Stuck at JFK

Our flight back to DC was supposed to leave at 8:40 PM, but so far, we're stuck here waiting at the gate. I'm tired and jetlagged, so I'll catch up with all the posts I've been writing tomorrow and Sunday.

On the way home

We're halfway across the Atlantic on our flight home from Rome. The last post I wrote was before we left Molise, so I have a fair bit of catching up to do. I might as well take advantage of the fact that we're stuck here with nothing else to do.

The reason that I haven't posted much is that none of the places we stayed in had wireless Internet access, and trying to get to online was more of a hassle than I thought it would be. I also never had a chance to send a single post card, so I apologize to everyone who sent me their addresses asking for one.

So time to backtrack.

From June 10th to 15th

Not really in the mood to go into details of the rest of the trip.

After the day in Pompeii and Jan falling down the stairs, we left her back at the B&B and we went to Capri and took the bus to the Amalfi Coast road. Pretty much everyone hated the bus trip, and I'm not sure that they were all that impressed with Positano. I think it's the most beautiful city I've ever seen in Italy, but I think the ride to get there was so bad for just about everyone else that they didn't notice.

The next day we left Sorrento and drove to Sicily, took the ferry from Regio Calabria, and got to the house we rented there.

Silicy was beautiful, and I really enjoyed visiting San Piero Patti (Grandma Cili's parents' home town). Unfortunately, we didn't get to see much of Sicily in the four days we were there.

On the 14th we drove to Catania airport and Dylan, Nicole, Jan and I flew to Rome, and everyone else flew to Venice. Dylan, Nicole, Jan and I flew home the following day, and the other seven are currently in Tuscany. They get back to Florida on Saturday.

Sorry for such an anti-climatic ending to the blog, at least from my perspective.

Pompeii and falling down the stairs

We went to Pompeii in the morning, but not without a few problems on the way. We were lucky enough to have Luigi's son Ugo drive us in the Ducato to the train station in Sant'Angelo (the town nearest to the B&B) which let us get there without having to worry about parking.

After Renee, Dad and I found a working ATM (the nearest one was "fuori servizio") to take out some cash, we went up the steps to the Circumvesuviana tracks. I bought two round trip tickets, followed by dad buying two, Renee buying five, and Dylan attempting to buy two. By the time he got there, the ticket guy was out of change. And they did not take credit cards. And some woman cut in front of Dylan while he was trying to find the exact change from one of us.

Of course, that led to us missing the train. I asked the guy in the booth when the next one was, and he told me, in Italian, that the next one was at 11:39 AM. That was about another half hour wait. I told everyone how long we'd have to wait, but everyone had to confirm what I told them by asking the ticket guy directly. He spoke enough English to say "eleven thirty-nine." That was about all the English I think he had.

We managed to catch the 11:39, and got to the "Pompeii Scavi" station around 12:15 or so. We stopped at place to grab a quick bite to eat near the station, and someone asked us if we wanted a tour guide. He offered a pretty good deal - all eleven of us for 96 Euros - but we'd each have to pay the entrance fee of 11 Euros per person ourselves.

After a fair bit of debate, we finally decided to get the tour guide. I'm really glad we did. Vincenzo, who called himself Vinnie for us Americans, gave us a great tour. Very informative, and he explained how Pompeii fit within the context of the Roman Empire at the time of its destruction.

After our tour, we got back onto the train, and took it to the Sorrento station, which is one stop past our stop at Sant'Angelo. This was because our plan was to hop on the bus to go to the Amalfi Coast.

However, fate had another idea for us. Jan was trying to take a picture of some really beautiful bougainvillea that was growing on a wall opposite the train station. As she was walking down the staircase, she lost her footing and fell, landing on her back. Her head hit the ground, and she started bleeding all over the place.

It was really scary. I was so glad that Paige was there, who was able to keep everyone calm while he had her sit down so he could look at the back of her head. And there was this very nice American woman who offered us a bunch of napkins, and ran to her backpack to grab a bandanna to sop up the blood. About a half dozen people called the local ambulance, no doubt because Jan was bleeding so much. And head wounds always bleed a lot.

Another Italian woman, who was probably in her mid to late 60s, held Jan's hands and told her to calm down, that everything would be ok. Eventually, and ambulance showed up, after Paige said that the bleeding had pretty much stopped and that Jan should be ok, and wanted to take her to hospital. We told the emergency technicians that paige was a "medico" and that he was pretty sure that she'd be ok, and that we'd take her back to the B&B and keep an eye on her.

They put her on a stretcher anyway, and took her into the ambulance, but assured us that they only wanted to look at her and bandgage her head. And luckily that was all they did.

We called Ugo back and asked him if he could come to Sorrento train station instead of Sant'Angelo to pick us up, and he did so without a problem. When he showed up, he was really surprised by the bandage on Jan's head. It looked more like a turban.

We eventually got back to the B&B and put her to bed. We went out to buy groceries and had dinner in that night. Needless to say, Jan had a really bad headache, but all in all she was ok.

Castelbottaccio and the drive to Sorrento

We finally got on the road to Castelbottaccio yesterday morning. Getting there was pretty simple, but the roads were a bit windy and twisty. No one there knew we were coming. We got into town around 10:00 AM or so, and drove into the town square. I got out of the car and told some guys sitting around the main piazza that we were a group of 11 looking for the Listorti family.

Then I looked at the church in the piazza and saw all the Listortis listed as citizens of the town who died in WWI and WWII. It was pretty moving.

Dad managed to find someone who was able to direct us to the town city hall. We walked there and I explained that we wanted to get copies of birth certificates for Giuseppi Listorti and Angelina Iannidinardo. Dad actusally had both of their passports they used when they came to the USA.

The lady at the city hall said it would be no problem, and that she would have the copies ready within a half hour. Then she called her son, Carmine, who is the town's only fluent English speaker to give us a tour.

We also ended up with another tour guide, a guy by the name of Antonio, who knew where the Iannidinardos lived, and wanted us to meet someone who would be dad's grandmother's niece.

Prior to touring around though we went into the home of one of Dad's distant cousins. Her grandfather and Dad's grandfather were brothers, so that means that her dad and Dad's dad would've been first cousins. Or something like that.

We had a great tour around town, and met lots of folks who knew the Listorti family and Iannidinardo families very well. Quite a few of them left for the US in the late 18th and early 19th century, but a lot of them remained behind. And Antonio took us to the house of the old lady who is Dad's grandmother's niece. She was very nice, and didn't want us to leave.

Dad also got copies of his grandparents' birth certificates. He's planning to claim his own Italian citizenship, and he needs those certificates for that purpose.

We drove out of Castelbottaccio for the long trip to Sorrento. That part of Italy doesn't have too many highways (autostrada) so getting to Sorrento took some time. We took the lead in the "normal" car with the Ducato following.

When we got to the town of Piano di Sorrento, my computer with Map Point led us down a street too narrow for the Ducato to fit, but we made it through. The Ducato went another way, and we all met up at the B&B. Luigi, the B&B's owner, recommended a nice place for dinner, and we all went there and had a very nice meal that evening.

Stuck in the mud

I've got about five days of catching up to do, so I'm going to summarize each day. Internet connectivity is pretty limited, which is why I haven't posted much lately. I think the last time I posted was before we left Rome, so time for a bit of backtracking. We left Rome on Wednesday morning.

Paige, Dylan and I walked to the car rental agency near the Vatican to pick up the cars, and I was right - one of them was a Fiat Ducato, which is huge. We found our way back to the apartment with no problem at all and picked everyone up. However, trying to get out of the city and onto the highway was a different story. After driving around in circles a bit, we eventually managed to find the autostrada and made our journey east. Renee was using a Garmin GPS satellite device that seemed to want to get us out of town, but had an odd way of doing it.

We drove to the B&B in Torella del Sannio, and arrived at about 2:30 PM or so. The drive was pretty easy, and the scenery was beautiful. The B&B is fantsatic. The owners are Luciano and Giuseppe, who goes by the nickname "Beppe." They were waiting for us and seemed very happy when we arrived. They also had a woman named Domenica working for them as their assistant. She did the cooking, cleaning, etc.

Luciano speaks pretty fluent English, but Beppe and Domenica (who also goes by the nickname Tata) do not. So I got to be the translator for what they were telling us.

Anyway, we told them that we were heading to Castelbottaccio, and that their B&B in Torella del Sannio was the only place we could find that was near there. Luciano told us that it was pretty easy to get to Castelbottaccio from their place, and after we checked in and got our bags into our rooms we were all set to get on the road. But they had a different idea.

Luciano wanted us to follow him around town to show us where things were. First, to a restaurant named La Fontana, then to the best gelateria in Molise (according to him), then to his house. Dad was in a big hurry to get to Castelbottaccio, so we only got a chance to see the outside of the restaurant and the gelateria, and then he had us follow him to his house.

He invited us in for drinks, but Dad said no, we had to get on the road to Castelbottaccio. So we thanked him and we were on our way. Or so we thought. Renee's satellite navi system had a different idea.

We followed its directions for a bit, but missed a turn. Then it recalculated. Right into a dirt road. Which turned out to be impassabile for the Ducato.

Renee and Paige brought walkie talkies with them, and they radioed back to the four of us in the "normal" car that there was a "mud puddle," and they decided to try to drive through it. I should've realized that was a dumb idea as soon as Paige started to back up to pick up enough speed to get through it.

We were stuck. Many efforts were made to move the thing, but to no avail.

Luckily, I had my cell phone with me and had programmed Luciano's number into it before we left for Italy, so I called him and asked for help. He had me call Tomaso, the local car repair guy in Torella del Sannio. I then managed to make about a 27 point turn (as opposed to the normal 3 point) to get the other car facing back to town. Eight of us piled into the car, which is designed for five, and we left Paige, Dylan and Taran back in the woods.

We managed to find the car repair shop, and the owner's wife, Domenica, spoke fluent English because she lived in the US for about 8 years, in Union City, NJ. She spoke English with a Jersey accent.

She shuttled everyone but Renee and me back to the B&B, then came back to the shop. Renee and I drove lead and Tomaso and Domenica followed us back into the woods.

To make a long story shorter, Tomaso managed to tow the Ducato out of the woods, and got it running for us again. The tow and cleaning the car cost 100 Euros, and it was well worth it. We didn't make it to Castelbottaccio that night though, of course, but we had a fantastic meal at the restaurant Lucioano recommended. Unfortunately, we never did get to taste the best gelato in Molise.

Mom's birthday disaster and recovery

It's Tuesday, our last full day in Rome.

Yesterday started out as a disaster. I got up pretty early, the first one in the apartment, and I was showered and ready to head out by 6:30 AM. I thought everyone else wanted to head out to see the Sistine Chapel first thing, and thought they'd want to get up too. I also thought I let every one know that we all had to get up and head out first thing to beat the lines. Jan was tired, and decided to stay home, but everyone else walked the couple of blocks to the Vatican Museums. I really was worried we were going to be too late and the lines would be too long.

I hate being right sometimes. We didn't get over to the Vatican until about 8:45 AM. By that point, the line was at least 5 blocks long, and the wait would be about three hours. So Nicole said, "hey, why don't we just take the train to Tivoli?" We all agreed, so we walked back to the apartment to get Jan, who got out of bed and got ready to go.

From reading the guide books, it sure seemed as if taking the train to Tivoli (location of Hadrian's Villa and the Villa d'Este) would be a simple of matter of taking the "Metropolitana" subway to the "Termini" main train station, and transfer to a "real" train. So we bought tickets on the subway, and tried to do exactly that. We walked all over Termini to find the right track for the train to Tivoli, but no luck. It turns out that there are trains that go from Termini to Tivoli, but only the first and last trains of the day, which are "express" trains.

When it's not rush hour, the only trains are locals, and they leave from the Tributina Metro stop. So we got back onto the subway, and took the "B" line to Tributina. Metro passes are good for 75 minutes after you "validate" them at the turnstyle. We tried to get back onto the Metro about 77 minutes after we validated them originally, so we had to buy new passes.

So far, the day was not going to well.

The trip to Tivoli was a long one on the non-express train. On the way there, Dad mentioned that the main reason he wanted us to go to Tivoli was so that Mom could see the fantastic gardens at Villa d'Este. Nicole and I joked that we "hope it's not closed on Mondays."

So we finally got to Tivoli. We had to ask how to get to the Villa d'Este from a local at the train station, who pointed us down a flight of stairs to a bridge across the river. When we got to the other side, we saw a bus stop and asked which bus took us to the villa. One of the people waiting told me "you can walk there, and be there 'subito,' (immediately)."

Apparently, the concept of "subito" doesn't translate the same way you'd think it does, regardless of the form of transportation.

After walking about a half hour or so, we finally made it to the main entrance of the Villa. I noticed a sign in Italian that read "Lunedi' chiuso" and I was really hoping that I got the words for Monday and Tuesday (or any other day of the week) confused. It was not to be. I looked down at the English translation on the sign below the Italian one and saw that "the monument is closed on Mondays."

Just when we thought the day couldn't get any worse, it did.

So we tried to figure out what to do next. I was trying to get people excited about Hadrian's Villa. So we found a place to buy a bus ticket for 1.0o Euro per person and figured out where the bus stop to that Villa was. We encountered a mother and daughter from Austin, TX, who told us that they had been waiting for nearly an hour to catch the bus. Fantastic. We waited as well, probably about 15 minutes, and Dad said "let's just call this excursion a mistake and head back to Rome." I said "let's just wait another 5 minutes to see if the bus comes." Unfortunately, it arrived 3 minutes later, so we piled on and headed to Hadrian's Villa.

We bought our tickets, and walked around the grounds. About an hour later, we headed back to where the bus left us off, and happened to see a bus headed in the other direction, just as we started to hear rumbles of thunder and saw the ominous dark clouds in the sky.

Of course, our bus tickets that we used to get to Hadrian's Villa would not let us go back to Tivoli, and of course we couldn't buy bus tickets on the bus. We had to go to a tobaccanist, bar, or news agent for that, and the bus driver was not willing to give us a break or take mercy on us and help us out.

So he drove off without us and we found a place to buy bus tickets for the 4 kilometer trip back to Tivoli. Of course, the tickets for the "yellow" bus would not allow us to ride on the "blue" bus and vice versa. Regardless, after we bought our tickets, we started walking to a bus shelter just as the rain started pouring down.

We waited, and waited, and waited, and then, just for fun, we waited some more. A woman came into the shelter and we managed to communicate that we were heading to the Tivoli train station to go back to Rome, and she confirmed that we were waiting in the right place. When I showed her the tickets that we had she said "oh no, that's for the blue bus! You need tickets for the yellow bus! You can buy those at the bar across the street."

So Renee and I walked across the street, and another 11 Euros later we had the right tickets and 11 wrong tickets, all set for the trip back to Tivoli

The bus was about as efficient as the train, and arrived about as "subito" as the walk to the closed on Mondays Villa d'Este was. Nearly an hour after the bus driver wouldn't let us get on his bus back, the next bus arrived.

Back to the train station, where we arrived promptly at 4:16 PM. Just in time to miss the 4:11 local train back to Rome Tributina station by about 4 minutes, but with plenty of time to catch the rush hour express train back to Rome Termini station. In fact, we had since that express train was scheduled to leave Tivoli at 5:28 PM, we had more than an hour to spare!

Yeah, this day was just turning out to be fantastic.

Jarrett really wanted to try to get back to Rome in time to see the Coloseum before it closed, which is at 6:15 PM. So, of course, our train arrived back in Rome at about 6:20 PM, just in time to say "we missed it by five minutes."

Well, the day was a total waste, more or less, but the night was fun.

I was trying to convince Dad that we should head to a place near the Castel Sant'Angelo for dinner, and that we should walk around the Piazza Navona and Pantheon before going to the Trevi Fountain, and that going on foot would be a lot more fun and scenic that it would be to take the Metro to get there.

I'm glad I did, because the walk to that part of town was the highlight of the day, and as far as I'm concerned is the highlight of the trip so far. Rome at night is fantastic. We had dinner in a nice little trattoria, and afterwards walked down a little alley in the "antique" district to Piazza Navona. The main fountain was being worked on, so the water was drained, which meant that none of us could get the real impact of the fact that it's the best fountain in the city.

I got to function as the group tour guide, and told people about the stuff they were seeing and explained how the entire area was actually a field outside the original walls of Rome, and that the fields was used as the campgrounds for the armies of Roman generals when they returned from battle during the Republic and the early days of the Empire. Generals were not allowed to cross the border into the city itself with an army in tow, so the "campus maritus" was the location where those armies would wait for the general to return after reporting his success to the Roman Senate.

I also explained to them that Piazza Navona was in the shape it was in because it funcitoned originally as Domitian's "circus," a track for chariot races during his and subsequent emporers' reigns.

Next stop was the Pantheon, the temple to all the gods, then to the Fontana di Trevi (Trevi Fountain) where we had some fantastic gelato.

The day was pretty awful, but the night was really great.

Everyone is up this morning, and I hope that we'll manage to get to the Vatican soon so we can see the Sistine Chapel. I hear hair dryers though, so I'm not sure we're going to get there in time. That place queues up pretty fast, and the lines are ridiculous.