The Bliss of the X
March 23, 2010
174 days until we leave for Italy but really, who’s counting? Me. There are few things that can make me grin wider than my daily pilgrimage to the wall calendar where I use a wide point Sharpee to make another big sloppy X through that day’s date and with each X there’s one less day that stands between me and my first lemon gelato on Italian terra firma. Be still my heart.
Since last I blogged back on January 7 I’ve continued to plan and obsess for our month in Italy. At the top of the list has been taking a semester of Italian at the Berkeley annex for the The School of Italian Language and Culture. I now know just enough Italian to at least be able to embarrass myself in two languages instead of just one. I had originally intended to continue on with the second and third semesters but I wasn’t able to arrange my schedule to accommodate the Monday evening classes with any regularity so it’s back to Rosetta Stone on my laptop for me. For the most part I think I can manage the pronunciation reasonably well but as to verb conjugations, dream on. When ordering for D and I, I sense there’s going to be a whole lot of bilingual pointing going on; pointing to D and then to the menu, pointing to me and then to the menu. Hey, as long as I can get Fagioli all’uccelletto on my plate in Tuscany and Spaghetti alIa carbonara in my bowl in Rome, I’ll use whatever means are possible, be it gestures or grammar.
I’ve also begun booking us one guided day tour in each of our three locations (Rome, Tuscany, the Amalfi Coast). While D and I are most excited about seeing Italy on our own, going where we want to go and going at our own pace, we also want to experience a few of the major sites with people who know their stuff. In each location Untours provides a special event for all their clients who are located in the same area at the same time. Rome includes a private guided tour of St. Peter’s Basilica and Sistine Chapel; in Tuscany we gather for lunch and a guided tour of a local abbey and while the event for the Amalfi Coast is still to be determined (Amalfi is a new region for them), I’m hoping Limoncello is included prominently in the plans.
The bookings I’ve made for D and I in Rome include two outings with Context Travel. On our first full day in Rome we’re going on their three hour walking tour, Savoring Rome, A Culinary Stroll that will give us not only the chance to get a taste of Rome but help us get a lay of the land for our days on our own. A couple days later will go on a four hour guided tour of the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill and the Colosseum on Roma Antica. Our apartment is a five minute walk from the center of ancient Rome and so I’m sure we’ll find ourselves back at the forum on another day as well as to Maritime Prison where the Apostle Paul was imprisoned while in Rome.
Our days on the Amalfi Coast will be spent strolling through the coastal villages (we’ll access them via the coastal bus line) and hiking the trails between Atrani and Ravello and over near Positano, but we’ve already arraigned a private tour of Pompeii with Gaetano Manfredi, a guide that comes highly recommended by Rick Steves. A private driver will take us to Pompeii where we’ll meet up with Gaetano for a two-three hour tour. Then it’s back with our driver for some touring and a slice of pizza in Naples before driving to Mount Vesuvius for a bit of a climb.
The other location where we want to arrange a guided tour is in Florence but right now those plans are a bit up in the air and so I’ll post what we’re doing when everything is finalized. Suffice it to say, whichever way we go in Florence the focus will be food, fun, and fotos!
Okay. That updates you on my progress with Italian and our guided tour plans. I could go on but it will wait for another post. For now I have another X to mark off on the calendar!
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