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I've been back from Europe for a week now, and in that time I've done a crapload of work and gone to a wedding in my hometown. Egad. Now I'm just trucking through to my committee meeting on Friday, and then I leave for the family reunion/golf outing. And then, THEN, the eeee! and I have a luxurious four consecutive weekends at home.
I finally got a Flickr account, and I've uploaded my pictures from Italy and France. But there are three things worth mentioning that aren't in the pictures:
1. The location of our flat in Rome was perfect. It was a side street in Trastevere, so we were close to everything, but a bit off the main tourist drags. So the restaurants right by our flat were cheap and fantastic, as were the cafe and gelateria outside our doorstep. It rocked. And oh my, the cappuccino at the cafe was the best I've ever had, and it was only eighty centimes! I love Rome so much.
2. When driving from Florence to Nice, we (me, the eeee!, and his sister) didn't want to eat at just an AutoGrille, so we vaguely picked a small town on the map that looked close to a highway exit. Near the exit for Sarzana, there was a sign about the "centro historico", so we figured that was promising. Sure enough, we ended up in this smallish town and found a restaurant that was open for lunch. No one spoke any English -- we were definitely the only Americans around -- but we managed to order some pasta off of the menu. And of course, we then found some good gelato. It was a lovely, quiet break in our day -- we really lucked out with the exit we picked.
3. While in France, we went to the Matisse Chapel in Vence, and we ended up in there with about 75 Dominican nuns. It turns out that since the St. Dominic's pilgrimage goes through that area, a Dominican nun (who used to model for and nurse Matisse) convinced Matisse to design a chapel for the Dominicans. So these Dominicans nuns were following the pilgrimage, and this was a stop on it. That was really neat, but it also meant that we got to hear about the art from some sort of official guide. And the translator was awesome -- she had a booming voice and a very strong presence.
And now, to bed! Zonk.
I finally got a Flickr account, and I've uploaded my pictures from Italy and France. But there are three things worth mentioning that aren't in the pictures:
1. The location of our flat in Rome was perfect. It was a side street in Trastevere, so we were close to everything, but a bit off the main tourist drags. So the restaurants right by our flat were cheap and fantastic, as were the cafe and gelateria outside our doorstep. It rocked. And oh my, the cappuccino at the cafe was the best I've ever had, and it was only eighty centimes! I love Rome so much.
2. When driving from Florence to Nice, we (me, the eeee!, and his sister) didn't want to eat at just an AutoGrille, so we vaguely picked a small town on the map that looked close to a highway exit. Near the exit for Sarzana, there was a sign about the "centro historico", so we figured that was promising. Sure enough, we ended up in this smallish town and found a restaurant that was open for lunch. No one spoke any English -- we were definitely the only Americans around -- but we managed to order some pasta off of the menu. And of course, we then found some good gelato. It was a lovely, quiet break in our day -- we really lucked out with the exit we picked.
3. While in France, we went to the Matisse Chapel in Vence, and we ended up in there with about 75 Dominican nuns. It turns out that since the St. Dominic's pilgrimage goes through that area, a Dominican nun (who used to model for and nurse Matisse) convinced Matisse to design a chapel for the Dominicans. So these Dominicans nuns were following the pilgrimage, and this was a stop on it. That was really neat, but it also meant that we got to hear about the art from some sort of official guide. And the translator was awesome -- she had a booming voice and a very strong presence.
And now, to bed! Zonk.
