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Finally ashore in Italia
 
We jumped ship in Genoa.
 
Actually we arrived on schedule at 8 a.m. on Thursday.  It took a couple of hours for all the formalities. Customs/Immigration officers came aboard and looked at all the passports, then we had to stand in line to collect them.  They unloaded the luggage in groups, giving priority to those with tours or travel connections to make.  We weren't at the bottom of the list but we still didn't get off the ship until ten.
 
We walked to the train station, just ten minutes away, and caught a train to Vernazza (in Cinque Terre) right away.  A couple of hours later we arrived at our hotel.
 
We couldn't remember at which town we had enjoyed the minestrone soup with pesto, so we decided to visit them all.  We skipped Corniglia as that is where we had stayed and we knew it wasn't there.  We took the train to Manarola, then hiked to the next town, Riomaggiori.  Neither had our restaurant.  Since we were at the southernmost edge of Cinque Terre, we got on the train again and rode to the La Spezia station.  We decided to check the schedule for the short trip we planned to Carrara.  I should mention that you buy a three-day pass that gives you unlimited access to the trails, train and shuttle buses.
 
Back in the train again, we rode to the opposite end of Cinque Terre, to Monterosso.  There it was, the Ristorante Belvedere, tucked under the railroad overpass.  We had a nice dinner of Proscuitto with melon, minestrone with pesto, and thin sliced veal with lemon sauce.  With a half-liter of the local wine we were happy campers.
 

Carrara

Friday we got up early and caught the train to Carrara.  There was no tourist office at the train station so I bought a city map for €6.  We saw the Marble Museum about half way to town, but we couldn't tell how far (no scale on the map).  Decided to take a taxi, and he took us instead.  No meter, and €10 for the two-mile ride.
 
Well, the museum was having a special cultural promotion and entry was free on Friday and the weekend.  That saved us part of the price of the taxi.  Win a few, lose a few.
 
The museum was wonderful.  We were the first to arrive (they opened fifteen minutes early just for us) so we got a private viewing of a presentation on the history, development and operation of the marble quarries.  These have been in continuous operation since Roman times.  We didn't get to visit an actual quarry but we could see them from the street.  Whole mountain sides of white -- looked like a ski area in winter.
 
We decided to take a bus back to the station (for 90¢).  After waiting patiently for a half-hour or so, a passing pedestrian told us (in Italian) that the buses were on strike! Decided to walk back to the station.  Enroute we passed a couple of marble yards and at one we stopped to watch and photograph a sculptor at work on a big bas-relief.  He waved us in so we wandered around and looked at all the carvings in process. Pretty neat!
 
We were back at the station by noon, so we decided to go on to Pisa since it was only 15 or 20 minutes by train.  We had to wait for the train so we bought sandwiches at the station bar.
 
Pisa is packed with tourists.  We knew right away that a day trip is the way to see the city.  The "Field of Miracles", site of the Duomo and the leaning tower, is a half-hour walk from the train station.  The route is via a pedestrian (and bicycle) only street, with lots of stores and restaurants along the way to tempt the Euros out of your pocket.  Once you get there, the tower is pretty impressive.  Good photo opportunity, then a walk back to the station by a different route.
 
Back to Vernazza for dinner.  We experimented with pesto pizza and found it to be quite good.  All in all a busy day.
 
On to Lucca!
 
We seemed to be the only Americans in Lucca.  We heard a few other people speaking English but they were all Canadian, British or Australian.  This city doesn't seem to be on the big tour itineraries.
 
Bad for them, good for us.  This is a wonderful place to spend a couple of days.  I wanted to come here because it is Puccini's home town.  We learned there is much more here.
 
The "old town" is surrounded by a protective wall, built in the 16th century (the Renaissance period).  It was built over an earlier medieval wall, which had replaced the original Roman wall.  They city spent a third of its income for 100 years to build it.  The wall has now been turned into park area, with a 2 1/2 mile walking and bicycle path on top and picnic areas and restaurants on the ten bastions.  We found that we could walk the entire circle around the city in about an hour.  This evening we shared our walk with several hundred Italians and several dozen dogs.
We came here to see Puccini's house but it is closed for renovation.  We at least got a picture of his statue!
 
We visited a 12th century church, the San Giovanni Church, which was the first cathedral in Lucca.  During restoration work in 1996 when digging up the floor they found several levels of history, early churches and Roman houses dating back 2000 years.  A reminder that the entire city sits on similar ruins.  They must have decided the archeology site was more important as they never finished restoring the church floor.
 
This city once had 250 towers, one on every street corner.  Only a dozen or so remain, but none quite like the Torre Guinigi, which has trees on top.  Of course we had to climb it -- 227 steps.
 
One other distinctive reminder of Lucca's Roman history is the Roman amphitheater.  Like many Roman structures throughout Italy (and the rest of Europe), the amphitheater was cannibalized for building materials.  In the last century buildings were constructed on the amphitheater foundations, resulting in an oval plaza.   The buildings now contain mostly shops and restaurants and the street level is nine feet above the original arena floor.
 
Milano
 
We planned on a quick trip to Milan just to see Leonardo's "Last Supper".  We saw that and more.
 
The Last Supper is strictly protected.  Only 25 people are allowed in the room at a time and are allowed to stay only 15 minutes.  Reservations are required and it is sold out months in advance.  We found however that if we took a three hour city tour the visit to Leonardo's painting is included.
 
We had bought our tour tickets on the internet before leaving home.  All we needed to do was to get on the subway near our hotel and ride two stops to the Duomo where the tour began.
 
The Duomo itself is pretty interesting.  It is the fourth largest church in the world and took nearly 500 years to build.  Itis constructed completely of marble.  When it was designed, the duke who funded the project (at the beginning) wanted a church large enough to hold the entire city.  The population of Milan at that time was 40,000 and that's how many it will hold.  A really, really big church.  A prized relic of the church is a nail "from the cross of Jesus".  This was a gift to the city from Helen, the mother of the Emperor Constantine (4th century).  We didn't get to see it.  They put it on display only three days each year, in September.  All we saw was the little window to the vault way up high on the wall where it is kept.
 
The other interesting stop on our tour was the La Scala opera house .  No pictures were allowed but I sneaked one.  I was surprised at how small the boxes are.  Each one looked like it would only hold about four chairs.
 
We spent just one night in Milan, then went the short distance to Bergamo.  Our flight to Frankfurt was from the Bergamo airport.
 
We didn't spend much time in Bergamo. Wednesday morning we took an early train to Vicenza, two hours to the east.  When we visited Vicenza in 2003 I admired a fresco, a reproduction of a fresco from Pompeii.  I had regretted not getting it then, so when we decided to return to Italy I phoned and ordered a copy.  We returned to the US Army base in Vicenza to pick it up.
 
About the fresco….
 
Two brothers shared a house in Pompeii; Terentius Proculus was a baker and his brother Terentius Neo was a magistrate.  They were apparently upwardly mobile middle class, though having humble origins.  Terentius Neo and his young wife had their portraits painted on the wall of their house, in the style of the times.  He is dressed in a toga and displays a papyrus scroll with a red seal.  His wife is wearing a tunic and mantle and has a hairstyle that was popular in the middle of the first century.  Pressed to her chin is a stylus, very similar to what we use in the 21st century to write on a pocket computer.  In the first century she would use a stylus to make notes on the wax-coated double wooden tablet which she is holding in her left hand.  Latter-day analysts have postulated that they were trying to rise above their station.  The wife looks a little embarrassed by it all.
 
The original of the fresco is now in the National Archeology Museum in Naples.  The copy we obtained is an unusual technique of plaster coated canvas, with all the faults of 1900 years faithfully reproduced.  The attraction to me is that this is a picture of actual inhabitants of Pompeii, not figures from mythology as are most of the frescoes in the Roman houses.  I also like the irony of this upwardly mobile young couple gaining a sort of immortality by having their portraits displayed half a world away and nearly two millennia after they lived.
 
We caught our return train to Bergamo, then took a taxi to the airport for our Ryanair flight to Frankfurt-Hahn.  This small airport is an hour and a half by shuttle from the Frankfurt airport (and Rhein-Main Air Force Base).  Since we had a late flight we stayed Wednesday night at a small hotel in Sohren, near Frankfurt-Hahn.  It was a nice little hotel in a small village.  We arrived late at night, with just time to sample some German beer before going to bed.
 
Thursday we caught the shuttle to Frankfurt airport and enjoyed the drive through the countryside.  They evidently grow mustard in this area and we saw field after field of yellow flowers.
 
We arrived at the terminal a bit after eleven and phoned both Rhein-Main and Ramstein to check on available flights.  We learned there was a flight from Rhein-Main to McChord AFB (near Seattle-Tacoma) with a show time of 12:20.  We caught the Army shuttle across the field to the Air Force side and made the flight.  We were soon high over the Atlantic in a C-17 cargo plane.  We were fortunate to be riding back on an empty aircraft -- no cargo.
 
This aircraft has about 50 jump seats along the sides of the cargo hold.  The seats aren't very comfortable but there is plenty of legroom!  There were only ten passengers so we had plenty of room to get up and walk around.  The active duty people all seem to have mattresses and sleeping bags.  They are all stretched out on the deck asleep.  We retirees are toughing it out with our little airline blankets and pillows.
 
This was an eleven hour flight so we would land at around 7 p.m. that night.  We had a room reserved on base and there was a flight early the next morning to March AFB (Riverside).  We would try to catch that flight, and then take a Greyhound bus the rest of the way home.
 
Plan B:
 
Everything worked as planned up to the point of getting from McChord to March AFB.  We stayed in a room in temporary lodging at McChord, got up early and walked to the passenger terminal.  When it came time to assign passengers to the March AFB flight we found they had no seats available.  Also, nothing else going out that day except to the east coast.
 
We decided the best plan would be to stay another night and then take the shuttle to Seattle Saturday morning and fly commercial to San Diego.  By staying one more night here we could travel for less than half the cost on Saturday as it would be on Friday.  We were back in San Diego late Saturday.
 
Flexibility is the key to an enjoyable travel experience!