Italy trip highlights: Sleeping in Tuscany

Scott was responsible for finding us places to sleep in Tuscany, and he did a fabulous job.
For two nights we stayed at Hotel Il Rondo', a gorgeous bed and breakfast in Montepulciano. Rarely have I stayed in a room so beautifully done. The ceilings had large square wooden beams as is typical in Tuscany, and many of the furnishings were antiques. Plus since the building is quite new, the facilities are modern, and there was even wireless internet access (which allowed me to easily do some blogging from the road).



In Siena we spent one night at the Chiostro del Carmine. The reception desk faces a gorgeous, secluded, quiet courtyard where I enjoyed relaxing for a few minutes. Our room was inside the old palazzo up a comically large staircase. From our room we had a sweeping view of the countryside around Sienna.



Neither of the hotels was super-luxurious, but both were clean, safe, and well-appointed. What I liked best, though, was how both of them felt like uniquely Italian accommodations. Such charming sleeping arrangements add to the overall trip experience in a lovely way. Sure beats the Holiday Inn.

Italy trip highlights: Eating Tuscany

After Rome, we rented a car and headed north to Niki de Saint Phalle's Tarot Garden (a definite highlight) and then continued on to Tuscany. While I'd been to Siena and Florence before, this was actually my first time out into the small hill towns of Tuscany. Now that I've had a taste, I can't wait to go back.

We spent our days exploring a series of little Tuscan hill towns, each more adorable than the last. And naturally, we ate very, very well. The regional specialties of note included pici, a thick home-made spaghetti-like pasta, and local pecorino, a cheese made from sheep's milk which seemed to be absolutely everywhere we looked (including at breakfast). It is milder than pecorino romano, and is sometimes enhanced with truffle or other flavors. I think every single thing I ate in Tuscany was delicious. The restaurant highlights:



Borgobuio (Montepulciano) - the google-translatored English menu outside had us in stitches, but since it came on a good recommendation, we decided to go inside anyway. Borgobuio's decor is fabulously over-the-top, as is its owner Pier, who provided the dinner-time entertainment. He spent time with each and every table, chatting, joking, boasting about his food and lamenting the lack of guests. I was called on from across the room to help interpret for a couple from California who spoke no Italian. Pier has every right to be proud of his food, which was just fabulous. I forgot to take notes this evening, but I remember starting with a scrumptious chick pea and broccoli appetizer and then some sort of pici. And a side of baked radicchio, I think it was. All scrumptious.

Trattoria Diva e Maceo (Montepulciano) - highlights included the tortellone con fonduta di pecorino e pepe (melted pecorino and pepper) and the pici with porcini mushrooms. Even the side dish of beet greens was delicious!

La Porta (Montecchiello) - small, cute locale serving heavenly food. Friendly staff. Polenta with melted pecorino and mushrooms, sformato di zucca (kind of like a souffle with squash and cheese), canellini al fiasco (beans with olive oil). Sooooo good.



Antica Osteria da Divo (Siena) - this place was our second choice for dinner in Siena, but unfortunately our first choice was closed for a private party that evening. Osteria da Divo was an interesting little place. Very elegant, inside a very old, grotto-like room. The food was the high-concept small-portion (a little pricey) type. It was slightly disappointing, but only because other restaurants had set the bar so high.

Man, I'm hungry.

Italy trip highlights: Eating Rome

We had no specific goals for our 1.5 days in Rome, except to eat well and relax. My last several trips to Rome were on business, so it was nice to reestablish this city as a place of leisure. There wasn't any advanced planning involved beyond the hotel. It was nice. Especially the food.

All three restaurants we ate at this time came via an old copy of Fodor's Italy. I'm usually not one to rely exclusively on guidebooks, but Fodor's did us quite well on this particular trip.

Ditirambo - near Campo dei Fiori, we were a little skeptical of this cavernous locale when we arrived to find the only other patrons were a large group of old German men. Skepticism soon gave way to marvel; my appetizer of burratina (a soft cheese sort of like mozzarella) millefoglie with sundried tomato pesto was insanely amazing. I will remember that dish for a long, long time.

Arancia Blu - the first thing that struck me was the gorgeous, cozy interior; the second was the elaborate vegetarian menu. From our experience, the tasting menu is the way to go. So many delicious flavors. It was a bit of a hike from Termini, but the neighborhood was quite vibrant with nightlife.

Margutta Vegetariano - Italian vegetarian restaurants two nights in a row! Could life get any better? Margutta seemed to be having some service problems the evening we were there, given that we overheard complaints from the tables on either side of us. Although a couple of our (many) courses took a little too long to arrive, we otherwise found the meal itself to be fabulous. Each dish on the extensive tasting menus we ordered was delicate, artful, and yummy. The chic modern decor was also quite impressive. But what I really want to know is, who spends so much time and effort on a restaurant's food and presentation, but then can't be bothered to put a seat on the freakin' toilet? Seriously, people. Despite the menacing unseated peeing arrangements and slightly slow service, our overall experience at Margutta was quite stellar.

In contrast to the guidebook-recommended restaurants, the gelato we ate was chosen purely based on my gelatodar (like gaydar, but for gelato), a skill I have honed through much practice, and which almost never fails. Subtle cues such as the colors, the signage, and the number of locals in line are all part of my elaborate system for sussing out the best gelato around.

Gelateria San Crispino - if a gelateria is so cocky as to not even pile its gelato up for display, there's a good chance that the flavor speaks for itself. The shiny covered containers at Gelateria San Crispino drew us in, and the exotic flavors got us pushing to the front of the line. Flavors like honey whisky, ginger cinnamon, and pear sorbet. Mmmmm.

Fior di Luna - here I went for my old standby gelato order: chocolate and pistachio. Pistachio is a very hit-or-miss flavor. Done well, it's heavenly; done poorly, it's not even worth my time. This is why gelatodar is so important. Fior di Luna passed the pistachio test.

name unknown - on the Isola Tiberia in the middle of the Tiber river, this gelateria looked unassuming, but offered up a solid version of my all-time favorite flavor: dark chocolate chili. Mmmm again.


Did we do anything in Rome besides eat? Yes, a little. Mostly we wandered around, soaking up the atmosphere. The Pantheon was a treat as always. And given that La Dolce Vita is one of my all-time favorite movies, a swing by the (insanely tourist-overrun) Trevi Fountain was practically predestined. We considered going into St. Peter's, but given the long line we opted for people-watching in the piazza instead (easy to do when you've been inside multiple times before). I love vacations with no obligations!

Italy trip highlights: First impressions

I better get blogging about the details of our Italy trip before I start to forget them...



Let me preface this post by saying that I know Italy well. I've spent approximately two and a half years in the country. Since moving away in 2005, I've gone back many times. But still, my perspective is ever-changing. My brain constantly compares places to each other, and the reference point keeps shifting as I move about. Things that used to be normal parts of life now strike me as odd. Take my first impressions from this most recent trip...

We flew into Rome. The airport was run-down, hot, and dirty, and it took what felt like an eternity to get our luggage. It seemed like we had arrived in a 3rd-world country. Well, 2nd world, at least. The impression did not improve as we made our way through dirty corridors with broken glass where advertisements would normally be, nor when we arrived at the airport's train station and found an abandoned, graffiti-covered old train parked on one of the two functioning tracks. Having a few minutes to kill before a real train showed up, we wandered into the bar for a coffee.

The second the dark, thick espresso touched my lips, all was forgiven. So what if Swiss airports are modern and spotless? Who cares how efficient the Munich S-Bahns are? When has any other country produced anything so delicious in the history of the world? My mood was suddenly elated, and my mouth watered as I anticipated all the other flavors to come on this trip...

A taste of Italy

Whee, what a fabulous week in Italy we had. Where to begin with the stories? Every meal could be the subject of its own post. We squeezed a ridiculous amount into our 8 days, from Rome to Tuscany to Venice, with a few other stops in between. Normally I wouldn't advocate such a ridiculously quick travel schedule, but somehow it managed to work out crazy well.



The highlights of the trip were definitely the Tarot Garden and the days we spent in the Tuscan countryside. Indeed, the entire trip was planned around the idea of visiting Niki de St. Phalle's sculptural masterpiece, which is located pretty much in the middle of nowhere. I had never even heard of this garden when we were living in Italy. I think it was at the Espace Jean Tinguely – Niki de Saint Phalle in Fribourg that I saw a video about her constructing the garden, and I've wanted to go see it in person ever since.



Since visiting the garden required renting a car, it made sense to also spend a couple days driving around Tuscany - something we had never done before since we didn't own a car when we lived in Milan. Observing the driving situation in Milan, neither of us was particularly eager to get behind the wheel in Italy at the time. But the Tarot Garden and tiny Tuscan hill towns definitely proved themselves worthy of the effort.

I'll end this post with some of the questions that kept running through my mind during this trip:

• How did the Italians manage to construct so many buildings that look more and more beautiful the older and more run-down they get?
• Why is espresso (and gelato and pizza and pretty much everything else) so much yummier in Italy than in other countries?
• Why don't we live here anymore?

More blogging from the road: Tuscany

Yes, we're in Tuscany. It sounds so trite - don't a gazillion American tourists come here every second? But damn, this area is worth every dollar and drop of ink spent on it. My eyes and my taste buds are having the times of their lives. My little camera is way out of its league. My Italian language skills are happy to be of use.



Tuscany is so improbably perfect I can't stand it. A couple more pictures here. You'll have to wait for the rest.

Where in the world am I today? Hint #2

This one should tip off many of you at least to the artist(s) involved, if not the exact location.

Edited to add: We have a winner! It is indeed the Giardino dei Tarrochi in Italy, an enchanting garden designed by Niki de Saint Phalle (the artist who created the angel sculpture in Zurich's main train station). I'll blog more about this trip soon, but if you can't wait, you can see more photos on my Flickr.

Where in the world am I today?

Any guesses?

Edited to add: you can find the answer in the following post.

On top of the duomo

I'm beginning to suspect that the bottom portion of the scaffolding on the front of Milan's duomo is there for good. I believe it went up in 2003 or 2004, and it's still in place as of last weekend, sporting ads for Marie Claire and Elle magazines. Perhaps the church is using the advertising proceeds to pay off the latest victims of priestly indiscretions?

But I'll forgive them for keeping the facade covered, since at least I still get to wander around on the roof. Walking on the roof of Milan's duomo is one of my favorite things to do on a beautiful day in the city. You can take the stairs or (for a few extra euros) a teeny tiny elevator up. Like the rest of the duomo's facade, the roof is ornately decorated with thousands of statues.

When we lived in Milan, we required all of our visitors to have their picture taken in a particular spot on the duomo roof. Here's the latest photo for my cherub collection:
More duomo photos here.

Rome Gay Pride 2007

Nope, I didn't go, but I wanted to share this great little video my friend Roberto made from his experience there. Sure makes Zurich's Christopher Street Day look tiny!

My TravelBox articles

My four weeks at TravelBox on Slate.com are coming to an end. Here's a round-up of all my posts over there, for your reading pleasure:

Italy
A culinary layover in Milan
There's more to the Veneto than Venice

Austria
An Easter weekend in Vienna
Seeking out wine in Vienna (or Wein in Wien)

Switzerland
Switzerland's answer to Groundhog Day
Switzerland's off season

Germany
Discovering Berlin's divided past
Dresden rising

Lollygagging about in Vicenza

After filling up on the artsy type of culture in Padua, Ali and I hopped on a train and headed to Vicenza for an afternoon of passegiate, aperitivi, and shopping, all of which also clearly qualify as cultural activities in Italy.

Vicenza is a small city whose center is a large walking district of narrow cobblestoned streets sprouting out from the main drag, Corso Palladio. It's insanely fun to wander around here, especially in the afternoon when the locals are out and about to provide you with some excellent people-watching.

If you sit down for a drink at an Italian cafe during the afternoon or early evening, your beverage usually comes accompanied by some sort of snack food. In Milan this is taken to the extreme, with several bars offering extensive hot and cold buffets that could easily replace dinner entirely (not that you'd want to skip a meal opportunity in Milan). In other cities (such as Padua or Vicenza), you usually get some potato chips and, if you're lucky, a dish of green olives. I usually hate potato chips, but for some reason they become mighty tasty when accompanied by a negroni.

After plenty of window shopping, cafe sitting, and wandering, it was time to move on to the main event: dinner. We attempted to go to a restaurant that my local friend swears is just amazing, but alas we were turned away for being foolish enough to show up without a reservation. Luckily a suitable alternative was soon found at Osteria Il Cursore. I had eaten here once before, and was happy to be back. We had the same surly but entirely likable waitress, who recited the antipasti, primi, and secondi of the day in fast but clear Italian (no written menu here, so pay attention!). Everything was fresh, simple, and delicious. I passed on dessert (and by "passed on" I mean "nibbled on everyone else's") in favor of a cinnamon after-dinner drink which I remembered fondly from my first visit to the place. Mmmmm... Italy.

I get cultured in Padua

OK, so where was I? A couple weeks ago I spent a few days in Italy, staying at my favorite hotel and spa in the whole world (which has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the manager is a good friend of mine, I swear), which is in a small town just outside of Padua (Padova). I can’t go to Padua without feeling an intense urge to move back to Italy, and this trip was no different. It’s just so…. Italian. The cobblestones, the cathedrals, the art, the public humiliation of graduates… and of course the food. Why am I not there right now?

When we weren’t watching Italians spread food substances on each other, we actually managed to take in a little culture on this particular trip. First there was the Scrovegni Chapel, a fresco-covered room painted by the master Giotto in 1303-1305. Much like at Da Vinci’s Last Supper in Milan, visitors must enter through various sealed chambers which are supposed to help with the preservation of the precious frescoes inside. You have to buy a ticket for a specific entry time, and you only get to spend 15 minutes marveling at the chapel. Unlike the Last Supper, these frescoes are actually in pretty good shape, and there’s a lot to ooo and aah over. I didn’t want to leave.

We also paid a visit to the Basilica di Sant' Antonio. St. Anthony is one of the Catholics' most favorite saints, so he has been honored with a particularly fabulous church, even by Italian standards. Although I declared myself all churched out years ago (a non-life-threatening condition reached by people who have visited too many Italian churches within a short amount of time), this one was actually worth breaking my abstinence for. Every square centimeter of the place is ornately decorated. And, in addition to housing the tomb of Anthony himself, this basilica boasts quite a collection of other dead saint parts, too (they call them ‘relics’ and display them in custom-made decorative vessels; don’t get too close if you’re easily queasy).

Hungry for more art, we also took in the De Chirico show at Palazzo Zabarella. I was disappointed to not see my favorite work by him (Melancholy and mystery of a street, which looks exactly like the street I used to live on in Bologna, only creepier), but it was an awfully thorough and enjoyable show nonetheless. It’s on through May 27^th, so quick, plan your trip to the Veneto now...

Buona Pasqua

Easter in Italy is always marked by the omnipresent giant chocolate eggs. No bunnies, no peeps, just big chocolate eggs. If you're lucky, there's an exciting surprise awaiting you inside your giant chocolate egg. These surprises can range from cheap plastic toys to fine jewelry, depending on where your egg came from. They're kind of like giant Kinder Surprise eggs.*

Easter in Europe can be tricky, as Heather recently discussed. On one hand, it's a four-day weekend. On the other, it seems like all of Europe is closed. It's like having four Sundays in a row: no groceries, no shopping, and limited restaurants. That makes it a little difficult to pick a destination for the weekend. It would have been nice to go skiing, but we're done with fighting the bad snow. Last year we went to Berlin, and the year before that we came to Zurich for the first time (having no idea that we would eventually move here). This year we opted to continue our success with 'big' cities, and head to Vienna. It turned out to be a good choice, as pretty much everything was open as if it were a normal weekend. Plus we got colored eggs and chocolate lamb-shaped cake for breakfast. What more could you ask for?

Speaking of religious holidays, this article about the recent marketing efforts of Swiss churches caught my eye this morning. As in many European countries, funding for churches (well, mainstream Christian churches anyway) is done through taxes collected by the government here.

* remind me to tell you a funny story about Kinder Surprise eggs.

Graduation, Italian style

Walking around Padua (Padova in Italian) last week, Ali and I happened across the graduation celebrations of a few university students. The first indication that something was up this day were the big signs plastered up along one side of a piazza. These each displayed a crude caricature of one of the graduates, along with a long and detailed narrative written by the grad's so-called friends.

A little farther ahead we saw some of the actual graduates, each surrounded by a small crowd which would occasionally break out into song: "Dottore, dottore, dottore del buso del cul! Vaffancul, vaffancul..." I believe the lyrics touch on how proud they all are of the graduate for all his or her hard work and academic achievement. Yeah, that's it...

Each scene was a little different, but mostly they looked like this: the graduate, wearing some ridiculous costume prepared by her admirers (a giant diaper, a hula skirt, a funny hat) stood on top of a bench which someone had thoughtfully covered with plastic sheeting. The grad would occasionally take sips from a bottle of cheap champaign, which may or may not be duct-taped to her hand. Every couple minutes, someone from the crowd would approach the grad and apply some variety of food substance (ketchup, raw egg, unrecognizable goo) to some part of said grad's body. The grad's mother stood somewhere in the crowd, holding the traditional wreath of laurels and beaming proudly.

There were of course many variations on this scene, such as the grad who had his feet tied together and was being made to hop through the streets while his blow-up-doll-toting, cross-dressed posse beat him repeatedly with inflatable bats. But the overarching theme was clear: public humiliation.

I really liked the idea of hazing someone at the end of his educational career, rather than at the beginning as it's traditionally done in the US (as is my understanding from watching movies such as Animal House). It seems less, what's the word... evil. Even the grads seemed to be enjoying themselves, as if it were clearly a privilege to have an egg stuffed into and broken inside one's giant paper-towel diaper while standing on a bench in the middle of town.

But I couldn't help but wonder what happened to those grads who didn't have many friends. Who humiliates them on their graduation day?

Heaven (in gelato form)

I spent last week in Italy, eating my way through a couple cities and visiting friends. The train connection afforded us a little layover in Milan, so I seized the opportunity to seek out that great mecca of gelato, Chocolat. As its name implies, they specialize in the chocolaty gelato flavors, including my all-time favorite, cioccolato al peperoncino.

I'm embarrassed to admit that in a year and a half of living in Milan, we never once made it to Chocolat. We had heard of the legendary great gelateria somewhere near Cadorna, and even wandered around the neighborhood hoping to stumble upon it once or twice, but our half-assed attempts always failed. We were just too busy devouring every other foodstuff that Milan had to offer, I suppose. But then I saw it mentioned on At Home in Rome a little while back, and took a sacred oath to find the place, dammit, on my next visit to Milan. And I did.

Chocolat didn't disappoint. You could tell the place was good by the steady stream of local customers coming in for their gelato fix even in the middle of a cold, drizzly afternoon. Many gelaterias in Milan stop serving during the winter months, but I'm pretty sure this place would do some mean business on top of a glacier in the middle of a blizzard. I considered moving in, but they probably wouldn't have appreciated that. But I'll be back.

Mud and other Italian-style fun in Abano Terme

After spending a long weekend in Milan with the husband and our friends, I headed off alone to visit a friend in Abano Terme, a small spa town near Padua (Padova in Italian). Abano is relatively new for an Italian town, as it was mainly built up in the 50s and 60s, when having oneself wrapped in mud was the hip thing to do.

My friend happens to own one of the many spa hotels in the town, the Hotel Universal Terme. It’s a grand, old-fashioned place that makes you feel like you’ve gone back in time from the second you walk through the door (this is what the clients want, he tells me).

The exception to this old-fashioned feel is the spa, which has recently been re-done and looks like some stylish Manhattan oasis. The spa offers all the usual treatments (massages and the like), but its specialty is fango maturo, or mature mud. The mud is harvested from a nearby lake and then mixed with thermal water and aged in tanks to make a certain kind of algae grow. This mature mud has magical powers of some sort, and people get up extra early in the morning just to be treated with it. After mud is applied all over your body, you are wrapped up in cloth and then several blankets, and then left in your cocoon to sweat out anything and everything that ails you.

I’m not a terribly big fan of sweating, but I really wanted to try out some of this mud, so I had a hand treatment. Three days later, there’s still mud under my fingernails, but boy do my joints feel good. I also availed myself of the hotel’s indoor and outdoor thermal baths, which felt fabulous in contrast with the cool autumn air.

When my friend was able to get away from his busy job, we did some exploring around Abano. One afternoon we took a bike ride through the beautiful countryside to an abbey (pictured above). The evenings were passed eating delicious Italian food, one night at a pizzeria in Padua and the other at a trattoria in Vicenza. Yum!

My Milan

I love this city. I still can’t believe I avoided going back for a year, despite its proximity to our new home. I guess we needed some time to settle in and get on with our new life in our new country. When you have as many former homes as I do, sometimes it’s important to not be too sentimental when leaving a place.

But sentimental I was as we stepped off the train and I started seeing and experiencing all the familiar things – the dingy yet monumental station, the breathtaking architecture, the omnipresent bars and outdoor cafes (serving the most delicious coffee in the world), the duomo...

But we got off the train with a mission. With only three days to spend in Milan, our priorities were clear: eating, walking around soaking up atmosphere, eating, seeing our friends, eating, browsing in trendy little shops, eating, admiring the architecture, eating, taking in a little art, and eating. The only parts of the weekend that were pre-planned were the meals; everything else was merely killing time until the next eating opportunity.

The highlight of the weekend was a trip to my favorite restaurant of all time, Joia, but really all of our meals were fabulous. The brunch at the mozzarella bar Obika was delicious, as was the lunch back at one of our favorite pizzerias in our old neighborhood (where we discovered that our old palazzo is now completely covered with scaffolding – good thing we got out when we did!).

And then there was the gelato – it was cool and raining on and off for most of the weekend, but the gelato still tasted delicious – even though I’ve had it thousands of times, I’m still amazed at how good it is each time I taste it.

We didn't even get around to everything I would have liked to do (for example, we were so busy eating long meals and running around the city that we hardly had any time to sit at outdoor cafes and people-watch while sipping negronis and prosecco). Guess we'll have to go back again, soon.

Aaaaaah… Italia

How in the world is it that we hadn’t been back to Italy a single time since moving away over a year ago? We have no good excuse – Milan (our former home) is a mere three hours away by train. We don’t even have to change (changing trains in Italy might be considered a valid reason not to go). And the tickets aren’t even expensive. I’m very disappointed in us.

Anyway, we finally reached the point where we could do without real Italian food no longer, so here we are. All I can think is, wow, how did we stay away for so long? The gorgeous architecture, the insanely delicious food, the interesting shops, the gelato, the espresso…. Zurich seems so bland and sterile in comparison. (Shhhh… don’t tell Zurich I said that.) It’s good to be back.

Has it been a year already?

Time flies when you’re unemployed for the first time ever and trying to get used to a new country. The newlywed thing was the easy part.

A year ago today we celebrated our wedding in Stresa, Italy, in a beautiful setting surrounded by more friends and family than we usually see in a year (thanks to our country-hopping habits). The next week we packed up our apartment in Milan and set off to conquer Switzerland.

This also means I have been unemployed for a full year now, since I quit my job right before the wedding and move (and Scott started his around the same time). These major life events were certainly not planned to crash down on us all at once, but that’s just how things happened. It was a stressful, fun, surreal transition period to be sure.

OK, I’m going to stop here before I start to wax philosophical. Happy first anniversary to us! Too bad we don’t have any of that dark chocolate Italian wedding cake to celebrate with…