italy part 2: ahh firenze, the land of leather and gelato

Florence: Sunday, October 21 - Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Accommodations: In Florence, we stayed in a charming, very quiet apartment in the historical center, just about two blocks from the Central Market (and all the leather!) and four blocks from the Duomo. Our hostess, Sharon, was extremely communicative before our arrival, and when our taxi pulled up to the apartment, she and her mom Rosanna were waiting to help us get settled in the apartment, showing us how everything worked, giving us cleanly pressed sheets for the beds (which really impressed my mom -- "Who still irons sheets? Wow.") and leaving us with a map showing all the tourist sites, as well as some great restaurant and gelato shop recommendations (which we tried and loved!).

Day 5:
Our day started in Rome, but we were soon standing in Termini Station waiting and waiting and waiting (cuz we were a little early ;) for the platform for Trenitalia #9528 to Firenze to be announced. It finally was, about 10 minutes before the train left -- so much for planning ahead ;) The train ride was really smooth and we had great views of green hills... and then not-so-great views of lots of graffiti. That's one thing we kept talking about... how much graffiti there is in Italy and how no one seems to make any effort to clean it up. Sad.

Once we arrived in Florence, we were going to walk to the apartment from the train station because it was only supposed to be a 12-minute walk. But the GPS on the crap loaner phone, while working, was totally sending us the wrong way based on my memory of the Florence map. So we just got a cab, which quite honestly, why wouldn't someone with about 70 pounds of luggage do vs. lugging it down a cobblestone sidewalk in 80-degree heat?

After getting settled, we decided to head out for gelato at the place our hostess Sharon had highly recommended, Rivareno Gelato. Sharon said they have normal flavors and special flavors, but get the special flavors. I got one thing from each instead and ended up with a weird yet yummy mango/chocolate chip combo. (In my defense, I didn't understand the menu in Italian, and my taster spoon of chocolate chip tasted like just vanilla.) It didn't matter though, because it was delish, and they had free wi-fi, so it was therefore worth the long walk to the other side of the historical center. Here is Little Green Alien with the chocolate chip half of my gelato. (The mango went fast :)

On our way home, we passed by a lot of leather shops but just looked. We also stopped at a supermarket to buy food for breakfast and some snacks. Then we just happened to stumble upon the Duomo, which is HUGE. Once you see it in person, you all of the sudden understand why everyone in Florence gives directions based on location relative to it. We walked along the back that was undergoing some restoration. It would be another day before we saw the front...

Back of the Duomo

Creepy gargoyle on the right side of the Duomo. You can also see all the pollution damage to the building. It looks like they are constantly restoring/cleaning the outside. But it's so big, that by the time they finish, I'd guess they have to start over again.

After resting a bit at the apartment, we headed out for dinner around 6:15. We were going to go to one of the restaurants Sharon and her mom recommended, but alas -- as became the norm with us early-eating Americans -- they didn't open till 7:30pm. So instead we went to a restaurant in the neighborhood that was open, La Divina Osteria. The entire staff was sitting there still eating their dinner, but the doors were open and happily seated us. We ordered their vino de casa and were immediately thrilled to taste actual alcohol in it. And it was good to boot! Here's Little Green Alien, the lush :)

Here was a cool carving of the Florence skyline on one of the walls of the restaurant

For my first course, I had a homemade spaghetti with Tuscan meat ragu that was delish, and then a big salad "Golosa" with ham, egg and asparagus as my main course. Mom had a greek salad and a beef in sauce main course. We were stuffed but got dessert anyway. Good thing too, because this was a dessert my mom will be talking about until the end of time. I can't find it on their website, and we didn't take photos but I will attempt to describe. She saw amaretto on the menu and decided to order that dessert. What came out was a scoop of vanilla and coffee bean ice cream, rolled in white sprinkles with amaretto poured all over it in a pretty glass bowl. Mine was close to the same, but my ice cream was vanilla bean and my alcoholic syrup was a very strong limoncello. Did I saw it was very strong? Because it was. :) Oh, and then they gave us each a shot of limoncello on-the-house as we were paying the check.

After that, we staggered home two blocks and managed to make it up the very steep two flights of stairs to our apartment without falling over. I then proceeded to watch Modern Family dubbed in Italian on MTV Italia, which was funny in an entirely new way.

Day 6:
Monday was our day of no agenda in Florence. Our only plan was to visit the Central Market for lunch and do some shopping. Oh, and take photos. I took this one off the balcony of our apartment. I felt like I'd stepped into a real-life Italy calendar :)

We headed over to the Central Market but didn't end up eating inside... it was crowded and tripe just didn't sound that appetizing. Instead we ate at this little Trattoria ("O Solo Mio") in the square outside of it, out on the patio. I was getting tired of Italian food at this point, so I had a salad and french fries for lunch. Don't judge me... (or at least wait until you hear about Day 7's lunch if you're gonna do it ;)

After lunch, we walked through more of the stalls near the market, looking at leather and trinkets, and then I decided I needed to find the way to the train station to see how messed up the loaner phone's directions really were the day before. I also wanted to walk to the Arno River to see if there were any good leather merchants there. But by the time we made it to the river, it was too hot to keep wandering in the wide open, so I took some photos of the dirty water and then we headed back to the shade of the city streets.

Arno River in Florence. Yes it was really that brown color. 

After wandering through the super-ritzy shopping area where Prada, Gucci, etc could all be found, we again found ourselves in the shadow of the Duomo and I took a ton of photos (below). We also found another excellent gelato place with free wi-fi (Black Bar) right next to it. Today's flavor was "fragola" (aka: strawberry). This would go down as my favorite gelato flavor of the trip. Shocker coming from the girl who had a strawberry-shaped birthmark on her back as a child and currently has two packages of fresh strawberries frozen as a winter stockpile in her freezer ;)

The front of the Duomo, also known as Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, and Giotto's bell tower.

Close-up detail on the just a few of the sculptures above the front door of the Basilica.

Detailed carvings above the entrance. Amazing.

For our Day 6 dinner, we waited until 7:30 and then went to the recommended restaurant we'd attempted the night before, Trattoria La Gratella. Rosana said this was the best place for steak in Florence. I started out with a delish penne parmigiano on "rocket salad." (Note: we'd been seeing this "rocket salad" on menus for about five days and I finally became the brave one and ordered it. It's just arugula with a funny name ;) Then as my second course I had beef strips with tomato. Mom had ordered a Caprese appetizer I had a few bites of, and also ordered steak. It was all way too much food and I couldn't finish my beef strips. So, of course, we then ordered dessert, a chocolate cake that was pretty good (I'm not a big chocolate person though luckily). The bottle of wine we had was also delish, but luckily there was no limoncello around, so the stairs home were not a problemo.

Day 7:
Today was the day we had a 1:45 appointment for the Galleria dell'Accademia, aka home of Michelangelo's David. So we were lazy in the morning, eating breakfast in and then wandered out at around noon for lunch... at McDonald's. Okay, now you can judge me. But I was really tired of Italian food at this point and a cheeseburger and McD's fries sounded really good. And, it was on the way to the museum :P Interesting fact of this lunch trip was there is no such thing as free ketchup packets in Italy. They charged us 0.20 euro/packet. My friend Linda would not survive in Italy.

When we got to the museum, we wandered the exhibits first, full of lots more religious paintings taken from Italian churches. There was also an Andy Warhol print of "The Last Supper" on display in one of the non-permanent exhibits. They also have a collection of musical instruments from the Cherubini Conservatory, including the famous Medici Viola made in 1690 by Antonio Stradivari, which my mom, the ex-high school band member knew all about.

Once we were through those exhibits, we turned a corner and there it was, The David. It was truly awe-inspiring! I had no idea it was that tall (17 feet). And to see it standing alone in this dome at the end of a long corridor of the museum (as museum workers kept repeating "No photos. No photos!" to everyone around it trying to sneak photos) was amazing.

As I stood in front of it, a tour guide nearby was telling his group that people will argue about The David being the most perfect sculpture in the world, but there is no argument. It is the most perfect sculpture in the world, he said, and after you see it, there is no reason to look at others. It's hard to argue with that. It was carved from one giant piece of marble and the lines are perfect. Sadly, there are a few tiny cracks in the piece of wood behind David's right leg, but those cracks are hooked up to wires and continually monitored for the slightest movement. (This is the fascinating thing you can read about in the back of the statue as you walk around it 360 degrees.)

I really wanted a photo, so I bought a Michelangelo book in the gift shop that included great photos of both The David and The Sistine Chapel in Rome, the other place in Italy with "No photos. No photos!" allowed. Also bought a really pretty Christmas ornament for me and for my cat sitters, Daryl and James. Then we were off again for more gelato and serious shopping.

Today's flavor: Mint chip, again at Black Bar, home of the free wi-fi and great AC. It tasted too much like ice cream though to be gelato, IMHO.

Serious shopping meant buying the most expensive leather jacket I've ever owned. I felt really good about the purchase at the time because we talked the guy down 70 euros, and he even shortened the sleeves for me in 20 minutes while we waited. But upon returning home and seeing the total in US dollars + the foreign transaction fee on my Visa, I am only comforted by the fact that it is the softest leather I've ever felt and it's a very classic button down style I will wear until it falls apart (which better not be for many, many, many years).

Our last night in Florence was spent also eating American food (Subway subs) because after buying that jacket I was now really poor, and we needed to eat in to finish off the bottle of wine we had purchased earlier at the supermarket. Plus we were tired and needed to rest up for Day 8 in Italia, which meant me driving a rental car out to the Tuscan Hills. Oy vey.

Stay tuned....

italy part 1: when in rome...

Rome: Wednesday, October 17 - Sunday, October 21, 2012

Accommodations: We stayed in a good-sized apartment outside the touristy area of town, but very close to both the subway and a bus line that ended up at Termini Station, the main train station and the starting point for many of the hop on/off bus tours of the city. Our host Maurizo was very communicative and helpful prior to our arrival, offering a private car (driven by his dad, Umberto) to pick us up from the airport for less than a cab would charge, which was very helpful since my mom walks with a cane and we had a lot of luggage. We also paid Umberto to take us to the train station when we left. The apartment itself was very clean and well stocked. The only issues were we blew the fuse pretty much daily (even using travel adaptors for our hair dryers) and the front room where I slept has a lot of street noise at night from the nearby train tracks and motorcycles.

Day 1:

We arrived at dinner time and basically did nothing but get settled and eat dinner in a local pizzeria where no one spoke a word of English. We meant to ask for one pizza to share, but got one each instead, which we ate anyway. They weren't huge and ended up being the best pizza of the trip... crisp, thin crust with a great sauce and giant pieces of salami on them. We also had vino de casa, which was kind of smokey and good, although, as we learned on the rest of our trip, vino de casa in Rome has no kick at all. I'm not even sure they put a drop of alcohol in it. We also had dessert because my mom can't pass up tiramasu. 

Day 2: 

We ended up sleeping until noon since we'd missed a night of sleep on our 14 hour flight to Italy. But that was okay. No major plans for the day except to get tickets for the hop on/off bus tour and figure out what we wanted to spend Friday and Saturday afternoon visiting. Once we blew the first of many fuses in the apartment and my mom melted her curling iron (it heated up really quick compared to the US), we left around 2pm, got on the 714 bus line going in the wrong direction and finally (about 30 minutes later than we should have) arrived in tourist central in front of Termini Station. 

We then bought tickets for the Rome Open Tour Hop-on, Hop-off bus. This ended up being mistake number 2 of the day. Do NOT, I repeat do NOT, ever buy tickets for this tour company. They either have the slowest or the least number of buses running. While waiting at a stop, we saw four of the big red City Sightseeing buses come and go in the loooooong time we waited for our bus to show up. Oh, and on Friday (Day 3) we also got treated to listening to our tour guide and driver SCREAM at each other after picking us up as they fought (I think) about how to best avoid the demonstrations taking place near the train station. I know Italians are spirited, but that was just not professional at all.  

Anyhoo, we rode the tour bus the entire route to get acclimated to the city and the various sites. It took a little over two hours. Then we decided to have an early (for Italy) dinner at 6pm at a small restaurant near the train station called Osteria Da Luciano that offered a "tourist menu," which is a fixed price for two courses, dessert and wine. I had a fettucini pasta with tomatoes and meat as my first course and a 1/4 chicken and potatoes for my main dish, with an orange as a dessert (odd... I actually thought I was getting orange gelato, but alas I got an actual orange). The food was pretty good as was the wine, but again, it had no kick. Here's my Little Green Alien (who travels the world) with some breadcrumbs and not strong "vino de casa." 

Day 3:

This was the day that I was going to master the Roman public transportation system, and I was doing great until about 5 minutes before we were supposed to reach Termini Station when the bus pulled over and the driver kicked everyone off. We couldn't understand why (since he did it in Italian), but later figured (thanks to the screaming match mentioned above on the sightseeing tour bus) that it must have been because of the demonstrations in the streets, that we never actually saw. He was at least nice enough to point us in the direction of Termini Station, and I was lucky enough that at that moment (vs many, many, MANY others on the trip), my crap loaner global phone from Verizon, using some Italian cell service, decided to work and pull in data from Google maps, so we could find our way to one of the stops on the sightseeing tour. The bright spot of this trek was that we passed an electronics store so Mom could buy a replacement curling iron (note: they sell hair appliances with TVs in Italy, not in drug stores like you'd expect). 

When we finally arrived at the Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica (photos below) tour bus stop (which was closer than walking all the way to Termini), we got to wait 40 minutes for our tour bus, watching many, many, MANY other tour bus companies come and go. Le sigh.

Once we were finally on the bus, our destination was The Colossuem. The tour bus guide said they couldn't stop there because of the demonstrations. I proceeded to give her my 'Look of Death.' Two more people getting on also said, "WHAT?!?!" She and the bus driver then got into their screaming match. Ten minutes later, after skipping much of the tour between Stop #2 and #3 (The Colosseum) that we'd seen the day before, we arrived at The Colosseum, just outside the Arch of Constantine (below). As it was lunchtime by this point, we stopped for panini's from a cart and ate while staring at two ginormous pieces of history.

After eating, we found our way to the ticket line. Then found a way out of it by joining an unofficial tour for $10 more that also included the Forum and Palentine Hill. While the tour was a bit long, it was interesting to hear the history from humans vs a recording. I was also super impressed by Mom walking up and down two very steep, old flights of stairs to reach the second level of the arena for awesome views of the floor of the arena as well as the Arch and Forum through the "windows."

Me on the first level of the Colossuem.

View from Level 2 showing all the catacombs under what used to be the floor of the Colosseum where gladiators, criminals and animals would lie in wait to be popped up on the arena floor for fights to the death.

Palentine Hill "residences" -- the old rulers of Rome lived on this hill next to the Colosseum. 

Once back on the tour bus after about three hours at one stop, we decided to just ride the bus back to Termini Station for a late afternoon snack before grabbing dinner at a totally overpriced tourist trap (but they had gelato! First flavor of the trip = lemon). On the way I took this photo of Piazza Venezia below, which houses a museum now. We passed this place no less than seven times in three days as it's in the center of the tour route.

Day 4:
The prior evening, I made a call to a local taxi company to come pick us up at 7:45am to get us to the Vatican by 8:30 for our 8:45 tour. "A quarter to eight," the man on the other end confirmed. "Yes," I said. "Grazie."

So what time does my cell phone ring saying the car is downstairs? 6:50am. Luckily, I was dressed (Mom was still in bed), so I went down and pointed to my watch saying, "No. 7:45, not 6:45." Note: This was also not a cab as I expected, it was a private car. How that happened, I have no idea. Luckily, I'd already negotiated a flat rate over the phone.

"Ahh. Un problemo," the driver said, making a call. Duh. He then talks in really fast Italian to someone and then tells me "Ok. Go back upstairs. We'll come back." You better, I thought as I watched him drive away with a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Well, he didn't come back, but another car did at about 7:20. And we were actually ready at 7:25 due to our panic so we got to Vatican City in time to stop for breakfast (tea and croissants) before heading into the museum, skipping the massive line cuz we bought our tickets online in advance (Thanks Marcy!).

In the courtyard near the Vatican Museum entrance 

I will spare you most of the 250 photos I took inside the museums and St. Peter's Basilica. Below are the things that stick out most in my mind (along with my mom, within about 10 minutes of being on the tour, saying something to the effect of, "So this is where all your grandparents' tidings from church every week went. It all makes sense now. No wonder the Catholic Church is always asking for money. It must cost a fortune to run this place." ;). Yep, I've never seen so many sculptures, paintings and tapestries in one place in my life. Theoretically, they could sell like one thing a year to fund their budget and be fine, you'd think. But that would probably be sacrilegious.

Our tour was supposed to be three hours. We went about 20 minutes longer than that, but not because we were slow. We hardly stopped walking for any of those three hours except briefly in Raphael's Rooms and in the Sistine Chapel ("No Photos!" allowed, as you will hear over and over again inside, in addition to security guards saying, "Shhhh" [It is a holy chapel after all.] So don't be looking for any photos of the Chapel.)

One of many, many incredible ceilings inside the Vatican Museums

"The School of Athens" fresco inside the Raphael's Rooms' Room of the Segnatura. The fascinating thing about this painting is most of the people are ancient philosophers (Plato, Aristotle, etc). But in the lower left center is a man sitting with his arm on a concrete block, wearing clothes from the 1500s. That is Michelangelo, who was painting the Sistine Chapel at the same time Raphael was painting this. Raphael realized the historical implications Michelangelo's work would have and added him to this painting.

Another amazing ceiling. The cool thing about this is it looks like a marble ceiling with carvings throughout. It is not. The ceiling is pure paint, with the depth effects done via light and shadows.

This is one of many tapestries in a loooong hallway. As you begin walking by it, the angle of the doorway Jesus is standing in is facing you on the left. As you walk by, you are supposed to look in Jesus' eyes. His eyes follow you. And by the time you are on the far right of the tapestry, the angle of the doorway is now facing right. He and the doorway have followed you. Creepy.

"The Holy Door" to St. Peter's Basilica can only be opened every 25 years by the Pope. It was last opened in 2000 by Pope John Paul II. 

Michelangelo's "La Pieta" sculpture inside St. Peter's Basilica -- his second most famous sculpture after The David -- shows Mary holding her son Jesus after his crucifixion and is housed behind bullet-proof glass. It is the only piece that Michelangelo ever signed. 

Pope John Paul II lies inside the second chapel on the right. There were many people praying to him while we were there.

The inside of the dome of St. Peter's Basilica, painted by Michelangelo. The level of detail is insane. 

Mailing postcards to my grandparents (not the Catholic ones) from the Vatican City Post Office.

After our long morning at the Vatican, we had two more things on the "to do in Rome" list: See the Pantheon and throw coins in Trevi Fountain. So we hopped back on the tour bus from its Vatican City stop (didn't have to wait at all that time!) and took it one stop, then wandered through tiny streets until we came upon the Pantheon, which looked like a totally fake ancient movie set in the middle of a modern Roman plaza. That said, the interior dome is amazing and still in pristine condition. 

Our first view of The Pantheon.

The amazing interior dome of The Pantheon.

We spent all of about 10 minutes there taking photos, then headed down a street toward Trevi Fountain. Everyone in Rome who wasn't at The Vatican that Saturday was at Trevi Fountain. It was a madhouse! But we managed to get some good photos and I threw two coins into the fountain -- one for me and one for mom. According to legend, this means we will one day return to Rome. 

Trevi Fountain

However, after four days in Rome, I was kind of tired of it. It's like many other big, bustling cities (NYC, Vegas) with too much going on... I can be there about three days then I have to get the heck out of dodge. I saw everything I wanted to see and was ready to move on. And after the rest of our trip, I'd much rather revisit Northern Italy.

Stay tuned for those stories... 

buongiorno!

I've finally returned to my blog after a whirlwind month of planning and then traveling on my long-talked about (for five years), much-dreamed about trip to Italy in October.

Was it everything I'd hoped it would be? How was the wine? Did I eat gelato every day as I was instructed to do by many (many) people? And just how bad is a 9-hour time-change combined with living through the Daylight Savings time-change twice in one week? You will just have to read on to find out. 

But before that, let me just say that I took a lot of notes and photos that I plan to document here. Therefore my entries are going to come in at least four sets -- one per Italian city we stayed in -- over a few days so I can have some hope of getting them posted before 2013.

• Rome
• Florence
• Lampoerecchio in the Tuscan Hills
• Venice

Then, once I'm done talking about Italia, I will return to the long list of blogs I was supposed to write in October covering my adventures in home improvement and the joys of Crumbs cupcakes. (I can't believe I haven't written in so long. Oy.)

But before we head to Rome, just some general travel notes about the trip:

• This was a mother/daughter trip to Italy, and I'm surprised to say my mom and I only got in one tiff the whole time. Shocker. :P And it can be blamed on the 4th bullet point in this list. Apparently, I don't handle stressful driving situations and GPS's + mom's telling me what to do all at the same time well. Whatever. 
• British Airways rocks! It's been so long since I've been on a plane that doesn't charge you for everything except water, I'd forgotten such an airline existed. Free cocktails, 1-2 meals per leg of the trip, and the super awesome movie library, which is a must-have for any flight longer than three hours. I watched three movies from LA to London before falling asleep, and then four movies on the way home on the 11-hour flight from London to LA (London was our connection point on both trips to the shorter flights to Rome and from Venice). And they serve tea! And speak in British accents! SO civilized! :)
• If you're traveling on a budget, or just want to experience a city the way the locals do, then you must find your accommodations via AirBnB.com. My friend Barrett told me about this site one night at dinner and then proceeded to find me a house in the Tuscan Hills with the Tuscan view I'd been dreaming for years about... for $100/night. From there, I found three more apartments in our other destination cities and, while I was nervous at first about how this would turn out, I was super impressed and now would probably never stay in a hotel in Europe again. Our hosts were all very friendly and helpful, telling us about good places to eat and helping us avoid tourist traps. And it was also nice to have a kitchen and a clothes washer at our disposal so we could have breakfast or dinner in if we felt like it, and do our laundry (although apparently Italy has not yet heard about the invention of clothes dryers, which was a bit of a pain. Never had to plan ahead a day to wear clean, dry jeans before :p)
• Driving in Italy is the most stressful experience I had. People there are nuts. And their street signs suck. And they have crazy rules about only certain cars being allowed in certain neighborhoods with special stickers and they take photos of your car from high above and then send you tickets in the mail later that, according to TripAdvisor, are not escapable. (Can you tell I'm expecting at least one, if not three, tickets in the mail from Hertz at some point in the next 2-12 months? Ugh.) I will never drive there again. Sadly, I had to rent a car in order to get to my dream Tuscan house with the view. Next time, I'm joining a Tuscan tour group and letting the bus driver get all the tickets. 

project kill crabgrass & clover: day 25

It's here! It's here! Check out my pretty, new green yard of marathon sod! Yippee! Now I just have to make sure my super-confusing, hi-tech sprinkler system is set properly to water it three times a day for the next two weeks so it roots itself and doesn't die and I'll be set! :)

Full shot of the main yard (aka Sprinkler Zone 5)

Side yard (aka Sprinkler Zone 3)

Curbside
(aka Sprinkler Zone 6)

The final "timelapse" photo taken from
the mailbox
 (for consistency's sake :) 

project kill crabgrass & clover: day 24

All the dead grass was dug up yesterday and replaced with fresh, weed-free dirt. Sod arrives tomorrow and then I will have a pretty green lawn I have to start watering again.

10 good things that happened this week

1. I saw The Book of Mormon. Hi-lar-ious!
2. For the first time since before Christmas, I have an ice maker that makes ice.
3. I finally updated my resume (ha... kind of had no choice :p)
4. The Voice started!
5. I met with my dad's financial adviser, who is now my financial adviser, and she told me to go to Tuscany. 
6. Said financial adviser is also going to start making smart decisions (vs. no decisions, which has been the case the last three-ish years) for me about my 401k that will soon be rolled into an IRA.
7. I spent lots of time with my amazing friends and family this week eating, drinking, hiking, talking, commiserating, laughing and rocking out. Most of them also told me to go to Italy, and one of them found me a dream "old stone house in Tuscany" to stay in for $100/night. 
8. I finally saw Pat Benatar in concert, one of the artists on my musical bucket list, also with great friends (and lots of vodka ;) 
9. For the first time since his kidney disease diagnosis last November, both of my cat Lucky's kidney values went down in unison + he continues to maintain his puny 6 lbs-1 oz weight for the fifth month in a row. (Hey, he didn't lose weight, which would be very, very bad.)
10. Then there was this...   :-)

project kill crabgrass & clover: day 12

My front yard is now officially dead. So dead I felt the need to go tell both my neighbors what was going on so they don't think I'm a bad neighbor trying to bring the neighborhood property values down. And so dead that some sort of creature (squirrels? birds? aliens?) has decided to start digging holes in it looking for buried treasures. Hey, as long as it keeps the squirrels from digging up my gardens, go for it! Just don't get used to it... lovely, thick, green, new sod arrives right before "Carmageddon II."