Rome and Marathon

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Carb load -Spaghetti Bolognese

26.2 miles = 42.195 kilometers

Start Line and Colosseum

nieve smiles

Arch of Constantine

Waiting in the chute to start

Start

St. Peter's

St. Peter's Basilica

Pantheon

Piazza Navona - on the move

 

Piazza Navona

Spanish Steps

Last turn

Done. Colosseum far in background

I have to WALK back to the hotel?

 

Oh, that's what hurt so bad

We ran a marathon and all we got were tee shirts

Scavenger hunt tourism and guerrilla dinning

Dad and Martha arrived at the house with the help of “Betty” the talking GPS system in Dad’s souped-up Lancia.  Martha said it took Dad all of about 5 minutes to adapt to the driving techniques in Turin and with Betty's gentle reassurance to "turn around immediately", they made it here safe.

Guerrilla Dinning

I book reservations for a nice dinner for the lot of us at an upscale restaurant in Alba.  The menu is entirely in Italiano so I ask, “Hai una menu in englese”.  No.  We do not have one.  Ok, something has to look familiar, right.  No, there is nothing that resembles something I know so we each take a shot in the dark and make a selection, guerrilla dinning tactics.  We order some appetizers for the table to share and I chose something that looked like it had the word verdura/vegetable in it and everyone else made their selection.  The appetizers arrive with a selection of quale egg salad, tuna wrapped in roasted red pepper and steak tartare-raw ground beef.  We walk on the wild side and try it.  Very nice and enjoyable.  We congratulate ourselves for trying something new as dinner arrives.  Oooh, mine comes first piping hot smelling of butter and garlic, followed by ravioli’s, pasta’s, lamb, and soup.  We dig in but all stare at my meal because that is the only indiscernible one.  Hmm,  I start to deconstruct it attempting to separate a small mouthful of the stuff but it’s stringy and has the consistency of calamari.  We each pass around a bite.  Could it be, no, not Tripe.  The verdict is unanimous.  Yes, I ordered stomach lining for dinner.  Yeah, digest that for a while.

Tripe - Trippa Verdurine

   

WHAT is on that egg?

Pizza making assembly line

  

Scavenger hunt tourism (Milano, Cinque Terre, Pisa, Florence)

We spent one day in Milan hunting down the Santa Maria delle Grazie church that houses the Last Supper fresco.  Come to find out all museums and tours are booked and packed.  What is going on?  This is not exactly peak tourist season.  Lynn’s been educating us on the history of Italy while driving and reads… Italy was unified on seventeen March 1861.  The whole car rejoices in an “ooooh”.  Italy’s celebrating 150 as a country on the day we tried to tour the museums.  No wonder.

Oh, and I finally figured out how to park in Milan.  With three people scouting for parking we found one and endured the honking as I backed into the space.  Then, we were approached by someone selling parking tickets.  Oh, I get it now.  I pay him the 2 euro, he scratches out the time and date with a coin and put the ticket on my dash….it seems like there are easier ways to pay for parking, but what do I know.

Milano Duomo

Duomo

Inside Duomo

Santa Maria delle Grazie - Da Vinci's Last Supper

Napoleon's Castle

Teatro alla Scala -Milan's Opera House

The drive to Rome the next day consisted of lunch in Cinque Terre, a drive by of the leaning tower of Pisa and fast food Sushi with a rear view mirror sightings of the top of the Duomo in Florence. 

Cinque Terra - Five lands

Cinque Terre

Lunch at Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre

Florence....Well, what happened to the pictures of Florence.  We got there at rush hour, illegally parked, ran to find our hypoglycemic selves some food and high tailed it out of there with the last sliver of our patiences and sanity remaining.  No Ponte Vecchio or Michaelangelo's David picts to post.  Though I did glance in the rear view mirror at one point and see the dome of the Florence Duomo.

Tobogganing in Switzerland

It was a long 24 hours of travel for my brother Nick and his wife (Lynn) but they made it here on Monday.  Monday was spent driving them around and poking them to stay awake until nighttime so that they can re-set their clocks.  They were troopers and refrained from threatening my life. 

So as a reward, I plucked them from their bed at the ripe hour of 5am Tuesday, threw them into the little-car-that-could and raced 5 hours to Zermatt, Switzerland. 

What a cute town.  Cars aren't allowed in Zermatt so you park in the most pristine parking lot I’ve ever seen in Tasch and take a train up to the town.  And that’s where the fun begins… 

Lunch

First thing first…foooood.  Pop quiz.  Do you tip in Switzerland?  I know you don’t in Italy but now we’re stepping out of our comfort zone.  I am maybe 80% sure you don’t so I boldly grab the bill to ensure Lynn does not put a tip in the tip line.  A horrified couple stares back.  Now I’m not so sure so we dash out of there and run to the lift only to discover that Lynn left her bag in the restaurant.  !@#$%.  I reluctantly follow them back into the restaurant where I could have stiffed the waiter to ask for our bag.  Our same waiter sees us and knows EXACTLY why we were there….the bag.  Upon returning to my lifeline of a computer, I confirmed that it is NOT customary to tip in Switzerland.  Phew….

Shopping. 

Now, one must purchase a Swiss Army knife, chocolate and post cards when in Switzerland.  And Lynn wants nothing more than to see Matterhorn peak and so we ask the shop owner which direction it’s in.  He enthusiastically walks us out of the shop to show us in person only to see clouds where the peak should be.  “Ooooh, maybe not today” says the Japanese owner of a Swiss shop.  Doh.

Our View of Matterhorn today

Reminder of what it looks like from my trip a few weeks ago

   

Tobogganing

Ahh, here we go.  A little late but we’re getting started.  From the town you take a train up to the slope (versus a lift).  Different, but pleasant enough…once we found the right lift.  We picked up our toboggans with less collateral than our lift passes and that’s when the fun began.

NOT us

Lynn

Nick

Lynn

Nick

do NOT take me out with you

Parking and Money

Switzerland is neutral, right.  That also means they aren’t part of the EU and don’t have Euro’s.  Swiss franc’s are now our medium of exchange.  I got a 10 franc refund for returning the lift cards (nevermind that we could have walked off with the toboggans without recourse, but nooooo, these plastic cards are very important).  Franc’s..great.  What are we suppose to do with Francs.  Oh, I know, pay for parking. 

Let me stop right there.  Now we got jet lag, time zones AND daylight savings conversions (US clocks changed last Sunday but Italy’s didn’t) and 3 currencies to work with. 

Riddle me this Batman: How many Hall’s does it take to pay for parking?

Ok, we are reasonably intelligent human beings (debatable some days but let’s just go with it for now), we can do this.  Feed the machine your ticket and pay the amount it says.  13 francs.  Great, I have 15 (a bill for 10 and a coin for 5)….put in the 10….no place for coins……wait….search….discuss…..  The machine gives up and spits out our 10 back in coins.  No, no, no wait.  Now what am I suppose to do with 15 francs in coins.  Uggh. 

Dinner

Ok, Kristyn is not a fun person to be around when hunger but we found the first place that had the word steak in the sign and plopped our tired selves down.  The menu is conveniently in 3 languages, but unfortunately we speak none of them.  Ordering is a leap of faith and we continue the multiple language dance of Merci, Gracias, Grazie and, no wait, she said Danka (now German).  My little brain can’t keep up.  But, as luck should have it I get a perfect yummy steak with Béarnaise sauce alllll over it.  And proceed to shovel it into my big fat mouth.   Mmmmm  That’s what KK needed.  The waitress ended up with a nice big tip of frac coins.

Despite the odds, we made it out with all limbs in tact and back to Italy ok. 

Dad and Martha are scheduled to arrive tonight (I stress the word scheduled).  The fun is sure to continue….

Now get out Denver and enjoy your 70 degrees in March.