97 Days, 12 Countries, 1 Kangoo

We proudly present the Fall 2007 European Traveler Awards (brought to you by your local Renault dealer)

The First Category of the evening is for Best Costume.

The nominees are:

• Traditional German dirndls at Oktoberfest
  
• Tuscan winemaker in a blue onesie
  
• Emaciated Santa Claus on the streets of Faro
  

Category: Hardest Place to find a WC

Nominees:

• Amsterdam
  
• Portugal
  
• Madrid
  

Winner: After walking around crosslegged for over two hours trying to hold it in, the Euro goes to Amsterdam.

Category: Most interesting shower experience

Nominees:

• Strasbourg (our first night in the European tiny no curtain showers)
  
• Ghent (ice cold and flooded moldy floors in the bathroom)
  
• Certaldo (electricity randomly going on and off while showering)
  

Winner: Since we spent seven days experiencing the Certaldo shower, the Euro goes to Certaldo.

Category: Best Street Food

Nominees:

• Spicy sausages in Prague
  
• Sweet Waffles in Brussels
  
• Lemon Gelato in Italy
  
• Violet crepes in the South of France
  
• Cheese hotdogs in Paris
  
• Roasted corn on the cob in Madrid
  
• Toasted Chestnuts in Rome
  

And the Winner is: Cheese hotdogs. If you can eat the street food every single day and still want more, that's a winner!

Category: Biggest Disappointment

Nominees:

• Pissing Boy Statue in Brussels
  
• Leaning Tower of Pisa at night
  
• Foot Statue in Rome
  

The Euro this year has to go to the Manneken Pis (Little Boy peeing) Statue in Brussels. Big Let down.

The next category is "Most Picturesque Town"

The beautiful nominees are:

• Halstatt, Austria
  
• Vernazza, Italy
  
• Gourdon, France
  

After much deliberation, the judges have decided on Halstatt.

Category: Ugliest European Car Award

Nominees:

• Ford KA

• Fiat Multipla

• Two wheels in front, one in back Motorcycle (the reverse Mullet of bikes)

Winner: There is no contest here, the clear winner is the Fiat.

The next category is Cars we wish they sold in the U.S.:

Nominees:

• Alfa Romeo 159

• BMW 1 Series

• Kangoo

Since these Euro awards are sponsored by Renault,(and since it took good care of us for 3 months) we have to give the Euro to the Kangoo.

Best Blog Commenter Award

Nominees:

• LAO48 (aka Mom, Linda, Mrs. O, Itty Bitty Kitty Brain)
  
• Pfrancis4 (aka Peter Francis, The Franchise, Franny)
  
• skohn (aka Stephanie Kohn, Anthony, Scone)
  

This one was a race to the finish line. And we have to break the rules and give out three Euros to all these amazing blog commenters. Good job guys!

This concludes the Fall 2007 Euro Awards. Thank you for tuning in and don't forget to tip your waitress.

Moving on... Our Trip by the Numbers!
Days in Europe - 97
Languages attempted - 9
Kilometers driven by Chris - 16,701
Kilometers driven by Steph - 94
Kilometers drivien by Taice - 0
Hotels bed slept in - 62
Number of all-nighters - 2 (Only for the Pats and Carlos y Rodrigo y Gabriel)
Friendly faces from home - 15
Number of times we ate at McDonald's - 7
Run ins with the law - 3
Number of ham/schinken/speck/proscuitto/jambon and cheese/kase/formaggio/queso/fromage sandwiches eaten - 962

Clocking the Kilometers. Also known as "where we were when"...
We reached 6,000 kilometers: Statue Park on the outskirts of Budapet
7,000 kilometers: Rovato on the A4 Autostrada on the way to Bellagio from Verona, Italy
8,000 kilometers: North of Pisa on the way to hike Cinque Terre with Tara and Steve
9,000 kilometers: Driving into Rome to meet Carlos at the Vatican
10,000 kilometers: Outside Marseille on the way to Barcelona
11,000 kilometers: Driving to Madrid on the A2
12,000 kilometers: On the way to Lisbon after sitting in traffic for 1 1/2 hours and only going 6 kilometers
13,000 kilometers: With Steph, Dave and Caleb on the way from Lagos to our retirement community
14,000 and 15,000 kilometers: 17 hour drive from Lisbon to Cannes
16,000 kilometers: Last big drive with the Kangoo from Cannes to Paris

And on to the pics!
http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=184308425/a=7226152_7226152/t_=7226152
Thanks for coming along for the ride, we hope you enjoyed sharing this wonderful experience with us. Look for our next web venture, the Chris and Taice wedding website. YAY!

Greetings from Mougins!

Taice and I are currently in the south of France, just a few kilometers north of Cannes. The weather has been slightly cooler than Portugal, but quite manageable. It will make for a nice transition from Portugal to here to Paris and then Boston, where we have been kept abreast of the relentless snowfall. we hope everyone is having fun shoveling.

As some of you may know, we made a slight planning snafu when we booked a timeshare in the Cote d'azur immediately following the week in the Algarve. Turns out - it is an almost 17 hour drive from Lisbon to Mougin - but we did not want to pay for accomodations in two places at once. So, we dropped the Kohns off at the airport and hit the road. Since Taice has not driven standard in at least a decade and only twice ever - I was going solo. The breakdown:

• 4 tanks of diesel
  
• 77 euros in tolls
  
• over 1700 kilometers
  
• 1 ham sandwich each
  

Although I was a bit bleary eyed when we pulled into Mougins at 2:45am - we made great time. The best part for me was first watching Taice nod off for most of northeastern Spain and then hearing her exclaim on the phone to Steph the next day "I can't believe I did it!". It really was a noble effort on her part.

We have spent most of the week day-tripping to nearby towns and cities. We have preferred the small, quaint French hilltop villages (Mougins, Tourette, Gourdon) to the larger seaside cities (Nice, Cannes) but the most interesting place so far was Monaco. All I really associated with Monaco before the trip was F1 racing, ritzy casinos and Princess Grace. Turns out - I almost had it all figured out. But to see it in person was something else. The entire principality is smaller than Central Park, and it is chock full of expensive cars, enormous yachts, public elevators, marble and locals who seem so happy that Taice suspects they are all drugged. The 'fairy-tale land' feeling was cemented when we walked back past the prince's palace on our way to the car and found it to be surrounded by young children and their parents. Getting the sense that something was going on, we joined the crowd and waited. Each one of the children was holding a personal invitation from the Prince of Monaco to come to the palace on that day at an assigned time for Christmas. Only when some children began exiting the palace with gifts did we create a hypothesis on what was happening. Imagine being 8 years old and getting a invitation from the young Prince (who's portrait is in many store windows) to come to the palace. Then going inside, meeting him and receiving the gift you had previously requested. (we think). Just a bizarre place. So, now the joke is that when we see a car with Monaco plates in front of us in traffic, we picture the driver wiping his ass with 100 euro notes and siging songs about the Prince. The pics will provide more color on this enchanting place.

I have felt like a real 'frenchie' this week. Finally, we are driving a French car with French plates in France. Also, each day we pick up our baguette and wine on the way back to our villa and listen to French pop the whole way home. Our first trip to the grocery store here led me to pick out way too much cheese (see pics), not enough wine and just enough cookies.

Although the French tend to get a bad rap in the US, the experience thus far has been incredible. The people have been pleasant and extremely patient with our minimal and horrific French, which half the time is a mish mosh of the Italian, German and Spanish words we know with a slurred accent. The food is wonderful, the towns are picture perfect and everyone is in the Christmas spirit. (We've also been watching alot of the BBC, which may explain my love for positive adjectives)

Since this may be the last entry before Christmas, we wanted to wish everyone Happy Holidays! We miss you alll and we hope to share a cocktail, meal or laugh with you all when we return.

A special congratulations to Mike for landing a dream job this week. I have enjoyed watching your talents blossom from Mrs. Reising's Photography class at Amity High School to now, the general managing photographer for the Boston Red Sox! Taice and I are so excited for you! Maybe one day you'll own a World Series ring that I can try on.

Happy Holidays to everyone again - talk to you soon!

Chris and Taice

Here are the pictures:
http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=184195168/a=7226152_7226152/t_=7226152

Chosing a travel guide is a big decision. You need to pick one that jives with your tastes, budget, and age. If the author is an 80 year old millionaire who hates cheese, it's just not going to guide us in the right direction. We didn't want to limit our experience by buy all of the same brand of travel books, so we took some advice from Rudy Maxa, Rick Steve, Let's Go, Lonely Planet, Eyewitness Travel, Sam Longley, and some lady on the Travel Channel whose name we can never remember, but she is great. Anyways, for our Portugal guides we only purchased two: Top 10 Algarve and Top 10 Lisbon, both published by Eyewitness Travel. Throughout our week the goal was to see at least one thing on most of the Top 10 lists. It turned into a funny game when we realized that they were just looking for reasons to make lists. Not only was there a Top 10 restaurants in the Algarve, but there was also: Top 10 restaurants in the Eastern Algarve, Top 10 restaurants in the Eastern Algarve's coastal villages, Top 10 things to eat on the menu at a restaurant in the Eastern's Algarve's coastal villages, and so forth. We were normally able to knock off a few things on each Top 10 list within an hour. Not only would a town by listed on a Top 10, but its churches would also be listed, and then things inside its church would be listed. Right there we've done 3 Top 10s! Anyways, we decided to create our own Top 10 - this may only be funny for Stephanie and Dave, but here goes:

Top 10 Portugese Memories:

10. Our resort reminding us of a British/Florida retirement community
9. Desserts: Banoffee Pie (which is a banana, chocolate, caramel delicious piece of heaven) and Don Rodrigos (the specialty dessert of the Algarve, which reminded us of hair made from egg yolk. GROSS)
8. Hitler-esqe facial hair on Portugese BBQ grill repairman
7. Four people in one week consuming a whole liter of olive oil
6. Chris' incredible 80 foot chip-in on the 7th hole of the Pinhieros Altos Golf Course
5. The church ticket guy in Faro exclaiming "IT"S A MAN" when he peeked into the baby carrier and saw Caleb
4. Fresh OJ, which Dave was going to have to squeeze some extra for Marcus, the couch surfer.
3. Fado. The traditional music of Lisbon, which they tell you to "ease into" - we aren't sure why.
2. Caleb pooping in his socks at a rest stop on the drive from the airport
1. Chris amazed at Dave's ability to lay eggs. This is a long story...

Here's a link to our pictures:
http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=184177470/a=7226152_7226152/t_=7226152

And here's a link to the pictures from Dave and Stephanie's camera:
http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=186125317/a=7226152_5653598/t_=7226152

Please give us feedback on your Top 10 favorite pics

When we were planning this trip we had many things on our list of "must dos" and two of the things I really wanted to do were: visit a Proscuitto factory and go see a bull fight. Back in Italy I mentioned the proscuitto factory idea to Chris and he said "so you want to basically go to a slaughter house?" Uhmmm, yeah, I guess I didn't really think through what it would look like (or smell like) to visit a place that hung up raw pigs to be cured with salt for months. Gross. And I obviously hadn't thought through my desire to see a live bull fight. Thank God we are here in the off season and there aren't any bull fights in December, because I don't think I would have enjoyed it. Sevilla has one of the best known bullrings, the Plaza de Toros de la Maestranza, situated right in the heart of the city. On our tour of the Plaza de Toros I found out the truth about bull fighting. Maybe I was the only one in the dark, but did you know that they ALWAYS kill the bull? And not just one. They kill two bulls during each "fight" and there are three fights in one seating. So if we had gone to a bullfight, I would have to have watched six bulls die within two hours. I guess the reason I was so shocked and upset by this was that it's not really a fight at all. The bull is first attacked by men on horseback (picadores) who jab steel-pointed lances into the bull's shoulders to weaken it. Then the banderilleros enter to ring and stick barbed darts into the bull's back. And then finally the matador enters the arena and, with the bull already weak and stunned, he kills the bull by sticking a sword in the bull's neck. Not to be crazy, but don't you think it should be more of a true fight? Only two matadors have died in Sevilla's bullring. I don't want to go back to gladiator times, but it should be more equal, right? Our tour guide then led us through a small museum that basically worshipped the matadors and when she pointed out a portrait of one of the matadors who died I quietly cheered But then only to find out that the bull who killed the matador was not only slaughtered moments later, but his momma was also killed.

Besides bull fighting, Spain is also known for its paella. Our first week in Spain we ate mostly at tapas places, only trying the small plates, not the big dishes of seafood paella. So as we wandered around Sevilla for our last night in Spain we wanted to try some paella. Actually, I should clarify - CHRIS wanted the paella, I don't like big huge plates of random seafood chowder-like dishes. We found a place that looked promising but at the last moment Chris made a rash decision and order the meat and noodle "paella" - good, but a plate of small hot dogs and egg noodles wasn't really authentic. Oh well, next time.....

Enjoy the pictures and the next blog will of Prince Caleb in Portugal!

http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=184140251/a=7226152_7226152/t_=7226152

P.S. Chris responds to the readers:

[list]
[*]I don't know where the Michael Bolton references came from originally, although Pete has informed me that he is cohosting some reality choral contest. Pete really enjoys televised singing competitions. I can confirm that he is from New Haven - in fact, he used to live in the home of one of my friends growing up. This is not information that most New Havenites will volunteer. When asked for a famous celebrity, I usually go with Natalie Portman, who attended Ezra Academy in Woodbridge - ironically enough, with the same friend who lived in Michael Bolton's house.

[*]Speaking of things New Havenites are proud of - don't mess with our pizza Mr. Longley! Maybe one day I can bring some up and we can compare it to Arlington's finest!

[*]Regarding the beard - it is already almost back - although not quite to the same level. I am unable to 'trim' due to the lack of my electric clippers over here and I thought my face had almost dissapeared. Since the sight of my face is all some of you have - I did not want to deprive anyone of any joy while I am gone. My sincere apologies to all the 'pro-beard' folks out there.

[*]Sorry about that butt-kicking we gave you last week Mr. Ivins - but we need the money more than you right now. We hope to see Pete in the finals next week. Enjoy the snow and the Pats trouncing of the Jets today!

And the answer is..."Not to Beard". We had promised to send part-two of our Barcelona blog last week, and I'm sorry we left you hanging this long. The big dramatic news Chris was referring to was him offing his beard. Hope you enjoy the new look!

This installment of pictures will take you through the last two days of our time in Barcelona, two days in Madrid and then farther South to Granada. Not much Gaudi, but still plenty of great architecture to enjoy.

A few things we have noticed about Spain:

• If you look up "Night Owl" in the Encyclopedia, there is probably a picture of a Spainard there. Doing things extremely late is like a sport to them. It feels like they are trying to all out do each other - who can eat dinner the latest, who can dance till dawn, and who can have their store open till 10 PM at night. Madrid seemed to take this "better late than never" attitude to the extreme. There are clubs there that OPEN at 5 AM and people dance well into the morning.

  
  

• Spainards like to travel in packs. I personally like to avoid crowds. One reason we came to Europe in the off season was so we didn't have to fight hordes of people for a table at a bar. But if it isn't crowded, then that's a bad thing in Spain. We were in a dance club around 3 AM one night and one minute it was packed and the next the entire bar had clearly out. If one group of people leaves and it's no longer super crowded, it's time to move on. I think the Spanish spend most of their time walking around trying to see where everyone else is. So funny.

  
  

• I think the Spanish people have feet made of leather. They must have the toughest pads on the bottoms of their feet because they stand up ALL day and ALL night. I don't think we ate sitting down in Spain once. Breakfast and coffee - stand at a bar. Lunch - quick beer and snack standing at a bar. Dinner - Tapas standing up around a table without chairs at a bar. God, my feet hurt just talking about it!

Here's a quick video of a concert we went to in Barcelona. Chris and I really love Mos Def and when we saw he was performing we decided to stay in Barcelona one extra night to see his show. And it was well worth it!

Enjoy the pics and hugs from Europe!!!

http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=184109074/a=7226152_7226152/t_=7226152

Greetings everyone!

Hope the Patriots continue their winning ways against the Ravens tonight - hopefully Pete's presence at the game does turn out to be a jinx.

Apologies for the sporadic entries, as soon as you get over a 100 pics to edit and caption, the task is quite daunting - so for the last week or so, we decided to split it into two separate blogs that will come to you in rapid-fire succession.

We last left you in Rome with Carlos. From there, we headed to Barcelona and made a few stops along the way. The first night we spent in Verazze, just north of Genoa. (yes, the Salami was good). This being the offseason, the town was rather dead and our hotel was pretty empty. However, we did have some lovely weather and fully enjoyed being on the water. Here is a glimpse into the inner sanctum of the Kangoo:

What did you think of my demo tape that we were listening to?

The second night was in Marseille, which is the 2nd largest city in France and possesses a reputation for heavy drug use. We did not see any evidence of this, unless you counted the folks dressed up in wacky costumes scaring children in the market. The holiday spirit was in full force in Marseille; there was hot wine and chestnuts on the street, a Christmas market and decorations galore. Add to this the waterfront and Marseille impressed us a bit more than we expected.

From here we entered Spain with the usually; "here is the border crossing, are people stopping?, maybe, get the passports out in case", slow down, begin to put the window down, exchange awkward eye contact with border guard and continue on. Spain's landscape is just what we pictured, lots of sandy hills with scraggly bushes popping out everywhere. We saw our first Spanish prostitute in a lawn chair on a country road. If we were to compare her to the myriad of prostitutes we have seen across this continent, she would get a 'D' for location and an 'A' for personal comfort. We spent our first night in Spain in Lloret del Mar, along the Costa Brava. Again, this being the offseason, all of the 'beautiful people' were NOT there. Nevertheless, we browsed the endless souvenir shops full of soccer jerseys and raunchy aprons and stumbled upon a bar that served liters of beer. So we stopped and felt like we were in Germany again. Or more like a couple of americans in an irish pub drinking german beer in Spain - whatever.

Just north of Lloret del Mar is Figueres, birthplace, and resting place, of Salvador Dali. During his life, he purchased the theater where he had his first exhibition and converted into a bizarre surrealist palace, with lots of drawings, paintings and installations. This was a very interesting place. After a quick Nutella crepe, we were off to Barcelona.

We spent 4 nights in Barcelona, and there was a dramatic event after the first day which serves as a natural place to split this blog into two parts. Let the suspense build...

The highlights from the first day in Barcelona:

• Architecture, especiually Antoni Gaudi's. Barcelona has some of the most unique buildings we have seen. Just strolling the streets and looking at ordinary office buildings and shops was a pleasure.
• The Market. Barcelona gets the prize for best food market so far. La Boqueria market is a treasure-trove of fruits, veggies, olives, cheese, meats and seafood. And the freshness is almost sickening - giant piles of squirming prawns, rabbits strung up and bleeding, chickens with the feathers still on. There are a number of bars among the stalls where people can go for a quick bite and a beer - just an awesome atmosphere.

  
  

Much more to come from Barcelona as well as Madrid.

The pics:http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=184050042/a=7226152_7226152/t_=7226152

Couple of Blogger notes:

Which market are you back on Pete?

Welcome back Mrs. O - way to make your presence felt!

Looking forward to seeing Steph, Dave and Caleb at the end of the week!

Missing everyone. Till next time!

Chris & Taice

To start off, thank you Carlos for buying a plane ticket, booking a hotel, and somehow managing to keep a positive outlook after losing your luggage for 2 days. You helped make our adventure in Rome very memorable. And on with the show:

One thing we've learned in Rome is to never believe an Italian.

• If they tell you that your train leaves at noon and is on track (binario) three, it's a LIE! Most likely your train will leave about 45 minutes late and spontaneaously, and unannounced, will be changed to track 8. But, I guess we shouldn't complain - we have heard that the transit workers are now on strike, so traveling anywhere would be virtually impossible now.

  
  

• Never ever listen to directions from an Italian website. Carlos, Chris and I wanted to do something fun to celebrate Thanksgiving and it just so happened that a Mexican guitar duo we all love was playing in Rome that night. So...we bought the tickets online and consulted the bar's website for directions to the venue. Well... the website LIED! We took the subway to the stop that looked to be only three blocks from the bar. And after walking around onto an on ramp of a divided highway and feeling like we were in a really sketchy area, we got a cab to drive us to the "Beer Station". In addition to the bar's website making it look subway accessible, it also never mentioned that the Metro stops running around 11PM...

  Lies, all lies.

Other random things we learned about Italians:

• They don't care about Thanksgiving. We decided to go out for a nice lunch to celebrate one of our favorite holidays. Maybe our most favorite holiday! Carlos tried to explain to our waitress that ( I need to quote here) "In America, today is a holiday. It's the Dia de las grazie. It's like Christmas". She didn't give a shit, but we appreciate Carlos's effort. And did really enjoy our meal!

  
  

• Wine openers are weapons. I should have known this since my wine opener was confiscated at the museum in Florence that housed the David, but I apparentely didn't get the clue that it was a banned weapon in Italy. While waiting in line to get into St. Peter's Basilica I noticed a sign that had a picture strictly forbidding wine openers. It didn't say anything about knives or guns or chinese stars, but it did say that wine openers were NOT ALLOWED. Hmmmm, and I thought the Italians loved their wine...

  
  

• If you sit down at a restaurant and their menu has pictures of the food, DO NOT EAT THERE! We only fel for this once and it was bad. I'm talking gross microwaved cardboard gross. Gross. This is NOT Italian food.

  
  

• American college-aged kids really love the oldies. After our concert night on Thanksgiving we ventured out to the bars in Rome. The bar that looked most happening was filled with American college students and they loved, I mean LOVED, all the songs from the 70s and 80s. It was bizarre. And there was even an Axel Rose look-alike to boot.

  
  

On on a more serious note, we really loved Rome. Every corner you turned there was some other site to see that was 2000 years old. It was just mind blowing how much history this city holds. It truely is the Eternal City. Some of the best things we weren't able to capture in the pictures - The Sistine Chapel, great meals, "Roming" around the streets, and entertaining cafe owners.

One of our personal favorite's was a man who owned a local grocery store in Soriano. During our 'day off' from commuting to Rome we decided to take advantage of the kitchen in our room and cook dinner in. We were attracted to this store by the amazing variety of cheeses visible from the front door. The old man who ran the store stood behind the cheese counter and managed the activities of the small store, where his son and grandson were also present. We picked out some fresh pasta and asked him for some pancetta. He asked us if we were going to be cooking these two items together - when we explained we were, he suggested we add some tomatoes and parmesan cheese. He even came out from behind the cheese counter (revealing his true height - 5'!) to slect the perfect loaf of bread.We went home and cooked our meal and returned a couple hours later to purchase more some more items for dinner, we were welcome with smiles. It was a small interaction but it embodied the friendliness, food loving and familial nature of the Italian people, which more than outweighs the logistical nightmares and miscommunitation we may have encountered.

Check out the videos from the amazing concert - Thanks Carlos!! And if you have not heard Rodrigo y Gabriela, we highly recommend them - just extremely talented and passionate. A special thanks to Brad Zollner for turning Chris on to them before we left.

And of course, the pics:
http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=183977300/a=7226152_7226152/t_=7226152

We apologize for the dropoff in frequency of our posting - it is not fun for us to caption 150 photos at a time, so we will do our best to stay on top of it - Marseilles, Barcelona and Madrid coming soon.

Miss you all! Go Celtics!! (Although it is a little premature for ESPN.com to compare them to the 96 Bulls - I watched every game that year and they were on a different planet)

-Taice & Chris

As Tara, Steve, Chris and I entered the province of Toscana it wasn’t the beautiful countryside or the endless windy roads lined with vineyards that caught our eye. It was instead the site of a 50cc engine truck with only three wheels barreling up the hill that was barely big enough to fit a two year old in, but somehow two men older than dirt where crammed inside this tiny box of a vehicle. And the second thing we noticed wasn’t the gorgeous walled towns perched on the hilltops, but it was the number of stray cats taking over the area. So the game began – what are there more of in Tuscany? Geezer Cruisers or Feral Gatos. Tara and Steve were “Team Geezer Cruiser” and Chris and I “Tem Feral Gatos”. The rules were that the cruiser had to be in motion with a geezer at the wheel. And if TWO geezers were cruising, then double points. The rules for cat counting are pretty straight forward – no counting the same cats twice, and no walking around with pockets filled of tuna to attract all the strays. So, who do you think won???

Okay, and now for some of the more typical Tuscan wonders…

We had rented a villa in one of the old walled towns known as Certaldo Alto. If you have been to any old town built before cars then you must know how steep and tiny and impassable most of the streets are. Well, our GPS certainly hadn’t been to a medieval town before… It was trying to lead us straight up a “street” that looked to be a 75 degree incline and ended at a brick wall. So we tried to call the villa owner who didn’t speak enough English to understand our troubles in getting there. After driving around trying to find a different route up to this older part of town, we took Tomtom’s advice and drove up this ridiculous street. I really thought the car was going to flip head over tail, but we somehow made it up to the top, only to find that it did indeed end at a brick wall. So now we had to back down the street halfway and try to make a 90 degree turn onto a dirt path that looked like it could get us there (it had a few stairs at the end, but we figured we could make it over the stairs). Our troubles had just begun. Remember that our car is stick shift, and that we are on a wet cobblestone path, and Chris is trying to get the car into gear and make a turn without slipping down the street and off a hill to the side. To try and make the car lighter we all bailed out and left Chris to save the day. After getting the front lodged up on a brick wall and nearly taking out some poor old man’s shrubs, we turned around and went back down the hill. The story ends with us successfully finding another street that we had originally thought was blocked off for construction, but did drive around the Men at Work and made it to Certaldo Alto. It was a charming town to stroll around, but after one night realized that there wasn’t much happening in Certaldo. So on Sunday we began to explore the surrounding area. The first stop was San Gimignano, which none of us could seem to figure out the pronunciation, so it turned at to be known as San Jimmyjimmyjimmy for the rest of the week. We started right in on getting done what we came to do this week – drink wine. There was a wine museum up on the top of the hill in the town and they held a tasting of 6 local wines – we all enjoyed the local white and the Tenute Niccolai Sangiovese.

Monday we piled into the car and headed to the Cinque Terre region – five fishing villages on the Mediterranean Coast that are linked by a dramatically beautiful walking path. We lucked out with the weather and were actually hot in only tee shirts throughout the 8 kilometers we hiked. We began our hike in Rio Maggiore and continued on to Manarola, Corniglia, and Vernazza. It was getting late and we were too tired to go on, so never made it to the fifth village – Monterosso. After the gorgeous hike (which provided some good feral gato sightings) we took off for Pisa to see its Leaning Tower. Word to the wise – don’t go at night. To our disappointment, they didn’t have the Tower lit up, so we took a quick look and had a nice dinner of Leaning Pasta instead.

The town of Certaldo is conveniently located on the train line that got you to Siena and Florence in both under an hour, so we hopped on the train to Siena on Tuesday. Siena is a lovely city to wander around and get yourself lost on the small cobblestone streets. Since most of the shops close at lunch, we had a wonderful meal in Siena and then visited the Duomo and chilled out in the main Piazza del Campo.

We decided to devote Wednesday and Thursday to wine – Chianti and Brunello. I think we all agree that it was much more fun to visit the wineries that maybe didn’t have the best wine, but had a little old couple running the place and so excited to have visitors interested in their passion. The best was a man dressed in a blue onesie and camouflage hat that warmly welcomed us inside and poured overflowing glasses of his table wines. We bought some bottles of Chianti from him and then ordered up his olive oil as well – he went in the back, got a huge empty glass bottle and poured fresh olive oil into it right there for us. It was so green and fresh looking – we can’t wait to get home to drink, I mean, eat it 

Friday rounded out a great week with a trip to Florence. We got a little distracted by the fantastic street markets in Florence on our way to sight seeing, so maybe didn’t see as much as we planned. But after some much enjoyed shopping we did see the Duomo, climbed the Bell Tower, walked across the Ponte Vecchio, and of course, saw the David. That night we cooked a feast and drank too much wine celebrating Tara and Steve’s ENGAGEMENT! Congratulations to them and we are so happy we got to share it with you!

And a shout goes out to Sarah, and her sister – that one’s for you Steve.

Happy belated Thanksgiving to everyone. We love and miss you all! Enjoy the pictures:
http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=183925983/a=7226152_7226152/t_=7226152
Sorry if some of these are out of order!

And here is T&S version of things:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=1789kypm.ayd1kfcq&Uy=mfgo1c&Ux=0

- Chris and Taice

P.S. Geezers rule Tuscany. 26 to 22. Good job T and S!

It seems that all blog entries relating to Italy should be about food and wine. Maybe it's that most Italian travel memoirs mention nothing more than long meals filled with pasta and formagio and salami and espresso and vino, or maybe it's that the food in Italy is really THAT good. You can honestly spend an entire month in Italy and only eat. So, let us not be the ones to break this tradition and on to the topic of food...

After two relaxing days in Lake Como, we headed Southeast to Parma to begin our official food tour. As you probaly know, Parma is famous for its cheese (Parmigiano-Reggiano ) and Prosciutto (di Parma). We thought we were booking a hotel in the town of Parma, but by mistake booked one in the region of Parma, so ended up in the small town of Salsomaggiore de Terme about 45 minutes west of Parma. We went right to the tourist information office to try and arrange a visit to a local cheese factory. The lady working at the TI office was very nice, but our communication barrier was pretty apparant, so we took her map and headed out on our own. After driving around to FOUR different addresses listed on her sheet of parmigiano producers we finally found a place open and selling some cheese. Unfortunately they weren't elbow deep in cheese curds so we didn't get a tour, but did leave with a huge slab of good looking cheese (Tara and Steve - can't wait to share it with you tomorrow!!!!).

The small town of Salsomaggiore turned out to be a great little spot for shopping and dinner options. We picked a small restaurant off the main square (which we ended up being their ONLY customers of the night). It was, by far, the best meal we've had yet. A huge platter of prosciutto and house wine followed by polenta with gorgonzola and veal with asparagus. The olive oil on the bread was enough to satisy any foodie. We ended our night with an order of tiramisu and cappucinos - the BEST dessert so far!

After rolling out of bed the next morning we packed up and drove to Modena - the home of balsamic vinegar. Here we did find a vinegar producer who was willing to give us a tour of his place. The 2 year vinegar was better than anything we've had at home, and the 25 year - OH MY GOD. Actually, it was a bit too dessert and not enough vinegar. Oh, I forgot to mention that we finally gave in and decided to have lunch be our biggest meal of the day - realy Italians these days That day in Modena we sat for the full 2 + hour lunch of one liter of wine, an appetizer, two pizzas, coffee and dessert. YUM. But Oh God I need a nap....

Two days of wonderful food and we needed a little break. On to the Ferrarri musuem south of Modena. It had all the horsepower we needed, but a far cry from the Mercedes museum. (YES, Germans come out on top again!!!). By sense of sound, we did managed to hunt down the test track outside the factory - here's the video:

Alright, back to food

We're in Bologna right now and just got back to our hotel after a delicious meal of pasta with meat sauce and pumpkin tortelli. Chris ordered an espresso with sambuca for dessert and the waiter dropped an entire bottle of sambuca off at the table - we weren't sure what to do or how much we'd be charged. Anyways, it's nice to be trusted a bit more - I feel like we are back in German.

Grazie e arrivederci.

Have fun with the pics. P.S. Mom and Steph - welcome back to blog commenting. We are keeping score of who's on top (Pete's a top contender). Love you all!

http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=183879540/a=7226152_7226152/t_=7226152

Off to a week with Tara and Steve. YAY!!!!!!

After spending the better part of a month exploring Taice's heritage in efficient, beer drinking Germany, it was finally time to explore the Perrotti side.

I have confirmed that I have italian blood running through my veins based on the following:

• I like to talk, sometimes with enthusiasm
• I like to talk with my hands (Hands-free phones are really appreciated here)
• Trucks barreling at me on roads that are barely wide enough to squeeze past with a cliff on the other side gets me excited.
• Talking Christmas trees are sold in all the rest stops, just like my own Douglas Fir. Dad - there are untapped markets over here.

I'll get into the food that we have been enjoying here in a sec, but I want to explain how backwards some things are here in Italy - and maybe it just feels like it after the German juggernaut of efficiency.

We had a hotel reservation outside Venice that included parking, but when I pulled into the small lot behind the hotel, there were no spots available. This might have been due to the assorted mattresses and lawn chairs piled on one side - who knows. After explaining that we booked this specific hotel because it included parking, the manager agreed to reimburse us to park on the side street. This was at 2 pm and he told us that it was no problem, only pay till 6 and then the next day it would only be 5 euros for the day.

So, we moved the car to the street and then could not figure out where we were supposed to pay for the spot. There was no machine. All the other cars did have a cardboard clock on their dashboard. We returned to the front desk and asked the woman where we paid for the spot. "Oh, you need to buy tickets in the tobacco shop" Obviously! "But they are all closed" (This was during the 3 hours in the middle of the day that everything is closed and clearly no one would be parking their car and therefore need such tickets). So, we moved the car again to the lot across the street that had an automated machine - Brilliant!!. Please tell me why selling these things in tobacco shops that are rarely open is a better idea than installing some ticket machines?

And it gets better - to get into Venice - we needed to take a bus. Our informative front desk lady assured us that you could buy tickets on the bus (Since you can't buy them at the stop). Not quite. After boarding the bus, I asked the driver to buy 2 tickets. He replied "No tickets!'. OK... So we rode illegally for a few stops until an official looking man got on the the bus using the front door. Taice and I slipped off the back door to avoid a possible 60 euros in fines. We walked to what appeared to be a bus station - buses, passengers, luggage, etc. Again, not quite - we were told that it was not the bus station and we could not buy tickets there either. After walking further to the train station, we purchased tickets on the train to finally get into Venice.

I have some other transportation issues that still have me scratching my head but that sounded like a bit of a rant, so I'll hand the baton to Taice to talk about the amazing food.

Okay, on to everyone's favorite topic - FOOD!
In the first 6 days in Italy we managed to try 6 kinds of gelato: tiramisu, lemon, panna cotta, caremello, nutella, and coconut. If we continue on this pace I think we may be able to taste all the varieties by the time we head off towards Spain.

We are also on a quest to find the best pizza in the world. Chris still thinks New Haven's pizza is a strong contender, but after sampling a few true Italian pizzas I am thinking Trieste gets the award. I have two more weeks of pizza eating before handing out the trophy though! Stay tuned.

If anyone wants to share stories of their favorite Italian meals, we'd love to hear them and we'll be sure to order up your suggestions!

Here's a link to the pictures:
http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=183864383/a=7226152_7226152/t_=7226152

Ciao!