USA 2008

Boston

Our tour starts from Boston, the most European city in the United States. Arriving in Boston was in fact a great idea.. a smaller and less chaotic airport than JFK in NY.. going through the formalities took just under half an hour.. we pick up the little car rented from Hertz (the car is the best way to get around the States).. a moment of panic getting used to the automatic transmission.. AND OFF WE GO! We reach our hotel (MIDTOWN HOTEL): a clean hotel in a very central location (opposite the Prudential Center and behind the famous Newbury Street) Our tour starts right from the beautiful Newbury Street, the famous street with the little red-brick houses.. full of little places to have dinner (all with outdoor seating..

it's late April but it's exceptionally hot, people are walking around in shorts and t-shirts..) After visiting the famous square with the glass skyscraper next to an old church reflected on the tower, we continue our tour inside the Prudential Center, where we also have our first American dinner, obviously based on hamburgers and french fries!

Boston

Taking advantage of the fantastic sunny day that greeted us, we set off early towards the centre of Boston, but not before a quick stop at Starbuck's Café for the classic American breakfast! The day involves visiting the most touristy places, and the best way to visit them is to follow the Freedom Trail, a red line sometimes of bricks, sometimes painted on the asphalt, that touches the buildings of greatest historical and tourist interest.. like the very famous Quincy Market, where you'll find lots of little places to eat and many very nice little shops.. we recommend visiting it in the middle of the morning or around lunchtime, when the square comes alive and swarms with people. We also venture into the North End area, the Italian quarter.. very characteristic and full of places where you can eat Italian food.

Around lunchtime we take the metro to Harvard: we visit the very famous university area.. unfortunately the infamous library is accessible only to students.. but even just strolling among the dormitory buildings and the various laboratories amid extensive green lawns swarming with groups of young people with books in hand, intent on studying or reading in the shade of a tree, fully satisfies our expectations (tell me you hadn't imagined this picture of Harvard). In the afternoon we leave Massachusetts and drive towards the countryside of New York State. We stop in a town called Fishkill at a fantastic hotel (Sierra chain).. in front of us the very famous Wall-Mart, and how could we resist the temptation to have a look around (the most disgusting thing we saw for sale was canned spaghetti to heat up and the terrible Macaroni & Cheese..

I don't even want to think about what was inside that can) Dinner at KFC! 25/4 is a day we dedicate to visits through the countryside of NY State, crossing those typical little towns you only see in films.. Dinner at Wendy's.. which makes McDonald's disappear with its sandwiches!

Washington

We set off towards Washington, lunch at Subway, wonderful sandwiches!.. In the afternoon we arrive in Washington at the home of the family with whom a friend of ours had put us in touch and who hosted us for 2 days.. Together with them we visit the most significant places in Washington: the White House (there's a sniper on the roof!!!) and the various memorials (Lincoln Memorial, Washington Memorial, the memorial dedicated to the fallen of the Vietnam War and the Korean War, and of the First and Second World Wars.. Immense parks that surround these places steeped in history.. and here it really feels like living the scene from Forrest Gump where Forrest gives his speech about Vietnam in front of the famous obelisk.. dinner in an excellent Mexican restaurant (Cantina Cactus)

Washington

The great thing about Washington is that most of the museums have free entry.. we only have time to visit one because time is a thief and we opt for the beautiful Holocaust Museum (it's enormous and inside is preserved one of the wagons with which the Jews were taken to the concentration camps).. all the major museums are along the Mall.. on leaving the museum we decide to stroll along the Mall which, despite the rather gloomy day, swarms with people playing football and baseball along the extensive lawns.. lunch with an excellent hot dog on the go and a visit to the very famous Capitol.. too bad about the weather.. in fact it starts to rain and we have to run home!

Philadelphia..in and out!

We leave the capital to head towards Philadelphia, unfortunately it's raining in torrents and we can't dedicate ourselves to the planned visit to Arlington Cemetery.. This is the worst day that has befallen us.. an incessant rain throughout the day doesn't even allow us, once we reach Philly, to fully enjoy the rest day we had planned to visit it..

Due to the bad weather, unfortunately we only visit the Independence Bell (the very famous bell symbol of independence) and before reluctantly leaving the city we quickly drive past the very famous art museum famous for its staircase run up in training by Sylvester Stallone in the legendary scene from the film Rocky (and goodbye to the dream of running up the staircase ourselves..) Since our visit to Philadelphia was skipped, how can we make up for it?? by driving towards NY - our last destination - we stop at a legendary outlet (Jersey City Garden) in New Jersey and do a bit of healthy shopping!.. in the evening we arrive in NY.

..Come to NEW YORK!!!!

We dedicate these last 4 days to visiting the Big Apple (not by chance left for last).. there are no words to describe New York: you can't tell it in words, you have to see it to realise how real what you've so far only seen on TV is! the time wasn't enough to see everything we would have wanted! We choose to start from the very famous Brooklyn Bridge, absolutely to be done on foot, and arrive at City Hall and City Hall Park. we continue along Broadway on foot up to the World Trade Center where we're left speechless in front of the crater that we find in place of the now lost twin towers and which today is called Ground Zero.. we visit the nearby St. Paul Chapel where inside a memorial of the victims of the tragedy of 9/11 is gathered: it's inevitable to imagine the horror experienced on that terrible day..

we stop to eat a piece of pizza at the legendary Majestic Pizza and Calzone (right behind Ground Zero) where the owner (a very nice Italian who has lived in NY for over 20 years) tells us about the tragic moments of the terrorist attack, inside the place a photo of the rubble of the towers speaks for itself. We continue with the visit of Wall Street, with the Stock Exchange and the famous Bull, and finish by passing by Trinity Church. Near the World Trade Center we pass by the very popular outlet Century 21, but we'll dedicate another day to going in and losing ourselves in unrestrained shopping!

New York, New York!

We're greeted by a fantastic day of bright blue, cloudless sky.. an ideal day to reach South Ferry and board for Liberty Island, for $12 we choose to take the ferry that stops at the Statue of Liberty (but the ticket doesn't include going up the statue, which anyway seems pretty pointless to us.. in fact it's no longer possible to go to the top, but you only get as far as the feet of the Statue).. the ticket, however, also entitles you to get off at Ellis Island and includes the visit to the famous immigration museum (remember the movie Hitch??).. For lunch we fill up on an excellent hamburger at Liberty Island.. truly enormous portions!!! On the way back we stroll through Battery Park and see the famous sphere (The Sphere) saved from the rubble of the Twin Towers. From there by subway we reach 23rd Street to visit the famous "flatiron".. the Flatiron Building..

from there we walk up Broadway and then along 5th Ave to reach and go up the imposing Empire State Building, we choose to go up shortly before sunset so we can enjoy this imposing spectacle from the top of the most famous skyscraper in the Big Apple.. once at the top we wait patiently for night to fall when the lights of the various skyscrapers all around start turning on, a truly breathtaking spectacle that makes up for the very long hour spent waiting in line.. by the time we come down it's already dark, but across from the Empire we find Papaya Dog, a hot dog chain that sells two hot dogs + a drink for $3..

finally we walk to Times Square to enjoy the spectacle of lights offered by the most famous square in the world! We're told that Times Square is also called White Square because of the lights of its screens that illuminate the square as bright as day even in the middle of the night.. and here you truly realize you're in the city that never sleeps.......

More NEW YORK!!

the next morning we set off again from Times Square to start shopping for souvenirs, we have lunch at the legendary Bubba Gump Shrimps.. if you like shrimp, here they really bring you buckets filled to the brim, all sizes and in every sauce.. but not only that.. inside you can also see lots of objects recalling the famous movie Forrest Gump.. we also visit the Hard Rock Café.. the Toys store which has a children's Ferris wheel inside and the M&M's store... truly impressive.. Americans really do everything big! In the afternoon we visit the New York Public Library, Grand Central Station, the Chrysler Building, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Rockefeller Center and the legendary Central Park.. incredibly full of New Yorkers jogging or playing baseball...

and every corner of the park inevitably brings you back to a scene from some movie! Still too full from lunch at Bubba Gump, we go home without having dinner....

Last rides around New York..

We decide to devote this second-to-last day to visiting the famous Manhattan neighborhoods.. as our first destination we head towards Chinatown, more interested in visiting Little Italy, which in the end turns out to be a huge disappointment.. by now almost overwhelmed by Chinatown, Little Italy is reduced to a miserable street where the only Italian things are the signs of the Italian restaurants, for the rest, even in the souvenir shops there are Chinese shopkeepers... We leave Little Italy heading towards Greenwich Village.. famous for its buildings with external staircases (remember Friends??), and in this neighborhood we even find a branch of the "Grom - il Gelato come una Volta" gelato shop! incredible.... we take the subway again to head towards Soho, a fantastic place for shopping.. a neighborhood teeming with shops, and little by little we walk towards Tribeca..

we finally reach Century 21 at the World Trade Center for one last shopping spree, you really save a lot.. but inside it's a real madhouse of people and the line to try on clothes in the fitting rooms is almost as long as the one to go up the Empire State Building.. one last stop at Majestic Pizza and Calzone (the owner recognizes us and we chat with him a bit again) and then straight home!

Last Day in New York :,(

Today is the day we fly home.. but we still have a whole day ahead of us.. our flight is at 9 in the evening so we can treat ourselves to one last outing at least until the afternoon. We don't have a lot of time and we've decided to dedicate the last visit to the Natural History Museum (remember the movie Night at the Museum?).. the museum is immense and it would take a whole day to visit it properly.. there are 4 very interesting floors of museum, but time is pressing and once we're out we decide to walk towards the Dakota Building, John Lennon's last residence, where he was killed in front of the building's entrance.. We enter the garden that Yoko Ono had built in his memory, Strawberry Fields.. you access it by entering Central Park..

a garden shaped like a teardrop and where the famous IMAGINE mosaic is also found, a gift from the city of Naples, where there are always flowers in memory of the famous singer.. it's now lunchtime.. we take the subway and go back for a last farewell to Times Square where we decide to stop for our last lunch at the BBQ.. enormous portions where you can eat excellent BBQ Ribs.. the ribs in barbecue sauce.. truly unmatched.. after lunch we take a walk to digest our meal, on to home...ready to close our suitcases and head to the airport.. there's no denying it.. New York is a city that knows how to surprise you.. and that leaves an indelible mark inside you that forces you to think.. "As soon as I can, I'll definitely be back!"