The European trip we took in 1984 convinced us that we needed to return to Italy. It took us until 1998 to do it, but we had a full 16 days in a country where we had only spent a total of three days before. We flew into Rome and were surprised at how casually the passport control agent greeted us. He just glanced at our passports, didn’t ask any questions, said “you’re okay”, and waved us through. I’ve had more scrutiny in the US, where I was born.
I wasn’t feeling too great at the time. I had tried to allow myself to get some sleep on the flight over by drinking several glasses of red wine. All I had managed to accomplish was a hangover and still didn’t sleep a wink. Decided after that experience that I wouldn’t concern myself about whether or not I slept and would just relax and rest my eyes.
On our previous visit to Rome, we had just been driven among the ruins of the Roman Forum, although we did get to spend a little time in the Coliseum. This time, we had quite a bit of time to wander around among the ruins and drink it all in. I really enjoyed it, despite getting a sunburn on top of my hangover.
I remembered the Shakespearian play “Julius Caesar” pretty well from high school. Our teacher thought it would be a good idea to read it out loud with class members playing the various roles. Since I had already been in a few plays (Juliet in “Romeo & Juliet”, Abigail in “The Crucible”, Maggie in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”) he had me play Brutus. This meant that, instead of Brutus being a tall, strapping, swarthy Italian man, he was a small, blue-eyed blonde high school girl.
I was tempted to give the “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears” speech when standing at the podium from which Marc Antony eulogized Julius Caesar, but was afraid of that being too much of a cliché. Good thing. There were several others who gave that first line in succession. I actually could have gone for a few more lines (“I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones; so let it be with Caesar.”), but that might have been showing off.
The first time I had seen the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, it had been very dark from centuries of dirt and smoke. The ceiling had been cleaned between 1984 and 1998 and was absolutely glorious. The colors were so vibrant and the whole ceiling now had a 3-D quality to it. Figures were climbing out of the painting and coming towards me.
My mom had a balance disorder, so looking up was difficult. There wasn’t any place to sit down either. So I steered her to the center of the room, had her hold on tightly to me (and me to her), and told her to look up. We were directly under The Creation of Adam. She was so overcome that she cried.
This time in Rome, we didn’t have any road accidents. In fact, traffic seemed to be moving more smoothly than it had in 1984. We had a female tour director this time, who had been born in Bosnia and had immigrated to Italy when the conflicts began. She was a huge fan of Andrea Bocelli, and played his music when we were on the road between cities and towns when she wasn’t telling us about something. This was my mother’s and my first exposure to his singing. We ended up buying CDs before we left Italy.
Our hotel in Rome had about the thinnest walls in any hotel anywhere. We could actually hear the guy in the next room snoring. Since we could hear conversations next door as well, we knew they could hear us too, so we were careful not to say anything we would have possibly found to be embarrassing — “did you see the toupee on that guy?” It was after that trip that I bought a sound machine that I still take with me on every trip. At least we didn’t get locked in the hotel room this time. Of course we might have been able to get out by tearing through the wall to the next room.
After spending a few days in Rome, we left for Pisa and Florence. London Bridge might not be falling down, but in 1998, the Leaning Tower of Pisa was. They had closed the tower and were desperately trying to straighten it back up enough to keep it from toppling over. They had the area around it completely blocked off so that, if it did fall, it wouldn’t land on anybody. Cables were holding it up and counterweights were on it to help it to slowly shift back to a safer angle.
Begun in 1173, the tower had starting sinking in 1178 after the completion of the second floor. Instead of starting over with a stronger foundation, the builders at the time opted for a change in the design to accommodate the tilt. It took a long time to build. The seventh floor wasn’t completed until 1319.
We had a fair amount of time in Pisa, so we explored the Cathedral, the Baptistery and the Cemetery. Both the Cathedral and the Baptistery were older than the tower and fascinating to explore. We also had lunch in Pisa. Then we continued on to Florence.
This trip we had quite a bit of free time in Florence to explore on our own — a whole day. Before setting us loose on the marble streets and sidewalks, our tour director took us to the Piazza de Michelangelo from which we could see the entire city laid out before us. The piazza also contained a copy of Michelangelo’s most famous statue, the David, in green marble. The museum containing the original was closed that day, so we were going to have to make do with this green David and the copy that stands where the original used to stand in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. This made two trips to Florence without being able to see the actual David.
Once we were dropped off with the return time established, Mom and I were off and running. Our first stop was Casa Buonarroti, which had been owned, but never lived in, by Michelangelo. It was now a museum containing drawings, models and his early works.
Nearby was the Museo Nationale del Bargello, which was a medieval palazzo (1255), housing a museum devoted to sculpture. They had a very early version of David by Michelangelo plus both Verrocchio’s and Donatelli’s Davids.
Before having lunch, Mom and I needed to exchange some more money, so we went to a bank near the Piazza della Signori. It had the greatest security I had yet seen in a bank — and it wasn’t a terribly large bank either. We had to enter one at a time. After going through one door, that door had to be closed behind you before you could open the next one. Once you got through the second door, it too had to be closed behind you. Then you entered a metal detector. When I came out of the other side of the metal detector, I couldn’t wait for Mom to make it through before approaching a teller. We still needed to be separated and go to different tellers. Good thing we had already decided how much money we each wanted to exchange before entering the bank. We weren’t able to connect again or communicate until we were spit out through the doors on the opposite side of the building.
The whole time we were in there, I was concerned that I might do something stupid out of ignorance and/or lack of being able to fully understand the signs in Italian. But we managed to complete our transactions without getting arrested.
When we came out of the other side of the bank, we were right where we wanted to be — the Piazza della Signori itself. This is where the Palazzo Vecchio, the Uffizi Gallery, and the outdoor sculpture gallery (Loggia dei Lanzi) are located. There is also a Neptune fountain and several cafes with outdoor tables. We had lunch at one of those cafes. Fortunately it was a beautiful day. We lounged and people-watched for a while after lunch before dashing off to see the other places we wanted to see before meeting up with our tour director, driver and the rest of the group.
The Duomo, which began building in 1296, was a short walk from the piazza. It is most famous for its dome by Brunelleschi that wasn’t completed until 1436. It is massive and gorgeous on the outside, but quite simple in its decoration inside. In 1478, Giuliano di Piero de Medici, ruler of Florence at the time, was murdered inside the Duomo. His brother, Lorenzo, who was with him, managed to escape. Lorenzo went on to rule Florence and become the patron of several artists, including both Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo Buornarroti.
Right across from the Duomo is the Baptistry, which is considerably older, having been constructed between 1059 and 1128. The doors of the building are quite famous with the doors on the east side referred to as The Gates of Paradise. The mosaic ceiling inside was done in the Byzantine style and reminded me a lot of the interior of San Marco in Venice.
Santa Croce (holy cross) must have originally had a piece of the cross as it is a basilica — a designation reserved for cathedrals with special relics. It is the final resting place for several important people, such as Michelangelo, Gallileo, Amerigo Vespuci, Rossini, and Machiavelli. There are also memorials to both Dante and Leonardo da Vinci, who were buried elsewhere.
The next day, we headed for Milan. The Santa Maria delle Grazie, where da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” resides, was closed. So we didn’t get to see that either. It was in the process of being conserved (from 1978 to 1999). It isn’t open to the public much anyway as it is difficult enough to keep in good shape without having all of that human breath hitting it.
We did get to see the Teatro de Scalla and the Cathedral (begun in 1386, but not completed until 1805). The roof of the cathedral is open to the public for the wonderful views of the city it provides. The main family of Milan was the Visconti family as Florence was a Medici stronghold.
When we got to Lake Como, we drove around to see all of the beautiful villas. George Clooney did not yet live there or we might have tried to see where he lived. I understand that, once he did move there, his villa was often pointed out to tour groups.
We stayed in Porlezza, which is on Lake Lugano and explored the medieval part of town, in easy walking distance to our hotel. We bought some fruit in the market to carry with us on the trip. Fresh fruit was not something we encountered often in the restaurants on the trip so we were pleased to get some oranges and bananas.
We took a day trip to Lugano in Switzerland. At the border (Italy was not yet in the European Union), the border guard came on the coach to check the passports. He didn’t seem to like me or mine for some reason. In 1993, when I had gotten my passport renewed, they had given out green passports instead of the usual blue. But there was another woman on the tour who also had a green passport and she didn’t seem to bug him like I did. He kept looking at the passport and then at me; back at the passport and again at me. We were becoming concerned that he wasn’t going to let me into Switzerland or turn the entire group away because of whatever reason was that he didn’t like me. Eventually he gave my passport back to me and left, but not before giving me one last, lingering, nasty look.
Not having learned our lesson back on that earlier trip up Mount Titlis in Switzerland back in 1984, Mom and I went up Monte Tamaro in a four-person cable car. At least it was just one cable car and it didn’t have any problems docking. After tromping around in the snow for a while, we went back down and had some lunch in Lugano. The border guard on the way back didn’t seem to be concerned about me at all so returning to Italy was not an issue.
