When too much Grappa is not nearly enough!!

Our last blog finished in Firenze from there we took an unremarkable drive to Venezia, unremarkable in that we went to an outlet called The Mall that has designer brands at half price. Bottega is still expensive when it is half price so we didn't buy much, a wallet for me and Alycia picked up a few things as well. Still we managed to spend way too much time there, like 4 hours.

Once we got to Mestre, the city near Venezia on the mainland, we found a car park that was not too expensive and jumped on a train to Venezia. Trying to get a ticket was a mission with heaps of "foreigners" trying to "help" us, I think we must have had tourist written on our foreheads. Once we got to the island Alycia fell in love with Venezia as much as I was in love with Grappa di Prosecco. I must admit the canals and old buildings lit by the sunset was pretty magical.

For the next three days we proceeded to get lost in the narrow alleys and have a grand old time. A Venetian island called Murano that is famous for its glass ornaments was a highlight, it was really pretty there. We were looking at a particular shop where there were some nice rings and other jewellery and the lady asked if we wanted to see something being made and she directed us to the back of the shop where her husband was making some blown glass birds. It was mesmerising watching him work with the glass and gold leaf, apparently he has been doing it since he was 8 years old (nothing like some good old fashioned child labour). When we returned to the main island we decided to spend some gift money we had on a drink in Piazza St Marco (as this was its intended purpose) and we got a couple of Aperol spritz for the cheap price of €28, at least there were free potato chips.

The highlight for me was finding a little wine bar where they had some bar snacks and wine all at bargain basement prices, complete with a photo of Bragelina exiting the shop on the wall. Better than that they also had the grappa that I was searching for. Prosecco is the Italian version of Champagne, and it is made in Veneto - the region where Venezia is. When we were back in Pescara my cousin gave us Grappa di Prosecco as a digestive and it is delicious. So I was searching around for it and finally found it in this wine bar (green awning in the photo).

In my search for Grappa we got given a pamphlet of Poli Grappa, one of the main commercial manufacturers of grappa. I had left it on the table when we were getting some dinner and the waiter proceeded to inform us about the brand and that they have a grappa museum in a nearby town called Bassano Del Grappa. Apparently there is a mountain called Grappa and at its base is Bassano, so that promptly replaced Verona on our itinerary.

The Grappa museum turned out to be more of a distillation museum and they had specifications and replicas of stills all the way back to the 1500's. We tried some delicious grappas and then proceeded to buy way too much, now we just need to figure out how to get them back to Aus. This comes very close to my favourite place we have been to. The people are very Austrian looking and the town was very quaint, not to mention that there is some great distilleries there making delicious grappa.

We returned to Lago di Como for a few days break from travelling and got a nice 2 bedroom apartment and cooked a few meals. We were on the opposite side of the lake to when we went there last time and the road was amazing. It is about 40 kms of tunnels and bridges. The lake was covered in fog for most of the time we were there but we still got to go to Lecco and have a coffee and a walk around. I think Italy knew that we were leaving, because as we were saying good bye to Lecco there was a parade of Ferraris old and new to see us off, thanks Italia!

Next day we travelled to Chamonix a beautiful village on the French side of Monte Bianco, our room had an amazing view that was shrouded in cloud until the last morning when it waved us good bye with all its beauty.

While we were there we went up to a lookout on one of the peaks in the photo (the sunlit one on the very right) to get a better view of Monte Bianco but it was shrouded in cloud and only revealed the mountain in glimpses. The rapid elevation from 1000m to 3842m and running up and down stairs at the lookout made us all feel a bit nauseous and dizzy. We were about to give up and got a coffee in the cafe then all of a sudden we had 30 minutes where the clouds parted and you could see Monte Bianco including the glaciers in all their glory. It doesn't matter how many cities or old ruins you see nothing can fill you with awe and make you feel quite so small as a big mountain.

On our way to visit Alycia's family in Grenoble we stopped in a nice little town called Annecy for lunch it had nice canals and a pretty lake from the shores of which you can see all the way down the valley a hundred kilometres to Monte Bianco.

It was nice to meet some of Alycia's extended family after spending so much time with mine. There are some striking resemblance's that are genetic and just plain strange, long legs short bodies. After Grenoble we went to more of Alycia's family near Strasbourg the region, Alsace is really pretty with all the vines and trees changing colour.

After eating way too much with the family and saying good bye to Allan and Annette we headed off to Baden Baden in Germany. It is a town in the Schwarzwald (Black Forrest) where there are thermal baths and bus loads of old people. The first day I had loads of fun driving the road that goes across the peaks of the mountains of the Schwarzwald called the Swarzwaldhochstraße, lots of winding roads and a 100km speed limit. Sure I got yelled at a few time but it was all worth it in the end.

So now we are off to meet Pat and Renee in Calais and do a few days in the Champagne region and then a day in Paris. It is only a week until we are home now so this will probably be the last blog, thanks for reading and until next time.

Don't Cry for Me Arg... Italia

After some tearful goodbyes we left Pescara to start making our way back north to Paris over about a month.

Our first stop was Rome, a city which I had little expectation of but immediately endeared itself to me. We have been saying that we wouldn't really like to move to Italy, but Rome had this exciting vibe that changed our mind somewhat. So maybe if we did ever live here it would have to be in a city.

On the drive to Rome we got to have lunch with one of Carlo's cousins, Daniela who is a circuit overseers wife. The family that where hosting them for lunch said it was ok for us to join them all, one of the sisters who had us for lunch was called Mathilda and she was such a character. We met Daniela and her husband at the Avezzano Kingdom Hall where the hall is on the ground floor and 4 families live in apartments above it.

Mathilda met us at the hall to show us the way to her home. On the way a old man driving a small car was slowing our passage so she yells out "Are you sleeping?" and as we passed him "Wake Up" all from the back seat right in the ear of the CO, hilarious. That was even before she started knocking back the wines at lunch. Mathilda's house sits at the base of the third highest peak in Abruzzo - Monte Velino. At 2487m it was stunning to look in their back yard and there is this massive mountain just sitting there. We were both awestruck at how impressive the area they lived in is, and left with full bellies and only a few scratches from their insane cat.

On our first day in Rome we cruised around the Piazza del Popolo, a very impressive and large square at the top of the city. We saw the Spanish Steps and perused the designer stores around Via Condotti. It was definitely window shopping only as I think it was the most expensive street in Rome and I felt really uncomfortable entering stores and being followed around by the sales assistants.

Also along for the next few stops are these guys.

It's their 30th wedding anniversary and they are celebrating by being whizzed through the highlights of Italy in the back of our car and will visit with us a few of my relatives in France. Dad has just been diagnosed as a coeliac so it has been an interesting challenge finding him gluten free meals in the land of pizza and pasta, but we have been pleasantly surprised by how accommodating many of the restaurants are.

The night they arrived we took a stroll to the square in front of St Peters Basilica and Dad took off like a kid in a candy store trying to find a phantom inscription on the obelisk that stands in the middle. He has been a little bit of a personal tour guide as he very much likes Roman history.

The first full day we had in Rome consisted of ticking off the Colosseum and Forum and a few other sites along the way. Carlo was excited about he Colosseum as it is one of the things that amazed him the most when he came to Italy as a 10 year old. We skipped the incredibly long line by paying a bit of a premium for a tour guide that also took us on the tour of the Forum.

The Colosseum was packed with people so it was hard to hear the guide - but that ended up being ok as we got tired of listening to gory stories about what went on there. Dad was keenly interested on finding a stone that had another phantom inscription that confirmed that the building of the Colosseum was funded by the the loot brought back by the Romans after destroying Jerusalem. We spent ages trying to find it, the tour guide was no help but it ended up being up stairs in the exhibition area. It made his day, and it was cool to find something that is often overlooked by the guides.

After eating our picnic lunch at the Colosseum we meet up with the guide to go into the Forum. She only guided us around Palatine Hill, one of the areas that founded the city of Rome and on top of which the Emperor's built their palaces out of exotic marble. What I found most interesting was what happened to all the marble after Rome diminished in importance - the Vatican looted most of it to build their own cathedrals and apparently much of it is in St Peter's. A shame really, would have been more interesting if it was still adorning the palace. We went down into the excavations of the Forum and checked out the Arc of Titus which has a image of the Roman troops bringing back items from the Temple in Jerusalem. Dad was trying to take a photo but a pigeon was perched right in the middle and we were killing ourselves laughing when he was trying to throw pebbles at it. Eventually it flew off, but not before Dad also knocked over the barrier.

We were all feeling energetic so we walked through the city and checked out the Trevi Fountain which was a lot bigger than I though it would be. The fountain took up most of the piazza and it was full of people. I think we almost killed Mum & Dad with the amount of walking we did in one day!

The next day we thought we would go check out the Vatican. We were kind of half-hearted about it as the Vatican gives me the creeps and when we saw the 1.5km line we decided to skip it. We could have pre-booked or gone with a group but we couldn't rationalise the cost and there were thousands of people waiting and so many tour groups that I think we would have seen just a glimpse of everything as we got shunted through.

Next on the agenda was Castel St Angelo which was a mausoleum for Hadrian but is also some old panic room for the Pope. There is a long corridor along a wall that leads from the Vatican to the Castel and apparently there is a lift into a secret area, so the Pope can secure himself.

I was very excited as we moved on (still on foot) to the Pantheon which is definitely my favourite monument in Rome. It was formerly a temple for all the Roman gods but when Catholicism took over it has been converted to a church. All they did was take down the statues of Venus etc and re-mould then into images of their saints. I was so impressed by the design and workmanship and that the building has lasted more than 2000 years. The giant columns are each made from a single piece of marble and the each level of the dome was constructed by different types of stone, starting with the heaviest at the bottom and ending with the highest level made out of spongy pumice stone. Michelangelo said it was so perfect it must have been built by angels. I could go on and on.....

That afternoon we met up with a couple that we met in Pescara who have moved to the Rome bethel, Daniele and Claudia. Daniele is keenly interested in history and gave as an excellent tour of Rome, starting again at the Pizza del Popolo. I learned more about the Pantheon and some very interesting information about the history of Rome from a more biblical perspective that I won't bore you with now.

One of the highlights was seeing this statue created by Bernini. The story went that the church commissioned the artist to create a platform for an obelisk they had and he initially designed a tripod stand. The church thought it was ridiculous and wanted something grander. So to spite the church Bernini designed this out-of-proportion elephant with behind and genitals facing the church administration building and the trunk flipping the bird.

After Daniele and Claudia left we walked even more to Michelangelo's piazza and tracked down this fountain that featured turtles. I thought it was fantastic and it had an interesting story behind it as much of Rome of does.

We did miss a few things in Rome, such as the mouth of truth and the Vatican but I think we will be back one day to soak up more of the cities atmosphere when we are less on the tourist trail.

The next stop was Firenze (Florence) - on the way stopping by Sienna again. We stayed just outside the city as parking is difficult but the B&B was a bit of a disappointment. Our bed was broken so even the slightest movement made this awful squeaking sound so that the first night when Carlo was being attacked by a mosquito our room sounded like two dolphins fighting in a blanket. The next two nights we moved the mattress to the floor. Mum and Dad didn't get off any better, their room smelt like something had died in the air conditioner and I couldn't go in there without gagging. It got better as they had a creepy employee who had a dark thin beard with the goatie area dyed a strange orange colour, except it had regrowth. What was more strange than his beard was that during breakfast he would just stare at us while we were eating.

The first day we headed off into the Tuscan countryside as most of Firenze is shut on a Monday. We programmed a little circuit that would end up back in Lucca at our favourite restaurant for the parents anniversary dinner. We first went to Greve in Chianti and small little town in the middle of the Classic Chianti region, famous for the wine. It was a magical place full of delicious pork and sheep products. We went into a deli and saw this fresh pecorino cheese oozing on the counter and asked for a sandwich to be made with some of the cheese and some spicy salami. It was the best sandwich we have ever eaten.

There was also this store that spanned 3 store fronts that had inside several hundred proscuito legs hanging from the ceiling. We wandered the store gobsmacked.

We got into contact with Jarrad's parents and uncles who were in the area. We met up for lunch at a medieval town called San Gimangano. It was a beautiful town full of character. Afterwards we went to their B&B to check out the view they had of the city perched on top of of the hill. It was real and it was spectacular. We had some serious accommodation envy.

We raced back to Pisa and Lucca, nothing new to report from there and then had a delightful dinner at Hotel Carignano...again. It was as good as we remembered it, Mum had the gnocchi on my recommendation and I tried the rabbit involtini. Delicious. There was a group of americans there who had just completed a day long cooking course and were having dinner with the chef. When their perfectly cooked florentine steak arrived fresh from the grill they sent it back because they wanted it more cooked. They seemed to have learned nothing during the course!

The following day we hit the city of Firenze and cruised around in the drizzle. It was still packed with tourist groups that seem to move as inseparable unit and make it impossible to move around quickly. The lines for the Uffizi Gallery and the Academia Gallery were out of control, so we skipped those - Carlo and I don't like Renaissance art anyway so we were happy. I really liked just walking in Firenze and appreciating all the public art that is around, including the replica of Michelangelo's David in the piazza it originally stood in.

It is kind of mesmerising, his hands and head are so out of proportion but I think that is what makes it such a beautiful piece of art. We had thoughts of climbing the Duomo, all 300+ stairs, but a headache and the lines of ambulances waiting for people to expire discouraged me. I liked the arty feel of Firenze, and I think it would be an amazing place to study art or fashion, but I much prefer the rolling hills of the Tuscan countryside, but here is a nice panorama of the city by night.

I think I am even bored reading this, so I'll post the rest of our Italy travels in the next one......