Hello, Goodbye, Please and Thank You
Something I noticed on my recent trips to Europe both last year and this year is that English is spoken many more places than it used to and many more places than one might think. Even in little shops and cafes the staff can usually communicate to you with at least a little English, and not just in the tourist areas. I guess this is a sign of the inevitability of English taking its place as the international language of the world. On my first trip to Europe almost 20 years ago, I remember signs and information being printed in three languages: English, French and German in addition to the language of whatever country you were in. These days, things are usually only printed in two languages: English and the language of whatever country you are in. A fact I'm sure annoys the French to no end. While this is nice and convenient for we native English-speakers, too many of us take this fact for granted.
I cannot tell you how many times in a restaurant, museum or shop while in Italy, English speakers of all kinds (thankfully, not just Americans) would parade right up to the sales counter,
maitre 'd or ticket window and just blurt out whatever query they happen to have--all in English. Usually the recipients of these
anglo-centric assaults could answer what ever was asked of them, but it always struck me as a bit of an insult that we English speakers cannot at least learn a few words in the language of the country we are visiting, especially since we Americans in particular demand the same of foreign visitors.
I was reminded of this today as an Asian tourist asked me subway directions to Times Square from 59
th Street. She made herself understood in broken English and I was able to point the way on her subway map and send her toward the right train. She thanked me profusely, all in English, and bowed several times. Can't we English speakers do the same? Not the bowing part, but make the attempt to learn a few words when we travel abroad? I'm not talking about learning extensive vocabulary or conjugating verbs in the subjunctive tense, I'm talking about simple greetings, just four words in fact: Hello, Goodbye, Please and Thank You. Surely this takes little or no effort and I've found this simple gesture is greatly appreciated no matter how badly you botch the pronunciation.
Labels: European Travel
Italy, Day 10
The day after we returned from Rome, Scott and I took it easy. After three days at a break-neck pace seeing all the sights in Rome, we were tired. We slept late, did some laundry and in the afternoon headed to Pisa with my parents to pick up my sister who would be arriving at the airport later that day. Pisa is a lovely city but there's really only one major sight to see there and that is the famous Leaning Tower. The tower is actually part of a composition of three buildings begun in 1173. The Cathedral, bell tower and
baptistery make up a beautifully harmonious assemblage of structures on the emerald green grass of the
Campo dei Meracoli (Field of Miracles). The leaning tower aside, the buildings themselves have much architectural importance. The cathedral is a beautiful example of Romanesque architecture with a beautiful interior and a pulpit carved by
Pisano. The
baptistery, modeled after a Pope's hat has perfect acoustics inside. And the tower--well--leans, although originally not on purpose. The tower has now been reinforced to keep it from toppling over, but also to maintain it's signature lean. Below are some pictures.
Below are photos of Pisa's Cathedral, Leaning Tower and Baptistery.
Labels: European Travel
Roman Holiday (Italy Day Six thru Nine)
Day Six in Italy, Scott and I decided to give my weary parents a break from driving us around sightseeing. It's not just that the parking in these old cities can be a nightmare, but these treacherous mountain switchback roads, crazy Italian drivers who will gladly risk a head on collision around a blind corner just to get ahead of you and a double line down the center of the road is merely a suggestion and not a law, makes driving very stressful. So we decided to take the train into Florence from
Lucca to visit some of the sights we missed including the interior of the
Palazzo Vecchio and more of Santa Croce as well as doing some shopping which gave me a chance to practice my phrase book Italian. We had a great day and it was good practice for our train ride down to Rome where we spent three days together exploring the city.
We stayed in a strictly no-frills hotel in a gritty neighborhood near the train station. But it was clean, comfortable and cool, each room coming with its own air conditioner--a rarity in Italy. Like many of the businesses in Italy, the hotel is family owned and operated. The older couple who runs it speaks no English, but we managed to communicate anyway. Luckily I can understand a bit of Italian and could express myself adequately enough to get by. For example when we walked in to check in, the husband yelled up the stairs to his wife who was cleaning rooms as to which one was ready. She yelled down to him and then he led us up the stairs to our room. The lady's tone changed immediately when she saw us, suddenly becoming the gracious hostess and then began apologizing in Italian and yelling at her husband when she saw we were two men because the beds were not "
separato." I assured her it was
"non problema" which gave her a chuckle and that was that. After we got settled in, we left with the tourist map the husband had given us with all major sights circled and the best routes to take penciled in and headed for the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. We even managed to toss three coins in the
Trevi Fountain before sitting down to a late dinner.
On Wednesday, we decided to dedicate the entire day to seeing the Vatican. We also vowed to conquer the subway system after coming home with aching feet the night before. The system was easily navigable (only two lines) and we zipped up to the Vatican in no time. The Pope happened to be saying mass in Saint Peter's Square when we arrived, but don't worry, I dropped
Dave's name to
illPapi57, and we got right passed the guards. (By the way Dave, he still feels really bad about the lousy job he did covering your blog, he told me to make sure you knew that--again.) Anyway, we toured the Vatican museums which contain an inordinate number of naked male statues and paintings---WAY more than female ones--that's all I'm
sayin'. And of course the tour culminates with Michelangelo's masterpiece, the Sistine Chapel. It's been cleaned since I saw it last and is truly more magnificent than ever. The figures appear to float in the air. It's truly inspirational. Later we toured St. Peter's Basilica in all its grandeur, marveling at
Michelangerlo's dome and
Pieta. We ended the day there with a
gelato outside the Vatican gates and took the subway back to the hotel where we crashed before dinner.
Our third day in Rome there were still a few sights left to see before catching our 4:00 PM train back to Tuscany. Now masters of the Roman subway system, we made our way to the Pantheon, Spanish Steps and the Piazza
Novana. We also made one more visit to the Forum so we could actually walk around in it. The first day we were there we arrived after 6 PM when
the sight closes. We snapped pictures, read the guidebook to fill us in on what we were seeing and then made a mad dash to pick up our bags at the hotel and catch our train. We cut it close though and had to run all the way to the very last track where our train was leaving from and collapsed for the ride home. All in all, we covered a lot of ground in Rome and I'm glad I was able to share it with Scott.
Below are pictures of the
Colosseum,
Trevi Fountain, the Roman Forum, the Vatican Dome from the Tiber River, the interior of St. Pater's Basilica featuring Bernini's
Baroque canopy beneath Michelangelo's dome and finally the Pantheon.
Labels: European Travel
Pace Yourself
Pardon the flurry of posts from Italy. It’s hard to find time to sit at an internet café and write posts when there is so much of Italy to see, so I’m posting days one through five all at the same time. Scroll down and start with Day 1. Enjoy the photos and take your time reading the posts. I probably won’t find time to post again for another four days or so. Enjoy!
Labels: European Travel
Italy Day Four (and Five)
Day four we spent touring the Tuscan countryside south of Florence into the Chianti region stopping in Siena, San Gimignano and a storybook town called Monteriggioni on the way.
Siena is truly one of my favorite cities in Italy. Despite being just below Florence as a "must see" in Tuscany in all the guide books, it never seems crowded or overrun with tourist. We wandered into town soaking in the atmosphere of the medieval architecture and into Il Campo, the largest Piazza in town where we had lunch. This is also the spot where Siena hosts its annual Palio, a raucous horse race between the nine districts in town. The entire city is decked out with banners and finery and residents dress in period medieval costume.
Siena also has one of the most beautiful Duomos in all of Italy. The work of Nicola and Giovanni Pisano, the cathedral features a combination of Romanesque and Gothic architecture and houses some of the great art masterpieces of Italian art from the 13th to the 16th centuries including Nicola Pisano’s pulpit, Bernini’s chapel of the Blessed Virgin and Donatello’s baptismal font.
On our way to San Gimignano we stopped off in the idyllic village of Monteriggioni. We only spent an hour there as the town is so small you could plunk it down in the middle of New York City and it would scarcely take up on city block. It is completely enclosed by medieval walls and until the 1960s housed a co-op of farmers who grew mostly grapes, this being the Chianti region. These days the main industry in town is tourism which benefits greatly from the town’s convenient access just off the Autostrade.
We finally ended up in San Gimignano which also possesses the classic storybook charm of the previous two cities. Most known for it’s medieval towers, San Gimignano once housed roughly 70 such structures, but only 13 survive today. Still, they make an impressive skyline over the Tuscan countryside from its hilltop perch affording visitors views the stuff that fills guidebooks and Tuscany calendars. After taking in the atmosphere of the city we had a delicious meal featuring classic Tuscan dishes like Tagliatelle Ciangiale, Ribolita, and a variety local cheeses and
salume all accompanied by the fabulous wine of the region. Before we hit the road we stopped in Piazza Cisterna for one more gelato, supposedly the best in all of Italy according to a contest they won. It was pretty damn good.
Below are photos of Il Camp and the Duomo in Siena. The walled village of Monteriggioni and one of the many quaint residences there. Finally, some of the many towers of San Gimignano and the beautiful Tuscan countryside surrounding it.
Day five, Sunday, we rested. We ate, sat by the pool, read and I worked on these posts.
Labels: European Travel
Italy Day Three
On day three, we woke up above the clouds. This was the view from our window as we opened the shutters that morning. The next photo is of the mist just over the garden wall.
After this spectacular show we headed to Florence to take in some of the major sights. It was particularly fun to do this with Scott who had never seen Florence before. We managed to park right on the river which provided us with a view of the Ponte Vecchio as we walked along the Arno into town–a perfect introduction to the city. From there we went to the Duomo featuring Brunelleschi’s legendary dome. I insisted Scott climb to the top of it since the view from there is unmatched anywhere in Florence. Even though I’m deathly afraid of heights, I optimistically volunteered to go along with him. I chickened out half way up, however, and the first opportunity I had to head back down I took, my heart rate accelerating all the way accompanied by a cold sweat. What we do for love. From there we went to Santa Croce to see the tombs of anyone who is anybody from Italian culture from the Renaissance through the present day including Galileo, Michelangelo and Rossini.
After that we went to the Accademia which houses Michelangelo’s masterpiece, David. It is truly one of the great inspirational pieces of art in the world. The affect is just as stunning no matter how many times you see it. I remember literally gasping as I rounded the corner the first time I saw it and this time I got chills as I beheld it under the skylight from the end of the gallery. My father on the other hand thought David could use a cleaning. I don’t know. He didn’t look dirty to me. Well–no more than usual anyway.
We followed our trip to the Accademia with a walk through the Piazza Signoria where the original David stood (a copy is there now) as well as the famous fountain of Neptune and statues of Hercules and the Rape of the Sabine Women. It was here I annoyed Scott by singing selections from
The Light in the Piazza. We strolled past the Palazzo Vechio and through the Ufizzi courtyard. We were all so tired at this point we practically crawled back to the car. We stopped for one more view of Florence from the Piazzalle Michelangelo which sits in the hills above the city. Again, a perfect "arrividerci" to this beautiful city.
Below are pictures of David, the Ponte Vecchio, the Duomo and Palazzo Vecchio in Piazza Signoria.
Labels: European Travel
Italy Day Two
Our first sightseeing trip was into the town of Lucca which is the closest city to my father’s village. It boasts one of the only completely in tact fortified city walls left in Europe dating from the Renaissance period. The city itself however dates from long before that. The Romans set up an ancient city here and in fact some of the city still follows the old Roman plans. We had lunch in Piazza dell’Anfiteatro (Amphitheater Square) which was once the site of a Roman Amphitheater. We then toured a couple of Lucca’s more famous sites, the Church of San Michele and the Duomo of San Martino before having a gelato and a couple of macchiatos. This gave us just enough energy to climb to the top of Torre Guinigi, one of a few medieval towers left in the city. At one time Lucca’s skyline was dominated by such towers. Just as rich men of today buy fancy cars, rich men of medieval times and the Renaissance built towers to prove how important they were. Exactly what these towers were built to compensate for is left to speculation, but let’s just say some things never change. In any event, Guinigi was one such man and his tower, which has a rooftop garden of sorts where trees are planted, affords one a spectacular view of old Lucca with its surrounding walls.
Espeically for
LSL who loves Lucca, below are pictures of Piazza dell’Anfiteatro, San Michele’s wedding cake facade and a view the Duomo of San Martino from atop Guinigi’s tower.
Labels: European Travel
Italy 2007 Day One
I left for Italy from JFK Tuesday evening and landed in Milan on Wednesday morning. From there I was supposed to catch a short connecting flight to Pisa where I would be met by my parents. Because of technicalities with frequent flyer miles and work schedules, Scott and I did not take the same flight. As it turned out, my flight to Pisa was cancelled and I was booked on the next flight which was five hours later. So, I spent the bulk of day one in the Milan airport. When I finally arrived in Pisa, Scott, my parents and I all piled into the rented Renault and headed for Coreglia, my father’s hometown in Tuscany.
We’re staying at Villa La Penna, a three story house with breathtaking views, a beautiful garden and a pool. It’s like something out of a Merchant Ivory film. One could not ask for a more beautiful vacation setting. The place is owned and run by a gay couple, Leonardo and Leonardo, or gli Leonardi as we call them (The Leonardo’s) in Italian. My sister discovered the place last year and somehow managed to find the only two gay men in this hilltop village. They are of the Martha Stewart variety. The house has been painstakingly renovated, painted, furnished and landscaped mainly by one of gli Leonardi who is also a furniture restorer trained in Florence. The place is full of antiques typical of the region, some which have been in the house for a 100 years. Gli Leonardi are very friendly and happy to have people enjoying their beautiful villa. Unfortunately they don’t speak any English so communication without my father as interpreter is challenging. Nevertheless, they have been nothing but gracious and accommodating since our arrival last week.
Below are pictures of La Penna’s front door, the garden with its breathtaking view and pool just outside our bedroom window.
Labels: European Travel
The Best Laid Plans
So there's a bit of personal catching up to do here on this blog o' mine. First, just as I had gotten over the rejection and humiliation of not getting into an MFA Acting program, the only school that did not reject me outright and put me on their waiting list has come through. I got my acceptance package last Friday. So that throws a serious monkey wrench into my
Plan B. While it's nice to get a fat envelope with a letter that begins "Congratulations" rather than a pathetically limp single page note that says "We regret to inform you," I don't think I want to go there. After I applied and did some further investigation I decided it was too similar to my undergraduate program. The more I think about it the better fit for me is probably a program with a university affiliated professional theatre residency. But maybe I'll see what this school comes up with money-wise before I make a decision.
And second, I'll have time to mull over my decision next week ON MY TRIP TO ITALY! Yes,
the trip has been planned for some time. Scott and I will be gone from June 5 to the 17. In honor of my parents' 45th anniversary they have rented a villa in Tuscany near my father's ancestral village (pictured below) for the month of June. They've invited all us kids over when our schedules permit. This will be Scott's first trip to Italy, so we'll use the house in Tuscany as a home base and travel around to all the famous sites. We're going to try and get a couple days in both Rome and Venice and spend the rest of the time exploring Florence and the Tuscan country side. I'm preparing to blog while I'm there, but I'm not sure what kind of wireless connections will be available. I hope to keep you posted with all our adventures and lots of pictures!
Labels: European Travel, Family, Grad School, Personal
Joie de Vivre
At last. My final travelogue email which my sister Diane described as "the season finale". Here it is:
One last note now that I'm back in New York. First, thank you all for indulging me by reading my little travelogues. I hope you enjoyed them. I had a lot of fun writing them. The positive feedback was very encouraging and gave me incentive to continue documenting my trip.
The job offer on the Seven Seas Voyager was such short notice I wasn't sure I wanted to take it. It meant scrambling to get my passport and things at home in order in just a couple of days. It meant rushed rehearsal time and pressure to learn the shows quickly. Add to that the unknown factors of who I'd be working with and all the foreign travel and I was afraid the stress of everything might outweigh the benefits of going.
While mulling over the decision, a wise woman told me "don't let fear make your decisions." I couldn't think of a good argument against that so I took the job and don't regret it at all. I leave you with one last image. It's a painting I saw at the Picasso museum in Malaga. It's called Joie de Vivre. It spoke to me instantly and reminded me to always seek the Joy of Life. I hope maybe it will for you, too.
Labels: European Travel
Stockholm, Sweden
I realize I've been skipping back and forth across the Atlantic a lot lately with these posts. This is the penultimate travelogue email in the series I sent home during my employment over the summer on the Seven Seas Voyager which was the original inspiration for this blog.
I loved Stockholm. It was the very last city I visited and knowing I'd be flying back to New York the next day, I took advantage Sweden's extra long summer daylight to see as much of it as I could.
Wherever you are in Stockholm, you're never far from water. It is a graceful and civilized city situated on a series of islands where Lake Malarin meets the sea. Stockholm is a lively, energetic city where athletic Swedes can be seen strolling, jogging, blading or biking everywhere in the city at any time of day or night. There are parks, soccer fields, bike paths and hiking trails throughout town and along the many rivers and canals. Unfortunately I only had a little time to snap some pictures but fell instantly in love with Stockholm. It's definitely on my list of places to revisit.
The photos below are: A view across a canal of Norstedts (a popular department store), The opera house where Gustav III was assassinated in 1792 (an event which later inspired a Verdi opera), some Swedish kids playing soccer in a square on Gamla Stan Island where the old town is located, The Baroque facade of the Royal Palace which conceals part of the original medieval castle built here, A panoramic view of the city center, Another view of the Royal Palace which boasts one more room than Buckingham Palace. (The royal family only uses this palace for state affairs and has their official residence at Drottingholm Palace, a much smaller and warmer building.)
Enjoy. xo M
Labels: European Travel, History
The Old Country
As I mentioned in my last post, I visited with my parents this past weekend who have just returned from 5 weeks abroad. They spent a month of that time in Italy and a week cruising the Greek Isles.
They enjoy their retirement.
While in Italy they stayed in my father's ancestral village where he spent his childhood. The name of the town is Coreglia (pronounced kor-ay-lya) which looks like this:
The town is so named because from an aerial view it appears to be heartshaped--the root "Core" meaning "heart" in Italian, although it might as well have been named for the warm atmosphere and lovely people who live there. As you can see it's quite a picturesque spot located in the heart of Tuscany at the foothills of the alps.
My father's experience there, and indeed the first six years of his life, were not quite as peaceful and lovely as this picture might suggest, however. Dad was born in 1938 just before the war in Europe. His father went away to fight in the Italian army before my father was old enough to remember him, a duty my grandfather resented being a staunch anti-fascist. His father ended up spending most of the war in an American POW camp in North Africa and did not return home until 1945. Meanwhile my grandmother was forced to raise my father alone in a war torn country with bombs going off all around.
Coreglia is outside the city of Lucca which is halfway between Pisa and Florence and therefore was in the line of fire for a lot of planes overhead during the war. My father, who can be a bit morbid at times, likes to tell the story of playing with a sheep in a meadow as a child, hearing the sound of fighter planes echoing off the mountains, running inside for safety only to return to the meadow later to find that a bomb had blown the head off of said sheep. Charming. Thanks for the bedtime story, Dad.
Another rather dramatic tale involves an air raid in the middle of the night. My father heard the planes, was frightened and ran from his bed to my grandmother's room for comfort. Minutes later a bomb hit the corner of their house where my father's room had been. Now, you must understand, my father never told these stories to shock, impress or scare us in any way but rather, they were just a fact of life for him.
It's only as an adult, especially after living through 9/11 here in New York, that I realize what kind of impact this must have had on him at such a young age. This is long before people started running off to psychologists of course or even talked about things like post-traumatic stress disorder. But somehow children are amazingly resilient and can still manage to be kids even in the middle of chaos. So thankfully my father has many happy memories of Coreglia as well.
So. While mom and dad were away, my mother decided that it is her dream to have all of her children and grandchildren together in Italy at the same time. ("Because it's important to know where you come from.") She'd like to arrange it for their anniversary next year. We could stay in my father's village and use it as a home base to make day trips to places like Sienna, Pisa or Florence or for 3 or 4 day sojourns to Rome, Venice or Milan. The plan is to rent a villa for a month or so to accomodate for varying schedules. The villa might look something like this: 
with views like this:
and grounds like this:
and a pool like this:
This is my mother's dream: A villa in Tuscany. And I get to go.
Now I ask you, who am I to stand in the way of my mother's dream?
Stay tuned for the madcap misadventures of a family who goes on vacation with their adult children.
Labels: European Travel, Family, History
Peterhof and Catherine's Palace, Russia
Even more from Russia! I know it seems like a lot but in a country so rich in cultural treasures and history it's hard to narrow down what to send home.
Palaces! They got a million of 'em in Russia--believe me. These however, are two of the most impressive in the country and I got to tour them both. Peterhof (Peter's Court) was built by none other than Peter the Great. It was used as a summer residence and hunting lodge and was reportedly his favorite palace. Catherine's Palace was not named or built for Catherine the Great (although she enjoyed it, too) but rather for Peter the Great's second wife who was also his mistress for a time, Catherine I.
They are both terribly impressive and done in high rococo style (a good 50 or 60 years after it was fashionable in Italy and France by the way). They have 18 karat gold leaf this, marble that, inlaid ivory whatnot and hand carved hoo-ha all over the place. You get the picture. There is even a room in Catherine's palace that is made entirely of amber and was described as the 8th wonder of the world after it was completed but no photos are allowed in this room.
The thing I found most impressive about these palaces however was that they were both occupied by the Nazis during WWII and were consequently gutted, burned and destroyed by them. There was literally nothing left but a shell of the palaces, ash and rubble. Both palaces were painstakingly restored from pieces pulled from the rubble, well documented photos of every room and the foresight of some art experts and historians who hid 30% of the art treasures and saved samples of furniture, tiles, china, etc., before the Nazi occupation. Even more interesting is that the bulk of this restoration work happened under communist rule.
The photos below are: A view of Peterhof and the Grand Cascade from the lower gardens, the portrait gallery at Peterhof, A grand table setting at Peterhof, Catherine's Palace as you approach it from the gates, followed by a more detailed photo of the facade and finally Catherine's throne room, the first in an entire series of "gold rooms" in the palace.
Enjoy!
xo
M
Labels: European Travel, History
Yusopov Palace, St. Petersburg, Russia
More from my trip to Russia:
I had to give Yusupov Palace its own travelogue email because it truly made an impression on me. Never a royal residence, it was owned by the Yusupov family who were even more wealthy than the reigning czars at the time of the revolution. This is the palace were Rasputin was first poisoned, shot, bludgeoned and finally drowned back in December of 1916. This was also the favorite palace of Queen Elizabeth II during her first official visit to Russia in 1994--a fact I do not dispute based on the hilarious photo of her visit. (She is standing there with an open mouthed grin ear to ear, her teeth showing like some sort of musical comedy star.)
Anyway, we had the palace all to ourselves the night we toured it and were greeted by court dancers in 18 century costume lining the grand staircase upon our arrival. We were then given a private tour of the palace and were led down to the apartment of rooms and basement where the murder of Rasputin was first plotted and then carried out. (There are wax figures depicting the event.) After that we were led to a ballroom where we were served caviar and champagne, were entertained by the court dancers and a quintet of traditional Russian instruments. From there we were led into a jewel box of a theater and listened to an opera concert. As you can imagine I bought into all this nonsense hook, line and sinker!
The photos below are: The court dancers greeting us on the grand staircase, Rasputin about to eat some "poisoned pastries," The red reception room, One of the ballrooms (if you follow the feet of the muses on the ceiling you can learn to dance), Our very talented and entertaining quintet of musicians, And finally the theatre with the concert in full swing.Enjoy!
M
Labels: European Travel, History
Something I noticed on my recent trips to Europe both last year and this year is that English is spoken many more places than it used to and many more places than one might think. Even in little shops and cafes the staff can usually communicate to you with at least a little English, and not just in the tourist areas. I guess this is a sign of the inevitability of English taking its place as the international language of the world. On my first trip to Europe almost 20 years ago, I remember signs and information being printed in three languages: English, French and German in addition to the language of whatever country you were in. These days, things are usually only printed in two languages: English and the language of whatever country you are in. A fact I'm sure annoys the French to no end. While this is nice and convenient for we native English-speakers, too many of us take this fact for granted.
