Villa la Pergola

I realized there had been promise of descriptions of the Villa we stayed in..and I had not delivered.  We stayed at Villa la Pergola, in a town outside of Firenze, San Martino Alla Palma.  It was near the top of a mountain/hill (hard to do in a stick-shift van with little to no power)... about 15 minutes to the electric train in Scandicci that took us into the heart of Firenze.  All in all, it was actually a lot easier to get in and out of Firenze to the villa than I thought it would be.  Between driving down the mountain/hill, and taking the electric train (2 euro one-way I think, very reasonable), it took about 40 minutes or so to get into downtown.

It was a 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom villa, with a hot tub, a pool, and a wonderful view from the table you see below.  It was fantastic.  And the chairs, tables, etc were all made by the owner - pretty incredible. 

This is the view of the back of the house, which is actually were our door was.  We were on the bottom level on the left.  Two of the bedrooms were upstairs though.  The kitchen had essentially everything you would need to cook.  We even had a welcome bottle of wine on the table.

The table with the view overlooking Firenze and the surrounding area.  The pool was directly out of this picture to the right.  There were olive trees, and it was just beautiful.  The family business is ceramics, so the table was their own design and make.

This was the view at night.  Under the moon, there is a dome-like light, that's the Duomo in Firenze.  Not too bad. 

I highly recommend staying here.  The owner was very helpful with information and recommendations.  They have a couple of units that they rent, and they live upstairs which means they are available if something comes up. 

Hopefully I will finish up the last of the trip (in much delayed fashion) into Dublin soon!

**FYI, here is the website of the villa -- http://www.villalapergola.com/**

When in Rome

An overnight trip to Rome is not enough time... and I could have spent some more time just walking around.  We had such little time to see all the "big" sights, we weren't able to just wander like we had been doing since we left London.  

Our hotel was right off the Campo De'Fiori.  Which was walkable from the train station (albeit tough with our heavy bags), lots of restaurants, and an open market in the mornings and early afternoons.  The hotel (Hotel Camp De'Fiori) was fantastic.  There was roof top deck which provided some amazing views (to be seen later) and they welcomed you bringing up drinks and snacks.  It was also just a great location to see all the sights that we had on our list.

We noticed that there were quite a few Subways while we were over there.  I don't like Subway in America, so I can only imagine that its European equivalent is very similar.  But, strangely enough, we did see quite a few people eating it.. and maybe it's because of their "hand made gelato"... I'm not sure I trust it.  Ha.

I would probably eat at Subway more if they had homemade gelato in the Subway on the first floor of my work.

Martha had done some legwork and reserved tickets to the Vatican Museum for us.  While St. Peter's Basilica is free, the Vatican does cost money.  We were considering a tour, but we were worried about committing ourselves to so much time in a museum.  Contrary to popular belief, I can really only stand about one hour of painted golden halos and various religious art.  But, while we didn't do the tour, I highly recommend buying the tickets online so that you can avoid the line and you get to reserve a time.  The line to buy tickets and get in stretched down the wall, and while I don't know how long it would have taken to get in, I can't imagine that it would have been worth it.  (Oh and brilliant invention - Nutella to go!!!  It comes in a little container with little breadsticks and tea... Yummm!!!).

A nun sitting among the columns of St. Peter's Square.

This was after the Vatican Museum and on our way into St. Peter's Basilica.  They look so serious...

I tried really hard to avoid taking pictures of the Swiss Guard in the Vatican.  I feel bad for those crazy dressed guards that look as though they should be part of some flamboyant display on Broadway or the likes.  But truly, when I look at them, the outfits scream "look at me!  take a picture of me!"... and so I had to oblige.  They must get so sick of people looking at them.  People were literally crowded along the fence, 2 or 3 people deep, to take pictures.  So I took some pictures of the architecture to squelch my conscience.  

How very Liberace of them..

After the Vatican Museum and St. Peter's we saw Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps... we ate gelato (seriously every day required gelato, and if a day was missed - clearly two the next day was required)... and made our way back to the hotel to enjoy the roof deck before heading to dinner.

Trevi Fountain.  We threw in our mandatory coins to make sure that we return to Rome and that we return to Rome with our love -- I'm assuming that is going to still be John.  Haha.

Just one of the views from the panoramic magnificence that was the roof top.  In the distance you can see the Victor Emmanuel Monument.

The next morning before heading to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum we checked out the market in the Camp De'Fiori.  It was so colorful, and everything just looked delicious.  We bought a few spices (which we have used, and are VERY spicy if used in excess), Marla bought some saffron (wow that shiznit is expensive).... it was great.

This guy was just sitting at his booth and carving vegetables.. On the other table there were curly-q carrots.

This is the market that we bought our spices from.  I don't think I can see the spices we bought in the picture, but everything we bought contained red pepper flakes in abundance.

We walked back by the Victor Emmanuel Monument.  It's not the most .. ummm... revered monument in Rome.  It's called the "wedding cake" and the "typewriter"... It's on the Piazza Venezia and it apparently destroyed quite a few Roman ruins for its construction.  Not a good way to score points with the Roman people from what I understand.

On our way to buy tickets for the Roman Forum and the Colosseum we saw this woman.  A weird little doll strapped to the top of her luggage.  It was seriously creepy.

John loves Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome.  He loves Greek and Roman Gods... I'm not too far behind.. although I can't apparently remember all of my mythology.  It's so amazing to think of what people constructed so long ago and it's managed to stay standing through all of this time.  Incredible.

I 

The outside of the Colosseum.  The structures they built back then and the bloodshed they encouraged.

They have a replica of the floor that used to be over the tunnels.  It used to be covered in sand (arena is Latin for "sand" -- sorry, no fancy symbols here -- which I think is interesting) and clearly the gladiators fought various animals and each other in the center.  It's insane to think about the animals that were housed under the floor, and the intricate methods to get them raised up to fight.

The outside layers of the Colosseum.  When you are walking around, you can definitely see where our modern stadiums get their inspiration.

The Roman Forum.  Our last stop before heading to the hotel to pick up our bags, see the Bone Chapel (Cappuccin Crypt), and on our way back to the train station to get back to Florence.  

We saw the Cappuccin Crypt (multiple spellings, I chose one, hopefully it's ok).  It cost us 1 euro, and we got to walk through the crypts completely decorated with human bones, bones of Cappuccin Friars. We couldn't take pictures, but it was surprising how "beautiful" bones could be.  They had pelvis's that looked like butterflies and all sorts of other designs made from bones that I never could have imagined. 

So that was the Cliff's Notes of Rome.  Our entire trip has essentially been Cliff's Notes, but this was exceptionally quick.  We saw the highlights, I'm not sure anyone (except for John and me) want to go back -- but it was definitely worth the trip.

(P.S. Definitely look into the Hotel Camp De'Fiori - wonderful hotel... if only our TV had worked...)