Sevilla

We’ve arrived in Sevilla – home of bullfighting, sherry, and Andalusian living.  After our whirlwind tour of Italy, it’s great to settle into one place for an extended period of time (three weeks in this case).  The apartment that we rented online is fantastic.  It’s bigger than we thought, situated in the heart of the historic district, and it has laundry, TV, and WiFi – the essential tools of our intrepid existence.

Our neighborhood!!!

There’s a big park a couple of blocks away, designed by the same landscape architect who did the Bois de Boulogne in Paris.  We’ve visited the beautiful cathedral with its Moorish details and orange grove courtyard.  And we’ve instituted an official family siesta, like the locals, since dinner doesn’t exist until 9pm at the earliest.  Cal is antsy and tired of sightseeing.  Declan has taken up running; he's doing 1-2 miles every other day with Blake.  Of course, all of this must be done before noon in order to avoid the SCALDING heat!

Cal at the park

Yesterday, we stopped by a little hole-in-the-wall tasting room just around the corner from our apartment where you can sample the local sherry and wines.  There are just two stools, a little AC unit, and a very friendly Cuban guy behind the counter.  Juan is in town for just a month or two.  He used to be a musician and a translator for the Cuban embassy in Paris, so our conversation was in French.  He took this job to meet women.  But he’s been disappointed.  He says that, in Cuba, his compliments go somewhere and they like his gray hair.  The women here, he complains, do not respond to his chit-chat, so he has nobody to shack up with.  He’s heading back to Cuba at the end of the month to re-group and plan his next trip.  Good stuff.  We’ll be back frequently for the yummy (sweet) sherry and entertaining conversation.

Connan at Juan's tasting room

Roma

We are a week behind in this blog.  Currently we are in Seville, Spain, but you haven't heard about our adventures in Rome, Florence and Pisa yet!

Gladiator action at the Colliseum

Trevi fountain wish

Muscling the other tourists out of the way for a pic.

Rome was big, noisy and Roman.  My puny little sunglasses can't compete with the huge lunettes that some of the ladies are sporting here. Tons of scooters and great food.  We saw the Colliseum, Trevi fountains, Spanish steps and St. Peter's. Not bad for a couple of days and a five year old.  Oh and we mailed back a couple of boxes and weathered a taxi strike.  We'll be lucky if we ever see those items again.  That took up a couple of hours.  Our friend Guido has arranged an interesting variety of places for us to stay and Rome was no exception.  We stayed in a convent.  Really.  It was like a B&B but it had a curfew and internet access.  It was right near St Peter's and the Pontifical Urban University so there were lots of young men with wide open and eager faces walking around in clerical collars. One asked us where we were from as he was from Pennsylvania. He was about to take one of his finals and looked very nervous. 



We then went to Florence, the city of dreams.  We arrived in the midst of a thunderstorm but for the rest of the visit not a spot of rain.  Duomo, Piazza Michelangelo, The Medici Science Museum, the Uffizi and the Palazzo Strozzi.  Again, great food: nougat, gelato, pasta and the best panini that I have ever had in my life.  If Ace had been there he would have had three.  Picture this: foccacia, buffalo mozzarella and a small salsicce (sausage).  It was delicious.  The art was great too.  Blake caught the Renaissance masters at the Uffizi and I caught Picasso, Miro and Dali at the Palazzo Strozzi.

Then a whirlwind visit to Pisa to see the tower and take the necessary pictures.  Glad we were only there for an afternoon. Not the most attractive city outside of the duomo and the tower.

Now we are in Seville and all the stories you've heard are true.  It is a beautiful city. More anon.

Declan in front of the murderous volcano,Vesuvius.

Can one do Pompeii in 30 minutes?  An entire ancient city, in 30 minutes?  The answer is yes.  Can you do it thoroughly?  No.  But you can get a taste.  See some mosaics.  Piggyback on someone else’s English tour and find out some tasty tidbits about the ruins in front of you.  Grab some water. Get out of the sun before the kids get too cranky.  Take some pictures to prove that you have been there.  Promise to come back for more on another trip.

We only had 30 minutes because we had to check out of the hotel, drive on the crazy Italian roads, turn the car back in to Avis, argue with the Avis people, walk to the Circumvesuviana, eat lunch, direct several Irish folks to the correct train, take the Circumvesuviana, get off at the right stop, see Pompeii, get back on the Circumvesuviana to Napoli and take the train to Rome all before 3:50.  Lots to do and not much time to do it.  Plus it was hot.  So this is what we saw.  We'll have to come back for more anon.

Doors open for Cal

Cal has discovered the small doors of Italy.  Small doors often lead to larger courtyards, just inside the door.  Or sometimes they are just small.  Here he is having fun.

In the closet in the Trulli hut.

Hobbitland

Trulli huts are medieval stone houses that were built originally without mortar.  They have individual turrets and sometimes they have symbols whitewashed on their roofs.  No one knows what the symbols mean; some think they were pre-Christian religious icons, while others think they were used to identify the buildings from one another. Whatever they were, they added a Tolkien flavor to our stay.  They were a bit damp, and small, but on the whole they were fun and interesting.  And we stayed in one!  Now we can say that we stayed in a Trulli hut and I can get that "Truly Scrumptious" CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG song out of my head.

 

After the longest drive of the trip, second only to the journey to Legoland, we arrived in Matera. This was after we paid an exorbitant amount for our laundry in Languaglossa in the shadow of Etna.  I’m too embarrassed to say how much but I can tell you how much laundry was required. We had a great need.  When the bill was totaled it equaled the amount of ¾’s of a tank of gas.  And I’m sure you know how expensive gas is in Europe. Yikes!  I’m still chewing on that one.

We crossed the straight of Messina on a ferry and headed up the boot for our little jaunt in area of Puglia.  We arrived late, hungry and without a decent idea of where we were going.  Always a good formula for traveling with children.  I had a map and a street address but lets just say there are little to no street signs in Matera whatsoever.  Plus a lot of pedestrian areas. And skinny one-way streets. Fancy driving was required.  There was a lot of jumping out of the car and asking, wandering, praying but finally we found it. 

It was hard to find because basically the hotel was in a cave in a ravine and none of the pathways to get to said ravine are marked. You can only picture us at 9PM, in the dark, trying to find our way into it.

The original settlement of Matera dates back to 1500 B.C. when folks lived in the caves built into the two sides of the ravine.  Our hotel was one in one of the caves.  It was wild!  A bit claustrophobic but wild.  It had all of the modern amenities, electricity, WiFi , shower. The boys seemed to enjoy it. All 12 hours of it.

We had a bit of lunch then we were off to Alberobello to stay in a Trulli.  A trulli is like a medieval Hobbit hut.  We are still looking for Gandolf as we speak.

Etna

We went up a volcano, looked around, stuck our hands in some vents and lived to tell about it.  Seems pretty tame when you are up there - then you watch one of the videos about one of the eruptions and then sticking your hand into a vent doesn't seem like a great idea.  The landscape is incredible. It feels like some sort of Star Wars set and then you see steam coming from somewhere and then it feels much more real.  We took a Moonraker-type 4 x 4 jeep up there with a bunch of Russians, Germans and French folks.  They rent jackets and shoes to walk around which is a good thing because it was cold up there.  3800M above sea level once you get to the top.  The boys were as enthusiastic about the snow as they were about being on top of a volcano. 

Etna!

Lots of driving the next couple of days - we are staying in a cave for one night and then hut-type Truillis for the next two.  Should be an adventure!