Reggio Emilia Family-Guided Tour

Don't ever doubt Italian hospitality.

While in Reggio Emilia, my cousins Alessandro and Elisa took us all around the city center, showing us a really rich history of the city. They were so gracious and wonderful, and very sneaky about paying for lunch then acting like they suddenly didn't speak English.

I got a great tour of Reggio's best cappuccinos — I had three of them in a day which is about 2.5 more than I usually have! Coffee is integral to Italian meals. Any time we sat down at a restaurant or with family, we were offered coffee after the meal. I don't think the meal is over until you've had coffee. I've always known coffee either as a superfluous treat (for me) or as daily fuel (for family/coworkers). It was all delicious so I was glad to have a reason to try so much. For science.

Then they showed us a lot of history in Reggio Emilia, such as the gates from the ancient wall surrounding the city, Via Emilia, a road the Romans established, and beautifully painted ceilings in the H&M store. Oh, and uncovered facades on walls in the book store. And a beautiful plaza that you would swear was the inspiration for the Romeo and Juliet balcony scene. Y'know, the usual.

Point of origin of the city of Reggio Emilia, on Via Emilia

Erbazzone, a regional food - basically a pot pie crust and spinach/ricotta/etc. filling. OM NOM NOMS

One of Reggio Emilia's many squares, with tower and church residing over it.

One of the gates in the ancient wall that surrounded Reggio Emilia during Roman times.

Adorable graffiti.

Did I mention they were showing us all this stuff on the rainiest, coldest day ever, and they didn't complain even one time? Italian hospitality. Don't underestimate it!

The afternoon included visits to two cathedrals, a quick look in a museum and the pièce de résistance, Il Museo del Tricolore, a museum dedicated to the history of Italian Flag, which was created in Reggio Emilia! It was really big and had so much memorabilia related to the history of both the flag and the reunification of Italy in the 1850-70s. It was all in Italian, so I only got the gist of most things. But I also had fun translating the Italian using Spanish, and having Elisa help me fill in the blanks. Which makes me want to really learn Italian, then return so I can be immersed in it! A new challenge. (A new start?)

And then, after all of that, we went to an enormous dinner with a whole bunch of Allegris and cousins and in-laws, oh my! I am so. incredibly. happy. And full. This group opened their hearts and made us all Allegris. And even though a whole lot of none of them spoke English, we were able to piece together meaningful exchanges using the tiny amount of Italian I'd picked up, plus lots of pointing and gesturing.

A mere fraction of all the food we ate.

Lovely Elisa!

Romano

Oh, and I have a theory as to why Italians talk so much with their hands. When Italians walk around in a big group it's easy for tourists to get swept up and integrated, never to see their homelands again. And now that a foreigner is part of the family and the Italians have to figure out how to communicate, thus use giant gestures frequently. It's a working theory...

Rome Day 4: Day Trip to Pompeii

POMPEII!

Does anyone *not* have a memory from, like, fourth grade learning about Pompeii?

For me it's one of a handful of experiences I can point to and say, "that stuck with me." It was tragic and ancient, and amazing that a perfectly persevered-in-a-moment archaeological site came out of it. And today I walked it. I saw the plaster casts and the ruts from chariots.

It's not like Pompeii has occupied my thoughts incessantly for 20-some-odd years. Other than the basic pop-culture ancient-history tragedy I didn't know much about Pompeii before today. Turns out it was a huge, functional, on-its-way-to-glory city. It had crosswalks and bakeries and Roman baths and a red light district and impressive mosaics. Yet the people of Pompeii didn't know Vesuvius was a volcano. Go figure. 

Whether or not I had done my homework, Pompeii was really neat. Our two-hour tour explained the methodology of how archaeologists and historians have pieced together daily life, and they offered insight into most of what we were looking at. And it's all fascinating. What we know and how we know it is the kind of facts that just make you go Hmmmm. 

Let's let the photos do the talking, eh?

(More about the Dark Rome/City Wonders tour at the end of the post.)

H'okay. So. About the tour. 

It was, honestly, perfectly fine. Our two tour guides on the bus were fantastic and our guide around Pompeii was delightful. I very sincerely learned a lot and wanted it to continue for the whole day.

But it was still very much a get-on-the-bus; get-off-the-bus; listen-to-the-guide-in-headphones type of tour. According to our guides, Pompeii was busy today, and I'd doubt it gets any better if you're taking the tour in the summer. I got frustrated at certain points because I didn't feel like I had enough time to really take it all in. There was a boat-load of information but I just wanted to look at it. Which there frankly wasn't always time for. 

We stopped for lunch at a pizza place just down the road from the historic site, and the pizza was delicious (salad was meh). We also stopped by the National Archaeological Museum of Naples to see a lot of artifacts that had been "removed" (CoughLootedCough) including AHMAZING mosaic murals (HUGE, intricate murals) and erotic art originally from a Pompeii brothel (also, ahem, huge...).

Ultimately I felt like it was worth the money and I'd do it again, especially since it was my first day tour based out of Rome. But if I go back just for Pompeii, I'm definitely doing it DIY. High-speed trains leave frequently from Rome, so if you time it right you could have a lot more time to spend at the ruins than the two hours allotted for our tour (and we didn't get to go back to look at things!). 

Honestly, I'd seriously consider staying in Naples or Sorrento for a couple of nights if this is high on your to-do list. We had tried to work that into our itinerary but it was going to make everything super frantic. The ruins themselves have enough to look at for at least a day. Rick Steves (of Colosseum/Roman Forum fame) suggested three hours to follow along with his podcast on the site. You could very easily spend more time here.