uhoh_busted

What a fun report. We had our second dinner in Italy at La Solita Zuppa in Chiusi, and were served a fantastic after dinner drink called "Zibibo" -- which was from Sicily if I recall correctly. My DH has been looking for it ever since to no avail.

Carmen

uhoh: hmmm... I wonder if that's what they gave us after dinner... They gave us something they said was only 3% alcohol, and even the kids thought it was great! I wish I'd written down the name of the before dinner wine, though, it was extraordinary. (I don't remember the names of anything, just that we liked everything they put in front of us.)

sundowner

What a fun trip you had - and a great report! Looking forward to more.

yipper

I love the trip report. What fun. I hate it when you get lost and DHs get grumpy and then they claim that they love to get off the beaten path and getting lost is half the fun. Keep the report coming.

melstravel

Carmen, what a wonderful trip report, it makes me long to return to Italy. Keep it coming...
I am heading to southern france in the fall and was wondering how accurate your mappy.com information was? Specifically the gas prices and milage. Thanks for any information and more Italy Please!!!

Carmen

The mappy.com info I think was pretty accurate, although was paying more attention to directions than to the fuel and mileage info. I printed out all of our anticipated itineraries before we left, but unfortunately the web page wasn't "printer-friendly," so the right edge was cut off (I didn't notice this until it was too late). Given that, it's probably not a fair comparison, but our concierge in Rapallo printed out Via Michelin directions for our drive to Bellagio and I found it much easier to follow. The amount of the Auto Strade tolls was 100% precise, which in at least one case is how I figured out where we were! With both mappy and michelin, it seems like sometimes there are a lot of steps in the directions that you don't really realize you are making. One other thing, we found the estimates for driving time to be pretty accurate, but that may be because DH adapted so well to driving like a native Italian, LOL.

dorkforcemom

Carmen - thoroughly enjoying reading about both your family and trip. I have a question about your rental car experience. We (4 adults with rolling carry-on bags and accompanying smaller carry-ons like small backpacks) will rent from Avis (through Autoeurope) picking up and dropping off in Chiusi. The last time we did this we rented a Ford Mondeo (like a Taurus)diesal station wagon - like driving a tank up and down the hills of Tuscany. We want to avoid that and rent something smaller. The description we were given for the Alfa Romeo they have to offer is that it's similar to a Toyota Camry - perhaps this is what you were also encountering. I'm concerned our 4 fiarly small bags won't fit in the trunk - what did you end up with...details please. Thanks!

Carmen

dorkforcemom: Our car (Avis through AutoEurope) was described as &quot;Alfa Romeo 156 Diesel <b>or Similar</b>,&quot; which sounds like what you are being offered. I think the first car they gave us was actually some kind of Opel, but I'm not 100% sure of that. Four rolling carry-on size bags would <i>probably</i> fit just fine, although I'm not sure if the accompanying bags would all fit. Our bags were larger than carryon. DH and I each had a 30-inch rolling duffle; the kids had somewhat smaller rolling duffles. We also had a couple of small backpacks that we had used for carry-ons. Our trunk just barely accommodated 3 of the 4 duffles with no room at all left over. And there's very little extra back seat left over -- even the backpacks would have been too crowded. That said, the other car we got, which was in the same intermediate car class, had a somewhat larger trunk with a hatch-back-type lid that allowed us to pile things higher.

I did worry that we wouldn't have room for all our luggage, but our travel agent seemed to think we'd be okay. The tricky part is that similar sized cars can have such different trunk space.

One thing you might do is see whether your 4 bags fit in a similar size car at home before you leave. Good luck on the car and have a great trip!

Tess_Durberville

<i> Great trip report </i>
Thanks for sharing your adventure!

Carmen

Thanks Tess! I promise to finish it as soon as I can, but after taking a whole month off, I'm accepting lots of new projects to make up for my unpaid vacation -- not to mention paying all those hotel and restaurant bills!

faredolce

I am really looking forward to hearing about the barking deer and the cheese knife incident....

I thought I would bring it ttt for a little incentive!

Carmen

I'm sorry to leave you hanging! I haven't forgotten; I just got really busy making up for my 4 week unpaid vacation I PROMISE to finish the story when I catch my breath. Thanks for the interest!!

Carmen

Hmmm... I guess I'm repeating myself. Things have been a blur since I last posted.