Florence's art scene

Today, we got up early, had breakfast in the hotel, and returned the car. Whew! (I guess one of the good things about the car, which I forgot until now, was that we were able to listen to Italian radio. Stations did play quite a bit of music in English with a very popular song called "Relax, Take It Easy"). When we got directions to the rental dropoff from our hotel, they told us to stop by and give the license plate number to them. Apparently, Florence has sections where the roads are restricted from heavy traffic and if you are not going to some place you can get a fine. That just adds all the more reason to ditch the car. We walked from the rental place to the Uffizi Gallery along the Arno River and passed the Ponte Vecchio. We were a little early (we had reservations which helped us get out of a long line). So, we took a few photos and read up a little on the gallery. Inside the gallery, we had to go through metal detectors and check our bag (baggage check had a sign that said it was forbidden to leave cameras, phone cameras, money, or identification documents, which was an odd sign because that's what our bag had mostly in it). After climbing two tall stories of stairs, we saw many statues and busts of famous people like old roman emperors. We saw lots of early and mid renaissance paintings including the famous Boticelli birth of venus. After the gallery, we had lunch at a nice self serve sandwich shop. We decided to get a little rest before visiting the Academia and started walking back to the hotel. Along the way Jadine wanted to stop at the local department store called Coin (it's like Macys). When we got back to the hotel, Jadine took a nap and I went downstairs to the lounge where they have wi-fi and connected to the internet. At about 3:20, we headed for the Academia. After going through another metal detector, we entered the gallery. We saw some more art, but the reason everyone comes here is to see Michelangelo's David which was worth seeing in person. After the gallery, we headed back to the hotel and got ready for dinner. We thought we'd try a Rick Steves recommendation. However, we could not find either one and ended up at a nice restaurant called Trattoria Corrazze. We ordered roast beef, a florentine style t-bone, a glass of brunello, and a panna cotta with caramel and pistachio for dessert. The brunello was not so good (my theory is because we're tourists and we're buying by the glass so we get the not so fresh stuff), but the food was excellent. That was it for the day. It was a little refreshing not to have so much on the schedule.

Little town overload

We started out with breakfast in the hotel. Breakfast was good but there could have been some more fresh fruit. That seems to be common in italy -- there isn't much fruits or vegetables available on the menus. After breakfast we got the car and headed to Siena. Our first stop was Piazzale Michelangelo with its stunning view of Florence. Then, as we were driving, we decided that it would be best to go to a winery before going to Siena. We read in the Rick Steves book about a town, San Gimignano, which is on the way to Siena and has a couple wineries. We made it to San Gimignano, which is this amazing old castle on a hill. Rick Steves didn't give the easiest directions for parking. We missed the lot which happened to be the first one by the main gate (p1). We parked and entered the castle. The castle has been turned into a shopping arcade full of little shops. A tourist trap for sure but I guess it's nice that they are making use of the old castle. We had a pizza (one with verdura, zucchini and eggplant, and the other with olives and mushrooms) lunch here. Jadine found a purse she liked. On the way back down from San Gimignano we stopped at a local family run winery, Sovestro. We tasted a few wines and picked up a bottle of the red. We headed back the way we came except we made a wrong turn and got on a local road to Siena instead of the freeway. The road was slow and winding and went through a lot of little towns, but by this time we were tired of seeing little towns and wanted to make it to Siena before the sights closed. We finally made it to Siena at 5:00. We made it to the duomo and saw some amazing stained glass and tiled floors. Afterwards we went to the campo and had a salad dinner. After dinner, we headed back to the car but stopped at a prodotti tipici shop which Rick Steves recommended to do and bought an Italian chewy sweet bread that is similar to fruitcake (mm fruitcake :o ugh). Driving back to Florence we missed the highway exit again because the sign is labelled differently. The Italian road signs only say the direction to a city and major highway, but do not say the name of the street. We caught on to the signage and hopped on the freeway. We stopped at the Piazzale Michelangelo again to get a view of Florence at night. We made it back to the hotel after one failed attempt at driving through the city. Advice for florence: do not rent a car. It's a big pain. However the trips out to the tuscan countryside were fantastic.

Where are we

We woke up early, had breakfast in the hotel, and went out for a stroll. Today was the day that a street market was being held near our hotel. Vendors were selling household items like table cloths and kitchen utensils, clothes, and bags, and belts. Jadine bought a skirt and a couple of belts before we went back to our hotel and checked out. Our first stop on our journey to Florence was the port city, La Spezia. We arrived in La Spezia around 12:30 to find that not much of the bay could be seen (hidden by walls surrounding cranes and other industrial warehousing). We found a parking spot in front of a deli-like place and headed out looking for a nice lunch spot. After at least a mile of walking and not finding anything that looked good, we had returned to the deli place in front of our car which was obviously a local favorite as people were coming and going frequently. We ordered lasagna, pepperoni (roasted peppers), and something called Arancini di Riso. This Arancini di Riso was the best thing I've tasted on the trip so far. I found out from talking (more like piecing together words as she spoke Italian) to the cook at this deli that the Arancini is Sicilian and she is from Sicily. Ooh, I think I know where our next travel destination will be. :) After lunch, we hopped back on the autostrada and drove to the exit as google had said. However, after driving several kilometers it was obvious that we had taken the wrong exit. All was not lost as the road we were on had signs pointing us the right direction. We got to pisa just after 3. We found a free parking spot near the main piazza. I couldn't make out the signage well so I figured to be safe we better only stay half an hour which turned out to be a little rushed. The tower is impressive and worth seeing. It's very crowded in the piazza as everyone is snapping pictures. Even though it is possible to go up the tower, they only let in 30 people at a time and the next available time was 5:20. Also the cost was 15euro per person. After getting our own pictures and hitting the restroom, we got back on the road heading for Pontederra, home to the makers of the best chocolate in the world, Amedei. We got off the SGC (strada) at the Pontederra exit and got lost. We made it to the city center and asked someone on the street how to get to the factory. She knew the chocolate and told us the way. We made it to the factory just before 5 to find the place closed to the public. Bummer. We went back to town and asked a café store worker where you could buy the chocolate however one of the customers helped us. After a very long conversation and involving other café drinkers we found out the chocolate seller was where we were originally -- in the town center. It was getting late, around 6 by the time we got to Corso Matteotti in the town center. At this point we had invested too much time to turn back. We found the chocolates in a little shop selling candy and coffee. The owner of the shop (I think his name is Fabrizzio) was really cool. His buddies from neighboring shops came over to see what the commotion was and to help us out with buying our chocolate. After half an hour we had our chocolates and a recommendation for a nice restaurant from our new shop owner friends. We had pasta arriabata (a linguine like pasta with tomatoes and spices) and a pizza boscaiola (which had ham and mushrooms) and a mixed fish grill (which we got portare via -- to go). By now it was about 8:30 and we still had an hour drive to go. After a long tour around the city center of Pontederra and a wrong turn down a one way street and a nice stranger saving us from getting a ticket, we made it back onto the SGC. About 7 km outside Florence, traffic came to a halt. Apparently there was an accident and the ambulance had blocked the road. People were getting out of their cars and even backing up to take the previous exit. We stayed there for about 45 minutes before the police came and got traffic moving again. Once we were in florence we got lost, completely. Florence is a maze of one way streets and dead ends. After about an hour, we finally found the roads that google had given us. We finally checked in around 11:30. The hotel is really nice. It's been a long day and tomorrow is our final day of driving.

Parmigiano Reggiano

We got up early today around 6am. We went for a stroll through Parma at sunrise. It is a very nice town with lots of little parks. We had breakfast at the hotel which consisted of toast, croissant, several kinds of ham, and yogurt. After breakfast, we met our parmesan and prosciutto tour guide, Caterina, in the lobby. She was cool, about our age, and had just moved back to Italy after spending several years in England. She let us in on the secret that a normal Italian breakfast only consists of coffee and maybe toast. We got in the car and headed for the caseificio, or cheese maker, Montecoppe. Our guide's directions were slow as if it were her first time driving there. When we got there, the cheese factory was doing some construction, so it was very noisy. She took us to see the cows, holsteins, which are fed only grass from the region and have some kind of pedigree from the region - everything must come from the region to be called Parmiggiano Reggiano. We then went into the cheese making area where there were 5 vats of milk. They started to lift the cheese from the bottom at around 9am - it looked like a normal daily routine for these guys. There was an apprentice there who could not manage to bring the first cheese up and Jadine was about to take his picture but the other guy made some comment about not taking his picture because he was embarrassed. In any case, we got a couple of pictures of that process. Then, we went over to the salting room and saw the last week's cheeses. Next door, we had a tasting in the factory's store. The cheese was excellent - powdery, a little sharp, and not dry. We picked up a souvenir here, a parmesan wheel knife and drove over to the storeroom. The storeroom was massive containing cheeses from several producers. Our guide found somebody at the storeroom who could show us how to tell if the cheese had turned bad. It involved taking a metal hammer and giving it a good tap all the way around and listening for any hollow sounds. He demonstrated on both a good one and a bad one and the difference was noticeable. He let us have a try on the bad one and I gave it a couple of light taps and then he said forte - hit it harder. Can do! It sounded like a drum. Next we headed to Langhirano where the prosciuttio di parma is made. We went by the castle where some movie with michelle pfeifer was made and decided to visit it later. The prosciutto factory, Conti, sits on this hill overlooking the valley. It was beautiful country. Inside the factory we saw the whole process as they had just received some pork legs. The process is pretty much: salt the leg, hang it up, add some paste to make it dry out consistently and let it sit for a long time (18 months) in the proper temp & humidity. The factory must have held thousands of legs. It was beautiful and making me hungry. Fortunately, the tour ended here and we headed back to town. Our guide gave us some recommendations for restaurants, one was closed in august for vacation and the other was sit-down which we decided we'd try later. So we had lunch at a nice sandwich shop, called mangia and bevi. I had a ham, cheese (mozarella), and tomato panino and Jadine had a mixed salad with lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, carrots, and olives. The salad comes with no dressing except for olive oil and balsamic vinegar which you add. The sandwich and salad were tasty. After lunch, we had passed a dessert place (cakes and some gelato) and stopped in. We got some little cakes, lemon and pistachio, and a fruit cup with yogurt served in a martini glass. Everything was tasty. We decided to grab the car after lunch but found out the valet wasn't available until 5:30. So we took a walk around the ducal garden. We found out from our cheese tour guide that the area was once under the authority of Maria Luigia, Napoleon's wife and the recent mayor had taken to cleaning up the town and it showed. There were quite a few people in the park relaxing in the hot 35 C degree weather. We made it back to the hotel at 5:30 and drove out to Langhirano again to visit the castle, which closed at 7. We got in a good tour of the castle's rooms and frescoes before heading back. On the way back we stopped at the supermarket, Conad, which I like to do every place I go because I like to see what people get for everyday things. They had all the deli meats, all cow and pig parts, whole fishes, and lots of fruits. We bought some water and went back to the hotel. On the way back, lightning began to appear high in the sky. Back in the hotel, the thunderstorm kicked into full gear giving a spectacular show. Luckily, it was a short show and we were able to get out for dinner. We had dinner at the Tribunale. We ordered prosciutto and cantalope (melone), gnocchi in cheesy sauce with eggplant (melanzale), anolini filled with parmesan in broth, and a steak filet cooked extra rare with potatoes. It was too much food - we're still getting the hang of ordering. We went back to the hotel still reeling from the days activities.

Star to guide me by (or 3 to triangulate my position)

We started early today, 6:30 am, looking for a wifi hotspot and an ATM. We grabbed breakfast at the hotel and checked out. We took a hot miserable, yet short (25 minute), vaporetto ride to the island's major auto hub and picked up our car - a Ford 4 dr hatchback, no gps (gps available only at the airport the clerk said). We followed hertz's directions off the island and then began to follow some printed google directions to Modena. The drive over the bridge was easy, but afterwards we hit a fork in the road and things got confusing. Let's just say we took many impromptu side trips off the main itinerary to give some more flavor of real Italian life (next time get a gps!) The maps were pretty much useless. In any case, we made it to Modena. We found a swap meet there and strolled around and bought some apples - mele in Italian. After the swap meet we got a gelato and a slice of not so good pizza. Walking back to the car, we found another restaurant which was serving salad. We stopped in, but they were out of salad and instead we got another pizza, which this time was good. We hopped back in the car and made our way to Maranello, home of the ferrari. We visited the museum there which was kind of interesting but maybe not worth the admission price. After a taking a few pictures, we left Maranello and drove to Parma. The hotel is located right in the city center, requiring us to drive through a pedestrian
only area. While driving through this area we saw our first polizia car and I thought that was it i'm getting my first international traffic ticket. But no worries the cops drove the other way. We parked the car in the hotel and checked into a nice room. Exhausted, we fell asleep at 6. Now I'm awake and typing this at 3. Hopefully I'll get a little more sleep before our prosciutto and parmesan tours tomorrow.

American tourister

Today we got up at 7:30 and had breakfast in the hotel. Breakfast was excellent consisting of fruit filled croissant, salami, bologna (this one's first name was not o-s-c-a-r :), cheese, and capuccino. After breakfast, we walked to the pesceria, a fish market across the Rialto. Unfortunately, they were closed on Sunday. We continued walking toward the train station which sits on one end of the grand canal. Along the way we noticed a couple of small stray dogs. At the train station, we hopped on the vaporetto to follow Rick Steves grand canal tour. The vaporetto ticket salesguy gypped me a euro -- the tickets were 12e and I gave him 15 in paper and he returned 3 coins. Being new to the currency, I didn't notice the 3 coins were 2 half dollars and 1 dollar - lesson here look at all change. The Rick Steves grand canal tour was fun. We saw the oldest building in Venice, which is the Turkish Exchange, old merchant palaces, and the wooden Academia bridge, before getting off at Piazza San Marco. We headed right for the Doge's Palace. We got in line, but noticed Rick Steves suggested calling for the secret itineraries tour. I tried calling the number, but I misdialled. By the time I figured it out, we were at the front of the line. The guy at the ticket counter said the tour was sold out until next week. Bummer.. We got entrance tickets anyway and made our own tour which turned out very well. The highlight was the bridge of sighs and the Correr museum with historical artifacts of old Venice. It was noon now and we followed Rick Steves suggestion for quick entrance to the Basilica. We entered to find the church itself didn't open until 2. So, we grabbed some lunch at a panini shop and ate in the square. The Basilica was interesting with its ceiling mosaics, but nothing special. After the basilica, we went back to the hotel and rested up. At night, we took a gondola ride after some negotiation (the old i'm walking out of here! ploy). Our gondolier, Franco, was a nice guy and quite adept at steering the narrow canals. The skies were clear and the moon was just coming out. After the ride, we walked around looking for a restaurant. We stumbled upon a local spot, where the service was so-so and so was the food (seafood ravioli tasted like canned tuna, speghetti linguine, tourbot fish with clams, and a mixed salad), except for the tiramisu which, while i'm not a big dessert person, was excellent. It was getting late and we have a big travel day ahead so we came back to the hotel.
One final note on Venice: the city's main business is tourism. Everywhere there are tourists from the US, Germany, other parts of Italy, etc. There's not much of a feeling of Italy here, except by imagining its past glory. Its a floating time capsule.

Ahh Venice

The debacle of the american airlines flight to zurich (delayed by 2 hours) spilled over to our connecting swiss air flight. We caught the next available swiss air flight to venice on standby. The swiss air plane had some troubles of its own (no ac and stuck on the tarmac waiting for clearance). Anyway, swiss air turned me around when they gave out free swiss chocolates for the inflight snack. We met a nice couple from dallas on that flight. They were trying to get to a cruise on time and were pretty worried. We parted ways at the venice baggage claim around 3:45 and they were catching the fastest (and probably most expensive) water taxi to their ship. This provided us a valuable lesson -- it may be better to fly in a day ahead of your cruise just to make sure.
We took the waterbus to our hotel -- a very slow moving method of transport. The lagoon is marked with channels and speed limits (sometimes as low as 5km/hr). We made it to venice island (peninsula?) about an hour after taking off from the airport. One big bonus of the waterbus, however, was that we got to see the murano and lido islands up close (but not on shore) which was not part of the itinerary.
After disembarking, we managed to get utterly and completely lost (er, I mean we managed to invent a new walking tour from the dock to our hotel. Yeah that's it). Eventually, after many right turns and probably just as many left turns we ended up at the very nice Hotel Al Piave. The hotel staff is very friendly and the room is decent size. Thank you Rick Steves and TripAdvisor!
We had dinner at Osteria di Santa Marina, a recommendation from Jorgina. The plan was to grab reservations for tomorrow and eat somewhere simple (since the airplane breakfast was doing a number on me -- my guess is the kosher pancakes had milk in them. Yep, kosher. A buddy of mine recommended changing up the standard substandard in flight food to one of the alternatives. I went with kosher and aside from the pancakes it turned out to be better than the regular meal option). Anyway, it turns out the restaurant is closed on sunday. So, we asked for a table tonight. Luckily, they had one. We are seated in the first room indoors, a nice table. We get the menu and open it to find prix fixe, standard 6 course Italian meal. Well, my stomach and my wallet and maybe some of my genetic code wasn't having any of that. Jadine agreed, too. We decided on a 3 course set, which worked out well. We had an OK barley pasta dish, some decent onions and chicken saute, some delicious scallops (albeit 3 small ones), a fantastic tuna steak (tasted like a juicy prime rib, it was excellent), and a john dorey fish filet with some very tasty porcinis. Dessert was rosemary ice cream and macedonia frutta (italian word of the day macedonia meaning salad/cocktail). After dinner we strolled through venice to see the Rialto bridge at night and heard some Phantom of the Opera music being played by a quartet in St Mark's square.
Tomorrow's a full day of venice. Can't wait to see what else we can find in this maze of a city. Ahh Venice.

Travel joy

Alarm malfunctions, delayed flights, useless airline vouchers... Ahh another day of flying the friendly skies. We're currently hanging out in the DFW airport waiting for our delayed flight. Actually if you had to wait in one airport for a delayed flight, DFW is a good one to be in. It looks very modern and spacious without all that crowded noisy airport feel.
Our flight is taking off now. See you on the other side of the pond.