Food. So much glorious food.

Eatly

Day 31: April 24th, 2014

Today we are headed to Formicola! We caught a few different trains, and after 5+ hours we were in the main train station in Napoli. It was a better train ride than ones that Jeff had previously experience in America. European trains are just better. It was a pretty uneventful rid, which is what we always want when traveling, and we got to see some beautiful scenery. It so green here in Italy and it looks just like you would expect. Rolling hills. Old Castles and/or monasteries on top of the hills. Fields and vineyards all over. It was perfect.

When we got to the train station in Napoli we were greeted by Carlo and Sara's dad, Anthony. He is a hilarious guy. He lived in New York when he was 18 so he knows some English. He then drove us through the crazy traffic of Napoli. We now know why people told us not to drive in Italy. Everybody cuts everybody off, and there is an air of mayhem and madness to the driving, but we escaped unscathed. While driving the 45 minutes East to Formicola we were able to see Mount Vesuvius just a ways off. It was crazy to think that almost 2000 years ago the Roman City of Pompeii was wiped off the map because of that volcano.

Our first stop on the drive was at a small town next to Formicola where the family has a supermarket and a bakery. It was started by the father of the family and is now run by the 2 sons and 2 of the 3 daughters. The bakery is run by the 2 sons. While at the supermarket we were able to meet many of the family memebers and it was a big welcome. We were greeted by the grandmother, Teresa, and the sons, Miguel and Pietro, as well as Carlo and Sara's mother, Filomena, and the other aunt Maria. We got shown around the market and were given treats and sweets and welcomed very well, even if it was in broken English. We are going to have to learn Italian very quickly. Amber's belly was kissed by many!

 Grandma Teresa (Amber's Great Grandpa's niece) 

Next we went to Anna's house. This is where we will be staying while we are here. She is the Aunt of Carlo and Sara and came with them and her daughter Filomena to America last August when Amber was their tour guide. Now it is our turn to be taken around. It was fun for Amber to see here again as well has her daughter Filomena. We also met Anna's 14 year old son Geraldo and her husband Antonio. He is a doctor who works on the ambulances in Caserta which is  a larger city between Formicola and Napoli.

 Carlo, Francesca, Mena, Anna, Sara, Fabio

 Jeff, Anthony, Filomena, Anotnio, Gerardo

Ok, I guess we need a genealogy break so you can understand how Amber fits in with this family. So Teresa, the grandmother, mother of Pietro, Maria, Teresa, Miguel and Anna; her uncle is Amber's great grandfather. He is the one who came to America and there had Amber's grandmother Rose. So now you understand.

For the rest of the evening we unpacked, talked and had the first of MANY large Italian meals. Italians like their food, that is a fact!

Day 32: April 25, 2014: 
Liberation Day

Today is Liberation Day. This is the day that the Italians celebrate arrival of the American troops to liberate them from Germany during World War Two. It is celebrated with lots of food! To start off the day, Carlo and Sara's dad, Anthony, picked us up and gave us the tour of the town. It didn't take too long because it is a very small town. We circled it at least 3 times on the tour. We went from there up to the church that is set on the hill above the town and then around the hill to another town and then back. In all it took about an hour. It gave us some spectacular views of Formicola and the area. It is just beautiful here.

 Anna gave us this beautiful leather baby book for baby Shirts!

 Entrance to Carlo and Sara's home

The Church up on the hill

The view of Formicola

The Catholic Church

The Village that Antonio is from on the other side of the mountain: Treglia (Historical Roman bath village) This wall is a Roman wall from before the time of Christ

Town square in Formicola

After the tour we went to the houses of Miguel and Pietro for the festivities which started at about 1:00 PM. Their houses are attached, kind of like townhouses, with the bakery in the front. We then spent the afternoon and evening playing random games with various balls, eating many courses of meals for lunch, sitting around lounging, singing, singing karaoke, eating more food for dinner, talking and singing and then having dessert. We left around stuffed. It is quickly becoming a regular feeling, and we fear it will continue for the foreseeable future! I guess fear isn't the right word. We do not fear the food because it is delicious. We fear for our waistlines. Guess we better start exercising more.

 All of the food for the day!

We also got to see part of the process of the making of the bread in the bakery. They deliver this bread daily to many different places in the area, and it is pretty dang good bread. 

Miguel and Peitro own and run the bakery (brothers)

We also got a tour of Pietro's new house that he is building on the opposite side of the supermarket from the house he is living in now. It is not a typical Italian house. He has been working on it for almost 8 years, and it should be done in 1 or 2 years he said. It is worked on as money becomes available, and since he has a place to live with his family, he is not in a rush to get it finished. This way he doesn't have to take out any loans. His wife already told us that we have to come back and stay with them when it is finished. Just another reason to learn Italian!

We finally left Miguel and Pietro's at about 10:30 pm and we were ready for bed. So much going on and it is so much fun.

Things that look like they should fall down, but don't

Day 29: April 22nd, 2014: 

It leans! It really leans!

Today we headed out to see the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa! There really isn't anything else to do in Pisa so that is what is on our itinerary. We headed out early and walked to our breakfast portion of the B&B , which consisted of a croissant and a drink. They were good, but not so filling.

Carlo and Sara (Brother and sister)

After that we walked to the famous tower. It didn't take very long because Pisa is not that large of a town. It really only has the tower to see and not much else. 

When we arrived on the square it was odd to see how much it really leans. It is shocking to look at. You constantly think that it is going to fall over, but if it hasn't fallen in over 500 years, the probability of it falling are pretty slim.  Especially because there are many engineers and safety people looking after the structure.

After taking our obligatory pictures holding up the tower, and the other tourist pictures, we headed into the cathedral that is next to the tower. We were also shocked to find out that there was a cathedral next to the tower and that the tower is only part of the cathedral complex.

You would think after all the hype and pictures of the building that the tower was the focal point of town. Well you would be wrong.  It was originally built to be the detached bell tower of the cathedral. That building style is common in Italy, as opposed to  the rest of Europe where the bell tower is integrated into the cathedral building itself. Well enough history and on to the rest of the day.

Next we walked around Pisa soaking in the Italian-ness of everything. ( Shocking, I know) After unsuccessfully (we didn't really try that hard) trying to get into this old important church on the bank of the river, we met up with Christy Warnick at a Japanese restaurant just down the street from the Tower.

So our first food in Italy wasn't Italian, but Japanese. This is because it was really cheap and all you can eat. It was good to catch up with Christy and to stuff ourselves with Sushi and other Asian foods. We left very full and happy.

We then caught a 1 hour train ride to Florence, or as the Italians call it Firenze. Again, why do we call it something different??

Anyways, we got to Firenze and eventually found our hotel and settled in. It was good to sit and relax for a while, but after a bit we decided we needed to see Firenze so we headed out in search of "The Old Bridge" and Gelato.  We were successful on both accounts.

The view from our hotel window

Our first stop on our search was the Cathedral of Santa Maria Novella. It is a beautiful cathedral that is done in white marble with green and red marble as accents. It is stunning. Next we went to the Signoria Square (square in front of the Medici house) where there are a bunch of marble statues being displayed, and a marble reproduction of the David sitting where the original David sat after Michelangelo finished carving it before it was taken into the Galleria dell' Accademia in the 1800's. It was fun to be in the courtyard with all the people and the people trying to sell you their cheap knock-offs.

 My "Perfect Man"

We then wandered over to the Old Bridge. The Old Bridge is just that. A bridge that is old. Just like every other bridge in Firenze. What is special about it is that it has houses and shops built on it. It is jeweler alley  where you would come to spend a lot of money on real expensive jewelry, not the other "real" stuff they sell on the streets "for a good price."

We then started our search in earnest for the best Gelato in Firenze, and we found it. It is called Gelateria Dei Neri. It was heavenly! So smooth and creamy, and it wasn't horribly expensive either! Now we're not talking cheap, €4 for a cone with 3 flavors, but so much cheaper than what the same thing would cost in America. Jeff got all fruit flavors (Mango, Mandarin and Limon) while Amber got Chocolate, yogurt, and Grapefruit. They were so good we will have to go back. Gelato may even become a regular meal on this trip. Oh shucks.

We then decided to walk home, but on the walk we saw a street performer doing Charlie Chaplin style comedy. There was a large crowd around and he was pretty funny as he included the audience in the act. We watched for about 45 minutes, but then we had to go get some sleep because tomorrow is going to be a long, early day with lots of old art to look at.

Some fun things we found on our walk home:

 Baby things :)

 Dante's Home

 A street performer (acting like Charlie Chaplin)

 An art instillation against capitalism by a local artist.

Day 30: April 23, 2014:

 Old Stuff!

We woke up early because we heard that if you don't have a reservation for the museums, the lines are horribly long, so we woke up and were out the door by about 8:15 when things were opening. The sad part is that we were not early enough. There were huge lines already! But never fear, the pregnant fairy is here! It turns out that if you have a pregnant woman in your group, of which we so happened to have one on hand, you can cut ahead of the 3 hour line and stroll right on in. So top tip #67: Take a pregnant lady with you to Italy. It cuts down on the wait time. If you don't have a pregnant woman on hand, borrow one. It that is not possible reserve ahead of time for any museum you want to see. If not you will get to stare at the back of some sweaty German/ English/ Italian/American dude's head.

The first museum was the Galleria degli Uffizi. This was the Medici's home where they collected statues of the Roman and Hellenistic period. There are so many of them. I am sure that whatever statues were not  gobbled up by the Louvre and the British Museum were bought by the Medici family. There were also many paintings, most of them from the Firenze area. They were beautiful and Carlo and Sara were much more versed in Italian art history than the uncultured American's in the group. It was fun to see and walk around, probably because it had been a week since we had done that, which is good because we didn't want a repeat of Vienna.

Sandro Botticelli 

"Spring" & in Italian "La Primavera"

After the Uffizi we went in search of traditional Firenze food. This consists of large portions of meat beef cooked rare/medium rare. We also learned that it costs a lot. So instead of grossing Amber out with some partially mooing cow, we got a few different dishes: Some Pasta, some Roast Beef, and some sausages with beans. And it was amazing! Simply Amazing! Italy knows where it's at. America, shape up. Forget the knock off Italian food. Come get some real stuff and then learn how to cook it right. There was so much flavor that the foodie in Jeff was overjoyed.

 We saw a neat bike art piece about reusing old material and how bikes are paving the way for the future in Florence

 "Mirror, mirror on the wall who is the fairest bicycle of them all?"

After eating we went back to Gelateria Dei Negri for round 2. This time Jeff got Nutella (of course), cookies and cream, and ricotta with figs. They were all amazing. Amber got Caramel, which tasted like caramel and was so sweet and filling she couldn't finish it, Chocolate, and Yogurt. So good!

We then headed to the Galleria dell 'Accademia to see Michelangelo's David. The real one. Again we played out pregnancy card and skipped to the front of the line ( see ya later grumpy people!) and headed in to see this masterpiece of marble. In short: It was Amazing. In long: The detail and precision in which Michelangelo sculpted this masterpiece is awe inducing. You really have to see it to believe it. Top tip #2: Visit that museum. They also have many restored paintings in display with pictures of the before and during process of restoration which are fascinating.  There is also another room where there and many plaster moulds of other marble statues from around Italy on display. The coolest part for Jeff was the video that showed how the artist first sculpts in clay, then makes a plaster mould of that sculpture, then uses wooden frames and other tools to either make an exact replica or an enlargement of the plaster mould in marble. It was really fascinating.

After that we were all so beat that we headed back to our hotel that potentially sub leases our rooms to bed bugs in order to get some rest because 6 hours of looking at old art is tiring. 

After a good nap for everybody but Jeff, we went in search of some food. Carlo found a good place on his phone, but when we got there it didn't look like it was what we were looking for. The place to eat was in this marketplace building with many other shops. Instead of all the shops being open there was a line with lights and bouncers guarding the entrance. We got in line to see what happened. When we got to the front they let us in (obviously it wasn't very exclusive) and we headed up the stairs. When we got there we realized that it was the grand opening for a  new floor of the market place with many different shops that sold the many different varieties of Italian food. All the shops were divided into categories, seafood, meat, cheese, etc and people were sampling all the different kinds of food. We went around and found the free samples, which were interesting, and then left because this was obviously not what we were looking for.

After a few minutes we found another restaurant that looked good. It served warm sandwich type things on flatbread.

They were pretty good, especially the one with Nutella. After we were filled we headed back to the hotel and promptly fell asleep. Tomorrow we board a train for Napoli!