May 19 – PARMA TO MALPENSA AIRPORT

Our last meal, lunch, in Parma was a pizza with artichokes, ham and a fried egg

Our last gelato

We spent our last night in a hotel near Malpensa airport.  Ann picked it because it was near the airport, had a shuttle and most importantly, had a restaurant.   Airport hotels are normally nondescript affairs near the airport and freeways, with views of other nondescript hotels, cramped poorly lit rooms and lousy food.  We were pleasantly surprised to find that Hotel Ristorante Cervo was atypical.  It was in a small, quiet community, with large, well lit rooms, and a very good restaurant.

Dinner was excellent: mixed salad, eggplant parmagian, shrimp risotto, tagliatelli with freshly made pesto sauce, assorted grilled meats, French fries and wine.   It was a surprising good last dinner in Italy.

During this 2d week of the trip, for self preservation, my desired approach to eating these dinners with so many delicious dishes was the Cruise ship approach – taste anything that looks good and have another taste if is really good.   In practice, that seldom worked the way it should have.  With a gimpy knee, and a slowing metabolism, I can’t walk enough to work off eating more food than I feel comfortable eating.  When I was younger and more active, these thoughts never even crossed my mind.    Marge and I weighed ourselves the morning after we got back – surprisingly I had lost a pound and even more surprising, Marge gained 2 pounds.

Our flight home was long, but at least the volcano didn’t stop or delay us.  

Marge and I enjoyed the company of family members to celebrate Marge going on Medicare and 25 wonderful (according to Marge) years of marriage enjoying great food & wine in a memorable location.  

I kid Marge a lot, but I realize that I am lucky to have married her.  We have made each other laugh ever since our first phone call over 35 years ago, and we still do.  Like her mom, she is very caring and easy to get along with.  She enabled me to enjoy this trip despite a knee that I will have to replace later this year.

Bob

MAY 18 – PARMA

We spent the day exploring the area around our hotel. The reasons it is hard to drive a car in the area made it fun being a pedestrian / tourist. There are many shops, cafes, restaurants, pastry shops, gelato shops, museums and people to watch among the narrow streets and alleys. While the number of bikes doesn’t approach those of Amsterdam or Copenhagen, there were a multitude of bikes, ridden by all ages, doing all sorts of things, including dialing their cell phones + lighting cigarettes. 

We went to the post office to get some stamps. It was located in an old, somewhat nondescript looking stone building, but what we found inside was a lit opaque glass ceiling and murals painted on the walls over the postal windows. 

We saw this colorful quilt on a wall.

This large park was not far from the hotel

The nearby duomo had a ceiling and walls that had very colorful murals that had enough windows to bring the colors alive.

Our last dinner in Parma – we ate and drank too much to be able to partake of dessert.

MAY 17: HOPELESSLY LOST IN PARMA

On our way to Parma, we stopped in Fivizzano.  It was a quaint old town where we found a bread store and grocery store where we bought the fixings for a picnic lunch. We found a great location for our feast – Just outside of the town gate, there was a small park with lawn, benches, and a stone wall from which one had a view of the lush valley below. We used the wall as our buffet table, spread out our purchases, and had a wonderful lunch of a baguette, focaccia, sliced tomatoes, prociutto (which Dave had bought on our food tour while in Bologna), pesto, potatoe chips, cheese, and wine.

Not surprisingly, we got lost, and stopped in the very small town of Virgoletta to try to figure out where we were. Joe got out to stretch his legs, and met another woman, so Marge took their photo, and we call it JOE GOT LUCKY #2.

          Getting to our hotel in Parma was not easy, since our hotel is located right in the center of the old part of town, in an area of narrow pedestrian only or one way streets.  We arrived at the hotel during rush hour.   After we unloaded our baggage, we had a choice of trying to find the nearest public parking lot, which would have entailed several twists and turns and about a mile of driving to get to a lot which was only a couple of blocks away by walking, or to return the cars. We opted to return the rental cars to Avis, which the hotel desk clerk said was very easy to get to – NOT!!.   I drove our car and Marge navigated, and Joe drove his car, electing not to bring Ann as a navigator because the desk clerk made the directions sound seem so easy.   As luck would have it, we soon got lost and stopped 5 times to ask for directions.  Even then Marge and I only found it by accident. Joe was following us as closely as possible but when we suddenly stopped at a Y to figure out which to take, he was forced to pick the right one, which unfortunately was the entrance to the Autostrada headed to Bologna. 

Joe says it was the worst day of his life – there he was, on the Autostrada, which has limited exits, he doesn't speak Italian, no passport (the hotel had taken his passport at check in), it was rush hour, he didn’t have the Avis address, didn’t have a map and he didn’t have a navigator.  Marge + I figured out that he had gotten on the Autostrada, but thought that there was absolutely no way he could find the Avis location, and would try to get back to the hotel, although we didn’t know if he would remember the hotel name, much less the difficult directions to get to it.  We had turned our car about 15 minutes before the 7 pm closing time, and the got the man at the desk to stay open past his closing time in hopes that Joe would miraculously find us.  Finally, at about 7:10 pm we decided that Joe would be unable to find Avis, and the Avis man was becoming irritated for having to stay open, so we asked him to call us a cab back to the hotel, and he closed up.

Meanwhile, Joe got off the Autostrada at the next exit, about 10 miles down the road, got back on returning to Parma, and exited where he had gotten on.   Just after he exited the toll booth, he saw a parking lot, drove over a curb to get to it, and parked to try to figure out where to go.  At that point, he looked over to his left and saw the Avis sign across the entrance to the parking lot, which just happened to be the parking lot for Avis.   He dropped the key in the night box, and managed to get the bar next door to call him a cab for the hotel, whose card he had picked up when he checked in. 

We got back to the hotel and immediately went to tell Ann the bad news that Joe was hopelessly lost somewhere, hoping he would arrive back at the hotel some time that night, still alive.  When he knocked on the door about 10 minutes after we arrived, we were all very relieved, and Marge joyfully hugged him.  After that he went the closest bar for a really stiff drink before joining us for dinner.

          For dinner at a nearby hotel, we had their specialty appetizer of fried bread, assorted ravioli, risotto, lasagna, rabbit in a brown sauce, veal, eggplant parmagian (my favorite), mixed veggie salad, red wine + spumante (sparkling white wine). 

MAY 16: Cinque Terra

We had good weather for a change for our visit to the 5 north west coastal cities known as Cinque Terra. 

We took a boat from near the hotel to the town of Monterossa, which is the northernmost town of the 5 towns.  I believe that it is the only one that allows cars and that has a beach larger than a postage stamp.  Unfortunately for my male friends, there were no topless young woman on he beach. 

When we were at the train station to go to the next town, Marge started talking to a young attractive couple who we discovered were working at their dream occupations– she was a chef on a cruising/racing yacht that had anchored in Genoa for the day, and the man was a professional sailor specializing in yacht racing.  I took a photo of them as part of my promise to my neighbor Chris to take pictures of attractive women.

Marge took this photo of the man for our friend Lois who requested photos of young attractive men. 

When we got on train, Marge started talking to a couple of young women who were sitting across from us, Aussies working in London.   I asked if I could take a photo of them, and when Marge told them it was for my neighbor who wanted photos of attractive women in Italy, they cracked up.  I thought that they should know that Marge was taking photos of attractive men for our friend Lois, and asked Marge to show them the photo of the sailor Marge had just taken.  Their reaction was that he was gorgeous, and asked if he was married, to which I replied “you can ask him yourself- he’s in the next car”.  They had another good laugh.

A very short train ride took us to the next town - Vernazza.  We had drinks and shared a panini as a prelunch appetizer in the very picturesque plaza/beach/fishing boat storage + boat ramp. 

Our lunch was in the next town of Corniglia.  Ann had read about a good restaurant there with a terrific view, but first you have to climb 382 stairs to get from the train station to the town.  Thankfully each step was not very high + was very wide, so I was able to climb the stairs, albeit at a leisurely pace.

Dinner was in the same nearby pizzeria we dined in last night.  We knew it was good because it was full of local families, while all the other restaurants we walked by last night and the night before were empty.  As has been our custom, we shared a number of dishes, including mussels in a sauce that shouted to be sopped up with bread, spaghetti with clams, spaghetti with clams and mussels, mixed salad, fried calamari, and other assorted dishes that I can’t remember.

We skipped dessert at the restaurant in favor of gelato at the shop we had visited our first night in Lerici, and were greeted by Joe’s attractive friend from our first night, along with her sister.

MAY 15: LUCCA

This was another day of brief sprinkles, so some of us went to the nearby walled city of Lucca. The main attraction for Marge was an antique market where she could satisfy her cravings for things old and musty, while I had a beer and people watched from a small pizzeria on a busy pedestrian walkway.

I have noticed that there are more smokers over here than in the Bay Area and the smell is more noticeable when you are aren’t used to it. Thankfully we have encountered very few smokers at the restaurants at which we have dined.

Teri, Pat, Dick, Marge and I had lunch at Tripadvisor.com’s highest rated restaurant in Lucca – Cantine Bernardini. The menu featured 4 very interesting pastas, so of course we ordered 1 of each, plus a very tender breaded pork tenderloin. A bottle of wine added to our enjoyment. The wine steward/manager was very helpful and personable and talked about the food as well as our wine.

 We also shared 2 desserts, which must have had lots of calories because they tasted as good as the very artful presentation. We kept switching the desserts every few minutes so we could all enjoy them, which prompted Teri to call it musical desserts. 

  

The 5 of us who ate that large lunch shared a light dinner of mussels, seafood pasta and gnocchi w shrimp at a Lerici pizzeria near our hotel.

MAY 14: MONTEPULCIANO TO LERICI

We left Montepulciano on the Autostrada (a toll road) for our next destination, on the coast. 

Traveling on the Autostrada is interesting because you never know when some very fast exotic sports car will zoom by.   On our first foray onto the Autostrada when we left Bologna, I a car coming up really fast and looked over just in time to see a red Ferrari zip by.   

SEAFOOD DISH FOR LUNCH

We stopped for lunch near Lucca, at a restaurant owned by relatives of a friend of Joe and Marge.  Although it is in a small town, the restaurant was very nice, and our lunch was fabulous.  As has been our fashion, we ordered everything that sounded interesting, and were not disappointed by the resulting spread that appeared on our table and down to our tummies.   We had crostini with a variety of toppings, shell fish with tube pasta in a yummie butter and garlic sauce, ravioli in meat sauce.  At the end, he brought a bottle of home made limoncello that was a perfect balance of alcohol and lemons, sort of like drinking a shot of 100 proof lemonade. Even though I was driving one of the cars, I had a shot glass of it.  

Our hotel in Lerici, with view of the beach

Sunset over the Lerici harbor

          Several of us opted for just gelato for dinner in our stay in the seaside town of Lerici.  The young woman who served us was very personable, well dressed and attractive and took a liking to Joe, so Ann asked if she could take a photo, so I did too.  She asked Joe how long  we were staying, to which we replied 3 days, and then she told Joe that expected to see us back the next day.  That comment and the photo below gave us plenty of fuel to kid Joe about having a hot date.

 Teri's prize winning caption: "JOE GOT LUCKY"

MAY 13: ORVIETO

This am, sister in law Anne bought the 3 men of the group Italian berets. Initially I didn’t want to wear mine, but did on her insistence. It did keep my head warm during this rainy day.

Ann + Joe enjoyed a glass of wine while admiring the Duomo and the rest of us hung around.


We spent today in the walled hill town of Orvieto, however, the fun was tempered by another day of on and off showers. The frescos on the front of the Duomo were the most vivid of any I have ever seen – they must have just finished refurbishing it because it looked like it must have looked when they finished building it centuries ago. It was nice to see a major cathedral without scaffolding obscuring the front for a change.

This is an alley we passed in Orvieto - lined with trees and sculptures.

We had lunch in a very old restaurant that was built into the town walls, with view through a window that overlooked the green Umbrian countryside. Marge and I shared a taggiatelli with a sauce of eggs, broccoli and capers, grilled veggies (mainly eggpland & zucchini), and a stew of chickpeas + clams, and Orvieto Classico white wine.


Driving has been an experience. Each of our 2 cars has a driver (me and Joe), a navigator (Marge + sister Ann), and a walky talky person (David + Teri) who’s job was to keep the 2 cars in touch when we got separated or to for the lead car to tell the following car when it was going to turn, etc. Getting out of Orvieto took all of our skills because the gps guided us through a series of what seemed like narrow alleys, each ending in a sharp turn. Joe clipped one of his side view mirrors on a wall during our escape. I felt like I was a rat trying to navigate my way out of a narrow maze, only the walls were unforgiving parked cars or sturdy walls.


The other day I had a hard time remembering what day it was, so I guess I have finally gotten into vacation mode. Part of that is probably the fact that we have had very limited internet access since we left Sienna.


My knees have run out of cartilage (from my running career), and my ortho surgeon has been telling me that sooner or later I will have to replace at least my right knee. I am ok for walking about a half hour without a cane, but after that my right knee starts to ache and I pull out my folding cane. The hill towns we have been exploring have almost all been on the top of hills, and as a result, they have a lot of steep streets and stairs. Going down is the hardest on my knees, so I have to take it slow going down and rely on my cane.

MAY 12: CORTONA & AREZZO

          Today we explored the nearby hill towns of Cortona &
 Arezzo on a day of on and off rain.
Cortona has been popularized recently because it was the setting for the book/movie “Under the Tuscan Sun”.  We looked for the fountain shown in the movie, only to be disappointed when we discovered that it had only been a prop and was not really a part of the central plaza.

In Cortona, Joe found the first of many women he met on the trip.  This a cop, so it was HANDS OFF for Joe.

   












We had dinner in Montepulciano - rotisserie chicken + potatoes, and a side dish of asparagus.  My favorite part of the meal was the homemade catsup for the somewhat dry chicken. 

MAY 11: RAINY DAY IN MONTEPUCLIANO & A FAMOUS CAFFE

Today was a bit rainy, so we just explored the winding/hilly streets of Montepulciano. In the am we met up with my sister Pat and hubby Dick who pulled into town late last night to join our escapades. For lunch we were looking for a nice bowl of Italian soup, and when we asked a local, we were directed to a place just a few doors from where we were standing, to CAFFE POLIZIANO. We were also fortunate to get a table near a window with a wonderful view of the countryside. The place seemed ornate, which we thought was nice, but I just thought it was fake. Marge and I shared a thick vegetable soup and a porcini mushroom frittata, while my cousin Tery had a bowl of lentil soup. Just as we were eating our gelato for dessert, Pat and Dick walked in. They informed us that we were eating in one of the most famous and elegant caffes in the town, and that the paintings, furnishings, views and restoration were the subject of a book they had seen in their hotel. We later saw the book, and one of the photos was taken from our table!  In the above photo, you see Marge with her back to me, but you can see my cousin Teri facing her.

MAY 10: – DAY TOURING

The next day’s weather was perfect, so we checked out some nearby towns and an abbey.
Driving in the Tuscan countryside is often difficult because the scenery is distractingly beautiful while you are driving on 2 lane roads that twist & turn. The views seem like a procession of postcard views of green rolling hills dotted with an occasional ancient red brick farm house, each at the end of a line of cypress trees which mark their long driveways.

Our first stop was in the small hilltop walled town of Pienza. We were there at a perfect time – before any tour busses but after the shops opened, so we felt almost like locals as we strolled along the main street peaking into the many small shops. The town is ringed by an ancient wall, from which we could view an endless vista of Tuscan farms.

We had a picnic lunch of pork sandwiches, locally made salami, pecorino cheese + vino on the grounds of the picturesque Abbey of Sant Antimo near Montalcino. Following lunch we listened to Gregorian chants by the monks. The abbey reminded me of Mont St Michel because of the way it suddenly springs into view.

Dinner was in a small restaurant in Montepulciano. We continue to dine family style, and with 7 people, that usually means that each person orders the item that sounds best to them, then we sample them all along with as much wine as we can handle. An additional benefit is that so far no dinner has cost more than 20 Euros (about $26) per person. This night, our table was too small to hold any serving plates, so we played musical plates by passing the various dishes around. I doubt that the restaurant staff had ever seen this done before, but we managed to eat everything just the same.

MAY 9: SIENNA TO MONTEPULCIANO

We left Sienna for our next night, which was in an agriturismo just outside Montepulciano.
Agriturismo Le Caggiole has been a big disappointment. First, the address is impossible to find using the GPS that we brought since they gave us the wrong gps coordinates, and we got hopelessly lost. Secondly, although they advertise that they have wifi, it is limited to the office, which is only open during the time around breakfast. Third, they are not available for questions except for when the office is open around breakfast time. Finally, the man who we dealt with in the office has an attitude that gives the clear impression that dealing with guests is a necessary evil.

MAY 8 – BOLOGNA TO SIENNA

We picked up 2 rental cars for our group of 7 in the am and drove to Sienna for our next night. Unfortunately, when we exited the toll road that took us most of the way there, I gave the toll tender a 50 Euro bill for the 7.5 Euro toll, and didn’t notice until leaving the toll booth that he only gave me change for 20 Euros. Being short changed is something one might expect a 3rd world country, but not in Italy and not by a government employee. It ruined my day.

In the morning, we stopped in the town of Asciano where we came across a nice market, which included many food stands, so we bought some ingredients for a picnic lunch. 

We stopped for our picnic lunch just outside a small town, at a spot with a planter bench that offered us view of a local park.

We arrived at our agritourismo (farm stay) by early afternoon. Agritourismo Marciano is just outside Sienna on a small vineyard and has very nice views of surrounding vineyards and olive trees. The building was formerly the villa for he owner of the original vineyard, and has been well restored, so it was a very nice, although short (they could only take our group for 1 night), stay. The owners were very hospitable and helpful.

That afternoon we spent a couple of hours exploring and getting lost in Sienna – even with (or maybe because of them) 2 gps units, we got lost and had to ask directions from the police. I was surprised at the number of tourists in town, although it isn’t as crowded as it must be during the summer.







While we were in Sienna, we saw a number of vintage sports cars that were on a rally through northern Italy.











Before dinner, the group toasted me and Marge for our 65th birthdays (in reality she is 65 now and I won’t be 65 till Aug 6) and our recent 25th wedding anniversary.

That evening we had dinner on the premises, so we were able to enjoy countless bottles of their wines, along with a very nice dinner of fresh locally produced vegetables and very raw roast beef. We were joined by a young couple from Santa Cruz and another from Germany.

DAY 3 – LOCAL FOOD & WINE TOUR

Today we took a local food tour with a company called ITALIAN DAYS FOOD EXPERIENCE. This is a tour of local food products for which the region is known. Alessandro picked us up at 7:30 am and we headed out of town to the . countryside.


Our first stop was a dairy cooperative that makes Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, aged for up to 48 months, and a number of other byproducts like fresh yogurt (really delicious), which we sampled with a bubbly, fruity wine called Lambrusco.

 Each cheese wheel is tested by tapping with a small hammer to determine whether there are any air pockets.  If there are, the wheel is not given the highest rating.

 The cheese wheels are aged in this room for up to 48 months.



Next was a Balsamic Vinegar producer with vinegars aged anywhere from 12 – 200 years.  We sampled several vinegars, including a 40 year old one, but I didn't strike my fancy.

Next was  a vineyard/winery/B & B and trattoria for a tour, wine tasting and lunch of local products, including the food items we had seen on our tour, along with copious amounts of their wine.

Our final stop was a prociutto factory, but I had seen enough after about 15 minutes.  The sample was good, but I was still too full from the ample lunch to enjoy more than a thin slice.

 
It was a full day of discovering and tasting.

DAY 2 - WHY BOLOGNA IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE CITIES

We spent the morning getting reacquainted with the central part of Bologna. About 5 years ago, we stayed in Bologna for a week, so it was nice getting reacquainted with it, helping me remember the reasons it is one of my favorite cities. Here are some of the reasons I like it so much:

Not touristy: Although it is a wonderful city, other than in the central square, it isn’t full of tourists.

Architecture: It is a very old city, dating back to before the Middle Ages. 
The central part of the city has preserved many of the old buildings, which feature 2d stories which extend out over the sidewalks and form what are known as “porticos”, which are covered sidewalks featuring arches.

This is the interior of the public library, which is housed in what I believe is an old palace, built over some even older ruins which you can see through the clear floor.  Here Marge is resting in a very modern chair while being ogled by a man a bit older than her.



















Good Food: It has an abundance of good restaurants. I don’t remember having a bad meal there. As a dedicated eater, this is really important to me in guiding my travels.
University Town: Bologna is home to Bologna University, the oldest in the western world. There are also a number of other universities in the city, so although I don’t think of it as a university town, there are a lot of college students in the city.

NICE LUNCH / LIGHT DINNER

We decided to have a big lunch and a light dinner, so we chose CESARI, a restaurant we had enjoyed when we were here last time.

Since our family style of ordering had worked well last night, we tried it again, with my sister Ann doing the ordering. We had several different kinds of pasta again, including rabbit ravioli, mixed salad, mixed grilled veggies, grilled eggplant, and, of course plenty of wine. Ann pointed out that over our 2 restaurant meals we had had at least 5 different kinds of pasta so far – nice start to our Italian dining adventure.