Travel Notes: Italy 2022 #on/travel | #on/italy| #on/adventure # ITALY Lon Cynthia Ellye Lyle and Allison Hunger went to Florence, Crema, and Cinqueterre, Italy from April 22 - April 30, 2022 --- In the world, Ukraine had recently been invaded by Russia, Elon Musk had just purchased Twitter, COVID-19 was slightly resurgent with the BA.2 variant, and inflation was VERY high in US. There was uncertainty. --- At home, Lon was finishing his fellowship at CMS, Cynthia was keeping on in her casually competent and stable way, Mark Heffley was staying with the farm. Lyle had JUST accepted a position at Ithaca College, and Ellye had just started V-LACs to be able to hopefully graduate early from high school. --- ### Day 1: Florence We arrived on Lyle's 18th birthday to Lufthansa having lost his luggage. ![[9C9EBEA4-A214-4060-BB11-3C33AEB719C5_1_105_c.jpeg]] ___ The weather was at times raining at times sunny. We walked from the tram to the Airbnb cross thing Ponte Vecchio for the first time and stopped for a quick selfie. ![[EA6F72F2-B744-46D6-8294-F8D0AF5DD01F_1_105_c.jpeg]] ___ The Airbnb in Florence was _astounding_. At the Due Torre ![[5482E297-C048-4ABD-8AB9-C37FB13F241E_1_105_c.jpeg]] ___ ![[C3D3EF5B-C260-4728-A162-52945C823614_1_105_c.jpeg]] ![[7B96CDF4-F181-4F45-B69D-FFA048E8BBA0_1_105_c.jpeg]] --- **AIRBNB (2 Medieval Towers)** [**https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/33918323?adults=5&children=0&infants=0&check_in=2022-04-23&check_out=2022-04-26&source_impression_id=p3_1646596424_aFj5MxlZl1cXvMl7**](https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/33918323?adults=5&children=0&infants=0&check_in=2022-04-23&check_out=2022-04-26&source_impression_id=p3_1646596424_aFj5MxlZl1cXvMl7) [Torre de' Belfredelli | Florence, Italy Attractions - Lonely Planet](https://www.lonelyplanet.com/italy/florence/attractions/torre-de-belfredelli/a/poi-sig/1374889/360059) --- We enjoyed just walking the city with no agenda and exploring. ![[148FBAE0-BFCF-4F05-A18C-CC9204F06094_1_105_c.jpeg]] The first night, we were able to stay up and get dinner on the Michaelangelo Square, overlooking the city. --- ## Day 2: More exploring of Firenze (Florence). It rained on and off. We went around and checked out a bunch of places, eventually spending a bunch of time at a cool vintage store. ![[411F1360-AC41-4EF2-A485-00EB7B21C950_1_105_c 1.jpeg]] --- ![[D1F0347D-0213-4D62-B925-997012FABF69_1_105_c.jpeg]] We hung out at a bar/record store waiting for the rain to brake. --- Osteria Del Pavone - most amazing dinner with a semolier, who had _no idea_ what to make of our motley crew, and lots of great food and drink. ![[EEBF9049-73E4-49CF-AE37-D7F3293356A8_1_105_c.jpeg]] --- ## Day 3: We had great weather- actually perfect weather for the whole rest of the trip. We did lots of walking. We hiked up to the Giardino Bardini ![[FD3D4C55-C1D4-44DC-B35B-C7D391A83B51_1_105_c.jpeg]] --- Family photo by Allison Hunger 😎 ![[D8CC5F32-35FF-43FC-8C9A-A87C5FFEE73B_1_105_c 1.jpeg]] --- ## Day 4: Florence involved going to Pitti Palace and the Duomo- After spending the morning looking at art, it was quite quiet at 9 am, ![[BE77515B-C644-4F1E-A865-D1B909DA354D_1_105_c.jpeg]] --- We walked the 423 steps to the top of the Duomo which was amazingly started in the 1300's and finished in the 1400's, where we were amazed at a medieval view of Florence, we could no longer hear the city and the rooftops appeared as they would have hundreds of years ago. The power and might of the families that ran this region is quite clear. ![[A57B2C8B-4156-47F5-B50D-1FF6E596553F_1_105_c.jpeg]] --- Tuesday afternoon we departed for Crema by train through Bologna then Milano Centrale. we had a little adventure in Traffeglio needing to run under the station to get to another track with only about 5 minutes for a switch over, but all was good, that's the adventure of travel. --- **Crema:**  We arrived in Crema with the intention of getting to see some of the sights of "Call me by your name" and were not disappointed. ![[A0C5BCBD-925F-471C-9BC0-05E8B9127F8F_1_105_c.jpeg]] [https://melodyschmidt.com/crema-italy-a-trip-to-the-ethereal-town-of-call-me-by-your-name/](https://melodyschmidt.com/crema-italy-a-trip-to-the-ethereal-town-of-call-me-by-your-name/) --- We stayed at a cute little apartment, one of only a few available for short-term rental in this off-the-tourist path town of 35,000 in Northern Italy about 60 minutes from Milano by treno. [CASA COLOMBA SELF CHECK IN INSTRUCTIONS](hook://email/ee4a1d46-7348-445f-87f8-575531308e05%40smtp-relay.sendinblue.com) --- The first night we had dinner in the Duomo square, the historical center of this town. Amazingly gorgeous. We were surprised to see that a movie or something was being filmed. We joked that it was "Call me by your middle name," the sequel, but it turned out to be an advertisement. ![[IMG_2589.jpg]] --- ## Day 5: We spent the day exploring Crema. The kids walked around and found the sights of the movie. ![[IMG_2595.jpg]] --- ![[IMG_2600.jpg]] We had a beautiful lunch, then convened to go to the local Museo Civico, absolutely a hidden gem describing the 1000+ years of Crema with amazing art. Our favorite was the 1800's collection of random skeleton paintings. --- ![[IMG_2605.jpg]] --- ## Day 6: Thursday we departed at 10:30 am for a day on the train to the coast for the last leg of the trip. ![[IMG_2629.jpg]] --- Interlude here to think about [[Time]]: time is on a different scale in Italy where it is common to come across 1000+ year old [[artifacts are evidence of what we created]]. I wonder if this subconsciously impacts the psyche of the country as in their recorded history as a people they have been taken over for thousands of years. Compare to US, where we consider our borders and our growth to be fixed. This is just a hypothesis that is on my mind as we consider the war in Ukraine right now, and how we are thinking about it. --- Train to Vernazza in CinqueTerra Thursday night Cinqueterra (Vernazza) took us back through Milan, then on a regional train to the coast. ![[BE88EB88-10E7-4FEA-920A-2F565BA4A7E5_1_105_c.jpeg]] --- [https://abnb.me/hotvgYQR7ob](https://abnb.me/hotvgYQR7ob) Here we stayed in a super-cute apartment with a balcony on the top floor that overlooked the sea. ![[772621D6-6309-4AD4-B150-2A77F1F4F956_1_105_c.jpeg]] --- ![[CB9556A3-6D70-4AC3-BDEC-AD45C6231EFF_1_105_c.jpeg]] --- ![[CDC7AB06-A023-41B8-B654-15FD4A55FA8F_1_105_c.jpeg]] --- ![[B4A27EF8-510A-4E85-ACD5-931900BC0DE4_1_105_c.jpeg]] --- ![[4990859A-F728-48FA-931A-6A7627AABB9F_1_105_c.jpeg]] Here's a view of Corniglia (3), the next town south of Vernazza (4). Also visited were Manarola (2). We did not really go to Monterosso al Mare (5) or Riomaggiore (1). --- Vernazza is one of the Cinqueterre - the five lands - a national park that abuts the Mediterranean in Northwest Italy. It contains 5 small towns sculpted into the mountains over thousands of years, with terraced farms of citrus and grapes practically dripping down the cliffside. It is now an amazing tourist destination and well protected to keep it's ancient feel. While the towns are busy, they are connected by maintained footpaths giving me an outlet for my energy in the mornings and giving all of us some fun exploring.![[04267A37-5348-42D4-8345-B67D2F75C5A3_1_105_c.jpeg]] --- ## Day 7 We spent the day wandering around and enjoying the local sights. ![[F0BEB93F-6831-4D68-918C-B95F61A7A685_1_105_c.jpeg]] --- Lyle continued to work on his script. ![[9C1CDA90-72D1-4BB1-9A57-3F70F5911BCF_1_105_c.jpeg]] We went to a cimetario overlooking Vernazza: ![[E77908C9-E7AE-4454-B035-B2DC189F643D_1_105_c.jpeg]] --- The last evening we took the train to Manarola and ate at a wonderful restaurant overlooking the town. Cynthia got a Spritz - Apparol, Prosecco, and club soda, which is a light and somewhat refreshing coctail common in this region of Italy. We watched the sun set and the lights come up on the Mediterranean. ![[871F11CE-B021-4E7B-B1BA-E17B19C351B7_1_105_c.jpeg]] ![[B610F8AB-4792-48CA-A6A6-ABAA5AD30B66_1_105_c.jpeg]] --- ## Day 8: Ciao, Italy. ![[826A0605-63DE-4315-AE1F-46AEAED79E3F_1_105_c 1.jpeg]] --- But, one final adventure. Our last day logistics were challenging. First, our car didn't show in Levanto, so we grabbed a taxi driven by the quiet and kind Miercolo (which means Miracle, is it a coincidence?), and raced to the Florence airport. We arrived just in time to sit and wait as our flight was delayed, and delayed, and delayed.![[A22F0C84-214D-49CF-8304-0E3D23A200E2_1_105_c.jpeg]] Normally not a huge deal, but we had a _tight_ connection in Munchen (Munich). So, we were supposed to board our flight to Boston at 3:15 pm and our flight didn't even land in Munich until 3:40. We were in the last rows of that flight so it took forever to get off, including a delay because of lack of staff at the airport to park the plane. When we finally got off we could see that the departing plane was delayed, so we ran for it. And ran, and ran, and ran, and took the train, and went through passport control, and went to literally the _last_ gate in the airport. As we passed through they said, "you are the last to board, we have waited as long as we can wait." So, many of the other 20 people trying to make that connection were unable. --- Typically, our baggage didn't make it. But, we landed in Boston and got home at 8:30 pm to some excited doggies.