Note: We've posted two blogs simulatenously. Please see the blog for days 1 through 3 via the link on the right.Tuesday, Oct 10th
Our flight left Hahn, Germany at 8:15am, meaning that we had to get up around 4:30am to ensure we got to the airport with enough time to check in and position ourselves in the waiting area (so that we wouldn’t get stomped over by the hordes of cattle that are the Ryan Air passengers). It was fun to sit from a distance and show Steph and Pete how these people act. “Look, now that guy’s going to sneak over there like he’s not sure where he’s going…..now this lady is going to move her bag just in front of that guy….” Then BAM! people were crowding around the check in desk in no recognizable form of a line and jockeying with each other for position. This was 40 minutes before the plane was due to be boarded!
Anyways, we had no problems with our flight and when we got to Milan we picked up our rental car and were ready to drive to Cinque Terre, then Pisa, then through the Chianti region, then to Florence, then to Siena, then to Venice….yes we had places to go and see!
Okay, so it’s important to note here that we didn’t really know anything about our car. Basically, we knew it was 15 euros a day and had 4 doors. I should have taken note that something might be a bit weird about the car when the lady at the counter repeated several times, “This is a Fiat Panda. That is okay?” Of course, it had 4 doors and I assumed it would be fine right? Well……
We get to the parking lot to pick up our car and just laugh. Honestly, the car was bright smurf blue. The horn went “Meep, Meep!” instead of “Beep, Beep!” The back had JUST enough room for our bags (creatively packed) and Ag and Steph had a few backpacks laid across the back seat with them. It was crucial that Steph and Pete had packed so light!! The car was a stick, but there was no odometer box on the dash…shifting was a function of just listening to/feeling the car. As you can imagine, the thing had NO pick up what so ever. Seriously, Pete and I would pull out on the highway and were flooring it with the hopes of moving….at one point, going up a slight hill, I said, “Everyone start leaning forward!”
Anyway, the car became the joke of the trip. I nicknamed it the “Shiat” (instead of Fiat). We started to use the word “Smurf” in our sentences and sayings. For instance, we would see a really cool building, “This is Smurf-tacular!” The simple things in life humor us, I guess.
So, we finally get on the road and start our drive to Cinque Terre. This was mine and Ag’s second trip to this tiny, beautiful place. (Please see the blog, “The Cinque Terre” for those adventures.) Our drive to Cinque Terre was about 3.5 hours...roughly 450 clicks! (Pete was calling kilometers “clicks” and we all thought it was great).
On the way to Cinque Terre, we stopped in Parma. Parma is the parmigiano-reggiano cheese capital of the world! We parked and planned on just grabbing a bite to eat. We went to the tourist information office and they provided us with a map and recommendations on a restaurant. We headed into the town which was really cute and quaint (did I just say cute? no…Agnes wrote this and I’m just editing). Anyway, it was a nice town and we found the restaurant without any problems. It was called Gallo d’Oro and was located through the center area of town and down a small side street. This was perfect because we got to see a bit of the city as we walked to it. The meal we had may have been the best meal on the whole trip.
We got a tray of assorted cheeses and a few pasta dishes. The cheeses, especially the parmigiano-reggiano, were delicious! I guess the best way to describe the experience is as follow: You are with great company, the sun is shining but you are under an umbrella, sipping on wine, snacking on cheese….does it get any better than this??
We got back on the road and the next city we hit was LaSpezia. It was an awesome town along the Med Sea. The city actually reminded Ag and I of Sardinia. The palm trees were blowing and the sun was shining. We pulled over and snapped a few pictures and then got back in the car. We had about another 1/2 hour to go.
The rest of the drive was through the mountains to Cinque Terre. The road was really windy and literally along the coast, overlooking the sea. We got to our village, Vernazza, and parked the Shiat. As soon as we stopped the car, it started smoking! Seriously, we didn't know what was going on...apparently, the brakes had a rough time maneuvering through the mountains and needed a break!
So we walked down the hill to the town and checked into our hotel…it was awesome! However, the set up to get to our rooms was a bit difficult (physically that is). We had to walk though a small part of the village, up a few sidewalks (everything was an upward incline), up a few steps, and finally got to our building. Well, then we had to climb 3 flights of stairs to get to the room. Whew. It was all worth it though! We had two rooms with a joining bathroom. There was a small patio area with chairs that overlooked the sea. It was beautiful.
At this point, it was close to 4:30pm and we had to get moving on our hike before it got dark. If you recall from the previous blog about Cinque Terre, there are five villages connected via train, boat and a hiking trail. We were staying in the second village (going from North to South). Our plan was to hike South to the remaining 3 (Corneglia, Manarola, Riomaggiore) and then check out Monterosso (the Northern-most village) the next day.
We got to see 2 of the 3 villages that night before it turned completely black on us. However, the sunset was really beautiful from the trail and the villages looked pretty sweet lit up at night. We caught the train back to our village but had to wait about 20 minutes for it….so we whipped our hand-dandy cork opener (we now travel with one everywhere we go!) and opened a bottle of wine (2 euros in the local grocery store, Dixie cups included) while we waited!
The train was 50 cents back to our village and we were home by 8:00pm. We got ready, showered, etc and were at dinner by 9:00pm. We ate at the restaurant that was associated with our hotel. The bread, pasta, seafood, wine….everything was great. After dinner we grabbed a few blankets and the rest of our bottle of wine from earlier that night. We then sat out on our balcony overlooking the sea. I of course fell asleep right there in the chair while everyone was talking. It was a great day…
Wednesday, October 11th
We woke up the next day and took the train to the first town, Monterosso. We had croissants and coffee overlooking the water and then headed into the village to walk around a bit. Ag and I didn’t explore this town as much the last time we were here so it was great to just take in the sites and absorb everything around us. The beach area was really nice too! The one interesting thing we did notice was a TON of English speaking people. Last time we were here, hardly anyone spoke English.
After breakfast and a stroll on the beach, back to the Smurf we went….it was close to 11:00am and it was time to hit the heart of Tuscany! We stuffed the car with our things and our bodies, praying it would make it out of the mountains. So far so good…we passed through La Spezia and headed onto Pisa. Pisa was roughly 83 clicks from La Spezia (45min to 1hour). The drive was great; the mountains were on the left and the ocean was to the right.
We arrived on the outskirts of Pisa and kind of struggled figuring out how to get into the city area. We managed though, parked the car and found a small pizzeria for lunch. The food was really good, our server was funny, but my one complaint: they charged 3 euros for ONE can of diet Coke!
After that money rape we walked just a bit further to the Piazza dei Miracoli. The Piazza was a huge great lawn area that had the Duomo, the Cathedral and the Leaning Tower, which houses the bells for the Cathedral. The construction for the tower began in 1173 and took 200 years to finish. The soil was so soft that the tower started sinking in areas and hence the reason it leans today (there’s a little fun fact for ya!). It was really cool to see.
After that, we got back into our car and headed toward our hotel. It was about 3:00pm at this point. The drive through Tuscany was on complete back roads and you could seriously smell the wine. We passed through many small towns, stopping to take pictures, etc. Most of the buildings and homes were a dark burnt orange/yellow colors. Many were made of stone too. The hills just rolled, and rolled, and rolled. The other thing besides tons of vineyards were that there were olive trees everywhere. All I have to say is we had some of the best, most fresh olive oil we’ve ever tasted during this part of the trip.
We pulled up to our hotel to find that it was literally smack dab in the middle of a wine field. There was a court yard with tables and a patio area out front, lawn chairs overlooking the vineyard and fields out back, and beautiful flowers growing everywhere. Plus, they had this sweet swimming pool…what a place.
The rooms were all scattered around the property. Our quad room was in the back, off a small path. We settled into our room and went to sit overlooking the vineyard and have some wine. We decided to have dinner at the hotel that evening which was a 4 course meal starting at 7:00pm. The meal consisted of the following items: bread, wine and olive oil (of course), ham/beef pâté, the best tomato soup I have ever tasted, bowtie pasta, roast pork tenderloin, and a baked puff with ice cream in the middle. Tasty!
After dinner we sat out back on the lawn chairs, chatting, sipping on wine…another great day and night!
2 comments:
PISA'S CAFÉ DELL'USSERO: A RENDEZVOUS FOR ARTISTS
In May 1845 John Ruskin prolonged his stay in Pisa in order to draw the early 15th -century Palazzo Agostini on the Lungarno, or river bank, of the Tuscan city. "There is nothing like it in Italy that I know of", he said; and, writing to his father, he added: "They have knocked a great hole in the middle to put up a shield with a red lion and a yellow cock upon it for the sign of a consul, and they have knocked another at the bottom to put up a sign of a soldier riding a horse on two legs, with inscription All'Ussero Café." The sign mentioned by Ruskin was short-lived, since it was thrown into the River Arno the following year by liberal students who could not even stand the sight of that Hussar. It reminded them of Austrian rule over partitioned Italy; but the Café, one of the oldest in Europe, is still there. It has been there since 1775, as attested by copies of documents, letters, and contracts exhibited on its walls, which mention the presence of a Café on the ground floor of the late-Gothic brick Palazzo Agostini in the very heart of Pisa, next door to the oldest hotel in town, the Victoria, patronised, among others, by Ruskin and Dickens, and even by British royalty. Several police reports in the local Public Records Office reveal that for over two centuries this historic Café has been the favourite resort of radical Mazzinian students and of the more open-minded dons from the nearby University, who used to convene there not only to sip a cup of coffee and play billiards, but also to discuss political issues and comment upon gazette reports on revolutionary movements in the Papal States or in the Kingdom of Naples, then under Bourbon rule, and which had been the subject of Shelley's "Ode to Liberty", or his "Sonnet on the Republic of Benevento". Contraband translations of such works of Byron as The Prophecy of Dante or The Lament of Tasso were also circulated and read in the Café, and they inflamed the minds of students like F.D. Guerrazzi and Giuseppe Montanelli, who were later to play an important political rÛle in the Italian Risorgimento. Other students who were to become some of the most renowned nineteenth-century lyric poets and satirists in verse, such as Giuseppe Giusti, Renato Fucini, and Giosuè Carducci - the first Italian to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1906 - made their first improvvisazioni in the lively atmosphere of the Caffè dell'Ussero, as was the case with Antonio Guadagnoli, who, according to Giacomo Leopardi, had made a fool of himself by improvising playful verses on his own long nose in the Accademia dei Lunatici, the literary salon of Madame Mason, formerly Lady Mountcashel, who had played host to Percy and Mary Shelley, and particularly to Claire Clairmont, during their stay in Pisa. By the turn of the century, this literary Café had been transformed into a Café-chantant, and then into one of the first cinemas in Tuscany, only to be restored to its original function at the end of the First World War. In the twentieth century the Caffè dell'Ussero resumed its literary and artistic vein, and it was attended by artists like Marinetti, the founder of the Futurist Movement, Guglielmo Marconi, Charles Lindberg, opera singer Renata Tebaldi, and scores of Pisa University students, who were later to distinguish themselves in a variety of professions; some of them, such as Enrico Fermi and Carlo Rubbia, were to win the Nobel Prize, while others would become Prime Ministers or Presidents of the Republic.
Caffè dell’Ussero - Lungarno Pacinotti, 27 – Pisa (Italy)
http://www.ussero.com
It is a monument to Italian culture in the 1400's Palazzo Agostini, on Lungarno. Its walls are covered with glorious memories from its most famous visitors of the Risorgimento when they were students: Carlo Goldoni, Gacomo Casanova, Vittorio Alfieri, Filippo Mazzei, John Ruskin, Domenico Guerrazzi, Giuseppe Giusti, Renato Fucini, Giosuè Carducci, Cesare Abba, Giuseppe Montanelli. In 1839, it was seat of the meetings of the first Italian Congress of Scientists
Journeying on to Florence through the Tuscan countryside: Lucca, Pisa and other delightful towns dot the road to Pisa where who are guested of the Agostini family Villa di Corliano. The family - and 2 resident ghosts - still welcome guest at the Villa, much as it they were at the height of its fame in the 1770’s. The stay at Bagni di Pisa (health giving waters are still offered to an international clientele) and visit Pisa during one of the city’s festivals, staying at the Agostini Palace to enjoy the best view of the festivities. The Villa http://www.villacorliano.it has hosted many illustrious guests such as Gustavus III of Sweden, Christian II of Denmark, the Royal Family of Great Britain, Benedict Stuart Cardinal of York, General Murat, Luigi Buonaparte, Paolina Borghese, Carlo Alberto of Savoy, the poets Byron and Shelley, and various other personages from the history books.
The area of the Pisa hills was already an attraction for enlightened travellers in the first half of the 1700s with the growth of the thermal spa of San Giuliano, which became a fashionable spot for the well-off classes. The mansions on the road along the hills, already renowned as places of gentle idleness and relaxation in the heart of the countryside and also for their small industrial facilities for the transformation of agricultural products, soon assumed the characteristics of true leisure resorts, just like those narrated by Carlo Goldoni and which we can continue to enjoy today. The Relais dell’ Ussero at the Villa Agostini della Seta di Corliano is on the road which runs along the foot of the hills from Pisa to Lucca, passing through the small town of San Giuliano Terme. The Villa is a historical fifteenth century mansion surrounded by a centuries old park. It is a property of great charm in which the owners offer, in 12 rooms and 2 suites, a relaxing stay immersed in the beauties of the local countryside. Guests, if they like, can join in the day to day activities of the villa. They can have relaxing strolls in the park, potter around in the gardens, chat or have dinner with the owners in the farmhouse of the villa – today a high class restaurant with authentic simple dishes of the Tuscan flavours.
The Villa della Seta is very conveniently located near the village of Corliano only 2 Km along the road from the health spa of San Giuliano Terme, and halfway between the historical cities of Pisa and Lucca (a 15 minute drive to both). Florence is only an hour away and Siena an hour and a half.
They can also organize all the necessary details for your meetings, convention, weddings at 1700’s small private church or at 1400’s sky garden or at the park of the Villa or at the oldest Italian cinema, restructured with modern audio visual technologies on 2004 near the historic Caffè dell’Ussero, founded on 1775 and seat of the meetings of the first Italian Congress of Scientists on 1839. Last but not least you do not forget a very good ice cream at the old “diacciaia” (now De Coltelli gelateria) of the Ussero palace.
Post a Comment