Italy

Well, we've returned from Italy.  I have only three letters to describe the whole thing.  WOW!  It was totally amazing.  We all began to suffer from sensory overload.  You couldn't turn around without seeing some incredible antiquity, ancient ruin, or fantastic art masterpiece.  What a place.

We left Shreveport on the 7th of January, flying first to Dallas, then to Frankfurt, Germany, then on to Rome.  It was a long day and we were all beat by the time we arrived at our hotel.  Of course, getting from the airport to the hotel was an adventure in itself.  Apparently the proper way to drive in Rome is to ignore all speed limits, traffic signs, lanes, other cars, etc.  It was something of a nerve-wracking experience to say the least.  But, we arrived at the Cicerone Hotel in one piece.

After some showers and quick naps, it was off to meet our tour guide and group.  We were introduced to Flavia, our tour guide.  She gave us some pointers and tips for the trip, then we all headed out to dinner at one of the local restaurants.  I thought the dinner was quite nice, but Cindy and Melissa had other ideas about that.

The dinner was a good time to start getting to know the people in our travel group.  We ended up having a great group.  Since it was off-season, it was a smaller group, which was great.  We all got along and had a great time together.  Dinner was interesting.  It started off with a champagne toast.  The three of us toasted, but of course didn't drink.  That's Melissa "toasting" with the glass.  It was a large meal of several courses.  The antipasto, I think, was what Cindy and Melissa had the most difficulty with.  Prosciutto, as some of you may know, is raw, cured ham.  It has quite a bite to it.  Not my favorite either, but I was able to eat it OK.  Cindy and Melissa, not so much. 

We had a couple more courses, pasta of course, and then some type of pork covered with a delicious smokey cheese of some sort.  Not what you would get when ordering at Olive Garden I'll tell you that.  After the meal we were off to the hotel for a nice night's sleep.

The next morning we were up early and off and running.  First stop was the Vatican.  What an amazing place.  I mean, besides being the headquarters of the Catholic Church, it is furnished with the most amazing art.  We started with a tour of the Vatican museum.  This is the most incredible art museum I have ever been in.  Granted, that's not saying much, but really, it was beyond awe inspiring.  Art on the walls, art on the ceilings, sculptures, tapestries.  I will just put a few of the pictures I was able to get here.  Actually, before doing that I want to say something about all of these pictures.  Obviously there is no way to use a flash inside a museum, since the light damages the art.  In fact, in the hall of tapestries, the lighting was so dark it was difficult to see sometimes.  So, 99% of all the pictures I took on this trip were without flash.  Take that into account please.  So, here are some pictures of the artwork in the Vatican museum.

  

 

The ceiling in this hallway was simply incredible.

We were able to go inside the Sistine Chapel and see all of Michelangelo's painting on the ceiling.  Unfortunately they wouldn't let us take pictures inside the chapel.  Fortunately, I had snapped a picture or two before I realized we weren't supposed to.  Oops.  Here's the one I got, you might recognize it.

After the museum and the Sistine Chapel, we headed over to St. Peter's Basilica.  Not only is it an amazing church, but Peter is buried there.  What history.

And, of course, it was filled with amazing art.  I can't imagine being able to concentrate on church with this all around me.

Then, in the middle of all this incredible artwork and tombs of Popes and such, there is the tomb of Peter himself.  Huge monument (I guess you'd call it) over the tomb itself.

So, the Vatican was very impressive, as you can see.

The next stop on our tour was, what else, the Colosseum.  It was amazing that something that old was still in such relatively good condition.  I mean, I know we think the Barksdale historic housing is old because it was build in 1932.  But, really, this thing was build in 79 AD.!

And, guess who we bumped into while we were there?

We then saw some of the other sights of the city, including the famed Trevi Fountain, the parliament building, the forum, and an old Italian friend you probably all know.

The next day was our first travel day.  We left Rome early that morning and enjoyed our bus ride through the country.  The bus was a very nice travel coach, quite comfortable particularly since we had a small group.  Everyone had their own row, if they wanted it.  We drove from Rome to Pisa, which I know you are all familiar with.

It is actually pretty incredible that this thing is still standing, particularly after all these years.  Cindy and Melissa just had to do the tourist thing.  They weren't the only ones, I assure you.

After Pisa it was off to the fascinating medieval town of Lucca, where we spent the night.

The next day we were up early again and traveling once more.  This time to another cute little town that we all just loved, San Gimignano.  We did some sight seeing there, then some shopping.  Awesome place.  After that it was off to Sienna.  This put us in the heart of the Chianti wine region.  So, on our way to Florence, we stopped at the Verrazzano castle winery.  Once again, we didn't partake, but really enjoyed their balsamic vinegar.

Tuscany really is a truly beautiful part of the country.

Well, that was a quick overview of the first half of our trip.  I will complete the second half of the trip tomorrow.  As I said, I have 1,100 pictures of this trip.  I will go into more detail on each of the towns and all the sights in subsequent posts.  This is just a quick overview, and I promise I won't put all 1,100 pictures on the blog, just a few to give you a better idea of how incredible this country really is.

New Year's Resolution

     I know I've been quite delinquent lately in keeping this blog up-to-date.  My resolution this year is to do a better job of posting regularly.  Let's see how that works out. 

     The week before the Bomb Wing stopped flying for the holiday season, we gave them a total of 11 check rides.  I couldn't believe it when we ended up disqualifying 8 crewmembers.  It is a difficult thing to have to tell someone that they are no longer qualified to fly the aircraft.  Something I've never had to do until now.  For those of you who might not know, it's not the end of the world for them. They will just have to complete the additional training we've assigned them, fly a bit with an instructor to get up to speed, and then pass another check ride.  Then they will be qualified again to fly and fight for the Air Force.  It wasn't a pretty week.

     We are all ready for our trip to Italy!  Can't wait to get over there.  Not looking forward to the jet lag, but other than that, it's going to be great.  I've stocked up on memory cards for the new camera, so hopefully there will some good pics to post here when we return.  As I said previously, I won't be taking my laptop with me (although Melissa says she still might take hers) so you probably won't hear from us until we get back.

     Hope you all had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Ortolani Update

Sorry it's been so long since I've updated the blog, but it's getting crazy around here.  Of course we are preparing for Christmas. We have the house decorated, though not as much as we usually do.  It's going to be something of a subdued Christmas this year since our big gift is the Italy trip.  We are looking forward to Melissa getting here on Wednesday. It'll be good to have her home again for a while.

I've been flying quite a bit lately.  We are doing all the checkrides for the 2nd  Bomb Wing's formal inspection that we will be doing in March.  We have to get about 100 checkrides done before then, so I've been flying about twice a week doing that.  They are all no-notice checkrides, which means the aircrew don't know they are getting a checkride until they show up to fly in the morning and we are there to greet them.  It's been going well so far with only a few minor downgrades for the crewdogs.

Well, I'll try to keep this updated better than I have in the past.  Certainly there will be some updates in the following weeks, then when we get back from Italy.  We found out we are going to have to pack very light for this trip, so most likely won't be taking my computer with me, which means no updates while we're there.  But we should have a pic or two to show off when we get back.

Happy Holidays to everyone.  Hope ya'll have a grand time this year.

England Trip Part Two

       OK, so we had the opportunity to go to the town of Ely (not Nevada).  As we got closer I could see the Ely cathedral.  It was pretty big.  Well, John Litecky was driving and as we got inot town, we were very close to all the buildings so I lost sight of the cathedral. 

We parked in the "car park" and started to walk through the town.

     As we turned a corner, my hand immediately covered my open mouth (it was jaw dropping).  I stopped in my tracks.  What I had thought from a distance as a pretty big building was the biggest church I have ever seen!

The Ely Cathedral.  At 537 feet, Ely is the fourth longest of the English cathedrals (Winchester is the longest at 547 feet).  The west tower, which can be seen from miles around, is 215 feet high.  There has been a church in Ely since AD 673.  The original church was destroyed by the Danes and the Ely cathedral was built by the Normans between 1081 and 1189.

     It was amazing.  As we walked in the doors, it was one long open building, floor to ceiling.

This is a picture of the octagon.  On February 22nd, 1322 the central tower collapsed.  It's width of 74 feet was too big to support a stone vault and so it was built of wood and covered in lead.  The octagon's internal height is 142 feet and it's total weight is 400 tons.  It took 18 years to build!  It reminded me of a kaleidoscope, and as most of you know, I love kaleidoscopes.  It was beautiful. 

 

I didn't want to use my camera flash inside so I had a hard time getting some pictures.  So, I hope you enjoy the few that I did get.

 

The 13th and 14th centuries saw the rise of the cult of the virgin Mary.  And chapels in her honor were added to many churches and cathedrals, including Ely.  We entered what was called "The Lady Chapel".  It was completed in 1349.  At one time it was colored and had stained glass and painted statues in the niches.  It was all destroyed, as you can see in the pictures below, in the 16th century during the reformation.  The Puritans rejected all forms of religious decoration.

  If you look closely you can see the damage.  Figures have been defaced and there are now empty pedestals where the statues stood.  As I thought about these broken stones, I was actually quite sad.  I thought about our 11th article of faith; "We claim the privilege of worshipping all mighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may."  So, the history of this beautiful building has been destroyed because the Puritans had no tolerance for others' beliefs.

Can I tell you how awesome it was to see this building and everything in it and around it and know that it was older than our own country?

The north and south choir aisles are full of memorials.  We found some interesting names, stories, and very old dates.

Bishop Hugh Northwold, died in 1254.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This guy's obituary that was carved into the sarcophogas said he was from the family "Stewart" and had some wonderful adventures and stuff he'd been involved in.  In all actuality it was all lies.  Apparently his real name was "Stywart", meaning "one who works with pigs", and his obituary was his way of trying to make his life seem much more impressive.

We also spent some time just wandering around the town.  Here are some pictures of what we saw. 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a great time in Ely.  The next post will be about our visit to Cambridge.

Cindy's Post

Tonight I thought I'd do something a little different. I'm having a guest blogger. I've asked Cindy to write this particular post so we could all hear her perspective on what happened.

This is a picture of the new British outer wear I bought on the trip.

If you had asked me 25 years ago where I would be in November of 2007, I would have imagined my life somewhat different.

David has had the opportunity to visit countries all over the world. I, however, have not. Well about 4 weeks ago he said, "Hey, a few of us from the office are going to England TDY. How would you feel about going with me?" I hesitated at first. I couldn't imagine how much that would cost us. OK, so here I am, 2 days after our trip still wanting to pinch myself. I went to England!

The trip over "the pond" was a new one for me as well. Riding in economy was an experience in and of itself. Sitting so close to the people next to you made for an entertaining flight. Your elbows at your side even while you are trying to eat. I couldn't help but giggle. It reminded me of the comedian Brian Regan and his routine about flight. All squished elbows at your side, eating a cold fish head and a turnip with a spork. I couldn't do it every day, but it made for some good entertainment for a bit.

Well, flying in to Heathrow Airport, I could see London Bridge and the Thames River. It made my heart skip a beat. I was so excited!

After getting our luggage and going though customs we had to wait for our bus to RAF Mildenhall. There was a group of high school students outside. A lot of them wearing I ♥ NY t-shirts. I couldn't decide if they were Americans coming to England or British just coming back from New York. I decided to go outside and listen. They were so quiet. It took me a minute to figure it out. They were quiet, reserved, British high school students. I was amazed! Also . . . They all sounded like Harry Potter. It was awesome. Everything was different. The taxis, the emergency vehicles. And . . . they drove on the opposite side of the car on the opposite side of the street!

The guys & girl, David, John, Chris, and Rhonda had to work during the days and I, being who I am, was very scared of exploring on my own. Didn't dare leave the base on my own. So I just walked around the base everyday, waiting for the crew to finish up. Each night we drove to one of the surrounding communities to eat dinner, usually in one of the many pubs (there were so many!).

On one of these trips, I noticed a very old overgrown cemetery. The headstones were thin, crooked, and placed in no fashion at all.

So I talked the guys into stopping so that I could take some pictures and names and dates. We found our way in and as we walked around reading names and dates, we realized it was newer than any of us thought. Some of the headstones were from 1978 or 1956 etc. The way it looked, I expected it to have dates form the 15, 16, or 1700s. But most were from the 1800s and 1900s. So as I looked around to see the scattered headstones my thought was "They must have tossed the bodies over the stone wall and buried them where they landed." And . . . No one has come back to take care of the grounds.

We ate at the Golden Boar pub. David had the Bangers and Mash, which basically was sausage and mashed potatoes. I went the safe route I thought, and had vegetable curry. Curry is huge in England! Since India was a British colony for so long, there is a lot of Indian influence in England.

Driving around the town was also really cool in and of itself. The buildings were so old and so small. A few of the homes had thatched roofs. The thatch was covered with chicken wire. Once again, I was amazed!

Night two. John, who had lived in England a few years ago, told us of an old mill that had been turned into a restaurant. He said "If you guys want to go, I can take you and drop you off tonight. It's kind of expensive, but very nice, and great food." When I asked how much, he said "I think about $40 per person." Kind of expensive, but we thought "What the heck, we're in England and we may not ever be back." The restaurant was called Tuddenham Mill, which as you would suspect, is in the town of Tuddenham. http://www.tuddenhammill.co.uk/

John made the reservations for us and when we arrived we were the only ones there for most of our meal. They sat us in a lounge on a couch, took our drink orders and brought out veggie chips.

The waitress handed us printed menus for that evening. 3 courses and we each had to choose which item we wanted in each course. Right before our first course was ready, she took us upstairs to the dining room. The atmosphere was nice. Old building, tables in black set so beautifully. Old water wheel encased in glass in the middle of the room. David's first course was three slices of smoked pigeon breast on a roasted fig, grape and Aspall cider chutney, and beetroot and red pepper remoulade.

For my first course I had beef tomato, salsify and spring onion terrine with beetroot and horseradish pesto, and nettle and lavender sabyon. On my plate there were 3 tiny stems, each with 2 tiny leaves. One stem was even smaller and it was purple, the others were green. I said to David, "Am I supposed to eat these or look at them?" I decided that they must be edible because thy had their own spot on the plate. So, hoping that the kitchen help wasn't watching and laughing, I ate one of the stems. Having never tasted watercress, I imagine that's what it was like. Not too bad, so I ate the other two stems. The tomato/potato layer was very good. Very small, like an hors D'oeuvres, but very tasty. The julienned beets were not so good. Very tangy.

My second course was Tandoori marinated pork (yes, meat) filet with coconut, lime leaf and sweet chili sticky rice, and a water chestnut, bean sprout and bok choi stir fry. We shared a dessert, also very yummy. Banana and toffee crumble, vanilla waffle and maple syrup ice cream.

Well, we decided that in England they let you just relax for as long as you want. After several minutes after our dessert, we had to finally ask for our bill. As we were taking care of the bill at the table with "THE MACHINE", as the waitress referred to it (a portable credit card machine) I asked the waitress, who's name was Pip, how old the mill was. She said "Well I'm not sure, but it's older than Domesday." I looked at David and he shrugged. After she left I said "What the heck? . . . Domesday?" Thinking . . . the end of the world. What? We had to look it up when we got back to our room. Domesday was a great land survey from 1086, commissioned by William the Conqueror to assess the extent of the land and resources being owned in England at the time, and the extent of the taxes he could raise. The mill was in the Domesday book! So the mill was older than 900 years. Amazing.

So, back to the dinner. John was wrong on the $40 per person. I think he meant to say £40 per person, which meant our bill ended up being about $160. Wow! The grounds were beautiful, the waterway leading up to the mill had 8-10 swans in it. They had these lights on the lake that changed colors. So, as we watched out the window while we ate, the swans changed from red to orange to yellow to blue to green to purple. It was beautiful! We took a taxi back to the base.

As I explored every day and night, I wished that I had paid more attention to world history. I was glad that David had his computer with him. I had to look stuff up every night.

OK, this is getting longer than I thought it would. I'll end here for today and finish this up tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

Cindy