Italy 1992-Part V: Milan

9/24/92: We rode the train to Milan, a three hour ride. Oh – this was actually the train ride with the disgusting girl sitting across from Peggy. Here are the gory details: She was gross, drunk, ate two sandwiches, burped, smoked a lot, had a hacky cough, put her foot up on Peggy's armrest until Peg told her to move it, was blasting her walkman and singing to it. And she was ugly. She dumped her bottle in the trash, then kept slamming the door to the trash for the whole trip. Boy, that was a lot of detail about this sorry person.

We arrived (me, Peg, Alessio) in Milan at 1:05 p.m. Gianni and his wife Cristina were late picking us up, not arriving till a little before 2:00. We went to eat at this place called "Burghy" which was like a McDonald's. Gianni paid 500 lire for a packet of ketchup for my fries. Ah, to have a guy paying for your meal . . .

After lunch, we strolled through the Galleria window-shopping. What I remember about the Galleria is that it had a barrel shape ceiling with windows and all the designer shops.


Galleria in Milan

Then we went to the Duomo or Cathedral of Milan. I do remember that I was just in complete awe of the Milan Duomo. I had first seen it on a postcard many years ago. It is a truly incredible structure which, for me, even tops St. Peter's in Rome. Building began in the 13th century and it was not completely finished until the 1960's when the final door was put on the front.


Duomo in Milan

Outside, it is a masterpiece. You cannot conceive of it without seeing it for yourself. It has 135 spires and each one, as well as every side of the church, is covered with intricate carving, sculpture, and statues on top of the spires – saints I suppose. The inside is enormous and makes use of much stained glass, especially behind the large altar. The two side aisles give an incredible effect when standing at one end and looking down because you see all the columns in a row all the way down and the carved ceiling seems to go on forever. We went downstairs where there is a tomb from about 387 AD and various artifacts like lamps, pottery, jewelry and money, as well as an ancient baptismal area. We also visited the museum, which had chalices and Host holders and vestments, all kinds of little church articles, all encrusted with jewels.

But the best part – the most incredible part – was going upstairs to the top of the church and outside, with all of the spires and "lattice" work surrounding us and the "flying buttresses" as Peggy (college art major) told us they were called.


view under the flying butresses

I could have stayed up there for hours just sitting. It was like I was halfway to Heaven and all the spires are reaching upward, almost like the architects intended to try and build their way up to God. The church is topped, finally, by a large golden statue of the Madonna. I must have taken at least 10 pictures of this church, trying to preserve the experience. I wrote that, had I been alone, I would have gone back the next day just to sit. It was so beautiful, impressive, incredible, amazing – there's just not enough words to do it justice. (And this from an atheist. But so many years later, I do still remember the awe I felt up on top of that church, and not wanting to leave.

After the Duomo, we went to the town of Novi Ligure where Gianni and Cristina live and had dinner. History here is that I used to date Gianni when he visited America back when I was 19-21 or so, and he was my first romantic love. Oh how sweet when you're that young and aren't bitter and cynical yet! But by this time, I had been married and divorced and had a six year old daughter, and he had married his long-time love and, during this visit, she was about 8 months pregnant. For years he had begged me to come to Italy and on this visit, they had come down to Peggy's wedding reception and invited us up to Northern Italy, and they would host the tourists. So we went.

Anyway, Gianni then drove us (even faster than Alessio's autostrada speed) up to the little cottage belonging to his parents in a little town called Francavilla. It was much colder up in the north, and the cottage did not have heat on. There was one bedroom that me, Peg and Al slept in and I was freezing! I had to wear all of my clothes to bed. Next morning on 9/25/92, we took the train into Milan. On the train, there were a bunch of kids either just out of the military or on furlough or something. They were really loud and boisterous and singing all these military songs at the top of their lungs. I guess this brought back Al's bad memories of having to do his compulsory military service with southern Italians. The train was a local and was very old; it even smelled old and musty. Gianni said it began service in 1939 – the year my mother was born. This was the train from Novi. Then we switched to the one that went into Milan. We got to the station and, old pros that we were by now, we took a couple of subways to the Castello Sforzesco and started looking for a place to eat. A guy on the street directed us to a place called "Ciao" which ended up being a self-service cafeteria. So that was very affordable and the food was decent. Then we had gelato at a place called "Viels" which was supposed to be the best in all of Northern Italy. This being my first visit to Northern Italy, I didn't have anything to compare it to in order to know whether this claim was true or not. Then we visited the Castello Sforzesco.

The Castello is very large with a big tower in the middle, with two round towers on each end, which reminded me of being back in medieval times. I could imagine soldiers walking around the perimeters and balcony, keeping watch. The courtyard was large and beautiful, but any Medieval daydream was blown away by the guy on the riding lawn mower doing the lawn and another guy weed whacking.

After the Castello, it was on to La Scala, the famous opera house. We went into one of the boxes to look down into the theater. It is very impressive, row after row of balconies and red velvet and gold all over. I took a lot of pictures for Dad, the opera buff. Then we went into the La Scala museum which has various exhibits related to those who performed there, from ballet dancers to conductors to opera singers and composers. I bought a postcard of the Maria Callas portrait in the museum, and they had several plaster casts of composers' faces and hands – hands of Chopin and Toscanini. There was a Giuseppe Verdi room which included one of his pianos and his writing desk, the things with which he created many great operas. (I think there was also a Verdi death mask.? I love death masks because I can see the actual three-dimensional face of the historical person. Since then, we have also seen Cosimo di Medici's and Brunellschi's.)


La Scala, Milan

After some shopping, we returned by train to Novi and went out for pizza with Gianni, Cristina and their friend, Roberto.

The next day (the journal gets rather confusing here on dates but it was either the 26th or 27th), we went to Novi and visited the Malaspina Caffe store where we met Gianni's parents. They were happy to see us, especially Peggy I think. The shop was very nice and they sell all kinds of coffees and candies. They gave us free treats – I had a pastry and cappuccino. Then we walked to Roberto's and met his parents. They had a nice house with a garden and a garage. Then we had lunch at Gianni and Cristina's and then it was on the road to the Italian Riviera. Peg, Al and Roberto went in one car and me, Gianni, Cristina and her sister Anna (who broke Roberto's heart apparently) went in another. We went via the autostrada, through many, many long tunnels dug through the mountains. Also, most of the trip was over bridges and roads that were very high up – I am afraid of heights and these roads were so high up that I couldn't look out the window without feeling sick. We went by Genoa, which looks like a big, ugly, industrial city full of stacks belching smoke and a huge oil refinery right next to the autostrada.

We eventually arrived in Santa Margherita which is right on the Mediterranean Sea and is quite beautiful. I do love being on the water and get a comfortable feeling when I'm on a coast. We decided to take a boat out to Portofino. This was like a ferry and we sat right up front. It was just great to be riding along the coastline of the Riviera in a big boat, bouncing up and down on the waves, looking at villas and castles and yachts of the rich and famous, with a brisk wind blowing through my hair.

We arrived at Portofino which is really pretty small, but the harbor is full of huge – and I mean HUGE – yachts. It's very colorful, all the villas and houses lining the harbor. We climbed up the mountain to get a high up view of the harbor and it was very lovely. Even the walk up was nice because it was a narrow path with big walls on each side for most of the way up, with trees all growing over the path. With the walls on each side and the vines and trees for a ceiling, it was like a very solitary little place, very peaceful and a nice walk. Only me and Gianni and Roberto went up because the others didn't want to go – Al and Peg had been there before and seen the view, Anna didn't want to go and Cristina was too pregnant. Mostly I walked it alone because the boys were way out in front of me, especially on the way down. But I didn't want to rush through it, my first and probably last visit to Portofino.

We had to catch the 6:30 ferry back to Santa Margherita and it was rather a comedy. The dock was crowded with people, not a space to be had. When the ferry arrived, people crushed and crowded and loaded it up. But the ferry takes only 140 people so they wouldn't let any more on. People were arguing and fighting with the ferryman because he wouldn't let them on – he had to physically hold them back. (Ah, Italy.) The ferry pulled away and all those who got on waived good-bye to us, yelling "Ciao! Ciao!" so we waved back. They sent another ferry 10 minutes later which was much nicer and, of course, less crowded, so we ended up having a nicer ride back than they did.


Portofino's harbor


HUGE yachts in Portofino (compare their scale to the buildings)

As the ferry was leaving, this mega-yacht was docking. It was extremely large, so large that when I took a picture of it, I couldn't fit it all in the frame. We saw lots and lots of the "idle rich", all wearing very expensive clothes and jewels and looking bored. To have so much money, it amazed me. These are the people that you'd see on the TV show from back then, "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" with Robin Leach. Now, I suppose it would be where Paris Hilton would hang out. It was something to see these people really exist and actually live this way all the time. I'm envious!

I decided to ride the return trip back with Roberto and Peg and Al, and had supper with Gianni and Cristina again when we got back to Novi. They really were nice to take care of us so much really, because I don't think they had a lot themselves actually. Then they had a little party with some friends to celebrate Cristina earning her degree. (In November, the baby was born, a girl they named Lara, which I thought was kind of weird because my daughter is Laura. I mailed them a nice little dress as a gift but never heard from them again, to this day.) Anyway, while in Portofino we also got news that Alessio's brother Alessandro's wife, Betty, had a baby girl they named Caterina. I thought that was also weird because my Laura's middle name is Katherine. It struck me as somehow strange and cosmic to have Gianni and Cristina tell me they were going to name their daughter Lara and on the same day Al's niece is born and named Caterina, and my girl is Laura Katherine. Anyway, we decided to buy Caterina an expensive present in Portofino that normally only the rich and famous would get – me and Peg and Al had to share the cost of a baby bib!

The next day, 9/27/92 (I guess), we rode the train for six hours from Novi to Genoa to Pisa to Florence and every point in between till we were finally back in Calenzano. I wrote that it was much warmer and more comfortable to have a warm room and bed to sleep in, but it was thundering outside and I couldn't get to sleep by 1:15 a.m. between the two cappuccinos I had and watching "Silence of the Lambs" for the first time.

On 9/28/92 we visited baby Caterina and Betty in the hospital, then went shopping in Prato where I bought all kinds of nice clothes for Laura. I bought her a pretty red sweater with green piping and a navy blue pleated skirt with green piping. She ended up wearing this outfit to my brother, Paul's, wedding that October and was adorable. We later went to a Mexican restaurant in Florence, followed by an Australian bar called the Red Garter which I liked because 90% of the patrons were men. I also wrote that I would have to tell Dad about riding in the Cinquecento. When he and I first came to Italy in 1989, we took pictures of the Fiat Cinquecento because neither of us had ever seen such a tiny car. Well, on this trip, we used Cristina's car while in Novi, which was a Cinquecento. It is the super-tiny and very old car that Fiat used to make. We could barely get ourselves into it. I could only fit in the back seat by sitting behind the passenger seat and putting one leg behind the driver's seat and holding the other one up against me. It was a real comedy to see us trucking around in this little car, but we rode it from Francavilla into Novi each day.

I had been on my visit for almost three weeks, and I wrote in the journal that I was starting to feel like I was overstaying my welcome. This was before Peg and Al had built the upstairs room, but maybe after two weeks anyone who is still in the house starts to become less of a guest. I wrote that I had also called home and Ma told me she was ready for me to come home because she "wants her life back." And of course, I had left work for three weeks after not having been away from the office for two and a half years. I actually had to write a manual for them to use outlining how to do all my duties while I was gone. You can really only take a vacation from your real life for just so long. I thought I wouldn't travel again until Laura was grown, so as not to need a babysitter, and would make it a shorter period so as not to inconvenience my hosts. I didn't know it then but this is actually how things did end up. After this 1992 trip, I did not travel again until April 2001 when Laura was 14 years old and I took her for the first time to Italy to visit Peg and Al – and Gianluca who had arrived by then. And I've limited my visits to 10 days to 2 weeks, which has worked out nicely. You don't really get sick of each other and the time flies. But this trip from 1992 was special because it wasn't the whirlwind tourist trip that 1989 was. On this trip, while we did a lot of things, I felt like I got to see and experience the real Italy and its culture, maybe because I was there for a longer period and kind of had a home base.

Well, my next entry will share some of the journal comments that I made about the impact of the trip, the things that stood out for me, what I enjoyed most. As always, the journal included all the things I bought, what they cost, and what meals I ate (with receipts!), ticket stubs to museums and trains, etc. Too boring to blog about but I like all the little mundane details. I will say my favorite foods listed haven't changed much: pizza margherita (cheese pizza), spaghetti pomodoro (with tomato sauce), spaghetti bolognese (with meat sauce), tiramisu, cappuccino, and Laura Panerai's lasagna. I even saved Peggy's grocery bill from the Coop (179,905 lire on 9/29/92, which was about $145.08 given what I noted was an exchange rate of 1240 lire to the dollar.

(For Peggy, who may actually be interested to know and compare lire prices in 1992 to euro prices in 2007 – the list says Fanta cost 1.870, sugar cost 1.530, caffe cost 3.190, some Dash cost 22.950 (!), something called "cremaplanter" cost 5.860, latte cost .960, gelati cost 5.640, carne was 1.765, and some gnocchis were 1.60. I also saved our bowling scores from the Babilonia Lanes on 9/29/92. Since we just bowled while Peg and Al visited last month, it seems like our bowling talents have remained basically the same. I bowled a 73 and a 91, which is actually pretty good for me. Al bowled an 88 and 119. Peg bowled 114 and 108 (kick ass!). Also bowling with us that night were Simone (124 and 160-the champ I guess) and Leonardo (95 and 129).

Italy 1992-Part IV: Siena

9/22/02: We took a day trip to Siena. What I wrote about that day was probably reflections on the scenery during the drive, and I commented about how I thought there were two Italys coexisting, the ancient and the modern. The ancient Italy is what tourists and those who have never been there think of when they think of Italy – St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican, the Colliseum, all the Duomos, paintings, the David, sculptures, piazzas, the colorful buildings along the canals of Venice. It is all very beautiful. But for people that used to build such beautiful things ages ago, the modern buildings of Italy are rather boring, cement, unattractive. There are a lot of tall apartment buildings because Italy is much older than the US and there just isn't that much room left to keep building. It's not like you can knock down the Roman Forum and build condos. But the modern buildings really aren't that nice looking, just square and concrete. Also, when I went to Italy in 1989 and 1992, some of it didn't smell too good – it was like there was leaching sewerage all around and sometimes some places smelled really bad! Since I have returned, I think they have started some environmental practices to improve that, and some of the houses and condos I have seen them building now aren't as drab as before. I also wrote about the gypsies and the gypsy camps, with their little trailer campers pulled by BMWs. I didn't like the gypsies, in the City of Florence looking all dirty in their ragged clothes begging with their kids. Once the kids are big enough, they'll pickpocket you. I am disgusted by people who would make their children live this way, begging being bad enough but stealing really makes me angry. I hate people who steal, who are not willing to work for the things they want but instead will steal the thing's I've worked for.

Anyway, we got to Siena, which I enjoyed very much. The old part of the city sits up on a hill and it's quite lovely. When you walk the small streets, they twist and turn up and down. It makes for a nice effect, and the old part of the city wasn't too crowded or full of cars so it was nice to walk around. We went to the big piazza there – Piazza del Campo – where they actually run a horse race called the Palio, a competition between the various neighborhoods of Siena. In the piazza there is a fountain and there is a castle with a tower on one side. Looking down on the piazza from above, you see that it looks like a fan with nine sections. We went into the castle where they had a photography show about Natural Light and the Italian Piazza. The pictures were very well done and beautiful. The one I liked best was a time-lapse series which must have been taken looking down from the tower to the piazza. Each picture was the same shot but, with the time lapse, the scene changed below and with the sun, the shadow of the tower moved across the piazza just like a hand on a clock.

From there, we walked the streets looking in shops and had some lunch. Then we went to the Duomo, called the Duomo of Santa Maria dell'Assunta.



It is a rather breathtaking and beautiful church, very ornate on the outside with stone steps leading up to the big archway doors, detailed carving going all the way up the spires. It also has a dome and bell tower. The motif is stripes, both inside and out. When you walk inside, you first notice the middle aisle and on each side it is lined with giant striped columns going up to the roof. Halfway up, where the roof joins with the walls of the church, all the way around are the Pope heads – just their sculpted heads and their names underneath. It was kind of weird to look up and see that you are surrounded by disembodied heads staring down at you.

Then if you look all the way down to the altar, which is as ornate as any in Italy, above it there is a round stained glass window. On each side of the striped columns are rows of small altars with large paintings as centerpieces, I presume places for people to pray and meditate and make offerings. Scattered here and there are very large sculptures of Popes sitting in chairs. The floors of the church are all decorated with scenes carved into the marble. We think there were tombs underneath. Up front, on each side of the altar, are smaller altars. Some have their own small domes of gold overhead. The dome over the big altar was blue with a giant gold star in each section. On the left side is the pulpit, all marble and carved with giant lions under it. There was a very nice, intricately carved staircase attached leading up into the pulpit, and my journal notes that this was my favorite piece in the church. On the right was another altar and the wall was covered – completely covered – with small silver hearts in picture frames. Peggy and I went over to try and figure out what these were. Apparently, it is a kind of memoriam wall. All the hearts are in memory of dead loved ones. We figured this out upon looking closer. Many had small photographs attached. Many were children. There were also items up on the wall, probably favorite things of the dead ones. There was a little teddy bear hung up there and some hats and even a motorcycle helmet. It was rather sad to look at. All the personal items and photos put a human face on these people and what pain their deaths must have caused to those left behind to mourn them. I had never seen anything like this in a church before.

On our walk back to the car, we saw some kids, maybe eight or nine years old, practicing twirling big flags and beating a drum in the hope of being able to do this when they are grown up and are representing their neighborhoods at the Palio. All the neighborhoods have flags and are represented by animals – dragon, panther, goose, owl, etc. The flags hang all over Siena.

Also, on the way back we stopped at the Mouth of Truth. I guess the original is in Rome (picture below) and called La Bocca della Verita.



For 500 lire (at that time, that was probably about 50 cents), you could put your hand in the mouth and it would give you your fortune because it "reads" your palm. Mine was pretty accurate actually. Peggy translated it, and my journal still contains the paper from the Mouth of Truth, which said:

"You overcome physical forces.
You have optimum recuperative capacity.
You don't fold under life's circumstances.
You tend to put the one you love on a pedestal, and naturally, you don't expect them to descend.
Even in old age, you will continue to have success and happiness thanks to love and affection.
In a couple relationship, you tend to want to control the situation and the loved one."

If you know me, you'll probably agree the Mouth of Truth is pretty perceptive.

After returning from Siena that day, I wound down by reading the book "Around the World in 80 Days" by Michael Palin, which I found in Peggy's library. I sat on the terrace until the mosquitoes bit me too much. Alessio was watching calcio (soccer) on TV, and we saw that the piazza in Florence was full of strikers. That day we were able to ride the autostrada for free because of the strike. The next day we had a day off from traveling and caught up on things around the house. Next up, our trip to Milan.

Italy 1992-Part III: San Gimagnano & Venice

9/21/92: We took a day trip to the town of San Gimagnano, a medieval city full of towers. I guess at one time it had about 50 towers, which the families built as a symbol of wealth and power. Now most have fallen down but about 15 or so still stand.

The first place we went was the criminal museum where there was the Spanish Inquisition exhibition of implements of torture. It was really rather horrifying actually. It was hard to believe that people could be so creative and ingenious with cruelty. I had no idea how truly awful the devices used by the Inquisition really were. There was an iron cage that they would put people in and just leave them hanging in public while the person eventually starved, died, and then rotted in the cage on display. I guess this was a deterrent. There were chairs of nails (called the "Interrogation" chairs) which they would heat up with fire. I felt the spikes and they were still pretty sharp. There were strangling devices and the Iron Maiden, this big container that looks like a mummy case but has all the spikes on the inside so, of course, when they closed it there was no dodging the spikes. There were horrendous devices to insert or use to mutilate body parts, and they actually used to saw people and flay people while alive. It was really really creepy. The one that was especially so was the famous Rack on which people were literally stretched to death. There were three phases of the interrogation: Phase One broke the shoulders (because they didn't stretch people by putting their arms over their heads but by putting their arms behind them); Phase Two would be the knee joints and hips and pelvis pulling apart; Phase Three (the fatal one) was the separating of the spine. While looking at the rack, I got this eerie, strange and sad feeling realizing that someone, a real person or persons though long ago, actually died on this thing. What struck me about all the devices was that they were not made to be in the least bit merciful but were intended to bring about eventual death after hours or, usually days, of unbelievable suffering. These machines were not really used to make people confess or recant. There were no real interrogations. Anyone hauled in by the Inquisitors was simply meant to suffer and die. A perfect example for others contemplating sinning. Death was the intent from the beginning because there is really no forgiveness for the heretic. The exhibit said that some of the devices were still used in some countries (in 1992, it specified Iraq and El Salvador), with the extra added bonus of modernization: electricity. As if they weren't bad enough already. This exhibit was really disturbing, and yet another bit of historical nastiness in the name of religion.

After the museum, we browsed the shops and went for lunch, though we couldn't eat much after the exhibition. Then we visited a place where they sold wine and had a huge cellar with a large selection of wines. I bought a bottle of Montelcino to bring back to my boss, since he let me go away for three weeks. Peggy bought some terra cotta lamps for her terrace and then it started to rain and thunder and lightening so we headed home. I wrote that Alessio drove really fast on the autostrada and scared me to death. Since then, I have ridden with Alessio many times and he has proven to be a very skilled driver so I don't get nervous anymore, but on this first trip on the autostrada I had to keep my head in my hands in the back seat!


San Gimagnano

Little notes and observations I made at the half-way point of my trip: The exchange rate was very good that year so I was able to buy lots of nice things. Cigarettes were expensive. I again thought about beautiful Venice, the colorful and decorative buildings and bridges and canals. We walked and walked there, down alleyways, some quite small, and I felt like a rat in a maze; going down the really narrow ones that two people could barely pass each other and then they would open magically up into a spacious piazza. Hanging around with Kristiano in the TV room at the Kitty Hotel; I wrote that our room was small and our bathroom had crammed a shower stall, toilet and sink into a space the size of a closet (the shower wasn't really even a stall but a corner of the room with a curtain around it. I kept hitting my elbows on the walls. But I was still happy to have our own bathroom.) And we never found an outlet in the hotel room, the bathroom or the WC across the hall so I was never able to dry my hair in Venice – back then, I was very meticulous about styling my hair so this was a trauma. We rode the waterbus "about a million times" and it was always fun, with the breeze in your hair as you ride along the Grand Canal past the incredible palatial villas and ancient architecture thinking, "I can't believe I'm here!" We watched a little traffic jam of gondolas ferrying tourists with their cameras around their necks (like me), all the gondoliers in their black pants and white shirts with the collar flap on the back and some with the gondolier hats, their very own accordion players, and one with a Pavarotti wanna-be singing "O Sole Mio" with his whole heart and soul.

I observed that Venice, like Florence, was just full of tourists. I wrote that in the bars, the Italians wanted to pick up the pale-haired Swedish and German types. The Norwegians all looked "granola", and just tons and tons of Japanese who I thought were all very petite and dressed really well (designer) and all had cameras, video equipment and lots of luggage. The Germans all wore Birkenstock sandals. Some Spaniards asked Peggy to explain the Venetian bus routes. And there were all the African street sellers. You meet so many people when you travel in Europe!

I also wrote that I could never live in Italy because there were "too many sad, pained looks when people find out I'm not married, I'm 30, and I have a child. The lady next door said I need a man. She doesn't even know me. In America, I'm successful – I have my own apartment, car, career, child. In Italy, none of that matters because I'm not married. In Italy, I would be a failure. . . On Italian television, all the women are sexpots. Even the newscasters wear suits with low plunging necklines. Most of the women here have this false red tint in their hair, wear very short skirts, high heels, have long hair, and I can't believe how many black bras I've seen from the unbuttoned blouses. And they wear a lot of real, expensive gold jewelry." I was glad to be a woman in America. But I am still always impressed with how Italian women always put a lot of time and effort into their appearance. They believe it's important. They dress for the supermarket. They wear heels in the airport. They would not go out of the house in jogging pants. In America, I think we are way too casual all the time. When people wear jeans and T-shirts to the opera, that's just so American.

I had forgotten, but the journal records my "brushes with death" on my trip. Due to the traffic and pollution in the cities, I had been getting headaches when out all day. In Venice, we had brought some aspirin as a precaution, but the pills were much bigger than at home. At lunch, I was about to take an aspirin to avert the headache that inevitably came on at 5:00 p.m. I popped it in my mouth and the next thing I knew, it was caught in my throat, completely stuck. I couldn't say a word, and when I tried to take in a breath so I could cough, I realized I couldn't take in a breath at all. I looked at Peggy and started pointing at my mouth but it didn't seem like she was getting it. I have never been so petrified because I could not inhale at all and as this continued, two thoughts came into my mind at the same time: "It's all over." And Laura. In that instant, I saw myself falling over in the chair and I really believed I was going to die right there in front of everyone and never see my baby again. Then I started choking out a cough which was so hard and forceful and was the most horrible sound I had ever heard and it was coming from me. It was like the sound of a choking, upchucking seal which echoed about 100 decibels. After about three hacks, the pill dislodged enough so that I could get air. It was really scary, and really humiliating to do this in a restaurant in front of other people. What was so weird was I remember people just looking at me, like they were all just going to watch me die. The second "brush with death" was when I was so scared on the ride home from San Gimagnano, but not only was it because we were going fast but also because Al and Peg had drank three bottles of wine – two at lunch and one at the wine place, and then they both took off their seatbelts on the highway. It was visions of that horrible movie they show you in drivers' ed. . .but the next day, we took the autostrada to the town of Siena. . .

Italy 1992-Part II: Venice

Wednesday 9/16/92: "Today me and Peg went on the train to Venice. It was a nice ride – very smooth. We are at the Hotel Edelweiss Stella Alpina near the train station. We walked all over Venice because the buses were on strike. We went to the Ponte Rialto where I bought a long sleeveless vest with lapels. We ate at a restaurant with a very bad waiter who we thought was drunk, but it was right on the canal so the gondolas were going by with the gondoliers playing their accordions and singing – it was just like you'd imagine Venice. Near the Ponte Rialto is a bar called the Devil's Forest. Reminded me of Dewey's (our bar at home). Had some harp there and met an American girl traveling with her mother. And watched a very cute guy with long hair play darts. Here at the hotel now, the night desk guy is a very, very cute economics student who is letting us use the TV room."

I chuckle in 2006 as I read the above journal entry. Silly girl. I didn't write about it, but I do still remember, the girl on the train that we shared a compartment with. She appeared to be the student traveling with backpack across Europe type, but she was irritating Peggy to no end because she kept putting her dirty feet up on the seat next to Peggy. And I think she kept coughing or something. As for walking all over Venice because the buses were on strike, the buses are actually water buses – the streets are canals. There are no cars or motorbikes/vespas/scooters. It's boats. And on strike – welcome to Italy. I think every time I have visited Italy there has been a strike for a day (usually Monday or Friday). As a matter of fact, on my very first visit to Italy, we had to circle Rome for a half hour before landing because there was a lunchtime strike and they were waiting for it to end. But if you take the water bus in Venice, I think just the #1, it gives you a long ride along the Grand Canal. This is a very affordable way to see the whole Grand Canal at a leisurely pace. I still have the vest I bought – it was a long vest that went to just above mid-thigh and was a salmon color. I can't wear it anymore because it is too small now, but I can't seem to throw it out.

Thursday, 9/17/92: "Today we took the bus (they're no longer on strike) to the Galleria Academia where there were many 12th century onward Venetian paintings displayed. Our favorite was the Feast of Levi, which was supposed to be the Last Supper but because the jesters and other partygoers offended the Inquisition, the painter changed the title to save his skin. But it's still Christ sitting there having dinner. My favorite paintings were by Tinoretto. Everyone seemed to have a thing for San Sebastian – pictures of the guy are everywhere, with the spear in his chest and one in his leg.

After the museum, we had some lunch and then went to San Marco. The floor of the church is so wavy – actually like little hills, from water damage. San Marco square floods every year. The church is all mosaic inside and rather Turkish looking, Byzantine I am guessing. We paid 2000 lire to go upstairs and see the famous bronze horses (replicas are on the front terrace of the church). It is hard to believe they are metal, they look so real. We went outside on the balcony that looks down on Piazza San Marco – full of people and pigeons. I bought a gondolier hat for Laura, and we took the #1 bus back on the Grand Canal – beautiful."

Writing now in 2006, that was my second time in Venice. I returned a 3rd time, again with Peggy, but we brought Laura and Gianluca with us on that trip. I went the first time to Venice with my Dad in 1989. So I have been inside the church of San Marco three times. It is fascinating because of all the mosaic – floors, walls, and the ceiling looks like it is all gold mosaic. The bronze horses of San Marco were actually stolen from Constantinople during one of the Crusades in the 13th century. They were also stolen by Napoleon in 1797 and taken to Paris, but were eventually returned to Venice.


San Marco's bronze horses

Also in San Marco is a separate room in the church where, for a few lire (now euro), you can go in and see all the relics. Relics are something common to Catholic history and churches all had their own relics to display. They are little bits of bones usually, purported to be from a saint ("finger of St. Peter; arm bone of St. Sebastian"), but sometimes they are objects such as a piece of the cross that Jesus was crucified on (there's lots of pieces of the cross floating around) or the veil of Mary Magdalene or some such thing. These relics are usually kept inside a reliquary, the container for the holy relic. The reliquary can be quite large and ornate, usually gold and usually contains the relic behind a little window and out from this is all the gold and decoration. I have seen a reliquary that was in the shape of a golden arm (because it had somebody's holy arm bone inside). In the past, the relic would be carried inside the reliquary in a procession on the saint's feast day or on holy days. This was what I was imagining in the little relic room in San Marco, a procession in the Middle Ages, spectators awed and fearful and praying as the relic went by. Relics were often thought to have miraculous powers, particularly if you asked the saint of the missing piece to intercede on your behalf in Heaven. I have read that Buddhists and Hindus also have sacred relics. It may sound silly and medieval, but relic adoration still goes on today. Just a few years ago, a "piece of the true cross" - yes, yet another piece of Christ's cross – came to Portland for a visit and my parents went to see it. Me and Peggy couldn't help but giggle a bit at the relics in the room, in their ornate "tiny houses", picturing some little peasant running around the Crusades just picking up dead guys' bits and pieces on the battlefield and selling them as relics. And now they reside for all eternity in churches all over. We laugh at the relics, but I still like to see them whenever I go to churches in Europe. You're nobody if you ain't got relics! I have been to San Marco three times and all three times I have gone in to see the relics. (Most recently, this summer, I visited the relics in the museum behind the Duomo in Florence. They had pieces of St. Agatha's veil, and pieces of Christ's cross, of course.) I am intrigued how people through the ages to the present time are so willing to believe something is real and true just because a supposedly holy person tells them it's so.

At 12:45 a.m. that night I made the following entry in the journal, hence how we christened the Hotel Edelweiss the "Kitty Hotel":

"We have a tiny little kitten in the garden outside our hotel window. He just meows constantly. He has been injured and has an infected wound and the flies are hounding him. He is so small he couldn't even drink some milk that Peggy had the hotel guy set out. There's nothing we can do and he is definitely going to die for sure and it's so sad. Now we have to try to sleep with this cat outside crying his head off. We are going to have nightmares.

We went out after dinner to take Bus #34 to Rialto to go to the Devil's Forest again. We were waiting at the station and Peg starts whining and pointing – there was an advertisement up on the wall of this big picture of a kitten. . . He is following us.



Anyway, we then went to the bar where two Egyptian guys tried really hard to pick us up, to no avail. One gave Peg his number which ended up in the ashtray of the TV room at the hotel. So then we took the bus back to the station and there was this psycho guy on the bus who told Peggy she looked like Morticia Adams from the Adams Family. (Peggy looks nothing like Morticia. She has auburn colored curly hair, for one thing.) She asked him if he was talking to her and he started giving her some crap about being Venetian and her accent! Anyway, we came back to the hotel and were chatting with the cute student guy, the night clerk Kristiano, when who walks in but the psycho guy! We thought he had followed us, but turns out he is a guest at the hotel. Of course.

We were up until quarter of two talking with Kristiano in the TV room. He got us some orange juice and we talked about the cat, told jokes, taught him two new English words ("wedgie" and "wazoo"). Got to go to sleep now because breakfast time will come pretty quick (the Senora promised to save us two croissants)."

The next day, I wrote in a little more detail about our conversation with Kristiano. He had been pretty funny, talking about having the cat for dinner because there was a Chinese restaurant a couple of doors away. Peggy thought up a coat of arms for the restaurant, a kitten with a fork and knife crossed over the front."

I enjoy this entry and this memory because part of mine and Peggy's enjoyment of Venice on this trip was directly connected to the Kitty Hotel and Kristiano the student night clerk and the Senora. The Kitty Hotel advertises itself as a two-star establishment. In Europe, you can imagine that if it thinks it's two star, it's probably one. Usually when traveling, you want to have a decent room that you can go to and crash after a long day and just lay there and watch TV. Well, in the Kitty Hotel in 1992, we were lucky to have a room with our own bathroom. Just outside and down the hall from our room was the "W.C.", the bathroom shared by other guests who didn't have their own bathroom like we did. But what we didn't have was a TV. Probably nobody did, and that's why there was a TV room. By the time we were showing up back at the hotel at close to 1:00 a.m., the TV room was empty. Kristiano was the college student working at night and studying and doing his homework, and we enjoyed each other's company sitting around this TV room and talking and laughing. I sometimes wonder if he finished school and became an economist. Nowadays, when you travel and just fly by the front desk to your room to watch TV in private, there is not even the opportunity to meet and get to know a little bit a person like Kristiano on your trip. And the comment about the Senora – we were always showing up at breakfast toward the tail end of serving time and so the best goodies, like soft croissants, were all gone. So we made friends with the woman (the "Senora") who managed the breakfast every morning. She was nice enough that she would hold out some croissants just for us. For our few days in Venice, we had a little "home" in the Kitty Hotel with our friends Kristiano and the Senora, and the kitten in the garden for whom, despite his joking around, Kristiano gave us milk in a saucer.

The next day, I wrote that the Senora did save us the croissants as promised. I also wrote that the kid who worked the day shift at the hotel told us that there was an old Senora from down the street coming in the afternoon to take the kitten. We didn't know if he was telling the truth or just trying to make us feel better, but we decided to believe him.

Italy 1992-Part I: Florence

In 1992, I was 30 years old. I had been saving up for years to go back to Italy. My sister, Peggy, had moved there and married and had been living there for a few years. My daughter, Laura, was 6 years old and I was leaving her at home with my parents for three weeks. It would be - and I think it still is – the longest period I have ever been away from her. I made my first entry in the journal for this trip in Brussels, Belgium, on 9/11/92 at 9:25 a.m. It was Friday morning, and with the 6 hour time difference, it felt like 3:25 a.m. to me. I had time to write in the journal because I had a very long layover in Brussels. It was about a 6 hour layover, and I had arrived there at 6:00 a.m. and none of the stores in the airport were open yet. I noted that I had been awake for 20 ½ hours and, after doing some stretching exercises and jumping jacks to try and shake the grogginess, I began to write. Pretty early on in the journal, it is evident how much things have changed when it comes to flying. . .here are some excerpts:

"I got on the Delta flight from Portland at 2:15 p.m. on Thursday the 10th. Ma, Dad and Laura were there to see me off. I boarded the plane to the sounds of Laura crying. I could hear her crying all the way down the corridor. I'm still thinking about it 13 hours later."

The flight from Boston was on Sabena Airlines, the now defunct Belgian airline. It left at 5:00 p.m. . . "I tried to sleep on the plane but couldn't. Had some chicken for dinner – was supposed to be Chinese but the only good part of it was the pea pods. The in flight movie was "Casablanca." I sat in the smoking section, which was the second last row in the plane so I got to watch every passenger on the plane line up to use the john at some point during the eight hour flight. The two guys next to me had served in the army in Germany from 1964 to 1966 and were returning to party in Frankfurt together again. One was 54 years old and I swear he talked about alcohol for the whole eight hours. He's one of these life of the party guys who doesn't stop talking, ever. He checked out the whole plane, went up to first class to eat their fruit, and had a conversation with every person who stood in line for the bathroom. His friend was the listener. He didn't say more than two words until the end of the flight. These guys, and the guy on my left across the aisle (who was from Fairfield, Maine) drank an incredible amount of alcohol. The kid from Fairfield had beers, whiskey, bottles of wine – and got off the plane looking as sober as when he got on!"

The next day, Saturday 9/12/92, I wrote about arriving at the Florence Airport and going home to Peggy and Alessio's. They live in a small town just outside of Florence called Calenzano. My first impression of their home: "beautiful" and "gorgeous" and "My favorite part is the terrace." At this time, I lived in a very small four room apartment. Peggy's home used to be a single home that Alessio grew up in. It was turned into two apartments, with his parents living on the first floor and Peg and Al living on the second floor. The floors are marble tile. There are large custom built bookcases in the living room, floor to ceiling doors to the terrace in the living room and kitchen, the wooden shutters that close down over the windows and doors, two bathrooms, very high ceilings. It is all roomy and comfortable and decorated with things that Peggy has made, being the artist and creative type that she is. She and Al still live there. For this trip, I stayed in their guest bedroom. Today, this is Gianluca's room, but then, he wasn't even thought of yet.

On that first Saturday, we took the train into Florence and visited the outdoor market where they sell all kinds of things like leather wallets, bags, jackets, and t-shirts and tourist souvenirs. We also visited a pub that I identified as an "Irish pub where we sat outside in the square where the church is, Santa Maria Novella." This was actually my first visit to the Fiddler's Elbow pub. We ended up back here several times during my visit. We liked to end the day there before catching the train back to Calenzano. We'd have a couple of drinks – harp – and watch the people passing through the square. It was very relaxing and, later on in December 1993, I had Peggy draw me a picture of the view from the Fiddler's so I could sort of relive my afternoons in Florence. It still hangs on the wall in my living room. We actually returned there this past summer. A half pint of Guinness cost me six euro!


Santa Maria Novella

I wrote, "Had my first cappuccino. Loved it!" This was before the arrival of cappuccinos and lattes and all that in America. I got hooked on cappuccinos in Italy in 1992 and really missed them when I came back home. And I wrote also about missing Laura: "I do miss my Laura. I have her picture by my bed. It is so strange to be so far from her. She is my whole life. When she is big enough, I would love for her to come here and live with her auntie for a while. It is so strange to sleep without her, though." Laura is now 20 years old and she has been to Italy three times now. But those are different journals!

The next day, Sunday 9/13/92, was taken up with the wedding celebration for Peggy and Al. They had married in America in July but this was the celebration for the Italian friends and family. I met all of Peg and Al's friends and noted that "No one in Italy is single. They are all couples! I would have a terrible time living here." Old boyfriend Gianni (who I dated years before) with his friend Roberto and Gianni's wife, Cristina (who was about 8 months pregnant) all came down from northern Italy to attend. They wanted us to come up north and said they would show us Milan and the "sea", which is the Italian Riviera. Al began the habit of making a cappuccino for me every night.

On Tuesday, 9/15/92, Peggy and I went into Florence and spent the whole day there. We watched some people shooting a scene for a film or TV show, a young woman marrying an old guy in a wheelchair outside the church of Santa Maria Novella. Then we went to the Uffizi Museum. I noted, "it was great fun to see it all with Peg because she knows so much about art. I really got a new appreciation for the artworks, especially the 13th century works and the Botticellis." The Uffizi has the Botticelli works Birth of Venus and Primavera, very beautiful. We returned there for our second visit to the Uffizi together this past August (2006) and sat there viewing them again probably for a half hour, just looking at these two paintings. I reported that we went shopping at a store, Pezzuti's, where I bought a gold leaf Florentine cigarette and lighter case (I don't smoke anymore). We also went to a bakery owned by some American girls and got treats, and finished the day at the Fiddler's Elbow where we met Al and had some harp.

On Wednesday, 9/16/92, Peg and I took the train to Venice. This was the trip to Venice where we christened the "Kitty Hotel", met Cristiano, were chased by the wacko guy, met the crazy Egyptians. . .Therefore, that will entail a lot of excerpting from the journal which will be continued in Part II.
(Blog entry written in November 2006)

My Trip to Disney - May 2006

I was 44 years old and had never been to Disney in Orlando. However, this year I was chosen for a trip through work so off I went. Coincidentally, my daughter Laura was also going at the same time, along on her boyfriend's family summer vacation, and my brother Paul was going to attend a conference. So we all planned to meet after my 3-day business event.

This began as a work-related trip, called "Recognition" and "Training", so all the workers took chartered buses to Logan Airport. Laura had actually left on Friday, driving to Florida with Jeff, his dad, his mom, his brother and his uncle. They ended up stopping in Virginia on the way, then on again. I think they arrived around midnight Saturday and they were staying in a timeshare condo. We made good time on the bus and our plane ended up taking off at 11:00. I got "randomly selected" for extra security, as usual, and had to have my bags opened and was put through the "puffer" machine that blows air on you, I guess analyzing for explosive residues in case you were making a bomb at home before you came to the airport. We flew on Song, which is the low cost Delta (which they have phased out actually). It was a pretty good flight, no problems. All seats had individual TVs and you could watch Direct TV satellite, had a ton of music channels, and a trivia game you could play against other passengers. So that was entertaining. In one round, I came in second on the plane. It was about a 3 hour flight.

On arrival, we were picked up by shuttle vans and taken to our hotel on the Disney resort, the Yacht Club. Because this was a combination work and leisure vacation trip, I had to pack a lot of clothes – vacation clothes and work clothes. My bag going down weighed in at 41 pounds! After arriving, I went out for a swim before we had to be at the evening event for work, a dinner party with dancing and open bar (you can imagine how some people just have no self-control, despite it being work-related). We all had to have our pictures taken with Mickey Mouse. I checked out of this thing at about 9:30 and went for a swim. It's so frickin' hot in Florida and humid!

Mon: Next day, 5/22, we had to attend breakfast at 7:30. They had a big breakfast buffet which included pancakes, eggs, bacon, fruit, croissants, coffee, juice, etc. Tons of stuff. For breakfast, we had Disney entertainment of a nerdy kind of Jerry Lewis type professor and his assistant inquiring about why we were all there and making observations, etc. Then we had the morning events, which included talks from our CEO and the 4 top executives who run the 4 organizations within the company that were attending the event. They were interrupted by Cruella DeVille, who was the comic relief basically. Then we had the Disney guy who gave a talk on running their organization (values, etc.) and then a motivational speaker who was pretty good as far as being a really great public speaker. After a half-day, we were released for the afternoon. They had given us $40 worth of "Disney dollars" to be used to buy lunches over the three day event.

After the morning, I decided to go to Downtown Disney for lunch. It actually took until about 1:00 for the bus to pick us up. I went to a place called the "Earl of Sandwich" and got a pretty good gourmet sandwich with chips and a drink for about $10 of Disney cash. Ate that outside – bloody hot so you get all sweaty. Then I walked around a bit more and found a Ghirardelli soda fountain and chocolate shop and got a very yummy sundae (for almost $8!) But I realized after the Disney talk and by my own observations around the resort that it takes a lot of money to run the Disney experience efficiently. The Disney guy said that their studies show that 70% of those at Disney are repeat customers! So they have to make it the best experience possible to get people to come back because, without the repeats, they'd be out of business. You see this when you realize how many people are there in the parks yet the grounds are clean and the bathrooms are clean and there are people all over you can ask for assistance at any time. Eating lunch, about 3 seconds after you get up from your table somebody is there wiping it down. So you don't really mind paying a lot of money because you know it's going right back into the park paying for adequate staff to run the show.

Anyway, after my sundae, I actually had to head back because I had to allow enough time to get the bus, get back to the resort, and take a shower cause I was all sweaty, because we had to be at another dinner that night. So after getting ready, our dinner was at the French restaurant in fake France in Epcot. Epcot was only about a 10 minute walk down the road from our hotel. So we went for dinner and then we had a special area reserved for us right in front on the water to watch the Epcot fireworks show, which was just excellent. I love fireworks. It's all coordinated with music. Super great!

Tue.: On Tuesday, 5/23, we had breakfast at 7:00 including Disney entertainment of some kids doing bicycle tricks. They were really good. Then we had actual work for the morning. Then for the afternoon, me and my co-worker, Rich, took the bus over to the Animal Kingdom where we went on the Safari ride. This was actually the longest ride we stood in line for the entire time I was in Disney, about 40 minutes. But they even try to make the line a not so bad experience. It is covered by "rainforest" so you're out of the sun, with fans and some water misting along the way, and we went by a little safari office which was rather cute. The safari vehicle looks just like something you'd expect it to look like in Africa, with a bunch of equipment and coolers and "supplies" on the roof. I was looking for Teddy Roosevelt or Ernest Hemingway photos. So you ride through the forest and savannah on bumpy and wet roads and you can see all the animals along the way. They're just hanging about, eating and sleeping and walking or running around. We were lucky enough to see a lot of them. Sometimes you can't see them if they've gone inside some sheltering or something. But we saw lions, zebras, gazelles, monkeys, alligators, elephants, rhinos, hippos, cheetahs, etc. Very cool.

Then we took in a 3D movie with the Bug's Life characters which was cute. I love 3D. The thrill ride here is the Expedition to Everest. I did not ride it of course because I'm a baby and scared of most rides, but Rich did a couple of days later with his family and said it was good. I guess the track is "broken" and you see the Yeti. Then we had lunch in an African restaurant before we had to head for the bus and back to the hotel to get ready for the evening event.

The Tuesday night event was at the House of Blues, which was actually pretty good and I did enjoy it. The food was good, I had 3 Guinnesses, and the music was great with the opening blues band and then the Blues Brothers entertainment. They had brought us over there on a bus, with the Blues Brothers police car in front of us, driven by the Catholic school nuns. After the House of Blues, they had a bus back to the Yacht Club but instead, me and some of my co-workers went over to this dance club where there was 70's (yuck) and 80's (yay) music. Upon return to the hotel, a free gift left in my room was the Disney framed photo of me with Mickey from the party on Sunday night. I look short and fat and middle aged. Guess because I am. I took a swim and went to bed.

Wed.: Wednesday, 5/24, last work day. Again, big buffet breakfast. Had break-dancing entertainment. Then our final morning of work tasks. They were done at 11:30 and provided everybody with delicious box lunches. After I ate and changed, I took the boat from the Yacht Club to the MGM Studios. Looks like there is a bunch of milfoil growing in the water down there. Can't swim in it, just in the pools.

At MGM, the first thing I did was the Indiana Jones show, which was great, with explosions and stunt jumps and fights, etc. Then I did the Star Wars virtual space flight to Endor. Both of these I managed in only about 20-30 minute lines. Then I did the Muppet 3D movie, no line for that. I'm such a kid for 3D – I will see anything if it's in 3D. Then I went on the studio backlot tour. You see some explosions and a flood in "Catastrophe Canyon", and various things on the lot like Walt Disney's airplane, some planes used in the movie "Pearl Harbor", a Star Wars pod cruiser. There was a costume exhibit of stuff from "Superman II" and "Narnia" and "Pirates of the Caribbean", but the best costume was the Darth Vader costume – that guy is extremely tall!

Then I went on the Great Movie Ride, which only certain types (like me) would like. This recreated sets with animatronic figures from old movies like "Public Enemy" with Jimmy Cagney, but they also recreated the spaceship from "Alien" and riding through that was pretty creepy just like the film. At MGM, the thrill rides are the Tower of Terror and the Aerosmith roller coaster. Of course, I didn't go on those. I managed to see (get stuck in) the character parade and then had some food at the Backlot Café before heading back to the hotel on the boat again.

Laura and Jeffrey got dropped off at the Yacht Club and we went for a swim to cool off. They had spent the day at Seaworld. During the week, they had done Universal, Islands of Adventure, Busch Gardens, and Seaworld. After swimming, we came up to the room and I got them room service because they hadn't eaten. They had quesadillas and salad. (Jeff & Laura were weirded out in the morning when they noticed that someone had been eating the remnants of their room service dinner! The leftovers that they left outside our door for pick up had been gotten into.) And then we watched the 2-hour season finale of "Lost". Talked to Paul who said his conference had been crappy, but arranged to meet up in the morning at 9:00 for Epcot.

Thur.: Thursday morning, 5/25, we got up early enough to go to the Yacht Club Galley and have some breakfast. Had some huge banana pancakes which were quite yummy. Couldn't finish them. Then we met up with Paul, stashed his laptop in my room, and walked down to Epcot. We came in the opposite entrance to Epcot than Jeff's family so kind of started at opposite sides of the amusements. First thing we did was get a Fast Pass for the ride Soarin'. The way this works is when you go up to a ride there are two lines. The stand in line gives an estimate of how long the line will be. The Fast Pass gives you a time to come back if you want and you will get on the ride then within about 10-15 minutes or less. Soarin' is a new ride so the stand in line was 60 minutes. So we opted to get a Fast Pass and come back. So we then went to the Living Seas, which is where you could view all kinds of sea creatures in the aquarium and other water tanks. Saw all kinds, like manatees and sharks and turtles and other various fish. Laura thinks the manatees are the cutest. And then we took this little boat ride called "Living with the Land" where you can go through greenhouses and see all kinds of plants and foods they grow with new technology (some of it from NASA space technology) like growing things in sand or things that normally grow in dirt can be grown on trellises, and they grow more and bigger foods. It was really neat.

Then we went for our ride on Soarin', which is a virtual hang gliding ride over trees and oceans and mountains and an orange grove. You could smell the oranges. And, of course, over Disney. What was neat about it is it really gives you the sensation that you are moving and flying. They move your seats up and tilt them, and blow air on you. So it really seems like you are moving and it is like a big IMAX screen that takes up your whole field of vision. I had to keep convincing myself it was only a movie cause it seems very real and I'm scared of heights! This was probably my favorite ride of all that I went on at Disney.

After Soarin', we met up with Jeff's family for lunch. They had gotten two Fast Passes for the Test Track and so after lunch, Jeff and his brother went on that. We got four Fast Passes to come back later on. This ride is so popular that I think we picked up the Fast Passes a little before 3:00 and wouldn't be coming back until 6:25pm for the ride. After that, we headed over to the Spaceship Earth ride which is in the big Epcot sphere. This takes you on a ride through recreated sets with animatronic figures that take you through caveman times, the Renaissance, etc. Man's history up to space and all that. The end is a nice shot of Earth from space surrounded by stars.

After that, we parted ways with Jeff's family and went to the "Honey I Shrunk the Audience" 3D movie. We went over for our ride on the Test Track. This is a car that gets put through all kinds of "testing" like what they do to cars in development. The ride is by GM. So you go on a climb up a steep hill, over some rough road tests, through cold and hot tests, then you head towards a barrier like you're going to get the crash test dummy treatment. But then the barrier drops and you go on the spiral track and through hairpin turns. It's really fast and thrilling. Anyway, the big thrill ride here is Mission Space, which two people have died after riding. Nobody wanted to go on it. Of course I didn't, but I kind of thought Jeff and Paul and Laura would.

Then we headed over to the World Showcase area of Epcot, the fake countries. In Norway, we took the Viking ride, "Maelstrom". It was sort of like Spaceship Earth, recreated sets and animatronics. The funniest part was the "scary" trolls who push you off the side of the flat Earth. We saw a short movie about Norway which was quite lame, going on about the "spirit" of Norway and its people but not explaining what that was exactly. Most of these fake countries have a famous landmark or some signature building but it's really just restaurants and gift shops inside. In China, there were Chinese pagoda buildings and nice gardens, though. Some young girl acrobats were jumping around. I bought a cute stuffed panda wearing a vest. Germany was a lot of Oktoberfest, but they had a mini countryside set up with a train. Italy had a Doges Palace and the bell tower in San Marco and Venice bridges. America had a recreated Philadelphia and a show called "The American Adventure". It was a stage show with animatronics recreating historical events and people. Nobody else liked it, but I did. The animatronics are just so weird that it's strange in a Twilight Zoney kind of way. And it gave us an 18 minute rest in seats and air conditioning. Then there is fake Japan, fake France where we watched a movie about France and the countryside there looks really nice. There was footage of Versailles – I want to go! I think the guy behind us had seen the movie several times and was way too into it. There was also fake Morocco and there were some musicians there. Fake UK is pretty good, with a pub and a fish and chips place and the red phone booths. Fake Canada has a really nice garden and they had a band there of kilted guys and bagpipes. Did Scots settle Canada or something? Actually, they were probably part of the UK, but they're both right next to each other. The World Showcase really reminded me of the opening of the film "Team America" – on the DVD commentary, the creators said they had recreated France but in the manner that Americans imagine France to be. That's sort of what the World Showplace in Epcot is.

Then it was time to watch the Epcot fireworks show again. I was very happy to see it a second time, just as thrilling for me. By this time, we had been at Epcot for 11 hours!! After the fireworks, we headed back to the hotel, all of us crippled really, and had some supper (at almost 10:00 at night) in the soda shop at the Yacht Club.

Fri.: Friday, 5/26. Laura & Jeff were too exhausted to go anywhere. They had been going every day so I suppose it was about time they finally crashed. So me and Paul went to Kennedy Space Center. We ended up a little delayed due to a detour that had no signs whatsoever to try and figure out our way to our destination. But luckily, Paul had his GPS (technology courtesy of the space program!), which we named Steven Hawking because of its voice. Paul kept imitating him when we took the detour and it started getting pissed basically because we weren't following the route. ("What are you doing, Douchebag?") But we got to KSC by about 11:00. We got the NASA bus tour which took us out to the observation gantry to view the shuttle on the launch pad, and then took us to the Saturn V center where we could see the giant rocket that launched the astronauts to the moon. We had lunch there and shopped there too. We came back and checked out the Rocket Garden with all the real rockets from the space programs, and also went through the Shuttle replica, and checked out the Liberty Bell 7 Mercury capsule. It had been under the ocean for 30+ years before being recovered. We visited the recreated Mission Control Center. It's not fake, but rebuilt from the original and they run a recording of a simulated launch. It gave me the butterflies in my stomach with my hair standing on end just like when I was a kid watching the launches on TV. We also took in a briefing in the Launch Status Center (they had launched a satellite on Wednesday but we missed it; would have been cool.). And we saw the new IMAX 3D of "Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon", which really seemed like walking on the moon. It was very cool. And we shopped some more again. I actually never bought anything at Disney, just at the KSC.

On the way back to Disney, we got caught in a mega bad rainstorm with just really heavy downpours and a lot of lightening. And Steven Hawking crapped out so we had to try and figure out our way back without him, which meant Paul had to stop and buy a map. He had thought he brought Steven's power pack but he had left it in his luggage. By the time we got back to the Yacht Club, Laura & Jeff had been picked up by Jeff's family so they could go back to the condo, sleep, and leave the next day. Paul & I went to dinner on the Disney Boardwalk, then came back and got milk shakes at the soda shop.

Sat.: On Saturday, 5/27, we were up at 4:00 a.m. because Paul's plane was at about 7:25 and he needed to drop off his rental car before we went to the airport. So we actually left the hotel around 4:45 a.m and it was already hot and humid even though it was still dark! But off we went and dropped off the car, got a shuttle to the airport and parted ways. I again got "randomly selected" for extra security screening. They don't have a "puffer" machine in Orlando and the extra security amounted to a pat down by a female security officer.

On the flight to Atlanta, I was next to a little 7 year old kid flying by himself and his mother had given him a piece of bread from Starbucks and a coffee for the flight! I told him to lay off the coffee and get a juice. He spilled his coffee though so needed napkins and such. So I ended up taking care of this kid on the flight to Atlanta. He was a nice little kid though. But it shows that even if a kid is flying alone on a direct flight from his mom to his dad, a little kid still needs to be taken care of on a plane. Mom gave him coffee but no napkins. So he ended up with an apple juice and we had some snacks. He was funny, he offered a piece of his bread to me and the guy on the other side of him. Then I showed him how to use the little TVs and he was listening to music and asked me if I had ever heard of Elvis Presley cause he was pretty good, especially the song "Hound Dog". (I'm smiling just remembering this kid. . .)

In Atlanta, I had to catch the connection to Portland. When we were #1 for take-off, the pilot turned around and went back to the gate for "maintenance". Great. The flight attendants gave us some ½ pint waters and then ignored us for the next hour and half. This was a regional jet so smaller than the previous plane. Seats about 50. Next to me was a 16 year old girl who was big so she was invading my space. Every time she moved I got jostled, and she moved a lot because she was carrying a little dachshund in a carrier. Every time she put this carrier on the floor or picked it up involved a lot of movement because basically she was so big it took a lot of repositioning to make room for the carrier. The dog started getting logey kind of with the heat and all and she tried to give it water out of a bottle! I'm like, "it doesn't know how to drink out of a bottle" – it's a dog! So I got up and went up to the front to the flight attendants (don't bother us) and got a cup so she could put water in it. The dog then drank out of that fine. Around me too was a family with 3 kids (row in front and row across the aisle) with their parents and grandparents so there was constant screaming either from being happy or being unhappy children. Eventually, the pilot said they rebooted the computer and after an hour and a half on the ground, we were off again. I was so glad to finally get to Portland after being on this little jet for about 5 hours. Took a cab home. Went to sleep.

On Sunday at 7:20 a.m. I heard Laura coming in. They had left Florida at 8:30 a.m. Saturday and drove straight through. On Sunday and Monday, Laura & me went to the Seadogs ballgames. They won both games, but it was in the 80s here in Portland so roasting. I thought we had left that in Florida! Laura got me a set of DVDs about NASA for my birthday. Perfect.

My Trip to Dublin - January 2006

I went with my friend Bonnie. She's single and I'm single and she likes to travel and I like to travel – a way for us both to avoid that dreaded Single Supplement! So we decided to go together to get the great package price of $399 + taxes & fees which amounted to a total of $472 apiece – a super deal which included the air fare, hotel including free breakfast every day, and the Guinness Storehouse tour (which we found out costs 14 euro). (This deal was through AerLingus Vacations.)

Turns out January is basically the only off-season in Ireland. The weather is pretty good most of the year and it's also a popular golf destination. My personal take-away from my trip to Dublin – the best part of all was the people. They were all really pleasant, sociable and nice. (Except in the last 15 minutes when the stores are closing and they are practically throwing you out.)

Sun/Mon Day 1: We had an uneventful bus ride down to the airport and flew on Aer Lingus. It was fine, comfortable enough, and the food wasn't bad either (when compared to other airline food). And service was fine. It was an Airbus and the ride was decent. I did actually also manage to sleep for about 2.5 hours. Then they woke us up for juice and to land in Shannon. We had a brief stop there (where there was some miscommunication so they had us all get off the plane and said we were changing planes, then not changing planes, so we all got back on). It was only about another half hour to Dublin.

We arrived at 8:00 a.m., got our bags and took a cab straight to our hotel. It was the Jurys Doyle at Croke Park, right across the street from the Croke Park Stadium that fits 80,000 people. I guess it starts hopping in a month or so when the rugby starts. But it was quiet in January. We were very pleasantly surprised when we got there at 9:00 and the desk guy said that, in fact, a room was ready and we could check in. So we dumped our bags in our room and decided to have a quick breakfast. The waitress brought us tea, juice, and a silver tray full of pastries and croissants (total cost 10 euro - super!). Then we took a nap until noon so we were looking to be in pretty good shape. We really did sleep too, not waking up till the alarm went off.

At noon, we took a walk from the hotel to Connolly Station where a nice passer-by showed us how to buy LUAS tickets (their sort of tram, like in Amsterdam) out of the machine. They have a machine at every LUAS stop so it's mega-easy to use. We took a ride on the LUAS out to the Heuston Station, then had to walk to find the Kilmainham Gaol. We did get lost for a little bit but eventually found the Royal Hospital at Kilmainham. After walking through the grounds there, where everything is green even in January so it was nice compared to all the brown at home, the Kilmainham Gaol is right across the street. The tours there are guided so when we got there, it was another half hour until the tour so we went to the little tea room for our first afternoon tea. Course, I had coffee and Bonnie had tea. I had a really nice chocolate cake and Bonnie had what the lady called an apple pie. But it was really kind of a combination apple pie/cake thing. Then it was time for our tour.

This woman who was our tour guide knew a whole lot of history. Basically, the prison was used alot to house political prisoners, and it is historical primarily because it housed heroes of the Irish uprisings for independence. Given that a lot of that history only occurred from about 1916-1922, it is pretty recent and a lot of the heroes were actually grandfathers of people living today. So many of these people are remembered by people living today, and their independent country is relatively new. It was actually good that we took this tour first because a lot of the names we heard were then apparent to us all over the city on street signs and in train stations, etc.

The gaol was really cold and damp, and that was in the "nice" wing. Once we got to the old wing, that was really mighty depressing. Just cold, damp, dark, all stone. We could peek in the cells through some peepholes, and it was just really nasty in there. I couldn't believe how many people came back numerous times. You'd think after one stay there, that would be enough to swear you off any more uprising. But guess not. Also hard to believe, during the great famine things were so bad with people dying on the streets of starvation that they would commit crimes to get into the gaol because at least they got some bread once a day in there. The gaol closed in 1924, after independence and after the Irish Civil War. (You can see some footage of the gaol in the movies "In the Name of the Father" and "Michael Collins".)

After the gaol, we went to the Temple Bar area of the city. This is basically full of pubs and places to eat. We ended up in a place called Elephant's Castle where I had a cheddar omelet and an apple juice. I liked the apple juice they had there. It was kind of a cloudy yellowish color, don't know what kind of apples it was made from, but it came in these little glass bottles and tasted good. So I liked that and had it when we were out with meals. Then we walked around O'Connell Street which is the sort of main street there, and over the bridges on the Liffey River. Then we headed back to the hotel for the night.

Tues. Day 2: This was the first morning of our free hotel breakfast and we were very pleasantly surprised at how good it was. Total buffet – could have eggs both sunny-side up or scrambled, bacon (like Canadian bacon, not like here), sausage, black and white pudding (that's meat of some kind actually), and the yummy croissants, cereals, fruits, yogurts, cheese, toast. . . I always eat a good breakfast when traveling because I'm on my feet all day.

This was the day of our Guinness tour so we took a cab there. Like the Heineken tour in Amsterdam, you learn about the history and brewing. I liked one exhibit they had of many years of Guinness advertising, because it was pretty funny how the gist was that Guinness was good for you, good for your health. It was good for your blood, good when recovering from influenza, there were testimonials from doctors who prescribed it to patients who were feeling poorly and they soon felt better. Then we got our free Guinness in the bar and checked out the view of the city (see the photo of me above and the panoramic view of the city). From above, Dublin looks kind of Dickensonian really. It doesn't have tall buildings, but a lot of gray and cloudiness. It is better on the ground of course, where the storefronts and pubs are and the row houses with colored doors. Unfortunately, it is kind of a messy city with doggie poop everywhere and trash. I thought about Amsterdam and how clean a city that was when considering all the people and tourists there. Dublin would be a lot nicer if they just put some time into cleaning it day to day and picking up trash.

After Guinness, we walked over to the Heuston Station and took the LUAS again to the St. Michan's Church. This is a Protestant Church founded in 1095. The crypts underneath have bodies that they found had been naturally mummified, they think because it was cool and dark and the limestone absorbed humidity, or something like that. Anyway, apparently they used to just chuck the coffins into the crypts and some of them broke open and that was how they found the bodies. So there was this little tour guy. He was kind of funny, like he had little bits of crypt humor. But he also told us the history as well. It cost only 3.50 euro to get the tour. The first crypt has 4 bodies in it. Two are women and one a man with no right hand. In the back is the coffin with the Crusader. This guy was about 6'5", which would have been like a giant when he lived 800 years ago. They had to bust up his legs to fit him in the coffin. Anyway, the tour guy said that people used to touch the Crusader's hand for luck, and you could see that his first finger was broken off. Then the tour guy takes the little chicken wire fence away from the front of the crypt and asks if we want to go in and touch the Crusader's hand for luck! Well, I guess so. So Bonnie went first, then I went, and then this kid on the tour with us who was from Venice. It was kind of weird going into the actual chamber with the bodies. I just didn't want to trip and fall on them or something. And so I gave the Crusader's hand a little pat, hoping it would bring good luck like he said and not some curse for disturbing the dead. Then there is a second crypt and we went down there too, though all the coffins are closed down there. These crypts are actually still technically active, belonging to certain families. One didn't look so great, with coffins on top of coffins, one all squashed and broken on the bottom, one with a hole in it and could see some clothes in there. I'm telling you, between the Gaol and the crypts, this was the morbid tour of Dublin!


(The crypt under St. Michan's Church. The Crusader is in the coffin in the back.)

After the crypts, we headed over to the Four Courts stop to get the LUAS. This is around the courthouses apparently and we saw all kinds of lawyers in the streets with their black robes and little white two ribbon ties on, but no wigs. We got back on the LUAS and went down to Grafton Street, which is where there is alot of shopping and pedestrian only streets. Here we had a late lunch at Bewley's Oriental Café. Guess this is a famous place in Dublin. For lunch I had a pizza with tomato, goat cheese, pine nuts, and basil pesto. And the famous apple juice. And for dessert, a really good fudgy brownie with ice cream and whipped cream on the side and chocolate sauce. It was delicious. (We were finding, contrary to what we had heard from others, that you can eat fine in Dublin.)

After Bewley's, we walked over to Trinity College and saw the Book of Kells. These are also about 700-800 years old. After Kells, you can go upstairs to what is called the Long Room, and Trinity has just tons and tons of books, in bookcases on each side of the room going three floors up to the ceiling on each. It was really neat looking to first come into this room and be surrounded on both sides and to the barreled ceiling by books. Apparently, Trinity gets one copy of every book published in Ireland.

After Trinity, we went and got some coffee. And did some shopping on Grafton St. Bonnie bought some boots. The only time they are rude in Dublin is when they want to close the shop. Everything closes by 6:00 except pubs. So about 15-20 minutes before, they start cleaning up and locking the doors so nobody can come in and they have to unlock it to let you out. The guy in the coffee shop was literally sweeping around our feet. Even though Bonnie was buying something, a guy in the shoe shop was standing at the stairs by the door tapping his foot trying to hurry us out. Guess they don't close the store at 6:00, they want to actually be out at 6:00. It was just unbelievable. But in every other way, people are very nice there. Just don't keep them from getting to the pub after a long day at work.

Wed. Day 3: We had our usual filling breakfast and went off to Connolly Station again. All the signs there are in both English and Gaelic. Funny how, considering geographically how close Ireland is to England, Gaelic sounds nothing like English. It's a strange sounding language. But you can hear it on the LUAS when they announce the stops, they announce them in both languages. And our tour lady at the Kilmainham Gaol gave us a goodbye in Gaelic. We took the train to the town of Malahide. It was only about 20 mins to get there, then a walk of about 20 mins through the grounds up to the castle. It was a nice walk actually. A lot of townspeople along the way who were walking dogs, babies, jogging, and walking. It was all really green and pretty. We had a kid from Argentina on the castle tour with us, and the tour that was finishing up had a bunch of kids who looked like they were some sports team from a school in Australia.

This is a small castle and we toured the rooms, banquet room, bedrooms, library, etc. I liked in the banquet room that there was a sort of terrace above and that's where the minstrels would be, providing the dining entertainment. This castle supposedly has a mischievous ghost and they built a little door for him to come and go in the corner of the room. The castle, sort of like the feeling you get in Ireland, was more of a working sort of castle, not the big glamorous castles like in England. But it also has a garden which is probably really nice in Spring. We had lunch here and then we headed back to the train station.

We went over to the National History Museum because we wanted to see the exhibition "The Road to Independence", about exactly that, since we had heard some of it at Kilmainham. But turns out it was being relocated to another branch of the museum so was closed. So then we went to the Sherburne Hotel, where a girl we work with had told us to go for High Tea. But the hotel was closed for renovations. So our plans were dashed twice. So then we went walking and shopping some more, and in a store we asked a woman about High Tea and she sent us to this hotel, the Westbury. It was really really nice in there, with chandeliers and comfy couches and a guy playing the piano. So we ordered tea for two. We each had our own little pot of tea/coffee, and the waiter brought us the three plates, which are one above the other on a stand. So we had the famous cucumber tea-sandwiches, and also ham sandwiches and chicken sandwiches, little crust-less triangles, very cute, one of each type for each of us. And scones with butter and jam, two apiece. And then desserts of strawberry tarts, little cream puffs, and jelly rolls. Oh, it was heavenly! Then we did a final walk around for more shopping and in the Temple Bar area again. Had my final Guinness in Dublin. And then back to the hotel.

Thurs Day 4: We had a very nice cabbie who took us to the airport, and we stopped in Shannon again. They got us off the plane and we actually went through US Customs in Shannon. We were late taking off, after 2:00, but this did save us time when we arrived in Boston and didn't have to do customs, but just got our bags and dropped the Customs form with the guy on the way out. I noticed in Dublin the people there are more casual dressers like here as opposed to Italy, where they dress much better. Our last cabbie told us that basically it is always tourist season in Ireland, except January, because the weather is fairly mild all year. It never rained at all while we were there, and was probably in the upper 40s, close to 50 degrees, but enough to wear my light winter coat and a scarf if walking a lot outside. I'm glad I went. If I were to go back, I'd want to see the countryside. I bet it is very pretty. Our cabbie said the best time of all to visit is September. Where shall I go next?