Grounding McGrath: McGrath Boulevard 25% Design Meeting Thoughts

 Background

I was inspired by another Somerville resident to start live-tweeting city meetings. I tend to focus on East Somerville and adjacent, as it tends to have less coverage, and I'm personally invested. I've started doing this on BlueSky instead of Twitter, but also wanted to practice writing longer-form thoughts.

I care deeply about street safety for all road users, valuing safety over speed. I am a Yes-in-my-backyard who believes that gentrification does not have to mean displacement, but I also believe that people will take shortcuts and can make that development process miserable for neighbors and should meet some standards and expectations.

Now onto my meeting thoughts.

Meeting Recap

Why I care about McGrath

McGrath Highway borders East Somerville to the west and to access the rest of Somerville (except Assembly), I need to cross McGrath Highway. McGrath Highway was built in the 1950s, before the I93 viaduct that borders East Somerville to the north, and was supposed to be removed as a highway with the construction of the I93 viaduct. People often say that it's easier to destroy than create, but that absolutely does not seem true when the thing you want to destroy is an old highway.

In 2007, they discovered that one of the bridges of McGrath Highway, the McCarthy Overpass, was structurally deficient and something must be done. So sets off the decades-long planning of grounding McGrath, and turning it into a boulevard.

The McCarthy Overpass is where I interact with McGrath the most, as a bicyclist, as a pedestrian, as a driver, and occasionally as a bus rider. To get to Cambridge or Union Square, Somerville, I walk along Washington St, under the McCarthy Overpass, and into the rest of Somerville. I want to make this experience as safe, and preferably pleasant, as possible.

To learn more about this project from official sources, you can go to the MassDOT page for the project.

The different intersections

Rufo Road/Third St

This is mostly the part of McGrath that is in Cambridge. It has been broken out into a separate project and separate meetings will be held about this. This makes the McGrath Boulevard project completely within Somerville's boundaries. It's good to separate out scope when possible, and Cambridge can have a bit more say about this part of it, though some East Cambridge residents claimed they never got outreach about the McGrath Boulevard project. People will show up to a first meeting, billed as a first meeting, and express outrage that this is the first they've heard about this project. So now all meetings include slides on the type of outreach they've done; I'm not sure it does anything, but at least it's on the record.

Squire's Bridge is going to stay; it goes over the green line extension into Union Square.

Medford Street/Somerville Ave/Poplar St.

Current

25% Design Proposal

This is currently an intersection that is a little funky; MassDOT's proposal to make it more traditional 4-way intersections is a welcome change. I bike or walk along McGrath to Medford Street to go to East Cambridge and I've been honked at for just existing at this intersection. The proposed green space, as presented in the above proposal, does appear to close off two entrances to the Target parking lot. This is apparently not final and up to Somerville, but that parking lot exit and entrance on Medford St has led to bloodshed so I won't miss it.

Crash on July 23, 2025 ~ 1 PM. Driver turning into the Target parking lot officially claims, per police report, they didn't see bicyclist. Picture taken by my husband who was biking by.

The glass shop in the background is getting redeveloped into "life sciences + arts space" but that's currently on hold due to the current market conditions (we built too many life sciences buildings; who could've seen that coming /sarcasm).

It also opens up a new entry for drivers into the Brickbottom neighborhood, but only if you're coming from Medford Street. If you are approaching Brickbottom from the north, left turns have all been eliminated, to the distress of some Brickbottom residents. Currently, they can take a left at Washington St. or at Somerville/Medford. Under this new proposed design, they would need to go all the way past Medford St and take Somerville Ave Ext. (colloquially known as Scary Way).

MassDOT claims that travel pattern is pretty low, and it causes slowdowns. 

If you look at a map and map out the ways people get onto McGrath southbound, the main feeders are Highland, Medford (behind the high school), Pearl, Broadway, and Fellsway (basically McGrath Highway north of 93). For good measure, people getting off of 93 at the Sullivan exit might choose to take Broadway to McGrath (but they could have also taken the earlier 93 exit). The two red squiggles indicate the travel pattern they would no longer be able to take, but rather they would have to travel to the straight red arrow labelled Scary Way.

Map of Somerville east of Central St showing approaches to Brickbottom

While I'm not a resident, I'm not sure I understand the concern, as even under the future vision for Brickbottom, I see other non-circuitous routes to approach Brickbottom without using Scary Way. If you insist on avoiding Scary Way, people traveling from West Somerville can make their way down to Washington St eastbound. People north of Broadway/east of Brickbottom can make their way to Washington westbound. This option does assumes that the left at Joy Street is allowed, though, and there are some early speculation that it might be removed. There is a different conversation about potentially putting a crossing connection with Inner Belt, which would alleviate that. However, that crossing would have to cross the MBTA green line and commuter rail tracks.

Washington St.

This is my main interaction point with McGrath, as a resident of East Somerville.

Washington St, current configuration

Washington St, future configuration

The overpass is an eyesore and makes the experience extremely uncomfortable, between the speeding cars and the pigeon flocks, and an occasional storrowing.

Underpasses also create this uncomfortable echo chamber whenever there's a siren, and there's often sirens from Cataldo, which is just a few meters away. Speaking of Cataldo, they recently somehow crashed into the bus shelter below the overpass.

Cataldo van inexplicably many feet past the curb and touching the bus shelter, which looks thankfully and surprisingly intact. Photo from my husband

Google street view of Washington St westbound as you're approaching the McCarthy overpass.

One benefit of the overpass is the traffic is pretty light, as most people passing through use the overpass, and so I only interact with drivers passing through on Washington St or those going on or off McGrath Highway. Those going on or coming off of McGrath Highway are the major safety concerns as their mindset is going fast. As we add the traffic of those continuing on McGrath, it will be important that their interaction with McGrath is that it no longer is a highway, but a city street.

The future design still looks uncomfortably wide, but it is a busy intersection.  This width apparently allows for clearer signals and reduced conflicting signals for the different modes of travel. I'm also excited to see that slip lane onto Washington eastbound be removed. The bike lane marking is worn away from all the drivers who are incapable of staying in their lane when taking that turn.

I don't know that there's much to do here, as the potential compromise-options seem to be removing bus priority, creating travel conflicts, or really throttling the vehicle traffic. I liked someone's suggestion of adding some pedestrian islands when crossing Washington St., which could create a chicane as drivers approach the intersection, slowing drivers down (or making them extremely likely to crash when they don't...so knowing MassDOT's preference for driver safety, I'm not optimistic). I even asked some signal and traffic experts about a roundabout, but the traffic volume is too high. Alas, we could have had a beautiful boulevard with an impressive statue in the middle, a la Arc de Triomphe or something from Spain or Mexico.

I'm curious about the design for the AutoZone loading dock. They currently use extremely large trucks, which jut out dangerously into traffic, forcing pedestrians and bicyclists coming from the community path/green line into oncoming traffic. This is the 25% design, so the exact elements aren't set, and we're just discussing general layout.

Twice now, while helping Somerville with their annual bicyclists and pedestrians count, I watched an AutoZone truck back into the loading doc. It was jutting out past the sidewalk, past the bike lane, and into a vehicle travel lane. A pedestrian is seen walking in the street in front of the truck.

Will that truck continue to just park on the future sidewalk while unloading, forcing pedestrians and bicyclists into Washington St traffic? Before someone goes off about how I don't support companies getting deliveries: AutoZone can use a smaller truck. I've read a variety of reasons for why large trucks are only used, such as so they can hire fewer truck drivers to make more deliveries. Often these trucks are even making trips where the vehicles are not fully loaded.

I have the impression this is the intersection that is being addressed first, but I can't point to anything that supports or detracts from that impression. This is the structurally deficient overpass though...

Cross St

This is not a crossing that exists today, and so I'm excited by this crossing. This location has some different heights on the different sides of McGrath, and to make the crossing ADA compliant, there is a gentle slope in the median to bring pedestrians to the correct height. I'm not sure who will use this crossing, but it connects neighborhoods and breaks up the streets into human-scaled elements, so I support it. Perhaps this is the connection for Prospect Hill residents to access the Community Path entrance at Cross St.

Proposed crossing with ramp in the median. This will connect Cross St in East Somerville to Prospect Hill Ave.

I don't have a picture of a crash at this intersection taken by someone I personally know to show you, but there was a crash from someone coming off of McGrath into a Cross St business, just within the project area.

Highland/Medford

This next intersection is currently a trap...you get trapped in the wrong lane if you aren't in the know! It's almost a T-shaped intersection, but most drivers intend to continue on Highland, so the two left turn lanes quickly turn into a dangerous merge situation as drivers in the right lane discover their mistake.

Current condition

Proposed, with crossings and reducing the current left turn to one lane, which then allows people who intend to travel on Medford St to branch off.

The intersection currently doesn't allow non-vehicle crossing, and I've heard that Somerville High School students jaywalk across it to get to the school, so this new additional crossing will be welcome. If you're a driver, you'll appreciate the less confusing "oh no my lane disappeared on me!" as you turn from McGrath onto Highland Ave. If you are a thoughtful driver, you'll appreciate the lower occurance of "this person is trying to merge into me!" as drivers in the right turn lane try to merge into you. If you are an asshole, well, you still have the middle through lane to make an illegal left turn onto Highland.

Pearl St

Current condition

Proposed design - the entrance to Aldrich and Virginia Streets will be eliminated for vehicles.

This intersection will change a lot as it butts up against the Somerville Western Pearl Reconstruction project, which will happen in the next two years. While I found the lack of two-way bike lanes, backing away from the the Somerville Bike Network plan, disappointing, this change proposed by MassDOT is promising as it makes the Gilman St. Neighborway even nicer. Some of the more aggressive and faster drivers come from McGrath down Aldrich to Gilman St and this change will force them to drive around the block to access Gilman.

I don't have a crash photo to share with you, but this intersection is one that Somerville has listed as a high crash intersection in the past.

Otis St

This proposed intersection is another major point of disagreement. Currently there is a footbridge, in a poor state but a footbridge nonetheless, that allows people to cross from Winter Hill to East Somerville by going over McGrath Highway. MassDOT is proposing removing the footbridge and creating a new crossing, just for pedestrians and bicyclists, instead.

The footbridge was built before the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed, and has a slope steeper than what is required to be ADA-compliant. To bring it up to compliance would require extensive ramps, which would take away space from the abutting properties, one of which is a playground. The presence of a footbridge also reinforces a highway feel, allowing drivers to believe that others will be above the road, instead of sharing space.

MassDOT slide indicating issues with the bridge and opportunities created by creating an intersection instead.

Comparing the footprint of the bridge now, and if rebuilt to be ADA-compliant

I sympathize with the parents who don't trust drivers to respect the speed limits; we've all seen the number of speeding drivers and the lack of personal consequences that could potentially deter this behavior. However, I also don't believe those of us who value safety should willingly cede space that rightfully belongs to all of us, and we definitely should support people using mobility devices to cross safely. Where we should focus our efforts is making this crossing as safe as possible, for all users.

This is where the design is a bit disappointing. According to MassDOT, there are rules that prohibit adding traditional red, yellow, green signals for a crossing with this vehicle volume. I don't know enough about this in specifics, but I know in other states have incorrectly interpreted the law for when it's required to install these signals also as a law against installing the signals when it's not required. To put it another way, if the law says you must install a signal if there have been 4 deaths, it's been interpreted as you may NOT install the signal if there have been fewer than 4 deaths. I don't know if this is the case in Massachusetts, but there were others in the meeting who were questioning along this line. I trust they will determine if that's the case.

Latest proposed design, without a red, yellow, green signal, but rather an unspecified "overhead pedestrian signal".

Instead, MassDOT will install some other sort of signal with a raised crosswalk, yet to be determined. I, and many others, hope it will not be a HAWK light, due to the low compliance and high driver confusion (require re-taking the written driver's test when renewing licenses WHEN?!). I'm conflicted; I want to believe there is a world where the new McGrath Boulevard is a place where a simple pedestrian signal is respected, and a red, yellow, green signal is not. One only needs to go check out the speed bumps in Mexico to realize it's not unthinkable you could have no signals at all, and we're just asking MassDOT for the courage to install anything even slightly resembling those monstrosities.

But we also suspect that MassDOT does not possess that courage, and they are still designing all of McGrath to accommodate higher speed so that drivers are less likely to hurt themselves. So in order of preference:

1. EXTREMELY HIGH SPEED HUMP/TABLE
2. Red, Yellow, Green Stoplight
3. Flashing lights (Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons)
4. HAWK Signal

I do wonder if adding a second speed hump before the crosswalk would do the trick. If our road designers believed in iterations, that's what I would try. I also encourage them to try something temporary now, to try to simulate what McGrath might feel like when it's no longer a highway. Put some concrete barriers to narrow the road now. Add the regulation-height speed humps now to see how fast drivers actually take them. Show people that you can create a safe crossing there.

Broadway

The final intersection is Broadway, which was added to the scope of this project since the last meeting. This is a welcome addition, as the intersection with Broadway needs some major improvements, is very wide, and is the connection between this project and the other project to the north that's underway now.

Current condition, including many lanes and a slip lane

Proposed design, creating a continuous connection for bicyclists, and eliminating the slip lane that's a menace for pedestrians.

I would guess this is probably the largest intersection in all of Somerville (I didn't look this up). I volunteered to count bicyclists and pedestrians at this intersection one year and it was such a miserable experience. The noise and pollution was just unbearable. Yet, there were people who were biking and walking through this intersections.

Again, the justification for this large intersection to continue existing is that it allows for dedicated signals for all modes of travel. I don't know that there's much I would request to change here.

Noteworthy Q&A

One common theme besides Otis Footbridge and Brickbottom access was the median/green space. The current McGrath Highway takes up a lot of space. MassDOT will repurpose all that space as either paved travel lanes or green space. The green space is divided in three parts, alongside the road and the median. Consolidating this space could lead to some more useful space, such as a park for leisure or development. This seems off the table, which is such a shame, but it probably has to do with how to deal with that space. MassDOT is probably not well equipped to build parks or build developments, and probably also not well-equipped to pass off that land without it taking a long time (remember how long it took to pass off the Community Path Extension to Somerville). Doing so probably jeopardizes the timeline and therefore the funding. Pushing this issue will probably lead them to shelving this project for a bit, after they re-develop Rutherford Ave.

I rolled my eyes so hard at someone asking for elevators to be installed at Otis Street since they do it at subway stations, including the new green line stations, and yelled "YOU ARE NOT SERIOUS PEOPLE", but upon reflection, this is very unfair of me. I probably know more than the average person that the MBTA struggles to maintain those elevators in good working order, not to say anything about cleanliness. And they're not the only ones; elevator repair and inspection seems to be a common struggle. MassDOT representatives, much more diplomatically than me yelling in my room, said as much and also said they don't have a single elevator anywhere across the state. Anyway, so if you also instinctively thought "elevators!", maybe not.

It's also great that there are familiar people who speak at these meetings, people who care a lot about seeing this project happen, but also want to make sure that we get a McGrath Boulevard that is much more pleasant, healthy, and safe.

Trying to start a new habit

Hello World

I'm trying a new thing. I want to practice writing more. Typing away in a document doesn't bring me any joy and only doing it in a work context where everyone else just forgets about it (even me sometimes) makes things worse. Blame my millennial-ness, where I grew up mostly writing with pen and paper or otherwise struggling to get Word or WordPerfect to format everything correctly. Maybe it's the "Demos not Memos" mindset of working at startups. There's even a bit of feeling like I need to fight against everything being AI-generated.

Keeping a physical journal may have been a better idea, as it's less public, but it's less public, so I might fall back to just not doing it. Having just come back from a trip, I also want to remember how incredible some aspects of it were, and be able to pull up photos easily. So digital it is. And so here I go.

Around the world in 19 days

I recently circumnavigated the world; no wager, no hot air balloons, and no valet involved. My grandfather was celebrating his lunar birthday, which fell on Nov. 17 this year. He turned 99 by the Asian method of counting, 98 for the rest of us. His mind is still sharp, though his hearing and physical abilities are not. I make it a point to go to Taiwan to celebrate with him every year, now that I'm lucky enough to have time and resources to do so.

My husband, limited in vacation days, does not want to spend 20+ hours traveling to spend less than three weeks exploring. He doesn't have the three weeks this year, but he does have Thanksgiving-related vacation days, so we use Google Flights or Kayak Explore to find somewhere we can meet, in slightly warmer-than-Boston weather. We chose to meet up in Rome.

Leaving for the airport

My itinerary:
Nov 12 - Depart Boston for Taipei

Nov 13 - Arrive Taipei

Nov 21 - Depart Taipei for Rome

Nov 22 AM - Arrive Rome and meet up with my husband, drive to Viterbo

Nov 22 - 24 - Viterbo

Nov 24 - 26 - Orvieto

Nov 26 - Drive to Rome

Nov 26 - 30 - Rome

Nov 30 - Depart Rome for Boston

Taipei

This part of the trip was all about family. I've come to Taiwan a lot, including a semester abroad, so there's not a lot of sightseeing when it's just me. My Chinese is heavily-accented these days, but I can read enough that with context clues, I'm never lost for long.

My mom's college roommate took me out for two separate days of sightseeing in the Keelung, northern Taiwan coast area. Another one took me out for another day, just in Taipei. I kept myself entertained with a haircut and then a whirl through the National Palace Museum for yet another day.

Badouzi

A small fishing/tourist town with a tourist train, beautiful views of ocean and mountains, and the Shen'ao rail bike. I took a subway then train to meet my godmother (one of my mom's college roommates), who picked me up and showed me around. We walked around until it was time for our rail bike time (book ahead). The weather was overcast but eventually after a hotpot lunch buffet, the sun broke through and the water turned a brilliant blue color. There was a typhoon the day before and so the waves were still pretty rough. In hotter weather, you can swim as well. It was about 79 degrees, so other than the really rough waves, I'm sure my husband would have considered it swimming weather, but everyone else was wearing fall clothing.

One of the shores/beaches of Badouzi

One of many pictures of me in front of scenic views. My godmother insisted.

Me on the Badouzi tourist train platform. It runs roughly once an hour on weekends. I did not take the train. You must remember to tap on or off at the un-gated platform ends if you do take the train. If you don't take the train, you can just walk on the platform.

Setting out from the Badouzi rail bike station. The bike-car in front of us hasn't yet left us in the dust.

View along the rail bike. The car in front of us is barely visible ahead.

The bike-car is a two-seater, with pedals for both passengers. It's about a 15-minute pedal, with no electric-assist, and while I was doing most of the pedaling, it wasn't too difficult as it's mostly flat. The bike-car in front of us did leave us in the dust and I was creating a backup as I was trying not to get too sweaty. You bike by the rear side of some small stores, including one that feels like should serve coffee in a to-go window. There's also a tunnel to bike through with multi-colored lights. Once you reach the other side, you can line up to bike back (if you booked that), or take about a 20 minute walk back to town.

Other things to do in the area include some nice trails and an AR dinosaur park, which is just a regular park with dinosaurs if you don't download the app for the AR experience. By the way, in Taiwan, an app is pronounced as reading out every letter A-P-P. We walked through the park, but skipped the trails as we weren't sure about the weather or the state of the trails, and some were clearly closed due to recent weather.

Keelung

After Badouzi, my godmother took me to Keelung City for a few hours. We went up the Keelung Tower and walked to a nearby temple, but not the nearest temple, which is under construction and is known for opening doors to let the ghosts out every July where they can cause chaos and bad luck. What a strange tradition, letting the ghosts out for a month, and then closing them in at the end of the month. Is this like a Pandora's Box situation?

That's not the temple we went in though, but rather one even higher up the hill for a better view of Keelung. This other temple has this enormous statue of Guanyin in a park area.

Guanyin statue in Zhongzheng Park in Keelung

View of Keelung somewhere between the top of Keelung Tower and Zhongzheng Park. Cruise ships do dock in the smallish port, which apparently requires a lot of maneuvering when they try to leave.

We walked through an old air-raid shelter and then along the public Lido Deck Garden, which is above the cruise terminal.

As a bonus, I spotted these small fire trucks, which feel like a much better fit for Boston streets than the monstrous trucks we have. I'm exhausted by unimaginative people who think our streets need to accommodate our fire engines because they think those engines must be massive by design.

A fire station with two fire engines parked outside. While the engine is large, it's much smaller than one you would find in the US. One is a ladder truck, and the other (only half is pictured) has a different purpose.

Our newest fire station in Somerville, MA taken at its opening ceremony. Like Keelung, the station is located on the first floor of a parking garage. Unlike Keelung, this parking garage has fewer stories and house much larger engines.

National Palace Museum

I've been before, but it's been a few years and seemed like a good activity for a rainy day. It was an anniversary year for the museum, so some "special" things were out on display. I don't really understand art beyond the ability to appreciate that there are people who are immensely skilled in skills that I don't possess, so I mostly powered-walked through the large museum and stopped at things that caught my eye. I also avoided anything that required queuing to see, as there were large crowds gathered at some exhibits as the guide explained the significance.

The intricate ivory carvings done in the 18th century are amazing, and using modern-day technology to reveal the full details just further highlights the level of skill.

Carved open ivory box set with connecting chain (also out of ivory). 18th century, Qing dynasty.

A carved ivory ball, with concentric carved balls, attached to some sort of carved stand with more concentric carved balls. A CT scan showing each layer of the larger carved ball is in the background.

Closer view of the larger carved ball to show the detail. In this view, only the next size smaller is visible. You can see there are some detailed carvings in the inner ball.

The museum is filled with artifacts that were removed from museums in China when the nationalists were retreating from the communists. It's filled with old books and paintings, and even old archeological finds, documented by historians in the 1800s by taking rubbings of found cauldrons.

Ancient cauldron was found in 1800s and they recorded the finding by making a rubbing of the cauldron to capture the text engravings.

Maokong

In 2018, I had a wedding dinner and brief tea ceremony in Maokong, a mountain in Taipei where they grow tea and full of tea houses. It was an unconventional choice for everyone (the venue was a restaurant who asked for 7 days advance notice and warned that there were no changing rooms), but it was where I had taken my husband on his first Taipei visit, and it is accessible by a 20-30 minute gondola ride. I usually come back every time, because the food is good and the view of Taipei is beautiful, and it's public-transit accessible.

The gondola now charges 50 ntd (~$1.66) more per person to ride the glass-bottom cars, on top of the regular fare. It's cash-only for the additional fare, probably until they can get a new fare gate that charges the extra amount for people opting for the glass-bottom cars. I'm afraid of heights, but I do think it's worth riding. If the gondola isn't running due to Mondays or weather, there are buses, but not recommended for those who suffer from carsickness.

Another of my mom's former roommates accompanied me for lunch.

Me, in front of my former wedding venue restaurant.

View of Taipei skyline from inside the restaurant. Taipei 101 is visible, even on an overcast and drizzly day.

Land Bank Museum

After lunch, we went to the Land Bank Museum. It shares an entry ticket with the National Taiwan Museum, which was our original target, but it was an hour until closing and I'm more interested in dinosaurs than plants. They have a dinosaur exhibit, but also exhibits about the bank that used to be there, including how they restored the bank and also the old bank vault.

When I got home my grandfather jokingly chided me for coming home after dark (~6:30 PM). 

Jinshan

My relatives always ask me if there's anything I want to eat while I'm in Taiwan, knowing it's likely going to be beef noodle soup or soup dumplings. This year, I'm craving soup dumplings and they take me to their preferred location Shengyuan Xiao Long Bao. It's not instagram-worthy, just delicious dumplings for a good price and can accommodate larger groups. There can still be a long line and wait, so we show up shortly after opening time to get a table without a reservation.

An unmentionable number of soup dumplings later, I'm back on the train to meet up with my godmother, who takes me to another part of the northern coastline of Taiwan: Jinshan.

We take a walk along a pathway in Jinshan Shitoushan Park, where you can look out at the water and the rock formation/islet "Twin Candlesticks". It's a short walk and not too difficult and while the islets are kind of boring, the view is pretty nice, even on an overcast day.

View of the "Twin Candlesticks" out in the ocean. Some sandy beach is seen below on the coastline.

Afterwards, we go to the Huanggang Community Public Hot Springs, a free, public hot spring with copper-colored water. I'm unprepared and have skinny jeans on that I can't roll up, so I find a ledge to perch on so I get just my feet in the warm water without getting my jeans wet. The ledge that goes around the pools is heated by a pipe that runs underneath, and the covered area has slightly cooler water. The hottest pool had 46 degree Celsius water. Friends and strangers chat away while they soak their lower legs, while I'm doing some weird core and triceps work to keep my pant legs above water.

Me, perching on the edge of a cooler pool. The people in the background are taking a break from the hotter pool, and sitting on the warm ledge to keep warm.

A drizzle ends our visit and we have dinner in a seafood restaurant in a nearby village full of seafood restaurants and it's another "late night" for me.

Last few hours in Taipei

My flight to Rome, via Abu Dhabi, was in the early evening, so in the morning I spent some time at the local market getting my grandfather's favorite snack (according to my mother): Imagawayaki with red bean. He later eats one and tells me, uncharacteristically, that he loves eating them. He and my grandmother used to have them and then go out to Keelung for some curry, he said. 

Stand making imagawayaki. The owner just put in the fillings so they're visible.

Then I have a choice between a subway with a transfer or a one-seat bus ride (route 1968) to the airport. The timing is about the same, and the transfer includes some walking, so I opt for the bus ride. It doesn't have real-time tracking, unlike most other buses, and it shows up a few minutes late even though I'm near the beginning of the line. The bus is pretty empty and stays relatively so for the entire trip. I took a nap, but woke up around the second to last stop where I spotted a woman walking two geese, not on a leash. She was in a store, they were outside on the sidewalk, when she left the store, the geese waddled after her. I don't have a picture because I was really taken aback by the whole situation, not knowing for sure if those were actually her geese or just some wild/stray geese who had stumbled onto some city streets and decided to adopt her specifically.🤷

On the bus to the airport

And so ends the Taipei portion of this trip.

Italy

My flight is early and was already scheduled to land an hour before my husband's flight from Boston. It was quiet in the airport at 5 AM and I make my way through customs pretty quickly and into the baggage claim area. There is free wifi and also free chargers you can check out for your devices. I took advantage of both while I waited for my husband's flight to land. I also learned from watching the ads in the terminal that my credit card has a free 3GB international data plan perk via GigSky so I also took the time to take advantage of that.

We booked a rental car to drive from the airport to our adventures outside of Rome, planning to return the car when we get to the Rome portion of the trip. Viterbo and Orvieto are both train-accessible, but we wanted to explore some of the countryside near those towns, so we rented a car.

 Viterbo

Driving from Rome, we stopped in a small town along the coast called Santa Marinella for some breakfast and coffee. The drive was easy and the tolls can be paid by tapping a credit card. It was a beautiful place and something was going on in the harbor where sailboats were being lowered into the water by a crane. Neither of us possessed enough Italian to ask what was happening so we just watched for a bit before we walked around some more. There's also a train that comes to this town.

We chose to stay at B&B a Piazza del Gesu within the walled portion of Viterbo. It is within the ZTL but it appears guests at hotels are allowed in if registered. The streets are narrow and cobblestoned and absolutely does not feel like you should be allowed to drive on them, but there are cars. The B&B had two large dogs who like to run out into the piazza when the doors are open and were very comical. Our room looked out into the piazza and was very comfortable. Because it was the off-season, we were able to check in early.

One of the entrances to the walled city. Incredibly, you can drive through that entrance.

Viterbo was fully in Christmas mode, with Christmas-y activities tucked in random nooks and crannies of the city. They were also blasting Christmas music in one of the squares near MagnaMagna, where they were able to fit us in for a late lunch. We had some pumpkin, cauliflower, pasta, and incredibly light-tasting tiramisu. This may have been my husband's favorite meal; it's hard for us to decide what was the best meal though!

We stayed two nights but spent our full day outside of Viterbo. It was a very walkable town and we enjoyed our time, but didn't take a lot of pictures.

A day in the province of Viterbo: Civita di Bagnoregio and Bolsena

November in Italy is supposed to be rainy and there was rain in the forecast for our days in Orvieto. We decided to use our sunny day in Viterbo to drive out to Civita di Bagnoregio, the "dying town". Parking in Bagnoregio was easy, even though it was Sunday, as it was a bit chilly and in the off-season. Make sure you have euro coins to use the restrooms if you drank a lot of coffee in the morning before coming out here. The town of Bagnoregio had some beautiful alleys that led to incredible views, and this was before you got to the bridge and Civita itself.

The view from one of the alleys of Bagnoregio

A view of Civita and the bridge from Bagnoregio

Starting the walk on the bridge to Civita

Standing near the current edge of Civita

An alley in Civita

We walked up and down every street, there aren't many, and then had lunch in Civita di Bagnoregio. We then made our way back to our car in Bagnoregio, stopping for a standing expresso along the way.

With two hours until sunset, we set out for Bolsena, the lakeside town. We walked along the lake for an hour, and then attempted and failed to find gelato as many stores were closed for the season.

Boat docking area for Bolsena

Park along Bolsena Lake as the sun is setting

After heading back to our B&B in Viterbo, and one escaped dog recaptured later, we have a spritz at a bar across the piazza and have dinner at a restaurant that was super packed the night before (Saturday) but empty on our second night.

Viterbo is a nice, walled medieval town, and the restaurants get busy on Saturday nights, even in the off-season. There was probably more to see, but we were out of time and out of good weather.

Orvieto

Our next stop was Orvieto, which we chose to drive to using the same smaller roads to Bagnoregio. It was raining, but the smaller roads are calmer and more scenic than the faster toll roads. Check-in wasn't until 3 PM, so we weren't in a rush.

The approach to Orvieto along this road is stunning: you round a corner and suddenly you see a town on top of a hill. We parked at the funicular (free parking) and rode it the 5 minute-trip up. Again, we find that a lot of restaurants are closed for unknown reasons, either for the season or just some time off. We do find a busier restaurant that serves umbricelli, the local pasta shape that reminds me of udon noodles in texture. Then we check out the Orvieto Cathedral.

You buy a pass to go into the Cathedral, and there's an included app that tells you about the artwork and craftmanship within. The app stops playing if your phone's screen goes dark, and you can't start the recordings if you're using bluetooth headphones. I got around this inconvenience by starting the recording, switching on the headphones and then constantly touching my screen. The alternative is to hold the phone up to your ear and keep touching the screen.

Orvieto Cathedral

One of the cathedral's doors

The main altar in the cathedral.

Cathedral at night

Our hotel, Casalpiano, is outside of the city walls, but just a 5-7 minutes drive away. The rooms are large and there are some friendly chickens who would comically huddle under cars when it was raining.

We ate all of our lunches and dinners within the walled portion and also took the guided tour of the underground tunnels and old pigeon housing.

Orvieto was just stringing up Christmas lights, and it was a beautiful town. We went in an off-period and so there were a lot of closed restaurants, but we also didn't experience a lot of crowds.

One of the views from the walled city of Orvieto

Driving to Rome: Caprarola

It was finally time to get rid of the car; but first, a drive to Rome. We wanted to stop halfway and found a town called Caprarola. The town has a small main road that is steeply sloped up towards the Villa Farnese, an incredible mansion and attached gardens that we basically had to ourselves!

We had a great lunch at Vineria Vignola, and they recommended a dessert with hazelnuts and hazelnut crumbles as Caprarola is supposedly known for hazelnuts.

The Villa Farnese is full of frescos, across two floors of rooms and in a spiral staircase. There is also an amazing map room, where the walls are covered with frescos of what they knew of the world in the 16th century. Supposedly this room is the inspiration for the map room at the Vatican Museum.

Room with maps on the walls. The whole world is directly ahead, and you can see the Americas on the wall to the left and Europe to the right.

One of many ceiling art at the Villa Farnese

The spiral staircase with frescos on every wall and on the ceiling.

A sculpture/fountain in a room with large windows with more frescos

But wait, there's more! Once you leave the building, you enter the gardens. There's a winter garden and a summer garden, to go with the winter and summer apartments. We enter the winter garden and wander through the grounds upwards to yet another building. The summer garden is visible, but maybe it's closed because it's the winter.

Entering the winter garden with hedges

Looking across the garden

Walking upwards to another structure

Fountain at the foot of more stairs, which lead up to another structure

The Villa Farnese was such an incredible place, and Caprarola was such a delight. We spent 1.5 hours in the place, but art connoisseurs could probably spend multiple hours poring over the frescos. Other than the people at the front desk, I only saw two other families in the entire place. The gardens were very green, and beyond the structure was the old hunting grounds for the people who resided at Villa Farnese. This may have been my favorite sight this entire trip.

I've spent 4 days writing up to this point and I'm ready to take a break, so I'm going to save the Rome portion for another post.