97 Days, 12 Countries, 1 Kangoo

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!