prego - anything and everything (italian)
well, we are back home in berlin, i have had my kartoffelsnack and cocalight, gone grocery shopping and done laundry. since this is my boring itinerary for the next few days, i will bring you an entry for each day of our trip to italy.
the jet set, minus dan
day 1 - we arrive in italy
this was a heavy travel day. we took a taxi to the airport. we took a plane to italy. we took a bus to venice. we took a train to florence. we took a taxi to the hotel. 10 hours later we were at our destination. phew!
waiting for us in the hotel were brian and meena who were vacationing in florence for a week. we were really happy to see friends and feel that we now all qualify for jet setter status. apparently the jet set is also the blog set. for a detailed play-by-play of brian and meena's vacation you can read brian's blog: non parliamo italiano.
our hotel was built to be a convent, so the architecture was suitably simple - for italy. the floors had beautiful inlays. the nuns in the convent wove and sold cloth made from gold and silver thread, a few samples hung in our room. our bed was from 1815, the painting above it from 1850, and the bidet was from the early 2000s according to our host, frank.
we got there in time for dinner. dan and i, assuming that brian and meena had done a lot of research for their trip, did absolutely zero preparation aside from finding transportation and lodging. still, i was surprised by the sheer number of guide books they had for one week in one town! they also were using the internet access in their room (we're cheap so we didn't pay for it) so after consulting 6 books and several websites we found a place to eat dinner.
we went out for seafood. now, brian is allergic to shellfish, and generally hates "things that come from the sea". this might have been a problem in germany, where most people speak english but sometimes you have to just hope you get what you ordered. in italy, touristy italy, everyone speaks english. brian had no trouble making sure that he got lamb. our waiter was so smiley, and so nice that he translated the entire menu for us. it was a lovely, very classy evening until dan decided that our waiter looked like balki from "perfect strangers" and the night dissolved into dan singing tv theme songs.
stay tuned for day 2, when dan and i decide that 13th century italian art is not worth pushing through high school groups to see, but brian and meena think it is.
the jet set, minus danthis was a heavy travel day. we took a taxi to the airport. we took a plane to italy. we took a bus to venice. we took a train to florence. we took a taxi to the hotel. 10 hours later we were at our destination. phew!
waiting for us in the hotel were brian and meena who were vacationing in florence for a week. we were really happy to see friends and feel that we now all qualify for jet setter status. apparently the jet set is also the blog set. for a detailed play-by-play of brian and meena's vacation you can read brian's blog: non parliamo italiano.
our hotel was built to be a convent, so the architecture was suitably simple - for italy. the floors had beautiful inlays. the nuns in the convent wove and sold cloth made from gold and silver thread, a few samples hung in our room. our bed was from 1815, the painting above it from 1850, and the bidet was from the early 2000s according to our host, frank.
we got there in time for dinner. dan and i, assuming that brian and meena had done a lot of research for their trip, did absolutely zero preparation aside from finding transportation and lodging. still, i was surprised by the sheer number of guide books they had for one week in one town! they also were using the internet access in their room (we're cheap so we didn't pay for it) so after consulting 6 books and several websites we found a place to eat dinner.
we went out for seafood. now, brian is allergic to shellfish, and generally hates "things that come from the sea". this might have been a problem in germany, where most people speak english but sometimes you have to just hope you get what you ordered. in italy, touristy italy, everyone speaks english. brian had no trouble making sure that he got lamb. our waiter was so smiley, and so nice that he translated the entire menu for us. it was a lovely, very classy evening until dan decided that our waiter looked like balki from "perfect strangers" and the night dissolved into dan singing tv theme songs.
stay tuned for day 2, when dan and i decide that 13th century italian art is not worth pushing through high school groups to see, but brian and meena think it is.
posted by jordan at
6:20 PM
2 Comments:
I'm enjoying this travelog (and Brian's) immensely. I'm guessing my takeaway from your Italy adventure will be different than any of your other readers', however...
I just wasted perfectly good nap time Googling the theme song to Perfect Strangers. Of course it came flooding back to me when I saw the lyrics, but I can't believe you remembered it without a digital memory jog, Dan. You are my TV trivia idol. And very, very clearly my flesh and blood.
By
Anonymous, at March 14, 2006 9:19 PM
I should point out that both Brian and Jordan have corrupted this story a bit. I actually took the high road and refused to sing the Perfect Strangers theme song while in the classy restaurant. (Note, this was the only time I took the high road the entire trip.) It was only after we left the restaurant that I began to sing. And even then it was the "Biddybabka Song", not the theme song.
Put that in your Schloss and smoke it!
By
Anonymous, at March 15, 2006 10:56 AM
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