Cortona

Photographs are wonderful but they simply cannot fully give you the same experience as seeing something firsthand. Much of the regions of Italy we visited were endless fields of sunflowers, olive orchards, vineyards, and hayfields interspersed with hilltop villages.

This gives you a little perspective of how steep the climbs were- nearly all day every day. But it was so worth it!

This was the view from the top of a high place in Cortona.

Every time I upload pictures, they don't come out in the order I expect them to. It's pretty frustrating. Oh well..... if that's the worst thing I have to deal with, I'm fortunate indeed, eh? So the photo above is to show a major mode of transportation throughout Europe but this is Florence, or Firenze as the Italians say. Florence wasn't as bad as the smaller Medieval era towns we went to but it is sometimes a little scary having cars whiz by you when there is barely room to plaster yourself against a wall.

This is just an example of how we felt after trudging up steep steps, up hilly streets, through museums and fortresses. I stayed awake most of the time but occasionally I just succumbed to exhaustion, as did others in our little group.

This is not the picture I had planned to post but I can't find the one I wanted to use. Oh well..... You can see, between Susanne and me, Michelangelo's David. It's actually a replica because we were not willing to go in the very long line to see the original. Thanks to Susanne reserving tickets, we were able to go into the Uffizo Art Museum where it was truly amazing to see paintings actually done by daVinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, and others that we have only read about or heard of remotely. However, it really isn't as much fun to go where you have to fight crowds and it really does get tiring to sight-see every day. But we wanted to make the most of what time we had in Italy because we will not likely ever return!

On Monday we went to the city of Assissi- famous for Saint Francis who is generally represented surrounded by birds and animals. In the lower level of the fortress there, we saw the armory and we couldn't resist taking this picture for Kadon. He is 6 and fascinated with swords. This photo is for you, Kadon! The place where we stayed in Italy was recommended to James and Susanne by another American embassy family. This day was the first day we spent with them. We climbed to the top of the fortress and got a picture with the kids all lined up.
Another Italian restaurant- it looks a lot like the one in Montepulciano, doesn't it? I think I had a focaccia sandwich here but I can't remember for sure.
This is the last part of the long, narrow, spiral staircase to the top of the tower. Russ and I did pretty well, as did the kids. We all hoped we got enough exercise to maybe lose a little weight but I guess all we did was manage to offset the food we ate- and the servings were never really large! The food was much better for us than big-portioned, over-salted or sugared, too often fried American restaurant fare. Alas, the daily serving of gelatto (Italian ice cream) was probably what did us in.

Trying to get them all in!

This castle is Neuschwanstein in Austria. I didn't get it in the earlier post when I meant to. We were there before we got to Italy. As we drove along a river, headed south from Berlin, through the Alps, there were several castles and fortresses up on the hillsides. It was just so incredibly picturesque! Looking at all our pictures now, it's a little difficult to tell which Medieval structure is which because we went to so many. The first city we visited in Italy, on Sunday, was Montepulciano.

This clock tower was built over 500 years ago and still the little "Punchinello" (from Punch and Judy stories) chimes the hours. The picture below was our first Italian meal. We often ate food just out of a grocery or bakery but generally had one meal a day at a restaurant. The food was freshly made and relatively quick. Beverages were usually the surprisingly expensive part and the selection of non-alcoholic beverages was limited. In this Montepulciano restaurant we started with bruschetta- yummy! I found out that not all bruschetta is tomatoes on bread. Bruschetta refers to the olive oiled and toasted bread then comes with a variety of toppings. My favorite is still the tomato one and Angela, although she's never been to Italy, makes a wonderful bruschetta!

More arrival in Italy photos

This is the name plaque for the place we stayed while in Italy. Below is where we barbequed while there. It's an interesting device. First you pile olive tree cuttings in the part under the chimney and get a good fire going. Once you have enough coals built up under the grate, you can push them over to the larger flat area then cook either directly on the rack which is really only good for large pieces of meat and vegetables, or you can use foil or a finer rack.
This next scene is one of the many beautiful fields of sunflowers all through central Italy. This one was right across the street from our lodgings. Bella!
This is our amazing, ever-enduring son who acted as our chauffeur. He drove as many hours in our week of "vacation" as he would have spent working- maybe more. The speeds were breath-taking. James kept to the speed limit (equivalent to 90-100 mph) but was often passed by REALLY speedy drivers. Surprisingly, we only saw evidence of one accident and that was just a fender-bender. That being said, it's a good thing James is an alert defensive driver! Sometimes accidents don't happen because some drivers are good at watching out for the poor judgement of other drivers.

This is where we stayed for a week near Castiglione del Lago in central Italy, in the Umbria region near the region of Tuscany. The 7 of us stayed in what would normally be 2 apartments, each with a full bath, small kitchen (only a cooktop and small refrigerator), dining table, beds, and couch that pulled out to a bed.
This is Nicholas and Louisa as we were headed from the front door back toward where we parked the car.
This is the lovely pool that the kids swam in every day after a lot of trudging around Medieval cities.
This was a view from one of our windows. We never went to Rome and Russ and I were glad. It is a big city, crowded and dirty. We loved the countryside with endless fields of sunflowers, olive orchards, and vineyards. Our hosts (owners of the Palazzo where we stayed) held a barbeque for us near the end of the week. What a feast! They are a couple probably in their late 30's or early 40's. They both work and rent out part of their house on the side. Nearly everything they served was provided from their own property. The tomatoes, cucumbers, and grilled zucchini were from their garden. They seasoned them with olive oil pressed from olives from their own trees along with herbs they grew. They also served a pig and lamb they had raised. Only the dessert, pastries from a local bakery, were not from their property.

Garmisch

Deedie drove us from her home into NYC so we could fly out of JFK. We were fortunate to have a direct flight from NY to Berlin where our daughter-in-law, Susanne, picked us up at the airport. We drove to their home and opened our suitcase to get out the items we had brought for them. They had gotten several expensive electronic devices from the "Apple Store" that couldn't be shipped overseas so we had brought them in our checked bag. We were horrified to find 2 out of the 3 items missing and our bag obviously gone through. We had expected our bag to be inspected for security reasons but were upset to find $1300 worth of electronics gone! We immediately started making phone calls and going on the internet to find out how to file a complaint. Fortunately, the airport is only 20 minutes away because we ended up having to return to the airport to file the claim in person.
We got the claim filed then returned to the house, re-packed our suitcases into one of the bags, loaded it in the car and set out toward Italy. Our first night on the road was spent in an Austrian town called Garmisch in a lovely little Alpine hotel accessed only by cable car.
The next morning, we drove to where our 2 grandsons had spent the week at Scout camp, then went to see a beautiful castle/fortress. That's in the top picture.(It's really bugging me that I can't figure out how to re-position my photographs when they don't download in the order I want them.) Anyway, after the second night, we loaded up the car, including a car-top carrier, to get back on the road to Italy.
Again, out of order, this is the ride back down from the hotel in the cable car. It was just too cool!