SomewhereOutThere

This is Part 3 of our trip report, covering the drive from Sorrento to Tuscany & 3 nights in Tuscany. To find Parts 1 & 2 – click on my name. The original post covers Rome, Part 2 covers Sorrento/Pompeii/Amalfi.

PRE-PLAN FOR TUSCANY PORTION OF TRIP
We had rented a car in Sorrento on Saturday and our only plan was to drive from Sorrento to Castellina in Chianti on Sunday, stay there three nights, and explore the area. I had considered hiring a driver in Tuscany and/or making a reservation for a tour with multi-course meal at a winery, but for some reason, never got around to it. I guess I didn’t want to give up the freedom to explore Tuscany at our own pace.

DAY 7 - SORRENTO TO CASTELLINA IN CHIANTI - Sunday
We left the Hilton in Sorrento around 10:00AM Sunday morning. I had printed Internet directions from mappy.com and mapblast.com. They said the trip to Castellina in Chianti was about 315 miles and should take between 5 and 5 ½ hours. I was glad I had the directions, just to reinforce the fact that we were going the right way, but all you really need to do to get from Sorrento to Tuscany is follow the signs for Napoli, then follow the signs for Roma, then keep going and exit A1 as directed by the hotel you’re headed to.

We thought 10:00AM was early enough to start out – figuring the 5 hour drive + 2 hours for lunch and a little sightseeing along the way would put us in Castellina by 5:00. However, if we had it to do over again, we would have started out earlier – probably two hours earlier, as we hit very heavy traffic on the road from Sorrento to Naples. Much of this section is a two lane road – it was crowded with Sunday church traffic, tourist traffic, and locals, heading to the coast on a pretty Sunday. It took us much longer to navigate this stretch of the trip than we had anticipated – at least double the estimate on the internet directions.

Finally, we arrived at Autostrade A3 to Naples. There were toll booths as we entered. We paid the toll, got a ticket (I think it was 1.40E) and headed onto the Autostrade. Things moved more quickly and before we knew it, A3 was ending and it was time to get on A1, the major Autostrade from Naples to Rome. Here’s where we made the only major mistake on our whole trip! As we approached the gates, we were looking for toll booths where you pay, like we did at the start of A3. There were no booths to pay, just gates. We looked at the pictures on the gates and for some unknown reason, we thought we were supposed to put the ticket we already had in the slot to exit A3…and we assumed we would then find toll booths as we entered A1. Why we thought this, I’ll never know! Anyways, Ron put the ticket in the slot, the gate went up and we drove through. If the gate had not gone up, we would have realized we needed to get a ticket, but since it went up….we went on….without a toll ticket!

Driving on A1 between Naples and Rome was an experience – a high-speed experience! There were three lanes. Most of the time, the trucks were in the right lane, the regular drivers were in the middle lane and the high-speed drivers were in the left lane. We were in the middle lane most of the time – going about 145kms (90 miles/hr) to stay with the flow. Cars shot past us in the fast lane. They had to be going 120 miles/hr.

About an hour into this part of the drive, I realized we had a problem - we had been driving on the autostrade, we had not paid at the start, I could tell there were toll booths at the exits, and we did not have a toll ticket….….yes, it took an hour before we realized we had screwed up!! What to do now??? We discussed whether to get off and resolve the issue or keep going until it was time to get off for lunch. Ron prevailed and we kept driving. We drove for several hours – with no real problems, other than feeling stupid about failing to get a toll ticket.

Traffic thinned out and slowed down a bit after we passed Rome. We had originally planned to follow advice I received on this forum, to get off at Chiusi Chianciano Terme and drive to Montepulciano for lunch. But, the traffic during the first part of the trip had put us way behind schedule, and by the time we reached the Orvieto exit, we were quite hungry and worried that restaurants would stop serving lunch, so we decided to exit A1 and find a place for lunch.

This meant it was time to deal with the toll ticket problem! We pulled up to the toll booth without a ticket. Ron had hoped to explain what happened, but didn’t get the chance, as the man at the booth didn’t speak English. English or not, the man quickly figured out we didn’t have a toll ticket and pointed to a listing, asking where we got on. We said Napoli, at the start of A1. He looked up the fare …people were honking horns behind us… Ron thought we weren’t going to get a fine….I knew we were…The man said 15.50 Euro and we paid. Then, he pushed a button and his machine spit out a foot long paper ticket. The ticket said the total charge was 42.80 Euro, we had paid 15.50 Euro and there was a 27.30 balance due – obviously the lost ticket fine. Not too bad, as I was expecting a 50 Euro fine, but there was a problem – the man at the booth couldn’t take the rest of the money. He pointed to the instructions on the ticket. There was enough English on the ticket to tell there were 3 ways to pay and the fine would go up if you didn’t pay in 15 days. We figured we’d have to ask the people at our hotel how we were supposed to pay it…and obviously, we’d have to take care of it before we left Italy.

We were too hungry to think about it, so we headed to Orvieto. It’s very close to the highway. We missed the turn for the funicular parking and ended up driving up a steep road to the town. We found a parking place right away, put Euros in the parking ticket machine, got a parking receipt, put it on the dash, and set off to find lunch. We ended up at an outdoor table at a casual pizzeria a short way up the main street. I had the best panini of the trip - made fresh with salami, buffalo mozzarella, pomodoro tomato, and olive oil. Ron had pizza. We ordered the house wine and sat back to relax. They brought a full bottle of wine and would have only charged us for the number of glasses we drank – but, the wine was really good and we ended up drinking the whole bottle. We decided to forget about the ticket for today, walked around Orvieto, and visited the Duomo. It was a very pleasant stop.

We headed back to A1 and decided it was too late to take the drive through Montepulciano today. So, we proceeded to the Valdichiana/Bettolle exit, and followed the directions our hotel had provided. The directions seemed odd - but they were very accurate – head toward and around Siena, Exit Monteriggioni & follow signs to Castellina in Chianti. The drive from A1 to Castellina took at least another hour – maybe 1 ½. There was some construction on the road to Siena, but no major delays.

It was about 6:30 and we were tired when we got to Castellina in Chianti. We had reservations for 3 nights at Palazzo Squarcialupi in the center of town and were just planning to check in, relax, and have dinner in town. The hotel had advised us to park in a 1 hour spot downtown, walk to the hotel, and then, they would show us how to access their lot behind the hotel. We were expecting the town to be pretty quiet on Sunday evening. Boy, were we in for a surprise! As we pulled into town, there were people and cars everywhere! We couldn’t get close to the 1 hour parking …for that matter, we couldn’t find parking anywhere. Ron pulled over to the side, I got out and walked to the hotel. I found it easily and found out there was a local art & wine-tasting festival that had been going on Sat & Sun and ended at 8pm. The woman from the hotel walked back to the car with me, helped with the luggage, then road in the car with Ron and took him to the hotel lot.

Forget about being tired!! We checked in as quickly as we could, threw our stuff in the room, asked the desk clerk to make us a 9:00pm dinner reservation, and hurried outside to buy wine glasses and experience the last hour of the wine-tasting festival. We paid 8 Euro each for wine glasses – they’re etched with the name of the festival and the year – so we brought them home as souvenirs. The tasting was in a tunnel that ran right under our hotel. There were numerous wineries, all from the Chianti region … many excellent wines… very friendly people. Most people spoke English or had an English speaking representative with them. We tasted until the winemakers packed up, around 8:20pm. Each time we tasted a wine, I asked for a cork, for a kitchen wreath I had started before we left home. Everyone was enthusiastic about giving me a cork and by the end of the night, I was loaded down with wine corks!

During the festival, we met Gabriele Buondonno of the Buondonno winery and his neighbor, an elderly Italian winemaker named Ezio Buchiarelli who owns the Antico Podere Casanova winery. Ron and Ezio hit it off somehow - Ezio didn’t speak a word of English, but he looked remarkably like Ron’s father, who passed away about 5 years ago. He invited us to visit his winery and pointed it out on the map. We confirmed the location with his neighbor (who spoke perfect English) and promised to visit both wineries the next afternoon.

As the wineries packed up, many of them left the open bottles on the tables. By this time, we were talking to a young teacher from Tuscany and his girlfriend, whom he had brought back from New Zealand. The four of us shared one of the open bottles. If we hadn’t been with a local, it probably would have seemed tacky to keep standing around, pouring wine from the open bottles, but as it was, it seemed just fine. We parted at a few minutes before 9pm – to head to Le Torre for our dinner reservation. We invited the couple to join us, but they declined, saying they had to work the next day. I also suspect it may have been too expensive, as they had already told us what teachers made in the area.

Dinner at Le Torre seemed great – but we had had so much wine in such a short time that frankly, dinner was a bit of a blurr. In fact, the next morning, I looked at the receipt, noticed we had purchased a dessert, and had no idea what it had been. What a shame!

Our biggest regret - that we didn’t know about the wine-tasting festival ahead of time – we definitely would have arrived in Castellina much earlier that day if we had known. For future reference, the festival is called “Pentecoste a Castellina in Chianti”and is held on Pentecost Weekend every year. If you’re going to be in Italy at that time of year – I highly recommend spending the weekend in Castellina in Chianti!

DAY 8 – CHIANTI AREA
We woke up to another bright sunny day and a great view from our room at Palazzo Squarcialupi – www.palazzosquarcialupi.com . We were very pleased with the hotel. There are 15 rooms – 3 categories - standard with no view, junior suites with view, and superior with view. We reserved a junior suite with view at 135 Euro per night. We were in room 105 - a large room with high ceilings, nice modern bathroom, shuttered windows with a great view of the tuscan hills. The décor was what I call casual antique – which I like….comfortably worn furniture, that fit the hotel perfectly. The TV was tiny and looked funny in the room, but it didn’t matter much since we only turned it on to check the weather. The staff was very pleasant. Breakfast was very nice – a large buffet – breads, meats, cheeses, fruit, yogurt, etc…. with big containers of coffee and warm milk. There were two common rooms for relaxing / visiting with others and a computer with internet connection. Very nice. We would definitely stay here again. I recommend paying for a view. If you’re a late riser, you might want to avoid room 104, as it opens right onto the breakfast room.

After breakfast, we set out for a drive through Chianti. We didn’t have a real plan or any reservations. We hoped to visit some wineries, see some of the countryside, and of course, visit the two winemakers we had met the night before. We headed to Radda first – arrived around 9:30AM - nice quiet hilly town – just starting to come to life at this time of the morning. We walked around the streets, stopped in several shops, tasted wine in two of the wine shops (no charge), and stopped in the tourist office to ask if they could recommend any wineries where reservations weren’t necessary. They suggested we go to Castello D’Albola - said there was an 11:00AM tour – just show up.

We headed to Castello D’Albola - it was a short drive and we arrived shortly before 11:00AM, tasted wines while waiting to see if anyone else showed up for the 11:00AM tour. The young woman serving us was also the tour guide. She was very friendly, spoke good English, and allowed us to sample quite a few wines, plus our first taste of grappa (no charge for anything). No one else showed up, so at 11:00, she gave us a private tour of the winery and the grounds. Very enjoyable!

As we left, we stopped in a small winery on the let that had a “degustazione / vendita diretta” sign displayed. Another friendly woman let us taste their wines (no charge). We intended to head from here to Volpaia, but missed the turn. It must have been a very small road. Rather than double-back, we decided to head back to the Castellina area and find the Buondonno and Antico Podere Casanova wineries.

We had a great map of Chianti from the wine festival. It had red roads, yellow roads, and white roads. As we searched for the road to the two wineries, we came to realize that the white roads were dirt roads. This must be why we missed the road to Volpaia. This time, when we missed the road we were looking for, we did double back, and finally we saw a small sign for Buondonno, and headed down the dirt road. As we approached the Buondonno property, Gabriele was walking out of his house and saw us. He remembered us from the night before and seemed very surprised that we’d found our way! He opened up his winery, which was under the house – showed us the operation, sampled some wine with us, and suggested we go to nearby Panzano for lunch. Very nice visit.

Next, we went to Antico Podere Casanova, to see Ezio, who did not speak English. He was busy with some people, but ran over to the car as we pulled up, gave us a hug, and took us into his wine-tasting room. He got down two large wine glasses, opened a bottle of chianti classico reserva, sat in on the table, and motioned to us that he had to go back to what he had been doing, but we should drink. So, there we were, the two of us, with a bottle of wine again! We each had a glass, but refrained from drinking the whole bottle, as we had a bit more driving to do. Eventually Ezio came back, smiled and posed for a picture with Ron. His wife stopped by, said her name was Lena, but didn’t seem to speak any English either. We had a great time – just one of those unique experiences that can’t be anticipated or repeated!

By now, it was about 2:00, and we decided we would follow Gabriele’s advice and go to Panzano for lunch. We found Il Vescovino, which had a very nice patio overlooking the Tuscan hills, and had a very pleasant lunch. Then, we headed toward Greve. We stopped at several wineries that had the “degustazione” sign displayed. At most of them, we had to ring a bell and wait for someone to come, but they were friendly and happy to let us taste their wines. No one asked us to pay for tasting.

We made it back to Castellina by early evening, walked around the town before all the shops closed. Our hotel had made us 8:30 dinner reservations at Le Tre Porte, a short walk from the hotel. The restaurant had saved us a table for two at the back window, looking over the hills. It was the best table in the restaurant. Our waiter was young and enthusiastic, the food was very good, the wine he recommended was great. Best of all – their tiramisu – it was a bowl of wonderful mascarpone crème, with cake hidden underneath - just wonderful … all in all it was a very nice end to a very nice day!

SomewhereOutThere

DAY 9 – MONTALCINO & MONTEPULCIANO
For the first time on our trip, we woke up to cloudy skies. We both wanted to see Montalcino and Montepulciano, even though they were a bit far from Castellina. We headed out around 9:30AM – with rainjackets and umbrellas in case of rain. We drove to the small town of Fonterutoli first, hoping to taste the Fonterutoli wines. Unfortunately, the town was still asleep and the wine shop wasn’t open yet. So we headed on. We got a bit lost trying to get around Siena, had to stop and get directions, and eventually ended up on SS 2 headed toward Buonconvento, where we turned off and headed toward Montalcino.

The approach to Montalcino is impressive. The medieval town is set high on a hill, very striking. We skipped the 1 hour parking places and opted for a lot about 2 blocks from the center of town that appeared to have unlimited free parking. We walked to town and headed for the Enoteca at the Fortezza. We knew we would have to pay to taste Brunellos here. It was 12 Euro for three tastes. We were going to get 3 each, but the woman at the bar suggested we try 3, then buy a glass each, for our money. We followed her advice. She asked what kind of wine we liked, picked out 3 for us to taste, then threw in a 4th one for free. The bar wasn’t crowded while we were there, so we weren’t rushed at all. The woman described the wines we were tasting and wrote the names on paper glass wrings, but didn’t tell us the price of each until we picked our favorites. We each picked a different one – neither of us picked the most expensive one we had tasted. We bought two glasses of wine and a cheese plate to share, and went outside to enjoy everything in the fortezza courtyard. This was a bit of a splurge, but we really enjoyed it, especially since it wasn’t crowed at the time.

We left the fortezza and headed down the street to see if there were any other tasting locations. We ventured into a wine shop – Enoteca di Piazza at Piazza Garibaldi and tasted about 6 more Brunellos. We weren’t charged – but I think they thought we were going to purchase something. We would have loved to have purchased wine to take home, but didn’t because we didn’t want to deal with the additional luggage/packages for the rest of the trip….and shipping costs were way too expensive. So, the best I can do in exchange for our free tastings is recommend the shop – Enoteca di Piazza - Telephone 0577 849194 or [email protected] - they were very pleasant and said they ship Brunellos everywhere.

I wish we had stayed in Montalcino for lunch – there were a number of restaurants with outdoor seating and the food looked great, but we decided we’d better head on to Montepulciano. We didn’t have any trouble finding the road – took SS146 through Pienza to Montepulciano. This is a beautiful drive and the approach to Montepulciano was fabulous – another striking medieval town high on a hill – picture-perfect! We found a large free lot – again, no crowds, and walked into town. It was still cloudy, but had not rained, so we left our rain gear in the car. Big mistake – it started to drizzle while we were in a wine shop, tasting Montepulciano wines…. and started to rain steadily as we got to the center of town. We were hungry and it was too late for a nice lunch, so we ate at a pizzeria off the square. We kept hoping the rain would stop – but no such luck. (No complaints though, as it was Day 9 of our trip, and this was the first rain we had experienced.)

We visited the church and went in several wine shops near the center of town. Our best find – the Consorzio dei Vino Nobile di Montepulciano wine shop. It’s located off of Piazza Grande, downstairs in the building across from the cathedral. They charged 5 Euro for 3 tastes – but poured 3 glasses of wine (rather than tastes of wine). They rotate wines from 62 Montepulciano wineries throughout the week, so if you stay in town, you can visit everyday and try 3 different wines. Great value!

It was getting late and was still raining, so we decided it was time to head back to Castellina. It’s a pretty long drive and wasn’t much fun in the rain. We tried to follow directions we’d been given at the Consorzio and got lost – making the drive even longer. Eventually, we ended up on the same road we’d take the first time we’d driven to Castellina and found our way back. We had dinner at Le Torre for the second time. This time, our waiter was a bit impersonal. The food and wine were fine, but we weren’t overly impressed.

We truly enjoyed our visit to Tuscany. We agreed that, if we had it to do over again, we would allocate 4 nights to this part of the trip and would spend 2 in Castellina and 2 in Montepulciano (or maybe Pienza). Although Northern & Southern Tuscany appear to be relatively close to each other on a map, they’re actually pretty far apart and it takes awhile to navigate the roads around Siena and the windy roads throughout Tuscany.

Venice to follow soon, along with the story of how our toll ticket saga ended….. I’d be happy to answer questions.

ira

Hi S,

The Chamber of Commerce coouldn't have written a better story.

Thanks for sharing.

Dayle

Hi S,

Thanks for a great part 3! I'm staying in Montalcino for 3 nights in Sept and am looking forward to visiting some of the enoteca's you mentioned.

SeaUrchin

Oh, what lovely writing, you brought back such memories of my trips to that area, including toll mishaps.

Isn't it wonderful to visit the wineries and meet the people and enjoy a little taste of their lives?

Thanks for sharing with us.

KathrynT

Wonderful report. You've made me want to visit the all of the towns you toured. I'm looking forward to the rest!

yipper

Hi,
Great report. Keep it coming.

SomewhereOutThere

I know this is ridiculously late, but I finally finished my Italy trip report. I had posted Parts 1 – 3 last year. This is part 4 – the drive from Tuscany to Venice, plus 3 nights in Venice. I’m tacking it onto the Part 3 post since it continues the story about a traffic ticket we had received enroute to Tuscany. It’s really long, but hopefully there’s something in here that will be helpful or interesting to someone out there. If you’re one of the lucky ones getting to go to Italy this year, have a wonderful time. I think about the trip all of the time, and it always makes me smile.

If you want to find Part 1 (Rome) or 2 (Sorrento, Pompeii, Amalfi) of my trip report, click on my name. I’ll check all 3 posts for the next month or two to answer any questions.

PRE-PLAN FOR VENICE PORTION OF TRIP
We had a 3 night reservation at Hotel Campiello and 2 pre-booked tours with Avventure Bellissime at www.tours-italy.com. I had also tried to book the Doge Palace secret tour at www.museiciviciveneziani.it without making a prepayment, as I had read this had worked for others. Be warned – it did not work for us – I had a booking number, but they said the reservation was not complete, our name did not appear on the pre-booking list. Luckily, they were able to book us on another Secret Tour at the palace desk.

DAY 10 – TUSCANY TO VENICE – WED MAY 18, 2005
We woke up to gray skies and a threat of a thunderstorm for our drive to Venice. We were hoping the storm would hold off because we had to figure out how to return the rental car in Venice, get our luggage to the dock, buy vaporetto tickets, and catch the vaporetto to our hotel. We were worried that our luggage might get wet if there was a storm, so we borrowed two large garbage bags to cover them if need be.

Before checking out of the Palazza Squarcialupi, we asked the woman at the front desk to read the ticket we’d received on Day 7 and advise us on the best way to pay it. She told us we needed to go to a Punta Blue (Blue Dot) office to pay the fine, explained that the offices were located at various exits along the freeway, and told us to look for a blue dot on the exit signs. She also referred us to a website that listed office locations. We checked the website on the hotel computer and decided to stop at the Punta Blue in Ferrara, figuring it would be less hectic to get off and on the Autostrade in that area.

Our directions from www.mappy.com showed the drive to Venice as about 183 miles – 2 hours and 53 minutes. The hotel recommended we take the Route from Castellina to San Donato in Poggio, then the Siena/Firenze Superstrade to A1. We followed their directions and quickly came upon an open winery – Casa Emma. We just had to stop for one more wine tasting even though it was only 10am. We visited with a pleasant young man and tasted the wines – very good! Back on the road – we found A1 without any trouble. We didn’t hit any serious traffic in the Florence area (we were just on the outskirts), but ran into terrible traffic at Bologna. There was a lot of construction, two Autostrades had to merge, and it seemed to take forever to get thru Bologna. After we got through the construction area, the drive continued to be much slower than we had expected. There are only two lanes on this part of A1 (it had been three lanes on our drive from Naples to Tuscany). Two lanes makes it much more difficult. The right lane is full of slow moving trucks. When you move to the left lane, you have to get in and out quick, or someone will be on your tail. Before long we realized the drive was going to take much longer that the 3 hours estimated on www.mappy.com ! Don’t rely on the driving estimates – it always takes much longer!

SomewhereOutThere

As we approached Ferrara, we started looking for the Punta Blue sign. We had seen several of the signs on the autrostrade around Florence and Bologna. We arrived at the Ferrara Sud (South) exit, but there was no blue dot. We assumed it must be at the Ferrara Nord (North) exit and proceeded another 8 km, but again no blue dot. We had an extended discussion about what to do now and finally exited, hoping the Punta Blue office would be there. No luck – but at least the man at the toll booth spoke English. He said the Punta Blue office had been at the Ferrara Sud exit. After some more discussion about what to do, we decided to backtrack and take care of the ticket so we could quit worrying about it. So, back we went – 8 km. We exited and found the Punta Blue office right away – and hooray – it was open!

We were still discussing how to handle things as we entered the office - Ron wanted to tell the story of how we came to be without a toll ticket to see if they would drop the 27.30 Euro fine – I just wanted to pay the thing and get on with our vacation. There was only one woman working there - Ron asked if she spoke English and she said “no”, so he had to give up on telling his story. The woman took the ticket, sat down at the computer, typed a bit, looked at the screen, typed some more, looked at the screen, typed some more, then pulled out a piece of paper, stood up, put an X on the paper, and handed Ron a pen, indicating he should sign. Sign for what???? We both stared at the paper – which was totally in Italian, stared at each other, then stared at the woman with our hands out, indicating we needed to know what it was he was signing. We had no idea what to do and I was about to pull out the Italian dictionary when a man walked in the door. The woman asked if he spoke English, he said a little, she conversed with him in Italian, and he told us the form was a request for waiver of the fine – the woman was going to waive the fine if Ron signed the form! WOW – this was a first –Ron got the fine waived without saying a word!! Grazie to the woman! Grazie to the man who translated!. Grazie to the powers that be – that sent the man into that office at that critical moment! Ron signed, I asked the man to ask if we could get a copy of the form, the woman made us a copy, we thanked them both again, and we were off for Venice. Happy ending to a fairly stressful ordeal!

Back on A-1, heading toward Padova (Padua), we could see a thunderstorm in the distance. We turned off on A4 heading toward Venice and ran right into it. It was a large storm – thunder, lighting, and a deluge of rain, so we pulled off at an autogrill and waited for it to pass. It only took about 10 minutes. We considered whether we were close enough to fill up the rental car, but decided we needed to get closer to our return point, Piazzale Roma, to make sure it was full when we turned it in. Getting to a gas station at the end of the road turned out to be a bit tough – the autostrade ended, just outside Venice, a bunch of lanes were merging together, and we had to cut across several lanes of traffic to get to the only gas station we could see. We made it, filled up, and asked the attendant the best way to get to Piazzale Roma. He said to follow the blue signs to Venezia. We did this, but weren’t sure we were going the right way. Finally, we saw Piazzale Roma painted on a lane in the street and got in that lane, crossed the causeway, and arrived at the end of the road.

SomewhereOutThere

There were several rental car agencies on the right side with real easy drive-ups, but of course, ours wasn’t one of them. AutoEurope was on the other side of the road, so we had to go to the end, make a U-Turn, come back, make a very tight turn at the entrance, and another tight turn down a hill to the rental lot. I got out and walked down the hill to make sure we were at the right place before Ron tried to negotiate the final turn. It was the right place. But, when I walked back up the hill, expecting to waive Ron in, I discovered he had just been involved in an auto accident! No kidding – he was trying to back up to make the tight turn into the drive and either backed into someone, or someone ran into him!! He really doesn’t know who was at fault. In any case, the other man didn’t speak English. We all looked at the bumpers – we couldn’t see any damage on ours, but the other one was dented. The man looked at it, waived his arms in the air, said something in Italian, got back in his car, and drove off!!

The whole episode left us quite frazzled. Ron said he wasn’t’ driving anymore – told me to go down to the office and tell them to come up the hill and get their car. I wasn’t about to do that and after a few minutes, he calmed down, we got in the car, and drove down the steep hill to the rental return, hoping they wouldn’t note any damage (that might fall within the insurance deductible). Luckily, they looked at the form from when we’d picked up the car, with all the pre-existing dents I’d had the attendant mark down, and checked us out with no problem. Since we were pre-paid through AutoEurope, all we had to pay was the 8 Euro road tax.

By now it was 3pm. We asked how to find the vaporetto stop & were directed right outside the door to the ticket booth. We followed the instructions I’d printed from the hotel website and requested tickets for ACTV Vaporetto 82 – Direction Lido via Giudecca to S. Zaccaria stop. The woman at the ticket window asked if we had luggage – I said yes and she asked to see it – I stepped back and pointed to Ron who was standing off to the side with our two rolling suitcases, with a small carryon on top of each. She said we had to purchase four tickets @ 3.5 E each - Total 14 E with the luggage. I purchased the tickets, the boat came right away and we boarded. The vaporetto was not crowded, so we were able to keep our luggage next to us.

Even though I had read everyone’s instructions about taking Vaporetto #1 or #82 the direction that goes down the Grand Canal, I failed to realize that the hotel instructions sent you on #82, the opposite way. Apparently, they assumed arriving guests would want the most direct route. If I’d asked a few questions, the woman at the ticket window would have directed us to the boat that went down the Grand Canal – but I was a bit out of it - after dealing with the ticket, traffic, thunderstorm, and auto-wreck. When we reached the second vaporetto stop, I realized we weren’t headed down the Grand Canal. I was disappointed about this – I had wanted to make the “Grand Entrance” into Venice. Oh well… the sun was back out, the ride was pleasant, and we tried to relax and celebrate the fact that we would not have to deal with cars, trucks, or scooters for three days! 40 minutes later, we pulled up at the S. Zaccaria stop.

SomewhereOutThere

We had booked 3 nights at Hotel Campiello, Castello 4647 – S. Zaccaria, Venezia
Phone 011-39-041-520-5764, Website: www.hcampiello.it - The hotel was a very short walk from the S. Zaccaria stop, but we couldn’t figure out the map and had to stop in a shop and ask which street to go down. They sent us over one block to the left and we quickly found the hotel - a very easy walk with luggage. We had reserved a standard non smoking double bed room - Rate 190 E, 8% discount for cash. We had Room 215 – it was attractive and clean, but was smaller than rooms had appeared on the website & was shaped around the elevator shaft. There were two windows, no view, but no street noise either. At first, we were concerned that the elevator would be noisy, but this is a small hotel and there was limited use of the elevator – no real problem. The AC was on - cool but not cold - we opened the windows at night. The room had a TV, hair dryer, safe, updated bathroom with fancy jetted shower. There was a computer in the lobby w/ free internet. Front desk personnel were very pleasant and helpful. Location was perfect - very short walk from the waterfront, very short & easy walk to Piazza San Marco. Breakfast was fine – standard buffet was included, they offered a menu of additional items for a charge (we didn’t try this). I would definitely recommend the hotel – good value, excellent location, friendly staff.

We got settled in and I put in a call to my cousin in Venice. I had tried to reach her before we left the U.S. She had been out of town & her boyfriend had promised to give her the dates we’d be in Venice. Today, when I called, her boyfriend answered again and said they were expecting us. He contacted my cousin and she called me back. She said they could not meet us that night, but she would meet us at our hotel the next evening at half past 8, take us to their paper shop, then to dinner.

So… we were free to explore Venice this evening. It was after 5pm by now and after all the wine in Tuscany, Ron was desperate to find a beer. He asked Thomas, at the front desk, to recommend a place where we could get a beer. He sent us to Forst Bierria, a small pub about a block away. This was a neat little place. It was run by an Italian team that had to be father & son – they looked identical! The clientele were all local - shop owners and gondoliers who stopped in for breaks, ordered small beers, and drank them at the counter. We needed more than a small beer, so we pointed to the large mugs up on the wall. The owner seemed a bit surprised – I don’t think many people order large beers here – but he got the mugs down and filled them up - Nastro Azzuro on tap – our favorite! We picked out a sandwich to split, sat down at a small wooden table, and enjoyed our late, late lunch. We had a great time watching the people come in & out. Everyone looked at our large mugs of beer – obviously an unusual site in this place!

We wandered about the streets a bit, peeked in some shops- looking at Venetian glass and masks, watched the gondolas navigate the canals, walked by the Bridge of Sighs, and visited Piazza San Marco for the first time. Then, we went back to the hotel, rested for a bit, and asked for a dinner recommendation. This time, the desk attendant sent us to Al Giarinetto in the Castello area. We ate in an interior garden area – I had prawns, Ron had fish. The restaurant wasn’t fancy, but was very pleasant – service was good and the food was great. Our bill for coperto, 2 entrees, bottled water, a very nice bottle of wine - Nobile de Montepulciano, and 12% service charge came to 81 Euro.

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After dinner we wound our way through the streets and canals of Venice back to Piazza San Marco. It was magical at night – just like in a movie. We watched the dueling orchestras at Caffe Quadri and Caffe Florian. Fun and free…as long as you don’t sit down. Finally we made our way back to the hotel. The streets were quiet now – dimly lit – different than anywhere else we had been – magical and unique – almost suspended in time.

DAY 11 – VENICE – THURS MAY 19, 2005
Beautiful day in Venice – sunny, temperature in the 70’s. I had pre-booked the “Venice in 1-Day” Package Tour with Avventure Bellissime (also known as Venice Walks and Tours) at www.tours-italy.com . The package included two tours – the Original Venice Walk at 11:10am and the Grand Canal Boat Tour at 4:30pm for a combined price of 52 Euro per person. We had to guarantee the reservation with a credit card, but were expected to make cash payment to the tour guide.

Our instructions said to meet at the entrance to the Royal Gardens in San Marco square 10 minutes before the tour. Since our hotel was so close to the square, we had plenty of time to wander around, do some shopping, etc.. We stopped by the AMEX office and cashed some of our back-up travelers checks, trying to judge how much cash we would need for our last two days. The office was down a road at the far end of the square – easy to find – very short line. (Got 525 Euros for $700 worth of travelers checks – 1.3333 exchange – although the overall exchange rate was really bad at the time, we probably would have done a little better at an ATM!)

We found the tour group at the Royal Gardens. The person in charge collected 104 Euro for the combo package up front and gave us a receipt. Quite a few people had signed up for the Original Venice Walk and we were pleased to see that the company had sent several guides and was breaking the crowd into groups of 10-12. We were assigned to Sabine. The tour was great. We went to the square first and received a brief history of Venice, including information on the Doge, the Doge’s Palace, the Bridge of Sighs, etc… Then, we went inside the Basilica of San Marco. There was a fairly long line outside which we were able to skip as part of the tour. Sabine had to talk very quietly in the church, as the guards won’t permit loud talking. She explained the significant areas and items in the church and pointed out extra sites we could visit later, on our own, for a few Euros. Next, we walked through the neighborhoods of Venice. I kept checking my map and asking Sabine to show me where we were. We wound all over the place, through numerous squares (campos) , past many of the significant churches, eventually finishing at the Rialto Bridge. The 2-hour tour was entertaining and informative.

After the tour, we wound our way back toward San Marco square and stopped for lunch at Trattoria Pizzeria da Roberto - a leisurely lunch of pizza and wine at an outdoor table in Venice – what could be better! Total bill – 32 E including a coperto of 1.5E each and a 12% service charge on the entire bill. (We’d been charged 12% at dinner last night and lunch today – apparently service charges are more common in Venice than other parts of Italy.)

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At 4:20, we were back at the Royal Gardens for our Grand Canal tour. Sabine was one of the tour guides and offered to take everyone who had been on her morning tour. We gladly joined her and were escorted to a water taxi for the Grand Canal tour. Luckily we were the second couple on and got to sit in the open section at the back of the boat (which held 4, packed in pretty tightly). If you take this tour, either get on first or last, so you can sit out in the open. Inside the water taxi, the windows were very small, and I doubt if you can see much. The seats at the front were probably the best – to get those, you need to hang back and be last getting on.

Sabine had a microphone so we were all able to hear her. She gave us a wealth of information about Venice – the history, families, architecture, art, etc… And to top it off, we each got a glass of champagne. We went the full length of the Grand Canal, then circled back through the lagoon. It took about 70 minutes total and was a lot of fun.

We were supposed to meet my cousin at the hotel at 8:30, so we headed back to rest up in anticipation of a late dinner. My cousin arrived promptly at 8:30 and took us to the specialty paper shop she and her boyfriend run. There are many specialty paper shops in Venice – they sell journals, stationary, pens, inks, sealing wax, etc. Their shop is called Il Gabbiano (Seagull). The address shown on their business card is San Marco 621, 30124 Venezia. As with most addresses in Venice, that doesn’t tell you much. Looking at my maps, I believe it was on a street (walk) referred to as Specchieri. It was a small street with a number of shops, restaurants, etc… between Piazza San Marco and San Zulian church. Their shop is on the left side. Stop by if you’re interested in a journal or special papers/pens/ink.

We met my cousin’s boyfriend and her little dog – Whiskie. They took us to dinner at their favorite wine bar, Cavatappi, which is just around the corner from the shop (I later noticed it was mentioned in the dining section of Rick Steve’s book – he described the location as near San Julian church in Campo della Guerra - between Campo Santa Maria di Formosa and St. Mark’s square). Obviously, they were regulars at the wine bar. They had called ahead and the owner had saved us the table in the back corner. We had a before dinner drink they called a spritz, an appetizer plate of meats and cheeses with olive oil drizzled over everything, a pasta dish with asparagus, and dessert. My cousin spoke good English and her boyfriend spoke enough to make conversation. The wine bar was casual and friendly, just like somewhere you would go in your hometown. We really enjoyed the visit.

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After dinner, my cousin and her boyfriend took us on another tour of the neighborhoods, on the way to her apartment. It was late – at least 11pm, maybe midnight. The streets were quiet and dimly lit, just a few locals were out and about. The walk was really memorable, winding through the labyrinth of streets, canals, and ancient buildings, and having no idea where we were or how we’d ever find our way back to the hotel. Whiskie, the little dog, ran way ahead of us, then turned his head to make sure we were coming. They took us to see a building called Palazzo Contarini – Staircase of Bovolo. It’s a very unusual building with an ornate exterior spiral staircase. Again, I have no idea where we were. We purchased a postcard of the building the next day, as we could not capture it in a picture. Eventually, we arrived at my cousin’s apartment building – somewhere in Cannaregio. The apartment was on the third floor – up two steep sets of stairs - no wonder my cousin and her boyfriend are both thin! She had third floor windows that swung out, giving her a great view of rooftops and a church. We visited for another hour or so, then they walked us back through the streets of Venice to our hotel. What a memorable evening!

DAY 12 – VENICE – FRI MAY 20, 2005
It was another beautiful day in Venice - the last day of our vacation. As I mentioned earlier, I had tried to book the Doge Palace secret tour for 9:55AM at www.museiciviciveneziani.it before leaving home. I had received an acknowledgement of the reservation, but had not completed the final step – making prepayment. Yesterday, we stopped by the Palace desk to see if they had our reservation, or if we could complete it. Unfortunately, their computer was down & they had not received the list of Friday reservations, so we had to wait until today to see if we’d get in.

We headed to the Palace desk around 9AM. The woman at the desk said we were not on the 9:55AM list. I showed her my email confirmation and she said the booking was not complete. I asked if she had room for us on any of the tours today. She said she would try to put us on the 10:45AM tour, took our name and told us to come back at 10:30. Since we had some free time, we checked the line at the Campanile Tower. My cousin had told us the view from the top of the tower was great. The line was fairly long, but not ridiculous, so we got in line, figuring we’d drop out if it got too close to the time we had to be back at the palace. The line moved quickly and pretty soon we were paying 6 Euro each & riding the elevator to the top of the tower. The view was great, especially since it was such a pretty day. We took a number of pictures. The line for the elevator back down was short, so we got down with time to spare.

Back to the Palace at 10:30. As instructed, we bypassed the line and went up to the tour desk. The woman we had spoken to earlier gave us a small note to take to the ticket window. We handed over the paper, paid 12.5E each, and received tickets for the 10:45 tour. There were probably 15 or 20 on the tour – people with backpacks or large bags had to take them to the bag check. The guide was very knowledgeable, but was a bit hard to understand due to a strong accent. I wish we could have understood everything she said. Still, we were very glad we took the tour. It included a great deal of history, a look at private rooms of the palace, a walk through the Bridge of Sighs, and a look at the prison. At the end, we were free to walk through the more public areas. We wandered around a bit, then stopped in the downstairs cafeteria for a snack.

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Back outside – the line for St. Marks was surprisingly short, so we got in line, went inside and spent about 30 minutes looking at everything more closely. This time, we paid 1.50E each to view the Pala D’Oro – the Golden Alterpiece – located at the back of the church. Next, Ron decided he had to feed the pigeons in Piazza San Marco. This is a tourist ritual – you pay 1 Euro for a bag of feed, stand or sit in the square with food in both hands, and let pigeons land all over you. I had no interest in participating, so I took pictures. The pigeons seemed a bit afraid of Ron – I don’t know if it was his size or his red shirt, but most of them would snatch a bite to eat and move on quite quickly. Only one pigeon hung around on his shoulder for an extended period of time – posing for some great close-up shots!

For lunch, we decided to go back to Forst Bierria. We really liked this little bar. We had a beer and a sandwich and watched the locals stopping in for beer breaks. Next we stopped by my cousin’s paper shop, visited with her boyfriend, and talked him into letting us buy him a cup of coffee. He locked the shop, we walked around the corner to the wine bar we’d visited the night before, stood at the bar, and all downed small cups of espresso – just the way all Italians do! Then, we set out to wander the streets of Venice again. It was about 4pm and the late afternoon light was great for picture-taking. We stopped by several churches, but were only able to go inside one of them. The others were locked – I don’t know why, as our guidebooks had indicated they should be open.

We had planned to take a late afternoon ride down the Grand Canal on vaporetto #1 or #82 , just to see everything one more time, but unfortunately, the vaporettos were on strike. We were a bit distressed to learn that they would still be on strike the next morning, as we needed to get to the airport for a 10AM flight. We had planned to take a vaporetto to the airport because they are reasonably priced and run fairly frequently. Since that was no longer an option, we headed back to the hotel to ask the front desk personnel for suggestions.

Thomas, the front desk attendant said we had 2 options – a water taxi which would take 30 minutes and cost about 90 Euro or an Aliliguna Waterbus which would take 1 hour 10 min and cost 10 Euro each including luggage (The Aliliguna waterbuses were not affected by the strike). If we wanted a taxi, we would need to book in advance because taxis generally did not arrive at the taxi stand until some time between 8 and 8:30AM. If we wanted the waterbus, we could catch it at the S. Zaccharia dock. We could either buy tickets today and validate them in the machine in the morning, or buy tickets from the waterbus driver. We’d have to decide between the 5:39 AM waterbus which arrived at the airport at 6:45AM, and the 6:53AM waterbus which arrived at the airport at 8:00AM. With either option, we had to build in another 10 to 15 minutes to catch the free shuttle from the boat dock up to the airport doors.

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What should we do? Our flight was at 10:05AM. Most people we asked said the 6:53 AM-8:00AM waterbus would get us there in time - even if we had to wait on the shuttle, we’d be in line for check in by 8:20AM. But, we decided we didn’t want to cut it too close. We had no experience with the Aliliguna waterbuses and didn’t know if they were always on time. Also, we had no experience with the airport’s international check-in procedures or security procedures. So, we narrowed our options to the water taxi or the 5:39AM waterbus. This was actually a tough choice - I wanted to splurge for the 90 Euro taxi, so we could sleep a little later, reserve a taxi for 7:15AM, and be at the airport by 7:45AM. Ron preferred the budget option - 20 Euro for 2. He was also concerned that a reserved taxi might not show up. If that happened, we’d be in a real bind as it would be too late to catch a waterbus and there would not be any taxis at the taxi stand until about 8:30. After debating about what to do for way too long, he prevailed, and we made the decision to catch the 5:39AM waterbus. We finalized our plan by walking to the dock, buying the Aliliguna tickets, and confirming the pickup point.

Thank goodness the decision was finally made – now we could enjoy dinner and one last bottle of wine in Italy!! We went back to the hotel first - did some packing and settled our bill at the front desk. We paid cash to take advantage of the 8% cash discount – Total for 3 nights was E 524.40, plus a small charge for 2 local phone calls. Thomas, at the front desk, recommended a restaurant called Daremigio for dinner. We stopped by the paper shop one more time, to say goodbye to my cousin and her boyfriend. The door was locked, but the lights were on, so we guessed they on break – at the Cavatappi wine bar. We rounded the corner and found them at one of the two outdoor tables. We shared a drink and asked them about the restaurant. They said it was good, but they wanted us to go to their favorite restaurant – Hosteria Al Vecio Bragosso (Strada Nuova 4386, S.S. Apostoli, Tel 041 5237277, www.alveciobragosso.com ) They telephoned and arranged a table. We said goodbye to my cousin, then her boyfriend walked us to the restaurant. It was pretty far, lots of turns, several detours because some of the sidewalks had been closed for repairs. We wondered how we’d ever find our way home!

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The restaurant specialized in fish and seafood. The waiter recommended several wines and we chose a Valpolicella Reserve La Casetta, which was very good. He then recommended several appetizers – a crabmeat specialty and a mixed plate of razor clams (from Venice Lido) and scallops. We said fine to both. I guess we did not communicate very well. We meant to order one of each, to share. When the waiter came back, he brought us each a crabmeat specialty. We didn’t mention that we had intended to order only one, as the appetizers looked wonderful – and when we tasted them, we were glad we each had our own – they were excellent! Nevertheless, we probably should have said something, because on his next trip out, the waiter brought out 2 large combo platters of razor clams and scallops. Again, they were absolutely excellent! The only problem was we had already ordered dinner and knew we wouldn’t be able to eat everything. Thank goodness we had not ordered pasta! For entrees, I had filet – as I really wanted beef, Ron had angle fish in a sauce. Since we’d had 4 appetizers, the dinner turned out to be the most expensive meal we had in Italy – 137 Euro – for 4 very large appetizers, two entrees, and an excellent bottle of wine. If we had it to do over again, we would have ordered the appetizers and eaten them before deciding on entrees. We had done this many times during our trip, but we ordered everything up front tonight because we could not stay as late for dinner – we had to find our way back to the hotel, get some sleep, and be at the boat dock for the 5:39AM waterbus. Still – no regrets - we had a great time and the food was great.

It took us 30 to 45 minutes to find our way back to the hotel. It was midnight - the streets were quiet – and we just kept looking for signs to San Marco. It was a great way to end our visit – winding though the streets of Venice late at night. It was very quiet, a bit eerie and mystical – quite memorable.

We got to bed at 12:15AM, set our travel alarm and left a wake-up call request for 4:30AM – Ugh! – So we could finish packing and make the 5:39AM waterbus – Ugh!


DAY 13 – THE TRIP HOME – SAT MAY 21
Our alarm went off, the phone rang with the wake-up call. We were tired, but we got it together, finished packing, and made the short walk to S. Zaccharia to catch the waterbus. It was very quiet along the waterfront at 5:30AM. Just a few delivery people were out and about. We validated our tickets in the machine at the dock and waited for the waterbus. It arrived on time, but wasn’t well-marked as an Aliliguna bus. I asked if it was the bus to the airport, and was told yes. We boarded and someone helped us put our bags in the bins at the front of the boat. No more worries – we knew we’d be at the airport in plenty of time for our flight. The bus made about 3 stops, including Lido and Murano. The conductor checked our tickets about midway – several people bought tickets from him at that time. The ride took 1 hour 10 minutes and we arrived on time. The free shuttle stop was a short walk to the left. Several drivers approached trying to get people to pay for a ride to the airport. The Italians shooed them off. The free bus came about 5 minutes later – we had to lift our luggage up one very large step when getting on the bus. It was a short ride to the door of the terminal.

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The Venice Airport was very nice – compact, quiet, and calm at 7AM. We couldn’t check our bags until 8:05 (2 hours before our flight), so we ate breakfast. We got in line around 7:45AM. We had Delta frequent flyer tickets - Air France 1127 (Delta partner) to Paris 10:05AM – 11:55AM, then Delta 51 to Atlanta 1:20PM – 5:10PM (Eastern Time). We had business class seats for the Delta portion of the flight, but had not been able to get business/first class seats for the Air France portion of the flight – in fact, we had not even been able to get seat assignments for the Air France leg until check in (We were told this was standard procedure.)

Since we were in business class for the second leg, the attendant said we could check-in at the first class desk. We were assigned great seats for the Air France flight – Row 8 aisle & middle, given boarding passes for both flights, and gate info for the transfer in Paris. The attendant made us put our carryons on the scale with our luggage, so they could weigh everything at once. I’m not sure what the limit was, but we both passed. Everything went very smoothly. As we finished, I looked back to see how we would have fared if we had caught the later waterbus and arrived at the airport around 8:30AM. My conclusion – we would have had plenty of time to make the flight, but would have been pretty far back in line, and would have received worse seat assignments for the Air France leg.

We passed through security quickly. The airport was small and efficient, easy to navigate. I would definitely fly into or out of this airport again. Since we’d been allowed to check in at the first class desk, we took a stab at trying to get into the Sky Team Executive Club, using our business class ticket for the Paris to Atlanta leg. No luck - we were told you had to be Platinum or have a Business Class ticket out of Venice! Oh well – it was worth a try! So we waited at the gate. Our flight boarded on time, left about 15 minutes late.

We had never changed planes in Paris before and friends had warned us that a 1 ½ hour layover was a bit tight for changing terminals in Paris. Since the information we’d received in Venice indicated we landed in one terminal and took off from another, we took their advice seriously and started heading for the other terminal as soon as we got off the plane. No bathroom stops, no food stops - we moved as quickly as we could, following signs for Terminal C. We had to go through several security checkpoints. At one screening point, they stopped me and opened my carryon. Apparently a small bowl I had purchased in Venice contained lead or some other substance that showed up on the screen. After they finished, we continued our dash to the gate. They were about half way through boarding when we arrived!

We boarded right away, settled into our business class seats, and had a glass of wine, toasting a great vacation in Italy! The memories will last forever!