Buen Camino

It's hard to believe, but we have begun walking the Camino de Santiago or Way of St. James. Over the next month or so, we will walk 500 miles from St. Jean Pied de Port in France to Santiago de Compostela in Spain along an ancient pilgrimage route. If you'd like to know more about The Camino, you can find information here: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camino_de_Santiago

As we begin this journey, we come to our faithful readers and ask for your support one last time. First and foremost, we ask for your prayers and your positive thoughts over the course of the next month. We will be praying each day, and would welcome hearing about for what/whom you would like us to pray.

Also, and secondarily, if you would like to sponsor us financially in our Camino walk, you can do so by going to the Support Our Journey page of this blog, clicking on Sponsor Us and making a donation on Paypal. This time we are doing something a bit different. In lieu of gifts or souvenirs, we will donate 25% of all the money we receive from April 29-June 5 to The Society of Saint Andrews, a non-profit that works to fight hunger through various programs, including the Gleaning Network, the Potato and Produce Project, and Harvest of Hope. We think it's a great organization and are excited to support them financially.

For those of you who like giving levels, here you go:

$35 One dollar for each day one of us will walk
$70 One dollar for each day both of us will walk
$100 Seems like a good number
$500 One dollar for each mile we will walk

We thank you for all of your support throughout our journey, and we look forward to seeing everybody again when we return home later this summer.

Digne, with Claude and Hermes

After our time in Rome, we took a bit of a detour to spend time with our friend Claude, who we met in Amritsar, India. He lives in Digne-Les-Bains, Digne (sounds like Dean) for short, which is a couple of hours from Marseilles by scenic bus ride. Simply put, we had a most wonderful time with Claude.

We arrived on Thursday and walked through town to his house, where we met Hermes, his cat. This was the view outside our balcony window.

Shortly after arriving and settling in, we ate a tasty dinner that Claude had prepared for us. We spent the evening talking about various and sundry topics. As you might imagine, Alan went on and on about a few things, but Claude and Gracyn were very patient.

On Friday morning we took a drive to see some fossils that were once on a river bed, but are now part of a rock wall that is almost completely vertical. Geology is cool. We also drove through some mountainous terrain.

We spent most of the afternoon taking care of laundry, making our final travel plans for the trip to St. Jean Pied de Port, and sorting through items that wouldn't make the trip along the Camino de Santiago. In the evening, we drove to a Medieval city to have dinner at a restaurant called Two Angels. On the way, we stopped at a Benedictine monastery and spent some time in the church there.

At the restaurant, there was much conversation over tasty food and wine.  

On Saturday, we went to the post office to mail a few things home so as to lighten our load for the Camino, then bought some produce at the local market. The men got haircuts, with a beard trim for me. 

In the evening, we attended a concert by a local men's choir that is connected with a local choir with which Claude sings. He says they always need tenors, so I would be most welcome. I imagine my inability to speak French might be a problem. The concert was lovely. At one point, three of the men sang a powerful version of the Kyrie that gave me chills. We returned home to eat the picnic dinner we had hoped to eat on the way to the concert but ran out of time to eat. We were up fairly late talking, and Hermes found a new friend (don't tell Rue).

Spending time in Digne was just what we needed after a fairly hectic pace through Italy. Thanks to Claude for his wonderful hospitality. We hope to return the favor once we have a place to call home back in the United States.

Rome: Bippity Boppo

That is a Family Guy reference. Those who don't know... don't worry about it :)

We had three full days in Rome, which we jammed full of sightseeing. We purchased a 72-hour pass here, like we did in Florence. It is called the Roma Pass and is worth a few free entries to sights and museums, plus use of all public transport. So, our first day's activities included visiting the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill.

The next day we explored the Capitaline Museums, a combination of exploring palatial rooms that are art themselves, displays of statues and busts, and art. Some of the more famous items housed here are the Capitaline Wolf (suckled by Romulus and Remus), the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius (the one out in the piazza is a copy), and the Dying Gaul. We purchased audio guides for these exhibits, and I must say I enjoyed this museum more than most we have recently visited.

On our last day, we spent a lot of time at the Vatican Museum. It has so many famous works that I don't know where to begin. I am sure you can identify some of the following:

In the afternoon we waited in an enormous line for almost two hours to finally enter St. Peter's Basilica. We also opted for the audio guide here, which ended up not only impressing me with the history, dignity, power, and influence of the Vatican, but also trying to convert me to Catholicism.

It was quite a whirlwind, and we are very happy to now be recovering in Digne-les-Bains, near Marseille, in France. A friend we met in India invited us to visit, and we decided to make one last stop before starting the Camino de Santiago.

Florence: A Land Filled With Gelato

We were in Florence, Italy, for three days last week. I should call it Firenze, as that is the Italian name, though that calls to mind a certain centaur and Divination teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Highlights of Day One:
We used our Firenze Card (a 72-hour pass for all museums and attractions, plus line-skipping) to visit the Duomo Cathedral, plus climb up to the dome, designed and painted by Brunelleschi.

We also entered the octagonal Baptistry associated with the church, known as the oldest building in Florence. Its interior is stunning, perhaps due to a beautiful gilded ceiling.

And then there was gelato.

Highlights of Day Two:
We visited the Museo di San Marco, a former monastery. It is a museum in order to exhibit the incredible artwork that is housed here, but also part of the building. Frescoes were painted in the cloister, refectory, cells, etc. Add to this the offer of a free guide, which came our way when we entered from two highschool girls. For a school project their entire class is acting as guides (sometimes for English-speakers like us) to display what they have learned. Our guides were very knowledgeable but also very entertaining, as they seemed to be nervous.

In the afternoon, we saw Michealangelo's David. I took a picture of his back side, because only his front seems to appear in publications.

Finally we visited the Palazzo Vecchio, home of the powerful Medici family. The rooms and art were incredible, but I have to say my favorite was climbing the clock tower to have a view of the Duomo a few blocks away.

Perhaps my favorite experience in Florence was enjoying antipasto and wine at a small restaurant called Il Santino. We could not read the menu and simply asked the waiter for a small plate of breads, meats and cheese. He definitely delivered, with pecorino cheese and prosciutto, all of which was delicious.

Highlights of Day Three:
We toured the the Palazzo Pitti museums and the gardens. Again we were shown around the rooms by highschool students, which was a treat. A special feature of the ceiling paintings here was the attempt to make the room appear taller by paintings upper stories, columns and statues in very convicing 3D.

In the afternoon, we walked through the Galleria degli Uffizi, the Medici family's art collection. This was beyond impressive, and works include the Birth of Venus and this one of the disciple Thomas.

More gelato!

Florence is filled with so much artwork and so many beautiful things that it is almost difficult to appreciate them. Well, we tried, and we will continue on in Rome.