Travel Nuggets, Italy
The Eye can See and
The Heart can Love, What the Word cannot Describe
Travel Nuggets, Italy
By Jim Humberd
A farmer drove some cows through the street in Bolzano. After he left, the grocery store owner, with a scowl on his face, a broom in one hand and a shovel in the other, went out and cleaned up the mess.
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A lady on the city bus was studying a drivers manual. I didn't think they needed to know anything to drive in Rome.
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A tree looks so gorgeous in Paris, so melancholy in Naples.
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A two-story canopy covered escalator leads up the hill from an upper parking lot, toward the top of Assisi. Can you imagine.
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A trip on a ship is our favorite way to travel, except maybe for an RV trip through Europe. But combined, both are best! We fixed our meals and had a good night's sleep at the ship�s rail, while we enjoyed our slowly-rolling, slightly-pitching campground from Brandisi, to Patras, Greece.
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A woman professor, Novella d'Andrea, at the University of Bologna, was so beautiful in face and body she had to teach from behind a curtain so she wouldn't distract her students.
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After our Good Samaritan's good deed, we knew things were bad in Naples, but not this bad, or in his case, this good.
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After a left turn through a small arch on a steep downhill street in Perugia, Sweetie set a record shrieking in G above high C. Thank goodness my pants were washable.
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After a party, Venetians don't worry about a ticket for drunk driving, but they may fall into a canal and hope they quickly become sober.
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An Italian shopping street, alive and colorful with bright window displays while the stores are open, often becomes drab and colorless after hours, when they close the rolling metal shutter, like a rusty, dusty, banged-up garage door, covering the front of the store.
As a result of the Vesuvius eruption in 79 AD. Pompeii was covered with ash, and that captured a moment of history.
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As I joked, the Auto Strada toll booth man charged the laughing Italian price, a small fraction of the actual price. At a toll booth in France, they would have doubled the price.
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Believe it, most every wife or daughter will meet at least one Italian who will insist he is Casanova reincarnate.
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Bellagio is located on the portion of the Lake Como ballerina's anatomy, where decorum usually calls for a fig leaf.
Capri is like a diminutive opera setting - incomparable beauty, exceptional climate, superb facilities.
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Don't get too excited about that smudge of brown paint on an timeworn stone post near one ancient church in Ravenna. It's from the fender of our RV.
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Even I can conquer only so many of these Italian hilltop towns and cities in any given day.
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I said, �Bet that's the last time that Italian mis-parks a Japanese car in Berlin,� as they towed it away.
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I offered Sweetie the chance for breakfast with menus, a tablecloth, a waiter, and all the trimmings, at the Sheraton Hotel in Padova. But she said, �I'd rather fix it myself.� Wow, is she trained.
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I stopped in Florence to buy the elaborate (18K gold, with 18 emeralds) ring Emmy was just �nuts� about. If I didn't buy it, I would get only �cold toast� for the rest of the trip.
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I was sure some of the Italians weren't going anywhere. They just liked to �participate� in this kind of line.
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If your idea of a vacation is to visit Roman ruins, wander through streets of half-timbered buildings, just visit �starred� restaurants, or lie on the beach, remember, it's your vacation, do it your way.
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Imagine our apprehension as we drove up the street, carved as a niche on the cliff, huge mirrors showed no traffic leaving town, the hole in the cliff turned out to be the San Leo town gate.
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Imagine our surprise when a small dog got out of the basket, did his business, got back in the basket for the ride home, provided by his Venician mistress.
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In ITALY, everything is permitted, nothing is prohibited.
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In Rome and Athens, each time a traffic light turned green, we heard horns blow.
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In Sardinia we saw women in confining black dresses, with long knitted black shawls, and sunbathers wearing half of a tiny bikini.
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In this centuries-old St. Bernard monastery, the pans containing the puppy food were Coca-Cola trays.
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In Taormina, Sicily, the bride in a traditional white gown was greeted by a crowd that undoubtedly included more tourists and gawkers (including the two of us), than friends and acquaintances.
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It would be a sad day indeed if there would be something new to say about the ancient Jewel of Venice.
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It's funny how a line can be painted in the middle of the street in Rome, for two lanes, but there will be three or four lanes of traffic.
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It's hard to imagine so much splendor, so many paintings, sculptures, and works of art, the myriad of palaces and cathedrals, the multitudinous ruins of the ancient architectural art.
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Italian artists �create� windows on a blank wall, complete with shutters and with curtains blowing in the wind. It's a work of art.
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Italians never miss a chance to close the store and take the day off.
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Italians, and especially Romans, since the Appia Way was completed, have exhibited a consistent resistance to rules and regulations, especially when they apply to matters of traffic.
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Italy is crowded with beautiful, friendly, congenial people who welcome us, confuse us, charm us, disturb us, enrapture us, discombobulate us, and ensure that we have a fascinating vacation.
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Just as a broken clock shows the correct time twice a day, there are two views that show the Pisa tower standing straight.
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Last night it rained so hard all the main �streets� in Venice are still flooded this morning.
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Like a pair of parentheses, Bernini's monumental colonnade encloses a fountain on each side of the Piazza San Pietro, with the obelisk in the center.
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Like a Roman theater, the hills around Portofino create the �seating area� on three sides. The harbor is the stage, beautiful yachts are the stars, fishing boats play supporting roles, the row boats are the extras, multistory homes occupy front row center seats.
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Most Countries have �Traffic Laws and Regulations.� Italy has �Traffic Hints and Suggestions.�
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No one was pushy or unhappy if someone got ahead of them, or behind them, or next to them, or perhaps on top of them. Everyone just pushed and pulled until they had a chance to buy a ferryboat ticket from Italy to Yugoslavia.
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Parking in that upper lot, riding the two-story canopy covered escalator up the hill, then walking those miles down the hill through Assisi, was one of the best travel ideas, ever.
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Plaza del Campo - Siena's civic center - is incredible; Torre del Mangia - the fairest tower in Italy - is astonishing; Palio delle Contrade - a bareback horse race - is phenomenal; Duomo (Cathedral) - dark green and white stripes - is conspicuous.
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Sistine Chapel ceiling renovation was carried on from the rolling platform while tourists continued to gaze and gasp from below.
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Some Italians excitedly retorted, �California, Bella, Bella, Bella.�
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Some of the ancient Olive Trees in Southern Italy looked like modernistic statues, while others could be a substitute for a Rorschach ink-blot test.
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Sweetie thinks certain unmentionable parts of Michelangelo's Statue of David, are out of proportion. When I asked, �How do you know?� She quickly changed the subject.
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The man was mowing the lawn at a Roman ruin. I asked if the lawn mower he was using was a �Julius Caesar� model, and had just been retrieved from deep in the Luxembourg archaeological ruin. He laughed and said, �It is still in excellent condition.�
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The campground near Salerno was named �Mozzarella 'd Buffalo� after the herds of water buffalo, whose milk is used to make Mozzarella cheese.
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The discovery of Naples is not easy, but from what we have read and what we have seen through the windshield, it could be a rewarding experience.
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The hairdresser kept Sweetie off the streets of Rome and out of the stores for an hour or so, for only $12, a real bargain.
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The Italians are polite and helpful, an attitude not found in all parts of the world.
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The man in Milano indicated he wanted us to take, or maybe smuggle, something out of Italy or into Switzerland - we didn't care which.
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The man in the campsite office in Bologna, loves living in Italy. I'll bet that's because he's married to an Italian. Love is everything!!!
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The elderly man in Venice said, �Senior citizens are �three metal� people. Silver in their hair, gold in their teeth, and lead in their fanny.�
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The man said, with a sheepish grin, �Italians don't like to get moving after a weekend of rest.�
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The Milano policeman refused to get out in the rain just to give us a parking ticket.
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The Pisa policeman was tipsy, his directions were steady.
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The Naples glass-walled office building was surrounded on three sides by grimy, unkempt apartment buildings with balconies filled with laundry and the debris of living.
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The number of Italian lire we received for each dollar had just increased, so the man in Parma joked he should be able to charge us more for an ice cream cone.
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The Roman drives as if there are no rules. When there is a traffic problem or jam, he smiles, throws his hands in the air, as if to say, �No big deal, I wasn't going anywhere anyway.�
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The Sicilian said, �We are not well organized. We do a great job of designing and building, but have yet to hear about maintenance.� I pointed to Mt. Etna, smoking in the distance and said, "No maintenance needed." We both laughed.
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The steps to the tip of Michelangelo�s dome, are built between the outer and inner domes of St. Peter's, and since the dome curves, we must lean at that same angle.
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The pre-teenaged strawberry sellers on the Naples street, appeared to be a caricature of street urchins, ready to star as the Bowery Boys, in a �Dead End Kids� movie.
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The three wheel vehicle driver in Florence, did an imitation of a sardine being put into a can. He was a big man, and as he managed to get inside and close the door, the other door and the windshield seemed to bulge.
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The crowded traffic lanes in St. Peter's Square included two Americans in their RV, and people walking by the thousands - including the two Americans after they found a parking place.
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The TV antenna ensure that the residents of apartment houses built in place of seats in the Lucca Amphitheater, can watch the circus, ball games, and horse races, just like spectators of old.
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The San Leo waitresses couldn't tell the difference between elderly travelers from California, and members of an Italian motorcycle club.
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The young postal delivery lady, turned off the motor on her little Post Office Vesper motor scooter, and coasted down a long, long, street in Siena.
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There were dozens of building cranes visible above the city of Assisi, repairing earthquake damage. I said, �The crane must be Italy's national bird.�
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The uniformed Army men, sitting at our table in McDonald�s in Rome assured us, �There are no Italian soldiers, only Italian uniforms.�
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This trodden path on the Cinque Terra is called the Via dell'Amore, or �Road of Love.� I had high hopes both times we were here, but we just walked.
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We have seen thousands of items hung on a Venician clothesline, but we never saw even one piece that had fallen into a canal. They must have the world's greatest clothespins.
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Watch the drivers in Paris, Berlin, or Rome, and you will see how their Armies acted and reacted during WW II.
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We have visited 15 Roman Amphitheaters, 20 Greek and Roman theaters, and the Circus Maximus in Rome.
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We must have looked like the �Leaning Tower of Humberds,� as we tilted into the wind and struggled through the fascinating windy village of Sperlonga.
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Whatever the occasion, when we �met� one, we don't remember an Italian policeman without a smile.
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We have eaten lunch in our RV
on a Norwegian fjord;
beneath the Eiffel Tower;
just below the Parthenon;
within sight of the Coliseum;
within the arms of the Louvre;
across the Tiber from St. Peter's;
right next to the Brandenburg Gate;
across the street from Windsor Castle;
across the river from Le Pont D' Avignon;
with the Rock of Gibraltar out our window;
and hundreds more.
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We saw well dressed people in nice cars waiting to rent a room in the Pompeii campground for an hour, or maybe after such a long wait, just a few minutes.
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We stayed to the side, out of the way, since we looked out of place in our tourist grungies, while the wedding took place in San Leo�s Cathedral.
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We watched the Italian wood craftsmen as they labored, but we still don't know if they sold the results as �antiqued� or as antiques.
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We watched the televised images of the beautiful, colorful ceiling in Assisi's Bascilia, as it was transformed into rubble and a death heap, from an earthquake. We've visited Assisi, four years.
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We were worried about fire after a car crash in the tunnel on the French/Italy border. We were trying to decide if we should abandon the RV and run to Italy, but traffic finally moved.
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We would expect the police to check further when Californians say they own a French vehicle with German license plates, while driving from Switzerland into Italy, but just a smile and a wave.
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What about the tens of thousands of people in attendance at an Amphitheater? I've never seen an answer - this is the first time I've ever seen this question. How was it advertised? What about food, sanitation, medical care, etc. That was a long walk for everyone.
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When I said in the US no one bothers with a passport, he said, �In the US, you didn't have Mussolini.� Thank goodness.
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When we have a driving problem in Italy, we get the feeling some Italian is saying, �That looks like fun, I must try that some time.�
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Whether as a good luck �charm� or because �boys will be boys,� the right breast of Juliet's statue in Verona, has been made shiny by many hands.
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One of the largest vehicles on the Via Appia was the �carruca dormitoria,� Big enough to accommodate a bed inside, maybe the first RV.
Tidbit by Jim and Emmy HumberdSimilar tidbits in: Book = Writing Nuggets, Travel Tidbits
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