Easter Road Trip - Day 2

Friday

We left Panzano in Chianti just after 10am Friday morning only making a quick stop at the butcher's shop to pick up a little something (Porchetta, suckling pig roasted with herbs) for a picnic lunch later on. We continued north through Chianti and stopped to have our picnic in Lucca. The town is small so parking was tough to find so we opted to 'park like the Romans park' ie, park anywhere there is a spot, anything goes; a crosswalk, a sidewalk or simply double park somebody in the street. The weather was gorgeous so we ate and lounged about in the grass for a good hour and a half and then we took a long walk around the city.

Porchetta = Buonissima!

Picnic lunch in Lucca

When we came back we saw that a police officer was writing us a ticket for our Roman style parking job! We told him very politely that it was our car and that we would move it immediately. He looked at us, well, at Meganne (seriously), then he looked at the car and the five other cars he could ticket and said with an exasperated sigh, "Va bene" and then he told us to get the hell on quickly "Veloce!". We hopped in the car and jammed out, laughing at our good luck and the fact that we got about three hours of parking for free!

The smiles of a narrow escape.

With full-bellies and Lady Luck clearly on our side we headed north to the Cinque Terre in the region of Liguria. The Cinque Terre is five picturesque little hilltowns that are perched right on the water. In Italy, there is no such thing as a "freeway". If you want to take the highway, you have to pay and it isn't cheap. After we left Lucca and found our way to the Autostrada heading in the direction of the Cinque Terre we came to the entrance of the highway where you pay the toll or get the ticket so you can pay at the end of your stretch. I saw the most glorious sign I think I have seen in the past three years posted on the ticket machine, "Sciopero" or Strike! Since there was a strike we didn't have to pay to use the Autostrada in Liguria! After enduring almost three years of strikes that have consistently paralyzed the Eternal City, all of its public transport and, in effect, have generally ruined my day, a strike finally worked in my favor!


We crawled our way down the narrow, little, windy streets until we reached the first of the five towns, Monterosso in the Cinque Terre. The stress of driving with a cliff on on one side of you is totally worth it when you finally reach town. They are truly stunning and now it's easy to see why everyone falls for these little towns.

Photos by Meganne, in fact, any good photo is probably by her.

We booked a room in a hotel near the water that seemed about the right price until we saw how small the room was, smelled it and discovered that there was no electricity in the room! They flipped on the electricity, we opened the window and we went out for dinner and a walkabout the town. We were pretty exhausted and a little tipsy after dinner (good white wine in the 5T) so we promptly passed out as soon as we got back to the hotel. When we woke up in the morning there was no electricity, which meant there was no hot water for a shower. We mentioned that to the owner and she only charged us half of the original price! I didn't think that kind of thing happened here, generally, the Italians just kind of shrug as if it wasn't their problem that there was no hot water or electricity.


In a twenty-four hour period we avoided a ticket, took the highway for free and got a half-priced hotel room! Saturday was already off to a great start as we set out to explore a few of the other towns in the Cinque Terre before heading north!

Easter Road Trip - Day 1

Thursday

What a weekend! Well, it was a bit more than a weekend. It was truly what the Italians call the "bridge" or what we would call a long weekend. I had a great time and it was a great adventure with so many highs it's hard to retell them all. I did so many things on my list it was unbelievable and I even did a few things that weren't on the list but should have been! We set off from Roma with high spirits, in a non-banana colored car with an automatic transmission (a rarity in this country), some snacks and a trusty Good Year atlas.

Lucy the Lancia Musa

The open road! Goodbye Roma!

Indispensable

Drink Vino Nobile di Montepulciano in Montepulciano - Done. It wasn't on the list but should have been! Meganne bought a bottle on Thursday but we didn't drink it until Monday night once we made it back to Roma. A few glasses of good wine was necessary after driving nearly the entire length of The Boot in a day and with holiday traffic at that! While we were heading north Panzano for dinner we saw a sign for Montalcino and decided we couldn't pass up the chance to knock something off of my list.

Somewhere along the road from Montepulciano to Montalcino.

Drink Brunello di Montalcino in Montalcino - Done. Meganne and I played tourist to the fullest and had a glass of Brunello in a very touristy piazza in the middle of town. The wine was great though we didn't have enough time savor it as long as we maybe should have. Totally worth the "side" trip.

Dinner with Italy's most famous butcher - Done. From Montalcino we raced through dark streets of Chianti to make it to our 9p.m. dinner reservation at Solociccia. Dinner was wonderful not only because of the food but the way you eat at the restaurant. You eat family style so there was quite a lot of wine, food and chit chat. It's a little strange for everyone at first but then once the wine gets poured people seem to open up a bit (euphemistically speaking). We ate with Italians, Israelis, Belgians, an Aussie and an America girl. It was great experience that I would love to do when I return to Italy in the future. It was about midnight when dinner wrapped up so we called it a night at a B&B that was near the restaurant.

A church in Montalcino, sorry, I don't sight see!

Sunset in Tuscany

Buona Pasqua e Pasquetta!

Happy Easter and Little Easter! Here they get at least two days off for Easter. For example, I don't have any lessons at the Ministry of Justice until after the 16th of April! The sweet life of a government employee here in Italia. The "wicked" American Express only gives their employees Easter Monday (Pasquetta) off. With the possibility of a really long weekend, I decided it was the right moment to head to Northern Italy to knock a few things off my bucket list.
Lucky for me, Meganne is a very willing participant in my food obsessions. Tomorrow morning we're driving to Chianti in Tuscany for an evening, then to Lucca, which is supposed to be beautiful, for a little walk around the city. After Lucca we're heading to the Cinqueterre in Liguria. These are five little hill towns that people (my parents included) have been raving about for at least the past three years. After a night there or somewhere nearby, we're driving even further north into the Piemonte region. We don't really have a plan for this part of the trip except to drink some nice wine, eat some great food and enjoy the scenery.

Here are a few random photos from the last few months, they really don't have anything to do with Easter or Bucket Lists but they are good photos!

Jenn, my roommate and Oliver from the Abbey.

Tom from the Abbey!

Lauren has been a friend for almost the last two years. This was taken outside of our usual Monday night pizza spot, Pizza Re. My group of friends has been meeting here for the past three months or so.

My last day at the Abbey. The jersey is that of the Welsh National Rugby squad. This was on the final day of the 6 Nations Rugby Tournament. Unfortunately, Wales lost to Ireland. I had more than a few shots of whiskey to ease the pain.

Meganne and I.

Il Terramoto

Early this morning much of Rome was awoken by a fairly large earthquake. It was just after 3:30 when I woke up, got out of bed and stared at all of my things swaying in the breeze. It lasted about what seemed like five to ten seconds (edit: it was thirty seconds!). I really don't know, it could have been two seconds and but it certainly seems longer when your at the mercy of Mother Nature, herself.

My roommate, Jenn, has family from Abruzzo, the region that was hit and more specifically from l'Aquila. She didn't feel the earthquake herself (probably felt like a normal drunk walk!) and when she arrived home at 4am her parents were calling her to get in touch with her family in that area. So for the next two hours she was on the phone trying to get hold of her relatives. The problem was that everyone in Italy was trying the same thing so getting a line was not easy and was frustrating for Jenn, her family in New York and her relatives in Abruzzo. Fortunately, everyone in her family is okay, in terms of health. There is massive structural damage to the area and to many people's homes and at this point, they aren't allowed to go back home. She has an aunt whose roof fell in and cousins with a hotel that is closed for now because of damage. Many people slept outside and will have to find alternate means of shelter for quite some time it looks like. Unfortunately, there are many people that died and certainly in such a small close knit town, her family will suffer greatly from the loss of friends.

Buon Pesce d'Aprile!

This is no April Fool's Day joke, I booked my flight home for the 11th of May. The timing is right for me to end my time here and I feel positive about my choice. The plan is to be in Seattle for about a month then I'll be heading east to Warren, Vermont to help some friends in a new endeavor. They just bought a hostel and they want me to help them run the kitchen and bar! It's too great an opportunity for me to pass up. In Vermont, I'll be gaining massive amounts of experience crucial to things I want to do in the future, ie, owning my own restaurant. If all goes according to plan, a Roman friend of ours, who is a trained chef, will be working with us for a few months so I'll get to work along side him! Working with a real chef would be invaluable. If you can recall, I've worked in a couple different kitchens over the years so it's not entirely new to me but the learning curve will be steep. I'm ready for it though, the move to Italy was just a 'bit' of challenge and this promises to be as well, at least in Vermont I'll be speaking English and have proper legal status!