Day 4 and beyond

Day 4: Assizi - Matt's favorite place. Saw the tomb of St. Francis of Assizi, bought some Italian spices (sorry if I ruined anyone's Christmas surprise) and climbed the hidden tower of a crumbling castle on a hill in Tuscany.

Day 5: Drove to Rome - crazy experience. Saw country #11 on our European tour. Hint: it's the smallest in the world, the least populated, and has the best security. No immigration troubles here. Visited the Coliseum at dusk and had a great Italian meal.

Day 6: Saw the Pantheon, the Spanish steps, and a museum for which you had to have reservations a week in advance and could only stay inside for two hours maximum. Being the unplanning vacationers that we are, of course we were denied entrance. We did take pictures of the postcards in the gift shop, though.

Day 7: Back in the Tuscany region, we visited Florence and the Ufizzi. We can recommend the da Vinci exhibit. No, not the da Vinci Code exhibit, but the actual life of Leo.

Day 8: Excting day. Please be seated before reading. Or more appropriately, tilt your head to the right. First stop: Pisa and the leaning tower. A few photo ops later, we hit the road for Cinque Terra. Spent a few hours on the beach and then back on the road in search of Christopher Columbus. We didn't find him in Genoa, but we did find his hotel and a Burger King.

Day 9: The largest aquarium in Europe. Spent the morning petting sting rays, barking at seals, and laughing at penguins. Then back on the road to Geneva. The road maps were a bit fuzzy, but we made it to the Mont Blanc tunnel, entering in France and exiting in Switzerland. Don't try holding your breath through this one, kids.

Day 10: Bree went back to the UK while Matt stayed on.

3 day interval

Day 11: Bree returns to Geneva...late.

Day 12: Opting to explore Switzerland this weekend, first stop was the Red Cross museum. Interesting and informative. Drove around the lake to Lausanne.

Day 13: Olympic Museum. Saw the everglowing torch(es). AND...Shannon Miller's autographed gymnast suit!! [Mom - remember when I would make-up balance beam routines on the couch and then little Matt would do flips on the arm chairs? I still contend that it wasn't my fault he broke Dad's favorite chair.]

Then...highlight of the mini-trip. Tour of the UN site in Geneva - original site of the League of Nations and today second only to New York. Discussed nuclear profitization, er, I mean, proliferation with our tour group and then went to the carnival - Fete de Geneve. Matt got his hair cut at one of the "hip" booths. We would've stayed for the fireworks, but the rain storm struck in fury.

Day 14: Bree went back to the UK while Matt stayed on.


And so concludes the Swiss/Italian adventure of 2006. Sorry for the delay, we've had technical difficulties, but more importantly, we've been lazy.

day 3: gasolio goes nowhere

Day 3 started as the most teriffic day yet. But perhaps after you're done reading, you'll understand why I've put off posting for so long...

We road the funicolare to the top of the mountain. Amazingly, this cable-car like device has been in operation for over 100 years. A short walk at the top provides an unrivalled vantage point of several twists of the lake.
It is extremely peaceful and a hike would be highly recommended, but we hadn’t worn the proper footwear. So we returned to the bottom and hopped into a paddleboat, vivaciously going as far out as we dared. The tour boats only gave us mild scares that we would be tipped over.

Then it was time to head toward destination number two and major lesson number one. Suggestion: use full service the first time you fill up the vehicle in Italy. Gasolio, contrary to the way it sounds, is not gasoline but diesel.

The resulting undesired pit stop occurred after a pleasant lunch in Parma,where I sampled the risotto, a favoured dish in the region, but I found myself jealous of Bree's tagliatelli – both were liberally sprinkled with PARMAgiana cheese. We started with the signature PARMA ham and melon.

But back to us being stuck in the middle of a roundabout with a car that sputtered slowly to death. Hertz SOS Italy isn't what you'd want to be using in a life-threatening crisis. In fact, you can only dial the number from a land-line, which we of course did not have.

The policeman didn't interrupt our peaceful sitting on the 110 degree sidewalk taking turns in the sliver of shade until Bree had gone to retrieve some drinks.
I thought I was going to get arrested.
"Move the car," he said. "You've been here 45 minutes."
I showed him the Hertz brochure. He scoffed and walked off.

Bree was highly patient. Very patient.

And we still made it to Castiglion Fiorentino before midnight.