Thursday, 3 October 2013
The journey home. We took a series of increasingly larger trains to the airport. It took a long time. The Rome airport was a fiasco. When we finally found where we were supposed to be, it seems like we checked in three times, got shuttled around three times, and went through security three times. And in contrast to Portugal where we got special treatment for being pregnant and having a kid with us, in Rome we were punished by having to go through an extra security line in addition to what everyone had to do. But as we waited to board the plane, Daniel made friends with the crowd around us and entertained everyone. People in Rome are very friendly and love children, unless they're working.
The flight was 9 hours, and it went relatively smoothly. Our stewardess did not like children, I think, and so we clashed with her a little bit. But she tried to be nice and we tried to control our child. It got off to a bad start when Daniel pushed the stewardess call button as people were boarding the plane. Each seat has a call button in the headrest of the seat in front of it, within easy reach of any child. Whoever thought that was a good idea did not know the power of "the button" to a small child. We were apologetic to the stewardess when she came and I asked if there was any way she could disable the button or ignore it, because I did not expect that we could go another 9 hours protecting that button from Daniel. She said no, she could not disable or ignore it, and then she gave an icy smile and said "you know, it's your job as parents to control your child :)". I said back, "and it's your job to deal with the passengers on your airplane", but I'm not sure she heard me. I guess we were both feeling saucy. But we did manage to keep Daniel from pushing that button again, and she did bring him some special snacks. He cried a few times and went a little crazy, but I would say he did very well. On the flight to Portugal, we sat near Europeans, and they loved Daniel. On this flight home, we sat around Americans and Daniel was an annoyance to be tolerated. I think they would have been more friendly if we were taking our pet dog instead.
Speaking of our pet dog-- he was very happy to see us on our return, as well as the rest of our family.
The end.
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Day 17, Sola lingua bona est lingua mortua
On our last full day in Europe, we wanted to see the Vatican. Our tram dropped us off on the far side, so we got to walk part of the perimeter. The Vatican is surrounded by a huge, thick wall. and the sidewalk is very meager. Many times, our stroller was too wide for it. I was hoping to bring this up with the Pope but did not get the chance.
We did not have the energy to see St Peter's Basilica, but we did see the Vatican museum. The Vatican museum was mind blowing, but I cannot say it was a good experience due to the incredible crowds. If you want to enjoy it, go in the winter when it's not tourism season. Or get lucky and find the day when the cruise ships are all out to sea.
But let me tell you about the Vatican museum. Every room had enough historical treasures to make a legitimate museum in its own right. There were real Egyptian mummies and 3,000 year old tablets and beautiful paintings that covered the ceilings. The paintings were detailed, but they stretched down endless hallways, showing Bible stories mostly.
Every room was packed, shoulder to shoulder with people. The ventilation was poor, the air was stuffy, and I had a hard time enjoying myself because I felt like a cow in a stampede. At the far side of each room was a doorway bottleneck with everyone fighting to get into the next room, over and over.
The worst ones were the Japanese tourists. Their guide had a little flag, and they would form a juggernaut freight train, hunching their shoulders forward and plowing through everyone. Little old ladies whose mission was to get through the museum even if it meant knocking my pregnant wife over. It's like they forgot everyone around them was a human, and instead we were all dogs trying to steal their museum experience. They would push through everyone into the room and then stop, listen to the guide as the rest of the crowd flowed past them, and then they would plow through us again to get to the next room. At one point, there was a narrow door way which the Asian freight train was monopolizing as hundreds of people just stood there. I got mad and cut them off with the stroller to allow some other people through. It was like we were evacuating a sinking ship.
Then we reached Sistine Chapel. Totally not what I expected. It was cool, dark, and quiet (except for the guy shouting over the PA for everyone to be quiet every couple of minutes). I could tell they wanted it to be a worshipful experience for anyone who wanted to have a worshipful experience, but there were guards everywhere correcting you if you stood still or moved in the wrong area, the constant reminders to be quiet, and the stress of the melee we just came from. It was a strange mix of high stress and peaceful calm.
While I did have a strong sense of awe and wonder, it was coupled with the feeling that I would enjoy the Vatican museum much more if I came back in the winter.
I forgot to mention lunch, before we went into the museum. We sat near a family with a little boy Daniel's age named Giuseppe. They had fun running around the ramps. The mother nursed her baby with no covering at all, in full view of the crowded cafeteria, including us as we acknowledged each other because our boys were playing. It didn't bother me, and in fact I was happy that this wasn't a big deal to her, but we were certainly surprised and remarked that Emily feels more negative pressure nursing in public under a blanket back in Tucson.
Daniel slept through the whole museum until we went out of the Vatican to get some gelato. We took trams back, still relying on kind Romites (Romans?) to tell us when our stop was. Near our apartment we found a place for supper called Ali Baba's Pizza Hut. The man who ran it really loved Daniel and gave him a free pizza ball. We took our dinner home and packed for the next day's flight.
In the morning before we left for the Vatican, we met Giulia and her handsome dog. They were playing fetch, and Daniel was a bit ball deprived, so he joined the game of fetch. He shed some tears when he had to leave the ball behind.
It looks like a relief, but it's a flat painting.
And there is more.
The Bible for those who can't read and with strong necks.
And this is just the ceilings.
This looks like it would be fun to take a strong down, right? No. Those white strips are steps.
St Peter's Basilica
Teaching Daniel how to lick.
I know no Latin. I just thought it would be funny to put Latin in a post about the Vatican. Here are translations:
Sola lingua bona est lingua mortua - The only good language is a dead language.
Amoto quaeramus seria ludo - Joking aside, let us turn to serious matters.
Amoto quaeramus seria ludo - Joking aside, let us turn to serious matters.
Day 16, Start the day tired and end it refreshed.
Tuesday, 1 October 2013
We really needed a break today. Emily was exhausted, and her feet were very swollen. We slept in pretty late, and then stared blankly at the wall for a while after we woke up.
Daniel enjoyed watching Peppa Pig in Italian, and then he and I went for a walk. There is a park next to our apartment which has a large grassy area with random paths crossing it, benches with relaxing homeless people, and a fun wooden play set. Daniel was feeling adventurous and brave as he crossed the wobbly wood and chain bridge. The park is shaped like a C, and in the center are some old ruins surrounded by a massive, ancient stone wall. You can't see it, but you can read a sign on the street that it's some Emperor's mausoleum and it's waiting restoration. I'm guessing it's been waiting for hundreds of years and it will continue to wait for hundreds of years. There was a plump homeless (I'm guessing) woman who really liked Daniel as we walked past her. We stopped and I told him to say "ciao". She was gushing her love for him and literally on the verge of tears as she exclaimed "bello, bello, bello, bello...." This was not the only time a random Italian woman cried because of her deep affection for Daniel. They are so dramatic.
Coming back from our walk, we stopped at a koi fish pond in the yard of our little apartment building. Daniel enjoyed them very much.
Waiting for us in the apartment, Emi was ready to go out and see something. We decided to see the Colosseum, so I downloaded a Rome public transportation app on our tablet and figured out how to get there. The tram was full but we squeezed in with our backpack, stroller, and Daniel. I'm thankful that this stroller is so functional but it collapses so easily and to such a compact size. We arrived at the Colosseum just as the sun was setting, and the scene was very beautiful.
We were content to just walk around the Colosseum and look at it in its massiveness and oldness. Parts of it were covered in scaffolding, and it was obvious which sections were restored and which were "raw". I'm not sure how much of it is "original", and it's even hard to define "original" because I think the building has been continuously used and maintained for thousands of years. I think in the past it has even been a hospital and a monastery. The unrestored parts were covered in deep pock marks, like someone had been shooting at it with a cannon. It wasn't until we gone home to Tucson that I looked up what those are from-- there used to be huge brass "staples" holding everything together, and those were where the ends of the staples were inserted. We saw some similar, smaller (but still huge) staples at the Sao Jorge castle in Lisbon.
From the Colosseum we walked around Rome and saw many amazing ruins mixed in with newer occupied buildings. I had no idea what we were looking at, but it was beautiful at night with the colored lights and magical atmosphere. We were hungry for dinner, so we wandered down a side street and found a slightly fancy restaurant. The food was expensive; each course cost about what we were used to paying for an entire meal, so we ordered some pasta with bacon on it. Daniel scarfed it down, as did Emily and I, and so we ordered another plate of pasta (number three). After that, we were full, and I supposed the waiter thought we were strange because we never ordered a main course. But we are cheap. We thought the restaurant was small, but as we were leaving we noticed a huge plaza full of tables which the restaurant was serving as well.
Daniel had lots of energy and was bopping around happily as we walked back. To keep his movement in a forward direction, we let him play fetch with himself with a rock. It worked well, though occasionally we had to apologize if rock rolled too close to anyone.
Using my Rome public transportation app to plot our course home, we made it about halfway before we encountered problems. Actually, even before that point, we were having trouble figuring out when our stops were because it was too dark outside and too bright inside to see any of the signs at the tram stops. We made friends with an (apparently) Indian man who spoke English. He had the same stop as we did for our transfer, so he showed us when to get off and then stood waiting with us. It turns out he was from Bangladesh and spoke Tamil. His English was extremely hard to understand for us because he pushed his words together into one word. For example, he would say "Yufremware." And it didn't sound English until I thought about it and realized he was asking "you are from where?" Anyway, he was really nice and when our tram was 30 minutes late, he asked us where we were going. He explained that there was a strike happening and so not all of the routes were running. A tram came and he said "quickgetonthisone,itwilltakeyouwhereyouwanttogo!" It wasn't the one we were waiting for but we trusted him and got on it, and sure enough it went to the stop where our home was. We got home very late, but we weren't terribly tired.
We really needed a break today. Emily was exhausted, and her feet were very swollen. We slept in pretty late, and then stared blankly at the wall for a while after we woke up.
Daniel enjoyed watching Peppa Pig in Italian, and then he and I went for a walk. There is a park next to our apartment which has a large grassy area with random paths crossing it, benches with relaxing homeless people, and a fun wooden play set. Daniel was feeling adventurous and brave as he crossed the wobbly wood and chain bridge. The park is shaped like a C, and in the center are some old ruins surrounded by a massive, ancient stone wall. You can't see it, but you can read a sign on the street that it's some Emperor's mausoleum and it's waiting restoration. I'm guessing it's been waiting for hundreds of years and it will continue to wait for hundreds of years. There was a plump homeless (I'm guessing) woman who really liked Daniel as we walked past her. We stopped and I told him to say "ciao". She was gushing her love for him and literally on the verge of tears as she exclaimed "bello, bello, bello, bello...." This was not the only time a random Italian woman cried because of her deep affection for Daniel. They are so dramatic.
Coming back from our walk, we stopped at a koi fish pond in the yard of our little apartment building. Daniel enjoyed them very much.
Waiting for us in the apartment, Emi was ready to go out and see something. We decided to see the Colosseum, so I downloaded a Rome public transportation app on our tablet and figured out how to get there. The tram was full but we squeezed in with our backpack, stroller, and Daniel. I'm thankful that this stroller is so functional but it collapses so easily and to such a compact size. We arrived at the Colosseum just as the sun was setting, and the scene was very beautiful.
We were content to just walk around the Colosseum and look at it in its massiveness and oldness. Parts of it were covered in scaffolding, and it was obvious which sections were restored and which were "raw". I'm not sure how much of it is "original", and it's even hard to define "original" because I think the building has been continuously used and maintained for thousands of years. I think in the past it has even been a hospital and a monastery. The unrestored parts were covered in deep pock marks, like someone had been shooting at it with a cannon. It wasn't until we gone home to Tucson that I looked up what those are from-- there used to be huge brass "staples" holding everything together, and those were where the ends of the staples were inserted. We saw some similar, smaller (but still huge) staples at the Sao Jorge castle in Lisbon.
From the Colosseum we walked around Rome and saw many amazing ruins mixed in with newer occupied buildings. I had no idea what we were looking at, but it was beautiful at night with the colored lights and magical atmosphere. We were hungry for dinner, so we wandered down a side street and found a slightly fancy restaurant. The food was expensive; each course cost about what we were used to paying for an entire meal, so we ordered some pasta with bacon on it. Daniel scarfed it down, as did Emily and I, and so we ordered another plate of pasta (number three). After that, we were full, and I supposed the waiter thought we were strange because we never ordered a main course. But we are cheap. We thought the restaurant was small, but as we were leaving we noticed a huge plaza full of tables which the restaurant was serving as well.
Daniel had lots of energy and was bopping around happily as we walked back. To keep his movement in a forward direction, we let him play fetch with himself with a rock. It worked well, though occasionally we had to apologize if rock rolled too close to anyone.
Using my Rome public transportation app to plot our course home, we made it about halfway before we encountered problems. Actually, even before that point, we were having trouble figuring out when our stops were because it was too dark outside and too bright inside to see any of the signs at the tram stops. We made friends with an (apparently) Indian man who spoke English. He had the same stop as we did for our transfer, so he showed us when to get off and then stood waiting with us. It turns out he was from Bangladesh and spoke Tamil. His English was extremely hard to understand for us because he pushed his words together into one word. For example, he would say "Yufremware." And it didn't sound English until I thought about it and realized he was asking "you are from where?" Anyway, he was really nice and when our tram was 30 minutes late, he asked us where we were going. He explained that there was a strike happening and so not all of the routes were running. A tram came and he said "quickgetonthisone,itwilltakeyouwhereyouwanttogo!" It wasn't the one we were waiting for but we trusted him and got on it, and sure enough it went to the stop where our home was. We got home very late, but we weren't terribly tired.
Watching Peppa Pig and eating a big bag of raisins.
Sunset at the Colosseum
The restored side of the Colosseum.
The less restored side of the Colosseum.
And where the twain have met.
Watch out guys, he needs down.
Something cool in Rome.
Here we see the indomitable stroller which we loved and appreciated.
Something cool in Rome. Things like this were mixed in with the occupied buildings. But I had no idea what I was looking at.
Something cool in Rome.
And Daniel's highlight was being able to play fetch with himself as we walked back to the tram stop.
Something cool in Rome.
Day 15, Stranded by Italian public transportation
Monday, 30 September 2013
Today we lugged our things on the crazy bus that passes by our guest house to the train station, hopped on a train for Naples, and then waited in the Naples train station for a long time. We bought tickets for the 1:30 train, but it had a warning that something was wrong. We watched the estimated late time get longer and longer... so I switched our tickets to a later train, but that one started to show an increasing late time too. I considered switching to an even later train, but we decided to stick with this one. When it finally came, 3.5 hours late, it was mostly empty and we were SO relieved to be on it. The whole stressful wait would have been worse if Daniel hadn't slept through most of it. It felt great to be out of Naples!
Today we lugged our things on the crazy bus that passes by our guest house to the train station, hopped on a train for Naples, and then waited in the Naples train station for a long time. We bought tickets for the 1:30 train, but it had a warning that something was wrong. We watched the estimated late time get longer and longer... so I switched our tickets to a later train, but that one started to show an increasing late time too. I considered switching to an even later train, but we decided to stick with this one. When it finally came, 3.5 hours late, it was mostly empty and we were SO relieved to be on it. The whole stressful wait would have been worse if Daniel hadn't slept through most of it. It felt great to be out of Naples!
A taxi took us to our final home, a bed and breakfast owned by Giulia. The property is in the thick of things in the city, but it has a wall around a peaceful grassy area with two buildings, one appears to be a single apartment, and the other is a 3-4 story building with maybe 4-5 apartments including ours. The building is very ancient, but our apartment was modern, very open, and airy. And furnished by IKEA. In fact, it looked like it came straight out of an IKEA magazine.
So happy to leave Naples. Chillin with Pingu.
A mostly empty train to Rome, probably because everyone gave up waiting for it.
The train even had power!
IKEA apartment in Rome
IKEA bedroom. It was really nice, don't get me wrong.
Day 14, Pompeii
Sunday, 29 September 2013
Today we took the train from Sorrento to Pompeii. Daniel had a little magnetic drawing tablet and was giving it to the people around us on the train to draw pictures. He would hand the tablet to someone, they'd draw a picture (usually a sun first, then a tree, then they'd get creative), he would take back and use the slider to erase it, and then he'd hand it to the next person. He commanded quite a crowd. It seems like a universal trait among the Italians that we met that they love kids, especially Daniel-kids. One man he/we befriended told us that he is a security guard at the Pompeii ruins, but we didn't see him again when we were there.
Getting off of the train, we needed lunch so we stopped at a place with expensive pizza and outdoor seating. When you're hungry and cheap, restaurants in tourist areas are a bit depressing.
Pompeii blows your mind in an ancient way. It's been uncovered for hundreds of years, and it's still being excavated. Many of the "modern" repairs on the buildings are older than the USA. Also, if I overhead a guide correctly, Pompeii was 30 feet underground before they dug it up. It's also quite large, and we wandered around the grids of streets, sometimes finding buildings we could walk through, until we reached the large arena in the back. Is it called a coloseum or an amphitheater? Emily remembered being allowed to go into the tunnels under the seats and climb to the top of the walls, but they were closed for us.
Daniel was awake for the first 30 minutes of Pompeii and then he fell asleep on my chest in the Ergobaby baby carrier. We disrobed him because we knew it would be warm, but still he and I were a sweaty mess. He slept the whole afternoon until we were leaving Pompeii, and so, obviously, I was exhausted from hauling him around. I felt Emily's pain, having a baby permanently attached to her front.
One area of Pompeii is a temple that was half built when Mt Vesuvius blew up and covered everything. We could see half built pillars, and it was interesting to see how they are made. Inside the pillar is red brick, and then plaster covers the bricks and forms the fancy grooves going up the pillar. I overheard a guide saying that the last step was to put marble dust on the plaster to give the pillar the appearance of being made from marble. Also, in the background of the temple, we could see the menacing shadow of Mt Vesuvius brooding, waiting to blow up and kill us all like it did to the people who started laying the bricks for those pillars.
On the train ride home, there were some young ruffians on the train... super cool, rough housing and giving off the vibe of "don't mess with us, you can't handle our machismo." Daniel was standing in my lap looking behind me over my shoulder and I heard him start giggling. I looked back and didn't see what he thought was funny. Then he giggled again harder. I looked back and realized that the cool kids were making funny faces for him. Then they came over and gave him a lollipop. Italians love kids.
In Sorrento we were starving and of course ate some more pizza. It's so good when you're starving and cheap. They make it quickly too.
Yesterday I tried to buy a SIM card for our tablet but (after waiting in line for an hour) they said I can't buy it without my passport. What's up with that? Terrorists? So today I returned with my passport and got a SIM card.
Daniel taking bold steps into Pompeii
The half built temple
And now you can see how they were made.
Repairs underway
We were both weary
The big thing in the back
A german wiener shepherd? Something went wrong.
All of this was made possible by the looming shadow in the back.
Our staple
Today we took the train from Sorrento to Pompeii. Daniel had a little magnetic drawing tablet and was giving it to the people around us on the train to draw pictures. He would hand the tablet to someone, they'd draw a picture (usually a sun first, then a tree, then they'd get creative), he would take back and use the slider to erase it, and then he'd hand it to the next person. He commanded quite a crowd. It seems like a universal trait among the Italians that we met that they love kids, especially Daniel-kids. One man he/we befriended told us that he is a security guard at the Pompeii ruins, but we didn't see him again when we were there.
Getting off of the train, we needed lunch so we stopped at a place with expensive pizza and outdoor seating. When you're hungry and cheap, restaurants in tourist areas are a bit depressing.
Pompeii blows your mind in an ancient way. It's been uncovered for hundreds of years, and it's still being excavated. Many of the "modern" repairs on the buildings are older than the USA. Also, if I overhead a guide correctly, Pompeii was 30 feet underground before they dug it up. It's also quite large, and we wandered around the grids of streets, sometimes finding buildings we could walk through, until we reached the large arena in the back. Is it called a coloseum or an amphitheater? Emily remembered being allowed to go into the tunnels under the seats and climb to the top of the walls, but they were closed for us.
Daniel was awake for the first 30 minutes of Pompeii and then he fell asleep on my chest in the Ergobaby baby carrier. We disrobed him because we knew it would be warm, but still he and I were a sweaty mess. He slept the whole afternoon until we were leaving Pompeii, and so, obviously, I was exhausted from hauling him around. I felt Emily's pain, having a baby permanently attached to her front.
One area of Pompeii is a temple that was half built when Mt Vesuvius blew up and covered everything. We could see half built pillars, and it was interesting to see how they are made. Inside the pillar is red brick, and then plaster covers the bricks and forms the fancy grooves going up the pillar. I overheard a guide saying that the last step was to put marble dust on the plaster to give the pillar the appearance of being made from marble. Also, in the background of the temple, we could see the menacing shadow of Mt Vesuvius brooding, waiting to blow up and kill us all like it did to the people who started laying the bricks for those pillars.
On the train ride home, there were some young ruffians on the train... super cool, rough housing and giving off the vibe of "don't mess with us, you can't handle our machismo." Daniel was standing in my lap looking behind me over my shoulder and I heard him start giggling. I looked back and didn't see what he thought was funny. Then he giggled again harder. I looked back and realized that the cool kids were making funny faces for him. Then they came over and gave him a lollipop. Italians love kids.
In Sorrento we were starving and of course ate some more pizza. It's so good when you're starving and cheap. They make it quickly too.
Yesterday I tried to buy a SIM card for our tablet but (after waiting in line for an hour) they said I can't buy it without my passport. What's up with that? Terrorists? So today I returned with my passport and got a SIM card.
Daniel taking bold steps into Pompeii
The half built temple
And now you can see how they were made.
Repairs underway
We were both weary
The big thing in the back
A german wiener shepherd? Something went wrong.
All of this was made possible by the looming shadow in the back.
Our staple
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