Assisi

Early Saturday morning we set off for the quaintest little town in all of Italy. Well, I’m not sure about the quaintest in all of Italy but it’s pretty damn quaint. We packed our lunch in an effort to save some cash because we figured Assisi would be a pretty expensive city to eat because of the millions of tourists that come every year. We had learned from the previous days disaster and actually done some planning in terms of train times, etc and things went off without a hitch.

Lainie and Charles

St Francis was born here in 1182 and spent most of his life preaching around Assisi and in the region of Umbria. There’s a beautiful church named after him perched high on the mountain side. A couple of recent earthquakes have damaged the church and there is ongoing restoration going on. They are restoring frescoes from crumbled bits and some of the bits are not much larger than a grain of sand. Sounds like a seriously tough puzzle for the likes of grandmas.
We had beautiful weather the entire day as we wandered the streets and steadily climbed the mountain in order to check out the Rocca Maggiore. The Rocca Maggiore is a fortress that is now used for getting an incredible view of the countryside. Honestly, the town is very quaint, narrow streets and cute (read: expensive) shops full of all kinds of things. We finally got back to a shop that my Mom and Dad have been raving about for a number of years. We picked up some of Friendly Fabrizio’s olive oil and black truffle spread.
In small-world coincidences, we met a group of older travelers from Vancouver, Washington, who had been traveling up from the south of Italy. And later, a mom with a couple kids from Everett, who were visiting friends who live somewhere in Umbria. The kids were elementary-age and were enjoying the fact that they were skipping school to eat delicious gelato everyday. You can always tell the Seattle area people from how tightly they’re clutching their Rick Steves’ Italy Guidebook.

Lainie and Allie waiting for the train

Becoming Italian: Our Trip to the Vatican Museum

It’s a little-known guidebook fact that the Vatican Museum opens its doors for free on the last Sunday of every month. With Lainie here for her visit we thought this was the perfect opportunity to finally see the Sistine Chapel and all the wonderful artifacts relating to the history of Christianity and Catholicism (and we saved ourselves the 12 euro admission cost).

So, we woke up at 7 am in order to get to the museum by 8:30 (doors open at 9). As we rode the metro we noticed it was unusually full at this early hour on a Sunday, and we deduced that, in fact, we were not the only people in Rome with the idea to go to the Vatican today (turns out our little-known fact is in every guidebook). So, as we stepped out of the metro and headed towards the museum I began speed walking in order to get us as far ahead of the other people as possible. As I approached the line from the end nearest the entrance, I could look down the street and I noticed that the line was really, really, really, really long already! Immediately my heart sunk as I realized we’d probably have to stand and wait forever just to get in. Then it happened.
Where the line curved around a corner the barrier was only a bit of caution-type tape instead of the iron gate that shapes the rest of the line. A few people quickly ducked under the tape and got in the line right at the front (maybe 20 people back from the front). I thought for a moment or two and then I just said, screw it, I’m going in! And I ducked under there, too and secured us a spot at the front.

Charles and Lainie soon caught up to me and as they were trying to get in line with me some random Italian guy (who wasn’t even standing in line) began arguing with Charles and trying to keep them from cutting in. We used the old “non capito” to pretend we didn’t understand why he was yelling at us, and soon he ran out of steam and walked off. For a few seconds I did feel slightly guilty, because the people we cut in front of were not your typical pushy Italians. They were tourists who probably saved a lot of money to come and see the Vatican, and many were nuns and priests (which is why no one in line tried to kick us out).
I quickly got over my guilt and had a wonderful afternoon in the museum. It is fantastic, and the Sistine Chapel is breathtaking. It was totally worth it.

A few days later, back at school, Charles asked our boss Steve what he had done at the weekend. Turns out he went to the Vatican Museum too, and stood in line for 3 hours to get in!! Charles told him our story and all he had to say was, “You f**ers!” How can you not laugh at that?

Our Serenity-filled Tivoli Trip(s)

Voted Italy’s most beautiful garden in 2006, we spent Friday afternoon in search of Villa Adriana (because we didn’t realize that we actually wanted to go to Villa D’Este). Allow me to explain.
Tivoli is a hilltop town, and it has two great estates one a former convent and the other a summer residence built by the emperor Hadrian as a peaceful place to escape from the city life in Rome. Both are said to be stunning, filled with perfectly manicured gardens, fountains, and statues. Villa Adriana, the estate built by Hadrian, is located at the bottom of the hill and is said to be more like a small town than a villa. Villa D’Este is at the top of the hill, basically in the center of Tivoli, and it is filled with fountains and statues to delight; including a fountain that used to play the organ (the music is artificial nowadays).

Lainie and Charles below the organ fountain

Based on the descriptions in our guidebook, we wanted to see the latter of the two estates, only Charles got confused and thought we were looking for Villa Adriana. To add more confusion to the mess, we didn’t know that the two estates were so far apart, and so we rode the bus into Tivoli town center, and disembarked on our journey. We saw signs everywhere for Villa D’Este, but we couldn’t find Villa Adriana anywhere. We consulted a map in a gift shop window, and it turned out to be way off scale, and we ended up walking a good distance until asking a very helpful woman where Villa Adriana was. She told us to get back on the bus and head to the bottom of the hill.

On the bus we made sure to ask the driver where we should get off, and he was very helpful and directed us right where we needed to go (he must be new). We finally got to where we thought we wanted to go only to be turned away at the ticket counter because we missed the last entrance by minutes! At this point we were exhausted, sweaty, hungry, and pissed off! We headed home defeated, apologizing to Lainie for wasting her precious and limited vacation time.

Thirsty?

To add insult to injury, we looked closer at our guidebook when we got home and discovered that, in fact, we wanted to see Villa D’Este after all, and we were right there the whole time!!

Fast forward two days. We decided that after our good morning at the Vatican Museum we would give it another go and head back to Tivoli. It was Sunday, and fewer buses run on Sunday, so we packed ourselves into a bus to stand for the hour long ride. We were all crammed into the aisles, and an old woman got on very last. As soon as she got on she started ranting and raving about the uncomfortable position she was in, and how Lainie’s ponytail was in her face (as if she could help it). Then the entertainment started.

Charles, Lainie, and Allie

A young girl, maybe in her early twenties, was seated in the front row of the bus. The old lady started to demand that this girl give her the seat. The girl refused and all hell broke loose. They began arguing back and forth, with the old woman literally so angry that she was screeching. The bus driver pulled over and people were all yelling at the old woman to shut up until finally someone else decided they would just get off the bus so the old bag could have a seat! But did she stop there? No, she kept ranting and raving and screeching. It was so annoying yet so hilarious all at once. Charles asked me if he should get some of the fight on video and I told him to do it, but he chickened out.

After maybe twenty minutes or so she finally stopped her rampage and we could enjoy the ride in peace. What I find to be the funniest thing of all, was that if she had asked nicely for someone to give her their seat, anyone would have done it instantly. Instead, she started demanding things and went off the deep end when her demands weren’t met.

So anyway, we made it to Villa D’Este and had a great time. It is stunning and the weather was gorgeous, and we took a million pictures for you to see. Notice how there’s no story in the stuff that comes easy?

Garden scene depicting Rome

Finally, Some Friends!

Laine, Charles, Allie, and Christoph; Spanish Steps

By the great law of Murphy we finally got some friends to come visit, while we’re flat broke! We were so excited to see our friends that we didn’t care, and we made the best out of what little funds we had. It helps that most travelers are also on a budget!

Lainie at the Truth Mouth. Rome has great free sites!!

Wednesday morning Charles set off to the airport to meet Lainie. They worked together at the Starlight in Ellensburg, and since she had already been planning a trip to Dublin for this year she added Rome to her list when we extended an invitation. After some small confusion at the airport (for some reason they took her flight info off the board completely and Charles wasn’t sure if her plane had just vanished into thin air-turns out it was just late. Only an hour and a half!), they arrived back at the house sweaty and tired.

Out on the town!

Knowing how jet-lag can ruin a good portion of your holiday if you succumb to it, we fed Lainie and started out to see some sites before she could fall asleep. First stop was the Colosseo, and then we wandered through the ruins of the Foro Romani, and onto Piazza Venezia. As we wandered through the halls of the great monument to Vittorio Emmanuele I got a call on my phone; it was Christoph!

Allie and Christoph goofing off at Colosseo

I met Christoph when he was an exchange student at my high school during my senior year. We were in touch over the internet and he told me that he and a friend were traveling from Berlin though Austria and then to Italy playing music and visiting the country. He thought perhaps they’d be near Rome by Thursday or Friday. Since it was only Wednesday I wasn’t expecting to hear from him, but he wanted to know if it would be ok for him to arrive early. I told him to get in his van and make the drive from Siena tonight, and we would wait up for him.

Christoph and Allie at the apartment

Then we walked to the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain, and as we were waiting for the bus to head back home, what had been a gorgeous day suddenly turned into a torrential downpour, and we were soaked by the time the bus came. We went home and had some dinner and had a few colleagues from work over to hang out. Christoph finally arrived at about 11 or 11:30, because he had got lost trying to navigate in the chaos of Rome.

So after months of dying to have some friends visit, fortune finally smiled on us and brought us two on the same day!

Back to the Well

Today, some good news. I was hired on a at a local pub, centrally located in the beautiful Piazza Navona. It's called The Abbey Theatre Pub http://www.abbey-rome.com/

It's not a theatre, unless you like watching drunken tourists, then it's quite a show. Although, I would have rather stayed on the good side of the bar, some work is better than no work. Also, I've heard that this place pays very poorly, in the range of 6 euro/hour but I'll be working 8 hour shifts so at the end of the day, it's better than nothing. Who knows, I might even have a little fun being a stress-free bartender again, like in the very old days before managing a bar. There isn't really a tipping culture in Italy but perhaps the young Americans tip. I'm not really sure or concerned about it. I just want to start making some money.

So we will rejoice and hope that Allie get's a job that she is supposed to be interviewing for today or tomorrow.

Cry Me a River

So, lately, we've been depressed.

For the most part it's been because of work. We have been finishing students left and right, but unfortunately the school we work for hasn't been able to provide any new hours for us! We have been waiting and waiting for these few new contracts to get settled, but there has been some bureacratic stuff going on that has prevented the finalization of the contracts. So basically we've been feeling like horses with carrots tied just above our heads that we keep walking towards but can't seem to reach.

To give you an idea of what we're dealing with, our income from school last month was 920 euro, and our rent was 1000 euro! So, that leaves us with only a credit card to buy food and whatever else we may need. And fun? Uh, what's that? Not to mention we are stressing out because we have several friends lined up to come visit us, and we are flat stinkin' broke! How can we be expected to show them a good time in the city without any spending cash?

And to top it all off, we got emails today telling us that although we were great applicants, there are new EU rules that are preventing us from getting the summer camp jobs in Austria! What more could go wrong?

So, what do we plan to do about it, you ask? Well, first of all, we have noticed that our apartment building has many young children living in it, and so we are advertising for private lessons (let's hope we get some calls). We are also printing up some more resumes to take out to other schools in hopes of at least a few more hours per week. We have decided that we can't wait any longer for these promised hours to come from our current job, and we have to take some action if we don't want to be coming home in a month.

Already Allie has received an interview at a school (which ironically is 50km outside of Rome), so we will see if the commute turns out to be worth it, but at least it's something, right? We don't plan to give up easily, so be rootin' for us! There are still too many things we haven't done over here to pack it in and head for home.

Buona Pasqua

Renee and Jules, our Easter guests, before we opened the first bottle of wine...

We just wanted to say hello and Happy Easter to everyone. For our first Easter in Italy, we're preparing quite a feast. Charles is making Lamb Ragu, hopefully it turns out well. If it does, we'll put a recipe up and some pictures. We're also working on getting some pictures of our new apartment as well, we've just been real slow to get everything put away properly.

We hope everyone has a nice holiday, and don't feel too jealous that here in Italy we also get Monday off as part of the Easter holiday!

Renee and Jules playing with Easter toys...a few bottles in

Renee, Allie and Jules...a few more bottles later
Charles, Allie, Renee and Jules...too many bottles in