Kait's Adventures

We've moved!

2014-08-25T04:43:00.000-04:00

Hello there! I've moved my travel blog "Kait's Adventures" over to a WordPress powered site. The site's URL, blog.kait.us, is not changing. However if you try to go to the blogger URL, kaitsadventures.blogspot.com, then you'll end up here.

So come join me at the new site! It's prettier and easier to navigate:

Kait's Adventures | blog.kait.us

PS- If you are visiting on the morning of Monday, August 25, 2014, then we may be experiencing a short downtime while making the move and waiting for DNS records to update. Though if that is the case, you would only be able to see this notice if you are reading it in your email or RSS reader.

Stella the Cat

2014-07-02T19:47:00.000-04:00

Last year on June 15, 2013, Daniele and I got back from our honeymoon and I was officially living in Rome with no return ticket out of Europe. This new stability meant we were ready to make a life decision that I've wanted to make countless times in the past, but had to resist because I didn't know where I was headed. We adopted a cat.

We had talked about it for a while and had planned on looking into getting one after the wedding. Now that we were back, we started by visiting some shelters here in Rome to meet some contenders. Rome has a few really cool cat sanctuaries. A famous one is in Largo Torre Argentina. This is an Ancient Roman ruin, that is fenced off. The volunteers and inside cats are in an office carved from the side walls surrounding the ruins. The healthy cats can roam about the fenced-in ruins outside. They are a very organized and large shelter.

Around this time there was also a cute orange tabby kitten hanging around the parking area of our apartment building. We thought about adopting him, but we couldn't be sure that he didn't belong to one of the families in our building. Before we made up our minds, we stopped seeing him. He was very cute, so I hope he found (or already had) a good home.

The next animal shelter we visited was also located in a Roman ruin, similar to the one at Torre Argentina, this one is in Rome's Egyptian-style Pyramid, “Piramide”. They are not quite as organized, and give the cats away for free, but still needing to visit a vet. Daniele liked that they were free, but we paid the same having her spayed ourselves.

When we arrived there were two groups of kittens. Two tabbies that were already adopted and three solid-colored (two black and one gray). We wanted a kitten to give a cat a forever-home right from the start. Also, Daniele didn't grow up with pets and a kitten is easier for that situation. There was a man there who was taking the gray and one of the black kittens, leaving just one female back kitten left. I held her and she fell asleep in my arms, leading everyone to insist she was destined to be mine. Daniele saw her sleeping and thought she was going to be calm and well behaved. He didn't know that the kittens sleeping turn out to be the craziest once they wake. You need to see a cat awake, playing, moving to know its personality. But he didn't tell me this was why he liked her, just that he did and he wanted to adopt her right away.

We hadn't been planning on adopting that afternoon, so we had nothing. The shelter lent us a carrier to bring her home and gave us samples of the food she had been eating. Then on the way we quickly stopped (in underground parking) at the mall to get food dishes, a litter box, kitty litter, cat shampoo, and one toy (a bird on a string on a stick).

It probably took an hour to get her home, we then proceeded to traumatize her further. We shampooed her (she was kinda dirty). We clipped her nails. We tossed her in her giant (compared to her then) litter box, and she impressed us by using it right away. Then Daniele, who was working a night shift, had to go and left the two of us alone. She slept in the crook of my arm, and it's been love ever since.

We named her Stella. A name that sounds American to Americans and Italian to Italians. Perfect for our family and perfect for my little star.

A day or two latter we went back to the shelter to return the borrowed carrier, and the man who took Stella's two siblings had returned them!?!? His wife had told him to bring them back. The volunteers asked if we were interested in them, but one cat was already a big step for us. They were still cute little kittens, so I'm sure they found homes. Still, what a tool!

We adopted Stella on July 2, 2013. She was still very little when we had Daniele's 30th birthday dinner at our apartment on July 8th and was the star of the night. It was our guests that night who first called her “Stellina”. In Italian, you add the suffixes -ino / -ina or -etto / -etta to say something is small; the suffix -one to say it is large. She's been Stellina ever since.

Those first couple days were an adjustment. Especially for Daniele who had only ever had a kitten for a short period and that one lived on their balcony. She was a constant ball of energy. She relentlessly attacked our feet under the sheets (but never if on top of the sheets). This would wind up Daniele, which in turn would wind her up further. She still hadn't learned to jump high with her giant rabbit feet, but had super-kitten upper body strength that allowed her to climb up things, like the backs of chairs and onto the table. But just like she quickly grew bigger, she quickly became calmer.

We moved over the course of August and September, and Stella was one of the last things to come to the new place. She saw all our stuff and took to it like home right away.

For Thanksgiving and Christmas, I planned on spending the whole month back in the States. Daniele was going to join me a few days after Thanksgiving and come back with me before New Years; though his departure ended up being pushed back to mid-December. Since that was too long to leave her, I brought her with me on the plane. It was pretty easy, I just called United and added her to my reservation. To the airline, she was something between extra luggage (how I paid for her) and an extra passenger (she had her own reservation number). She flew by my feet in her new soft carrier and handled the flight pretty well. It was actually more of a concern getting her home to Italy at the end of our trip than into the US. Europe controls pets more. But I'll go into this in greater detail another time.

Back in New Jersey, she made friends with Moo and Flake (my cats at my parent's house). Though it is debatable if they made friends with her back. She seemed to really enjoy it, from socializing with other cats, to running full-speed up and down the stairs, to walking through snow for the first time.

We sometimes let her into the couriyard of our building, but there is an old lady who yells (in Italian) “No cats in the courtyard!” whenever we do. So more often we put on her harness and leash and bring her out for a walk around the neighborhood or in a park. She likes the parks much better than the streets.

She's met lots of people who come to our house, especially our AirBnb guests (blog.kait.us/2014/05/trying-out-airbnb.html), and she likes them all and they always love her. But when we take her outside, she is afraid of everything and everyone.

Daniele was slower to warm up to her than I was, not having grown up in the more american pets-are-part-of-the-family culture that I did. They bonded a bit when I left the two of them alone to go to a wedding in San Francisco last August. Then more and more over time. He worries about her food and litter box. And now he even asks me to leave her to sleep with him when he gets home from a night shift. A big change from not wanting her in our room at night, like when we first brought her home.

By Easter she looked fully grown. She had gotten pretty long and very muscular. She felt surprisingly heavy when you lifted her up and had really defined haunches. Or at least she did. Right after Easter she visibly lost some weight, and I think has lost some more since then, to get a bit smaller. We had taken her to the park a few times, so I thought it was the exercise. But thinking about the time-line better, I think we changed her wet food to a higher quality brand around that time. She used to actually like her dry food better, but the new stuff is definitely her favorite.

As mentioned earlier, we regularly trim the tip of her front claws. But she is very gentle with them anyway. If she starts playing with you, she'll gently bat you with her soft paws...until you feel confident and unsuspecting, that's when she bites! We're also lucky that she likes to stretch her claws on cardboard, wood, and metal, but not fabric (so far, fingers crossed). Though she will shred papers if I leave them out.

Her most characteristic traits are her big ears, her big glowing eyes, and her constant meowing. She's the most talkative cat I've ever known. And although, in theory, she could hide very well being all black, the profile of those ears or the light catching her eyes always gives her away.

During the days, I work from home and she keeps me company. Even though it's still pretty lonely working alone at home, she makes all the difference.

Her hobbies include hiding in boxes, being made into the bed covers, and eating my papers. She spends most her day handing out by my computer or sleeping in an almost comatose state.

She's a bit of a bad cat. She is terrible about going on the table and in the sink. She doesn't seem to have much aversion to water. We just keep pushing her off and cleaning with a bleach solution

So that's the story of our first year together with Stella.

The full album of all the pictures I've taken of her this year is here:
plus.google.com/photos/+KaitlynHanrahanIsidori/albums/6043706881572815249

Ravenna

2014-06-30T10:00:00.000-04:00

On our way home we stopped in the town of Ravenna. This is one of the many little towns in Emilia-Romagna that we have been wanting to visit together. Others include Ferrara, Rimini, Cesena, Forli, and San Marino. San Marino is actually its own country inside or Italy, similar to the Vatican, rather than a part of Emilia-Romagna, but it is in the same area. This pretty area is characterized by small walled cities on the flat river valley of the Po'.

Being flat, bicycling is very popular in Ravenna. The small streets are shared by pedestrians and cyclists in a way more similar to Copenhagen or Amsterdam than the rest of Italy. Cars are only allowed on the bigger streets.

Ravenna holds a campus of the University of Bologna, the oldest university in Italy. And with all the students comes shops, lots of different types of food, and general culture. It also has a decent tourism industry thanks to its history and monuments. Many of these date to when it was the capital of the Western Roman Empire from 402 to 476 AD, at which point the Western Roman Empire collapsed. Later it would be absorbed by the Byzantines; who would also use it as a capital.

The biggest monument in Ravenna is the tomb of Dante, noted renaissance poet and father of Italian language. He was born in 1265 in Florence, where he lived most of his life. He died in 1321 returning to Ravenna from a diplomatic mission in Venice. He had lived his last three years in Ravenna where he finished Paradiso, the last book of his Divine Comedy.

On the drive home we made a short stop at the spring where the Tevere River starts. I was too tired to make the short hike to the spring from the road, but Daniele went up and drank from the spring. The Tevere is the river that flows through Rome before finishing in the Mediterranean, near Fiumicino Airport (FCO).

The rest of our photos from Ravenna and the spring are online here:
https://plus.google.com/photos/111221349198606775660/albums/6040832020708410177

Hiking in the Dolomites

2014-06-23T17:32:00.000-04:00

My in-laws have been showing me photos of the Dolomites (a particularly beautiful part of the Italian Alps) for years, insisting that I need to go. They all went every summer from 1994 until 1999, spending half of their summer vacation in the mountains, and the other half at their beach house in Marche.

The Dolomites (or le Dolomiti) are in Northern Italy, pushed up against the Austrian boarder. They run from the regions of Trentino/Alto Adige to Veneto. For our trip, we based ourselves on the Northern edge of the Dolimites, in a suburb of Dobbiaco called Valle Silversto (Valley of Sylvester). We stayed in Residence Rogger, where we had our own adorable mini apartment with everything made of pine.

This area has strong ties to Austria, to the point where everything is written first in German and second in Italian and the locals speak German more than Italian. Dobbiaco is always accompanied by “Toblach”, Alto Adige by “Sudtirol”, and every street sign is written both ways.

Our first day we arrived around 11 AM from Emanuele and Silvia's in Veneto. Everyone told us to take it easy at first, as your body adjusts. However Daniele's idea of taking it easy is not the same as most people's, so we took the hardest hike of our whole trip. We started with a nice walk around Lake Dobbiaco (Lago Dobbiaco) then went up Trail 14, which is a steep path made of loose gravel that slides underneath you at every step. Going up was exhausting and going down I fell multiple times. This hike took just over 5 hours. We then checked into our little apartment and Daniele made dinner early, as we had skipped lunch. After dinner we went into Dobbiaco center, to look around and get some bread and yogurt, but everything closes at 6:30 or 7 in this little town.

Our second day we had another hard hike. We stayed in Valley Sylvester, driving about two minutes before parking near the restaurant we would go to the next day. At first we passed houses that are small farms or small-scale working lumber yards. Then we were in the forest, which was nice and shady. For the last part, we arrived above the tree line and were in the sun. They were working on the drainage for this part of the trail, so it was mounds of freshly turned over dirt for a decent part of it. I forgot to change my shoes before leaving the house, so I got to enjoy all that dirt right between my toes. At the top, we arrived at a Lodge (Rifugio in Italian, Hutte in German). We each had a beer overlooking the view of the valley below before heading back down. We were only another “hour” away from the Austrian boarder, and I wanted to go. We didn't because the hiking times are as the Alpini (the Italian equivalent of the US Marines) take them, more on the Alpini shortly. It started to lightly rain before we made it back to the car, but we were home in time to shower and get to the store before everything closed again.

The Alpini were originally the Italian Army Corp from the Alps. They were founded in 1872 to defend the French and Austrian boarders and are the oldest mountain infantry in the world. They are recognizable by their feathered caps. And fun fact, their motto is “Di Qui Non Si Passa!” which basically translates as “You Shall Not Pass!”

Our third day I took over planning and picked a less steep itinerary, meaning we were actually able to go farther. We started by circling Lake Braies (Lago di Braies), then heading down an easy path to a “Malga” or mountain cow farm. Most of the trails lead to either a Malga/Farm or a Rifugio/Lodge. However, many farms serve food and many lodges have a couple cows, so the distinction is just what they choose to call themselves. This Malga has lots of cute cows that came up to you looking to be pet. Later, one even started to follow us home! From here we walked along the river until we arrived at a lovely valley full of wild flowers that was not on the map. At this point, we continued to the next Malga. This next part of the trail was pretty intense and steep, but it was lovely at the top. We could have continued another piece to arrive at a mountain-top lake, but it was getting late in the day and we had a long way back, so we skipped it. At the last Malga, we made friends with another Italian family, who were waiting for the father, who had continued to the Lake alone. We chatted over lunch then walked back together.

This was our first night going out for dinner. Daniele found a delicious restaurant that was more or less someone's house. We each had a soup, and then he had polenta with goulash probably made from a cow walking around their property that morning and I had handmade pasta with local wild mushrooms. It was really delicious, and we wanted to go back, but when we called again their were booked up for the rest of our trip.

Our fourth day we split up. I took it easy and Daniele took one of the harder trails that I would never be able to do. In Val di Landro, he went from Lake Dobbiaco to Lake Mitteralplsee to Forcella del Lago (lake mountain pass). Up steep climbs and over lots of snow. In the afternoon we went to the town of San Candido, the last city in Italy before Austria.

Our fifth day we went to the most iconic part of the Dolomites, the Three Peaks AKA “Tre Cime” AKA “Drei Zinnen”. There is a trail you can take from the bottom of the mountain, but we paid to park part way up at the first lodge, Rifugio Auronzo. From this lodge we took Trail 101 or what Daniele calls “the highway of the Dolimiti” because it is an easy trail around a famous site so it is full of people. But whether it was for foggy weather or just early in the season, we barely saw anyone until later in the day. We walked about halfway around the Three Peaks without being able to see much of them or anything in the heavy fog. We passed a small church then the next lodge, Rifugio Lavaredo. From here we planned on taking Trail 104 around an attached mountain, but got lost in the fog and ended up on the World War I Historical Trail. I liked this accidental trail because we were walking on interesting rocky terrain, rather than the normal gravel or dirt paths. We also went over the walls of the front line, saw some dug-into-the-mountain shelters, passed a few micro-lakes, and walked over lots of snow. However, this openness meant no real trail to follow and we had no idea where we were nor where the trail was for a good time. The fog didn't help, either. We accidentally climbed a whole different mountain, but it was a nice trail, so no loss. On our way back to the main 101 Trail, we could see where the trail we originally wanted split off, and how difficult it would have been to see even in better conditions. All of the other trails here have been very well marked. Back on the Trail 101, we circled around to the other side of the Three Peaks, which as it got later, would peak out of the fog for breaf moments. The trail became crowded now, also the trail was cut from snow taller than either of us. We had lunch at the Lodge at the end of this trail, Rifugio Locatelli, then took Trail 105 to complete a full circle around the Three Peaks. This trail went all the way down into the valley, and then back up the other side. On our way down it started to rain, but we didn't get washed away. Even after we climbed all the way back up out of the valley, there was still a while to go to get back to our starting point. Along the way, we stopped at the malga/farm there and had some hot chocolate.

For our sixth day I wanted to go to the Austrian-Italian boarder and see both countries at the same time. I was starting to feel warn out, so I didn't want a very, very long hike and the closest trail starting point from the boarder (where we could get the car) is in Austria. So, we drove over the nonexistent border and two towns into Austria. It worked out well, since gas is taxed less and therefore much cheaper there, that paid for the trouble. We couldn't use phone data there and we don't speak German, but we eventually found the little farm up the windy road where we could park. The path had a nice incline, but this day we finally took the poles from the car. Everyday previously we had told ourselves that it was just a short easy hike and we didn't need them, only to find ourselves slipping on snow or down gravel later. We walked along the cows including little family groups complete with baby calves until we got to the crossroads near the top of the mountain. From here we could go left to a lodge, or right and walk along the boarder. I picked right saying if we have time we'll stop at the lodge on the way back. We could soon see Italy on our left, with its larger mountains beyond the town of Sesto in the valley below. The boarder had small rectangular white marble stones every so often with an “I” on the Italian side, an “O” on the Austrian side, and that the boarder was established in 1920 along the other sides of the stones. We took the path up to the top of Mt. Elmo, where there was the best view of both valleys and mountains on both our left (Italian) and right (Austrian) sides. It started to rain then, also it was very cold and windy at the top of the mountain. It was time for lunch, or at least a snack, but there was nowhere sheltered to stop nearby. We had passed a small outpost building just on the other side of the crossroads. We've seen several of them this week, always the same wood-cabin structure, with a locked single-room (presumably) interior, and a covered porch featuring a bench and often a table perfect for a place to eat. So we hurried there and had lunch, while the sky rained itself out. The way down was a breeze using the poles. I was even able to go faster than Daniele and I really regret not using them everyday. I could walk with that much more speed and confidence knowing I had a grip on the ground if I slipped. We each used one. I had two when we hiked the Grand Canon, and I felt pretty neutral on how helpful they were then, maybe if you had more practice and good rhythm using them. In the Grand Canyon the terrain was mostly uneven so it was difficult to keep any rhythm in your step and coordinated with your arms. We walked around the Austrian town at the base of the access road for a few minutes before heading back to Italy. There was not really anything to see there.

That night we had dinner at a restaurant in the house where composer Gustav Mahler once lived and composed some of his largest works from 1908 and 1910. It was good, but the other place was better.

Our last full day we decided to just do some local sight seeing. We dressed in regular clothes and drove to San Candido where we wanted to start with the Bagni di San Candido. These baths were the place to be for Central European nobility of the 19th century to spend their “summer thermal spa holidays” (that's actually how the official map describes it). The baths feature several different springs each with its own list of maladies it can sure. This was supposed to be about 20-minutes off the road, but ended up being closer to 1.5-hours of mixed paths in light to heavy rain without our hiking paraphernalia. We finally arrived at the baths. There were several fountains where we sampled the healing waters. Each fountain sourced from a different spring, with its own minerals and powers indicated on the fountain. The building there looks like it was once quite impressive, but now has more bits of caved in roof than bits still holding and whole sections of the walls have fallen down. You could still see interesting balconies, and widow adornments, and the general structure. It is an interesting mix of Venice/Byzantine styles and those of Austrian/Bavarian origin, something I could say of the whole area actually, but especially prevalent in an ornate structure like this one. From the Baths, there were signs pointing to San Candido in 50-minutes the way we came or 30-minutes a different way (times being always as the Alpini walk). I insisted we try the 30-minute way, as surly there had to be a better access to such an attraction than the road we had taken. We did it in 45-minutes, including a 10-minute break under a bridge hoping the pouring rain would lighten up, it didn't. We are always faster going down than up, but not double, so this way was shorter. We wanted to get lunch in central San Candido, but almost every place stopped serving lunch at 2 PM. A clear indication of their Austrian influence, as in Rome you can't eat lunch before 1 PM and in no part of Italy are you expected to finish a meal in less than an hour. We found a place with a limited after-2 menu where I had some spatzle (translated into Italian as gnocchi; it was spatzle) and Daniele had some fresh fettuccine with deer meat. The town was mostly shut down for Sunday, but I found a store open that sold local things and got some souvenirs to remember our trip. We were a bit wet and tied by then, so we headed home to pack up and get ready for the early start on the road home tomorrow.

So a full week hiking the mountains, and not just any mountains, the Italian Dolomiti. It was a beautiful, fun, and very physically active vacation. I now have calves so muscular that if I pull up a pant leg, it just stays there. I hadn't realized how nice and cool it was up in the mountains until we got back to Rome. My in-laws actually headed up there right after we got back. They took good care of our little kitty Stella while we were gone. She and I were both very happy to see each other.

Pictures of these beautiful places are here:
https://plus.google.com/photos/+KaitlynHanrahanIsidori/albums/6038295577701410033

Visiting Emanuele and Silvia in Veneto

2014-06-21T15:49:00.000-04:00

Back at the end of October, Daniele's brother Emanuele moved to Veneto to be with his girlfriend Silvia. She is originally from there and the two of them had been alternating weekend visits for quite some time. They found their own apartment in June and we've been meaning to visit them. We came up with the idea a while ago to combine a summer vacation to the Dolomites (post coming soon) with a stop on the way to see them in Veneto for a weekend.

Veneto is another region of Italy, like Tuscany or Lazio, which is most famous for Venice and Prosecco. I'd been to Venice several times but never to any other part of Veneto. I knew Silvia lived a bit out of the way because I knew her parents had an independent house; in the cities and suburbs nearly everyone lives in apartments. Both their new apartment and Silvia's parent's house are in the province (“provincia”) of Treviso.

Daniele and I left Rome very early Saturday morning; most would still consider it Friday night. I slept on the way and we arrived at Emanuele and Silvia's in time for breakfast. They did a great job planning our visit. We started with a quick stop in the small town of Conegliano Veneto. The town is very historical looking, with frescos and arches on the outsides of the buildings. There is a castle here, too. We visited the courtyard, but inside was closed. A wedding was just about to start there.

After Conegliano Veneto, we went to Grotte del Cajeron in Breda di Fregona. This was my first grotto. We took a hiking path in a loop that went into caves, over rope bridges, and over a river.

Our next stop was Lago di Santa Croce in the city of Farra d'Alpago. This is the only place we went to that was outside the province of Treviso. Silvia had made us a caprese rice salad with lactose-free mozzarella (shockingly good) that we ate picnic style by the lake. We were wearing bathing suits, but it was too chilly to sunbath, so we faked it wrapped up in sweaters.

At this point we headed back “home”, stopping on the way to have an “aperitivo” with Silvia's aunt, uncle, and cousins. We had some cake, chips, and home-made prosecco. Then we regrouped at Emanuele and Silvia's before dinner. Dinner was “Pasqualina” a special pizza invented by the restaurant owner that he even patented. It is basically a very thin and crispy pizza crust, with toppings, then another thin crispy crust layer on top. Making it almost a sandwich. I had the eggplant parmigiano, and it was delicious!

After dinner we went to Abbazia di Follina, an old and pretty church, then to Castello di Castelbrando. This castle is open to the public and occupied by an hotel, bar, restaurant, spa, gelateria, and a few stores. It had been abandoned before a group of business owners in the area restored it. It is one of my favorite castles I've been to thanks to the open access, the views, and how well maintained and accurate to the original structure it all is.

On our second day we had lunch at the “Osteria senza Oste” or the restaurant with no host. This famous places is hidden on a hill mostly occupied by grapes. It is a small shack with meats, cheeses, some pizza, breads, and drinks inside; all made locally. You take what you want and pay what you want, though there are suggested prices on the goods. There are tables outside and some knives and cutting boards to use and wash yourself afterwords. Many supplement with some of their own food. It was full there, with us getting last free table. The person who runs it just brings by the food in the morning. They must be making money because they've been doing it for about 10 years.

After lunch we went into the city center of Treviso. The city features a river going through it and lots of covered walkways and cute shops.

For our last night we had dinner with Silvia's parents. They set up a large spread with lots of vegetables all from their own garden. It was delicious and Silvia's mom sent us off with a big bag of tomatoes, peaches, cookies, and horse meat to bring to the mountains.

All the photos from this weekend:
https://plus.google.com/photos/+KaitlynHanrahanIsidori/albums/6031461047786159921

Melissa's Visit to Rome

2014-05-19T16:02:00.000-04:00

Melissa and I at the Colosseum

A few days ago my college friend Melissa said she was thinking about visiting Rome for the weekend. She was in the middle of a business stay in Stockholm and wanted to use a weekend to visit another city. The timing was perfect because Daniele and I had had a trip to his cousin's in Umbria planned for this weekend, which we had to cancel last minute when Daniele's work shifts changed. So, with our plans canceled we were exceptionally free. Also, Rome was holding an event Saturday, the “Night of the Museums” (actually it was held all through out Europe this night). Many of the city and national museums would be open until 2AM and only cost 1 Euro. Also, other places, like government buildings and embassies that are normally closed to the public were open this night, though many by appointment only, and we were too late to make any appointments.

Melissa flew in Saturday evening and we met her at Termini. We had a quick dinner of Arancine (fried rice and cheese deliciousness) and then Gelato before heading out to see the sights. We ate near Lepanto, just off Cola di Rienzo, the street that connects Piazza del Popolo to the Vatican. We walked Cola di Rienzo to Piazza Popolo, then Via del Corso (Rome's “main” street) end-to-end from Piazza Popolo to Piazza Venezia. Piazza Venezia is where the Altare della Patria stands. From here we bore right to Capitoline Hill (in Italian Campidoglio), home of the Capitoline Museum and Rome's City Hall.

Our goal was to enter the City Hall. The volunteers on top of the hill told us there was one line for everything: City Hall, Capitoline Museum, the ruins underneath, and a concert going as well. In the end it turned out that the City Hall was not actually open, like the website said, but we enjoyed the museum, both its collections and the two late-Renaissance palaces that they reside in: Palazzo dei Conservatori, and Palazzo Nuovo. We also, for the first time, got to see the tunnels underneath, which connect the two palaces and show off the Ancient Roman structures under ground level.

The original bronze statue of Romulus and Remus suckling their wolf mother.

After we finished Capitoline, we reversed our path heading back up Via del Corso. It was getting late at this point, but we still had some time before the last places closed. We swung by the Trevi Fountain, since it is so pretty at night, before turning off past the Pantheon (closed by this hour, but we saw it from outside, at least) to Piazza Navona. Piazza Navona is possibly the most beautiful piazza in Rome. Its ovular shape is dominated by three Bernini fountains and closed in by beautiful Renaissance facades. Back in the day, before the fountains were built, the Romans would flood this piazza and stage naval battles here.

Piazza Navona is also the home of the Brazilian Embassy and near the Italian Senate building, two other places that we were thinking about trying to enter tonight. They are both normally closed to the public. However, we were getting tired at this point and both had long lines out front that threatened to not finish before the last entrance. So we walked past the illuminated windows, peeking inside, before heading back to the car at Lepanto, this time taking a route along the river.

Melissa was flying out at the crack of dawn on Monday-- to enjoy a long layover / day-trip in Zurich, which I will admit I'm jealous of. I've never seen Zurich outside of the airport. That only gave us Sunday to see all the must-see spots in Rome.

We started our day with the classic “cappuccino e cornetto” breakfast just outside our apartment while making our attack plan for the day. We walked to the Colosseum from our house, which is maybe a 25 minute walk, or the same time by Metro, since you have to change lines. By walking we got to pass under the Aurelian Walls before stopping at San Giovanni basilica (the “duomo” of Rome, as the Vatican is a sovereign nation in its own right). San Giovanni is very pretty and features lots of marble statues both inside and out. From here it is about another 10 minute walk to the Colosseum.

Inside San Giovanni Cathedral

At the Colosseum we were greeted by the normal large crowds mixed in with a “Race for the Cure” crowd, which at least meant the streets were closed so we could all fit. We walked past and went first to the Roman Forum, which uses the same ticket as the Colosseum but almost always has shorter lines to buy them. Here we were presently surprised to get in for free! My last AirBnb guests had left us their Roma Pass, which I figured was used up or expired, but it got us into both the Forum and Colosseum free of charge. We walked around the Forum, which was the center of life and commerce in Ancient Roman times. We also crossed over to the “Palatine Hill”, where I'd never visited before. Like the Capitoline from the night before, this was one of the original Seven Hills of Rome. This one was actually were Romulus and Remus made their home. The Palatine area felt like just an extension of the Roman Forum, only a bit more open and park-like. We took the “Colosseum” exit from the Forum, then grabbed some ice cream (it was really hot) before heading into the Colosseum itself.

The Roman Forum

Palatine Hill

The Colosseum

Once we finished with the Colosseum, we took the Metro from there to Ottaviano, the stop nearest the Vatican. We knew we couldn't fit in the Vatican Museum on such a short trip, but St. Peter's is a must see. We purposely came here in the afternoon, when most of the pilgrims who came for the Sunday Blessing in the morning would have moved on to other sites. And, in fact, the line was reasonable and moved fast. We decided to spring the 5 Euros to go to the top (5 to climb all 500+ stairs, 7 to take the elevator part way then take the last 300+ stairs). I had only done this once before, with my mom and Aunt Linda, back when I first visited Rome in 2006, but I remembered that the stairs get pretty narrow. In the beginning, the stairs are wide and we could even walk side-by-side. They become single-file before you arrive at an open area that is above the basilica, but not the dome yet. You then enter the dome, and walk around the inside edge of it, looking down at the HUGE church underneath. When you start climbing from this point you are actually climbing between the inside and outside walls of the dome. So the walls of the stairway are slanted, but only slightly at first, though I could see it giving anyone with vertigo or claustrophobia a bit of trouble. Then it gets a bit more narrow, and you need your hands on the walls, because there is not enough space to walk standing straight. It keeps getting more and more narrow and more and more slanted until you get to the spiral stairway that is the last section. This last part is so narrow I could not have stretched my elbows out (and I'm not particularly long-limbed). There is not even space for a central column for the spiral staircase, there is just a rope than hangs down. But finally, you come out at the very top of the dome, and have the most beautiful view of Rome, out even to the mountains beyond it.

Looking up into the main dome of St. Peter's Basilica

The view from the very top of the dome of St. Peter's Basilica

At this point it was 6PM, and the Basilica closes at 7PM. So we made our rounds inside, before walking though the piazza, and straight out the opening, in the direction of the river and Castle St. Angelo. We enjoyed the view here, of the river, the fortress, the bridge of angels, and the basilica in the distance for a few minutes before Daniele met us here. He drove us up to Gianicolo Hill where we got another nice view of Rome, now colored by the sunset.

St. Angelo Bridge

We then went to one of my favorite restaurants, MoMo, which seems fancy but has great prices and all of their food is so good. For dessert we decided on a change of venue, and picked up some canonni to-go, which we ate on the Spanish Steps. We took a quick walk up Via Condotti before heading home, tired, but having successfully captured Rome as best as I think possible in just over one day!

Sunset from Gianicolo Hill

All of the pictures from our tourist weekend are here:
https://plus.google.com/photos/+KaitlynHanrahanIsidori/albums/6015594620817086977

Trying out AirBnb

2014-05-14T09:07:00.002-04:00

This past September (2013), Daniele and I moved from the condo he owns to one his father owns. Daniele's is located in Monterotondo, which is still in the Providence of Rome, but just outside the City of Rome. We could have walked to the boarder from the condo, but we were definitely in the 'burbs. The boundaries of Rome have spread out over the years as the city has grown to reach out and touch any already established city, such as Monterotondo.

Our new home is inside Rome, though just outside the walls of the ancient city. We are 7-minutes as-the-google-walks from two Metro stops on the A/Red Line, which I like better than the B/Blue Line. One of those stops is Re di Roma, a busy traffic-circle / piazza featuring many notable establishments. From here you can see, and easily walk to the ancient wall holding in Rome's historical center, and enter at Basilica San Giovanni, which is the “duomo” of Rome (St. Peters is in the Vatican, which technically is not Rome). We are also sandwiched between the busy shopping streets of Appia Nuova, Taranto, and Tuscolana (Tuscolana Station is not a Metro stop, but it's a great way to get straight to the airport). We have all this nearby, but magically live in a little microcosm of a quiet neighborhood composed of old people and a hand full of families where the only noise disturbance is church bells.

Similar to our old place, our apartment is made up of an open kitchen/living room, a bathroom, a master bedroom, and a small bedroom (though the last place had more outside space including a garden, two large balconies, and parking). Where as our last place was newer and designed with this layout, our home now was built in 1942 with a different design. Our place was the doorman's apartment and we believe it is (by quite a bit) the smallest apartment in the building. Originally, you walked into the spacious living room with a door separating visitors from the rest of the home. The door leds to a little space with doors to each: the large bedroom, the bathroom, and the kitchen. The kitchen in turn leads to the balcony. When my father-in-law bought the place 10 years ago, he moved the kitchen to the living room and converted that space to a second (small) bedroom. This is a pretty common renovation now that society has accepted the kitchen as a gathering place, not something that should be hidden away. Fun fact, Italian Real Estate listings count “number of rooms”, but there is no uniform method of counting rooms. Some will only count rooms intended to be bedrooms, most will also count a living room, a few count every space including the kitchen and even bathroom.

Given our new, more central location and spare room we thought we would try out renting the extra space on AirBnb-- just as an experiment to see how it does. If it went well, maybe we could do it for an entire apartment. The spare room was the last to get the renovation treatment, acting as our safe/clean room while the rest of house underwent the spackleing/sanding/more sanding/and even more sanding that the place needed to recover from the 10 years of being rented to students and the *72* years of general chipping and decay. I fought to maintain and restore all of the original wood and brass rather than replace everything with plastic and aluminum like my husband and in-laws would have done.

Daniele found several other airbnb-like sites. I didn't want so much of our personal information spread out so wide, so I limited him to HouseTrip, which is very popular in Europe and particularly the UK, I believe. We did well with them, however, they just recently took down our listing and everyone else's who was renting just a single room in order to concentrate on just listing full apartments/homes. We still have guests coming (and even right now are hosting two) who booked from HouseTrip. So, we still haven't felt whatever effect losing their referrals will have.

We started last November and I had a few rules. First off, AirBnb is not like a hotel, where anyone can book a night, unless you want to set it up that way. Potential guests send a request for a stay that we have to pre-approve or deny. Only with a pre-approval can they then book. We do not sublet while away, many people use AirBnb this way, we do the exact opposite and will not take guests if we are not home. Similarly, Daniele works nights sometimes and I will not accept a booking where their first night here I will be home alone with them. It doesn't take too long to get a feel for someone, and if we got someone sketchy, this would give me time to realize something was up and make Daniele call in sick. I also turn people down who seem sketchy online. A horror story I read a long time ago about a women who Airbnb'ed out her NYC apartment while away, and whose home was destroyed by the renters/robbers later noticed how the guest's name was misspelled (something like Johgnson) and a few other indicators. I look for more complete profiles, with more methods of verification, and not accounts just opened today. Recently I've started asking people who request to stay and have new, blank accounts, if they could add some verifications and then ask again. After all, while we have a few reviews now, we were new once, too, and people gave us a chance.

It's easy for me to deny requests because we are not trying to keep the room full 100% of the time. Who would want house guests all of the time? I've priced the room out according to this idea. We're not the cheapest room you can book in the area. First off, do I want the people who look for the cheapest rooms staying with me and having my key? Not really. Second, there is enough demand that my pricing keeps the room full enough. It has to be worth what we're getting (the money) to clean out the room, wash and change the bedding and towels, wait around to greet them when they arrive, and share my bathroom and kitchen with them while they are here (and in some cases, deal with their strange requests). That's not nothing, if it was just a little bit of money I would be annoyed to do all that and never think it worth it when getting a request. But for the bit more that we charge, it feels like free money. It feels like getting $400 for just doing a load of laundry!

Everyone who has stayed with us has been really interesting and fun to meet. We had a brother and sister from San Paulo, a couple from Russia, a mother and son from Iowa, two gentlemen friends from India, three BU students studying abroad in Spain, two Italian girls here for a concert, two kids from Austria we housed in coordination with their Italian school, a father and son from Holland, an American couple living in Asia, and a bunch more. Each of these was the type of well-rounded, friendly, likes-to-travel person that you might meet in a hostel while traveling yourself. We got to live through their experiences and learn a bit about their worlds without even leaving the house. Not to say we become besties with everyone who stays. There is a wide spectrum of those who like to chat and those who prefer to keep to themselves. I have just been very presently surprised by how fun most guests can be.

There is also the consideration that Rome has lots to see and most of our guests spend morning to night out trying to seeing it all. Some have cooked meals at home, in general the older guests and the ones who stay longer have been more prone to do so. Many others we barely see, often just a quick exchange of greetings while they are coming or going.

We've been pretty successful, despite not exactly living across from the Coliseum or above the Spanish Steps. It seems there are plenty of people who would just as happily take the Metro a few stops or walk a bit further. We started off pretty slow in the end of fall and dead of winter. But then we got into spring-break season, and Easter, some big Rome/Vatican events like the Canonization, and now just the high tourist season of spring and summer. Right now we could easily book back to back if we wanted. Which, if you think about it is very impressive, that there are enough potential guests to match up with any weird opening, since we only have one room available. It happens enough now that we bought a second full set of sheets and towels, so we can turn over the room in the same day, while the linens hang dry.

I attribute a few things to our success. Besides entering tourist season, we have reviews now, which is going to make us more attractive to guests and send more requests our way. I also wrote a really, really clear description about our place (in my own mother-tongue English, which not all Italian listings can boast). I know I tend to avoid situations where I don't know what to expect, particularly when traveling. Personally, I would even pay more for a place where I felt confident in what I was going to find, than a place that is perhaps nicer but I'm unsure about a few things-- but maybe that is just nerdy me trying to avoid awkward situations. For example, if there are towels in the picture but it doesn't say if they are included, or I'm not sure if the address given is where I'm staying or their office where I pick up my key, how many others will be staying here, which areas are common areas, things like that. Our aforementioned mother and son guests complemented our place on exceeding their expectations and said that at their last room, there had been a couch in the picture (mother and son did not want to share a bed) but on arrival were told the couch is now in a different and more expensive room. My description highlights how close we are to the metro, that it's the metro line with most attractions, the grocery stores/restaurants/cafes nearby, that I work from home and will be able to let guests in just about any time (a known issue for Airbnb guests), and that Daniele has lived here 30 years and can help you figure out what to do during your stay. I also clearly state that it is a small room and what the shared bathroom and kitchen are all about, to manage expectations.

We have squeezed both a single bed and a full bed into that little room. This makes it a good layout for either couples or friends traveling together And while it would be cramped (and I always warn groups of three), three could fit in there and it's a bit harder finding rooms for three in Europe. We recently added a small extra fee for the third person, after we started turning down most of the groups of three, once again restoring the “worth it” balance. Though really, the few we have hosted have not been much different that the groups of two. It's just that 5 people sharing a bathroom has the potential to be too much.

We make an effort to keep the place immaculately clean. Which is the natural state of the apartment anyway, since Daniele and I have different pet-peeve things we like spotless (he likes clean floors, I could care less about floors but hate surfaces to have any dust or grime). Obviously this is good to do for reviews, but I have my own secret reason for it, too. People tend to clean up after themselves more when they are surrounded by cleanliness. All our guests have been pretty clean, one even commenting on not wanting to mess up our pristine apartment. So by doing the cleaning more often, we actually have to clean less by not having to clean up so much after them.

In summery, huge success. April was our best month to date, bringing in about $1500. All for a tiny room that we wouldn't even be using otherwise. The space could have been an office for me, but we have space in our large bedroom for an office-area and that kind of money is like a salary in itself. Most likely winters will always be more bleak (though I think having reviews will help next year), but that's fine because it is nice to not have guests, too. Someday we will have to shut down when it is time to expand our family and convert the room into a nursery. In the meantime, it is awesome money for just doing some extra laundry and a fun experience in itself.

Open House Roma

2014-05-12T05:02:00.001-04:00

The courtyard and Italian style gardens inside the Academie Nationale de France, housed in Villa Medici

This weekend Rome had an event, “Open House Roma”, where lots of palaces, churches, and state buildings were open to the public, for free, and with guided tours. Depending on the place, there was one tour, tours every hour, reservations only, or walk-ins allowed. We found out about the even via a poster on our local piazza, then proceeded to forget about it for a few weeks. When we finally remembered and found the website to reserve spots, everything cool was booked solid. Luckily, Italians are pretty flaky as a general rule and enough people did not show up for their free reservations that we had no problem getting in anyway.

We spent the whole day Saturday on foot, walking from our house near Re di Roma, to the Colosseum, to Piazza Venezia, to Villa Borgese, and reverse. So I spent Sunday siting on my butt at my computer to compensate. I had tentatively thought about heading out again and trying to get into the Senate, but it will be open again.

Basilica San Giovanni in Laterano

Roman Forum

The city was really packed. I imagine it is a combination of Spring being a beautiful time of year for a European vacation and that it was the weekend, when more Italian and European visitors make a short trip to Rome. The Pope was also greeting a large group of school children today. And, finally, there was a protest in the afternoon. We did not see the protest (or maybe a parade?) itself and I have been unable to fine any news saying what it was. There are a lot of protests in Rome, so that's not too surprising. We did pass the after effects: waves of openly smoking young people and drug dealers in a frequency that would have made me double-take even in Golden Gate Park, followed by streets blocked off and littered with trash and broken beer bottles, then finally hordes of police vehicles and geared-up officers who were taping off sections of streets as we got closer to home, were presumably the demonstration was headed but had not yet arrived.

Crowds outside the Colosseum

Our first Open House Roma stop was the French Academy in Rome, or “Académie de France à Rome” as the French call it, or “Accademia di Francia a Roma” as the Italians call it located in Villa Medici (Medici like the family who ruled Florence during the Renaissance). They say this villa is located “inside” Villa Borgese, but it would be more accurate to think of the Borgese and Medici as being neighbors. The Villa is on Pincio Hill, not one of the seven-hills of Rome, because it was outside the sacred wall of Ancient Rome (this was their “country estate”) but it is inside the Aurelian walls (built between 270 and 273 A.D and considered today the boundary of the historical center). While there was a Villa here in Ancient Roman times, what stands today was really built up in the Renaissance. From the Villa Medici website:

Ferdinando de' Medici (1549-1609), cardinal at the age of 13, collector and sponsor, purchased it in 1576 and asked the Florentine architect Ammannati to build a palace worth the prestige of the Medici family. Devoted to Antiquity, like many of his contemporaries, Ferdinando conceived his Villa representing a museum. He added a gallery where he presented his collection of antique masterpieces. He inserted in the facade a series of antique bas-reliefs. Even the garden was designed in the same spirit of staging, like the botanic gardens of Pisa and Florence designed by his father several years before. Numerous rare species were gathered there, amongst antique statues. Further south, ruins of the Temple of Fortune were overlaid by a belvedere from where one's sight could embrace the major part of the city and surrounding countryside.

[...]In 1587 Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici was called to Florence to replace Francois the First on the throne of Tuscany. He left the decoration of the Villa partly unfinished. The most precious statues and the comprehensive set of the collections were moved to Florence. The Lorraines, heirs of the Great Duchy of Tuscany sold the Villa in 1803.

The internal facade of the Academie Nationale de France, housed in Villa Medici. Note the Etruscan tombs incorperated into the design

The buyer in 1803 was Napoleon, who turned the Villa into the art academy which it still functions as today under the governance of the office of culture of France. Artists can apply to stay in this peaceful villa in the center of Rome, but silently surrounded by it's vast 17+ acre gardens, to study their craft and Italian techniques. Originally only students of Art and Architecture could apply, today everything from Music to Culinary Arts are welcome.

A view of the Italian style gardens from the Cardinal's chambers of the Academie Nationale de France, housed in Villa Medici

Our tour of the Villa started inside, with Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici's personal apartments-- still featuring their ornate furnishings and murals. We then came to the garden where we took in the internal facade. Etruscan tombs are attached to the facade for added decoration; they are actually well incorporated and I would not have realized they were tombs without our guide. This overlooks the classic “Italian Garden” featuring short green shrubs in geometric designs. To the side of this are 16 (four squares of four) perfectly square and equal gardens walled off by tall green shrubs, giving a maze effect. These are being restored to their original Renaissance purposes and some are growing vegetables and grapes. Along the sides of these 16 squares, between them and the Villa wall, are a few outbuildings. One was Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici's personal studio. It is decorated with a study of all kinds of animals painted on its vaulted ceiling in the main room and a mural featuring different reincarnations of the Villa itself in a smaller room. The windows here were, at the time, a view into the unsettled forest surrounding Rome, now it overlooks the busy street Via del Muro Torto. There is also a staircase leading outside the walls of the Villa, which the Cardinal would have used to meet his secret girlfriends. Another small building is full of Medici busts. As we circle around the 4x4 garden squares, back to the building itself, there is a balcony view over the city, where you can see every major sight in Rome, which would have been very similar (if perhaps a bit less filled in between) in Ferdinando's time.

View of Rome's city center from the gardens of the Academie Nationale de France, housed in Villa Medici. Most prominent in the skyline are the Altare della Patria on the left and the dome of the Vatican center-right

More info:
wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Academy_in_Rome
www.villamedici.it
wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Medici

Our second stop on our Open House Roma tour was the Palazzo Venezia. Most tourists stop by Piazza Venezia to see the Altare della Patria (the Alter to Patriotism, some call it "the wedding cake") which dominates the square. Facing said alter, you could zip off to the left and walk pass the Roman Forum before arriving at the Colosseum, or to the right and arrive at Campidoglio Hill (housing Rome's City Hall and the Museum Capitolini). Or do an about-face and be looking down Via del Corso, an important landmark in itself having been the location for Rome's famous Carnival (Mardi Gras) house races and today is a partially-pedestrian street (only buses, taxis, and politicians allowed) housing every brand in Europe. Continue down Via del Corso and you pass some other noble palaces (like Palazzo Doria Pamphilj) and the small streets leading to the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps before finishing in Piazza del Popolo. Piazza (and Palazzo) Venezia are about as central as you can get. Even Berlusconi thinks so, he owns a palace just a few yards down from Palazzo Venezia.

You almost wouldn't notice that there is a little nook to the right of Piazza Venezia which has a different name, Piazza San Marco. Piazza San Marco is, of course, also the name of the main square in Venezia aka Venice. Piazza Venezia and the Altare della Patria are relativity (compared to the age of most landmarks in Rome) new, having been built up from 1911 to 1925.

The Altare della Patria in Piazza Venezia, Rome

It turns out there is history to all of these Venice references in this area, and once again, it comes back to a cardinal. In 1455 Venetian Cardinal Pietro Barbo was put in charge of the church located here, Basilica San Marco. Like most churches, the area in front of it was called piazza same-name, and this is where we get Rome's Piazza San Marco. Nine years later, he would be named Pope Paul II. He would assign his cardinal-nephew, Marco Barbo, to his old post and enlarge the palace, at this point still called Palazzo San Marco. Several large additions were made. The grandeur was added to by artwork, even murals, which were scavenged from river-side palaces that were being demolished at this time in order to build up the (still in use) embankments. The final palace greatly outshined the basilica it was “supporting”.

Fresco ceiling in Palazzo Venezia that was taken and relocated here from another palazzo, which had to be destroyed to build Rome's river embankments

In the following years, the palace was used as a summer home for the pope. Then in 1564 the pope (at this point Pius IV Medici) gifted the palace to the Republic of Venice, who in turn, used it as their embassy to Rome. From this point on, the palace became known as the Palace “of” Venice, or Palazzo Venezia.

The palace remained the property of Venice up until Italy unified in 1861. Then in the Treaty of Campo Formio it became the seat of the Austrian Diplomat. In 1910, one of the palace's gardens was relocated to the other side of the palace to make room for Piazza Venezia (where we started our story). Then in 1916, shortly after completion, the Italian Royalty recovered ownership of the palace and established a museum, which opened in 1921.

View into the courtyard of Palazzo Venezia

The palace took a major turn from 1929 to 1943, when it served as the headquarters for the Italian Fascist government. They say they never turned the lights out, so the people would know their government was always working for them. We got to see Mussolini’s room, which was styled in a somewhat tacky zodiac design painted in a far inferior manor to the Renaissance works housed in the adjacent rooms. His final mistress (there were many, along with two different wives), Clara Petacci, apparently liked astronomy.

Zodiac themed ceiling in the room used by Mussolini and his Astrology-loving mistress, in Palazzo Venezia

After World War II, the palace reopened as a museum once again. Notably, there is an impressive collection of ceramics, ranging from early Asian-inspired designs to later works with a stronger European identity, no longer trying to imitate the original Asian styles. Not to mention the walls filled with paintings and the palace itself.

The marble stairway in Palazzo Venezia

More info:
www.museopalazzovenezia.beniculturali.it

If I had to compare the two, it would be difficult. Villa Medici has impressive gardens and still a beautiful interior. It is difficult to reconcile of such a large private open space sitting in the middle of a busy capital city. Palazzo Venezia is in the very heart of the city and even more grand inside-- there is a large marble staircase, and room upon room of Renaissance art. Villa Medici, as the house of the French Academy, has no lack of art either, but it is mostly modern works hung on plain white walls, with a few exceptions. Both have made an effort to restore or maintain the Renaissance styles of their peak. Really, I would be happy to live in either one.

Pictures: https://plus.google.com/photos/+KaitlynHanrahanIsidori/albums/6012308555556852785

Castello Santa Severa

2014-05-01T10:00:00.000-04:00

Yesterday (actually yesterday, not uploading months old posts for once), Daniele and I visited the Castle of Santa Severa. The castle has changed hands many times, and now the town of Santa Severa* owns it and opened it for the week, by appointment, to see about making it into an open tourist attraction.

*Note, Santa Severa is not a town or “commune” in its own right. It is a “frazione” or borough of Santa Marinella, composed of a few grouped together houses. A clear distinction in Italy where every “commune” has certain amenities (the town hall, police station, train and/or bus station, post office, church, and almost certainly a bar, pizzeria, and tabacchi) and always a town center where you find most of these.

In true Italian style, the castle is a mix of structures all build on top of each other. The oldest date from 5th to 4th millennium B.C. -- that's millennium, not a typo. The location leads to people wanting to live there. The castle sits on its own micro-peninsula sticking out into the sea, with sandy beaches to the right, and rocks that were probably placed there to slow erosion to the left. Our guide said that they estimate the land used to stick out another mile, because they have found remnants that far out. It is easy to understand erosion being a concern for any sea-front castle owner.

The history of the castle is not very clear since it dates to prehistoric times. The consensus is that the area was frequented dating back to 5th to 4th millennium B.C. There are excavations dating from the Neolithic Period (7th to 6th millennium B.C.), the Bronze Age (2 millennium B.C.), and the Iron Age (9th to 8th century B.C.).

We know a little more about the Etruscan Period. The Etruscans were a civilization based in Tuscany from 7th to 6th century B.C. that evolved along with and were later conquered by the Ancient Romans. I first learned about them during my Volterra visit in 2010. In Etruscan times, the place was called Pyrgi and served as a commercial port connecting to all of the Mediterranean, especially Greece and Phoenicia. This Etruscan port mostly supported (and vice-versa) the nearby city of Caere, modern day Cerveteri. A very ancient sanctuary with temples to Apollo and a few other deities was also found outside of the residential area, which spread about 25 acres. Some important relics were found here, one of which is three tablets written in both Etruscan and Punic, proving the strong relationship between the Etruscans of Ceveteri and Cartharage.

Romans dominated the area beginning in 3rd century B.C. Pyrgi became a maritime colony and a huge rectangular fortress was built, surrounded by polygonal wall. These were built on top of the Etruscan and prehistoric structures. This fortress continued to be used until 5th to 6th century A.D. (the Late-Ancient Period). It is believed that the structure was transformed to an important villa by this time. Also in the Late-Ancient Period, an early Christian church was build next to the port dedicated to Santa Severa. Santa Severa was a Pygrese martyr in the third century A.D. This early Christian church was only just discovered in excavations in 2007.

Santa Severa continued to develop on top of the older structures. During the Medieval and Renaissance periods, the village occupied only a quarter of the Roman fortress and had become a huge farming estate as well as a stopover port between Rome and Civitivechia (today where most cruse ships come in to visit Rome).

All of this history and building on top of things lead to a piecemeal fortress-style castle, not a palace like Versailles by any means. I kept low expectations of a pretty simple stone structure going in, and I was pleasantly surprised by what we found. There is a very castle-like Keep in the center, with towers and battlements. There are also impressive frescoes in the two “newer” churches and dug out excavations of the oldest church-- an early christian structure build on the remains of an Ancient Roman villa, a grain refinery turned graveyard with evidence of grave robbing, and a secret stairway with direct access to the beach. The whole structure reminded me very much of all of the medieval hill towns here in Lazio that we frequently visit. Which makes sense, since ancient castles were basically walled-in towns. The main difference here being that this entire structure, which could be a small town, has been in the ownership of a single body since at least Ancient Roman times.

Now that the castle is in the hands of the town, the idea is to open it to the public. This week was a bit of an experiment along those lines. I'm not sure about the time-line on those goals or if the idea is to just open it up or keep the guided tour structure. There are already some shops in one of the three courtyards before passing the door where our tour began. We were told no one is allowed past that door unaccompanied. And I'm not sure if I would have enjoyed all of the sites within without our guide, who lucky for me spoke very clear Italian. He was one of the archeologists involved in the actual excavation of Castle Santa Severa and was able to point out all of the cool little things that I would have missed without him. You can follow along our tour with my heavily captioned photos.

We rounded off the day with lunch on the beach in front of the castle. We stayed on the rocky side since the sandy part looked a bit damp. The beach here has been open to the public and a popular spot all along. In fact it had been on our list of beaches to try out for quite some time before Daniele heard about the castle opening. After, we finished with a visit to the neighboring town of Santa Marinella before it started to rain and we headed home.

Photos from the day: https://plus.google.com/photos/+KaitlynHanrahanIsidori/albums/6008215300922876865

Gathering Chestnuts

2013-10-18T15:55:00.000-04:00

Daniele's family gathers chestnuts every fall to enjoy in winter. They go to a forest-like park where they know chestnut trees grow and gather garbage bags worth of them.

This fall Daniele, his father Giulio, and I went to gather them. There has been an infection on the chestnut trees in Italy with a bug from Asia. Some of Giulio's friends failed to find any chestnuts at all, but Guilio knows all the places and brought us to a place where there were less than past years, but still as many as we could want to gather up off the floor.

I had never gathered chestnuts before, so I didn't know how it was done. We used a basket to throw them in as we went and several backpacks to transfer our hoard to when the basket gets full. The chestnuts themselves grow in little clusters, that remind me of garlic, the way they are shaped and grouped. The clusters are enclosed in a spiny shell, that is already opened and we toss aside wearing gloves.

The chestnuts covered the ground like a blanket, and the sound or more falling punctuated the quiet forest. But there are rules to which ones you take. Most obviously, you toss any with little holes in them; that means there are worms inside. It is hard to see these little holes and we had to toss many after we got home and could see them better. Once or twice we missed the worm hole and ended up with little toasty grubs alongside our chestnuts. Good news is you would never accidentally eat one of these worms. If he didn't run out of his roasting nut-house in the oven, you would see him when you broke the nut open to eat.

The second rule is you should go down into the forest farther to gather the bigger nuts. Giulio says the bigger nuts are heavier and end up collecting farther down. Daniele and I were so mesmerized picking up all the chestnuts on our way down, that we never made it as far down as him. And, in fact, Giulio had much nicer, bigger, chestnuts at the end of the day.

What do we do with all of these chestnuts? The classic way to eat them is roasted in the oven after a meal-- especially on a cold night. You cut a slit into the heard but meaty chestnut, then put it in the oven at 180 Celsius for maybe 20 minutes. They become a little darker, and soft or a little wilted looking. And then you make conversation while casually ripping them open and popping them in your mouth. You may only drink wine (red, normally) with your chestnuts, because water will swell your stomach. Chestnuts behave a bit like bread or rice in this way. In fact, chestnut flour is very common here in Italy.

We had so many, we looked up other things to do with them. Daniele made a delicious soup with chestnuts and porcini mushrooms. It was too much work to do often though. He had to roast the nuts, peal them, blend them, then make the rest of the soup.

Daniele's mother says you can't freeze them and have them still be good, but maybe it could work if you cook them first then freeze them after. We didn't try it, because we were ready for a break from chestnuts when the end of the “season” arrived. I'm looking forward to next year's though!

Some pictures from our adventure:
https://plus.google.com/photos/+KaitlynHanrahanIsidori/albums/6013737054044279473

Honeymoon in Santorini, Greece

2013-06-15T11:50:00.000-04:00

It has been a busy year, Daniele and I married in June and then moved in September. The routine of daily life has finally returned and I am once again tackling my ever moving goal of catching up with photos and trip writeups. Starting with our honeymoon.

After the wedding on the first, the breakfast on the second, clean-up on the third (while Daniele took his father and uncle to NYC), we left for home (Rome) the night of the forth, arrived the morning of the fifth which we used for unpacking/repacking, then left for our honeymoon in Greece on the sixth.

We spent the nine days of our honeymoon (June sixth to 14th) in Santorini, Greece, grazie to my now inlaws. Because June is apparently low season in Greece, there were no direct flights from Rome to Santorini, like there are in July and August. We had to stop in Athens both ways. On the way there we had such a long layover that we ended up with a day in Athens. Not enough time to really do anything, but we did get to walk around and see a bit of the city.

We chose Santorini because it is supposedly one of the most beautiful places in the world. Also June, while a lovely time of year in the Northeast United States and in Italy, is not a nice time to go to most tropical climates, like the Caribbean or south-east Asia. Additionally, Daniele only gets so much vacation time and he spent most of it doing yard work at my parent's house before the big day, so we had a short honeymoon, by Italian standards anyway, and we didn't want to loose too much of our remaining time in transit.

Santorini is a crescent-shaped island formed by a volcanic explosion. It is famous for the views of the giant lagoon in the middle. Because it is a volcanic island, most of the beaches are black sand and different from the more tropical islands in Greece, but the beauty of the island itself makes up for the lack of powdery white sand and the water is just as beautiful.

We stayed in a beach-front resort. While our typical vacations are more sight-seeing-packed, I really wanted a relaxing, sit-still honeymoon. Which was good foresight because I was pretty destroyed by the time the wedding actually happened. Our package included breakfast and dinner (so we didn't even have to worry about deciding where to eat every night, a big time-saver when traveling with Daniele). Looking back at our pictures and remembering this trip, my tummy has been grumbling thinking of all the delicious food we stuffed ourselves with everyday there.

We also rented a motorbike to get around the island. In the end, our resort beach was actually my favorite, but we still wanted to see the famous Red Beach, White Beach, and some other reportedly beautiful beaches, as well as all the little cities.

Link to pictures below. I wont repeat every place we saw now, since I have it on the photo captions. Also, be warned there are some sappy kiss-y photos mixed in with all the sweeping panoramas.

Photo album of our Santorini and Athens, Greece honeymoon:
https://plus.google.com/photos/111221349198606775660/albums/5973240689394637297

Terme di Saturnia

2013-03-24T17:03:00.000-04:00

Day trip with Daniele to Tuscan hot springs of Cascate del Gorello in Terme di Saturnia in the morning. Followed by visiting towns of Saturnia (Frazione di Manciano), Montemarano, and Tarquina in the afternoon.

Yesterday Daniele and I took a day trip two-hours north to some Tuscan hot springs, the Terme di Saturnia. There are a few spots, both open to the public and private pay-to-enter places to enjoy these Terme. We went to the public Cascate del Gorello (Cascate is Italian for waterfall). These are natural forming pools, similar to Bagni San Filipo, Castiglione d'Orcia also in Tuscany where we stayed in 2011. The alternative is man-built (or more likely Ancient-Roman-built) pools, like the ones in Viterbo. Where as Castiglione d'Orcia was a giant mound of calcium carbonate fit better for sun bathing as the water splashed by the smooth surface, the Cascate del Gorello were many small waterfalls each making a little pool with a whirlpool-like effect.

We headed out early (6 AM) to arrive at the Terme around 8 AM. Daniele had read it gets crowded, especially in the Summer. This is March, but it was also a Saturday. Personally, I think March is the perfect time to go. In the dead of winter I couldn't stand getting out, and in the hot summer, I don't think I would want to go in. There were only a few (~4) people already there, one other couple and some people alone who looked like "regulars".

We struggled for a little leaving our bag. We knew this moment was coming and had packed as light as possible reading that cars get broken into (like everywhere in Italy). Being there almost first we had a very good parking spot and we could choose anywhere to put our stuff, we put them on a mount of dirt I could see from almost anywhere in the waterfalls. An older couple that arrived as we were struggling with this, walked past us and put their stuff on the one hook. Clearly regulars. As more and more people arrived and everyone left their stuff more or less near ours and it felt safer.

The waterfalls couldn't have been formed better. The river flows down in a more forceful waterfall at the top, then into dozens of small and medium sized pools. The ones farther down are calmer and later on there were families with children down there. In the middle the water flowing into each pool from the one above makes it like a jacuzzi, and most people lean up against the back of that wall so the water runs over their shoulders. At the top there are a few spots where you can sit and let the more powerful waterfall pound away and your back. I sat here at the end, it was amazing.

We stayed at the Terme from a bit after 8 AM until a bit after noon. On the road down we had stopped to take a picture of the waterfalls from above at a view point and noticed there was a little picnic / rest area there. So we returned there to have the lunch we packed. You can see it is much more crowded now.

After lunch we went to check out the little town of Saturnia. These were Terme di Saturnia after all. Saturnia is pretty small, in fact it is not a city in its own right, it is sort of a suburb of another city. Italians call this a Frazione. Saturnia is a frazione of Manciano, where we did not visit. Daniele spent a large amount of the time there complaining how the people of Tuscany turn everything into a tourist sight, and how even a little town like this with nothing to see has 15 "brown signs".

View of private terme from center of Saturnia (Frazione di Manciano).

Next we went to the nearby city of Montemarano. Montemarano is really, really pretty. All the buildings here have the stone exposed, with cement holding them together, opposed to the more popular today stucco / cement siding. It was very charming. Thinking more about our water adventures (and the possibility of a car break in) than our afternoon walking around little Tuscan towns I didn't have my good camera, just my waterproof point-and-shoot. Since I use this camera less often, I didn't realize the battery was about to go dead, which it did shortly after we arrived here.

As sort of a random idea we made a quick stop on the way home in the city of Tarquina. This is just on the Lazio side of the boarder near Civitavecchia (where cruse ships come into Rome). Tarquina was the head city of the 12 that encompassed the Etruscan civilization (an important power in Italy overlapping and then consumed by early Ancient Romans). I got to know my Etruscan history staying in Volterra a little while back. The city is larger than the other two we visited today, but still charming. It had spread out beyond the walls of the historical center quite a bit, though we didn't explore that much. What was really amazing is that you could see the Mediterranean from this ancient hill town. Many old cities are on the sea, but this one didn't feel like a beach town, it felt like a hill town. We didn't have time to see the beach there, but I would like to go back. This is only an hour away and there is a UNESCO World Heritage site there we didn't get to see either.

We got home around 6 PM. Which gave us time to shower, unpack our things, clean up a bit, and heat up the frozen pizza I had specifically bought for tonight (don't judge, this is a once in a blue moon, also it's artichoke and ricotta in puff pastry, and it's delicious!). We were both exhausted (and delightfully tanned) from our four-hours simmering in the Terme.

The rest of the photos from this day trip:
https://plus.google.com/photos/111221349198606775660/albums/5859007497821517137

Coronation Pope Francesco

2013-03-22T09:36:00.000-04:00

It was pretty big news here in Rome, and everywhere, last month when Benedict XVI put in notice. It happened really fast, he announced on 11 February that his last day would be 28 February. I was mostly excited that I would be here in Rome for the Conclave. Unfortunately, conclave takes place over a period of time and you never know when the cardinals are going to come to consensus and send out that white smoke. They happened to decide very quickly, conclave started 12 March and they decided 13 March. I missed it. I watched on TV like everyone else, as they announced Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina Pope Francis, or Papa Francesco (after St. Francis of Assisi).

I was able to plan on being in the Vatican for the coronation of Papa Francesco. They call it a coronation from when the Pope was the ruler of the "Stato Pontificio" comprised of modern Lazio, Umbria, Marche, and southern-eastern Emilia-Romania. The new pope would hold a mass, which is special because the pope almost never does the mass, he just does the blessing.

We filled into St. Peter's Square, passing through security. The square was crowded, but we were able to enter. There were walk ways fenced off separating large areas for the crowds. The round piazza is a bit bowl shaped, presumably for water drainage, however it is not the best design for a stadium-type event.

Before things kicked off, Papa Francesco took a few laps around the crowds on an open top vehicle of some sort. Everyone was going nuts trying to rush to the fence where he was. The only time I saw him get down was near what I referred to as "Campo Argentina", there were supposedly some disabled people or children there.

The first part of the mass/ceremony took place inside of St Peter's Cathedral. It was pretty short and we had big screens to view it. The procession leaving the cathedral to the altar set up just outside was rather impressive. There are a lot of cardinals. They all had on their matching robes and were just generally impressive.

The mass was pretty normal. As mentioned, there was an altar set up just outside the doors to the Cathedral. There was an amazing choir to the left, along with the other clergy. The diplomats were seated to the right. Pope Frank gave a great speech on how we are not just Christians, but humans and doing good in the world. This was also the mass of San Giuseppe (Italian Father's Day), many people had books that they were following along with the mass and songs. I didn't get one until the mass was over.

I admit I was a bit lost in the mass, as it was in Latin/Italian opposed to my more comfortable English/Latin mass, though I probably understood better than most of the crowd (minus the Italians). Where as the every Wednesday Vatican blessing is repeated in several languages, very few parts were done in multiple languages.

At one point soft yellow and blue (the colors of Argentina) umbrellas seemed to almost be floating down where I knew the fenced off corridors to be. This was shortly after the "peace be with you" bit which was surprisingly fun as no two people I shook hands with said the same thing back to me. Right around then there was also a lot of shuffling in front of me and I took the opportunity to get closer. Then I saw there was a yellow and blue umbrella just in front of us, and beneath it a priest giving communion... duh. Though not that big a 'duh' because they normally don't give communion out in the square. In fact, Daniele says he's never heard of it.

Obviously at this point the mass was almost over, but I had a really great spot now! I hung around for a little hoping that Papa Francesco might make another round and we could spend more quality time together. But as that looked less likely I asked the Swiss Guard in front of me if anything else was planed, and it was not, so I headed out.

Pictures from the mass:
https://plus.google.com/photos/111221349198606775660/albums/5857941830730346881

Our Home

2013-01-20T12:45:00.000-05:00

I've been asked a few times to take pictures of our home in Monterotondo (Rome), Italy. It is a pretty new apartment building with a garage on the ground floor and four apartments on each of the three floors above.

We're on the “first” floor, that's a European first one floor up. We have a kitchen that opens to the living room, bathroom, a master bedroom, and a smaller second bedroom that functions as my office and a guest room. We also have a skinny balcony that goes along the whole North-West wall and wraps shortly along the North-East wall. The two bedrooms open onto that balcony. The kitchen opens to a larger balcony where we have a dinning table, clothes drying rack, and stairs to the garden below. All the windows in the apartment are doors to balconies except for the one in the bathroom. The window/doors are really interesting, they are made of double glass doors (window/air protection), a screen that slides to the side (bug protection), a plastic shade that rolls up into the wall above when not in use and could keep a vampire safe from sun when it is in use (for privacy), and an iron gate each with a unique lock (for security, everyone in Italy has these).

The aforementioned garden is the width of the apartment and right outside and below our kitchen. The building is surrounded by a ring of garden space minus the side where everyone enters the parking space under the building. The ring is sectioned into six pieces. We own one and seem to be the only ones who use ours, most the others are just overrun. It's not a huge space but it's very nice for a city. We have a patio covered with a kinda tent, a stone barbeque in the corner, some paving stones to navigate watering the plants, and another entrance in the fence from the garage. Normally it is very green with herbs, peppers, flowers, and Daniele's tomatoes, but I just took these photos now in January so it's pretty barren.

It's only 11 photos, so I will just link to the album rather than re-placing them here. Most of them are rough cut panoramas because I couldn't get much even on my wide angle lens in the space.

https://plus.google.com/photos/111221349198606775660/albums/5836701962471254273?authkey=CLHzp77w4_bBcw

I've started to make the place my own, but most of the décor was chosen by Daniele, his mother, or was just handed down when he first bought the place two years before we met. So don't expect it to really scream “me”.

Rome at the Holidays

2013-01-01T23:00:00.000-05:00

This year I came back to Rome right after Christmas. This allowed me to spend New Years with my sweetie and to see the holiday decorations in Rome that I normally miss. They strictly take them down after Epiphany. They put trees up in most of the big piazzas but their big thing are the Nativity scenes.

We started with an old special Nativity that was made by the garbageman. It is called the "Presepe dei Netturbini". It is actually open all year long, so coming this time of year when there is a line to get in may not have been the best idea. It is made to look like Jerusalem and incorporates pieces of rock from all over the world.

Next we went to Saint Peter's Square (the Vatican) where they had both a beautiful tree and nativity. Different countries in Europe alternate donating the tree to the Vatican. This year the tree came from Southern Italy. It was lit during a ceremony on December 14th. After the holidays the wood is donated to several groups that manufacture toys for children in need.

The nativity at Saint Peter's Square this year was modeled after Basilicata in Southern Italy, from where it was made and donated. It was very impressive. It had just been revealed Christmas Eve.

The city of Rome also decorated most of its streets with lights. Including a ribbon of lights down Via Del Corso and lamps down the high-end shopping street Via Condotti. Different shops alternate sponsoring the lamps on Condotti, this year they were from Mercedes who also put up a tree at the head of the street where it intersects Via del Corso. Fendi, who have their giant store at the location also have a tree there made of baguette bags. Most of the little side streets in the historical center are decorated as well.

Ribbon of lights down Via Del Corso

Mercedes lamps down the high-end shopping street Via Condotti. That's the Spanish Steps at the end.

Mercedes tree at Via Condotti and Via del Corso

Fendi tree at Via Condotti and Via del Corso

Piazza del Spagna (Spanish Steps) was probably the most impressive. The church at the top was all lit up and there was a giant tree with a nativity below. Approaching it by way of the sparkling Via Condotti made it all the more magical.

Nativity under the tree at Piazza del Spagna

We didn't think there was anything at Piazza del Popolo, but walking through there on our way home we found another tree!

We came back for another round on Saturday, January 5. We still hadn't seen all the big piazzas and that night they would be having Epiphany celebrations in Piazza Navona, so I could check that out, too.

We started with Campidoglio Hill. They had a tree and a small detailed nativity behind glass. They were also setting up another life-size nativity that would be revealed the next day as part of the Epiphany celebrations along with a concert I gathered. But we weren't free Sunday to come back.

We went next to the Colosseum. I just can't get used to turning a corner and seeing the Colosseum no matter how long I'm here.

From there we headed to Piazza Navona where it was full of people. Full. Navona is possibly the largest piazza in Rome. It is the ovular one with the three fountains, the middle one is themed after the four great known (at the time) rivers. It is the one they used to flood and stage naval battles in-- a big piazza. Along the sides there were vendors selling donut-like sweets and cotton candy, as well as toys and La Befana dolls.

A side note on the history and Italian traditions of Epiphany. While in the United States the Christmas Season is unofficially observed from Thanksgiving to Christmas day, in Italy on the other hand it is very officially observed from Christmas Eve night through Epiphany (January 6). These “Twelve Days of Christmas” are a celebration of the period from Christ's birth through the visit of the Magi / Three Kings / Three Wise Men. While you may have a Christmas party with coworkers or friends before this 12 day period, generally Christmas and its decorations and hoopla don't ooze too much out of it. This period is almost immediately followed by the start of Carnevale celebrations, which we in the US are completely lacking or think of as a single Tuesday. Perhaps that's why we like to make Christmas a month long.

Italian Epiphany traditions are largely aimed at children, and having grown up in the US I can't describe them first hand. What I have gathered is there is a type of witch named La Befana who is neither good nor bad. She enters children's homes from the chimney and leaves them candy or small toys in their stockings; bad children get coal.

A few days later we happened to be in Saint Peter's Cathedral and we saw they had a Nativity set up inside besides the one set up out in the piazza. It was so crowded and the photo can't do it justice, it was the most beautiful we saw.

The complete album:
https://plus.google.com/photos/111221349198606775660/albums/5836296191021293377

New York City With Daniele

2012-11-12T13:00:00.000-05:00

Back in November 2012, Daniele came to visit me in the States and spend Thanksgiving with my family. Since he takes very long vacations, we fit in a camping trip to some South-West parks rather than spend the whole time in NJ, more on that to come. Before we left, my very generous Aunt Linda let us use her timeshare at the Manhattan Club on November 12. This gave us two days to be tourists in NYC.

We mostly walked around and took in the sights. We passed through Times Square, Grand Central Station, the various characteristic sky scrapers, the New York Stock Exchange, and the adjacent building which served as the sight of George Washington's inauguration. They apparently give free tours of the Federal Reserve, but you must book in advance. A few other sites we had hoped to see were still flooded out from the recent Hurricane Sandy.

The biggest thing we did was take a free tour of the New York Public Library. The Librarian who guided the tour was full of fun facts on everything from the building itself, the NY library system, and NYC history. Besides being a beautiful building, there is a great deal of information in there free to use by the public. It seems a bit intimidating walking into the grand entrance hall, but it is all fairly accessible. There are many historical pieces there, including maps and the original stuffed animals of Christopher Robbin.

And because we are such classy people, we finished our trip off with a visit to the symphony.

All 30 photos from the trip can be found here:
https://plus.google.com/photos/+KaitlynHanrahanIsidori/albums/5986566616768896705

Update on the ground, Sandy edition

2012-11-04T00:35:00.000-04:00

Note, I wrote the following on 11/2 but was unable to get internet to post until 11/4, there is an update at the bottom

I flew back to NJ on the red-eye from San Francisco last night. Things here are about as I expected, wide spread power outages, but people getting by alright. Many people have generators after last years storm.

Personally, my parents have been without power since the storm hit on Monday. They had my grandmother over then since they have a generator and brought her back home once she had power again. Still no power here, but the generator runs everything, including the water pump. We just don't have TV/Internet. My dad was pretty excited I was bringing the internet home with me via my smartphone. Rest of the family either is back on power or also running a generator as far as I've heard.

LBI is almost definitely flooded, they say the ocean met the bay, but the island is still closed off, so haven't been down to check on the house yet. By a miracle my Aunt Linda, who always floods, hasn't so far so hopefully won't.

My mom is back at work, as Flemington is back on power. My dad is hanging out at home with me (and picked me up this morning) as the port is still closed. Note, port Newark has been closed without power for days. Be cautious buying refrigerated goods in your supermarkets for the next week or so-- everybody, not just NJ (your food/everything comes from here). The stuff should all be thrown out, but who knows.

The only thing that caught me off guard was that NJ seems to be going through a gas crisis. I had seen photos of people lining up with their gas cans at stations, but didn't really internalize the extent of it until this morning.

This morning my dad drove me to several bagel places before we found one open with power, a Dunken Donuts with a line out the door. Some people were getting breakfast for their whole families. Everyone was talking about gas. The guy in front of me had driven from two counties over, without finding an open gas station until the one across the street, where he waited two-hours for gas. Another waited an hour and a half yesterday, only to have them go dry before he got any. My dad drove far out west into PA until there were no lines, but he only has two gas cans so could only buy 10 gallons after that drive. He drove eight hours looking for more cans, can't find them.

Many gas stations are just closed with the power out. You need electric to pump gas. Some are using generators to pump, but running dry with the demand.

The guy at Dunks was apologizing for not having ice for iced coffee, or cup holders, or various other things. He hasn't had any deliveries. I would guess no deliveries would have to do with a lot of issues.

Update from 11/4
This morning my mom and I went out to do some errands, rather than sit at home and stare at each other all day. We found Clinton had partial power back but most places did not and were still closed. So not only is there no TV/Internet at home, there is nothing open outside. With nothing else to do we were forced to do yard work. We made about an SUV-sized pile of branches that had fallen in the yard, not counting larger ones that went into our firewood pile. There are still many more out there, we were just tired and it was getting dark. Plus a few trees that my dad will need to cut up before we can clear.

About an hour ago the electricity came back on here. So we are back to normal. We were able to do most things with the generator, but you hate to waste gas running non-necessary things and my dad has to turn it on in the morning. So tomorrow morning I'll be able to wash my face and brush my teeth without boiling water on the wood stove.

The gas shortage is a real thing and the governor, Chris Christie, has mandated an odd/even gas purchasing rule that started today/Saturday. Basically the last digit in your license plate number determines if can get gas on odd or even days; even plates can go on even days, and vice versa. Personally we are about 10 minutes from the PA boarder so it will not effect us, even if we need gas on an off day, which now that we have power should not be an issue.

I checked on LBI and they are still evacuating and not letting anyone on the island. They hope sometime this week to let homeowners in for a few hours to get some essentials. No word yet on when it will be open for people to do cleaning and repairs.

Eggplant Preserving

2012-10-19T21:04:00.000-04:00

I was recently having a conversation about preserving and prompted to write about how we preserve eggplant. There are two ways to do it, under oil and under vinegar.

I prefer the under oil version (Melanzane Sott'olio), as the vinegar version is a bit harsh for me. Daniele and I made this one together and it's super simple.

Ingredients:

Eggplant
Oil
Vinegar
Garlic (cut fine)
Herb (Parsley or Mint, not both)
Peperoncino (red pepper)
Salt
Jar

Slice eggplant 1/4 inch slices
Grill until dried out, pretty grilled, some black stripes

Layer into the jar:

2 or 3 grilled eggplant
salt
garlic
peperoncino
herb
vineger (every other layer)
oil
Start a new layer until finish eggplant or reach top or jar

Oil has to cover the top layer, top off the jar the next day, as the eggplant may absorb some oil, shift, or expand up. It seals it and prevents mold. At least that is what Italians say, I'm not an expert on the matter.

Wait a day or two to try them, they need to absorb the oil and flavors. Then they just get stronger and better over time.

The oil when the eggplant is finished can be used over salad.

The second method, the under vinegar version (Melanzane Sottaceto) is very similar. The main difference is the eggplant is not grilled, rather it is boiled in half-vinegar half-water. I have never made this one myself (as I'm not enough of a fan to eat a whole jar, but Daniele actually prefers it).

It was explained to me that you boil the eggplant in the vinegar-water, dry them out, and layer them like the under oil version. This online recipe seems right on target:
http://flavorsofitaly.blogspot.com/2009/07/nonnas-pickled-eggplant-melanzane.html

We normally make a meal of “fresh things” for lunch about every day in the summer, and these jars of eggplant are awesome cause they are always there and delicious. It takes the pressure off having to cook veggies when it is really hot out. We also made several big jars in August that should get us through the winter no problem. And they just get better over time, they absorb more and more of the flavor.

Changing Device Timezones

2012-10-15T13:06:00.000-04:00

I spend months at a time in different timezones. However, I often won't change my clocks. Sometimes someone will see my computer clock is wrong and point it out as if I don't know how easy it is to change. The problem is it totally messes up my calendar.

I view my calendar on my Android phones, tablet, and laptop. My phones change their clock on their own. I also have cameras and a wrist watch with clocks-- but those I always change since there is no calendar issue.

I use Google Calendar, here is how they handle timezones:
http://support.google.com/calendar/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2367918

The meat and potatoes of that link:
“Whenever you create an event, Calendar converts it from your time zone to UTC time, using currently known conversion rules. By using one universal time for all events, Calendar can keep all of your guests’ calendars consistent regardless of which time zones they're in. When we display the event on your calendar, it is converted from UTC to appear in your own time zone.

If you have a recurring meeting that spans across different time zones, then its time always remains constant for the organizer, and will shift for guests whenever their time difference with the organizer changes. That’s why if you’re in London and attending a weekly meeting that was created by your New York colleagues at 10am NY time, it will always be at 10am for NY, almost always at 3pm for you, but at 2pm during that particular week in early November.” [“particular week”, reference to US and GB change their clocks for Daylight Savings Time on different dates]

Indeed, Google is trying to solve a complex problem here. That's cool for the people who work at Google, who use Google Calendar a bit different from people like me. Personally, I don't have many recurring international meetings. Actually, pretty much all my events are just for myself. But hey, that's me.

Here is the type of use case I run into. I have a Nexus 7 tablet. This device currently is what plays my morning alarm, because unlike my phone which can get forgotten in a purse on the other side of the room, he lives by my bed so I can read him in the morning. I actually was getting a bit annoyed looking at the time three hours off (I just came from NJ to San Francisco) so I changed his clock from EST to PST. The next morning, I woke up before my alarm and was reading news in bed waiting for my alarm to go off before I got up to get breakfast. I wanted to dismiss it and not wake anyone else up. It never went off, but I had forgotten about changing the clock the day before so just wrote it off and moved on with my day. About three hours later I started hearing chimes. My tablet had changed the time of my alarm from 8:30 to 11:30 (or rather to 8:30 EST, 11:30 PST the same UTC time). Does this seem like it should be the default behavior? Do most people set alarms to notify themselves of some world-wide event (perhaps an space-shuttle launch), so they would need that time to adjust to their local time? Or are most people just looking to wake up around the same time every morning?

Those are alarms, it behaves the same for calendar events. So, if while in Italy, I make a doctors appointment for 3 PM on a Wednesday for when I'm going to be in NJ, I can put it in my calendar while still in Italy and my computer clock is set to Italian time. Then when I come to NJ and change my clock, that 3 PM appointment will jump to 9 AM on my calendar. Confusing, no?

I could have put the event in at 9PM when I was in Italy, as 9PM in Italy is 3PM in NJ, my target time for this event. The problem with this work around is I have to look at it on my calendar with that weird time up until I change the computer clock. That is really confusing for scheduling other events around it.

Fear of this behavior (and that I will not see something scrolled down on my smaller laptop screen) encourages me to put important events in my Calendar as all day events, with the time in the details. But unless this has been fixed since I last saw it, and this behavior I definitely consider a bug, an all day event I create in one time zone will actually change to a 3 AM to 3 AM (for example) event when I change timezones. If an event is July 8th all day, then it is July 8th all day in any timezone, IMHO.

I wish there was a way to opt-out of the time-zone syncing behavior, for my whole calendar, or for non-shared events, or for anything. As far as I can see, it's not an option. Until then, I just keep everything on EST.

UPDATE 10/24/12
The very smart Marc D responded to this post with

Marc Dougherty ‏@muncus
@kait3210 not sure if it is any better, but "use home time zone" in calendar settings that will always show the same time zone. Maybe?

It took me several days to figure what on earth he was talking about because I manage my Calendar 90% from my laptop and use my devices (phone, tablet) to make sure I'm not forgetting anything. I'm not normally playing with Calendar settings on these Android devices. I use Android because it syncs so easily with my calendar and I don't have to work to make it work-- like setting up Exchange in my iPhone days.

But sure enough, In an ANDROID Calendar, you can go to the three-dot-menu-button, Settings, General settings. Once there, I found a little check box to "Use home time zone" as well as one right below it to set your "Home time zone". As soon as I did this on my Nexus 7, all my appointments (remember, I changed this device to PST) jumped back to the correct time. Awesome solution.

This is an Android feature, the web version has no such check box. However, looking closer, I can set my Calendar timezone independently from my laptop time zone. It is in gear-shaped-button, Settings, General-tab, "Your current time zone" setting. Here I can set it to always be EST, or even add both EST and PST and both times display in two columns, but no non-US timezones. I can't believe I missed this feature! I only had to dismiss Google asking me if I wanted it to change my Calendar timezone when I changed my laptop timezone just now-- which I've never seen before, so maybe this is a newer feature.

It's nice to have my laptop clock on the right time. Just in time for me to blow out of town in another week.

Blue Angels in SF

2012-10-07T23:00:00.000-04:00

Our friends Chris and Lori have a Blue Angels party every year. It's also a fundraiser for the YMCA where Lori is on the board, which is really nice. They have the perfect location to watch the airshow, they are up on Nob Hill and have a great roof deck.

They also have a million friends who are all great people, so it's guaranteed good times. I got a few pictures.

Album with rest of pictures of the Blue Angel's Air Show 10/07/12 in San Francisco:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20121007BlueAngels#

New Jersey Pit Stop

2012-10-02T11:00:00.000-04:00

As much as I try to deny that I live in New Jersey with my parents, it is my legal address and where most of my stuff is (though I'm getting more and more to Rome). I much prefer more romantic version, where I'm a transient nomad going from city to city. Spending about half of my time in Rome and the other half, when I'm not legally allowed to spend more time in Italy, even though my fiance is Italian, traveling to various places.

It's pretty exciting sounding when I put it like that!

Anyway, I had to come back a bit early from my summer in Rome for an appointment with the Italian Consulate or Newark. I have been working on my Italian citizenship for years (blood citizenship through my great-grandfather) even before I made plans to marry an Italian. Actually, probably could have saved a lot of time and money if I knew that was going to happen, but at least this way my mom gets dual citizenship, too. I'll sum up that whole experience when it's finally over in it's own post. But the relevant part here is last September, after preparing for ages, holding the appointment for almost a year, reading everything we needed 10 times, they turned us down for something that they did not say they needed. At least Newark didn't write down that it was needed on their site/forms. New York actually did I saw latter, but I apply through NJ where I'm a resident. When we got turned down last September I immediately made the next available appointment... for the following September. At the time, a year ago, I didn't realize I was going to chop up my travel time so badly and I would have to fly home early for it.

I flew home Monday the 17th, our appointment was the 18th. We had a great person go through our application and they accepted it! I think if we had gotten her last time, I may already be an Italian citizen. Getting past this step means the consulate accepted the application, but it still has to be sent to Italy and actually accepted. Then in a few months we should be dual citizens and can then get passports just like American citizens get passports. I hear they're wicked expensive, but at this point, I would probably pay anything.

So exciting!

Then that Saturday I got all my five bridesmaids together to go bridesmaid dress shopping. It was the first time everyone got together-- which was the best part! We picked a dress at the end of the day, only to have them call a few days later and tell me its not actually available in the color I want. So, back at square one. Still a fun day.

Sunday, September 23rd, I turned 27. It's so weird cause I was just 24 (barely, but true!) when I quit Adobe, packed up my apartment, flew to Vegas, and set off on my gypsy adventure. Those older that 27 can scoff all they want at that age, but I still don't feel 24 anymore and the fact that this time has gone by so quickly but I can still physically feel myself aging is so horrifying that if I had a real job to quit again now, I just might do that. As it is I'm sort of out of radical early mid-life crisis actions.

Since I had just spent the day before with my best girlfriends, I was in the mood for a chill bday. I went into NYC and spent most the day with Danny G, Brian G, his GF, and Matt H. Brian and I have the same birthday and Danny had just moved to NYC, actually really close to Brian all in the East Village. Fun day!

When the night was finally over I found my [mom's] car had been towed back in Hoboken. I had to walk a bazillion miles on already sore feet and pay a million dollars to get it back. The spot I parked in was apparently an individual's reserved spot on the street. I didn't know that was a thing!

During the week I got a bit of wedding stuff done. Then we had a jam packed weekend. My cousin Marc and his new bride Vivian just bought a house. They invited my parent's and I over Friday for dinner to come check it out. Saturday his sister Michelle had a birthday party for her oldest, Eight-years-old already! Then Sunday we did a little combined birthday dinner for my uncle and I with my mom's side. Monday my matron of honor went out with me to do some dress research. We found two beautiful dresses and now it's just a matter of choosing.

Now, after those two crazy weeks back home, I'm off to California! I'm spending the month of October in my old stomping grounds, San Francisco, staying with the lovely Jenna H. I'm super excited to see old friends, drink beers, and not be home in NJ!

Adventure!

Rome Summer 2012

2012-09-16T11:45:00.000-04:00

I'm just finishing another round in Rome. This trip was a bit shorter because I have to return to NJ for my Italian citizenship appointment, which I've had for a year and could not be moved. After that I'll be state-side until 2013.

I wanted to give a recap of the trip. I was here July 24 through September 17, so only a month and a half really.

We went to the beach any day off we had. Last year we went to Ostia more, which is “Rome's beach”. It's a bit crowded there, but they have a great gelateria! This year we mostly went to Fregene, which is a bit north, so easier for us. It's considered a bit more high class, for whatever reason. I liked it because I like walking around the area and looking at the beautiful villas. However there are less shops, so we pack our own lunch to come here.

We also made it into the center pretty often. Went to happy hours, markets, or just walked around taking pictures. Along the river in the summer temporary bars, restaurants, and markets set up. They are open late at night and light up the whole river. Daniele has been going a bit crazy buying happy hours and dinners on online coupon sites.

Rome's "Isola Tiberina" all lit up for summer

There is always a lot going on in summer. We were able to organize Daniele's friends Gerlano and Valentina as well as family for dinners and different things. We went to Magic Land, a medieval kingdom themed park. And we had a nice BBQ picnic for Ferragosto, a holiday the 15th of August.

Gerlando and Daniele at the BBQ

The big thing we did was take two back to back mini-vacations to Umbria. First to stay with cousins, second just for a weekend away. I wrote about those already is separate posts.

All in all a pretty good summer and a good trip, even though it had to be so short.

Next up is a two-week stop back home in NJ. I have that citizenship appointment, my birthday, a bunch of wedding stuff to do (including bridesmaid dress shopping), and a few family parties. Then I'm off to San Francisco for October!

The full photo album from this trip:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20120724Roma#

Umbria Getaway to Passignano sul Trasimeno, Perugia, and Todi

2012-08-26T11:57:00.000-04:00

Last Christmas Daniele's brother gave him this little MoveBox, which is an Italian company that sells hotel packages. There are different ones, with different themes. Ours was places with “Charm”. The little box that the gift certificate came in included a book of countless places, mostly agriturismo (converted farms). Many of them had pools, so we had been waiting for a chance to use it in the summer.

We first thought we would stay in Tuscany, but since it is August, many places were full or had minimum stay policies. We ended up choosing a beautiful place, Agriturismo Podere Borgobello in Colle Umberto near Perugia, Umbria instead. I was excited to see Perugia. This was also near Lake Trasimeno, which Daniele wanted to see.

Our “weekends” work around Daniele's work schedule, typically the day after his night-shift and his day-off the following day. When he came home, around 7:30am, we finished packing up and hit the road for Umbria.

The first stop was Lake Trasimeno. We visited the city, Passignano sul Trasimeno, which was a cute old town right on the lake that also went up into the surrounding hills. There were trails that went up into the hills, which we did a little of, but it was a hot August day, so I was not very interested in doing more of that. We did get some nice views of the lake below, though. The city also features a “Rocca” or castel-like fortess structure right at the center, which I always love.

Rocca of Passignano sul Trasimeno

Me in Passignano sul Trasimeno

Passignano sul Trasimeno port

The area around the lake was nicely set up for tourists or day-trippers. They had public bathrooms (not easy to find in Italy), a shaded picnic area (that we took advantage of with sandwiches we made that morning), and a spring water dispenser. Many Italian cities/towns have these water dispensers. Locals can typically get a key to get free still or naturally sparkling spring water; everyone else pays 5 cents a liter, which is almost free.

After lunch we went off to the little town of Colle Umberto to find this Podere Borgobello where we were staying and hopefully use their pool! And that's just what we did the rest of the afternoon. We had passed signs on the way for a pizzeria, Il Cucuzzaro. Daniele hates going places he has not already eaten, but when we showed up here, they could hardly fit us in they were full with reservations. Now, we're really in the middle of nowhere, so that's really impressive. The food was great, and nice size portions, and cheap. I got the Ortalana Pizza, that's with zucchini and peppers on it. It was really good, they roasted the veggies before putting them one the pizza, rather than just letting them cook on the pizza. And there were a mix of different peppers all were fresh and delicious. Daniele got some type of pasta with goose meat. It came with hand made pasta and was apparently very good.

Agriturismo Podere Borgobello in Colle Umberto (PG)

Saturday morning, after a delicious buffet breakfast, we went to Perugia. We were given some parking advice, to go to the lot at Piazza dei Partigiani, since it was still pretty early. From there we easily took the escalators to the top if the ancient town.

Like most Italian cities, Perugia is famous for a particular export, Perugina Chocolate – the company that make those little Baci among many other delicious things. I was hoping there would be a general Chocolate culture, like Modica, Sicily, but it seemed to really just be Perugina. They had a store right in the middle of the historical center where I bought a bar of Fondente Luisa. This is apparently the original dark chocolate recipe the founder started the company with. It's pretty good!

The escalators of Perugia bring you right into the old 'Rocca' or fortress that once upon a time was all that Perugia was. It's remarkably well preserved and pretty much open to be wondered around. From here you take a second, shorter escalator out to the “modern” historical center. We came up in Largo della Liberta where there happened to be an antiques market happening. There also is the Palazzo della Provincia, the equivalent of a County Capital Building right there and the main, store-lined, street that leads to the main square. The main square is dominated by two large buildings, one on each side. There is the Palazzo dei Priori and the Cathedral of Perugia.

Daniele in Rocca Paolina of Perugia

Me in antiques market in Perugia

As implied by all the escalators, Perugia's historical center is high up. After we hit the big sites we wondered around a bit and found some beautiful views of the surrounding cities and countryside. There are also some park areas, some small side streets, and just generally lots of charm. I really liked Perugia!

Via Baglioni in Perugia

Panorama of Perugia from above

We started our day early to beat the heat and felt we had seen what we came to see by early afternoon. So we went to another city not to far and generally in the direction of driving back to Rome, Todi. Daniele wanted to go to Todi last weekend and Spoleto won out, which I think was a good call since Spoleto is a bit bigger with a bit more to see. Something I just learned, Todi is a city in Umbria, Toti is the very famous captain on the Roma soccer team, and Todis is a large supermarket brand. In case there is any confusion.

When we got to Todi we had no change for the parking machine, but by some miracle there was some the return change slot, so we used that to pay for two-hours of parking. In that time we climbed up to the top via the main street, stopping for random photos along the way, went around the very top a bit, and came back down. Then we stole some figs from a tree before Daniele pointed out to me they were actually privatly owned (it seemed like a public area). It was my first time eating a fig right off a tree and it was delicious! I saved a few that I made into pizza the next day. Maybe someday I'll make a food blog. Overall Todi was charming. We were tired, so I don't know if we missed things, but it felt like we saw it all in two-hours.

Via Giacomo Matteotti in Todi

Then it was back home to Rome. Such a lovely weekend!

Photos from this trip are online here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20120824UmbriaGetaway

Websites in Italian

2012-08-23T19:52:00.000-04:00

I can't really say how frustrating it is to use my browser when I'm in Italy sometimes. My browser, the application that runs the most on my computer. My computer, my dear friend. It's a betrayal and an example of what you can versus what you should do in terms of applying technology.

The technology I'm talking about is determining a browser user's location. In my two-years as an expat I feel like more and more website I go to open up in Italian on me. Often with no way of turning it off or switching back to English.

Just now I went to Macy's website. Granted, I googled it first, though I could have guessed the URL. So I deserved to be sent to the .IT version of the site, with blown up "WE SHIP TO ITALY NOW" covering the whole site. I quickly changed the URL to the standard www.macys.com and saw the normal american-aimed site that I wanted. From there, found a link to the info I sought. Only to be hit again the moment I clicked it "WE SHIP TO ITALY NOW". Give it up, Macys, I'm so not interested.

Even earlier today, I went to my AdWords account to see why the ads are gone from my blog (robbing my of those potential pennies in case anyone were to click them!). I log in and it's in Italian. I'm logged in! Google knows me. Google probably knows me better than my mother. So I google (ha) how to change your language preference in AdWords Dashboard and navigate through the Italian to find the setting, but it is already English. It mush be a setting for the language of the Ads, but looking at the "Inglese" sure felt ironic. Yes, I get by in Italian, but these are setting panels, it brings me to the level of a 70-year old blind women.

Speaking of Google. I have tried everything to get my browser search bar to default to google.com, rather than google.it. If I put google.com in the navigation bar while in Italy, it forwards to google.it. The only way to get to google.com is to use iGoogle-- somehow that knows I'm me, American, and not to give me all Italian language search results. Just the normal wikipedia first then everything else, that I expect. But iGoogle is being phased out by Google and will be turned off November 2013. So I guess I'll have to get better at reading Italian and wean off wikipedia.

Now I'm not saying all websites should always be in English, I'm saying that if you are going to offer multiple language versions of your website, which is great, you should do that, let the user choose to change it after you maybe pick the default based on location. Don't assume every person in any location prefers one language. Like half the people in Italy at any given time are tourists (I think I read that in a Rick Steves once, I can't back up those numbers), so it's not that safe a bet as you might think that a person here wants to speak Italian. Plus we already can't get to Hulu, Netflix, Pandora, Spotify, NBC.com, or even the pirate bay. Also the fastest internet you can get is DSL but most people use "internet keys" which is cell phone tethering. And no, there is no 4G, lots of places have Edge or even no data coverage. So, don't kick dirt in the wound by making inaccessible websites. It's just mean.

Whoops

2012-08-22T14:00:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted about any of my travels in over 6-months! Whoops!

So here's what happened. I went to Istanbul last April and literally took over 1,000 pictures. Now I shoot with a Nikon D90 in camera Raw and like to post process my pictures, choose the best, add captions, put them in an album online. At the same time, write about my adventures in a blog post (90% for my own prosperity, but 10% in case anyone else enjoys it) and add a few of the photos relevant to the travel story.

I was so overwhelmed with the idea of processing those 1000 Istanbul photos that everything stopped. I still haven't started with those 1000 pictures from Turkey, but I'm going to move past this block. Starting now I'll write about and upload pictures from trips as I take them and try to back fill the last 6-months when I can.

In the next few days (weeks?) I'll fill in recent adventures like the weekend Daniele and I just spent in Umbria with his cousins there. Also Ferragusto just past, August 15 is a holiday that Italians all take off from work and picnic-- so fun! And we're going to Umbria again next weekend; probably to Perugia where I expect to eat lots of chocolate. Daniele and I also recently went through lots of paperwork and I finally mailed in my petition to sponsor his fiance visa, so we can get married in the US. That's a bit of a different kind of adventure, but I think I'll record our experiences with it here just the same.

Cheers!