure if it worked, or we were too tired to care, but I noticed no more mosquitoes after the thing had been running for about 10 minutes.

May 9th:

Breakfast at the hotel was crowded with Americans on a tour of religious sites in Italy and we grabbed a bit of protein from the grocer next door and waited until there were tables available to eat in the hotel. We checked out, hauled luggage to San Samuele (Vaporetto stop) and took the Vaporetto to Ferrovia again, this time to board EuroStar 9409 to Roma Termini and then on to Naples. Note to those with wheeled luggage, from the river, the North (right) side of the train station has a ramp that looks like it is going to the street but simply goes into the station without steps.

That is a constitutional right for U.S. Citizens because of the 4th Amendment to our constitution.

TSA’s policies of searching everyone boarding a plane have been annoying and silly because they don’t actually make us any safer. In the latest round of foolishness they want to expose a lot of people to a much more thorough scan that may not be safe (no one really knows the long term effects) and it is certainly an unreasonable invasion of privacy that still makes us…. absolutely no safer. That makes it unreasonable…. and therefor violation or our rights.

Their attempt to go after John Tyner because he elected NOT TO FLY rather than put up with the unreasonable search is clearly a step too far, and for that, they need to be put down publicly and firmly. If an airline refuses to let you fly unless you submit to search that is one thing, but to go after someone who decided not to fly after all is pure spite and a clear over-stepping of bounds.

We should all be outraged.

How to Get Cheaper Hybrid Rentals (Bucks column at NY Times)

It’s sad that market economics are preventing the right thing from happening in the rental market right now.

It happens to also be about 1/2 way between the DC area and Western, PA destinations… so… it frequently becomes a good bathroom stop and commonly the error is made of actually buying food there… which then causes another bathroom stop an hour further down the road where you pay for the bad decision of actually eating in Breezewood, PA.

Well folks, there is a happy alternative! A tasty diner (breakfast and lunch and afternoon snacks only); about 5 miles South-East of Breezewood right on I-70. The Cornerstone Diner is open 7am-3pm on Sunday, 7-6pm most weekdays, and 7-7 on Friday and Saturday.

Exit 151 along I-70 is marked Crystal Spring and is the intersection with PA-915.

Westbound Directions:
If you are Westbound, exit at 151/Crystal Spring/PA-915 – go straight across 915 at the stop sign, make your first Right after crossing a little bridge onto Township Road 500 which becomes Campmeeting Road. The Cornerstone Diner sits back from the road on the left, mostly hidden behind some light industrial vehicle place… very hard to see.

Eastbound Directions:
If you are Eastbound, exit at 151/Crystal Spring/PA-915 and turn Right onto PA-915 heading North. Make your first Right after going under I-70, then make your first Right after crossing a little bridge onto Township Road 500 which becomes Campmeeting Road. The Cornerstone Diner sits back from the road on the left, mostly hidden behind some light industrial vehicle place… very hard to see.

GPS Directions:
Put 101-299 Campmeeting Rd, Crystal Spring, PA into your GPS or Google maps for directions. Clean, simple, diner food that will not make you ill.

View 101-299 Campmeeting Rd in a larger map

The museum hopping started at The Morgan Library and Museum where we got to see a Magna Carta on display. We spent a lot of time perusing the digital archive of two earlier exhibits on their information kiosks. Demons and Devotion: The Hours of Catherine of Cleves is fabulous and has many gorgeous illuminations created in about 1440. Zoom in on the following and count the medieval items you want to build:

• MS M.917, pp. 150–151
• MS M.917, pp. 146–149
• MS M.917, pp. 306–307

Illuminating the Medieval Hunt was also still online, and it is full of early images of hunting.

We had an excellent lunch at Woo Chon and then continued the museum hopping at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see The Mourners: Medieval Tomb Sculptures from the Court of Burgundy (this exhibit is traveling and will be in Richmond in January, 2012 and is awesome for anyone interested in beautiful sculpture or 15th century clothing and accessories) and The Art of Illumination: The Limbourg Brothers and the Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry. We have big reproduction copies of the Belles Heures, but when you look at the original pages with a magnifying glass additional details pop out at you and become clear. The Limbourg brothers and their crew were amazing artists. I was also excited to catch Five Thousand Years of Japanese Art: Treasures from the Packard Collection and wandered through a few other exhibits for the fun of it.

Portland details after the jump…

Saturday, November 21st:

After our picturesque drive from Seattle, we checked in at the Hotel Vintage Plaza (Kimpton) in downtown Portland. I was feeling a little ill, and suspect the lunch we had at Red Robin earlier might be to blame. We had not had time to figure out what might be nearby for food, so we did the lazy and simple thing and ate at Pazzo right in the hotel. Pazzo has rave reviews, and it probably is quite good, but every portion seemed huge to me, and every dish far too rich because I was not feeling very well. I feel safe recommending Pazzo only to the very hungry. I was supposed to meet my uncle Bob and perhaps his daughter Michelle, but I fell asleep before 8pm and slept right through the night.

Sunday:

Per arrangements with Andy, we made a short walk to Pearl Bakery to meet Andy, Susan, Merritt, and Rene for pastries, coffee and chai. The bakery is one of those neighborhood gems that is both comfortable and charming; everyone seems to know each other and even strangers are cooperative. I had not seen Andy in something like 34 years and we immediately reconnected, and resumed as if there was no interruption. He and his family walked us across the street to Powell’s City of Books (on Burnside), the first brief visit of many this trip. Merritt had a girl’s volleyball tournament, so they had to leave Powell’s about the time we were ready to check out with our first batch of treasured books.

We walked to the Classical Chinese Garden, and as we arrived it started to drizzle a little rain, which set the mood for amazing contemplation in such a beautiful garden setting during alternating sunshine and drizzling rain. The Chinese garden is right in downtown portland, accessible to both Max (light rail) and busses. It is essentially one city block in size, nearly flat (easy to navigate even with walker or a wheel chair), and spectacularly beautiful. Worth every penny of the entry fee. If I lived in or near Portland, I would become a member and visit with every seasonal change because the colors and plants probably reveal different beauty every few weeks, perhaps even multiple times a day on peak days because of changes in the sunlight. By the time we left I felt refreshed and renewed.

MobileMe Gallery of pictures of the Classical Garden

We walked back to our hotel, picked up the rental car, and (on recommendation of the hotel staff) headed for Andina for the best meal we had in Portland by far. Andina is a Peruvian restaurant, but done Tapas style. The food is different than I am used to and absolutely delicious, I could live here… I am so ready to wash dishes just to stay at Andina for weeks. It is at the other end of the Pearl district of Portland, which looks to be a very interesting place to walk around and shop.

We finally connect with and kidnap my uncle Bob for a drive through the Hawthorne district to locate the pub I am supposed to meet my cousin Michelle at later in the evening (easier to find things in daylight). We made a brief stop at the Hawthorne Powell’s, but I was so busy talking to and re-connecting with my Uncle I have no idea what was in this store (though Andy and Michelle both rave about it being one of the better branches of Powell’s in the city). The entire Hawthorne district looks like a fun place to live, work, shop, and play. Very walkable, lots to see and do; proximity to Reed College. Heck, the entire city of Portland looks to be a wonderful place to live without a car at all; everything is walking and cycling friendly, the light rail system is splendid, the buses easy to use, and they have a large fare-free area where no money is needed to use the system. Trimet has most of the information online, and that is important to visit, as there is a new Max line right by our hotel that is not yet on the free city maps the hotels are giving out (I think they are depleting old stock before hitting the new maps with the new rail lines). I wish I had paid more attention, as the new line was key in getting around.

We dropped off the rental car, and hung out at Pazzo’s bar to seriously catch up with Uncle Bob, then dragged him over to Red Star Tavern (in the Hotel Monaco lobby). The steaks and venison chops were excellent. Uncle Bob declared it the best steak he’d have in five years, for which we teased him about that being because he’d been in prison all that time (a joke).

Bob went home and Erci rested, so I drove over to the Sapphire Hotel in Hawthorne to meet Michelle and Nevada to catchup with her (same ~34 years since I saw her last). Had a wonderful visit and really liked the Sapphire a lot.

Monday:

We woke up not feeling our best, so we did a simple breakfast at Pazzo in the hotel, and it was delicious. We went to Powells city of books again, for some more serious exploration this time. We had a quick lunch at Pearl district’s Noodles Company (reliable, vegetarian friendly chain) and then drove out to Portland’s Japanese Garden. This is an impressive site, with five different Japanese style gardens spread out over several acres of sloping hills a few miles West of Portland. The hills are substantial, so be prepared to walk a lot, and many of the better views are not wheelchair accessible. The dry zen garden is perhaps a bit disappointing if you have already seen any of it’s inspirational source gardens in Japan (which are amazing), but the other four gardens are spectacular. The natural garden rivals any of the best in Japan in my opinion, and the clear day views of mount Hood are breath-taking (apparently this is a mostly Winter treat, as Summer haze hides the distant mountain from view we have heard). This is another spiritually refreshing site and if I lived near Portland I’d be a member and revisit every time the seasons change, though I’d recommend finding days when it will not be mobbed. We were inspired to try adding more Japanese garden elements to our own property when we get the chance, and the book shop the garden captured a fair amount of our money for books on how to do that.

MobileMe Gallery of pictures of the Japenese Gardens

Erci was having knee and back pain, so we took a small driving tour of the city, accidentally touring some of the warehouse area just East of the river then driving through Belmont and Hawthorne.

Later, we visited Pioneer Place, and got called by her Dad asking when we’d be landing tomorrow… which surprised us, as we’d both been thinking we had another full day in Portland before flying to Cupertino. Turns out we were wrong and suddenly it dawned on us that our last day in Portland was already mostly gone! Yikes… We did not get to see the Raphael exhibit at the Portland Art Museum! There goes our opportunity to have the full quartet of ninja turtles viewed in a few months…

We got to ride Max for free to Persian House for an excellent dinner of Fessenjan (Persian chicken with pomegranate sauce) and amazing Persian Baklava (pistachios), then we rode Max back to Pioneer Square (where I finally saw the beaver statues) and another free Max ride back to the hotel.

Have I mentioned how excellently cool it is to have free public transit in a downtown area?

Tuesday:

We started packing for the next leg of our trip, then had a full breakfast at The Original Dinerant, a classic American diner with attitude. We dropped off a box of books at the post office for shipping home so we would not have to lug them around, then we picked up some Voodoo Doughnuts to take with us on the drive back to Seattle. The drive back was picturesque and we flew out of SEATAC for San Francisco.

We certainly have to go back to Portland, as we missed the famous art museum and many other sights. It was fantastic to reconnect with Bob, Andy, and Michelle after many years.

Seattle details after the jump…

Wednesday, November 18th:

Our first and second Virgin America flights were fun, and we had better service and more comfort than we’ve had on United for years. The coach seats on the A320 were only slightly wider, but that was enough to let my shoulders relax; which is a huge difference on a cross-country flight. The “VA-Red” entertainment system is sensible and easy to use and has no proprietary lock-in crap. Standard headphones plug in, standard household power plugs are available, free DISH TV and a selection of free internet content derived video is available; there are also free internet radio stations and a free selection of Virgin music to listen to. Movies and most snacks/meals/drinks are pay as you go (which seems to be a general theme for the airline), but that lets them focus on quality. The $8 cheese and fruit snack is the best meal I’ve had on a plane since I last flew Midwest Express (something like 15 years ago). We paid a few bucks for our one checked bag, and that pushes light travelers to do carry-on only; which means there are fewer checked bags to go through and you wait less time at the carousel. As with all small airlines, connecting flights at the same airline are essentially co-located meaning we did not have to race through miles of airport to get our connecting flight.

We stayed at the lovely Alexis Hotel (Kimpton) in downtown Seattle, half way between Pike’s Place and Pioneer Square. The Alexis is a lovely hotel with a martini bar themed like a bookstore and a restaurant themed like library. Access to several bus routes is excellent and walking to many attractions is easy.

We walked around the hotel, and stumbled into Nijo Sushi Bar & Grill‘s 5th anniversary (partially just to get out of the wind and rain); whole 720ml bottles of saki were all half priced, and their happy hour appetizers were steeply discounted. I finally found a place that serves Kalbi (Korean short ribs) in a sauce like Harvey Yuh made when I was stationed at Hickam in the mid-1980s! I have been sampling Kalbi for decades trying to find a recipe similar to Harvey’s excellent one, and this is the first time I found it! Sunomono, Poke, and Unagi were all delicious, and we left much warmer and feeling amazed at such a discovery made by chance.

While walking in the general direction of Pike’s Place, just trying to stay awake for the shift to West coast time, we stumbled into World Spice Market, where we scored some excellent bulk spices, then wandered around Pike’s Place Market after most shops were closed (very interesting people there after hours) and it was quiet, though we did score some tasty Chukar Cherries. We got lost trying to find a local coffee house called Local Color (which we later located), but ducked into a branch of Seattle’s Best to get out of the wind and rain again, excellent haven.

Thursday, the 19th:

We started walking towards Pioneer Square but hunger and the driving wind and rain forced us to detour to Cherry Street Coffee on Cherry Street. Cherry Street turned into one of the best finds in Seattle; excellent breakfasts, excellent coffee! Beautiful heart design in my foam; yum. Fantastic. We canceled plans for Pioneer Square (mostly outdoors) due to rain and wind (umbrella busting gusts to 30 knots).

We walked around Pike’s Place again, this time during the hustle and bustle of late morning; Erci had a belt made on the spot, and we had fogged in views of the West Seattle peninsula (which looked like an island in the rain and fog). Apparently the crowd we experienced is nothing like Summer and fair weather crowds, but it was plenty busy for our tastes.

Of course we made an original Starbucks pilgrim visit, and I discovered I love their warm cider (love everything about Starbucks except the coffee, but married to an addict). We stopped at Athenian for lunch (halibut po boy, Athenian seafood bowl – fabulous). Stunned by the excellent seafood in what appeared to be a simple Greek/America diner. Our next stop/rain dodge was the Seattle Art Museum (Michealangelo, Alexander Calder, visiting medieval art, and one amazing painting called “Gathering Storm” by Lin Onus). Mark picked us up and we met Burcu for dinner at Mashiko Sushi and Sashimi by Hajime Sato; wow, what an experience! This place served the best sushi I have ever had, and I lived in Japan for three years and then visited for five weeks in 2005. Thank you Hajime, Mark, and Burcu for a fabulous evening! California street in West Seattle rocks, it is a very walkable/livable neighborhood.

Friday, the 20th:

We liked Cherry Street Coffee so much, we hit the branch by the Seattle Art Museum, and it was fantastic again; this time we had a more common tulip design in our foam. Then we went next door to Ancient Grounds (coffee and antiques, kimonos, shibori scarves) and then a few doors down to a fancy Japanese Paper shop where we ended up talking to a former DC native who had moved to Seattle like Mark and Burcu and Dmitri and Michelle.

Starbucks chain stores are always handy for clean bathrooms in a pinch and mango juice. Toys in Babeland is excellent, safe adult toys, well lit, educational, nice workshop calendar, sex-positive, safety aware. We got caught in more rain walking back through main shopping district near the convention center. We enjoyed a delicious seafood (notice a theme here?) lunch at Steelhead Diner (sockeye salmon and mussels in purgatory, both fantastically delicious). The place has a fascinating bar where the bottles are lighted from below and they have fly fishing lures in glass cases as decorations.

We walked around Pike’s Place again (and keep finding new things), and then stopped briefly for Fran’s Chocolates in the very fancy lobby of the Four Seasons Hotel, their salted caramels are simply amazing! I must order more, for I think I found a new favorite chocolate variety. After a brief rest at the hotel we had an excellent dinner with Mark and Burcu at Ray’s Boathouse, again, very good seafood!

I finally realized that travel on all public transportation within the downtown zone is completely free! Damn! I wish I had figured that out earlier… the walk up the hill could have been avoided… sigh.

Saturday, the 21st:

We had a simple breakfast in the hotel, then packed and checked out, but left our car and luggage with the hotel for later and finally caught the free bus over to the Seattle Monorail which we rode over to the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum. EMP was much better than expected, the history of guitars exhibit is wonderful; the expected homage to Seattle alumni Hendrix and Nirvana are both very good, and they have the spinner (police cruiser) from Blade Runner hanging in the lobby! The SciFi Museum was better than expected too; only slightly tacky, lots of fun. Stuff from original Battlestar, Dune, Blade Runner, Trek, books, comics, a very eclectic collection. Visiting exhibit Gelatine Lux was wierd and strange and not quite as wonderful as I’d hoped, but more science fiction like than expected and lovely.

We caught a bus back to hotel for free (love fare-free zones), picked up our luggage and car, and headed for Portland stopping for a quick lunch at a Red Robin somewhere near Tacoma. It was a beautiful drive through Western Washington State along I-5, and the weather gradually cleared as we left Seattle.

We both fell in love with Seattle. Excellent coffee and seafood everywhere, micro environments in each neighborhood, each with it’s own vibe/feel/culture. Excellent music scene (though we did not get out at all, reading the local free papers exposed us to plenty of live music venues with shows on either side of our visit.
Despite four days of gusty driving wind and rain, never seeing any mountains at all, and completely missing Yujin (she was in Portland when we were in Seattle) and Dmitri and Michelle (they were both ill and unwilling to share the germs), we loved Seattle and could live in this amazing and interesting place. We will definitely come back to see and do more.

We stayed at Brookshire Suites in the Inner Harbor area (small, but clean with excellent service) and used their complimentary shuttle service to get over to Fells Point for dinner and back. We enjoyed drinks at the hotel, and then a quiet dinner at Louisiana Restaurant (rich, pricey, but delicious) the first night.

We walked over to the Maryland Science Center to see the Leonardo da Vinci the Genius exhibit (which is inspiring, and on display until January 31st, 2010). We also got to see an egg drop competition, hot air trash bags floating in the atrium, blue crabs, dinosaur bones, and all kinds of hands on science exhibits and displays. We continued walking to the Rusty Scupper for a fun lunch and then meandered back through the Inner Harbor doing a little shopping at La Mesa (nice cotton clothing, interesting weaves, unfinished website).

We somehow managed to be indoors through Saturday afternoons biggest downpours of rain; which was a lucky break. We napped a bit and then walked over to the main event: Rodrigo y Gabriela in concert at Rams Head Live!. The venue is really nice, but standing room only. You can get very close to the performing artists; and they have drinks and food; but there is no reservation system other than what the crowd comes up with on the fly, and you’d best be wearing very comfortable shoes. No cameras allowed, and they require you to check any you may bring accidentally. Interestingly this did not seem to apply to cell phones and other flash-less devices… so I suspect they don’t want flashes distracting the artists.

The opening act was Rocco DeLuca (on his own, no band), and he was spectacular. I’d never heard of him, though several of his songs were familiar. This opening act alone would have been worth the trip to Baltimore for a weekend; we liked him so much we bought his CD and I was happy just to see him play live at about 30 feet (amazing guitar technique).

Rodrigo y Gabriela were even more astounding. I think this was the best concert I have seen (and I have seen Jethro Tull and The Who when they were in their prime). The amazing skill at which they play their guitars is astounding and inspirational. Also – I’d only ever heard them and seen a few videos at very low resolution; so I was pleasantly surprise to discover that both are very beautiful people. They played most of their new album, 11:11 and some of their big hits from previous albums. Beautiful, talented, authentic, sublime. I cried. The crowd was a very interesting mix; so Rodrigo y Gabriela clearly connect with an eclectic mix of fans of many ages and demographic groups.

After the show we were famished and we managed to get into Ruth’s Chris just before they closed; and so we got a very quiet and romantic meal in a mostly empty restaurant. A short walk back to the hotel to collapse for the night finished our Saturday.

Sunday we checked out of the hotel and drove back to Virginia on a gloriously sunny Fall day that inspired us to stay outside and taste wines at La Grange (a few miles from our house) where you can sit outside and enjoy the crisp Fall air.

You can get a taste of Rodrigo y Gabriela on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8dPso79Z9I