Monthly Archives: July 2013

No alarms today as it is our last full day in Italy and there is no where we need to be at any particular time.  Of course I’m up first after a fitful night sleep where I had bad dreams all night about not having our boarding passes and having to pay Ryan Air 70 euros EACH to reprint them when the plane ticket cost that much.  It didn’t help that I awoke to an email reminding me that we hadn’t yet checked in and, oh by the way, don’t forget about the outrageous fee if you don’t do it in time….

So the family slowly came to consciousness as I messed around on the computer trying to find somewhere to print the PDF of the boarding passes I created when I did the online check in.  Frank and Gillian managed to use all the hot water – so Duncan and I claim first showers tomorrow! – and breakfast was an entertaining affair as people rotated between the shower and the table.  Duncan even figured out how to work the electric cooktop that had no instructions and brewed some “coffee” in the weird Italian percolator. (He liked it but it was a tad to thick for my taste.)  Eventually we were all bathed and fed and we headed out to enjoy our last full day of Italy.

Which started at the internet cafe around the corner from the apartment so I could print of the stupid boarding passes and be done with it! Now I’ll be able to sleep tonight!  We walked downtown to catch the funicular railway to the old city.  We then walked through the old town to get to the second funicular to get to the highest point in the city: the Castello de San Viglio.  The castle itself isn’t much to speak of but the views were stunning! If it wasn’t so hazy, I would swear we could see from Venice to Milan.  I know we could see the Swiss alps as they are big honking mountains and hard to hide even in the haze.

Once we’d had our fill of the view, we opted to walk back down to the old city and begin exploring in earnest. It was interesting being in yet another walled city after the day in San Gimignano so we could do a comparison between the two.  Bergamo is larger and less quaint  and seems to be more of a living city.  There were plenty of shops and restaurants but it seemed like just as many of them catered to the locals as the tourists.  The kitschy souvenir shops were few and far between and there were butchers and even a yarn store (which I kept myself from entering as I have to worry about suitcase space for the evil airline tomorrow!) After a fair amount of walking (we hit our 10K steps by 12:30 – a new record) and getting oriented in the town, we started to look for somewhere to lunch. 

I had gotten several recommendations from folks but we found a funky little cafe (sculptures of hands holding tomatoes coming out of the walls) with GF items marked on the menu so we were set.  I had a polenta cake stuffed with cheese and covered with crushed tomatoes and a truffle cream sauce.  It was unlike anything I have ever had before and completely delicious.  Gillian had grilled tuna and Duncan and Frank opted for the 2 course lunch special.  Both had the zuchinni and salmon risotto for their secondi piatti but Duncan had chicken salad to start and Frank had the tomato soup.  A bottle of lovely white wine went well with the entire meal and I even opted for desert since they had merengues with cream and passion fruit sauce.  I even got to eat my first fresh passion fruit – heavenly!

Then to get some culture.  We hiked around to the Rocca, an old fort and garden that, again, had spectacular views.  We stopped at the Museo Storico, a local history museum that would probably have been spectacular if there was any other language posted but Italian!  For each section of the museum, there was a separate paper flyer explaining the history and the artifacts for that section.  In Italian.  There was an English version available at the front desk but you’d need to get one of each of the 25 or so flyers to be able to follow along.  Not a very green endeavor and we were not impressed.

Then off to the Ex Convento di San Francesco – no nuns but supposedly now a museum.  But not really.  There was one corridor and a room of paintings (all explained in Italian only) and then what looked like a bar or function room.  That was it.  Thumbs down there as well.

So we started on the churches.  There are ten within the walls of the old city alone and my family isn’t that patient!  I think we covered 3 or 4.  One, dedicated to Saint Agnes, was under restoration and they had an excellent display explaining what the issues were, how they were being fixed and how the funds for it were being raised.  In multiple languages.  Very interesting and very well done.  We made a small donation to the cause.

We also visited the Cathedral which was very impressive. The foundation dates back to the 5th century with more building in the early 9th and most of the current structure from the 13th century.  The paintings were very impressive, as was the dome, and the bishops crypt was incredible:  constructed in the early 20th century in a very plain style and every bishop since 1900 is entombed there including the most recently deceased who passed away in 2009.  The best part of the tour, IMHO, was the archeological museum underneath the cathedral which showed what they found during some of the restoration work including parts of the original foundation, some of a Roman road, and artifacts from the 12th and 13th centuries.  Really interesting stuff!

And last but not least, en route to our daily gelato, we stumbled into the Basilica di Sana Maria Maggiore which looks like a big stone lump with some lions outside and is incredibly beautiful with gilt trim and ancient tapestries inside.   The lady chapel was particularly spectacular so that’s where mom’s candle for today got lit.

By now we were starting to drag so we found the chosen frozen food and then started walking down to the new town. We were supposed to meet our landlady at 7 to make payment and such since we were heading out early – earlier than I expected too!  I thought our flight left at noon.  It *lands* at noon and leaves here at 10:45 so it will be an early start for everyone tomorrow.

We spent some time letting the legs recuperate – and lightening the wine load for the evil baggage Nazis of Ryan Air tomorrow – before ignoring, yet again, everyone’s recommendations and setting out for a place that has a 3 page menu of gluten free pizza options.  Yes, my family loves me. 

We got to Byron’s restaurant 

a little early (just before 8) and thank goodness we did.  It filled up quickly and, yet again, we were the only people of the 50+ in the place who were speaking English.  So, yet again, we got the only English speaking waiter even though the menu was only in Italian. For me, the “senza glutine” customer, I got my cutlery delivered in a paper bag, a separate plate of GF bread and a GF beer.  Then, the pizzas.  Yum! Mine had mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, zucchini and shrimp. Gillian opted for the basic margherita, Frank’s was ham and mushrooms, and Duncan still isn’t sure what he ordered but he says it was awesome.  He thinks there was speck (type of meat), mozzarella, red cabbage, tomatoes and Gorgonzola. None of us needed to finish our pizzas yet we did anyway!

Then came the interesting walk home.  We had seen signs for some summer festival in the old town earlier and later on it looked like some stands were being set up  but we were completely unprepared for the street party we stumbled into!  Every major street in the downtown area was shut off and there were picnic tables and bars set up in the streets.  Every third or fourth shop had a DJ out front – the streets were closed, but the shops were open.  We got some microbrews and sangria and wandered the streets dancing to covers of 80’s music and watching Italian’s line dancing in the street.  This was no tourist attraction: the city of Bergamo has about 120,000 residents and they were all in the streets tonight and they brought their friends.  It was an amazing thing to be part of.  I’d like to think they were sending us off in style, so I’ll stick to that story and try not to complain when my alarm goes off at zero dark thirty in the morning.

Steps: 30,700 (most of them walking downhill or dancing in the street) or 13.25 miles

Nuns: 1 (which is odd given the number of churches we were in today)

Well today was one for the books.  Managed to get the family up, bathed, packed and fed in time to head out of Florence by 10am.   On our way out of the hotel room, an “adorable” little scorpion scurried out from behind the refrigerator.  It was no more than an inch or so long but it was still a FRICKIN SCORPION! It was definitely time to say Arreviderchi Firenze! 

We headed north on the autostrade toward Milan and took a slight detour north of Bologna to the lovely little town of Marenello – home to the Ferrari museum.  We spent an hour (and at least 2 GB of photos) wandering through a very nicely laid out tribute to the legendary automobile.  Frank was thrilled by pretty much everything in the museum, except the prices in the gift shop, but my favorite part was the “Ferrari in the movies” exhibit where they had a continuous reel of snippets of every scene in every movie that contained a shot of a Ferrari – including Ferris Bueller and Cars!  Very fun!

Once Frank had his fill – and filled the memory card on his camera! – we were off to grab some lunch.  We found a swanky little bistro place that looked like I could find something on the menu.  I mentioned the magic words of “senze glutine” when asking about the “riso with ham and red chicory” and the waiter looked seriously at me for a minute and then said “si” and took everyone else’s order.  It was clear that we were no longer in a major tourist area as we were the only one’s in the place speaking English and were apparently assigned the only waiter in the place that spoke English.  He was great though – checking back in with me after a few minutes to let me know that it would take an extra ten minutes for my meal as they were taking care to make sure it was “senza glutine”.  Then we all got appetizers – I got a plate of prosciutto and everyone else got a slice of an egg and cheese quiche thing with some salad and pickled tomatoes.  I’m assuming that this is what the 2 euro per person “cover charge” was for – although we’ve been in many places this trip which charged such things without any freebies.  And when my meal came, it was fabulous!  I think that the “red chicory” was raddichio and there certainly was ham in the dish but I was suprised that what I got was pink risotto!  Ere squisto!

Then came the long haul – 2.5 hours up the autostrade to Venice before heading west to Bergamo.  We pulled into town about 4:30 and tried to find the B&B I had booked.  It took some doing and when we got there, the owner launched into a detailed apology about how she didn’t have a room for us anymore because people who had booked a double showed up with four in the party and took our room for four but she has an apartment downtown that we can use and she’ll show us on her scooter and pay for our parking and can we just please wait for five minutes while she gets her helmet and she’s very sorry. (Inhale deeply now.)

So it turns our our hotel room wasn’t there and we followed her through the maze of city streets to a nondescript, but somewhat graffiti covered, building closer to the center of town.  Instead of a hotel room for four, we have a spacious efficiency apartment with a full kitchen and two double beds.  She showed Frank where to park and she’s going to deduct the 15 euros per day parking fee from our bill.  The apartment is bright and clean but not air conditioned and the whole building looks like it isn’t quite done being renovated yet.  But we’ll look at this as an adventure and see what happens from here!

Our “landlord” Elena tried to explain several details to us about where to go in town and how to work things in the apartment but we were not doing a very good job communicating.  When I turned to Duncan to find out how to say something in Italian (because I knew he had been reading up on it), she asked if he spoke more Italian than I did.  I mentioned that he actually spoke Spanish and she then launched into detailed Spanish and conversed with Duncan about all the details that she was having trouble explaining in English.  (Insert stupid monolingual American joke here… sigh.)

All our details taken care of, we headed out to explore the town.  As it was now getting late, and well past gelato time, we started walking and got our frozen treat – best gelato we’ve had in Italy yet – as we explored the “new town” which is different from the “old town” by several hundred years and several hundred feet!  The old city of Bergamo sits atop a hill and is most easily accessed by funicular – which we opted not to take tonight choosing to walk up to one of the gates instead. 

And walk up we did.  And up.  And then up some more!  Eventually we got to a place where we could enter the old city but decided to save that for tomorrow so we headed back down, (and down, and down, etc.) and finally hit our 10K steps just after 7pm.  Then off to scout for dinner.  After coming from Rome and Florence where you can’t walk 20 paces without tripping over a ristourante, this place was quite a challenge.  We saw many a caffe and pizzeria but they weren’t really good options for GF offerings. A quick check of Trip Advisor revealed that we were a few blocks away from a highly rated trattatoria specializing in sea food.  The Trattoria Camozzi da Claudio is a small place where, again, we were the only ones speaking English and had to tax our Italian (and the waiter’s English) but they were patient, understood “senza glutine” and brought us a great meal with a lovely bottle of wine for a very reasonable price.  I had tuna and grilled vegetables, Duncan the sea bass with asparagus and prawn, Gillian the monster ziti with spicy tomato sauce and olives, and Frank the Italian version of flank steak.  Again, this restaurant charged the 2 euro per person cover charge but tonight we got glasses of prosecco to have with our bruschetta, none of which appeared on our bill. 

We are now pleasantly stuffed and settling into our new accomodations.  Tomorrow we’ll explore the old town, which apparently has a fort and more churches than you can shake a stick at, and prepare for our transition  to Scotland on Friday.  The most important item on the agenda tomorrow is to find somewhere to print our boarding passes as we are flying the evil Ryan Air who already sent us an ominous email indicating that bad things would happen if we showed up at the airport without boarding passes.

Step count: 16,159 or 7 miles (most of which was up and down hills after 5pm tonight.)

Nun count: 0.  They must not like Ferraris.

Today’s plans required an early start so the alarm went off at 7am much to the chagrin of the younger set.  We grabbed our breakfast and the car and set off for Chianti for, guess what?  Wine tasting!  We started at the Verrazzano Castle and Winery outside Greve in Tuscany. We got to hear the history of Giovanni Verranzzano who discovered the Bay of New York and many other areas of the east coast in 1524 and for whom the Verranzzano Narrows bridge is named. We toured the Italian gardens and the wine cellars in buildings dating back to 1000 AD. And the views over the Tuscan hills were spectacular!

Then came the wine tasting.  We got to learn about the sangiovese grape, what makes a wine a chianti classico versus a chianti classico reserva.  We even tasted a lovely rose from the same sangiovese grapes.  There was about 20 people in our tour group including us:  two from Israel, two from Portland and then everyone else seemed to be from Texas!  During the tasting, they brought out big platters of bread soaked in olive oil from olive trees on the property.  But I was prepared!  I had brought several slices of GF bread with me and so I only asked for some oil to dip it in.  When I explained about “senza glutine”, the guide popped into the kitchen then came out and told me that they’d see to me shortly.  I waited what seemed like an extraordinary amount of time to deliver some olive oil but what I got was freshly baked GF bread soaked in olive oil!  Ten gold stars for this winery! We decided to buy a bottle of the Chianti Classico Reserva, the rosé and the olive oil.  Ere squisito!

Then we were off to explore Greve in Chianti – often referred to as la porta di Chianti or the door to Chianti.  While we found the market place very quaint, the town didn’t speak to us so we moved on to Panzano.  And were very glad we did.  This is a charming village (about 1000 residents, but with 3 butcher shops!) built into a hill over looking acres of vineyards.  The views were incredible!  We stopped there for lunch and found a lovely little trattoria with a walled garden offering simple but delicious food.  I had a salad with tuna and olives, Frank had the best pasta with tomato sauce he says he’s ever had.  Gillian loved her chicken with olives and roast potatoes and Duncan’s beef strips and white beans were very tasty.  There was no searching for “senza glutine” menus or anything so complicated.  Just good, simple yet delicious food.

Then on to the next winery!  Fattoria Le Fonti – a family run winery down the hill from the church in Panzano.  No organized tours, no thousand year old gardens, no ancestors who discovered a new world.  Just the woman who works in the office and the four of us in the wine cellar tasting about 7 wines – including two vertical tastings for the Chianti Classico and their “Supertuscan” wine.  We decided that we really liked the rosé and the supertuscan wine and walked off with bottle of each.  No fancy bread or tasting fee but we did get to spend time petting the family dog.

Next stop:  San Gimignano, a medieval walled town to the west of Panzano.  We arrived in the late afternoon and parked outside the city walls.  The entire city is contained within the medieval walls and the town is a spectacular example of historical preservation.  We wandered the steep, cobbled streets and popped into many shops selling leather, ceramic, original art and other magnificent items.  We visited the cathedral which was really interesting:  there were frescos covering the walls on both sides of the church.  We did a great job playing “guess the New Testament story” for one set of paintings but didn’t do so well with the Old Testament version.

Then the obligatory gelato stop before the serious souvenir shopping began. I wanted to find a ceramic olive oil pourer that didn’t have “tourist to Italy” written all over it.  Duncan wasn’t looking for anything in particular but in one of the art galleries we stopped at, the work by Antonio Breschi really spoke to him and so he has an original work of ink on paper as his birthday gift.  I also got a smaller one to frame and hang in my office.  We got the obligatory water color of the town from a local artist and were all set to leave when….. it happened.  We wandered past a shoe shop which I normally wouldn’t have looked at twice but Frank noticed some boots that he thought I might like.  I decided to humor him and look at the boots when I saw them:  the cutest hand made Italian leather shoes ever created just for me.  I am so enamored of these shoes that I can’t even take a photo of them yet because they are just so adorable.  And completely impractical and not even something my podiatrist would countenance.  But I bought them anyway!  And as soon as I have figured out which clothes do them justice, I’ll post a photo but for now, you’ll just have to use your imagination.

Needless to say, we closed most of the shops in the lovely Tuscan town, so we headed back to Florence for our last night in Tuscany.  Frank is becoming quite adept at the Italian style of driving: no blinkers, ignoring lane lines, pretending scooters and motorcycles aren’t there, etc.  So we made it back into town with little hassle.  We were a little skittish trying to decide where to eat dinner tonight after last nights extortionately expensive fiasco so we picked a restaurant from the guide book we brought with us and headed out to find the designated trattoria.  And we never made it because within three blocks of the hotel, we found another restaurant advertising a “senza glutine” menu and we thought we’d try just one more time…

And we are so very glad we did.  The food was excellent and reasonable priced – as was the wine.  I had homemade GF tagliatelle with wild boar sauce!  And GF chocolate souffle for desert!  Gillian had roast pork, similar to what I had in Pisa yesterday, and the boys decided to go for the local specialty:  bisteak Florentine, aka a T-bone steak.  While they decided it was very tasty, it wasn’t anything  better than we could get at home.  But they enjoyed it just the same.

And so, our time in Tuscany comes to a close.  We head tomorrow for Lombardy in the north for our final days in Italy before battling the evil Ryan Air to take us to see family in Scotland.

Step count:  a measly 12, 945 or 5.57 miles (we spent too much time in the car on twisty Tuscan roads!)

Nun count: just one.  But a very happy and smiling nun she was.

Another lazy morning as we didn’t have to be anywhere until 10am. It does take all my patience to share a bathroom with 3 other people – I would never pass kindergarten these days!  Breakfast at the hotel is a standard European affair: yogurt, pastries, cheeses, hard boiled eggs, cereals and a monster espresso machine!  No GF options for me – I knew that coming in – but I had a GF roll that I bought in Rome and just used that as an excuse to eat more Nutella with my egg and yogurt.

Then off to see Florence’s famous Duomo.  The exterior is spectacular: multicolored marble and ornate decorations.  It is a sight to behold.  The interior is, frankly, far less impressive.  While the literature explains that the stark design represents the severe religious beliefs of early Renaissance Florence, it is pretty boring inside.  Now, we are a bit hard to please having seen some of the great cathedrals and mosques in Europe as well as some amazing smaller churches.  And I did light a candle for my mom as I am accustomed to doing in all churches we visit.  But after 15 minutes, we were done.  Checked that box and now moving on.

To Pisa!  We discovered that the town with the tower trouble is about an hour from Florence so we hopped in the car, navigated perilously through the streets of the city to get to the autostrade and west to Pisa.  One hint about Italian driving:  lane markings are apparently only suggestions and not actually something that one is required to follow.  We listened to Italian radio (including one of our new favorites from the concerts in Rome) rolling through Tuscany until we reached our destination.  We opted for the free car park on the outskirts of the historic area and wandered into town.

And what a surprise we got!  The piazza outside the Leaning Tower, and the Cathedral for which it was meant to be the bell tower, sit in a lovely grass square.  We procured our (outrageously expensive) tickets to climb the tower at 3.30 in the afternoon and wandered through the town to find lunch.  With no street map or guide to where we were going, we nonetheless found a lovely little place (coincidentally named La Toscana as was last night’s restaurant in Florence) outside the main tourist area where the waiter spoke little but passable English, there was no “tourist menu” and he didn’t even roll his eyes when I asked about “senza glutine” – he just said “beef” and that was that.  Actually, I had roast pork, salad and white beans and the entire meal was lovely.  Add a liter of Tuscan white wine, light and dry and slightly fizzy, and we decided it was one of the better meals of the trip.

Then off to the duomo.  Gillian and I were not properly dressed to enter the church – we had bare shoulders – so I am now the proud owner of two new scarves made of the finest Italian polyester.  (They are actually very nice!) We decided that we liked this cathedral better than the one in Florence.  The paintings on the ceiling above the alter were spectacular and there were fabulous frescos all over the church.  We did acknowledge that architecturally it was probably not quite as fantastic as the one in Florence – even our untrained eyes saw some of the asymmetries that we suspect make purists crazy- but we decided it was the best cathedral of the day nonetheless.

And then it was our time to climb the tower.  Even Frank with his vertigo decided to give it a try and we wandered 250+ steps to the first platform more than 150 meters off the ground.  And that was enough for him.  He enjoyed the view, and scarpered back down to terra firma leaving us to head up the final level to the bell level.  And the view was spectacular!  I’ll post pictures shortly but they won’t do justice to the experience. After wandering around the top, looking like drunken sailors, we were herded back down the stairs which would have been uneventful if Duncan hadn’t gone over on his ankle on the uneven marble stairs – like mother, like son?

We then wandered about town looking for a pharmacy to get a wrap or brace for the gimp and eventually found one on our way back toward the car park.  Duncan got his ankle attended to and I found a cornucopia of GF foods – in the pharmacy! – and stocked up on rolls and muffins and the like.  It was then time for our daily gelato before heading back to Florence.

And of course we hit the city at rush hour.  I gripped the door handle repeatedly as Frank navigated through traffic to the parking garage (under my direction since Sally the GPS couldn’t understand “garage near mercado central” but I still know how to read a map).  We wandered through the markets as things were starting to close up.  Gillian got a belt, Duncan a wallet and I got a purple leather case for my sunglasses.  Apparently, Florence is known for its beef and its leather – there might be a relationship there…. 🙂

Then brief respite in the hotel room before heading out to dinner at a GF-friendly restaurant that came highly recommended.  While the food at Ciro and Sons was excellent, it wasn’t worth the *two hours* it took for the main course to arrive.  Granted, we did order appetizers (garlic bread and GF bruschetta) but even those took an hour after we were seated.  We tried hard to be patient and not be “typical Americans” but when the tables all around you are being served and moving on and you can’t even get more water or wine, one tends to get cranky.  Or at least I do.

However, the day in total was a hit.  I’ll leave the appropriate review on Trip Advisor and move on.  Tomorrow is our big excursion into Chianti so I need to make sure I’m in an excellent mood!

Step count: 18, 588 or 8 miles – some of which was upwards on uneven marble.

Nun count: 6 but we were in two cathedrals today so I shouldn’t be surprised.