Vezio Castle and the Fiumlatte

Our second full day in Varenna saw us head up the hill to the Castello di Vezio after breakfast.  It was a hot day again and the morning is the time to make the trek up the hill.  From our hotel we had a head start from those starting in the street below so we had that going for us as well.  Not that it was a race mind you, but we might as well start 1/4 of the way up the hill.  

We encountered the gentleman you see in the picture weedeating the trail; he was not happy about the hazy view and told us tomorrow would be a better day.

 

 

It was a nice 30 minute hike up the hill, we consistently were a solid 25% longer on every hike in Italy than the signage indicated, and we arrived at the entrance promptly at 10am, not realizing that was the opening time for the biglietteria (tix office).  We purchased tix and a two espresso, we just couldn't get enough and the hotel had a self service machine instead of a true espresso.  We then headed up to the castle, noting the multiple bird cages they had on site.  The castle has regular falconry demonstrations, unbeknownst to us (wish the hotel would have told us), however they were in the afternoon and not on Mondays, which was when we visited.  Alas the castle, while small and decorated with the worst suit of armor I've ever seen, had some remarkable views.  That was after I climbed the last set of stairs and pulled the rock and rope to open the door to the top of the tower.  Kathie and I wagered that the other couples we saw walk into the tower didn't make it onto the roof due to the closed door.  

 

 

 

After taking a wrong turn looking for what we thought was a waterfall on the way back down the hill we ran into a real nice couple.  They were American, Hawaiian is my bet, and they told us where we went wrong and described the trail to the Fiumelatte, the shortest river in Italy.  It measures only 250m from the inside of a cave and runs down the side of the hill into Lake Como.  We hiked down to the hotel and then over to the source of the Fiumelatte, 

 

Unfortunately I couldn't find a good spot to get in for a swim, didn't need to get hurt this close to the end of the trip anyway, although I used the nearby fountain diverted from the river to cool off and enjoy some tasty mountain water.  

We headed back to the hotel for riposo after the nice morning of hiking, enjoying lunchmeat and formagio purchased at the macelleria the day before for a late lunch.  

After a lazy afternoon we headed out to Varenna and what some call the most romantic restaurant on Lake Como, Ristorante Vecchia Varenna.  As we sat right on edge of the lake the storm that had been brewing all day finally cut loose.  We watched from the nice patio room, protected by large plastic windows, as the storm marched across the lake and we dined on local white wine and risotto with lake fish as a primi piatti.  I had the most delicious rabbit with olives and capers over humus, Kathie had lake fish wrapped in bacon.  Mine was far better, usually that is not the case.

After a lovely meal we set off, just after 10, looking for gelato.  It was a Monday night and the first 2 shops we found were closed, but then we ran into a gelateria with the window still open.  I paused for a moment and the sweet lady inside stopped mopping and asked if I wanted some gelato.  My answer was a big smile and a double pistacchio please. 

Another lovely day in Italy.

Varenna-Lake Como

From the Stelvio Pass we continued west on SS38 into Bormio for lunch and gelato at a little cafeteria, saving some cash.  Eleven Euro for the two of us then a couple more for gelato, as if we'd skip gelato.  From Bormio we continued west to Lake Como and the quaint town of Varenna.  The town is a small village perched on a little outcrop of mountain.  We ventured to our hotel, the Albergo Eremo Gaudio and the view of Varenna and Lake Como was real pretty.

 

 

Our hotel was built right on the side of the mountain, in multiple buildings up the side of the hill.  The parking, reception and restaurant, and we beleive a few rooms, we on the lowest level.  To reach our room, the Bellagio, and many others further up the hill, we had to ride two different elevators.  It was quite odd, the lowest elevator had a key, as did the building above.  The elevators were windowed with views of the lake, but in the afternoon those glass elevators heated up like a sauna in mid July.  They were hot, make you sweat just standing there, but our first two days of the visit had a bit of a heatwave come through the lake area.

The view from the balcony of our room, the lowest level full lake view room, was lovely:

Here's the hotel and our room from the lake:

We walked down to town and the along the lake, but Saturday night was just too crowded.  Lots of tourists, which of course we are, and we've pointedly  realized that environment is not what we're looking for on our vacation.   After 6 weeks in the country we think of ourselves almost as locals.  Funny huh, but true.  I'd much rather find where the locals eat, however it was late and the pizza smelled good at the Albergo del Sole Pizzeria so we grabbed the only available table and ordered a liter of house white wine.  The pizzas were good, we were thirsty and the wine was going down good, until I cut my finger on the decanter.  I pointed out the chip in the handle to the waitress as I ordered our next 1/2 liter of wine, she apologized and brought a band-aid.  It was just a scratch but at this point I had to put on the band-aid.  Our discussion was lively, talking about redoing the house, and it was warm, so yes, we rounded out the night with another 1/2 liter of the house white, a nice 2 liter evening.  The waitress brought the bill and they didn't charge us for the final 1/2 liter, not much better than free wine!

Our next morning was lazy, breakfast and just napping, relaxing was high on our list of needs for the trip.  We headed out around noon for a walk to 

Villa Monastero, located down the hill.  It was a nice walk around the grounds, the villa has about 1km of lakefront, and the estate was beautiful.  It was built recently, about four hundred years ago.  I really liked the bathroom, check this thing out, nice deep tub and a great backdrop:

The lake was beautiful from the gardens:

 

 

We headed down to the lakefront in town to grab some food, a little pizza and such.  It was very hot and the place had sundaes with gelato, naturally we enjoyed them.

 

 

We stopped at a macelleria on the way back to the room, picking up some salame, proscuitto and formaggio, as well as some crackers, for an evening snack and lunch the following day.  We then headed to the hotel for some relaxing and to watch the sunset.

 

Another wonderful day in Italy.

Alpe di Siusi--aka paradise

We headed north from Vicenza into the Alps, a place that we'd never visited.  As a young Private in the Army I was cautious with our beater Alfa Romeo, literally paid $500 for it from a PCSing E-5, and sold it for that same amount when we left.  In retrospect it probably would have made a mountain trek, but newly married, with an infant, in a foreign land and little money kept us away from the big mountains.  

Anyway we ventured north to Bolzano and stopped off for a visit to see Otzi, the mummified iceman that lived over 5000 years ago.  We were a bit confused that we took a wrong turn when we entered the town as all the road signs, and even the salespeople and museum workers later corroborated, were first in German then Italian.  We were still in Italy, however the proximity to Austria and the history of this region as a part of Austria years ago has lead to German being the first language; we didn't necessarily like that.  However, Otzi is one of the most awesome finds in modern history, removed from the ice in the Alps just about 100 meters from Austria inside South Tyrol, Italy back in 1991.  We were actually stationed in Vicenza at the time of the discovery and I remember it well, however he wasn't put on display until many years later, a full facility needed built in Bolzano not to mention the dispute of which country should "own" the Iceman.  But Kathie was digging around on the web and found Rick Steves' info about him and we were hooked.  

Unfortunately no pictures are allowed in the museum, which houses all kinds of aritifacts found with Otzi including his axe, bow, bearskin hat, shoes, etc.  It was really interesting to view all these items as well as the mummy himself.  Otzi is kept in a ice box with a small observation window, maybe 2 foot square, that you can see him through.  We waited in line about 30 minutes outside, just enough time to grab a gelato and spill it on my shirt, but inside there was little wait and plenty to see.  We actually went through the line to see the mummy twice, out of courtesy to not stand in front of the window too long, it was really cool.  A little morbid, but to see and understand that this guy, who was murdered somewhere betweeen 3350 - 3100 BC, was frozen and mummified for eternity is a powerful thing to experience.  His discovery re-wrote the Copper Age, realizing it was a full 1000 years before scientists had previously believed, its just remarkable.  I'd highly recommend visiting Otzi if you have the chance.

We didn't spend any further time in Bolzano as we were heading into the Alps and we like to get to our destination well before dark, its hard enough driving over here let alone in the dark on a mountain.  So we loaded up from the parking garage, Bolzano has several near the center of town that make a visit very easy, and we headed to Alpe di Siusi to see the Dolomites, one of the most attractive mountain ranges in the world.

We arrived at our hotel, the Steger-Dellai, and were immediately in awe.  I knew this was going to be a winner when I booked it, however like much of this trip the hotel overdelivered.  Immaculate, new and with a German run efficiency that we weren't ready for just knocked our socks off.  Breakfast and dinner included, a spa downstairs that was hard to leave, and cool clean mountain air that was quite refreshing after the steamy Italy we've experienced the last two weeks.  

After a brief tour and getting settled into the room we decided it was the perfect time for little spa action before dinner.  Let's just say we've never experienced a spa in Europe and as we were checking out the different options, saltwater spa, steam room, sauna, laconicum, cold room, etc. I noticed a woman changing, without any clothes on.  I said something quietly to Kathie, she thought maybe we were in the woman's side but just then a guy came out of the shower butt naked.  Yep, I'm talking pretty much everybody down there was only wearing a towel, and that came off when hitting the rooms or the showers!  Now let's get a couple things straight, these weren't college dorms, the people were much closer to 60 than 25 and that makes quite a difference when a naked person enters your viewing area.  So then the next step is how do the shy Americans proceed?  On this day we held ourselves close to the vest, keeping our bathing suits on and limiting our time in the spa.  Let's just say that after a good hike the following day this American lived by the saying "When in Rome do as the Romans do."

We spent the next three days hiking, enjoying some awesome meals, admiring the absolutely stunning landscape and revelling in the spa (Kathie enjoyed a full on treatment special of facial, aloe wrap, massage, mani & pedi-----I did enjoy a great massage) and the hospitality of the  "Swiss Missess and Swiss Mister".

We had our first celebrity encounter on the trip in Compatsch, the little gathering of shops and information point in the large meadow.  As I was trying to get money out of an empty Bancomat (ATM) Kathie heard a familiar voice.  The guy and his companion started to walk away when she turned and told me she thought it was Rick Steves, you know the European travel guru.  Heck I didn't know so I called out "Hey Rick."  Sure enough he turned around and we walked over and chatted with him.  Kathie was super excited introducing herself and me, we then complimented him on his writings and told him we've used quite a bit of it for our 6.5 week Italian adventure.  That perked his interest so he asked a little about the trip.  We told him about starting in Palermo and working our way north, next venturing to Lake Como.  He was in Alpe di Suisi working on his newest book and asked us what we thought of the area and what we'd done so far.  We were headed out for day 3 of hiking at the time and told him of some of the area we'd seen, he was genuinely interested as well as complimentary toward the area and the ski lift accessibility.  We enjoyed our couple minutes talking, he commented how some of the folks he was leading on the tour (who were out hiking at the time) were from Cincinnati as well.  If there is anybody in the world who has a better job than that guy I'd like to meet them.  

Alpe di Siusi is the largest Alpine meadow and hosts lots of skiers in the winter, however in the summer the place is choked full of hikers and using the lifts to get up some of the more difficult areas, to continue your hike, is such a great way to get around.  Plus there is a bus through the area and the road is basically shutdown all day except for locals or by special pass, so traffic is limited.  If you like day hiking I cannot recommend a better place to go, the food is good, the views are spectacular, the ease of movement is wonderful.  I think a week could be spent exploring and hiking the meadow and the Dolomites in just this area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Much of the meadow is farmed, hiking through grazing cattle was an everyday occurence. What was really funny was the bells the cows wore, nothing like that in my 3 years of dairy farming.  The bells were audible a long way from the cows, sitting on the rock in the picture below I could hear cow bells coming from cattle grazing near the restaurant in the picture.

 

While Kathie headed back after lunch to get her treatments, we enjoyed some outstanding dumplings and Prosecco at the building just above the orange mark on the rock in the below picture, I continued my hike up to Piano Sassio, 3000m elevation, and took in the view.  This place is just amazing.

 

 

 

I have far too many pictures that fail to capture the magnificent beauty of this place so I'll just end them here.  

I will add a few shots of some of our wonderful Northern Italy cuisine, good stuff I tell you:

Our menu from the Hotel Steger one of the nights:

 

And seriously, do you really need this much silverware:

 

Suckling pig and ribs

 

Cordon bleu

 

Spinach dumplings with cheese

 

Witches' pasta

 

Mountian pine dumplings

 

My first ever ostrich was phenomenal.

 

Some of the deserts:

 

My favorite lady and my desert:

 

 

If you venture to Italy and enjoy hiking, and then relaxing in a health spa to refresh your legs, well the Hotel Steger-Dellai is the place for you.  As long as you aren't too worried about high speed wifi, it wasn't very good at all in the hotel.  But the staff, especially Lubo who left our last night to prepare for seminary school in Slovakia, was tremendous.  While the Germanic scheduling of dinner, 6:30-9:00 (no joke in Rome we didn't leave our room until 9:30 to go find a restaraunt), and the prominence of the German language, which frankly is harsh and gruff sounding compared to Italian, did surprise us and "pressure" us a little. "You vant da weinkart?"----seriously WTF does that mean.....oh, "Would you like the wine menu?" We had a great time in Alpe di Siusi, I'm sure you'd love it.

Auf wiedersehen........see, Arrivederci is so much better.

Vicenza, the old homestead

We ventured from Bologna to Vicenza for a brief stay.  Vicenza is home to Caserma Ederle, my first duty station as a US Army Soldier and the first home Kathie and I shared together as husband and wife 25 years ago.  Its a great little town, clean and friendly, plus we had laundry to do and the base is a lot cheaper than on the economy.  So we popped onto post, washed a few loads and cruised base a little to see the changes, there were plenty.  In all fairness we were here 7 years ago when we brought our daughter, who was born on base, and son on vacation, however its always fun to see the changes.  We were hoping to attend an Independence Day parade, afterall I carried my company's guidon across the parade field back in 1991, but the field is now host to a couple buildings and the celebration happened before the long weekend, so we missed out.  We also missed seeing our friend Tiziano, he was on vacation and I realize the importance of vacation.  Hope it was awesome Tiziano.

SETAF and US ARMY Africa HQ:

 

Never forget our fallen Soldiers, they have paid the price enabling us to exercise our freedom.  

 

We spent a nice day in Vicenza walking around town, first hitting up a bar for an espresso.  We had the place to ourselves and struck up a conversation, as best we could, with the elderly gentleman running the place even though he spoke zero English.  He told us his wife and her family spoke good English, his brother in law was a Colonel in the Carabinieri and had worked on Caserma Ederle, but after a couple years of trying to learn he gave up.  We chatted about our vacation and how we started in Sicily, he immediately chimed in about his time in Messina and that his family was still there.  He did also hit two particular notes, first, he charged us 1.10 euro for an espresso, at the bar, which was the first time we paid over one euro on the trip and had a couple times paid under a euro.  He smiled and nodded when I pointed this out.  Its true things get more expensive as you go north.  Secondly, and most importantly, he talked about how nice a day it was and that we should go walk the town, mano nella mano (hand in hand); naturally we followed this advice.

We went up to the Santuario di Monte Berico to check out the church and the great overlook of the city.  They were working on the exterior but the interior was beautiful, however service was being conducted so we only stayed briefly.

 

 

From the Monte Berico overlook you can see the green roofed building on the right side, the Basilica Palladiana.  Palladio was a renowned architect who lived in Vicenza and created some beautiful buildings.  The basilica is on the main square, Piazza dei Signori, and this link shows one of the walking tours of the city you can take.

 

We had lunch on the piazza, people watching and enjoying some tasty pasta.  Most striking to me on the square is the clock tower

 

The flowers on the church door were so pretty.

 

Kathie's favorite fountain, she loves the uniqueness with the kids.  We have a picture of her from 1991, with her mom and while she's 9 months pregnant, in front of this same fountain.

 

When we were stationed here those 25 years ago we had a favorite restaurant, the Conciglia d'Oro, where a local national friend on base worked as a waiter.  We used to frequent the place about once a month or so, the best that a young enlisted Soldier could afford, and Gaetano would scoop up our daughter and take her all over the place, back in the kitchen, wherever Megan wanted, while we ate and enjoyed ourselves. Well the place has expanded, moving just a little down the street and running a huge restaurant and hotel, so you guessed it, we stayed there.  The room was nice, very modern and great wifi as well as open space.   The breakfast was good, the price was right and we enjoyed some kick ass seafood pasta.  I got the big and little shrimp cooked in tin foil, been on the menu for a long time, and it did not disappoint. We enjoyed an appertivo of proscuitto and bufala mozzarella.  Kathie enjoyed lobster linguine, both meals were huge and we each left pasta on the plate.  Speaking of plates, Kathie's plate was literally a square that measured from her elbow to the end of her fingers, just enormous.  Naturally we had prosecco, the local wine of the region and oh so good!

 

 

 

I hope we get to return to Vicenza sometime in the future, it is a beautiful little town.

More Bologna

I miss you already Bologna.

Our stay was a short one in town, 3 nights, and we really didn't have any plans except to eat when we arrived.  It worked.

We stayed downtown, just 100m from the main piazza, at Albergo Centrale, it was super convenient, clean and simple, and priced right.  I paid 9 Euro for 3 nights of parking that was about 40m from the hotel, super convenient.  I did have a little dust up with a truck driver as I tried to park the first day, I was waiting for a spot and when somebody pulled out he tried to jump in the spot.  Kathie stood in spot while I whipped in behind him, yes, we were circling the lot and he had just pulled in and thought he could jump the line.  But alas, that was the only issue and honestly I could have waited another 15 minutes if needed, just didn't want to.

One of the traditions in Italy we haven't spent nearly enough time enjoying is the appertivo.  About 5-6 each night the bars light up with buffets and drinks, the idea being you drink something a little bitter, a spritz, or what we enjoyed, Prosecco (not much better than Prosecco) and have some light snacks to open up your stomach for the evening meal.  Pretty awesome idea if I do say so myself.  

Appertivo time:

 

We found Cesari a hole in the wall place that we stumbled upon when we went the wrong way trying to get to a Yelp suggested ristorante.  Man oh man were we lucky to find this place, it was incredible.  First of all it is very difficult to express the warmth and geniune niceness people have shown on this trip, Gena remarked at one point "Its so weird, I'm not used to people being nice to me."  This place was no different.  It looked almost like a private club of sorts when we entered, small, all wood, wine bottles all over the shelves along the tops of the walls, and zero English being spoken.  After banging the door on the busboy (in fairness I can't see through doors) we were greeted with several smiles and shown to a table for 5.  Ricardo came over after a bit, and after talking just enough Italian with me to realize I didn't understand him he broke into very good English and helped with our drink order.  Italians are in no hurry for anything except when driving  We talked about the wine and he told us about his uncle's vineyard, 280 hectares in Tuscany.  He also told us that his uncle offered scholarships to art students and used their drawings for the designs on the bottles, commenting something to the effect that the name still has his influence because he thinks so much of himself.  We all laughed as he brought us a bottle of red, Moma, that he had to reach over another table with a special pole to grab the neck of the bottle and retrieve.  The wine was good.  Gena was quite intrigued with the art scholarship talk, just another feather in Italy's cap for her.

Ricardo then got down to business, describing the menu with such pride and joy you could really tell he loved his job.  He spoke of the dish his grandfather had made in this very restaurant for the last 55 years, Gramignone verde al ragù di salsiccia, spinach spaghetti with sausage sauce, I was sold.  Yes, it was his place and he was working to be 3rd generation owner.  He next described his specialty secondi dish, Scaloppa di vitello alla “Petroniana” con patate al forno, veal with proscuitto and melted cheese, "served with a napkin on the side to wipe your tears".  We absolutely broke down on this one, and he ate it up.  The laughing was from both sides and we could tell that Ricardo was loving it.   We asked what other dishes he'd recommend and he said nothing but the meat, never the vegetables out of respect for the cows as that's what they eat!  My kind of guy.  He sold most of the group on the veal and I decided to go a different route and enable a little sharing, so I went with Polpette over peas, basically the meat from tortellini made into meatballs served with a tomato sauce over peas, it was delightful.

My primi piatti

 

My secondi:

 

Kathie's dish, the side of napkin to wipe the tears was very appropriate, and this picture does NOT do it justice:

 

Clean plates around brought the tough question every night, dolci?  We invariably go out for gelato needing a little walk after all the eating but when Ricardo described the roasted peaches with almonds and amaretto we were sold.  Well, we were full so we all split one order, to which Ricardo replied "I'm not cleaning up blood spilled on the table cloth after you try to share".  

When the table behind us left Ricardo's dad sat down to eat and do paperwork.  He was basically across from me and I could tell the old guy knew what he liked.  The staff brought him a salad and a chunk of parmigano reggiano as big as your head.  He stuck a butter knife in it and pulled off hunks to eat, then prepared our bill for us on a scratch pad.  Best deal yet on the trip!!

We also had lunch at Trattoria Birichini, first just Kathie and I and then we took the Pearsons as it was so good.  The mortadella pasta was super, as was everything we ate.  And yes, that is a wine glass at lunch, I love vacation.

 

 

 

I love Bologna, and don't you dare call it baloney.