This year for vacation we took a “big” trip. “Big” is classified as anything that is longer than a week and this year we took two weeks in a row! Sixteen days in total! Very big for us. It has been a few years since we had a chance to take a long vacation, with our last major trip being to Alaska a few years back. So this year we embarked on a marvelous journey to celebrate a special birthday for Lisa.
We spent two wonderful weeks in Europe visiting Italy and France. Since it was a special occasion, I thought I would share my memories in what I feel is a most appropriate fashion, Dave’s 40 vacation highlights. Let us begin.
1. Sharing two weeks with the woman I adore and enjoying our time together. I could really stop here and have said enough, but since we have a slide show with pictures, I will try to do them some justice.
2. Taking the trip with our friends and family. Kallie and Guy Heaton (friends) and Dan and Gail Rader (family) joined us for the Italian leg of our trip. It was great to spend time with people we enjoy and as an added bonus we actually are in more pictures together than on any trip we have ever taken!
3. Visiting Apice Italy. The first stop on our visit and probably one of the most special to me. Apice is the town in Italy my great grandfather emigrated from when he was 14 years old. He came to America on his own and we have been lucky enough to find more information about Luigi Porcelli’s trip to America from the Ellis Island records.
4. Finding the Porcelli name on signs in the old town of Apice (see the pictures). Macelleria means butcher. The family knows meat!
5. Benevento, the biggest town/city near Apice. Home to an amazing triumphal arch, it makes driving in New York City seem tame.
6. A quick stop in Montemiletto for a little automotive repair. There are certain things it is better our Italian rental car company not know we hit in the road. Luckily for us we found a wonderful repair shop and easily the best deal (money-wise) we got on the entire vacation.
7. Visiting the Amalfi Coast. Now this is some serious real estate. Laguna Beach on steroids for our Californian friends. Scenic and beautiful.
8. Neapolitan Pizza. Naples is the true home of pizza and it was simply the best pizza everywhere you went in the Naples area. Ultra thin crust, simple toppings and cooked to perfection (frequently in wood burning ovens).
9. A boating extravaganza. We rented a private boat for half the day and toured the Amalfi coast. Maiori, Minori, Positano, Pandora’s Cave, the Emerald Grotto and Amalfi. What an awesome way to see such a pretty coast line.
10. Pompeii. So what happens when amazing amounts of hot lava and ash cover over a city in seconds? Apparently amazing preservation occurs. The ruins in Pompeii were everything we thought they would be and offered an intriguing look at life from so long ago.
11. Mt. Vesuvius. Missing a big piece that covered over so much of the Naples area, it is still imposing to see it sitting in the distance as you wander the ruins.
12. Opolontis was the villa and home of one of Emperor Nero’s wives. Close to Pompeii it suffered the same fate. The property is the only “scavi” (excavation) in that city. An entire new city lies above what must be some phenomenal ruins. But, with the new city in place the world may never know. Without question this one site was most well preserved of any of the ruins destroyed when Vesuvius erupted. It is still being excavated, but the preservation of the walls, their paintings, the floor and the structure itself make it worth the trip. I think if you went here first you would be very disappointed by what you would see in Pompeii. Luckily for us we saw it second and enjoyed them both.
13. The villa. We rented a villa in Tuscany for a week. It slept 8 but we only had 6 (where were all you folks when we were looking for two more?). Located deep inside a vineyard and olive grove (about 2 miles from the main road), we found a lovely retreat from civilization. For the next 7 days it was our starting and ending point as we explored more of Italy. Barbara, the owner was a lovely lady and would be happy to rent her villa to you as well. If you're interested we can give you her contact information.
14. San Gimignano, the city of towers. In ancient Italian times, the rich built towers to establish their position in the town and for protection. San Gimignano has 13 or 14 towers still standing and is built on a hilltop that was quite defensible in its day. Today it is home to one of the best gelato shops in the world and a lot of tourist trap stores. Still, a very unique and historical little town.
15. Castellina in Chianti and the Chianti trail. Our villa was located along the Chianti trail so wine was readily available. We stayed in Chianti area so we could enjoy the endless rows of grapes and the vineyards that produced the Sangiovese grapes that filled the many bottles we emptied.
16. The Gallo Nero, our adopted bird for the vacation. The Gallo Nero (black rooster) is the symbol that wineries who meet the regional bottling regulations in the Chianti area put on the bottles. A good bird to hang around with.
17. Florence, easily my favorite city in all of Italy. There is so much to see and do in Italy, but Florence is just a romantically enchanting city for me. It is of course the home of the David and the Duomo here is one of the most beautiful in all of Italy.
18. The Ponte Vecchio. Simply a bridge over the Arno River filled with jewelry shops. A tourist trap to some, but a beautiful back drop to so many pictures. Watching the sun set behind the Ponte Vecchio with the reflections of the bridge in the stillness of the slow moving river is one of my favorite pictures.
19. The Uffizi. I am never quite sure if I am most impressed by the building and its painted ceilings or the tremendous gallery of historic works. I guess both and we greatly enjoyed the works of Giotto, Botticelli and other masters.
20. The statues in the streets neighboring the Uffizi are the home to some of the world’s best known statues (all amazingly maintained and cleaned).
21. The Mercato Nuovo, home to Il Porcellino. The Porcellino (wild boar) is a bronze statue whose famous nose has been rubbed for good luck by millions of people. As legend has it, if you place a coin in the Porcellino’s mouth and it falls through the grate in the base of the statue you will return to Florence again one day. We’ll be back to Florence again and the city is doing very well financially in the meantime.
22. Lisa’s birthday. For her birthday we arranged for a half day cooking school in Florence. Everyone attended and 6 new Italian chefs were born. We met our chef in Florence and shopped the fresh market together for our ingredients. Then we headed out to her home, just outside of town, and spent the next few hours preparing our lunch. Homemade ravioli filled with zucchini, almonds and parmesan, roasted fennel, pork and tomatoes in a Chianti sauce and a meringue tort with pomegranate and fresh berries. Since Barbara, our chef for the day, was also a sommelier, she paired each course with a different wine to complete a delicious experience.
23. Dinner at La Giostra. A special restaurant Lisa and I had visited once before was her choice for her birthday dinner. The Florentine steak we shared as a group was dinner another night as well. Tough to eat a 48 oz steak in one sitting.
24. Home cooking. During our stay at the villa we all pitched in to prepare some scrumptious home cooked meals. Wild boar sausage, risotto, pasta and mom’s special veal osso buco!
25. Venice. We took a day trip by train to Venice. Wow, what a neat city. It was just what we expected and just how it looks in pictures. Water rules the day and the Grand Canal is simply a sight you need to see. St. Marks Square is amazing and is something we need to explore better on another trip, simply too much to take in all in one day. If people watching is your thing, pull up a chair in this town and watch the world go by.
26. Nera and the dogs of Italy. It seems (probably because we missed our Bella) that there were dogs all over Italy. Nera was the family dog at the villa we stayed at. Sweet girl, always glad to see you and willing to lead you on walks around the property. As the owner of the villa Barbara told us, Nera kept the wild boar away and thus made a good walking companion, plus she knew all the cool walking paths.
27. The Chianti trail. Panzano, Greve, Radda, and Castellina were some of the many small towns we visited along the Chianti trail. As usual all had their share of Sangiovese!
28. A special birthday present for Lisa. On our trip to and from Italy, we connected through Paris. Lisa made mention a few times before the trip that she wished we had at least planned to spend a night in Paris so we could the city. On the way to Italy she mentioned it again. So as a surprise for her birthday, I re-routed the last leg of our trip from Rome to a few days in Paris.
29. The city of lights. We arrived in Paris late in the afternoon and by the time we checked in to our hotel it was dark. What a great indoctrination to the city, night time in the city of lights. On our first night we explored the city and started with the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower.
30. The next day was the first Sunday of the month. Nothing special in most places, but as it turns out very special in Paris. On the first Sunday of each month entry to the famous sights and museums of Paris is free. We took full advantage and did a day filled with museums.
31. The Louvre was our first stop and we spent many hours taking in as much of the museum as we could. Venus de Milo, the Mona Lisa and more works by Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Monet, Picasso and so many others. This museum requires a few days to really enjoy its true majesty.
32. Following the Louvre we headed to the Musee D’Orsay. Home to more great art work by Monet, Van Gogh, Renoir, Cezanne and the infamous Whistler’s Mother all housed in a beautifully restored train station. If they turn Grand Central Station in New York into a museum you would have the Orsay.
33. The third stop on museum day was a quick visit to L’Orangerie which housed full room sized paintings from Monet, many of his famous waterlillies. Lisa loves his work and the rooms in the museum were stunning for both their unique size and beauty.
34. Notre Dame, home to the hunchback and the gargoyles. Amazing history and architecture here.
35. The chapel at St. Chappelle was an amazing array of light and color with the most beautiful stained glass windows I have ever seen. A different biblical story is told in each segment of the chapels windows add to the grandeur of the chapel.
36. The Eiffel Tower. Sometimes you hit it just right and we did with our visit to the Eiffel Tower. We went up in the tower just at sunset and got to enjoy a pretty sunset and the glow of the city as it went from day to lights! Elevator up, walk down. A very impressive structure to say the least.
37. The Paris Opera house. Yes there really is a lake below the famed opera house where the phantom resides. Possibly our favorite site on our trip to Paris, the opera house was gorgeous and impeccably appointed in gold and more colors of marble then I knew existed.
38. Dining delight. While in Paris we enjoyed a few wonderful meals and did our best to learn about French wines. Like all wines, the more you drink the faster you learn and we were willing to learn.
39. 21 Rue Cambon, the site where Coco Chanel first started her business in Paris. Lisa wanted to see the store front where it all started (they have since moved up the block a bit to number 33). While seeking out this out we also found a great Italian shoe store where Lisa picked up a hot pair of black boots from Italy. Yes, we had to go to France to find the right pair of Italian boots.
40. Coming home again was the culmination of a great trip that has provided us with so many special memories. Back in sunny California we found a special friend with a wagging tail who clearly missed us. Bella was thrilled to have her people back.
A special trip, for a very special birthday, with my wonderful wife.
