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Have you ever had one of those “WHAT AM I DOING!?” moments?

Ah, traveling in Italy…

Having reached Roma, the next challenge is to decide what in the world to see and do. As I mentioned previously, there is so much to choose from. Many things are well known, some less so, most are worth the time, and some (similar to Juliet’s balcony in Verona) are popular just for being popular.

Being in this city means the end of the trip however. It has been a blast, hard to say it hasn’t been long enough though of course we wish it didn’t have to end. However the credit card bills, work, and other real-life needs will need some tending to. It is time for the last bowl of Italian pasta, the last gelato, one last passeggiata, and then try to cram everything back into the luggage one last time.

Ciao Italia, ci vediamo al prossimo!

Frequently, when one thinks of visiting Italy the main cities of Firenze, Pisa, Venezia, and of course Roma are on the itinerary. If one is feeling more adventurous then side-trips to small towns in Tuscany might be added to the list. I wonder if it is possible to visit (and I mean more than simply drive through) every small town in Italy in an entire lifetime.

Sulmona is not a large city by almost any standard (25,000 inhabitants) but when compared to the many much smaller communities around it, Sulmona feels large simply by comparison. Bugnara, Pacentro, and Rivisondoli are some of these much smaller towns that are found all over Italy. We spent a couple of days in this region in an area and geography that made us feel right at home, many times per day we would look up at the mountains and have to convince ourselves that we weren’t going to see Rock Canyon, Squaw Peak, Mount Timpanogos or a block Y in the mountains around us.

We drove through numerous tiny towns, with the focus being Bugnara which is one of the towns in Italy from whence Kerry’s ancestors originated. Some of these small towns at least expect some small trickle of tourists even though they are certainly not equipped to handle, nor do they receive, even the 100th part of the number of tourists visiting Firenze or Venezia (probably not the 1000th part or more). Bugnara strikes me as a town as accustomed to wandering tourists as Phoenix, Arizona is to snow removal. It isn’t that tourists aren’t welcomed, but what are the chances any tourist would purposely visit this incredibly sleepy (snoring, even) little commune? So I’m sure that seeing us in the town on two consecutive days, wandering the streets and even taking pictures must’ve left any who saw us scratching their heads. We also were able to spend some time perusing church records of baptisms, marriages, and deaths (not necessarily in that order) dating back to the 1600’s and some even to the 1500’s thanks to a very accommodating Priest.

Roma will be the point of departure shortly. Even if it is possible to visit all of Italy’s tiny towns in a lifetime I am certain that it is not possible to acknowledge, visit, appreciate, and study all that the Eternal City has to offer in many lifetimes. There have simply been too many years of civilization heaped upon this geographical zone.

As you travel more north in Italy there are marked changes in culture, food, landscape (of course), and the composition of the cities. The population density increases and the general attitude is a little more reserved and more business-like, but only to a small degree for this is still Italy after all.

Verona - the city that offers the setting for Romeo & Juliet and has the spectacular Arena, an ancient Roman stadium where operas are held every summer - is right at the foothills of the Dolomite mountains (Italian Alps) but just to the south are expansive plains producing much of Italy’s produce (animal & plant) and reminds me of California’s central farmland region. It is this area to the south where a particular pasta dish is popular that holds a spot in my list of top 5 Favorite Italian Foods - Tortelli di Zucca (pumpkin-filled tortelli).

The whole Juliet’s balcony thing is a farce, a blatant play to the tourist’s sentimentality and to separate them from some money. If you just ignore that then Verona is a beautiful city that is enjoyable to walk around and enjoy the views. The aforementioned Arena is well preserved and seeing an opera there is reported to be quite amazing, however that will have to be for another trip as the season has not yet opened. Up on the hill at the edge of the historic city is an unearthed Roman amphitheater that was only discovered in the last couple of hundred years. If nothing else, ascending it offers impressive landscape views of the city and surrounding area, but it is intriguing to imagine Romans in 25 BC or even 300 AD congregating up there on the hillside for entertainment overlooking the Adige river that nearly encircles ancient downtown Verona.

That takes care of the north of Italy for this trip. Now we return to central Italy to the hereditary homestead area before the inevitable road leading to Rome.

Old stomping grounds and a different type of culture.

Back in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy which is responsible for some good Italian cuisine (that is, cucina Italiana) as well as some fine engineering and beautiful design. Emilia-Romagna is the region where I lived for over a year, and a few more months in nearby Lombardia. In short, a part of the country I once knew so well. As can be said for many things in Italy, most is the same but there are some changes as well.

To enjoy the the engineering and design, visits to Ducati & Ferrari.

…as well as Ravenna for the ancient glass-tile mosaics (that counts in the design category).

To celebrate the cuisine, a cooking class at the Academia Barilla in Parma.

Note to future-self and any others with desires of cooking instruction in Italy, don’t plan to cook all day long! It is great to be so immersed, but cooking is hard work and to enjoy the fruits of your labor you need time to digest as well as to possibly sleep it off!

In other good news, the weather is turning warmer now with no rain in sight. Getting ready to head north before returning somewhat south.

Firenze is a beautiful city with plenty to do, though something about the thronging tourist groups caused us to remain somewhat aloof. Also, the Tuscan weather really showed us what it was capable of. Firenze is a bustling city with a ton of history packed in it. There are art galleries (Uffizi and the Accadamia), historical sites (Dante’s house, Basillica of Santa Croce, etc..), and grand edifices (Duomo & Cupola and Palazzo Pitti). There is also a pretty significant shopping presence, most notably the outdoor stalls but also with the stores in the buildings along the roads as well. Most of this is aimed at the tourists from out of town, and most of the contents of the stalls are identical (having come from the same sources). However the leather and ceramic dishware in this region are rather special.

Late in the afternoon the not-so-hot spring heat managed to churn up quite an impressive thunderstorm and downpour.

There are many rather small towns liberally sprinkled throughout the Tuscan hills. Once you arrive at one it is easy to get caught up in the trap of thinking “well, the next one is only another 20 minutes this way, we should go ahead and go there as well.” Before you know it you’ve traveled hundreds of kilometers and you’ve spent the whole day hopping from one tiny little town to the next. San Gimignano is one of the more well-known of these types of towns, but really all have very similar things to offer. However in San Gimignano you can find a particularly high-quality gelato, the quality lives up to the advertising truly.

But now it is time to bid farewell to Tuscany and head north, the area I am much more familiar with. Ciao Toscana, Emilia-Romagna vengo subito!

La bella Toscana, if only the weather would stop getting in the way. It isn’t really that bad, early morning sunshine promises a beautiful day but shortly after lunch the skies are dark with intermittent drizzle but then it clears up somewhat by late evening just before dark for some nice sunsets.

Again we are braving the roads, this time in 4-wheels which opens up even more destinations but also provides less room to squeeze by on narrow streets and fewer places near Centro (center of town) where you are allowed to drive and park.

The narrow roads, fast driving, and other things we aren’t used to actually grow on you pretty quickly and, like most things you do when driving, begin to become automatic. The problem with having a car in Italy so that you can get to more places and on your own schedule, is that you want to go more places and you may never make it back to your hotel! By the time we made it back to Siena we were just desperate to find any place to eat, and it just so happened that the first place we found after parking ended up being some of the best pasta we’ve had so far on this trip (and that is saying a lot!) - freshly made spinach-stuffed tortelli with a savory pumpkin sauce, buonissimo!

Church on Sunday in Siena was great. We showed up and the branch president said that when he saw us he got excited that maybe a new family had moved in. There is a group of BYU students living here in Siena for the summer, and they are helping conduct music and other things, so the branch is happy to have some extra members for a time.

Next up, Firenze and shopping, which a member of the branch told Kerry to make sure I know about and to let her do some shopping to which Kerry responded: “Si, lo so!” because she has had that activity on her itinerary from the beginning.

This and subsequent blog posts will be the very summarized version of events. For complete details feel free to inquire, but I don’t desire to be so exhaustive in this accounting. Instead I just want to touch on some highlights and share some images (higher-resolution images will be on the photo site once we return home).

Flying to Europe just isn’t all that fun. It has gotten better over time with better preparation and now with personal video entertainment systems on most aircraft and in-seat power for laptops/MP3 players. I should say, it isn’t all that fun if you aren’t in Business/1st Class, which most people are not. Regardless, we arrived in Rome early on Easter Sunday tired and with plenty of travel ahead of us to make it down to the Amalfi coast south of Napoli.

The Amalfi coast truly is as beautiful as everyone says it is, but being that the main draw are the communities that cling to the steep, rugged, coastline makes for a lot of walking up and down steep grades and lots of steps. It also makes getting around more difficult than other places in Italy. Choices are taxis/buses on narrow, winding, roads or boats/ferries between towns. And walking, did I mention the walking?

Ischia is a little island off the western coast of Italy (closest major city is Napoli) and is about 4 miles across with its highest point being 2,519 feet above sea level at the top of an old volcanic mountain, Monte Epomeo. Here is my basic summary of Ischia: a beautiful little island that is best experienced on motorino (scooter). Rent 125cc or 150cc scooter and explore wherever the road takes you (except for the zona di traffico limitato, you don’t want to get a ticket).

With proper transportation and a little bit of hiking, it is possible to go from sea level to 2,500 feet in less than an hour and be rewarded with spectacular views and cooler winds.

In Italy (and most of Europe I presume), a Mini Cooper is a regular-sized car.

More updates will be posted as time and internet access allow. Ciao!

I highly recommend watching this video in full-screen to really appreciate it.

The Mountain from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.

This one is just plain crazy, Ueli Steck solo-climbs The Eiger in Switzerland in 2h 47m!

Here’s a link to an article about the ascent: Speed climbing Eiger

Not that all aspects of the Star Wars universe are all bad, but it is a far cry from what George Lucas set out to create back in the late 1970’s.

Here is a video someone created and posted to YouTube where many short clips from various old serials are cut together to create a fake preview reel for The Empire Strikes Back in the style that inspired George Lucas to create the original Star Wars (Episode IV - A New Hope).

After his movie made him and the studio so much money the direction for the subsequent sequels (and ESPECIALLY the prequels) drifter further and further from this style. Like I said, this isn’t all bad, but I think keeping this in mind provides some context for why the prequels ended up the way they did (to a certain extent).

George Lucas has stated in numerous interviews that when Episode IV starts you are meant to feel like you are being dropped into the middle of a story that you don’t have all of the context and explanations for, like missing the earlier episodes of a Saturday Matinee serial. He did this on purpose! So then as the sequels progressed and people became increasingly eager for more explanation, history, back story, world building, etc… George and the studio saw there was money to be made in telling a much more expansive story. The prequels are ret-cons and after-thoughts.

For people that love Star Wars (e.g. ME!) this is a great thing as we get to see more awesome technology and mythos and characters. But, for people that love Star Wars (e.g. me) we cringe when we have to deal with Jar-Jar and midichlorians and Boba Fett not dying in the Sarlac pit. I am unabashedly a huge Star Wars fan, I just have to focus on all of the great things that we have because of it (moviews, toys, video games, novels, comic books and graphic novels, costumes, story, environments, etc…) and ignore the admittedly very few parts that are annoying