20 Search Results for ""rolling hills""

• Wine Tasting and Tuscan Cuisin

  • From: bruschim
  • Description:

    Tuscany has so much to offer, from Florence’s art and architecture and Siena’s Piazza del Campo, to Volterra’s alabaster masterpieces and San Gimignono’s town of towers.  However, when you need a break from the Renaissance paintings, and the medieval palaces and castles, head to Radda in Chianti for a wine tasting treat. 

    A trip to Tuscany wouldn’t be complete without at least one wine tasting adventure. When my family visited Tuscany we visited Castello d’Albola in Radda in Chianti for our wine tasting experience.

    Castello d’Albola dates back to the 12th century and was transformed into a villa during the Renaissance.  The Acciaiuolis, the Samminuatu and the Pazzi families, and the Princes Ginori Conti lived here through the centuries and shaped the history of this medieval complex.  Today, the Zonin family owns the Castello d’Albola winery and has restored the entire compound. 

    We gathered in the wine tasting room located off an inner castle courtyard at five o’clock on a Saturday for our tour of the winery. Surrounded by  the rolling hillsides full of Chianti vineyards, our English speaking tour guide led us to the Castello d’Albola wine cellars where we discovered wooden barrels aging Castello d’Albola's finest wines. Our guide gave us an informal, yet thorough explanation of how the wines at the complex were produced, including how their grapes are harvested, crushed, fermented, aged and packaged.

    Up next, wine tasting.  We returned to the wine tasting room and sampled some of Castello d’Albola’s premium wines, as our guide described the aroma and flavor of each.

    The predominant grape at Castello d’Albola is the Sangiovese grape. Their ruby red Chianti Classico (95% Sangiovese grape and 5% Canaiolo grape) is well-balanced and dry.  Indulge in a swallow or two and you’ll understand why it’s delicious with grilled meats and cheeses.  When you sip the Acciaiolo (65% Sangiovese grape and 35% Cabernet Sauvignon grape), another one of their ruby red wines, you’ll discover hints of cherries, wild berries and vanilla.

    Although white wines have never been dominant in Tuscany, don’t pass up a sip of Castello d’Albola’s dry Chardonnay.  You’ll enjoy its golden apples and ripe fruit aromas with just a touch of vanilla. 
     
    We also were treated to a taste of Castello d’Albola’s fruity flavored Olio Extra Vergine di Oliva (Extra Virgin Olive Oil).  We topped off our visit with a rich, fiery swallow of Grappa.  (Grappa is a potent, dry distilled beverage.)

    Time permitting, Radda in Chianti is worth a visit. Ancient walls and towers surround this small medieval town. The hub of this egg-shaped historic village is the Piazza Ferrucci square.  Here you’ll find the 15th century Palazzo del Podesta, a palace decorated with numerous coats of arms and fine frescos.  Since the Middle Ages the palace clock chimes on the hour.  Directly opposite the palace on a raised platform stands the church of San Nicolò. 

    Our designated driver headed for the restaurant La Bottega in Volpaia, fifteen minutes from the winery.  Volpaia is a tiny town of about 43 people. La Bottega is a family owned restaurant featuring a delicious Tuscan and Chianti style cuisine.  We sat out on their terrace and enjoyed a magnificent view of the Chianti hillsides and vineyards.
     
    La Bottega serves mouthwatering ravioli and tortelli, with fresh daily made pasta.  You might want to try their ribollita (a reboiled soup with a thick bean mixture made with vegetables over pieces of bread) for a real taste of Tuscan cooking.  One of their favorites is chicken with onions and pork roast spiced with the scents of Chianti.  Their chocolate and medieval cakes (and maybe a sip of Grappa) are a delightful way to top off the meal.
     
    IF YOU GO:

    For More Information:

    www.albola.it  Castello d’Albola, Via Pian d’Albola, 31 Radda in Chianti; tel. (+39 0577) 738019; open every day between 10:00am and 6:30pm from April until October; from November to March, Monday – Friday, 10:00am to 5:00pm; Free winery tours and wine tasting at noon, 2:00pm and 5:00pm.
     
    www.ristorantichianti.it/bottega   La Bottega, Piazza della Torre, 1 – Volpaia – Radda in Chianti (Siena)

    GETTING AROUND:

    By Air:

    Florence’s Amerigo Vespucci Airport (Peretola Airport) is about 33 kilometers (21 miles) north of Radda in Chianti. But it’s a tiny airport operated by a limited number of small international and U.S. airlines. We flew into Pisa’s Galileo Galilei Airport, about 85 kilometers (53 miles) from Radda in Chianti and served by major European and US airlines.

    By Car:

    We rented a car at the airport and took side trips during our stay in Tuscany.  As you map out day trips throughout Tuscany keep in mind that the roads are narrow and windy.  A trip of 15 to 20 miles might take an hour or more, so plan accordingly.

    www.globefeed.com  Includes a distance calculator to help plan your day trips in Tuscany. (Hit World Distance Calculator to get Tuscany)

    WHERE TO STAY: 

    My family stayed in a villa on the outskirts of Montespertoli in Tuscany, with a view of windy hills crisscrossed by vineyards. Montespertoli is about 32 kilometers (20 miles) from Radda in Chianti.  Six of us in a villa was definitely cheaper than staying in a hotel.  If you’re interested in renting a villa, check out VRBO (Vacation Rentals by Owners) Vacation Rentals.  There are hundreds of villas to choose from in Tuscany.  Costs vary by season and size of the villa.  The website is www.vrbo.com. 

    Photos by Maureen and Donald Bruschi             

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  • 3 months ago
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• Cross country USA Part 2: Midw

  • From: dni
  • Description:
    May 15, 2009. We woke up extra early to drive across some of the most boring landscapes in US. It will take us roughly 13 hours and 915 miles to get from Saint Louis to Badlands in South Dakota, giving time for lunch and pit stops. We got up, packed our luggages, ate breakfast, and left Saint Louis at 7:30AM. We arrived in Kansas City, MO (not to be confused with Kansas City, Kansas) at Arthur Bryant's for lunch.
    
    
    Not to be confused with Arthur W.M. Bryant, the British historian, Arthur Bryant's is a BBQ joint in downtown Kansas City. The place is a small hole in the wall restaurant with a long queue of people waiting to get their hands on some of the tastiest BBQ ever. The BBQ here is mostly beef briskets served open face on loads of soft white bread, as much as you'd like actually. The specialty is the burnt ends, which is what I had. It's burned to a nice crisp, with a bit of ash flavor still lingering on the meat. It was finger licking good.
    
    

    

    At halfway point, we stopped in Omaha, NE for a quick cup of joe at the local Starbucks. After the pick me up, the weather started to turn on us. And what a great opportunity for Raymond to become sleepy (yes, after the coffee) and wanted me to drive a little. For the next 2 hours, the weather got really nasty, it rained so hard that I couldn't see 2 feet ahead of me, then it hailed, and it was very intense driving. Soon after the storm rolled by, the sun came out and revealed a bright blue sky. The landscape was just as Raymond had described, lots and lots and lots and lots of small rolling hills and cows for the next 5 hours.
    
    
    By the time we reached the Badlands National Park, it was close to 8PM (after we gained one hour heading west), and the sun was going down fast. I was itching to get out of the car, only to find my flip-flop and long sleeve sweater to be slightly -- wait, scratch that out -- to be very inadequate. The weather in South Dakota was bitter, cold, dry, and extremely windy, even in May. I quickly unpacked my camera and tripod, ran out towards the pretty yellow and green grassland to snap a few pictures. "Ouch!" Yes, I stepped on a cactus.
    
    

    

    
    
    Badlands was once a hunting ground for the Native Americans. It is here where they hunted bisons, scanned for their enemies and wandering herds. It is 244,000 acres of eroded land blended with rich fossil beds in an once fresh water valley. The once stream banks are now the colorfully carved rocks in the background. It is also the home to bisons, bighorn sheep, black-footed ferrets, swift fox, prairie dogs, and CACTUS. After my cactus injury, the arch of my foot swelled up to the size of a lemon. Raymond had to carry me back to the car. Note to self: Next time -- wear shoes.
    
    
    We spent better half of the next day exploring Custer State Park. We drove around the park circle looking out for buffalos, elks, mule deer, pronghorns, and bighorn sheep. And finally we pondered upon a big herd of buffalos grazing, with baby buffalos trailing after their mother. I was a bit disappointed that I did not own a mac daddy zoom lens for my camera, so I was only able to take pictures from a distance. For the first time in my life, I saw a wild herd of buffalos. And for the first time in my life, I ate a buffalo burger at a cook out sponsored by the park. It was a bit wrong, I admit.
    
    
    By noon, I was ready to go for a hike, and we decided on the Lover's Leap. As we got out of the car at the trail head, there was a buffalo about 10 feet away from me, across the stream, grazing alone. I took the golden opportunity to take a quick picture. Please note: It is very dangerous to observe a buffalo from a short distance, do not try this at home.

    

    
    
    For dinner, we decided to go to the Corn Exchange in downtown Rapid City, which was a very lovely little town and restaurant. We were only able to snatch a reservation at 9PM, and the restaurant was sold out of a lot of the things I had wanted. The experience was still very pleasant, I settled on a Caesar salad with anchovies while Raymond had a Filet Mignon with sun-dried tomato butter. And we finished the night with a very creamy and slightly sweet creme brulee.
    
    
    We decided to sleep in the next morning, and finally got out of bed at 7:30AM (which is like 9:30AM on the east coast). Our agenda today was to drive 510 miles/8 hours to Yellowstone, horizontally across the state of Wyoming. For about 6 hours on the road, there was nothing. No rolling hills, no cows, nothing, until finally the sky opened and there it was -- the snow capped Rockies.
    
    
    We finally reached our destination at 8PM and checked into Yellowstone Lake Hotel. The hotel needed a restoration BAD. It looked as if it was still living in the glamor of the 1960s, which was probably when it was last renovated. There was a lounge/foyer, where guests could sit, enjoy the view of the lake (frozen lake in May), and have an overpriced cocktail. Our room was tiny and old, but the bathroom was clean.
    
    
    Raymond broke into the beer that he received as a gift from the wedding, and we went straight to bed. In the middle of the night, Raymond jumped out of bed, turned on the light, and he was throwing a towel up and down on top of me and the covers. I was confused, pulled the covers over me, and went back to sleep. The next morning, he told me there was a mouse running on top of me and the covers last night. THAT caused me insomnia the following night.
    
    
    By now, you'd think I'd be used to the cold north west, but I wasn't. It's difficult to look outside and see 10 feet of snow piled up on the side of the road in May. I was dressed in layers of tank top, long sleeve t-shirt, sweater, coat, and gloves. We headed outside to see Old Faithful this morning. We waited roughly 10 minutes around the geyser, and then it started to produce a ton of steam, and then water spouted for about 3 minutes.
    
    

    

    
    
    A geyser is basically a hot spring that is usually located near volcanic areas, and the name derives from the Icelandic verb, to gush, gjósa. Geysers are co-located with a pool of water, such as mudpools or fumaroles. Where the underground water circulation system is heated by the magma from the volcanic area, and is then pushed up through the geyser and thus erupts. Then the cycle continues. And Yellow Stone has almost half of all the geysers in the world.
    
    
    For the rest of the day, we drove around the park loop, checked out Roosevelt Tower, crossed countless waterfalls, and did a bit of hiking in 6 feet of snow. Many of the hiking paths were still closed, and would not open for another 2 weeks or so. There were an abundance of geysers, and the fumes were toxicating and smelly from the sulfur. Then finally we reached Mammoth Springs! I've been looking forward to the Springs; however, I was slightly disappointed when I found out that many of the springs have ceased to flow for a few years now. I suppose the springs flow and die out and comes back every few decade or so. I was just unlucky. The Canary Spring still flowed in abundance, and has a hue of yellow/orange in the bed of the spring that is caused by a specific kind of algae that thrives in the hot temperature.
    
    

    

    
    
    We returned to the hotel for dinner early in the evening. I have already been forewarned regarding the food at the hotel by TripAdvisor.com, so I was careful not to raise my expectation too high. I decided to go with a seared duck breast salad for $14, with dressing on the side incase they drench my salad. To my surprised, the duck salad was not half bad. The duck breast was generously sized on a big plate of fresh greens, and not over cooked -- just slightly pink in the middle and very juicy. Not bad for a tourist trap.
    
    
    
    May 19th, and we were on our way to the Grand Tetons. The drive from Yellow Stone to Grand Tetons was lovely with the Tetons covered in snow. We decided on an easy hike around lake Jenny that is a 6-7 miles loop. However, I did not anticipating on hiking in the snow, so I had to back track to the car to put on a pair of hiking boots. The hike would have been a pretty easy one had there not been any snow. With the snow, the trails are sometime ambiguous and we got lost, and half of my body fell through the snow drift into a stream and placed a deep cut on my leg. However, the hike was well worth it, along the way we saw a few black marmots (much like a beaver but without a flat tail and doesn't build dams), chipmunks, and a baby elk.
    
    
    I was exhausted when we finally checked into our motel in Jackson Hole, and slept like a log for over 8 hours. The next day we were on our way to aunt Janet's in Erie, CO. I started my day off with a 6 mile run, felt great about myself before we stuffed ourselves back into the car for another 8 hour drive. By now, I was getting a bit sick of ridding in the car and was hoping therun in the morning would give me a bit of a jump start, but it wore off in about 30 minutes.
    
    
    The weather has been pretty good all along in the trip, so by the time we reached Erie, it has become cloudy and rainy. We spent the day walking around the sleepy college town of Boulder (most of the kids would have gone home by end of May), visiting the college campus, and then the outdoor shopping district -- Pearl Street Mall. Since Estee Park was not yet open, we went on a short hike up Flat Iron Mountain, called Royal Arch. The last 0.7 mile of the hike ascends you to the top of the mountain where you could view the entire city from atop the clouds. Quite an invigorating view!
    
    
    We left aunt Janet's on May 22nd, for another 7 hour car ride to Durango, CO. The highlight of the day was when we passed through the town of South Park, CO, while I watched "He's Not That Into You" in the car. The next day we fulfilled one of Raymond's childhood dreams. We rode on the steam train from Durango to Silverton, CO. The train ride up the mountain was spectacular, waterfalls left and right, streams crossing underneath us while we crossed over wooden bridges, mountains on both sides of us so close that I could easily reach out and touch them. After about 2 hours of the train ride, I was no longer visually stimulated, and there was still 1.5 hours left on the ride up and then another 3.5 hours of train ride back down the mountain. Oh boy.
    
    

    
    
    
    The name steam train was a bit misleading, because the engine was actually run by coal. And the sot from the coal gets picked up by the steam and was then released into the air, and eventually lands on my face as we strolled slowly up the mountain. This was NOT very environmentally friendly. The train also moves very slowly at about 5-15 miles an hour, we noticed that some people actually got to the top of the mountain in Silverton faster by bicycle.
    
    
    The town, Silverton, was formerly a silver mining town with a small population of 500. Today, the town is mostly a small tourist trap, with small bar/restaurants/saloon, such as Shady Lady in a former brothel, few shops for souvenirs, and such. The train allows the tourist to roam around town for almost 2 hours, and that would be plenty to see the town and catch a bite to eat. Then another 3.5 hours back to Durango. Raymond came to Durango almost 15 years ago, his parents refused to take a trip to Silverton on the train, I can see why.
    
    
    For dinner, we went to the famous local eatery called Red Snapper in down town Durango. I decided on the local almond crusted trout, since I see a lot of trout finishing in the CO area. However, I was disappointed by the dish, the trout was over cooked, the almond was overwhelming, breading was too thick, fish skin was not roasted with a flavorful crisp, and the whole dish was just quite bland. Raymond decided that we should contribute the unpleasant dinner experience to the high altitude. It apparently is very hard to cook in high altitude, but Raymond also contributes the fact that he misheard me to that he can't remember any things he did wrong on this trip to the affect of altitude. SURE... honey!

     

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  • 3 months ago
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• Oops Wrong Way...Let's Go To K

  • From: Buqo
  • Description:

    We left the Neboder Hotel in Rijeka about 9:00 am in our rented Skoda for a day trip to the Istrian peninsula.  Navigating the city in our first full day in Croatia was not as straight forward as we had thought, and we found ourselves heading east out of the city instead of west.  By the time we realized our mistake, we were already about 15 kilometers east of Rijeka.  Rather than turn around and retrace our route, I suggested that we see if we could get to the island of Krk, off the southwest coast of Hrvatska, as the Croatians call their nation.  I had read a little about the island during our trip planning, and since we weren’t on a rigid schedule, away we went!

     

    Our first stop was at Kraljevica, on the mainland of the Adriatic coast, for coffee and a stretch of the legs.  Like many Croatian port cities, Kraljevica is a blend of the old and the new, modern ships unloading their freight, a centrum complete with a castle, shopping, cafes, and everything you would expect in any city, but small enough to get around quickly, and with few tourists. 

     

    Between my limited Russian, a little pidgin Croatian I learned for the trip, and my wife’s passable Italian, no English was spoken at all during our visit because no one we met spoke any.  It was obvious that few Americans have ever taken the road down to the center of the city to the coffee shop at the end of the main street.  We hung at the central park for a while and visited the Kastel Zrinski before getting on the road.

     

    From Kraljevica we headed east to the Krk turnoff.  We weren’t sure if there was a ferry or not.  Turning south, we found a modern bridge as impressive as anything you will see on the interstate highway system in the United States.  After paying a modest toll, we drove through the rolling hills of the northern part of the island.  The two-lane highway was comparable or better than the rural highways in our home state of Nevada.  In about an hour, we were on the outskirts of Grad Krk. 

     

    Krk (pronounced just like the renowned starship captain) is a mecca for Italian tourists, but visited by few Americans.  Small kiosks sell grappa and souvenirs outside the walled city, sharing space with the Sunčani sat (a stone vertical sundial), and outdoor restaurants.  The large marina serves a fleet of small craft and yachts and is very picturesque.

     

    There are four entrances into the city.  We chose entry through the southwestern entrance, a small portal marked by a Roman plaque that is barely noticeable between the vendor stalls.  Inside, the city is a maze of narrow polished cobble-stone streets and adjoining buildings and homes all built with native rock and completed with painted plaster in most cases.

    
    

    

    Our first stop inside the city walls was the Kamplin, a large public square adjacent to the Frankopan Castle.  The oldest tower of the castle dates to the late 12^th century and construction was completed in the mid 13^th century.  Today the area is used for festivals, concerts, and outdoor theater.  A single art vendor, his cat, and a few strolling couples were the only inhabitants on this sunny autumn day.  A small gate on the north walls of the castle opens to a rock stairway down to the sea.  A great view of the harbor, the modern residential sections of the city, and the rocky coast were well worth a few minutes braving the brisk Adriatic winds.

    
    

    Most visitors enter Krk through the main entrance on the west which opens into the Vela placa, a public square where modern banks, restaurants, and shops give little indication of the rich history of the city.  The strange mix of old and new is perhaps most reflected by the ornate cistern which was built in 1557 but moved to its new location during restoration work in 1997. We had a memorable lunch of fresh anchovies at the Terasa café and tasted our first Karlovec beer (one of the Croatia’s leading brands).  We were not disappointed in either the fish or the brew.  Cats, which seem to be ubiquitous in the old town sections of Croatian cities, waited none too patiently for treats from the tourists whose language was strangely unfamiliar to them.

    
    

    One of the prominent features of the Vela placa is the Old City Hall Tower, a two-story structure completed in 1493.  The old arched entrance into the city now serves as the location of a modern coffee shop. 

    The tower includes a unique clock with a 24-hour face.  Originally, the clock only had one hand, probably because of the limits on the mechanical clockworks  A minute hand was added to the clock in the 1990s, when the old mechanical works were replaced with an electrical system.

     

    The skyline of Grad Krk is dominated by the domed bell tower of Krk Cathedral, built in the 11^th and 12^th centuries on the site of a 5^th century basilica.  The cathedral is part of a complex that includes the Romanesque Saint Quirinis and Saint Margaret churches. We also stopped at the Roman frescoe which was located in a small room next to an equally small bar.  We did not have to time to visit the many other city attractions such as the Benedictine Convent of St. Mary, the Stanic Gallery, and the Freedom Gate.  The weather was a little to cool and windy to take advantage of any of the city beaches.  After enjoying Grad Krk, we studied the road map and decided to take a circuitous route back to the mainland.  We had no idea where we are going or what we might find, but the map showed that we would eventually end up where we wanted to be and, figuring that we might never again be on the island of Krk, set off on our way.

     

    Ĉižići lies on the east of the island, across a small bay from its sister city of Solini.  The two towns are separated by a picturesque tidal flat where the locals come to bike, wade, sun, and relax.  A narrow man-made spit extends northward into the sea with a dramatic view of the mainland coast in the background.  We enjoyed a picnic snack and then headed for Rodine on the east side of Island Krk. Unfortunately, we arrived at Rodine too late to visit the Biserujka caverns (maybe next time).

    
    

    

    Along the way, we saw a shepherd slaughtering a sheep.  We stopped, and when he quizzically looked at me, I showed him my camera and asked “photograph?”  In perfect Italian, he simply shrugged his shoulders and went about his work.   I made a picture of his efforts as his sheepdog patiently waited for scraps.

     

    The northeast part or the island is harsh terrain with stunted vegetation and a landscape of boulders and rocks.  Unsuitable for cattle, sheep are the major agricultural commodity.  According to the Croats we spoke with, this part of the island was once forested but had been denuded of its timber to supply Venice with pilings to keep that Italian city above water.  Once the trees had been cleared out, erosion removed the native soils, leaving behind a stark landscape of rocks and boulders. 

    
    

    

    Not to be stopped, the Croatians of Krk lined the roads with rock walls more than a meter tall, constructed circular sheep corrals that are visible on Google Earth, and built every house and building, including new construction, with the native rocks loosely bound together with mortar and a few precious wooden lintels and roof beams.  Rocks and boulders everywhere, a dreamland for geologists.

     As dusk fell, we headed back west to the main highway and a journey to the mainland and Rijeka, reaching our hotel about ten hours since our departure.  While we did not have the opportunity to see the entire island, we were able to turn our wrong turn in the morning into a wonderful day trip that allowed us to experience and enjoy a special part of Croatia. 

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  • 4 months ago
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• Whitby Abbey

  • From: jeannelouks
  • Description:

    March is a beautiful time to visit North Yorkshire England and the surrounding areas. Not only are there daffodils and baby lambs all over the rolling hills, there are many abbey ruins to visit.  Of the three I visited, Fountains Abbey is the most intact and is set in lush green landscape.  Whitby Abbey is very unique as it is perched on a hill overlooking the seaside town of Whitby.  A creek runs alongside Bolton Abbey and makes a perfect picnic setting.   It is amazing to walk among these 800 year old ruins and to see the incredible architecture and details. 

  • 6 months ago
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• Bolton Abbey

  • From: jeannelouks
  • Description:

    March is a beautiful time to visit North Yorkshire England and the surrounding areas. Not only are there daffodils and baby lambs all over the rolling hills, there are many abbey ruins to visit.  Of the three I visited, Fountains Abbey is the most intact and is set in lush green landscape.  Whitby Abbey is very unique as it is perched on a hill overlooking the seaside town of Whitby.  A creek runs alongside Bolton Abbey and makes a perfect picnic setting.   It is amazing to walk among these 800 year old ruins and to see the incredible architecture and details. 

  • 6 months ago
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• Fountains Abbey

  • From: jeannelouks
  • Description:

    March is a beautiful time to visit North Yorkshire England and the surrounding areas. Not only are there daffodils and baby lambs all over the rolling hills, there are many abbey ruins to visit.  Of the three I visited, Fountains Abbey is the most intact and is set in lush green landscape.  Whitby Abbey is very unique as it is perched on a hill overlooking the seaside town of Whitby.  A creek runs alongside Bolton Abbey and makes a perfect picnic setting.   It is amazing to walk among these 800 year old ruins and to see the incredible architecture and details. 

  • 6 months ago
  • Views: 116

• Rolling Hills, Co. Tipperary,

  • From: cardoll
  • Description:
  • 8 months ago
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• Only In Mineral Point

  • From: MineralPoint
  • Description:

    First time visitors to Mineral Point are often heard to say that they feel like they have just stumbled into a quaint European village. For quiet getaway and escape from the hustle and bustle of urban life, Mineral Point is a perfect oasis. Ask anyone who lives here or those who repeat visits what the draw is and you are bound to hear of the beauty that surrounds us – the rolling, tree covered hills, the rock outcroppings, the mosaics of farm fields, the quiet streams and some of most picturesque drives to be found anywhere. For everyone who enjoys beautiful, natural landscapes, this community nestled in the “driftless” area of southwestern Wisconsin, offers a backdrop that is relaxing as well as inspiring.
    
    History buffs, art lovers, and antique enthusiasts find themselves drawn back time after time. Downtown Mineral Point is brimming with resident artists and entrepreneurs. From simple limestone cottages to massive Richardsonian Romanesque architecture, the downtown business and arts district is an impressive collection of early Wisconsin commercial buildings. Visitors to Mineral Point can spend several hours shopping and browsing downtown. Art studios and galleries, antique shops and other specialty shops make this quite unlike the commonplace mall or typical small town business district.
    
    Mineral Point was the first city in Wisconsin to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Take a step back in time with visits to Pendarvis State Historic Site where costumed guides lead you through a restored miners settlement and tell the story of early immigration and mining in Mineral Point. A self-guided tour at the Mineral Point Depot will evoke memories of the days when the railroad was king. A tour at Orchard Lawn recalls the lifestyle of an early merchant family. Or simply stroll the steep, narrow streets following in the footsteps of miners, farmers, merchants and early Wisconsin legislators.
    
    VIDEO: "Only In Mineral Point" A four minute video about Mineral Point.
    Choose from Windows Media, or Quick Time format.

  • 9 months ago
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• Italian Villa Rental

  • From: sandi nelson
  • Description:

    Last September we journeyed to the heart of Tuscany with another couple and spent one glorious week in a rented villa 20 km from Siena. This was the most relaxing and economical visit to Europe that we have ever enjoyed. We contracted our villa through Parker Villas on the internet. They are an American company based in Boston but the owner contracts with many home owners throughout Italy to provide travelers with a unique way to experience Italy. Our villa was situated against a backdrop of drop dead gorgeous Tuscan rolling hills and the Italian owners, who spoke English, were wonderfully helpful in arranging activities such as a cooking class right in our kitchen. The villa had two bedrooms, two full bathrooms, a very well equipped kitchen, a sitting room with a wood burning fireplace and a huge, magnificent balcony from which to enjoy the views in all directions. Did I mention there was also an outdoor pool and laundry facilities on premise? Every day we drove a few miles into the nearest small town and picked up fresh food and ample wine to enjoy our alfresco dinners. Our farmhouse villa had six apartments, mostly rented by Americans, so it was fun to compare our wanderings at the end of each day over a bottle of excellent local wine. The cost for all this luxury was about $500/couple for the week; the memories priceless.

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  • 1 year ago
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• Great American Road Trip Part

  • From: samolo
  • Description:

    Our family (2 parents, 2 children, 1 brother) decided to take a trip to see America (or at least part of it) on a 15 day road trip.

     DAY ONE

    JUNE 19, 2008

    We left for our road trip at 6:00 AM.  Our goal was to stop in Tennessee for breakfast and get to St. Louis by late afternoon. We succeeded in arrived at 3:30. The girls were really well behaved and were excited to open the envelopes I had prepared for them. Each was labeled with a different state name and they were allowed to open them when we go to that state. They also were able to earn souvenir money through the license plate game (a state quarter for each license plate found), a scavenger hunt with different items worth money, and money for making it through each state without arguing.

    Once we arrived in St. Louis we checked into the Drury Plaza Hotel. It was a very nice hotel and I wished we had more time to just hang out at the hotel. However, we didn’t come to St. Louis to visit a hotel so we set off for a short walk to Riverfront Park to see the river, the Gateway Arch, and the Museum of Westward Expansion. Imani didn’t want to go up in the Arch so I stayed with her while Albert, Robert, and Adera went up. When they were done I got a Jr. Ranger packet for the girls and they earned a badge, certificate, and patch for completing the exhibits in the museum. Then we walked around the gift shop before heading to dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory. Finally it was back to the hotel at 10:30 to rest up for the next day.

     

    HIGHLIGHTS

    AND LOWLIGHTS

    We all agreed that visiting the Gateway Arch was a highlight; even though Imani and I did not go up in the Arch. Not going up in the Arch was disappointing. We all tried to coax Imani and assure her that it was no different then when we visited the Hancock building in Chicago or the Washington, but she could not be persuaded. So while Albert, Adera, and Robert enjoyed the Arch Imani and I waited in the gift shop and on the benches for the 1 hour it took for them to finish. After Robert, Adera, and Albert came down from the Arch they all talked about how cool and fun it was. Adera said she wanted to do it again. This enthusiasm seemed to sway Imani’s mind and she said she would go in the Arch when we traveled through St. Louis on our way back home.

    The definite lowpoint was our dinner at Old Spaghetti Factory. First we had to wait over an hour for a table. However, that paled in compare to the HORRIBLE waitress we had. She was so nonchalant and really sucked at her job. Robert had to get a manager to get the rest of our drinks and salads. We even tried to talk to her to see if maybe she was having an off day, but it didn’t help. After our meal (which was delicious) I left her a note to let her know the reason she was receiving only a 10% tip. Albert said I shouldn’t have left anything and now that I think about it I agree.

     

    DAY TWO

    JUNE 20, 2008 

    Today was a long day. We woke up at 7:00 to get an early start. We headed down to a delicious breakfast and relaxed and talked. I reminded the girls what we had planned today and checked that I had all of the directions, coupons, etc. we would need. When we left it was drizzling and I was glad that we had come in the day earlier and were able to enjoy the nice weather. Robert and Albert secured the extra luggage to the top of the car and we were off. We had a lot of driving to do today 9 ½ hours. To break up the drive we stopped in Kansas City, which was 4 hours away. In Kansas City we ate lunch at Arthur Bryant’s and went to the Moon Marble Company. I had planned that we would only be in Kansas City for 2 hours but it ended up taking 3 ½. This wasn’t a big deal since the time frame was just an estimation of how long I thought things would take.

    After leaving Kansas City we settled in for the 5 ½ drive to Sioux Falls. The drive was long but enjoyable. We saw lots of corn, cows, farm, and a beautiful sunset. I hope we get to see more sunsets once we settle in to our cabins in Custer and Yellowstone. We arrived at our hotel at 9:30, checked in and went to dinner next door at Johnny Carino’s. After dinner we headed back to the hotel to relax and to prepare for tomorrow.

     

     HIGHLIGHTS

    AND LOWLIGHTS

    One of the highlights for Albert, Imani, and I was the Marble Moon Company. Robert and Adera liked walking around the store but didn’t really enjoy the demonstration (it was a little long since it took about 40 minutes). However, we all enjoyed looking at all of the cool toys and objects they made. We sat through a marble demonstration where the owner of the store made an amazing clear and blue marble with stars and crescent moons and a swirl in the inside. It was so interesting to see how he melted the glass, added the color, and made the designs. Afterwards Albert and I had to buy one for a souvenir. Imani and Adera bought playing marbles. We stayed at the store for about 1 ¾ hours which meant we wouldn’t arrive at the hotel until 9:30 and immediately headed to the restaurant next door for dinner. Later the girls played a game of marbles by making a circle out of the air mattress cord. It was wonderful to see them enjoy their purchases so much.

    One of the lowlights was our lunch at Arthur Bryant’s. All the websites and print sources I checked raved about how great the bar-b-q was at this place. However, we all agreed that while the food was good it wasn’t the best bar-b-q we have eaten (I personally think Famous Dave’s does a better job). Either way the food was filling, and was just what we needed to satisfy our hunger.

     

    DAY THREE

    JUNE 21, 2008

    Our ultimate goal this day was to reach the Black Hills, with interesting stops on the way. Our first stop was the Badlands. Originally when we were planning this trip I had not planned for us to stop in the Badlands. However, after talking to people who used to live in South Dakota or had visited South Dakota they convinced me that stopping to see the Badlands was worth the detour. I am so glad that I listened to them. Even though traveling through them required taking a 35 mile scenic loop and added 1 ½ hour to our time table; it was a site worth seeing.

    We first say a glimpse of the Badlands while we were traveling on I-90 W. There was a scenic overlook and you got a glimpse of this eroded desert that was in the middle of these lush rolling hills. We would look to the left and see a flat prairie and not 200 feet from that prairie was dry rocks. It was amazing. According to the information the National Park provided the Badlands are over 25 million years old and the result of erosion. We could certainly see the evidence of the erosion in the rocks. There are brilliant purples, reds, and oranges. While walking along the cliffs we felt as if we were on something unworldly; and in someway I think it was.

     After leaving the Badlands we headed to Wall Drug Store. Before I continue here is a little history behind this famous Drug Store. Apparently during the depression the owners of Wall Drug wanted to figure out how to get the visitors on their way to Mt. Rushmore to stop. They decided that the best way would be to offer free ice water. This idea worked like gang busters and 70 years later they are one of the biggest tourist stops along I-90. All that being said we decided stop at Wall Drug for lunch and a short look around. While there we ate at the cafeteria which had decent food (I had my first buffalo burger). After the cafeteria we headed out to the backyard to partake in the free activities. The girls had a blast playing in the water fountain and posing by all of the different props; even Albert joined in the fun. He wanted to take a picture that looked like he was picking Thomas Jefferson’s nose, but I didn’t want to take that picture. We also stopped in to pick up our free Wall Drug bumper stickers and buy some magnets to add to our collection. After about an hour of walking around and taking pictures we had had enough and continued on our journey to Custer.

    Once in Custer we checked into the Roost Resort. We really liked our cabin and there was a play set outside for the girls to play on. After we settled in we were all really tired and decided to only go to Crazy Horse for dinner and the laser show and postpone going to Mt. Rushmore until Saturday.

    Since we had such a busy day; 5 hours of driving, visiting the Badlands, and visiting Wall Drug we were a little tired by the time we arrived at our cabin in Custer. The original plan was to go Crazy Horse for dinner and to look around for a couple of hours and then to go to Mt. Rushmore for the lighting ceremony. But, once we settled in we all just wanted a few hours to relax. Instead we decided to hang around the cabin for a couple of hours and then do dinner and the laser show at Crazy Horse.

    We left with plenty of time to get to Crazy Horse but got a little lost. I didn’t have directions and the GPS couldn’t find it. Somehow we all missed the signs pointing to it and ended up at Wind Jewel Cave instead. After we backtracked and found the correct route we arrived in enough time to make it to the restaurant (which closes at 8:00). Robert, Albert, and I decided we wanted to try traditional Native American food. Both Albert and I had the fry bread tacos and Robert ate the Tantanka Stew. The fry bread and the stew were really good. During dinner there were Native American singers outside singing songs and talking about their culture. Robert and the girls were able to see a little of the performance while we waited for our food. After eating we walked around the museum to learn more about Crazy Horse. Our evening ended after a laser show which told about Crazy Horse’s life. We learned so much about him and felt really proud that by visiting the monument we were helping to fund the completion of the project.

     

    HIGHLIGHTS

    AND LOWLIGHTS

    The whole trip to the Badlands was a highlight. If there was any thing that I would want to change it would be to make the weather  5-10 degrees cooler. It is amazing how hot 83 degrees can feel when there is no shade or clouds to filter the sun.

    During our short trip we walked along the cliffs, pointed out unique features in the rocks, and awed at the beauty that was the Badlands. When we first pulled up we saw people on top of the bluffs and thought they must be crazy and that we would just observe them from the lookouts. That way of thinking lasted about 5 minutes into our visit. Upon closer inspection we discovered that the bluff formed walking paths and were almost inviting visitors to explore it more thoroughly. Robert, Albert, Imani, and Adera were wearing tennis shoes and I was wearing flip flops (with barely any traction) so they were able to explore a lot more than I was. However, we all walked and just couldn’t seem to take enough pictures or be awed by the beauty that was before us.

    Another highlight of the Badlands was seeing a field of prairie dog mounds when we were exiting. We stopped the car and took a few quick pictures. I assured the girls that we would see more of them during our visit to Custer tomorrow.

    Visiting Wall was neither a highlight nor lowlight. As we were driving to the store we saw plenty of signs advertising the 5 cent coffee and all of the attractions they offer. Wall Drug is a place I wanted us to go just to see what all of the hype was about. The food was reasonable and the activities were fun. The girls had a wonderful time playing with all of the items that were available. Since we went there knowing it was a tourist trap we weren’t sucked into buying stuff we didn’t need. Robert and Albert joked that Wall Drug could afford to give away free ice water and 5 cent coffee since they were charging an average of $10 for a complete meal and other money to do the gold panning or make some of the attractions work. Regardless of the potential money pit this place can be the girls enjoyed themselves. Adera said she loved running around in the fountains, posing on the jackalope, and pretending to drive the wagon. Imani said she really liked running around in the fountains and seeing the T-Rex “come to life”.

    Our cabin in Custer was also a highlight. When you book something based on internet photos and other traveler’s reviews you may not get what you bargained for. However, our cabin was just as it was described. It was nice to have a little extra space to spread out after spending time in the hotel suites.

    Visiting Crazy Horse was a wonderful experience. You first see the monument when you are still on the road. It is HUGE! Later we learned that the entire Mt. Rushmore monument could fit into the head of Crazy Horse. However, the project refuses to accept government funds so it has taken 60 years to get to its current stage. The Crazy Horse memorial faces in the direction of  the Mt. Rush-more monument. It is said that when Crazy Horse was asked where his land is he pointed to the  Black Hills and said, “My land is where my dead are buried”.

    Another thing that was great about our visit was the Native American singers. Robert said the singers had so much emotion when they were singing and that it was very moving. It was nice to have actual Lakota Native Americans at Crazy Horse; it allowed us to make a stronger connection with the artifacts we were seeing.

    Our evening ended with a wonderful laser show. Our waitress told us the best view of the laser show was in the parking lot so we  moved a bench around and settled in for the show.  I was a little bummed since I  forgot my tripod at the cabin and couldn’t get a clear picture. Once I got over this I was able to enjoy the show with everyone else. We were all so glad that we had chosen to do the laser show. I am not sure what we missed at the Mt. Rushmore show but felt that this had to be just as good.

     

    DAY FOUR

    JUNE  22, 2008

    We all woke up feeling refreshed after a night in our cabin. The cabin was so nice. It had 2 bedrooms and  more than enough room for us to spread out. After breakfast we headed to Custer State Park for a fun filled day. The first thing we did was get a Jr. Ranger packet so the girls could earn a patch for the activities they attended. They learned about nature and then made their own tree ring of their life, panned for gold in the creek, and made a basket out of pine needles. After they completed the activities they earned their badge. The park ranger did a wonderful job presenting it to them and had everyone in the visitor center clap for them.

    We also went on two scenic drives. The first was on Needles Scenic Highway. The most interesting part were the jagged rock  formations (including Needle’s Eye) and the two narrow tunnels we drove through.  The second drive was the Wild Life Loop. We saw buffalo (there were two of them across the visitor’s center the whole time), elk, deer, turkey, prairie dogs, and a coyote .

    Finally, our day ended with a very entertaining Chuck Wagon cookout. On the way to the cookout we sang songs, listened to stories and jokes. Once at the cookout we had a hearty cowboy meal and listened to more music before heading back. All and all this was a wonderful day.

     

    HIGHLIGHTS

    AND LOWLIGHTS

    Besides everyone (except me) getting a little altitude sickness this was a wonderful day. Although we attended three ranger led activities the girls enjoyed the gold panning (although the creek was cold) the most. They sloshed their pans around hoping to find some gold, but didn’t. However, Imani did find a garnet, but since it is a state park you weren’t able to keep anything you found.

    Another thing that we all enjoyed was seeing the wildlife. The entire time we were at the visitor’s center two buffalos hung out so we were able to observe them and take plenty of pictures. We also loved seeing some of the animals that make the park their home. However, we all loved feeding the begging burro a carrot from the car window (it is the only animal you are allowed to feed). The donkey came right up the window and took the carrots from the girl’s hand. We also really enjoyed seeing the bison up close when they walked right past our car.

    Our final activity of the day was to go on the Chuck Wagon Cookout. We each received a hat and a bandana before taking a 1 hour drive to the cook site in a covered wagon. The drive to the cook out was funny and entertaining. Our folksinger, Keith, kept us entertained the whole time. One of the funniest things that happened was when Adera went to use the Port-a Potty. She closed the door and about 20 seconds later opened it and said, “How do you use this thing”.  Priceless!

     

    

     

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• Uganda Gorilla Trek

  • From: safari
  • Description:

    Gorilla safari- 3 Days Gorilla trekking safari to Bwindi

     Gorilla Trekking at Bwindi National Park

    The park is located in the South Western Uganda on the edge of the western rift valley. Bwindi is home to over 350 endangered Mountain Gorillas which are quite possibly the most awe-inspiring animals to be found in Africa .There are also 346 species of birds and over 200 species of butterflies. Gorilla Safaris the major tourist activity in Bwindi with four groups currently available daily for tourists . Mubare group (10 gorillas; 1 silverback) was opened for tourism in 1993,Habinyanja group (18 gorillas, 2 silver backs) was ready in July 1998. Rusheguru group(10 members, 1silver back) was opened in July 2002 while Nkuringo group (19 gorillas , 2 silver backs ) was opened for tourism in April 2004 . Gorilla Tracking in Bwindi can be challenging therefore ensure physical fitness.It starts at 8:30a.m. local time and can last from a few hours to day depending on the movement of these giant apes.

    THREE DAY'S GORILLA TOUR.

    
    DAY 1.Kampala - Bwindi Gorilla Park
    Depart from Kampala at 8:00am and head towards western Uganda. A brief stop at the Equator allows time for photographs. The journey affords images from the vehicle of the long horned Ankole cattle, the rolling hills and terraced landscapes of the region, and beautiful panoramas that are part of Kabale District. We have a lunch break en route at Lake View Regency Hotel Mbarara. Drive direct to the park and arrive late evening. Overnight at Lake kitandara luxury tents/ Buhoma Community bandas

    DAY 2.Gorilla Tracking in Bwindi Forest
    Very early in the morning after an early breakfast and guides Very early in the morning after an early breakfast and guides briefing, set off for your Gorilla tracking activity in the forests of Bwindi. Gorilla tracking can be strenuous, you will need to carry a packed lunch, drinking water, wear comfortable boots or jungle shoes suitable for steep muddy slopes ,put on ear plugs for those who feel uncomfortable with jungle sounds and take a rain jacket. Walking sticks will be made available for those that require one by the park rangers. Dinner and overnight at Gorilla Resort camp/Buhoma community bandas.

    
    DAY 3.Transfer to Kampala
    An early breakfast at the camp before the drive back to Kampala. Lunch enroute.End of this Uganda Safari.

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• That's Amore: Our Italian Adv

  • From: blairherzog
  • Description:

    To celebrate the twentieth anniversary of our first date, my husband and I took a trip we'd long talked about but never gotten around to planning - a journey to Italy.  It was difficult deciding which areas of Italy to see, but we finally chose the Cinque Terre, Tuscany, and Rome.  To say our trip surpassed my wildest dreams would be an understatement.  Welcome to our Italian adventure!

    The Charming Cinque Terre

    After flying into Milan, it took several trains to reach the Cinque Terre (which means Five Lands), but it was completely worth venturing off the beaten path to visit this quaint, charming, and friendly coastal area of Italy.  The Cinque Terre consists of five small hillside towns that each looks like it's literally spilling into the ocean.  The towns have all been in existence since Medieval times and have the ancient lookout towers and historic stone churches to prove it.  The shops are quaint, the people are friendly, and the views are breathtaking.  We especially enjoyed just roaming the streets, as well as the twisting stairs and alleyways (which also qualify as streets in a place as old as the towns of the Cinque Terre,) taking pictures of lovely archways and windows, and watching the locals hanging their laundry out as they conversed from window to window.

    Getting Around the Cinque Terre

    Don't expect taxis here, and whatever you do, don't plan on renting a car.  In the Cinque Terre, there are three options: trains, hiking, and boats (although boats may not be available year round.)  Oceanside trails passing through olive groves and terraced vineyards connect the five towns of Monterossa, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore and are a lovely way to travel - but be warned, the trails get progressively more difficult the farther north you go.  So, based on your hiking ability, we advise hiking between the more southern towns and taking the train between the northern towns.  We used the low-priced Cinque Terre Treno Card, which admits you to both the trails and the trains.  And we sometimes found the train schedules difficult to follow in the Cinque Terre, so when arriving at the station, we advise asking a clerk when the next train to your destination is due.  Overall, the trains are a pretty easy way to hop between the towns if you choose not to hike or tire of it.

    Where To Stay in the Cinque Terre

    We chose to make the town of Manarola our home base.  It's the least touristy of the towns and we found our hotel, the Ca' d'Andrean simple but perfect for our stay.  It's a steep walk up the hill with luggage, but worth it for the view of lemon trees and terraced hillside gardens out our shuttered window each morning.  The staff here was especially helpful in mapping out future parts of our trip.  For nice, clean accommodations, we highly recommend the Hotel Ca' d'Andrean.

    While Manarola was our favorite, when we visit the Cinque Terre again, we will gladly consider staying in any of the other towns.

     

    Highlights of our Time in the Cinque Terre

     

    We found something truly unique and delightful at every turn in the Cinque Terre, so it's hard to narrow it down, but here are a few faves:

    1. The quaint, bustling Riomaggiore waterfront
    2. The especially charming Medieval streets of Corniglia (pronounced Cornelia, by the way)
    3. The view of Vernazza from the trail leading to Monterosso
    4. The ancient monastery high atop Monterosso

    Cinque Terre Fun Facts

    1. Cat lovers rejoice: Cats are plentiful in the Cinque Terre - you will see them everywhere you go, including on the trails.
    2. Residents of the Cinque Terre towns are more likely to own a boat than a car.
    3. Before the 20th century, each town was so isolated that most people married residents of their own tiny community.

    Finding Romance in the Cinque Terre

    Romance was pretty much everywhere here, but here are a few tips for romantic moments with your significant other:

    1. Look out over the Mediterranean by moonlight from Manarola's "vineyard walk."
    2. Dine on Vernazza's waterfront Piazza Marconi
    3. Stroll between Manarola and Riomaggiore on the wide promenade of the Via dell'Amore - the "walk of love."

    If you want to stop and smell the roses - or the sweet scents of lemon trees and lavender in the air - schedule some time for the Cinque Terre in your trip to Italy. We spent only two and a half days there and wished we'd had more time to simply soak up the slow-paced seaside charm of this traditional slice of Italy. Italian charm at its best.

    Under the Tuscan Sun

    From the Cinque Terre, we took the train to LaSpezia, where we rented a car. Warning: Driving a car in any sizable Italian city is a challenge when you can't read the signs and don't know the general rules and customs of the road. But once you get out of the city into more rural areas, driving is fine.

    Our plan to drive through Tuscany, hitting as many hill towns as possible along the way, worked out well. We spent two days meandering the twisting roads across rolling gold and green hills, stopping to soak up Medieval history along the way. It was amazing to be driving along and suddenly see an ancient fortified city appear in the distance.

    Where to Stay in Tuscany

    We made our home base at the Castel Bigossi, a lovely thousand-year-old castle in the heart of Tuscany near the fort town of Monteriggioni. It was off the beaten path, but we enjoyed the drive through the countryside, dotted with still more historic towns, each time we returned there. The exterior and grounds of the Castel Bigossi were lovely - the perfect Tuscan postcard - and the staff was friendly, talkative, and helpful. The interior was an unusual mix of modernity (spiral staircases and an elevator) and history (ancient wood beams on the ceiling of our bedroom) and all the rooms in the castel are spacious suites - more room than we needed, but we didn't mind. This would be a great place to stay for a longer visit than the two nights we spent there.

    Other thoughts on accommodations: Tuscany also boasts many agriturismos - these are working farms that also provide bed-and-breakfast type accommodations. And if you're more of a city person, all the hill towns offer rooms, as well.

    Getting Around Tuscany by Car

    Like I said above, once you're away from traffic, driving is a breeze, but be warned: Italian street signs and American street signs differ greatly. In Italy, roads are not marked with any sort of name or number, so it's hard to tell where you are most of the time, even when following a map. You are instead guided by arrows that point the way to the nearest town in any direction, and these tend to appear in groups at the frequent roundabouts.

    Also, be prepared for crazy drivers who will merrily pass on blind curves and motorcycle riders who consider it perfectly acceptable to pass between two cars without a lane. Our advice: Drive safely and normally, but be on guard.

    Medieval Hill towns Aplenty

    The Tuscan landscape is dotted with lots of Medieval hill towns, each with its own personality. Meandering through these places was fascinating not only because we were walking streets and seeing buildings that have been there for nearly a thousand years, but also because these are all still thriving communities where people live and work. Wandering the stone streets and piazzas, I expected to see knights in shining armor come riding up on horseback any minute.

    It would be difficult to see all the hill towns in the region (yes, there are that many,) so we picked a few that sounded especially appealing based on guidebooks and advice from our hotel staff. A few of our favorites were:

    1. Montepulciano: This is a must for wine-lovers, but even without being into wine, we enjoyed the Medieval sights here a great deal. We spent time hanging out at the large Piazza Grande with its unfinished Duomo, built around 1600.
    2. San Gimignano: Fabulous Medieval architecture, including fourteen remaining watch towers, some dating from the 10th century. And if that's not enough for you, this town also boasts the World's Best Gelato in 2006, 2007, and 2008 at the Pluripremaia Geleteria
    3. Montalcino: What made Montalcino outstanding for us was the fabulous castle-like fortezza (that's a fort) built in the 14th century. Dark clouds looming overhead while we were there made it appear particularly eerie.

    Note: As hill towns go, Siena is the largest in the region and pretty much considered a must-see. Personally, we were disappointed by how modern and commercialized even the historic part of town is (Foot Lockers and other American mall-type stores lined the stone streets.) But it's still worth a stop for the stunning Duomo, dating from 1215, and the huge Piazza Il Campo where a wild, no-rules horse race is run every July and August.

    But Back to the Rolling Tuscan Hillsides

     

    We made a small project out of locating some of the best-known postcard views of Tuscany's cypress-lined roads - a task made more difficult by the lack of road signs. However, before leaving home, we Googled on the topic and found other travelers' notes on how to reach some of these scenic spots. Finding them felt like a special victory! But with or without them, we came home with countless pictures of fields teeming with red poppies, villas flanked by vineyards, and some lovely cypress-lined roads we stumbled across on our own.

    Note: As we traveled the winding roads that criss-cross Tuscany, we were kept company by the abundance of American music on the radio - everything from Dionne Warwick to Bruce Springsteen to Green Day.

    Finding Romance in Tuscany

    Romance is pretty easy to find in Tuscany, too, but here are some recommendations:

    1. Enjoy in the stunning view from the walls of Montepulciano over a glass of their famous wine.
    2. Stroll the quiet town of Volterra after dark.
    3. Take a lazy drive along cypress-lined roads, delighting in fields of wild poppies, Italian villas, and ancient fortresses.

    Tuscany is a must-see for those who enjoy lovely, rolling landscapes. The rich Medieval history and striking hill towns are wonderful perks to this region teeming with romantic ambience.

    All Roads Lead to Rome

    All roads may lead to Rome, but here's a tip: leave your rental car at the airport and take the train into the city. Even that was a bit of a challenge - remember, Italians don't seem to value signage as much as we do in America - but it was still by far the best choice.

    You can look at Rome in two ways: it's a zoo or it's a party. Choose the party attitude and you'll have a much better time. This large, busy city seemed to have as many pedestrians as cars, and it was usually unclear who had the right of way, especially on small streets left over from older times.

    Getting Around Rome

    To walk or take the train around town? It's a toss-up. Rome is a walking city, but things are often farther away than they appear and you can put many a mile on your sneakers by day's end. On the other hand, some of the subway terminals were confusing to navigate and had broken ticket machines, or they were far enough out of the way that it just seemed simpler to walk.

    The streets are confusing - remember, this is a very old city, full of twists and turns. Our advice: Follow the signs toward major landmarks and don't be frustrated if you get lost. On one particular evening, after listening to street musicians for a while at the popular Piazza Navonna, we started the twisting trek toward our hotel, following signs and making good progress - we thought - until, about fifteen minutes later, we emerged right back onto the Piazza Navonna. We just looked at each other and cracked up laughing.

    Where to Stay

    We made our home in Rome the LaResidenzia Hotel, near the Via Venetta, a major thoroughfare. Despite the fact that two lap dance clubs sit directly across the street from the hotel, we were very happy with our choice - which is to say we never really saw any traffic at the clubs and they seemed very quiet. Like our other Italian accommodations, the staff was knowledgeable and friendly. Sitting areas in the lobby were spacious and elegant, our room was nice with lots of storage and a turn-down service, and a pretty good breakfast buffet was included in the price of the room.

    Ancient Rome - Walking Through History

    If you're a history lover, this is why you're here. We loved the Colesseum and the Forum, as well as Palatine Hill (where many Roman rulers built their palaces.) Our advice: It's worth it to pay for the tours here. Not only do you get good, interesting information along the way, if you enter with a tour, you bypass the long lines to get in.

    We spent a couple of hours roaming around the Colesseum, and more time outside, just taking pictures and enjoying the ambience of the area. As this was a sight I'd only dreamed of seeing, it felt almost surreal to actually be there. I had the same reaction to the Roman Forum and enjoyed knowing I was walking the same paths Julius Caesar and so many other historic figures had traveled. I found myself wanting to take a picture at every step to be sure I captured it all, and I truly felt the impact of being in the cradle of modern Western civilization.

    Roaming Around Rome

    Of course, there's much more to see here than just the ancient ruins. We enjoyed sitting on the Spanish steps, hanging out at the Trevi Fountain, touring the Pantheon (an amazing piece of ancient architecture,) and taking in the views from the Victor Immanuel Monument (although not as famous as some stops in Rome, you can't miss it on your way to the Colesseum - it's an enormous building that looks like a giant wedding cake.)

    Rome is filled with countless piazzas - or town squares - both great and small, and each has it's own personality. Some are large, sporting numerous cafes, shops, fountains, and street artists, while others are smaller and less busy. It was fun to be walking along a narrow street and suddenly exit into another new piazza and see what it had to offer.

    Adventures at the Vatican

    How many people can say they've been kicked out of St. Peter's Basilica? I don't know, but we are now among that number. More to come on that in a moment.

    First, some facts. This is another place where it's wise to pay extra and enter with a tour group - it cut our wait considerably and we truly got a lot out of the tour. Also, you must where clothing that covers your shoulders and knees to be admitted to St. Peter's Basilica.

    Our tour covered St. Peter's Square, the Basilica, and the Vatican museum, including the Sistine Chapel. Upon entering the Basilica, we'd barely gotten started when an angry man approached our tour guide and began yelling at her in Italian. She reported that we were being thrown out because he didn't believe we were a real tour group and that she'd bring us back later. Weird but true, and we never did really understand what happened there. But on with the show.

    We were, honestly, a little let down by the Sistine Chapel, which I'd long looked forward to seeing. It's an amazing piece of art, yes, but the ceiling is higher than I'd envisioned, so it's really pretty difficult to see. The whole room was packed with people craning their necks to try to take it in, which made everyone prone to bumping into each other. Plus you can't take pictures (understandable) and you can't talk (less understandable.)

    After the chapel, it was back to the church, but we had to pretend we were not a tour group. (Again, confusing, I know.) But we enjoyed the un-tour of the basilica and were taken aback by the scope and size. Particularly notable items in the church: the famous Pieta by Michelangelo, the enormous canopy marking the (official but who knows) burial spot of St. Peter, and a statue of St. Peter to which, tradition holds, one should hold onto the toe, make three wishes, and they will come true.

    One nice thing about being kicked out of St. Peter's Basilica: when we returned, hours had passed, and the sun shone through small windows in the dome, casting a heavenly glow on the floor, which made for amazing photos.

    A Few Tips for Your Time in Rome

    1. You can sit on Roman ruins in the Forum and Colesseum - they are so plentiful that they are literally set about to be used like park benches - but whatever you do, don't sit on the ground near the Trevi Fountain (policemen blew a loud whistle in my ear for this and looked at me as if I'd knowingly committed a heinous crime.) And definitely don't sit anywhere inside the Victor Immanuel Monument, where you will also be firmly chastised by a whistle-wielding guard.
    2. Hungry for a taste of home? McDonald's are everywhere in Rome, and we happened to visit what might be the fanciest one on earth - a two-story affair complete with marble stairs, replicas of famous Roman statues, and a separate gelato bar, dessert bar, and breakfast bar in addition to the normal counter.
    3. Need to use the bathroom? In Rome - and everywhere else in Italy - it's wise to carry some toilet paper or (as I opted for) individually packaged Wet Ones. Toilet paper just isn't a hot commodity there. And be prepared to find yourself squatting over a hole in the ground - which, oddly enough (to us Americans anyway,) usually come complete with fiberglass inserts around the hole, so that it's not dirty, but it's quite awkward and just makes you ask: Why? In Rome, we often took advantage of McDonald's bathrooms - they weren't the cleanest, but we knew we'd at least get a commode.
    4. Want to drink a Coke? Your best bet - again - is McDonald's. At gelato shops or bars (in Italy, a bar is what we think of as a quickie mart crossed with a snack stand or deli) you'll usually pay the equivalent of $3 or $4 for a 20 ounce bottle, and should you be unfortunate enough to be thirsty near the ancient sites, you may pay up to $8 at a portable concession stand.

    Finding Romance in Rome

    Rome is busier and a bit more challenging in ways, but you still need not look far for romance here:

    1. Toss a coin over your shoulder in the Trevi Fountain and it's said you will return to Rome.
    2. Share a bicycle built for two at the city's largest park, the Villa Borghese
    3. Share a bottle of wine on the Spanish Steps, then stroll the city as dusk turns to night. The Forum and Colesseum are particularly striking to behold at nightfall.

    Ah, Rome. Two-thousand years of history and culture and architecture. It's a lot to take in, but it would be a crime to visit Italy without fully embracing it's exciting, bustling capital.

    Ciao!

    We travel a lot, but our trip to Italy was truly the romantic adventure of a lifetime.

    Final tip: Take your time exploring romantic Italy, and eat a lot of gelato because it's just not as good at home, no matter what anyone says.

     

     

     

     

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  • 1 year ago
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• Postcard From Tuscany

  • From: blairherzog
  • Description:
    To say we took a lot of pictures of cypress-lined roads in Tuscany would be an understatement. But this is a a famous Tuscany view, on lots of postcards, and it was pretty hard to find. So when we found it, we had to make the most of it. :)
  • 1 year ago
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• THE KATY TRAIL, WEST TO EAST

  • From: Jerry Dusterhoff
  • Description:

    Unequivocally, the Katy Trail should be everyone’s first rail-trail adventure! 

    Now that we have your attention, let’s start at the beginning.  A rail-trail is an old railroad track, with the tracks removed, that has been converted into a hiking/biking/equestrian (sometimes) trail.  They are sometimes asphalt, sometimes concrete, but mostly crushed stone or dirt, and their main attraction is lack of either motor vehicles or hills.  Some days, you travel for hours without seeing another person.  Almost every state has one or more.  Put this as a Favorite on your computer: http://www.railtrails.org/index.html

    The Katy Trail is currently 225 miles long; from near St. Louis to Clinton and crosses most of the state of Missouri.  It is well groomed and easily ridden on any type of bicycle, as long as the weather is dry.  I prefer to do these trails on my mountain bike with the wide, treaded tires and full suspension.  If you plan in advance, prepare for the worst weather conditions.  If bad weather doesn’t happen, the gear stays packed.  What makes the Katy Trail the bar-setter is their trailheads with water fountains and very clean rest rooms and some shelter.  They have active trail maintenance.  Eating establishments are either on or near the trail.  The towns are nicely spaced and most of the lodging is close.  They also have a superior website, http://www.bikekatytrail.com/ and you can work from it to plan the whole trip.

                            One feature of the Katy Trail is the ability to park in Clinton, ride the trail, then catch a train (which accepts you and your bike) back, thus freeing yourself completely from vehicle complexities.  The cost of the train ride is $16 per person and $10 per bike from St. Louis.  I do not recommend this for first-timers because it limits your off-bike sightseeing.  

                CLINTON TO SEDALIA – 40 Miles

               Out of Clinton, the highway and trail are only yards apart, parallel for at least ten miles.

    The rolling landscape did not provide any spectacular backdrops, just prairie type grasses or farmland.  The setting still exuded peacefulness as we cycled through, having the trail to ourselves, only our tires on the crushed limestone making any noise.

                We stopped a few times, commenting that it appeared we were climbing a lot.  Climbing as in incline, not like up a hill, and certainly not having to change a gear.  Sure enough, we came to a sign on the trail that indicated the high point of the Katy Trail, 955 feet.   We started out around 760 feet, so “it’s all downhill from here.” 

               

                Hotel Bothwell – I had been hesitant to book us into a hotel, but the rates were reasonable and reviews good.  They had room for our bikes in their secure basement, eliminating the need to take up space in our living quarters.  This hotel was built in 1928, and is in downtown Sedalia, a few miles from the trailhead, therefore some city street riding is required.  The elevator to the rooms is modern, but the one to the basement appears original and an employee must operate it.  Cool!  They provide a continental breakfast, with a small c.  If you are used to a Holiday Inn or Hampton or similar, you might be disappointed, but since we weren’t expecting anything, it obviously exceeded our expectations.  I have no problem at all in recommending the Bothwell.

                SEDALIA TO BOONVILLE – 40 Miles

                            The highway and trail were together for a lot of the trip.  This was my day to drive the truck to the next stop.  I found Boonville, parked at Holiday Inn Express, and let the congenial host, Nick, know we would be checking in later.  He gave me directions to the trail entrance, not quite within sight but close enough.  Once on the trail, I called my companions to alert them to my departure, then enjoyed the solitude of this very pretty area for a few hours until meeting up with the guys. 

                Another day of prairie and farmland, so only the Sedalia trailhead garnered any pictures. Lack of eye-popping scenery doesn’t mean a lack of enjoyment.  Rolling hills and crops waving in the breeze are quite pleasant, and can be appreciated while continuing to roll along.  

    One of the things I do on these trips is stop or slow down when crossing creeks, just in case a good picture is lurking.  Such an opportunity presented itself on Bonne Femme Creek.  I took two: one with the trestle as a frame and one without.  It looks good on the computer screen, and maybe a 16x20 picture is in the future.  I have a lot of creek pictures and not enough wall space.

                An excellent eating establishment is recommended by our hosts.  Okay, this is a tongue-in-cheek statement because only one stayed open (other than fast food) because this is Monday.  CAUTION: Many eating establishments in these small towns close on Mondays, so be sure to carry extra nourishment and liquids on your bike.          

                We drove to downtown Boonville and parked across the street from the Steinhouse, the oldest continuously operated restaurant in Boonville.  We opened the door and stepped from the brilliant sunlight into the darkened restaurant, with a substantial bar along the right side.  On the first barstool sat an old crone with a drink in her hand.  I mention this only because I was the only one who didn’t immediately recognize her as a prop.  I blame it on the change of lighting, my poor eyesight and proper manners in not staring at people.  Maybe I’m just oblivious. 

                One other lesson learned at the Steinhouse.   After the meal, it took a long time for the waitress to give us our bill and we began to grouse.  We had no place to go, so fifteen minutes or so passed without a bill.  Then I observed local patrons getting up from their booths and going to the bar to pay their bill.  Duh!  Apparently local custom is to let you enjoy a post-meal conversation without the arrival of the check (which is really an invitation to leave).  How civilized!  Once we approached the bar, she immediately gave us our bills and we  departed.           

    BOONVILLE TO HARTSBURG – 44 Miles

                One of the big attractions for this ride is the opportunity to visit different wineries.  Barry actually loaded their coordinates into his GPS.  I am a technophobe and while I appreciate computers, really don’t understand them and my usage is minimal.  Three of us are commonsewers of alcohol, but Barry really enjoys his red wines.  So, as we cycled blissfully along, I repeatedly mentioned we could have lunch at Les Bourgeois winery & bistro, just three-tenths of a mile off the trail.

                This appears to be a great place to eat, with a spectacular view of the river.  I say appears because no one else saw me ride off the trail and up to the bistro.  After waiting about fifteen minutes, I went back down to an empty trail.  Eventually we got back together.

                Having weathered the stores closing on Monday, we looked forward to Hartsburg, and the winery just a block from our lodging.  Our hostess, Cath Sherrer, greeted us with a plate of homemade cookies and gave us a quick tour of our rooms.  We inquired as to places to eat and she advised the tavern, the only place in town to eat, opened at 4pm (about a half an hour).  Keep in mind Hartsburg has a population of 108 or so hardy souls.

                We figured we would hang out at the winery for a while, and then go eat.  Cath advised that the winery didn’t open on Monday OR Tuesday.  Dang!  Today we missed our chance at two wineries.  We settled for beer and burgers and fries at the tavern.  Our diet truly suffered.

                Speaking of burgers, Hartsburg offered several interesting stories.  The intrepid travelers waited until four o’clock and walked past the closed winery on the way to the tavern.  Consensus choice: burgers and because we were hungry, double cheeseburgers and an order of fried mushrooms.

                The burgers took longer than expected, but we had our beer and weren’t going anywhere.  Earlier, Vellen had struck up a conversation with a regular and here, at least, they weren’t hostile to cyclists.  Of course, we had changed out of our lycra.  Men in lycra seem to set some people off. 

                The barkeeper finally came with our order and gave three of us our burgers and murmured that the rest of the order would be right out.  Ten minutes later, Vellen got his burger and mushrooms.  Perplexed at such a delay, we inquired further.  It seems the appliance that cooks the burgers could only do six at a time.  By ordering doubles, we exceeded capacity, so it took two rounds! 

                Now for the good part:  Satiated, we meandered down the street past the other lodging in town.  Out front were Sierra Club cyclists, numbering around eight to ten.  They were having a post-ride glass of wine one of the spouses had purchased in Hermann.  We chatted for awhile until they finished and prepared to depart for dinner.  We asked if they were driving to Hermann, but no, they were walking up the street to the tavern….

                The next morning when we saw a few of them on the trail, they were complaining about the spotty service of their hamburgers.  Barry clued them in.

                                        HARTSBURG TO RHINELAND – 50 Miles

                We stopped in Tebetts for a mid-morning snack.  A notice on the bulletin board at the trailhead invited cyclists to eat there and gave times.  Although within sight, it didn’t appear open.  One of the Sierra Club riders walked over and came back with the report: it had been closed for two years! 

    Doll House Bed & Breakfast received good reviews, and came at the appropriate distance from Hartsburg, and so became my choice of lodging.  Obviously, my guardian angel took good care of me on this trip.  We stayed at six places and our reception in all six exceeded expectations.  But of the six, Amanda at the Doll House made this a most memorable experience. 

    The building itself is right next to the Katy Trail.  You might remember the story without remembering the details.  The flood of 1993 inundated a lot of Missouri.  Rhineland actually was flooded four times that year, and after the fourth one, the residents had had enough.  They moved their houses to higher ground (with the help of the Feds).  All but one.  I remember the television clip of the interview with this one owner.   Eventually he sold the structure to Amanda and her husband, and eventually, Amanda became a B&B entrepreneur.  This is her story, not mine, so when you stay here, be sure to have her give the details.

    Amanda exemplifies the Bed and Breakfast experience.  Not only do you receive a friendly greeting, she stays and chats and makes you feel more like an old friend visiting her house.  By the way, she lives up on higher ground with the rest of the town.  She keeps her house clean and neat, the beds are comfortable, the bathrooms modern and sparkling.  The piece de résistance of your stay is her breakfast.  It is excellent in taste, substantial, and varied.  You can either enjoy or overlook the bit of whimsy in the themed bedrooms.  Even the name of the B&B shows her sense of humor and that is also a part of the details you need to explore when you stay.

    In addition to wine, Barry had been craving fried chicken.  But our experiences with taverns (not just on this trip) are you should stick to burgers unless proven otherwise.  Each town brought him a disappointment.  However, in Rhineland, we inquired of Amanda if (unnamed) winery was a good place to eat in Hermann (the much bigger town about five miles down the road).  Rhineland has about 150 residents and we were growing weary of burgers.  She said yes, but then, as an aside, mentioned that the restaurant in town served the best fried chicken anywhere. 

                Barry’s eyes lit up and another winery town went down the tubes.  The restaurant really served superior fried chicken.  They didn’t start preparing it until our order.  Heck, as far as I know, that hen might have been scratching for grubs when we walked through the doorway.  The mashed potatoes felt great and the twice-as-many-as-I-normally-eat, non-squeaky green beans satisfied the vegetable requirement.  The best part: once again we just walked only a block to eat.

                #1 TIP:  If you ride the Katy Trail, call Amanda and get a reservation, then plan your other stops around that date.

     

    RHINELAND TO ST CHARLES – 65 Miles 

                Not only did I have good fortune with the lodging choices, we had great weather.  Since making the reservations, we watched Missouri have rain, floods, earthquakes, and tornadoes.  The first four days of riding provided superior weather, from the mid-50s to 70 degrees, brilliant blue skies, and a wind mostly at our backs.  This day, only a miracle would keep us dry.  We queried how far would we get before it hit, and how wet would we be when it came.  We all brought rain gear and today it came out of the luggage. 

                We said our good-byes to Amanda and started off.  Sunshine did not come into play this day.  My best guess would put us between systems and we might pull it off without getting muddy.  Even so, our pace increased only slightly and stops to see creeks, rocks, river, etc. did not decrease.  Occasionally we looked over our shoulders and could see the dark grey skies building.

    At the Marthasville trailhead we stopped for a break, using the clean restrooms and chatting with a couple of college hikers, hiking from Columbia to St. Louis.  The conversation ceased when a large thunderclap rattled the surroundings.  Time to move on!  We made it a few miles down the trail before it started sprinkling.  The rain never did come down hard on us, but still enough for me to pull out all of my rain gear: helmet cover, jacket, rain pants, and booties.  Unfortunately, the jacket fit did not allow for Moose to hide underneath.  He really got wet and muddy.

    When we arrived in Defiance, there were a couple of taverns open and we took the opportunity to have lunch and get out of the weather.  They had a nice patio, empty, that served as a place to put our bikes and hang our wet and muddy rain gear.  Beer and burgers, beer and burgers.  But at least we were warm and dry.

    St. Charles came into sight, and eventually the trailhead.  The motel was about six miles away, so we loaded all the bikes into the parked truck and bade farewell to the Katy Trail.

                While checking into the Hampton Inn in St Charles, four older guys on Harleys arrived.  The very jovial ladies at the desk got us squared away with the rooms and one of them came out to direct Byran and Vellen to where the hose was connected so they could wash the trail crud from their bikes.  Once packed, we went back inside and Barry asked about a good steak house.  Long story short, the very savvy ladies directed us to Longhorn Steak House and the Harley guys to Hooters.

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  • 1 year ago
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• It’s the Journey, Not the Dest

  • From: smartie1
  • Description:

     

     

    If you're tired of bumper traffic and expensive air travel, try a corner of southeast Oklahoma, a slice of northwest Arkansas and a bit of Branson where you can find leaf peeping and scenic byways plus affordable theatre and world-class shopping.

     

    Best friends since the fifties, Connie and Martie decided to do a road trip in Connie’s red convertible instead of their customary trek to Cozumel, Mexico.   Leaving Norman, Oklahoma on a rainy Wednesday morning, they headed east without map or atlas toward the Talimena Drive, a 54 mile long national scenic byway with magnificent scenery and fall foliage.  http://www.talimenascenicdrive.com/

     

    An en route lunch stop in Krebs, OK, their authentic Okie-Italian fare featured fried ravioli, eggplant parmesan and handcrafted beer from the Choctaw Indians at less than $12 apiece.(Although highly prized by local diners, the calf fries were not ordered).

    http://www.mytravelguide.com/restaurants/ctrestaurants-8768301-United_States_Oklahoma_Krebs_restaurants.html

     

    The sojourn through southeastern Oklahoma enabled Martie to check off an item from her bucket list to "Ride Talimena Drive in a fast red convertible without seeing any big white vans."   Few cars were on the road, but one white van shared a vista pullover.  Occupied by five guys who appeared to be on a day outing from a Rehab.Unit, one especially scary dude with a large horizontal scar across his face, numerous body piercings and tattoos took a photo of the ladies with Martie’s camera.  (The ladies deemed them to be somewhat safe since they weren’t wearing orange jumpsuits.)

     

     

    Heavy rain and fog on the Arkansas side served to enhance the drive, which ended at the Queen Wilhelmina Lodge dessert buffet (dessert and coffee for less than $4).  Martie loved the Lover’s Leap overlook, but Connie thought she would probably take the leap if forced to stay in this quiet place for too long. http://www.queenwilhelmina.com/

     

    After 7 hours on the road, they checked into the Ft. Smith, Arkansas Marriott Courtyard http://www.courtyardfortsmith.com/home.aspx , located a block from downtown shops and restaurants.  Leoncia’s Cajun Café has the best Guinness on draft since London and their half order of jambalaya rivals any roux from the Big Easy, totaling $12.00 plus tip.  http://local.yahoo.com/info-35938344-leoncias-new-orleans-restaurant-fort-smith

     

     

    Early Thursday morning, the scarf-adorned grey hairs zoomed north on scenic I-540 and east on 412 to War Eagle, the first of many craft fairs that span 50 miles or more in northwest Arkansas.  The famous War Eagle Craft Festival is located at the end of a curvy, wooded County Road 303 in the midst of fresh winter grass, a pond and creek with an old mill and its original waterwheel.  Always held the 3rd weekend in October, many of the fairs are juried, insuring a higher quality and variety of merchandise.  http://nwacraftfairs.com/

     

     Laden with sacks of unusual gifts and seasonal décor, the little red car sped to Bentonville in time for the ladies to check into a cheap hotel, eat supper and see a show.  With more than a hundred different shows to see, this “formerly small” town is wall-to-wall, bumper-to-bumper white haired tourists. Deciding not to spend much time or money in mediocre over-crowded restaurants, fast food worked well in between shopping and shows.  Two shows and food (including Starbucks spiced pumpkin latte’) came to less than $75 apiece plus shared hotel. 

     

     

    The bargain search really kicked in when with a “brief” visit to one Branson's many outlet malls.  Martie bought two cashmere Pendleton sweaters for less than $50 each and Connie sported Izod golfwear reduced by 75%.

     

     

    By mid-afternoon, heading west out of Branson enroute to Bentonville, the two BFA’s paralleled Table Rock Lake on Highway 86 and then took a cut through Roaring River State Park, which proved to be another spectacular and winding scenic drive.  Whoops!  Martie added another item to her bucket list:  White water raft and fish for trout on the Roaring River http://www.riverfacts.com/rivers/11745.html

     

     

    The last leg of the journey included more craft fairs and time with Connie’s family in Bentonville.  The entire northwest Arkansas area is replete with woods, rolling hills, lakes, community activities and affordable ameniites.  Plus, their new Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport (XNA) offers direct, inexpensive flights from all points in the nation (thanks to Walmart). http://www.bentonvilleusa.org/ 

     

    It was a crisp fall Saturday morning, with Eggs McMuffin and Connie’s granddaughter, Taylor, who accompanied the grandmothers to the Ozark Regional Arts & Crafts Show at the John Q Hammons Convention Center in nearby Rogers.   They lunched in historic downtown Bentonville near the original Wal-Mart and museum.  The Station Restaurant hamburgers and onion rings are as good as they get.  After watching grandson Trey play ice hockey in Springdale at the Jones Center http://www.jonesnet.org/, the ladies power-packed the red buggy for their return to Norman (by way of Tulsa to watch Connie’s youngest grand daughter play soccer.)

    A road trip isn’t about the destination.  It’s the journey, the friendship and the discovery that unfolds with every mile.  Lack of concern about affordability is an immeasurable added plus.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

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  • 1 year ago
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• Tuscan Pizza and Chianti (and

  • From: LTBergren
  • Description:

    Continued from Tuscan Pizza, PART 1...

    Chianti near Chianti...

    Even though it was still raining the following day, Velma--what we dubbed our GPS’s voice--helped us reach the Chianti region, an hour away, and we toured the medieval Castello di Meleto--somewhat decrepit and in need of repair in areas, but a good glimpse at what these hilltop castles look like on the inside--and had a lovely wine tasting while chatting with tourists from So. California and Germany, as well as a U.S. military couple living in Naples. We purchased several bottles and then enjoyed the castle’s pretty gardens, the most romantic part of this location, (http://www.castellomeleto.it/tuscany-castle-siena-farmhouse-chianti.asp), before returning to our side of Tuscany for more grocery shopping and meal preparation—this time a fantastic chicken pasta in red pepper cream sauce—and wine before a crackling fire.

     

    Firenze...

    The next day we arose early and hopped a 7am commuter train in Montevarchi to Florence (a lovely way to enter and exit another big city that is difficult to navigate), and spent the entire day there. We saw Michelangelo’s David in the Academia (highly recommend you purchase tickets for the Academia and Uffizi like this—ticket lines can be murder, especially during high season, and you can circumvent some trauma by going to web site http://www.tickitaly.com/ ), and moved on to climb the winding Duomo (church) stairs for the most magnificent views in Firenze. While we found the churches of Rome and Venice (and elsewhere in Tuscany) more interesting and beautiful on the inside, this is an iconic church with the largest of dome ever built at the time (completed in 1436), and still the largest masonry dome. To be able to get close to her frescoes inside the dome was intriguing—you catch a glimpse of how the artists achieved scale—and then to climb to the top through tight stairways that resemble secret passageways (great for kids!), between the two layers of the dome, was a unique experience. For lunch we ate bad tourist pizza that did not remotely compare to our homemade version at the Odina, and moved on to the Uffizi for a brief Lay-Your-Eyeballs-On-Famous-Paintings tour, then walked Firenze’s streets.

    
    One of Three Memorable Meals We Didn't Cook Ourselves...

    Weary from our day of touring, we moved north to the famous Il Latini trattoria, which I had seen on Rachael Ray’s show and was convinced we had to try (6r Via del Palchetti; Tues-Sun 7:30-10:30, reservations possible by calling +39 55 210 0916, but be prepared to still be patient and wait—they’ll bring you a glass of wine after 7:45). We arrived at 7pm and waited outside with the crowds for it to open, like people at a zoo watching the staff eat family style underneath a hundred prosciutto ham hocks hanging from the ceiling, and probably making fun of the hungry tourists salivating outside. Everyone jockeys to get inside and then are seated family-style—we happily landed at a table for four, but reportedly, part of the fun is joining locals and other tourists at larger tables. Our waiter arrived, pointed to the house Chianti sitting in the center and poured our first glasses, then pointed to the hams, asking if we wanted antipasto. The waiters here are notorious for avoiding menus—the first time we went, we just looked at him, said in sign language and lame Ital-glish phrases that essentially boiled down to “bring us what you think is best, but make sure we get a couple of those steaks,” and then were treated to one of the finest meals of our whole trip—antipasto, house wine, foccacia, house wine, white bean soup, house wine, massive 3” thick bistecca alla fiorentina (split one or two!), house wine, and then cantucci con vin santo—dessert and dessert wine the waiter forced on us (okay, he just gestured toward a tray of golden liquids in dainty glasses and we, unable to stop grinning, just nodded). The maitre d’ came by, measured our bottle of house wine to see how much we had drunk, nodded with admiration, and scribbled out our bill . Once outside, we were glad to be stumbling back to a train vs. a car. We were fairly sober—just still miserably full-- by the time we hit our train stop and made the serpentine climb up the hills to our home away from home. Several antacids later we were blissfully back to sleep in our fine Odina beds. NOTE: We returned here for my 40^th birthday a year later, (yeah, it was THAT good and memorable) and got even more food—next time, I’d just stick to antipasto, white bean soup, bistecca and dessert, despite how your waiter might push—the massive platter of roasted meats is just plain over the top, the house pasta is so-so, and those two additions really jacks up the bill. Trust me, you’ll get enough food! Check out the "bistecca" photo above with my husband's hand--that's just TWO steaks!

     

    Sienese Pasta...

    We slept in a bit the next day, then ventured farther afield, and made the 1.5 mile trip to Siena. It’s a not-to-be-missed medieval city, once a major competitor to Florence in terms of military might. “The Nine” (a governing body of nine elected officials from the most important families) once ruled here—you can see many of their old palazzos, right on Il Campo—a magnificent, shell-shaped piazza—with nine rays that were bricked in c.1430; but there are also vibrant family neighborhoods and lots of soccer going on. We hiked up the campanile for another birds’ eye view a la Firenze--this time of fantastic rolling green Tuscan hills, the old walls of the city and the tight quarters within. In the distance, you could see the zebra stripes of the fabulous city Duomo. We climbed down, toured the old Pubblico museum, gobbled dfown some fabulous pasta around the corner in a small trattoria, then moved on to spend a good amount of time in the ancient church. Most of the inlaid marble floors were uncovered (sometimes, they’re covered for protection) and there are ancient choir books viewable under glass in a side music room. Be sure to spend time checking out the carved pulpit, which took several sculptors years…

     

    A Sword in the Stone...

    Just outside Siena (by about an hour—pretty drive) is San Galgano, which features the roofless ruins of a 14^th century Cistercian abbey and they say has a buried sword in a stone (that part of it was closed when we were there, but check it out on YouTube; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gioJ2scFDM ). The legend (which might have served as inspiration for Arthurian legend) is that St. Galgano, a crusader knight, came home from afar and promised to serve his God, and never to fight again—and then immediately sank his sword in the stone as a promise. It was San Galgano that supplied Siena with her clergy, and there was a large scriptorium here, where they laboriously created treasured copies of the Bible by hand. Even though we couldn’t see the sword in the stone (one of the hazards of traveling off-season), wandering the ghostly, quiet ruins and envisioning this elegant beauty in her heyday made San Galgano a worthwhile stop...and hungry for dinner at the Odina.
    

     

    Tuscan Castle Ruins Hike...

    The last day, we awakened to a bright, crisp morning, with sun streaming through our windows. Following the advice of our innkeeper, and the few-and-far-between small arrows nailed to trees, we hiked to the castle ruins above us, along narrow and winding forest trails that boar hunting truffles might favor, past small homes, circumventing olive groves…until it opened up and we could see the wide, verdant expanse of the valley below us, the rolling and heavily forested Chianti hills on the far side. You could almost see all the way to Siena. We could envision this castle lord surveying the acres below, watching the fog roll in and sock in the valley floor, then dissipate and perhaps reveal a troop of soldiers on horseback. Now there is little but rotting timbers and a few stone walls left, but it’s a trip back in time to visit—as well as a lovely view.

    We packed up our things and regretfully departed the Odina and Toscana. Only the leftover pizza for our lunch en route to Venice made us feel better about leaving!

     

    **CAR RENTALTIPS:

    • Renting a car out of Rome? Get a cab to the airport and rent from there—trust me, it’s MUCH less stressful than dealing with Rome’s confusing and congested roads!
    • People honk at you on the freeway if you’re going too slow, even if you’re in the slow lane. Ignore them. There are several speed-trap cameras between Rome and Tuscany, and arriving home to a ticket will be a bummer.
    • You can rent a car with GPS, but you might want to bring your own from home, already loaded with the Italian software and your principal locations. You’ll know how to use it from the get-go, and you’re certain to avoid time-consuming detours, which might save some trauma (although getting lost can be part of the fun—depends on your personalities). Just stow it away or carry it with you so it doesn’t get swiped. (Also stow away maps and other tourist paraphernalia that make your rental more of a target to thieves.)
    • If you’re driving like we were, only between Rome and Venice, know that dropping your rental car in Piazzale Roma (Venice) can be confusing; don’t park in the parking garage; park outside on the congested street, where it feels totally wrong, until you hear from the rental car guy where he wants the vehicle.
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• Girls Getaway to Rome, Italy

  • From: catg79
  • Description:

    I came home from work on the afternoon of June 3, 2008, to find my live-in boyfriend of a year and a half standing in the kitchen, awaiting my arrival through the door.  I walked in, smiled as usual and told him that I was happy to be home.  He then offered the biggest blow I had come across in my adult life as he told me that he was moving out and had already packed up his belongings.  I thought that my world had ended on the spot--he was the one--but after a few days of going through the motions of thinking "what could I have done wrong," I decided to do something for myself.  I called up one of my friends and told her I needed a trip away, and fast.  We booked a trip to Rome, Italy the following week, and were set to go for Labor Day.  As the weeks passed, 4 more women joined in for our getaway, all needing the same reassurance of themselves as I did. 

    We arrived in Rome on the morning of September 2, 2008...Hurricane Gustav was nearing our homes as we evacuated, yet we didn't seem to be bothered by it; it should have been a sign.  The first of our many "gris gris" (what us Cajun people refer to as a small curse) happened upon our arrival at the airport, when my suitcase, as well as that of one of the other women, did not arrive.  We made do, hopped on a couple shuttle busses and made our way to the historical center of town where we found our apartment.  Although the description stated it was air conditioned, we found that "air conditioned" in Italy meant a unit in the living room that pumps out lukewarm air.  Again, we made do, as we were just happy to be away from the hustle and bustle of the US.  Almost immediately the gris gris struck again with one of the women in our group finding herself with a sudden onset of strep throat.  Needless to say, she missed the first day of touring.  The rest of us, stricken with jet lag, managed to pull ourselves together for the start of our adventure.  I had carefully planned our itinerary to include "free" activities on the first day, as we were planning on purchasing a Roma card the following day for our tours.  So, day one included a stop to the Pantheon and Piazza Navona area, as well as getting our bearings along the rather confusing and winding streets of the historical area.  We ended the night with a very pleasant alfresco dinner in the Campo di Fiori.  Day 2 began a little late, and started with a confusing purchase of our Roma cards.  We then headed out to the Colosseum and were thrilled to see what the purchase of a Roma card could do--we skipped the entrance line and walked right in!  That in and of itself was well worth the 20 euro purchase for the card.  After touring the Colosseum, we walked across the street to the Roman Forum.  We found ourselves exhausted from both the heat and lingering jet lag and decided to call it an afternoon.  However, me being sans luggage, had to make my daily purchase of clothing for that night and the next day.  We ended the night with dinner in Trastevere followed by meeting up with my new Roman friend, Francesco at a bar around the corner from the restaurant.  After a few drinks, I felt brave enough to allow Francesco to take me on a tour of Rome on his Vespa....it was wonderful!  I somehow managed to locate the rest of my party after taking a cab ride back to the Campo di Fiori; at this point it was 2am, and my girlfriends came strolling through the piazza as though they had been planning to meet me there all along.  We laughed at the night and then followed our non-English speaking friends they had picked up along the way to a bar/night club a few blocks away.  There we spotted two mid-twenties men sitting in a Lotus parked outside the night club.  After attempting to speak with them, and them letting us check out their car, we made our way to the roped off doors of the night club.  We were greeted by a bouncer who promptly told us "no, capacity," and would not let us enter....Our Lotus-driving knights in shining armor came to our rescue as they said something we could not quite make out to the bouncer, who then allowed us all in and escorted us to the VIP section of the bar.  We danced, drank expensive champagne and had a great night of fun for a bunch of women pushing 30! When 5am rolled around, we decided it was time to head home, but not before stopping in the Piazza Navona for a laughable dip in the fountain. 

    It goes without fail that the next morning came and went, as we laid in our beds.  Finally, at about lunch time, we managed to gather our composure and head out for the quickest meal we could get---McDonald's.  Again, the gris gris struck as we got up to leave our seats at McDonald's and realized that one of our purses was missing.  We searched high and low, but the purse was no where to be found.  The police were kind to inform us of the "Gypsy Kids" who are known for their clever theivery.  Clever it was--not one of us saw anything suspicious as someone stole the purse literally from underneath her nose.  After cancelling credit cards, we decided to try for a small bit of touring for the day.  We headed to St. Peter in Chains church and observed the chains that supposedly held St. Peter before he was to be murdered.  From there, we made our way to the Metro station where once again, the nasty gris gris struck again...one of the women in our group (who did not care to ride on the Metro) was too slow on getting on the train and the doors closed on her just as she slowly approached the car.  Not having paid attention to where we were headed, she instead went back upstairs into the enormous Termini train station and looked for help.  It should be noted that I was holding her cellular phone and money in my purse.  After 2 hours, we finally located her, panicked and wanting to hop on the first plane back to New Orleans.  That incident put an abrupt end to our day....

    The next morning began early, with a train ride out to Florence for our bike tour of Tuscany.  (Mind you, we still had not received our luggage and were continuing to buy clothes and shoes daily.)  Upon arriving in Florence, we walked straight to the small museum holding the statue of David, observed David, and headed toward the Ponte Vecchio.  Along the way, we passed the breathtaking Duomo--one of the most ornate cathedrals I have seen in all of my travels to Europe.  Not having time for a tour, we continued toward the river to meet our bike tour group.  We met our guides--2 Scottish gentlemen and an American woman (Keith, Andy and Mary)--and were then all loaded onto shuttle busses for our ride to reach our bikes.  Our tour began at a 13th century castle surrounded by vineyards, which not surprisingly produced several varieties of wine and olive oil.  After sampling and purchasing the castle's finest, we were paired up with our bikes and began our tour.  Roughly 20 seconds into the biking, one of the women in our group (the same whose purse was stolen) ran smack into a wall and sprained her wrist as she attempted to stop herself.  She bravely continued on, but nervously hung toward the back of the group.  We pedaled our way through rolling hills of vineyards, stopping periodically along the way for pictures.  At lunch time, we came upon a tratoria where we were served with a typial Italian lunch complete with dessert and wine.  And yes, wine does mix well with biking! We continued on our way until we were very near the castle, and some of the brave souls--including one brave lady from our group--took the stomach churning ride uphill toward the castle....the rest of us hopped in the shuttle busses and made our way back uphill in style.  At that point the bike tour was over and we headed back to Florence and the train station.  It should be noted that while in Florence, Alitalia Airlines finally called stating that our luggage had arrived and they would be delivering it to our apartment----typically, as we would be in Florence the entire day and would not be there to receive it.  So, upon our arrival back in Rome, me and the other unfortunate woman whose luggage had been missing since day 1, made our way out to Leonardo daVinci airport to retrieve our luggage.  After an hour and a half of travel time, my compadre crying at the ordeal, searching through a room of luggage for our own and then hauling our luggage down the cobblestone streets of Rome to our apartment, we were greeted at our apartment door by the rest of our crew, who were sitting outside sipping wine from cappucino cups (the only ones available in the apartment). We joined them for wine and somehow managed at midnight to locate a hotdog stand not far from the Campo di Fiori.  After hot dogs and a nice long day, we called it a night. 

    Our final day in Rome consisted of visiting every place we had not previously seen, including Vatican City--where we were initially suckered into entering the Vatican with a tour guide.  After two and a half hours with the tour guide, and still barely progressing into the Vatican museum, we broke free of the tour group and continued on our own.  We spent time admiring the ceiling of the Sistene Chapel and then headed to St. Peter's to view the most spectacular church that Catholicism can afford.  Having spent the majority of the day at the Vatican, we walked across the street to Old Bridge Gelaterie and picked up some of the best gelato in town.  That was followed by souvenir shopping, our last dinner in Rome, and a late-night stop at the Trevi Fountain. 

    The gris gris struck yet again on our way home.  You see, while we were away and Hurricane Gustav tortured our homes, one woman in particular was still left without electricity.  This same woman found that upon our arrival into the US, her luggage had not arrived with her.  This ended up being more complicated of a process than usual, as we were in New York, having to recheck our luggage after going through customs, and she had no luggage to follow her back to New Orleans (where she was then going to hop on a plane to meet up with her family in Houston, TX).  Long story short, her luggage came 2 weeks later. 

    We learned a lot about ourselves and others on this trip, and I grew as a person and realized that life is too short to put off that vacation of a lifetime for "next year" or "when I get married."  Fact is, you don't know if that will ever happen.  Carpe diem!

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• Four Weeks in Costa Rica Part

  • From: PhebeSchwartz
  • Description:

    8/1 – After a continental breakfast at the B&B, our morning was spent at the US Embassy in San Jose – Kurt, owner of the B&B, was going shopping in that direction so we followed him in our rented car.  Kurt is German and navigates the San Jose streets, a winding tangle of one ways and parked cars, at autobahn speed.  At any rate, we shared stories with the unbelievable number of other Americans who were at the embassy getting new passports – seems to be big business in CR!
    
    We spent the afternoon trying to find a place to make glasses for Richard in 24 hours – he only had one pair, plus prescription scuba mask, which doesn’t work well for driving if the one pair of glasses is lost or broken.  We never did find an optica to do the glasses.  We did, however, find a lovely local crafts market full of interesting things made in Costa Rica and neighboring countries – fabrics, clothes, leather work, wood items, ceramics, on and on.  My kind of shopping!
    
    Apparently the weekend was a local holiday – the annual pilgrimage to Cartago, a town maybe 50 kilometres from San Jose.  The story is that this is the date of Mary’s ascension to Heaven, and there’s a Black Madonna statue (La Negrita) at the cathedral of Cartago – and she answers prayers on this day, or if she has answered a prayer then people make a promise to make this pilgrimage, or some combination of both.  And, the pilgrimage must be made on foot or horseback, no cars; once the people enter the cathedral, they have to walk on their knees to the statue (great if you’re praying to be cured of arthritis, right?); and there’s a mass that everyone tries to attend.  I actually vaguely remember reading about this in National Geographic, years ago.
    
    So there’s a constant stream of people on the two main roads going past our B&B, which is on a cross street.  Last year, over half of all Costa Ricans made the pilgrimage, some 2 million people!  Some take several weeks to walk there (and get time off from work).  By evening, there are police at the corners, stopping traffic to allow the pedestrians to walk.  Except there isn’t a stop to the flow of people – the street, a link between the Pan American Highway and the highway to Cartago, is one steady parade of people.  Richard and I go for dinner, and walk home in the crowd – who are singing and talking and eating, groups of young people, parents with families, babies in strollers, people walking with small dogs peering out of backpacks.  Just an everyday annual event to them, but a strange and unique occurrence for us.
    
    8/2 – We spent part of the morning in San Jose, then headed west to the central Pacific region.  We couldn’t find Highway 3, which was clearly on maps; we went back to the airport, to a gas station, and asked directions; they said wait, there’s someone here who speaks English; turned out to be the very funny man who rented us a cell phone!  He led us part of the way, waved us on, we followed his directions, and the signs he said to follow weren’t there.  We tried, but gave up and headed back to Puntarenas, then headed south to Jaco.  (This was all in the middle of a major thunderstorm, with huge sheets of driving rain and giant bursts of thunder directly overhead.  Rainy season in CR!)
    
    The rain stopped by the time we hit the coast, where the land is flat and the roads are straight.  And I saw a toucan in a tree!!!!!   Then we hit the town of Jaco - a surfer town that is all built up touristy neon lights commercial, kind of like one big strip mall.  We didn’t have a reservation anywhere, but we followed our guide books and called around and found a lovely little hotel painted in bright contrasting yellow/pink/aqua/orchid, with a pool and clean rooms and a sweet French guy who checked us in.  We drove back into town and had a fabulous dinner at “Lemon Zest,” a new restaurant  (mmmm duck in raspberry sauce, and a chocolate lava cake called the Mt Arenal cake!).  A little gambling (Richard won a fair amount, I lost $20), and home to the hotel.
    
    8/3 – my birthday – we took a quick trip to the beach at Jaco – dark grey sand and murky water, so unlike our St. Thomas beaches – so we dipped our feet in the water and watched some amateurs try to surf.  Back to our hotel for breakfast (most CR hotels include breakfast), a dip in the pool, then drove south toward Quepos.
    
    We stopped at an overlook above Playa Hermosa – which means Beautiful Beach – and it truly was.  Playa Hermosa is one long smooth sandy stretch with layers of waves rolling in and breaking into lacy patters heading to shore.  Gorgeous!  This beach will be the site of the 2009 surfing championship competition, for all you surfers out there.
    
    We reached our hotel in Quepos at about noon and checked in – Mono Azul (Blue Monkey), where the rooms seem to all be in shades of blue, little buildings nestled on the hillside with towering trees and tangled vines and monkeys and sloths – and ropes across the roads to allow monkeys to safely pass from forest to forest – and caution signs saying “Slow” with pictures of children, dogs, and monkeys.  Very funny place owned by friends of our friend Mary here on St. Thomas.
    
    
    We drove south to Manuel Antonio National Park – as my birthday event, we hired a guide, Ricardo, to take me through the park.  Richard opted to hang out at the beach and people watch, so Ricardo and I hiked into the park.  WOW!  We saw 5 sloths – 4 in trees, one at the base of a tree which is where they, well, go to the bathroom (3 or 4 times per month, no wonder they move in slow motion!).  We saw howler monkeys playing in the trees and howling for us.  We saw capuchin monkeys, the little white-faced monkeys, who seemed to enjoy showing off for the crowds of people, in and out of the trees, almost walking with us, and a few young capuchins trying to catch an iguana who turned and chased them!  We saw several raccoons (smaller than their North American cousins); a porcupine curled into a ball and trying to look like a coconut in the top of a small palm tree; a basilisk lizard (like a modern mini dinosaur) and a Jesus Christ lizard, so named because they really can run on water; another blue morpho who flew up and circled me a few times before flying on; hummingbirds; orchids high up on trees; on and on.  Totally exciting and exhilarating and FUN!!!!  We walked across part of a tombolo at one point (a sand bar that links an island to the mainland) but as the tide came in, it was covered up so we took a little boat to the mainland.  We met up with Richard and Ricardo headed off to round up more tourists before the park closed.
    
    My birthday dinner was at the Mono Azul’s restaurant – shrimp in garlic sauce over rice, salad, and a brownie sundae with a candle and the waiters all singing Happy Birthday in Spanish – a wonderful way to turn 54!
    
    8/4 – Mono Azul doesn’t include breakfast, so we drove to Quepos and found Café Milagro, where they roast their own coffee and have fabulous bakery items and terrific breakfasts, both Tican (Costa Rican) and American.  We eat, call around, and sign up for an afternoon of river rafting – wooohooooooo!!!!!!!!
    
    I don’t know how to even explain the fun and excitement of whitewater rafting – or more like beige water rafting, since this was rainy season and the rivers are raging with water like café au lait or chocolate milk with foam.  We’re packed into a van with two inflated rafts and a kayak on top, and our driver, Chumpo, takes us to the Naranjo River.  We piled out, received our life vests and helmets and oars, and had a 10 minute course on rafting – forward, backward, stop, where to sit, what to do if you fall in, what to do to pull someone back into the raft. 
    
    We climbed into rafts – Richard and I in the second row, sitting on the sides of the raft, one foot in a vinyl holder the other wedged under the inflated cross piece.  In front were two rafting guides in training; in back were two tourists from Argentina; and in the very back, Rambo, our Tican guide, who is a college student majoring in ecotourism, whose enthusiasm bubbles over as he has us practice paddling forward, backward, stopping (paddles across our laps), and assuming the omigod position where we dive in and sit on the bottom of the raft.  Rambo explains that rivers range from 0 (calm) to 6 (Niagara Falls) and that today’s river is at 2-3 level, with areas bordering on a 4.  This is my first time!
    
    And we’re off!  The group of two rafts is led by one man in a kayak, who plots our course (and later collects two paddles from the other group) and is there for general safety.  It’s a wild and crazy ride as we paddle, glide, drop into the raft for OMG as a big wave hits us in the face and the raft rears up, we plop back down and bounce off rocks and climb back up to sit again on the side, feet wedged in, paddles ready, waiting for our next command.
    
    I was laughing so hard after the first OMG, I couldn’t get back up (well, and between my knee surgeries and my general klutziness, it wasn’t easy to climb out of a wedged position in a bouncing raft while still holding the paddle) so at times I’d just paddle from the bottom of the raft, which Richard found quite funny.
    
    Up and down, roller coaster ride on water, over boulders and down rapids and through waves and whirlpools and eddies – a water seesaw merry-go-round Carnival ride that doesn’t stop!!!  The other raft had a man overboard, but they quickly pulled him in, though the paddle went downstream to be rescued by our kayaker.  At one point, as we entered more rapids, I saw that the other group was in OMG position, and I started to say something when we hit a big bounce and I yelled OMG and dove for the bottom – Richard said something about me calling my own OMG and everyone nearly fell out of the raft laughing (myself included)!!!
    
    We stopped at a cobblestone area for water, fruit, and cookies, and the river rose visibly while we ate – probably only a few inches, but enough so that during the time Richard put his life jacket on, my feet went from out of the water to covered in water.  And rain clouds loomed in the distance.
    
    We finished the rafting trip as the river flattened out and calmed down, but before entering crocodile zone.  We were picked up by Chumpo, and we assisted in packing the equipment and loading the rafts back onto the van.  I had bruises where Richard and I collided, or where my paddle hit me on the arms – but it was SO MUCH FUN!!!!  I’d do this again in an instant!!!!!   (And the muddy water had turned all our clothes gritty beige, including underwear!)
    
    8/5 – Breakfast at Café Milagro again, yum!  We go back to Manuel Antonio, where I play guide for Richard – we saw a sloth descending from a tree; a brown rat snake; a coati mundi (so cute, a little cousin to the raccoon with different markings); small howler monkeys playing in the trees behind the sloth; numerous agoutis (the giant guinea pig) hopping around; two families of capuchin monkeys, the first along the main beach trail full of people – the alpha male hopped on a covered garbage can and started screaming and hopping up and down, partly to open the garbage can but also to divert attention from the females and babies scampering by pretty much unnoticed. 
    
    The second family of capuchins was out on the island reached via the tombolo – we hiked up and down and circled the island, and came into the midst of a large capuchin family.  The male stopped 3 or so feet away from me, sat on a tree branch, and chirped at me – I chirped back – we seemed to have an entire conversation of chirps back and forth.  A female came up and began grooming him, and he lay down on the branch and just watched me for a while, as I watched him.  There was a tiny baby monkey who would ride on his mom’s back, then climb off and play in the trees, tasting everything, putting anything in it’s mouth.  More moms, babies, juveniles played, ate, wandered by or swung from branches – and suddenly all the humans and monkeys jumped in unison as an agouti abruptly ran through.  Eventually the male chirped, the female moved on, and the male brought up the rear to ensure that the family was safe.
    
    We saw several raccoons, and amazingly, three or four toucans in a tree directly over our heads! 
    
    After about 4 hours of hiking, we drove back to Mono Azul, hung out, and eventually had dinner at La Hacienda, which Fodor and Frommer called CR’s #1 restaurant – I had pasta with shrimp (con camarones) – not as good as Il Tramonte in Monteverde.  But good.
    
    8/6 – We headed south on a fairly decent dirt road to Domenical, where we turned east (onto a paved road) and headed to San Isidro el General, where we could get on the Pan American Highway again to head north.  This route took us into the major central mountain range (El Cordillero Central) and across the Continental Divide of Costa Rica, which was very cool!  Mountains of 10,000 to 11,000 feet high, just about an hour’s drive from the Pacific Ocean – a very steep climb!  More cloud forest, and we were in the area known as the Paseo de Pantera, the path of the panthers – but no big cats anywhere in sight.  Lots of rain and wind and fog and cloud, cold cold wet windy day.  Big crazy mountains and valleys full of clouds, narrow roads, signs saying “Derrumbes en la via” all over the place – we guessed that this meant landslides or mudslides, this was later verified by a Tican.  One amazing spot, in the middle of nowhere, was a huge rock promontory, just bursting out of the green mountain and shooting up toward the sky.
    
    We got a little lost in the town of Tejar, asked a motorbike cop for directions which he gave in Spanish (we can follow left, right, directo, and turn at the Cathedral) – we followed the directions but made a huge circle and ended up back next to the cop – so he hopped on his bike and he and his partner were our motorcycle escorts through Tejar and Cartago to the road to Paraiso (Spanish for Heaven, I think) and on to Orosi, our next stop.
    
    We found the Orosi Lodge, the valley was cold and wet and dark, and we settled in with coffee and cookies before heading out for dinner (grilled chicken or beef, rice and beans, plantains, salad) and then home to the hotel.
    
    8/7 – Breakfast at the café at Orosi Lodge, where they serve coffee grown in the Orosi Valley – then we wandered around town in the mist and rain, looking at mosaics, murals, and the Iglesia de San Jose de Orosi, the oldest church still standing in all of CR.  There was a Franciscan “convent” attached to the church, which was funny because there were green parrots roosting in the campenile and young dogs running in and out of the church – I guess they took the message of St. Francis very seriously!
    
    We drove around Lago de Cachi, or at least part of it – stopping to look at a suspension bridge crossing the raging Orosi River, watching people blithely crossing the bridge as it swayed and bounced over the rushing water.  We had lunch at Casona del Cafetal, a beautiful restaurant in a lovely garden overlooking the lake.  Terrific lunch (chicken in a lemon butter sauce to die for, in the lightest fried taco shell I’ve ever seen, with vegetables that were fabulous in the sauce; and fruit crepes placed on the plate to look like a butterfly!); amazing bathrooms covered in murals reminiscent of Rousseau’s paintings, all green leaves and trees and bright tropical birds and animals peering out at you.  I actually took photos of the bathrooms.  We drove back through coffee farms, over several OMG bridges (built 105 years ago and looking ready to collapse, rusted steel trestles covered in planks that the car occasionally slid on, most with side rails but a few without), through hills and small mountains and fog and rain.
    
    We decided to try for Tapanti National Park, since the rain had calmed down – drove on rutted puddled dirt mud gravel roads with the granddaddy of OMG bridges, into old growth forest and arrived at 4:25, after the park had closed.  Tapanti is the only park with all six of the big cats in CR – jaguars, pumas, ocelots, oncillas, lynx, and jagarundis.  We saw nothing.  Nothing to do but turn around and retrace our steps, through more coffee farms, puddle-covered bridges, raging swollen white or brown rivers.
    
    Back at Orosi Lodge, the clouds had lifted so we could see Volcan Irazu (extinct, with a lake in the caldera, and the tallest mountain/volcano in CR at some 14,000 feet), and Volcan Turrialba, recently active and huffing and puffing steam clouds.  No lava yet.  But apparently the Orosi Valley has daily tremors that can be measured or felt.

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• Trip to Oklahoma city

  • From: joebroadley
  • Description:

     

    Oklahoma city is the capital of Oklahoma State, USA. It is a terrific city. Most of the locations consist rolling hills, low trees, along with hedge plants, kinds of grasses, and forest flowers. Amazing parks, wide growth garden, memorable locations, cheap hotels, beautiful river and huge variety of things to do located there. The city river Canadian is located in north side. An original Oklahoma City zoo has consisted river water. Every year flood comes in north side of this city. City built of more water dam so his water flowing to downtown and made tree lakes. All lake has gathered more rushes of tourist. Some are boating in lake and fishing also. One of the best lake “Lake Heffner” is famous all tourists. It was sensational sunset moment at evening. This city is growth city so there are kinds of cheap hotels. All hotels are famous and luxury also. His services are so great and remarkable. We visited last month there and truly say to you, fabulous hotels, city places and hotels foods are so delicious. Hotel features free high speed Internet, and breakfast. Rooms available with microwaves and refrigerators (Upon request), coffee makers and hair dryers. Seasonal pool open from May to September. Cheap Oklahoma City hotels are one of the best deals to his clients so famous all ways. Secondly if you want to enjoy there then I suggest go at lake points, his historical places, or if you want riding then go head. Boating, fishing and more things to do done by tourists. Shopping places are so gorgeous. Markets of this street are so cheap and best. Downtown of Oklahoma City sight is so terrific. There is more art gallery, museums, you can see here. Myriad Botanical Gardens is located at Crystal Bridge. It is famous park to everywhere. Water stage is located at parks. In middle of park, a lake exists. I was enjoying there much more. Surfing at Oklahoma river number of time, It is a great and fabulous journey to me. I like his cheap hotels because they are luxury but lowest prices. River bank is so nice. I hope I will come there again and again.

    [if !supportEmptyParas] [endif]

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  • 1 year ago
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• Our Honeymoon in Italy - June

  • From: ktmae55
  • Description:

    We went to Italy on our Honeymoon. We were married in Detroit so we first flew to Chicago and then on to Pisa, via Madrid. Over the years I have developed a pretty intense fear or flying so I took two xanax, a sleeping pill and, upon waking mid-way through the flight, had a few small sips of wine. We arrive in Pisa around 10 the next morning and waited about an hour for the train to Manarola.

    We shared a pizza and a pint of beer – our first official meal on the honeymoon! Then we boarded the train to Manarola. After about an hour, the terrain began getting hillier. We went through a very long tunnel and suddenly came out to a beautiful view – a near sheer drop off of a cliff down to the sparkling blue Ligurian Sea. We got off the train in Manarola and followed the directions up, up, up to the near top of the seaside cliff and found our cute little hotel – Arpaui. It was actually more of an apartment – just a place with 4 separate rooms and a terrace that faced the sea. No front desk or room service and the woman who let us in didn't live there and spoke hardly any English. But we managed to communicate with gestures, paid her the 200 euros for 3 nights, and then settled in.

    Our view was amazing – a picture perfect scene. Once we looked down out of our window and saw the clear blue sea and people jumping into it off the rocks we got a second wind, threw on our suits and ran down to the water. We found a small lagoon area off to the side of town where the water was calm and clear. Dan jumped in first, while I stood there afraid. Finally the voice in my head said "you are on your honeymoon, now jump!". I did. The water was cold but it was so refreshing after the long travel. We drew a crowd splashing around and eventually were joined by some boys from Chicago who had been traveling around for the last 3 months. We took turns jumping off the rocks while enjoying the beautiful scenery around us.

    After we washed up we headed into town for dinner. We ate at a little bistro where the waitress spoke English and we were served complimentary pesto crostini to start. Cinque Terre is famous for its pesto, which is said to have originated here along with foccaccia. I bought a jar to bring home (and now wish I would have bought 10!) I had the pesto gnocchi and Dan had the swordfish pasta, both of which were delicious. We finished up with some gelato and then retreated to our beautiful deck to watch the sunset and talk to some Australians who were in the room next to us. We woke up at 4am and peeked outside our window which looked out into the sea, and saw the lights of the other towns. It looked so magical and almost surreal. I just kept saying that I couldn’t believe we were actually there.

    

    After sleeping a bit more, we went into town for breakfast of café (espresso) and nutella pastry and then set out to do the hike. There are 5 towns, 3 to the north of ours and one to the south. We hiked north to the first town of Corniglia - easy until we hit the stairs. Corniglia is up off the sea so it was about 400 stairs up to the town. I thought I was dying. Then we did the very difficult hike on to Vernazza which took us about 2 hours. There were all these “super hikers” on the trail with hiking sticks – I hated them.

    Halfway between the two towns there was a bar so we stopped for a beer (and I wondered how that guy gets to work each day!) and then had some yummy lunch of pesto foccaccia in the town of Vernazza. We were really tired so we took the train to the next and north-most town of Monterosso. Monterosso is the beach resort town – they have more expensive hotels and they are the only town with a beach. While we were there it started to rain so we took the train back to our town. The other towns were nice, but we loved Manarola and are so glad we stayed there.

    When we got back to Manarola the clouds had lifted and the sun was shining again. Exhausted after the hike we swam for a bit, then washed up and then went to dinner. This time our waiter spoke no English, but somehow we managed to order wine and mussels (a first for me but again I wanted to try something new and I was so glad I did). Then we struck up a conversation with 2 Italian women who spoke English. They helped me order the sea bass with the head and skin removed. Dan ordered lasagna. My fish came, but it still had the head and skin on and unfortunately our friends had already left. I was grossed out but Dan removed it and it was so good - worth the trouble of cleaning it ourselves. Dan's lasagna was also the best lasagna we've ever had - the sauce was so light and the pasta layers were so thin. For dessert we had the best tiramisu either of us have had. That meal still lingers in my memory for being so amazing.

    After dinner we headed across the street to the bar. On our way in we met two women from Chicago. They had struck up a conversation with 2 Italians, one of which was the owner of the bar. He pulled out his guitar and played while one of the women sang and soon it turned into a full blown sing-a-long with us, the Italian men, the 2 Chicago women, 3 girls from Ireland, a local couple from Manarola, the bartender, and later our waiter from dinner all singing along to U2, Beatles, Billy Joel, and other American classics.

    

    They also treated us to a traditional Manarola song that was just beautiful. The bar was supposed to close at 10, but the owner closed the doors and let us stay until about 11:30. On they way out we were told to be very quiet. They said if you are too loud in the streets late at night, the locals will pour water on your head out their windows. Dan and I walked (quietly) down to our hidden lagoon and then decided to take a midnight swim.

    The next morning we were a bit hung over so we just wandered around Manarola, took the walk to the one south town of Riomaggiore (a very short, easy flat walk). While we were on the walk we saw a tour group and heard this rather large German woman say indignantly "I did not pay all this money to walk around looking at rocks!!!" which became a running joke of the trip . Then we took the train back north to Monterosso and the boat back to Manarola to get a view of the towns from the water. Upon arrival we learned there is no dock in Manarola – the boat pulls up to the rocks and a ladder is extended with wheels on the end of it. Whenever a wave hit the ladder bobbed up and down on its wheels on the rocks. It was slightly scary exciting the boat! For dinner we hit the local market for some buffalo mozzarella, pesto bianco and a few more slices of the local foccaccia (it was addicting). We ate it up on our veranda, watched the sunset, and then went to bed early.

    The next day we said good bye to Manarola. I was so sad to leave. I could have spent the whole honeymoon there. I love it's laid back vibe, friendly fun people, great food, and wonderful views. Dan and I really want to go back there and stay for at least a week!

    We took an early morning train from Manarola and got into Florence around 11am. We stored our bags at the train station and wandered around Florence. We stayed near the train station and saw most of the tourist sights. We also wandered a market and fell in love with this amazing piece of leather luggage. After a light pizza lunch we took the bus 20 minutes into the countryside to our B &B – La Limonaia. Apparently, if you call ahead Guilio will come get you from the bus stop, but we walked. It is not a far walk at all, but it was difficult with luggage and I was starting to get worried that this B &B was a bad idea. We were out of breath when we arrived, but once we saw the place we knew we had made the right choice – it was so cute and had a great view of the Tuscan countryside.

    Christina, one of the owners, showed us around the place. It was very charming and what you would expect of a traditional Tuscan villa. It was very old - apparently Galileo had lived there briefly! She told us her friend Cristian was coming around 7 to talk to us about wine and we would have our aperitif at that time. We booked the 4 day honeymoon package so it was included in our stay. We assumed aperitif meant a glass of wine and maybe some cheese. We were so wrong! Around 7 we entered the wine bar and met Guilio and Cristian, who is a sommelier and a cellar master for Fattoria le Sorgenti vineyards, where we would do the wine tour on our trip . Also, he was really cute! I felt bad thinking that on my honeymoon, but there was no denying Cristian was one hot Italian! We were given a printed listing of our itinerary for the next 3 days. We enjoyed some mini sandwiches and some grissini (breadsticks) with proscuitto and talked to Cristian about the wine. All was delicious and we assumed that was it for the night. Wrong again. After Cristian left, we moved to a table for more wine and several courses - a Tuscan cold quiche (pretty good), some marinated veggies and artichokes, tuna stuffed peppers with sun dried tomatoes (not for me), and my favorite, some goat cheese topped with the most amazing herbs and some of Guilio's olive oil (soooo yummy). Then we had some Vin Santo (sweet dessert wine) with chocolate chip cake and then some port wine from Sardinia. After that we certainly didn't need to go out to eat as we had planned, so we went for a short walk around the countryside.

    The next morning we woke up to a huge breakfast spread of cakes, fruits, cheese, meat, breads, muffins, coffee and juice. We had a bit of time to relax afterwards and get ready for our cooking class with Donatella. Donatella (Christina called her “Mama”) spoke no English so Christina had to translate. We learned how to make the pasta dough and roll it out. It was so fun. I had a hard time mixing but was really good at rolling it out, and Dan was the opposite. So I guess we make a good team – he mixes I roll. Then we made ricotta and spinach ravioli and some tagliatelle. We also made the sauce for each - tomato for the tagliatelle and butter and sage for the ravioli. We sat down and were served an aperitif and wine, then each pasta course, then more Vin Santo and some biscotti for dipping. All was very delicious and I can't believe how simple it was.

    Then we changed and got ready for our spice tour with Pierre. We were picked up and driven to his farm and walked around learning about the herbs that he grows. It was interesting but I have never really been into cooking with herbs and spices so I zoned out a bit at times. Dan loved it, but city girl that I am; I wasn't as enthused about the many flies and birds flying around me. I tried to not act like I was miserable and afterwards Dan said "sorry you had to deal with that" and I said I was trying not to let him notice and he said "I just know you. Bugs and dirt aren't really your thing". But after the tour, we sat down to sample the many herbs and herb/salt blends with some wine and cheese. This part was definately “my thing”! Wow, they were so good so we bought 5 jars of various blends for only 19 Euro. I had been converted and now I can't wait to cook with all the herbs and spices!

    That night, we were on our own for dinner so Guilio drove us into his small town to a beautiful restaurant that had a terrace overlooking the countryside. We had crostini, salad, wine, potatoes, steak and ravioli for only 50 euros. We shared a cab home with the other couple who was staying there who was also on their honeymoon and also from Chicago!

    The next morning we were up early for another great breakfast, this time with an omelet of cheese and those delicious herbs as well and then off to the wine tour. Guilio drove us, the other couple, 3 girls from Florence, and Cristian around the vineyard for a tour of the grounds and some wine education. We also met the owner of the vineyard who was out working in the field. After the tour, it was time for the vineyard lunch. After the lunch, we got dropped off in Florence for the afternoon. We got some more lunch, just a snack really, and went back to find the leather luggage that I had wanted. We haggled a bit on the price and were able to get it at a really good deal and now I have a beautiful Italian carry-on! We were both tired by about 6 so came back to the inn to get ready for our special private candlelit vineyard dinner.

    This was the highlight of the trip !!!! Guilio drove us up to the top of the vineyard hills, overlooking all of the Fattoria le Sorgenti vineyards where we could see Florence in the distance. We pulled up and at the top of the hill, under a tree was a table set with candles just for us. Cristian and (I can't remember his name!) the vineyard owner's son were there manning the grill. Cristian poured us some sparkling chardonnay and we had bread and olive oil, tomato crostini, and a salad topped with olive oil and some of Pierre's herbs. I was in ecstasy.

    

    Then came the meat - the best lemon grilled chicken I have ever had, along with sausage, ribs, and pork, and enough to feed 4 people easily! All served with the vineyard's award-winning Scirus wine. The best wine I have ever had in my entire life! We really enjoyed talking to Cristian, but the men also gave us ample time alone to enjoy the sunset and then we had more wine and some yummy chocolate cannoli for dessert. It was one of the most romantic and memorable experiences of my life! We were served wine by the man who made it, our food was cooked at the vineyard by the owner's son, and the food was seasoned with the herbs of the man we met the day before! I felt like it was a dream, all this was just for us?! It made me feel like we were millionaires, when actually we had only paid $250 per night for the entire package!

    The next day we slept in and then had more wonderful breakfast, chatting with Christina about life, Italy, Tuscany, politics, and more. One of my favorite things about staying at La Limonaia was talking with Guilio and Christina. They are such warm hearted amazing people. They have such pride for their country and for what they do. They have created such an amazing place. They also do a bunch of other tours – a truffle hunt, pizza making class, cheese making, etc.

    We spent our final day in Tuscany doing some shopping. I got a 5 Euro pashmina and Dan got 5 Euro sunglasses. I bought a really cute dress and a jacket at Zara for 100 Euro. Then we headed back to the inn to rest up for our final dinner. At 7, other couple joined us for dinner in the wine bar. We had pecorino cheese served with saffron honey and then, ecstasy – some more cheese served with truffle infused honey. Oh my god!!!! Guilio agreed to sell us two jars after we could not stop raving about it. Then we had a cold bread soup (actually pretty good), veal with tomato sauce and some artichokes (tasty), and a really good Brunello wine. For dessert it was a fantastic chocolate chip gelato cake and some sweet port-like wine.

    The next morning we sadly said good bye to La Limonaia and to Guilio and Christina. This is an amazing special place and these are such welcoming people. This is another place that we really want to come back to!

    The next morning we took the train to Venice. We got off the train in front of the Grand Canal and got so excited! We quickly realized however, that our map to the hotel was completely useless. We argued and bickered and wandered aimlessly and asked for directions and took wrong turns and sweated and groused for about an hour before finally finding our B & B, tucked in a courtyard off a square, down a narrow twisty alley, over a bridge about a 5 minute walk from the Rialto bBidge. Then our B & B was up 4 flights of narrow, winding stairs. By the time we arrived we were drenched in sweat and cranky. This was our least favorite B &B. the host weren't all the friendly to us and to get to the hotel portion, we had to walk in their house which was very odd and uncomfortable. We got checked in and showered and changed and set out around 4 to get some food.

    

    Venice is odd. It's beautiful and amazing but it’s also hot and crowded and the people are kind of rude (when you have 70,000 residents against 11 million tourists per year I suppose you get cranky) and it was much dirtier that I expected. There was trash on the ground and in the canals and there was a lot of graffiti.

    As soon as we left the hotel we got lost. We found a square to sit and have a beer and a slice of pizza for 3 Euro. We quickly found out that if you are willing to stand and eat, or maybe eat outside walking or sitting on the ground you can get food really cheaply. But if you want to sit and eat, expect to pay a fortune. After the pizza and beer we wandered some more, stopping at bars along the way for a prosecco for me and "spritz" for Dan. The spritz is white wine, soda, and campari and most places charge 1 Euro for a glass. Finally we stumbled (almost literally after all those spritzes and processos) into a cichetti bar. Cichetti is like Italian small plates. We asked for cichetti for 2 and got 2 HUGE plates of bread, veggies, meats, and cheeses for 22 Euro. We pigged out and then decided to walk around some more, since we had no idea where our hotel was. Then we randomly found it all of a sudden! In Venice there are signs everywhere pointing the way to either the Rialto or San Marco so Dan decided to go to Rialto and find our way from there to our hotel. He figured no matter where we were in Venice we could find Rialto and from there we could find our hotel. So we did that, and on the way back to our hotel we found a crepe shop and got a delicious nutella and gelato stuffed crepe for 3 Euro.

    The next morning we had a light breakfast at the B &B and then set out to explore Venice. I had just read "City of Falling Angels" and wanted to find some landmarks from the book so we found the Santa Maria Della Salute church, the Fenice opera house, and then just walked around San Marco and various neighborhoods of the island. We of course got lost a lot again but it was fun. We had some pizza, fries (we had a craving!) and wine for 27 Euro for lunch (so much because we sat at a table. They charge a cover charge of 1 -2 Euro per person but then you don't tip. Also they charge for water – sometimes as much as 4 Euro! Our pizza was 11 Euro, the fries were 5, wine was 7, water was 2, and cover was 2) and then we headed home and took a nap and a shower.

    Around 5 we got up for more prosecco, spritz, and cichetti. This time we found a string of cichetti bars and ordered per piece instead of just saying a plate for 2. Over the course of 3 hours we had some mini sandwiches, some deep fried potato balls, a deep fried crab claw, and lots of cheese and proscuitto and lots to drink, and spent about 40 Euro having a great time in all these little bars where we were the only people speaking English. Then somehow we took a wrong turn and ended up on the side of the island we had never been on. It’s funny in Venice how you can be surrounded by tourists and then one wrong turn down a narrow twisty street and you are completely alone. There was NO ONE around and we even saw a parking lot with cars! You know you are lost in Venice when you find the place where the cars are! Then luckily we found another bar, had another drink, and got directions back to Rialto. By this time it was 11 and everything was closing so we stopped by the crepe place for more dessert and then headed home.

    The next morning we had breakfast and then set out to figure out how we would get to the airport in the morning. We went back to the train station to the tourist office and ended up buying a 24 hour transportation pass. To get the most of it, we hopped on a water bus (the only kind there is on the island) and went to Murano, the island famous for it’s beautiful blown glass. We walked around and looked at the glass shops and bought some glass wine stoppers and then had lunch. Gnocchi in cheese sauce for me and mushroom ravioli for Dan with a bottle of water, for 19 Euro. Then we went back to the B & B and took a looooong nap. All this walking was really tiring us out! We got up at 5 and went down for a slice of pizza and a spritz, did some window shopping at Gucci, Chanel, Hermes, and all the other super pricey stores. Then we stumbled upon an amazing little pastry shop. We had a prosecco and spritz with some free bar munchies and then had 2 mini dessert pastries that were soooo yummy. It was our pre-dinner dessert. Then we wandered for about an hour trying to decide where to eat. I wanted fish and Dan wanted lasagna but we didn't want to spend more than 50 euros on food and wine. When you get wine in a bar it is 1-2 euros per glass. If you can find "house wine" it is less than 10 Euro for a liter. But all the nice sit-down dinner places only have it by the bottle for 15 Euro or more, plus 4 Euro for water, and 4 Euro for cover change. That's over 20 Euro and you haven't even ordered food yet!!!

    We finally found a place that seemed reasonable and ordered a 7 Euro bottle of wine and 2 Euro bottle of water (I swear my Venice water bill was about 50 Euro and we did not budget for that!!!) and Dan ordered a 7 Euro salad. Dan ordered a taglioline with white veal ragu and I ordered swordfish with fried zucchini flowers. Dan's pasta was good, but not 18 Euro worth of good. The zucchini flowers were actually good, but I knew as soon as I saw my 20 Euro swordfish that I was not going to like it. It was all black parts and when I cut into it, it was very raw, even red in some parts. YUCK. We waited and waited for our waiter to come back. Finally a different waiter came back to take Dan's now empty pasta bowl. He was about to take mine when I pointed out that I didn't eat any of it. He got our waiter who came and asked what the problem was. I tried to explain that it was raw and he said that fish should be medium and I said yes but not raw. And that is didn't taste very fresh – it was fishier than swordfish should be. He got very mad and took the plate away and next thing we know the Italian speaking owner of the store comes out to our table holding the GIANT raw fish on a plate screaming "fresca" at us and waving the plate around. We didn't know what to do so we just kept saying that we didn't like it. Then the waiter came and took away our bread and put down the bill, a polite way of kicking us out I suppose. What we should have done was stormed out, but instead we paid the 60 Euro bill and then I went and got a 2 Euro slice of pizza. I was soooo mad. I was embarrassed and frustrated and Venice had taken its toll on me and I started crying. So we decided not to go to San Marco for a drink, or to take a 100 Euro gondola ride and instead went back to the crepe place and took it bad to the room where Dan cheered me up with impressions of the fat German tourist (I did not pay all this money, to have a fish waived in my face!)

    We were up the next morning at 5 to get to the airport, fly 2 hours to Madrid and then fly home. I took more xanax and sleeping pill so it all went by very quickly. Overall it was a wonderful honeymoon. Manarola was magical, and Tuscany was amazing with such wonderful people. Venice was neat to see, but it wasn't my favorite place. I think I would go back to Venice at some point, but I am in no rush. I would like to see it in winter when it is very quiet as it was beautiful when no one was around at 5am. I would also lower my expectations and not plan to have a “fancy” meal. Venice is not known as a culinary destination, yet because of the crowds they can afford to charge a lot. We tried to avoid the touristy places on the Grand Canal but I think we got much better food for our money and had much more fun when we just ate at the cichetti counters with the locals.

     

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  • 1 year ago
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