Florence - Cooking Class

Cooking class in Florence - with Marcella Ansaldo at the Giglio Cooking School.  

Pasta is simple, just two ingredients so I decided I needed a class. I signed us up at the Giglio Cooking school for a three hour private lesson and learned pasta and so much more. Now for all my foodie friends out there I realize that pasta is not something you master in three hours or three years but I now have a good idea of how to make basic semolina pasta. We cooked zucchini, eggplant, clams, fish, pasta with tomatoes, garlic and some much more. Of course I had to end with chocolate a lava cake finished off the lesson. 

Florence

Florence

Naples is a beautiful city to be sure with great shopping; stunning museums and wonderful food but it does show the scares of economic decay. Graffiti adorns block after block of ancient walls and litter is thrown in the gutters to collect in wind blown corners. By contrast Florence gleams under the Tucson sun. A smaller city and a bit slower paced I found Florence relaxing, a vibrant city with a small town feel.

Our Apartment lay outside the city center on Via Ugo Foscolo. Apartment rental can be a great alternative to hotels if you do your research and read the reviews carefully. 

Yes, this is the view from our apartment

This place was a gem, about a five minute walk to local shops and a grocery and twenty minutes to the main shopping district the Domo and museums. And the view was, well see for yourself.

I know this may sound strange to some but I was happy to get access to kitchen and a chance to cook. Just down the street I found the grocery, the butcher, the cheese shop and the vino vender. Wine on tap, just deposit thirty cents for the bottle and the most expensive wine is four and a half Euros, delisioso. I did have one snafu as I struggled to order things with my vocabulary of twelve Italian words. At the butcher I found chicken marinated in herbs and olive oil that looked perfect for the pesto pasta I was planning. 

So I quickly ordered one, one kilo that is. Now I know a kilo is more than I needed but at that moment fractions where out of the question. So I took my two and quarter pounds of chicken home to make a light dinner for two.

We woke to a blue sky and cool breeze through the open windows. A cappuccino and a croissant are just about my favorite breakfast and the mile walk into town passes at least a dozen shops and cafes that serve this most perfect of combinations. Crossing the Fiume  Arno (main river in town) we pass the shops lining the Ponte Vecchio (bridge lined with jewelry shops). If you not shopper get there early to watch the heavy ornate wooden doors and iron hinged window coverings being opened and the merchants preparing for the day. A ritual of shopping that dates back hundreds of years.

Positano

Enjoying the sun in this lovely little fishing town turned resort.

Here is the view from our balcony - Kurt and Deanne's balcony was just two doors down.

Setting off from the Villa Franco.

Kurt and Chris waiting in the lobby. We are ready to take on the day of walking, shopping, eating, and enjoying the sun. 

Lots of little alleys and buildings to enjoy.

Deanne and Ginger at dinner Saturday night.

Amazing Insalata di Mare at Ferdinando's on the beach.

Leaving Positano was hard - but the four of us piled into a private car for rollercoaster ride to Napoli’s Centrale Stazione. 

At 10am we checked our luggage at the station, walked to Mueseo di Fisca (Physics Musuem) – a superb collection of early scientific instruments.

Ginger observes an old fresnel lens. 

A Spettrograf from the 1800's

Melloni's Optical Bench

To finish our third and final visit to Naples, we took a stroll down Via San Biagio Ailibarai (that mouthful is a street full of small shops and restaurants) and found lunch at a local café where Italian was the only language.

We got back to the station by 12:30pm in time to catch the 12:50pm high speed train to Florence.

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New images from the travel due. More words to come soon. Click here for the travel album

Frankfurt - Munich - Rome

We arrived in Frankfurt at 8am or 2am according to my body clock – and navigated our way to the DB office to activate our Eurail Ticket to continue our adventure by train. A quick S-Bahn (metro) ride from the airport took us to Frankfurt’s Haptbahnhoff. Finding the luggage lockers we used the first of our Euro coins to stow our big bag.  With three hours until our next train it was out to explore the city of Frankfurt, get a little sun and a brisk walk to fight off jet lag.

The weather was a fresh welcome compared to the muggy, oppressive heat of DC. We wondered up the main Strasse through a plaza filled with breads, fruits and even a portable fishmonger. Just beyond this we found ourselves in Frankfurt’s red light district. A bit of shock to go in one block from the station’s striking architecture through a family filled morning market and then to find yourself surrounded by casinos, junkies and girl-girls-girls. But on we trudged and had a great time exploring the city before heading back to the Haptbahnhoff for our overnight train to Naples.













We had spent our first night sleeping on plane crossing the Atlantic. Now we're ready for the overnight  train to take us south to Naples. Trains in Germany and Italy for that matter have a reputation for punctuality and our did not disappoint. Rolling out of Frankfurt at on the dot.

The sleeper car we had reserved (I must take a moment to credit Ginger for all the reservations, schedules and planning. My role is to carry the luggage and keep her from buying giant glass souvenirs that will reduce to sand before we get home.)

All the trains in Euorpe are better then what we have in the US. By better I mean cleaner, quieter, faster, on-time and well staffed. On the S Bahn (metro) the station announcements in German where easier to understand than the garbled static that passes for information on the DC metro.

The sleeper car on the Eurorail are are more like a New York City efficiency than a typical Amtrak seat. That is if your NYC apartment included a butler.

Jets, trains, and more trains

Jets, trains, and more trains

Leaving Washington we said goodbye to our children and beseeched them not to burn down the house in our absence.  They guaranteed that chores and schoolwork would be their focus while we are 5000 miles away. I love and trust my children, but really, I was a teenager myself once. They dropped us off 3 hours before our flight but, really, we had been packed and ready to go for days in anticipation of this once in a lifetime trip – so far.

Upon arriving at Dulles International Airport, we found our way to the comfortable hospitality of the Lufthansa travel lounge – an oasis of comfortable seats, complementary food and an open bar. 

This to me bodes well for the beginning of a trip celebrating twenty years of marriage and my first excursion to Europe. Using every reward mile I had accumulated over several years meant that Lufthansa had arranged a brand new 747-8 for us. The business class seats in this plane are more like a ----. This guy just kept bringing me stuff. Drinks, snacks a three course meal and of course hot towels. After the food fest it was time to start the adjustment to our new time zone, getting to sleep early. 

The lay flat seats promised a full 1.98 meters of lounge space for sleeping, apparently I am 1.99 meters long. ­

Travel album