Halloween Wasn’t The Only Thing To Scare Us…

31 October ’05, Monday.
Halloween 2005…they do a little celebrating here in Europe as well as we do in the states, but in some of the countries it is more of a celebration of “The Dead”, “All Souls Day”, or “All Saint’s Day”. For instance in France and Italy, it is a day to visit the cemeteries and drape the graves of their loved ones with flowers, particularly chrysanthemums and candles. This is what we observed yesterday and this morning. This morning we drove to Midas Muffler here in Boit (next door to Antibes), to see if they could fix our exhaust problem. As always, going into a garage to have anything done is like going into a government office. They want every possible paper you have on the vehicle and then some. Then after all that, they find that what they are looking for just isn’t on any of the papers we have. Anyway, we wanted an estimate before any work was to be done, so after going through 4 different parts books and searching a little on the computer we got our estimate…$866.30 Euro or about $1000 US dollars. For this we were going to get a couple little pipes that would measure about 3 feet each and a little over 2 inches in diameter, new screws and bolts, 2 small gaskets, and $320 Euro labor….NO THANK YOU !!! Apparently they really didn’t want our little job. We’ll put up with the little additional noise for the next 21/2 months without a problem. Halloween is also a “Bankers Holiday”, so most of Europe is on a 4 day holiday. So far most of the roads are pretty free of traffic, so apparently most are staying home. Tonight we are planning a lazy night at the van, with popcorn and a movie. Tomorrow…we head for Spain, with our first overnight stop in Nimes, France, which we have stayed at twice before, and is about a 3 to4 hour ride away.

30 October ’05, Sunday.
Well we have started day-light savings time, and I found it hard to get out of bed this morning. For me, it is like a mild case of “jet lag”. We went to catch the train to Monaco about 11:30, not thinking that it was a Sunday schedule, so we had about an hours wait. The station is right across the street from one of the many beaches, so we decided to go across, get our feet wet and sit in the sun for the remaining time. We knew that we wanted to go to Monaco, but the beach sure felt good to us. Hopefully we will have lots of beach time left as we head into Spain and Portugal. After 45 minutes on the train, we pulled into a very nice station in Monaco. As we walked down the walkway towards the marina, we found a carnival in full action. What fun walking through the carnival, people watching, smelling the great carnival foods, enjoying the kids laughing and screaming on the different rides, and hearing the “barkers” of the different game contests calling out. It was also amazing at how many winners that were carrying around the huge stuffed teddy bears. Changing course a little, we went across the street and walked the slip area of the big yachts of Monaco. They are amazing…some so big you would think they were a commercial cruise ship. Enough day dreaming of yachts…we found the walkway to the Palais du Prince, so up the hill we went. The Monaco Palace is nice, but more like a chateau to me. We walked around and looked at the usual tourist areas on the exterior, and then headed over to see the Cathedrale de Monaco.
The grave of Princess Grace, Prince Rainier, and other members of the royal family since 1885 are here in the cathedrals crypt. Further down the street we found the Musee Oceanographique. This is a large museum of oceanographic items and a wonderful aquarium. We spent about 2 ½ hours in the aquarium watching all the amazing fish. There were many in the tanks that we have never seen before. Oh yes, we did find time in there somewhere to have lunch along the boardwalk. I had a real good plate of veal in a gravy sauce and wild rice, while Louise had a gorgonzola cheese pizza (yes Ann, she could eat another pizza..). With the daylight fading, we headed up the hill to the place du Casino. Between the yachts, the very expensive high-rise condos, the high powered cars, the “beautiful” people, and now the finest of the finest casinos…it’s almost too much, but it is something to see. We were able to walk into the first entry of “The” Casino, but that was as far as they would let us go. Angled across the street, is another smaller casino that was open for us to enter. Of course Louise had to try out a couple of games there, but it was very short lived. Speaking of short lived, the day flew by and we had a train to catch. As it was, we had a long walk back in the dark once we got off the train…like Halloween…”Spooky”…

29 October ’05, Saturday.
I was ready for bed by 8:30 last night, but Louise got me to buck it up for another hour…I was really tired. I don’t have any idea as to the reason, but it was really hard to make it past 9. Then, after falling immediately to sleep, I had to wake twice during the night and hobble to the toilet…I’m falling to pieces… I refused to get out of bed this morning until 8:45, and then it was tough. The big thing hanging over our heads is getting the laundry done. It really got behind. One of the reasons we stopped here in Antibes, is the wash machines. They are good and they are large. We had 3 washers going all at once. I don’t think we had any clothes left to wear except those we had on, and I wore them yesterday as well. Tomorrow I will be “sparkling clean”. The sun is to stay with us a couple more days at least, so we are going to take the train in Monaco for the day. We will be thinking of all of you. Today we met Mâirçad (more-aid) and Theo. They are taking time out of their lives to travel Europe for an extended time. They have a new ATV and caravan, two black labs, and are excited about their new adventure. Having owned their own business (a restaurant) in England, they decided to take this adventure while having the opportunity. Tonight is barbeque night, and I’ve been given the chore to put together the great “American” hamburger…let’s hope that I can hold up to my responsibilities.

28 October ’05, Friday.
Sleep last night was hard to get. If you remember from one of my journals when we were here last, this campground is right next to a tower that sounds the time…it sounds the time every hour AND EVERY QUARTER HOUR for the whole day and NIGHT !!! It was a tough night to say the least. By 8, I was still looking for a little more shut eye, but there was no way that was going to happen. Anyway, we wanted to get on the road and get into Antibes as early as possible. We had a little fog most of the way, but over-all it was a bright and sunny day. The temp has hung in about 20-25 Celsius, or just over 70 Fahrenheit. We stuck to the main autostade, which would give us a quicker trip, and also save us a little fuel as well. Just before 3 we pulled into Nice and found our way first to the grocery store and then the campground. We will be here for at least 4 days, with the first day set aside just for the laundry. On Sunday, we will probably take the train into Monaco for the day. We have driven over and through, but we haven’t spent any time there yet. We have come to far not to go back and enjoy it.

27 October ’05, Thursday.
I know we all do the same thing. When we have to get up a little earlier than normal, our built in ALARM CLOCK clicks in. Now the thing that I don’t understand is why does it insist on waking you every 30 minutes or so throughout the night ??? Hell, as it was, I was ready to get out of bed 15 minutes prior anyway… Well the shower was done, and we had just about finished packing the van when Ann arrived. 10 minutes later, and we were on our way to the airport. We left the campground just at 7am and had to be at the airport by 9. Under daytime, no traffic time, it is a 30 minute ride, but this is the “rush hour” traffic, and we had no idea how long it would take. About ¾ of the way there we knew we were going to be real early, so we stopped for a “coffee break”. Just before 9 we dropped Ann off and Louise and I headed north. We had just about reached the turn off to Pisa when it was time for Ann’s plane to take off. On our return trip up the coast of Italy, we wanted to stop and see the “Leaning Tower” of Pisa, so that was what we planned and accomplished. We didn’t take a long look, but what we did see was worth the time. It was bigger than I had imagined, and the slope of the lean was more than I had thought as well. The weather has continued sunny for us over the last week, and seeing the tower on such a day was great. We opted out of the 294 step climb to the top, as just seeing it from the ground was enough. The tower was built on marshy land back in the 15th century, and because of this, the foundation didn’t hold and the tower began leaning. It continued to lean about 1 mm a year, and that was even before it was finished. It started to tilt after the 3rd floor of the total 7. Finally they found a way to stop the “flow”, and visitors are again allowed to climb. Leaving Pisa, we headed for the campground we had stayed at in Levanto. This is the campground right on the coast and the jumping off location to see the Cinque Terre villages. It was a good days drive, and will give us a good days drive onto Antibes, France in the morning.

26 October ’05, Wednesday.
You know, I think we have seen more of Rome than ANYONE IN THE WORLD !!! Yet, here we go again for our “last” day in the big city… The normal stuff in getting into town, and then we are off to see “Nero’s Golden House”. On the way to Nero’s, we stopped by to see San Pietro in Vincoli, or St. Peter-in-Chains Church. Built in the 5th century, this church was built to house the golden chains that held St Peter, and a Michelangelo sculpture that was supposed to be a tomb for a pope. Unfortunately, the pope died before the sculpture was even started, and besides, there wasn’t anybody to pay for it, so the Michelangelo only finished one statue…”Moses” flanked by Leah and Rachel which sits inside this church. The tomb was to have had 48 huge statues crowned by a grand statue of the pope himself. Oh well, we did get Moses… Ok, onto Nero’s, before he gets all upset. Domus Aurea…Golden House… This is now the barren remains of Emperor Nero’s Golden House which was re-opened to the public in 1999. This was (and what is still available to see) a HUGE house, even by Bill Gates standards… Fact is, there was once a 100 foot bronze statue of Nero himself inside, along with many waterfalls, a huge lake, and lots of rooms with very high vaulted ceilings. I’d like to say there were hundreds of rooms, but no body knows for sure how many. The frescos that were on the walls and ceilings were covered in gold, and most of the walls and floors were marble slabs. There was even one huge room that they said would rotate as the earth rotated, although the archeologists could never figure out how it could work or if there was one. This was a short tour as they would only allow 30 people in at a time and for only 30 minutes total, so out we went…it was interesting and brought out more questions than answers. Next we jumped on the bus again and headed over to see Rome’s Pyramid. I can’t and wont give you to many details about this pyramid, except that it was built back in the Roman days as a tribute to Egypt and their pyramids, but fell real short…short in that it is only about 2 percent of the size of the PYRAMIDS in Egypt. Other than that, it was disappointing to say the least. Well Ann, tomorrow morning we have an early wake up time. I don’t know why I let you dictate my time schedule to get up so early, but I’ll forgive you this once…6am, damn !!!

25 October ’05, Tuesday
After yesterday, we didn’t want to get up too early, so about 11:00 we caught the camp bus to the train station and then onto Rome. The itinerary for the day is to visit the San Calisto Catacombs. When we purchase our train tickets each morning for the ride into Rome, it costs us 1 Euro. The ticket is good for 75 minutes after it is put into the ticket meter. That gave us the opportunity to ride the train, jump onto the metro, ride the metro for 6 stops, jump off, and grab a bus that would take us for a long ride through the back part of Rome to the catacombs. That was a good deal, and I’d like to ask why the heck doesn’t Seattle get on the ball and get some rapid transit available??? Arriving at the catacombs, we (along with a dozen others) found out that the catacombs would be closed until 2:30 for lunch…OK, we forgot again, so we headed across the street to grab a bite ourselves. For us, 30-45 minutes was enough, but for them…2:30 !!! OK, we waited… Finally, time has arrived and so have all the tour busses…6 of them, with 200 people per bus…or so it seems… anyway, we are finally called…”English Tour !!!” We jump up and head for the gate, only to be told that the first of the group was all they could take, but we could join the next group… Well, OK, but the next is all, yep !! As the next group is called, it turns out to be a group from one of the busses. As we muster in line with them, they tell the gate keeper…”THEY DON’T BELONG WITH US !!!” Now I know how to keep my cool so long, and then… OK, let’s talk about this… We got in and enjoyed the tour very much, except as this was a special tour that we had joined, we got more information than the standard tour. The catacombs were the meeting and burial places of the Early Christians in Rome. With miles of tunnels and thousand of burial niche throughout, it made for the burial grounds for 300 years. There were Popes, Saints, Myrtars, and other Christians alike, that were buried here. Each niche was hand dug horizontally into the walls of the tunnels. Most were just big enough to slide the body in and seal it up. There were others that were family plots, and then other larger niche that were for the wealthy or Saintly. Ok, speaking of Saintly, the group were getting a special “Mass” down in the catacombs as well. As they started to enter this other area for the Mass, they started all over again as how we ‘DID’T BELONG WITH THEIR GROUP’ !!! This is a religious group, and I’d like to ask where is their Christian Charity to others? Ok, we were through, and we had enjoyed, but now it was time to head back to the “fort”. A bus ride, metro, and then a walk through a portion of town to the train. Before we called it quits, we just had to have one more GELATO !!! “Auntie Ann” is a bad influence on Louise and myself…

24 October ’05, Monday.
We were up early enough to catch the camp bus by 8:30…it is amazing what we are doing for “Auntie Ann”… This morning we were going to catch the metro train to the “Terminal” station and from there catch the real train to Orvieto. I was afraid that if I showed up with the van again they would impound it right on the spot. Besides, the train ride was very comfortable, reasonable, and didn’t need a parking spot. The trip took us one hour and then as you come off the train there is a funicular to take you to the top of the hill…quite nifty if you ask me. Our return ticket was for 7:30, so we had plenty of time to visit every nook and cranny. Something that is amazing to us is the size of the main church or cathedral of each and every one of these hill top communities. Orvieto is no different, but it does have one of the biggest. The “Duomo” is quite striking, as it is made up of black and white marble blocks making the cathedral stripped horizontally inside and out. On the façade, there are white marble pillars that are carved with scenes of the world (Creation, Tree of Jesse, New Testament, and the Last Judgment). Then most striking to me, is the absolutely beautiful mosaic pictures that adorn the most of the front above the doors. In asking why such a church here in Orvieto, the answer was most likely because a blood stained cloth. In 1260’s, a Bohemian priest doubted that the bread used in Communion was really the body of Christ…as the story goes, the bread then bled, staining the linen cloth. So, with such a magnificent relic you must have a magnificent cathedral… After totally enjoying our time in the Duomo, we headed out to walk all the narrow streets and alleyways that Orvieto holds. We saw many “treasures” and views, met some wonderful locals, and as always did some shopping. As it is always necessary to eat, we did what is natural…we ate. For lunch we all had some homemade minestrone soup and bread, and then had to find the local Gelato Shoppe for dessert. Now we had to find something strenuous to work off the calories we had just finished. Finding St. Patrick’s Well, we decided to walk the 250 steps down into the well…and then back up… The steps were quite wide, as it was originally built so that the mules could walk down, have the barrels filled with water, and then walk out with out a problem. The interesting thing about St. Patrick’s Well, was that you did not walk up the same stairway as you walked down. They had designed it so that it could be in continuous use, and also well lit with natural light all the way down to the water. At about 5, we all wanted a glass of the local wine, so we went on the hunt. We originally started out looking for “tasting”, but we found none, so then we went looking for just the right spot to sit and enjoy a glass before dinner. Louise spotted a sign down this little alleyway that seemed to go no-where. Then, just when we thought it was a dead-end, a closed doorway appeared under a sign. It didn’t look like much, but we tried the door and looked inside. We found a small room, clean, tables set with checked tablecloths, and a mans voice from back in another room saying “Buona Sera”… He came rushing out to meet us with a big smile and a wave to sit at one of the empty tables (Hell, they were ALL empty…). We were caught… His personality, and the overall room made us feel we had found that just right spot, and let me tell you, we did. We had some very good local wine and we also found the best buy in town…we hit the jackpot. Now we had to hurry to find the right restaurant, have dinner and get to our train before 7:30. One of the things we have had trouble remembering while here in Italy, is the restaurants don’t open until 7:30 or later…we struck out !!! Oh well, we had a great time anyway, and the train ride back was good a well. Now let me tell you what happened when we got back to Rome. Getting off the train, we hurried to the metro only to find the gates being closed right before our eyes…the metro was closed for the night. Now what? The only real option for us is the bus…that will take us to the other train station and we can get home before 11:00. Running around looking for a bus, that we have no idea of were it goes turned out to be a bad idea. Then asking a couple of other bus drivers, they pointed to a location and said “MA-1”, so off we run. Just as we arrived, the MA-1 was pulling out and wouldn’t open its doors…all he would do was point back at the bus stop. OK, we’ll wait for the next bus. It wasn’t too long and it arrived. Great, now we will have plenty of time to catch the last train. Enjoying the ride, I noticed some Roman Walls we hadn’t seen before…”WHAT THE HELL IS THAT ??? Asking the bus driver if we were going to the train station, he shook his head and pointed back to where we had come from…stopping at the next stop, we ran across the street, caught the next MA-1 back the other direction. Luckily, we did make it, and I mean just, as the last train was still sitting at the stand…for another 5 minutes… Tomorrow…Rome one last time…

Hilltop Villages…

23 October ’05, Sunday.
It has been a little foggy the last couple of mornings, and fortunately it burned off by early afternoon. This morning turned out to be the same, so as we pulled out of Florence we were optimistic of having a good day. Ann joined me in the front seat, while my navigator Louise sat way in the back. Fortunately for me, we were traveling on the A-1 most of the way, so I wasn’t about to get lost. The only real problem that sat in front of us was finding a campground for the night. While in Florence, we called a couple of campgrounds, and found that they had all ready closed for the season, so that put us in a position of “good luck” in finding something. Our first stop was at the hill town of Montepulciano (mohn-tay-PULL-chee-ah-noh). Small, on top of a hill, isolated, and beautiful…as we pulled up to one of the main gates of this hilltop village, we found a parking spot right away. Finding the “pay station” and locking up, we walked through the gate to something special. Even the first little store that was located right in the brickwork of the gate, was something special. With a totally medieval feel as we walked in, it made us want to explore all the nooks and crannies. The local wines, cheeses, and sausages that they had on display and ready to sell were very tempting. From that point on, it was much of the same as we followed the narrow streets through the village from one end to the other. The architecture of these hilltop villages is somewhat the same as each other, but once you leave the hilltops, the architecture changes. The color of the roof tiles, the bricks, and the rocks that cover the walk/roadways. Some of these tile roofs seem hundreds of years old, and are just as beautiful today as they were way back then. We also found out that there wasn’t any campground around, so we even gave a quick thought to renting a room for a night. Then I said, “Well, it’s only 3:30, so let’s move on to the next village…”. We weren’t too far from Orvieto, so we decided to drive over there to see if we could find something of interest. About 5, we pulled up to Orvieto. Looking at our guide book, we decided to find a small hotel that it had listed. I found a couple of police officers just about ready to get into their car, so finding a moment to ask, they gave me directions to finding this hotel. Now once I have directions, I’m normally pretty good at finding just where I was given directions. Driving their directions, we came to the end of the street, with both roads in front of us telling us “do not enter”. Now what??? Well, turn around and head back to the same parking lot and revisit our directions. “Well, maybe it was this other road they were talking about”… We headed off on this new road only to find ourselves driving down a “main street” with NO OTHER VEHICLES on it. Being a Sunday, it was LOADED with families walking the main street of this hilltop village. I would say this was a weekly affair for everyone. Well, here we are, driving through all these people who were trying very hard to get the heck out of our way and wondering just what the HELL we were doing driving down their promenade… I had to face all these faces that were passing by so very close to my windows all by my self, as the ladies that were sitting so close to me, were now laying on the floor hiding. Finally making it through the “busy” part, I found a place I could pull into. It turned out to be directly in front of the police department, and a “No Parking” location. Well heck, I just had to do it, and I also want the “ladies” to get out and find that hotel !!! I waited with the van about 15 minutes, and when the gals came back, they had mixed news…we could have a room, but the parking was outside the city walls. I made a “command decision”… we were going to head out to the same campground in Rome as we had been the week before, I had had enough for this day… We made it to Rome by 9, so that wasn’t too bad….tomorrow…we’ll be back !!!

22 October ’05, Saturday
Sorry, no pictures of "David", that's what the sign says anyway...
It seems funny to be back in Florence, but seeing as this is Ann’s first time here, we will enjoy it again. Last time we didn’t see the original Michelangelo’s “David”, so I was up early to make a reservation. We got the 4:45pm time, so we were off to see as much of Florence we could before then. We caught the bus down into the old town area, and headed straight to the Ponte Vecchio Bridge. From there to the Mercato Centrale or the central market for lunch of sliced beef sandwiches. Now these were special sliced beef sandwiches…loaded with lots of beef fat, special sauces, and some great bread. We topped this off with a glass of their finest local vino. What a treat !!! Now it was time to see some of the big hits of Florence. For me, I’m in a rut because after lunch, I let the ladies go off on their own while I went to find an internet café. I tried to visit one more museum and church, but found I just didn’t have it in me. Louise and Ann on the other hand, took this to be their chance to be out on their own. We made a date for the 4:45 appointment at the Accademia to see “David”, but other than that, we headed off in different directions. They decided to take in the Duomo and the Duomo museum. Rick Steves calls the exterior of the Duomo “noisy neo Gothic”. I guess I would have to say I would agree, it is busy or “noisy”. It is covered with pink, green, and white marble. The cathedral has the 3rd largest nave in “Christendom”. After enjoying St Peters in Rome, it was more difficult to truly find the Duomo here in Florence exciting. Most of the great art work has been removed to the Duomo Museum across the street. Now from what they tell me, that was really worth the time and money to visit. The highlight, if you can call it a highlight, was the gruesome wood carving of Mary Magdalene who was clothed in her matted hair. Fortunately there were other wonderful artists works available to enjoy. Well come 4 o’clock, we all met in front of the Accademia. The gals had to show me their new purchases right away… they had made a deal with one of the street vendors for new watches for the two of them. I’m happy they finally got their own watch, so now I can keep mine on my wrist. It was wonderful to finally see Michelangelo’s “David”, and I’m glad we took the time to do it. There were other interesting works to enjoy, but David was the attraction. After saying good bye to David, we walked through town again and onto our bus stop. The weather held for us most of the day, with a little light rain off and on. Tomorrow we are off to see some “Hill top towns”.