What to do in Rome.

Has anybody been to Rome?

Penny suggested Rome as our next trip, probably as a test to see how much Italian I know...  At least that's what Fernando would do.  We've been watching the Detective Montalbano TV series on DVD, trying to recognize a few phrases, like "Che è successo?"  (If you are interested, you can learn some Italian by watching Italian Lessons on YouTube.)   Montalbano lives in Sicilia, not Rome, but I don't think he speaks the Sicilian dialect, at least not on TiVu.  The part I love best is the opening sequence:



Such wonderful scenery!

But I digress.  Back to Rome.  I wonder if they have a TiVu series based there.

I always like to see what people suggest as the best things to do in a city, even if some suggestions are to be completely ignored, like "Enroll in Gladiatior School to experience the real Rome back in the day" -- I'll just read those books by Alberto Angela.

Here are a few collections:

1. 30 Unique Things To Do in Rome by Eating Italy Food Tours.  It's a compilation from 30 different people so that's nice.
2. National Geographic: Free Things to Do in Rome.   We always love "free" things, especially after we've spent a thousand dollars on airfare to get there.
3. Time-Out Rome: 20 Great Things to Do in Rome.  But still no list of open-air markets...
4. Time Magazine: Rome 10 Things to Do.  "They say the best museum in Rome is the city itself."  He mentions eating a Kosher pizza: no cheese -- what fun is that?  Dump the meat!

One thing to note: don't follow the links on these lists.  Lots are broken.  Who knows when these lists were made.  But it doesn't matter because Rome is a Timeless City!

Thursday on Clement Street with Susan & Rich

Penny skipped one of our days in San Francisco.  The weather here in Pittsburgh is a balmy 49 degrees so it warmed me up enough that I could look back on our trip without weeping over our current temperatures.

Susan and Rich drove in from St. Helena, over the Golden Gate Bridge, and she has a wonderful photo to prove it.  It's different from our photos because she was able to take a shot from the middle of the bridge.  I thought about that when we were crossing the bridge but I wasn't sure that Penny and Fernando would want to stop the traffic for me...

Since they drove in with their Honda CRV and parking is tight on Russian Hill, we decided to drive out to the Richmond District, to Clement Street, which is supposed to be the new Chinatown.  I remember going there in the early 1990s with Mother and Daddy and finding fresh soy milk.  And I remember the Asian supermarkets as being new and clean but 20 years have certainly taken their toll.  Give me the Wheaton H-Mart any day -- although in 20 years it might not look so inviting either.

Our first stop was B-Star, the sister of the popular Burma Superstar restaurant.  Susan and Rich were already familiar with the one in Oakland so we looked to them for guidance on what to eat.   We ordered 3 salads and two hot dishes but the salads were the most popular, maybe because it was lunch and salads are always more refreshing.

Then we wandered the neighborhood, picking up some new books at a used book store (how weird is that...) and ending up at Kamei Restaurant Supply which had all sorts of Japanese bowls and clay pots and stone bowls.  If only we had been driving back to Pittsburgh...  Susan was quite taken with it all and does she know that the Japanese don't use settings for 10 but instead have a different design for each dish?  Unfortunately I only trust plastic in my carryon and so only picked up a set of chopsticks and a small white plastic condiment dish for the black ink in my oriental painting course (how boring is that?).  Below you can see a photo of Susan's new acquisition that she posted on Facebook (I left my camera in the apartment on this trip).

View of Mt. Sutro

UCSF Medical Campus

University of San Francisco

Then Susan and Rich took us to the de Young Museum tower which is 9 stories tall and offers wonderful views of the city, including Moffitt Hospital at UCSF on Mount Sutro where Will and Camila were born (and where I had a lot of dental work done...).  Towards the downtown area you can also see the University of San Francisco and its Lone Mountain campus along with St. Ignatius cathedral (or is it a church??).

Eventually we made it back to our apartment and found a place for Rich to park nearby for a couple of hours.  We had to take them up the Green Street Steps and along Macondray Lane before they went home.  I had had visions of doing a lot of stairway walks while we were in San Francisco but my knees haven't been cooperating.  I'll have to save the walks for the next visit (I have the book in my Kindle account) and hopefully the knees and legs will have recovered (cross your fingers) and not deteriorated further!  Although I'm sure that some other part of my body will be moaning and groaning by then...

Friday - Pi Day at the Exploratorium

The Exploratorium has declared March 14 as Pi Day, and that's great because it means admission is free so off we go...

First we check our mail and map...

then stop for breakfast at La Boulange where Fernando discovers one of the jams is ketchup

Up and down we walk, although, in truth, we charted a pretty level path to Pier 15, the Exploratorium's new location.

The line wasn't too long and soon we were in the cavernous building ready to play with all the interactive exhibits - all hands on and all working!!! 

  

 The crowd was wonderfully diverse.  I particularly enjoy a group of Chinese seniors.  Everyone is having fun messing with the controls.

The place is immense.

We spent the morning and saw fewer than half of the exhibits and took full advantage of the places to rest. 

And the view.....and a great library

 And a wonderful sculpture by Scott Weaver made entirely with toothpicks and Elmer's Glue over a period of 30 years (and still counting).

Rolling Through the Bay

This is Scott's hat

 We really needed a whole week to come and sample all of the exhibits, but our senior bodies and minds were wearing out.

So we passed on the free pie at 1:59 pm

and staggered out the door and onto the F (Embarcadero) streetcar with a grumpy driver (all those tourists!)








And went off to see Frog and Toad at the Contemporary Jewish Museum with a stop at a Boudin Bakery (the sourdough bread we remember) for lunch.

Later, after a nap at the apartment, we went out to buy some Italian sausage, ravioli, etc. to cook for dinner, but all the grocery stores were closed so we settled for another Molinari sandwich along with our salad leftovers.  But, on the way, this is what we saw

Sad to leave San Francisco

Wednesday: The Golden Gate Bridge

Wednesday was our day for trekking across the Golden Gate, although the first challenge was finding a bus that would take us as far as the toll plaza.  The #76 only runs on weekends and holidays and the #1 that Fernando's AARP app gave us must have been a Golden Gate Transit bus, not an SF MUNI, but the #28 goes up around the Presidio to the Golden Gate Bridge Toll Plaza on its way to Daly City from Fort Mason.  Of course we had to catch a #45 first and then connect with #28 at Chestnut but we didn't have to wait long for either.  And on the way to the #45 at Columbus and Union we stopped at La Boulange bakery to pick up a couple of fruit and nut rolls to sustain us during the bus ride.  And we had to pick up our lunch at Molinari's Italian delicatessen: two hefty sandwiches.  Fernando's was the Milanese with a lot of pastrami and Penny and I split a goodfella, with prosciutto, salami and roast beef - plus a lot of fixings and dressings slathered on top.

Wednesday was a very windy day but it was sunny and surprisingly warm.  I took my heavier fleece and my windbreaker but never had to break out my windbreaker.  Unfortunately it was too windy to wear a had so I had to resort to sunscreen and sunglasses.  Nobody was using parasols that day.  Lots of walkers, runners and pedestrians on the bridge for a weekday.  Cyclists were to stay on the west side of the sidewalk and walkers on the east (only the sidewalk on the east side of the bridge was open) and you had to watch out for the Blazing Saddle rental bike riders who hadn't been on a bike for years and rode in groups. 

But we made it all the way across despite all the dangers, took lots of photos (which I'll add someday) and ate our sandwiches at the other end.  Unfortunately there were no picnic benches and we had to sit on the ground (it's a real challenge for us to get up now) but it still was a lovely picnic, you just had to make sure that the wind didn't carry off your napkins.  Of course we still had to make it back over the bridge and my right knee and leg were beginning to complain so I was bringing up the rear.   We saw a wonderfully loaded container ship that was carrying so much that it was a wonder it didn't sink.

Miracle of miracles, I made it back across (I didn't worry a bit about walking all over San Francisco last July) and we found that the #28 bus also stopped at the bridge on its way in from Daly City to Fort Mason.  So we jumped on that, then transferred to the 30 and got off to make a grocery stop at Trader Joe's.  And then we waited hours for the Powell-mason cable car because the operators only go when they feel like it.

For dinner we had to reward ourselves with a Persian meal at Maykadeh on Green Street across Columbus.  Fernando had Rocky Mountain Oysters, I had chicken in a walnut/pomegranate sauce and Penny had lamb shank.  It was good but of course couldn't compare with Raffi's Place in Glendale.  I think that Los Angeles has a larger ethnic population to draw from, whether it is Persian/Armenian, Mexican or Jewish.  San Francisco has lots of Chinese and lots and lots of Italian restaurants.

Monday: The Japanese Tea Garden; Tuesday: the Mission

We had hoped to keep you abreast of our activities while in San Francisco but we are three days behind.  On Monday we rode the cable car down to Market and then took the #5 bus out to Golden Gate Park, hoping to get there before 9:30 am when the San Francisco City Guides tour of the Japanese Tea Garden began.  We were a little late but the group was still at the entrance when we arrived.  The Japanese Tea Garden is free from 9-10 am on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  The azaleas were out and everything was beautifully green and a real incentive for creating one's own Japanese garden, but I will have to change our walks from straight to winding.  Japanese gardens are also an incentive for pruning and training trees and bushes instead of letting them run natural and rampant.  I loved this place as a kid, probably because there was moss and ferns and water, something sorely lacking in Southern California.  We took lots of photos and they will eventually be added.

After the Tea Garden we walked over to the San Francisco Botanic Garden but we had to pay there, although I had thought it was free.  I guess they put up a fence in the meantime.  They have a fair number of interesting plantings although their "fragrance" garden was a disappointment, especially considering the number of fragrant trees we have encountered on city streets and the pink jasmine that is now in bloom here.  Unfortunately I cannot identify the trees but they are evergreens.  We only saw part of the Botanic Garden before we got hungry and went over to the Inner Sunset on 9th Avenue to eat at a Japanese restaurant called Kiki's.  We had the bento lunches:  Fernando had an unagi roll and fried dumplings, Penny had a California roll and tempura, I had teriyaki salmon and a California roll.  The California roll wasn't the greatest since they mixed the artificial crab with mayonnaise (I've never seen that before) and didn't sprinkle on any tiny red fish roe (I love those crunchy jewels).   Penny fell in love with the house tea since it was Gen Maicha, the Japanese green tea with roasted brown rice.

We had thought about going back to the Botanic Garden but the Beach Chalet was calling us so we took the Judah Streetcar, the N line, out to the beach.  At the Botanic Garden store I had splurged and bought a $3 SF Muni transit map which has been very helpful at identifying the routes and where they go.  Unfortunately when you get out that far in the Sunset the buses don't come very often and they don't stop at all on the Great Highway that runs along the beach.  I had to hobble all the way over to the Beach Chalet where we refreshed ourselves with a flight of their own brews, which I never find to be as good as my regular favorites.  But the murals of San Francisco were very pretty and always interesting.   Then we walked over to La Playa to wait for a #18 bus that would take us up towards the Palace of the Legion of Honor where we caught the #1 bus that runs into town along California Street.  Then we waited for the Powell-Mason cable car that took us home.

Taking all these buses really uses up time, and the cable cars don't come very frequently,  so we were tired by the time we arrived home and we took our nap even though it was late in the afternoon.  We'd had a huge lunch and so had a simple dinner of bread and cheese and a salad, and of course some wine, or was it beer?  Oh wait! maybe we had our second slice of pizza at Tony's, which wasn't as good as the first day.  On Monday and Tuesday nights, many of the North Beach restaurants are closed so there aren't many customers in the area and not much turnover in the pizzas.

On Tuesday we decided to do the Mission District murals so again took the cable car down to Market, walked over to Mission Street and took the #14 bus down to 16th Street.  First stop was the Redstone Building to see the murals inside but first Fernando had to buy a Chilean empanada at a little hole in the wall.  I'm afraid I only like the fried cheese empanadas and they don't do those decadent things here in the States.  The murals in Clarion Alley were interesting but more informal than the WPA murals of Coit Tower and not as nice as the Beach Chalet murals.   The ones on the Women's Building were more finished but it's always hard to take photos of things of the wall, especially when they are in the shade.  The Mission is interesting in the juxtaposition of very low class stores on Mission Street and gentrified housing a street over.  There was a community garden that I had to browse through, just to see what I could be growing here while my garden in Pittsburgh is frozen solid....

We had lunch at a Mexican restaurant, La Quinta, where all of the patrons were Hispanic.  Penny and I had a standard plate of beans, rice, salad and chiles rellenos.  Fernando had the daily special of pork ribs.  I think we should not have full meals but just a taco here and there because we were ready for a siesta when we finished.  We're only able to do a half day of activity at our age and then we are pooped, and we still had to navigate the bus system back to the apartment:  #49 north along Mission and Van Ness and the #45 up Union to Mason, and then walking the block and a half up the hill to our apartment.  We have a new appreciation for hills...

However, after our refreshing nap, we had to go out and hike the Green Street steps which are at the top of our block, and then down Jones to Macondray Lane, of "Tales of the City" fame.  That was really nice.  A lovely leafy walkway that we must take Susan and Rich to see.

From there we went down to Chinatown but these days, after having been to Hong Kong,  I'm always disappointed.  Plus the stores look a bit messy and perhaps in my old age Fernando's perpetual harping to get organized is having its effect.  Of course, since everything these days is from China, it doesn't have the allure that it once had.

While we were there we noticed billows of smoke coming up over the skyline from the direction of downtown.  My first thought was of the1906 fire that quickly engulfed the rest of the city and I wondered if we shouldn't evacuate.  But we couldn't find anything on our iPhones about the fire and we didn't hear any sirens and nobody else seemed to notice it so we went about our business.  No big purchases and we soon struggled back up the hill (one of many) to the cable car, which we took back home.  At $6 a pop, we have certainly recouped the cost of the 7-day MUNI passport.

After the Mexican lunch, we were only ready for a simple salad, bread and cheese at home.  And of course a bottle of wine.

Sunday: The Embarcadero

We all arrived safe and sound at the apartment on Russian Hill on Saturday.  Fernando and I chickened out of taking the BART from the airport and followed Penny's good example of taking the Super Shuttle that would leave us right at the door.  This was a wise idea because the apartment is definitely on a hill.

Since it was around 8 o'clock when we arrived and we were starving, we tumbled down the hill a couple of blocks to Columbus to check out the restaurants.  It was Saturday night and North Beach was hopping with a lot of baby boomers like us.  Most restaurants were full with waiting lines so we were checking them all out for later.  Capp's Corner, closest to us, has a prix fixe dinner with a soup and salad served family-style.  That looked quaint but it is closed on Monday and Tuesday in the winter.  On the corner is Molinari's delicatessen and Fernando keeps wanting to stop in for a sandwich but so far we have restrained him.  Maybe we can pack up sandwiches for our walk across the Golden Gate Bridge one of these days.

We decided on Tony's Pizza Napoletana but the line was out the door.  Fortunately he has a "slice house" next door that is a quicker take-out so we got in line there.  Not quite the same as your own pizza hot out of the oven but we were hungry.  Then we picked up a bottle of Chimay for Fernando at a nearby grocery, went home, fixed a salad, ate dinner and thought it was the best pizza we'd ever had... We helped Fernando with the Chimay.

Next morning we hopped on the Powell - Mason cable car, which stops half a block down the hill from the apartment, and rode down to Trader Joe's and Safeway on Bay.  We were able to do our shopping and ride the cable car back up to the apartment before Erika came around 10:30. 



Sunday Streets took place last Sunday on the Embarcadero so half of the street was closed to vehicular traffic, which meant that it was full of bicycles -- the pedestrians stayed on the sidewalk.  It was here that my knee began acting up and I went limping along to the Ferry Building where we had Vietnamese sandwiches and fresh spring rolls for lunch at Out the Door.  The Ferry Building was hopping -- I don't know if it is like this every Sunday or if Sunday Streets drew so many people out -- and is lined with small shops with very interesting items that we couldn't afford -- lots of eye candy.

Then Penny and Erika walked, and I hobbled, down Market to catch a bus to take us to Gough Street (Gough as in "go", not "cough" says Erika).  Then up to Octavia Street to another area hopping with 20-30 somethings instead of baby boomers.  They had a biergarten within a chain link fence with train/ship container box cars for the buildings.  Erika took us to Smitten, an ice cream shack with four made-to-order ice creams: classic vanilla, Tchoc chocolate, blood orange and mint chocolate chop.  We waited in another line and finally got smooth rich almost pudding-like ice cream, frozen with liquid nitrogen.  Erika's mint chocolate chip was the best because it tasted like fresh mint.

We are making good use of our MUNI 7-day passport, taking two buses back to the apartment: the first one down Van Ness to Union and the second up Union to Mason.  We did have to hike up Mason that last block to Green but otherwise my knee was able to take a break.  Then we sent Erika off, after a short rest on our "balcony", and fixed ourselves a simple dinner of bread, cheese and a salad made from lettuce and other odds and ends (mango, almonds from our caramel popcorn, little tomatoes).

Fernando hit the hay around 8:30 but Penny and I had to stay up and watch a Pink Panther movie with Roberto Benigno.  We had to get our laughs in before retiring.  Next day: The Japanese Tea Garden.

San Francisco in 1955, 1930s and 1963

I stumbled across this YouTube Video of a travel promotional film from 1955, although I would have thought it was earlier since I don't see any examples of our 1955 Ford Station Wagon!  It is quite interesting and I think Mother would appreciate it.  I figure that the first time I went to San Francisco was the year that Susan was born, in 1953, when we stayed at the Oxford Hotel with Nana.  I remember that Mother said we could each pick out a toy to buy.  Penny got a dolly but I remember wanting a space helmet and ending up with a yellow plastic squirt gun that we used to squirt at passerbys out the window of the hotel.  We were quite a ways up so the water would have evaporated by the time it hit the ground.  No, parents didn't worry about their children falling out the windows.  We were too smart for that.

To get back to the video.  The narrator says that Van Ness Avenue (pronounced vanice as in Venice) stopped the 1906 fire.  Whatever happened to the Skyway at the Cliff House that went out over Seal Rock?  What ever happened to the amusement park Playland??  If I had known they existed in 1955 I would have made sure that we got there instead of Tommy's Joynt!!

If you watch closely, you can see that one of the cable cars has an ad on the side for Yamato Sukiyaki!!

And then at the end, I can see that there is also a video of 1930s San Francisco.  And even in the 1930s they were calling the cable cars "quaint"!  Mother should like this since she was there in the 1930s. 

And then there is the 1963 Story of a City.  "Sweeping views of clean, white homes..."  San Franciscans "dress well and walk briskly..."  And they highlight the pigeons of Union Square with the Hotel Plaza in the background.   These documentaries are so interesting to watch and we still haven't gotten to the Transamerica Pyramid!  They talk of the "old houses standing in timid contrast to the new apartment buildings, as if wondering when they too must give way to progress". 

And of course, I had to watch the video of the Sutro Baths.  They must have been quite spectacular.

Quick! Quick! What's Happening Next Week in SF??

Dang! We missed the Free Shoe Shine Night at Elixir Bar in the Mission:  buy a Boot Black Stout and a shot (or cocktail) of Black Grouse Whisky and get a free shoe shine the first Monday of the month.  The first Tuesday of the month is free museum day so we'll miss that too, not to mention all the Mardi Gras goings on today.  And, oh gosh!, we'll miss out on free pancakes at IHOP during National Pancake Day as well!

But on Sunday, March 9th, Sunday Streets begins with a Kick-Off Party at the Embarcadero. They close 3 miles of the street for walking and biking and set up family-friendly activities along the way.  It runs from 11 am to 4 pm.  Do we want to switch our destination from the Mission District to the Embarcadero?  Or do we want to make sure we avoid it??

We could do a free tour of the Pirates of the Caribbean Ship over in Sausalito on March 9, 11 or 12th.
And then we'll just squeak out of San Francisco before the St. Patrick's Day Parade on March 15th.  Fortunately we'll be there for Pi Day and also for the Georgia O'Keefe exhibit at the de Young Museum, but that isn't a free event but $23 for seniors and tickets are timed every 15 minutes.  Ouch!  I wonder if it will be like that Van Gogh exhibit in LA. that I took Mother and Daddy to many years ago.

La Nebbia, Nebby and Neblina

Ah, these nebby words.

Another San Francisco restaurant review on La Nebbia, a prosciutto bar way out in Noe Valley run by a Sardinian couple that also run La Ciccia around the corner  Immediately I asked myself "Is this where Pittsburgh gets its word nebby,  since it has so many Italians?"  But la nebbia is the same as the Spanish neblina, meaning fog or mist.  Nebby in Pittsburghese means nosey so I am hard put to find how it could have been derived from nebbia, but it is also hard for a Pittsburgher to see the word La Nebbia and not think of being nebby.  Prosciutto isn't my favorite meat but I do remember eating a serrano ham in Toulon, France that was particularly good.

Crab Tostadas

There's also a Jaliscan-Californian restaurant called Loló in the Mission District that offers dishes that Fernando might like: octopus tiradito, oxtail empanadas, squid in black ink, gambas bravas, lamb sliders, beef tongue mini tortas...  It has Fernando written all over it, even in the mezcal bar.  However it is a tapas place with loud Latin music and reservations are recommended well in advance, which makes me feel that it is too trendy for us.   Hm.  I wonder if AARP has a restaurant guide to San Francisco...

San Francisco Eater has a Heat Map that lets you know "what's new, what's hot, which favorite chef just launched a sophomore effort, where to sip the cocktail of the moment".  One of the hot new restaurants is Verbena (which I mentioned in my last post) that SF Eater calls "another nice addition to the suddenly hot restaurant scene in Russian Hill."  Isn't it exciting to be staying in the midst of a suddenly hot restaurant scene?  Maybe we should just eat close to home!  Although I think most of this hot restaurant scene is on the west side of Russian Hill so we'd have to hike up and over or take the bus.

We could splurge and go to La Folie which has one Michelin Star and hosted President Francois Hollande for lunch recently.  They have a Menu Jardiniere for $95 but the photos of their meat dishes will easily dissuade you from going vegetarian.  For dinner they offer a 3 course menu for $85, a four course for $95 and a 5 course for $105.  Obviously the 5-course menu is the best deal and we wouldn't have to eat at all the following day.  Let's see.  What would I order?

1. Dungeness Crab Salad, Green Apple and Fennel Panna Cotta, Blood Lime Vinaigrette
2. Goat Cheese Tatin, with Roasted Eggplant, Artichokes, Tomato Confit, Portobello Mushroom, and Sauce Vièrge
3. Lobster and Mushroom Risotto, with Leeks and Lobster Broth
4. Roasted Emigh Farm Lamb Chop with Butter Beans, Lamb Bacon, Curry Carrot-Date Puree
5. Fuji Apple Tart Tatin, Crunchy Puff Pastry, Kabocha Crème Caramel, Maker’s Mark Ice Cream,  Pomegranate

As you can see, there's lots of preparation that goes into these dishes so it is probably worth the $105.  However they probably expect us to dress up and we are on vacation...

Hard Water and Wooden Pickles

Here I thought they were talking about that calcium-rich Fillmore water and instead they mean Bourbon.   The San Francisco Chronicle was reviewing another restaurant from Charles Phan (of the Slanted Door, Out the Door, etc) -- although Charlie Phan is easier to say -- called Hard Water.  It specializes in Southern cuisine, like gumbo, fried chicken, and muffaletta.  Appropriately they offer collard greens, black eyed peas, macaroni and cheese, and grits as sides but I don't see any chitlins on their menus, although they do offer boiled peanuts.  These are all a foil for his American Whiskey, which is the point of the place -- you can order flights of different kinds.  After a few whiskeys I suppose you would eat anything, so maybe they will eventually try chitlins...  I must admit that those pieces of fried chicken look mighty tasty and the cocktails look intriguing but they are $11 apiece (like at La Mar) so perhaps that is the going price for cocktails in San Francisco, at least when they have a view.  They offer one called the "Presbyterian" with Wild Turkey 101 bourbon, lemon, ginger, and soda which is evidently a spicier version of a common cocktail.  Maybe I should frequent bars more often so I'd know.   Ooooh.  I wonder if they have happy hour with half-price drinks.  THAT would make it affordable.

Oh, oh, I just read that they share a public restroom outside...??

Instead maybe we should try another new restaurant that opened in December and that is located in our neighborhood on Russian Hill: Verbena.  According to the San Francisco Chronicle, they celebrate  vegetables (not necessarily vegetarian) and they have an "illuminated wooden pickle wall" -- sort of like Hard Water's bourbon wall, but wooden pickles?  what fun is that?  I wonder what other food walls we can find in San Francisco.  Oh my gosh they use Garum with their beef rib, and also pumpkin milk, lovage, beet sauerkraut, nettles and chickweed.  Are we ready for this??

What is this???  It looks like a dish didn't agree with a customer...