Italy, Part 1: Naples

Walking in my Grandfather’s Footsteps

I have one thing to say to my grandfather, Domenico Troisi: Thank you so much for leaving Naples!

A few hours spent around Via Cesare Rossaroll in Naples, Italy, where Domenic lived as a child before immigrating to the United States in 1907, has made me eternally grateful that he came to the United States. This impoverished, filthy, decaying pesthole of a neighborhood, teeming with loud people and louder cars, narrow streets and narrower alleys, ancient buildings with paint peeling off, blowing litter and dog shit everywhere, is beyond depressing.

And this godforsaken alley is where my grandfather lived with his father and two brothers, first in a dingy flat with a shared toilet outside in the hall, and later in a small room separated by a curtain from his father’s “magazino,” or tailoring shop and store combined.

The Memory Book

Domenic described this neighborhood in his 50^th Anniversary Memory Book, published in 1970. But his optimistic style does not capture the over-stimulating, exhausting reality of his Neapolitan living situation. Fortunately, my cousin Janice Carapellucci and sister Julie Holm both spent considerable hours and effort researching and digging to locate the home where he lived and the chapels and other landmarks he referenced in his memoir, so that a small group of Troisi cousins could make a pilgrimage to Italy and back to the place from whence we came.

Naples

I'll be blunt: Naples is no tourist town. It’s working-class, gritty, loud and obnoxious. It reminds me of some parts of NYC and helps me understand how the Big Apple, with so many Italian immigrants, came to develop some of its pushy, in-your-face character. Walking from the train station this morning, first I was hit by multiple flailing elbows while walking the few blocks to get there, then I was almost deafened by a whole line of cars leaning on their horns to express their outrage at some poor sap holding up the line in front of them. This could have happened just as easily on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

Life off Via Cesar Rosaroll

But back to Domenic. First, his family lived, as his brother D. Paul described in the memoir, in a small apartment: “Our apartment was called a flat, with community toilet out in the hall; the central heating consisted of our cooking stove in which we burned charcoal when we could afford it. We scavenged kindling at the curb market where we picked up discarded boxes and crates.”

Domenic's alley

After his mother died in 1906, this Spartan lifestyle deteriorated, according to Domenic: “My father gave up the apartment and put what furniture he could salvage (in) back of the store, dividing the room with a curtain across the entire width. He felt that by so doing he could take better care of his three boys. Many of the meals consisted of pans of spaghetti, or paste e faggioli, which were supplied by a restaurant in Porta Capuana in exchange for tailoring and clothes my father made for the family of the restaurant owner. I cooked most of the meals on a small kerosene stove in back of the store.” 

He was only 12.

Transported Back in Time

Walking in the neighborhood where Domenic spent his childhood, I felt transported back in time 110 years. It seems like nothing has changed, except that there are cars and motorbikes clogging the streets now instead of horses and carriages and pushcarts.

Domenic's door

People still live in the same squalid conditions, with the addition of indoor plumbing. Clotheslines with sheets, socks and pants still flutter in the wind from balconies above the alleyways. Homemade Roman Catholic shrines to the Virgin Mary and assorted saints can be found in every alcove, with some large ones dominating street corners, festooned with plastic flowers and Holy Water, better maintained than any of the nearby homes. People still live their lives in public with their doors wide open. You can look in as you walk by and see an extended family sharing one small, dark living space, a small kitchen behind, people hanging outside the door, smoking.

The whole place probably smells better, thanks to modern plumbing and the absence of horse manure in the streets (although there was plenty of dog poop). Otherwise, it's largely unchanged.

Where We Came From and What It Means

Seeing where you came from can make you even more grateful about where you are now. In the decision by Domenic’s father, Beniamino, to board the Steamship Bulgaria, we dodged a bullet. No wonder a squalid tenement on the Upper East Side, where Domenic, his father and two brothers lived with his uncle’s family after they arrived in New York in 1907, "was almost a luxury for us.”

Domenic, Donato and Dante (L-R)

No wonder Domenic was so driven to get ahead, to get educated, to learn English, to improve his living situations, to build that glorious house on Vernon Avenue in Williamsport, PA, where my mother and her nine brothers and sisters grew up.

Walking in Domenic’s footsteps was physically draining and emotionally exhausting. I’m glad I did it. And I am really, really glad he left. 

Grazie, Nonno.

London, Part 3: Running & Other Activities

Running in Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park

The most wonderful surprise for Bob and me was the quality of the running in London. Truly magnificent! Kensington Gardens was a block and a half away from the flat we rented, and it is glorious. We were running along, talking about how it reminded us of Central Park, when we realized we were in the back yard of the Royal residences, separated by just a polo field. We speculated about which "cottage" (really, mansions) belonged to Wills and Kate, and which housed Harry and Meghan. Next thing you knew we were at Kensington Palace! Its gardens were beautful and it is actually open to visitors, though we never got there to see the Princess Diana Fashion Exhibit. 

We discovered Round Pond on one run, the Serpentine on another, the Princess Diana Memorial on another, and green parakeets that let people feed them out of their hands on another. The morning dew made the park glow eerily. 

Kensington Palace

And right beside Kensington Gardens was Hyde Park, not quite as Frederick Olmstead-like, but still large and lovely, with a huge grassy green in the center which doubtless hosts loads of picnickers and probably outdoor concerts in the summertime.

We agreed we would probably get in fantastic running shape if we lived in London, as Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park are only one example of London’s abundance of green spaces.

Other Highlights

Other highlights of our days in London included:

38,000-pound silverplate set at Harrods

Metal art at the V&A

• We visited the Church of St. Martin in the Fields, near Leicester Square, where we attended a Mozart concert in the evening in tribute to my parents, who when they lived outside of London in the late 1980s used to attend classical concerts there.
• We discovered the London Film Festival was going on and went to see the hysterically funny documentary “I Used to be Normal: A Boy Band Fangirl Story,” in a far-flung London neighborhood (ethnic, not touristy, sort of Queens-like) after an unusual and unexpectedly delicious meal at a Turkish restaurant.
• We visited the Victoria and Albert Museum, aka the V&A, which focuses on design and saw a new history of photography exhibition that had been dedicated by Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge  (just Kate to us commoners), just a few days before. I loved the museum’s display of metal art, and we mostly passed on the paintings of dead people.
• We spent a couple of hours in the world-famous, over-the-top luxurious Harrods’s Department store, where we perused 2000-pound ($2,600 US) coffeemakers, 38,000-pound ($50,000) silver-plate cutlery sets, 3050-pound ($4000) purses, swords, wine glasses (some only 45 pounds each - $$60) and so much more, each item more decadent, expensive and unnecessary than the next. We bought nothing but bought picnic food in the surprisingly reasonable little deli in the chocolate section and picnicked out in a courtyard by the Tube station.
• On our last day, we visited the Tower of London, enjoying a tour by a very British Yeoman something-or-other, taking in the Crown Jewels, watching a video of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953 (poor girl looked terrified, in my opinion), and seeing the extreme excess and ostentatiousness of the soup tureens and salt containers for royal banquets hundreds of years past. We learned about the checkered and grisly past of the royal family, especially Henry IIX, and wondered if Meghan knows what she got herself into.

Our guide

A beheading about to happen at the Tower of London

And now … goodbye London, off to Italy!

London, Part 2: Harry Potter & the HOHO

Warner Brothers Studio Tour

For me, the highlight of the trip to London was actually more than an hour away: the set where they made the Harry Potter movies.

I took a subway, train and then a bus to experience the Warner Brothers Studio Tour, where all the Harry Potter films were made over ten years. (I have read the series five times, consider JK Rowling my favorite author, and seen all the films multiple times. I think they have done a brilliant job capturing the amazing world that Rowling created.) Many of the sets were there, preserved meticulously, as well as thousands of props, costumes. This is a MUST for any Potterfile. It’s really an incredible interactive museum that celebrates the Harry Potter books and movies and teaches a vast amount about filmmaking and special effects.

You could push your cart of luggage through into the wall at Platform 9 ¾ at Kings Cross Station, walk down Diagon Alley, sit in a booth in the Hogwarts Express, drink Butterbeer, peer into the cupboard under the stairs at 67 Privet Drive, manipulate a CGI Dobby, learn to ride a broom

Other sets on display included the Potions classroom, the Burrow, the Ministry of Magic and Umbridge’s office, the Forbidden Forest (avoid if you are an anachrophobe), Dumbledore’s office. There were intricate plans for Hogwarts castle,

Learning how special effects were done – from shrinking the Knight bus through narrow spaces to making Hagrid tower over Dumbledore to creating a convincing high-speed Quidditch match to lighting up patronuses – was the most fascinating aspect of the tour.

OK, enough from me – read all about it here, and enjoy my Facebook photo album.

Dumbledore's Office

Harry's bed in Gryffindor Dorm

Wands

Hop On Hop Off Bus

View from the HoSo

While I was experiencing all things Harry Potter, Bob and Lexie experienced the Hop On Hop Off bus, which Bob calls the HOHO. Because their feet were extremely tired by then, they deemed it the HOSO, for Hop On Stay On, and planted their buts in the front row upstairs, under the glass cover.

For the record, although we have become fans of the HOHO concept when in a new city, we would NOT recommend the Big Bus, because the driver abruptly threw Bob and Lexie (and all other riders) off the bus without warning at 5 PM, saying they were closed. They were not even near a Tube station, and they had given no warning that the tour would end so early. Aryk and I took the Original Tour a year and a half ago and it was much better.

Next .. London, Part 3

London, Part 1: A Great International City

How do I begin to describe London? International, sophisticated. Incredibly diverse, both ethnically and culturally. Royal and earthy. Multi-faceted. Surprisingly, a foodie’s paradise.

We got lucky in London: Perfect weather – mostly sunny, in the 50s and 60s every single day. None of foggy London’s famous wetness whatsoever. Perfect location: A reasonably-priced two-bedroom flat just two blocks from Kensington Gardens, and two blocks from two subway stations on different lines.

We also got lucky by scoring Hamilton tickets.

So after a few days visiting our oldest child Aryk at Keele University in Newcastle-Under-Lyme, we drove 120 miles to London, a steering-wheel-gripping, teeth-clenching journey on the wrong side of the road through several traffic jams that took almost four hours and severely tested our marriage. After handing off the car to Europcar with relief, we happily relied on public transport for our five days in London.

First Up: The London Eye

We booked a combo ticket of the London Eye  and a Thames River Cruise because adding the boat ride cost just 6 pounds ($9 US). It was glorious! In 65-degree sun, we sat on the deck of a smallish boat and took in the sights of London from the river, enjoying witty, drily British commentary from our guide, John. It gave us a great lay of the land as we beheld the Tower Bridge, the Parliament Building and Big Ben (covered in scaffolding), the original site of the London Bridge, Royal Albert Hall, the Jubilee Bridge, Cleopatra’s Needle, the replica of Shakespeare’s Globe Theater,  London’s orb-shaped glass City Hall, and a number of shiny new high-rises such as the Walkie Talkie Building with its Sky Garden,  the Shard, and one with what looked like a generous backside that John nicknamed it “Kim Kardashian.”

When we got to the queue for the London Eye, Lexie looked up, shivered, and reminded me of a crucial fact that I had stupidly forgotten: she is afraid of the heights. So, 25 pounds ($33) squandered, the rest of us enjoyed the ride to the sky while Lexie waited in a park.

The London Eye is ridiculously, blatantly touristy and over-the-top, but nevertheless worth every penny for the incomparable views from its slowly rotating cylinders. The structure of the Eye makes it even more interesting. You can’t take a bad picture from it.

Hamilton and Zizzi’s, and then Zizzi’s again

That evening we went to see Hamilton, an event we have been dreaming about for several years. Lexie, Aryk and I have been Lin-Manuel Miranda fans since we discovered In The Heights, his first Tony-award-winning musical about an immigrant neighborhood in northern Manhattan, 2008. We bought and listened to the soundtrack 100 times, saw it at Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) and at several local theaters, and were really excited when Hamilton came out.

Similarly enthralled by its story and its ingenious blend of hip-hop and classic musical theater, we were dying to see it but failed to snag tickets in the lottery when it came to DCPA  or during a trip to NY in March. Luckily, I happened upon an article that said Hamilton was coming to London. A Google search revealed that a new batch of tickets had been released sale the day before, and I got three in the 11^th row for just 400 pounds ($130) each.

The show surpassed expectations, and we were ecstatic to experience it. Afterward, we had a late dinner at Zizzi’s, an Italian Restaurant near the theater, where we had incredibly memorable dessert – melt-in-your-mouth tiramisu and a divine chocolate caramel brownie.

(We returned to Zizzi’s several days later for an encore presentation of the same scrumptious desserts.)

Altogether a  spectacular night!

Next .. London, Part 2: Harry Potter!

Spain, Part 3: Reus

We spent the last three days in Reus, a small city about 75 kilometers from Barcelona, where Laia and her family live. It turns out that Reus is a very compelling destination of its own right! Gaudi was born in Reus, and there’s a Gaudi Center there, as well as a Modernist Tour. (You can’t get away from him in Catalonia!)

Reus has been around since the 1200s, and is full of fascinating architecture, righ history, great shopping, excellent seafood, and of course its signature vermut (Vermouth).

Cambrils

Reus is less than half an hour from the Mediterranean coast, so we visited the beach resort town of Cambrils. Although October is the off-season, it was 74 degrees F. We found a wine tasting festival going on and enjoyed performances by teams forming human castles, a regional passion. Cambrils beachfront stretches along 7 kilometers of coastline. Most people visit the better known beach resort of Salou, but we found Cambrils compelling, with a lively port area bookmarked by two lovely stretches of beach, behind the port is a tourist area of outdoor restaurants with water views on a wide pedestrian sidewalk, and off-shoot streets with shops and bars. 

Cambrils welcomes visitors

The beach

Human castles

Cambrils is often referred to as the food capital of the Costa Daurada, and we had an amazing lunch. Check out our Guide to Spanish restaurants in Cambrils to learn more about the wonderful food.

Montserrat

We also visited Montserrat, a glorious mountain near Barcelona with a monastery atop, including a famous Black Madonna statue. It has some amazing rock formations, which we couldn’t see because of the unusual blanket of fog.

The mountain behind the monastery

Reus

Finally, we just poked around Reus. We tried to visit the town History Museum, but it was closed form 2-5 PM for lunch. Which bring us to …

Time in Spain

The schedule in Spain is very different than the United States. Much more civilized. People sleep later – no kids catching a school bus at 6 AM for school – eat breakfast, work a few hours, have a second breakfast around 11 or 11:30 AM, work a few more hours, then enjoy a long, leisurely dinner between 2 and 5 PM. Businesses close their doors for three hours for this. At 8 or 9, people have a small supper.

This schedule is designed to really give people time to savor food and enjoy each other.

Food in Spain

The most popular food we saw in Barcelona was tapas, tiny plates, as I mentioned. In Reus, Laia’s father made us paella, a signature dish or rice, mussels, squid, calamari, prawns and more. We were also fed cod, turkey, lots of bacon and ham products, and the bounty from the sea, including escargots. Americans have to be adventurous to enjoy Catalan food.

Marius and his paella

Altogether a fascinating experience. Go!

Spain, Part 2: Barcelona

Barcelona is Spain’s second largest city, the capital of the province of Catalonia, one of the most visited cities in Europe, and it is glorious.

It’s easy to see why the Spanish government would put separatist leaders in jail rather than be parted from this gem. Bob and I both fell in love, and added it to our bucket list of places to live when we get to Europe. Located in one of Spain’s wealthiest regions in the Pyrenees, Barcelona, a city of 1.6 million people, is right on the Mediterranean Sea, and is quite hilly.

The beach in Barcelona

The city has a lovely platja (Catalan for beach), and Port Vell, the old port is busy, cosmopolitan and scenic. One of our favorite places to explore was the Gothic Quarter, a meander of alleys and tiny shops off the popular Ramblas pedestrian promenade that attracts visitors worldwide with its shopping and outdoor restaurants.

The Gothic Quarter at night

We ate tapas, of course, which are small plates unique to the region. We took a Hop On Hop Off bus tour, which turned out to be a fantastic way to get an overview of the city. We saw the Olympic Village where the Summer Olympics were held in 1992.

We visited Casa Mila/La Padrera, a masterpiece home on a grand boulevard designed by the visionary Spanish architect Antonin Gaudi, whose modernist influences can be found all over the city (and in fact the region.)

Casa Mila/ La Padrera

The rooftop of Casa Mila/ La Padrera

A door in La Padrera inspired by butterfly wings

We saw the famous Sagrada Familia Cathedral (designed by Gaudi and still unfinished), passed popular FC Barcelona's football (soccer) stadium. We even ate at a retro-themed American hamburger diner/restaurant called Peggy Sue’s when Lexie expressed the desire for a little “normal” food.

Sagrada Familia

View of Sagrada Familia from the bus

We only had two days in Barcelona, so we will definitely be back to visit Park Guell (more Gaudi), see a flamenco show, spend an evening at Casa Battlo (more Gaudi), eat more tapas, and so much more!

This was a tapa of a visit, just a small taste.

Next ... Part 3: Reus

Spain, Part 1: Or is it Catalonia?

Next destination: Spain!

We spent several days in Barcelona on our way to Reus to visit the family of our exchange student, Laia.

Well ... I know I said we were in Spain, but Laia’s family would tell you we were in Catalonia.
They are separatists, like many in this province in the northeast corner of the country who are seeking independence from Spain. Since I’m not a historian, I will refer you to a nice article from the BBC explaining this political crisis “in 300 words.” (We are of course on the CatalanTeam.)

Source: BBC News

We saw signs of this conflict everywhere.

There are two official languages in Catalonia: Catalan and Spanish. More fiercely loyal Catalan enterprises would have signs and menus only in Catalan, which seems to be a mish-mash of Spanish, French and Italian. Most people in the city speak some English, although this was more of a challenge further afield.

Spanish National Day celebrants near Placa de Catalunya

We were in Barcelona on Oct. 12 for National Day or Fiesta Nacional de Espana in Spain. It was a national holiday and people celebrated with huge rallies in the central square in Barcelona, Placa de Catalunya. But separatists rebuffed the event, working as usual and displaying their version of the Spanish flag, which has yellow stripes, from their balconies.

Anyway, back to sightseeing …

The weather

The weather, mid-60s to mid-70s in mid-October, was balmy compared to frigid Iceland, though we did need to keep jackets on hand for the occasional rain showers.

We will share a few tidbits about our days in Barcelona and Reus in the next couple of blogs.

Next ... Part 2: Barcelona

Germany

Our five days in Germany were mostly about being with family, but we mixed some tourism in, visiting the city of Hamburg a couple of days.

Pinneberg

My brother Patrick, his German wife Ines, and their two children live in Pinneberg, a suburb of Hamburg, Germany’s second largest city. We stayed in an Airbnb house a couple miles from their home and it was truly amazing - large, clean, pretty, and only 61 euros a night. The local forest was only a block and a half away and we had a lovely run there. The nearby Hotel Cap Polonio served up some of the best French fries I have ever tasted – crispy on the outside, most inside, not oily, perfectly salted. They were accompanied by mayonnaise and ketchup, the German way.

Pinneberg has a beautiful Rosengarten, which was a nice destination for a short walk with small children. The roses were in bloom and a group of old men were playing bocce.

We ate a lot of bratwurst, currywurst and other kids of wurst. (It was the best!) Also a lot of potatoes, a huge staple in Germany. And lots of brochen (bread). The breakfast pastries were to die for.

Hamburg

Hamburg, located on the Elbe River, is Germany’s largest port and commercial center. It boasts a lot of energy, style, music and culture. Its many waterways and canals make it feel a little like Venice.

The Harbor area is huge. We took a harbor boat ride up the Elbe and saw marvels of German nautical engineering, including a humongous dry dock and several Navy ships under construction. We also saw Hamburg’s theater area, reachable by ferryboats decorated to match the shows. Currently playing: The Lion King and Mary Poppins, among others.

We walked through the Old Elbe Tunnel, under the Elbe River, which used to transport port and shipyard workers but is now an interesting stroll to get a fabulous view of Hamburg from across the Harbor (Hafen). Watching cyclists and rollerbladers navigating through the crowds of families and tourists out for a stroll is very entertaining. The elevators in this structure were massive. 

We went up to the observation deck of the brand-new opera house, the ElbPhilharmonie, known by the nickname Elphy, for glorious river views.  

We rode the elevator to the top of St. Michaelis Church for awesome 360-degree views of the city of Hamburg.

We visited the St. Nikolai Memorial (Nikolaikirche), which was bombed out during WWII and never rebuilt. The front façade remains but the interior is an open shell, left as a tribute to all affected by war. The website calls it “Hamburg's central place of remembrance for the victims of war and tyranny of the years 1933-1945.”

German Food

For Bob, who lived in Germany for 4 ½ years in the 1980s, being back in Germany was like coming home. And a lot of it revolved about food and drink. He wanted to have a German pilsner and pommes (French fries) in every outdoor restaurant in the city of Hamburg! He wanted to eat all his favorite German pastries – apfelstruedel, pretzels, franzbrochen – as well as currywurst and spezi (Coke and German Fanta) from an imbiss (casual, quick restaurant).

That’s it for Germany. On to Barcelona! 

The Retirement Itinerary: Europe First

LISA

People are asking, "Why are you in Europe? We thought you were moving to Mexico!"

Well, we are ... but not yet. We are not going to Mexico till January 2019.

First, Le Tour de Europe

First, we are launching our adventures with five weeks in Europe -- Iceland, Germany, Spain, England, Italy and Greece.

We are visiting family -- our oldest child Aryk at Keele U. in Newcastle Under Lyme, England, and then London because why not? (Also got tickets to Hamilton and the Harry Potter Studio Tour.)

We're visiting Lisa's brother Pat and his wife Ines and their family in Pinneberg, Germany, outside Hamburg.

First we gotta visit Aryk at uni!

We are spending a few days with the family of our awesome foreign exchange student, Laia,  around Barcelona and Reus.

We are joining Troisi (Lisa's mother's side) cousins in Italy as part of a family genealogy trip. So we'll be in Rome, Naples and Solofra.

Then we're wrapping it all up with a few days in Athens before flying home Nov. 7.

Then, New England

Then, we gotta hang out in Vermont!

We'll be spending about a month at our vacation home in Ludlow, VT - hopefully taking a couple grandmas and Bob's sister, Beth.

Next, Holidays with Family
We'll spend the winter holidays in PA with Bob's Mom and Lisa's stepmom, sister Julie and any family we can see.

Finally, Mexico
After Aryk goes back to Uni after Winter Break, the first week of January, we'll begin the next road trip, taking the cats and Lexie on the road from Pennsylvania to Tlaquepaque, Mexico. The trip is about 37 hours, so we will stop in Nashville and spend a couple of nights in New Orleans on the way.

Stay with us -- it's going to be a blast!