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April 18 Wed - Flight, Travel, Apt, Milan
April 19 Thr - Lunch, Museum, Home
April 20 Fri - Duomo tour - roof, interior, archelogical area, Lunch, Sforza castle
April 21 Sat - Rental car, drive to Padua, apartment
April 22 Sun - Hike around Padua, Scrovegni Chapel, Piazzas, Doumo & baptistery.
April 23 Mon - Treviso
April 24 Tue- Palazzo della Ragione, tram, St. Anthony's, Scrovegni Chapel, Nice Dinner
April 25 Wed - Verona, Juliet's balcony, Lunch, Churches
April 26 Thr - Ravenna
April 27 Fri - Six UNESCO Sites
April 28 Sat - Drive to Orvieto, Villa Ciconia, Drive to check Orvieto, dinner
April 29 Sun - Drive to Orvieto, Rick Steves walk, Lunch, Cathedral, Museums
April 30 Mon - Drive to Civita/Bagnoregio, under the wisteria, dinner
May 1 Tue - Drive to Rome airport
May 2 Wed - Flight home

If you click on the links, then on the picture in the upper right you can step through several pictures that are usually better then ours.

We used Rick Steves extensively. Also notes from out classes with Bill Fredlund at the institute.

April - 18 Flew from Barcelona to Milan with Vueling airlines. A brand new plane.

After some fooling around we found the train to Milan (link). We were going to take the metro red line to our stop. When the metro pulled in it was packed! I said "we may have to wait for the next train" because of our luggage. Then about one third of the people got off and we got on and rode comfortably to our stop.
   Deb had some guy grab her suitcases and haul them up the stairs. No elevator or escalator. I had to schlep my nearly 50 pound bag up the stairs.

We stupidly couldn't seem to find the place. After much hiking around with our stuff I suggested that I stand with our bags and Deb go find the place. I said hi to some guys in a kabab place. Back Deb came with the AirBnB owner. Up the stairs they went. I had to schlep my bag up four rather long flights of stairs to the second floor. I knew this was going to kill me later.

The apartment was quite nice. As usual short a few things in the kitchen. But we did find a drop coffee maker and a toaster (which we didn't use). I couldn't figure out how to turn on the stove.

There was a strange Asian supermarket near us so we are all set. We bought some food, wine and stuff and looked around the neighborhood. It appears to be an Asian area with several Asian restaurants. 

I think we hung around, played cards and watched the Food Channel in Italian.

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April 19 - We bought all day metro tickets. We decided we would go to the "Pinacoteca Ambrosiana" (link) museum to see several items - The "cartoon" for the "School of Athens" by Rafael, a copy of the "Last Supper" and some DaVinci notebooks. Plus a few other things.

We took the metro to the "Duomo" stop. We gawked at the cathedral, the square and the rather fabulous "Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II" arcade. We then hiked a mile trying to find the museum. It was close to lunch time. We ran across an elegant restaurant directly in front of the museum. We sat down for and elegant and leisurely lunch.

In the museum we found the "cartoon" was being refurbished. Darn. We watched an informative video and could see it being worked on by some art conservators through a large window.
   We didn't seem to find the Last Supper. Hmm. Not sure why. We did spend time looking at a nice presentation of some of Da Vinci's notebooks. They were faded and rather obscure. (Extras)

Back to the apartment for a nap, food and rest. We hiked around the neighborhood and found some nice pastries to buy for breakfast.

Previously while waiting for Deb I had said "hi" to some guys in a kabob shop. So seeing we were hungry I decided to hike out and get a pizza and more at the kabob shop. It took forever for them to prepare the kabobs. Finally I started hiking back. I couldn't find the place! I wandered around trying my key in various gates to no avail. I was out there for about an hour looking and walking up and down. I know it sounds stupid. I finally went a bit further and found the place. Deb was in a panic and had knocked on the neighbors door. Of course they spoke no English but were kind. Quite a fiasco I must say.

I believe we ate, snacked, watched Food Channel and played gin rummy.

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April 20 - Breakfast. This is one of our big days in Milano. Off to the duomo - Milan Cathedral (link) where we got tickets for everything.

The duomo is the third largest church in Europe. It can hold 40,000 people. The facade is just amazing with hundreds of statues. Many peaks and towers. It took 600 years to build.

The trip to the top up, first an elevator ride, many ancient stairways and through many flying buttresses to the roof itself. The flying buttresses are mainly ornamental. The roof has many ornamented spires and lots of statues. The most flamboyant a gold Madonna.  (Extras)

Then down to the church interior.

It looks like a redwood forest with 52 large columns. We admired the inlaid marble floor. Looked at the statue of San Bartolomeo who has had his skin flayed off (yikes).

We went into the crypt of San Charles Boromeo who funded the building of the church. His body is in a rock crystal coffin.

We tried to spot the place where a nail from the cross of Jesus resides. Couldn't find it.

We went into the archaeological area under the church. Remains of previous churches are here including the place where St. Augustine was baptized by St. Ambrose in 387ad. Wow!

We looked at the Porphyry basin - baptismal. We noted the bronze line on the floor which is supposed to tell the zodiac signs - it doesn't work.
(Extras)

Then out for a proper tour of large Galleria on our way to see the La Scala opera house.

We didn't seem to understand which building was the opera house. We did see a nice statue of DaVinci. I guess it was sort of across the street. Something to do next time here.

On the metro a couple stops to the Sforza Castle (link).

Once again an elegant lunch. Love spaghetti carbonara. Then to the castle.

The Sforza's are a powerful family that ruled Milan for centuries. The building was originally a fort then the Sforzas added to it and made it a palace/residence.

I was feeling really bad. I could hardly walk. I was disoriented and dizzy - probably from my blocked up ears plus lugging that bag up four flights of stairs.

We did a pretty good tour of the place and finally found the unfinished Michelangelo Pieta. It looked like the one in Florence - likely the Florence one was a copy. (Extras)

I hobbled out and tried to hail a taxi. No luck. So we did the short hike to the metro and got home. We had a friendly stranger help us call the Padua apartment guy. We hiked around the neighborhood and decided to have a drink in the pastry shop across the street. A bunch of extra stuff came with it. Nice. We bought some pastries for breakfast.
   Back to our Asian market where Deb had made friends with the meat guy.

Back to the apartment for food, drink and cards. One strange problem I didn't mention... we never figured out how to turn on the stove so we had to eat cold stuff. Guess we ate prosciutto, cheese, bread, olives and nuts. Not bad.

At some point I went back to the kebob shop and asked of they could call me a taxi for tomorrow to take us to the airport. Nobody spoke English. We finally decided I would stop by tomorrow around 10, knock on their door and they would call a taxi.
 
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April 21 - Breakfast. We packed up and walked down to the kabob shop. I knocked on their door. The guy came out and called a taxi for us. Thank you very much! Grazie, grazie, grazie!

The taxi took us to the car rental place. A giant mess up here. Deb had rented it in her name so it cost about 15€ per day to add me on. The GPS would be another 10€ per day. Plus they didn't have the larger car Deb requested.
   So get this... Last year before going to Europe I had bought a Garmin GPS from Woot.  I had also paid an extra $99 for European maps. However because of computer application problems I never got the European maps loaded. So this year I found they had a Mac application. I loaded it up, connected my GPS and tried to download the maps. I had some problems so I called the company. The guy checked and could see my unit on line and the fact that I had never downloaded the maps. He down loaded them right there on line. So I had a GPS with European maps. Unfortunately I had never used it.

We declined the GPS and decided we'd us maps and signs, seeing we just needed to get on the A1 Autostrada. While picking up the car and checking things out I showed the guy my GPS. He grabbed it, looked at the paperwork for our destination and entered the address. Voila! We are in business! Deb navigated while I drove. Thank goodness it was Saturday morning so there was next to no traffic. Besides a few missed turns and dropping off a ledge we finally found the A1 and were off to Padua.

It's a several hour drive. At one of the Autogrille's we bought a card to pay for the toll roads. Bill said 25€'s but they only had 50€ cards.

The drive was easy on very nice roads. The only problem was Italian drivers tend to drift out of their lanes. Here I was going 130kph (80mph) and guy would pass me going at least 100mph with two wheels in my lane! Yikes!

When we got to Padua (link) the GPS actually told us where to go but we got lost anyway. After going around the same area about three times I stopped at a hopping little joint off the main road. It was a "vape" store. About 20 people were gabbing and vaping. They must of had 500 different products for sale and people trying them and talking. I asked a customer to help me with directions - no English. A guy stepped up and tried to help. He mainly told me to go into town and ask somebody else. So we did.
   I ended up stopping illegally while Deb went into an apothecary to ask for directions. OMG it was complex. Somehow between the directions and the GPS we found the street. Or should I say alley. It as a little one lane, one way street. The house numbering was chronological or something because they were not in order. I illegally parked while Deb got out and walked up the street. Finally she signaled me to go up and enter this very narrow doorway into the quite nice parking area.
   We got parked. The owner didn't speak any English. We followed him to the place about 100 yards away. Up we went in the elevator. He showed us around his pretty nice place. There is a device which gives us access to thousands of TV stations. A nice patio.

He told us where a supermarket it. We hiked over to this magnificent area of piazzas. There was a Saturday market winding up. We hiked all around and bought some nice prosciutto. We asked the guy where the supermarket was and he hiked us out and pointed it out.
   We stocked up and went back to the apartment. We settled in for some rest and relaxation. We used family chat to talk to Peggy and Amber. Wow that was nice. Also called my brother Chuck in Mexico.
   After some fooling around I figured out how the stove worked so we are in business. I cooked up some pasta.

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April 22 - Breakfast. Decided to hike up to the Scrovegni Chapel and take a look around. Turns out it was quite a hike of about a mile or more. We found the museum. Deb checked on our tickets. We somehow got a bit lost and hiked down to Basilica Del Carmine where mass was in progress. We saw the statue of Petrarch in Piazza Francesco Petrarca. All of this is near the university.

We hiked back and entered the park where the Scrovegni Chapel (link) is located. We found it. It looked like a crowd of like 100 people were standing outside the door. Hmm. The entire chapel is covered with scaffolding. Very disappointing.

As we hiked back along a different route we found a marathon in progress.

We found our group of Piazzas. We had a small lunch in the shade. We looked around and discovered this was where the marathon ends. We bought a few items to eat later from one of the few open stores on Sunday.

I think we went home, rested up and then went out again. I wanted to see the Duomo of Padua. Mainly the baptistry with frescoes. It was magnificent. The brother taking money let us in for the price of one seeing it was close to closing time. We took our time and looked it over in some detail. Very nice and worthwhile. (Extras)
   We went into the Duomo where a mass was in progress. The priest had a beautiful singing voice. Beautiful.

Back to our place for some R&R (rest and recuperation)

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April 23 - Breakfast.

Today we are driving to Treviso (link). One of the goals of this trip is to explore the Venato - the area around Venice. We were inspired by classes by Bill Fredlund at the Institute (link). We are looking forward to seeing quaint towns, beautiful scenery, views of the Dolomites, wineries and nice lunches.

Off we go. Whoops just as I was getting on  the A1 Autostrada Deb asked me to look at something and I missed the east bound exit. Darn. We had to drive about 10 miles to get turned around.

Off to Treviso. We followed the signs but got lost in the city. I think the problem was exacerbated by the fact that the GPS seems to run out of power fairly quickly and had died. We drove around and around before deciding to give up. We did stop at a discount supermarket and bought a few things. Nobody spoke English.
   On the way back, following the signs to A1 we spotted a market where we might ask for directions. We parked then spotted a nice looking place for lunch. We each ordered a pizza, which was way too much food. The owner was a nice guy. We noticed it was a German place. I tried to get some help from him, he gave us a couple delicious ice creams for free.

Getting back was easy. We had taken great care to notice where our street is located.

We hiked down to the Piazzas again. We have adopted Padua as our city. We had a drink and watched the scene.

Back at our place we, once again, enjoyed the patio area. The bedroom and bathroom are pretty good. I cooked up some risotto which was quite good.

I fooled around with the TV. No English that I can find.

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April 24 - A nice breakfast on the patio. I need to heat water in a rather large pan for coffee. I are using Nescafe seeing there is no coffee maker other then a small espresso thingy. The strawberries are strangely red all the way through and delicious.

We hiked down to the Piazzas and had fun looking around. We entered Palazzo della Ragione (link) which is a huge place. Below are shops. Up is a fantastic room with paintings of signs of the zodiac and related paintings. There is a large wooden horse. Also a "Stone of Shame" where debtors sat and apologized for their faults - rather then going to jail. An idea from St. Anthony. The outside porch area is also beautiful.

We went to what we thought was a TI (Tourist Information). They sent us to the proper TI. We were trying to figure out how to take the tram down to St. Anthony's basilica. Somehow I got a couple full day tickets and directions. We found the tram and rode down to St. Anthony's (link).

St. Anthony's was not busy. We noted the equestrian statue by in front by Donnatello, the first large bronze statue cast since Roman times - the knowledge had been lost.
   We wandered around and looked at Anthonys tomb. We saw the relics. We were not pushed at all. No pictures allowed. We walked around gawking at all the beautiful things. I sat down and tried to get a picture of the statues and crucifix by Donnatello. Quite an experience. (Extras)

We stopped at a place across the square for a beer and a wine. Very nice. Back to the tram and back to the Piazza's. Bought some pastries for breakfast. We shopped a bit. We went back to the place and snacked.

Today we are going to the Scrovegni Chapel (link). We hiked up to the museum and got our tickets. We are early so we entered the museum and looked at several paintings and items plus a crucifix by Giotto.

We linked up with a young couple from Germany who spoke perfect American English. We sat with them while waiting to enter. When you do enter they have your group sit and watch a very informative video. I guess we are acclimating before entering the chapel.

We entered the Scrovegni chapel. We had spent quite a bit of time studying what we would see. We were astounded! It was all that was expected and more! Amazing! I can't say enough. Don't just look at our pictures but look at the pictures from Wikipedia.
   We thought we had signed up for an extra long visit but they shooed us out. No problem the time we had was adequate.
   This is the highlight of the trip and the main goal of going to Padua.
(Extras)

We wanted to do a fancy dinner out. There was an upscale restaurant just a few feet from our place - Ristorante Antico Brolo. We went in and were seated. The head waiter left and sent a girl over to deal with us. She spoke English. It was her first day on the job.
   We decided on a nice wine (~20€). We were presented a sort of bean salad. We had bruschetta - the tomatoes were warm.  I think we split a spaghetti carbonara. It was the best spaghetti carbonara I've ever had. I ate every bite. The spaghetti was probably freshly made. We also had a nice gelato desert.
   The place has a connection with formula one racing so they had some items displayed.
   A nice, though expensive, experience.

Back home. Patio, wine, cards and bed.

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April 25 - Good Breakfast. Off to Verona (link). The GPS is very helpful. I had entered the destination as a parking garage. We've learned the GPS runs down if left on for more then an hour or so. We now turn it off on long highway stretches. It absolutely fractures the pronunciation using an American voice. Another interesting thing is it give distances in miles instead of kilometers.

West on the A1 Autostrada. No problem getting to our destination. I did park in a different lot then I had planned on - Arena Parcheggiare (parking).

I had planned on following Rick Steves walk. Deb was adamantly opposed. We noted the Roman amphitheater but didn't tour it. We hiked down to the old Roman wall - Porta Borsari. We continued up Corso Porta Borsari to Piazza Erbe. I looked for Ricks Enoteca Oreste but didn't see it.

We gawked at Piazza Erbe and the statue which was Roman but later turned into a Madonna. Also the weights and measures place.

We continued down and found the Juliet balcony. It was crowed with tour groups. We entered the courtyard. A nice version of Juliet's Balcony - not real, of course. Also a Juliet statue where you rub her boob for luck - we didn't. We bought a t-shirt.

It was close to lunch so we looked around and found a nice place on Palazzo Ragione. The statue of Dante is here. Also a view of the palaces here. A very nice leisurely lunch. Deb had gnocchi I had a pizza. The people next to us had a dog hiding under the table.

We hiked over to Sant'Anastasia on the way we noted the Scaligeri Family tombs - above ground. Pretty nice old church. We got our tickets for several churches. Audio things are included - nice.

We noted the Ponte Pietra bridge. It was destroyed in WWII. It was rebuilt with as much of the original bridge as they could recover - the white part.

We hiked along the river to the Duomo. I was pretty shot at this point. I needed regular sit down breaks. Quite an impressive church.

Deb has in her mind that we need to visit this obscure church - Basilica de San Zeno Maggiore (link). There is some painting here Bill Fredlund talked about. We started hiking down Corso Cavour. I sucked it up and began marching toward our destination. After about a mile we were fading fast. Deb looked around and flagged down a taxi!
   We entered the church. It was old and tired looking. Some interesting frescoes on the walls. The item to be seen is an alter triptych. I think the 3D effect is what we are looking at. There was an interesting looking crypt which I was too pooped to visit - Deb did.
   We were planning on walking to the parking, which is quite a ways away when Deb spotted a taxi stand. There was a van parked there that didn't look like a taxi. Deb asked and away we went. He dropped us off right a the door to the Arena parking garage. He was thrilled with a small tip. We paid our ticket and exited for an uneventful drive home.

Apparently we snacked out for dinner and enjoyed the patio. The weather is perfect. Cards, drinks, snacks and bed.

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April 26 - Breakfast. Pack up and off to Ravenna (link). An uneventful drive. However we never could of found our way around this city without the GPS. It was very complex finding the place. I swear we never took a wrong turn.
   The GPS said we had arrived. I pulled over and stopped on a rather narrow street. I was facing a parking garage and a sign indicating we were entering a restricted area. We did not enter the restricted area. We sent Deb out to find the place. She did find it but no answer. Finally she went back to the parking garage and asked the guy to call the AirBnB owner. Finally we got together. Turns out this parking garage is where she has an understanding so we get reduced parking - 18€ per day. Hmm. Actually Deb says we were charged 15€.

There is an elevator. We entered the place and got the tour. Very nice. The floor is marble chips embedded in a grout. Pretty but cold to walk on. The tour was very thorough.
(Extras)

We hiked out and found a Post Office right near us. Using my Rick Steves phrase book I bought 8 postcard stamps for 18€ - yikes. Service was very slow - government workers I guess.

Rick Steves doesn't have a mention of Ravenna so we are on our own. We found a place for a sandwich and a drink. We hiked around some more and found we are very close to Dante's Tomb. We checked it out and looked around. Nice area and an attached church. Also a TI and some shopping.

We struggled trying to get into our place. There is a bit of a trick with the key. Whew! We were almost locked out.

Looks like tortellini for dinner. Some wine, prosecco, cards and bed. Whoops I found the bed too hard. About 3am I moved to the couch.

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April 27 - Breakfast. Still drinking Nescafe.

There are eight UNESCO sites here we plan on seeing six of them today. Too bad the US no longer supports UNESCO - thanks to Trump. They are all famous for their ancient - 400AD mosaics.

First the Basilica of San Vitale (link). This has the one with Emperor Justinian plus some really great mosaics including a famous Jesus. Amazing. I'm sure I'll say this about each place. (Extras)

One nice thing is they let us jump in front of tour groups. We bought a ticket to see all the places.

Then the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia (link). It's rather small but exquisite. Rather darker. I tried to get the mosaics of the stars.

We hiked down past the Piazza J.F Kennedy to the Arian Baptestry (link). Small but beautiful with a mosaic of Jesus being baptized.

On to the Chapel of St. Andrea (link).  It said "no pictures". I sneaked a couple. Here is the beardless Jesus. On the way in Deb got a hug from a priest we'd asked directions. Deb admired the gift shop.

Back to our place seeing it's on the way to the next site. On our way Deb noticed an artist's studio. We visited Basilica di Sant'Apollinare Nuovo (link). We enjoyed this rather simple church with some nice mosaics. The Wiki link has good pictures. Several groups were visiting. Really nice Jesus and other pictures. (Extras)

On our way back we stopped into the artist studio. We were given the kings tour. Very friendly and interesting.

Back to our area to see Battistero Degli Ariani (link). This was strangely small. A 1€ entry fee. This has the famous mosaic of Jesus being baptized. Definitely worthwhile.

Back to our area where we had lunch at L'Alighieri right near Dante's Tomb.

We then took a tour of the Dante museum. Rather kid oriented but fun and interesting. Mostly in Italian. School group at Dante's tomb.

Got some money.

Back to our place where we had snacks and probably napped. I cooked up some risotto for dinner - not as good as before. No measuring cups or spoons. More of these wonderful strawberries - red all the way through and very tasty. Cards and bed. I moved to the couch about 5am.

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April 28 - Breakfast then off to get our car. No problem. We loaded up, entered out next destination into the GPS and we are off.

It's a several hour drive to Orvieto (link). Mostly we are not on the Autostrada. However it's mostly four lanes. The roads are in fairly bad shape. Often the right lane is closed because of truck damage. We often had to switch over to the other lanes to avoid construction/repair.

Many beautiful sights. Quite a few tunnels.

Finally our place recommended by Bill Fredlund - Villa Ciconia. It looks like an old wealthy persons house. Our room is way in the back on the second floor. The stairs are formidable. I wasn't about to schlep the heavy bag all the way to our room. Besides the big stairway there are several smaller stairs with 3 to 5 stairs each. We pass through a couple sitting rooms before entering our room. Not an apartment. The strong desk guy took two bags at once up to our room. There is a refrigerator which doesn't work.
   There are two dining rooms which we used. Also a beautiful outdoor sitting area under the wisteria.

The office lady recommended a place for lunch. We saw it but it looked like kids hanging out there. We found a little pizza place where we had a drink and a bit of pizza. The staff warmed up to us.

We did the rather long drive to Orvieto (link). It's high up on a hill. We drove past the main parking to get close to the cathedral. After some fooling around I got a parking ticket - unfortunately, due to stupidity, I got a one hour parking ticket.
   We walked up and gawked at the cathedral (link). Nice lighting for pictures. We went inside for a quick glance.

We stopped for a beer and prosecco within view of the cathedral.

Back to the car and back to Villa Ciconia where we had a rather large and expensive dinner. The radicchio salad was huge. Everything was huge. We had a good bottle of wine a huge appetizer plate, lamb, spaghetti carbonara and tiramisu. Way too much food.

Back to our room. Not much room for cards. To bed.

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April 29 - A breakfast in the smaller dining room. Mostly choose it yourself.

Back to Orvieto. It's early so the parking lot we use is mostly empty. I got a three hour parking ticket. 1€ per hour. I only have three euros. We wandered down through the city mainly taking Rick Steves walk. These old medieval cities are fun to walk.

Deb looked in some shops.

We took a small detour to enter the old Etruscan caves. Apparently the whole city is honeycombed with caves. This cave was discovered when a restaurant owner was enlarging his place and ran across this. The material is volcanic tufo which is easy to carve in. There is a Well of the Quarry here - you toss a coin in to see how deep it is - very deep.
   We hiked on down and stopped at Palazzo Filippeschi to see his courtyard.  He is a wealthy citizen who allows the public to see his courtyard.
   We then hiked down past San Giovenale to a view point. Quite a view. We took a peek into the church. Mass had just let out. Quite an interesting little church.
   Back to gawk at the cathedral some more. The line to get in at 1pm was daunting.

We hiked back down the shopping street and took a little detour. Deb found an art store serving food. The sorta gay owner and his dad served us some nice lunch at a sweet little table. Pretty nice. Not cheap.

More hiking around and back to enter the cathedral. We had studied up so were prepared for what we would see. There is a pieta' that inspired Michelangelo. A side chapel "of San Brizio" contained some amazing paintings mainly by Signorelli. The alabaster windows are interesting.
   We couldn't enter the Chapel of the Corporal which contains the miraculous cloth that got bloody from a communion host. Services are held there so it's reserved.
   The altar and organ are quite nice.
(Extras)

We went to a couple museums which were included in our "combo" pass to the cathedral. Ho hum - nice enough stuff including the original Madanna from the front of the cathedral. Back to gawk at the cathedral some more in different light.
   I finally got a gelato - chocolate mint - yum.

Back to our little city and hotel. We used one of the sitting rooms. We had bought some chips and bugles. The bugles contained a "toy". It wasn't a toy, it was a splitter for sharing headphones. It will be useful.

Dinner in the larger dining room. We tried to take it easy this time. We shared the salad and had a pizza. We finished with some lemoncello - yum.

Cards and bed. I must say my bed was very uncomfortable. I could feel the steel springs, plus there wasn't enough bedding on the bottom so I was cold.

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April 30 - Breakfast and off to Civita (link). This is a small town stunningly set on a hill. Nobody lives there, it's a tourist destination. We actually will park in Bagnoregio and hike over.

A nice drive over. We expect it to be rather empty seeing it's a Monday. NOPE! It was packed with people and cars! Driving with a stick shift on steep crowded streets was a major trick - I had to use the emergency brake to keep from rolling backwards into people. Yikes!
   The parking lots seemed full! We found an overflow lot and parked there. It was next to a city bus lot. I asked a bus driver where Civita is and he pointed up the hill and to the left.
   Off we went. Quite a hike. I'm still not doing well so I have to sit down occasionally. It's a mob scene. We followed the street and people and ended up at what looked like a viewing area. We took a couple pictures and scoped it out. It looks like couple mile hike to the bridge that connects Civita with Bagnoregio. We aren't up for this, especially with these crowds.
   So we gave it up and started back. Deb ran across an art shop. We went in and had a good time talking with the artist - he only spoke Italian. Deb bought a couple things.

Back to hiking down to our car. We finally got to the lot and found it impacted! It is a one lane road in and cars are crammed into the parking lot and down the road, including some RV's. OMG. Finally everyone backed up and we were able to get out.

After driving lost all over hell and back we finally got back to our place. On the way we ran across a cemetery which made for an interesting stop. Finally got close to some red poppies.

We drove around and around and found a pretty nice supermarket near us. Funny how you learn things and then they seem obvious.

We wanted to sit under the wisteria but all the tables and chairs are covered in debris from the wisteria. The hotel lady hustled right out, cleaned up a table and chairs and provided some table stuff and pads for the chairs. Very nice. We had a good time sitting there for about an hour. We had some wine, snacks and strawberries.
   We hiked around and looked the grounds over. There is a swimming pool. Our room is on the second floor corner.

Another nice dinner with pizza and gnocchi. A bunch of 11 year old kids sat next to us. They were surprisingly well behaved with no adult supervision.

Cards, wine and bed.

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May 1 - OMG we now realize why Bagnoregio/Civita was so packed. Today is a major European holiday. This year everybody gets Tuesday/May day off so they also take Monday and make it a four day weekend. Bagnoregio/Civita is not that far from Rome so that's what happened.

Bye bye.

Today we drove to the Rome Airport - Leonardo Da Vinci (at Fiumicino). Pretty uneventful. Deb checked in while I sat in the car. The doorman told me where to return the car. With the usual tension and confusion I got the car returned.

We had a nice lunch in the Hilton Hotel. Deb tried to get our boarding passes for tomorrow. Not sure what we did for dinner.

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May 2 - Next day at like 4am we hiked over to the terminal. Checked in and went through security. I swear they have it figured out. Guess we had some breakfast.

Flight to Istanbul, a two hour layover, which wasn't too bad, then a 12 hour flight home. Deb paid for extra leg room - unfortunately it was treated as an aisle. The Turkish lady next to me moved because she didn't like the smell of the bathrooms.

We called Uber and got a long drive home during rush hour.

We made it! I'm still suffering from the ear infection and a cold. Ug.

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