Tuesday in Tuscany

Monday night I tried a restaurant close to the hotel, not knowing what to expect.  It turned out to have fancy dishes to suit several clientele: vegan, raw, and cooked (non-vegan).  You could get ham, or beet ravioli, etc.  I know they expect you to get two courses, but I was tired of trying to eat that much and having to pay for that much (we're talking 12 - 24 euros/course), so I decided on just risotto with monkfish, nettles, and "smoke of onion" from the English menu.  Oh, it's one of those places.  The waitress asked if I wanted bread, and as I had already said I needed gluten-free I asked did she have gluten-free bread?  She said crackers, so I accepted and got a bowl of homemade gluten-free crackers.  One was very thin, reddish, and slightly spicy and was probably the raw version.  Overall they were pretty good, like what I have made myself.  Then the risotto came, a bowl of starchy goodness dotted with tiny cubes of fish, shreds of green, dots of gray-brown (the "smoke of onions"?), a sprinkling of something red, and fresh leaves (nettles?  That wouldn't be smart, would it?).  I was savoring the visuals and just about to start when a different waiter swooped in and took it away, saying one of the ingredients had flour.  Apparently whoever cooked the fish was not told.  So while I waited for the replacement they sent me free appetizers of zucchini noodles with pesto and avocado cubes with radishes and raisins.  A good meal overall.  On my way out I noticed a hoof sticking out from under a cloth in a separate room - there were many hams hanging up, and two different legs with hoofs and skin still attached under cloths.  Deer?  Goat?  Didn't see that on the menu...

I have finally had a good explanation for why they don't start eating dinner until 7 or 7:30, and many later than that.  It gets hot, most people don't have air conditioning, and you don't want to eat until the sun goes down and it cools off.  Yes, but how do they make it that far?  Do they snack, have tea like the Brits, eat pizza?

Tuesday's trip involved a lot of preparation Monday night so that I could leap out of bed and into my clothes and head out the door.  I had to be at the pickup spot by 7:15 am, which meant leaving the hotel before breakfast, so I bought GF cookies, nuts, and yogurt at a small store, plus water and a Coke for caffeine.  I packed my backpack, set my alarm, and went to sleep.  Of course I woke at 3 am and barely got any sleep after that.  I left the hotel before 6:30, walking the route I had scoped out the night before to the Metro station, and made it to the Plaza del Popolo in plenty of time.  It was before sunrise, so this:

I attribute the blurriness of the obelisk to the lack of caffeine.  It's a beautiful big plaza with an Egyptian obelisk surrounded by lion fountains.  The Leonardo DaVinci museum is there, along with an old city gate.  I could see a soldier with a weapon guarding the entrance to one of the streets behind the obelisk and gradually other people gathered for excursions, or passed through on their way to work as the sun came up.

We got on a bus to Tuscany, and I made calculations on time, distance, and bladder capacity before consuming the Coke.  We stopped halfway at a place with bathrooms that also sold (and had many samples of) bottles of olive oil, sauces, vinegars, chocolates, pasta, cheese, meats, etc.  You could sample enough to keep you fed for a while, and I pondered some excellent cheeses but decided it would stink up my luggage and room.  One item was salted, preserved mullet roe (thanks, Google Translate!).  They also served coffee, much to the relief of many of the passengers.  Here's a sample of their wares:

Our next stop was a town on top of a hill, Montepulciano.  If you watch a TV show about the Medici with Al Pacino (I don't know its name), they film it here, and they were setting up some sets for season 2:

The climb up the steep streets was arduous, especially after all of yesterday's walking, and many of us of a certain age were panting.  For the first time I saw cats, and managed to pet one.  The pictures don't convey the angle of the streets, but if you've ever climbed Bowman's Hill in Washington Crossing State Park in PA, it's like that.

People were driving up and down the streets!  I would not have the guts.  With manual transmissions, no less.  Our guide gave us a tour of the town, which is full of Medici emblems and centuries of old buildings, then we moved on.  Throughout the day I took pictures of the beautiful views, but I can't do them justice with a phone camera.

There are olive trees and grapevines everywhere.  Every family grows just enough to make their own supply of oil and wine, and possibly to sell a little.

On to a stop at an abbey (I took a picture and got back on the bus to rest my hill-stressed legs) and then to a vineyard for lunch (which asked ahead of time about vegetarian and gluten-free, yay!).

The first course - panzanella (bread salad), meats including wild boar sausage (delicious!), aged cheese, and bruschetta.  There were wines with each course, all of which tasted like wine.  Second course was pasta, red sauce with red pepper flakes for the gluten-eaters, noodles with butter and cheese for me (excellent!).  Dessert was biscotti with sweet wine to dip them in, and pastry, but alas, nothing for me.

I believe most of these were full of wines waiting for perfection.  The barrels, not the diners.

Finally, back on the bus for one more medieval walled town (Pienza).  Very picturesque.  Every house is enhanced by plants in pots and windowboxes in Italy, with lots of roof gardens (again, a way to beat the heat), but I still have seen no sign of small wild animals - no squirrels, rats, mice, rabbits, woodchucks, weasels, deer - no roadkill either.  I did see a deer crossing sign and was told they eat the grapes and grapevines, and saw a few livestock (mostly sheep), but no chickens, and few birds except hooded crows and pigeons, with a few magpies and starlings.  Nothing to add to my life list yet except the parrots in Rome which aren't native.

Pienza:

Back on the bus, another stop at the same place for a potty break, where I waited in vain for someone to serve me gelato.  I decided maybe it was self-serve, at which point an outraged woman appeared to think it was definitely not, but I think she was mad at both me and the guy who should have been serving me.  I paid my 2 euros and took my pistachio gelato.  It was okay.  I need to look for better, non-commercial gelato.

On the way home the guide gave us tips for not getting ripped-off.  I asked about walking after dark, and he claimed Rome was very safe - little violent crime (but he's a man and has a different point of view from a small woman).  He claimed he never worried about his girlfriend walking at night.  Good or not, I still had to get home from the Metro, and did so.  It was a long day, and my legs were screaming at me from the walks on the hills.  My knee which has been without cartilage since 1982 also proclaimed that we would no longer take stairs when other means were available.  Agreed.

On this trip were other people who bought the same Perillo tour.  They are in a different hotel, but have the same excursions scheduled, so I'll see them again at Pompeii and the Vatican.  Others were talking about a Rick Steves tour, which sounded more like what I expected, with a group that travels together.  More expensive, but worth a look.

Wednesday is unscheduled, so I will decide what to do with it once I consult Google.  My decisions are based on what gluten-free food I find, and what it's close to.  Maybe the Pantheon, and then Pizza in Trevi.  Definitely La Soffita Renovatio for gluten-free pizza after Friday's Vatican tour.  Maybe Ostia Antica if my legs are up to it.  And buy another transport pass.

Roman Monday

I stayed awake as long as I could last night, but eventually gave up and caught up with 10 hours of sleep.  The hotel has an American-style breakfast buffet, so I loaded up on non-gluten things, spent some time looking at maps, then headed out for today's adventure.

So it turns out that when you book a Perillo tour, you're not going with a group of people from one place to another.  What they do is book things for you, but you're on your own to get to the meeting points for each trip, so today I had to get to the Colosseum.  I could have walked 30 minutes from my hotel, if I didn't get lost, but I decided to walk 15 minutes to the Metro Termini station, where the two main subway lines cross.  I managed this successfully in a more or less straight shot from the hotel, and managed to buy a 3-day pass after going to the wrong window twice.  From there, there are only 4 directions the trains can take you and the maps are clear, so it wasn't hard to manage the two stops to the Colosseum (although the trains seem to be very crowded and a seat is just wishful thinking).  I found the tour I was specifically assigned to (the same tour companies run multiple tours with multiple guides each hour) and got my sticker and headset.  The headset is a lovely idea, so the tour guide can speak in a normal voice from 30 feet ahead of you and you will clearly hear her.  The next 3 and a half hours were spent walking, climbing stairs, standing in the hot sun, walking more, climbing more, and gawking at ruins.  There is nothing I can add that you can't find online, so here are pictures. 

What you see when you get out of the Metro stop and you are waiting for your tour.  Enterpreneurs are trying to sell you water bottles, selfie sticks, and acrylic blocks with some local landmark etched inside.

Some pillars are held together with chains.

This gate was originally for removing the losers of gladiator battles.  She said.

There are taps like this all over Rome - spring water that is clean for drinking, and nice and cold.

Typical cobbles.  The old Roman roads used much bigger slabs and the cracks between them are treacherous.

Something old.  I think this was part of the gym where the slave gladiators trained and lived.  You can't scratch the ground here without something ancient turning up.  This has put a crimp in the scheduled building of the third subway line.

Reconstructed seats for big shots.

What lay below the arena floor.

The underneath layers from another angle.

I have no explanation for the giant pomegranate.

More old things.

It's hotter than I expected - had to be in the 80s today.  It's a fine balance between not becoming dehydrated and being able to wait for the next bathroom to show up.  But unlike when my parents visited long ago, they now refrigerate soft drinks and water and serve them to you cold.

After the tour (which included the Roman forum and a view from the top of a large hill), I headed back to the Metro and found my way (once I sat down and compared the map carefully to the actual streets) to a restaurant recommended for gluten-free.  The tips from the tour company suggest that restaurants expect you to order at least two courses (not including dessert), and they seem expensive - first courses (pasta, mostly) run up to 18 - 22 euros, with second courses even higher, and 5 euros for a Coke.  You could easily spend 50 euros for a dinner.  I need to find some cheap place, and some gluten-free pizza, and invest in some more snacks because at this rate I will run through what I brought.  At least I will walk it off.  I ordered pasta with ham and peas and rosemary (the ham seemed to be bacon) and an "old Roman recipe" lamb stew.  I should really know not to order lamb - it's nothing but gristle, but between the few bites of meat and the potatoes, I filled up.  After lunch (it was 4 pm by the time I was done) I walked back to the Metro, passing this fountain:

Some fish dude with enormous nipples.

The Trevi fountain is down that street, but I was tired and sore by then.  Got back to the Termini metro and walked back to the hotel, passing this:

I guess if you can't find a bridge on which to attach your love locks, wolf teeth will do.

That's all I can handle today, at least until I stop sweating and get hungry.  I'll need another water bottle for tomorrow after losing today's - this will be a trip to Tuscany.  I have to get to the departure point by 7:15 am (which means no time for breakfast at the hotel) once I figure out how, then they will walk us all over Tuscany, including an abbey, vineyard, lunch, and wine tasting, plus "visit of Pienza on your own", wherever that is.  I think the rest of the night is best spent online looking things up and resting my feet and knees.

Birding - so far, lots of pigeons, seagulls, non-native parrots, and hooded crows.  A few starlings, and nothing else I can get close enough to identify.

Rome

As I am posting this from Rome, my computer is using blogspot.it, so all the instructions for posting are in Italian, although not Italics.  Some words are easy to recognize, like "permalink" and "feedback", and others I recognize from their position on the page and similarity to English or Latin.

The flight was uneventful.  I knitted, I think I got some sleep, I watched Guardians of the Galaxy 2, I got a dinner and breakfast that did seem to actually be gluten-free.  Dinner was salad, a rice cake to substitute for everybody else's roll, and ravioli with red pepper-kale-vodka sauce.  Wouldn't be my first choice, but as an only choice it wasn't bad, except for burping up red pepper.  We came in to Fiumicino airport, and looking out the right side windows I could see fields and sea, and on the left there were mountains barely visible through mist.

The few times I have flown overseas, they give you customs declarations forms to fill out before the plane lands.  Not here.  We did have to stand in a horrendous line to get through passport clearance, but the guy took my passport, stamped it, and just gave it back once I got to him.  No questions, no "business or pleasure", no checking to see whether I was going to become an illegal alien.  Okay, whatever.  That freed me to find my driver.  He was a nice enough guy, but that was a heart-stopping ride.  Traffic did seem to obey traffic signals, but lines on the road are merely a suggestion, especially because streets are narrow and there are tiny cars parked everywhere along them.  I don't know how we avoided scraping other cars - I have never been that close to other moving cars in my life.  The radio in the limo was playing Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl" and other American pop, and the DJs sounded just like their American counterparts in speed and intonation.  We passed colorful graffiti and yoga studios and thick ancient walls around the Vatican and Rome.  At one red light a bald older man with a fluorescent orange ball walked across in front of the car, talking to the driver (maybe, could have been himself).  He then proceeded to head the ball about 20 times.  The driver explained that the man was a famous Romanian soccer player from years ago.  After the performance, the driver gave him a few coins because apparently he had fallen on hard times.  I saw other beggars on the street.  Plenty of English here and there, like "self-service".

Of course the hotel room wasn't ready, because it was only about 10 am, so I locked up my suitcases and went for a walk.  There are little stands all over the place selling drinks and magazines and random junk, but no decent maps.  Very little was open, and I was puzzled because I thought it was Saturday.  Well, it was when I got on the plane.  Finding a restaurant for dinner might be tricky, but now that I am finally in my room and in possession of my laptop I can combine "Find me gluten free" and Google maps and get some better idea than I could on my phone.  Phones - I have my usual phone which has no phone service here, an internation phone that can get calls, and a secure wifi hotspot which unfortunately is slow.  I have a second wifi for Spain, and extra batteries, all for about $9 a day.

And here is my room.

Nope, I don't think I'm going to attempt the bidet.  The bed is pretty, but hard as a rock, or maybe some fine Italian marble.

Time to scope out some food.  Tomorrow looks strenuous, a half-hour walk to the meeting point at the Colosseum, then 3 hours of a walking tour and a half-hour walk back, unless I manage to get and figure out a bus pass.  I wasn't sure what to expect from a Perillo tour - would there be a group all going to the same place for each day trip?  I guess I'll find out tomorrow when I leave the hotel.  There are plenty of Americans here but whether they are doing what I'm doing I don't know. 

Catching up

Yes, I have ignored this blog for quite some time.  No, I have no excuse.  Now that that's over with, do you want to see what I have been making for the Warm and Fuzzy Fundraiser?

I think most of them can be found on Ravelry, so let me know if you want details.  There's more, but this gives you a taste.

I have about 50 items, with more in progress, so I'm in good shape - I usually aim for 50 - 60 items, so now I can put some work into things for me and for Christmas gifts. 

I'm heading to Italy and Spain on Saturday, taking projects with me for the late evenings and any boring or static times.  Stay tuned for updates on this vacation.