Cinque Terre: Terraced Hills and Rocky Shores

Manarola, Cinque Terre, Italy

I had seen pictures of Cinque Terre - picturesque, colorful towns built on the steep and rocky shores of the Italian Riviera. But now we were really here in Manarola (one of the five little towns), after quite a series of trains, having just arrived from our week in Lucca. A very long tunnel led from the train station into the town itself, and as we entered the tunnel, we heard a little band inside playing stereotypical "Italian" music. As Joanne described, the rain and the steepness of the narrow streets that wove between those little pastel-colored houses really made our full backpacks feel heavy, so arriving at our new hotel room (after initially missing a turn) was a nice relief.

Joanne jones for a chip from the truck

The rain subsided, and we walked down to the main part of town to get a bite to eat. Joanne fell victim of the power of suggestion upon seeing a potato chip delivery truck, and we got to sample our first helping of yummy white anchovies! We walked down to the the water's edge, but swimming there was not very inviting; it just looked a little too "public", so we saved that for another day.

A wine worker with his grapes

We walked along a cliff trail, which provided beautiful views of the ocean, but it only went a short way. It was closed due to bad storms in 2011. As a result, we were not sure if we could hike to the neighboring towns, but on another day, we hiked a higher trail, which worked its way up the amazing terraced hilside, nearly to the high ridge, and then down to the town of Corniglia. Mid-way on this trail, we happened upon a small settlement where grape handlers were delivering boxes of lucious fruit. We asked if we could take a picture of one of the guys, and he nodded. He didn't look to happy in the picture, though.

Joanne swims in the Riviera

After lunch at Da Mananan in the tiny town of Corniglia, we descended to the sea, where there was a much less "official" and more private area to swim. It was a beautiful little cove. Joanne went first, and then I enjoyed some time in the sea. After swimming, we walked back up to town again for a photo with Manarola in the background.

Joanne and I in Corniglia, with Manarola in view

Visiting Cinque Terre is a special treat. No one can deny the charm and beauty of this part of Italy.

Last Stop - Paris!

Sat, Sept 27, 2014

I need to tell you this is the Eiffel Tower?  Really?

We walked to the Nice train station at 6:45am past groups of people that were STILL UP from the night before, partying hard.  Remember those days?  Found our seats on the train, and settled in for the 5 hour ride.  The seats we had were pretty comfortable, plenty of room, and facing forward, so for 2 hours we enjoyed the space.  Then a woman asked us if we had the right seats.  The seat numbers were correct…but we were in the wrong car.  DOH!  So we gathered everything up and moved to our less comfortable, slightly crowded, and facing backwards seats.

Once we got to the apartment, and the host’s father finally showed up, we decided to settle in.  That’s when we started noticing things that weren’t quite up to par.  The space was roomy, which is a rare find for Paris I’ve been told, but a couple of the chairs were broken, the terrace was dirty with dead and dying plants on it, and nowhere to sit, and the only floor lamp was broken.  We kept finding more things like that – an air of neglect about the place.  There was also a “For Sale” sign on the terrace, so perhaps the hostess wasn’t putting in the effort.  We also had a leaky toilet – ugh.  Hopefully that will get fixed soon, but meanwhile we hope to enjoy our stay in Paris.  Heading out to a comedy show soon to kickstart our week here!

Sat., Oct 4, 2014

We got to the airport this morning to head back to the States without a hitch, which is usually a good start to a long trip.  There’s so much to write about what our week was like, maybe I’ll just stick to the highlights:

Olivier Giraud and Joe Giraud Peterson

Favorite moment – when Joe got on stage in Paris!  Last Saturday we saw the show “How to become a Parisian in One Hour”.  We had front row seats, which I didn’t want because they’re right up against the stage, but it worked out well.  The comedien was very funny, picked on me, then Joe, so when he was looking for someone to come up on stage, I was shocked when he picked Joe!  He gave Joe a test about everything he told us about being Parisian and had him act it out.  Joe was so funny – the audience ate it up!  Joe is such a ham, it was perfect for him to be on stage.  My only regret is that I was so into the show, I didn’t even think about video-ing Joe up there.  Aarrghh!

Least favorite part about this leg of our trip – our apartment.  It wasn’t bad, but it was the longest stay we had ever had in one place (one week) and it was our least favorite AirBnB apartment ever.  The toilet issue never got resolved, and it became very inconvenient at times.  This weighed on our minds a lot because there was always the worry something worse was going to happen than the leak.  Also, our hostess never did anything to compensate us for this inconvenience – a free night, a bottle of wine, some chocolate, SOMETHING to say “I’m so sorry you had to deal with this on your vacation”.  But nothing.  And in my opinion, that made it worse.

Place de la Bastille

Monuments – we had been to Paris 14 years before and done some of the biggies – Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Place de le Concorde – so this time I wanted to so some other ones.  The Bastille no longer exists, but the square where it stood does, and there is a monument there.  I’m kind of a history buff when it comes to the French Revolution and wanted to hit some of those sites.  Unfortunately, the Conciergerie, a bigger, more brutal prison than Bastille, was closed until late October.  Went to the Place de la Concorde again, because this is where over 1000 people were beheaded in one summer alone during the revolution.

Museums – The Musee d’Orsay has many great pieces, and there’s an entire section of various artists’ work that I dubbed the “men’s fantasies of naked women”.  But I feel the real reason to go there is to take in the building itself.  Inside the main gallery just look up, look around, look down.  This former train station is awe-inspiring!

Skeptical about Arts et Metiers

Joe loves it!

Then there’s the Musee des Arts et Metiers.  Joe heard about this from a colleague and wanted to check it out.  He had to work for 3 days while I
got to do whatever I wanted, so on our last full day in Paris, I let him decide.  So we went here, and I grinned and bore it.  Bore it.  Boring.  Same difference.  There were times when I felt like someone had gone through their attic and said “hey, we could put this on display!” then put it on a table with a card.  Joe really enjoyed a lot of it, but even he said there was just too much stuff
and not enough explanation.  The thing about going to a museum in a foreign

Some big computer thing

country is that everything is written in that foreign language.  And
if you don’t understand that language, you are SOL.  Fortunately there are now recorded self-tour devices you can get…if you know about them before you enter the museum.  In both the Musee d’Orsay and the boring invention one, we didn’t discover they had these available until AFTER we were well inside the museum.  There were never offered to us, which I thought was kinda weird.

Some Mars thing?...I dunno

Some robot thing

The Musee des Arts did have the Foucalt Pendulum, which was fun to watch for about 5 minutes, and yet ANOTHER model of the Statue of Liberty (this was the 3rd one we’ve seen).  Why, you ask, are they so prevalent in France?  Well, I might know, if I could understand what the plaques said, but I couldn’t, so I really don’t know.

Americans – Lots of Americans in Paris (and in Nice, come to think of it).  But it’s nice when you actually run into someone you know!  Surprisingly, one of Joe’s old co-workers from the States was there the same time we were, so we got together with he and his girlfriend for dinner one night near the Eiffel Tower.

Rob and Joe

The reason we were in Paris in the first place was because of some meetings Joe had to attend, and the head of the team put together 2 evening events for the team to attend.  One began in his beautiful apartment, then off to a wonderful bistro.  The next night we had dinner on a river boat cruise on the Seine, on La Calife.  Really wonderful food, fun company, and beautiful scenery!

Parisians – Paris is more crowded than New York, and Parisians are definitely more aggressive about their space than New Yorkers, practically knocking you down to get a seat on the train, or walking right towards you on the sidewalk, daring you not to move.  I usually have really good radar in crowded cities, being able to weave my way around people, predicting where they will move.  The radar was not working in Paris at all.  They speak much faster than the rest of France, and of course, some are rude.  But some are very nice (and funny!) as well.

What I did this time that I regretted not doing my last trip here – explored the Montmatre neighborhoods, visited Sacre Coeur, and took a boat ride on the Seine at night.

Luxembourg garden IS on the tour but still lovely

Parc des Buttes-Chaumont

My new favorite places to go – parks that are not on the tour guides.  Paris is a VERY loud city.  Louder than New York.  And there is not a lot of greenery.  So finding a park that is a little haven of greenery and that blocks out some of the noise of the city can be really nice.  Parc Mountsouris in my neighborhood (Montparnasse/14th arrondisement) is a decent sized park, a little less than a mile in circumference, but with lots of trees, a pond, and a hill.  A great place to hang out or, like me, go for a run, which is much nicer to do here than on the streets.

Another park I discovered is Parc des Buttes-Chaumont.  This is in the 19th arrondisement, is much bigger, with a tower so you can have a great view, a pond, and a waterfall.  The hillsides are pretty steep, but the steps are made of cement shaped to look like wooden logs.
 

A foie gras store - that's all they sell!

Food – yeah, there was a lot of eating here, but to the point where I would go an entire day not eating because I knew I would have another big meal at dinner.   Boeuf bourguignon, gratin dauphinois, foie gras, beurre blanc, croissants, foie gras, chocolate mousse, lentils du puy,  macarons, and more foie gras. “Where’s your restraint, Joanne?”  When I know I’m not going to have this opportunity for awhile to eat some of these foods in the area in which they come from, I wasn’t going to pass that up.  You know the saying “I’ll sleep when I die”?  Well, I’ll abstain when I get home.    And buy elastic waistband pants.

Cool tidbit – I took a walking tour through AirBnB (yeah, they’re trying this new thing) that went through the 2nd, 3rd, and 10th arrondisements.  Ludovic (the tour guide) pointed out colored tiles on some buildings that are in the shape of different space invaders (remember the video game?).  Apparently they’re on more than 1000 buildings throughout the city, so when Joe and I were walking around, we would try to find them.

Me in front of some cool building

Serious Beach Time (Nice, Part Two)

Fri, Sept 26, 2014

I grew up near the ocean, I love to swim, my dad sailed my whole life on the ocean, and I learned to scuba dive in New England.  I love love LOVE being near a large open body of water, specifically the ocean or sea.  But I live in Colorado now - no ocean or sea to be found.  So being in Nice, France has been great for me to be able to walk to the sea every day and hear the surf crash against the rocky beach, to be able to run next to the blue-green water, and to smell the salty air.  However, I knew I needed my beach time, and today was the day!

I packed up my stuff (book, sunglasses, iPhone, wallet, beach towel) and headed to Lido Plage.  Today I dubbed the Day of Decadence, and I was going to relax and enjoy, and there will be no "should" (as in, I should do this, I should not do that).  (in retrospect there was one "should" I SHOULD have followed, but I'll get to that later).

In Nice, the beaches are rocks.  Not rocky.  Rocks.  There is no sand, just small river rocks that you walk on and lie down on.  Frequent beach goers either get used to it, or bring a pad to put between the beach towel and the rocks.  They also wear special water shoes that help them walk on the rocks as well.  There are also private beach clubs, that you can pay so much money to spend the day on a comfortable lounge chair with a sun umbrella above you, and get drinks and food delivered to your chair (of course for an extra, exorbitant price).  There are several rows of chaise lounges that have thick padding, but if you want an unobstructed view of the sea, the front row costs a little more than the other rows.

Guess what I did?  Yeah, remember, it's the "Day of Decadence" (my credit card company is going to LOVE this day).  So by 10:30am, I am settled into a front row lounge chair on a private beach after drinking one of their 6 euro cups of coffee.  Somehow I convinced Joe to join me (he typically does not like beach time).  He brought his laptop with him to actually get some work done, but I eschewed doing anything except staring out at the sea.

We ordered a bottle of prosecco to indulge in our day, then had lunch delivered to our chairs.  At first I thought we should get lunch from a sandwich place off the beach to save money - WHOA!  Day of Decadence?  Hello?  Fine, no "should's".

Every now and then I would go swimming in the Mediterranean to cool off - it was deliciously refreshing!  I think there's more salt in this water than the Atlantic off New England, because it was hard for me to stay underwater, bouyancy-wise.  Off course this made it easy to float, which I did for a long time.  Out of the water, I occasionally read my book, but people watching, chatting with Joe, an
d staring at the water ended up being my activities of choice.  The weather was gorgeous - sunny, warm, but not too hot, with a nice cooling breeze, just enough to forget the sun is beating down on you, and the umbrella is not really shading you all that much (hint hint).

Joe woke me out of my slight doze in the sun to say he needed to get back to the apartment for a conference call.  I considered staying but I (wisely) decided to head back with him and get ready for our last dinner in Nice.

He worked, I showered, and holy crap! my skin is red!!!!  Yeah, blonde headed, white skinned girl here SHOULD HAVE put on sun block at the beginning of the day.  Y'know, after years of getting burned at the beach, I SHOULD HAVE this burned into my brain by now.  In my defense, I've been living in Colorado for 15 years, and the sun is so strong, that after 10 minutes it reminds me how hot it is and I put on sunblock.  At the beach with the cool breeze, I forgot how sneaky the sun can be on my skin, and I didn't put on the sunblock until an hour or so after we were hanging out.  Sooooo, ouch.  I'm paying the price.

Moving on to our final phase of "Day of Decadence", we met up with Fathi at a wine bar, then went to Cote Marais restaurant (couldn't find a website for it) in Old Town Nice (Nice Vieux, or Ville Nice).  Everything was delicious!!  The owner and server were very nice, and we struck up a conversation with them both about the foods and where they were sourced.  At one point I thought the owner said he caught the fish himself that morning, but it turned out he picked it up from the boat that morning.  Still, pretty fresh!

Fathi and I both got the lamb main dish, and I got the chocolate cake dessert.  Joe got the tasting menu, which was 5 dishes off the menu, just a little smaller than ours.  At one point the server came out with watercress soup for all of us...just because the owner liked us! Joe and Fathi got some lemon ice cream in vodka for dessert.  I wish I had tasted theirs but I was so wrapped up in my chocolate cake, well, you know how that goes!  Then we all waddled (ok, maybe just I waddled) back to our apartment where we said our goodbyes.  It was a wonderful evening, a nice way to end our trip to Nice and our visit with our friend.

Fathi, me (badly sunburned) and Joe

Working Remotely in Lucca

A narrow street in Lucca

The city wall

Our visit to Lucca marked the start of our remote work (i.e. end of the purely vacation period). After parting with Ed and Tracy, we arrived in this quiet, small town where we would basically "live" for a week. It was a great choice; not only did we have a very nice, cool apartment, but we got to explore the streets of the walled city, have lunch, and relax a bit before hunkering down with laptops and working each day.

There was something serene and comfortable about Lucca. At times we saw the same people more than once, and the medieval feel of the place added ample charm to our environment. How nice to do remote work in a place so different from our home in Denver! I wonder if we will return. Who knows, but no matter what, Lucca was memorable and special!

Verona, You are a Beauty!

Verona at sunset

View from a bridge near our apartment

Our short stay in Verona meant meeting up with an old friend, Fathi, and his wife (whom we had not met) for a day of biking and wine-tasting. As we pulled into this famous and old city, it was clear that there was something special about it. Later, I learned there is a lot of wealth here, which partly explains its immaculate and beautifully-lit streets, omnipresent live music, and feeling of great life and bounty.

Our bike touring guide, "Mike"

It was great to see Fathi after all of these years, and meeting his wife, Teresa, was a treat. There was an immediate chemistry within our group, and it made for a wonderfully enjoyable day in the countryside. "Mike", our tour guide, was a lot of fun, too.

As Joanne mentioned, narrow roads and traffic made some of the biking quite perilous (well, that's stretching it a bit). We stopped at one town to visit a bar, but it was closed, so we took a few pics and moved on. Two in our group had chains derail on their bikes, and we were joking about this, since our guide had said these are "the best bikes!" We stopped for lunch a little later in a small country town, which was a blast (and very tasty).

Teresa enjoys as Fathi focuses

Fathi offers me a grape

As Joanne said, we passed many grape vines along our route. Fathi and I stopped to do some more serious grape tasting, and, thankfully, no angry vintners wielding shotguns appeared!


The winery we visited was awesome, and we took our time chatting and tasting. The ride back was lots of fun, as well, with Fathi "blocking traffic" for us at times. Verona is lit up spectacularly at night, and an old colosseum in one of the central squares is now a music venue. The night air was filled with energy. We just loved this town.

The next day, we said goodbye to Fathi and Teresa, but somehow (see Joanne's post) we knew we might see Fathi again soon. As it turned out we did, in Nice!

Teresa and Joanne ham it up

I believe we will return to Verona someday. It just had that certain feeling that is hard to describe.

Joanne in one of Verona's squares

Towers, Human Dissection, and Scupture in Northern Italy

The famous "David" sculpture in Florence, Italy

After a week in the Dolomite mountains, our next week would be a bit less about hiking and climbing iron cables and a bit more about culture, art, old cities, and history. It was a time to relax a bit, taste the incredible food or Northern Italy, and do like tourists do for a while.

Dissection table at Teatro Anatomico

The "skinless men"

Our home base was Bologna, Italy. Joanne talked about our cool apartment there. I'll just add that I've never seen an entry door more like a bank vault than the one we had! I don't think a tank could have broken in. We were right outside "the wall" (which in our case was a small remnant of brick just as a reminder of olden days). We walked to the city center several times, climbing Asinelli Tower one day (as Joanne mentioned). We also went to see a historical library (part of the old University) that contained a classroom (called "Teatro Anatomico") where human dissections were performed under the watchful eye of the Spanish Inquisition! Being a Monty Python fan, I had to see this place. There was a large marble dissection table in the center of the room, and there were wooden statues of skinless men as well as various historical figures gods, etc.

One of our day trips was to Florence, where the famous "David" statue is a must-see. Just like Joanne, I also was glad we saw this icon, which I studied in art history so long ago. And I agree with Joanne that our meal in Florence was awesome. Ed and I visited the Duomo, which was pretty cool, and we climbed a tower to get a better view of the outside of its magnificent dome.

The other towns we visited really let us get an overall feeling for this part of Northern Italy, and the food was quite amazing.

Bologna felt like a big city, even in the "old town". It felt somewhat "dingy". And what's more, Florence also felt this way, but a little less so. After the small, beautiful towns in the Dolomites, the air here was less fresh, the crowds were more crowded, and the industrial influence of the modern world definitely made itself known.