Fondue + Wine = Good Times

Kristin Franke

Grant Franke

Donna Gee

Donna, Kristin, & I enjoyed a bottle of champagne with Gerrard, the owner of the apartment we rented for the week. It was a good start after our long train ride. (16 hours!)

Our tiny kitchen in the rented flat

Afterwards, we set off for a night out that turned out to be crazier than anticipated. It began on a relaxed note, hanging out at the Sacre-Coeur Basilique (Sacred Heart Basilica). From there we wandered around the Mont Matre shopping and cafe district where I was rebuffed from taking a picture of an old painter. He looked like a salty sailor and had a wicked beard!

The steps of the Sacred Heart Basilica

Dinner was at a fondue place called Refuge des Fondus where customers get to climb over the table, & wine is served from baby bottles. Kitsch, but fun. While there we met another group of 3 frenchmen, Garrick, Quentin, and Latitia.

The restaurant

The appetizers

Our delicious cheese fondue and baby bottles of wine

After dinner and 500mL of wine each, we set off to find mojitos & drink them at the most obvious of party locations in Paris - the steps of the Sacre-Coeur Basilica. It felt a little sacrilegious, but there were probably at least 100 other people doing the same thing.

From L to R: Quentin, Garrick, Letitia, Donna, Kristin

Mojitos in hand on the steps

All in all, we had a good time & made it home safely. Though it was crazy, & we slept in quite a bit the next morning. I guess we just wanted to start Paris off with a bang!

the day of problems

Fail #1

• Flight canceled b/c the french air traffic control went on strike
• Solution: Kristin found an overnight train and booked tickets

Fail #2

• Missed our check out time at the hotel. To be fair, we were never told a time
• Solution: We did a rush pack, and the hotel gave us extra time, no charge. It wasn't a big deal in the end

Fail #3

• We were completely unable to contact our Paris guesthouse about our changed itinerary
• First, it was the wrong phone number. We eventually figured out the real number
• Failed public pay phones - out of order
• Failed phone card - uncertain why
• Failed internet and international phone cafe - dude running it was a jerk
• Failed mobile phone - bad Italian network?
• Solution: We never found a phone solution, so we resorted to an email even though guesthouse said they needed a phone call

Fail #4

• Delayed train. 1 1/2 hours late. Another 1/2 hour delay after boarding
• Solution: Wine

Fail #5

• Our seats were in the same car, but different compartments
• Solution: We did get 2 hours together before we picked up Kristin's riding companions in Florence. However, no one wanted to switch, so we traveled separately

Fail #6

• Border and immigration problems. Train delayed another 1 1/2 hours
• Solution: Coffee, cribbage, and books in the restaurant car

Fail #7

• Frantic texts and missed calls with guesthouse once in Paris
• Solution: Donna checked in on our behalf

All in all, the day wasn't that bad. We made the best of it and tried to use our time to do some fun stuff together. I would say our European backpacking trip was very successful since this was the only difficult portion during our month of traveling.

Art and Dining among the mafia

We woke later than usual, but it was much needed. After a light breakfast & my morning coffee perk, we made our way to the metro and journeyed to the Galleria Borghese. Unfortunately, I left our reservation sheet at the hostel. Fortunately, a guy wearing a motorcycle helmet with an iPhone (go apple!) let us access our email and show the ticket lady the necessary info. Whew!

Galleria Borghese

AMAZING! Perhaps one of the best museums I've been inside & had the pleasure of viewing. I was especially thrilled to see Bernini's sculptures of marble. The detail was incredibly intricate. Other artists I saw included:

• Caravaggio
• Rafael
• Titian
• Cannova
• Rubens

The museum was definitely worth a visit and the 11.50 Euro ticket!

Outside Galleria Borghese

We walked to another "Ryan Balch" suggestion for lunch, located on 35 Via del Orso, called L'Orso 80. Apparently, the restaurant is famous with movie stars & celebrities, both past and present. For example, Julia Roberts just finished filming part of Love, Eat, Pray at L'Orso 80 for 24 days. Also, Italy's president, Sylvia Berluscani, ate there. Finally, some hot Italian chick named Angela Cavagna had a framed, signed, risque photo on the wall. Needless to say, we ate like Roman emperors, gorging ourselves on 16 heaping portions of various antipastos. It was perhaps one of the most filling and savory meals yet! As a final note about L'Orso 80, we feel like it might have connections to the Italian mafia.

The celebrity and mafia hangout

The hot Italian chick

16 dishes of antipasto goodness

The rest of the day was pretty relaxed. First, McDonalds treated us to its 3rd floor lounge chairs, where we took a nap in the sun. Afterwards, we went on to see the magnificent Fontana di Trevi. We tried to play cards for a short time, but the police told us that fun is not allowed near the fountain. Our final trying activity was hanging out on the Spanish steps (where fun is allowed), just watching people and playing card games. The sunset was beautiful, and we watched it from the topmost stairs overlooking the whole countryside.

Fontana di Trevi

Chillin' on the Spanish steps

Sunset view from the Spanish steps

Somehow, Kristin and Lily were still hungry, so we set off for another pasta place. We drank a lot of wine, including the complimentary glass of the "secret/sexy" wine, which had a strong strawberry flavor. After another round of playing Rage, we set our sights on bed and went home.

Our dinner hang out

One Note: we discovered a shop that sells all sorts of uniquely shaped or themed pasta. One was labeled "sexy pasta," and they were all in the shape of penises. Whoa.

the pope's palace

Vatican Day

7:45 - Woke up way too early

8:25 - Depart

8:35 - 1st ride on Rome's metro

9:05 - Enter Vatican's piazza & getting in line for the Basilica - metal detectors!

9:15 - Show up late to mass... how typically Catholic!

9:45 - Mass ends. Italian or Latin? My guess is Italian

10:00 - Light shines down on the ladies & I take pics. Lots of wandering to view mosaics, sculptures, and other cool art

10:15 - The waxing machine almost runs me over

10:30 - Kristin and Lily touch St. Pete's lucky toes

10:45 - Walk around Bernini's Bronze Baldacchino. The bronze was stolen from the Pantheon. Supposedly St. Pete is buried beneath it

11:05 - We buy official Vatican rosaries - we liked the photos of Pope John Paul II better than his ugliness, Benedict XVI

11:15 - Climbed the 551 steps to the top of St. Pete's Basilica, opting out of the life despite Kristin's whining and wussiness. Hehe...

11:30 - Our sweat dried once we reached the top. We were blessed with glorious views!

12:15 - Ate lunch at Franchi's - a picnic-like restaurant. I had a delicious tomato, rice, and potato antipasto with a panini & red wine. Mmm...

12:45 - Wandered over to the fresh fruit market, where Kristin passes out for a 1/2 hour. Lily journaled, and I read more of Stieg Larsson's "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo."

1:15 - We head back to the Vatican to get in the ridiculously long line

1:30 - We play Rage while standing. It required some intense coordination to balance the cards, score sheet, walking, & suffering the heat

2:15 - Old, cantankerous lady tries to shove us out of the line & butt in front of us. I step in & take charge, which leads to a stare down contest. I suggest she take a pre-booked tour to "officially" jump queue. She backs down only to begin her passive-aggressive approach to move up the line, one-family-member-at-a-time method. "Excuse me, my family is up ahead..." :(

3:00 - Enter the Vatican museum! A/C!!!

3-4:30 - We navigated the sea of endless people in the overcrowded, but priceless museum. One of my favorite parts were Rafael's frescoes

The Sistine Chapel

4:30-5:15 - Hangout at the cafe, play Rage, & then browse through the museum gift shop

5:30 - Send 2 postcards via the Vatican's postal service

5:45 - Walk past Rome's castle. Noted the very cool bridge called Ponte Sant' Angelo

6:00 - Pantheon! An astounding structure built nearly 2,800 years ago, & is considered one of ancient Rome's most magnificent structures. I can see why!

The Pantheon's dome

7:30 - Dinner at an unnamed restaurant, simply known as #18/19 on Via del Governo Vecchio. Delicious!

9:00 - Wander the streets and explore the cool shops while drinking beer & eating gelato. 2 shops of note: nostalgic wooden toys & pop culture books on music, movies, and art

9:45 - Hanging out at Plaza Navona - we heard opera, saw breakdancers, listened to funky bottle music blowers, & watched various artists do their work, which included a spray paint artist

11:00 - Finally catch the metro back "home"

Verdict: A good day! :)

visiting the ancients

A day in Roma

1. Breakfast at a nearby cafe. The man owner was funny, and we saw 2 Italian dads taking care of their babies
2. The Colosseum! However, we actually bought tickets to Palatino Hill, the Forum, and the Stadium (12 Euros). All areas needed signs, and the info was completely lacking. Everything was disorganized chaos. Still, it felt like an epic experience once we were inside the sites


smoke break for the centurion

Saturn's temple - or what's left of it!
3. Lunch at the Pizza Forum. We gorged ourselves
4. San Clementine Basilica! It was built in stages, one building on top of the other. First it was the Mithras Temple from the 2nd century BC. Then Christians arrived and built a church on the temple in the 4th century, where Saint Cyril has his remains. Finally, the basilica was constructed on top of that. Overall, it was an amazing site! The temperature was cool and there is an underground spring running throughout the site
5. Church di Santa Maria in Cosmedin. It was a Greek-Catholic church, which resulted from a schism and the church of Byzantium... or something like that. At this church was the Boca dela Verita. Legend has it that the stone mouth will bite down if someone is telling a lie. To perpetuate this legend, priests would occasionally put scorpions inside the mouth
The Boca claims another victim!
6. Capitoline Hill. This is and was the government center. Here we met Ryan Balch, an ultimate player, currently giving student tours in Rome. He used to play for Chain Lightning in Atlanta, and he knows all sorts of mutual acquaintances between Lily, Kristin, and me. He gave us a handful of recommendations - all of which turned out awesome, especially the food recs!
7. The 3D church fresco on the ceiling of Chiesa del Gesu. It was beautiful, ornate, and quite intriguing to look at
8. Dar Poeta restaurant! It was delicious, hip, and had a crazy dessert - a calzone filled with ricotta and nutella. We were stuffed, and by the time we left the wait outside was about an hour

Conclusions

It was a sensational day, filled with history and framed with good food! Also, I'm really glad to be a part of the ultimate community. People in it are extremely friendly (most always), and it has shown me how small the world is within this circle.

Lido beach and leaving Venice

Last day in Venice, concluding the especially lazy portion of our trip. Fittingly, we made an excursion to Lido Island, which houses Venice's only beaches. It was amazing that the water was fairly clean considering the heavy boat traffic everywhere else.

Lido highlights and details:

• soft, black sand
• plenty of beach
• free! :)
• we played a disc game in the water called "flutter guts" and learned that I'm a ninja at the game, easily winning 3 in-a-row, regardless of the partner I had
• people watching was quite interesting - people of all sorts, including a wide range of topless women (though 75% were large, older, and extremely tan)

After a shorter time than desired, we trekked back to Venice and the train station. While there, 3 sad things happened:

1. Our stored bags cost the 6 hour rate even though they were stored 5 hours and 4 minutes
2. No gelato at the train station
3. We had to say goodbye to Jonny, whom has to return to work :(

Few entertaining things have happened on the train with the exception of seat swapping due to so many people either not checking their tickets or stealing better seats (which we also attempted to do and succeeded at for the first 90 minutes of the ride).

A glass monument

The handmade masks of Venice - we bought a magnet version

glass blowing on murano

Murano Island

Lots of handmade and blown glass. It was a lazy day of strolling, browsing amongst the stores, eating gelato, playing cards, & checking out the glass museum. The museum told us about the process of glass-making and housed examples from as early as the 1st century. However, it seems the heyday of beautiful pieces came from the 18th century, all starting with Guiseppi Brianti. Unfortunately, the day was blistering hot, and the museum was the equivalent of a glass kiln. We retired to a nearby cafe with A/C and played Rage for an hour or two.

We eventually caught a boat back to Venice and then our hotel for an early evening. Just before we fell asleep, we decided we needed pizza. Fortunately, the hotel restaurant was able to provide us with 2 such pizzas for only 10 Euros, and it only took 5 MINUTES to prepare. No joke!

Rage, the card game of aggression and fun

outside the glass museum on murano island

a glass spider

glass fish in a glass bowl with glass bubbles = skill

door to a glass showroom on murano island

gelato with the doges

We wandered around Venice, getting lost/exploring.

Highlights:

1. Gelato = yummy, yummy!
2. Basilica du San Marco - free, beautiful, girls used red napkin/cloths to cover shoulders
3. More gelato
4. 2 Euro bottle of wine
5. Euchre in the park. Local drunk watches nearby while singing for us
6. Doge's Palace...

• not free unfortunately
• audio guide was a rip off
• doges tended to have little ruling power and were basically under house arrest unless they could gather their 6-man posse
• most of the decorations were absolutely beautiful. However, most were not original to the rooms except for the fire places
• venetian aristocracy = a "system of self-celebration"
• palace also included a prison. The prisoners' final glimpse of freedom took place through the windows of the "bridge of sighs"
• boasts the largest horizontal painting/portrait in the world
• one doge committed treason & his portrait has a black cloth covering it. Also, all history of him was supposedly erased to help people forget him

the bridge of sighs - under renovation

view from the bridge of sighs

listening to the crappy audio guide

in front of the doges palace

basilica du san marco

gelato cone

gelato for the cone

lots of cheap, delicious italian wine

the gandalas - cost 100 euros per hour. yikes!