Italy - Part 5: the trip, Florence

Florence:

We arrived in Florence later afternoon/early evening. The hotel, Donatello, is located right outside of the Florence old town, so location is nice, but the parking was expensive and 2 blocks away.  Since everything was walking distance away, the location of the parking was not an issue.

Since we got in just in time for dinner, we asked at hotel for a good place for dinner and they've suggested a restaurant close by: Al Chirola Di Jimmy. That was great advice:  food was excellent, wine was great. I think it was only one restaurant in the whole trip that we visited twice. Of course the fact that there was a gelateria (you can guess what it is) next door did not hurt :)

On the first day in Florence we had a tour, as planned. Tour was very interesting. Did you know that there are no trees inside old city. The reason is simple: Florence was fighting a war against Pisa. So, to defend the city, they had to build a wall. All new buildings needed to be protected inside the walls. So, all the trees were cut to create room for the buildings. The war is over, Italy is united, but trees are gone.

In the middle of the city, there is a huge church. All roads in the city seem to end at that church. The tour guide showed us that we can climb on the top of the dome. So we thought we would do it on the last day in Florence, but we totally forgot :(

NOTE to everybody who plans to visit Florence: CLIMB THE DOME!!!

The plan for the second day was to visit wineries, after all we are in the middle of Tuscany and that is where the Chianti is made. I booked an all day trip to 2 wineries and truffle based lunch. The tour guide was local Italian guy, who spoke pretty good Russian. From what I understand, he also spoke English and German. He took us to 2 wineries: Cosimo Maria Masini and Leonardo Beconcini in San Miniato. For lunch, we stopped at Osteria l'Upupa, where we had lunch with wine, followed by espresso. Everything was great: the wine testing, the lunch, the view of the village and surroundings. For anybody who plans to visit Florence, it's a must! Allocate a day and you will not be disappointed.  I am sure there are different places that organize this kind of tours, but we used  http://www.ariannandfriends.com.

Next stop: Pisa.

Italy - Part 4: the trip San Marino

San Marino.

For those who don't know, San Marino is a country inside of Italy. It's located North East part of Italy on the top of a mountain. So on our way to Florence from Venice we have decided to take a little detour and stop at San Marino. Drive up to mountain was not very eventful, except we have decided to follow GPS instead of road signs. We ended up taking a small detour, but it wasn't that bad.

After we crossed the boarder (little sign welcoming us to San Marino and no passport control) we started to see some gorgeous views.  But I am jumping ahead. After parking the car we started walking around, mostly up the hill. All streets are small with a lot of stores, with Russian speaking sales people. I never expected that.

Another interesting thing was that there were weapon stores (not real weapons, the airguns). We talked to sale person and he said that they have a lot of sales because taxes on the weapons in San Marino are a lot lower then in Italy.

Another first for me: we saw (and used) self-cleaning bathroom. For 50 cents you go in, do you business, and when you leave it sanitizes itself before the next customer. That was unusual.

Again, the pictures are on Google+ and Flickr. Views are awesome!!!

Next: Florence. 

Italy, Part 3 - the trip: Venice

I am finally back in my time zone! But let me describe our trip.

Short version: it was awesome!!!

Now for a detailed version:

We arrived in Venice on time, got our luggage and went thru passport control with no issues. Then we went outside to wait for my cousin. At this point I've decided to call him and let him know that we've arrived. Thanks to T-Mobile, I got coverage and data roaming. I've downloaded magicJack app that was supposed to work over the data, and it did! But I got a message that there were no money on the account to make international calls. That got me "little" upset, since I've put money on the account before we left. So, while we are waiting, I had to login to the magicJack site and figure out what's going on. By the time I did, my cousin has arrived! So, at least I've got my phone working!

The first surprise occurred when we arrived in our hotel. Instead of 1 room for 2 people we got 2 rooms for 1 person each! That meant 2 bathrooms! But we did not go to Italy to stay in the hotel room.

The day 1in Venice included a tour of the city. The tour was very interesting and informative. A lot of information about history of Venice.  The guide also told us how the houses were built, after all they are all in the water and have been standing there for centuries. Not a small or a quick process. The architecture is very impressive, but it's true for everywhere in Italy.

This was the first day for gelato (ice cream) and wine. We found couple of restaurants that had seatings outside and we used them pretty much every evening. I tried Italian pizza. 30+ years when were in Italy and tried pizza we did not like it at all. This time it was a different story. I liked it this time :) It's either my taste buds or 30 years ago it was a different place. I go with my taste buds that made the difference.

On the second day, we went back to the island. We found Jewish ghetto and took a tour. Since there is not a lot of land, the synagogues were built inside buildings. The first floor is usually where the stores and offices are, then there is a synagogue, then the living space.  There are 2 functional synagogues, but they only work half a year each. It's not a problem since they are both on the same plaza, just a different building.

Then we were off to look for a knitting store. Using Google maps (little advertising for Google), we found the store.  Of course we got something, we can't go to the knitting store in Venice and live empty handed :).

At some point we got lost in Venice. I have to admit I was again impressed with Google maps. It got us to the bus station via some non-touristy streets.

Pictures have been posted on Google Plus and Flicker. Let me know if you have any issues accessing pictures. They are organized into folders corresponding to the cities visited.

Nest stop: San Marino. And you thought it would be Florence :)

Italy, Part 2 - Preparations

Italy trip - preparations, continue....

Now that we've set up a date, and shared the document, it's time to plan what to do in Italy and when.

The plan is to have a tour and a day of no activity in each city. First full day in a city should be a tour day. Hopefully, that would give us  a little better feel for the city for the next day, which is a day just to walk around, relax and hangout. There needs to be a time to try gelato in every city. Of course, we have to go for a wine tour in Florence. After all, Florence is in Cianti region, Tuscany.  And in Rome, I am allocating a day for Vatican.

So, here is the plan:

• Venice:
• day 1 - arrival
• day 2 - city tour
• day 3 - off
• day 4 - drive to Florence
• Florence
• day 1 - arrival
• day 2 - city tour
• day 3 - wine tour with truffle based lunch
• day 4 - off
• day 5 - drive to Room thru Pisa
• Rome
• day 1 - arrival
• day 2 - city tour
• day 3 - Vatican tour
• day 4 - off
• day 5 - off
• day 6 - fly home

Now, that we know which tours we want, it should be easy to arrange it. But there is a glitch :) We need all tours with Russian speaking tour guides. My cousin does not speak English and we don't speak German. The only common language is Russian.  Natan found Russian speaking tour guides in each city and I found a wine tour guide around Florence that speaks Russian, English, and German!!! The glitch is no longer a glitch!

Next topic: money. obviously I'd like to have some euros when we land in Italy. Also, I don't want to exchange the money in the airport. So, I talked to my friendly banker in the local Chase bank. They've exchange dollars to euros with no fees. The exchange rate I got was 1.35. It's probably better rate then what I can get at airport or exchange. If I remember, I'll try to keep an eye on the exchange rates in Italy.

Last thing as far as I can tell: power. Most of the devices now can work in dual mode (120/220V). The problem is that there are too many devices: camera, phone, etc. Lana also wanted to take her straightener. That device works only in 120V.  After doing some research I did find a straightener that had dual mode, and it wasn't that expensive. Also, I found the universal power strip with USB ports. So, we should not have any problem with power in Europe. If someone is going abroad in future, you can borrow these things.

I think we are all set and ready to go. Can't wait!

Italy, Part 1 - planning

We finally decided to go to Italy!!! Step 1, check! BTW, this decision has been reached in April of this year.

First question: which cities?  This decision ended up being one of the easiest. Other then the usual goals (vacation away from home, Europe, culture, things we read and heard about, paintings, sculptures, food, wine, etc), we also wanted to visit the cities and places that we (actually I) and our parents visited when we were in Italy on the way to US in Jan of 1980. That means we would stay in Venice, Florence and Rome. The rest of the places, like Pizza, are short drive from these cities.

Next issue: local transportation, how do we get between cities? Again, got an easy solution. In one of my conversations with my cousin, Natan, who lives in Germany, I've mentioned our plans and he told me that he has never been in Italy and would love to join us there. It works out great, since 1) I have not seen him in a while.  2) we would have a company, somebody to spend time with. And 3) we have a way to get between cities because he would drive to Italy and we can all drive together when we are there. Second issue is resolved!

The decision about the dates came easy since we did not want to go before High Holidays. So, I started looking for the best airfare.  There are quite a few travel agencies and agents. The problem is that one never knows when is the good time to buy tickets (nobody wants to overpay). Since I started looking for the tickets early enough I figured I have enough time.  There is a lot of advice on this topic on the internet.  All the articles seem to agree that for the international travel, the best time to buy ticket would be around 3 months prior the trip. Also, there are couple of interesting sites that given the flight information can keep track of the prices and email if the price changes as well as historical data on the price. The site I was using was "yapta.com". Then I found out that Google can search for airfare as well. Google is actually better because I don't have to specify exact flight information, just departure airport, where I am going and what day. Google will generate list of available flights around that time.  You can save the search and check it out any time (On yapta, I had to be very specific about which flight I want to monitor). Google rules!!!! At around 3 months before our trip, I booked the flight tickets. Chicago->Philadelphia->Venice and back is Rome->Philadelphia->Chicago. We arrive in Venice at around 9:00 am and back in Chicago at around 7:30 pm. I think it's perfect timing. Since the tickets are not refundable, the trip is on!!!

Just to keep track of things and make sure I don't forget anything, I've created a spreadsheet on Google docs (did I mention that Google rules?) and shared it with Lana and Natan.  Strongly recommend doing when planning trips. The issue at hand is that Natan does not speak English. He speaks Russian and German. Google spreadsheet has a translate function. So, I made a translation of all the important information. Now we can truly share the info!!! I don't want to keep saying "Google rules", but, Google rules! If anybody want to know more about Google docs (or other Google services) let me know. I used to work for Motorola, which is a Google company, at least for the next few months.

Stand by for more planning of our Italian trip!

Wedding in Seattle

This seems to be the year of the weddings, at least for Lana's side of the family. This time the wedding was in Seattle.

First, travel arrangements.... This time I tried to use Priceline.com. Unfortunately, I picked a wrong trip for it. There were 2 issues with this trip: one, is that since I started new job this year and we have another long trip planned (see future blogs :) I did not want to use my vacation days. Lana, on the other hand, never been in Seattle and wanted to spend few days there after the wedding. That meant that I was coming home couple days earlier. Also, Lana's parents were coming home early as well. So, as far as travel arrangements go, I needed 2 sets of air, hotels and car rentals (we had 6 people so figured van was not going to be enough).

I don't understand why would anybody with luggage fly on any airline other than Southwest. They had cheapest flights, and no luggage fees. Boeing 737 (the only airplane used by Southwest) is just as good as any other plane.  So, I booked 6 roundtrip tickets on SW: 2 for my parents in law, one for myself and 3 for Lana and kids. At the time, I did not notice that I have different confirmation number for Lana and kids. It got very frustrating at the time of check-in. At least I realized that I only checked in myself. I had to scramble to find out Lana's reservation and wrote a letter to Southwest before I realized why we had different numbers. :) They probably had a good laugh at my expense. I learned my lesson!

I found a relatively cheap parking at Midway. It's by the CTA, and it's only $11 per day. I found internet special for $9! It's walking distance from the airport terminal, so no need for the shuttle.

Priceline gave me the best deal on the first car rental: full size car was about $20 per day. But when I tried to book another one, the price went up to $30! I have a feeling that they track the computer that was used to make reservations and if it's used again, they jack up the price. Not nice, but even $30 per day was still a good price.  I am sure all of the online companies do that, so keep that in mind when making your travel arrangements.

The interesting thing happened when we were picking up the car: there was a line of people, only 2 clerks, but there were kiosks. We ended up using kiosks. It was like telecommuting: there was a live person on the screen. She could see us and we can see her. Scanner was used to get a copy of driver license and credit card. Everything worked and I think it was a little faster, at least we bypassed the line.

Lana was afraid that her phone's gps would not work, so we asked for gps for her car. One would expect a contemporary gps with touchscreen in the car, What Hertz put in, was a joke. No touchscreen and small screen. To input address, some 10 years old technology was used (selecting each letter on the keyboard, one at a time). We ended up using our phones for directions.

Not much to say about the hotel: University Inn. It was nice, clean, with free internet,  The only issue was to find it for the first time. Once it was found, there were no issues. Location was perfect: at the most 20-30 mins from everywhere: wedding, downtown, etc.

Wedding was fun. It was a little different from all the wedding that I ever have been at. It was very well organized. First, ceremony was short and sweet (conservative style). Then, when people got into reception area, there were little traditional dancing, with newlyweds first on people shoulders and then chairs. Then there was a "schtick", which is bunch of people doing little silly skits for about an hour for newlyweds pleasure. That was the first time I've seen it done at the wedding. Then there were speeches, prepared and improv, which  were excellent.  The venue was a conservative synagogue.  So, food had to be kosher and was Indian style.  There were plenty of food and drinks (alcohol and non-alcohol). After the food, there were dancing. And it was done: Sergey and Tamar are husband and wife! Congratulations to Sergey and Tamar!

I've taken some pictures: https://www.flickr.com/photos/123780721@N05/sets/72157646036233509/
Let me know if you can't access them.

Next trip is Italy! Stand by for more posts

Wedding in New York

I finally got time to post about our trip to New York state. We had to go to Lana's relatives wedding.

Here is the setup: the ceremony is in Rochester, NY and the reception is in Buffalo, NY. They are about 1 hour apart.

Since the wedding was on Saturday, we had to travel on Friday to Buffalo and on Sunday back to Chicago. So, we figured we would go visit Niagara Falls, since it's next to Buffalo. That meant we had to fly in the morning, which was no problem.

The interesting conversation happened with the parking lot attendant by Midway airport. I reserved parking few weeks in advanced and paid for it. The attendant had my information but thought that we only paid deposit. It was interesting that my "deposit" was about the same amount as I would have to pay for 3 days of parking. But he said he would drive us to airport and will find out what's going on by the time we get back. When we got back he did say that we were good. :)

Back to Niagara Falls. We got to Buffalo without any problems. Got our rental and were on our way pretty quickly.

We decided to go to the Canadian side. We got really lucky with the weather: sunny and warm!  Took a ride on a boat to the falls. It was fun. The water was warm (we had ponchos, but still got water on face and hands). After that, we went for lunch. Brian got excited because he could legally drink a beer! We all ended up getting beer, except Lana (she had to be different), who had red wine. Here are the pictures: "https://secure.flickr.com/photos/123780721@N05/sets/72157645289808134/"

After a few hours in Canada, back to USA.

Hotel was nice (Double Tree). Double Tree is part Hilton. Being a member in HH reward program, we all got warm chocolate chip and macadamia nuts cookies!!! Plus for hotel.  Free WiFi, another plus. Nice beds, one more plus!!!

Wedding: some of the pics: "https://secure.flickr.com/photos/123780721@N05/sets/72157645025296479/"

It started in Rochester in a Catholic church. The church was very pretty inside. The ceremony was different. Jewish ceremony usually includes some singing. The ceremony lasted about an hour. Then there was a big time gap so we ended up going back to our hotel. The party was about 10 mins away from the hotel, which was good. Food was nice, music was loud. New Jersey Rangers were playing and lost to LA Kings. And we all know what happened to that series. But I digress. The wedding ended at midnight.

The next day featured another drive from Buffalo To Rochester and back for family BBQ. It was fun, very good food featured Italian sausages and Italian pasta.

On the drive back, Shana and Lana did not feel good, but we made it home! Next trip is Seattle.