29 Jan – Venice, city of lovers

Finally on my third trip to Venice (Tam), I came with my lover finally (and his mother). We had a very interesting couple of days in Venice. We arrived late on Wednesday and took a fast vaporetto to Piazza San Marco where our hotel was. We caught a glorious sunset that evening as we wondered the San Marco quarter, street stalls and expensive shops. We saw the famous pigeons hovering everywhere, but avoided the standard photo moment. That evening we went to Harry’s Bar (see previous blog) and then got lost (in a pleasant way) in the back streets of Venice, not hard to do!

Gondolas

On Thursday we went inside the spectacular Basilica San Marco which commenced construction in the 3rdC but was not completed until the 10thC. Its exquisite decorations in way too much gold leaf show just how wealthy the Catholic Church has been over the centuries. Unfortunately you are not allowed to take pictures in the actual church, but we managed a few in the entry portico. It gives you an idea of the opulence.

Basilica St Marco

Interior of Basilica St Marco

Next we took a tour of the Palazzo Ducale (right next door), also known as the Doge’s Palace. The tour guide had such an annoying voice; she made the character of Fran Drescher in ‘The Nanny’ sound melodious. She was quite informative but extremely rude and there were a lot of stairs everywhere, which was quite tiring for Roma as well as a heavily pregnant lady in our group. Again, there were no pictures inside the Palazzo but we took some in the inner courtyard.

Along with a lot of present shopping, we tried out some local cafes and took in a gondola ride as the snow started to fall! It was beautiful but altogether too cold to enjoy for long.

The travellers on the Gondola


Rialto bridge from gondola

We didn’t actually leave the San Marco quarter and Mark and I agreed it’s a place you need to spend more time in (perhaps 3 to 5 full days) to explore it all. But next time, it definitely has to be in Spring or Summer as I’ve only ever been in the depths of winter and three times is definitely enough in winter!

28th Jan - An institution (Harry’s Bar)

Well it’s been a while since we’ve been able to visit a Michelin starred restaurant for a meal. We couldn’t find one in the right area whilst in France (seems crazy given that’s where the concept started) and we had despaired of Italy as well. However, we managed to go to Harry’s Bar in Venice with Roma and experience a real institution in Venice dining.

Mum, Tam and Mark at Harry's

I had read about Harry’s Bar in books and seen comments on it in articles about the top restaurants in Europe, so we had high expectations. We got dressed up (as best we could in 1 degree weather with a high chill factor). After perusing the menu which is designed twice a day based on the absolute freshest foods, we decided on just one course each. I had green taglietelle with veal ragu which was beautiful. Mark had shrimp and zucchini risotto and Roma had the Classic Chicken (which was really beautifully cooked) but extremely plain (surprisingly) and came with steamed veggies. Mark and I shared a slice of the divine vanilla meringue pie, which was eaten before a picture could be taken. After 1.5 courses, half a carafe of wine, bottled water and a coffee, it cost almost as much as the Copenhagen Michelin restaurant where we ate 4 courses! Oh well, you only experience this once and it had fantastic service, (4 waiters in white coats and bow ties attending to our every need) and a great ambience in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

Green taglietelle with veal ragu


Mum's $100 Australian roast chicken!


Shrimp and zucchini risotto

22nd Jan – Three’s the Deal (Tam and Mark)

Well after an anxious night, we managed to drive across the spine of Italy (Apennine Mountains) and not catch any snow (our big concern) to pick up Roma in Roma on Wednesday! It’s a 3.5-hr drive and we got there with about 30mins to spare, only for her to be delayed nearly 2 hrs. Oh well, usual story with international airports. As we left Rome a steady rain was falling and it continued through until we passed back over the Apennines to a glorious afternoon in Casoli. We eventually arrived and Roma just managed to get up the steep hill to the house before having a rest. We took Thursday very easy, hanging around the house except for a short walk to the top of Casoli hill to see the Castle and Church.

On Friday we showed Roma the amazing Roccascalegna and she did, in fact, climb to the top – surprising even herself. Then we drove through Lama dei Peligni and Gessopalena.

On Saturday we got up bright and sparky, hit the road down past Napoli (Naples) to Pompeii. We had a spectacular 14 degrees and blue skies for the whole day. Pompeii was a massive city of 63 hectares. Originally built in 600BC and already having 15,000 residents from 500BC, it suffered a serious earthquake in 62AD and then the fatal Vesuvius eruption in 79AD as they were still re-building the cities damage. It was a major trading port for Italy and through to Africa, Asia and the rest of Europe. The Emperor Tiberius lived on the nearby island of Capri for 10yrs and this attracted all the Italian nobles to live in Pompeii.

Mum and Mark in Pompeii

Mario, our guide, showed us many amazing sites in the town and told us fantastic stories about the society and lifestyle of the Pompeiians. They certainly liked shopping, having wholesale markets, retail (high society) and retail (regular society) strips. They had a ring road for the porters and animals to go around and the central market square was for merchants and nobles only. The market square contained the Temple of Jupiter (most important in Pompeii).

Tam, Mum and our guide Mario and a very large 'member'

As Pompeii was covered in 6 metres of ash and cinder, it perfectly preserved the whole town until 1748 when they started excavating it. We saw numerous wine bars, bakers, and gambling dens, aristocratic houses of very grand proportions and exquisite mosaics and statues still in perfect condition. They are still excavating today and there are 20-ha to go.

A plaster body cast which included bones from the poor victim

Public well

After a thrilling but exhausting afternoon, we drove about 30mins further on the Amalfi Coast to Sorrento and eventually found a hotel on a cliff face just outside town with a beautiful view of Sorrento harbour.

The Sorrento sunset from out hotel balcony

We drove back yesterday into snow and rain across the centre of Italy and arrived in Casoli, tired but pleased with our journey.

22nd Jan – First Impressions (Mum)

Well I finally arrived in Casoli after a very long flight. The plane was quite comfy and I had so much entertainment at my fingertips, I didn’t even touch my crossword puzzles. Emirates have TV on demand and various computer games at the individual seat, even in economy.

It was great to see Mark and Tam waiting for me at Rome Fiumincino airport after the long flight. I must say I was very surprised by how lax Customs seemed to be in every stopover except Singapore, where I had to take off my vest.

It’s a 3-hour drive to Casoli from Rome, completely on the other side of Italy. We went through lots of mountain ranges and it was quite pretty, although it did rain for about half the trip.

When Mark finally reached Casoli, we parked in the middle of town, which is set on a steep hill and then had to walk the bags up to the house (about ¾ of the way up the slope). Well, you can imagine that I was pretty exhausted by this stage, so I wasn’t feeling the greatest. The whole town has cobble-stone streets and the original Castle and Church right on the peak are over 500 yrs old.

The house is over 2-storeys, with Mark and Tam on the top floor and I’m sleeping downstairs in the lounge room (next to the kitchen). It’s very warm which is great as the weather is quite different to Melbourne (we heard it’s been 40-degrees plus for the last few days!)

Our sleep has not always been consistent as Mark and Tam can hear my snoring and we have a strange local guy who calls out very loudly at 7am, 8am and 9am and in the afternoon as well for his cat to come and eat. It’s extremely noisy and we wish he’d just get rid of the cat!

It’s been lovely seeing Italy with Mark and Tam and they are looking after me. They’ll put more on about what we’ve seen in the last few days.

PS. I’m now starting to manage that steep climb – quite proud of myself.

19th Jan - Mum arrives in Italy

Marks mum arrived safely in Italy after travelling for 30 plus hours. As she is suffering from a bit of jetlag, we've walked around Casoli village and organised her accommodation (bed in the loungeroom).

This is only her second trip out of Australia (Bali 15 or so years ago) so we are all looking forward to having a great time.

More details will follow once we get out and about (Pompeii, Venice and the local sights)

11 Jan – Exploring Casoli and surrounds

After arriving on Wednesday (thanks Tony and Shelia for use of the cute house) we’ve had an eventful few days exploring the surrounding area as well as the town. Casoli is set on a mountain about 400m above sea level and very steep and full of stairs. As the towns’ average age must be nearly 60 yrs old, I’m not sure how they survive – certainly everybody walks around quite slowly (including us) uphill!

Casoli from the road and one of the steep roads

Some of the roads must have a rise between 20 and 30 degrees which is a bit nerve racking, especially as we are expecting rain, if not ice and snow.

View of mountains from balcony (only really sunny day!)

On Thursday we drove to Chieti, but got so confused trying to get into the medieval town for parking, we ended up at the equivalent of Chadstone (although a lot smaller) and had fun window shopping instead. On Friday we drove through some amazing mountain peaks (up to 1100m) to Castel di Sangro. We found a real party atmosphere and lots of cute boys carrying snowboards and skis for the nearby slopes. Whilst we felt a chill in the air, it was still about 5 degrees. Their castle was high up on the hill and there was ice on that road so we couldn’t get close unfortunately. However, the churches in town (and we saw five) were quite amazing.

On Saturday we traveled north along the Adriatic coast to Atri, which has some Roman ruins, equally stunning churches and curious archeological and ethnographical museums.

Atri duomo

Yesterday we went to Roccascalegna on recommendation of Assunta (a local and friend of the owners). We were most impressed and quite surprised that none of the Abruzzo tourist information or our travel guides mentioned it. An 11thC castle was built on a jutting mountain peak and a town formed around it in the 11^th and extended later in the 15thC.

The castle

After those glorious views we drove to San Vito Chietino on the Adriatic and found a lovely country house for a very late Italian lunch full of locals. (We finally got our meal at 2.50pm but it was worth the wait).

6th Jan - Italy and we’ve had an epiphany

It’s been a little while since we last had an update as we’ve been on the road from Nice, France (for New Years Eve) to Casoli, Italy (our last home stay). This one is a little different as it’s through a family member.

Well you’re probably curious as to how we spent New Years Eve – certainly not in 43 degree weather as I heard Melbourne had. However, we did have our best weather day, since the cool weather came, of 14 degrees and full sun from 9am to 2pm that day. Whilst we had a few sprinkles of rain around 8pm that night, it wasn’t nasty and was over with for the Big Event at midnight. We took the coast road through all the fancy seaside towns including Cannes, and stopped off in Agay for a beautiful lunch right on the beachfront. Then we crawled through the traffic to Nice and arrived to find our hotel room had problems. So we got upgraded to 4-star next door! My first ever upgrade. However, always read the fineprint, as the following day we were hit for 38E ($65AUD) for breakfast as it wasn’t included. Ouch!

Then Jan 1^st, we headed into Italy and made it to Pisa, which is definitely still leaning but much more secure now and you can walk up it (although we didn’t). We found a hotel literally 1min walk from there and got a view from our room, if we stuck our head out quite far. The day of the 1^st was pretty miserable but the following morning was glorious and you can see our shot below.

The next day we headed to Siena, which Tamara missed out on ten years ago when traveling with Tahnee and Greg. It is a very well preserved medieval town with an amazing central square (Piazza del Campo) which actually has 9 exits (to honour the 9 city councilors who planned it in the 1100’s). And, of course, you cannot go past the black and white striped Duomo, which seems almost Moroccan/ Arabic in design. After walking up, around, through and curving the very steep town, we found a lovely restaurant and had traditional food. Mark had pork cutlet with a dessert wine and pine nut sauce. I had lamb rack with tarragon & almond crust and sweet and sour baked capsicum. We’ve been very impressed by the food quality and also the prices have been very reasonable.

On the 3^rd we headed into Assisi, of St Francis fame and saw the Basilica San Francesco with its special nativity scene (very lifelike) in the front garden and interesting sculpture exhibition (we assumed it was temporary). The Basilica and tomb of St Francis are obviously very important sites for Italians as we saw over 100 people waiting to view the tomb and they were quite emotional, even the younger ones. We also saw a group of about 30 visiting nuns – surprised we haven’t seen more, given the amount of churches we’ve visited around the place.

From Assisi, we traveled to the Adriatic coast and escaped the rain belt for a few hours. I think we found the last bed in San Benedetto that was open as most are closed for the season. The next morning, we hit the road for Casoli.

The drive started fine, but we hit snow and a huge rain belt as we were about 2 hrs out. It just got more miserable as we approached and we got lost on several turns off the smaller highways as the signposts don’t always correspond with the road. Eventually we arrived and met up with Maddalena who explained about the place. She doesn’t speak any English and we don’t really speak any Italian (although Tamaras now got a few words which probably sound a bit French or Spanish to the Italians!). We stumbled through and settled in.

PS The Epiphany in the blog title refers to today being a National Holiday in Italy for Epiphany day.