Reluctant Return Home

September 24, 2018

Our last day has been all travel. Luckily, our flight didn’t leave until 12:15 and our hotel was at the airport, so we were able to sleep in a little bit and kind of recover from our last long day. They say that German efficiency is something to behold, but during our two days in Germany it was nothing but a #clustermess. Our process of getting through the airport was no different. My parents went to check in first, while we gathered the rest of our belongings, and were forced to also collect our boarding passes. That posed a problem considering that we weren’t with them and needed our passes to do anything. Then, we tried to check our bags but were told that we needed to go to a special line for checking in with a family, even though we were already checked in and just needed to give them our bags. That, however, was just the beginning of the fun.

The first security line we went through was the German equivalent of TSA. As we approached the more than 20 lines they funnel everyone through, there was just a giant, unorganized mass of people standing there without direction or purpose. We were lucky enough to be able to push our way through the crowd to the immediate entry for families line, but that’s when we identified the root of the problem. The security lines weren’t moving at all. For no apparent reason except that nobody knew what was going on - passengers or staff. Virtually everyone was having to open their bags and pull out bottle after bottle of liquids, and then go back through the security check. We stood there for 20 minutes without moving an inch!

The next line we confronted was passport control, which went quickly thanks to the fact that we were wheeling Witten in a stroller and got to bypass the long queue. Then, however, we had to get on a train to another terminal and go through another security checkpoint for all flights into the United States . . . because going through two security checkpoints instead of one helps limit terrorism that much more. When we made it through the second checkpoint, we were starving and learned that there was no food at the gates, so we had to go back through the checkpoint, get some food, and then go through again! Thank God we got to the airport at 10:00, because we were definitely pushing it to make our flight, even with the priority granted to families with young children!

It was a ten-hour flight back home, and it felt far longer than that. Witten refused to sleep a wink, so neither Kati nor I got any sleep either, though I tried for a while. Once we got into Charlotte airspace, our pilot told us that there was some construction at the airport, so it may take longer to land and taxi to the gate. We then proceeded to make at least five or six circles before heading in for a landing. I’m not sure what was going on - whether it was the altitude, the quick turns, or the pressure - but every baby on the plane, including Witten, started screaming uncontrollably. Then, right before we were landing, Witten threw up chocolate (M&Ms) all over herself and Kati! Thank God it happened right before we landed and not earlier because Kati didn’t have a change of clothes that she could switch into, and Witten had already soiled one set of clothes earlier in the flight. Suffice it to say, the trip back was the low light of our vacation. By the time we managed to get through passport control and claim our bags, we were all done and ready to be home, if just to lay down and get some rest. Still, it was an incredibly trip!

A Nightmare of a Day But a Great Time at Oktoberfest

September 23, 2018

Walking into Oktoberfest

What should have been a quick and easy exit out of Italy with a brief stop in at Oktoberfest quickly turned into quite a nightmare of a day (with a few great highlights). The drive from Lago di Braies to Munich should take just under four hours. We were set to leave at 8:00, which would put us in right around noon for lunch and allow us to spend all afternoon at Oktoberfest. Witten threw the first wrench in that plan when she decided to throw a fit about letting me help her brush her teeth. We spent almost 30 minutes waiting for her to calm down and let me help. Her little temper tantrum didn’t throw off our schedule too much though, and we got onto the road at 8:30.

Getting through Austria was less than easy because, for whatever reason, there was a lot of traffic. Crossing the Austria-Germany border also took an exhorbitantly long time for no good reason at all. Things only got worse from there. By 1:00 p.m., were finally about an hour outside of Munich, when we stopped for a quick bathroom break at a highway rest stop. That’s when I learned a valuable lesson and must confess a certain degree of ignorance and stupidity. The car wouldn’t start after our bathroom break. We had plenty of gas and I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with it. Like I told my dad, the only message that the car had given me was that I needed to add some blue washer fluid to the tank. Who knew that “AdBlu” didn’t mean washer fluid, but a clear liquid that diesel cars use? Or that European cars are designed to not start if the AdBlu falls below a certain level? I called the rental agency (Europcar) and spent far too long trying to explain where we were to a German that couldn’t understand my awful pronunciation of German places. He was sending a repair vehicle to help us and said that it would take at least 60-90 minutes to get there. As I was walking back to the car, frustrated with the ongoing delay caused by my stupidity, I found a German guy standing by my dad in the driver’s seat, doing something on his phone. I got in and, suddenly, the van started up again! Apparently this guy had a little diagnostic box that he had hooked up to the van and reset the “AdBlu” error message so that we could start the car. It was an amazing turn of luck!

We quickly started off toward the nearest gas station to get some AdBlu and my dad called Europcar back to tell them that we didn’t need the repair team after all. The Europcar guy wasn’t thrilled about what had happened because what the Good Samaritan did for us was “technically against the law.” Having learned my important lesson about diesel cars, we added enough AdBlu to get us to Munich and continued to trudge through the traffic going the same way as we were.

It was 3:00 p.m. by the time we finally got to the airport, but that wasn’t the end of our delays. We still got a bit turned around looking for the Airport Hilton, took a nice drive through some non-road areas around the hotel, found a gas station, and finally got the rental car returned. By 3:30, we were checked into the hotel, and by 4:00 we were on the S-Bahn into Munich. The train ride took about 50 minutes, at which point we stepped out onto the streets of Munich with throngs of people dressed in Lederhosen and Dirndel flocking to Theresienwiese (i.e., the fairgrounds). As we crossed the bridge out of the train station, there was a police van with bull horns blaring German music as the crowds walked by. The walk from Hackerbrücke to Theresienwiese took less than ten minutes, and then we were there! It was just as magnificent as I remembered, and as “state fair tacky.” Witten loved all of it, and we quickly got her a giant horse gingerbread cookie to wear around her neck.

At Oktoberfest

Our first stop was at the Paulaner tent. We found a table tucked back in the corner of one of the boxes and got a big pretzel, but then spent 30 minutes trying to get one of the beer maid’s attention to get drinks. The frustration finally became unbearable and I set of to (successfully) procure us a table in the middle of everything. By that time, however, it was 5:15 and we were told that Witten had to leave the tent by 6:00 p.m. We each got a mass, downed them, listened to some great renditions of American classics (Country Road, Sweet Caroline,Will You Be My Girl), met a lovely Australian couple, and saw some drunkards get kicked out of the tent before leaving to walk past “Pass Out Hill” and get some food. We grabbed some bratwursts from one of the many food stalls, along with some candied macadamia nuts and then headed on to find another Biergarten. We settled at Spaten for another mass and narrowly prevented a hooligan from stealing Kati’s full beer while she ran Witten to the bathroom. So ended our evening at Oktoberfest, but not our night in Munich.

One of my mom’s high school classmates - Louis Nebelsick - lives in Munich and we called him to meet up for some dinner. We met Louis outside of the Hotel Senator and then rushed over to Augustiner Braü München in an effort to escape the impending storm. Louis is the quintessential professorial type, showing up a little frazzled, donning a black button up with a Tweety-Bird tie, and a European-style hat that looked a bit like a pork pie. The food at Augustiner (schnitzel and sausages) was great, as was the beer. Louis ordered everything for us in perfect German, including a “ladies beer” (i.e., a Hefeweizen) for Kati. Louis is a fascinating guy. He spent seven years working in Transylvania, is a professor in Warsaw, lives in Munich, and is about to start a dig in Como. We had a blast talking to him and, on top of all of it, the the table behind us was also American. One of the guys was from New Orleans and his wife was from Kentucky. She went to UK, but had three older sisters who all went to the University of Louisville, so was prohibited from wearing blue or cheering for the Cats.

At 9:15, it was still pouring down rain so Louis put us in a cab headed to the Ostbahnhof station. We got on the S1 to the airport, which should have taken just over an hour. At 10:20, however, we found ourselves standing on the Moosach platform filled with people, but no train. There had been some announcement in German and then everyone was required to get off of the train. We waited ten minutes for the next train to the airport, only to see the same thing happen again. This time, however, I talked to one of the S-Bahn workers that got off of the second train and he told me that the trains were terminating there because there was a power line down from the storm and that line wasn’t running any further.

By this time, two young girls from Gettysburg College that were studying abroad - one in Rome and the other in southern France - had kind of latched onto us because they were trying to make a 6:00 a.m. flight out the next morning so that they could get to classes on Monday. It was still pouring down rain, so I ran into a nearby hotel and asked if they could help us get a taxi. When they said that they could, I went back and our whole entourage fled to the hotel as well. The taxi company, however, would not send a taxi for us because they didn’t have any taxis equipped with car seats and wouldn’t pick up a baby without one. He suggested that we take the U-Bahn back into the city and try to catch the S8 to the airport instead. We did just that, taking the S3 back to Marienplatz and then switching to the S8 for the long ride back to the airport. We finally got back to the hotel around 12:30 a.m. and needed to immediately go to sleep. Witten, however, was so overtired (she hadn’t taken a nap or slept at all) that she refused to sleep in her crib and insisted on sleeping with us . . . and, somehow, taking up the whole bed! It was a long day and a long night, but we still had a really great time in Munich.

La Nostra Avventura Inaspettata a San Candido

September 22, 2018

Witten Hiking Around Lago di Braies

The original plan for today was to spend the day hiking. We were going to do a moderate 8.4 mile hike along a spectacular mountain ridge at 2,300 meters, skirt the Tirana di Rozes, pass a derelict wartime hospital from 1917, and hike through a short tunnel that was used during World Wars I and II. The weather, however, looked questionable for the first time on our trip, and everyone was a bit taxed after two long weeks and a big hike yesterday, so we decided to call an audible and skip the hike in favor for a more relaxing day.

My dad and Kati were exhausted and wanted to sleep in a little bit, so my mom, Witten, and I got some breakfast together and then went hiking around the lake again. We did not, however, do the whole hike. Rather, we walked halfway around and then retraced our steps so we avoided the hills and stairs that we would have encountered had we done the whole loop. Witten thoroughly enjoyed throwing rocks into the lake, and my mom found her a walking stick that she quickly became obsessed with.

After a leisurely morning, we set out to explore a nearby town - San Candido a/k/a Innichen. San Candido is in the Puster Valley, on the Drava River, has a population of a little over 3,000 people, and hosts Italy’s International Snow Sculpture Festival each year. We went looking for wine, but stayed because it’s a great little town with a lot to offer.

Cemetery at the Collegiata di San Candido

For example, the Innichen Abbey (i.e., the Collegiata di San Candido) - a former Benedictine monastery - was founded in the 8th century and rebuilt in the 12th and 13th centuries. Though the exterior and interior are both very plain and bare, it is one of the most important Romanesque buildings in the Eastern Alps. More impressive than the abbey itself, were the “cemeteries” within its walls. I’ve never seen graves quite like these. They were square plots with iron monument markers that had each been planted with beds of flowers that appeared to be well-tended. It was pretty neat, as was the nearby Chiesa di Santa Michele Arcangelo that exemplifies Austrian churches and religious architecture.

The town is really quaint and the center is lined with little shops and restaurants, which we spent most of the morning exploring before stopping into an Austrian-style restaurant at the end of the main drag. Kati was thrilled to have the opportunity to sample some of the local cheeses from a creamery in the next town over, along with a variety of local meats and salami.

On our walk back from lunch, my dad noticed a summer toboggan run standing above the town, so we went over to check it out. Kati and I had previously agreed that if we ever saw another summer toboggan run, we would do it, and we did. My dad wasn’t feeling great, so my mom, Kati, Witten, and I took the ski lift up to the top. Witten loved the ride up and was thrilled to find a kid’s paradise at the top. The lift was actually a lot higher than we had expected, so we didn’t have too much time to spend up there, but we did make time to jump on one of the built-in trampolines with Witten. Then it was time to take on the “Fun Bob.” The track drops 1,030 feet over the course of a mile-long track, and you can reach speeds of over 20 miles per hour! Witten 

Lago di Braies

Upon our return to Pragser Wildsee, we did some more relaxing, took pictures around the lake, and just generally enjoyed our surroundings. At 7:00 - following afternoon drinks - we sat down in the dining room for an extra special meal. As it turns out, the hotel has a larger, fixed menu on Saturday nights. We started with some prosecco and an enlarged salad bar, followed by consume with vegetables, risotto with asparagus and cheese, and Beef Wellington, all of which we paired with a very good 2014 Lagrein. Witten, however, did not make it past the consume. She exploded, so Kati and I rushed up to put her to bed before rejoining my parents for the close of our meal, which ended with a bang or, more appropriately, a flame. I asked our waiter (in Italian) what “Zuppa Inglese” was, and he described it (also in Italian) as being kind of like tiramisu without the coffee. That is not, however, how I would describe what came out. Another one of the waiters came out parading a giant, flaming cake-looking thing that they then proceeded to cut up and distribute. English Soup turns out to be more like a Baked Alaska than tiramisu. It was cake with multiple flavors of ice cream baked into it, along with fruit. I’d never had anything quite like that, but it was very good and marked a great exclamation point to a very unique experience in the Dolomites.

"Non Abbiate Paura"

September 21, 2018

Witten, Mom, & Me at the Start of Our Hike

One of the reasons that I was so excited to go to Lago di Braies was because of the exceptional hiking in the Dolomites. There are hundreds of trails meandering through the Dolomities, connecting the various towns and other landmarks, with each one denoted by a red-white-red blaze, often with a trail number emblazoned over it. Rather than identify distances, the trail markers and signs provide time estimates to get to various locations.

The Tre Cime di Lavoredo (the “Three Peaks of Lavaredo”) are one of the best-known mountain groups in the Alps, and one of the most photographed mountain clusters in the world. Like many of the peaks in the Dolomites, these three peaks - Cima Piccola (“Little Peak”), Cima Grande (“Big Peak”), and Cima Ovest (“Western Peak”) - are made of layered dolostone. Until 1919, they formed part of the border between Italy and Austria. Now, however, they lie wholly within Italy but still stand as the linguistic boundary between the German-speaking and Italian-speaking portions of Italy. The tallest of the three peaks reaches 9,839 feet and its north face - first scaled in 1933 after an ascent time of 3 days and 2 nights - is still considered one of the great north faces for climbing in the Alps.

The drive from Lago di Braies to the Tre Cime Loop Trail was treacherous. It was only about 15 miles of driving, but took almost an hour to make the drive because of the hairpin turns and roads that sometimes reached a 16% grade! On the way up we drove past what appeared to be two teams of cross-country skiers - one men’s team and one women’s team - that were on roller skis going up the mountain. Thinking about their trek up the mountain still amazes me. I definitely couldn’t do that, even if I was in peak shape!

Tre Cime di Lavaredo

There are a number of alpine huts along the trails through the park (and the rest of the Dolomites) that serve as rest houses, restaurants, and safe places for hikers to weather storms. We started our trek from one of these huts - Rifugio Auronzo - and set out up the 105, which makes up about ⅔ of the loop trail around the Tre Cime. It was really cool to see the Tre Cime from 360 degrees, over the course of the day. About an hour into our hike, we came across a lovely little stone shepherd’s hut and cafe where we got a few beers and a fresh cake made with regional cheese. After our brief break at the hut, we set out for Rifugio Locatelli and the hike got quite a bit more challenging, winding down and then back up the Pian da Rin basin. The Rifugio Locatelli was completely destroyed by shelling in World War I, and you can still see rock windows blown out of the surrounding cliff side that soldiers used when battling over the Sasso di Sesto. Once we got to Rifugio Locatelli, the hike got much easier, and it only took another hour to get to Rifugio Lavaredo and then back to Rifugio Auronzo.

We reached the base of the Tre Cime themselves at the Forcella Lavaredo, a point that Pope John Paul II reached and declared, “Non abbiate paura” (“Do not be afraid”). Those words really resonated with me, and keep running through my head. They are so fitting for such a magnificent view.

We made it back to Pragser Wildsee at 3:30 p.m., at which point we unsuccessfully tried to put Witten down for a nap and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing. In our rush to finish the hike in the morning, we skipped lunch, but Witten was hungry so Kati, Witten, and I grabbed a quick bite to eat at a small bar/cafe that had really crummy food. Afterward, we had a few drinks at the hotel bar and explored the area a little bit more. We also got Witten an adorable traditional Austrian dress that she looks amazing in.

Because Witten refused to take a nap, we decided to put her down to bed early and stagger our dinners. Boy did Witten need the sleep, she went down almost immediately! My parents took the early dinner shift, starting at 7:00, and Kati and I switched with them around 8:15. Again, dinner was good, but left something to be desired. Kati started with a mushroom and vegetable crepe, followed by a pretty good ossobuco, while I had a basic tomato soup and then a dish of mixed seafood. We were supposed to have a mint sorbet for dessert, but they must have run out because they started bringing everyone a lemon sorbet, which was very tasty. By the time we made it back to the room, Kati and I were exhausted and passed out to prepare for another exciting day in the morning.

Facciamo Un'Escursione Gira a Lago di Braies

September 20, 2018

Lago di Braies

We left Valpolicella around 9:30 a.m. for the last leg of our Italian adventure - into Trentino Alto-Adige. I was really excited because this was the part of the trip that I was looking forward to the most. Specifically, I was excited about visiting the marvelous Lago di Braies, which Anton Schwingshackl aptly described in the following quote: “Lake Braies is so beautiful, changing and yet always beautiful; its charms are so varied that no advertisement could ever describe it as it really is. No photographer will ever come close to capturing its perfection.”

Trentino Alto-Adige is one of five constitutionally created autonomous regions in Italy, with the other four being Sardinia, Sicily, Aosta Valley, and Friuli-Venezia Giulia. It’s made up of two provinces - Trento and Bolzano (i.e., South Tyrol). Between the 800s and 1919, it was controlled by the Austro-Hungarian Empire and its predecessors, so the majority of the population in the province speaks German instead of Italian. It only came into Italian hands as a result of World War I. The Austrian and Italian armies were constantly engaged in combat in the area, and the Austrian defeat allowed the Italians to seize control. Italy’s annexation of Trentino Alto-Adige was then formalized by the Treaty of Saint-Germain.

Kati, Witten, and Me Around Lago di Braies

Lago di Braies a/k/a Pragser Wildsee, is in the Prags Valley of the Dolomites. It spans approximately 77 acres and reaches a depth of 118 feet. The lake is a pristine blue-green that is characteristic of the alps, and crystal clear. The locals explain the name “Pragser Wildsee” through an interesting legend. As the story goes, long ago, the mountains in the area were filled with gold and inhabited by wild men. One day, a group of heardsmen from to the valley to graze their flock and the wild men introduced them to gold by presenting them with rings and chains. The heardsmen became greedy and started stealing gold from the wild men, so the wild men broke open a spring that flowed from the depths of the mountain to form a pool between the mountains that rose so high up the cliff sides that it barred the heardsmen’s access to the high pastures and prevented them from stealing any more gold. The lake that the wild men had created was called the Wild Lake, or “Wildsee,” and the heardsmen’s valley was called “Pragser Tal.” Thus, the lake was known from that day forward as “Pragser Wildsee.”

There are not any motorized boats allowed on the lake. Rather, those seeking to explore the lake can rent wooden rowboats from a boat house that was built on stilts above the lake over a hundred years ago. That’s the same time that the Hotel Pragser Wildsee - a magnificent stone building gracing the shore of the lake - was completed (1898). The hotel is so splendid that, when the crown prince Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Este visited it in 1910, he was so taken that it decided to spend several weeks as a guest there.

Hotel Pragser Wildsee is also famous for playing a unique role during World War II. In late April 1945, during the closing weeks of the war in Europe, the Nazi authorities gave orders to move 141 high-profile prisoners from Dachau Concentration Camp to Innsbruck, Austria, and then down to a hotel near Bozen, Italy. Dozens of troops from the SS and SD guarded the transport, which was composed of a variety of old trucks and buses carrying the camp’s most important and prominent family members. The officers in charge of the transport had orders to kill the prisoners if there was any fear of capture, or if liberation by the advancing Allies became imminent. The German troops in South Tyrol, however, took the inmates into protective custody and the entire group was put up in the Pragser Wildsee until they were eventually liberated by U.S. troops in May 1945.

Hiking Around Lago di Braies

We arrived at Lago di Braies around 1:30 p.m. and were promptly greeted by a large, black Newfie named Happy. The man at the desk had a great sense of humor. He was also shocked that we were American and said that this past year they have seen more Americans coming to the lake than he had seen in the past decade. It appears that Instagram has drawn tons of new visitors to a beautiful locale that was previously rather unknown outside of the immediate surrounding countries. It’s a shame, but it’s also kind of how I found out about Braies - from photographs posted by a few of my favorite photographers.

After checking in, we grabbed a few beers and a late lunch before going for a nice hike around the lake. The hike was approximately 2.2 miles and included around 210-feet in elevation change, which isn’t a ton. It was not, however, the really easy walk that we had anticipated and my dad and Kati were not thrilled with the unexpected difficulty of some sections. Regardless, it was truly a beautiful walk and a great way to spend the afternoon.

Our stay at Pragser Wildsee includes half-board, meaning that breakfast and dinner are included. We were given an assigned table for dinner and required to be seated between 7:00 and 8:30 (though dinner lasted substantially longer than that). Our first dinner was a four-course meal consisting of a nice salad bar, our choice of three soup/pasta dishes (bean soup, spätzle, or spaghetti carbonara), our choice of three meat dishes (deer goulash, roast beef in a brown sauce, or some sort of fish dish), and a traditional cake from the area (i.e., a funnel cake) for dessert, though Witten opted for vanilla gelato with a chocolate straw. The food was good, but left something to be desired when compared to many of our other meals. I did, however, love the formal and relaxed feeling of a set, extended dinner and, surprisingly, Witten was outstanding and made it through the entire dinner without needing to be put to bed (though she also did a lot of running around).

Giriamo a Valpolicella

September 19, 2018

Mom, Kati, and Witten at Madonna della Corona

Valpolicella makes five different wines from four different grapes. The grapes varieties are: Corvina, Veronese, Rondinella, and Molinara. The five types of wine are: Valpolicella Classico, Valpolicella Superiore, Valpolicella Ripasso, Amarone, and Recioto. Each of these types of wines is tightly controlled and regulated. Valpolicella Classico is made from grapes grown in the original Valpolicella production zone. Valpolicella Superiore must be aged for at least one year and must have an alcohol content of at least 12%. Amarone is made from partially dried grapes, and must be composed of certain ranges of percentages of Corvina, Rodinella, and other approved red grape varieties. The word “Amarone” means “the great bitter” in Italian, and was initially used to distinguish it from Recioto, which is its sweeter cousin. Ripasso is Valpolicella Superiore that is passed over the partially dried skins left over from fermenting Amarone and Recioto.

The first item on our itinerary for the day was to hike up to Il Sanctuario di Madonna della Corona, which was built into the mountainside and can be reached by climbing approximately 1,500 stairs from Brentino Belluno. Everyone but me nixed the plan to hike up those stairs while we were at breakfast, but agreed to dropping me off at the bottom of the stairs and then driving up closer to the top, so we could meet up at the church. Fate, however, stepped in because I couldn’t find the bottom of the stairs to save my life. Thus, we decided to all drive up the mountain to Spiazzi and make the 20 minute walk down to the church together. The roads were treacherous, but there were dozens and dozens of bikers going up the mountain with us! It was a stunning drive and we arrived in Spiazzi around 11:00 a.m. The stairs up are used as a pilgrimage and are adorned with bronze renditions of the stations of the cross. We were privileged enough to see stations 8-15. As I told Kati, the stations of the cross don’t often do anything for me, but seeing them on this cliff side, in bronze scenes was incredibly moving. Interestingly, there was some lady on the walk down to the church that raised alpacas and was selling scarves and other garments made from their fur.

The Holy Steps

Madonna della Corona did not disappoint! It’s absolutely on my list of top ten churches I’ve been to in amazing locations - right up there with the Ostrog Monastery in Montenegro and the Rila Monastery in Bulgaria. It was truly stunning. There was a small church built right into the rocks, lined with confessional booths that overlooked the vase expanse below. To the side of that church was a stairway of 28 short, marble stairs that were designed for the devout to climb on their knees while contemplating the suffering of Christ and flagellating themselves (seriously). At the top of those stairs was another great little chapel with some stunning stained glass windows. And that wasn’t even the main church! There aren’t words sufficient to describe this place and its setting. If it was intended to be a location to instill faith in the faithless, it certainly accomplished its goal!

After spending a little over an hour at the sanctuary, we loaded back up into the car and started our descent to Fumane for lunch. The location that I had picked out - Enoteca della Valpolicella - is renowned for its food, and for having a wine list of over 700 different wines! It was quite a lunch. My mom and Kati started with plates of ricotta-stuffed zucchini flowers, while my dad had a sampler plate of salami, and I opened the meal with an amazing beef tartare, all of which we paired with a nice Valpolicella Superiore. Kati and I both got tortellini with duck, squab, and guinea fowl. My dad had the same, but with porcini mushrooms instead of birds, and my mom got some really lovely ravioli stuffed with ricotta cheese and white mountain spinach. Those dishes were paired with a really outstanding Ripasso from a local biodynamic winery in Fumane. After trying that wine, that winery became our next stop.

Azienda Valentina Cubi was only a mile from the Enoteca. It is a very small family owned estate that is organic certified. We had actually eaten lunch right next to one of the ladies who worked at the winery, which was pretty neat. She was entertaining their danish distributors. Despite not having a reservation, we got a tour of the winery and tasted five of their wines, plus a bonus because we had already tried their Ripasso at lunch. The Classico was good and the Superiore was excellent. We also got to try two of their Amarone - one from 2007, right before they became organic certified, and the second from the first year after they became certified. I liked the older one, but Kati preferred the crunchy organic one. Their Recioto, which I had never had before, was also phenomenal. The last wine that we tried was a weird one, a mix of Sangiovese and the typical Valpolicella grapes. None of us particularly cared for it. The others, though, provided a wonderful slate of wines to represent the region. We also got to hang out with the vintner and owner of the winery, which was really cool. I asked her for some recommendations that we could go to next, and got a varied list that spanned the entirety of Valpolicella. We picked out a close one that she highly recommended as a small, but outstanding producer.

Tenute Ugolini Estate

Finding Monteleone was challenging, and ultimately unfruitful. The gate was closed, but my mom and Kati walked up and eventually got to speak with the owner, who said that they were open, that they did do tastings, but that she had somewhere else that she needed to be that afternoon, so she couldn’t accommodate us. Alas, we decided to go to another winery that the Enoteca had recommended and that was on the drive back to our hotel - Tenute Ugolini. I don’t know if I’ve ever been to a more gorgeous estate in my life. It’s another small, family-owned winery. They have five vineyards spread across Valpolicella, each of which is devoted to making one of the region’s famous wines. The lady working at the winery was initially terse and cold, but warmed up quickly and gave us a really wonderful tour of the family’s home (which is also the base for their operations). We had a table right on the veranda overlooking the vineyards and the rows of cypress trees lining the gravel drive up, and got to taste all of their wines, except for the Recioto, which they was unfortunately out of stock.

We spent the remainder of the afternoon relaxing around Ca’ dei Maghi and sipping wine. Witten hadn’t taken a nap, and refused to take one when we got back, so Kati and I decided to put her down early. Luckily, the outside patio for the restaurant was within range for our baby monitor, so we just set it up on the dinner table and had a pleasant, baby-free meal, coupled with a bottle of Ca’ dei Maghi’s Amarone.

Il Nostro Viaggio a Valpolicella

September 18, 2018

View from the Tower of Scaligiari Castle in Sirmione

Today was another travel day . . . and a different kind of travel day at that because it also marked the beginning of our tour into the Italian countryside and mountains.

Our taxi ride from our hotel to the Florence airport turned into quite an experience. It was the first day of school in Florence, so the roads were clogged to begin with. Our driver tried to circumvent traffic by taking some back alleys and roads only to find that one of them was unexpectedly closed because Ryan Reynolds was shooting Six Underground (a new Netflix movie). There were several cars in front of us and, after an extended exchange between our driver and the other drivers, who had gotten out of their cars, we ended up backing up about six blocks because that was the only way out of the pickle that we had found ourselves in. Seeing a line of cars backing up out of a narrow alleyway flanked by brick walls from the 1500s was hilarious, as were the exchanges between all of the drivers and people on the street who were pissed off that the movie was being filmed without any notice or road closings. We finally got to the airport, where we picked up our rental car - a large, nine-person Volkswagen van. It took an exorbitant amount of time to get through the rental process, but, on the bright side, I learned that they were reimbursing me for the absurd international one-way fee they charged me for picking up the van in Florence and dropping it off in Munich. Apparently, they found a German van that needed to go back over the border, so I ended up doing them a favor to the tune of several hundred dollars! After about an hour, we were finally off and out of Florence.

The next leg of our Italian adventure is based in Veneto, of which Venice is the capital. We are not, however, spending any time in Venice itself. Rather, we’re focusing our travels in the area north of Verona, with Valpolicella as our final destination.

Driving through the Tuscan countryside was nice. Emilia-Romagna, not so much. As my mom aptly noted, it looked a whole lot like Indiana - flat, farmland, with little there. To be sure, there are some incredible parts of Emilia-Romagna, we just weren’t driving through any of them. We passed Bologna, which my Italian professor taught me was famous for the three T’s - torte, torre, e tette (torts, towers, and tits). We also passed Modena, which is home to the best restaurant in the world (Osteria Francescana).

Before heading into wine country, we made a pit stop at Sirmione, which is actually in Lombardy, not Veneto. It’s an ancient town located on the Sirmio peninsula, which divides the lower portion of Lake Garda. The first people settled in Sirmione around 600 B.C., and it became a hotspot for the Veronese aristocrats as early as 100 B.C. In fact, it has been famously praised by Catullus, who frequented the area. Between 300 and 400 A.D., the Romans fortified the city to defend the southern shore of Lake Garda. It existed as a free commune until the 13th century when the Scaligeri family took control of it. It was the Scaligeri that fortified the peninsula, building a castle and making sure that the only way to access the Sirmio peninsula was to cross one of two drawbridges through the fortified walls. The Castello Scaligeri also stands as one of the rare examples of a fortified harbor. Part of the castle extends into the lake so that the Scaligeri could safely maintain part of their fleet within the castle walls and provided defenses against invaders and locals. Sirmione definitely lived up to my expectations. The little town could not be more picturesque, particularly in light of the amazing castle. I could have spent a few weeks there, and was very disappointed that we were only able to stop in for lunch and a quick look around.

View From Our Hotel Room in Fumane

From Sirmione we drove into Valpolicella, which is on our itinerary because it’s one of my mom’s favorite wine regions in the world. The only region of Italy that produces more DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata) wines that Valpolicella is Chianti. We arrived at Ca’ dei Maghi, our winery/vineyard/hotel around 5:30 p.m. It’s located on the hillside overlooking Fumane, and offers an outstanding view of the region and the vineyards that stretch for miles. After the three-hour drive from Florence, we decided to take it easy in the afternoon. Kati, Witten, and I took a dip in the pool (which was ice cold) while my parents enjoyed some wine on the patio. Then, we settled in for dinner.

Our dinner was phenomenal. We started with some eggplant rolled with ricotta cheese and topped with a local tomato sauce, as well as plates of local cheeses and meats. Kati and I both got some tagliatelle with duck ragu, followed by some excellent panna cotta - Kati’s with chocolate and mine with fruit. It was an excellent introduction to Valpolicella.

Il Piazzale Michelangelo

September 17, 2018

View From Piazzale Michelangelo

There are some moments that can only be described as perfect. Watching the sunset in the Piazzale Michelangelo was one of those moments.

The Piazzale Michelangelo is renowned for being the best vantage point in Florence because it is up the hill on the Oltrarno and offers an unobstructed view of the Arno, the Ponte Vecchio, the Duomo, and the Palazzo Vecchio. It was a hike to get up there, especially considering that Witten fell asleep in the stroller and my dad and I had to “princess carry” her up flight after flight of stairs. Yet it was all worth it.

Overlooking Florence

We found a spot on the rail right at the edge of the Piazzale as the colors started to come in. As we stood there, sipping large Peroni, watching the Tuscan sun fall below the horizon, a street guitarist bellowed out an outstanding rendition of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. The brisk night air and the serenity of it all made time stand still, if only for an hour.

After the sun had set, we meandered back to the hotel, but stopped at a restaurant in the Oltrarno first. It’s one of those places that I couldn’t tell you the name of if I tried. The restaurant that I wanted to go to was a little spot with two tables inside and two small tables outside, all of which were full. So we just popped into the next good looking restaurant that we saw. It could not have been more quintessentially Italian. Brick walls, arches, and ceilings; small wooden tables and chairs; candlelight flickering over classical white tablecloths. I did something that I’d been talking about doing our whole time in Florence - I got a Florentine T-Bone steak. That is, after all, what Florence is known for, the grill and particularly giant, grilled steaks. It was totally worth it!

Firenze e il Oltrarno

September 17, 2018

Us at the Boboli Gardens

After hitting the “big three” yesterday, we were largely free to explore the rest of the city today. The only must hit left on the list was the Duomo. We woke up, visited the Battistero, and then got in line for the Duomo at 9:50 - ten minutes before it opened. The line already wrapped all the way around the back of the Duomo, and it could not have been moving any slower! After 30 minutes, we ditched the line and decided to try again later, opting instead to head over the Ponte Vecchio to the Oltrarno to visit the Palazzo Pitti and the Boboli Gardens.

The Pitti Palace was (mostly) built in 1458 by Luca Pitti - an ambitious Florentine banker, and one of the Medici’s rivals. The Medici, however, had the last word, buying the palace for themselves in 1549 and establishing it as the primary residence of the ruling families of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany for the next several hundred years. Napoleon also used it as a base in the late 18th century, and it briefly served as the royal palace for the Kingdom of Italy, before Victor Emmanuel III donated it to the Italian people in 1919. Unfortunately, we didn’t really take the time to explore the Palace itself, which is now the largest museum complex in Florence. Instead, we spent our time exploring the Boboli Gardens. 

Witten Exploring the Boboli Gardens

The Boboli Gardens span 11 acres and include hundreds of 16th-18th century statutes from the Medici’s personal collection. They were designed for Eleanor’s di Toledo - Cosimo I de’ Medici’s wife. There were several architects/engineers, but Giorgio Vasari had a hand in laying out the grottoes, which is also why it’s connected to the Uffizi by the Vasari Corridor. The gardens weren’t as manicured and floral as I expected, but they were still stunning. We also took a quick peek in the Medici’s porcelain museum.

After the gardens, we grabbed lunch at a small place right on the Arno, which was really pleasant. Then, my parents wanted to split up so that my dad could do some jewelry shopping. Kati, Witten, and I opted to walk around a little bit and then see Dante’s old home (which was pretty neat). When we all met back up, we finally had the chance to make it into the Duomo. Though impressive, it wasn’t quite as magnificent as I had remembered, and it definitely doesn’t compare to the Duomo in Milan. Still, a very nice afternoon. The evening, however, was to die for . . . after an afternoon rest.

Esploriamo a Firenze

September 16, 2018

Witten Explaining Art at the Uffizi

To say that today was a big one would be an understatement. We hit almost all of the “major” Florentine sights, starting with the Galleria degli Uffizi. Giorgio Vasari started construction of the Uffizi - at Cosimo I de’ Medici’s direction - in 1560. It was intended to accommodate the offices of the Florentine magistrates. Construction was not completed until 1581, and the top floor was made into a gallery for the Medici family and their guests. The name “Uffizi” is fitting, even today, because the gallery is shaped like a giant “U.” One of the most interesting parts of the Uffizi is that it’s organized temporally, such that the first room begins with Giotto and medieval art, and then it continues sequentially until the end of the Renaissance.

On the Terrace of the Uffizi

It’s funny, because I forgot that Giotto was the very start of the Uffizi’s collection. Coincidentally, his central work there - Ognissanti Madonna - is also one of my favorite works of art of all time. You can simultaneously see how he drew from the Byzentines, and the origins of the Renaissance. Contrary to popular belief, the Renaissance were not the child of Florence’s immaculate conception. Rather, they bled over from Constantinople as the Byzantine empire fell into decline. (Serbia has some amazing examples of Renaissance-esque art that predates the Italian Renaissance). Plus the naturalism of the figures is just haunting. Other highlights of the Uffizi’s collection include Botticelli’s Birth of Venus and Primavera, da Vinci’s The Annunciation and Adoration of the Magi, Raphael’s Madonna of the Goldfinch and Portrait of Leo X, and Michelangelo’s Doni Tondo, not to mention some incredible works by Lippi, Titian, Parmigianino, and Caravaggio. It really is my favorite art museum in the world!

After the Uffizi, we stopped in at the hotel for a quick break before grabbing lunch at a nearby restaurant. It was incredible. Setting aside the huge beers we got, they had some fried zucchini flowers that were out of this world! Our plan following lunch was to go to the Duomo, but the line was absurdly long, so we called an audible and went to the Galleria dell’Accademia instead.

David

The Accademia is the second-most visited art museum in Italy (after the Uffizi). Overall, it’s significantly less impressive than the Uffizi, but it does house Michelangelo’s David. The paintings are somewhat lackluster after seeing the Uffizi, but the Museo degli Strumenti Musicali (the Museum of Musical Instruments) was truly awesome. They had a handful of Stradivarius instruments (including a Viola!) as well as the oldest stand-up piano in the world. Setting aside the David, that was the highlight of the Accademia. The David, of course, is without comparison. As everyone noted, it’s far bigger and more impressive than they originally thought (I felt the same the first time I saw it).

On our way back from the Accademia, we decided to complete the trifecta of Florentine museums and hit up the Palazzo Vecchio f/k/a the Palazzo della Signoria. It was originally built in 1299 as a palace worthy of Florence’s importance, and that would be more secure and defensible in times of turbulence. It’s where the ruling nobles of Florence - the signoria - would meet and meat out justice for centuries to come. The most impressive part of the Palazzo is the Salone dei Cinquecento, which Savonarola wanted as the seat for the 500 members of the Grand Council after Florence had exiled the Medici in the 1490s. It’s also the room where Robert Langdon famously shot someone who then fell through the ceiling in Inferno. The other highlight of the Palazzo was Dante’s death mask (also popularized by Dan Brown). Thought the current thought is that it was not a true death mask, it was still really cool.

We finished up the night with dinner at L’Osteria di Giovanni, which is a wonderful little Tuscan restaurant, specializing in local dishes, near the Arno. Everyone’s food was incredible, but I think that my dad won the night with the most tender suckling pig I’ve ever eaten in my life (accompanied by Ossobuco). After all of our shopping and museum perusing, we were all beat and turned in by around 9:30 p.m. (i.e., as soon as Witten fell asleep and it was safe for us to go back into our room).

Explanation & Apology

To those who actually read my blog regularly while we travel, sorry that I haven't posted since our first day in Florence.  During the second week of our trip we were in much more rural areas with limited to no Internet connection and I was experiencing some technical difficulties with the interface that I use to update my blog.  Suffice it to say that we are home safe and I will be publishing entries from the remainder of our trip over the next few days.  Sorry for the delay.

Abbiamo a Firenze

September 15, 2018

Witten Throwing Her Nose into the Arno

Another travel [half]day. We left Manarola at 8:40 a.m., took trains to La Spezia, Pisa Centrale, and finally Firenze Santa Maria Novella, where we arrived at noon on the dot. Florence is a zoo, and we’re all hoping that it’s cruise ship traffic (yes, Florence is two hours from the coast and still a major destination for awful cruises that ruin everything they touch). We grabbed a taxi to our hotel - B&B Galileo 2000 - to avoid walking a mile with our luggage through insanely crowded streets. The proprietor of the hotel is lovely, as is the hotel itself. It has an old-school level of character and ornateness that just screams “Florence.” Even E.M. Forster would be proud of our Room with a View.

It was a pretty laid back afternoon. We started by grabbing sandwiches at I Due Fratelli, which has been an institution in Florence since 1875. It’s little more than a storefront, but the sandwiches are second to none. Callie, my dad, and I all got wild boar salami and butter sandwiches. My mom got some vegetable nonsense to make herself feel better about the lack of greens in dishes over here, and Kati got a prosciutto, cheese, and rocket sandwich.

After lunch, we split up. Callie and my parents went off to do some shopping, while Kati, Witten, and I did some minor sightseeing. We started off at the Palazzo Vecchio, walked over to the Duomo, and up a few of the major drags, until we ended up right back at the Palazzo Vecchio to buy FirenzeCards, which I highly recommend doing. Witten then insisted on getting gelato (her new favorite food group), and picked out a mango one for herself that she then proceeded to finish.

For dinner, our plan was to go to a local pizza hotspot - Il Pizzaiuolo, which is right by the Università degli Studi di Firenze. I’ve heard that reservations - which we did not have - were essential for dinner, so we were concerned about our ability to get a table and went early. The restaurant was closer than I thought, so, even after meandering up the Arno and stopping in a few shops, we got there around 6:15, with 45 minutes to kill before Il Pizzaiuolo even opened. Luckily, the nearby Piazza Sant’Ambrogio was hopping. There was a local band called the Partners in Crime who had mastered the American hipster look, and played some really incredible Italian blues. We grabbed a table outside at a small enoteca, also called Sant’Ambrogio, and enjoyably passed the hour while Witten continued to nap in her stroller. At ten to seven, we walked over to Il Pizzaiuolo to get a table. The restaurant was empty and they were still setting things up, but a small crowd started to form around the entrance so I quickly asked them if they were open and if we could get a table without a reservation. No problem. The meal did not disappoint. We had an unbelievable burrata appetizer, some great Tuscan red wine, and some outstanding Neapolitan “deep dish” pizzas. (They’re only deep dish pizzas when compared to the traditional Italian pizzas that have virtually no crust on or under them). 

Santa Croce at Night

Our walk back was pleasant. The rest of the evening, however, was not. As I was looking for a power cord, I realized that I didn’t know where one of my small bags was - the one in which I kept most of my incidentals. Callie had been carrying it all day, and I’d checked in periodically to make sure she still had it, which she always did. I hadn’t, however, remembered seeing it at the hotel. I panicked . . . more and more as I remembered what was in there. The power cord for my laptop, my extra books, my rain jacket, my travel pillow, my iPod, my point-and-shoot, my headphones, my house keys . . . and my meds. This was not good, and definitely not a good way to end the night. I resolved to check with the hotel proprietor in the morning and, if she hadn’t seen it, to call the taxi company.

*Addendum - My bag is lost. The hotel staff hasn’t seen it, the taxi company doesn’t have it, and I have no idea where it could possibly be. It may be sitting on a train, it may have been picked up off of the side of the street, it could be anywhere . . . anywhere but here. This is all very frustrating.

Il Mio Sogno Ligure

September 14, 2018

Hiking From Monterosso to Vernazza

It was our day to explore Cinque Terre, and it started early. Our plan was to take the train up to Monterosso (the northernmost town), and hike back down to Manarola. Though the traditional seaside trail between Corniglia and Manarola was closed, Francesca (our hotelliere) told us that there was a “very hard” trail between Corniglia and Manarola, that went over the mountain and that would take approximately two hours. We bought our Cinque Terre cards and then set out on the train.

Monterosso di Mare is the northernmost and largest of the five towns. It’s also my least favorite because it’s very commercialized and caters to tourists more than the others. For example, there are several large beaches owned by hotels that put up hundreds of tourists in the town. You can tell that there are too many tourists going through there too because the lady at the shop we stopped at for breakfast was not pleasant. After a sufficiently irritating interaction to get our food, we started hiking. 

The hike between Monterosso and Vernazza is about four kilometers and is supposed to take two hours. I didn’t remember the hike being particularly difficult, and I didn’t remember it taking nearly two hours, but boy was I wrong! Perhaps it was the heat, or perhaps it was the fact that I was carrying Witten and all of her gear on my back, but the climbs on the hike were a real challenge. My dad gave us a bit of a scare when he tweaked his knee while stepping up a particularly large step. Luckily, he didn’t hurt himself too badly. It was clear, however, that my dad and Callie would not be doing the next hike. Finally, we hiked down into Vernazza.

Vernazza From Above

Vernazza - the second town - is my favorite. It has a beautiful natural harbor, and is the lowest of the five towns. Last time I was there, Shawn and I were about the only people in the town, and we did a wine tasting at a quaint little enoteca. No more. They do boat tours in Cinque Terre, and it was like being in a cruise ship town . . . swarming with tour groups of old people and Asians. The town was still stunning, but the crowds were absolutely awful. It reminded me of being in Ephesus - and not in a good way. Regardless, we still enjoyed ourselves. We got pizzas at a nice little restaurant in town, spent some time down at the rocky beach, and perused the shops. We all ended up getting shirts at this one shop that I quickly became obsessed with. The owner is an avid hiker and climber, who is also really into Salewa, which is one of my brands. As an aside, Salewa is probably the best Italian outdoor company, and, in my opinion, one of the best in the world. They’ve taken climbing shoes and ported some of the concepts - like laces running all the way to the toe - over to hiking and trekking shoes. They’re based out of Bolzano, which we’re driving through, and I couldn’t be more excited. After I showed Kati that he was selling Salewa shoes and showed him the pair I was wearing, he told us that Salewa did the prints for the shirts that we were buying. Talk about cool in a super-nerdy way!

My dad and Callie opted to take the train over to Corniglia, while my mom, Kati, Witten, and I hiked there. The hike was shorter - about three kilometers - and was supposed to take about an hour and a half. It was not, however, much easier, so it’s probably a good thing that my dad and Callie opted to not come with us. Setting aside the amazing views, the best part of this hike was the bar located at the very top of the mountain between the two towns. We got some orange and lemon granite (slushees), and relaxed overlooking the sea for a little bit before finishing our trek to Corniglia.

Corniglia is the only one of the five towns that is built on the top of a cliff, instead of touching the water. Thus, I was hopeful that we wouldn’t get all of the boat tour crowds that we had to deal with in Vernazza. It was definitely less crowded, but still more crowded than I would have liked. We couldn’t find my dad and Callie, so we set up shop at a small enoteca for some drinks and snacks. Then, low-and-behold, Callie came walking down the street! Apparently they had been waiting at a different bar, in the opposite direction, but they relocated to our spot for a few drinks. I got a black cherry granita, which was phenomenal, and only bettered by my mom’s decision to get the same granita, with vodka. We all shared a laugh because the train station in Corniglia is at the bottom of the hill, and you have to walk up hundreds of steps to get to the town, so they didn’t really miss much of the difficult hike in taking the train!

Rather than attempt the two-hour, difficult trail between Corniglia and Manarola, we decided that it would be a better use of our time to take the train down to Riomaggiore (the fifth town) for a little relaxation and an early dinner. We grabbed a quick drink at a bar overlooking the harbor, and then walked up into town to get some dinner. My mom and I got some lobster-stuffed pasta with shrimp and zucchini, Kati got a potato gnocchi with sea bream, and my dad got a lovely spaghetti carbonara. We finished the night by getting some gelato - Witten picked out a milk cream that she loved and ate all of - and then stopping by the nearby supermarket in Manarola to pick up a few beers for the evening. Kati and I put Witten down and then sat out on the streets of Manarola drinking our beers and taking in the atmosphere.

Arrivadercci Milano

September 13, 2018

Us on the Terrace of the Duomo

Today was largely a travel day, but first we had to see the most important sight in Milan that we hadn’t managed to get to yet - the Duomo. The Duomo is, far and away, my favorite church in the world (that I’ve seen thus far). Unfortunately, it’s changed a lot since I was last here in 2006. It used to be free, and they left the doors open for anyone to enter at any time. You still had to pay to go up to the terraces, but that was it. Now, however, it’s like a military compound, with armed guards at every entrance. The lines are absurdly long, and you have to pay, just to go in.

Construction on the Duomo began in 1386, but it took more than 600 years to finish! It was dedicated to Santa Maria Nascente, and meant to memorialize the end of the tyrannical Barnabò Visconti’s reign, and the ascension of Gina Galeazzo Visconti. It was also intended to be the seat of the Archbishopric of Milan. Nearly 80 different architects and engineers worked on the project over the course of its life. It’s the largest church in Italy by far, and, depending on the source and criteria being used, the third or fourth largest church in the world. St. Peter’s Basilica (which is in Vatican City, not Italy), is unquestionably the largest. The second is Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady in Aparecida, Brazil. The third largest depends on whether you’re measuring internal or external size. The Duomo in Milan is the third-largest by internal size, but the Cathedral in Seville, Spain is quite a bit larger on the exterior, but has a smaller interior.

The most revered relic in the Duomo is il Santo Chiodo (the Holy Nail) - one of the nails used to nail Jesus to the cross. It rests in a tabernacle nearly 150-feet above the altar, and is only brought down once each year during, the Rite of the Nivola. The Rite of the Nivola owes its name not to the nail, but to the cloud-shaped lift that the Archbishop rides up to retrieve the nail during the ceremony. The RIte of the Nivola occurs on September 14 every year, so we just missed seeing it. Having seen it before, however, I can vouch for the fantastic and ethereal ceremony they conduct.

Saint Bartholomew

My other favorite piece of art in the Duomo is a statue of Saint Bartholomew, who was flayed alive in 1562. The statue depicts him with his flayed skin draped around his body, with his head over his back. It’s stunning, and I’m pretty sure that the guy who directed Harry Potter modeled Voldemort after this statue.

After spending about an hour admiring the Duomo, we walked up to the terraces to check out the view from the top. The view is ok, but the real draw is the Gothic architecture and the hundreds of gargoyles and figures that adorn the outside of the cathedral. My mom wanted to get a picture at a particularly pretty spot on the terrace, so we were waiting for this Japanese guy(30ish) and his father to finish taking pictures. It was 10:00 a.m., but this guy was wearing a tux shirt (that he had sweated through), with an untied white bow tie, jeans, and black tennis shoes. We thought that they would take a picture or two and move on, but we couldn’t have been more wrong. The dad directed his son to strike all sorts of absurd, pensive poses and took multiple pictures from multiple angles before telling him to strike another pose. Finally, he walked out and we were sure it would be our turn. Nope. The father dropped his bag and they changed places to replicate the ridiculously long photo shoot. When they FINALLY finished, my mom was walking into the corner when a couple (clearly Italian) with a selfie-stick barged in front of her to take their pictures in her spot. Thankfully, we finally got a few good pictures there and moved on.

We wrapped up our tour around 10:30, made a quick stop at the hotel to grab our luggage, and then began the long and arduous trip to Cinque Terre. When we arrived at the train station, I learned that our train had been effectively sold out - there were only two seats left, and we needed six - so we had to delay our departure by about 30 minutes. We passed the time at a small Asian bistro in Centrale, which was surprisingly good.

Our first train was to La Spezia, which is just south of Cinque Terre and, with Levanto, serves as one of the main hubs for travel to the five lands. It was a train to Rome, so we had designated seats and the people on the train were real pills about it. I’ve never had someone demand their assigned seat until today, which resulted in a quite a bit of confusion and frustration as we relocated from one car to the next with all of our luggage in tow. After about three hours, we arrived in La Spezia, made the switch to the Cinque Terre Regional Express, and made the 15-minute trip up to Manarola.

Manarola is the fourth of the five towns in Cinque Terre, when counting from north to south. I booked our hotel there because, to my knowledge, it was the southernmost town connected by open trails. Via dell’Amore - the trail between Manarola and Riomaggiore (the fifth town) has been closed since a major landslide in 2011. Upon arrival, however, we learned that the trail between Corniglia (the third town) and Manarola was also still closed.

Witten and Her Italian Friends in Manarola

Manarola, like all of the villages, is on a very steep hill. Luckily, our hotel was right at the bottom of the hill, as soon as we came out of the tunnel to the train station. I couldn’t have asked for a better location. We spent the afternoon exploring Manarola. First up, a wine tasting at a local enoteca. They vintner had six different wines - four white and two red. We were the only people there when we walked in, but the vintner still looked a little panic-stricken when we told him that we wanted to sample all six. He drew on just about all of his English to say that he didn’t know whether he had enough glasses for the five of us to try six wines. Instead, he said that he’d pour us a full glass of each wine, and we could share them. He was in luck, because not more than ten minutes later, his enoteca was packed with people! The white wines were generally pretty good, and one of the reds was solid. The other just lacked much body or flavor. After our tasting, Witten made friends with two twin Italian boys in the piazza outside of the church. The three of them had a blast running around together, until one of them ran square into Witten and almost bowled her over. Then she was done. The boys’ grandmothers were adorable. They kept apologizing and scolding their grandson, telling him that he needed to tell Witten he was sorry and give her a big kiss (in Italian, of course). Then all hell broke loose when someone pointed out that their other grandson was crawling on the wall over a cliff.

Manarola at Night

After things settled down, we set off up the hill overlooking Manarola to get a panoramic view of the area, and ended up at a bar built at the most panoramic spot in the city to watch the sunset while drinking some local wines. It was absolutely incredible! Witten fell asleep on Kati’s shoulder at the bar and was DONE! She didn’t wake back up all night, even when we transferred her to her crib.

When we got back to the hotel, Callie found out that her flight home - which was scheduled for Saturday morning out of Florence (the city) - had already been cancelled, because of Florence (the hurricane). We put Witten down, and I set out to get some beverages for the evening. I came back with two craft German beers and a bottle of Sangiovese from Cinque Terre. All three were excellent, and we enjoyed them lounging in our rooms while my dad worked diligently on rebooking Callie on a flight out on Sunday. The benefit of all of this is that Callie gets an extra day in Italy, and can spend some time in Florence with us.