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Chas and Laura Meyers
We're a motley crew of 7, going to Italy for 24 days. We'll be traveling from Milan to Rome, and passing through Varenna, Verona, Dolomites, Venice, Florence, Cinque Terre, Pisa, Tuscany and Umbria on our way. We expect to eat, drink, walk and talk our way over a thousand miles. We will use this site to document our experiences, the good, the bad and the ugly. Like any spaghetti-western, we anticipate high drama, humor and a happy ending. We're Garry, Terry, Marge, Marie, Mike, Laura and Chas, or as we'll be known throughout Italy as... TavoloPerSette (table for seven). Seven times the drama and excitement, don't miss our missives. Come along as we try and out run our reputation from town to town. No ugly Americans here, only an ugly exchange rate; but we don't cry over a little spilled vino. Salud!TavoloPerSette
Travel Blog Posts
Visiting Ötzi in Bolzano
Published: September 30th 2007Europe » Italy » Trentino Alto Adige » Bolzano
September 30th 2007
Ötzi is the 4,000 year-old ice man discovered in the Dolomites by a husband and wife hiking in 2001. Since there are often hikers who disappear and are discovered in the spring, they weren’t aware of the significance of their discovery until much later. Apparently, there was much fighting over the find between Austrian and Italian authorities, until it was proven that Ötzi was found 30 meters inside the Italian border. Ötzi’s discovery reset thinking about when the Copper Age actually came to Europe as he was discovered with an axe that had a copper blade. Apparently he had an untimely end, as he appeared to have died from an arrow to the shoulder and numerous cuts and then was preserved in ice for the next 4,000 years. Aside from hosting Ötzi in the Museo Archeologico, ... read more
September 29th 2007
In retrospect, Verona is a beautiful city (from the bell tower), the streets were packed and we felt rushed as we only had the afternoon to spend before we were off again. We made the obligatory stop at Juliet's balcony. A couple hundred years ago, an entrprising Veronese dude slapped an empty Roman sarcophagus against the wall and labeled it "Juliet's balcony". Tourists having been flocking here ever since...in droves. We saw some interesting things, and in our typical style we tried to cram too much in. By the time we found the wine bar, Enoteca Cangrande (recommended by Amanda!), we had about 15 minutes to cram in a wine tasting. The owner, Giovanni, insisted on bringing us mutiple delicious appetizers and we experienced our first classic Italian rush job. That is, "Oh, you're in a ... read more
September 27th 2007
(Laura) Hi all, I’m going to take a stab at this travel blog thing, here goes…….The Dolomites are spectacular! I can’t begin to describe the amazing beauty at every turn. We drove up into the mountains through a huge storm but Lorenzo our awesome driver made it look easy. We arrived at the Seelhaus Chalet (www.hotelseelaus.it) just as the sun broke through and lit up the alpine meadows like a scene from Heidi. Just 50 miles from the Austrian border we forgot we were in Italy for a couple of days. The Seelhaus is named after a local folk tale meaning “soul is gone” (so the Devil won’t bother knocking). The Dolomites are similar in appearance and culture to the Alps and at 7800 ft I couldn’t get Julie Andrews singing, “the hills are alive…” out ... read more
September 25th 2007
We slept in, as this would be our last chance before Rome, and then caught two taxis to the central train station. The train station was built by Mussolini and represents Fascist architecture with its huge and imposing style. It definitely makes you feel insignificant. It’s a quick 1-hour train ride from Milan to Varenna and Lake Como, passing by the famous Monza race track.We arrived in Varenna and had our first experience lugging our gear over cobblestones to the hotel (whew!). Laura and I scored the only room with a balcony looking out over Lake Como and had la vista piu bella, although everyone but Garry had a view. We had lunch and gelato at a lakeside café in Varenna looking out across the deep blue water of the lake towards Menaggio. Lake Como reminds ... read more
September 22nd 2007
This emergency posting is being made in Florence after an early morning departure from Venice. One of our party missed the boat…literally. Bad Monkey is now Missing in Action, we don’t know if it was because he overslept or whether it was just his overall disregard for following directions, but he was last seen hanging from the chandelier in our hotel room. We called the Hotel, where the desk clerk was none too pleased to find him still swinging from the lovely antique Murano glass chandelier. Evidently this morning’s early call was just more than he could handle after a late night. He loves Venice and says he will meet us in Rome. We made sure to let the clerk know that no matter what he said, Bad Monkey was not to travel first class, as ... read more
September 21st 2007
Sorry for the delay in postings, between our tour and finding reliable internet it has been a challenge... On Saturday, we asked our Hotel Concierge about Metro directions to Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper for our Sunday visit and he informed us that it would be closed due to a labor strike. When we told him we had already purchased tickets 6 months prior (thanks to Margaret), he said, “What can I say, it’s Italy!” He told us that we should go be loud and angry and they might let us in on Saturday, but it wasn’t likely. It didn’t feel quite right, being encouraged to be ugly Americans. The security detail was the group going on strike and while we did our best to be loud and angry, Laura sensed their attitude and acting as ... read more
September 15th 2007
We arrived in Milan and headed for the Marriott Hotel. Part of my Marriott Travel Point Trollop (an unofficial PG version of my title) privileges is a welcome gift, usually I choose the extra points, but in Italy I couldn’t pass up the Stinky Cheese and Tuscan wine. Quite a nice spread. Off to the Duomo in the center of town, we attempted to navigate the Milan Metro. Where are we? How do we get there? We almost lost Terry, when getting on the Metro as the doors closed on her backpack. Luckily, we were able to pull her free and survive our second trial by public transportation (the first being buying a ticket and determining the correct line). Coming up out of the Duomo Metro stop, we gasped as it came into site. The Duomo, ... read more
September 15th 2007
Well we’re off…up at 5:00am on the West coast, although one of us didn’t sleep (nope, you guessed wrong at who) and later from the East coast. We were to rendezvous at Milan’s Milapensa airport and grab a reserved shuttle to our hotel in Milan. I slept all the way through to our connection in Atlanta (now you know who) and was refreshed for the next leg. Leaving myself a few hundred tasks to complete on the next leg I was ready to take it all on. While we were taxing down the runway, some rude and inconsiderate person started hitting the call button for a flight attendant. There’s always somebody I thought to myself, don’t they realize the flight attendant isn’t about to jump up and get them a pillow or freshen their drink in ... read more
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