November 15, 2008
Dorothea’s idea for a cruise in the middle of our trip was a stroke of genius. It was great to be on an American ship with American attitudes and American food.
Also, I was assigned to be monitor for two areas on the ship, the main salon on the first floor and the “Viking Crown Lounge” on the top deck. When not on a shore excursion, it was my duty to alternately sit in both of these areas and chat with the wait staff when no one else was around.
Below is an outline of the cruise to help give locations of photos.
1. Cruise from Venice to Greece (Royal Caribbean’s “Splendour of the Seas”)
a. Day 1 – 11/15/2008 Depart Venice 16:30
i. Upgraded room with balcony on Deck 7 (Top Qtrs deck 8) – great start
ii. Life boat drill with 750 Taiwanese AmWay Reps who won the trip for sales
iii. Sailed down Venice Canal – air was cool but pretty sights of Venice; met Steve and Stephanie from Taiwan; nice couple; also meet British singer Will Bailey and wife who joined him on cruise, never made it to see him in Schooner Bar.
iv. Cocktails in the Viking Crown Lounge
v. Dinner – Late seating w/4 women – 2 from England, 2 from N.Y; wanted early seating, but Taiwan won out.
vi. Entertainment – Juggler – Luis Dalton put on good show
b. Day 2 – 11/16/2008 At Sea
i. Great news! The Cruise goes on (not like Carnival); no problems!
ii. Cool but pleasant weather (H58F,L42F). Calm seas, smooth sailing
iii. Napkin folding and Scrapbooking Classes
iv. Origami class
v. First Line Dancing Class
vi. Welcome Aboard Reception with Captain Tommy; proficient staff
vii. Formal night
viii. Dinning time changed to early – table for 2 in sea of AmWay Reps; nice waiter and assistant
c. Day 3 – 11/17/2008 Arrive Athens at Noon
i. Cool, overcast (H67F,L52F). Calm seas, smooth sailing
ii. Tour to Acropolis with interesting guide, Marietta (like in Georgia)
iii. Back to ship in time for downpour – bus parked 150’ from gangway and bus driver lets us off and we ran 150 ft. in rain!
iv. Early dinner in sea of Amyway Reps – waiter wants to fatten us up, mention indecision of two entrees and he brings both and then something extra for appetizer and dessert
v. Evening entertainment - Los Pampas Gauchos, drum group from Brazil – good show!
d. Day 4 – 11/18/2008 Arrive in Mykonos at 7:00
i. Cool but pleasant (H60/L55). Calm seas, smooth sailing
ii. Took bus into Mykonos and walked around village to windmills.
iii. Had lunch at local Gyro place
iv. No bargains here for jewelry other anything else
v. Showtime – “Dancing thru the Decades” – very good; cruise staff are performers.
e. Day 5 – 11/19/2008 Arrive in Katakolon at noon
i. Cool but pleasant (H63F/L45F). Calm seas, smooth sailing
ii. Walked around small town
iii. No bargains here
iv. Second line dancing class on ship; instructor does salsa in pairs instead of line dancing.
v. Showtime – “Your Three Tenors”; very good; perform separately at various venues and together for other engagements
f. Day 6 – 11/20/2008 Arrive in Corfu at 7:00
i. Cloudy buy pleasant (H62F/L46F)
ii. Took bus to old fort, walked back thru town, long walk
iii. Shacks along waterfront
iv. No bargains here
v. Cocktails in Champagne Bar – Great view; Dorothea is collecting Signature glasses with drinks of course.
vi. Formal night
vii. Head waiter at another station goes postal, stands on grand piano, says he’s going to America in 6 months and quits.
viii. Showtime – “Ballroom Fever”; again very good; cruise staff performers.
g. Day 7 – 11/21/2008 Arrive in Split at 8:00
i. Took tour to Trogir; stop at local “palace” now B &B for wine and snacks of Croatian prosciutto (different from Italian) and music.
ii. Got passports stamped and walked around the town of Split
iii. Cocktails in Champagne Bar
iv. Showtime – Acrobatic group – good
v. Go to Casino and DZ ahead by $100; Ed ahead by $20; yea!
h. Day 8 – 11/22/2008 Arrive in Venice at 7:00
i. Really hated for cruise to be over. It was absolutely fantastic!!!
ii. Spent most of the day in Murono and evening in Venice
iii. Cold, glad to get home
Dorothea and Ed
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
11012008 BLOG
November 1, 2008
The Italian countryside, a short distant outside of Trieste, changes from mountainous to flat coastal plain where the road beds are typically 4’ to 10’ above the land. It is like that all around the general area of Venice, Padova, and Verona. It’s great agricultural land and home to many vineyards and estate farms.
Our stay in Padova at the Villa Salvatico was at one of those estate farms that date back to the late 1700s. Our congenial host Antonio, who inherited Salvatico, was a true Italian country gentleman. Our rented 3 bedroom, 3 bath apartment was larger than we expected and would serve as a very comfortable home base for us and two others who would be joining us before our cruise to Greece. We quickly learned our way around the area and found patisseries, a laundry, and a huge French grocery store, Auchan. Auchan was quite a surprise because of the size and selection – fresh meats, fresh fish and seafood, bakery items, produce… even a rotisserie chicken! Even though we didn’t get to have dinner there, a Roadhouse Grill was right next door. Most shops shut down at 1 or 1:30 and then reopen at 3:00 or 3:30. Restaurants close at 3:00 and reopen at 7:00. If you miss lunch, you have to make do with a snack at a café or wait for the restaurants to open. Planning your day is important if you want to eat! And on Sunday and Holidays everything is closed except the bars!
After taking care of domestics the first couple of days, Dorothea and I took the train for a short trip from the nearby Dolo train station to Venice. When we arrived in Venice and stepped out onto the piazza on the Grand Canal, we were spellbound by the city being as quaint and picturesque as all of the photos show! On our first day we spent a lot of time walking around looking for our travel books’ highlights, shops and restaurants as well as taking short cuts that wound up being long cuts. The guide book Dorothea’s sister had given us was one of the best for its restaurant recommendations. When we returned the next day, we bought a 3-day Venice pass, gave up the long walks in exchange for rides on the convenient water taxis (vaporettos). We had planned to attend one of the many operas being presented but found none of the venues were real theaters. All of them were open halls with rows of folding chairs and unassigned, first come/first served seating. For the price, fighting a crowd for a decent seat wasn’t worth it. Instead, we ventured all over Venice enjoying this unique city and its history. Sad to say, Venice is crumbling. Many, many of the buildings are badly leaning, probably due to unstable ground, and cannot remain out of plumb indefinitely. Our 3rd day was spent on the unique island of Murano. We went to one of the furnaces for a glass-blowing demonstration, and afterward were ushered to private viewing rooms when the host found out we were Americans. He personally escorted us around for almost an hour showing off all of the gorgeous pieces and doing his best to sell, sell, sell. We told him we loved all of them and would return tomorrow with our suitcases full of cash and pick up the pieces we like the best, NOT! Later that evening around 8:00, we headed to the Casino but missed our stop. Continuing on to one of the main transfer stations to catch the vaporetto back to the Casino, we learned the transportation workers were going on strike at 9:00 that night! We rushed to catch a train back but they had already stopped. Panicking, we headed for the last bus to leave from Venice to Dolo. When we got to Dolo at 10:00, we stopped and asked a couple of exiting bar patrons for directions to the train station (to get our car) and were told it was 2 miles from the bus stop. Even though it was densely foggy, cold and a long walk back, we got to see parts of Dolo we would normally have missed with a quick drive-by, like the “Cantina la Botte.”
Since all the local transportation had shut down, the next day we decided to go into Padova to visit the Basilica of St. Anthony, my Baptismal Saint. The Jesuit cloister and Church were amazing and the museum had an excellent presentation of St. Anthony’s life.
Dorothea’s business partner, Tanya and her friend Kathleen who were going to join us on our cruise arrived at Venice’s Marco Polo airport. After picking them up, we stopped at the “Cantina la Botte” that we found the night before in Dolo where various varieties of local wine were available for 7 Euros per gallon. Since there were now four of us, we bought one red and one white!
Before taking off on our cruise, our two visitors wanted to do a wine tour (the reason for buying two gallons of wine should be obvious). We decided to drive to Trent, where there is a wine route, spend the night and come back by way of Verona. Both areas produce excellent wines, and we were fortunate to find two outstanding vineyards.
Off we went to the hills of Trent stopping in Bassano del Grappa, on the river Brenta, for lunch and an introduction for our visitors to Italy’s “hole-in-the-floor-potty.” In Germany and Austria, the public restrooms had normal facilities and almost everywhere were spotless. When we got to Italy, the “hole-in-the-floor” was prevalent. This is not literally a hole cut into the floor, it is a fixture plumbed in placed but without a raised bowl, just a porcelain or stainless “platform.” Go figure! Do they use these things because they like them? There’s no cost savings! If you’re going to spend money on plumbing a finished fixture in place why not make it one where you don’t have to be an acrobat to use it? I prayed to St. Anthony and to a lot others the whole time I was in Italy that I would not have a need to fully utilize one of those contraptions while we were out and about. Lunch itself was a challenge as the server didn’t understand a bit of English or customer service. This was the first time that we felt a little annoyed, especially since a friend of the owner caught us on the street and recommended the place!
The prospects of an unplanned early departure from Europe weighed heavily on our minds and much to the chagrin of our guests was the subject of many a spirited conversation between Dorothea and me. We decided to call and talk with the American Embassy in Milan thinking we could make a trip to Milan, apply for a visa and pick it up when we returned from the cruise. No can do. The gentleman at the Embassy said you can’t apply for a visa while you’re in the foreign country. He did suggest leaving the Schwengen countries for awhile and insinuated the rules were not interpreted with a great deal of uniformity or clarity. A side trip to a non-Schwengen Country (at the time only Switzerland was an option) before our Dec. 9th deadline, then returning after a “reasonable” time could be looked upon as being in compliance. And so it was. We would abandon our trip into southern Italy. In exchange, we would make a trip to Switzerland and then return to Italy in time to get to Rome for Christmas. For the moment, our predicament was put in abeyance and Ed would further be exonerated when the trip to Switzerland turned out to be an extraordinary visit we would not have otherwise experienced.
Another day trip into Venice with our visitors, and then we’re off on our cruise to Greece aboard Royal Caribbean’s “Splendour of the Seas.” Ed is really looking forward to all the American food and intends to eat his way across the Adriatic Sea. (DZ)!
Ed and Dorothea
The Italian countryside, a short distant outside of Trieste, changes from mountainous to flat coastal plain where the road beds are typically 4’ to 10’ above the land. It is like that all around the general area of Venice, Padova, and Verona. It’s great agricultural land and home to many vineyards and estate farms.
Our stay in Padova at the Villa Salvatico was at one of those estate farms that date back to the late 1700s. Our congenial host Antonio, who inherited Salvatico, was a true Italian country gentleman. Our rented 3 bedroom, 3 bath apartment was larger than we expected and would serve as a very comfortable home base for us and two others who would be joining us before our cruise to Greece. We quickly learned our way around the area and found patisseries, a laundry, and a huge French grocery store, Auchan. Auchan was quite a surprise because of the size and selection – fresh meats, fresh fish and seafood, bakery items, produce… even a rotisserie chicken! Even though we didn’t get to have dinner there, a Roadhouse Grill was right next door. Most shops shut down at 1 or 1:30 and then reopen at 3:00 or 3:30. Restaurants close at 3:00 and reopen at 7:00. If you miss lunch, you have to make do with a snack at a café or wait for the restaurants to open. Planning your day is important if you want to eat! And on Sunday and Holidays everything is closed except the bars!
After taking care of domestics the first couple of days, Dorothea and I took the train for a short trip from the nearby Dolo train station to Venice. When we arrived in Venice and stepped out onto the piazza on the Grand Canal, we were spellbound by the city being as quaint and picturesque as all of the photos show! On our first day we spent a lot of time walking around looking for our travel books’ highlights, shops and restaurants as well as taking short cuts that wound up being long cuts. The guide book Dorothea’s sister had given us was one of the best for its restaurant recommendations. When we returned the next day, we bought a 3-day Venice pass, gave up the long walks in exchange for rides on the convenient water taxis (vaporettos). We had planned to attend one of the many operas being presented but found none of the venues were real theaters. All of them were open halls with rows of folding chairs and unassigned, first come/first served seating. For the price, fighting a crowd for a decent seat wasn’t worth it. Instead, we ventured all over Venice enjoying this unique city and its history. Sad to say, Venice is crumbling. Many, many of the buildings are badly leaning, probably due to unstable ground, and cannot remain out of plumb indefinitely. Our 3rd day was spent on the unique island of Murano. We went to one of the furnaces for a glass-blowing demonstration, and afterward were ushered to private viewing rooms when the host found out we were Americans. He personally escorted us around for almost an hour showing off all of the gorgeous pieces and doing his best to sell, sell, sell. We told him we loved all of them and would return tomorrow with our suitcases full of cash and pick up the pieces we like the best, NOT! Later that evening around 8:00, we headed to the Casino but missed our stop. Continuing on to one of the main transfer stations to catch the vaporetto back to the Casino, we learned the transportation workers were going on strike at 9:00 that night! We rushed to catch a train back but they had already stopped. Panicking, we headed for the last bus to leave from Venice to Dolo. When we got to Dolo at 10:00, we stopped and asked a couple of exiting bar patrons for directions to the train station (to get our car) and were told it was 2 miles from the bus stop. Even though it was densely foggy, cold and a long walk back, we got to see parts of Dolo we would normally have missed with a quick drive-by, like the “Cantina la Botte.”
Since all the local transportation had shut down, the next day we decided to go into Padova to visit the Basilica of St. Anthony, my Baptismal Saint. The Jesuit cloister and Church were amazing and the museum had an excellent presentation of St. Anthony’s life.
Dorothea’s business partner, Tanya and her friend Kathleen who were going to join us on our cruise arrived at Venice’s Marco Polo airport. After picking them up, we stopped at the “Cantina la Botte” that we found the night before in Dolo where various varieties of local wine were available for 7 Euros per gallon. Since there were now four of us, we bought one red and one white!
Before taking off on our cruise, our two visitors wanted to do a wine tour (the reason for buying two gallons of wine should be obvious). We decided to drive to Trent, where there is a wine route, spend the night and come back by way of Verona. Both areas produce excellent wines, and we were fortunate to find two outstanding vineyards.
Off we went to the hills of Trent stopping in Bassano del Grappa, on the river Brenta, for lunch and an introduction for our visitors to Italy’s “hole-in-the-floor-potty.” In Germany and Austria, the public restrooms had normal facilities and almost everywhere were spotless. When we got to Italy, the “hole-in-the-floor” was prevalent. This is not literally a hole cut into the floor, it is a fixture plumbed in placed but without a raised bowl, just a porcelain or stainless “platform.” Go figure! Do they use these things because they like them? There’s no cost savings! If you’re going to spend money on plumbing a finished fixture in place why not make it one where you don’t have to be an acrobat to use it? I prayed to St. Anthony and to a lot others the whole time I was in Italy that I would not have a need to fully utilize one of those contraptions while we were out and about. Lunch itself was a challenge as the server didn’t understand a bit of English or customer service. This was the first time that we felt a little annoyed, especially since a friend of the owner caught us on the street and recommended the place!
The prospects of an unplanned early departure from Europe weighed heavily on our minds and much to the chagrin of our guests was the subject of many a spirited conversation between Dorothea and me. We decided to call and talk with the American Embassy in Milan thinking we could make a trip to Milan, apply for a visa and pick it up when we returned from the cruise. No can do. The gentleman at the Embassy said you can’t apply for a visa while you’re in the foreign country. He did suggest leaving the Schwengen countries for awhile and insinuated the rules were not interpreted with a great deal of uniformity or clarity. A side trip to a non-Schwengen Country (at the time only Switzerland was an option) before our Dec. 9th deadline, then returning after a “reasonable” time could be looked upon as being in compliance. And so it was. We would abandon our trip into southern Italy. In exchange, we would make a trip to Switzerland and then return to Italy in time to get to Rome for Christmas. For the moment, our predicament was put in abeyance and Ed would further be exonerated when the trip to Switzerland turned out to be an extraordinary visit we would not have otherwise experienced.
Another day trip into Venice with our visitors, and then we’re off on our cruise to Greece aboard Royal Caribbean’s “Splendour of the Seas.” Ed is really looking forward to all the American food and intends to eat his way across the Adriatic Sea. (DZ)!
Ed and Dorothea
Friday, January 16, 2009
10242008 BLOG
October 24, 2008
Vienna was our eastern most reach into Europe. From there we would begin heading southwest with a planned stop in Graz, Austria, cross over into Italy with a stop in Trieste before going on to our scheduled arrival at Villa Selvatico in Padova, Italy just outside of Venice.
Our tour through the wine country south of Vienna put us a little behind schedule and we didn’t quite make it to Graz. The delay resulted in an unplanned surprise side trip because we found a fantastic resort, Schreiners Berghof, just outside of Hartberg at an elevation of 660 meters (almost 2,000 ft.) nestled in a forest with a fantastic view of the valley below. You have to take the time to see the photos we took while we were there, including some of our climb to the St. Anna pilgrimage church at the summit!
After leaving Hartberg, we visited the famous caves in Lugrotte, Austria’s largest caves. The Lurbach River runs through the caves. In 1894 this cave became world famous when 7 cavers were trapped underground for a week by a flash flood. The stalactites and stalagmites were huge in these underground caverns. One of the features of the tour was an entertaining light and music show in one of the larger rooms. We got to see five small bats and an interesting creature in a dark nook! Before visiting the caves, we had lunch at Gasthof Hofler Bauernwirt. Since it was “wild game” season, the restaurant’s menu was almost exclusively game dishes.
After a night’s stay at a hotel in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s home town of Graz, complete with a row boat Arnold used to row Maria around the lake (now memorialized). The next day, a short day trip to the attractive city of Graz provided one of the best lunches we’ve had anywhere. The Coco Café & Creperie. How would one ever expect to find scrumptious and beautifully presented lunch and dessert crepes in Graz?? But alas, our camera batteries were dead and so no pictures. After lunch we headed for the Armory, filled with real battle gear some originating from the 12th century. We learned Graz was a major armory for the Austrian Hapsburgs up until the end of the 1800s.
Leaving Graz for Italy, we found we needed to stop along the way. By chance, we found the delightful Barry Memle Resort outside of Klagenfurt on the shore of Am Worthersee. Mr. Memle personally escorted Dorothea around his new Fitness Area with heated pool, spa, tanning salon, etc. This area is very popular in the summer with many spa resorts. Also, the lake was home to numerous sailing squadrons and marinas.
After crossing into Italy, we drove by the beautiful Fusine Laghi in the Dolomite Mountains area near Travisio with its crystal clear emerald green waters. The lake is at 500 meters and is part of a National Forest.
We had planned to stay in Unide, Italy but found the town to be too uninviting. In driving around on one of the hill tops, we unexpectedly came across Agritourisimo Scaccia Pensieri owned by Marina Danieli in the small town of Buttrio just outside of Unide. The Danieli family apparently has many vineyards in the area, but more significantly the family owns an extremely large steel plant in Buttrio. Danieli is Italy’s biggest maker of equipment for the steel industry. And to think we stayed in “Sister Marina’s Villa”! The food was great!
From there, we headed for Trieste since we had a few days before our scheduled arrival date in Padova. Being concerned about being legal, I wanted to get our passports stamped in Italy to show we were spending time in different countries. Unfortunately, that was a mistake that would alter the rest of our European stay. We stopped at the local Polizia Municipale station in Gorizia, and I should have known there was going to be trouble when the officer asked us to step into his office. After much discussion and many phone calls by the officer and his associates, we were told since we didn’t have a visa we could only spend a total of 3 months in all of the Schwengen Countries. We didn’t have a visa because before we left, the American Consultate’s Office of France, Germany and Italy as well as a Visa expediter said we didn’t need one. Bottom line . . . we would have to leave by De. 9th, which meant we couldn’t spend Christmas in Rome. If we stayed longer, we would be “Clandestine” and risk being evicted if challenged. Talk about frost on the pumpkin, that bit of unwanted news really put a damper on our spirits. This was one time I wished I had not tried to do the right thing.
Our arrival in Trieste was less than exciting. The city is a major port and while it had a bit of history, a big marina and some interesting architecture, it wasn’t California’s “Marina del Ray” as I had expected. Looking for a room for the night we found a hotel high above the Mediterranean with a fantastic view of the Mediterranean and the beach far below. Because the winds were strong and out of the west, the beach was closed. The next day we left the car in the hotel parking lot and took the bus into town to explore “Old Trieste.” We had planned to go to the aquarium but found it was closed and so it offset our disappointment we stopped at one of the many “Gelaterias” (Italian ice cream shop) and had a scoop.
The day we arrived in Trieste, we had a bite to eat at a local “Gelateria” - a Panini (small toasted sandwich) and beer - and found the prices exorbitant. That evening, driving to a marina at the base of our hill, we had a Halloween dinner of a salad and pizza. It was here I began to realize when you go into an Italian restaurant, it doesn’t matter what you wanted when you went in, before you leave you are going to get what they want you to have. Generally, they hard sell you into ordering more to increase the tab’s total. They have: antipasto, primo piatti, secondi piatti with contorno and dolce and caffe, all of which brings the tab to a total equal to a small down payment on the restaurant. The service was excellent but the price for a pizza, salad and caffe here also was exorbitant.
We found this also to be true in Treviso at the Titian Hotel just outside of Padua. It was raining when we arrived, tired and not wanting to go on a search for dinner. Under the circumstances we opted for the hotel restaurant. We ordered one appetizer, 2 entrees of grilled Ahi tuna, medium rare with grilled vegetables and settled back with a delicious white Italian wine aperitif. The first hint of things going awry was the server brought two appetizers. When I told him I only wanted one, he said for two people one was not enough so he brought two. O.k., we’re in Italy, I wouldn’t create a scene. When the entre came, it turned out the tuna was a mackerel (looks like a baby tuna), it was fillet and sautéed with some indescribable tasting things from the garden, all cold. Oh, server, please! This isn’t going to work, we don’t want this! Not the right thing to do. The server really looked put out, stomped to the kitchen and out came the chef and dining room manager wanting to know what was wrong with the food. We tried to explain, they got indignant and we left hoping there would not be a dead horses head in our bed when we got back to the room!
Ed and Dorothea
Vienna was our eastern most reach into Europe. From there we would begin heading southwest with a planned stop in Graz, Austria, cross over into Italy with a stop in Trieste before going on to our scheduled arrival at Villa Selvatico in Padova, Italy just outside of Venice.
Our tour through the wine country south of Vienna put us a little behind schedule and we didn’t quite make it to Graz. The delay resulted in an unplanned surprise side trip because we found a fantastic resort, Schreiners Berghof, just outside of Hartberg at an elevation of 660 meters (almost 2,000 ft.) nestled in a forest with a fantastic view of the valley below. You have to take the time to see the photos we took while we were there, including some of our climb to the St. Anna pilgrimage church at the summit!
After leaving Hartberg, we visited the famous caves in Lugrotte, Austria’s largest caves. The Lurbach River runs through the caves. In 1894 this cave became world famous when 7 cavers were trapped underground for a week by a flash flood. The stalactites and stalagmites were huge in these underground caverns. One of the features of the tour was an entertaining light and music show in one of the larger rooms. We got to see five small bats and an interesting creature in a dark nook! Before visiting the caves, we had lunch at Gasthof Hofler Bauernwirt. Since it was “wild game” season, the restaurant’s menu was almost exclusively game dishes.
After a night’s stay at a hotel in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s home town of Graz, complete with a row boat Arnold used to row Maria around the lake (now memorialized). The next day, a short day trip to the attractive city of Graz provided one of the best lunches we’ve had anywhere. The Coco Café & Creperie. How would one ever expect to find scrumptious and beautifully presented lunch and dessert crepes in Graz?? But alas, our camera batteries were dead and so no pictures. After lunch we headed for the Armory, filled with real battle gear some originating from the 12th century. We learned Graz was a major armory for the Austrian Hapsburgs up until the end of the 1800s.
Leaving Graz for Italy, we found we needed to stop along the way. By chance, we found the delightful Barry Memle Resort outside of Klagenfurt on the shore of Am Worthersee. Mr. Memle personally escorted Dorothea around his new Fitness Area with heated pool, spa, tanning salon, etc. This area is very popular in the summer with many spa resorts. Also, the lake was home to numerous sailing squadrons and marinas.
After crossing into Italy, we drove by the beautiful Fusine Laghi in the Dolomite Mountains area near Travisio with its crystal clear emerald green waters. The lake is at 500 meters and is part of a National Forest.
We had planned to stay in Unide, Italy but found the town to be too uninviting. In driving around on one of the hill tops, we unexpectedly came across Agritourisimo Scaccia Pensieri owned by Marina Danieli in the small town of Buttrio just outside of Unide. The Danieli family apparently has many vineyards in the area, but more significantly the family owns an extremely large steel plant in Buttrio. Danieli is Italy’s biggest maker of equipment for the steel industry. And to think we stayed in “Sister Marina’s Villa”! The food was great!
From there, we headed for Trieste since we had a few days before our scheduled arrival date in Padova. Being concerned about being legal, I wanted to get our passports stamped in Italy to show we were spending time in different countries. Unfortunately, that was a mistake that would alter the rest of our European stay. We stopped at the local Polizia Municipale station in Gorizia, and I should have known there was going to be trouble when the officer asked us to step into his office. After much discussion and many phone calls by the officer and his associates, we were told since we didn’t have a visa we could only spend a total of 3 months in all of the Schwengen Countries. We didn’t have a visa because before we left, the American Consultate’s Office of France, Germany and Italy as well as a Visa expediter said we didn’t need one. Bottom line . . . we would have to leave by De. 9th, which meant we couldn’t spend Christmas in Rome. If we stayed longer, we would be “Clandestine” and risk being evicted if challenged. Talk about frost on the pumpkin, that bit of unwanted news really put a damper on our spirits. This was one time I wished I had not tried to do the right thing.
Our arrival in Trieste was less than exciting. The city is a major port and while it had a bit of history, a big marina and some interesting architecture, it wasn’t California’s “Marina del Ray” as I had expected. Looking for a room for the night we found a hotel high above the Mediterranean with a fantastic view of the Mediterranean and the beach far below. Because the winds were strong and out of the west, the beach was closed. The next day we left the car in the hotel parking lot and took the bus into town to explore “Old Trieste.” We had planned to go to the aquarium but found it was closed and so it offset our disappointment we stopped at one of the many “Gelaterias” (Italian ice cream shop) and had a scoop.
The day we arrived in Trieste, we had a bite to eat at a local “Gelateria” - a Panini (small toasted sandwich) and beer - and found the prices exorbitant. That evening, driving to a marina at the base of our hill, we had a Halloween dinner of a salad and pizza. It was here I began to realize when you go into an Italian restaurant, it doesn’t matter what you wanted when you went in, before you leave you are going to get what they want you to have. Generally, they hard sell you into ordering more to increase the tab’s total. They have: antipasto, primo piatti, secondi piatti with contorno and dolce and caffe, all of which brings the tab to a total equal to a small down payment on the restaurant. The service was excellent but the price for a pizza, salad and caffe here also was exorbitant.
We found this also to be true in Treviso at the Titian Hotel just outside of Padua. It was raining when we arrived, tired and not wanting to go on a search for dinner. Under the circumstances we opted for the hotel restaurant. We ordered one appetizer, 2 entrees of grilled Ahi tuna, medium rare with grilled vegetables and settled back with a delicious white Italian wine aperitif. The first hint of things going awry was the server brought two appetizers. When I told him I only wanted one, he said for two people one was not enough so he brought two. O.k., we’re in Italy, I wouldn’t create a scene. When the entre came, it turned out the tuna was a mackerel (looks like a baby tuna), it was fillet and sautéed with some indescribable tasting things from the garden, all cold. Oh, server, please! This isn’t going to work, we don’t want this! Not the right thing to do. The server really looked put out, stomped to the kitchen and out came the chef and dining room manager wanting to know what was wrong with the food. We tried to explain, they got indignant and we left hoping there would not be a dead horses head in our bed when we got back to the room!
Ed and Dorothea
Saturday, January 10, 2009
October 14, 2008 BLOG
October 14, 2008
And then there was Wien. I’ve been waiting to visit Vienna since I was a junior taking college German. It lived up to 95% of what I expected, everything except the graffiti. It is truly a grand city rich in architecture, culture and history.
On our way to Vienna, we stopped in Lentz to see the Danube River. It was a great river and ideal for skipping flat river rocks, but as it is today, I’m not sure it would have been much of an inspiration to Strauss. Our B & B was comfortable and I’m glad we had a server who knew Americans well enough to suggest we might want to select another entrée instead of black (blood) sausage.
Along the way we passed through many small villages. We did a double take when on the side of the road we saw a herd of deer. Thinking they seemed to be too close to the road, we turned around for a look – wild deer, right. Personally, I don’t want to think of their future . . . The countryside is mainly agricultural and since it was close to Halloween, we weren’t surprised to see fields of pumpkins, lots of them! At some roadside stands you could buy gourds, pumpkins, etc. “on your honor” since no-one is there to man the stands. Just put the money in a box provided! That would work in the States, wouldn’t it? An unusual sight was a large shopping mall, “Plus City”, with a McDonalds, one of the few we saw in Austria.
Before heading to Vienna, we did a little pre-planning and decided to stay in the little town of Klosterneuburg just 30 minutes NW of Vienna. We were lucky to find a nice apartment, “Hotel Andrea”, with a congenial hostess and only a few blocks from the train station. As we did in Salzburg, we bought a 72-hour Vienna card that covered all of the train and bus transportation with some discounts for restaurants and attractions. It paid for itself but wasn’t as good a deal as it was in Salzburg.
Our first day in Vienna we had to stop by the performing arts center to pick up our pre-ordered tickets for the season’s last performance of the “Vienna Boys Choir”. While we were at the ticket office, we noticed there was a performance by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra the next evening. We didn’t want to miss their performance so we bought tickets and in looking over the program notice the featured violinist was Midori! What a surprise and a treat.
I learned a “Path Finding” lesson in Vienna that I should have learned in Munich. “To get to Point B, you have to know exactly where it is relative to Point A.” In going to Vienna to pick up our tickets, we took the train and then without coming above ground took the metro to the area of the performing arts center. When we came up from the metro, it was raining, the sun was obscured – nothing to use for directional orientation, and there were roads everywhere. We were at a major piazza with roads converging from 8 different directions and no street signs. Over here, road and street names are engraved in the side of buildings about 12’ above the ground. You have to be within 25’ of the building to read the name. O.k., based on what I think are similar landmarks, we head to the nearest building about 400’ away. When we get there, we find the street name is the one we want so we head down the block to get the next name and fix our position. In the big cities, the blocks are big and in this case it was about 1,200’ (almost ¼ mile). When we reached the end, we found the street that should have been there was in the opposite direction. Finally, getting to the arts center after an hour of traipsing around in the rain, we found it was a short 10 minute walk from the metro, mostly underground and sheltered from the rain. On the plus side, we did find a “T.G.I. Friday’s” and celebrated with an American hamburger. What a great break from bratwurst and weinerschnitzel! Later we found “Sparky’s” a fun restaurant all decorated for Halloween, one of the few places that seemed to celebrate this day. Very large beers were on tap!
The next day, the “Vienna Boys Choir“performance was scheduled for 3:00 p.m so we had time in the morning to explore the area around the Austrian Palace. Here to our surprise, we found an advertisement for the “Rocky Horror Picture Show.” If it can be done in Vienna then it certainly is ok for it to be done in Punta Gorda at the “Isles Yacht Club.” (For those non-IYC readers, Ed and I hosted our own showing of Rocky Horror a while back at the IYC. Though we were somewhat apprehensive, to our amazement and that of many members, it was a ball!) Also while we were in the area, we stopped by the Spanish Riding School and picked up tickets to see the Sunday performance of the Lipizzaner Stallions and to tour the Hofburg Imperial Palace.
The Boy’s Choir performance was terrific. A young, 10 or 11 year old, oriental boy was the lead singer and his soprano singing was flawless. Sopranos have amazing voices and all of the little guys were talented and produced sounds that were crystal clear and sharp.
Another amazing oriental performer we had the pleasure of seeing was Midori. No longer a child prodigy, she has matured into an unbelievable violinist. Performing Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, Midori was absolutely terrific and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra was fabulous.
On Sunday morning, it was off to see the Lippizaner’s being put through their paces. The riders were absolute professional horsemen and the stallions were magnificent. Some of the moves they make those animals do have to be seen in persons. There were guards all over the arena stopping people from taking photos during the performance so I all I got was the part of the horse that goes over the fence last and a shot of the unsung hero who takes care of the parts that doesn’t make it over the fence.
That afternoon, we toured the Hofburg Imperial Palace and picked out the new flatware, place settings and center pieces for the Isles Yacht Club – mostly gold. If the common folks who paid all of those taxes saw the collection, they would have revolted. What a treasure trove! The tour through the “Sissi Museum” told the story of a beautiful, young, free-spirited Austrian Queen Elizabeth who married Franz Joseph at 18 and lived a life regretting being a spectacle. She hated the royal court protocol and traveled extensively to get away from being put on exhibition. While visiting Geneva, Switzerland, she was assassinated. It was a moving story, made into a movie, about someone who had it all but yet was as unhappy as anyone could get.
The Hapsburg’s had a long standing monarchy and many palaces. In addition to the Hofburg palace, we toured their summer residence, the Schönbrunn Palace. Here the story of Franz Joseph and Sissi continued.
The stop in Vienna was wonderful and provided many memories. We’re sad to leave, but the wine country south of Vienna eases the sorrow and the call of Italy is strong.
Ed and Dorothea
And then there was Wien. I’ve been waiting to visit Vienna since I was a junior taking college German. It lived up to 95% of what I expected, everything except the graffiti. It is truly a grand city rich in architecture, culture and history.
On our way to Vienna, we stopped in Lentz to see the Danube River. It was a great river and ideal for skipping flat river rocks, but as it is today, I’m not sure it would have been much of an inspiration to Strauss. Our B & B was comfortable and I’m glad we had a server who knew Americans well enough to suggest we might want to select another entrée instead of black (blood) sausage.
Along the way we passed through many small villages. We did a double take when on the side of the road we saw a herd of deer. Thinking they seemed to be too close to the road, we turned around for a look – wild deer, right. Personally, I don’t want to think of their future . . . The countryside is mainly agricultural and since it was close to Halloween, we weren’t surprised to see fields of pumpkins, lots of them! At some roadside stands you could buy gourds, pumpkins, etc. “on your honor” since no-one is there to man the stands. Just put the money in a box provided! That would work in the States, wouldn’t it? An unusual sight was a large shopping mall, “Plus City”, with a McDonalds, one of the few we saw in Austria.
Before heading to Vienna, we did a little pre-planning and decided to stay in the little town of Klosterneuburg just 30 minutes NW of Vienna. We were lucky to find a nice apartment, “Hotel Andrea”, with a congenial hostess and only a few blocks from the train station. As we did in Salzburg, we bought a 72-hour Vienna card that covered all of the train and bus transportation with some discounts for restaurants and attractions. It paid for itself but wasn’t as good a deal as it was in Salzburg.
Our first day in Vienna we had to stop by the performing arts center to pick up our pre-ordered tickets for the season’s last performance of the “Vienna Boys Choir”. While we were at the ticket office, we noticed there was a performance by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra the next evening. We didn’t want to miss their performance so we bought tickets and in looking over the program notice the featured violinist was Midori! What a surprise and a treat.
I learned a “Path Finding” lesson in Vienna that I should have learned in Munich. “To get to Point B, you have to know exactly where it is relative to Point A.” In going to Vienna to pick up our tickets, we took the train and then without coming above ground took the metro to the area of the performing arts center. When we came up from the metro, it was raining, the sun was obscured – nothing to use for directional orientation, and there were roads everywhere. We were at a major piazza with roads converging from 8 different directions and no street signs. Over here, road and street names are engraved in the side of buildings about 12’ above the ground. You have to be within 25’ of the building to read the name. O.k., based on what I think are similar landmarks, we head to the nearest building about 400’ away. When we get there, we find the street name is the one we want so we head down the block to get the next name and fix our position. In the big cities, the blocks are big and in this case it was about 1,200’ (almost ¼ mile). When we reached the end, we found the street that should have been there was in the opposite direction. Finally, getting to the arts center after an hour of traipsing around in the rain, we found it was a short 10 minute walk from the metro, mostly underground and sheltered from the rain. On the plus side, we did find a “T.G.I. Friday’s” and celebrated with an American hamburger. What a great break from bratwurst and weinerschnitzel! Later we found “Sparky’s” a fun restaurant all decorated for Halloween, one of the few places that seemed to celebrate this day. Very large beers were on tap!
The next day, the “Vienna Boys Choir“performance was scheduled for 3:00 p.m so we had time in the morning to explore the area around the Austrian Palace. Here to our surprise, we found an advertisement for the “Rocky Horror Picture Show.” If it can be done in Vienna then it certainly is ok for it to be done in Punta Gorda at the “Isles Yacht Club.” (For those non-IYC readers, Ed and I hosted our own showing of Rocky Horror a while back at the IYC. Though we were somewhat apprehensive, to our amazement and that of many members, it was a ball!) Also while we were in the area, we stopped by the Spanish Riding School and picked up tickets to see the Sunday performance of the Lipizzaner Stallions and to tour the Hofburg Imperial Palace.
The Boy’s Choir performance was terrific. A young, 10 or 11 year old, oriental boy was the lead singer and his soprano singing was flawless. Sopranos have amazing voices and all of the little guys were talented and produced sounds that were crystal clear and sharp.
Another amazing oriental performer we had the pleasure of seeing was Midori. No longer a child prodigy, she has matured into an unbelievable violinist. Performing Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, Midori was absolutely terrific and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra was fabulous.
On Sunday morning, it was off to see the Lippizaner’s being put through their paces. The riders were absolute professional horsemen and the stallions were magnificent. Some of the moves they make those animals do have to be seen in persons. There were guards all over the arena stopping people from taking photos during the performance so I all I got was the part of the horse that goes over the fence last and a shot of the unsung hero who takes care of the parts that doesn’t make it over the fence.
That afternoon, we toured the Hofburg Imperial Palace and picked out the new flatware, place settings and center pieces for the Isles Yacht Club – mostly gold. If the common folks who paid all of those taxes saw the collection, they would have revolted. What a treasure trove! The tour through the “Sissi Museum” told the story of a beautiful, young, free-spirited Austrian Queen Elizabeth who married Franz Joseph at 18 and lived a life regretting being a spectacle. She hated the royal court protocol and traveled extensively to get away from being put on exhibition. While visiting Geneva, Switzerland, she was assassinated. It was a moving story, made into a movie, about someone who had it all but yet was as unhappy as anyone could get.
The Hapsburg’s had a long standing monarchy and many palaces. In addition to the Hofburg palace, we toured their summer residence, the Schönbrunn Palace. Here the story of Franz Joseph and Sissi continued.
The stop in Vienna was wonderful and provided many memories. We’re sad to leave, but the wine country south of Vienna eases the sorrow and the call of Italy is strong.
Ed and Dorothea
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