July 31, 2007 Orvieto
Orvieto was a great place to site see. We started by going down St. Patrick's well. Great views in this area of the town. The well was made in the 16th century when Rome was sacked and the pope needed a place to flea. (My elementary history lesson for you!). The well was built because there wasn't a water source...the town is on top of a hill. It was inspired by a well built in Ireland. It features a double helix stairway pattern- all traffic is one way, so those going down never had to go against traffic.
Next we headed to the Duomo. We admired the beautiful Basilica over a nice gelato.
We also did laundry today at a laundry mat. It was a nice break from hand washing our clothes in the sink! There was an italian man who did the work for us. He gave us tips on where to buy wine. We walked to the New Town, Orvieto where I bought 3 bottles of the Orvieto Classico for less than 1/2 the price it would have been in the Old Town. We bought food for a picnic lunch. We had a nice LONG city walk...we weren't lost, it was totally planned :)
We planned our trip to Rome this evening. Tried to get some sleep because our HUGE task tomorrow is to cover Rome in a DAY! I didn't think it would be a problem getting sleep, except that the MOB was right below us. Well, okay, maybe not, but my imagination got the better of me. This man, who sounded like Andre the Giant, was talking/yelling at these other men...and my imagination could only tell me that it was the mob and they were doing their business! So, what did I do?? #1 Freaked out and #2 took an Ativan (okay #3 took a second Ativan 15 minutes later). Thank you Dr. M for that nice prescription for the airplane ride!
July 30, 2007 Another traveling day...
We headed to Florence and Orvieto today. Since it was Monday, many of the sites were closed in Florence. We decided to skip this city and take the train to Orvieto. We arrived in Orvieto. Found a room. This was a "Bed NO Breakfast." We stayed at Valentina's. I never actually met "Valentina", only her assistant Karmen. We had to barter for the price of this room.
Tonight, we had a feast at Antonico Bucchero's Restorante. Our meal was delicious!
Antipasti: Bruschetta with tomato, zucchini, deli meats, and a vinagrette/oil
Noodle Dish: Tortelloni in tomato-based sauce
Main Dish: Lamb
and Orvieto wine (my favorite!)
We visited with a couple of Aussie gals during the trip to Orvieto. I quickly became jealous that they were spending 9 weeks in Europe (and had just come from Greece). Jim about died when he heard they were vacationing that long.
July 29, 2007
We woke up later than anticipated today. Our plan was to hike the 5 towns. We quick had breakfast at Cristianna's bar. Jim had a croissant with marmalade and fresh squeezed OJ. I had a creme-filled croissant and cappuccino.
We began our hike in Montorosso (#5)
around 1200. We hiked to Vernazza (#4). This was a bit of a difficult hike and it would have been better to get an earlier start. Needless to say, the views were breathtaking. We had lunch in Vernazza and hiked from Vernazza to Corneglia. This was more difficult. Once we got to Corneglia, we decided to be done and skip the "easy romantic" walk to #2 and #1. We were so exhausted, our legs were shaking.
We spent
the rest of the evening at the beach again. Saw another amazing sunset. And off to sleep...
July 28, 2007
We made it to today! Took the bus to the train station. We didn't pay for the bus (figured we'd paid enough for the taxi last night). Back on the train, we went from Milano to Genova to Monterosso (Cinque Terre town #5). At Monterosso, we took a milk run train to Cornelgia. Then a bus up to town.
The population of Corneglia is 240. It is a small and colorful villiage. Fewer tourists stay in this town compared to the other 4. We headed to Cristianna Ricci's bar and she showed us to our room. The room was very small, but the view was absolutely amazing! Some of the most spectacular views were right outside the window. There are no sand beaches in Cornelgia, only rocks. The sun set behind the mountains as we enjoyed a bottle of the local white wine. Although the travel to this beautiful place was a BIT confusing, we were so happy to enjoy a vacation from our vacation.
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July 27th: Last day in Paris!
Today, we packed our bags at La Guriere. Plans for today are to spend the day in Paris seeing a last few sights, then head to Genoa Italy (to spend the night, and then get to Cinque Terre Italy tomorrow). On our way out the door of our B&B we met Ryan and Iris from Los Angeles. They just came from Cinque Terre, and gave us some tips for our vacation there. Then hea
ded to the market- lots of stuff there...looked for some gifts, but no such luck. Then We went to the Arc de Triomphe. The Arc honors all who fought in Napoleon's wars. Napoleon himself is actually buried here, along with other famous French people. The tomb of the unknown soldier is here. We were here just a few days from the end of the Tour de France...this is where the riders finish. The ride around the arc on the craziest street I have ever seen! 12 boulevards enter onto this street containing to street signs, lines, or any traffic signal
s that I could see. We watched in amazement as cars managed their way around the circle without crashing!
We ended with a nice walk down the Champs de Elysses. Walked into a few stores including Peugeot and Mercedes. Then were tired, so we sat on a picnic bench and people watched through a little sprinkle storm. And read about our next destination....Italy!!
At the end of the day, we made it to the train station and hopped on our train to Genoa Italy. Our first EuroStar ride! We were going so fast, it was hard to believe that we made it to Italy in 4 hours! Midnight came, and we were at our destination. Walked off the train, went through customs...and Jim gets a weird feeling. He looks around and says, "Aleycia, I don't think we are where we want to be." I look around and reassure him that we are exactly where we want to be. Shortly after, we head outside to begin to look for our hotel (which the French woman said would be "right across the tracks"). No hotel to be found. Then I see it...and discover...we are NOT...where we want to be.... I look ahead and see Swiss Security Guards! We are in Geneve Switzerland! The French lady booked us to Geneve, not Genoa. The good news is that we have a hotel booked in Geneve. We look around, attempt to use the phones, ask for directions...and still can't figure out where the hotel is. So, at 1am Jim decides we will just take a taxi to our hotel. The taxi lady was very nice, and asked us how long we were staying in Geneve. We said overnight. She said, "Why are you staying so far from the train station?" Turns out the French lady had booked us a hotel right across the border into Geneve, France! Oh, we were sick of the French by that time! Well, 35euros later we were in our hotel, lights out, and sleeping on the hardest mattress ever! Tomorrow couldn't come soon enough!!
July 26th: More Paris!
Day 2 in Paris! Slept in late (10:00am) at La Gurniere. Micheline had a carbohydrate cuisine for us: Bread, Croissants, yogurt, juice, & caffe. After getting ready, we headed for Gare de Lyon (the train station) to make reservations to Genoa, Italy. A very nice French lady kindly booked our reservation. After this errand, we headed to the Louvre...and
EXPERIENCED the Louvre!
The Louvre is Europe's oldest, biggest, greatest, and second-most-crowded museum (after the Vatican). The museum is housed in a 16th century palace, and has this cool glass pyramid in the center. We downloaded Rick Steve's audio guide on my ipod to help us navigate through the 12 miles of museum.
A few of the famous masterpieces...
This is
La Venus De Milo. She's an ancient greek statute who is supposed to depict the Goddess of love and beauty. She lost her arms, can you guess what they were doing??
Next is Da Vinci's
Mona Lisa.
The painting was so much smaller than I imagined. "Lady Lisa" is very mysterious...is she smiling or frowning? Very crowded place to be!
Here are Michelangelos' Slaves.
There's the
Dying Slave and the
Rebellious Slave.
Well, we were at the Louvre all day until it closed, and still only saw 1 of the 3 wings of art! It was so exciting! Where next??
We grabbed a quick bite to eat (Baguette and sweets) and headed to Pont Neuf and caught the 8pm cruise on the Seine River. Saw all the beautiful sights of Paris including the Orsay Museum, Eiffel Tower, Ro
yal Palace, Napoleon's Palace, Notre Dame, and heard the history of the old bridges. Under this bridge, we had to make a wish, then kiss someone for it to come true! Try kissing someone and taking a photo at the same time while concentrating very hard on your wish!!
After our lovely cruise we walked to the Eiffel Tower. Waited in line for about 30 minutes and headed up to the top level. Breath-taking views from the top, and it was so beautiful at night. The tower is lit up at night, and every so often the strobe lights come on...very cool!
Once we set foot on ground again, we ran to catch the midnight train back to La Gurniere. Note: the Metro is often hidden!
July 25th: Paris!
La Gurniere- our B&B
We made it to Paris! Very little sleep, but we're in Paris!! Took a nice walk from the train station down to the Old City- where everything is. Figured out the subway system, which was amazin
gly easy, and we headed to Micheline and Jean Paul's (our B&B for the next 2 nights). Micheline had renovated an old trashed home over the course of 5 years...and here is the beautiful B&B today! Hard to believe that this was located right in the city!
We did the Ri
ck Steve's self-guided walking tour of Paris. Was a good orientation to the city. Saw some of the great places like Notre Dame. Very Interesting! Did I mention that you have to pay to use the WCs? Usually about .50-1euro. The public WCs are gross, so we got pretty good at walking into restaurants like we owned them, using the WC, and leaving. Sometimes we'd think that we were spotted, so we'd buy a soda or something! Here are a couple pictures of Notr
e Dame. Important to watch for pick pockets in the touristy areas- especially Notre Dame. People would come up and ask, "Excuse me, do you speak English," then hold up a sign for us to read. Then while people would read the sign, their chances of being pick pocketed were greatly increased. We just started shaking our heads "No" when someone would approach us. But, didn't have much to worry about since we each had money belts on and there was nothin
g in our pockets.
Paris is divided in half by the Seine River. There are some 36 bridges connecting the two sides. EVERY bridge is named after someone. This one is Alexander the Great's Bridge. Other bridges included Pont Neuf and Princess Diana's Bridge.
We mainly picnicked in Paris. First shopped for groceries at the market- baguettes, cheese (didn't pick the tastiest cheese), fruit, and THE BEST yogurt. Oh, I miss European yogurt. How do the French stay so skinny when their diets consist of mostly bread, cheese, and desserts? (From what I saw, I guess). My take on it... they must skip meals and supplement with smoking. Everybody smokes.
Exhausted, we made it an early evening at La Guriniere.
