Let’s Do The Time Warp Again

On November 10, 2017March 26, 2018 By Barbara GreenstoneIn Florence1 Comment

02E914C1-F194-48EA-A76E-201C66ADBA9B — Mercury

Visiting Florence can seem like being in a time warp. You’re surrounded by the Renaissance in the museums, galleries, churches, and public places. We spent this morning following the Renaissance walking tour (from the Steves book and app again). The tour took us by the Bargello and we decided to stop in. This small museum was quiet and uncrowded, so it was a pleasant change from the streets full of tour groups. It contains a large courtyard, several Michelangelo sculptures on the ground floor and Donatello sculpture in the room above (add some Leonardo and Raphael and you have the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). There’s also a famous bronze statue of Mercury by Giambologna that made us think of flowers.

We also visited the Bapistry where we admired its bronze doors and ceiling mosaics, especially the Last Judgement where you can see Christ giving a thumbs up or thumbs down to the dead who wish to enter heaven. (Really! Look closely at the picture and check out the hands.)

EB3B8A76-BFD1-4BA5-A027-97AB0B877B4F — Last Judgement

The Orsanmichele Church was open so we walked in. This church was originally a granary and you can see signs of that in the design. Inside is a beautiful Gothic Tabernacle and the exterior of the church has niches in the walls where statues (two more Donatellos) are housed. After a long morning of walking, we decided to get some gelato and then return to our hotel for a rest.

For the evening’s entertainment we ventured outside of the touristy part of Florence to the Nelson Mandela Forum where it was truly time to do the Time Warp again. We saw a touring company perform the Rocky Horror Show and it was great fun. It was in English of course, except for an Italian speaking narrator who apparently was a local celebrity because he got a lot of applause as soon as he entered. We enjoyed this little break from the Renaissance and a time warp back to the 70s.

F6321E85-EB8F-4654-BCCB-35FE74C7836E — Rocky Horror Show

My Fitbit Loves Florence!

On November 9, 2017 By Barbara GreenstoneIn FlorenceLeave a comment

If Paris is for lovers, Florence is for walkers. My Fitbit says I walked 15,378 steps yesterday and 14,422 today. Walking is the best way to get around, but it can be treacherous. There are many traffic-free areas in the tourist areas north of the Arno, but some of the smaller, winding streets have very narrow (or no) sidewalks, and buses, cars, and the ubiquitous scooters come zipping around the corner at any time. Still, we’ve enjoyed walking these past two days, once the rain stopped. But, as much as we enjoy walking, Paul’s knees do not like steps, so we decided not to climb to the top of the Duomo’s dome for what we’ve heard is a spectacular view.

C8B29A9A-25E7-4B90-B3A4-238DE1A2A72B — View of the Ponte Vecchio

Our wanderings today took us to the Ponte Vecchio, a bridge that’s featured in every movie or novel set in Florence. It was bright and sunshiny today, so we had a good time strolling along and taking pictures.

We then made our way to the Uffizi Gallery where we let Rick Steves and his app guide us through what was supposed to be a two-hour tour but took us much longer. Again, having a guide, or in this case a recorded tour, was extremely helpful. It helped us notice things we would have missed and make the historical connection necessary to truly appreciate what we were seeing.

3E5DF2B4-7103-4E71-B970-3BAF63EECCEA — Botticelli – Birth of Venus – Uffizi Gallery

Then, for something completely different, we decided to check out the Galileo Museum. We downloaded their free app that has more information that anyone can possibly process while standing before showcases of old scientific instruments. We ran out of steam after the first floor, but it was a nice break from all the statues and paintings.

After a little rest, we took a bus to the Piazzale Michelangelo. This is where all the tour buses stop because there is a spectacular view of Florence and the Duomo. We took some pictures, but we were there primarily to visit the San Miniato Church and attend the Mass of the Gregorian Chants. This involved walking up a lot of steps, but it was worth it. The church is undergoing some major restoration so it was very noisy when we entered, but that stopped before the mass. The mass was sung throughout, and it was lovely and peaceful to listen to.

F561A4A9-D80B-4F09-A792-608EE1180DA7 — The view from San Miniato Church

We decided to walk back (downhill is much easier) and it took us about a half an hour to get to our next destination, Teatro Verdi, where we had tickets for a concert by Orchestra Della Toscana. We had dinner in a restaurant across the street from the theater (quite convenient). The hall was smaller than I expected (and a little shabby) but we had good seats, right behind four young girls who entered carrying cushions to sit on (to see better). They seemed to thoroughly enjoy the concert and each other’s company and we appreciated seeing young people at a classical concert.

In the first half, the conductor also was the cello soloist in three pieces for cello and orchestra by Strauss, Glazunov, and Dvořák. He was excellent, but conducting while playing is a challenge, and he gave cues with his head and occasionally his bow. Fortunately, the concert master was also excellent and kept the strings together. After intermission, we heard Schumann’s Spring Symphony, No. 1. This is not the best orchestra I’ve ever heard, but they played with a lot of heart and obviously enjoy playing with this conductor.

After the concert, we took a taxi back to the hotel although my Fitbit would have been even happier if we had walked.

And Today We Saw David

On November 8, 2017November 8, 2017 By Barbara GreenstoneIn FlorenceLeave a comment

Our morning was spent packing, riding the train to Florence, and finding our hotel, but we still had the afternoon to wander around, get our Firenze pass, and visit a church and a museum.

The Duomo is a Gothic cathedral with a huge dome that can be seen all around town and makes a good landmark in a city of narrow winding streets. We found the Mercato Market where we had lunch and then walked through the Duomo to get a sense of its grandeur.

EFD2F9B0-3F53-40CE-BCB0-C42AE4AB3020 — Michelangelo’s David

From there we went to Accademia to see Michelangelo’s David. Our Firenze cards let us skip the long lines and walk right in. I expected the crowd to be huge but it wasn’t bad at all, and we were able to see this amazing statue up close and from all sides. This is truly a marvelous work that you cannot possibly appreciate from photos alone. You have to see it. I remember that the statue was attacked in the early 90s by a deranged man with a hammer and a toe was broken (and repaired). Nowadays you can’t get that close because there are plexiglass panels all around it.

To get to David you pass by a series of incomplete statues know as the Prisoners. They are called this because Michelangelo believed he was freeing his sculptures from the stone in which God had imprisoned them. Because they are unfinished, they do appear to be emerging from huge blocks of marble.

23846EC0-F39F-43E8-9A70-176F9178E9FC — The bass of Paul’s dreams

Also in the Accademia there is a little bonus room, The Museum of Musical Instruments. This room holds mostly string instruments, including several Stradivarius violins. I got the feeling I sometimes have when I see animals in a zoo. Those violins should be played, not just looked at. Paul was enthralled by a double bass and asked if I would buy it for him, but I think we will remain a one-bass family for now.

Late last night, from our hotel room, we heard laughing, shouting, and chanting in the street below us. Apparently there was a football game (not American football, but the less barbaric game the rest of the world plays) between Rome and Florence. The Rome team won, but apparently some folks in Florence were quite happy about that. If I were younger, I might have gone out on the street to join them.

Everything I Knew About the Vatican I Learned from Dan Brown

On November 7, 2017March 26, 2018 By Barbara GreenstoneIn RomeLeave a comment

9DC5287E-A6BB-4431-92EA-F371FFB54F4F Until today I didn’t really know much about the Vatican other than what I had gleaned from history courses taken long ago and from reading The Da Vinci Code. We could have wandered through the various museums, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s Basilica on our own, but we decided to pay a lot for a five-hour tour with a guide. This turned out to be a good decision for us because we would have spent a lot of time on the wrong things and probably would have run out of steam before we got to the good parts.

Our tour guide was Maria. She said her real name was Mary Freedom, a name given to her by her hippie parents in the 60s, but I don’t believe it. She seemed too young and too Italian for this to be true (although the business card she handed us at the end of the tour gave her name as Maria Libera Del Vecchio). She seemed a bit flip at the beginning so I thought this would be another one of those tours where the guides just made up stuff, but she turned out to be quite knowledgeable. She’s an art historian who specializes in Renaissance art and she has such a passion for it that listening to her was never boring. In each room of the museums she skipped past all the minor works and went right to the best ones.

B8829B7C-D781-484A-8F44-B5790F65B98A — The Pieta

Five hours is a long time to listen to someone talk, and sometimes it was hard to keep up, but I enjoyed every minute of it. I learned a lot about Michelangelo, Raphael, Da Vinci, and Caravaggio (and Bernini) that I never got from any art history course. Maria carried a tablet with her to show us details of paintings and sculptures, and to give a quick overview of the Sistine Chapel before we entered it because you’re not supposed to talk inside it (or take pictures). She was well versed in ancient Roman history as well as the history of Catholicism, although she seemed a little baffled by the current Pope, often saying, “But Francis will be Francis,” as she described his breaks from tradition.

D763C8E7-9C8B-4FB9-BEBD-A02F9AE19CEF — Tomb of Alexander VII

The Vatican is an amazingly beautiful, historic place and I highly recommend touring it with a knowledgeable guide. The tour wore us out (lots of walking, stair-climbing, neck-craning to view ceilings and the dome) so afterward we returned to our hotel for a quiet evening of reading and writing.

There’s so much more to see and do here, but tomorrow we must say, “Arrivederci Roma” as we board the train for Florence.

Sta piovendo!

On November 6, 2017November 6, 2017 By Barbara GreenstoneIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

First thing this morning I checked my weather app, but I didn’t believe that little icon that shows a lightning bolt. It turned out that the thunder storms this afternoon had an effect on our plans for the day.

After breakfast we decided to take the Rick Steves book and do our own walking tour of the Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, and the Trevi Fountain. We managed to find the right bus and get off at close to the right stop. The Piazza Navona has lovely (Bernini again) sculpture and fountains. We wandered into the Church of St. Agnes where an organ was playing (Bach) so we sat for a few minutes to listen and admire the artwork all around us. We then went to the Pantheon. It was crowded and a little dark because the only light source is the oculus in the dome and it was cloudy. It must be spectacular on a sunny day when the light streams through the oculus forming (as our intrepid guide Rick Steves says) the greatest column in Rome.

The rain began as we headed to the Trevi Fountain but at this point it was just drizzle. There were huge crowds at the fountain, so getting close enough to toss in a coin was impossible, but it was still worth the trek. I’ve read about and seen pictures of this fountain and I’ve seen it in the movies, but I never understood how it just suddenly appears as you’re strolling along and you hear it before you see it.

51CB6C90-86E9-47BB-A774-A14EDE36679B — The Trevi Fountain

We strolled on to the Spanish Steps to get on the Metro back to Termini. We heard some thunder in the distance but didn’t think much of it. By the time we left the Termini station the drizzle had become a downpour and we had to walk a few blocks to our hotel. We were wearing raincoats and had umbrellas but it didn’t matter. We were soaked by the time we arrived at the hotel. The streets had filled with water so there was no way to cross without fording a stream, so our shoes were very wet.

Our plan for the evening was to go to the Auditorium Parco Del Musica to see if we could get tickets to see Chick Corea. I know that it seems odd to see an American jazz artist in Rome, but it would have been fun. Unfortunately, our shoes were wet and we didn’t want to get our backup shoes wet too, so we decided to stay in the hotel, take a nap, and then go to dinner.

We missed Chick Corea, but here’s a little clip of a street band we heard in Piazza Novona, playing American standards with some Italian flavor.

The Colosseum, the Forum, and Opera Roma

On November 5, 2017November 5, 2017 By Barbara GreenstoneIn Rome1 Comment

We purchased our Roma cards today which make getting around Rome and getting into museums much easier. We hopped on the Metro and went to the Colosseum with a few thousand other tourists. With Rick Steves as our guide (Paul has the app on his phone) we walked around and marveled at the amazing engineering feat the Romans (with slave labor) managed to create for viewing all kinds of barbaric entertainment (think football). I kept thinking about the short story The Lady or the Tiger that I used to read with eighth-graders because they loved both the romantic and barbaric aspects although the ambiguity drove them crazy. The story doesn’t take place in Rome but in some semi-barbaric kingdom with an arena. Maybe my favorite part of the tour was when Mr. Steves explained that Roma and Amor together form a palindrome.

We then went to the Forum and I was disappointed that nothing funny happened on the way. I wish we had more time there because there’s much to see, but we managed to get through about half of the Rick Steves tour before we decided we’d had enough. You can see some of our pictures on the Rome page.

In the evening we went to Opera Roma to see La Traviata. The hall is beautiful and we were seated in a box with three lovely Italian ladies who delighted in practicing their English with us during the intermissions. This is our third time seeing La Traviata this year. We saw the Met Live in HD production at the movie theater and the Opera Maine production in July, but one can never see enough La Traviatias, right? This production was good; the orchestra was great and the singing was okay although a bit dull in the first two acts. I think we have become accustomed to seeing great acting in operas on the Met stage because when it’s being broadcast to theaters around the world, the singers play to the cameras. It was still a great experience seeing an Italian opera in Italy (directed by an American, Sofia Coppola) with both English and Italian supertitles.

When in Rome…

On November 4, 2017March 26, 2018 By Barbara GreenstoneIn RomeLeave a comment

Paul is pleased that we found the Borghese Gallery and it stopped raining.

Paul and I used to harbor a fantasy that we could be contestants on The Amazing Race, that TV reality show that pits two-person teams against each other in a race around the world. It only took one day in Rome to convince us that we would not fare well because a) we’re too old, b) we’re too slow, and c) we’re directionally challenged. We managed to find the right train from the airport, and we found our hotel after a circuitous but scenic trek in the rain, but our big challenge was to find the Borghese Gallery.

The Borghese Gallery is home to the spectacular Bernini sculptures and we had a reservation for a tour at 2:45. Finding it turned out to be a challenge. We decided not to use our cellular data on our phones to avoid huge charges, so we didn’t have Google to guide us, and our analog GPS (map) was not very good. We soon learned that most people in Rome really like tourists and are willing to help. Yes, we know to look out for pick pockets and we were very careful, but each time we stopped and asked for directions, everyone was polite and helpful.

The Borghese Gallery is amazing, but the Bernini exhibit is so popular that you have to make a reservation in advance and are only allowed two hours to view it. We were exhausted from an overnight flight, a lot of walking, and the time change, so we really weren’t able to give it its due.
Bernini-Rape of Proserpina
Interestingly, this museum posts a lot of rules that they do not enforce. When you enter you are told to check and bags, cameras, and recording equipment because no photography of any kind is allowed. I dutifully did that, but as we entered the exhibit, we saw people with huge cameras or phones (often on a selfie stick) and they were taking pictures everywhere. There were few security guards and they tended to look the other way. I even saw a mother place her three children inside a security rope so they could pose with a statue for a picture! This emboldened Paul to take out his phone and snap a few pics. No photography, however, can do it justice. One of the most famous works is the statue of the Rape of Proserpina (see Paul’s excellent photo above.)

We were especially fond of a bust of Cardinal Richelieu. No one laughed when I said he looked marblous, not even Paul whose major responsibility is to laugh at all my jokes.

Best Laid Plans

On November 2, 2017November 3, 2017 By Barbara GreenstoneIn Planning2 Comments

Pine Limb — Limb from one of our pine trees in the back yard. We were lucky it didn’t hit the house or the cars.

No matter how well I think I’ve planned, something always seems to happen to throw me off. This time it was a major storm that blew down a lot of trees and knocked out our power early Monday morning. We left this morning (Thursday) at around 10:00 and the power still had not been restored. For the last four days, just carrying out our normal routine was a challenge, let alone organizing and packing for a three-week trip. We managed somehow, and now we’re sitting in Terminal E at Logan, waiting for our flight. When we left the power had not been restored, but we cleaned out the refrigerator, unplugged everything, and walked away. Our kind neighbors will keep an eye out and let us know if the house explodes when the power comes back. On the upside, we went to the Merrill Auditorium in Portland last night, where it was light and warm, and heard Yo Yo Ma give an extrordinary concert. We considered that the beginning of our amazing musical vacation.

So, we’re on our way. Here’s our itinerary (roughly):

11/3-11/ – 11/6 Rome

11/7 – 11/10 Florence

11/11 – 11/12 – Milan

11/13 – Zurich

11/14 – 11/15 – Salzburg

11/16 – Vienna

11/17 – 11/24 – Viking River Cruise on Danube from Budapest to Nuremberg

Question of the day: Does the TSA give security exemptions to old people just because it takes us so long to put our shoes back on?

Counting Down the Days

On October 23, 2017October 25, 2017 By Barbara GreenstoneIn PlanningLeave a comment

Traveling for fun is one of those pastimes we (my husband Paul and I) have always considered too extravagant and selfish to indulge in. We’ve traveled for business and family obligations, and we’ve traveled with our son to give him the experiences we didn’t have as kids, but we seldom took a trip just for our own enjoyment.

Now that our only child is grown and gone and we’ve retired (mostly), we’ve decided to take that trip of a lifetime while we can still walk and enjoy it. We began planning several months ago, knowing that booking the trip would force us to keep our promise to each other to retire in June.

Music, art, and history have always been important to us, and Italy has been at the top of our bucket list since we learned what a bucket list was, so the destination was a no-brainer. And every time we watched a program on public television, we would see the ads for Viking River Cruises and we’d talk about how much fun it might be to take one. It only took one conversation with a travel agent for us to decide to combine the two, hence the title of this blog (though it sounds a little like this guy).

I created this blog to chronicle our adventures and share the experience with family and friends. As we finalize our plans and count down the days to our departure on November 2, I hope you’ll come back to check out our itinerary and wish us a buon viaggio.