Vive la France! (Nice)

Wow, I can't believe I've finally caught up on my blog to where I actually am!  Yes, I'm in Nice right now, sitting on my 5th floor terrace, catching up on the blogs.  Let me bring you up to date....

Sun, Sept 21, 2014

Sculpture on Promenade du Paillon

Fathi to the rescue!

Oy vay!  What a day!  The train strike certainly DID affect us, as in the VERY FIRST TRAIN we

tried to get on was cancelled.  We even left our place in Cinque Terre early because we had heard that possibly the early trains would run before everything got cancelled.  So we got on a different train to a different destination to try and get as close as we could to France.  We managed to get to a different train station, get in a shuttle with a few other people to get to Genoa train station, and then came to a grinding halt.  The train to our next destination was cancelled so Fathi drove almost 3 hours just to pick us up!  What a friend!!

Monaco

We treated him to lunch then we drove to Nice, by way of the coastal road so we could see Monaco and St. Jean Cap-Ferrat.  Then finally our destination!  Miraculously we got into Nice the same time we would have had the trains not been cancelled, but in a much nicer way.

We met our AirBnB hostess, who is a bitter scatterbrained (which she proved again on Monday) but was nice.  She showed us around, and once we settled in to our place, we got together with Fathi to show us around.

The only other time I was in Nice was in 2000.  I was finishing up culinary school in Avignon, and 4 of us students decided to spend the weekend in Nice before our stage (cooking apprenticeship) began. It was only 2 nights and 1 full day, but it was a crazy fun weekend!  Walking around with Joe and Fathi definitely brought back some memories, but Nice has changed quite a bit since then.  It's gotten much cleaner and more beautiful.  Statues, wider promenades, and water fountain parks are just some of the ways Nice has improved.  I'm looking forward to enjoying my stay here!

Thurs, Sept 25, 2014

The last few days have gone by quickly and I'm not sure why because I haven't done all that much.  I ran on the promenade next to the Mediterranean, and my first morning here swam in the sea with Joe.  It was so beautiful, but the days following got much cooler, and yesterday was cloudy.  Not a good beach day.  The beach is only a couple of blocks from our place - nice location!

Marche aux Fleurs

Joe spent yesterday at the Nice Observatory with Fathi (where he works) so I hung out at the

Joe shopping

apartment.  We've gone out a few times to restaurants, and I've been to the flower and food market in Old Town Nice twice to get food for lunch and dinner.  This market puts the Lucca market to shame.  There are some tables with soaps and souvenirs, but most of the tables are fruits, vegetables, fish, cheese, sausages, and olives.  THIS is my favorite kind of market!  There's also an area called the Marche aux Fleurs which is all plants and fresh cut flowers.  Today I got a bunch of things to make a salad tonight, plus some cheeses and sausage for our train ride to Paris on Saturday.

The host and his grateful guests

The piece de resistance was when Fathi made us dinner at his place.  He's about 30 minutes walking from here, down by the sea, and he showed his generosity by making us an Algerian dinner with a cheese course and tiramisu for dessert.  Homemade limoncello capped off the evening.  I honestly don't know how Joe and I made it home - we were so full!

Bresaola and cantaloupe de Fathi

Every other morning we've gone out for coffee and croissants - even at the dinky, not fancy brasseries the croissants are incredibly flaky, buttery, and heaven!  I also plan to work out every day, but, I uh, well, I'm still working on that.  I actually pulled a muscle in my leg, so running the first day was difficult, but I'm getting a lot of walking in.

Nice is definitely beginning to grow on me - it's by the water, it's a big enough city to have everything but small enough to feel manageable.   It's also just a couple of hours from Italy, Provence, and the mountains to go hiking.   Unfortunately, we need a car to do that, and Fathi has to work (yeah, what's up with that?).

Only today and tomorrow left before we leave for Paris!  Tomorrow, I plan on spending the whole day at the beach.  I may even splurge to rent a lounge chair and umbrella!

5 minutes in Cinque Terre

Fri and Sat, Sept 19 & 20, 2014

View of Manarola from Corniglia

"They say it's going to take 5 hours to hike from Manarola to Monterossa?  That's crazy!  Look how close it is!  It must mean for people who are out of shape."

After an hour of hiking uphill, with no end in sight, I was recalling my smug words of not long ago as I was making my way from Manarola to Corniglia, the next town over, and still not there.  Huh.  Maybe this will take a long time!

*******************

We got to Manarola via 3 trains on Friday from Lucca amidst a growing rain storm that erupted in a downpour at La Spezia station where everyone retreated to the tunnels for cover.

If this is what the weather is going to be like at my little slice of beach vacation, I'm so not happy.

Me and Marcella

When we got to Manarola, we had to walk up the hill a ways, each of us carrying about 30 pounds on our backs, which felt like 50 pounds after a few minutes, and 75 pounds wondering how high we have to climb.  Because the towns are built into the side of hills, there is a LOT of walking up and down.  Fortunately, we didn't have to go far, and we met our landlady, Marcella.  think she said.  Or she could have been telling us to avoid these places, and put a pox on their houses.  Not really sure.

What a sweetie!  She hardly knew a lick of English, but she was so nice and helpful.  And always waved to us and chatted with us (in Italian) whenever she saw us in the village.  She even gave us restaurant recommendations and said to mention her name to get treated right.  I mean, that's what I

View from our room

We're only here for a day and a half, so we immediately went to explore the town.  10 minutes later, we said "ok, you want something to eat?"  The town is pretty small, but really the thing to do is hike between the towns and see the differences.  I've heard that each of the 5 towns even has their own dialect of Italian.  Not that I can tell the difference.

I wanted to see a map and also find out what time the trains were leaving on Sunday since we had to be back in La Spezia at a certain time to pick up all the trains to Nice.  Oh yeah, not sure I mentioned, but we decided that we're spending a week in Nice to see Fathi before we head to Paris.
At the train station we learned that on Sunday, there will be a train strike in Italy.  That means, the biggest day of train travel for us this whole vacation, the day with the most train connections, is in major jeopardy.  So.  We head back to our room, which by the way has no internet connection because I thought we'd be fine disconnecting for 1.5 days, to figure out what we need to do to get to Nice by Sunday night.

Long, long story short, after going over many different scenarios, texting back and forth with Fathi,

Terraces cut into side of hill are everywhere

and drinking lots of Limoncello, we came up with a tentative plan that we would get as far as we could on the trains (since many of them had already been cancelled with more to come) and then Fathi would drive to Italy and pick us up.  Yeah.  Wow.  What an offer!

So now we could try to relax and enjoy what little time we had in Cinque Terre!

On Saturday we got up, had breakfast, then headed toward the high trail to hike between Manarola and the next town, Corniglia.  I truly thought it was going to be more of a walk and not hiking.  I don't know why.  But the views were stunning, the lungs were heaving, and the glutes were burning.

Pathway going UP

The trail reminded me of hiking in Nepal - lots of lots of up!  But what differed from Nepal is that we finally got a path going across (Nepal was just up and down...not much across).  And then finally down, 2 hours after starting.  It was cloudy when we began, which actually was nice because it would have been too hot with the sun beating down on us.  By the time we got to Corniglia the sun was out and showing how blue the water was.

Path going across

We stopped for lunch at a restaurant Fathi had eaten at when he was in Corniglia with his wife, and we ended up eating with another American couple sitting next to us.  Joe tried to convince the woman to try Grappa, but when she heard how high in alcohol it is, she refused (plus I think it tastes like jet fuel).  After lunch we made our way down to the marina, where a few people were swimming in the cove.  By now it was getting hot, I was sweaty from the hike, but I didn't bring my bathing suit.  Wait, this is Europe, they don't care about stuff like this!  So I whipped off my clothes and swam in my underwear!  No one batted an eye and I had the extreme privilege of swimming in the Mediterranean!

Loving Lucca!

Sun, Sept 14, 2014

We're on our own now!  Tracy and Ed dropped us off at the Verona train station, and we began the first of many train journeys.  It took 3 trains to get us to Lucca, and it was a little crowded on 1 train because of our huge backpacks, but we made it to the final train to Lucca, and we were right on time, and our AirBnB host was waiting for us at the train station...until we missed the stop.  Let me tell you a little bit about signage here in Europe - not so good.  Not on the streets, and not for the train stations.  Plus there's no one announcing the next station.  Plus, according to the map, I counted the number of stops we had until Lucca came up, but we skipped a couple of stations!  So as we're pulling away from the station, I'm telling Joe "yeah, Lucca should be in another 2 stops, oh CRAP, there's the sign for Lucca right here!!!"

On the wall at sunset

So an hour later, after getting off at the next stop then getting back on to come back, we arrive in Lucca.  Our gracious hosts understood, and brought us to the apartment within the walled city.  It's a cute little 1.5 bedroom with enough room for us to spread out our stuff, since we'll be here 5 nights.  The owners also left us 2 bottles of wine that they make as well as olive oil (again, that they make).

Back from the market

This week we plan on doing some work, exploring the city, but getting some down time and relaxing.  So we need to get some groceries so we can enjoy our host's wine!

Thurs, Sept 18, 2014

One of many covered passageways

Lucca is such a cool little town, at least inside the walled city.  We briefly left to go check out an outdoor market (which I wasn't impressed with because I was looking for more food related stalls and they were mostly clothes, and crap), but other than that we've been inside.  The weather has been very nice, not too hot, sometimes a little cloudy, but very pleasant for the windows to remain open.  We had heard about biting bugs here, and we found this to be true.  They're invisible biters, as in, I didn't realize I had so many bites on my leg until I started scratching and looked down - ahh!  That's a lot of bites!  So I started wearing some bug repellant.  Joe got bitten as well, and by tonight he's a little fed up with the bugs.

Anfiteatro Piazza

Our first taste of marinated white anchovies

But BESIDES the bugs, Lucca has been great to hang out in.  I started recognizing certain shop
owners, and learning my way through the maze of streets.  I found my FAVORITE gelato place in Italy right here in Lucca, had great homemade tagliatelle from a local store, and I cooked a few times as well.  The wall surrounding the city is not very high, but it's wide, so it's a bike/running path, so I got to run 3 times this week, and also used it to get to some areas in the city.

Spritz!

We discovered the "spritz" drink in Verona, and now I can't get enough of it.  It's not too strong of an alcoholic drink, and it's not too sweet, with just a slight hint of bitter, so it's a perfectly refreshing drink to have at lunch!  We had it every day, it's so good, and so nice to relax with a beautiful drink while eating outside in an Italian square.

Since today was our last full day, Joe and I climbed (yet another tower) the Guinigi Tower.  It has a hanging garden off the roof of the tower.  I also did a little bit of shopping - I really can't buy much because I have NO ROOM to carry anything, but window shopping can be fun here.  There's one street that has just tons of different kinds of shops, and if you get a little tired walking, you can grab a gelato from numerous places along the way.

View from Guinigi Tower

I think my favorite thing to do here is just hang out, wander, and soak it all in, especially sitting on the wall, watching people go by.  I'm not really happy about leaving here (I'm not happy about packing) but tomorrow we go to the sea!  Cinque Terre here we come!

Updating this blog

Verona - biking, Shakespeare, friends, and more wine (well, duh!)

Fri, Sept 12, 2014

Bike ride

Another early morning, this time packing up after 4 days in one place and on to Verona!  Tracy booked a bicycle wine tour for us, which at first sounds great, but after several glasses of wine you start wanting a van to bring you back to the start, but I'm jumping ahead of myself.  I was looking forward to the biking, to see the city that inspired Shakespeare's story "Romeo and Juliet" (being a former theater person), and also seeing our long-lost friend, Fathi.

Ok, he wasn't lost, but Fathi used to work with Joe oh-so-many years ago, and since he moved to France, we haven't seen him for 9 years.  He has since gotten married, and we were looking forward to re-uniting with him and meeting his wife.  Which was the first thing we did once we got to Verona - met them for breakfast while Ed and Tracy checked into the apartment and kindly lugged our bags in.  Seeing Fathi again was so great, especially for Joe.  He hasn't changed much over the years and I knew this would be a fun day.  His wife Theresa is very sweet, and as the day went on and I got to know her better, is very funny as well.  With the weather looking good, I was anticipating a great day!

We met up with Tracy and Ed, introduced people, then met our bike guide, Michela (or Mike).  We got fitted on our bikes, put our helmets on, and started out on the most dangerous part of our trip - avoiding getting hit by cars or running over people in the crowded streets of the walled part of Verona!  A little nerve-wracking, but I gotta tell ya, by the end of the day, I wasn't phased by it at all.

We rode by the castle in the city (yeah, there's a castle or 2), left the wall and got on the bike path.  That's when I really started to see how pretty Verona is.  With a river flowing next to it, the bike path was lined with trees and bushes, creating a very peaceful area apart from the city.  Over the next couple of hours, we rode on the bike path, over a 1 lane bridge, up and down hills, through a tiny town, past vineyards where we tasted the sweet grapes (yeah, I don't know if we were supposed to but Fathi made me do it!), then into a little square where we stopped for lunch.  This is where I realized Michela's job is pretty sweet as he sat at the table with us, eating good food, drinking good wine, and laughing.  He said different groups are different and some are very easy (like ours, of course) because we're so awesome, I mean, very friendly, know how to ride bikes, and easy going.  Other groups can be a little difficult and that makes for a long day.  Still, it could be another career for me if we move here...

Eventually we had to get back on our bikes and make our way through the beautiful countryside to the Valentino Cubi winery.  Wow, more wine.  Well, OK!  A woman brought us down to the cellar and explained how the wines were made, but I couldn't hear her very well.  And honestly, I didn't really care.  I know that sounds so bad, but we had just had a bunch of wine at lunch, and I just wanted to try their wine and hear about it then.

Finally the 7 of us sat down and a very dapper Italian man wearing a scarf (like women do) began to pour and explain the wines.  On a recent Facebook post, I talked about how generous Italians are, and this was proven again in the generous pours they gave us for tastings.  These were very tasty wines, and I did NOT want to dump any out, but the long bike ride back was looming in my mind and I didn't know if there would be any more hills.  I did ask Michela once or twice if there was a support van that could come get us.  He just laughed (then ignored me, so I guessed the answer was no).  I SOOOO much wanted to buy some of this delicious wine, but how I would fit it into my pack was beyond me.  Oh, and about his scarf?  Lots of men here wear them I noticed later, but he was really able to carry it off!

Back on our bikes we go and aim for Verona center.  About the bike ride - Fathi and Joe were in the back the whole time thick as thieves and at one time almost got lost because they weren't keeping up.  The rest of us changed positions throughout the ride, chatting with each other at various points when we could ride next to each other.  The bikes were pretty nice, although Tracy lost her chain at the beginning, then I think Fathi's chain came off as well.  No biggie.  I will say, the bike seat was becoming more and more, uh, uncomfortable (if you know what I'm saying, ladies).  When we stopped again and had gelato, I was happy for more than one reason.

Filled with gelato, wine, pasta, bread, cheese, and prosciutto, we made the final ride back to the bike shop in Verona Center.

Later that evening we had dinner at a place that Michela recommended.  We sat outside under umbrellas, which was fortunate since it started to rain!  Tracy was pretty tired but she somehow rallied.  I got pizza but didn't take pictures because the pizza really wasn't that good, but was envious of Ed's soup which looked so warm (it was getting chilly by now).

The next day Fathi showed us Juliet's balcony.  "Romeo and Juliet" was written after William Shakespeare was inspired by the city of Verona, where the story is set.  As Fathi pointed out, it's a story.  Fiction.  As in, not real.  Yet, there is balcony in Verona that is dubbed Juliet's where everyone goes to visit, to see where Juliet, if she had been real, may have leaned out of, if she had lived here, which she would not have because it's in an alley and not in a nice house which is what she lives in, according to the story.  BUT, I studied theater, and felt the need to see it.

Then the 4 of us had lunch, then Fathi and Teresa left for Pisa for a wedding, but not before Fathi invited us to come to Nice and visit him.  Hmmm, we still have no plans for the week after Lucca, so definitely something to think about.  Then he said "I'll make Algerian food and Tiramisu for you!"  Well, that's just not fair.

Joe and I wandered around Verona a little bit, then joined up with Tracy and Ed, where we drove out of the city into the hills to a little store that, for just 12 euros a piece, we got to have a wine and food tasting.  It was really more of a meal than a tasting, because we got 2 large plates of various meats and cheeses, as well as a bottle of wine.  We were seated in the chilled basement of the store where it was beautifully lit and had tons of meats just hanging on the walls, curing.  Except for a group that came down for a few minutes, we had the whole place to ourselves.  It was such a cool environment.  Kudos to Tracy for finding this place!

As the sun began to set we drove back to our apartment, then walked up the stairs to an overlook of the city.  Many pictures were taken, then we quietly just soaked up the scene.  Our last night together (sob!) was completed with a game of hearts, Ed winning (again!), and some nice wine.

Tastings in Modena

Thurs, Sept 11, 2014

I had really wanted to do a food tour while in Italy.  After doing some research I found different places that would guide you to a cheese dairy, a balsamic tasting, to a parma ham place, then have lunch afterwards, all while giving you the privilege of driving the guide around yourself for a mere 100-150 euros per person.  What a bargain!

Needless to say I did more research and found some places that would allow you to set up your own tastings...for free!

So on Thursday morning we got up REAL early (which was rough after getting home late from Florence the night before) and headed out to our 7:30am dairy tour in Modena.  We went to Caseificio Reggiani dairy, which I booked through the dairy council by emailing sezionemo@parmigianoreggiano.it There were the 4 of us, plus 2 Australians.     In about 1.5 hours, we saw the whole production of milk to parmigiano reggiano cheese, and an entire room almost filled with these large wheels that each cost about 600 euros!  Afterwards, we sat outside and tasted the cheese in different forms, and celebrated one of the workers' birthday with champagne and pastries!  Cost = $0  Or rather, it cost me a little because I bought some parm and some arborio rice to cook dinner tonight.

Aging cheese

We had a little time to kill before our next tasting, so we drove into the town of Modena and had some coffee and pastry at a little cafe', preparing ourselves for balsamic vinegar.  This tasting was held at a private residence just outside of the downtown area of Modena called Acetaia di Giorgio.  We were led into the attic which was filled with wooden casks of different sizes.  Real balsamic vinegar is made from Trebbiano grapes, as opposed to the stuff we buy in the supermarket which is made from wine vinegar, I believe.  We tasted different flavors of this balsamic as the guide explained to us how it was made.

Ed and I seemed to have similar palates, tasting the acidity in the same places (front or back of mouth with different vinegars).  Tracy tasted things a little differently, but we ended up liking the same vinegars.  Joe.  Well, Joe just thought they all tasted like vinegar, so most of this was lost on him, but he was a good trouper about it all!

Next we went to Parma for the ham festival I had been reading so much about.  I couldn't wait to be amongst ham purveyors and other lovers of different kinds of ham!  I pictured the main square filled with stalls of ham hawkers, ham demonstrations, and lots of tastings, and when I planned this day out thought this would be a great way to cap off the day.

What actually happened was.....nothing.  There was no ham festival going on.  We didn't see any stalls, any demos, and anyone we asked about the ham festival had no idea what we were talking about.  Losing faith, we made our way to the tourist info, where a woman said that most of the activities were on the weekend.  I told her that on the website it looked like things were happening in Parma every day for 2 weeks.  She just shrugged and didn't know what to say.  Crap!  My well-planned foodie day just went down the toilet.

We eventually had a great lunch at some restaurant in Parma (I had an asparagus "flan" that really was amazing and need to figure out how to make this had home), but I was so despondent about the non-existent festival, I didn't really take in my surroundings.  An acquaintance of mine had lived in Parma for a year and loved the town, but we were only there for a couple of hours, so I can't really say how I feel, except this - Parma, make your ham festival website more clear!!

Instead of going out for dinner, the gang cheered me up by letting me cook for them.  Ed braved the dark streets of Bologna for wine, and I made risotto using my newly bought parm cheese and drizzling it with the balsamic vinegar I bought from the tasting.  Dee-lish!!  Lots of food, wine, and laughter!

Tracy and me hamming it up.

Joe and Ed enjoying some wine.  Again.

Wandering in Florence

Wed, Sept 10, 2014

Everyone I've ever talked to who has been to Italy has said one of their favorite places to go was Florence.  Since Tracy and Ed gave me this week to plan, and one of Tracy's regrets was that she had only passed through Florence some years ago, I decided to put this on the agenda.

Produce at San Lorenzo market

On the road in the pouring rain, Ed once again showed his Italian side of driving and got us to a parking garage in Florence in under 2 hours, pulling some creative maneuvering.  We had lunch at a nearby trattoria, then the guys went to climb a tower in the duomo, and Tracy and I perused the stalls at San Lorenzo market.  We walked through a sea of handbags, scarves, and sweaters, until I noticed the covered food market building, and off I went.

Basically, this place is a foodie's wet dream, with stalls of hams, cheeses, fish, produce, dried goods, and prepared foods.

Weird shaped cheeses at San Lorenzo market

We had just eaten, so I walked through, talking to proprietors, and drinking in the sights and smells.  I also saw the largest collection of truffles (mushrooms, not the chocolate kind) I've even seen.  Easily worth thousands of euros.

This is not the high season for Florence, and yet plenty of people were around.  Waiting outside the duomo for the guys to get down from the tower, I truly couldn't imagine what this place would be like in the summer.  For me, unbearable with too many people.  Glad we chose this time of year to go.

Tracy and I didn't go inside the duomo, but the outside of it was stunning, lots of detail work and pops of color.  I believe there is a lot of work undergoing cleaning the outside of it, as we saw the backside of the church that wasn't so brilliant.   Just an incredible piece of architecture.

Joe and I really wanted to see The David statue, and despite reading tips online about buying tickets in advance, we ignored it and stood in the other line (unreserved tickets).  I had heard in high season people could stand in line for 4-5 hours.  I'm sorry, but I really don't think anything is worth standing in line for THAT long.  Please let me know what would be worth that to you in the comments, because I just can't imagine anything, even an amazing piece of art.

Fortunately, we only waited in line 50 minutes before we were let in (Tracy and Ed bugged out since they had seen it before).  The statue is really incredible and worth staring at for 15 minutes or so.  VERY realistic, I almost expected it to come to life.  I mean you can see the muscles and the VEINS popping out on the arms.  The fingers look really REAL.  I'm such an amateur when it comes to art appreciation, but I was glad we got to see David.

Let's not forget there is OTHER art in the same museum, and I didn't want those pieces to feel ignored, so we walked around and looked at the paintings and other sculptures.  (I also wanted to be in the museum longer than I was in line).

I'll admit I didn't have a solid plan mapped out on what to do and see, and when, while in Florence, so we meandered to the bridge Ponte Trinito (just one bridge west of Ponte Vecchio which was mobbed) and crossed over to a different area.  Joe and I wanted a little nosh, and came across this surprisingly modern cafe with couches and pillows and music thumping.  It felt like being in a club.  Tracy and Ed joined us there for pre-dinner wine, then we headed back to the bridge for sunset pictures.

I feel like we eat a lot here, yet all of this walking makes me hungry.  So Joe somehow found this amazing, homey, family style restaurant, where we ate one of my favorite meals of the trip.

Now, I grew up with several Italian or partially Italian friends, and this restaurant reminded me so much of visiting these friends, where I would just be at their house to pick them and their mothers would say "would you like meatballs/lasagna/shells?  We just ate"  My response "no, I ate, I'm fine, thank you"  Then BAM, a plate of food is in front of me "you eat a little before going out.  You too skinny", as my friends would say "Maaa, she doesn't want to eat"  "of COURSE she eats!"  And on and on...

This restaurant Joe chose had unlimited wine, multiple courses of appetizers, then 3 pastas, 3 meats, I forget how many sides, then 8, yes 8 (in case you're still not sure what I typed, it was EIGHT) desserts.  We were asked "biscotti?"  "No thank you"  Boom!  Biscotti is put in front of us.  Then 2 after dinner drinks. Holy crap we were full!!  But, wait, there's more!  "Would you like some Limoncello?"  "oh, wow, no thank you".  Too bad.  Boom!  "Here's some Limoncello - we do this with family, and this is family style!"  So of course, I drank that too. You just don't say no to food or drink offered from an Italian.

 At this point we were pretty frightened about what the bill was going to be, because for some reason, we didn't ask at the beginning what the family style menu cost.  With all this food and drink, and the high prices we've been paying for some fairly simple meals, we all started taking bets on what the total bill would be.  I think the lowest bet was 250 euros and the highest was 340.  When we got the bill we all had to look at it and make sure the number was right, as it was scribbled out on a piece of paper.  The final cost?  Only 200 euros  50 euros a person for all that food and booze.  No one had to sell a kidney to pay for dinner.  Whew!

All in all, I was not as enamored with Florence as I thought I would be - maybe it was the short amount of time there, maybe it was the rain - but that dinner was a great way to end the day, and it's my favorite memory of Florence.

Bologna!

Monday, Sept 8, 2014

Welcome to the food portion of our travels!  (yeah, like we haven't been eating great food til now)

Today we drove from Cortina to Bologna, a city I've been wanting to go to for years.  Bologna is considered the capital of the food world in Italy, home to tortellina en brodo, ragu bolognese, mortadella, and of course, bologna (baloney).  Can't wait to get my taste on!

Ed is a natural at driving in Italy.  He doesn't get phased at all when scoooters and cars are weaving in and out of traffic patterns, or when he goes the wrong way, he just zips around and gets to where we need to be.  Nerves of steel, that man.

The AirBnB place we booked in Bologna was awesome!!  3 bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms, decent sized kitchen, lots of space in the living/dining room to hang out, just outside the old city center...really, just the perfect place for our city adventures.  The elevator to our 7th floor apartment was typical European - teeny tiny.  Too tight for all 4 of us to get in at once, at least for claustrophobic Tracy and me.

Happy Hour eats

Supposedly there's a great place to see the sun set in Bologna, but by the time we got there, it was too late, so we just enjoyed the famous happy hour - for 7 euros get a glass of wine (or, in our case, unlimited wine) and enjoy the buffet of food.  At the place we went to were lots of different bruschetta, so we made it a dinner as we soaked up the city ambience.

Joe at the base of Asinelli Tower

The next day the couples split up and Joe and I climbed the Asinelli Tower on our own - all 498 steps.  At first it was VERY narrow at the bottom, and claustrophobia was turning me back, but the large man in the teeny ticket booth (who has the worse office since he told me HE has claustrophobia as well) told me it opens up at the next level.

I would not have wanted to do this in high tourist season, because the stairs are very narrow, and having a line of people going up and down at the same time would be difficult.  Getting to the top was a workout, but well worth it for the view over Bologna.  A sea of red tiled roofs, then more modern world beyond.  Imagining what it might have looked like in the 1100's when the tower was built, this symbol of Bologna.

Ok, whatever, I'm hungry, and I want ragu bolognese!  Running down the stairs as fast as we could (which was not fast at all), we made it to Trattoria AnnaMaria, which is apparently a very popular place at dinner, but at lunch it was fairly empty.  My first taste of homemade tagliatelle ragu - indescribably delicious!!

OMG Yum!

Even though we're staying in Bologna for the next few days, this is the only day we have to explore this city.  Joe and I meandered down streets, headed to Quadrilatero (former medieval market) to peruse the food stores and stalls.  I picked up some things for dinner tonight at the apartment, then went to an interesting place - Teatro de Anatomica.  I'll let Joe tell you about that since that was his pick to do today.  Really wanted to see the whispering walls work in Piazza Maggiore, but there was music playing in the square, so it wouldn't work.

The most unusual thing we saw in Bologna (IMO) was a street dance performance - it was silent.  All the dancers had headphones on so they were listening to something (I think), and they all had strange hats and masks, but they would dance fast, then freeze, then dance slowly, then speed up, then move on to another area, all quiet to the onlookers.  Kinda cool.

Shockingly, I didn't once taste bologna or mortadella the whole time I was here.  Every time I saw them in a case, and I thought about asking for a tasting, the place was very busy and I didn't want to bother the guys working.  I regret it a little...but not much.

Dinner at the apartment was a nice change from eating out all the time, and the game of hearts we played was a great way to end the day...even if Ed did win.  Whatever.

The Dynamite Dolomites

View of some Dolomite peaks near Cortina, Italy

I am currently sitting here in Lucca, Italy (more on that later), with some time to blog a bit, and I am reflecting on our experiences in the Dolomite mountains of Northern Italy.

Joanne after tackling a challenging part

Joanne and I live in the Rocky mountains of Colorado, so I am surprised at my previous lack of awareness of this strikingly beautiful area. Driving into the Dolomite region, as we wound our way through lush green meadows crowned by vertical rock cliffs of white (and a bit of pink) to Corvara, was simply mind-blowing. Wow, we were going to be up in those mountains soon, using iron cables as anchors! No photos or videos I viewed in prep for the trip could do this place justice. I was very psyched.

Ed & Tracy

Over the next few days, we spent time with friends, Ed and Tracy, on the rocks and cables, doing climbs far more vertical than I had expected, and we stayed in some remote (and not so remote) rifugios, which make Colorado's huts look like lean-tos in terms of food, wine, accomodations, etc. Our starting place was Corvara, but we moved on to the slightly larger Cortina later in the week (which was declared "capitalist" by one of our hotel hosts).

Crossing a wobbly bridge

It was amazingly fun, and the steep cliffs and heights quite often got my attention. I did not expect the via ferratas to be like climbing. I expected them, especially the easier ones, to be more like hiking, but along cliffs where being clipped to the cable provided extra safety. But except for the opportunity to use the cable as an aid to climbing ("cable hauling", as it is derogatively called), doing the via ferratas is, indeed, climbing! Like Joanne, I took full advantage of the cable where necessary, and even then, it was often quite challenging. There were also really fun parts where we climbed ladders or crossed bridges (and these bridges moved!). But keep in mind: unlike climbing, our harnesses were clipped to a very strong iron/steel cable. The security of this is undeniable. As you climb, you move your carabiners, one at a time (so one carabiner is always attached to the cable) to the next point on the cable. It's heavy-duty. And the hikes down from the top never dissapointed, revealing an endless series of gorgeous views (the picture at the top of this post is one example).

Moving to a new cable segment

We did not all do every via ferrata, and Joanne talked a bit in her post about the fatigue from doing them. Some days were pretty rainy, and when the rock is wet, it is very difficult to use footholds, especially. But after 4-5 days of doing this, we were physically beat - in a good way.

We knew the next segment of the trip would be far different: warmer, flatter, and filled with city life and history - with food that would be more "Italian". The Dolomite region is very German/Austrian due to its heritage as being part of Austria before the war, and its food and language spoken reflects this. As Joanne said, I got to use some of my German in the Dolomites (especially at the most rustic rifugio, Kostner), and this was a pleasant surprise for me. Farther south into Italy, we knew we would be doing food tours, seeing art and architecture, and visiting places we have heard about all of our lives (and no iron cables will be necessary). So on to Bologna, Florence, Verona, and other nearby Italian cities! I am not sure I have had enough of the Dolomites, though. We must return some day.