Italy Field Report 9 – Day 8

That’s it! Last day.

We spend the morning in Vicenza today – but lunch at 1PM + Italian trains being notoriously late = we got back to Verona around 4PM!

Again it was worth comparing fast and slow trains, on the way home for example the fast train was 16€ for 25 minutes and slow one was 4€ for 40 minutes!!

Vicenza is beautiful, almost like Venice without the water and the decay, but it’s also very small so a 1/2 day is plenty.

  

Back in Verona, we took a last wander through the city and had a last diner in Piazza Del Elbe…  sadly – predictably – the food was lousy.  It always is when you have a meal in a touristy place. Good food and nice views are often mutually exclusive!

We called it quits around 6:30, back to the room early to pack and get ready to fly home tomorrow. I am pissed off because I can’t find my luggage locks ANYWHERE! I know they are in the room somewhere… but where??? GRRRR  plus, I only have 1 back-up lock!! don’t know how I could have misplaced (let alone lose) them when I unpacked.

I hope this is not a sign of the kind of journey we will have on the way home.  Please God let us not miss our 3AM wake up call – or 6AM flight to Germany – and please let the Lufthansa pilot strike chaos which ended today not delay us and please let us arrive home safe and sound!

(I miss my cats!)

Italy Field Report 8 – Day 7

Not the best day.

I don’t want to go as far to say it was a BAD day, but let’s say I was not in love with this day. We went to the Ferrari Museum; it was just OK. If it had been here in Verona I might have a better opinion of it, but to me it was just not worth all the travelling.

As you know, I strive to stay within a 2 hour travel perimeter for day trips. To get to the Ferrari Museum in Maranello, you have to take a bus from Modena. Modena is about 2 hours by train from Verona, and the bus to Maranello is about 30 minutes – not bad, we figured it would be a good 2-city day.

Not.

There is nothing to see and do in Modena. One nice square and the church, that’s pretty much it. It’s not very touristy.

When we arrived at the bus station to take the Bus to Maranello, it JUST left! We watched it pull out of the station just as it we were crossing the street and it was an hour wait until the next one.  The bus terminal (not near the train station) is on the eastern edge of the city, so we walked back to the old town, took a few pictures of the church and headed back to take the next bus. That was at noon – already half the day gone and nothing that great to show for it.

The bus dropped us off in front of the Ferrari Restaurant. I think you need a secret code to get in. We were IGNORED. It it because we look like tourists? Guidebook and camera in hand? I guess they don’t want to serve the kind of people that are likely to take pictures of their food.

Meh whatever. We ended up at a great mom & pop place down the road where a Caprese Salad, 2 pizzas and a bottle of wine only cost us 40€.  It was delicious!!

The Museum, like I said, was just OK – but keep in mind that I am not an aficionado.  Perhaps people ‘in the know’ will tell you that it’s great; I feel like I’ve seen it all before through a mix of Formula One Races, Formula One Weekend displays in Montreal and various museum exhibitions. Perhaps it was good because it’s all so many in one place? Meh whatever, I didn’t care enough.

I have to say however that this message in the entrance did make me sad:

 

After lunch and the museum visit, we caught the 4PM bus back to Modena, took a walk through the city hoping to find a nice café for a drink – no luck – ended up on the 6:15PM train back to Verona (not direct, we had to transfer in Mantova) getting us back just before 8:30. Too late to go to the square and have a night cap, but too early to call it a night. I felt like the day was so incomplete with no Aperol Spritz breaks!!!

We ended up having a light meal at the hotel restaurant – nothing great, but better than nothing.

Come to think of it, that phrase captures the whole day!

Italy Field Report 7 – Day 6

Another short and sweet post today. I am still congested, but feel fine. No fever, 100% energy level…  all systems go! But I still want to play it safe and go to bed early.

I cut Trieste from our plans because it’s 3 hours away. I am striving to stay within a 2 hour travel-perimeter, so we’ll so we'll visit the city some other time! We replaced it with Lake Garda.

We spent a little time in Desenzano, then took a boat over to Sirmione. We spent an afternoon here in 2003 but I remember NOTHING about it so it still felt like we were seeing a new city.

Great day, a lot of walking, scenic lunch…  I am good for another 10 years ;)

 

Italy Field Report 6 – Day 5

Going to keep it short today – I am congested and I don’t want it to turn into a cold so it’ll be an early night for me.

First thing’s first however: The Crema di Limone is great!

We went to Bergamo today. Very nice place but I can’t see why people RAVE about it. We liked it, nice things to see, great lunch – an overall very enjoyable day but I doubt I will ever be back.

Possibly the best pictures we took all day were these of a Mama Duck and her 15 ducklings at the Botanical Gardens…  SOOOOOO CUUUUUUTE!!

This cat nearby might have had a good meal, but we did not stick around to watch the potential carnage!

Italy Field Report 5 – Day 4

I am exhausted! We went to Venice today and walked till we dropped.  Actually, in Venice it’s a mix between walking and stair climbing! My legs are SHOT! I needed this exercise.

A note about the train: Fast trains are more expensive than slow trains, and depending on how much time you have, it’s worth the extra cost… but never assume! from Verona to Venice the fast train was 22€ and took 1:10. The slow train was 8€ and took 1:27!!! it pays to double check!

I love Venice; this was our 4th visit and it has not lost ANY of it’s charm.  Even the fact that you could liken it to one huge Shopping Mecca doesn’t phase me, I can’t get enough of it! Even I who hates shopping finds it ridiculously difficult to resist all the shiny and sparkly colourful bobbles; I want them all!

Earrings and Picture Frames and Glassware and Christmas Ornaments and Paperweights and more and more and more. It’s like crack!

  

I succeeded in holding back, but there was a lot of groaning and whimpering! (ok, I bought a pair of earrings)

Instead of trinkets, I spent my money on my favourite Venice activity: Drinks in San Marc’s Square. The cafes are fancy, there is a live 4 person orchestra playing beautiful classical music, the tables are perfectly perched in the square with views of the Basilica… and the price of a drink comes with smelling salts to pick you up off the floor. 2 cover charges, 1 champagne cocktail and 1 cappuccino came out to a whopping 47€!! But we knew that going in. (Factor in the money we saved taking the “slow” train and it’s not so bad)

The Basilica was unfortunately covered with a lot of scaffolding. I feel bad for first time (only time) tourists who will only ever remember it like this, such a shame.

Like I said before, we just walked all day. I love the way Venice is all lanes and alleys and dead ends and stairs and bridges… I could easily spend another few days there!  Getting lost in the streets is the best way to explore the city. We stayed for lunch and diner instead of out usual day trip routine of heading back to our home base city by 3-4 PM. This time we headed back around 7:30 – a possible record!

  And here is one for my colleague: me still not touching cats!

Italy Field Report 4 – Drinks

As you know, I love to sit in Piazzas with a drink and a view, just watching the world go by.

I find that Italy offers the best options for this pastime, and therefore over the course of many visits, I have discovered some cafe-favourites that I can’t find at home.

1- Aperol Spritz, first discovered in Torino in 2012. How can it be that I never noticed it before???  EVERYONE is drinking this stuff!  If ever it does start appearing on drink menus at home, I don’t think I would order it much – there is something about it that requires it to be ordered exclusively in Italy.  I am in love with the colour!!

2- Gin Lemon, first had in Naples. I will never ever have a “Normal” gin & tonic again when I have this option! OMG it’s SO GOOD! I can’t get lemon Schweppes at home. Too bad :(

3- Nestea Peach. When we were in Aosta I ordered fruit tea and got a can of this instead. What a lucky mistake because it’s so delicious! Again, can’t find Peach at home, only Lemon.

4- Crema di Limoncello. My hands down best drink discovery from our last visit to Sorrento. Not only can I not find it at home, but I can’t find it anywhere in Italy north of Sorrento! The regular version is available anywhere…  but not the creamy one.

Imagine how thrilled I was to come across this today!  Strictly speaking it’s not the authentic version, but how different can it be?

 

I was going to drink it tonight but I was too full from supper so I’ll indulge tomorrow. Can’t wait!

Salute!

Italy Field Report 3 – Day 3

Good news! My data plan works!!

Although I have to say that the people with whom I spoke DID provide good customer service, the way my issue was resolved leads me to think I should report it anyway because there is definitely some training that is lacking!

• When I landed in Germany on our layover, I got an automated text message welcoming me to Germany saying that if I have not already purchased a data pass I should do so and a link & phone number was provided. (I bought the data pass about 4 days before leaving home). I could not get on line so I called the number and the rep guided me through making sure my phone was properly set up. He also suggested I reset my network settings but that it would sever our connection – I tried it anyway. No luck. I could not call back because it was time to get on our flight.
• When I landed in Italy, I got the same automated message welcoming me to Italy and telling me the same. Again, nothing worked so I called. The rep double checked everything yada yada, said everything looked fine, opened a ticket and sent me an email saying they identified the issue and it was escalated and would be solved by the end of the day Friday. It wasn’t.
• I called this morning and the rep said that he could not check the status of the ticket at that time (about 2AM in Canada) because they were doing maintenance on the system and he could not look it up. Whatever.
• I called again this afternoon when we got off the train from our day trip, spoke to Solomon who instantly saw what was wrong and fixed it in less than a minute. Go Solomon!!!  But why couldn’t agent 1 and 2 do that???  They were VERY nice, but it seems to me perhaps they lacked access to information or some training based on how fast and simple it was for Solomon to fix it all!

But enough of that for today: the problem is solved.

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Today we took a vacation from our vacation and we went to Austria…  almost.  We spent the day in Bolzano (Bolzen) which was part of Austria until Mussolini stuck his nose in.

It was FANTASTIC! All future excursions on the vacation are going to have to compete with Bolzano for top spot in Day Trips! It reminded us so much of Innsbruck and Salzburg – complete with a Sacher Shop and Mozartkugeln. The architecture, the landscape, the language…  we were not in Italy!  We’ve been saying we want to go back to Austria next year – this day cemented that idea!

 

Everything was in German which made me happy as my German is way better than my Italian and it was therefore effortless to communicate. 

Along with the German language came German Food and we indulged in our favourites! White sausage with pretzel and sweet mustard for me and pig knuckles for him!

  

The most interesting part of the day was a visit to the Archaeological Museum to visit Ötzi. If you don’t remember the headlines of his discovery back in 1991, the click here to read all about him.  The museum was fascinating! Even better than I anticipated and my husband who didn’t really care about this Ice-Mummy and didn’t understand why I wanted to see it left the Museum raving about the exhibit.

After walking around town for hours, we took a break in the main Piazza (or rather, I should say: Platz) so I could have my requisite Aperol Spritz! I just love the colour!

We made it back to Verona by 6:15 and had a few drinks in Piazza Bra before calling it a day. 

Before I leave you, here is a shot of me continuing to keep my promise to my colleagues to keep away from cats!

Italy Field Report 2 – Day 2

Another fun day!

Some of the “problems” from yesterday are solved: The hotel wifi is now working and the room temperature is back to normal, but the data pass I bought for my Iphone is still not working.  I was told yesterday that is was not provisioned properly and that the issue would be solved by the end of the day….  it’s not. I’m pissed about it, but lucky since I work for the company I know who to complain to! jerks.

Being back in Italy is slightly surreal because I feel like I was here just last week - it doesn't feel like 6 months since we last visited, it feels like I never left! This also takes a little of the novelty out of it, but we’re still having a nice time.

The weather is nice, but tricky. Freezing in the shade and HOT in the sun so I don’t know how to dress! We’ve eaten outside a few times, including having drinks in cafés, but we never quite know what to expect. Too hot to sit in the sun, but with no sun at all we need jackets. Still, I am happy that it’s not sticky-sweaty-crazy hot and we have blue skies. I ultimately have nothing to complain about!

We slept until 8AM this morning, giving us almost 11 hours of sleep last night so we are already adjusted to Italy Time; we don’t suffer much from jet lag – we’re lucky and we know it! It was only a 5 hour time-difference this time since they haven’t moved their clocks forward yet, that happens tonight.

I mentioned yesterday that I was able to fondle Juliette’s boobs, here’s the proof:

I decided to go with the right one this time instead of the left for symmetry ;)

Today we went to Brescia. I picked that for the first day trip because the ride is only about 30 minutes and trains run twice per hour so we would not have to commit to a fixed departure time in the morning. Although like I mentioned we don’t suffer from jet lag, I do like to take it easy on the first full day! The fast train was sold out in 2nd class on the way there so we bought first class - 21€ instead of 17€, not bad… the slow train on the was home was only 6€!

Brescia was nice, a good small place to explore on our first full day. We arrived around 10 and stopped for lunch around 1:30. (and we forgot to take a picture of the resto – damn)

 

By 3:30, we heading back to Verona in time for drinks in Piazza Bra. I just love sitting in cafe, having a drink and watching the world go by… aaaaahhhh. Funny how being in a different city (country, continent) changes your tastes; I never have Aperol at home - I don’t care for it that much – but when I am in Italy, Aperol Spritz is a must… if only for the colour!

 

They had wifi at this cafe so I was able to reinitialize my Instagram account, but don't ask me how or why all the Pic Stitch collages I made of my meals today are gone. GRRR I finally accessed my account and uploaded the one that was still in Pic Stitch, but then I could not upload it to Facebook. I eventually got so frustrated I just gave up – we left to go tour the Old Roman Amphitheatre and that’s when I realized I left my guidebook behind! GRRRRR. Thankfully, the waiter had it and gave it back. Phew!! My guidebooks are my best vacation souvenir. Full of notes and highlighted sections of things I have seen (this guide book covered 4 trips to Italy!!!) I was overjoyed to get it back!

Time to hit the sac now, but I leave you with this last picture. My colleagues made me promise not to touch any cats on this vacation after missing 2 days of work following a disgusting allergic reaction to fleas (?? bugs??) when I got home from Italy last time. I hope they get a kick out of this picture of me keeping my promise!