Home Again

Sunday, September 15th, West Chester

We are home... the last few days were as amazing as the first.  The last post has us figuring out a plan following Ferrara.  I was feeling it was time to go straight  to the  Lake District.   But Lester did some research and was interested in stopping in Verona.  I had done some minimal research on Verona and found the Colosseum and a lot of Romeo's house and Juliette's grave.  Which, wasn't appealing...because they're not real people.  But, Lester dug deeper and found many churches, several UNESCO world heritage sites and of course the Colosseum.  The Colosseum is the second largest intact Roman Colosseum after Rome.  

Off we went.  We found our way into town, found a nice hotel just outside the walls of the old city and a short walk to the Colosseum.  The biggest unknown benefit of this facility was the "on-site" parking.  The parking is sufficiently hidden that they actually send a bellboy in the car with you to direct you into the parking garage and the parking spot.  I was settling into the room but Lester described his experience as bizarre and somewhat spy like.  But the car was safely tucked away and we went to explore.  Our first stop was St. Anastasia's Duomo of Verona, then a castle and some lovely medieval streets. We also saw some people rafting on the Adige, the river that runs through Verona.  We had a nice dinner with some really good, almost indistinguishable from the real thing, gluten free pasta near the Colosseum.  

Verona sells a city card that gives  you access to all the UNESCO sites for 24 hours.  We managed to fit in all of them except the Colosseum on our first day. So after we checked out we went to the Colosseum.  The advantage of getting there at 9:00AM is that there were only two other tourist in the entire building.  We had the freedom  to explore without stepping over anyone.  After our fill of ancient Roman ruins we headed to Lake Como.  Our designated last stop prior to going to the airport.  In addition to deciding which lake to visit we needed to determine which city to use as home base for two nights.  We settled on Varenna.  Varenna is off the beaten path a bit, it is north of Bellaggio, on the east side of the lake.  It turned out to be simply beautiful. And we decided the next two days would be filled with slowing down and soaking up the natural beauty of the lakes and the "pre-Alps" that surround the lake. Lester began  this process by taking a nap while I went for a stroll and did a little shopping.  Dinner was at a restaurant overlooking the lake watching the sunset.  The next day was spent  quite  peacefully riding the mid-lake ferries and visiting several of the lake towns.  Friday, our last full day, dawned way too early so we checked out and headed down the lake to the city of Como. Upon arrival we were glad it was just a quick stop over.  Como felt too much like the Jersey shore of the lake.  We decided to just get the short drive to our last stop over started... which meant we were starting on our way home.  

We are home and I will get some actual photos posted in  the next few days.          



             

      

Bologna to Ravenna

Dateline Ferrara, Monday 9/9

So, when last we checked in we were heading to Bologna from Modena.  Bologna was yet another in a series of Medieval cities.  We arrived very much without a plan, parked in an underground lot and went for a walk,  basically in search of map and/or tourist office.  What we found was a nice hotel with a map and a room for the night.  We settled in, and walked the cobblestone streets of Bologna.  Lester found a little Osteria with a great online review.  We ate dinner there.  Lester’s pasta was reportedly wonderful.   My gluten free salad did the job but wasn’t amazing.  But, I settled for a nice gelato to make up for it.  The food has been pretty amazing.

We woke Saturday with a to do list, climb the tower, visit Dozza and Faenza - two additional cities.  After climbing almost 500 very irregular and narrow steps we made it to the top.  And, let me say it was worth the effort.  We went back to our room, showered and headed to Dozza.  Dozza was a gem.  Out food tour guide recommended it.  It is a medieval town where for the last almost 60 years, has had an annual event in which invited modern artists paint murals on the buildings.  It was literally an open air museum.  After strolling the art we went to Faenza to visit their ceramic museum.  Sadly it was not as wonderful as we had hoped.  We were hoping for modern ceramic artists. It was not.  I’m sad to say one of my favorite pieces was the amazing tile mosaic in the entrance.  There was also a very cool modern piece of porcelain which makes one scratch their head in wonder.  

Upon arriving back at our car we discovered a flat tire.  After trying to get roadside assistance, Lester changed the tire himself.  We took some lovely backroads to Ravenna.  Had a nice dinner with a really wonderful Sangiovese. In my opinion Ravenna’s mosaics were a highlight of the trip.  Even with the crowds we encountered.  Two years ago Will and I visited Ravenna and had the city to ourselves this time, Lester and I had to share many of the sights with rather large crowds. We believe this was partly due it being Sunday.  However, we didn’t go back for a second look this morning since we wanted to trade in the car, 

Preferably one without a run-flat.  Sadly, we needed to get to Ferrara accomplish that feat.  Happily, Ferrara was our next stop on our junket.  Monday’s can be difficult vacation days as many museums and sites are closed.  Which was somewhat true for Ferrara but we still were able to visit the castle and a number of small churches.  The main cathedral in Ferrara is closed to repair earthquake damage.  

Not sure where our next stop will be but with only four days left it might be time to head to the Lake District.  Stay tuned.

Cinque Terre to Bologna

Bologna, Friday September 6th.  I start this way to remind me of where I am and what the date is.  We’ve been moving around a bit.

We were about to head to Riomaggiore, the southernmost of the five villages of the CT.  The ferry was on time and crowded.  But we found seats on the open top deck and enjoyed a ride.  Seeing the Cinque Terre from the water really helps to hammer home exactly how isolated these villages are.  It really makes one wonder how they ended up here and how they survived here.  Our guesses are 1. someone made it over the mountains and down to the sea and said no way I’m dong that again... or 2. they survived a shipwreck.  This is a beautiful and isolated area.  

We agree of the 5 CT villages Riomaggiore is our favorite with Monterosso al Mare the clear second.  Manarola was our least favorite and Corniglia and Vernazza were tied for the middle.  It was worth the effort to visit these villages.  Might even consider it again sometime, but we’re pretty sure we won’t be walking between them, at least not in the heat.

We arrived in Parma without incident and settled into our hotel then went exploring.  We ended up picking up cheese and prosciutto and a bottle of wine and  “picnicked” in our room.  It was nice to have a quiet evening.  

Thursday (was it really just yesterday?) we took a pretty amazing food tour.  We went to a small Parmigiano Reggiano cheese producer.  These are run as consortiums with the producer/farmer group controlling both the milk production as well as the cheese production.  In addition to some delicious cheese, this dairy used the whey by product to produce ricotta cheese and the cream by product to produce butter.  All were sampled at the end of the tour and all were wonderful.  Next we headed to a prosciutto factory, YUM!  Fun fact prosciutto can only be produced in a small geographic region and the pigs must have been born and raised there.  If the factory uses pigs from outside the region they are forbidden to call it prosciutto.

Lunch was at a small restaurant.  They were great at accommodating my gluten free needs.  Both Lester and I became members of the clean plate club. As did most of the people on tour with us.  

Our last stop was a balsamic factory.  Again a small artisan shop with an amazing product.  We actually purchased a 20 year old balsamic.  We’re kinda hoping Will will make us some vanilla ice cream as a canvas for our inaugural tasting.  

This morning we woke to cooler, wetter, weather - the first rain we have encountered. Packed our bags and headed for Modena which was a colorful town with a wonderful market.  Might make  an argument for settling in an apartment for a month or two to explore and cook with what I’m sure are some quality ingredients.  We ended up the day wandering the streets of Bologna.  Stumbled on a nice hotel and settled in for the evening.  Tomorrow we will head off the beaten path to two small villages recommended by our food tour guide.  Fingers crossed he is as knowledgeable about these small towns as he was about creating traditional products of the region.

So, when we lasted checked in it was Sunday, and we were leaving Milan and heading to Genoa.  Genoa was picked for two reasons, it was on the way to the Cinque Terre and it is famous for pesto.  This entire region is famous for pesto.  Genoa is a tired town that once was beautiful.  Today it is rather industrial and frequently borders on seedy.  We’ll not need to visit again.

The next day we headed for the Cinque Terre.  Our plan was to park in Levanto which isn’t a Cinque Terre village but it is a 4 minute train ride to Monterosso al Mare which is the first village on the northern end of the Cinque Terre.  Upon arrival we discovered the Levanto station only accepted cash in their parking machines.  Which would have been fine if we were staying for a couple of hours but we needed 2 1/2 days worth of parking - 60 Euros.  Off we went find an ATM.  This became an adventure as we drove on winding, narrow, steep and sloped roads without guardrails.  Found an ATM, obtained our cash and retuned to park and move to Monterosso al Mare and the CT.  

We arrived in Monterosso found our hotel and settled in and began exploring this scenic village.  Our plan was/is to split the remaining four villages over the next two days (Tuesday and Wednesday).   Yesterday, Tuesday, we took the CT train to Corniglia  it was beautiful.   No matter the direction everywhere we looked we saw natural or man made beauty.  At about 11 AM we decided that the correct course of action should be to walk to Vernazza.  4 miles and 36 flights of stairs later, per my phone, we arrived.  Hot, hungry, exhausted.  We found a lovely cafe on the waterfront, settled in with a liter of water each and let the breeze work its magic, ordered food and wandered yet another breathtakingly beautiful village.  But not before agreeing that we we were done walking between the towns of the CT.  So, we took the CT train to Manarola and explored for the afternoon.  Returning to Monterosso for a shower, a nap and dinner.  

Today’s (Wednesday) plan is to take the ferry to Riomaggiore, the 5th and most southern village in the CT.  Explore that village then head out of the CT and land in Parma this evening.  Last night we booked what appears to be a centrally located hotel in Parma as well as an all day food tour for Thursday. 

So, that brings us up to date.  We’ll attempt an photo or two but at this point looks like pictures with captions will need to wait for our return to the US and a laptop.

Milan photos

Okay so google and apple don’t play nice.....the photos are mixed up...but you’ll get 5e idea.  Also, blogger won’t let me scroll  so only some are captioned. Anyway. I’ll try and post more photos tomorrow.  Last time we had a full laptop this time just an iPad.

Wild and weird musical instruments 

On the roof of the cathedral

Dante’s Devine Comedy 

Milan

We arrived in Milan at 6:30AM local time, 12:30AM Eastern US time, also the actual time our bodies thought it should be.  After what was arguably the quickest and easiest jaunt through immigration and customs ever we found our way to the train and arrived at our hotel by about 8AM.  Magically, our hotel had a room available, (hallelujah!) so we went straight to nap-land.  We both slept intermittently on the flight so we compromised on a 2.5 hour nap.  Enough to take the edge off but not enough to confuse us even more.  We headed out to explore. 

Our hotel is a short walk to a metro stop so we jumped on the metro and headed to the Duomo.  It seemed like a good base to begin exploring.  

After some oohs and ahhhs we went to Sforza Castle.  It reminded me very much of the Victoria and Albert museum in London a  little bit of everything; architecturally interesting walls, a version of  da Vinci’s Pieta, Dante’s Devine Comedy, crazy flatware and of course “the 3’ wide crab”. (Crazy old folks were so enthralled with the Pieta that we failed to take a picture....you’ll just need to visit to experience it yourself)

We left Sforza Castle and returned to our room for nap number 2 and a shower.  

We finished the evening with (in this order) a stroll around the neighborhood, a yummy gelato, dinner, sleep finally.

That brings us to today... we woke early with the assistance of a (yikes) alarm.  We had an early entry into the Milan Cathedral aka the Duomo.  As sad as we were to wake up the lack of lines and the almost empty cathedral were well worth the effort.

And the roof top terraces were amazing.  It seems the marble used to build the Duomo is very soft and there are constant reconstruction projects underway. Even with the scaffolding the sites were amazing.  I’m not sure how many steps we climbed but by11:10AM after  almost three hours into the Duomo we had walked 3 miles and climbed 20  flights...thanks apple.

And then, we wandered stumbling upon a tiny museum, Museo Studio Francesco Messina.  Messina was a Sicilian sculptor who relocated to Milan, “bought” a decrepit about to be demolished church for “80 sculptures and 26 works on paper”. It became his home, studio and gallery space.  The museum is small, such that each visitor gets a private guided tour.  He worked in bronze, wax, clay and plaster and tended towards boxers, dancers, horses and bulls.  Pretty amazing little gem.  

It turns out the museum is operated by the Touring Club Italiano.  They are a group of volunteers that work to keep the lesser museums and historic sites open and available to the public.Our guide gave us a map of the 17 sites they support in Milan.  Most of which are closed today because during  the month of August all of Italy is on holiday.  But we were able to get into two other sites.  

The Basilica di Santa Maria presso San Satiro, built between 1476 and 1482, the church is made monumental by a trompe l’oiel  illusion.

We followed that with the Chiesa di San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore.  It was described to us as the “Sistine Chapel” of Milan.  It did not disappoint.  It also had a “Last Supper”.  Not da Vinci’s but quite lovely nonetheless.

While I am writing this post Lester has been figuring out our plan for tomorrow; we’re going to Genoa for the night then heading to the Cinque Terre.  

Pictures to follow, having internet troubles. Apple and Google don't seem to like each other very much. Thank you to Nora for being my technical assistant and posting this post! (and writing this sentence)

barnstormers Return

After 5 years, the Barnstorming Summer blog returns.  This  time, it’s the Italian version.  There will be some differences, we won’t be posting every day.  It is a shorter trip.  Last time we were traveling for 5 weeks, this time just a short two and a half week jaunt.  Much will remain the same, we will once again be free styling our trip.  We have a couple of key hotel rooms booked and a rental car reserved but nothing else other than a loose “to do” list in mind.

At the risk of being contradictory, it feels like both yesterday and forever, since we’ve had a free-styling road trip extravaganza.  Our rough outline for this trip includes flying in and out of Milan. Spending two days and nights exploring then heading out and about Northern Italy.  We’ve pre-booked a hotel in Milan because who wants to try and find a room at 6AM local time and 12 midnight body time.  Surely not us, we’re not that crazy.  And, we have an airport hotel for the night prior to our departure just so we know we’ll make the return flight on time.

Our Milan plans include the Duomo but sadly not the Last Supper. Conventional wisdom holds these need to be pre-booked we were successful in obtaining cathedral and roof top tour tickets but not Last Supper tickets.  They sold out the day they went on sale.  Really all this means is that we will need to return to Milan someday.

We arrive in Milan on Friday morning.  On Sunday, we pick up a rental car and begin barnstorming Italy.  Our loose plans include Turin (home of the shroud) and or Genoa.  Then the Cinque Terre for two nights.  Our fingers are crossed that the weather will cooperate as we are hoping to walk between all five towns.  Then we head east across the Emilia-Romagna region. We expect to stop in Parma, Bologna and Modena.  We are looking to tour a parmesan cheese dairy, a balsamic vinegar production facility a prosciutto farm,and an olive oil orchard and a winery.  We fully expect to partake in the bounty these facilities produce.  

In 2017, I met up with Will while he was being “Willfully Free” or “Will, fully free”, I never did get a clear answer to that particular question.  While we were in Italy we stumbled upon Ravenna.  It is an amazing town on the Adriatic cost, just south of Venice.  It boasts 8 world heritage sites all covered in mosaics dating back to the Byzantine era.  It was a highlight of our trip and will definitely be a Barnstorming Italy stop.  

From Ravenna we will head back north and west towards perhaps Padua, Verona and or Treviso.  Then further north to the Italian Lake District.  Rounding out our trip back at MXP for a solid night sleep and an early morning departure.  

So, not many pictures worth posting from JFK waiting to board but stay tuned for the weird, the wild and the wonderful as we circumnavigate Milan.  

Thanks for joining us again this summer.