Tom Hanks & The Selfie Stick

(Day 14 -17 Adriatic Sea Expedition, Florence) 12 May 2015

Florence was a mixed bag of extremes for Vân & I. There was some foreshadowing before we even got into town. On a crowded train a guy was not happy that we were standing so close to his girlfriend and gave us some attitude. Then Vân got in a scuffle with an elderly American on our way to the hotel. The sidewalks are nearly nonexistent and the traffic is complete anarchy. We were sweaty, frustrated and exhausted by the time we found our accommodation.



But then we met our good friend, Emmy Award winning super artist Andy Ristaino and all was good. A few Aperol Spritz’ near the city’s impressive Duomo and all were happy…

Well, mostly happy. My thumb started to swell two days earlier in Venice. My usual reaction to this type of medical condition is to ignore the pain in hopes that it will go away. The swelling got worse and by the time we meet Andy I could no longer bend my thumb or even lift light objects. I could not open twist-off bottle caps. Drinking my Spritz was difficult. Time to go to the hospital. We made tentative dinner plans with Señor Ristaino but warned him our hospital trip could take hours.



Over seven hours later, around 1:30am, Vân shook me awake in the hospital’s waiting room. A doctor was finally ready to see me. We witnessed some interesting events on a Friday night in the emergency room of Ospedale Santa Maria Nuova. Drunks who had crashed their scooters, drug addicts who have overdosed, foreigners who were drunk and sprained their ankles, a man who looked well over 100 years old and couldn’t breath. We overheard one American on his cell phone telling a colleague, “She was very drunk then passed out. We couldn’t wake her. What are we going to tell the company? Yes, she is breathing.” After some very broken English and a whole lot of single finger typing, the doctor gave me three prescriptions and had my finger wrapped in gauze with antibiotic cream. Sorry we missed you for dinner Andy.



Next plan was to meet Andy for lunch the next day. After a few WhatsApp communications, Vân and I were on our way to a restaurant recommended in one of The New York Times excellent 36 Hours series, Osteria Belle Donne. Fail #2. Apparently Tom Hanks, Ron Howard and Felicity Jones were filming the third part of The Da Vinci Code right outside the popular eating establishment. Vân and I were turned away from many alleyways leading to the restaurant until we found Andy sitting on some church steps having had the same experience. Damn you Tom Hanks!



Meal attempt #3 was Trattoria Toscana Gozzi Sergio, known to locals as Da Sergio. The New York Times said the indigenous inhabitants scowl at foreigners trying to eat at this simple, “locals only” restaurant. We got a great meal of very traditional food sans scowls.









Next was a random walk over the river and through the woods to find the highest point above the city. Beautiful neighborhoods, super cool street art, massive allergy attacks, a church with many graves.



Back down the hill to find an aperitivo (Italian happy hour) place which we never found. A few beers at an Irish bar called the Friends Pub before heading over to our best dinner of our trip so far: three pizzas, take away, from Gusta Pizza, two 1-liter beers and a bottle of chilled white wine all consumed on the steps of Basilica di Santo Spirito while listening to live music with a healthy crowd of locals. Perfection. Thanks for the pizza recommendation Christine Ristaino!

p.s. Dear Florence, you have a serious Selfie Stick problem. There is help. For the sake of Lucius Cornelius Sulla, please seek it out. As for your problem with loud, drunk, obnoxious college-aged Americans massively infecting your city, there is no known cure, sorry.

Avoid the Herds, Drink Spritz

(Day 10 -13 Adriatic Sea Expedition Bologna to Venice) 8 May 2015

Packed up all our gear and headed to breakfast with our bags: two cappuccinos and two plain croissants, eaten the Italian way, standing at the coffee bar.



A painless two hour train to the watery city. The pain was getting the €7 Vaporetto or water bus from the central station, Venezia Santa Lucia, to the fairly far away neighborhood where our B&B was located. The water bus, which took us down the Grand Canal to the Arsenale stop (not kidding), was very crowded. You would think that the main form of transport in such a touristed city would have a plan for suitcases and backpacks. Nope. And this is not even the ‘High Season!’ Not a comfortable ride.



Having been to Venice before, I had one suggestion for Van: we avoid the masses of tourists. Even though we are traveling in the ‘off-season,’ Venice is known for its huge crowds and I know there are beautiful parts of the floating city where we can avoid them.

We had arrived a day early and had grab a last-minute B&B. It was in the Castello neighborhood. A nice place in a quiet part of town.





The next three nights we had a room in the Cannaregio neighborhood where our friends Jim and Lynn Willhite were staying. I knew this was the Jewish neighborhood but I didn’t know the Venetians restricted Jews in this ghetto for more than 270 years until Napoleon Bonaparte conquered the Venetian Republic in 1797. Wow, anyway, incredible neighborhood. If you want to be in an area where the locals really live and the tourists rarely visit, this is the place.





We bumped into Jim and Lynn a day before we were to meet them. We were exiting one of the many thin Callèttes (alleys) when we saw a bridge where many people were enjoying adult drinks in stemmed glassware. I immediately said to Vân, “We need to have a drink on that bridge.” As I looked around to see where to buy said drinks, Vân heard her name being shouted. Jim and Lynn had sniffed out the drinking bridge before we even arrived. Many glasses of Prosecco were drunk that night in the sunset and dusk.



There are approximately 340 bridges in Venice. As we tried to avoid the crowed bridges we found this cute, small, railless bridge. We should have gone in search of the “Bridge of Fists” and the “Bridge of Tits” but again, we were avoiding what we started calling “herds,” large groups of organized tours, often from cruise ships. We borrowed the term from what Rick Grimes’ group calls packs of zombies in The Walking Dead television series.





We discovered the ‘Spritz’ while in Venice. These nuclear red or orange looking drinks are made with white wine or sometimes Prosecco and a dash of some bitter liqueur such as Aperol or Campari. If made with white wine, some sparkling mineral water is added. Very, very refreshing on a hot day.





Older Italians seem to be much nicer that younger ones. Simple suggestion to the unhappy Italian Millennials working in the tourist industry: If you’re not happy at your job, get a job in another industry and stop being obnoxious to those you are paid to serve.

Eat, Pray and Eat, Love and Eat

(Day 8 & 9 Adriatic Sea Expedition Riomaggiore to Bologna) 6 May 2015

Breakfast in the usual spot. Put our dirty clothes in at coin-op Laundromat and ran around taking last minute photos and video.

The luggage was a challenge to get on the train. Way too much for two people to carry. We’ll have to take care of this somehow.

I drank two 66CL bottles of Birra Moretti, Italy’s tall boys, on the train. People drink cans and bottles of beer just about anywhere here and it doesn’t seem to be a problem. Where has the United States gone wrong with it’s excessive prohibition on alcohol consumption in public?

Excellent graffiti on trains in Italy! I miss this in New York City. This piece is from the university area of Bologna (more on this in a bit). I didn't take any from the train window unfortunately.

I didn’t have much expectation for Bologna. Maybe this is why I loved it so much. Old, old buildings. Feels very medieval, probably is. Our hotel is on the fourth floor right in the middle of town. It has one of those old school elevators like the one in the film Angle Heart, just much cleaner (this photo borrowed from the interwebs from the Angel Heart film).

There are about one million inhabitants of Bologna and it’s first settlements date back at least to 1000 BC. The Celts ruled this city way back when and now it’s home to the oldest university in the world, University of Bologna, founded in 1088. This is the university area:

Bologna is known for it’s food and Vân and I are ready to put the weight we lost walking in Cinque Terre back on via Bolognese sauce, tortellini and lasagna, all originating from this city.

You know that toxic luncheon “meat,” Bologna Americans feed their kids? Yes, that originated here as well. But it’s actually animal flesh in Italy, not… whatever our food factories produce for us.

My Bologna has a first name,

It's O-S-C-A-R.

My bologna has a second name,

It's M-A-Y-E-R.

Oh I love to eat it everyday,

And if you ask me why I say,

Cause' Oscar Mayer has a way with B-O-L-O-G-N-A!!!!

It’s unlikely you forgot the commercial but if you weren’t born before 1973, here it is:

The Cutest Yet

(Day 7 Adriatic Sea Expedition, Corniglia) 5 May 2015

Spent the morning writing blogs and surfing the internet which FINALLY worked. In the afternoon, we took the ferry north to Vernazzo and then the train south to the last of the Five Towns, Cornelia. Unfortunately, there is not a safe place for the ferry to stop in this tiny town. The town is high above the train station, 365 steps above to be exact. This deters many visitors and makes for a very peaceful village. 

Super cute and super mellow, my favorite town of the five. I wish we left more time for it.
We explored a bit but we were both pretty hungry. 

After a beer in one of the squares, we quickly found the La Lanterna restaurant. No one was eating here but it had a cute table up high over looking a small square filled with very loud, older Italians.
A great meal in a wonderful town.

Back to Riomaggiore to pack for our trip to Bologna the next day.

Hike to The Arsenal (Day 6 Adriatic Sea Expedition, Vernazza & Monterosso) 4 May 2015

Today we saw two of the “Five Towns,” Vernazza & Monterosso. We took the train to Vernazza, ate some breakfast in the main square on the water and then explored the town. A fairly leisurely afternoon in the hottest sun thus far. We then began the 3 kilometer hike to Monterosso. All five of the towns are connected by what is known as the “Blue Trail.” Unfortunately, heavy rains a few years back caused extensive landslides which closed all of the trails but this one. This is the longest and most difficult of the four but has some of the best views.

We climbed and climbed, through vineyards and past tiny farms. We kept getting views of Vernazza that I have seen in photos in magazines. Climb, climb, climb… we got to over 166 meters (Almost 550 feet). The hike, along cliffs over the Mediterranean was breathtaking. Van said it was the nicest she had been on ever and we’ve hiked many trails. We shot video along the way. 

Despite the vertical ups and downs and the many photo & video stops, it wasn’t long until we saw the village of Monterosso in the near distance. Down we climbed, again through many vineyards and over narrow trails perched above sheer cliffs leading down to the Mediterranean Sea. Monterosso supposedly has the nicest beaches, meaning the nicest to lay a towel on and sunbath so it is the most touristy. 

We immediately saw drunk, sunburnt, British tourists. This is not our type of place. The town was far less cute than the other three we’ve seen thus far. Our dinner was alright but the most expensive yet. We were here for one reason: to see Arsenal Football Club play Hull City. Monterosso had the only pub in the five villages that had a large screen TV that we could find. Our Italian friend Cristiano warned us that it would be difficult to find a place that played anything other than Italy’s premiere league, Serie A. We quickly found The Fast Bar and sure enough, the bartender claimed to not know of Arsenal or The English Premier League. He asked his boss who did claim to know what we were looking for and told us he would put the game on. Arsenal won 3-0.

The pleasure of the win quickly turned when we took the wrong train which blew past our stop full speed. We exited in the next town and luckily there was one more train heading back north. We waited a long hour, intoxicated and tired but finally got back to Riomaggiore.

The Shire Is In Italy (Day 5 Adriatic Sea Expedition, Manarola) 3 May 2015

Breakfast again at Giammi Caffe and then on the train North to Manarola. This village is the second smallest of the five towns and may be the oldest in Cinque Terre. The church, San Lorenzo, dates from 1338.

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday, as tourist poured off the train like zombies from World War Z, I dreaded the fact that we committed to five days in Cinque Terre. But today we explored the multitiered town of Manarola. Stunning! Tangier meets Santorini. Narrow walkways and staircases hidden throughout the town. Photos, photos, photos... Beer & Caprese salad. Photos, photos, photos... pasta, seafood & wine. 

Excellent lunch at Trattoria dal Billy. We sat outside overlooking the village. After showing us their catch-of-the-day, Vân opted for tagliatelle with clams while I had pesto pasta. Fresh made pasta tastes really, really good!

This is one of the towns one sees in many of the photos of Cinque Terre. We hiked up amongst the vineyards, artichoke farms and wild flowers and took many photos. Beautiful spring day.

After we got our fill of the town… and our daily gelato, we hiked about 1.5 kilometers to the tiny town of Groppo. We were in search of the Michelin restaurant Cappun Magru in casa di Marin. We found it though it was closed when we got there at 4pm. This trips was a good example of the journey being the destination. The short hike, there and back again, brought us through Hobbit like trails with small farms and little houses. I was convinced the shire was around every corner and I'm fairly sure I saw a Nazgûl. 

Tsunami of Tourists (Day 04 Adriatic Sea Expedition, Riomaggiore) 2 May 2015

The morning was still overcast. We found a breakfast place in town called Giammi Caffe. The crowded cafe indicated it was worth the visit. Simple breakfasts off all sorts. Two Cappuccinos, Van got an egg and bacon English muffin and I a cheese & pimiento omelette with toast. All portions were smaller than what you’d expect in the States. Might just loose these extra pounds yet. 

Our WiFi was not working at our flat so we used the restaurant’s. Access to the World Wide Interwebs seems like it will be a challenge here in Italy. I think most people use their phones and free WiFi is a bit of a challenge to come by. I can do little but urinate and sleep without being online so this will be tough. 

Cheese plate and a bottle of local red wine at A Piè de Mà, an outdoor restaurant perched above the Mediterranean. Slight mist in the air and complete overcast gave us our choice of seats. “A nice day in Ireland” I often say. Super relaxing. I guess we are going to need to start shooting video one of these days.

Tons of tourist flooded off the train today. A bit overwhelming. The train seems to come about every 45 minutes and out pours selfie sticked Japanese, American and surprising, quite a few Italian visitors. Many of the Italians have small dogs. Van and I tried to go to the marina area twice and each time we arrived, so did the title wave of tourists. Both times we retreated. Tourism as consumption. Exit train, take photos, buy trinkets, get back on train to go to the next town.

Dinner this night was at Trattoria Via dell ‘Amore at the bottom of our street. Van had pasta with shrimp. She didn’t love trying to strip the meat from the head and shell of the shrimp. Van didn’t really like the bottle of red wine we bought with dinner so I drank it all. We learned that the local wine is all white and it a better choice.