Italy - 7 Days of Madness Via a Small Cherry-Red Fiat

The Week Leading up to Easter Sunday in the land of Catholics, the Mafia, Great Food and Perfect Weather, (yes we missed the earthquake as we were in Venice at the time). (I've also spared you the 3 gigs of photos we have from this trip and just picked those that would represent a few destinations. JT is a brilliant photographer and I've done him very little justice by choosing the following.)

Day One -- Milan

Armed with a map of Italy and JT's blackberry mobile for GPS (no SatNav...nails no longer have whites), I experienced my first toilet trip with a hole (avoided them all last summer in France), walked around Milan, took in the 21* weather...gorgeous, the narrow, posh streets with Prada, Tiffany's and D&G, a meal on the street with a view of Milan's Duomo and all of its gothic magnificence and splendor, inside the cold catholic ceilings wreaking of church incense while sage was distributed by the bundles, and a jaunt around toward the local castle as the weather began to blow raspberries at us suggesting rain. Leave by 430pm to drive to Venice.

Day Two -- Venice

Island of beautiful canals, sunshine, gondola rides, lego-stacked bridges, stalls of masquerade faces and beaky-nosed, crystalled & feathered creatures awaiting a face to perch upon, narrow streets, charming buildings, romantic scenary pumping me with Disneyland-like-stomach-churning happiness, floating seagull amongst passing boats, delicious gelato, sun, sun and more glorious sunshine, JT's replacement necklace chain for his egypt charm, my favorite city of the trip...I could've never left Venice ever and spent the rest of my days content amongst the beauty and charm of this strange floating city. (I had waterproof baby sunscreen on my face...which is why I look green in the pictures btw.)

Scored a hook-up of 50 euros a night for a room in a villa overlooking the Tuscan valley, gorgeous.

Day Three -- Florence and Pisa

Crowded, narrow streets (theme here?) while motorbikes pass you on all sides zipping along, Michaelangelo's David, Da Vinci's Museum with wooden recreations, more gelato (I'm likin this place), some huge duomos amidst buildings, too many whiny American chicks, and the best pear I've eaten in ages.

On to the Leaning Tower sitting in a square of roped-off lush grass and reclining tourists bathing in sunshine, too many pushy African watch-sellers, and a half-assed attempt at a seafood risotto and carbonara finished off with Nutella crepes (I thought Italian food was meant to be tasty...should've searched for some place less touristy for dinner).

Days Four and Five -- Rome and Vatican City


Massive, huge, grandeous, big, big, and BIG! A bit overcast but 20* and shorts weather. (As a huge Audrey Hepburn fan, I was really looking forward to this city.) Saw the Coloseum (and had a tour with the same tour guide JT had 2 years ago), Pantheon, Bocca di Veruti, Trevi Fountain (of course we made 2 wishes to return and the 2nd...I'll tell when it comes true), huge wide-open streets big enough for parades, pockets of parks along the way, pistachio gelato with a view of the Coloseo, multiple languages, the only equal-access city I saw in Italy, dirty and dark metros, rickety buses plowing through traffic, JT remembered all the cats from 2 years ago (we only saw a few), and a supermarket dinner for less than 15 euros killed last night's restaurant dinner by comparison.

Gaudy, ornate Vatican museum, Hand of God, Egyptian mummies and Roman representations of Egyptians, musty air, Benedicto on a flat screen in St. Peter's Piazza giving mass (is it just us, or does he seem creepy in comparison to John Paul II?), a quick trot down to the nearby castle before taking off.

Day Six--Naples

Napoli-ans are insane! We got into Naples via a bit of meandering through coastal towns and indirect routes to find the sun setting, having no accommodation and no dinner to a land with no rules of the road, no free space, no lanes, and motorbikes and small car madness...no one paying attention to traffic lights, blocked intersections, passing on the right, left, passing diagonally in front of us, double parking, one way roads, and back alley madness, honk, honk, HONK....JT drove like a champ, and I just kept my head down and eyes on the GPS saying, "I think it is the next right if that's not a one-way street." In the end we sorted ourselves out and if you ever need accommodation in Napoli...I have a great recommendation for the place we stayed with the lovely little Italian man who spoke no English and yet never hung up on me while I tried speaking some Italian to get us a room.

Urine and smeared-dog poop scented streets, filled with people, motorbikes, and dirt (the train station side of the tracks). Shade on side of the street with sun on the other, laundry drying on racks on the sidewalks, women having a chat by shouting to one another across the street and three flights up, intersections with no rhyme or reason, manic motorbikes absorbing themselves into spaces on all sides of traffic, no pedestrian right-of-way, warm and very kind locals (finally a place in Italy where most people didn't speak English too), a pimp in a carnation pink suit where we parked our car, the BEST meal to date - A-mazing, and the seaside city with the most energy of any city I have been to ever (more than New York even, which I didn't think was possible before this), with a tiny little ritzy area of restaurants set into a cliff overlooking the sea. Manic, mad, and stressfully exhausting.

Day Seven--Palermo via the Ferry (and sleeper-cabin) from Naples

Beautiful sunrise over Sicily to greet us as our boat docked into port, half-assed cappuccinos and over-buttery croissants from a super nice Italian man playing Jamiroquai at 7am in his little bakery who gave us directions in Italian to our hotel (I'm getting the idea that maybe 7 years of Spanish should be helping me out a bit with this), an ocean-side hotel with metal garage doors that have to be pulled up to get our view, 2 hours spent finding the last of the souvenirs after spending 20 minutes idling in the cherry-red fiat behind a procession for the mob boss's son that was being buried in the cemetary that day, a little restaurant with fresh seafood (awesome) for lunch while we blackberried "mafia info in Sicily", crappy gelato with strange money/cigarette exchanges going on in the parking lot (did we wikipedia too many mafia stories at lunch?), a long nap between Law and Order episodes dubbed in Italian, before dinner at the hotel with "The Family" (swear to gawd not just imagining things this time), a random visit from a dog with one brown eye and one blue, a quick checkout on Easter Sunday morning followed by an indirect route to Palermo airport, cappuccinos with the last of our euro cents (we were scraping), and made it past security with our kilo of Italian coffee hidden safely in my backpack carry on...nothing to declare thank you except an exceptional trip!

Moon Tarot -- Part 3

I never would've thought I could sit in a make-up chair for 3 hours getting my hair banded for the wig, make-up from the chest and arms up, wig, and costume. With all of that, I was rarely given a decent amount of time to warm up properly, which at my age takes a bit more time than it used to. I found this project to be more frustrating in the end, and if ever given the opportunity to work with the same company, would respectfully decline without thinking twice. I think it's what happens when you work with people who are used to actors and not dancers. There will be a youtube clip posted at some point, but that will remain to be seen. Until then, here are a few pics of the final product.

Costume and Makeup fittings post 2

My latest Moon adventures involve a costume with calf pads, thigh pads, and a huge prosthetic bum that I am supposed to dance in. The upper half I am corseted and airbrushed with make up. My wig is still being assembled but with have a huge half-moon cage covering the top like a headband, and my "hair" will be made of fabriced-wire studded with pearls. I had a few fittings this week in addition to rehearsals beginning. It is all proving to be very time consuming, but makes for some great pictures.

Southern Ireland

Ireland was beautiful. On a route of Dublin to Blarney Castle (we both kissed the blarney stone), Killarney, Cliffs of Mohler, and Doolin with many little stops along the way to view places where paganism was beaten away by Christianity.

(All of these lovely little places we keep finding ourselves in seem to have been completely transformed due to belief structure...usually religion. The unfortunate part is that it appears the religions refuse to exist without destroying that of the past. So while many things are beautifully done in the name of religion (and most of it by force and not choice), the places lose their history prior to the birth of that religion in that place. It is actually really sad in a lot of ways how people did and continue to force their religion on others as the only way. At least that's my take on it.)

The adventure of this trip was not so much in Ireland itself, as it was a tour and we just had to be in the right spot at the right time. The adventure was learning never again to take the coach from London Victoria overnight into Dublin. The overnight pass involves getting off the bus to pass through security (where nothing happens except that you're trying to sleep), and then off the bus onto the 3.5 hour ferry ride to sleep in a cramped restaurant that seems to have the air conditioning on at all times. By the time we arrived in Dublin we were not rested as I thought we would have been.

The way home should've been smoother with the ferry ride up at the beginning, but when we fought Monday morning rush hour and pulled into London Victoria, the counter-terrorism unit was running a drill. Luckily Australian and American married couple don't fit the "we need to search through your luggage" group as all of the single passengers on our bus were searched. It was an extra hour and a half added to the end of our trip. Needless to say...we're glad to be back home in London.

Berlin--The Great Opportunity to Practice Patience

Berlin was incredible. I would have to say my favourite part was a 5 hour walking tour we took of Berlin. Our guide, Edo, had moved to Berlin originally for 2 years to study. It has been 6 years now and he has no intention of going home. He portrayed the history of Berlin, passionately telling stories of pre-20th Century, through WW2 and through the Soviet control of East Germany, and the US/France/British control of West Germany up until the fall of the wall. It is so amazing to think so much has happened in just one spot on the globe, and in such a short time.

The memorable stuff from this trip was more a matter of learning to travel with one another when positive attitudes go south due to hunger and exhaustion. JT worked until the morning we left, having had to go to Wales the day before our flight. So while amazing, things didn't go as smoothly as they have until now. I have taken it upon myself to learn the following 5 things before we travel:

5. Be realistic about your diet in opposition to your traveling partner - bring snacks for both just in case. (For me an energy bar...some kind of fruit and nut concoction, and for him....a snicker's bar as he won't eat anything disguised as healthy unless it is wrapped in chocolate.)

4. Know the following words in the language of where you are traveling to: please, thank you, may I have..., and cafe latte (the last being most important).

3. Stop and eat when hungry. Do not wait just until you "get to over there" as over there will inevitably turn out to be 3 miles from anything.

2. Be prepared to freeze your tushy off. It snowed most of our trip, which makes for beautiful pictures, but as we both originate from warm places...does not make for patience building weather.

1. Know if your hotel is where you want it to be. Just because it says it is in Berlin doesn't mean it isn't 3 trains and 1 20minute bus ride from town. (with a bus that comes only once an hour, which was oh-so-fun at night when it was freezing) We walked the 3-4 miles several times.

A Few More Belgium Pics

Brussels and Bruges--The Belgium Experience

The last weekend in January we took the Eurostar from King's Cross/St. Pancras one freezing Friday morning at 5:45am into Brussels Midi Station in city centre Brussels. I was amazed by the constant city contradictions we encountered that first day traipsing around to see all the gothic sites. Best known for its chocolate (the home of Godiva), its beer, and home of the creator Peyo of "The Smurfs," (which is, of course, the most important reason for wanting to go to Belgium), we got by on my intrepretation of speaking French...which is basically a lot of "Je Voudrais .....me pointing at what I want...and sil vous plait." (I have become very well-versed in my French-pointing skills.) Although JT's Dutch was a bit helpful as well, as Belgium's main languages are almost equally split between French and Dutch.

The things that struck us most were:

• the motion-sensored escalators that wouldn't begin until you went to step on them to go downwards (the upwards ones always seemed to be working, but maybe that was my imagination)
  
• the amazing gothic buildings directly next to the modern ones (as if when the older ones started to fall, they just built a new different one back up in its place) (see castle-esque wall remains sandwiched by other buildings pic)


• the ability to escape people and noise by going down a side street one block away from traffic cars and people crowds shuffling along
  
• the appearance of artistic little parks, sometimes only marked by some punctuation-shape-inspired benches and a focal tree or statue, or sometimes a geometric web of rope which we couldn't avoid a bit of climb (see pic :-))


• the frozen or empty fountains all over the city. With the weather this cold, most fountains had been emptied.


• the sting of the easterly breeze in 0*c weather to make a crazy windchill factor paired with the spots of sunlight streaming diagonally against buildings to create spots for the sun to warm you back to the core after the wind had battled through you escaping with your internal heat
  
• NO starbuck's anywhere in sight, we stopped for coffees everyday at least 2-3 times in addition to meals just to get inside and get warm and were always able to find a cool, little spot for coffee, a window seat, and a phenomenal view

On the Saturday we took the train 1 hour to Bruges, which is know for its touristy existence of gothic buildings, canals, and windmills. This was beautiful and romantic (and very cold), but we were blessed by blue skies for the second day in a row. The highlight of the day was battling the icy canals in a scenic canal tour for 30 minutes...a must do activity if you ever go there! We even happened upon the church (we knew it was in Bruges, but didn't actively seek it out) which houses Michaelangelo's "Madonna and Child." Oddly enough there was also a picture of Obama with what I presume was his speech translated posted on an accordian wall as you walk about the gothic exquisite high ceiling-ed room.

Our final day was spent seeing the last bits of Brussels we had missed as Brussels is home to the European Union and NATO. So we fought the wind to view these buildings that look like security was probably the last thing on their mind, that were sandwiched with construction sites that I would imagine will look vastly different in 5 years. Our last official site was that of the infamous Peeing Cherub Boy Fountain, (it wasn't terribly impressive, in fact I grew up close to a neighbor who had the same statue in his front yard, and my siblings and I found it way more interesting back then).

Needless to say, we had an amazing trip. My personal favourite being our day in Bruges and JT's being the evening Italian meal where we sat window-side in Bruges in the town square: a view of The Belfry as the sun set, and the town centre of Markt's street lights coming up.