2022 Trips – Spain/Italy

Almost felt like we were back on the cruise ship again with the early morning excursions! We had a 9am appointment for a tour of the Uffizi Gallery to get to! In fact we had 2 bookings today – the Uffizi Gallery at 9am and the Academia (where David is) at 4pm. Between that time there are several things to accomplish and see! Starting out at the Uffizi Gallery, we met our tour guide from Keys of Italy who knew what he was doing from an accessibility standpoint and getting me into the Gallery – which was pretty cool! He had an awesome knowledge of history and lead us through this huge museum, which was constructed in the 1500’s and was the largest building in Europe at that time. The collections of paintings are from the 14th-century and Renaissance period including some absolute masterpieces: Giotto, Simone Martini, Piero della Francesca, Beato Angelico, Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, Mantegna, Correggio, Leonardo, Raffaello, Michelangelo and Caravaggio. The gallery also has an invaluable collection of ancient statues and busts from the Medici family, which adorns the corridors and consists of ancient Roman copies of lost Greek sculptures. The building has recently gone through extensive renovations, where it was closed for 6 months. It re-opened with over 100 rooms of art on display. Once we completed the tour, we walked over to the “Bridge of Jewelry” or also known as the Ponte Vecchio. It is lined with jewelry stores on either side! This is the type of place you just walk straight and do not look as the shop owners are onto you with their eagle eyes wanting to sell you something! At the end of the bridge, we stopped in for some gelato and low and behold – it all contained gluten! So while Andrew got some to eat, I had to settle for a whipped fruit ice drink…. Next we proceeded to return the rental car (that took us over 2 hours due to a turn we kept missing) and then took the tram back into Firenze which was fun before walking to the Academia section of Firenze, walking past many interesting structures including an old church, sculptures, the main church, baptistry and duomo. Walking down one of the streets towards our destination we came across a gluten free restaurant! Check mark – dinner after our tour! We shortly arrived at the Academia building and to meet our tour guide! There really is only one reason to visit the Academia – to see the bemouth statue of David that Michelangelo carved when he was about 21 years old. Yes there are wonderful other displays too however people seem to focus on this one thing. I really enjoyed the paintings too and especially the music room! Once done, we went for dinner and then took a taxi back to our hotel to prepare for our train ride the next day to Venice!

NOTE: Some paintings have no or very little description as I was thoroughly enjoying the commentary of our tour guide and how he described them that I did not think to record what the painting name was or who painted it!

With regards to Michelangelo heads – the Academia museum is currently studying them to figure out which 3 busts are the ones created on his death. They currently have about 8 on loan from various museums who claim to have one of the last original busts made of him. They have made casts of them which are what you see in my pictures. The originals we were not allowed to take pictures of. They are not able to carbon date them as they are made of clay or terra cotta, except one which is in bronze. They are studying them compared to other known features of Michelangelo and will be in June I believe, announcing which 2 or 3 are the actual ones commissioned to be made on his death.

Today we are going to check out Siena and then make our way to Firenze (Florence)! We had arranged a 4pm checkout (comes with my level in Marriott Hotels) and the front desk clerk had wonderfully suggested that she could get a pass for us to enter the Siena city limits, which like most Italian cities has a ZTL or Zona a Traffico Limitato which means residents only. So we were able to park next to a church just inside the city walls. Once we started walking we found all sorts of other parking spots where we also could have parked that were open – which was not the case in Rome! The challenge with finding these spots is you have to know where you are going (unless you are lucky like we were in Montepulciano parking just outside of the city gate) as these city streets are TINY and lots of tourists are wandering around. We first waled to the church in Siena and again, a stripped church! Then we walked down a VERY STEEP hill (which I was dreading coming back up!) towards the city square, which really is almost round! There we walked around, I bought a couple of souvenirs and I had ANOTHER gluten free ice cream cone! Such a luxury! Then we decided to head back to the car which thank goodness was only a slight uphill climb over distance instead of the two steep hills that I had come down. Remember I have only one functioning break from my fall early on in our trip! As we drove out of Siena Old Town we followed one of the “ambulances” which had brought the people who used wheelchairs to the town square. Wow – such an antiquated society here when it comes to people who use wheelchairs. No wonder I am having issues and people are staring at me. After checking out of the hotel, we took the highway to Firenze and avoiding their ZTL zone, found the AC Hotel Firenze where we were staying for 2 nights. We went out for dinner the “Italian way” late at night and had a good time however the restaurant, which I chose from reviews online, had just changed hands so while they knew “senza glutine” and how to prepare the food, they had no gluten free products. I still did well with a salad and chicken for dinner! Walking come we ran into a car which we knew what the GIANT “P” meant – the driver who took us into Rome explained it – it is the equivalent to an “N” driver in BC – however the sign is MUCH bigger!

Welcome to our day of touring around Siena! First off, an observation regarding this hotel. Most Marriott Hotels of this type have a “pantry” where you can get food – from snacks, to pop, to ice cream to a selection of toiletries. What they offer in North America is quite standard. This is the first Marriott where I have seen the major selection on display for purchase is wine!

So today, we are off to San Girmiano and then to Pisa, if we have time. I originally thought the car needed to be returned earlier than when it actually did so squeezing in Pisa the next day was going to be a challenge. Then I figured out we did not need to rush after all – the car was not due back until the day we left Firenze (Florence). So we then relaxed and off we went headed to the UNISCO site of San Girmiano! San Girmiano is a small walled village with excellent views of the surrounding areas of Tuscany. It is between Siena and Firenze on a local road. Like Montepulciano, it is an inhabited city. There are many towers in this city – too many to take pictures of! Its specialities are saffron and a type of white wine. They also have very beautiful leather bags… as I now own one!

Now, we got back into our little (racing) car and we were off to see how much the Leaning Tower really leans in Pisa! Luckily my directions on my phone were excellent this time (Side bar – I had purchased a cheap unlocked phone before leaving and put a European plan data/calling plan on it once I got to Spain. It has been a lifesaver when it has come to directions and keeping us out of trouble on all the backroads of Italy!) and we arrived right next to the old town wall in Pisa and drove right into an accessible parking spot on the street! The other nice feature of accessible parking spots (which are hard to find not occupied) is you do not have to pay to park in them – well you will get a ticket if you do not have the right permit so I guess that is a type of payment! So we quickly walked past all the vendors and through through the wall and there they were – the Baptistry, Church and Leaning Tower of Pisa all lined up in a row! Quite a sight! However I see what people mean when they say that the Leaning Tower of Pisa is quite small compared to the other buildings. We were able to into the church – you do have to pay for admission which is strange for a church however due to my walker they let us in free and then we walked over to the Leaning Tower and took some pictures. We also stopped for ice cream and watched all the various people contorting in different positions “holding up” the tower! It was really fun to see what imaginations some people have with their cameras and their friends! It was just a quick visit to Pisa – we checked out the drove of vendors set up as we exited the gates and I was able to pick up some pashmina’s made in Italy which was excellent! Then we were back on our way to Siena for the evening…

Today we are travelling from Arezzo to Siena and taking the LONG way there! If we took the local highway it would take just over an hour. The route that I have planned will take just under 4 hours, without stops. First we left Arezzo and drove south to Lake Trasimeno, which is the 4th largest lake in Italy. It was a beautiful drive through lots of tiny towns and also behind farm equipment at times! When we arrived, we parked on the lakefront and went for a stroll to stretch our legs and get a drink. It is a gorgeous location with a church up high looking over the lake on the west side. Unfortunately the church had a zillon steps up to it so we were not able to go inside. Then we continued on our way to Montepulciano which is a walled city that is highly written up as a place to see, again on the top of a hill. Our Lonely Planet guide to Italy says the walk into the city is a “calf and quad stretcher” and it was right – that is some uphill climb! Luckily we found an accessible parking spot right next to the gate so we were 1/4 of the way up the hill. What I did NOT know was we could have asked for permission to drive into the city as there were many more accessible parking spots within the walled city too – no regular parking, just accessible parking. We had a slow, uphill climb and what a beautiful view of the surrounding area! About 3/4 of the way up I had to call it quits as I needed my energy for the next day when we were visiting Firenze (Florence) and I needed to stay up tonight. So down, down, down we walked! The HIGHLIGHT of the walk down is there was a natural gelato store and it had gluten free gelato! So after cooling down and some light shopping, we were off to Siena. Again, a beautiful drive into Siena and we eventually found our hotel for the next 2 days – which was the Four Points Siena – a stones throw from the Siena Hospital which also has a Celiac Disease centre! I did not know that until we got there… ALSO, it was ACCESSIBLE – no stairs for me to deal with – even a ramped area to get to the hotel! We were upgraded to a suite which was nice as Andrew could go into the sitting room while I was busy putting on my presentation for the Canadian Celiac Association that night. We had dinner at the hotel and it was also fantastic and the GF buns that they served were big and fluffy! I was in heaven yet again….

So, it is time for Andrew to get his feet wet and DRIVE in Italy! He has been watching taxi drivers how they go in and out of traffic for a couple of days now – it is his turn! So we made our way to the Termini train station to pick up the car that we had rented. After a difficult walk to the car park (you rent in the station and then walk about 6 blocks to the parking garage) which of course was not accessible, we found our silver Volkswagen “Polo” and filled it with luggage and my walker and we were off! A few interesting utterances from the driver which I will not repeat here as we made our way through Rome to the A1 highway, took our toll ticked and we were on a straight line to Arezzo’s exit. What a beautiful countryside Italy has! I last saw it about 20 years ago when driving from Northern Italy with friends to Zurich. Our last trip to Italy in 2019, it was hard to “see” the countryside when going from Milan to Venice and 200+kph. While on the A1 the speed is at least 110 kmp, it does not feel like it as so many other cars go faster than that! After about an hour we made it to the Arezzo exit, figured out how to pay the tolls (including encouraging Andrew to READ the instructions instead of yelling at the machine) and then to our hotel. This is the only time we are staying at a non-Marriott hotel on our trip as the Marriott hotel we previously had booked became a non-Marriott at the end of last year. We went for a walk and found a local pizza joint – only Italian spoken – had dinner (pizza for Andrew and gluten free pasta for me) and then walked back for an early evening. The next day is our drive to Siena, which we planned when out for dinner, which will be a long day of sight seeing and even longer for me as I am doing the GF101 presentation with Nicole at the end of it – 9pm Italy time! It will be a fun day seeing all the places that I have only read about for the last year!

Time to go shopping! I am on the search for 2 things – leather gloves at a store my friend Leah recommended and merino wool from Italy. The leather glove store is near the Spanish Steps so we will give seeing them again and another try! The knitting store that I found is in the Jewish District of Rome, which I understand is pretty interesting so that is our next stop on our shopping day! Allons-y! So off we walked to the Spanish Steps and voila! We could see them from the top this time! Very cool view from the balcony – there is a 2nd tier balcony about 20 steps down and then the actual steps down to the bottom, however we are going to take a different way down – I hope! Sidebar – on May 10th, an “out of town tourist” drove a Maserati down the Spanish Steps. No idea how he managed to take the “wrong turn” that he said he did. That was some strange driving! They were repaired by the time we saw them on the 12th. So instead of going down to the street the way we did the other way (lets call that the long way) we took the shorter route this time – a VERY steep road that goes up right next to the Spanish Steps! Boy was I glad we were going down it! At the bottom I started looking for the gloves shop as it was right on the main boulevard. Low and behold – it is now a jewelry store! That does not happen very often I am told – families own stores for decades. We had walked past a glove store about 10 stores back so we returned there and asked the gentleman about where the store Leah recommended might be and it closed 2 years ago and the man retired. So saying I was in a glove store and it smelled fantastic, I decided to buy my gloves there! Just as Leah had mentioned – they look at your hands, squeeze your fingers and go get you your gloves! Normally, women are helped upstairs on the 2nd floor by the “madam” however that was not happening for me in this small store so they brought the gloves to me! They put baby powder on my hands (they were a bit sweaty from my walker) and on they went like a glove (no pun intended)! WOW – they feel like butter on my hands! SOLD! While in the store, Andrew found the taxi stand and we were off this time to the Jewish neighbourhood. We arrived right when the wool store had closed for their “siesta” time so we walked around, had a beverage, checked out a textile store (their prices in Euros are the same as I would pay in Canada – such as $10 CDN for cotton is 10 Euros for cotton) and then the Wool shop opened. The lady spoke no English. With my very basic Italian, I was able to pick up 10 burgundy and 8 lilac 50g sport weight yarn and 3 mohair burgundy 100g fingerling weight yarn, all made in Italy and all beautiful for 100 Euros! We then walked, as we were nearby to the Ponte Fabricio, which is a pedestrian bridge that crosses the Tiber river onto a small island where there is a church. We were planning on going to the Trastevere neighbourhood for dinner which is where the next bridge off the island takes one too. However we found that the restaurants would not be opening to 7:30pm which was another hour and a half, and as it was our last night in Rome, and it was a nice night, I wanted to get a sunset picture of the Coliseum. So instead looking on my phone (I got a cheap European phone and SIM before we left so I could use it for driving directions and situations like this) there was a bus stop nearby that a single bus ride would take us to the Coliseum. How hard could that be – the busses do have wheelchair signs on them! Alas, I am still hurting from the bus ride several days later! We took the 118 bus and I went to the back door where the wheelchair sign is and the ramp did not come down. I know that the bus driver saw me as I had signaled him to stop as I had seen others do. The step up to the bus was about 3 feet high. I did not know what to do so Andrew put my walker on the bus and grabbed me and yanked me onto the bus as a lady in Italian yelled at the bus driver to stop (he had started moving the bus) as there was a disabled person getting on. Yikes! No wonder the concierge told me not to try the busses! I sat in the accessible location and buzzed the wheelchair buzzer when we needed to get off (you would think that would be a signal for the ramp??? But no, I had to fly on my magic carpet off the bus and Andrew basically had to catch me. Enough said. No more busses! At the coliseum, we hung around for a while and took some pictures – Andrew got a great one using my old phone and then we went across the street to a “natural” restaurant where on top of GF pasta they had GF pizza too and to top it off – GLUTEN FREE Tiramisu! I was in heaven! Comments on pictures to come very soon!

Another tour I had been looking forward to after our “Coliseum at Night” tour was cancelled on Sunday night. I am perplexed how so many centuries ago that the Romans and other countrymen could build such structures so high in the air! Let’s get started! Our day started early – we had to be at the Parthenon again at 10am. The people of Rome are not an early bunch – you can definitely separate the tourists to the city dwellers at that time of the morning! Even our taxi driver I do not think was awake! We got to the Pantheon, had a bit of an issue with our tickets (they did not get the note that I had written on my booking that I use a walker) as the guide did not know what to do, however I was prepared and had read up about taking the elevator in the Coliseum so I thought we would be okay. She gave us a tour of the Pantheon, which was great and filled in some holes of information that we had from the previous day. Then we walked to the edge of the International Forum – which is connected to the Roman Forum. Elevator to go down here – check! Everyone went down the 40+ steps to the underground and the guide sent security to assist me with the elevator. It would go up and down no problem – with somone in it? NOPE! So I had to walk down the stairs, with Andrew’s assistance. It was very painful after our previous 2 days of escapades! The tour leader assured me that everything else would be accessible and it was – I was very thankful with that! Tough going at times on the road stones, however within the Roman Forum and Coliseum there were either raised platforms or concrete floors. So she led us through all the interesting relics in the Forum area – which is still under restoration – even now! We eventually made it out the front gate and down the road to the Coliseum where we all skipped the line (LONG LINE) and went right in to view its amazing structure. You have to have quite an imagination to understand what it all would have been like if the tallest structure still was in place – what a steep climb for the commoners to sit! Most of the seats were for “important” people – mainly men. After a tour, our guide left us and we spent some time looking at the building ourselves and then departed. Had some fun trying to get away from the Coliseum from an accessibility standpoint – the Coliseum is sunken down and we had to find a road to get us up to the main street that goes by – again, mostly stairs are around the Coliseum with no elevators next to them that we could find. Finally found a way and found a taxi to make it back to the hotel. Went for dinner again at the restaurant we went to on Sunday night that the hotel referred us to and had another great GF meal! That potato/octopus salad is really good! How do they make the octupus so easy to eat? They boil it with wine bottle corks! The things you learn when you ask questions… Captions to come…

I had planned this day to take it EASY, starting with breakfast in the room (as I could not reach the buffet, the Front Desk Manager and I came to an agreement this was the compromise), with our Vatican Tour on Monday and our Coliseum and surrounding sights walking tour on Wednesday… Well, that is NOT how it turned out to be! We logged over 12 km walking around the city! Starting off at the Spanish Steps, which was within walking distance from our hotel, we knew that another “Fast and Furious” movie was being filmed in Rome, thanks to our driver from the cruise terminal to the hotel. He wants to be a driver for the movie stars! However we did not expect it to being filmed at the top of the Spanish Steps today! So we got there and were promptly told to view from the bottom instead – so more walking downhill, which was good in a way…until you need to go back up! Next on Lynda’s walking tour was the Trevi Fountain, then the Pantheon, and the Piazza Navrona where we stopped and had a gelato and Andrew a beer. Rome was turning out to be hot – 27 degrees C! Next on the tour was to walk the Ponte Vittorio to view the Castel Sant’Angelo. We were one bridge down the Tiber River and not on the Ponte that leads directly to the Castel, however I was losing steam at this point and once we got our viewing completed from Vittorio, we found a taxi (which took about 30 minutes of searching) and returned to the hotel. We had leftovers from breakfast – fruit, cheese, crackers (GF of course!) and some GF cookies I had purchased for dinner as we were exhausted and had an early morning on the 11th for our Roman Highlights tour! Again, comments to come…

After a good breakfast with GF items and being warned not to take the bus as they are not accessible (which I did not understand as every bus I saw had a wheelchair sign on it), we taxied over to the meeting point for our Vatican Tour that I had booked through Viator. I really wanted to see the Vatican after seeing the Sistine Chapel visit in Vancouver a couple of months ago, however I was quite frustrated with my inability to tour the Vatican as a person who used a mobility device and pay for a “regular” tour. So we had to pay for a private tour for Andrew and myself so that we could be escorted to the proper area to take the stair lift down to the Sistine Chapel. We did miss part of the Vatican Museum as that I understand is not accessible and the benefit being the way we entered the Sistine Chapel was the way the Pope enters it and other people exit – so the ceiling was the right side up for us! Unfortunately there are not pictures to be taken inside the Chapel so I have to leave that to your imagination and what you can see on the internet. Entering the Vatican the tour guide paved the way for us, I had to register as a person with disabilities and show my accreditation that I am rated greater than 80% disabled (which I have which was interesting to obtain in Canada as we do not really “label” how disabled a person is), and we were in for free! Very nice – this apparently is common in Italy – if you have a significant disability you are given access gratis. Not knowing how other tours worked, here is what we did. We looked at St. Peters Basilica from the terrace, along with the Vatican Gardens. Then we went to the Pinecone piazza area where there are pictures of the Sistine Chapel for you to study and talk about. They do this so that the guides can speak and answer questions as no talking is allowed in the Chapel. As we had just seen and listened to this, we got through this part pretty fast, including a comment from the tour guide saying “don’t you want to take pictures”? I guess she fully did not understand about the traveling Sistine Chapel visit! Then we went into the museum, the long, very long hallway! I do know that normally people see this AFTER seeing the Sistine Chapel as at times we felt like salmon swimming upstream as most of the visitors were streaming towards us and not with us. What a gorgeous exhibit – you will see all the pictures below. I just loved the art work! Then down the stairlift and a long a one way tunnel (which they controlled who was going in each direction) to enter the Sistine Chapel from the Pope’s view or exit for the regular people touring. After this it was back up the stair climber, back down the LONG hall and we decided it was time for refreshments and we parted ways with the guide. I had noticed though some other parts of the Vatican that had elevators so after our drinks and walk around the garden, we went back and saw the Egyptian exhibit. It was just as well done as the other parts of the museum – in fact there were some pieces sponsored by a Canadian group there! Our guide, before leaving us had told us that St. Peters closes at 7pm, which is 30 minutes after the Vatican. So we decided to push it and walk there (there is no direct route between the Vatican and St. Peters anymore) and guess what? No line! Up the elevator for me and into the BEAUTIFUL church! Now I know why they wanted it as the highest point in Rome – words cannot explain enough how gorgeous it is. I hope my pictures do it justice! At this point I was exhausted, had walked over 15km in the day and needed to get back to the hotel – so we took a taxi back! We had dinner in the restaurant and called it an “early” night for Roman standards! Captions to come…

After 21 days we are now off the Nieuw Amsterdam and on our own in Rome! Having to find our own food, things to do – what an adventure! To make the transition easy, I had booked a driver to take us to the hotel from the cruise port. We never got his name however he picked us up in a Mercedes van (which is good as with the walker it adds to our luggage) and escorted us to our hotel – the Westin Excalibur in Rome. Now, before we go further, I need to explain how we are staying in some 4 and 5 star hotels along the way as they cost upwards of 1000 Euros a night in the rooms that we are given. Due to previous travels and my unfortunate trips to the USA last year, there was a benefit and I reached very high tier in the Marriott program after staying way over 75 nights in their hotels so, I have lots of Marriott points which I could use on this trip. That also gives me priority room upgrades – generally bigger rooms as you will see starting in Rome. So now back to the Westin, which is a 5 star hotel and WOW was it nice! Except for one thing – there was a difference between what they say on the Marriott website for accessibility and what we actually found. I do not call a hotel “accessible” if I have to act as a baggage cart and take a side entrance that the luggage takes as “accessible”. I do not call a hotel accessible if I have to stand at the top of some stairs and ask the concierge to put a temporary ramp down so I can get to the front desk. Or go outside (through said baggage hallway) to get to the restaurant or have a ramp put down to get to the restaurant or business centre through the hotel. The what broke the straw for me was when I could not reach the breakfast buffet that came with my status in Marriott. So after a discussion with the Front Desk Manager, we enjoyed breakfast in our room for the next 4 days! Now I have gotten that out of my system – again, what a beautiful hotel – it was a shame I could not experience more! Here are the pictures I took. On Sunday, we went for a walk while waiting for our room to be ready and for an “early” dinner, in Italian terms, went to a local trattoria for a nice dinner. Sat on the street and enjoyed some wonderful “senza glutine” food! You all will recognize my salad, Andrew had a GF potato and octopus salad and then I had seafood risotto! Came back to the hotel and there were flowers and turn down service with nice candies that funny enough said “senza glutine” right on them! Living the high life – right! Comments to come…