At Last

Finally an intrnet connection we can work with and maybe get this thing updated somewhat.  I'm sitting in a wonderful hotel room in a part of Rome called Trastevere away from the madness of central Rome.  It really has the feel of an old village and is only a 20 minute walk from the Vatican.  All those hours at the computer looking here and there and reading reviews on all kinds of sites has really paid off.  They have all been good, but Florence and Rome are real gems.

Here are some notes that were scratched together when I wasn't able to get an internet connection on this old netbook.  It will help get us moving down the road:

Notes:.

Lucerne.  Beautiful city and a great stop for the first night.  Great hotel, comfortable, clean, staff friendly, comfortable bed, and quiet when you remember to close the window, but that left it a bit stuffy.  Fabulous breakfast, certainly far better than we would have ever seen at our original choice.

Train to Como was comfortable and wonderfully scenic.  Overcast took some of the brilliance away from the countyside, but I do know this – churches seem always built on the highest point in the town, and the Swiss do a lot of building with concrete,   Maybe it was the narrowness of the valley that brought so much of like so close to the tracks. 

Como is said to be a summer resort for the city of Milan, and it certainly does have that feel to it.  It’s also much more of a commercial hub than the reading had suggested.  Our hotel is right on the square across from the lake, which makes getting around very easy.   The first thing we noticed getting off the train was how warm it was – 75 with a very warm gusty wind.  The second was that I’d wished Rick Steve’s had written about Como in his books because he always has lots of info on how to get around.  Not knowing how far we were from the hotel, Alex, in her finest traveller’s Italian, negotiated a fare of 8 Euros to the hotel – a fine investment  of both time and money.  We dropped the bags and set off on a little tour of the surroundings.  Lunch was pizza in the piazza, eaten like the locals, with a knife and fork and no slices.  It does stretch lunch out a bit, and cuts down on consumption somewhat. 

Hotel was okay, right on the piazza across the street from the lake, which was great right up until it was time to go to bed.  I closed the ‘balcony’ doors right after Alex fell asleep, and half an hour later she woke up in a sweat, begging for some fresh air.  It was only then that we realized how loud the traffic on the main road along the water front really was  Turned out to be far less of a hindrance to Alex as she slept for nearly 10hrs, while I managed half of that.

Overall, Como was a bit of a surprise as I guess I was expecting more of a ‘resort’ town rather than one that had the feel of a real commercial center.  Wandering around the old town was fun, but it just seemed like something  was missing.  Expectations really are dangerous.  I don’t think it’s going to make my list of places to visit again, unless we were just passing through on our way to Varenna, farther up the lake.  The funicular was fun, and Alex got some great pictures from high above the town.  Dinner was a little pasta in the piazza right in front of the Duomo, which not only was good, but the people watch was fabulous.  I really love the Italians and the loud talk, both hands and lips.  Such characters – there must  be some fabulous stories sitting around the tables of those piazzas.

Saturday – another beautiful day, warm and sunny, a really bright sunny.  We debated about spending a little time in either Milan or Bologna on our way to Florence as we had most of the day and only about a two and a half hour train ride ahead of us.  What we didn’t know was that it was Saturday before Easter Week, and it seemed like every man, woman, and child was headed somewhere on the train.  We were trying to catch a 10am train to Milan and then on to Florence, and tried to buy that ticket in Como.  The only way we could make that train was in first class, and the ticketing machine wouldn’t let me purchase a ticket beyond Milan. 

In the end it all worked out fine, and we were in Florence a little after two,  having decided to forgo any side adventures along the way.  It was a really good call. 

The Milan station was an absolute zoo, pushing and shoving as too many trains were arriving and leaving at the same time.  But, as I guess happens dozens of times a day in a station that large, fifteen minutes later it was practically a ghost town until it gradually started to fill again.  We waited about an hour for our train, and by the time it was available, the rush had grown again, with folks coming and going with great determination.  Finally we learned to just put our heads down and go charging through right along side the locals.  We found our assigned car and seats just fine, and I think we both were asleep before we left the station.  I thought the jetlag was over, but maybe not.

Again, the train station was a madhouse, and after our ticketing experience in Milan – did I mention that my debit card wouldn’t work in the machine dispensing tickets and that Alex had to buy them with hers – I didn’t want to leave the station before getting our seats to Rome.  One look at the ticket line changed that idea.  We’d come back tomorrow and buy in the off hour Sunday might allow. 

I was headed for the Taxi line as I had a good idea where we staying, but not exactly and we were both to tired to get lost and walk in endless circles trying to find what was probably a poorly marked door on some sidestreet.  But my travelling companion would hear nothing of it.  She popped the address into the iPhone and we were on our way.  Fifteen minutes later with nary a wrong turn we were ringing the bell at the Dei Mori B&B.  Google it and have a look – it is a delightful place in the very best part of town for us tourist types, close to all the ‘big deals’ in Florence, and there are more than a few.  Walking past the Duomo on our way here, there were so many kids on tours from all over the world that it felt like the middle of July, and nearly that warm too.  Of course you have to remember we are from Seattle and anything more than 60 degrees this time of year screams ‘heat-wave’ to us.

Danny greeted us at the top of the stairs he affectionately calls “Montmarte” after the long flight of stairs up to Sacre Coeur in Paris, grabbing the bags to hall up another twisting part to the second floor and his really charming B&B.  Being greeted by name before you even tell him about your reservation is very impressive.  The first thing he does is sit you down on a couch, pulls up a little table, unfolds a map, and asks “What did you come to see in Florence?”.  He then gave us a little history of the city, pointed  out the highlights, and finally marked on the map the three best Gelateria’s in the city, explaining in some detail what makes them the best and all the others so bad.  This man knows his Ice Cream!  He also had a list of restaurants that he said were fair, fair priced and all served great food.  He visits them himself regularly to make sure nothing changes and said he’d be delighted to make reservations for us when we were ready.  WOW, you can’t beat that, and we would certainly take him up on his offer.

Let's try again tomorrow