Ad(ventures) with John

Last night was our final night in Florence and we had a wonderful meal at a very slow restaurant. We sat beside a group of people who might have been part of a study abroad program from FSU.  After breakfast this morning we went to pick up our rental car to drive to Volterra. The office was jammed with people, so much so that they had a take a number system. We waited almost forty minutes before it was our turn, but we were served by a lovely happy lady, so that made up for the wait. The other thing that made up for the wait is that we were upgraded from the lowest level of car to a convertible. Picture us driving around the Tuscan countryside in a Fiat 500 convertible! Our convertible. The car next to it is a Ford focus. Our destination, Volterra, is a small Tuscan town of about 11000, though in Roman times it had a population of 20 000. While it used to be its own city state, it was eventually taken over by the Florentine Medicis, and a Medici fortress was built to "protect...

You can imagine that after many packed days, we were not ashamed to take a later start to this day. And lucky for us! We emerged from the B&B to the clopping sound of hooves on stone. It was a horse parade! We actually saw this parade three times this morning: once from our window, once on the street, and by the time we had finished breakfast the parade has circled back around to a nearby intersecting street.  The horse parade seen from our room The horse parade, third sighting Today was reserved for shopping and laid-back sight-seeing. We spent the early part of the day looking in windows, guessing the prices of the mannequins' clothes, and even trying some on ourselves. We revisited a few familiar plazas and churches while adding a few new stops. One was the Medici Chapel. It have us a much better idea of their wealth, patronage, and indulgences of the church. In these photos you can see relics built to house Egyptian remains, intended to display fine Florentine craftsmanship...

When we initially planned this day, we were surprised to learn that Rick Steves'experience is that tourists rarely spend more than two hours in the Uffizi gallery, Italy's premiere museum for Renaissance painting. Rick is trustworthy and we tend to have good luck when we follow his suggestions, so we planned for two hours to tour the gallery. Instead we spent almost five hours there. The paintings were stunning. Two of John's favorites were The Scullery Maid  and a painting by Federico Della Francesca. Adam liked Caravaggio's Medusa and the paintings of crosses. The Scullery Maid Painting by Federico Della Francesca Caravaggio's Medusa Painting of the Cross We had a quick lunch at the Central market, a kind of permanent farmer's market, then it was off to the Accademia to see Michelangelo's David. Not only does the Accademia house the David , but it also holds a series of intentionally unfinished sculptures by Michelangelo collectively titled The Prisoners ....

This morning began with another delicious breakfast at our B&B. Instead of the thumbprint pizzas we appeared to have full sized pizza slices. We called them pizzas but they were really just this crusts with tomato sauce on them. No other toppings. After breakfast we toured ancient Rome. We began at the Colosseum, where animals fight animals, people fought animals, people fought people and criminals were sometimes put to death for sport. We worked our way through the Roman forum, the city center of ancient Rome, and Capitoline Hill. The hill is one of the seven hills of ancient Rome, and it now houses a museum with more statues than you can imagine. Inside the Colosseum Inside the Forum View of the Forum from Capitoline Hill. In the evening we caught our train to arrive in Florence. The train went up to a maximum sustained speed of 260 km/h! We were flying! We made it to Florence in an hour and a half when my GPS said it would take four by car! Our new home base is on the bank of th...

Today began with a breakfast delivered to our room on a tray. We have a big terrace that overlooks a central garden so we ate outside. We got to watch as a neighbor watered all her potted plants. Breakfast consisted of a croissant filled with pastry cream, a small sandwich, something we named fingerprint pizzas, orange juice, and coffee and tea.  Breakfast comes on a tray After our breakfast we headed to St. Peter's basilica. There was a long line for the security checkpoint, but it moved rapidly. We spent almost two hours viewing the church and its crypt. In addition to seeing the tomb of Pope Marcellus II, who is responsible for Palestrina's Missa Papae Marcelli, we also got to see a recessional from a live service. No live Pope sighting to report, though. The altar in the basilica The dome of the basilica After a forgettable lunch during which Adam ate a portion of a chicken sandwich that smelled suspiciously like fish, we toured the Vatican museums. These are filled with an...

Day 1 (5/29/18): We left this morning at 5:50, driven to D.C. by the lovely Liz Rinehart to catch the metro to get to the bus stop to travel to New York. From there it was a quick train ride, two planes, a bus, and a metro, and we had arrived at our B&B just over twenty four hours later! What a journey! Our plane to Munich. Airbus 340. Several eventful things are worth sharing. First, while in D.C. waiting for the bus we spotted two people across the street from us doing their morning t'ai chi while we drank or chai teas. In case the funny inversion is not clear here, we drew a diagram. Humorous diagram. On the first plane ride to Munich we were surrounded by families with small babies. Almost all were quiet and well behaved, except for the little girl seated in front of us. When we had just begun to sleep, little Laura took her mom's rosé and threw it at us. We both jolted awake and Adam was drenched in rosé. Thankfully, the mom offered us wet wipes to compensate. Needless...

Last year before our trip saw us splurging on a pair of kayaks to paddle the mighty Potomac! This year, the kayaks sit in our basement: due to the many recent heavy rainstorms, the river is flowing so high and fast that we haven't felt safe using them. Don't worry, though. We've filled the time with several pre-trip activities. Adam has planned and nearly completed building a nightstand for John. This piece will be one of three pieces he plans to build. Next comes a nightstand for himself and a shared dresser. That will complete our bedroom! Nightstand in progress. Drawers on top, body on bottom While Adam has been building, John has been cleaning and doing yard work. Below you see the result of a hard day's mowing, and several weeks of growing new grass underneath some beautiful trees. Beautiful mowing job New grass growing Our backyard has also undergone renovation, with Adam building two raised garden beds in which we are growing kale, spina...