Stroller Adventures in Venice

Venice is for lovers not travel weary, spit-up soaked parents with a hot, tired baby and stroller in tow. I’m not sure how I didn’t think about the fact that Venice is a set of 100 small islands connected by 400 bridges and those bridges are comprised of a set of stairs up and a set of stairs down. We surprisingly saw quite a few people with strollers and we all seemed to look at each other thinking the same thing – Strollers and Venice don’t mix.

We decided to stay in Padova instead of Venice. I had heard that it is very easy to get lost in Venice and the thought of hopping on and off boats with two bags, a baby and a stroller while arguing with my husband about which way to go didn’t sound appealing.

I found a much more reasonably priced place in Padova near the train station. It was another one of the budget convenience hotels that I seem to have become so fond of since we’ve been travelling with a baby. Although it wasn’t located in an industrial park like the last place in France, it did have the usual sketchy, I don’t want to be here after dark, train station area feel to it. These days charming is out and convenience is in.

Our trip was off to a rocky start after arriving very late to the airport for our crack of dawn flight and had to sprint to our gate. For Jim, this was just another check mark in the “reasons not to fly” column.

We arrived in Padova at 10:00 so after a little rest we headed to the train station to catch a train into Venice just in time for lunch. Out of necessity, we picked a touristy place just outside the train station along the main canal. The waves from passing boats would flood the floor of the restaurant. Although the food wasn’t memorable, it was our only canal side meal so it was interesting in that respect and memorable in that Sabine broke her first wine glass. She’s already a lush at 6 months.

After lunch we started walking around. Our guide book suggested “getting lost to see the real Venice. There is no need to “try” to get lost because it is a foregone conclusion that you will get lost. Jim thinks that the Italians learned how to post signs from the Germans. You can dutifully follow signs to a destination; however, at some point the signs will mysteriously disappear.

We finally got to St. Marks Square late in the afternoon and were unable to get into the cathedral so we decided to save that for another day.

We decided to wander around the streets near St. Marks and popped into Osteria Enoteca San Marco for a quick glass of wine and diaper change. It was actually one of the restaurants recommended in our guide book but we didn’t realize it at the time. After looking at the menu we decided that we’d try to eat there if Sabine would cooperate. Unfortunately, before we could order, little miss dinner spoiler decided it had been a long day and she was ready for it to be over. We didn’t want to disturb the other diners so we left and decided to try to return for lunch another day.

We hopped on one of the main boats that slowly cruised the main canal back to the train station so we could take a bunch of pictures. Before getting on the train back to Padua, we enjoyed a gelato and that ended up being dinner as the restaurant in our hotel was closed by the time we got back.

Unfortunately, our hotel had a baby bed with wide slats so while we went to brush our teeth that night little Sabine had wormed both of her legs through one of the holes up to her waist. We decided we weren’t all that keen on visiting an Italian emergency room so we had her sleep in our bed. It was a great recipe for compounding our sleep deprivation. Between crying and intermittently thrashing about, sleep was hard to come by for both mom and dad.

The next day we got a very late start as we tried to sleep in a bit. In our fatigued state, we thought Venice might be a little too much so we opted for a small town 40 minutes from Padova called Vicenza.

As it was Sunday and all of the retail shops were closed the main drag was pretty deserted. It looked like it was a pretty good place for shopping

The highlight of the town was the Olympic Theater which we almost decided not to visit, which would have been a mistake. It had an incredibly 3-D stage that was so realistic in its rendering of a street scene.

We wandered around the town, hitting the main square and a cute little wine bar while we waited for a restaurant to open for dinner. Unfortunately, the restaurant in our guide book was no longer in business, so we ended up in a touristy little pizza place. The food wasn’t all that memorable but the wait staff was. Sabine was really fussy so when our pizza came, the waiter offered to take her. He had a great time walking her around and showing off his parenting skills. A bunch of the women were fawning all over her but he was the only one who could get her to stop crying. He earned a generous tip that evening.

The next day we decided to brave Venice again. This time I knew that I wanted to get to St. Marks early before the lines got too long so we took the fast boat on the main canal directly to St. Marks. The line was already pretty long by the time we got there so instead of getting a coffee and feeding Sabine, I decided to just breastfeed her while standing in line.

St. Marks was really quite beautiful and I was very glad that I stood in line to see it but now as I’m writing this, I can’t for the life of me remember what it looked like. Unfortunately, pictures are not allowed so I can’t even to refer back to a photo. (#1 reason for writing the blog while on vacation instead of waiting for 2 months- you forget everything.)

After our visit to St. Marks we hit the Doge’s (Duke’s) Palace. The architecture of the palace had a Moorish feel to it and reminded of some of the places I’ve seen in Seville, Spain. The palace was quite lavish and well worth the visit. Who doesn’t love a palace? I think the appeal is imagining what your life would be like if you were that rich.

After touring St. Mark’s Square, we attempted to go back to the restaurant we had tried to eat at on our first trip to Venice. The restaurant was empty when we got there so thankfully there weren’t too many people to disturb. We had some amazing food but didn’t enjoy it very much because Sabine wasn’t very happy. We ended up taking turns walking with her outside the restaurant while the other would eat. We decided that our nice restaurant days were over. Move over Michelin starred restaurants and make room for TGIFridays and Applebees.

After our lunch, we decided to walk back to the train station and try to hit the Frari area and visit the Frari Church and the other sights in the area. It took most of the afternoon to make our way to the train station.

Our last day was spent in Padua. We started out with a visit to the Scrovegni Chapel which requires a reservation. In order to protect the frescoes, they only allow 25 people in at a time for a 15 minute interval. If you only have a short time in Padua, I would visit St. Anthony instead of the Scrovegni Chapel. It was ok but I wasn’t blown away by the frescoes.

Next we planned to do a little shopping but it began to rain so we stopped for a coffee. Unfortunately while having coffee and playing with Sabine in my lap, I noticed that Sabine had a blowout up the back of her diaper which resulted in a lap full of poo for me. Jim sent me to the bathroom while he changed Sabine’s diaper in the stroller. When I came out of the bathroom, the rain had started to come down in sheets so everyone who had been outside was now seated at the window of this café. Poor Jim had to change a diaper in the pouring rain with an audience of about 20 people.

We ended up having another coffee and some snacks at the café while we waited for the rain to subside. We had forgotten the rain gear for the stroller so we had to rig up our two umbrellas to protect Sabine from the rain.

We checked out the two main squares in Padua which were both ok but nothing special. It started to rain again so we popped into a pizza place for a quick pizza.

After lunch we headed down to see St. Anthony. Along the way we discovered the old part of town which was quite quaint. We didn’t have time to dawdle though as we had a short amount of time before getting the bus to the airport. The church is definitely on the pilgrimage route. The chapel containing St. Anthony’s tomb is has requests of people and pictures of their loved ones asking for St. Anthony’s help

On this trip we learned the hard lesson that if Ryan Air uses the airport, you do not want to fly there. Although the Treviso airport didn’t seem to be that much farther from the main Marco Polo airport, it was not on a train line so we were forced to catch a bus that made way too many stops, and doesn't really accommodate travelers. When we got to the bus, the driver said that we couldn’t buy tickets from him. We needed to get tickets at a tobacco shop. I ran back to the train station to look for a tobacco shop and after about 30 minutes of sprinting around asking people if they sold tickets, I finally found a newspaper stand across the street that sold tickets. By the time I got back to the bus stop, the bus had already left and we were forced to catch another one.

Sabine cried for most of the bus trip so we weren’t looking forward to the flight. Thankfully, she slept on the flight home. However, after this trip we decided to rethink our plan to go to St. Petersburg in August. We decided that somewhere low key was going to be a lot more relaxing.

Italy - Round 3

Our trip to Italy this time around was a bit of an emotional roller coaster. I should really start this blog quoting Charles Dickens “It was the best of times and it was the worst of times.” We spent a week in the Amalfi coast and had some pretty high expectations of our last trip sans baby. I think we both hoped the area would be a lot like Cinque Terre where we were married.

The trip started out well. We flew into Naples on TUIfly. It was our first time on that airline and we were surprised how pleasant the flight was. We even got fed on our two hour flight and didn’t have to pay to check our baggage. After almost exclusively flying German Wings where you have to pay for a drink, to reserve a seat and to check 1 bag, I felt like we were in business class.

Upon arrival we unfortunately missed the 4:30 bus to Sorrento which Jim of course reminded me wouldn’t have happened had we not checked our luggage. We have an ongoing dispute regarding the checking of luggage. At the end of this trip we decided that we would have saved about 3 hours if we hadn’t checked our baggage. This is by no means a victory for Jim’s cause. To have checked our baggage we would have had to do laundry at least once or twice during the trip because the size of the bags they allow you to carry on are minute and realistically fit a pair of shoes, toiletries and 2 outfits. According to my tally, we are still in a dead heat on the question of to check or not to check.

Since we had about 90 minutes to kill before the next bus, we sat outside the airport at a café. It was the perfect temperature for sitting at an outdoor café and a good strong Italian coffee or glass of wine would have made it perfect. I unfortunately ordered aqua.

The bus trip to Sorrento was over 90 minutes on incredibly congested 2 lane roads hugging the coastline. The road dropped off steeply to the water and the bus would beep around the hairpin turns to warn oncoming traffic to get outta da way.

We managed to find our accommodation without too much trouble. I had checked Trip Advisor earlier in the week and found that some very disparaging reviews of the place had recently been posted. Unfortunately by that time it was too late to cancel without losing our money. So walking into the place I already had some reservations.

Our “B&B” was located in an old apartment complex and was a single apartment which had been converted into three separate rooms with cheap modern décor. Our room was the blue room and had a lovely view of the train tracks below our window. On line of course there was no mention of train tracks right outside the window and Emily must have used some tricky photography because the rooms looked huge on her website.

We both felt a little dejected by our first impressions of Sorrento. It was a busy, tourist laden, congested city that didn’t have the same quaint charm of Cinque Terre. As it was so late by that point, we decided to grab a pizza for dinner at a rundown spot around the corner with a T.V. blaring a soccer match.

The next morning after a restless sleep, we were served our “breakfast” which was a couple of packaged croissants and a coffee which we had to eat in bed because there was no breakfast table in the room (not particularly comfortable when you are 7 ½ months pregnant). Thankfully, we had a mini fridge in the room so we were able to go grocery shopping for some fruit, yogurt, juice and muesli so we told Emily to skip the breakfast for the rest of the week. I didn’t want to waste my caffeine intake on her paltry espresso.

We set out for the tourist information office and to get Jim a proper coffee which I hoped would put him in a better mood. Someone, I’m not mentioning any names here, doesn’t do well without much sleep (a fact which is getting more and more concerning the closer I get to giving birth). The tourist information office was closed so we decided to come back the next day.

We decided to have a low key day in Sorrento rather than battle the tourist crowds on the buses and boats going to other towns. After doing some grocery shopping, we headed to Marina Grande for some lunch. We had a long leisurely lunch at Delfinos. It was located at the end of the marina on a long pier over the water. It was a picture perfect location with a great breeze off the sea and put both of us in a great mood. We decided that our vacation was finally coming around.

I ordered the seafood risotto which was full of squid, octopus, clams and mussels while Jim ordered the local specialty – Gnocchi alla Sorrento (gnocchi in a tomato sauce with melted mozzarella). Both dishes were great and the ½ bottle of wine Jim had put him in a very relaxed mood.

After seeing that I was pregnant our waitress gave us little Catholic miraculous medals of the Immaculate Conception to protect our family and help us be good parents. She must hand them out to a lot of people because she had a tin of these medals in her pocket. It felt like a very Italian gesture which the cynic in me figured was probably the desired effect. However, being on vacation I decided to give my
cynicism a rest, and gave our waitress a big tip instead as the rest of the wait staff had also been quite entertaining.

After lunch, we wandered around town looking for a shop selling hiking maps but didn’t have any luck. We did however find lots of limencello, ugly plates decorated with lemons and I love Sorrento t-shirts.

We attempted to find a hiking path without a map using only the description in our lonely planet book. However, after walking uphill on busy roads for about 30 minutes, we decided to cut our losses and go back to the room for a nap.

That evening we ventured out and were surprised to find the town just as vibrant as it had been on Saturday night. Most of the retail shops were open even though they hadn’t been open during the day. I think the shops have realized that the tourists leave on day trips during the daytime and then return in the evening to shop and eat. During the week a lot of shops would close for the afternoon and open up again from 5-10 at night.

After having such a large lunch, we decided to have a low cost dinner and get a quick pizza at Da Franco’s. The restaurant is very casual with cafeteria like tables and benches. They serve their drinks in plastic Dixie sized cups and the pizza is served in tin pans with wax paper. They can get away with a complete lack of ambiance because their pizza is so good. We ended up eating there 3 times during our trip.

On Monday, we decided to take the boat to Positano. When planning this trip I mistakenly forgot about Jim’s motion sickness on boats and buses which was going to be our main mode of transportation for the week. Oops! Since all of the seats outside were taken, Jim had to stand at the back of the boat for the entire journey. I went out to check on him once and for the first time during my pregnancy someone offered me their seat.

Positano looked a lot more like Cinque Terre and was set into a ravine with houses built up high on each side of the steep hills. The beach was a pebble beach with no sand and was lined with brightly colored umbrellas and lounge chairs that one could rent for the day.

Our first agenda was lunch. We walked the waterfront to evaluate our options and settled on a Rick Steve’s recommendation – La Cambusa. It was quite hot so I ordered a Salat Nizzardo Jim ordered the seafood pasta which was simple but very good.

After lunch we wandered the narrow, steep pedestrian only streets of which there were only a few and did a little window shopping. There wasn’t much to do in the town besides that so after a refreshing lemon granita and a 5 euro pareo purchase, we went back down to the beach to take the boat home.

We had some time to kill before catching the next boats so we decided to put our feet in the water to cool off a bit. The water felt amazing and we regretted not bringing our swim suits.

We were able to get rock star seats on the top deck of the boat for the 90 minute ride back to Sorrento. It was a slower boat so was more relaxing. Jim even fell asleep in his lounge chair on the ride home while I took pictures of the coast.

On Tuesday, we had planned to go to Capri. However, after another sleepless night and feeling the water in Positano, we decided to have a beach day. We went to Marina del Cantone which was a tiny little marina on the other side of the Sorrento Peninsula and off the tourist circuit. We had to take a bus there and although it was only about 20k away, it took an hour to get there. The roads are so narrow and curvy that it wasn’t a pleasant drive for Jim. We were amazed with the skill of these bus drivers. In some instances we had only a centimeter between us and another huge bus.

Marina del Cantone was a tiny marina with one hotel and about 6 restaurants. We rented beach chairs and an umbrella for the day. It was another pebble beach so you needed to have a sun lounger to be comfortable. Surprisingly, I really enjoyed the fact that there was no sand to get between your toes and in other nooks and crannies.

Unlike Positano, this marina didn’t have large ferries and boats coming into port so it was much more tranquil. Since it wasn’t peak tourist season, a lot of the restaurants were closed. For lunch we settled on a small place lining the beach which looked to be the only restaurant with customers. We didn’t have high expectations but were pleasantly surprised. We got the best seafood of our trip at that restaurant. The mussels were huge and I assume caught that morning.

We spent the rest of the afternoon swimming and sunning ourselves and caught the 5:00 bus back to Sorrento. About half way through the ride, a group of about 20 teenage girls filled the bus with their non-stop chatter. Jim and I both looked at each other thinking the same thing; we are going to have one of these soon and hopefully we will be able to survive our daughter’s teenage years.

Once in Sorrento, we couldn’t wait to get off the hot, noisy bus and take a cool shower back at our hotel. Sadly in my rush to get off the bus and away from the noisy girls, I left the camera on the bus. However, I didn’t realize it until that night when I went to charge the camera and it wasn’t in the room.

That night after dinner at a disappointing tourist trap we wandered around town and solved a smelly mystery. During our walks in Sorrento we kept encountering the smell of dog poop even if there wasn’t any in the vicinity. We realized that it was a berry on a low palm tree. Watch out Franken Berry Crunch, there’s a new breakfast cereal in town – Poo Berry Stench. Now the only remaining mystery was why our hotel fridge smelled of mothballs.

Wednesday morning our first priority was getting our camera back. We were doubtful that anyone would have returned it since we were in Italy and in a very touristy spot. Surprisingly though when we asked the people at the bus station, they made a call and were able to track it down. Apparently a woman in St. Agata had found a camera the night before so we got on a bus to St. Agata which was about 40 minutes away to meet her. We were so elated that we had found the camera and would have all of our pictures from the trip so far. However, when we met the woman she handed us a camera which wasn’t ours. Disheartened we took the bus back to Sorrento. It was bad enough to have lost the camera in the first place but now we felt like we had lost it a second time.

We decided to go to Pompeii for the afternoon after wasting our entire morning chasing after the camera since it was only a 30 minute train ride away. We should have eaten before getting to Pompeii because as soon as we got off the train, we were bombarded with men trying to get us to eat at the little restaurants lined up outside the site of Pompeii. One guy wouldn’t leave us alone, insisting that we look at the menu while he kept repeating, “look, look, you must look at the quality.” Sadly, they weren’t even able to make the pictures of their food look appetizing so we looked but didn’t stop.

We decided to wander down the road to see if there were any better choices. There weren’t. We ended up getting a terrible pizza and eating it along the side of the road.

Pompeii was absolutely massive and didn’t have a very ordered route through the site. They simply let you move through the site on your own which was a little overwhelming. We tried to follow along with the information booklet but after struggling to find the numbers corresponding to the descriptions in our little booklet, we decided to just wander around. I think that we were both a bit depressed after the morning’s disappointment so our hearts weren’t really into sightseeing. After about 2 hours in the heat battling the crowds of tourists, we called it a day and headed back to Sorrento.

We went back to Da Franco’s and had some more excellent pizza in an environment that doesn’t cater to tourists and doesn’t pretend to be anything it isn’t.

On Thursday we were again going to go to Capri but we didn’t get an early start. Plus after battling the crowds at Pompeii we weren’t inclined to go to another tourist trap so we decided to go back to Marina del Cantone for another relaxing beach day. The weather unfortunately turned cloudy after our late lunch so we left earlier than planned to avoid the rain.

On Friday, we awoke to pouring rain so had a lazy morning while planning our options for the day. We decided to go to Capri even though the Blue Grotto would be closed due to the inclement weather. I hoped that there might be fewer tourists than if the weather wasn’t as sunny and nice as it had been the rest of the week.

When we got to the Marina Grande, we took the funicular up to Capri. The town was pretty similar to how Rick described it in his book; a paradise for anyone who can afford to drop 500 euro on a night in a swanky hotel or 4,000 euro on a new Prada purse. I guess day tripping tourists just like to see what they are missing by not being famous or rich. Personally window shopping isn’t all that fun when you know that anything you see is completely out of your reach. It makes you feel a bit impoverished when you compare your Target outfit to that of the Gucci attired woman next to you. I guess that is probably one of the reasons I never look at those star magazines like People. How does looking at beautiful people with amazing clothing and a seemingly endless source of income make you feel better about your own life?

We wandered the streets of Capri and then made our way to the Gardini di Augusto. The garden was perched on a huge cliff with views of the sea below and the limestone rocks which rise steeply out of the water near the island.

Since it was already late in the day we decided to skip Anacapri and do a hike that was suggested in the Lonely Planet. We walked from Capri to the Arco Naturale which was a beautiful natural rock arch. It reminded me a lot of the arches in Moab except that there was crystal blue water in the background rather than dry red desert landscape.

The way down from the arch was a long, very steep set of stairs which wasn’t very forgiving on my knees and joints. However, the views we were rewarded with made it worth it. The trail was lush and almost completely devoid of people. We passed a cave that had been a temple for Nymphs as well as a villa where a Bridgette Bardot movie was filmed. Although we had low expectations of Capri, that hike turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip. Unfortunately my sad little disposable camera wasn’t quite able to capture the true beauty of the place.

That night to celebrate our anniversary we had reservations at the best restaurant in Sorrento – Il Buco. We were seated next to a wedding party from Australia so it was a nice reminder of our own destination wedding.

We figured that this might be our last really nice meal for a long time so we splurged and got the five course gourmet menu. It was a delicious way to celebrate our marriage, and we both left the restaurant fat and happy.

On our last day in Sorrento, we decided to do a hike on the Sorrento Peninsula. We took a short bus ride up to Termini and after getting some coffee and a snack, set off for Campanella del Punto. The point was supposed to have the best views of Capri.

The trail was at first actually a narrow road through some olive and lemon orchards but then turned into an old, uneven cobbled path. As we walked through the olive tree groves, Jim tried one of the olives and discovered that there is a reason every olive you’ve ever eaten has been cured; they are bitter little suckers!

It was quite a hot day so after we had worked up a sweat on our hike; we went in search of a beach. We were able to find one on the map that wasn’t too far away. The trail down to the beach was quite steep and difficult to navigate so we hoped that the beach would be fairly deserted.

When we arrived at the secluded little bay we were happy to see that the beach was completely empty. Since we were all alone we decided to forgo the swim suits and go skinny dipping a la our wedding night in Portovenere.

The waves in this bay were much larger than on the other side of the Peninsula so we were cautious not to swim out too far. After a second swim, we got dressed and explored some of the caves nearby. Thankfully, I was able to convince Jim not to jump off a cliff into the water

The hike back up was a bit torturous and hot but we took it nice and slow for the pregnant lady.

Back in Termini we refreshed ourselves with ice cream bars and lots of water while waiting for the next bus to Sorrento.

While we were waiting, we witnessed a funeral procession ending at the very same church we had seen a wedding at earlier in the day. It was interesting to see the circle of life Italian style.

On our last morning in Sorrento, we went for a coffee before heading to the airport.

All in all, we had a pretty good trip. The highlights were our two days in Marina del Cantone, and the hikes in Capri and on the Sorrento Peninsula. We realized that for us a vacation means being close to nature and a bit off the beaten track.

Italian Dolomites with a German Twist

After only a day back home in Bonn, Jim and I were off for a week to the Dolomite Mountains in Northern Italy. We left very early Saturday morning so that we would hopefully avoid traffic and get to our destination in the afternoon.

This trip was a great way for me to get a vacation from my vacation to the States. After running around all over Denver, it was great to get away and relax without any sort of agenda or lists.

My planning for this trip was pretty much nonexistent. I had merely reserved a place before going to the States and knew nothing about the region. I discovered that this was a good thing. I had absolutely no expectations of what we should see or do and that made for a very relaxing trip. I have been informed that I tend to over plan a bit during our vacations. I generally have plans and then have back up plans to those plans.

The area we had chosen was called Südtirol (in German) or Alto Adige (in Italian). We originally wanted to be in the Alps after seeing how beautiful the mountains were on the way to Interlocken, but had a hard time finding a place to rent. However we figured that there would be fewer tourists and the food would be better in Italy than in Switzerland or Austria so it worked out in the end.

The area of Südtirol had at one time been part of Austria, but after WWI the region was given to Italy. The towns looked like they could have been anywhere in Austria and the people were blond and blue eyed. Almost everyone spoke German and all of the signs and menus were in both German and Italian which made things really easy for us since our German is definitely better than our Italian.

We rented an apartment in San Cassiano at Ciasa Antersies (www.ciasaantersies.it/home/index.php?lang=english). Our hosts were the cutest couple. They were engaged and had recently remodeled the whole place from a hotel to small little apartments. They were both so helpful. They recommended area restaurants, rides for Jim and hikes for me. Bettina lived in upstate NY for a while so had perfect English as well as Italian, German and French. I felt so inadequate with my pathetic German and mostly forgotten Spanish language skills.

After the long drive and unpacking process, we hunkered down for a night in with pasta (of course) and the new season of Weeds for a relaxing night.

The next day Jim was excited to get out on his bike and try out one of the rides our host had suggested. I brought my bike but after seeing the roads decided against riding. After not riding for a few weeks and suddenly having a few more inches around my middle, I decided that riding up and down 16% grade, windy mountain roads with crazy Italian drivers wasn’t the smartest idea.

I ended up going for a hike right from our hotel. The plan was to do about a 2-3 hour hike but it ended up being 4 ½ hours. I somehow got off of the very well marked trail system and came across another trail which I took instead of simply turning around. I ended up going up a very steep trail that took me above tree line. I was determined to get to the top of the mountain but after the trail turned into pretty loose scree so after losing my footing a few times, I realized that hiking an expert only trail by myself while 21 months preggers might not be a very good idea so I turned around and vowed to get to the top with Jim later in the week.

We were both pretty wrecked from our respective workouts so after relaxing a bit and getting cleaned up, we walked into San Cassiano and had dinner at a pizzeria.

On Monday morning, we woke up to a gray sky and a dismal weather forecast for rain. We decided to have a lazy morning in and then both went for a short run.

We planned to go to Bolzano for the day due to the rain. However, by the time we had gotten lunch in town it was already 2:30 so we were getting a pretty late start. As we started driving, we realized that the drive would be a lot longer than we anticipated even though Bolzano was only about 75km away. The roads were very windy and with the rain it was very slow going. After driving for 30 minutes we decided that we really needed a full day in Bolzano to make it worth the drive so we turned around.

We stopped in Corvara on the way home to stock up at a larger grocery store and then spent the rest of the rainy day in our apartment.

We got some cards from our hostess but after I beat Jim a few times in gin, he didn’t feel like playing anymore. I love playing cards and have tried to get Jim to play more often. I guess my technique of beating the crap out of him every time we play isn’t working. I may need to try a Las Vegas style strategy and let him win a few times to get the sweet taste of victory before going in for the kill.

The next day, we decided to give Bolzano another try. Jim went for a short 2 hour ride while I hiked and we set off for Bolzano. We had to go over 2 mountain passes to get to the autostrada which took over an hour. The signage for the autostrada was confusing so we ended up on a frontage road instead of the fast highway. Unfortunately, there were no on ramps all the way to Bolzano so the autostrada just taunted us from above while we were stuck on a slow windy road behind a bunch of trucks.

After finding parking, we stumbled upon the restaurant/hotel that I had researched so popped in to make a reservation for later that night. We got a coffee on the terrace and then headed out to explore the town.

Bolzano was a pretty small town of only 100,000. However, being Italy it still had some really great shopping. After seeing the restaurant, Jim felt underdressed in his t-shirt and jeans so we did some shopping for a new outfit.

Our next stop was the Museum of Archaeology to see Ötzi the Iceman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otzi). He was found in 1991 by some German hikers very near the Italian / Austrian border. He was from the Copper Age and was about 5,300 years old. The museum is really a mummy museum. It explains the various ways something can be mummified either artificially as part of a burial or naturally in a bog or a desert. It was a very interesting exhibit but by the third floor we were a bit “mummied out”.

We had dinner at Restaurant Laurin in a beautiful garden. Being Italy, they didn’t start serving dinner until 7:30 and the maître d wouldn’t seat us before but did seat another women. He was a little snooty and Jim was offended so dinner wasn’t off to a good start. However, we had an adorable waiter who was great and that made up for the earlier snub. We had a great dinner in their beautiful gardens and then drove back to San Cassiano.

The next day Jim went for another ride while I explored the other side of the valley. I hiked up to a high Alpine meadow up to Utia Pralongia. All over this region, there are chair lifts and restaurants that service skiers during the winter. There were tons of people up there sunning themselves and eating lunch. It was a great place for kids who might not be able to handle the steep hike up. They could ride the chair lift and still get rewarded with gorgeous 360 degree mountain views.

Back in San Cassiano, there was a festival with a band and the streets were lined with craft and food vendors. We bought some local cheeses and then went to dinner at a grill that was recommended to us. The special was thyme encrusted venison and it was amazingly tender.

On Thursday, Jim decided he’d beat himself up enough on the bike and we went for an 8 hour hike. We went back up the same trail that I was forced to abandon on Monday. The hike was one of the most amazing hikes I’ve ever done.

The terrain was so varied throughout the hike that it felt like we were in completely different areas. The hike started out in a dense forest which then became just shrubs before going above tree line where there was no vegetation and just scree. At the top of the climb, we were in a huge bowl that had an eerie moonscape feel to it with a smooth windblown and weather beaten rock surface. As we descended farther down there were increasingly more and more tufts of green grass sprouting through the rock until we came to a grass basin with a small herd of cows munching lazily with their bells echoing through the alpine plateau. Jim and I were both completely at a loss for how those cows made it to that high point. There must have been an easier way up because the cows could never have climbed up the way we had just come.

Thankfully, the trail went by a restaurant that was originally a shelter for people herding their cows over the pass. We hadn’t packed enough food or water for the hike so we stopped for lunch and filled up our camelback.

We passed a number of alpine lakes before descending down through the Col de Locia back to San Cassiano. Much to our dismay, the parking lot where the trail ended was not the end of our hike. We were still a few miles from San Cassiano so we refreshed ourselves with some ice cream bars and continued on our way.

After such an epic hike, we were both so exhausted and couldn’t do much more than read in bed before heading down to town for some pizza and schulter which is a half moon ravioli filled with spinach and ricotta cheese in a parmesan and butter sauce typical of the region.

On our last day in Alto Adige we went to the nearby ski town of Corvara for an amazing lunch at La Perla (http://www.hotel-laperla.it/gallery-view-alta-badia-e.htm) and then wandered around the town checking out the various shops.

We had an amazingly relaxing week in the mountains with great food and friendly people. We were sad to be leaving the next day. I’d recommend this area to anyone looking for a low key, relatively inexpensive mountain location which isn’t overrun with tourists.

Back to the Tuscan Small Villages - Volterra and Pienza

Volterra
After a day in Florence and no bike riding, Jim was itching to get a workout in the next morning so went out for a long ride. A little too long for my taste so Jim was forced to endure an afternoon with an angry pregnant woman. I wanted to see San Gimignano as well as Volterra but we didn’t get to Volterra until 4:00 so it was going to be another one town day.

Volterra is a walled city with a large fortress towering over the city. I was hoping to tour the fortress until I found out that it was actually now a state prison.

We stumbled across the palace of an Alabaster businessman and decided to take a tour. The owner made his fortunes in South America and Asia and actually ended up being the emir of Nepal. The palace had about 9 rooms open for viewing and the tour included a tasting of regional wine with some cheese and salami. We were surprised that Rick made no mention of the palace because both Jim and I really enjoyed it and found it a worthwhile stop.

We next walked up to the Fortress and the park nearby. The archaeological park with Etruscan ruins was already closed as was the Duomo. We did get to poke our heads in just as it was closing and it didn’t look like we were missing too much.

Our next sight was the Porto all’Arco which was a 4th century Etruscan city gate made of volcanic tufa rocks. Apparently Nazi forces were going to blow it up to slow the Allied approach but the citizens of the city pulled up all of the rocks leading up to the gate and used them to block the gate.

We decided to give Rick another chance on the fine dining recommendations and went to Restaurante Enotec del Duca. It didn’t open until 7:30 so we had to kill about 40 minutes. We got a second gelato of the day and wandered on the town’s main drag.

Unfortunately the meal was disappointing. The best part about the meal was our waiter who was very nice and gave us a free plate when he found out that I was pregnant. It was also pretty entertaining to watch the waiter kill a fly on a large hunk of cured ham just as Jim finished his portion. I'm guessing Italian health codes aren't as strict as they are in the U.S.

We decided to skip dessert and go for another gelato. We enjoyed our gelato sitting on the town wall watching a great sunset.

Pienza
On our last day in Tuscany, we decided to check out a market to see how it would compare to the markets in Provence. We decided to go to Pienza. Pienza is a very small town but was one of our favorites.

We walked along the ridge of town to get from our parking spot to the old section of the town. Along the way, we realized that there was a running race going on. It was mostly older men in the race. I have the feeling that Italian women don’t do too much working out.

We stopped for a coffee and gelato before searching for the market. We were having more trouble finding the market than we anticipated so stopped in the TI office and got directions for the market. We followed the directions to an empty square. We were at a loss as to why the TI office would give us directions to the market but would fail to tell us that there wasn't a market that day. Italian logic.

After the market flop, we went to the main piazza – Piazza Pio II which was surrounded by the city hall, Duomo and the Palazzo Piccolomini. We bought tickets to tour the palazzo. The next English tour wasn’t for 30 minutes so we took that time to tour the rest of the town and the Palazzo gardens.

The palazzo was the home of Pius II (who became pope) and the Piccolomini family. The tour is only of 6 rooms but they are well preserved with all of the original 15th century furnishings. The outside of the Palazzo was surprisingly nothing special but the interior was beautiful. The crest of the Piccolomini family was a cross with five half moons signifying the 5 religious crusades they helped fund. We had seen this same crest in the Siena Duomo.

After the tour we decided to go back to a restaurant we had stumbled across on our quest for the market. The restaurant had a terrace with an amazing view. It was by far the best meal we had during the entire trip. The restaurant was called La Terrazza del Chiostro (www.laterrazzadelchiostro.it) and was also a hotel.

Jim ordered shrimp in a chickpea puree to start and I got the stuffed squid. For the main course, I ordered the black pasta with clams in a pumpkin sauce and Jim got a steak. Since the meal up to that point had been so good, Jim decided to get a desert. He ordered a molten chocolate cake with wild strawberry sauce. Although I said that I was full and would only have a bite of whatever he ordered, it was so good that I proceeded to eat half of it. Ok, maybe more than half of it. I am pregnant after all.

After our relaxing two hour lunch, we headed back to Tenuta di Lupinari so that I could hang out by the pool and Jim could go for a ride. It was the hottest day of our trip so I figured that I’d get to do some swimming.

Hanging out by the pool was incredibly relaxing. It was 4:00 so the sun wasn’t too hot and the sun loungers weren’t like any I’d ever seen before. They had a reclining shield that you could use to block the sun from your face which is much better than my usual technique of suffocating underneath my coverup or towel.

It was a great week and we were both sad to leave our little Tuscan apartment the next morning. Thankfully we’ll be back in Italy at the end of September for a week in the Amalfi Coast so it was more of a “see you later” farewell rather than a “goodbye”.

Montepulciano and Florence (a cultural powerhouse but Jim’s nightmare)

On Tuesday, Jim went for a long ride to explore some of the steep winding roads we had driven the day before while I went for a run and then headed to the pool to catch a few rays. Unfortunately, the sun spent more time behind the clouds so after a little while, I got cold and had to head in.

Walking back to our apartment I discovered a cherry tree which was covered in cherries. I picked a bunch to have with my breakfast. Normally, I don’t like cherries because they are too much work. (I’m a lazy fruit eater), but these were delicious.

In the afternoon, Jim and I went to Montepulciano. We decided to navigate ourselves since the GPS didn’t seem to like highways and main transportation routes but preferred to send us on curvy back roads. We managed to arrive in Montepulciano without any fighting; a navigational first for Jim and me.

We needed to get lunch in a hurry as it was almost 2:30. A lot of restaurants in Italy close between 2:00 or 230 and 6:00.

We decided to stop for a pizza at a small pizzeria with a plastic covered terrace. The pizzas had a nice thin crust (which I like) and the wine was cheap (which Jim likes) so we were both happy.

After lunch, we continued up the main drag looking for the Piazza Grande. Jim had a call for work so we found a café for him to settle into and I wandered around the surrounding streets near the piazza.

In the Piazza Grande was the Cathedral which Jim commented looked just like the Alamo. Unfortunately for this church, the city ran out of money after building the interior so the front marble façade was left unfinished and remains a basic building with rough stonework.

Our next stop was the San Bagio church which I spotted while Jim was on the phone. We walked down the very steep road to the church to get a closer look at the domed renaissance architecture.

The hike back up to the town was a challenging one. Now I know how Italians stay so slim while eating tons of pasta and gelato.

Before leaving Montepulciano we had try some of their famous wine so stopped at a wine store/ bar so Jim could sample the Brunello di Montalcino and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. After drinking some really cheap wine at lunch, Jim was shocked at what they charged for a tasting (translation – 2 little sips) of these wines.

According to Jim, they were both really good wines but he was happier with the cheap stuff so didn’t buy any bottles.

Being pregnant and travelling in Italy really has its disadvantages. Italians don’t really understand non alcoholic or decaffeinated. I spent most of the trip drinking sparkling water at all meals. It really made me appreciate the fact that every bar or restaurant in Germany has a non alcoholic beer option.

Just before getting to the car we stopped for our requisite gelato of the day. They had a panna cotta flavor which reigned as my favorite for the rest of the trip.

We decided to save our marriage by taking the train to Florence rather than attempting to drive and try to navigate a large city in Italy. It was only an hour and 15 minute train ride from Bucine and was a stress free way to get to Florence. We were even able to buy our tickets all in Italian.

Since the next train didn’t leave until 11:44, we had some time to kill. We stopped at a little café just next to the clothing market to do some quality watching.
Bucine is a small Italian town with no tourists so the market sold cheap clothing, shoes, towels, kitchen utensils and some toiletries. I am assuming these vendors buy the stuff at close out prices and then are able to sell things cheaper than a retail store.

The coffee shop was a great spot. We got 2 coffees for only 1.70 and the pastries were only 80 cents. It also seemed to be a meeting spot for the townspeople so was a great spot to witness small town Italian life.

We had reservations to see the Uffizi Gallery at 2:00 so we headed that direction upon arrival. Along the way, we were searching for a spot to grab a quick bite. I was hoping for a good thin slice o’ pizza pie but all we saw were dry looking thick crust pizza. Jim finally cracked and needed to eat pronto so bought a soggy tomato and mozzarella Panini and 30 minutes later I ended up with an equally unappealing slice of pizza. So far our day in Florence wasn’t off to a good start.

At the Uffizi Gallery, we had to stand in one line to get our reserved tickets and then in another line to actually get in. Rather than enduring Jim’s complaints about the inefficiencies of this system, I stood in line and sent him to go sit on a bench and read the Herald Tribune.

The Uffizi Gallery houses some of the most Italian works of art. It is amazing to see the works of artists you’ve heard so much about like Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. I wish I would have gotten the audio guide in retrospect. However, Jim was having trouble breathing in the museum due to the fact that he had forgotten to bring his asthma medication on our trip so I figured that we’d be going through it pretty quickly and wouldn’t have time to listen to a guide.

Once we were out of the gallery, we decided to head toward Ponte Vecchio which we had seen from a window in the museum. Along the way we stopped for some great gelato at Gelateria Carrozze (Via del Pesce 3). They had a peanut butter flavor I had not yet seen which when paired with the rich dark chocolate gelato was heavenly.

Ponte Vecchio was lined with gold jewelry stores. The stores on the bridge actually jutted out a few feet beyond the base of the bridge over the river. Apparently all of Florence was like that before they outlawed it. I guess everyone was trying to get some more real estate without actually paying for it.

We were going to check out a neighborhood across the river but I realized that the Duomo closed at 5:00 and it was already past 4:00. We rushed over to the Duomo which was a beautiful building with striped renaissance exterior. I was expecting the interior of the cathedral to be as stunning as the exterior but was sadly disappointed upon entering. Besides the sheer size of the interior of the church, it was unremarkable which was good because just as we entered the battery on my camera died.

After the Duomo we decided to wander some side streets to get a better feel for the real Florence as so far we had only been on the main tourist drags. We didn’t get very far before Jim’s blisters hurt (rookie travel move to wear new, never been worn shoes) so I dropped him off at a coffee shop for a few hours while I wandered the main market, San Lorenzo, and the surrounding streets.

While wandering I happened across a recommended restaurant in our guide book, Trattoria Za Za’s so Jim and I went back there for a quick bite before we caught the train home. It had a really nice outdoor patio with an unenthused wait staff. The simple pasta dish we ordered was quite good but didn’t top the gelato we had eaten earlier.

I wished we had more time in Florence to see more of the other sights but Jim couldn’t wait to get back to visiting the small hill towns.

Sienna - not all that

The next day we woke up to blue skies and sunshine so both went out for our own rides after breakfast.

In the afternoon we set off for Sienna. We both had high hopes for this town based on Rick’s glowing review that Sienna was Italy’s best medieval town and the main square, Il Campo, is Italy’s best square.

Our disappointment of Sienna really started at lunch. We figured Sienna would be a good town to have our “splurge” meal. Rick recommended Antica Osteria Da Divo for lunch. The cheesy Italian ballads playing in the background should have been our first sign. The other bad sign should have been that there were only other tourists in the restaurant. We did get some free vin santo after our meal because we had a Rick Steve’s book. I of course couldn’t drink it so Jim had both of them, which after a ½ bottle of wine gave him quite a buzz.

Our first stop in Sienna was the Duomo (Cathedral) and was definitely the highlight of the day. The church was incredibly ornate with large striped columns throughout the interior. Every square inch of the church was decorated, from the gigantic religious works of art on the walls, inlayed marble floors and the Michelangelo statues. Of all the churches I have seen in the last year, the Duomo of Sienna tops my list.

After the Duomo, we headed to the main square. Il Campo was a very large square with oddly no focal point. The middle of the square is slanted like an amphitheater down to a drain giving the square a barren look. The most interesting building along the square was the City Hall and its 330 ft. tower.

Jim was feeling the need for a rest and some coffee after the copious amount of wine he consumed at lunch so I climbed the tower while he rested at a coffee shop lining the square. The views from the tower were well worth the climb up the very narrow stairwell.

After rallying Jim, we wandered the streets of Sienna searching for some quaint little streets. We didn’t find any but did find some gritty, dirty streets thick with the scent of burning clutch and brakes.

We decided to head back to the car and stop for a gelato. Jim didn’t like the look of the gelato place I picked out because there were too many people and it was nicely decorated so he assumed it was expensive. He wanted a more authentic hole in the wall gelato shop. We found our hole in the wall spot and got some disappointingly icy gelatos that were the same price as the first shop. Sometimes it helps to remember that the busy spots are busy for a reason.

On the way home, our GPS took us a different back roads route that had incredibly curvy steep roads which Jim couldn't wait to ride up the next day. What is fun according to Jim is very different from most people's definition of fun. When I think of climbing steep steep roads in the hot sun, I think of pain and discomfort not "Oh that will be lots of fun".

Back at home, we cooked another dinner in. I mean, I cooked another dinner in while Jim enjoyed a glass of wine on the terrace. We had stopped at the Coop in Bucine on the way home and picked up some fresh pear gorgonzola ravioli which I paired with some caramelized onions, toasted walnuts, olive oil and parmesan cheese. Unfortunately the ravioli were pretty flavorless so it was a bit disappointing.