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.
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| 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.
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| One of the shores/beaches of Badouzi |
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| One of many pictures of me in front of scenic views. My godmother insisted. |
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| 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. |
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| Setting out from the Badouzi rail bike station. The bike-car in front of us hasn't yet left us in the dust. |
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| 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.
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| Guanyin statue in Zhongzheng Park in Keelung |
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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.
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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.
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| 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. |
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| 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.
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Carved open ivory box set with connecting chain (also out of ivory). 18th century, Qing dynasty.
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| 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. |
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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.
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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.
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| 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.
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| Me, in front of my former wedding venue restaurant. |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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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.
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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.
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| 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.🤷
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| The view from one of the alleys of Bagnoregio |
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| A view of Civita and the bridge from Bagnoregio |
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| Starting the walk on the bridge to Civita |
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| Standing near the current edge of Civita |
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| 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.
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| Boat docking area for Bolsena |
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| 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.
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| Orvieto Cathedral |
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| One of the cathedral's doors |
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| The main altar in the cathedral. |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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.
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| Entering the winter garden with hedges |
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| Looking across the garden |
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| Walking upwards to another structure |
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Fountain at the foot of more stairs, which lead up to another structure
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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.
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