Fleeing the Regatta to Tuscany 5-19-13

Leaving Venice was bitter sweet, because I did not get go accomplish all I had wanted. We saw much evidence of the regatta as as we rose the crowded Vaporetto out of Venice. There were regular rowing boats with teams, there were kayaks, larger boats with teams of 10-12 people all rowing unison, the inevitable water taxis and the last of the Vaporettos , The Vaporetto was filled with tourists and Venitians escaping what was sure to be a mad day in their city. I would often note the head toss, the look or the sniff of an elderly Venetian that indicated their lack of appreciation at the Euros pouring in their city. I can't really say that I do not understand, however, I am not sure what Venice would do without the tourism. Needless to say I could not resist a few last minute photo opportunities!
Driving from Venice to Certaldo was not a difficult thing, however arriving in Certaldo and finding Via Cavour, was another. I thought Bloomington Indiana had the most one way streets EVER, but Certaldo has it beat, and their way of arranging them, has Bloomington beat too! Serendipitously we did find the street we needed, and walked up to ( for privacy sake I am changing the address) 19 I was dismayed as it was a obscure business. This man was so easy to work with that I have beena little uneasy the whole time, because in France I have to have a document signed and notarized (almost in blood), so to just arrive and pay, way a little worrisome to me. So I checked my e-mail again and I had the house number wrong it was 18, and there were their names on the door. We were an hour early, since we had had the chance to leave Venice early because of that dratted regatta.
We parked the car near out land lords house, and walked to a little coffee shop we had noticed on our way in to town. Poor Jodi, her eyes lit up at a croissant filled with cream, only to taste lemon, as she but into it. It was really a very nice mild lemon, but still not what she was hankering for. Anyway there were facilities and the people were nice. Jodi noticed that it was filled with a lot of old men. and so it was. The nice thing is that there are no smoking laws here now too, so it is not unpleasant to be in a coffee house full of old men! There was a town fair going on, a school or church selling pizza, of which we bought a couple of pieces. Onion and Sausage without sauce for me, and a margarita for Jodi, which was a disappointment for both of us later. Not enough cheese for her and I rather like sauce of some sort. FInally we met up with out landlord whom we followed out of the city at a breakneck pace to the cottage. It is a cute little place, actually had 2 bedrooms, and 2 bathrooms. What it does not have is heat and with 50 degree nights we are sort of peoplesicles. It is way out in the country, gravel roads, miles of grapes and olives, and incredible vistas. We jumped into bed trying not to freeze.

Not so Serene 5-18-13

Today was a challenge, I woke up later than I wold have liked, pretty sure that I had paid for a tour of the Doges palace back in the Sates ( another research project for me when I get home), but was not able to find the ticked, on line nor on my person, so the concierge here called and we were not on any list. So we had to schelp it. At least we did not have a time crunch and I was able to enjoy breakfast of coffee, juice, a coronetto, ham, cheese, salami and a peach, all in a cute little room where I chatter with two guys named John and Carl. JOdi was up when I got back, so we prepared to leave. But we were waylaid by the management here wanting to know what time we are going to leave tomorrow, I said at or before 11:00AM (check out time) and they kindly informed us that there is a regatta tomorrow and the only way out of town at 11:00 is a water taxi to the tune of $75 Euro. I don't think so. The bummer of it all is that a regatta wold have been pretty cool to see too. So now we get to be out of here by 8:00 AM, and no church. So off we went, me wondering how long we would have to wait in line. When we got to St. Marks Square, I noticed a ticket vendor and I purchased tickets, so no wait. And so we meandered through the Palace. I am continually amazed at the history here, and consider all the people who have passed these ways before. Part of the tour ticked price is a tour of the prisons, the bridge of sighs, romanticized by many is really a passage from your condemnation to the prison. So it was named the bridge of sighs because of the signs of the newly imprisoned as they left freedom. I LOVE how they ran their prisons, though, your family had to provide for you or you went pretty much hungry. I wonder if that would change our prisoner rate? I mean it does seem that if you do something wrong, we the people should not have to give you 3 hots and a cot. Hmmm.
Next a perilous trip to a restaurant near the Piazza again, which turned out to be o.k. I had a caprese and Jodi another pizza, wine of course and did not feel robbed!
On our arrival back to the hotel they offered us the opportunity to pay up, which I had really planned on doing tomorrow after another trip to the bank. But o.k. however it took about evey penny I had, especially after they added a city tax to the total. But cash was about $30.00 cheeper. So now to find a bank!
Jodi took a nap and I wrote for a while, it is good to just take a break from time to time, rather than race and try to see it all. But eventually we went to St. Marks to go to mass , which was interesting, funny how much more connected I am to the service in Norte Dame than in this place. Maybe I understand more, I don't know, I did get that is Pentecost and lots about the Holy Spirit. It was nice to have a change to sit, reflect on the spirit of the place, contemplate all those who had passed before both as worshipers and visitors. I also considered the relevance of the building, it's size and location near the Doges Palace, it was almost as if the church and the Venetian republic were trying that old "Keeping up with the Jones" thing.

Not Aqua Alta but.........

We Left Soave at our usual around, 11:30, elected to drive highway, and arrived here with little excitement. well until er arrived here, anyway. We had elected to bypass the cheaper parking and park in the Roma garage because of the rain, however finding it is a little tricky and we ended pulling in to a garage that was 72 Euro a day! Lord, we managed to get out of that one without paying at all, people get so disgusted with you! Anyway parked (If you park in the Tronchetto: take a photo of your location, and park at the "E: end) found a space quickly, but then walked & walked. We purchased visitor passes, at 30 Euro each it seemed a better value than the 7Euro/trip option. Then we had to take a people mover (or walk in the rain) to the tune of one Euro each, this was new to me, and a charming fellow led un in the direction of the Vaporetto line we needed. We arrived to a charming hotel, Just my idea of what it might be like to live here in one of the long the canal, a charming little courtyard, a opening to a small canal, and rooms, the size of which I have never seen in Europe. The only downside is that the room is terribly noisy, which does not bother me one whit, but kept Jodi awake all night. We got settled in and took off walking, I was hungry. We wandered around this neighborhood, Dosororo looking for a neighbor hood experience where Jodi would also eat. It began raining in earnest again and we fell into a little neighboor hood bar where we ordered a glass of wine and a pizza. I heard a commotion and the italian word for burned and out came out pizza, all brown and bubbly on top, just the way Jodi likes it. We watched the locals come in for a coffee, sambuca, glass of wine toss it down and leave. Others dropped a few coins in the slot machines that littered the room. It rained even harder and in came a lady with a little gray muzzled black dog that Jodi had to fuss over. Finally it let up and we wandered to the Guidecca, an area I knew from before, took some photos, got soe money out of the ATM and generally loitered our way towards Basilica Santa Maria della Salute, a big white church built in thanks for deliverance from the plague in the 1630s.As we approached there was a man sitting on the ground playing a violin and Jodi noticed he had a CD for sale, so a nice souvenir for 10 Euro. We made our way from there to Piazza San Marco. Many of the tourists were gone and it was beautifully peaceful there, with bands playing to the patrons of some of the outdoor cafes surrounding the square. I thought it way too cold to sit, but there were some stalwart folks drinking and listening. We wandered, looked and took it all in, each in her own way. I wanted to wander enough to get off the tourist trap food route, but alas, I failed. We entered a cute little place called Anima Bella, that advertised lasagna on the window, but it was curiously absent when the little lady told us what was available. I was failry tolerant of this until we got a bill for 44 Euro or a bowl of spaghetti with cream sauce and about 1/4 cup of mushroom, Jodi's cheese pizza and a small bottle of Bolla wine. Seriously that bottle of wine imported from Italy would have been less than $6.00 at home. Live and Learn I guess. We wandered back and found our way back to the Piazza where Jodi became fascinated with these little lighted thingies that she bartered with this man for, much to his consternation. We bought a few for Ghianna, et al, and then she tried to barter, trade or make a better deal with the others, finally they were closing ranks and I thought it best to depart!

Rain, Rain, Go away!

After the droughts of the last couple of years in Indiana it feels sacrilegious to wish the rain away. However, last night I watched people carry in sandbags, we went to 3 restaurants before one was open (due to flooding), and we were drenched! So I don't feel too terrible, especially as I began to wonder about "aqua alta". Aqua Alta is normally, to my understanding, a winter experience in Venice, one where everything is flooded. But what will all this rain do to Venice? Yesterday after a delightful breakfast of the usual suspects, bread (coronettos aka croissants), yogurt, meat, cheese and coffee (so strong, I swear I felt a few hairs grow on my chest!), and juice we motivated and left. Target Bassano de Grappa via Nove. I had wanted to go to Asiago, but with the weather, I chickened out of driving in the mountains, or so I thought. We started out meandering, working our way from secondary roads to smaller two lane roads, in and out of little towns and villages, even in the rain it was charming. Finally I needed facilities (all that coffee), fortunately the infidels have infiltrated here and we stopped at McDonalds for a beverage and potty break. Jodi had some fun at my expense over it, but, hey, at usually the BR is clean and I can get her a diet coke. We were both enchanted with the chairs as there was a purse notch in the back. We also wanted some bottled water (.79Euro/6) tissues and paper towels. The little store reminded me of Aldis at home. Off we went to meander some more and meander we did, up into the local very BIG hills/mountains! It was raining so hard the rivers were running at their muddy brown full speed, water was coming up out of drains, and there were mud slides! We ended up on tiny little one lane roads with no guardrails, I was getting pretty nervous. (O.K., I just did a little research on venice and am somewhat reassured, the Venice website indicates that Aqua Alta is tide related) We finally made it out and I headed for the main roads! Eventually we made it to Nove, without fighting I might add. My previous two experiences in Nove included a spat of some sort. To my surprise, we even found a cermics factory still open. I think the courtyard still rang with Steve Salvador's cries of "Just how are we going to get all that in the car?" from almost 20 years ago! I bought a goodie for a friend who just bought a new house, one for my Momma and a couple of things for myself. Hopefully with more finesse than my first time, I have a lovely little ceramic basket complete with roses that is virtually useless from that first trip! Then back to the B&B for a wine tasting, mission:: Amerone. Traffic on the way back was stopped due to an accident in a tunnel. I began to wonder if we were going to make our 7:00 PM deadline, but we did! We tried a Soave (white - o.k.), A Valpolicella (delish, much better than the Valpoliecllias one gets in the states) and an Amerone (Heaven in a glass). We bought 3 one to drink here and two small ones to bring home. So back to the room for a breather and then off to dinner. The rain would let up some to a regular rain, and then pour again, off and on all day and somehow we managed to be out in the drenching more often then the regular rain.
The restaurant we ended up in was called Locanda de Scudo. For those of you ladies who have taken the SANE course, this is the Italian word for Eschutcheon! Which, just to remind you means shield! I had fettuccine with a veal ragu, and zucchini which was very good, light but filling, and Jodi had tortellini which was good as well. For dessert we shared a creme brulee. Back out side, but finally without rain, and we took our sorry wet selves back and went to bed!

It's raining, It's Pouring, The old girls are snoring

As I lay in bed last night bright eyed and raring to go (did I mention it was 12:45AM here?), I thought of several quippy titles for todays post. This was as I listened to the soothing sounds of rain progressing to a outright downpour! To drive in the mountains in this rain and wind or not, that is the question.
Our trip here, while certainly not as interesting as last year, still held some challenges. The valet baggage check from Indy to New York managed to break the handle on Jodi's brand new light-as-a-feather bag. So, now it is only really suitable for some one under 5 foot tall to pull. No one at the American Airlines ticket counter wanted to help and the solution was to leave the terminal (and under go the exquisite pleasure of the TSA again), or call. I elected to call, which was simply a circular morass of number punching, waiting and listening to the tin lady. That pleasure ended in being told to go to baggage claim or go on-line to the American Airlines website and file a complaint. This was buried so deep I did not think I was ever going to find it,.  When I did I fought with the page because to file a baggage claim one must have a number and we only had a red valet tag. I finally got an e-mail through, but seriously doubt we will hear anything back. The flight was delayed an hour.
I watched a bossy Italian lady (I know this because she bossed her poor husband, Franco, terribly) try to cut in line, only to be turned back by the gate attendant. So we finally got on the plane, nearly the last ones on,  because now you can pay to up your entrance grouping number. (Seriously what way will they think of next to extort money from the passengers?) I was determined that our bag not be checked for us again, and as I was trying to rearrange things to get out bags in Signora Bossellini told me to get in my seat because I was holding things up. The guy in the seat behind us COULD not let his bag be a few seats up, it HAD to be right over his head (which made me wonder what was inside the bag?). Just as my poor arms were beginning to feel like jello, a hero a few seats behind offered to help, but it would just not work without Signore Secretive letting us move his bag. Finally they told us there was some room in first class overhead, and I MOVED!  On my way back to my seat, Signora Bossellini tried to apologize, but Jello does not have a gracious feel to is, nor did I.
At rest at last, I realized I had left my book at home, and only brought a pathophysiology book with me, which would have been o.k., well sort of, but no overhead light in my seat! Seriously? So I watched a movie, and ate the bland poor rendition of food American Airlines choose to feed us. We had pasta with a insipid sauce, but the alternative was a noxious meat-loafy thing that appeared to be even less food like. We both slept some and were darned glad to find the trip over.
On to find the auto rental, which I was led to believe, from my Fordorite buddies was a Hertz product.
Firefly rental was off site in an area that was, let's just say, interesting. I began to wonder if the cute little guy was taking us some where to rob and murder us. He was cute, until I began to dispute the additional 12 Euros a day he wanted to charge me for auto insurance. The plan I purchased from Economy Car Rentals  had insurance with it.  So Mr. Cute ended up putting a 1500 Euro hold on my credit card, and in a rather "Twandish" moment, I told him fine, go ahead. Just in case I wreck the thing, because the plan I bought will reimburse me.   So, finally all the paperwork completed with this now surly little guy, (Funny how an attractive appearance can get so ugly with ugly behavior) and out we go past the Ford Ka's that I had signed up for, to a little Fiat that looks like a red box on wheels. I marched back in when I noticed nothing for music besides a radio and also a brown stain on the ceiling of the car. This time a lady came out and showed us poor stupid Americans how to use the radio and took note of the stain. Off we finally went after I (Jodi) figured out how to put the darned thing in reverse. About an hour later we realized the darned thing does not have air conditioning either!
Things began looking up, though the car has no get up and go, but we managed to find the B&B Monte Tondo with relative ease. It is a cute little place situated within a vineyard. The room is great, the bed comfy and I love it. It was a good option for the first couple of nights! We napped and then went into Soave to have a look around and get a bite to eat. Soave is a cute little walled town complete with a castle. It is about 4 blocks by 5 or 6 blocks and so a easy walk, though a tiny bit hilly. The vistas though, are lovely. It was about 3:30 in the afternoon and of course, nothing much was open to serve food, so we ended up in a wine bar, Jodi had a caprese ( With a HUGE glob of delicious Mozerella!) and I had just a plate of local meats. Our food was accompanied by a glass of Amerone, a local wine, that was fabulous! We walked some and then had a gelato, Chocolate for her and Hazelnut for me. YUM! We were then ready to see the castle, but alas, it was closed. Maybe tomorrow, we agreed. So back to the room and in bed by 7PM, hence my insomnia at 12:45.
Post note: Saw my favorite blog with this cartoon after I wrote this.
http://french-word-a-day.typepad.com/motdujour/2013/05/broutille-trifle.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+FrenchWord-a-day+%28French+Word-A-Day%29
I am a little leaning disableed though so will have to let you cut and paste the link.

Gotta go again!

Wanderlust is itching my feet just as Spring is tickling the earth. Planning has started!