After 24 hours of traveling (by van, airplane, airport tram, airplane, and taxi), we arrived home Sunday night from eight days in Italy, a fantastic trip that was equal parts tourism and family time, in Rome, Florence, and Friuli.
Aimee and I arrived in Rome on Saturday night, found our hotel near the Villa Borghese, and had our late-night dinner (along with the rest of the city) around 11:00pm. The next day, we tackled the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, Trajan’s Column, the Forum, the Colosseum, and the Villa Borghese, interspersed with generous portions of gelato and some tasty meals.
The next day, we got up early and took the metro to Vatican City, where we wandered through St. Peter’s Basilica, took in the unbelievable splendor of the Vatican Museum; the map room was especially impressive and could have warranted an entire morning of ceiling-gazing.
We waited our turn for admission to the Sistine Chapel, through a rabbit-warren of hallways, stairways, and rooms, all filled with people. It was, of course, somehow still well worth it after all of the wait and crowds. As you enter, the signs indicate that you should not talk and should not use cameras or video recorders, though once you enter, you realize that those are the three primary activities of all of the people inside.
I had no idea what to expect, having never really studied the work inside the chapel, and I was pretty stunned. We stayed as long as we could, and enjoyed taking it all in. That night, we wandered across the river to Trastevere and had a delightful evening of – what else? – walking and eating.
All the photos from Rome.
From Rome, we caught a train on Tuesday morning to Florence, where we made our way to our hotel and found Paul and Vicky heading down the street towards us, having just checked in. We had lunch, caught up, and then met Mark, Katie, Nell, and Lauren, to reach our full touring strength of eight.
We had a great time in Florence, from our morning at the Uffizi and up to the top of the Duomo, to an unforgettable dinner at Il Latini – no menus, prodigious quantities of pasta, and a vast platter of meats – and lots of walking along the Arno (where we spied a few nutria swimming) and in the Boboli Gardens. Oh, and one (or two, or three) helping of gelato a day, of course.
The dinners, the views, the nutria, the meats: it’s all in the Florence photoset.
Thursday morning, Paul and I picked up a nine-seat Ford Transit van from Hertz and we all headed north to Friuli, to the town of Tricesimo, where we met the rest of Aimee’s family for Matteo and Laura’s wedding on Saturday. By this point, the rear hatch, sliding door, and passenger door on the van had stopped functioning, which made for a slightly inconvenient but mostly hilarious rest of the trip, with people climbing in and out over seats, through windows, and so on. The five-hour drive went like a dream, mostly thanks to the engrossing group discussion we had over our Meat Bracket, a single-elimination tournament whittling 32 meats from four zones (beef, pork, poultry, and the catch-all “mixed meats”) down to a single champion. It involved brainstorming meats, seeding the eight finalists, and employing lots of basketball metaphors (“Hamburger is that team that has a long and storied history, but their defense is weak, and they’ve gotten this far on reputation alone…”) to whittle down the meats/teams (and yes, I must add that those words are anagrams of one another). Sausage came out on top, though the unexpected departures of such fine delicacies as fillet mignon and veal at the hands of other, lesser meats, made the results come under a cloud of protest. We’ll see what happens with the Meat Bracket of 2009…
We arrived in Tricesimo on Thursday afternoon, and after the beautiful and fun but tourist-filled Rome and Florence, our time in Tricesimo, Udine, Gorizia, Cividale, Fagagna, and Tarcento was a welcome and relaxing long weekend. The countryside was uniformly beautiful, and Matteo and Laura had planned an amazing string of meals and activities for us to enjoy while we were there. The long lunches and dinners gave us time to enjoy the food – definitely some of the best meals I’ve ever eaten – and the company, and I think everyone had a great time. What a week!
Friuli wedding weekend photos.
