The Eternal City: Day 2

Day 2 was another screamer. We had booked a 9:45 am timeslot at the Vatican Museum and Sistene Chapel, which by the way, was an excellent idea because it saved us hours in line in the blistering sun and gave us the sinful satisfaction of strutting to the front and going in like a rockstar.

Anyway, we had to wake up early, breakfast, and scoot. We passed briefly by Piazza Navona and decided to come back later. We made our way through a winding narrow street to the Ponte d'Angelo. This is one of the many bridges that cross the Tevere river and is lined with huge Bernini statues of angels: each one different from the last.

At the end of the bridge is the Castelo D'Angelo built by Hadrian around the year 150 AD. This is the prison castle that Bienvenuto Cialini escaped from in the 15th century. All this was amazing and overwhelming but it was just the tip of the iceberg. Turn left and there before us, the Vatican City and St. Peter's Basilica. We assumed a quick step as the museum entrance is around the back, about a quarter mile away. There were huge crowds milling all around, which would somehow double and then triple as the day wore on.

When we arrived at the museum entrance, well more like three blocks away from it, everyone came to an abrupt halt. The whole crowd was craning and looking around to see what the hell was causing the back up. This caused a slight panic that was quickly put to rest as a helpful worker person came asking if anyone had pre-booked tickets. Ho ho! So we popped out of the slow line into the express line with a collective groan from the idiots who didn't book online. Step right through into another hall of people and then into another line and finally you're in the museum. Yeah, another huge museum filled with priceless statues, tapestries and paintings. Amazing architecture, marble everywhere, and loads of Americans. I really liked the maps of Italy hall: super old frescoes painted all over the walls, of all the different regions of Italy. It was funny to overhear the familiar voices of Americans; honestly, in two days here in Rome we heard and saw more Americans than in our entire trip combined... a thousand times over.

Wizz bang, through the Rafael's, more crazy old paintings and statues and bam! Sistene Chapel. Yep, old Mike himself, and Adam and God and a whole other ceiling full of colorful dudes and chicks doing different stuff. It's just like in the art history books except really crowded with everyone looking up and pointing and saying really intelligent things like, "How long do you think it took?" and, "Jesus Bill, the guy said no pictures!" Anyway, I was impressed and it felt cool to see it in person; it made it feel so real.

Well, we reconnoitered outside the building at the hotdog cart and the boys got hotdogs. I got a Budweiser. No open container laws; you can just waltz around outside the walls of Vatican City drinking in public, thank God.

We were pretty spent by then and the sun was hotter and the crowds even bigger. There were long lines to get into St. Peter's with like 100 people in each, just to get through security. I said screw this and we split. [Editor's Note: much to my dismay!] However by some Vatican miracle, just as we rounded the corner, I spotted a security dude all alone... no line. No way, but let's see what happens. Sure enough, go on right ahead Mr. ImportantDude, and have a nice day. So we were in [Editor's Note: much to my delight!] but the crowds were crazy and there were chairs all set up and a band and stage and what? The Pope! Yeah, old Benedicto himself, all wavy and white. He came rollin' through in the Popemobile cart and then split. After, we noticed some signs in Italian that said Benedicto XVI blah, blah and put it together: security, people, midday mass, ah ha, light bulb.

Now, security was shooing us away and St. Peter's was closed for who knows how long, and honestly we would have gone had Diego not needed to use the toilet. In my best Italian, I asked the copper if my kid could use the bathroom. He immediately replied, "yes, go there," pointed to a long line of people and said sternly in perfect English, "Go right in, don't wait in line!" Okay dude. This gave us the perfect excuse to hang back while all the crowds were swept off. When we came out, the cop was gone and there was a lull in the atmosphere. Just then, they opened up St. Peter's again to the public. Across the courtyard, a steady flow of people began barging the gates. We acted swiftly. We crossed the courtyard through a temporary alley the crew was using to put away the hundreds of chairs, and in a flash, we were in with the first few hundred folks to get into St. Peter's.

St. Peter's Basilica. I tell ya, we were all worn out and I really didn't want to go in. Well, it was pretty incredible. More huge statues by really famous people and just gold and ornate. There was a massive wooden altar, a museum, and a positively gigantic throne. Of course, a zillion snappy tourists as well, which we were a part of. I asked a security guy if we could get any holy water here and he told us to check around the corner, but that it was probably closed. Behind one giant metal prison-like door was a huge marble bathtub. I thought that must be it. Oh well. We were about to leave when I saw a much smaller birdbath-like basin out in the main area... sort of camouflaged up against a wall. No one seemed to be taking any notice of it as it seemed puny and weak compared to all the other stuff around. However, in this little basin was probably the most powerful stuff around. 100% vampire wounding holy water baby! Blessed by the Pope and everything. So, I opened up the empty bottle I brought just for this purpose and scooped up a few ounces. Inevitably, this was seen by some of the more observant sheep and caused quite an excitement. I glanced over my shoulder as we left to see a swarm converging on this not-obscure-any-longer basin.

Back outside in the heat of the day, we decided to find gelato. Our quest took us back to Piazza Navona, to a busy little shop. We ate the scoops in the sun overlooking the crowded plaza and huge fountain in the middle. Then we took an hour break before heading out again. Gasp! Hey, we had to make the most of it and were fueled by gelato and café.

This time we started by making our way to the Trevi Fountain, about a five minute walk from our pad. I am sure you know the legend of the fountain, so suffice to say, we chucked in our coins and ensured our return trip to Rome. Here we also found a small church on the corner and went in. The boys wanted to light a prayer candle so I got one from the priest and said thanks. He asked if I was here with my family (all in Italian mind you) and told me to go up front. Okay, you don't argue with a priest. So another priest pops out of a little door with a bible and a cross wrapped in bay leaves. He asked me if I knew "Our Father." I said yes and he replied, "go on then." I did my best to remember what I could, and by the time I got to "name" he held up his hand in a signal that that was sufficient. He took it from there. He blessed us in Italian first and then in English, touched our foreheads with the cross, and that was that. We had just been blessed. [Editor's Note: Although we aren't Catholic or Christian, it was a moving and lovely experience for us all.]

Now it was time to head for the Spanish Steps... Located about ten minutes by foot from Trevi fountain, these famous old steps were heavily clad with tourists like ornaments on a tree. Diego and I climbed to the top and raced down again, nearly bashing at least three different groups in our carelessness.

Another ten minutes further and two more churches later, we were at the Piazza Popolo. This Piaza houses a huge Egyptian obelisk in the middle of the square surrounded by a fountain. At the four corners of the square were almost identical churches. We went into three. In the last one, Isaiah and I inadvertently crossed some sort of barrier we weren't supposed to. Oops. Before a kindly old priest politely asked us to leave, we saw a beautiful Caravaggio painting of Michelangelo on the wall... rad.

On the way home, we had more gelato becasue we had to. We passed Augustus mausoleum, (remember King Mausolos?) and looked into a final church where we found an African priest giving a mass in Latin. We sat for awhile with a couple other people in this old church. The priest took a wafer and a bit of wine and wiped the glass clean with a cloth before we left and the others went forward for communion. We limped the final twenty minutes home fully worn out and starving.

We got back to our B&B around 8pm and reserved a table in the ground floor restaurant. We ate steak, pasta with clams, salad, pork chops, potatoes and wine. We hauled out of there for gelato one last time in Rome and again passed out.

One hell of a two day itinerary, especially with two kids in tow. We pretty much went at our own pace though... the exception being the morning of the Vatican, and if we were worn out at the end of the day, we had good reason. We left Rome wishing we had been here a week or three, but glad we didn't just pass it up without a glance.

Next up: Tuscany and AsvaNara

The Eternal City: Day One

Bye bye PiraPora. We left Tropea at 11:30 pm aboard a long ten-coach train. We had secured 4 berths in a sleeper car all to ourselves; it was a bit crowded but comfy. The night passed quickly and we were in Rome around 7 am, multi-tasking perfection. A short taxi ride from Termini Station to our place at City House B&B and we had stored our bags by 8 am; check-in was not till 1pm so we set off ready to tackle some sights.

This we did. Around every corner lurks some statue, monument or church. So even if you have it all mapped out you can't help but bump into something unexpected. At every chance we got we ducked into small churches. Big vaulted ceilings and ornate decor in every one. Slowly we made our way towards the Colosseum. Past huge statue crusted monuments and ancient remnants of once-were's and we finally ended up on Palatine Hill. This all took about an hour walking at a snail's pace. Here at Palatine hill we bought combo tickets for the Forum, Colosseum and Palatine Hill. This turned out to be smart as we only had to wait in line about ten minutes rather than the tourturous hour long wait at the Colosseum. Palatine Hill was cool but Rome is so jampacked with ancient stuff, it is just another group of monuments next to a dozen other immensely old famous stuff. The arch of Titus was cool and so was the arch of Constantine.

Well everyone was ready for the Colosseum. We were glad about those combo tickets when we saw the line to get in, I tell ya. We got in no problem, no wait and were soon looking into the courtyard itself. It was as amazing as you might think it would be... as well as crowded and hot. We got up to the second level, saw a very smug Rick Steves smiling like an idiot at his camera crew and decided to split and get gelato. We made our way slowly back stopping for pizza and ice cream before taking a few hours rest at our B&B.

Then we headed to the Pantheon. It had been closed earlier but it was now open and swelling with camera laden gawkers. This building is one of the best preserved of ancient construction. It was built by Agrippa and remade by Hadrian after a fire in 118 AD. It is still in really good condition and has a domed roof with a large round skylight (25ft) that lets light in and shines up the place. The walls are lined with larger than life statues and other fancy stuff. From here we meandered around with no apparent purpose and poked into every church we came across that wasn't in mass. There are hundreds of them and we saw about nine this day. For us, this was the hidden gem of Rome. Every church is different and decked out like a museum. Statues and paintings, frescoes and gold everywhere; they were over the top but beautiful.

We decided to eat. Our bellies full of gelato (again), we wandered over the Tevere river to the neighborhood of Trastevere. This area is a bit less touristy and has more of an actual neighborhood feeling to it. Our walk to get there took about a half an hour and by this time we were hungry again so we ate at a little Italian restaurant. Since we were in this neck of the woods, we tried to find Trastevere Piazza and its Chiusa de Santa Maria di Trastevere, another famous piazza and church. It was almost dark when we got there and just as we entered the church they began the pre-mass organ music. We sat and listened for a bit before slowly walking home thinking to ourselves, "how could a city where everyone eats ice cream all the time be bad?" We hit the sheets and passed out cold.

Stay tuned for Day Two...

Fossil Dig!

We are leaving this region of Calabria soon, Monday night to be precise. While we didn't see all too much of the area, we did have some real fun. Just hanging around and working and eating with the owners of PiraPora has been great. Getting to know the carpenters and other staff who help out during the tourist season was also cool. But it is time to go; Rome and Tuscany are calling and we, like obediant Djinn, must answer.

The weather here finally got sunny and hot again the other day. This is good. It allowed us to tackle some of the big outside projects that have been waiting for fair skies. It also allowed us to shed our sweaters and stocking caps. The projects we are trying to wrap up are, help plant ten million vegetable starts, and fence and enclose a chicken yard suitable for 600 chickens. Hey, we have like 10 hours to get it done, so, no problem.

Giovanni is the primary cook come tourist time, and also the brewmaster on off days. Down in the laboratorio he cranks out 100 litres of homebrew at a time. Usually every three weeks or so. This is good too. The water he uses comes from a village about a ten minute drive from here, San Giovanni or something like that. See, the water is much fresher and bubbles out of a spring, better for the beer.

Anyway, we went to the spring, bottled the water for transport and while it sped back to PiraPora for brewing, we set off on foot in the opposite direction along a muddy old ruined road to find fossils. The road winds through ancient olive groves and finally comes to an end at an old limestone quarry about 15 minutes from the spring by foot. Here a giant cliff is exposed showing signs that numerous tractor loads of limestone have been carted off. A closer look revealed fossils. Thousands upon thousands of fossilized sea creatures. 500 meters above sea level, thats like 1500 feet or so. After an hour of digging around we had amassed a decent collection. The stand outs were two giant old volcano shaped sand dollar relatives. Isaiah found one imbedded in a large boulder. It took about 5 minutes to free it intact. We were told by the folks here that they are exceedingly rare and probably around 2 million years old. That was pretty much the highlight of the week; that and the sun appearing.

At this point in the trip almost everything we own has holes in it or has been mended at least once, my work pants nine times I think. We have salvaged at least one nice outfit each that we don't even look at unless it's for travel and visits to the bigger towns on days off. Our muscles ache, our necks are sunburnt, and we each have many new scars, but it is great. Truly.

We will return to the city we love on June 13th!

Next up: Overnight train to Rome! Vatican City and the Colosseum.

Buona Pasqua

I know it is a bit late for an Easter blog, but the Interweb was wonky and well, you get the idea.

So, Easter is probably the biggest holiday for Italy; maybe Christmas is bigger but Easter is a big deal. Here it is celebrated with all sorts of church things, as well as an immensely huge feast on Easter Monday. So Sunday we had tons of work in the kitchen washing dishes and prepping food for 77 guests and family. Yikes. And that went fine: good food and a really great time in the kitchen with the Italian staff. We were blessed to sit at the family table and enjoyed the thoroughly Italian experience.

On Monday, the Italians, or Calabrians, as they are proud to announce down here, arrived for lunch. The whole morning was spent preparing food. Antipasta, two pasta courses, pork leg slow roasted in a wood oven and countless other tasks. We were to host 75 this time and only for lunch. They began to arrive around 1pm in their obviously expensive cars. Immediately their presence was felt as high fashion and arm charms guzzled wine and beer and loud chit chat was overheard from the heated kitchen.

The courses came rolling out just as promised, and were promptly devoured almost as they hit the table. There were a large amount of bambini crying about, big hair and gold everywhere. When the pork finally emerged from the oven everyone popped out cameras and started paparazzing. After two or three hours of eating and maybe 25 litres of wine, the guitar was born. All the luncheon party began to sing songs of the region, canciones Calabrese. Nice. It was fun to listen to as we washed and dried and put up hundreds of dishes.

One ominous fellow overheard me speaking English in the bowels of the kitchen and approached me with a stern Hello. He was curious what we as Americans were doing so far south here. I was curious about the huge half moon scar on his face. Needless to say my curiosity did not seek an answer.

Everyone all full up from wine and food spilled outside for more drinks and song. This lasted till around 5pm or so when everyone gave a hearty Ciao and lunged into their cars to speed off to God knows where. All except one poor fellow in a brilliant black Armani. He had the unfortunate religious experience of the technicolor yawn right there in the carpark. He was cool though; after paying his respects he promptly alerted andiamo, jumped into the driver's seat and sped off, sending the limestone flying. A colorful bunch those southerners.

We are looking forward to our last few days here at lovely PiraPora. And also ahead to AsvaNara, the horse farm near Arezzo. We will also spend a couple days in Rome and Florence. From there we will finally say goodbye to Europe, Asia and Africa and hello once again to... Jamacia! What!!! Yeah, we figured after such a grueling year away from home we should do ourselves a favor and lounge on the beach for a couple weeks.

Haters gonna hate.

Peaches and cream baby.

Love and Peace to all!

[Editor's Note: the picture was taken of a creche in a cave at the bottom of the rock wall holding up Tropea... leftover from Christmas and a real treat to see at the end of the 198 steps we walked down to reach the beach.]

Mama Mia!

It is nice to have a birthday; it means you have survived another year on the planet and beaten the odds. Well, Big C had a good one this year. I think she reached the point where you stay the same age each year, maybe not. [Editor's Note: Absolutely not. I am happy to be 37 and won't stop counting for a long time yet.] Anyway we all went into Tropea for the day. We usually don't have weekdays off but we worked extra the previous week in exchange for a few days off around her birthday. This was worth it, but the work was hard. Not like mentally challenging, like chain gang, cool hand Luke hard. Sifting and moving 4 yards of limestone gravel and spreading it all over using my wheelbarrow. My good old carryola. Anyway, off to Tropea we went.

The weather cooperated and it turned out to be a beautiful day. We ate pizza and gelato, chilled out on the beach, checked out some old cathedrals and snuck glances at the Al Pacino's in their track suits adorned with gold chains. It was super fun.

Since we are not close to any gift stores we decided to make presents this time. Isaiah made a wooden bookmark that said I Love My Mom on it. Diego made a mosaic drawing on a card that had nice things to say about mom. I made a small statuette of a woman from a piece of old olive tree from Nonna's farm. Olive wood is insanely hard; had I known this before I started, it would have been made from pine.

The guests have arrived and are all German... maybe an Austrian family too. Lots of kids running around as if they had never been outside in their lives, or had just gained entrance to Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. We all eat together in a large restaurant in the evenings around 7. However we sit at a side table in a smaller alcove while the guests all jumble around a long table, Viking style. We sort of feel like the Patrick Swayzee's (God rest his soul) of Dirty Dancing.

We have taken to the work here and have something new to do almost every day. Cadence especially likes helping in the restaurant. The staff here are really cool. The carpenters are just like any where else: trash talkers and beer swillers. The kitchen work is good, and Stefana the chef is great. Enza does breakfast and we help with orange juice and bread. I got to work with Master Cono the builder on the pergola outside Giovanni's house. After a bit of glaring and mad dogging he said he would like to come to America and work with me there.

Pasqua is coming up this weekend and it will be very busy with guests, many Italian. Also there is all sorts of traditional food served at this time. Leg of lamb, some other stuff, and these little raisin pies that Cade helped make. Like 1,000 or so. Johnny, (thats what we call Giovanni) has had me working on this old table his uncle made a century ago trying to get it ready for the weekend. I think it will be done by 5 or 6 tomorrow. It took something like 30 days of sanding and one kilo of putty to fix up the top. Hundred year old walnut that was previously a painting in an old church; now it's the top of this old table. I signed it.

That's about it folks.

Lots of love to all our friends and family around the world! A special big love to Grandma Irene. We're thinking of you Grandma!

Springtime in Calabria

Ah, to sit and relax under an orange tree during the heat of the day. Watch the sunset over the volcanic island of Stromboli as it quietly smokes away. Take eggs from the chickens and at Nonna's lead the goats out past the olive trees to eat the fava leaves. Hike down the washout to the Marinella and cook sausages and fish right from the sea. Brave the cool Med and swim to the crashing rocks. A glass of wine with a splash of water, fresh homemade cheese from Nana, soprosseto, anduilla, zucchini pate, a rare homebrew beer, hot bread, and always extra virgin organic olive oil.

The food here is really good, mostly vegetarian, but delicious. When we do get the chance to eat fish, pork or beef, we do so like pirates, throwing ourselves into it.

We are working much as things get going and we prepare for tourists to arrive on the 15th. There is a large workcrew here at the moment: two carpenters and a mason from a neighboring village. Italian, Libyan, and Romanian. Also two cleaning ladies have arrived, one Argentinian and the other Italian. Us and the four other PiraPora owners round out the crew, and it will be a pretty tight squeeze to get everything done by said time. Besides moving boulders, chainsawing wood, burning bonfires and raking acres of grass, I have been given the task of fixing an ancient table, while Cade built a giant, rad herb spiral. The table top was shot so we looked around the farm and found an old painting on wooden planks that had lost its paint decades ago. The wood is olive and in two massive slabs. It came from an old church that was demolished 50 years ago. If the nails I pulled out tell correctly, it is pre 1820. And sitting out in the rain for decades has only given it the slightest bit of rot. So, now it is the top for the new serving table. It is almost finished and will look really cool when done. The carpenters here took a good look at it and finally approved.

We work six days a week about 5 hours a day normally. However this week we are working more to help get everything ready. This we will exchange for a few days off next week. So far on our one day off per week, which has been Sunday thus far, we have gone to the Marinella.

The Marinella is a beautiful little cove you have to walk to from the back of the train station. A well beaten path takes you down, down to the beach. About a 15 minute walk with a 3 year old. Once here we pop some beers, start a fire, grill sausages and bread, fish if we have it, and chill out all day. I guess the place is a bit more packed in the summer but so far it has just been us. This last Sunday I went swimming for a bit. The water is begining to warm from its long cool over the winter, and had I remembered my goggles, I would have stayed in for longer.

We love it here. Everyone is super cheerful and the view is postcard material. Our time is up here around May 15th. We will head north to Rome for a bit of tourism and then on to a horse farm in Tuscany that has accepted us for a couple weeks. Maybe a day or two in Sicily before we head north... we will see. Enshalla.

Hoping the best to all!

Ciao!

PiraPora

Well, here we are in the south of Italy. It was no easy task to get here. We said goodbye to our friends in Crete and boarded the ferry around 8 pm. Normally it leaves at 9 but on this occasion it waited till midnight before departure. I am guessing some military reason, seeing as Crete is so close to Libya. Anyway it didn't really matter and in fact worked out for the better for us as we got to Piraeus at 8:30 am instead of 5:30. We knew where the bus stop to the Athens airport was and were at the ticket counter by 11 am. Our flight was set to leave at 1. We arrived in Rome an hour flight later and sat around for a three hour layover in the lovely Roman airport. After faffing around for a while we flew to the little airstrip of Lamezia Terma. This flight was delayed an hour for security reasons. A short taxi ride, whose driver tried to scam us by saying the train did not go to Zambrone, took us to the train station. The scammer taxi driver turned out to be almost right as we had only 5 minutes to catch the last train of the night. It was a 40 minute train ride and about 8 pm when we were greeted by our hosts here in Italy.

There are two brothers and their respective families living on the agrotourism farm PiraPora. There are 3 really nice huge dogs and 4 kids besides our own, ages 3-16. Many kinds of fruit trees, sweet lemons like lemonade lemons, olive trees and huge garden space make up the farm here. They also farm another parcel farther down the hill from us at their parents house. Many chickens provide eggs and the farm is self sufficient enough that shopping at the store is rarely done.

It is stunning here. Quiet and peaceful, and immensely beautiful. The sea is a 20 minute walk down the hill and the train runs every hour to the south and north. We went to the ancient town of Tropea on Saturday for market shopping and just dinking around. Tropea sits up on a huge cliff above the sea some 300 feet. Super tiny streets and good gelato and pizza, although it is rather touristy. There is a museum there and an over abundance of dudes in track suits with gold chains. Really.

We have spent the first week here cutting back the hundreds of trees and burning huge bonfires. This must be done at this time of year to prevent fires in August. We are working about 4 hours a day from 8:30 or 9 til 1 or 1:30, six days a week. We take lunch together with everyone and have eaten well since our arrival, everything fresh and homemade. Sausages are made here when the pig is slaughtered and wine is made in October, 2000 litres. This is all part of our reimbursement for working. What a deal!

When we have time we go to the beach. This Sunday we will all go for the day and have a fish fry at one of their favorite places. We have til the middle of May here and plan to explore as much of the region as we can. Hopefully Sicily and Rome as well.

Everyone here is great, friendly and working together. Language is not a problem as everyone speaks English, although they speak Italian together. And now we are learning a bit of it. The tourists begin to arrive in mid April and we have much to do until then to get the place ship shape.

Ciao bella!