We made it to Italy!
(October 2021)

So…life happens and it’s been a few years since I posted a blog. I actually wrote this one a few years ago and never posted. So here you go…better late than never!!

While our 14 day trip to Italy was cut short by 3 days, those first 10 were the trip of a life time! Linda and I had been planing this trip for several years, we were suppose to be there the week after the pandemic shut everything down. So I didn’t hold my breath figuring it could all happen again. But after waiting nervously for our negative Covid-19 test results, having our ride at 5 am not show up to take us to the airport and narrowly almost missing our connection (yes, they paged us over the speaker in Atlanta, “Will Pam Baumgardner and Linda Lebrock please make your way to gate 20, your plane is getting ready to leave”), it wasn’t until wheels were up and we headed out over the Atlantic Ocean that I finally felt it was for real this time.

We landed in Venezia, make that Venice to you Americans, and took a water taxi to our hotel. As you may or may not know, there are no motorized vehicles on the streets of Venice. It’s water taxis, gondolas, any kind of boat really, bicycles, or walking. We did a lot of walking, you really can’t get lost when the City is an island. Turns out Venice was built on a group of 118 small islands separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. We crossed at least a dozen of them.

The first night in Venezia we met up with John Chamberlain who made the trip specifically to see Linda, but it wasn’t long before we were steadfast friends as well. We had drinks, food, he treated us to a gondola ride, sang “Volare” and kept us in stitches most of our first two evenings in Italy. I love John! He and his partner moved to Italy earlier in the year so his Italian was far better than our ability to count to dieci (ten) or ask for wine, “per il vino.”
Right out of the gate he was ordering up Negronis which Linda partook (past tense of partake?) but I politely declined and embarked on what would be my introduction to really good red wines throughout our trip. Linda was quite taken with the Negronis so I gifted her a bottle of Campari for her birthday.

After three days in Venice of rooftop bars, pizzerias, churches, the Peggy Guggenheim museum, we were off to Florence via train.

Florence is a very large city. Lots of walking, with gorgeous views everywhere, amazing statues, centuries old buildings, and of course you’re in total awe the first time you come upon the Duomo (the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore). That being said, I must confess that our second night after having spent the day in Cinque Terra on a day tour, we got lost in Florence, and soon learned that apparently all roads lead to that fucking Duomo. We’d walk several blocks thinking we were heading back to our hotel, and bam! There it was AGAIN! We finally gave up and ended up taking a taxi back to the hotel totally exhausted.

But I have to say that one of the highlights, was our private tour when we saw the statue of David. Our tour guide was a sweet young art major whose enthusiasm was totally contagious. It really is quite remarkable.

By the way, on the day of our tour to Cinque Terre, it was pouring rain. My best investment I ever made was this damn plastic poncho. I figure I could use it in the future…yeah like it ever rains in California. But it kept me semi dry.

Our tour guide was Gabrielle who escorted us via train to all five towns, Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Monterosso al Mare and Vernazza.

There were a couple of food facts I learned:
1. After three days, I no longer wanted pizza.
2. Not all bread is delicious.
3. I love Italian olive oil.
4. Chianti can actually be really really good.

The following day I took another day trip, left Linda behind to further investigate Florence, and I headed out to the leaning tower of Pisa, San Gimignano, Siena and Chianti stopping here and there to walk about, take pictures and stopping for lunch at Poggio ai Laghi. I teamed up with a couple of other single women and had wonderful time!

Then we left Florence and headed deeper into Tuscany where we stayed a few days at Villa Bordoni in Greve, Chianti Classico region. Our sweet little inn was an actual working kitchen where chefs came to learn.

The young man at the front desk gave us advice on how to spend the second day. he mapped out where to walk for lunch, and then the road which would take us to a wine tasting we had scheduled. I can’t emphasize enough how much I wanted to hurt him as we walked uphill, mile after mile. I can honestly say the thing that kept me going was how I would work out tripping him “accidentally” in the hallway. It seemed to us that we had walked so far, and so high, that the landscape was changing on us. we could have been delusional, but we did make it to our destination where a handsome young man, did a fabulous job of telling us about his vineyard, and winemaking, and olive oil, and as he’s serving us a platter of cheeses and just offhandedly mention his daughter has Covid while he walked out of the room. Linda and I jerked out heads at each other and we were, “What the Fuck!!” But there was nothing that could be done about it at that point, so we enjoyed our wine, ordered up some to be shipped home, and then made our way back to our inn.

We left via a private car to Arrezo where we stayed one night. We walked the streets, had a delightful dinner, and the next day we took the train to Rome.

We arrived at the station where I’m sure there were a number of young men ready to pickpocket. but we both were on to them. We stayed next to each other, making eye contact so they knew we weren’t easy targets. We took a cab to our hotel, left our bags in the room and ventured out to get a lay of the land. We walked, I shopped a little bit (boots and a new coat), and then made it back to our room…

…it was then that Linda got a call from her sister letting her know that their father had just passed away.

Of course it was an emotionally stressful time as we worked with our travel agent to get us back home as soon as possible. They got us booked for the first flight out the next morning. Everything was cancelled, our evening tour of the Coliseum where we were going to be able to walk around on the ground floor, and of course the Vatican and Sistine Chapel. Then I had a bright idea, I got us a cab and asked him to drive us around and show us Rome. Our driver was a sweetie and drove us around, let us jump out of the cab, take pictures, and he even ducked into a novelty store and bought us each mini statues of the fountain.

It was a bittersweet ending. But we had the most wonderful time while it lasted, and I know we’ll go back and pick up where we left off with Rome, and then head back to more small towns in Tuscany, because it kinda feels like home there.