Emilia-Romagna

I wasn't able to access the internet for SIX days!! Aside from the withdrawal symptoms, it interfered with finding a place to stay after we left Loreto. We ended up in a bookstore after a frustrating afternoon of lugging my laptop all over town looking for an internet cafe (there are NONE in Loreto!!) In the travel section, I found a book on agriturismos so quickly jotted down some info on a couple and called one near a town called Bazzano, just south of Modena. We arrived on Sun early afternoon and the place which is also a restaurant was absolutely packed with people. There is outdoor dining at this part (where our room was) and in a separate building next to this. There were probably 2-300 people and zillions of kids there because it was 1st communion Sun and everyone was out celebrating.
This place is really in the country though only 1 km from the town and it's very peaceful and beautiful. It was a great place to end our vacation. We were surprised at how mountainous this region is. Driving only a few miles away brings you into really rugged, mountainous terrain with farm land clinging to the mountains. Our location was more rolling hills...all beautiful. The poppies were on the farm where we stayed.














This area has a local specialty dish called "spuntino" which translates to mean "snack" but here it's a whole meal. There are 2 different breads used, "crescintine"which is squares of bread dough that is deep fried and becomes all puffy and hollow inside and "tigelle" which looks a little like an English muffin in shape but is a piece of bread that has been grilled in something like a panini grill. You break it open like a biscuit to put stuff in the inside. So they bring these 2 kinds of bread and a bunch of other stuff: the required dishes are a fatty, kind of chopped up pork mixed with rosemary (it turns out this is raw pork....who knew??? we ate it with gusto and it was good!!); a fresh cheese about the consistency of cream cheese that tastes a little like cottage cheese; Parmesano; arugula. These are put on the bread in any combo you fancy. Then there were marinated mushrooms, marinated sweet onion, olives, a stew kind of thing made of sausage and beans, a rabbit stew and then a whole plate of different salami type cold cuts/prosciutto's. So you just eat all this stuff in any combination that appeals to you and by golly....IT"S REALLY A MEAL!!

This is some of the type of landscape.


Guess this is where Bob Dole fought. Just happened to see this on the side of the road high in the mountains and in the middle of nowhere.

Urbino

Forgot to blog about Urbino. It's a town of about 20,000 that we passed through on the way to Urbania. On our way to Loreto we stopped to check it out. Yet another cool place. It's a university town with the university being located in all the very old historic building. Here are a couple of Urbino photos. The last is a student working in a resoration lab on an old painting.

Gubbio, Loreto

We spent a day in Gubbio, in Umbria. We had both heard it was a really cool walled hill town so we drove a couple hours from Urbania to visit it. It's an incredibly charming old town on the top of a hill (of course) so our quads got a good workout. The views are spectacular.

The duomo had some really beautiful stained glass...here's a sample.

The town is as it was centuries ago with all these narrow little streets that somehow people manage to drive down (we parked in a public lot outside the town.)





After spending a few days in Urbania, we moved a bit further south to Loreto which is the site of gigantic pilgrimages because of the miracle that occurred there when the holy house of Nazareth (the place of the Annunciation) was PHYSICALLY MOVED to Loreto by ANGELS. The other story is that is was physically brought by ship from the holy land to Loreto by the crusaders. I think if you're a good Catholic, you buy the angel story. One of the carvings in the house was of the madonna and was a wood carving that appeared black because of the wood and this is the origin of the whole black Madonna thing. So here's this giant Cathedral in Loreto.




One of the reasons we stayed in Loreto was that it was close to the Adriatic Sea...yet another sea to see. From our info it looked as though it was really touristy right at the coast so we went inland a bit to Loreto. The touristiness was beyond our wildest dreams....it was wall to wall schlock and so thick it was hard to see the ocean.



Beyond the miracle of Loreto's church was the miracle of the GIANT NUTELLA!!!! We're not certain of its origin but we know that the 1st Nutella came off the assembly line in 1964 and this giant Nutella was brought to our very hotel by ANGELS from the Nutella factory. Here it is venerated daily by one and all. The miracle is that it is never emptied despite its use by everyone. The OTHER miracle is that it ALMOST made Dick smile but it's very difficult to smile when your mouth is full of Nutella.












We had a fabulous meal in Loreto at a restaurant called Andreina's. It rivalled the Gary Danko tasting menu. It was incredibly elegant and Dick ate THRUSHES!!!!........Yes, little tiny birds that you eat bones and all. One of the little tiny birds had a HEAD!!! He didn't eat the head. I couldn't bring myself to taste them. The rest of the meal was fantastic! For the winos wasting their time reading the blog, we had a Masciarelli wine that was also great and brought back fond memories for Dick of his good times BN (before Norma.)

Hill towns and Disneyland

Hill towns are all over the place and there is just something about seeing a quaint castle and/or duomo from the lowlands that makes you want to go up the hill. In addition to hill TOWNS, there is a hill REPUBLIC....San Marino, that for some reason fascinated me and Dick was interested, too. A republic that is completely surrounded by Italy and that has remained independent for centuries. HAD TO SEE IT!! It's site on the top of a hill is fantastic. These are photos from the top. The problem is that apparently LOTS AND LOTS of other people are also interested in San Marino such that it is a tourist trap rivalling Disneyland but without the rides. We walked around, saw the major attractions (duomo, municipal center, etc) and left to search out a town we had seen from the freeway that was also a top of the hill place. We finally identified it as Mount Gridolfo and after an hour or two of driving around, getting lost, asking directions, getting lost some more, we finally got there. It was a cute little place with a fabulous view and a black Madonna statue in a niche on the outside of the church. (See Loreto posting for black Madonna story and a photo of the Mount Gridolfo black Madonna.)

So here are pictures from Mount Gridolfo....the view and the church.

Just a few km from Urbania is a hill town visible from Urbania, called Peglio. Tiny place with this cool tower at the very top of it. There's a long pathway up from the town leading to the tower that has a variety of interesting, modern, kind of humorous metal sculptures along the path and on the top of the tower (that's a man hanging up the moon/or reaching for it depending on your perspective.)There were a number of sculptures of open books on the path and on the railing where Dick is admiring the view. An different type of "hill town" art.

Urbania

Urbania is a beautiful small town in Le Marche. It is mid spring and everything is in bloom and the landscape is incredibly verdant. They grow a lot of wheat so there are large areas of deep green wheat, lots of red poppies and occasional great fields of yellow that is either mustard or rape. (Not sure I know what either looks like for sure.)The area is beautiful rolling hills with great wildflowers everywhere so walking or driving around is one terrific view after another.





This was the "guest house" where we stayed just outside Urbania. It's right next door to the Ducal hunting palace of Duke Durante from the 16th century which is to the right of the guest house and hidden from view. It was a great place to stay with the area in the back of the house facing a park that was also part of the hunting palace grounds. The quiet was a truly welcome relief after our last 2 nites in Sicily and the park was a great place for a walk.

This was the duke's palazzo in the town of Urbania, built in the 1400's. The town is quaint, old and small enough that we walked pretty much every inch of it. Had a couple of good meals in a tiny family owned trattoria which was conveniently placed very close to a gelateria so that my dessert was easily accessible.

Last days in Sicily

So these idyllic sunsets were our last 2 Sicilian sunsets. This one was from the yard of our apartment outside Trapani. (This is the sun setting over the Tyrennian Sea.) Following this gorgeous sunset, we were kept awake virtually THE ENTIRE NIGHT by the barking of the owner's Bernese mountain dog. Not a great note to end on.





This was the view from our hotel room in Palermo the night before our 6:45 AM flight to
Milan. (The sun us setting over the Mediterranean Sea.) Trapani was 1-1 1/2 hrs away so we decided to stay near the airport. Around 5PM, I was a bit disturbed to see a bus disgorge approximately 50 kids in the 10 year age range at our hotel. Coming into the lobby they were at about 350 decibel range. They were there for some sort of overnight school outing and were STAYING at our hotel! About 11 PM, I went out and in my very best Italian asked that the 6-8 boys and their 2 adult chaperones who were having a very spirited conversation in the hall outside our room shut the ^&%^*$% up. I mentioned that I would be most pleased to knock on their doors when we got up at 4:30 AM. Back to bed to hear that the room directly over us was occupied by a group of similar aged and higher voiced girls who were apparently doing some kind of continuous furniture moving event accompanied by playing perhaps multiple games of jacks using a very large and very loud ball and also involving running very fast back and forth and maybe jumping on beds while squealing. We could hear adult voices joining in the festivities which lasted til maybe midnight or so. Needless to say, we weren't in our best conditions when we arrived at Milan at 8:45AM to drive for several hours to our place in Urbania.

Selinunte, Favignana, etc

Selinunte is another Greek ruin we visited a few days ago. It dates to about 650 B.C. and was a large compound. An earthquake destroyed it sometime in the 10th century (it is thought.) Those early conquerors really knew how to pick the location....this site is in a gorgeous setting overlooking the Mediterranean.







The spring wildflowers all over Sicily are blooming in profusion. I especially love the red poppies that I have never seen in the U.S. This picture was taken at Selinunte but there are similar displays everywhere!






Here is a picture (yeah, I know....a bad picture) of the hydrofoil that we took
to Favignana, an island in the Mediterranean off Trapani about 25 min away by hydrofoil. A real touristy place that primarily makes a living from tuna fishing and tourism (in more recent times.) This is one of the Egadi Islands and is the place where the "matanza" takes place, an event where tuna is slaughtered each year in huge numbers during their migration in the spring.
There wasn't a whole lot to see on Favignana but this pile of rusted gigantic anchors somehow appealed to us.

Italian driving

Rules for driving in Italy:
1) There are NO rules!
2) White lane lines and stop signs are mere suggestions with no clear other significance.
3)When passing a car on the autostrada at high speed, pull up to 2 inches behind the car you are passing and then pull back into his lane immediately after passing. If you are not close enough to COMPLETELY fill the rear view mirror of the car ahead of you then you are NOT CLOSE ENOUGH!
4) Passing on a 2 lane road also has NO RULES! Passing on a curve is totally acceptable. Any oncoming traffic is expected to have the coordination and reflexes to avoid you without even having to slow down. Passing a slower vehicle is a REQUIREMENT even if you are planning to make a turn within the next 50 feet.
5) When entering a thoroughfare from a side street, DO NOT stop nor should you look to see if there is oncoming traffic. If you are such a chicken that you can't do that, then pull the nose of your car into oncoming traffic so as to cause the traffic to swerve. (That oncoming traffic would of course NOT slow down or, god forbid, stop to allow you in.)
6) Parking is an art unto itself. Remember the no rules thing in #1. You may pull into a parking place facing in either direction and may convert a parallel parking zone into head in (or tail in) parking at will. Parking place is an ill defined concept meaning any space large enough to insert any part of one's vehicle. Any or all tires may be on the curb or sidewalk. You may double park for as long as you like as long as you leave your emergency flashers on or your motor running. Bill Bryson said it best, "Italians park like I would park if I had just spilled a container of hydrochloric acid in my lap."
7)Pedestrians have nerves of steel. They walk across multiple lanes of traffic without looking at the oncoming vehicles. There is a very subtle hand gesture that somehow tells vehicles to stop for them and it actually works. At least I have seen no pedestrian deaths thus far. Dogs have the same ability as pedestrians and in addition can sleep lying on the road with total lack of fear. AND I have also seen NO dead dogs in the road!
8) Motorcycles have yet another set of NO RULES! For instance, they can pair up to pass on either side of a car that is itself passing another car. Pure entertainment when this is occurring on the autostrada with everyone going 80+mph.
9) Turns signals are not obligatory especially if one hand is steering and one hand is holding the cell phone. Turns can be made from any lane you wish (and it goes without saying that there need be no turn signal.) U turns and backing up follow these same guidelines.

We plan on trying all these techniques when we come home.

Cooking school

We went to cooking school last night and it was a real kick! Our teacher is Mario who had a tremendous enthusiasm for his subject, spoke no English but we were fortunate to have another student (a TV newscaster from Catania) who translated for us. Here Mario is instructing us in the preparation of couscous in the traditional Trapenese way. The pot on the stove is kind of an improvised double boiler with the top being a very heavy ceramic with holes in it. It's sealed to the bottom pot with dough so no steam can escape. The couscous has minimal seasoning but the boiling water below has a lot of aromatics in it that penetrate the cous cous. The couscous cooks for 1 1/2 HOURS! Then it's served with a fish "soup" that's ladled over it and some fish...any kind will do and maybe shrimp, calamari, etc can be used. It's really tasty but not something I probably would ever consider making at home.




The restaurant where the class was held has a woodburning pizza and bread oven and gave us a sample of bread with salt and oregano to snack on (along with some wine.) Now you see how we can get Dick to smile.













Here's our entire class with the cassata cake that we were taught how to make. The woman to the left of Mario is the newscaster. She had a great personality and kept us entertained through the hours that we spent there. (Altogether we were there for 7 hours, including a very lengthy and wine soaked dinner....none of which we minded at all.)













Here's most of our meal....the caponata appetizer, the couscous, the fish "soup" to go on top.

Overall, a terrific addition to our vacation!

Erice

Erice is a tiny walled city on the top of a hill. It's just above Trapani and you can take a funicula to get there. (OR....I could have tortured Dick by making him drive up the incredibly steep, twisty, narrow little road.) The views from the funicula were specatacular. This is the city of Trapani as viewed from the funicula.






The duoma in Erice is very simple from the outside. The inside is very unique in that it is all done in stucco carved to look look like the lace that's made in the city. This is the ceiling of the church with the lacy stucco.

















Here's a view from the city wall looking out over the Tyrrenian Sea and one of the narrow little streets.