Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt Here in Ascoli we have had a long run of unusually warm weather during the last half of December and most all of January and February.  I have to admit that I sort of freaked out when it was in the 30’s and we got our first snow in November.  I figured that it was going to be a long, cold winter.   It seems that I overreacted because, as I mentioned before, when we returned from Rome in mid-December it turned warm (50’s during the day and 40’s at night) and it has pretty much stayed that way since.  We’ve had a few nights in the 30’s and a couple days it was near 70 degrees.  The low pressure fronts bringing the very bad weather to the UK and surrounds is bringing warmer air up from Africa to this part of Europe.  This quite lovely weather made our planned trip to a warmer climate mid-winter to thaw out seem uncalled for.  Oh well, we’ve never have needed a reason to take a trip. Our research found that actually there is no place in Europe that is warm this time of year.  People recommended only two options within a reasonable travel distance – the Canary Islands off the west coast of Africa (with temps around 70) and Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt (with temps averaging in the mid to high 70’s).  Egypt was not on our very long list of places we hope to see, mostly due to safety reasons.  Currently there are travel alerts discouraging Americans from traveling anywhere in Egypt, except, Sharm (what those who have been there call it).  That is because there is the very large Sinai Desert between the the cities with the political unrest and terrorist troubles and the Sharm area on the Red Sea where the Gulfs of Suez and Aqaba converge.  The Egyptian government is protecting this last bastion of tourism in their country with everything they’ve got.  Never-the-less tourism is down over 40% in the area and made a trip there very economical.  Plus we decided it might be our only chance to visit Egypt should their situation continue to deteriorate.  This was very out-of-character for Larry (Mr....

Food:  Rome & Florence at Christmas The Perfect Bun: On the English web-site www.inromenow.com under the heading Restaurants is a subheading of American.  There is a large ExPat contingent in Rome so here you will find a list of  restaurants where you can get “hamburgers” and other American fare.  Other than the ones I’ve made at home, we had not had a good hamburger in a restaurant in six months, so we were game.  The closest one to the B&B was “The Perfect Bun” which looked like a typical American upscale bar and grill.  The nostalgic menu had 15 kinds of burgers – your classic  burgers plus bacon/blue cheese and chili – but they also had a Hell’s Burger, The Nightmare and The Big Badass Burger.  The menu included chicken wings, ribs, steaks, nachos, burritos and other Mexican fare with brownies for dessert!  We arrived without a reservation at 7:30 ish on a Saturday night and almost didn’t get in (I think the couple behind us were turned away), even though the place is pretty large with two levels.  We noticed that they had a Sunday buffet (all you can eat, which we can’t do justice to) with pancakes, waffles, bagels, omelets, fried eggs, bacon, sausage, country potatoes, American coffee (which Larry had, but I consider a huge step down from Italian caffe) bloody Mary’s and Mimosas – we made a reservation right then for noon the next day.  They also had a carving station with turkey, ham, roast beef, lamb, pastas, chicken and vegetable dishes, salad/fruit bar and great desserts – but we were there for the good ole American breakfast that does not exist in Ascoli.  Yummmmmmm!  Click here for website.  We ate once right on the piazza by The Pantheon and another time on the Campo di Fiori, admittedly for convenience, and both were mediocre tourist meals at a relatively high price.  Rick Steves warned us to just have a drink at these places and go somewhere else for dinner, but we were having too much fun people watching and were too lazy to relocate.  Our bad. Cremeria Monteforte:  Is a great gelateria in Rome that has fruit flavors that taste like biting into the fresh...

Photos- Christmas in Rome & Florence

By Larry & Arlene on Jan 20, 2014 in Portfolio, Travel | 0 comments

Rome- The Vatican Rome – Vatican and Tiber River Rome – St. Peter’s Rome- St. Peter’s Basilica- St. Peter’s Basilica St. Peter’s St. Peter’s Dome St. Peter’s Dome and Baldiccino St. Peter’s Farnese Papal Crest St. Peter Rome- Castel St. Angelo Rome- Castel St. Angelo Castel St. Angelo C. St. Angelo Courtyard Castel St. Angelo Crossbow Castel St. Angelo Courtyard Castel St. Angelo Workshop Castel St. Angelo Armory Archangel Micheal – atop Castel St. Angelo River Tiber from C. St. Angelo Rome – Pantheon and Piazza del Rotunda Piazza del Rotunda Fountain Detail Pantheon Dome Interior Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore Piazza Navona at Christmas P.za. Navona and Fountain of the Four Rivers Fountain of four Rivers Detail Piazza Navona Christmas P. Navona Christmas Market P. Navona Christmas Market Christmas Market Tourist Rome – Spanish Steps Rome-Chestnuts and Dior Rome- Babo Natali ala Bulgari Cul de Sac pate & cheese Cul de Sac ravioli, meatballs, etc. Florence- Palazzo Vecchio Florence- Pal. Vecchio and Uffizi Gallery Florence- Loggia in P.zza della Signoria Florence – Duomo Florence – Duomo Florence – Duomo Baptistry Doors Florence Duomo Interior Florence- Duomo Dome Florence- Duomo Interior Florence- Duomo Interior Florence- Basilica di Santa Croce Florence Christmas Market Tourist Florence- Basilica di Santa Croce Doors Florence- Basilica di Santa Croce Cloister Basilica di Santa Croce Interior Basilica di Santa Croce Interior Basilica di Santa Croce High Alter Cross Sta. Croce- Tomb of Michelangello Sta. Croce- Tomb of Galileo Sta. Croce- Tomb of Dante Alighieri Sta. Croce- Tomb of Machiavelli Santa Croce- Side Chapel Santa Croce – Side Chapel Santa Croce – Side...

ROME & FLORENCE at Christmas We love our life here in Ascoli but it was time to get out of town again and see more of Italy.  We had been to Rome and Florence before, but not in several years and never at Christmas.  It was also about time we took the bus from Ascoli to Rome, which is the most cost-effective means of getting there – only 54 Euro for two people round-trip.  Many people we know take it to Rome/Fiumicino airport and use that as the jumping-off point to wherever they need to go . What was a bit of a surprise, not a problem, is that you have to change buses in Porto Ascoli (about an hour out) and have since learned this is a new twist.  It wasn’t a problem, just a surprise.  The buses are comfortable, long-distance buses without bathrooms.  We were pleasantly surprised to have what was essentially a bus attendant on the long leg who served water and caffe.  I’m pretty sure she had other responsibilities too.  They made one rest-stop in-route at what looked like an Italian Stuckey’s, minus the pecan logs.  Due to construction on the autostrada (which has been going on since long before we got to Italy) the bus was running about an hour late.  No problem for us since central Rome was our final destination, but if you had a flight to catch, it could be a bit stressful (i.e., our friends the Klesper’s exerience).  So after a comfortable trip of four hours we arrived at the Rome/Tiburtina Station around 3:00 PM.  As you can imagine in any large city, the bus station was chaos.  Luckily the taxi stand was not hard to find. Navona Queen/Navona King Suites:  This was our third time in Rome and we knew exactly which area of the city we wanted to stay in.  We decided to try this new B&B (opened in May 2013) in a terrific location and are so happy we did.  It is in a very old palazzo right on Corso Vittorio Emanuele II (next to the piazza of Chiesa Nuova) but the entire B&B has been totally refurbished. As is the case in many large ancient cities...

Photos- Bologna

By Larry & Arlene on Nov 13, 2013 in Portfolio, Travel | 0 comments

Piazza Maggiore Notaries Palace roof & Communal Palace Piazza del Nettuno Neptune Siren Podesta Palace & TI office Interior of San Petronio One of 11 Chapels Porticoes as far as you can see Santa Maria dei Servi church, 1346 Looking toward Merchandise Palace Oldest portico in Bologna Galleria Cavour, designer shops Bologna in the Po Valley...

BOLOGNA (See accompanying photos under Portfolio menu) Bologna – the food capital of the country of great food.  I have read many times that, “it is a challenge to find a bad meal in Bologna.”  So how can you screw that up?  By going without a plan, which is what we did. We are experienced travelers and we have learned many important tips to enhance our travel experiences.  Tips like, buy a travel guide and read it, choose a few things that you want to see/do, have a couple reliable restaurant recommendations in hand and pay a little more if needed to find adequate accommodations close to what you want to see.  This last tip has been added to the list in recent years as we now get tired about mid-day and want to go back to our room and put our feet up for a couple hours before we head back out for more sightseeing and dinner. I don’t want to describe here where I think our heads were because our grandchildren may read this, but we pretty much spent an hour on-line finding an efficiency apartment and another half-hour looking at the train schedule, and when the day came we went.  Maybe because all of Italy is now so close we felt we didn’t need the hours of preparation.  Lesson learned – even if you feel like an Italian it is still necessary to research and plan if you want a good experience. It wasn’t Bologna’s fault, the city is beautiful with it’s towers, fortress-like palaces, miles of porticoes and red-brick gateways.  Piazza Maggiore is dominated by San Petronio, the principal city church, dedicated to St. Petronius, Bologna’s patron saint.  It is one of the most monumental Gothic basilicas in Italy that would have been larger than St. Peter’s in Rome had the city not run short of funds (insured by a jealous Pope).  Adjacent is Piazza del Nettuno that acts as the antechamber to Piazza Maggiore, and these two squares form the symbolic heart of the city, showcasing the political and religious institutions that define independent-minded Bologna.  The square’s talking point is the Fontana di Nettuno, the huge bronze fountain to Neptune, sculpted by Giambologna in 1563. ...

GRADARA Traveling may very well be something of a voyeuristic exercise.  Of course there are the valued works of art, the architectural gems and the flow of history into which one can immerse.  But in experiences in new places there can also be a fascination in deciphering how other people live both now and in the past. So, in that sense, perhaps we really are voyeurs. Around us here, the world of medieval Europe is evident in so many places.  With America being such a young country, there is nothing to directly connect us with reminders of that very turbulent era. Over time, America’s cultural mix has been enriched through increased diversity but in our case, we happen to look to our cultural roots in Europe. It is perhaps for that reason the remnants of medieval life here can hold such a fascination for some us from the ‘new world.’ European medieval history is marked by constant rivalries and outright war by various power bases seeking domination and conquest in the power vacuum left after the fall of the Roman Empire.  Powerful families came to dominate independent power centers in what is now Italy in places such as Milan, Florence, Pisa, Naples, Venice and the Rome of the Papacy. The Papacy controlled vast areas of territory and was a major military power dominated by families such as the Medici and the Borgia. In July of this year, having already experienced some of the pageantry of Renaissance re-enactments here in Ascoli, we visited a promising one at a site a little over 120 kilometers north and easily reachable by train.  The place is the medieval fortress town of Gradara. The hilltop at Gradara is situated in the eastern foothills of the Apennine Mountains just south of the Po River valley in a position to dominate the narrow coastal plain of the Adriatic Sea.  Given the attraction of this advantageous strategic location, construction was begun on a fortification in the XII century.  Over succeeding centuries, the fortification was strengthened as changes of control by powerful families occurred.  Among the changes in control was a series of sieges in 1446 and 1463 supported by the powerful Sforza family whose power base was...