I am currently sitting in a beautiful hotel outside piazza Barberini, exhausted from a full day of Rome sight seeing and eating. We have not been in Italy for 8 days and still going strong. We arrived in Rome last Monday and got right on a train to Florence. In Florence we enjoyed the art of the Uffizi, Academia and Bargello. We also climbed Brunoleschi's dome and went on an awesome bike ride that took us to a wealthy suburb. At this point we got an excellent view of Florance and discvered a monastery where mass was going on. The monks sang it in Latin! It was beautiful.
From Florence we took a day trip to Siena which is a little city about an hour outside of Florance, famous for its seashell shape piazza and unique romanesqu cathedral. It was soo cool because Siena has this traditional horserace that goes back centuries. Each neighborhood has its own coat of arms and horse rider. One time a year the city fills the seashell piazza with sand along the edges and the neighborhoods race for bragging rights. The race went on the day before we came (we watched it on TV and it consisted of about 3 hours of build up for 45 seconds of racing. It was exciting though because a few people fell off their horses as they rounded this really tight corner and at the end, I swear people were trampled to death as they mobbed the winner. Being there the day after was awesome because we missed the thousands of people but were able to still get a really great feel for the race. The winning team was also all in renaissance attire parading through the streets with drums and banners, singing in all the other losing neighborhoods. It was quite exciting. I will post a bunch of pics when we are back in the states.
So I am getting tired now....but if you are up for it I will tell you about Sorrento.
Sorrento is a beach city south of Naples (where yes, the mafia is still very much alive and corrupt as they take taxes and use them on nice cars instead of picking up the garbage - it way stinks near naples). Sorrento is very beautiful and charming. It is known for its lemons and woodmaking. We shopped around and went to the beach in Sorrento. One day we rented a boat to go to Capri positano and possible Amalfi. Although on the boat ride a few people got sick and we did not make it as far as we planned. It was still beautiful and we got great tans (at least I did, the Ellis' burn!). It was amazing how terribly chopping the ocean got on our way back. They told us that two days before a cyclone had come out of no where and damage many boats. They told us one day before the boat ride that the ocean was calm 'like a lake'. HAHA crazy Italians! The next day, Sunday, we went to a town called Casa del mare for church. It was a branch of about 18 members and 4 missionaries. Church was probably my favorite part because everyone was so kind. Many of them spoke english because down in the south, tourism is the best way to earn money. We got names and numbers of missioanry families in the states so we can give them a call and tell them their missionary is well. It was also from these members that we learned a lot about the governmnet in Naples becuase Casa Del Mare was the stinkiest city I have ever been to. Apparently the trash has been a problem for 14 years because of the stupido mafia. Four months agothey started selling thier trash to the Germans who then sells it to the Swiss because the government would rather do that then buy an incinerater and the regions in Northern Italy wont help out their southern countrymen. I think that is ridiculous...but thus is Italy sometimes.
Monday we took a taxi to the train station in Naples only to find that our train, along with all other transportation, was on strike and we could not get anywhere until 9pm that night. So we called up our previous taxi drivr Vencenzo and asked him to take us all the way to Rome. Vencenzo was Tylers favorite part of the trip. For 3 hours he talked to us about everything from politics to mountain biking to cooking. We got some incredible tips on Italian cooking. Unfortunately it sounds like we may need to plant our own garden in order to ever create the deliciousness of Italian food. Vencenzo has started to create his own mountain biking tourist attraction where he takes groups around the Almalfi coast and even around Vesuvius. (yeah, the volcano that destroyed pompeii. Don't worry, its still active and ready to blow anytime Saint G----- I cant remember ---- but 3 times a year they take out the relic of this Saint G. The relic is a viale of his blood. If his blood does not turn to liquid form it means very bad things will happen in naples. Three times it did't liquify and that was WW2, the break out of cholera and when vesuvius erupted last in 1944. In semptember when the main ceremony of blood checking happens everyone is glued to their TVs and praying. Check your newspaper this september-it may be interesting.) So back to Vencenzo - he was awesome, constantly making jokes about his mother-in-law. Oh PS, did I tell you he looks like MOnk! He even walks the same. So we finally got to Rome with the help of Vencenzo and I am going to stop here because this has already been a long and exciting blog.
I am using a european computer and don't feel like editing-sorry for mistakes!
Love you all :)
p.s. This post is labeled 'buon giorno' in tribute to Tyler who has managed to use the phrase in the most comical stuations. Gotta love that kid.
