Jamikins and Bikerscott are off again! Off to Bologna, Le Marche & Lucca!
Jul 2nd, 2013, 11:26 PM
#64
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The Trattoria is Trattoria di Via Serra...very yummy!
I should also mention out lovely b&b! We are staying at Antics Residenza D'Azeglio
http://www.anticaresidenzadazeglio.it/
It is just outside the main pedestrian centre and the owner, Agostino is fabulous...makes great cappuccinos and helps with anything you need. Rooms are spotless and huge, and they have modern and very clean bathrooms! Highly recommend this place!
Well we are packed up and off to pick up the rental car...Le Marche here we come!
I should also mention out lovely b&b! We are staying at Antics Residenza D'Azeglio
http://www.anticaresidenzadazeglio.it/
It is just outside the main pedestrian centre and the owner, Agostino is fabulous...makes great cappuccinos and helps with anything you need. Rooms are spotless and huge, and they have modern and very clean bathrooms! Highly recommend this place!
Well we are packed up and off to pick up the rental car...Le Marche here we come!
Jul 3rd, 2013, 04:53 AM
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I like your travel style too, it's very similar to the way my mom and I travel together. Every time I read one of your trip reports I think to myself..."I hope some day to bump into you two at a cafe on a piazza in a lovely Italian city"! ;-)
Jul 3rd, 2013, 10:24 AM
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We finally bought a compass. In NYC, we were defeated without it.
About breakfast: the morning we were leaving Perugia, there was a big Festival of Breakfast getting set up in the big square. Since, we didn't think that breakfast was as important in Italy we were surprised. Are Italians starting to eat more breakfast? Our "take" was that they downed a quick coffee and maybe a panne of some sort.
About breakfast: the morning we were leaving Perugia, there was a big Festival of Breakfast getting set up in the big square. Since, we didn't think that breakfast was as important in Italy we were surprised. Are Italians starting to eat more breakfast? Our "take" was that they downed a quick coffee and maybe a panne of some sort.
Jul 3rd, 2013, 12:00 PM
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J & S,
Great report - keep it coming!
The amount of wine consumption cracks me up - y'all are my kind of folks. Just when I thought that you were heading back to the hotel for the evening, Scott throws in another paragraph about stopping at a wine bar! Funny.
In my opinion, maps are overrated. Some of the best times my wife and I have had while traveling is when were just wandering around (ie. lost).
Jami, I say this in all seriousness: Your photography (especially the food photography) is excellent. If you haven't already, you should consider a business/side-business as a food photographer.
Keep it coming!
Robbie
Great report - keep it coming!
The amount of wine consumption cracks me up - y'all are my kind of folks. Just when I thought that you were heading back to the hotel for the evening, Scott throws in another paragraph about stopping at a wine bar! Funny.
In my opinion, maps are overrated. Some of the best times my wife and I have had while traveling is when were just wandering around (ie. lost).
Jami, I say this in all seriousness: Your photography (especially the food photography) is excellent. If you haven't already, you should consider a business/side-business as a food photographer.
Keep it coming!
Robbie
Jul 4th, 2013, 03:07 AM
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Hi all - thanks for all the comments - loving that you're all still following along.
We're without wifi until Monday (other than the little cafe we found in Cagli) so will post our next instalment then.
We're without wifi until Monday (other than the little cafe we found in Cagli) so will post our next instalment then.
Jul 4th, 2013, 03:26 AM
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Thanks for the lovely comments on my photos...I love photography and food so being a food photographer would be amazing!
And if anyone sees us in a cafe somewhere please feel free to crash the party
And if anyone sees us in a cafe somewhere please feel free to crash the party
Jul 4th, 2013, 02:24 PM
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Enjoying your trip report. Always entertaining!
We loved Bologna and also stayed with Roberto and Agostino. Such warm and friendly hosts! part of the reason we spent 4 days in Bologna and the food of course!
We loved Bologna and also stayed with Roberto and Agostino. Such warm and friendly hosts! part of the reason we spent 4 days in Bologna and the food of course!
Jul 8th, 2013, 05:10 AM
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And we are back with regular internet access after 5 nights in lovely Le Marche. Just settling into Lucca...but will continue the story...
Day Four – Black Gold
Jamie let me sleep in a little longer today, however I wasn’t as bright and perky as I normally am in the mornings (and that’s not saying much). I drank a few bottles of water because I was feeling a bit dehydrated for some reason, and coffee never tasted as good as the ones Agostino made for us.
Today’s adventure was the nearby town of Modena, famous for fast cars and slow vinegar. It would have been a short train ride had the trains run on time, however this being Italian time, we were a good half an hour later than we’d planned.
Modena isn’t as scenic a town as Parma had been yesterday – fewer grand buildings, and much smaller. For all that, I think I still preferred it for some reason. It took us a while to find our way into the centre again, however Jamie’s train station placement theory seemed to still hold mostly true, much to my chagrin. It was hotter today than it has been so far, so after working out where lunch was going to be and where they put the cathedral (the two most important landmarks in any Italian towns – all can be judged based on distance from one or both of those two) we found a café for a limonata (basically, fresh squeezed lemon juice in a bit of water – sugar to be added by the customer to taste – strong but refreshing).
Sufficiently refreshed, we walked back down what translates loosely to “Alley of Squalor” to our lunch location – Hosteria Giusti is at the bottom of what might be the smelliest, dingiest alley to ever grace this fine earth (okay, it wasn’t that bad, but the smell was pretty foul). Giusti is a bit famous for being incredibly small (only 4 tables), incredibly good (seriously, Mario Battali is a fan, unbelievable food), and…well, mostly for those two things.
Lunch was excellent – several courses for both of us including a standout macheroni (probably spelled wrong, and definitely not the macaroni I had as a kid) in a ragu. The absolute highlight of the meal was the only other full table at the place – an American couple who had also heard of the brilliance of the cooking and wanted to splash out some cash.
The entertainment started when the woman had a long and involved argument with the waitress about the cost of the wine on offer – apparently the most expensive bottle available on the menu wasn’t nearly expensive enough, and therefore not of the requisite quality. Several options were presented, none living up to expectations (based entirely on price, at no point was any wine tasted). Eventually the waitress suggested that they could charge them more for a Chianti from Tuscany, but that it wouldn’t suit the food as it would be too heavy. This was rejected, and the next most expensive wine was accepted.
Following this interchange, they ordered one of everything on the menu – to be fair, this was a small restaurant with not a massive selection, but was still a dozen or so choices between appetizers, primi, and secondi. The wine was opened, and the first appetizer arrived. I was facing away from the couple so couldn’t see what was going on, but it sounded like at least one of them had an orgasm. According to Jamie, eyes were closed and angelic expressions were made for the tasting of both the wine and each and every course. It was good, but honestly…
After we finished our lunch (tragically orgasm-free for both of us) we left and wandered around for a bit. It seems that Modena is one of those traditional towns where everything shuts down entirely between 1pm and 4pm for siesta so we were forced to sit at yet another café for another beverage. It was hot, and I was thirsty so I ordered a Ricard, a French favourite of mine for extraordinarily hot days.
I think this may have been the first time in quite a long time that anyone had ordered a pastis at this particular café, as it took an age for the waitress to find it on her little electronic ordering device, and even longer for it to be delivered – I think they had to look up the serving instructions on the internet because while it was technically delivered in the correct manner, it was just wrong…I got about 4 or 5 ounces of pastis in a pint glass on ice, with a separate bottle of water to add to it. When mixed properly, I ended up with a full pint of pastis, and even then it was a bit strong, but there was no more room for water. This is enough pastis to kill a relatively large and healthy donkey, for those keeping score at home.
After our brief sojourn at the café, we found a taxi to take us to one of the few traditional Modenese (is this even a word?) balsamic vinegar houses left – just outside the town as it turned out.
It seems that the vast majority of balsamic vinegar of Modena that you buy these days is neither balsamic vinegar or of Modena – this phrase refers to a very specific method of making vinegar from a very specific place. In fact, to be called balsamic vinegar of Modena, it must be a minimum of 12 years old following a very exacting and precisely regulated method of creation, up to 25 years for the extra old. Our tour of the Acetaia di Giorgio was excellent, and the price of the 25 year old vinegar, while expensive enough to buy several gallons of the crap from the local supermarket at home, was well worth the price for the black nectar we tasted.
For some reason, both the trains to and from Modena that we took didn’t have first class carriages, despite our booking of first class. To be fair, on the regional trains, there isn’t a huge difference between first and second class other than the relative crowdedness of the cars apparently due to the €4 price difference, but the lack thereof on the service made me wonder why we’d bothered paying the excess, and also wonder that if my Italian was a bit more proficient if I’d complain to someone – being an adopted Brit and a native Canadian, probably not.
Dinner was relatively low-key – after the heat of the day and all the walking, both Jamie and I were quite tired, so we decided on pizza. Agostino from the B&B recommended a place owned by a friend of his not too far away. While it was not bad, I wouldn’t write home about it, and can’t be bothered to look up the name of it in my list of receipts. What was shocking, for us at least, is that we had a bottle of water and a couple of glasses of coke, no wine to be seen.
And Jamie's photos of Modena and the tasting: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pug_gir...7634453378296/
Day Four – Black Gold
Jamie let me sleep in a little longer today, however I wasn’t as bright and perky as I normally am in the mornings (and that’s not saying much). I drank a few bottles of water because I was feeling a bit dehydrated for some reason, and coffee never tasted as good as the ones Agostino made for us.
Today’s adventure was the nearby town of Modena, famous for fast cars and slow vinegar. It would have been a short train ride had the trains run on time, however this being Italian time, we were a good half an hour later than we’d planned.
Modena isn’t as scenic a town as Parma had been yesterday – fewer grand buildings, and much smaller. For all that, I think I still preferred it for some reason. It took us a while to find our way into the centre again, however Jamie’s train station placement theory seemed to still hold mostly true, much to my chagrin. It was hotter today than it has been so far, so after working out where lunch was going to be and where they put the cathedral (the two most important landmarks in any Italian towns – all can be judged based on distance from one or both of those two) we found a café for a limonata (basically, fresh squeezed lemon juice in a bit of water – sugar to be added by the customer to taste – strong but refreshing).
Sufficiently refreshed, we walked back down what translates loosely to “Alley of Squalor” to our lunch location – Hosteria Giusti is at the bottom of what might be the smelliest, dingiest alley to ever grace this fine earth (okay, it wasn’t that bad, but the smell was pretty foul). Giusti is a bit famous for being incredibly small (only 4 tables), incredibly good (seriously, Mario Battali is a fan, unbelievable food), and…well, mostly for those two things.
Lunch was excellent – several courses for both of us including a standout macheroni (probably spelled wrong, and definitely not the macaroni I had as a kid) in a ragu. The absolute highlight of the meal was the only other full table at the place – an American couple who had also heard of the brilliance of the cooking and wanted to splash out some cash.
The entertainment started when the woman had a long and involved argument with the waitress about the cost of the wine on offer – apparently the most expensive bottle available on the menu wasn’t nearly expensive enough, and therefore not of the requisite quality. Several options were presented, none living up to expectations (based entirely on price, at no point was any wine tasted). Eventually the waitress suggested that they could charge them more for a Chianti from Tuscany, but that it wouldn’t suit the food as it would be too heavy. This was rejected, and the next most expensive wine was accepted.
Following this interchange, they ordered one of everything on the menu – to be fair, this was a small restaurant with not a massive selection, but was still a dozen or so choices between appetizers, primi, and secondi. The wine was opened, and the first appetizer arrived. I was facing away from the couple so couldn’t see what was going on, but it sounded like at least one of them had an orgasm. According to Jamie, eyes were closed and angelic expressions were made for the tasting of both the wine and each and every course. It was good, but honestly…
After we finished our lunch (tragically orgasm-free for both of us) we left and wandered around for a bit. It seems that Modena is one of those traditional towns where everything shuts down entirely between 1pm and 4pm for siesta so we were forced to sit at yet another café for another beverage. It was hot, and I was thirsty so I ordered a Ricard, a French favourite of mine for extraordinarily hot days.
I think this may have been the first time in quite a long time that anyone had ordered a pastis at this particular café, as it took an age for the waitress to find it on her little electronic ordering device, and even longer for it to be delivered – I think they had to look up the serving instructions on the internet because while it was technically delivered in the correct manner, it was just wrong…I got about 4 or 5 ounces of pastis in a pint glass on ice, with a separate bottle of water to add to it. When mixed properly, I ended up with a full pint of pastis, and even then it was a bit strong, but there was no more room for water. This is enough pastis to kill a relatively large and healthy donkey, for those keeping score at home.
After our brief sojourn at the café, we found a taxi to take us to one of the few traditional Modenese (is this even a word?) balsamic vinegar houses left – just outside the town as it turned out.
It seems that the vast majority of balsamic vinegar of Modena that you buy these days is neither balsamic vinegar or of Modena – this phrase refers to a very specific method of making vinegar from a very specific place. In fact, to be called balsamic vinegar of Modena, it must be a minimum of 12 years old following a very exacting and precisely regulated method of creation, up to 25 years for the extra old. Our tour of the Acetaia di Giorgio was excellent, and the price of the 25 year old vinegar, while expensive enough to buy several gallons of the crap from the local supermarket at home, was well worth the price for the black nectar we tasted.
For some reason, both the trains to and from Modena that we took didn’t have first class carriages, despite our booking of first class. To be fair, on the regional trains, there isn’t a huge difference between first and second class other than the relative crowdedness of the cars apparently due to the €4 price difference, but the lack thereof on the service made me wonder why we’d bothered paying the excess, and also wonder that if my Italian was a bit more proficient if I’d complain to someone – being an adopted Brit and a native Canadian, probably not.
Dinner was relatively low-key – after the heat of the day and all the walking, both Jamie and I were quite tired, so we decided on pizza. Agostino from the B&B recommended a place owned by a friend of his not too far away. While it was not bad, I wouldn’t write home about it, and can’t be bothered to look up the name of it in my list of receipts. What was shocking, for us at least, is that we had a bottle of water and a couple of glasses of coke, no wine to be seen.
And Jamie's photos of Modena and the tasting: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pug_gir...7634453378296/
Jul 8th, 2013, 05:59 AM
#76
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Glad to hear you enjoyed the meal at Hosteria Giusti (we did too when we were there). And viewing your photos it looks like I had one of the same starters as you did, alas, when my mom & I dined there in Nov. 2010, we were the only table that day...so no entertainment for us!
Jul 8th, 2013, 06:56 AM
#77
We spent a month in Lucca in February - love it! We travel like you do (must be the Canadian connection) - on our bellies.
Restaurant suggestions:
All'Olivo - two outstanding meals there (pics on blog link below) Some complain on TA about pricing but we felt it was fair value
http://www.ristoranteolivo.it/inglese/home-ING.html
Here's a restaurant I wouldn't recommend that's getting a lot of buzz
L'Imbuto (in the museum of modern art)
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restauran...a_Tuscany.html
Interesting, brave cuisine - but not ready for prime time yet we thought.
These two restaurants are on the road to Barga outside of Lucca and we enjoyed them both very much
Michelin one star -
http://www.ristorantebutterfly.it/
Traditional Luccan cuisine run by a lovely family - we had a lovely time with Lamberto (front of the house) and went for a pasta making session with Momma which was fantastic!
http://www.anticalocandadisesto.it/
http://lizandrichardsa.typepad.com/2...mary-jane.html
Restaurant suggestions:
All'Olivo - two outstanding meals there (pics on blog link below) Some complain on TA about pricing but we felt it was fair value
http://www.ristoranteolivo.it/inglese/home-ING.html
Here's a restaurant I wouldn't recommend that's getting a lot of buzz
L'Imbuto (in the museum of modern art)
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restauran...a_Tuscany.html
Interesting, brave cuisine - but not ready for prime time yet we thought.
These two restaurants are on the road to Barga outside of Lucca and we enjoyed them both very much
Michelin one star -
http://www.ristorantebutterfly.it/
Traditional Luccan cuisine run by a lovely family - we had a lovely time with Lamberto (front of the house) and went for a pasta making session with Momma which was fantastic!
http://www.anticalocandadisesto.it/
http://lizandrichardsa.typepad.com/2...mary-jane.html
Jul 8th, 2013, 10:40 PM
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Day Five – Driving Back Home
For once, we spent enough time over breakfast as Agostino wanted – a few coffees, a bit of conversation, some awkward moments with the German guests who didn’t speak any English (Agostino speaks fluent Italian, French, English, and evidently passable German so it was only awkward for us). We had slept in a bit, packed up, and took a taxi down to the Europcar near the station to pick up our trusty steed for the remainder of the trip.
We had booked through AutoEurope over the phone, and at the time a pickup for 1pm seemed quite reasonable. When we arrived just before 11am they were surprised to see us and didn’t have a car ready for us – it seems that the parking for the hire cars is a good 3kms from the downtown office. They were nice enough to have someone bring it over early for us, and a half hour in a coffee shop next door wasn’t a tremendous hardship (as a note, it always important to bring your rental voucher with you when you pick up a car – the guy ahead of me when I was checking to see if our car was ready after the half hour didn’t have his, and they didn’t have a record of his booking…not sure what ended up happening, but he certainly didn’t have a car when he left….)
Jamie had been hoping that we were going to get the brand-new four-door Fiat 500 that had just parked up across the street, as she is obsessed with Fiat 500s – why couldn’t it be a reasonable car to be obsessed with, like a Ferrari or something? We were not to have the brand-new four-door Fiat 500, but instead got Vincenzo, a new Fiat Panda (we named him on the drive), who in my opinion is slightly manlier and thus less embarrassing, if less nice than the 500, although the new 500’s are quite nice, not that I would admit liking a Fiat 500.
The drive was as expected – long stretches of the Autostrada were under construction and therefore both slow and congested. On the other hand, it didn’t require much concentration, which is a good thing as I tend to drive about once a year these days so a few hours of easy driving is a very positive start to a trip. Interestingly, the 40kms of construction stopped at the same moment as we saw the sign telling us we’d left Emilia-Romania and had entered Marche – to the foot as far as we could tell.
Before we reached this point, we took a slight detour for lunch. Jamie had been doing some research on the internet and had found a trattoria which was only a small distance from the Autostrada, or so it appeared on the map on the internet. An hour and a massive construction diversion later, we found the place and enjoyed a very tasty and reasonably priced meal. An hour or so later, we rejoined the Autostrada.
As we drove further into Le Marche the more familiar the scenery became. Flat fields of wheat and sunflowers were exchanged for hills and fields of sunflowers (okay, so maybe the scenery didn’t change that much). Tunnel after tunnel and even the sunflowers disappeared, and we were into the mountains.
We stopped briefly in Piobbico to pick up supplies – wine, water, cherries. It doesn’t seem that anything has changed at all in Piobbico since we were here last, a year ago. The same guy was working at the Conad, the same old guys were playing cards at the café on the corner, and the same gelato shop on the main street was serving kids ice cream. The drive up to the turn-off for the gravel road to La Tavola Marche felt like a trip back in time – it seemed that no time at all had passed since we were here last.
We finally arrived, parked, and met Ashley who welcomed us back. We unloaded the car, poured a glass of champagne, and refreshed a friendship that seems to have survived a year apart. A swim, a glass of wine, and dinner later, and it feels we’ve never left this place. The area around here feels as much like home as London did before we moved there. I think we both feel that at some point we’ll end up living in these mountains. It’s good to be home.
And Jamie's pics from Le Marche:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pug_gir...7634528008046/
Happy Tuesday!
For once, we spent enough time over breakfast as Agostino wanted – a few coffees, a bit of conversation, some awkward moments with the German guests who didn’t speak any English (Agostino speaks fluent Italian, French, English, and evidently passable German so it was only awkward for us). We had slept in a bit, packed up, and took a taxi down to the Europcar near the station to pick up our trusty steed for the remainder of the trip.
We had booked through AutoEurope over the phone, and at the time a pickup for 1pm seemed quite reasonable. When we arrived just before 11am they were surprised to see us and didn’t have a car ready for us – it seems that the parking for the hire cars is a good 3kms from the downtown office. They were nice enough to have someone bring it over early for us, and a half hour in a coffee shop next door wasn’t a tremendous hardship (as a note, it always important to bring your rental voucher with you when you pick up a car – the guy ahead of me when I was checking to see if our car was ready after the half hour didn’t have his, and they didn’t have a record of his booking…not sure what ended up happening, but he certainly didn’t have a car when he left….)
Jamie had been hoping that we were going to get the brand-new four-door Fiat 500 that had just parked up across the street, as she is obsessed with Fiat 500s – why couldn’t it be a reasonable car to be obsessed with, like a Ferrari or something? We were not to have the brand-new four-door Fiat 500, but instead got Vincenzo, a new Fiat Panda (we named him on the drive), who in my opinion is slightly manlier and thus less embarrassing, if less nice than the 500, although the new 500’s are quite nice, not that I would admit liking a Fiat 500.
The drive was as expected – long stretches of the Autostrada were under construction and therefore both slow and congested. On the other hand, it didn’t require much concentration, which is a good thing as I tend to drive about once a year these days so a few hours of easy driving is a very positive start to a trip. Interestingly, the 40kms of construction stopped at the same moment as we saw the sign telling us we’d left Emilia-Romania and had entered Marche – to the foot as far as we could tell.
Before we reached this point, we took a slight detour for lunch. Jamie had been doing some research on the internet and had found a trattoria which was only a small distance from the Autostrada, or so it appeared on the map on the internet. An hour and a massive construction diversion later, we found the place and enjoyed a very tasty and reasonably priced meal. An hour or so later, we rejoined the Autostrada.
As we drove further into Le Marche the more familiar the scenery became. Flat fields of wheat and sunflowers were exchanged for hills and fields of sunflowers (okay, so maybe the scenery didn’t change that much). Tunnel after tunnel and even the sunflowers disappeared, and we were into the mountains.
We stopped briefly in Piobbico to pick up supplies – wine, water, cherries. It doesn’t seem that anything has changed at all in Piobbico since we were here last, a year ago. The same guy was working at the Conad, the same old guys were playing cards at the café on the corner, and the same gelato shop on the main street was serving kids ice cream. The drive up to the turn-off for the gravel road to La Tavola Marche felt like a trip back in time – it seemed that no time at all had passed since we were here last.
We finally arrived, parked, and met Ashley who welcomed us back. We unloaded the car, poured a glass of champagne, and refreshed a friendship that seems to have survived a year apart. A swim, a glass of wine, and dinner later, and it feels we’ve never left this place. The area around here feels as much like home as London did before we moved there. I think we both feel that at some point we’ll end up living in these mountains. It’s good to be home.
And Jamie's pics from Le Marche:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pug_gir...7634528008046/
Happy Tuesday!
