March 17 off to Toronto then Zurich then Florence.
At the AC lounge in Regina at 9:30 am and Scott had a beer just because he could! Same thing in the Toronto AC lounge. Then it is time for our long flight. We are all so excited that we didn’t try and sleep. We watch lots of movies. Well, Neil did do some work and then he watched movies. And the flight actually had decent French wine so that was a bonus. Viola ! and we are at Zurich on March 18th. We had a 1.5 hours to catch our flight to Florence. It was tight but we made it and when we arrived in Florence so did our baggage. Unbelievable! Those baggage handlers deserve a medal.

March 18 Arrive in Firenze and take a cab downtown. We meet up with VRBO owner Donatella and drop bags until we can get into our place. Wander for a couple of hours just soaking up; the architecture. Piazza della Repubblica had a flea market and carousal. Stunning. Originally a site of a roman forum . We walked to Ponte Vecchio (built in 1345) a bridge over the river Arno that is lined with shops (mostly expensive gold jewellery but originally butcher shops). I believe it is the only bridge that survived bombings during the WWII war. We wander over to the Uffizi museum, Italy’s greats art gallery built in 1560 – 1580 You need to pre buy tickets and it is extremely lined up. We decide to have lunch in the sun at Signoria Piazzo. It was so relaxing while sipping on a glass of wine and having a few nibblies. After lunch we gather our bags from the landlord and then walk short distance to condo. It is nice with 3 floors in a very old building but done up very modern.

 

 

And right behind Duomo which is a huge massive building. Scott naps and Neil and I go out exploring. We happen upon the market at San Lorenzo. I get some bracelets and a wrap. Neil gets a scarf. We head back to get Scott and go for early supper at Trattoria San Lorenzo. We started with antipasti platter and carpaccio that came with large thin slices of parmesan and then on to main courses that included a wonderful Chianti. Main courses included boar and beef! We had an early night.

 

 

March 19 Sunday Scott is raring to get going and is yelling at us to get up. What is wrong with this picture? Definitely not the norm. We stop for an espresso and shortly after we stop for “pranzo”. Scott is drinking Prosecco with us. WTH! We are slowly converting him to wine! We walk past Piazza Di Santa Croce which we decide we will come back to later. We cross The Arno river at Ponte alle Grazie and continue uphill. We end up walking through residential areas around a big valley and come to San Miniato al Monte basilica and Benedictine monastery. We lit a candle for our puppy “Grapes”. The view of Florence is stunning with the Duomo so large and imposing on the skyline. Then it is on to Piazzale Michelangelo (1875) which is another vantage point surrounded by a rose and iris gardens. We stop for gelato and soak up the view. Scott gets some sunglasses from a street vendor. We wander back to Piazza Di Santa Croce and the gothic basilica of Santa Croce (1225). This church is the burial place of Michelangelo and Gallileo.

 

 

The side cloisters and grounds are spectacular. A side chapel showed the levels of flooding over the years including 1966 which was the highest level for the river Arno. There are incredible frescos and cloisters. We then headed back to condo and eventually go searching for supper. We make a stop at Prastesi, a leather shop. Scott gets belt and wallet. Neil gets a travel duffle. Ellen looks at purse (yes I buy it the next day!!) We wander to the other side of river by crossing Ponte Vecchio to the Oltrarno district, passed the Pitti Palace (1440) which housed 3 royal dynasties: Medici, Lorraine, and Savoy. We stop in an open square for a light supper of really no excitement which was a little disappointing. Wandering back towards the condo we go through the high end shopping district. Stop for dessert. Almost everywhere has free wifi so no problem doing the social media obligations.

 

 

March 20

We catch a light breakfast of espresso and pastry in front of Duomo . Scott looks like he is fitting into the scenery. I go buy the purse from last night from Pratesi.   Scott gets cigars for Eric and then we gather our bags and then shut the door to the condo. At that time, Neil discovers he is missing his sunglasses. ARghh!!! We wonder how we are going to get the glasses? We wait around thinking the glasses are a write off. Then a woman just happens to show up with the key!! She opens the door and Viola! There are Neil’s sun glasses laying on the floor.
We take a cab to the car rental. We do a few circles on round-about trying to leave the car rental place while trying to get our bearings and then …… we are off to the south.
We try to find Samazzano Castillo for about an hour and then give up. This castle was featured on BBC travel and it looked spectacular. We find out later that we were right there. May try and catch it on the way north next week. We head straight south to Spoleto. It is difficult to actually find the exits for Spoleto but eventually find the supermarket to meet Laurie, a Brit, who is the property manager. What a beautiful town of 38000 people. Drive up to the condo which is near Piazza Mercato to drop luggage. The passageway is very narrow and we almost don’t fit. We then take the vehicle back down to the parking lot. We get settled in and then go exploring. Passageways, streets, cobble stones, lookouts and alleys – it is so awesome. Spectacular, really! Supper at Mercato Ristorante right in Piazza Mercato which is around the corner from out place. We also notice that there are glass floors with a view to the roman ruins on the edge of Piazza Mercato.

 

March 21

A beautiful day so we decide to catch espresso and pastry in Piazza Mercato and then pick up supper ingredients at the butcher shop. We all go kind of crazy in the shop with the meats and cheese, and wine. All the ingredients look fabulous. It was also so exciting to see an old geezer selling fresh new spring asparagus and artichokes in Mercato square! We drop the goodies at the VRBO and head uphill to Piazza del Duomo and Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta. What a beautiful church! We were not expecting that right around the corner. We light a candle for Grapes, our puppy. We continue uphill to Piazza Campello and on to the castle. We still are not far from the VRBO. There is a path around the perimeter. We do the path around the perimeter of the castle and come along to the Aqueduct Ponte delle Torri. Spectacular views! It is hard not to continue to take pictures. We decide to walk down to the lower part of the town passed our VRBO. There are lots of cool shops. The optical shop has different styles and reasonable prices for frames. We head over to Liberty square and have a fabulous lunch. The sun was shining and we had a perfect table in a little narrow passageway outside the restaurant Pentagramma. I had Guinea fowl with rosemary potato pancake. Neil had boar ravioli. Scott had savoury pudding appetizer in a stemmed glass and then gnocchi. We had a couple of bottles of a local white wine with the grape sagrantino. It is very good and refreshing. After our elaborate lunch, we needed to head back to our place to charge our phones and have a little nap. Later we go out to head down to train station to purchase tickets and figure how long we need to get there tomorrow morning. We take the elevator down to the travelator in center of the hill which takes us down to where we want to go. How progressive is that for a medieval town to have a conveyor belt walkway in the center of the hill with elevators up to the various piazzas?
We get back to our place and notice the deli place outside our door is finally open. There are tons of cheeses and meat. Of course, we can’t control ourselves and buy more ingredients. Supper tonight was cooked in and was fresh local artichokes, asparagus, lettuce with an egg on top. Also, made bruschetta and had some of the wine we bought. We had lots of fun just cooking and relaxing in our place.

March 22

The Travelator is not open until 7 am so we walk down to the train station. The train to Rome is at 7:33 am. It is 1.5 hours to Rome. Our driver, Enrico from Rome in a Limo http://www.romeinlimo.com/ picked us up at the train station. Rome in a Limo is excellent. We saw all main highlights, of course and a few extra such as the Knights of Malta Keyhole view of St. Peter’s at piazza dei Cavalleri, an overlooking view of the Travestere neighbourhood and a little shopping and the market with lunch. We felt like celebrities because the limo would pull up the closest he could get to the sight we were visiting and let us out and then be waiting for us on the other side. People would stare and wonder “Who are these people?” They look pretty ordinary……… Some of the highlights included the Parco Savello which is a park in Aventine and has a great view of Rome and Tiber river. The Church of Santa Sabina, Giardino degli Aranci. At Trevi fountain the hustlers sucked Scott in to 2 bracelets (he is way too friendly) which cost us 10 euros! WTH! How did that happen? Circus Maximus, Piazza Navona where we got 2 paintings from a painter. Not exactly originals but kind of. Wish we could of bought the painting of the Cinque Terre since we are going there next but thought we would see art there. This was not the case.  Coliseum, Spanish Steps, Pantheon, Palatine hill, Via Della, Vecchia, St Peters and Vatican. We couldn’t touch Peter’s foot like we did 24 years ago because it was blocked off. Apparently, Peter’s foot is experiencing too much wear. Momento Vitorio Emanuele II park which is overlooking the city then the neighbourhood of Travestere which just so happened another optical shop! Awesome – Neil and Ellen bought glasses.
Then they dropped us back at the train station so we could catch the train back to Spoleto. Several times to choose from so we decide to do a little shopping. Nothing too major. We catch the train and sleep on the way back. We are a little unsure of where to get off but there are 2 Spoleto stops. We ask a women and she confirms what we were thinking. Back in Spoleto we are determined to take Travelator up but can’t find the entrance!!!! and we end up doing even more steps!

 

March 23
Sleep in because we were so tired. When we eventually get out the door we see the Tartifu place is finally open. Neil goes crazy. Wine, truffle cream and Lonza. Also a big hunk of cheese which we find out later is lard coated in rosemary and thyme! We had a good laugh but we did use some of it in our pasta sauce for lunch. Later we head down the shopping street. Scott buys an Italian watch. Then it is off to the optical shop. Scott and Ellen get frames. Back to our place and make lunch. Truffle pasta and veal with salad. We sit outside the door of VRBO with a little table and red and white checkered table cloth. Ahh …… this is the life. After our decandent lunch we walk up to Castillo bar and have a few drinks in sunshine overlooking the valley. We have a fun time hanging with the locals. All of us enjoy our beverages a little too much. A fun time was had by all! Back to our place and fall asleep on couch.

March 24
Up early and walk up to the Castello. Walk around the whole castle and then venture out on aqueduct. Great views of the valley! We head back to our place and then it is off to the market. We take the Travelator down. The market is a bit disappointing with lots of clothes and not so much food. We get some strawberries. We head back up to Mercato piazza and get picnic fixings and decide to go to the car and drive to Orvieto. We stop for our picnic Todi which is another very interesting town. Neil is enjoying the curves driving and the tunnels. We park at bottom of Orvieto and take the escalator up the center of the town hill. So progressive, just like the Spoleto Travelator. We wander around and ohh and ahh at the charming narrow cobblestone streets. We stop at a sidewalk café for some Classico and snack sandwiches. Great atmosphere! We head over to the tourist street towards Duomo which is huge and striped marble. Incredible and very unique . Back to car and home to and catch up on internet. As we are walking to the restaurant for supper we noticed the glass inserts in the cobblestone which shows the roman ruins below.  Very cool.  We end up out for supper at Osteria del Matto which is just off of piazza Mercato. We had fun trying to communicate with the server who is the daughter of the owner/cook. We have no idea what we are getting as server does not bring you a menu and just brings us 10 small plates and all the cheap wine you want for 30 Euros. How can that be bad? We are there for 3.5 hours and the server figures out that we are “mama, papa and baby”. Scott says to her “bambino!. We all laugh. Other patrons have their dog with them and we end up talking about Grapes, our puppy who is no longer with us and are all very very sad. We miss her so much. Neil really gets choked up……Neil’s turn to be under the influence.

March 25

Sleep in. Clean up place and prep supper for tomorrow night. We did some shopping – Ellen sunglasses and black boots with slits. We meet Joanna to see other Mercato apartment. It is awesome and with a balcony with sun in afternoon. So we will keep this in mind for next time we are in Spoleto. We head up hill to see the inside of the castle. Very interesting and incredible architecture and history. Afterwards we head down to Mercato and have a lunch at Cava with Prosecco and several appetizers. And of course, dessert! We notice the sun dial on the side of the building in Mercato square. It is incredible to think how this was used to tell time. The Piazza is relaxing and it simplicity it really its’ beauty. Neil and I walk to the east part of Spoleto to Piazza Liberta and check out an art school and then walk past Apollinaire restaurant for tonight.

We wander our way back up through passage ways to our place. We all head out for supper at 8:30 pm to Apollinaire in Liberta. As soon as we walk into the restaurant we know this is going to be a fantastic experience. There are black truffles in a bowl at reception! Some of the dishes we had are thin slice of beet with kolarabi, tomato pâté for bread, tomato pasta with bread crumbs, smoothie with pineapple apple ginger melon, fresh pasta with pork and poached pear. Wines were great.

March 26

We are up early and head to east coast through lots of tunnels and passed the area where a damaging earthquake happened just a few months ago. The north east coast is not so beautiful with lots of industrial area. The train tracks along the coast block the view of the ocean. We continue on to Gradara Commonwealth war grave cemetery and find T W Graham grave. This fellow was in Fred Cedarberg book “The Long Road Home” in which Ellen’s Dad Ed Kerr is also in. It covers off the time and the battles in NE Italy during WWII. We walk through the graves which is very sobering. Scott mentions that many of these men were younger than him. We leave the cemetery and meander through the area to get a feel for what the soldiers had to endure. There are so many modern buildings that it is hard to visualize what dad went through. We head back via the scenic route through the mountains and come out near Perugia. We head home to Spoleto and spend a quiet evening in.

March 27

We have a bit of a sleep in after yesterday’s long day of travel. We start to gather stuff and do laundry and then have one last poke around town. We have a visit with Norma and Laurie. We go and grab Scott and go for lunch at Al Bacco Felice which is just out the door and up the hill about 50 feet. There is way too much food for a lunch and we had back for a nap. We spend some time to figure out travel to Cinque Terre property for tomorrow. Neil and I go out to the wine bar which now we realize we should of done that earlier in week. There are so many great wines to try. Gail, the owner is super nice and we end up buying wine and pear liqueur. We need to get drinking some of our purchase because all of this will not fit in our suitcases!

March 28

We are up early and pack. We dart to Mercato Piazza to get croissants to go but do stop for a quick espresso at bar and then we go get car to bring up to the VRBO to load up and hit the road. We head north for Samazzanno castle and this time we do find it. It is closed and derelict. So sad that this beautiful building is neglected. We do go past the Gucci outlet mall which the 2 people I was travelling with were not interested in stopping! The it was off to the Cinque Terre. We go passed Cararra and see the many stacks of marble. Neil and I remember this from last time we were here. The road to Vernazza was quite interesting. We did get ourselves in a bit of a pickle by following the GPS (that was a mistake) in Pignone which was built long before big cars were invented! There was 1” inch on each side of the car. Yikes! We had to drive up some steps. We finally get to our place. We had to park a ways away and then haul our suitcases and then climb stairs but it is worth it for the location. We are right at the main square at the harbour. Beautiful! We head out to explore and end up by the castle and having pizza and Prosecco in the sun. Ahh, what a life! We love this place. There are tourists but not too bad this time of year but it must be crazy in the summer. We moved to another bar in the sun. Then out for supper where we had sea bass and octopus with potatoes.

March 29

Sleep in although Neil is up working. Go to buy Cinque Terre tickets but office closed at lunch. Really? But there are several staff walking around asking if you need help but you can’t buy tickets? We grab a sandwich and go eat our picnic on rocks at the harbour. We finally get tickets and head to Riomaggoire. Beautiful village and picturesque harbour with marble chunks used for a breakway in the habour. We hike around and check out village. We try to walk to Manarola but the path is closed so we take the train. We explore the village and end up having lunch on the hillside with views that are breathtaking. Good lunch with a great rose and spaying mists to cool the air. Then we take the train to Corniglia. This village is different from others as it is on hilltop and not right on the waters edge. It is very nice but glad we are not staying there. We take a look around and then train back to Vernazza. We decide to have pizza takeaway and drink some of our wine in our VRBO so we can lighten our load.

March 30

We are up late and then go for lunch at Belforte. What a spectacular view and ambiance! The food is fantastic. One dish we had was mussels and other seafood warm salad with octopus and we had 2 great rose wines. Neil and I go lie on the rocks for a bit like sloths after our big lunch. We then grab Scott and take the train to Monterosso. Monterosso was more of a resort, beachy feel. It is a nice village. If we were travelling to the Cinque Terre again we would pick here or Vernazza of any of the villages. We stop for gelato in the sun and then head back to Vernazza. And drink another bottle of wine to lighten the load!

March 31

It is an early and foggy morning as we make our way up and away from the Cinque Terre. The road is still scary and narrow but better than the way to took to get to Vernazza a few days ago. The fog is socked in so the hilltops and some of buildings are just peeking up out of the clouds. Beautiful. This reminds us of our trip to the Duoro valley in Portugal. We travel up to San Bernardino and we are above the clouds and it is spectacular. The traffic on the Autostrada starts to get crazy as we get closer to Florence. A big truck almost squeezed us off the road and many cars don’t stay in their lanes. We get to the car rental and do the car drop off and wait for shuttle. We are to the airport in good time. Florence airport is as small as Regina but with waaay more people travelling through it so pretty efficient. We fly to Frankfurt and do a quick gate change and catch our flight to Toronto. Hats off to the luggage handlers because our luggage did make it with us to Toronto. We watch movies to kill the time. We make it home and it feels so good to be in our own bed. We have had an excellent family trip and enjoyed our many conversations and socializing with our son, Scott. We hope he appreciated this trip and will have memories that will last his lifetime!