In case you're curious (or want to meet up with us ;-)), here's our itinerary:
Apr 17-30 Rome
Apr 30-May 7 Bologna
May 7-May 14 Spoleto
May 14-May 21 Rome
We'll be taking the train to Bologna. After a few days there, we'll be renting a car to explore the region (Emilia-Romagna). Then, we'll drive south to Umbria (just south-east of Tuscany). We'll be renting an apartment in Spoleto and using it as a base to explore the area.
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Posted on April 19, 2006 |
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It took 24 hours, but we have clean underwear again ;-) E was thrilled to see his favorite toys reappear.
We spent the day exploring on foot (mostly in the Trastevere area), trying to get used to the time change. The picture is of E sleeping in his stroller outside the beautiful 12th century Santa Maria chuch.
E is having a tough time adjusting to the time change. He woke up after midnight last night wanting to play and sing. We tried to get him to sleep again, but it just wasn't going to happen. He played some, drank almost 20 oz of milk, and after lots of crying, went back to sleep 3 hours later. We were completely exhausted. We need to try something different tonight...
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Posted on April 19, 2006 |
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We're in Rome, safe and sound. Our flight out of Seattle was delayed for over an hour due to bad weather in Chicago. (Is the weather never good in Chicago?) We ran between terminals and nearly missed our connecting flight... looks like our bags weren't as fast. (Note to self: Avoid connecting in Chicago. Doubly avoid it if you are flying Alaska Airlines, because they don't have staff there, so you're stuck with American Airlines agents that couldn't care less about you). Luckily, we packed an extra set of clothes in our carry-on, so we could at least put on fresh clothes when we got here. Our bags should arrive this afternoon.
Our apartment is in a great location, near Campo Di Fiori and the Pantheon. There is a gelato shop downstairs and a pharmacy at the corner. Perfect!
Our apartment is huge! There's a full-size kitchen w/ dish washer + dinette, laundry room, dining room, sitting room, 4 bedrooms, and 2 full baths. It's charming and dilapidated at the same -- like the city itself actually -- and the furnishing are very quirky -- lots of Asian-y furniture, a mannequin, and a stuffed tiger (no joke). Also, the bedroom lights are somehow possessed -- they turn on and off at random! The lights are a combination ceiling fan + light fixture with a wireless remote so maybe we're dueling with an equally baffled tenant in a nearby apartment.
Our favorite feature is the large windows that run along both lengths of the apartment. We're on the 5th floor and since most of the nearby buildings are shorter, we've got magnificent views all around.
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Posted on April 18, 2006 |
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We're all packed. Or so we think! :-) Our bags are sitting impatiently just inside the front door. We just need to remember to grab E from his crib! ;-) Our flight leaves Sunday, with quick stops in Chicago and London before arriving in Rome. If all goes according to schedule, we'll be in Rome 19 hours later (4:10pm Monday, Rome time).
Last October, went on a similar trip to
Paris . It was our first big trip with E and we learned a lot about how to prepare, what to pack, tricks for traveling with an infant ... and we're doing things a little differently this time around.
For instance, last time we took our own car seat. We used it all of 4 times... to/from our house and the airport and to/from the airport to our apartment. It was a huge hassle. This time, we're using a car service that provides a car seat. We don't know how we're going to get to our apartment on the other end, but we'll figure something out.
We're also taking 2 laptops to avoid contention in the evenings once E goes to bed. Nerdy, we know. I bought a compact travel wireless router from Linksys so we can share the broadband link in the apartments. I also signed up for
SkypeIn, which gets us a local Seattle number that forwards to our laptop in Italy via VOIP (Voice Over IP). It costs about $3/mo. We're forwarding our home number to this "SkypeIn" number, so if anyone calls us at home, we'll be able to answer it from Rome! It also comes with free voicemail. Gotta love technology.
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Posted on April 15, 2006 |
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We visited the Louvre again. This time, we headed for the big pieces,
including the Mona Lisa. We're definately finding that we need to visit the museums more than once as it's hard to get a long, uninterrupted stretch of time to see the artwork. Luckily, people with strollers get to skip the entry lines, so we can get in quickly as soon as we have E asleep in the stroller
Yesterday, we walked over to the Arab Institute, which is basically a museum
with a couple restaurants. We ate at the top-floor restaurant, called Zarab. The
food was great (a like on the
Tastingmenu scale), but the service was absolutely
terrible. It took over an hour for our meals to arrive. Luckily the view from the outdoor
terrace is spectacular, and we were able to take E outside while we waited -- you don't need to buy a museum ticket or eat at the
restaurant to enjoy it either.
They also have cool electro-mechanical window panels with a middle
eastern design to them. The panels automatically open and close like a camera's
aperature depending on the amount of light.
We walked from there to the Pantheon. The underground crypt holds the tombs
of famous French revolutionaries and historical figures, like Voltaire (pictured
below) and Marie Curie. The dome was famously used by Foucault to test his
pendulum, thus demonstrating that the earth is round. (For a fun little
backgrounder on Foucault pendulums, click here).
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Posted on November 2, 2005 |
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We couldn't bear E missing his first Halloween, so we got him a super cute bee costume and brought it with us. And of course we had to take his picture at the quinticential Paris landmark -- the Eiffel Tower.
It was fun being in Paris for the holiday. Halloween is a new holiday here & like home it involves kids dressing up and trick-or-treating. Unlike home, all the kids are dressed as witches or goblins and trick-or-treating happens at the shops and patisseries, not at homes. What a deal! I'd like to go trick-or-treating at the patisseries here. For a few seconds, we considered taking E to Polaine or Le Notre...
Some people looked a little confused as to why we had our child dressed as a bumble bee, but those that "got it" couldn't resist coming up and tweaking his little antennea. E loved all the attention and we all had a good time. All in all, a good day.
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Posted on October 31, 2005 |
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A couple days ago, we moved from the Marais (near the Hotel de Ville in
arrondissement #4) to Saint Germaine de Pres (in #6). We love the Marais, but
we'd basically seen everything we wanted to see after 2 weeks. Furthermore, we realized that while three people, lots of laundry, and one small apartment might be economical, it was not super comfortable. Moving meant a
new area to explore and a slightly larger apartment.
Just a block from our new place is Lionel
Poilane's boulangerie (8 rue du Cherche-Midi, in #6). His "pain
Poilane" -- an 18" round loaf of bread -- is world renowned. We'd even seen
loaves in Vancouver, B.C. selling for $100! Our good friend Leslie was
thoughtful enough to bring home a loaf to share a couple years back. It was a
nice treat. Poilane is all about traditional French breadmaking. It's
essentially a sourdough bread with just four ingredients: flour, salt, water,
and levain (a raising agent made by mixing flour with water and allowing it to
ferment). Each baker is assigned an oven so they can learn its quirks, etc. It's
all good. D loves it, but honestly, it's too dense and dry for my tastes. I
suppose if I applied enough butter to the problem... ;-) I'm more impressed by
Poilane's business savvy -- who would have thought that you could create a
successful international business with a loaf of bread?
But the real star, IMO, was the small, innocent-looking
apple tart sitting in the shop window. I love fruit tarts, so I had to get one.
D isn't into apple tarts, but she got jealous and got one too. Wow! Wow! Wow! D
says that this is one of the best things she's eaten in Paris. That's a serious
statement. I was blown away, but having had so many yumalicious pastries, I just
can't rate one above the others.
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Posted on October 29, 2005 |
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We've been lazy tourists these past several days. We've spent most of our
time exploring the city on foot and taking in simple pleasures... ogling
pasteries, marveling at the architecture, churches, and fountains, relaxing at
cafes, window shopping, taking E to a park every day, and warming our fingers on
fresh crepes. ;-)
On the side, we squeezed in a few museums:
The Orsay Museum has a stunning
impressionist collection. The museum itself has been retrofit into the original
19th-century train station (it was built in the
year 1900). Even if you're not into the art, the building itself (inside and
out) and the retrofit is a work of art -- well worth the visit.
The Louvre: The first thing that strikes you
about the Louvre is how massive it is. It makes the MET seem puny. It also made
us realize that the U.S. arrived too late on the international scene to
pilage the really good stuff from other countries. We stolled thru the
Greek, Egyption, Persian, and Mesopotamian collections -- wow, wow, wow, and
wow. The French rooms are also super cool. We're planning to go back to see
more. The Louvre also has this round elevator that uses hydrolics instead of
cables. It was super cool looking, but a huge hassle to use. First, there was
only one of them -- they probably blew their elevator budget on the one -- and
it wasn't nearly big enough or fast enough to accomodate the traffic of the
elderly, handicapped, or strollered visitors. I don't know what they do if it
breaks. Second, it has to be staffed by an employee who, among other things, has
to make sure no one is near the fragile-looking glass doors.
Picasso Museum: While this museum doesn't have a lot of
blockbuster Picassos, it has wonderful breadth... showing works from many parts
of Picasso's life. It was wonderful to see so much of his work
together. This was also one of the few places where anyone made an attempt
to ease navigating a centuries old building with a stroller... they had a single
elevator & a museum guard took us up to the top floor & then waited for
us at each floor as we worked our way through the museum.
Pompidou Center houses Paris' largest modern art collection.
It also has spectacular views of the city from the 6th floor and the open-air
restaurant. We had lunch outside on an absolutely gorgeous clear day. This was
one of our best Paris experiences so far. Not sure what it was -- the fresh air,
the views, the bottle of wine we drank... ;-)
National Archives: The national archives holds important
French historical documents. The day we walked by, they were doing historical
re-enactments of sword fights, book making, etc.
We've been buying E little gifts. He goes bezerk for "Sophie", a giraffe chew
toy that's super popular here. Since he's been enjoying the parks here so much,
D got him a shirt that says "I'm the king of the park!" Good thing it's in
English.
Some stats we feel compelled to report:
Three is the number of times D has seen a man in the women's restroom at a
nice restaurant (no, he wasn't lost). She claims there are only 2 reasons this
would happen -- I agree. We started counting a couple years ago -- the first
time it happened. The count so far: D=3, P=0.
Five is the number of times we've been stopped by old french women wanting to
tell us what we're doing wrong with our baby. It's so nice to be able to smile
and shrug.
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Posted on October 24, 2005 |
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Tuesday was the start of our 2nd week here. We tried to
go to the Orsay Museum (they have a wonderful collection of impressionist art),
but the huge crowds sent us to the nearby Rodin Museum. The
museum is in a large mansion, which the government lent Rodin in exchange for
his collection (the govt got a great deal). The collection spills into a large
garden, which is impressive all by itself -- our guidebook claims there are over
2,000 rose bushs.
Just as we were finishing up at the museum and starting to think about lunch,
E fell asleep. We flipped thru the guidebook and, lucky for us,
Robuchon (5 rue Montalembert) was a couple blocks away! It's a
fancy place so we weren't sure if they'd take us, but with E asleep, it was now
or never, so we rushed over. They said no problem. We parked E next to the coat
closet and sat down just 5 feet away (no, we didn't put him *in* the closet).
Perfect. They were offering a menu decouverte (a tasting menu) of 8 dishes --
how could we refuse?
...all of this took just over 2 hours (!) and as luck would have it, E slept
the whole time. We got strange looks a couple of times, especially when E stirred and I ran over to put his pacifier in his mouth to help him stay asleep, but nobody gave us a hard time (and frankly we're not sure many people even realized that there was a stroller in the corner of the room.
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Posted on October 19, 2005 |
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On Monday, we took a train to the Eiffel Tower since it's
across town. E was super alert and super curious on the train. It was all so
strange for him and he was trying to work out what was going on. So
adorable...
The Eiffel Tower... what can I say? We went, we stood in line, then we stood
in line some more, ... and loved it. It really is worth seeing up close and the
view from the top is unparalleled. We then stopped into a grocery store, picked
up a baguette, some prosciutto, some fruit, and picniced in the park leading up
to the Eiffel Tower. Just as we were finishing up, a lady ran up to us, handed
us a pamplet, and shoo'ed us off the grass. Weird. Why have a really inviting
field of grass and not let people enjoy it? Stranger still, why not have a sign?
One Frenchman she tried to shoo objected and they debated a bit until 2
policemen on horses showed up. ;-)
From the Eiffel Tower, we walked back to our apartment and explored the
streets in between. We came across a grocery store of frozen food... they had
everything, even frozen sushi!
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Posted on October 18, 2005 |
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