Jeff & Beth website

On Saturday morning, I started the last part of the adventure to Europe.  I agreed to visit two other programs that we may send students to, one in Maastricht, in the Netherlands, and the other in Copenhagen, Denmark.  Since flying is not much fun and you don't get to see anything, I got a Eurail Pass and boarded the train.

The first leg started at 7:08 am and connected Florence and Milan.  We had been through this part of Italy before, and unlike Beth & Alli, my train was on time the whole way, getting into Milan at 10.  I walked through the station to my next train, that left at 10:25 bound for Basel, Switzerland, up near the French and German borders.

The weather was great and I took a lot of pictures from the train, but I'm afraid they do not do justice to how amazing the Alps are.  They just seem to reach straight up to the sky.  Some of the tunnels are a bit too long -- you begin to wonder after a while how any one could dig for that long.  Lots of stops in cute little towns in Italy and Switzerland, and then through some less spectacular, bigger cities in one of the flatter parts of Switzerland.  In one town the graffiti was even on the roofs of some of the buildings!

Basel is quiet and seems very Swiss.  Things are orderly, the trolleys in town are quiet, and the drivers actually pay attention to stop lights and the white lines that mark where to drive.  The train station is very nice, and I have a nice hotel (with internet) just two blocks away.

Tomorrow the train adventure continues at 11:00 when I depart for Maastricht. 

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Wednesday morning Jeff had his last class with his students at Palazzo Rucellai.  Beth and Alli came by to say their goodbyes to the staff -- really a wonderful group of people who run an excellent program, but most of all now they are our friends, and goodbyes are hard.  But we know that next year they will be ready with warm smiles and "Ciao!"

We had to do our last lunch at the Oil Shoppe, for one of Alli's favorite spicy meatball subs.  And dinner was at our favorite little place, Antellesi.  Aldo, the waiter we've known both summers, will be spending the year on study abroad program from the University of Florence to Sweden.  We're hoping maybe he'll find the chance to visit some of his family who live in New England.

Thursday morning was last minute packing and then collecting the bus to the Pisa airport.  The girls got seats and waved goodbye, and Jeff was again in a big apartment by himself.  Thursday was working on letters to all the companies that hosted the students and the beginning of grading all the projects.  Dinner was a faculty affair with the director of the Institute, the other UConn faculty member who was teaching a writing class, and two faculty who are in Italy all year -- one Dutch and the other German.  Great people and a wonderful dinner, in the crypt (that was part of the church next door) that was built (dug?) in 1000 AD.

Friday was reading and grading, so that everything would be finished when I left.  A couple of last minute errands (including mailing back 15kg of books) and then a reception for the students before they left.  Dinner was at a new place close to our apartment, Ciro and Sons Pizzeria.  Pretty nice, pizza ala Napoli, including the anchovies (sorry Alli). 

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Sunday, Beth & Alli boarded a train to Milan, and then to Turino to make their way eventually to Mt Blanc (Monte Bianca in Italian) and a glacier.  After arriving in Turino, they made the discovery that the bus to the town they were staying in, Courmayeur, was not running on Sunday.  Uh oh.

A quick call to Florence, and fast typing at Expedia, and they had a hotel room in a room that was served by the train called Aosta, and the hotel people in Courmayeur were very nice to cancel the Sunday night part of the trip.

Monday they headed out to the mountain, but it was a cloudy day and they could only get to the first level at 2200m instead of the higher one at 3100m.  But they got great pictures from there, and had an interesting lunch with some of the locals (Beth seemed to be having a very good time).

The hotel Monday night was really nice as well, and then Tuesday's trip back was okay on the bus, but this time the trains had a little trouble, and their arrival from Milan was delayed about a little over an hour.  So they were tired and hungry, and we found a new place called Pepo, and Alli apparently liked the pasta there (given how fast it disappeared). 

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On Friday we visited Herculaneum, an ancient Roman city destroyed (with Pompeii) in 79 AD.  The site is not very big, but it is full of houses and artifacts that are still mostly standing.  It is really a wonderful place to visit, and we spent hours there just walking around and looking.  It is pretty awesome to see all the modern things they had 2,000 years ago. 

We had fun taking these pictures, and will try to label more of them as we have a chance.

While we were there, a police helicopter was circling the neighborhood around the site, and spent a long time looking for someone.  After hearing some police cars, the helicopter finally left -- we hoped they caught who they were looking for.

On the walk back to the train, we stopped at a little pizza place -- Neapolitan is different from Tuscan and Alli pronounced it the best pizza of the trip.

When we got to the train station, the strike was still going on (very few people in the station), but we found a Trenitalia office that was opened, and discovered that there was a train to Florence that afternoon.  So we cancelled our hotel reservation in Naples (yea!) and rode a nice quiet train back to Florence. 

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Thursday morning we headed out to Sorrento, via a train ride to Naples, and then a ferry across the bay.  We got on the train and suddenly had problems -- other people had our seats.  Turns out that the tickets were for Wednesday and not Thursday, so we got off the train and talked to one of the conductors.  She said we were fine, just find open seats once the train started.  So we headed into the bar car, and stood there for a while.  Then we found the tables and grabbed an open table and rode all the way to Naples there (only one stop in Rome).  The conductors smiled at us each time they passed, and I'm pretty sure I know what they were thinking.

The train station in Naples is a crazy place, but then Naples is just crazy, too.  Florence is a pretty busy place, and Rome is even busier, but neither are anywhere close to Naples.  Cab drivers try to get you to come with them as you come off the train, and there are other people selling all kinds of stuff.

Since we had the wrong day for the first ticket, we also had the wrong day for the return, so we went to change them to Friday.  Got to the window and were told no -- train strike on Friday, no trains.  Uh oh.  We decided to get tickets for Saturday morning and then try to find a place to stay Friday night.

Went out to the taxi stand and got a taxi to the port where we were going to catch the ferry.  The cab driver started talking (yelling really) about the "tariff" being 15 euro and not on the meter.  Seemed odd, but 15 euro was better than walking so we said okay.  Who knows where the money went.  So we speed out of the train station, and then suddenly we're driving on the wrong side of the road, passing cars on the left and the right, weaving to avoid the big piles of garbage everywhere (there had been a long trash strike in Naples and they were still recovering -- I can't imagine how bad it was before they started cleaning).  Then we come to a traffic light and the driver points to some buses and tells us to get out and walk over there.  We could see some ships, so we got out an hoped for the best.

Tickets for the ferry were pretty easy, and we didn't have to wait long (we just had to stand where the fumes from the ferry were pretty thick).  The ride over was very nice, although the haze was very thick because it was so hot.  Lots of views of Mt Vesuvius.

The Marina Piccolo in Sorrento is where we arrived, and our hotel, Faro, was right at the level of the port.  The rest of Sorrento is at the top of the cliffs, probably 10-15 stories up.  We decided to have lunch right at the docks (pretty good) and then checked into our hotel (very nice).  The hotel has a restaurant attached and it looked good so we knew if we didn't see anyplace else, we would get a good dinner.  Lots of seafood, too.

After dropping our bags, we hiked up to the town, and then got a tour "trolley" and rode around town, and then up to an overlook above the town.  The tour operators have a little store up there where you can buy limoncello and other "local" products, and we enjoyed the views (still hazy, though).

After the tour, it was time for gelato and some shopping.  People in the shops seemed a lot more aggressive here about wanting you to buy things, but we resisted most of them.  We went to the park at the edge of the cliff and enjoyed the views from there for a while, and then went down the cliff along a walkway carved into the side (and into some caves) and arrived at the beaches.  Beach is being generous -- there wasn't much and it was rather dirty sand.

We walked back down towards our hotel, and put our feet in the sea for a while.  Then a little nap before dinner.  We went out to the park at the edge of the sea and watched the sun go down (and a dad and son fishing) and decided that walking up for dinner was not going to happen.  So dinner at the hotel restaurant.

They were great, very friendly and made sure we ordered the right thing.  I got a mixed fish grill, and it was great, but not something Alli was happy about -- most of my food had faces.  The waiter filleted the fish and I cracked open the other things.  It was very good.

Here are the pictures from the day.

The next morning, the plan was to take a train to Ercolana, to see the ruins of Herculaneum, another town destroyed with Pompeii.  It was supposed to be smaller and less crowded than Pompeii, but just as nice.  I'll post pictures and the rest of the story later.

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Allison and I are finally getting some time for video.  Here's Alli's first movie, a news report from Tuscany.  You can try to click on the link and see if your browser will play the video.  If that does not work, or if it stops and starts and is hard to see, then try clicking the link with the right mouse button, and then select "save link as" to save the file on your computer (it is about 2MB).  Then you can double click on the movie file on your computer and watch it that way.

Let me know if you you have trouble.  Here's the link:

http://jbrummel.net/NewsFromTuscany.mov 

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Evan, Jason and Brian caught the bus to the airport this morning and are on their way back to the US.  Now it is just the three veteran Florentines in a nice big apartment.  But only for a short time -- it seems that the time for us to leave is rapidly approaching...

I added some links for the Tuscany pictures with the Accidental Tourist in the previous posting.  Not many pictures were taken in Cinque Terre, but we had a wonderful view of Florence from the hill town of Fiesole, and I will work on getting those posted tomorrow.

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Friday we escaped from city life (Florence, Rome, Pisa) and went out to a winery and then for a peaceful lunch at a castle in a town called San Donato.  We took lots of pictures, and I will try to post them later this weekend.

Saturday the boys and Alli and Beth went to Cinque Terre -- five little towns on the coast a couple of hours north of Florence.  Brian really wanted to hike around the area, and Jason and Evan agreed when they heard there was a beach involved.  Since I have twenty-four students this year, I decided to stay in town and catch up on some grading and classwork.  I'm sure there will be pictures to post from the Saturday trip as well.

Sunday looks like maybe a quiet day around Florence, with a trip to Fiesole (a small town close by that is way up on a hill).  Monday is the day the boys leave to return to the US, flying from Florence at 1:00pm and connecting through Paris.  We're hoping the situation at JFK has improved since they delayed the flights of Mom and Dad back to Columbus.

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It is Thursday morning, and Alli and I are at the school.  She's working on a math test and French and her website.  Beth is back at the apartment.

I just added the links to Rome, and some more pictures of hungry Americans in Italian restuarants in the post below ("Catching up").

Monday's trip for Mom and Dad was pretty exciting.  Flights were delayed because of "disagreements" at JFK between these people and those people, so they got to spend a little more time in Pisa than we expected.  And then they ended up delayed the whole trip and did not arrive in Reynoldsburg until 4:30am.  We're hoping they got lots of rest on Tuesday.

Wednesday was a trip with the students, and Beth and Alli went with us to Lamborghini and Ducati.  I think the students really enjoyed the trip, and we got back to Florence about 5:30.  We had a quiet dinner at the apartment, and then Alli and I had to make a short trip for gelato.

The boys are supposed to be back around mid-day on Thursday, and then we've scheduled a Tuscan excursion for them on Friday.  A company called the Accidental Tourist takes you out to visit a winery (taste some wine) and then to an Italian farmhouse for a nice big lunch.  We'll have pictures after we get back.

The girls and I are going to go to Sorrento (south of Naples) and then to see Mount Vesuvius and the Roman ruins there next week.  I think they are trying to plan one more trip to the Alps before our summer here comes to an end.

More later.  Ciao!

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Monday was a busy day at the train station.  Mom & Dad got there at 8:30 to meet the bus to the Pisa airport, and Alli and Beth went with them.  The flight from Pisa was delayed, so they had some extra time to spend near the leaning tower and get some lunch.

The boys caught their train to Rome at 9:30, and we think they're doing okay.  They are planning to return to Florence on Thursday, and we have arranged for a tour of Tuscany on Friday, with a lunch out in the country at an old farm house.

I did some work in the morning, and then took students to Nuovo Pignone, a manufacturing plant that is part of GE.  They make giant machines for the oil and gas industry (pumps and compressors), and the tour through the plant was pretty neat.

Monday night we were all tired, so we had a quiet dinner at Porcellino -- a place known for the wild boar, although it is only in season in the winter.  But the other food we had was good, including the fresh prosciutto e melon (ham and melon).

Tuesday was work at school day -- I am grading student work and Allison is working on her website for her classmates.  You can see it at http://italianalli.pbwiki.com

And please notice that there are some new picture links in the entry after this one.  I am still working on the Rome pictures from Saturday, and they should be available later in the week.  We have a all-day trip tomorrow to visit the production facilities for Lamborghini and Ducati.

Posted by Jeff at 08:31 AM | Permalink

Things have been very busy with comings and goings, but I will start to catch up on the pictures this morning. 

There are some pictures from two of the good "view picture" places in Florence.  The first is the Piazzale Michelangelo, which is a park on a hill south east of Florence.  The second is the bell tower next to the Duomo, right in the center of town.

We spent Thursday in Venice and got a little rain, but got to see the Rialto Bridge and the Piazza around San Marco.  As always, Allison made friends with the pigeons.

The "boys" -- Evan, Jason and Brian -- arrived Friday afternoon and got right to work seeing the sights in Florence.

Saturday, Beth, her mom and Alli went to Rome, only to discover that President Bush had also decided to visit Rome that day.  So some of their travel plans had to be adjusted, but they had a great time.

Sunday was a quieter day, mostly shopping and eating.

Monday the gang of three headed to Rome for a few days, and Beth and Alli took mom and dad to the airport in Pisa to catch their flight home.  And I have class to work on. 

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We spend quite a bit of time at the train station to go various places around Italy (and maybe beyond this year).  While waiting, I took a set of pictures to show all of the things that go on there.  Compared to other train stations this one is pretty nice, with lots of things going on and pretty easy to navigate.

More pictures soon, but Beth & Alli and Mom & Dad arrived yesterday and so we may be a little busy sightseeing around town today.  The plan is to go to Venice on Thursday, depending a little on the weather. 

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Well, Susie and I had dinner last night at Il Porcospino, just around the corner from the apartment.  By the end of the day, she needed dinner someplace close by.  After getting off the train about about 2:30 and dropping her bags at the apartment, we walked around town and she took lots of pictures.  We had pizza on the Piazza della Signoria, and a couple of times it felt like we were going to get a big thunderstorm, but luckily it only rained a little while walking from the train station, and not again while she was here.  After lunch we hiked all over, even across the Arno and back.

Sunday morning we got going and walked out to Piazzale Michelangelo, grabbing pastries along the way when a place looked good.  The views were very good, but the sun was behind the clouds most of the time.  We then walked back into town and climbed the Campanile, the belltower.  411 steps.  The views were really great, and the sun had come out.  It was a little windy for a while, but then it calmed down.  After taking lots of pictures (I'll try to put them up on the web tomorrow or Tuesday), we had lunch at Antellesi, a little place that we frequented last year.  Then some gelato, and back to the apartment to load pictures onto the computers.

By then it was time for Susie to start heading to the train station -- she went by train to Bologna, and then took a flight back to Munich, where she'll be working the next two weeks.  The train part was right on time, and I think we got a train that would give her have plenty of time to get to the airport for her flight.

I went out and did a little more shopping for the next guests:  Beth, Alli and Mom & Dad.  They get into Pisa tomorrow around 11:00 and then have a bus from the airport to the train station in Florence.  I figure they should be settled into the apartment between 2 and 3 o'clock.   I will be on a trip with my students to Prato to visit some textile companies and hope to be back before dinner time.  I can't wait to see everyone.  

Evan, Jason and Brian arrive the next weekend, so we will be busy helping people learn to love Italy. 

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No pictures today -- it was rainy and gray, and you shouldn't take pictures of Florence on a day like today.  So I did some work at school in the morning (after a whole day of work yesterday), and my class seems to be going really well so far.  Then I started on domestic. 

Some shopping for the apartment.  Walked all over.  Got a cell phone for Beth to use while here and made us "friends" of the Uffizi museum (so we get in free to lots of cool places). 

Did some laundry. 

Worked a lot on the kitchen -- just a little bit of grease left over from previous residents.  The apartment people fixed all the things that I found (they are really nice people) and I fixed a couple of windows that rattled when the buses went by.

I found two new gelato places for Alli to try.  The one is a place that Palazzo Rucellai takes students to learn about making gelato.  Both are pretty close to the apartment, so I think lots of gelato will be eaten this summer.  Had lunch at the Oil Shoppe again -- so far I've had #3 and #5.  I figure to keep eating down the list until I find my favorite (3 was better than 5).

The internet place is pretty convenient and so I can work at school or here.

A friend from church arrives in town tomorrow afternoon for a short visit and so we'll be out seeing the sights and I will probably have lots of pictures to post. 

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