Patt with Two T's

It's Wednesday early evening; we arrived in Naples around noon today—it took longer than we thought it would. Backtracking a bit: yesterday we took the train to Pompeii. Matthew says this is something he's wanted to see since he was in 8 th grade, so it was cool to know his dream was coming to fruition on this trip. I had checked online about tours and they were really pricey—something like € 250 for the two of us for a few hours. I didn't book anything, fortunately, because when we got there, this handsome Italian with dimples sidles up to me and says something cute like how a pretty lady needs a tour guide. I couldn't have agreed more.... So for € 10 each, plus the € 10 entry fee each, we had a great 2 hour tour...though not with the dimples—he was just the lead man. We had Mario, a grandfatherly type of cute Italian.  There were 4 other couples in our group, which was a perfect size. I wish I'd taken notes—we know Matthew can tell about everything we saw and h...

 We arrived yesterday after searching out our hotel--another lost story, which seems to be the theme of this trip.  Okay, I've never said I have a sense of direction, nor do I say oh, I can read a map in any language, but give me a break when the map has no or few street signs and the streets aren't marked with any signs either!  Plus, when you do finally find a street name, it changes in the next block to something else you don't see on your map.   So we're lost in Sorrento which is crawling with tourists, end up driving down towards the wharf area trying to find the information office, which we passed but didn't notice and which turned out to be closed anyway.... and end up on this narrow, one-way circular drive that's for taxis only.  One of the many drivers who are standing around blocking our way of getting through comes to the car and very politely tells us we can't be there...so we ask how are we supposed to get out since the road is blocked with ta...

the view from our room outside our door a nearby square that had a live band playing tonight the largest square --the fountain changes colors eating in a cave--see Mom, we're fine and not too much fatter on the way back to our room--this is just outside the door.  Pretty f'ing awesome, I'd say oh, well....notice the cookies on the top shelf?  looks just like those killer cookies at Mini-Mezza Luna.  We're not sure they're the same, so we bought some to try later. My art shot of the night....it's our view and my camera having fun.

Saturday: After very little sleep listening to the rain and wind all night, we 'awoke' and got ready to leave Puglia. We said goodbye to the Oregonians, then headed into the darkest clouds towards Matera. It should have taken us about 2.5 hours, but it took 3 since 1. it rained like a mother and 2. we got a little lost and ended up at the ocean instead of inland. We finally arrived in Matera and found the information place without much trouble. We asked her advice on which hotel we'd listed from the travel book (we gave the book to the Oregonians to take since they had nothing with them except the GPS and were heading to another area of Italy that was covered in our book). The information woman made a reservation at Hotel Sassi and told us how to get there. She said we had to leave our car since it was walking only in this part of the town and it should take us 10 min. At least 45 minutes later with the rain coming down constantly on us, and us without umbrellas or that gre...

 I notice I have skipped yesterday(Tues)—which was a nice day in Gallipoli, about 20 min from here. This is also an old town with a large fishing port. The area is pretty and interesting, but it's very touristy with lots of shops selling overpriced tourist crap. We ate at another recommendation from one of our many books. Puglia is known for certain specialties, and the one at this restaurant that sounded like a good idea was sharing their antipasti dishes as a main course. They had 4 or 5 different dishes, many of which turned out to be fish—octopus in vegetables, octopus in tomato sauce, polpette which is the rolled thing, this time it was snapper with something inside, eggplant minced with other stuff, a small piece of bread with something on it, also unrecognizable. Matthew really liked everything—I bet you can tell I was not overwhelmed. By the time we returned to the apartment, we decided to hit the pool for awhile with our Kindles. The neighbors from Oregon were down there—w...

BLOG 2-- PUGLIA—NARDO Arrived today at 2 after the 3-hour drive to Rome Airport. We forgot to stop for gas, so found a station just outside the airport, but no way back in for the car return....10 min later we found a turn off outside a town where we had to pay to turn around at the autostrade, then pay again to get back...like € 2 for the experience of a u-turn. We finally got back in and returned the car with about an hour till our flight was to leave and us not even in the terminal. Got the bags checked, found where to go, and made it just in time to stand in line to board. Whew. All this and hot and humid to us (no to others, I’m sure, since it’s not over 80*). We had more trouble finding the condo complex than finding the town, so arrived here around 4:30. check-in is supposedly at 6, but thankfully they were checking people in and we were in condo #1, which is near the office on the ground floor. We spent just a few minutes in there before deciding to ask if they had something...

  Drove to Siena today and after an extra hour's detour through Volterra way the hell up in the mountains, we arrived in time for lunch. No surprise there.... anyway, we went to La Torre, which is where we had the most fabulous pasta 9 years ago. The place still looks the same except he's upscaled it slightly with tablecloths instead of just the formica tables. Oh, and the procuitto doesn't hang on the wall now; it's sitting discreetly on the counter. BUT the drying homemade pasta is still on the table as you walk in...and it's just as delicious as we remember. The owner doesn't give you a menu; he tells you what he has and what he wants you to have....so I got the fettucine, which was wide and thin, with Bolognese sauce and Matthew got the same pasta with funghi sauce. Both were great. So great, rather than have another course, we had another pasta—this time, we asked for the one we had years ago, which she called fiocchi. We're not 100% sure it's the ...

Today, Thurs, we headed to some nearby towns since we haven't seen that much of what's right here. It was really fun to see the area and walk around. We ate lunch at a place recommended by one of our books, but they didn't have the dish mentioned in the book—artichoke lasagna, which is what I was wanting. I had the ravioli with spinach and ricotta and Matthew had the pasta with pigeon and boar in a sauce. Both were delicious, but I swear something hit me—like did they lace my lunch with sleeping drugs? I couldn't keep my eyes open. We headed to another town, and I missed most of the landscape because my eyes refused to stay open! We did end up in a really cool hill town—actually two—but the last one we read about has a restaurant with a Cordon-Bleu trained chef, so we made reservations for dinner tonight. Yeah, I know...we're all about food. Dinner was good, but now I want to swear off food for the rest of the trip. Or until we go to Siena tomorrow and find the bes...

Florence by day... We planned on getting up early, but we had a difficult time sleeping—I because someone didn't want the air conditioner on, so I slept a little, then woke up hot and couldn't get back to sleep and Matthew said he thinks it was the large dinner finishing late along with the very chocolate desserts. We did make it to breakfast at the hotel with about 10 min. to spare. I don't think they were too happy we were still sitting there after 10, but what the hell.. We checked out and left our bags there, then went to the nearby stone museum, Peitre Dure, recommended by Judith as a good one. We were able to walk right in, plus buy tickets for David for 3:30. We enjoyed the stone works from the Medici home and other places and loved the great samples of agate from around the world.  agate slices....malachite fireplace....inlaid stones Before leaving San Vincenzo, I looked up bead stores in Florence and emailed a shop called Beaded Lily to say we'd be there and...

Arrived at noon, found our hotel without too much hassle—only one wrong turn, which isn't bad at all and parked in the garage around the corner from the Hotel Cellai,which cost €2 3 for 24 hours and € 2.50 for each hour thereafter. The hotel's room is small, but adequate, though the shower leaves something to be desired. They recommended Trattoria Zanobi for lunch, which was around the corner and not frequented by tourists. Just good homemade food and a nice pleasant place. We shared a Cabrese salad, then Matthew had pesto pasta and I had risotto with zucchini. After lunch, we went to the Duomo Museum since all other except the Accademia closed at 1:30 for the day. The Accademia had long lines and we didn't have a reservation, which we found online for € 39, so skipped. The museum we did visit had mostly sculptures and the best was eavesdropping on a professor who was lecturing about some of the larger pieces. I asked one of the students later, and she said they're from...

Before Rick Steves, back to last night: we ate outside by the water and it had more in common with Barbara's than originally thought...not a real warm night with that ocean breeze coming in. It was actually better than HMB, but still I had to bundle up during dinner. I had bruschetta pomodoro with the freshest tasting tomatoes, then tuna steak with sesame seed crust over rocket, which we have grown in our backyard. Matthew ordered a warm seafood appetizer crostini, but it was blended together and none too exciting to me. Then he had the black ravioli, which we figured was squid ink...also not to my taste. He liked it, but mine was a much bigger dinner. :-) Today we changed our plans. Instead of going to Siena, we're doing that later in the week and went to Lucca and Pisa instead. I hadn't slept much at all last night, nor did he, so I thought it would be better to drive 1.5 hours to Lucca, then home from Pisa which is 1 hour away instead of 2+. So why do I no longer tr...

We had a little trouble finding the rental office as we schlepped our bags around the building at the airport, but finally got the car, which turned out to be a little box with barely a trunk—not what Matthew ordered. But we said the hell with it since we were tired and had to get on the road for the 3 hour drive to San Vincenzo. It was already 4:00 and we'd arrived around 7. We had no trouble with the driving or getting to our destination—used the map book Larry and Judith loaned us, but it was easy....and we're old hands at toll roads. We had no money since our ATM cards wouldn't work in the machine at the airport, so we used the credit card for the eu1.90 tolls. Got in at 7 pm and into our apartment. It's fine—nothing fancy to be sure, but good enough. The kitchen is lacking, though it has a sink, good sized refrigerator, and 4 burner electric stove, microwave, but only a small espresso maker and no toaster or other appliance. We do have all the plates and silver...

Days like today make me wonder why anyone travels. The day started when we got to the Burlingame Hilton airport shuttle service, No problem finding it or parking, but the shuttle driver picks us and another couple up as he's answering his cell phone...another driver has been stopped by the police, so he has to cover his shift at another hotel. We had to wait for another shuttle to arrive, exchange cars, then do another pick-up before getting to SFO. You know those flights when there's one 2 year old on board who's out of control with crying, screaming, getting overtired, so it's impossible to sleep? Well, that was my row today....and her young mom had had such a bad day already with her car being towed in SF with her daughter's suitcase inside, then leaving her cell phone with her boyfriend by mistake—and he won't be returning home to NY for 2 more days—that she was in tears. She had no time to buy her food before arriving at the gate and she barely touched th...