Day 15 – November 26, 2007 – Toronto to Indianapolis
Up at 4am to catch 4:45 shuttle to airport
Bus all the way to crazy far away international terminal
Use meal voucher for breakfast
Finally board flight to Indy to arrive home!
Day 14 – November 25, 2007 – Rome to Toronto via Vienna
Wake up at 4am to get to airport – bus at 5:00
Crazy airport bus driver
Check in for first 2 flights
· Rome to Vienna fine
· Didn’t book us seats together from Vienna to Toronto, had to change at Vienna airport
· Vienna to Toronto – next to each other, but in middle seat group
¨ Em sits next to werewolf man for 10 hours
· Luggage takes 45 min to get off plane at Toronto and up to International Connections point where we would have to go through customs
¨ We miss our original flight because of this
¨ Ticket agent tries to rebook us to go to Chicago then Indy
Can’t get boarding passes to print so we miss all of our available options out of Toronto
¨ Ticket agent who we’ve been working with in ITPC tells us Air Canada will put us up in hotel and give us meals, and that we should just go to the ticketing counter to rebook for Monday morning
¨ Go through Canadian customs, up to Air Canada, and have to stand in line
¨ Ticket agent won’t give us hotel voucher, claims it is Austrian Air’s fault
¨ Talk to Air Canada manager, get hotel discount thing, meal voucher for the airport, and Monday morning boarding passes
¨ Get to Quality Inn hotel after crazy van ride
¨ Eat at hotel restaurant – burgers and fries
¨ Back to sleep – another early morning
Day 13 – November 24, 2007 – Sorrento to Rome
Head back to Rome from Sorrento
Stop at Autogrille for comfort stop
Stop at Autogrille for lunch
After getting back to Pineta Palace in Rome, we head downtown again
· Much better room at Pineta Palace
¨ Toilet not under sink
¨ 3 beds, bigger room, bigger balcony
In Rome
Vatican
· New Cardinals being inducted
· Wait 1 hour to go inside
· Don’t get to see Basilica – go into Cardinal meet and greet of sorts
· Leave through strange courtyards and hallways, a little lost
· Swiss Guard just gets out of your way and lets you walk wherever
Walk across Bridge of Angels
Go to Piazza Del Popolo
· Very neat fountain and two twin Pantheon looking buildings
Back to hotel area
· Eat at pizza place recommended by others in the group
¨ Pizza, salad, tiramisu, gelato
· Grocery store for more gelato
· Back to hotel to sleep – early morning
Day 12 – November 23, 2007 – Sorrento and Capri
Pack to move to hotel with rest of group
Meet others for departure/breakfast
Leave late because of strong winds in Sorrento
Take local coach to port
Take hydrofoil to Capri
Very rough ride because of the strong winds
Arrive in Capri
Take local bus to Anacapri
· Roads are very narrow
¨ Buses and taxis have to be specially made narrower than normal
· Visit Villa San Michel
¨ Beautiful views of Capri coast
· Take chair life to top peak of Capri – Mt. Solara, 1,800 feet
· Lunch at Barbosa Ristorante
¨ Spaghetti, gelato, coke light
· Local bus to middle Capri
¨ Visit gardens, both sides of island, both coasts, gorgeous
¨ Walked through alleys to see medieval buildings
· Local coach to lower Capri
¨ 15 min free time
¨ Take hydrofoil back to Sorrento early because of high winds – smoother ride this time
Local coach back to hotel
Our backpacks are missing after the transfer to the new hotel
Give us a bottle of spumante for our troubles
Walked around Sorrento, visited shops, abandoned house below street level, department store (UPIM) – closest thing to our supermarket
Purchased our wooden boxes
Walked through historical street in Sorrento, bought lemon chocolates
Repacked at hotel
Dinner with everyone in hotel
Hazelnut gelato from grocery store (Just ok)
Italian news = reading the newspaper on the television
· Traffic is animated
· Horoscopes are news
Day 11 – November 22, 2007 – Perugia to Sorrento via Pompeii
Early breakfast and head to Southern Italy
Stop for comfort stop at Autogrille
Pompeii
Lunch at yucky pizza place
Tour of Pompeii ruins
· Lots of stray dogs roaming around
Drive to Sorrento
Along Amalfi coast
We get different hotel than everyone else for first night
· Stairs flood in our hotel
Walk around Sorrento shops
Optional Dinner
· Appetizer with good cheese
· Pizza
· Pasta – white and red sauce
· Cake
· Lemon Cello – Very strong!
Stop for gelato on our walk back to the hotel
Day 10 – November 21, 2007 – Venice to Perugia via Ravenna and Assisi
Drive to Ravenna
Go to covered market, Dante’s tomb, Aryan Baptistry
Get hot chocolate
· It’s like a melted chocolate bar in a cup
Lunch at an Autogrille in the middle of the Alpenines
· Snowy up in mountains
Arrive at Assisi
Local guide and tour of St Francesco’s Basilica and Tomb
Beautiful medieval city on a hill
Drive to Perugia
Stay in Holiday Inn
Included dinner at hotel
· Pasta with truffle and sausage sauce
· Roast pork and gravy
· Potatoes
· Em’s Birthday Flan
Day 9 – November 20, 2007 – Venice, Italy
Head to Venice at 8:45am
Bus to boat, boat into Venice
Walked to gondolas for ride
· Anniversary guy serenades his wife with a song he wrote just for her
· Someone saw a rat swimming while on gondola ride
Met back with entire group for local tour
Local tour with local guide
Visited Venice glass factory for demonstration
St. Mark’s Basilica
· Absolutely gorgeous! Gold mosaic tile everywhere – no pictures allowed
· No eating in St. Mark’s Square
Free time
· Lunch in ristorante
¨ Pasta and Coke Light (very yummy)
· Walked to Rialto Bridge, window shopped on bridge and through street vendors
· Stopped into bakery for a couple of pastries
· Roamed beautiful city “streets”
· Shopped
· Visited McDonalds for restrooms
· People in St. Mark’s square buy pigeon food to encourage pigeons to land on them
Met group again, boat to bus
Bus dropped us off at the outlet mall
· Shopped in one store, bought Nike messenger bag, went to grocery
Walked back to hotel for a short rest
Dinner at hotel (Buffet style)
Back to room for the night
Day 8 – November 19, 2007 – Lake Maggiore to Venice via Lake Garda and Verona
Leave Lake Maggiore
After bad traffic in Milan, stopped at Autogrille for comfort stop
Drove to Sirmione, visited Lake Garda and castles, churches, city
Drove to Verona
Visit Juliette’s balcony, touch breasts of bronze statue
Leisurely walk through Verona’s squares/open markets
Strolled to McDonalds for toilet visit
Becks Cafeteria for lunch
· Pasta, potatoes, green beans
Verona has replica Coliseum – much smaller
Drove to Venice
Arrive around 4:30
Dinner and walking tour in Venice at 6:30
Bus to boat (bad traffic)
Take boat to Venice
Walk to restaurant, nice dinner
Walk to St. Mark’s Square
Neville bought all the ladies in the group roses from a vendor
Boat back to bus to hotel
Day 7 – November 18, 2007 – Lake Lugano, Switzerland
Drive to Lake Lugano
On the way, looks like Under the Tuscan Sun scenery
Village with open air market once a month
Crossed Swiss border – no one guarding, just paused and went on
Passed Swiss chocolate factory
Lake very clear like Lake Tahoe
Casino – only open for 5 hours per day
Official languages – Italian and German
Accept Euros and Swiss Francs – I Euro = 1.6 Swiss Francs
Lunch at McDonalds
· Ciabatta burgers
· Salads
· Fountain Coke Zero
· Had to have code from receipt to use restroom
We weren’t stopped at Italian border on the way back into Italy
Italian and Swiss borders are very far apart – who owns what is in between?
Back to Hotel – walked around Baveno
Nap
Get take-out pizza for dinner
Siciliani – Cheese, tomato, olive
Day 6 – November 17, 2007 – Signa to Lake Maggiore via Milan, Italy
Drive to Milan
Saw outlet mall on the way
Went to palace
Lunch at McDonalds
Visited Duomo
Visited Galleria – expensive shops – outdoor covered mall
Gelato before heading back
Drive to Lake Maggiore
Walk to supermarket to get water, ice tea, fruit, and some sort of pastry
Paid for excursions
Dinner at local restarauant
· Em – lasagna (bad)
· E – Tortellini, cream and ham sauce (good)
· Cream of asparagus soup (good)
· Gelato dessert (Very good)
Day 5 – November 16, 2007 – Florence, Italy
City tour with guide
Saw a man washing windows with newspaper
Leather and gold demonstration
Duomo and Santa Croce
Saw many workers on strike
Piazza Della Signoria (Political Square)
Visited “The David”
Man was dropping his pants near entrance to David museum – wanted to be David
Ponte Vecchio bridge
Walked across, saw shops
Lunch in Piazza Della Signoria (Really good pasta, expensive), and Calzoni
Walked to Palazzo Pitti
Many, many street vendors near San Lorenzo
Saw Santa Maria Navona
Ate dinner near San Lorenzo
Cover charge to eat, which we counted as the waitresses tip
Train back to hotel
Got off to soon, had to spend an hour waiting, meandered through grocery/odds and ends store – “Coop” mostly groceries, but had pots and pans, light bulbs, hardware, and misc. in 3 or 4 aisles
Prescan groceries
Honor system for busses/trains
99 cent store
Cheap bottled water at grocery store
Make sure to stand in cafes, otherwise double the chargeDid lots of walking, looking at sites, not many museum visits, lots of wandering around soaking up atmosphere
Day 4 – November 15, 2007 – Rome to Florence by way of Pisa
Stop at a bar for a “comfort stop”
Stop at “Autogrille” for “comfort stop” and lunch
Pasta and Risotto for lunch
Bought crispy M&M’s
Drive to Pisa
Have to take “train” to Square of Miracles
Tons of street vendors like NY – selling purses, pashmina, “Rolex”
Climbed leaning tower
E bought green purse
Drive to Signa (near Florence)
Found out no excursions in Florence
Hotel is good, no toilet under the sink!
Check out bar and train station
Dinner is included, in hotel
Veggie soup, marinara pasta, pork chop or chicken, broccoli, potatoes, gelato
Walk around with Vivian, Matthias, Walter and wife
Found nothing open
Figure out train schedule so we can get back from Florence
Up to hotel room to relax and sleep
Day 3 – November 14, 2007– Rome, Italy
Vatican City
Saw Pope
St. Peter’s Basilica/Square
Coliseum
It rained and hailed!
Roman Forum
Umbrella vendors come out of nowhere trying to sell to everyone – even those people who already have umbrellas – similar to NY
Francesco is our tour guide
Back to hotel at 2pm
We venture out on our own
Bus to Metro to city
1 Euro got us downtown
Trevi Fountain by day
Pizza by the kg/g
They put potatoes on pizza!
Have gelato by Trevi Fountain
Mint, banana, chocolate
Best stuff ever!
Walk to Pantheon
It rains inside
Walk to Piazza Navona
Walk to Monumento Il Vittorio Emmanuel II
Walk by Forum – take pictures of ruins at night
Walk by Coliseum at night
Metro from Coliseum to Trevi Fountain
Walk to Hard Rock
Up giant hill in the middle of nowhere
Burger and chicken sandwich
Back down giant hill to Metro
Stamps only sold in Post Offices and Tobacco shops
Commas for . and . for commas
Trend seems to be skinny jeans tucked into boots
Day 2 – November 13, 2007 - Rome, Italy
Flight was good, didn’t get to sleep much
Get cash out of ATM in airport (Bancomat)
Italians drink Coke Zero – yay!
On bus ride to hotel, see Ford Focus and other strange Ford vehicles
Other car brands – Clio, Twingo, Mercane
Italians are big on honking – and don’t use lane designations
Drive on right side of road
Advertisements are everywhere
13.77/Litre of gasoline
12/Litre of diesel
Couldn’t check in for hours at hotel, nap in lobby
Did Rome by Night bus Orientation Tour
Spanish Steps
Trevi Fountain
3 coins over your shoulder
Dinner and Entertainment (opera)
Appetizer (salami, prosciutto, veggies)
Bean Pasta
Pasta similar to Bravo
Salad
Chicken or Salmon
Chocolate mousse