25 November 2016, David's family came, part A

On our P-day, Saturday, we got ready for David's family visit.  We took the train to Malpensa, the big airport north of Milano to be there when they arrived.

While we were waiting I took this pix of the reader board.  They were coming on the plane from Newark.  It was interesting to see where other planes were coming in from.

They were safe and fairly sound. They rented a 9 passenger Fiat van, which was comfortable to ride in, although it was standard shift, which they didn't mind. actually liked.

We came back to our apartment and had my 70th birthday dinner. We had cotoletta alla milanese (which, when Empress Maria Theresa's cooks took it to Vienna, it became wiener schnitzel), risotto alla milanese (rice grown within 3 miles of where we live with saffron and parmesian cheese), and chocolate cake alla Italiana. It was all very good. Then we headed for Venezia (Venice).

We stopped off at Sirminone on Lake Garda, to see the castle, etc.

And arrived in Venice just at dark, and took the boat-city bus to our hotel, near St Mark's. We had packed a picnic lunch, which we ate in our hotel.so we would not break the Sabbath buying food.

And took a stroll over to St, Mark's square, which was very pleasant, although it sprinkled a little.

We slept well and had a nice breakfast in the old hotel, which, in the 1800s, had been a home for orphans, so the history they gave us said.  The rooms were quite nice, but I didn't think to take a pix of them.

Then we went out to explore Venice.

The ancient city was charming, as usual, especially in in the early morning, without so many tourists this time of year.

St. Mark's duomo, the largest and most famous in Venice, wasn't very busy, and we got in without having to pay anything.  They still didn't allow picture taking, however.

David wanted the perfect picture of his family on an old bridge, of which there are thousands to choose from. Gondolas passed by, but not at the right time for the pix.

After touring Venice a while, we took the boat, which is like the city bus, for which we bought a €20 all day pass, out to the island of Murano, where they blow glass.  We went on a tour of a glass blowing factory, of which there are many.

I was fascinating to watch them work with molten glass to make beautiful things, from little objects tourists buy to very large vases and lamps, which are adorned with crystal they get from Austria, as they have done for centuries.

Josh bought a dip pen with blown glass and a little bottle of ink for €5.

Then, we started checking out places for lunch.  In front is an old well for drinking water. The hole in the bottom is for water for cats, which were prized in ancient times, because they ate the rats that came in on the ships.  The water comes from sisterns on the roofs, because this is an island which cannot support an acquifer.

Their first real Italian pizza they had, delicious.

Ben had a calzone, a folded over pizza, with tomato sauce in a bowl, sometimes they put it on top.

David had a seafood salad.

More of Venice, this time with a gondaleer

Until evening, when we took the boat to the car parking garage and headed back to our apartment in Opera for the night.

Where Ben was able to have what he had been waiting for, his carne equina (horse) hamburger.

It tasted sort of like beef, and if you would have had it on a bun with condiments, I doubt you could tell it from beef, although it is more expensive than beef, so why bother.

The next morning we went to Pisa, about 2 hours south, where we went to the piazza with the baptistry (closest round building), the duomo, (cathedral, middle) and on the end, the bell tower, which happened to lean, quite famously.  I am sure it was an embarrassment, at first, but if, in the 1100s, they would have known how many billions in tourist money it would have brought to Pisa, they would have been quite proud.

This map shows the layout of the piazza, which is quite beautiful, with its green grass, which is not too common in Italy.

David wanted the perfect pictures of his family, and worked hard to get them.

There was a new (from the 1990s) statue of a fallen angel out on the lawn.

The cathedral, in which Gallelleo watched the swinging lamps to learn about the mechanics of pendulims, or is it penduli.

And, of course, the torre pendente, or leaning tower.

With silly tourists all trying get that perfect picture of them holding up the tower.

It really does lean, the vase on the pedestal is straight up and down.

There was a good shot through a gate in the old city wall.  All ancient Italian cities had walls around them for protection.

Then we went to Firenze (Florence), about an hour east.  Megan found a three room, two bathroom apartment in the center of the city, where we comfortably spent the night.  This is  the ceiling in our living room, which must have been a home for a wealthy family in the not so distant past.

David took us to an ostaria (little restaurant, which wasn't really so little), to eat dinner.  We had appetizers, which were salami, cheese, etc.  For some the excitement of the day was catching up with us, e.g. Josh on the end waiting for his calzone.

Myrna and Abby had Tuscan bean with kale soup, served on bread (underneath). Tuscan bread is interesting, it has no salt and sort of needs it.

David had a seafood plate, with big homemade pasta, called tortellone, underneath.

I had grilled chicken, with oven baked potatoes.

Josh had a calzone.

Outside of the ostaria where we had dinner, the name was Ostaria Pizzeria di Centopoveri (one hundred poor people), but it wasn't really that expensive.

We walked a couple of blocks after dinner to the river, and saw Ponte Vecchio, the famous old bridge, which my Dad said was the only bridge (there are many) which wasn't bombed out during the war, because it wasn't wide enough to drive a tank across.  He said the Germans were on the north side and the Americans on the south, and during the day they shot at each other.  At night all the electricity went out, and so my dad went into the homes of Italians to have dinner and spend the evening in pleasant conversation.  It was during those times he tried to teach them about the gospel. The kids may remember the big print we had in our home of this famous old bridge.

Walking the streets of Florence in the evening is very pleasant.  There are lots of beautiful store windows, from world famous shops.

Selling things like ladies shoes and purses.

And jewelry, like this for Christmas.

In the morning we headed over to the Academy, getting there as soon as it opened at 8:30 am. There there wasn't a line and we got right in.  Here is Michaelangelo's David, in all his glory

He has had a bath since I last saw him our honeymoon in 1972.

He is still absolutely amazing in every detail.

I hadn't remembered there is so much art in that museum, other than David.  It took about an hour to see the Academy Gallery, and it would have taken about 2 to 3 to see the Uffizzi, so we did well to just see this one.  The kids were arted out after we finished.

There was an entire room full of plaster casts of marble statues.

And a bunch of real ones

Including this Pietà attributed to Michaelangelo.  The most famous Pietà that Michaelangelo did is in St. Peters in the Vatican in Rome

The pianoforte was also invented in Firenze, and so this gallery has a special exhibit of old musical instruments, including many harpsichords and stringed instruments, including those by the famous Italians, including Stradivarius.

There were lots of other rooms with paintings and statues in the Academia, for which the entry fee is €12.50 per person, no discounts due to old age, but children were free.

After doing our Christmas shopping we walked a few blocks over to the piazza duomo.  The octagon shaped building in the foreground is the baptistry, with the cathedral (duomo) to the left and the impressive bell tower, which does not lean, to the right.

The ceiling of the dome is frescoed to the max, but hard to take pix of because it is fairly dark and a long, long way up.

But we strained our necks trying to take it all in.

The best piece in the duomo is, of course, the organo, with two divisions of pipework on either side, for wonderful stereo effect.

Dante is shown in a famous painting in the duomo, and I don't think the cardinals even liked him all that much.

In the back of the duomo is an interesting, and very large, clock, but I wasn't sure I could tell what time it showed. Actually, I just Googled it and it said it still works and tells 24 hour time.

The bell tower from the bottom, which one could climb, for a nominal fee.

The happy grandparents about ready to leave their grandkids, who were going on to Rome (out of our mission), and we went back to Opera on the train (Freccarosa, the red arrow), which is very quiet, comfortable and fast (great for sleeping), for only €33 each.

The Rogeredo train station where we changed trains to go to Locate, which is within walking distance (we have done it, in the rain, uphill both ways), but the APs came to pick us up.

It is now Friday evening and we are waiting for David's family to arrive from Rome.  We will post more about our adventures with them, and look forward to the other kids coming.  They found black Friday sales and are actually coming.

Ciao for now.