Monday, March 24, 2008
Sunday Is A Good Day To Do Nothing, Especially When You Are A Jew On Easter.
The family made an early journey back to the States after a week in three countries, and four different cities. I think they had a fabulous time and it was a special treat to have them here. After just one week of visiting a few of the worlds most incredible places, I can already predict the future for my family. Amy I will probably move to the Vatican where she will be the only Jewish artist commissioned to make mosaics at the Vatican gift shop. She will also open up the world's first Jewish confessional and will hire a personal tour guide where she will be able to ask a million questions and be quartered that no question will be unanswered and that all answers will be repeated as many times as she pleases. Adam I will probably return to the Cianti region to become the worlds youngest vineyard owner and will secretly import vodka from Romania. He will sell and drink it on the side. With great success, he will collect every soccer jersey from the San Lorenzo market and will sport them at every Italian soccer game. Papa I will spend his weeks in Rome as a wine bar shmoozer, dining at the finest restaurants after investing in Little Adam I's vineyard. The two of them will smell and swirl their wine to wine success. On his spare time, Papa I. will meet with all of the European JDC presidents and start wine clubs with them, obviously talking business and discovering new ways to help the Jews throughout the world. He will probably invest in an apartment in the Jewish quarter and start attending Shabbat services. Mama I. on the other hand will still be related to the rest of the family, however she will probably stay far away from the vineyard and help invest in my new journal company. She will find a small quant house in Tuscany (possibly down the street from the new family winery) where she will turn a majority of her house into a studio. The backyard will be big enough where she can make large scale sculptures. Not really knowing how and when she did it, it probably happened in her sleep but she will invent a new way of making gelato that is just as delicious as "real" gelato however it has the reverse affect, the more you eat, the more calories you burn. She will be become famous and Oprah will probably call her to have her on the show (automatic success) Obviously she will leave room for small printing press, paper cutter, corner rounded and racks of paper for me to launch my journal company. The entire family will learn Italian, so Amy I. will not say gracias to the waiters, Mama I will not put the wrong emphaaasis on the wrong syyyllable, and Adam I will no longer need to pretend like he knows Italian, he will actually know it. Now for Papa I, he will probably learn it but still never really get it but we will help him. Say goodbye Kansas City, with this prediction, it looks like the Isenberg's found a new place in the world.
After we received a goodbye and good morning poke from Amy I. at 5 in the morning, Monica and I fell back sleep and then we re-woke up again pretty early, at least early for Allison and Monica time. We got up around 8 o'clock in hopes of sunny weather and short lines at the coliseum. Everything that we had hoped for and ever wanted in a day was the complete opposite. We obviously did not miss one chance of free food, and we hit up the delicious included continental breakfast. We had some what of a hope for the first 2 minutes we were walking down our street but then before we even could make it to the Trevi fountain to take pictures, we were singing in the rain. At first we thought it wouldn't be too bad and if we had survived yesterdays shower, we would surely be a-okay. Half way between the Trevi fountain and the coliseum, I realized my camera was out of batteries, and Monica realized she didn't bring hers. Typical I tell you, just a typical Allison Jane Isenberg thing to do, not charge her camera battery before she headed to the most famous site in Rome. Together with our not so smart minds we decided that we would rather splurge our money and have a lasting memory of our rainy time in Rome. With a disposable camera at hand, we united as many times together under our umbrella's to take pictures. In the world of digi cam's and digi phones, people were quite shocked when we handed them our disposable camera, and the simple act of pressing down was all they needed to do. We tolerated the rain until a massive hurricane of rain came pouring down and we called it quits and hailed a cab. I am a little ashamed to mention the rest of our adventures but we decided to come back to the hotel to protect our feet from flooding and our bodies from pneumonia. It was a good thing we came back because as we were stripping down our clothes from mother earth's generous bath, we heard thunder followed by hammering rain. We packed up our room, made to-do lists (Monica's was the final list before leaving london and mine was list for the rest of easter weekend) Monica became an esthetician and touched up one of my eye brows before we headed out the door to meet her-not-so-fun-friend who actually turned out to be just fine on this visit (the same friend that came to flo flo with her) By the time we packed up, got dressed and plucked and ate it was already time to go. Clearly it stopped raining the minute we were about to leave and even a few rays of the sun came through the clouds. This would only happen to me, so I am not surprised. Exhausted from two weekends of non-stop delicious and exciting travel, I decided that when Monica headed to the airport I too would head back home. I thought about staying for the rest of the day for about the two minutes the sun was out but realized that my water bucket shoes, sponge absorbing coat and wet hair should probably leave room for my next visit, knowing that it would indeed happen after my money toss in the Trevi fountain. I hopped aboard the 3 o'clock train back to the motherland. A bitter-sweet train ride home. Said goodbye to the fam and the almost fam and went back home to my fam in Florence.
After we received a goodbye and good morning poke from Amy I. at 5 in the morning, Monica and I fell back sleep and then we re-woke up again pretty early, at least early for Allison and Monica time. We got up around 8 o'clock in hopes of sunny weather and short lines at the coliseum. Everything that we had hoped for and ever wanted in a day was the complete opposite. We obviously did not miss one chance of free food, and we hit up the delicious included continental breakfast. We had some what of a hope for the first 2 minutes we were walking down our street but then before we even could make it to the Trevi fountain to take pictures, we were singing in the rain. At first we thought it wouldn't be too bad and if we had survived yesterdays shower, we would surely be a-okay. Half way between the Trevi fountain and the coliseum, I realized my camera was out of batteries, and Monica realized she didn't bring hers. Typical I tell you, just a typical Allison Jane Isenberg thing to do, not charge her camera battery before she headed to the most famous site in Rome. Together with our not so smart minds we decided that we would rather splurge our money and have a lasting memory of our rainy time in Rome. With a disposable camera at hand, we united as many times together under our umbrella's to take pictures. In the world of digi cam's and digi phones, people were quite shocked when we handed them our disposable camera, and the simple act of pressing down was all they needed to do. We tolerated the rain until a massive hurricane of rain came pouring down and we called it quits and hailed a cab. I am a little ashamed to mention the rest of our adventures but we decided to come back to the hotel to protect our feet from flooding and our bodies from pneumonia. It was a good thing we came back because as we were stripping down our clothes from mother earth's generous bath, we heard thunder followed by hammering rain. We packed up our room, made to-do lists (Monica's was the final list before leaving london and mine was list for the rest of easter weekend) Monica became an esthetician and touched up one of my eye brows before we headed out the door to meet her-not-so-fun-friend who actually turned out to be just fine on this visit (the same friend that came to flo flo with her) By the time we packed up, got dressed and plucked and ate it was already time to go. Clearly it stopped raining the minute we were about to leave and even a few rays of the sun came through the clouds. This would only happen to me, so I am not surprised. Exhausted from two weekends of non-stop delicious and exciting travel, I decided that when Monica headed to the airport I too would head back home. I thought about staying for the rest of the day for about the two minutes the sun was out but realized that my water bucket shoes, sponge absorbing coat and wet hair should probably leave room for my next visit, knowing that it would indeed happen after my money toss in the Trevi fountain. I hopped aboard the 3 o'clock train back to the motherland. A bitter-sweet train ride home. Said goodbye to the fam and the almost fam and went back home to my fam in Florence.
Under My Umbrella, ella ella ay ay ay ay. Oo baby its raining.
We were surprisingly ready for our 7:15 am pick up to the Vatican. Unfortunately it has been raining cats and dogs since Monica stepped off her flight in Rome (she brought the London curse here with her...and I fully blame her) and we thought we were going to have to wait in the unfriendly line of brightly filled umbrella's, fortunately Mama I. planned a guided tour or else we would have been doomed. Right when we got out of the car, Mossimio, the rat faced, long shnozed tour guide with stallion grey hair, greeted us on the other side of the Vatican. Monica the besty of bests thought that he was someone trying to get her to come inside his restaurant and she boulted from him as he tried to gather us together to tell us that we had time to grab coffee before the Vatican opened. We were too early for the hotel breakfast, so we were lucky that we could sip on a cappuccino and munch a croissant before our tour. Mossimo had us meet him at the front of the line at 10 till 8. At 7:57 we were the first ones walking into the Vatican museum. At 7:59 we were waiting at the gates inside the museum until the clock struck 8 and the machines registered that it was time for another day of tourists. Mossimo, the worlds fastest and most efficient walker and talker took us straight into the Sistine chapel. We were the only people (minus the guards) in the chapel for a good 15 to 20 minutes. Ironically the next tour group to walk in was the Miller family from Kansas City who just happened to be my cousin's best friend from high school's family. Angela is studying in Spain and was meeting her family in Rome just like me. A small world we live in. Mossimo took us through the history of Michelangelo's two part painting masterpiece. After many hours of Dolby's art history lessons, I not only found Mossimo to be 10 thousand times easier to listen to but I truly felt that I had an even better understanding of the work, and my knowledge of Michelangelo previous work helped to put this in context. I am ashamed to mention this because I feel that everyone who has already been to Rome said that their "wowza" experience happened inside the Sistine chapel, however I imagined the chapel to be much different than it was for some reason. Possibly bigger and brighter and for some reason more gold. Mossimio explained that the chapel was recently cleaned (recently for Italians is anything in the past 100 years) in 1994 and before then, the walls were probably four or five shades darker due to the soot that collected on the walls from the candles they used to burn in the chapel. We were also given the golden ticket to take a few pictures in the chapel. Most people are not given this opportunity. Mossimio captured some of the Isenberg's finest photo's. After the chapel, we toured the Vatican's entire collection of art work, statues, carpets, jewelry, maps and paintings. The Pope is a powerful man, he knows how to work his money. Mossimio had done his pope-work, and he was the man of all stories and answers. He even pulled out his duel packed cell-phone camera numerous times to give us a comparison of different paintings and zoomed in details that we couldn't see from where we were. I hadn't realized how much time we had been there until Monica's ADD started to kick her in the butt very hard, and when I looked at my clock it was already 11 o'clock and we hadn't even made it into the Basilica. We toured through the four rooms that Raphael was commissioned to do by the Pope and then finally made our way through the crowds to St. Petersburg. I can't even imagine the feeling people who are actually tied to this religion might feel upon entering this church but DAMN. I must say I have been to my fair share of churches and I think if I put them all together they would be about the same size as St. Petersburg. Unlike the first part of tour, the church was jam packed with every kind of tourist. Amy I. had met a record high for her questions and she was dying to go into the confessionals until Mama I. had to confess to her that we were Jewish and that we couldn't go in one. Mama I. must have been annoyed with her persistent questioning because she said it rather loud and Mossimo over heard...thats when he found out that we were Jewish. It was pretty unfortunate that the sky decided to rain all day because we were not able to tour around all Vatican city. Around 12:30 we headed over to the gift shop and Amy I. went crazy for the mosaics and we bought Aidan, Isabel and Bridget rosaries. We intended on going to the first Jewish Deli in Rome but it ended up not going to a Jewish deli at all, and I don't think they even had sandwiches at all. Papa I. and Little Adam I. headed to a rainy 3 o'clock football game and us girls decided that we would wander the street, possibly do some shopping. By the time we came home, it looked like we had just decided to take a group shower in our clothes, our shoes were filled and are hair matted wet to our heads. We were singing under our umbrella's ellas ellas ellas ay ay ay ay ay. The only way to protect us from any kind of sickness was naturally to get gelato. It cured all coldness and helped to keep my mind off the fact the entire bottom portion of my pants were soaked. We came back to the hotel stripped down and jumped in our pj's and then into bed for a warm power nap. For dinner we headed to a restaurant recommend by our tour guide Andre. I have yet to be unimpressed with this city and its food and we all split a variety of pastas, veggies and steaks. It was another enjoyable long dinner night. We just couldn't stop laughing! The only downfall to the diner were these invisible but visible enough fruit flies that swarmed our table. They didn't seem to bother anyone else but us, and sporadically one of us would try to smack them down. Our smacks and claps were not fast enough and Mama I. insisted that we ignore them because the tables around us were starting to stare. We headed back home and packed up. Last night of Isenberg reunion-ness, sad sad sad.
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