Miscellarikneous

Thursday
Leaving Tuscany today. Naomi is sick. Usually when we go on vacation, she gets sick right away, but this time it took 2+ weeks. This is both good and bad. Good because she wasn’t sick, but bad because usually the illness comes on just as she’s relaxing. So, it took most of the vacation for her to really unwind. That’s the theory anyway.

I made her sleep in. She tried to get up at 8:30 and start packing, but I made her go back to bed and get some sleep. Hopefully this will keep her from getting too sick.

Our original plan was to go for an AM bike ride then return the bikes, then book it to the Adriatic coast to catch another stage finish in Cesena. (Cesena is where Marco Pantani is from, so it’s bound to be a big deal.) However, instead, we slept in, then I took the bike out for one quick ride. For once, I got the timing right, and I was able to get in a ride of just under an hour before coming back, packing up both bikes and returning them to DF Bikes.

(Since we didn’t catch the stage finish in person, we ended up watching it on TV, and Emanuelle Sella won in a long breakaway through the mountains— quite dramatic, and somewhat Pantani-esque.)

We drove instead to Cesenatico, only about 15k from Cesena. It's a little resort town on the Adriatic coast, just north of Rimini. I had “booked” a hotel in advance. Booking consisted of sending an email asking (in English) if they had any rooms available, and they emailed me back with a yes, and told me how much (dirt cheap!). Our reservation was me telling them by email we’d take it. So even though we had a hard time finding it, I felt obligated to find it since they had reserved a room for us.

One of the reasons we had a hard time finding it because there were the remnants of some kind of bike event there, and several team vans were present, including Chocolade Jacques, Alessio, and Vini Cadrioli.

We did eventually find it, and we found the proprietors sitting in the lobby reading. They knew who I was when I came in. Their English wasn't great, and my Italian wasn't either, but once again with patience and good humor, we figured it out. The were really kind, and in they actually moved their car so that we could park our car in their spot, off the street. It felt like we were the only guests in the place.

We strolled around the town, looking for somewhere to eat, and found Cesenatico to be a pretty lively town on a Thursday night. There were a ton of hotels, lots of shopping (i.e. clothing), some gelato shops, and a number of Restaurants (including the Pantani Bar). We found one that seemed to be open late and lively, right next to the Chocolade Jacques team bus.

At one point some folks sat behind us, and Naomi spied on them a little bit and figured out they were press or other important types from the Giro.

So, we're eating our dinner, and people watching, just chatting, when Naomi says, "Here come a couple of hos." I turned to look, and in fact, there were two women approaching wearing skin-tight pants and sexy tops. "Well, at least they look like hos," she added. I watched for a minute, and then I realized as they got closer, "Those aren't hos, you dork, those are podium girls!" This is funny because, of course, if her life had taken a slightly different tack, Naomi would have been a podium girl herself.

Anyway, they joined the Giro folk. Yes, the dream was complete, we were eating dinner at a table next to a couple of podium girls.

Later on, we bought some time in an internet cafe, and reached another milestone, the pinnacle of nerddom. We got two computers next to each other, signed in, did our thing, and then I get an IM window popping up on my screen... it's Naomi, asking me a question. I turned and looked at her: "I'm right here!" I said. We had had some wine earlier, so maybe that was to blame.

Friday
We showered and went down to breakfast. The shower was interesting, because there wasn't a stall or anything, just a shower head on the wall and a tile floor. Move the trash can and the toilet paper out of the room and you're set.

When we got down to breakfast, we figured out that we were actually the only guests at the hotel. And they still set out the full spread for us. Please, if you go to Cesenatico, stay there! Hotel Annamaria

We drove to Cesena and caught the stage roll-out for that day. We ended up walking at least a mile trying to figure out where it was. As we did, we walked past team vans and riders getting on their bikes. Oh, there's Gilberto Simoni. There's Pelizotti. There's Cunego. There's Simoni dodging cars as he rides to the race start! Too funny! These are elite athletes, and they are negotiating roundabouts to get themselves to the starting line.

We eventually caught up with them and wiggled our way into the throng. I had the camera, but Naomi had the better vantage point. D'oh! She commented that they all looked like kids. Yeah, they are. I discovered a love of cycling too late.

The roll-out was cool. There's not really any tension, so it's just a chance for the fans to cheer the riders as they don't to much more than roll past. It was cool, even though we didn't get the swag bag we'd been after, and we got a little lost on our way back to the car.

We drove to Rimini, had hours to spare, so we went to lunch before returning our rental car and checking in. We took a 30-second bus ride to our plane, this time getting a 270-degree view before stopping. The flight was uneventful, and we arrived back in London, got picked up by Naomi's aunt and uncle.

We brought back fish 'n' chips from a restaurant that served fish 'n chips and chinese food. There were two separate lines. It struck me as kind of funny. In a sit-com setting, it could have been parlayed into a pretty funny scene, I'm sure.

Sunday
The loooong flight home. Watched more movies on the plane. House of Sand and Fog. (Whew, be in your happy place before you see that one! That's really painful.) Along Came Polly. Stop in New York. First thing you notice back in America is how LOUD IT IS EVERYWHERE. Then you notice how out of shape they are. And it's not just New York. Back on the plane.

Chasing Liberty. They always show these lightweight travel-related movies on planes. Arrived in SF, picked up by Kate, then home! Hello cats, hello house!

Credits (thanks to all of you!):
Supervising Cat Sitter
Brian S.
Cat Sitters
Karen, Joel, Colleen
Airport Taker
Brian S.
Airport Getter
Kate B.
English Hosts
Richard, Joanna, Hannah
Pat, Kathie
Italian Hosts
Naomi's parents
Italian navigational and lingual consultant
Naomi's dad
Photographers
Naomi's family
Friendly Italians
The dude in the tourist shop in Siena with the €1952 bike.
The dude with the saeco-lampre kit who led us to the stage finish.
The proprietors of the Hotel Annamaria
Key Grip
Naomi
Gaffer
Me
Best Boy
You have to ask?

Ciao!

On our last full day in Tuscany, we finally bust out the road bikes and go for a ride! Naomi had in fact come down with something, but she was still game for a road ride.

We drove a few km to Vescovado and parked, pried the bikes out of the rental car and assembled them, and we were off! It was great to be cycling in cycling mecca (well, aside from Belgium, and I would debate that anyway). The roads were the same long swooping curves that you see in the Giro, and traffic was almost non-existent on the back route we took. Besides, the drivers seem to know what they're doing with cyclists, so as long as you stay alert, I think you're much better off here than in the states.

As I mentioned before, the maps don't really differentiate between dirt roads and paved, so we did accidentally end up on a road that got rougher and rougher until it was just gravel. Turning around and climbing back out was a challenge, but we managed with no falls and no flats.

We took a right turn in Buonconvento (which we figured out even though it was totally unmarked) toward Montalcino, and at the turnoff the sign read 10km. Most of that was uphill. Naomi and I chugged up to the top. Funny thing was that they gave me the bike with the triple, and Naomi had only a double chain ring, but I promised not to use my triple, and the 39-26 was plenty for Naomi. When we reached Montalcino, Naomi decided that "Montalcino" is Italian for "huge fucking mountain." But tidn't stop her from charging up a really steep hill to get a better view.

We walked around through the narrow cobbled streets. Every other hilltop town we were the ones looking at envy at the people who had biked to the town, but this time people were looking at us with envy. Or maybe they were looking at our butts in lycra. I'm told they're not bad.

We looked for somewhere to eat, and finally found a place that appeared to be open. After some difficulty communicating we found out that they were only serving antipasti, and the only option was plate o' meat. Fortunately that plate o' meat included a couple slices of cheese and some bread, so Naomi was able to eat something too.

I'd never cycled on a belly full of prosciutto and salami, but the ride back went ok. Actually, as is typical of any ride with Naomi, we went a lot faster on the way back than we did on the way out. That included the half mile of 15% grade that we had to climb back up!

For dinner, we caravanned to Pienza, which took us right past Montalcino again. Pienza has an old centro storico, but also the surrounding areas, although newer, were very well-kept and also attractive. I guess people actually live there (i.e. don't just work there for the tourists), so they want it to be nice. At any rate, there are about a zillion restaurants there, and they were all pretty full, but we found a table at the hotel. It was a very nice restaurant, but ironically our last big Italian meal together was not Italian food.

The day started with me calling around the bike shops, since we were running out of time to get our riding in. Centro Bici still said they didn't have any ("Domani, domani"), but DF said they had two in our sizes, so we planned to go there first. We got fitted and rented them without too much difficulty, and managed to squeeze them into the back of our Corsa. We brought a blanket and covered them up (for security purposes, not to keep them warm or anything).

The recommended route to Pisa took us, unfortunately, through some of the uglier parts of Tuscany. In particular, Poggibonsi was very industrial looking. We also were on a road used by lots of trucks, so going was slow for a while. Once we got to the superstrada, though going got easier.

At least until we got to Pisa. We had a map, but actually getting to where we wanted to go once again proved quite difficult. We were getting close, I think, to the leaning tower, by following signs, which suddenly stopped. So we'd wander around for a while trusting our collective sense of direction until again we saw some signs. We did a big loop of downtown, I think, then drove along the river for a stretch before being forced to cross the river again to the wrong side.

The worst part is that Pisa is not really a nice place. The stretch along the river is pretty, with buildings of many difference colors lining the river, much like in Florence. But everywhere else seems run-down and wrong-side-of-the-tracksy. We got to see all of this on our magical mystery tour de pisa.

So, we were about fed up, and so we called Naomi's dad, who said, "you just make your way to the centro and you'll see the tower or the duomo, then park". Just as Naomi was issuing a profanity-laced reply to the effect of "we haven't seen sweet FA", there is was, looming up over a centuries old stone wall.

It was another 30 minutes, literally & however, before we could find a place to park anywhere near the tower. And with a bit of vacation irony, we parked in a lot next to a huge tent advertising bike rentals. We got out, walked toward the tower, and went straight to a restaurant because we were starving.

We went down a side street and had the only bad pizza and only naff wine of the trip. We met up with the family, who'd already bought our tickets for the tower.

The main park, where the tower and surrounding buildings are, is very striking, all white stone buildings and green grass inside a clean, walled area. There are tons of tourists, about half of them standing with their hands up at an angle, as if they were supporting a giant leaning edifice. The other have are crouched down with a camera in one hand, the other hand waving motioning to their companions to move left or right. It's the feeling you get reading "clever" bumper stickers, times 1000. Could all these people really think it was a good idea? Well, maybe they just figured they had to do it since they were there. At any rate, I didn't see anyone who was smart enough to figure out that it would be much easier for the camerawyn to move themselves rather than try to position their friend just right.

Anyway, Naomi, her sister and I were first in line, and climbed to tower at our appointed time. They only let 30 or so people up there at a time, and you only get 35 minutes. No one hurled, and I didn't hear and swearing either. Its around and around for 55m.

One of the things I found really neat was that the steps as you near the top, which are marble, are all worn down several inches. So many bazillion people must have climbed those steps to wear down rock that far.

The views from the top were good. The Alpi Apuane to the north were particularly attractive, and I hope we can go there next trip. The view of the river was good, but as I said, a lot of the surrounding area is junky.

There were a number of vertiginous people who had climbed the tower. They clung to the edges, but went around and around, taking in all the sights. Good on ya, I say.

There isn't much else to see in Pisa, and anyway we were averse to spending any more time in "our new favorite place", so we took off. We took a more scenic route home, going back to San Gimignano on the way. We bought Naomi the Chianti Clasico bike jersey and picked up a few gifts.

Finally, we went back to Siena, spent some time at an Internet cafe, then went for dinner. The only restaurant we could find open was the same one we'd eaten at the week before, but we didn't mind, since we liked it then (and liked it again this time). And €40 for a full Italian dinner, including wine, is pretty darn good. Siena is still lively at 11 at night, but you get the sense that it's locals, which I like. A lot of clubs and bars were still open, and the Piazza del Campo was still pretty crowded.

Finally, it was home, gearing up for a bike ride the next day. Unfortunately, Naomi is coming down with something--probably the cold her dad had the first week.

Today we first stopped off at another bike store, DF Bikes, and found that they did rent road bikes, but that they were out of bikes. Check back in a few days, they told us. *Sigh*

Afterwards, we conitnued up toward a couple of the hilltop towns west of Siena. We drove separately from the rest of the fam.

San Gimignano is a popular site for cyclists to visit, so we saw a lot of them on our drive up as well as once we got there. I was really aching to ride now! We found some parking and walked inside the city walls. The streets are all narrow, paved with stones, much like Siena, but smaller. Many shops, mostly catering to tourists, lined the main road up to the piazza where we'd meet the others. On the way, we spotted a shop with a Chianti bike jersey for sale, and although it was pricey we were tempted. We both tried them on, but decided to wait on it for now.

We met the family and had lunch before Naomi, her sister, and I climbed one of the ancient towers. The top afforded a great view of all the surrounding hills and dales, and I could easily imagine sentries watching for invaders approaching. It would be hard to approach and not be seen.

The drive from SG to Volterra was really pretty. It reminded me a lot of driving in the Santa Cruz mountains & Skyline Blvd. It got me to thinking not only how nice the countryside was in Tuscany, but also how lucky we were to live in such a great part of the world in the bay area. In fact, several people we've talked to on the trip have mentioned that they recently took a vacation in California and how much they liked it.

At one point, we had to wait a minute because they were repaving the road, so it was one lane for a small stretch. I mention this because when we eventually came back, we were surprised to see that the road repaving had been completed. Who says the Italians never finish anything!

Volterra is another pretty hilltop town. We spent about an hour in an Etruscan museum. The whole first floor displayed hundreds of Etruscan urns, which are small chests with carvings of smaller-than-life figures with life-size heads on them. Naomi noted how the scenes depicting the voyage into the afterlife changed over the years... first on foot, later on horseback, then eventually in a carriage. Technology, laziness, or both?

I really enjoyed seeing the room with all the old coins in it-- Roman, Etruscan, and others. Finally, we saw the famous L'ombra della sera (Shadow of the Night) Etruscan figure, which was moving to see in person.

We walked around the town, including a small park where there was some soccer being played, and some couples lying around, and basically people living their lives, which was a nice change from the swarms of tourists we'd been around lately. We didn't end up meeting the others in Volterra because of the time we spent in the museum.

Of course, the drive back was just as pretty, and again we wished for road bikes. Soon!

Friday
We set off for Florence. Getting there was fairly uneventful, since we're starting to get a feel for the driving & navigating thing now. But once we got there, it was total chaos. The first part was OK... we drove to the primary tourist decampment, Piazzale Michelangelo, which is a parking lot at the top of a hill on the other side of the river (from most of old Florence). There are tourist stands, 19 German tour buses, and tremendous views. If you've seen a photo of Florence from up on a hill, it was probably taken here. We soaked it up, then headed down into town.

The driving was a free-for-all, especially when we hit this one roundabout that had 3... wait, 4, lanes. Wait, there are no lanes! "Is it ok if I just shut my eyes now?" Naomi asked. The lanes disappeared, maybe they were still marked, I was just trying to keep moving forward without hitting anything. Cars were darting in front of me from all sides, above, and below (or so it seemed). Somehow, I was not scathed and we emerged on the other side, with no idea where we were heading.

When we finally found the street of our hotel, we parked in a loading zone and Naomi got out and walked down the street until she found the place. She sussed it out and reported back. We parked where they told us to, which turned out to be in a bus stop. Instantly, there were two cops there, but they exchanged words and gestures with the concierge and they worked it out. Finally, they took our car to the garage and we went up to our room.

We freshened up then went exploring. We walked to Il Duomo, then made our way to the river, loosely following a path mapped in one of our guide books. Tons of tourists (including us, natch, but still...)! We went down to Ponte Vecchio and checked out the shops. We soaked up the sun (have I mentioned that it was raining most of the first week?) along the river just enjoying being in Florence. We even spotted an internet cafe for later.

On the way back, we found ourselves in the middle of an anti-Bush/Blair protest march. Naomi urged me to take a picture. Of course, this being Italy, I misread the signs as some kind of neo-fascist demonstration (uh, before I noticed the rainbows and lack of skinheads). Then I figured out they said Bush + Blair = the new Hitler and Mussolini.

We walked along with it for a while, just cos that's the way we were going (we agreed and all, but didn't want to get arrested abroad. That seems sucky).

It was warm enough for us to eat dinner outside, and we had a nice meal where two identical-looking waiters confused us with their identicalness. However-- and maybe it was the crowds or not knowing the language, or both, we were feeling a little stressed, so we recalled our great adventures in Barcelona, and decided to get saused. We kept the wine flowing, had a great meal, and finished it off with n amarettos (where n >= 2. Sorry, best I can do). We didn't stop at any internet cafes.

Saturday
Our first stop of the day was il Duomo. I've wanted to see it ever since I saw a terrific exhibit on the science of renaissance in Paris (which I mostly understood). We were actually planning to climb il Campanile, which is the tall belltower next to il duomo, but it turned out that the duomo had more steps, so we were inclined to head up that instead.

We climbed swiftly, nay impatiently, up to the first in between point. At this point in our trip, we had had it up to here with our fellow Americans. They are loud and out of shape, so we wanted to get up there ahead of as many as we could, but there was no end. We reached a level where you can walk around on the inside of the dome. We were behind some teenage American sisters who decided that this was a good place to start yelling "Shut up, bitch!" at each other. I gave them my dirtiest look, and said, "Nice Talk" with a sneer. I think I embarrassed them--enough for them both to avoid me and keep quiet (yeah!), and I'm sure I embarrassed their mom.

We exited and reached the top, and there were more loud Americans in front of us, this time complaining about how hard it was to climb the stairs. They even made simulated puking sounds to illustrate how hard it was. At least, I thought they were simulated. Apparently I missed this, but Naomi informed me later that someone did puke at the top. Wonderful.

But, having missed it, it didn't bother me. :) More great views. A wonder of renaissance engineering. I was happy.

We descended and then made our way inside the cathedral. I don't want to sound blasé, but it was another incredibly beautiful and old cathedral. There are a lot of them, you know, and they are all amazing. Oh, what renaissance ingenuity, love of God and cheap labor can accomplish!

We had lunch in the Piazza della Republica, where I ordered my first Italian beer of the trip. It was OK, but it definitely wasn't worth the €8.50 that showed up on the bill. But the wood-fired pizzas were good.

Next stop, the Galleria dell’ Academia to see Michelangelo's David. This is one of the few "great" works of art I've seen in person that wasn't disappointing. Actually, it was a bit breathtaking. It felt good just to sit in it's presence. I think Naomi also liked it because we happened to be sitting 'round the backside. We managed to snap a few illicit pictures without being admonished, though there was some admonishment going on (all photography is banned in the museum, for some reason). There wasn't much else in the museum, although I did like some of the additional sculptures. Maybe I have a thing for nymphs.

Dinner was our best yet, at La Posta. Our waiter was an older gent with a great personality and he kept us amused. I had just about they best ever plate of ravioli, then salmon with these little caper-sized peppers which was excellent. Naomi had the asparagus risotto followed by swordfish, and we shared a plate of asparagus with butter & parmesan. The chianti flowed, and we finished it off with a few limoncellos. But we stayed so long enjoying the atmosphere, that while I was off in the loo, the waiter apparently appeared with two more limoncellos, put his finger to his lips and said "shhhh." You see, this is a great restaurant!

Sunday
We had to check out of our hotel, but we arranged for the hotel to keep our bags for us while we went out and did some more sight-seeing. Today was the Uffizi.

We got there and found huge lines. Estimated wait was 90-120 minutes, so I left Naomi to stand in it while I scouted around for another way in. First, I checked the reservation line to see if they were actually asking for proof, which they were here (but didn't appear to be the day before). However, then I noticed that there was a sign announcing the next available reservations. Then I noticed that the next available reservation was... today! I found the reservation desk, and managed to reserve us entry 15 minutes later. Hee! It sure was cool to grab Naomi and walk past a few hundred people and into the museum.

I'm glad we saw the museum & all, but aside from Bodicelli and Da Vinci, renaissance painting isn't really my thing. Too much dark paint and too many "virgin mary with baby" renderings for my taste. I suppose it's bad to give the most famous museum in all of Italy one paragraph, but there you go. At least it's a four-sentence paragraph.

The rest of the day was spent doing some shopping. Naomi got a couple of nice scarves and we bought the requisite souvenir magnet, and some gifts for folks. We looked for one of those nice Italy sweaters that zip up the front, but didn't find anything in my size.

We got directions out of town from the concierge, and although we were not able to follow them (this being the land of no street signs), we managed to make it out of Florence in one piece, even stopping again at Piazzale Michelangelo to regard Florence one more time before leaving.

We went straight to the bike shop, Centro Bici, this morning hoping to rent bikes. The shop owner was really friendly and helpful, but he didn't have any bikes in because, as he said, it was a really popular time to rent bikes because of the Giro. He suggested we try back in a few days. Daunted, we headed back to the house.

We decide we'd take out the mountain bikes that were available at the house. They weren't the best (no suspension), and they weren't the best fit, but they worked. We decided to head for Radi.

First, a bit about Radi. On our way from Siena to the house (about 25km) every 10km or so you see a sign for Radi to the right, always 6km away. Apparently, our route from Siena to home took us in a bit of an orbit around Radi. All roads lead to Radi. We were intrigued.

We rode from the house out to the paved road, and then turned off toward Radi. The road was a gravel-topped dirt road. It was a pretty ride, and hilly. Because almost all the town are on the tops of hills, any ride you do is going to have a lot of ups and down in it. Radi is a very small farming town with about 6 buildings and an Osteria (an Ostrich tannery. No, just kidding, an Osteria is an inn/restaurant). A cute little town.

We contined riding the gravel road, down a 12% grade that we'd have to come back up later (ugh), and up a long gradual climb. Up near the top, there was a great view of Siena off in the distance with fields of wildflowers in the foreground. We got to the end, which was only a few km from Siena, and returned. Naomi hammered up the tough hill (as usual).

After we got back, we headed to Castellina in Chianti for dinner with the family. Naomi's dad drove. Naomi's dad had managed to procure an Alfa Romeo by flashing his Secret Avis Platinum Crystite id, or something. Naomi's dad liked his Alfa Romeo a bit too much.

I was sitting in the front, to minimize possible motion sickness, but her dad flew around the corners and roundabouts, driving like an Italian, and I was soon in a bad way, and we were only about halfway there. The next 30 mins were my own private hell, of mind over body trying everything to keep the cookies in. Leaning into the turns, window open (I think I froze Melissa), deep breaths, I managed to hold it together. We we got there, we were fortunate that we had a 30 minute wait until dinner, because 4 green passengers got out of that car.

We walked around the pretty hilltop town, which took about 20 minutes, then headed to dinner. Dinner was great, I had portions of veal with 3 color peppers, pasta e fagioli (different from how I make it-- much soupier), and of course, wine. I think we are averaging a bottle a day.

On the way back, Naomi's mom asked her dad to drive a little more mellow, to my relief, and he did his best. For the first half, I was ok, but I think I was more vulnerable from the ride out, so again I was fighting nausea all the way home. I just think it's a unavoidable that dad + alfa romeo + italy = mad. But hey, I survived. But when we got back, I went straight to bed, not because I was tired, but just because I was worn out from the concentration of not hurling, so I just wanted to check out.

At first glance, it seems like every driver there is a lunatic, but after negotiating the traffic for a few days I'm starting to get a sense of what the mindset is. There appears to be one speed in Italy: As Fast As You Possibly Can.

Speed Limit signs might as well be advertising for how much attention is paid. If there is an obstacle, the first move it to swerve around it. They won't hesitate to get right on your ass until the first chance to get around you. It's like driving in the fast lane in Northern California in that way, with the difference that it's the majority behavior here, and that no one seems to get pissed off about it.

One of the key differences I've discovered is this: If you're driving in the U.S., you can sit in a lane and sort of switch your mind off, just cruise for a while, and you probably won't get into any trouble. In Italy, you need to be alert all the time. If you're on a two-lane road, a car coming the opposite way may be borrowing part of your lane at any time, to get around another vehicle, pedestrian, cyclist, or simply because the lines just aren't that important to them. You need to be ready to move over.

But, everyone does appear to be alert all the time. That's why a couple of little old ladies can walk right down the street in the middle of the lane. They expect to be seen and avoided. The same with cyclists. They are not unexpected; they are just another obstacle to dart around.

And that brings me to another key difference. U.S. drivers, when coming upon an obstacle, tend to put their options for avoiding it in the following priority: slow down, swerve, accelerate. In Italy, it's swerve, accelerate, slow down. But they can do it because they are alert and they know what traffic is around them.

So, with all this Italian "alertness", you'd think it would be safer. And it could be, except for the driving like a maniac. I swear, I never saw an Italian on foot rushing anywhere, but in cars they drive like their wife's about to give birth in the back seat. So in my mind, it probably cancels out. Mind numb + slower ~= alert + maniac.

With regard to navigating, that's another adventure. They're not real big on street signs, at least, not on highways. It's possible to figure out what road you are on once you're on it, but it's almost impossible to figure out what road you're turning onto ahead of time.

Many of the intersections are roundabouts, but even at those that aren't, you get blue signs with arrows and the names of cities, sometimes with distances (which, by the way, bounce around a lot), but no name of the highway. You also might get a green sign and the name of a city with a route number on it, but that just means that you should go that way to get to that route to get to that city.

All this adds up to make it very difficult to navigate by map. What you have to do is figure out where you're going, then figure out what's the next town that's likely to be big enough or close enough town to have a sign pointing toward it, and which will get you going in the right direction.

Unless you already know where you're going, you need to give up getting there by a specific route on the map, and just go with it. Sometimes that means you spiral in, or zig zag your way to your destination, but you get there eventually.

The plan for today was to try to rent bikes from one of the shops we had been pointed to, and then drive out to Civitella in Val Chiana for the finish of stage 4 of the Giro (but not with the bikes). We went to the store, but it was closed for the siesta. So, on to the race...

We didn't know anything about going to see a stage finish other than the name of the city as listed by the race organizers, and that it would finish around 5.

So after a lazy morning, map in hand, we headed out. It proved to be quite difficult to find, and I think Naomi was ready to give up and go back. But she's a gamer, and we zig-zagged and spiraled our way toward the point on the map (the map wasn't really good for finding roads, just for finding the towns we found ourselves in, about half of which were not on the map). We came to an intersection and tried to turn left, but the police (carabinieri) stopped us. "è chiuso?" Naomi asked. It turned out it was. I asked "dov'è il Giro?" and it turned out that the road was closed because the race was coming right down that road!

We quickly parked back the way we'd come a little bit and walked over. I talked briefly with an old man and found out the race would come past in about an hour. I next went down to where the police were standing and used my dictionary to try to formulate how I might ask where the finish would be. I ended up asking a cyclist who was there, and found out that the finish was about 4 km away. What followed next was the cyclist started talking with the two cops, and then an 60-ish woman and 50-ish man chimed in, and soon all 5 of them were arguing, gesticulating, debating what was the best course of action for us to get to the finish. The cyclist was having a hard time explaining how to get there, so finally he offered to ride ahead of our car. We followed him. His calves bulged like huge fists as he paced us at around 25 mph. (I tried to figure out how to say "you ride really fast!" in Italian, but was unable to work it out in time.) We got to another road closure, parked and got out to walk about 3 km to the finish.

After about one of those km, he came riding back toward us and explained that if we went back to the car, drove back and down a different road, we could get within 1 km of the finish. So, he led us around again until we reached the town of Tegoletto. (Important lesson: the stage finish is not necessarily in the town that is listed in the race guide.) Started walking toward the finish, and quickly realized that we were walking along the course of what would be a finishing circuit (i.e. they cross the line once, do a big loop, then finish). Which meant we'd get to see them twice. Aces.

We found the finish line, which was pretty crowded, so we lined up a little bit down from the finish, where if we climbed up on the fencing and looked down the road, we'd be able to see the finish. There were radio updates as they approached, and while I couldn't understand them all, I could tell the pack was all together and which teams were driving the pace. I also learned that while 'siempre' in spanish means 'always', 'sempre' in Italian means 'still'. Good to know.

First, a large number of promotional vehicles adverstising everything from bicycles to giant sausage came through. Actually, I think just the model sausage on top of the van was giant. Then a large contingent of police and race officials, then finally the racers swooshed by, followed by umpteen team cars, with a few stragglers interspersed. I did not take any photos because I wanted to get a good look at everything. The peloton disappeared to head out on their 10k circuit.

The weather had been iffy all day, and it started to rain harder and harder as we waited for them to come back through. Umbrellas came out and impeded our ability to see up the road. We decided I'd life Naomi on my shoulders so she could see the finish. It was destined to be a sprint finish, since it was a flat stage, and one of her favorite riders is a great sprinter, Alessandro Petacchi. Well, I don't know if he's actually a favorite. The reality is that she's in awe of his, uh, package. I feel no shame in saying that, and if you'd ever seen him on a podium, you'd understand why.

The sprint finish happened, and Petacchi edged out the field for the win. Naomi saw it pretty well (the finish), and I saw him come through a few seconds later, arms raised. Then, after the riders slowed down, they came back through and we got a second look. Some riders threw stuff to the fans, I managed to grab a Lotto Domo water bottle with the initial 'A' on it. (Looking at the start list, I think it must have been from Aart Vierhouten. Who?) I got some decent pictures of the riders as they milled around, and Naomi got some good ones of their butts.

Finally, Naomi climbed on a fence to take pictures of the podium presentation. Unfortunately, it was still raining pretty hard and we were at about a 100 degree angle from facing the stage, so we didn't get to see that well. Still, it was all very cool. Although, I was surprise at how small a crowd/spectacle there was. Maybe it's because it was in such a small town. Also, it was amazing how quickly everything was broken down after the presentations were done. It was probably cleaned up in 30 minutes.

On our way to the finish, we had passed a van selling Giro swag bags for €5, but we didn't know what it was at the time. Later we went back looking for the van, but we were unable to find it and Naomi missed out the T-shirt she really wanted. I would have liked a souvenir too. I ended up getting the free program, which was 90% adverts, but still cool to have.

Walking back to our car, some Giro officials stopped to ask us directions. Ha! We took our time driving back through some beautiful country, including Monte San Sevino, which was really nice. After seeing the race and lots of cyclists and cycling fans watching, I longed to be out on a bike on those roads. Every time we passed a cyclist, I'd feel it again. Renting bikes is definitely on the agenda!

We got out of the house a little earlier and headed for Siena, Naomi and I on our own. Siena is a medieval, walled city, and unless you’ve got business inside, you can’t really drive into it. Well, at least the walled part is walled, if you know what I mean. There’s lots of other crap outside the wall. It’s also up on a hill. So, all the roads around the city go up to the wall, then, back down. If you’re
circling the city, your path would probably look like one of those pictures of spiderwebs spun by spiders on acid. Anyway...

We found a place to park and made our way toward the most famous part of Siena, the Piazza del Campo. This is where they hold Il Palio every year, which is a traditional horse race, but it's more like a cross between the olympic opening cermonies and a smash-up derby (I've seen it on video). It is a large, sloping brick piazza with a beatiful building that looks like cathedral at one end (its actually the Museo Civico), lots of cafes and restaurants, people walking around and relaxing in the piazza.

We found a tourist shop to find a map because if I haven't mentioned it already, getting around in Siena is tricky. They had the Giro d'Italia coverage on, and because of that we had our first positive language experience in Italy. After we got our map, I asked "Chi è la magglia rosa?" (Who is the leader of the Giro), and it went on from there. We ended up getting directions to 3 different bike shops, one within the city walls, and we found out that his bike cost €1,952. I remember this because he wrote it on our map. He was the first of uncountable very nice people we met with. Actually, scratch that, the woman at the Europcar desk in Rimini was probably the first, since she closed her desk and walked me all the way to where my car was (a few hundred meters) to make sure I found it.

We then continued up to the Duomo (not Il Duomo, which is in Florence, but Siena's version). A quick tour of the cathedral, which was amazing. Next, we had a snack (first of many pizze margherite we would share) and met up with Naomi's family in the piazza. Then we set out to find the bike shop, and hopefully rent bikes. It turned out that the shop was pretty far, but that was ok since the street to get there was one of the main shopping streets, so we got a little bit of the lay of the land.

The bike shop didn't rent bikes, but they gave us directions to their other store, which did. In typically Italian fashion, it was open on Tuesdays from 8:30-12:30, Thursdays 3-8, and Fridays 8:30-12:30 (they didn't mention weekend hours -- keep in mind that this is all being communicated in broken English and mangled Italian).

We hiked back to the Piazza del Campo, had another quick drink with the fam, then set out to the Internet cafe we had spied earlier. I think they undercharged us, because it was only €1.80 for 90 minutes on two machines. We made our reservation for a Florence hotel on Friday & Saturday nights.

Finally, around 10 pm, we sat down for dinner at a restaurant we noticed early on that main street (Via Di Camollia). I had gnocchi con salmone e funghi porcini, and Naomi polished off her Penne all'Arrabiata, both very good. The atmosphere was not super classy, but it was authentic-- probably family run with the person I will call the 'son' (late 30s), watching TV at high volume in between his checks on us. Naomi really liked his hair, and kept telling me I should grow mine long (like most Italians do). I'll think about it.

Tired and sated, we returned home, and the family all got up out of bed to come and hear our tales of the day, which way pretty neat, I thought.

First of all, I just discovered that yesterday was Mother's Day. Ummm, oops. Happy Mother's Day, mom!

When I left off, we had just made it to the farmhouse at I Pianelli, tired and hungry, and we shared a gourmet feast of incredibly good tomatoes, many different yummy cheeses, and cardboard. Technically, crackers, or crisp bread, or something. That was enough to get us to the next day.

Monday
We didn’t end up doing a whole lot on Monday. We were tired and it took a while to get going with only a bucket’s worth of hot water at a time. (The boiler has two settings: a picture of a glass and a picture of a bath tub. When it’s on the faucet, you get a few minutes of fairly warm water if you only use the hot faucet at a slight dribble. The other setting—well, we haven’t figured out what that’s for. Maybe someone out there has an old Italian boiler?) Anyway, by the time we were all out of the house, it was after noon. We went to Pontignano, a former monestary turned faculty housing, where Naomi and her family stayed almost 20 years ago when her dad was there as guest faculty. She used to catch lizards, and to prove she still has it (which I already knew anyway), she caught another lizard. This place is gorgeous, with beautiful grounds, including courtyards and gardens, and a compost pile over in the corner.

On the way back, driving through some vineyards, we stopped to take pictures of the wild poppies and other flowers. Unfortunately, the grapes were being sprayed, and before they realized it, Naomi and her dad both had coating of some kind of bug replellent on them. The good news is that they didn’t get bitten by anything the rest of the day (but neither did the other 3 of us). Speaking of bugs, we came back to a house full of ants…

Our next stop was the Co-op, a big supermercato. We spent about an hour shopping. Probably half of it in wonder and the other half in frustration. But we finally tracked down everything we needed, or its nearest equivalent. We also found a SIM card that I could slot into my phone and have it work here. Handy, in that now we could stay in touch. Not handy, in that all of the instructions are in Italian. Also, it’s called TIM, like the enchanter.

We returned ‘home’ and Naomi and I went on an hour walk, to explore. We walked up the road behind the house, and it kept going up and up and up. A little too steep and sandy for mountain biking in some places, but it might be manageable, we’ll see. There were some good views and a disconcerting number of shotgun shell casings on the ground. We got back as it was getting dark.

We had planned to go to dinner in nearby Lupompesi, but that restaurant closed. We also tried the hotel where we were rescued (Naomi’s sister and I went in and said, I’m afraid, what translated to “can we eat?” We must have looked really pitiful, because he seemed really sorry to tell us they were closed. The short of it is, we went back home for store-bought pizza and salad, more cheese, tomatoes, and proper crackers. The tomatoes are so good that it doesn’t matter what you are eating them with.

so much to catch up on, so few euros!

we left London without much incident, flew on Easy jet to Rimini. We flew out of Stansted airport, which has a very odd but very efficient configuration. There are about 12 aisles, with about 10 desks per aisle, each staffed by teenagers. The desk agents almost outnumber the customers. Check in is really quick. After you get through security, you emerge into a large shopping area. Then you take a train underground to the terminals.

When we arrived in the terminal, we heard an announcement for the "last and final" call for a flight to Copenhagen. Then we heard it again. Then again, and again, for 30 minutes until finally we hear the "very last and very final" call for it a few times. Apparently, the gate changed and they were calling for the last 6 passengers who hadn't shown up yet. After hearing this for 45 minutes, they were leaving, apparently. A few minutes later we hear someone pounding on the glass and yelling "fuck! Come on!!" I thought it was pretty funny.

Flying with a bunch of Italians to Rimini was amusing. They were very boisterous, cheering and making mock orgasmic sound effects on take-off and landing. They spontaneously broke into song a few times, too. My people!

The funniest thing, though, happened after we landed in Rimini, a smallish airport in a smallish town on the Adriatic coast. We got off the plane and onto the tarmac and we were directed onto a shuttle bus. It was a big bus, with four doors to get in and out, but it still looked waay too small for all of us. We crammed into it, taking about 10 minutes for the last people, an Indian mother and four kids in identical jackets, to get on. The doors closed, and we were off! For the shortest shuttle ride in history. No exaggeration, we were moving for about 10 seconds. I took a picture that I'll upload at some point if possible, but seriously, I could have had a conversation with someone standing right next to the plane. Oh, then Naomi went to the WC and the lights had gone. So this was peeing by sonar, I guess.


we then got our rental car and figured out most of the road signs (my favorite: "this sign valid when it snows"). It was about a 3 hour drive. We the last few km took the longest, since the directions we had were pretty vague, and we ended up calling Naomi's folks, who came out to lead us home.

That gets us through Sunday. More updates to come. Ciao!

Thursday night, we met, as planned, with Pat and Kathie at Belgo and it was a good time! They all had their vegetarian fare and I chowed down on what was basically Belgian Bangers and mash. Pat is an amazingly generous and friendly guy, and I'm really glad we managed to get together.

It got even better the next night, when we went up to Northampton to stay with them and check out King Rolo at the Northampton Labour Club. He moved on from the Woodentops and did his Bad Apples thing for a while. Now he's DJ Applebad violently slinging his music+sound+rythym+noise (plus theremin) and people with high virtuosity. Naomi will be getting a CD soon. The crowd received all 3 acts well, everyone was friendly, and everyone was pretty good looking, too, which was just odd.
The local labour MP stopped by at one point. How freakin' cool is that? Oh, and upstairs? The local didgeridoo club was meeting.

After many Budvars, we went back to Pat's and passed the night away carrying on, drinking more, and listening to many tunes. Kathie, Pat, and Rolo were great company, very friendly, and very welcoming. We also met Little Jake and Hobbu, which made us miss our cats... but it was nice to get some feline affection all the same. It was a very memorable adventure, and one that made me miss the days of being in a band, so maybe I'll have to take a look at doing that again after I get back, on top of everything else.

We took the train back early this morning with no sleep, and recovered enough to meet Naomi's cousins for dinner and then go to see Oleanna with Julia Stiles & Aaron Eckhart. I have to say... 'eeh.' Stiles was so-so and the script seemed really weak to me. The whole premise was dated and shallow. And while I squirmed a little bit, which was, I think, the play's goal, it just lacked any oomph. Basically, the play took a most extreme example of the PC-ness of the 90s and held it up and said. "Look. See?" It just wasn't very good.

We're off to Italy tomorrow, will report more from there and send some pictures if possible, if we get the laptop up and running. I'll have a last pint for y'all till then. Cheers!

Brian asked for leftovers. We almost had some last night. We had our Indian dinner at restaurant called Chor Bizarre. It was not a type of Indian food I'd had before, but it was still good. It's hard to describe food that you're not familiar with, but we ordered to vegetarian dishes so we could share.

After we finished and they took our plates away, and a few minutes back they came back with a bag of leftovers. We hadn't asked them to take the extra home, but whatever. So we tucked it away behind Naomi. A few minutes later, a guy came over and said, "sorry, it's a mistake." He took it away, sorry Brian.

Saw the play. Mme. Dench is awesome.
We checked into our 2-star hotel today, which will be good enough for the next few days. Tonight we're meeting Pat F. & Kathie at a Belgian restaurant. Hopefully they have vegetarian offerings. I know they'll have vegetarian beer.

Also, discovered last night that channel five carries the playoffs live at around 1am! We missed the sharks clincher, but it's probably ok, since we don't want to screw up our sleep cycles too much. We did stay up from 12 to 1 just to watch about 60 seconds of highlights from the game we missed. It was a cool show, though-- showed ESPN's highlights from each game of all four conference semi series. We'll have to see what the hockey coverage is like in Italy.

Running out of time again. Cheers!

We are doing great on our first full day in London. Got tix to see a few plays, including Judi Dench in All's Well That Ends Well tomorrow. Yesterday we had to abort plans to see Wilson in Northhampton since we were just way too bushed when we arrived. Hopefully we'll head that way later. (If you look at a map and find Welwyn Garden City (where we're staying), it seems to be conveniently located between London and Northampton, but to get from WGC to Northampton you need to take 3 trains and 2 1/2 hours.) But anyway, both of us managed to sleep through the night and wake up at a reasonable time. Hopefully jet lag won't be too much of a factor.

Today we checked out the Science Museum, where we mainly looked at the exhibits on the history of math and the history of computing. There was also a strange exhibit on "pain", which included lots of bits from all different sources. Art, science, dominatrix flyers, medieval torture devices. We may go back to catch the Speed Imax later, since it has two of Naomi's heroines in it: Marion Jones & Marla Streb.

It's, of course, raining off and on and chilly here. It may be summer back home but it's definitely still a wet English spring here. Of course, when it's 90 degrees and sunny, it's hard to remember to pack an umbrella, so we didn't. Plans for the rest of the week in addition to the theatre are having at least one good Indian meal, and one pub meal, in addition to many genuine imperial pints. I hear that beer helps with jet lag.

The brain's not completely on yet, so I've used up most of my time already. Gotta run!

I know that I'm going to be teased that this is a cat blog, and I know I'll get ads for cat stuff showing up, but... the hardest part about leaving for 3 weeks is leaving the little critters behind.

So, Naomi, Brian and I are supposed to go on a bike ride today, and I call Brian and he's stuck in Cinco de Mayo traffic. Wait, it's May 2! Can't they count to cinco in this town? Brian mumbled something about them wanting to be able to get hammered on the weekend. I have to point out, that Americans get hammered on the 4th of July, no matter what day it falls on. I just don't see how you can celebrate a day like the 4th of July, or the 5th of May on a day other than the 4th of July or the 5th of May. We never, ever get 4th of July fireworks on July 2.

Anyway, we made it to the bike ride, in Fremont Older OSP (not "Fremont Old" OSP, as the description says). It was fun, but HOT, with lots of ups and downs. We did get a little lost, but we all came out okay in the end. Brian's saddle stayed in place, and as far as I know, he did not bruise the taint this time. However, there was one sketchy descent where Naomi had to brake hard. I heard sounds of Brian braking hard behind me, so I didn't want to stop and block the road, so I thought I'd go around Naomi. I think I clipped her back wheel, but she says I ran into her leg. At any rate, she's got a nice bruise and some tread marks (of unknown origin), of which she is very proud.

It was a generally out and back loop, and on the way back Brian and Naomi gave me a head start up the hill so I could take their picture:

(Don't know who that one dude is.)

Me: Naomi, wait for us at some point.
Naomi: Bite me!!


But, eventually, she did stop and wait for us.


Us:


Ahhh! They're coming to get me! On bikes!

Whooppee! The first of 23 days with no work and no school! I started it off catching up on some school work....

Actually, that's not true. I started it not being able to fall asleep (again) until 2am the night before a race. I woke up at 5:00 am and tried to talk myself into going, but I only had 3 hours of sleep. I actually had some adrenaline from being angry at myself for not going, so I almost went, but instead I went back to sleep and slept until about 11. Ah, vacation!

Then Naomi brought me coffee and a doughnut to kickstart my late morning. I'm tellin' ya, she's a keeper! I shouldn't mention that she said something like "I'm kicking your ass outta bed in 15 minutes--- we have a lot to do today."

We working on getting ready for our trip: packing, cleaning. But the highlight was a 3-hour bike rice around Chesbro & Uvas reservoirs with Naomi. She's really taking to the road riding. Who'da thunk it?

The day didn't end well, though, with the Sharks dropping game 5 to Colorado in OT. Frickin' Sakic! Actually, Sakic is too classy to get mad at. Forsberg, on the other hand, is a punk. Frickin' Forsberg! World's greatest player, my ass! I never realized what a cheap shot artist he is and how much the refs let him get away with it. If he were a defenseman, he'd be here for sure. Anyway, I'm hoping my TiVo will have Sharks hockey on it when I get back. But they're gonna have to WAKE UP and play to win.