Ted Gale Italy Trip Report, Part III: A very few days in Lombardy (Cremona)
Mar 28th, 2010, 10:09 AM
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Ted Gale Italy Trip Report, Part III: A very few days in Lombardy (Cremona)
We were spoiled by our time at the 4 star Villa Marta, near Lucca. Our arrival in Cremona province was a let-down, initially.
The flatness of the countryside (in all senses) ..the apparent lack of sophistication of this agricultural region .. some bad menu choices at dinner .. all conspired to deflate my mood.
I am pleased to report that my outlook turned around entirely the next day.
Al Carrobbio, a Cremona locanda (in fact, a restaurant with rooms), turned out to be an inspired if unsual choice for us. The owners -- a family, who all work together in the business -- were very kind and the welcome we received made it less like a commercial hotel enterprise, more like being a paying guest in a very informal B&B.
The Signora (heavily pregnant) who greeted us is a daughter of the family. Her father was tending to the garden outside. Her mother was on hand in the mornings (from &:30 am) to handle breakfast, including making whatever egg dish and toast order we wanted. A sister, who speaks English, waited tables in the restaurant but also fixed the WiFi connection and together an itinerary of walled towns for us the next day.
This was first a farm on the outskirts of Cremona; then it became a restaurant 25 years ago. Seven rooms with bath were added very recently. We were almost the only people staying there, though the restaurant was quite full in the evenings.
The Cremona area, which is an hour SE from Milan, has none of the drama of the Florentine or Lucchesi hills or the areas north of Milan. In time, I started to appreciate the beauty of this emptyish plain. It also has a wealth of very attractive towns within a very few miles' radius.
We visited Pizzeghettone, Crema and Soncino. We never did get to Castel Arquato, Sabbionetta, Fidenza, Piacenza, Pandino, Casalmaggiore... If you like medieval castles and fortified towns, there is a LOT to see in the region. And if you travel off-season as we did, you are likely to see no-one but Italians. Even in Cremona, a major centre, we heard NO English, French or German.
With that intro, I'll proceed to my blog-notes. I have NOT edited out my initial negative commentary but I underline that I revised my views significantly over our 2 days there. In the end I was really glad we had visited this previously unknown corner of Italy:
Friday, March 19, 2010:
From La Spezia, we take the A 15 to cut across the spine of the Apennines, in the direction of Parma. For nearly an hour we drive through jagged mountains, rarely broken by small towns and villages. We emerge onto the plain just west of Parma.
Here, we start to notice a certain falling-off in the atmosphere, to put it mildly. Many of the agricultural buildings are in a state of collapse -- abandoned, as haphazard industrial and commercial development encroaches. There is no centre to anything -- just random building and, along the main roads, long strips of commercial outlets.
Today, I formulate a new rule: In Italy, never stay where it is flat. It is all industry, urban sprawl, visual dullness, smelly agriculture. We stayed last year in the Brenta region of the Veneto -- it was precisely the same and an even greater shame to Italy, because it has ruined the nation’s heritage of Palladian villas.
We drive across flat, featureless countryside toward Cremona. It is hard to believe that Stradivarius could have produced all those wonderful instruments in this one uninspiring locale. We turn off the Cremona ring road to follow a narrow route, between deep ditches, to Al Carrobbio. We chose this unpretentious “restaurant with rooms” because of its website’s intriguing menus of local dishes. We knew it was a gamble-- we were unable to find any reviews on Tripadvisor or elsewhere.
It is a converted farm, with plowed fields right up to the walls. The Signora greets us very kindly and shows us to our room, a large and well-renovated space furnished with heavy Victorian furniture. We waste a couple of hours -- R takes a bike and goes for a ride through disappointing flatlands.
We go for dinner just after eight. The cooking is okay but nothing like we imagined. We have eaten so well everywhere else that we have to count this as our least satisfactory meal in Italy. The Wi-Fi conks out in the evening. We have booked for two nights! My mood is very dark as I prepare for bed.
The flatness of the countryside (in all senses) ..the apparent lack of sophistication of this agricultural region .. some bad menu choices at dinner .. all conspired to deflate my mood.
I am pleased to report that my outlook turned around entirely the next day.
Al Carrobbio, a Cremona locanda (in fact, a restaurant with rooms), turned out to be an inspired if unsual choice for us. The owners -- a family, who all work together in the business -- were very kind and the welcome we received made it less like a commercial hotel enterprise, more like being a paying guest in a very informal B&B.
The Signora (heavily pregnant) who greeted us is a daughter of the family. Her father was tending to the garden outside. Her mother was on hand in the mornings (from &:30 am) to handle breakfast, including making whatever egg dish and toast order we wanted. A sister, who speaks English, waited tables in the restaurant but also fixed the WiFi connection and together an itinerary of walled towns for us the next day.
This was first a farm on the outskirts of Cremona; then it became a restaurant 25 years ago. Seven rooms with bath were added very recently. We were almost the only people staying there, though the restaurant was quite full in the evenings.
The Cremona area, which is an hour SE from Milan, has none of the drama of the Florentine or Lucchesi hills or the areas north of Milan. In time, I started to appreciate the beauty of this emptyish plain. It also has a wealth of very attractive towns within a very few miles' radius.
We visited Pizzeghettone, Crema and Soncino. We never did get to Castel Arquato, Sabbionetta, Fidenza, Piacenza, Pandino, Casalmaggiore... If you like medieval castles and fortified towns, there is a LOT to see in the region. And if you travel off-season as we did, you are likely to see no-one but Italians. Even in Cremona, a major centre, we heard NO English, French or German.
With that intro, I'll proceed to my blog-notes. I have NOT edited out my initial negative commentary but I underline that I revised my views significantly over our 2 days there. In the end I was really glad we had visited this previously unknown corner of Italy:
Friday, March 19, 2010:
From La Spezia, we take the A 15 to cut across the spine of the Apennines, in the direction of Parma. For nearly an hour we drive through jagged mountains, rarely broken by small towns and villages. We emerge onto the plain just west of Parma.
Here, we start to notice a certain falling-off in the atmosphere, to put it mildly. Many of the agricultural buildings are in a state of collapse -- abandoned, as haphazard industrial and commercial development encroaches. There is no centre to anything -- just random building and, along the main roads, long strips of commercial outlets.
Today, I formulate a new rule: In Italy, never stay where it is flat. It is all industry, urban sprawl, visual dullness, smelly agriculture. We stayed last year in the Brenta region of the Veneto -- it was precisely the same and an even greater shame to Italy, because it has ruined the nation’s heritage of Palladian villas.
We drive across flat, featureless countryside toward Cremona. It is hard to believe that Stradivarius could have produced all those wonderful instruments in this one uninspiring locale. We turn off the Cremona ring road to follow a narrow route, between deep ditches, to Al Carrobbio. We chose this unpretentious “restaurant with rooms” because of its website’s intriguing menus of local dishes. We knew it was a gamble-- we were unable to find any reviews on Tripadvisor or elsewhere.
It is a converted farm, with plowed fields right up to the walls. The Signora greets us very kindly and shows us to our room, a large and well-renovated space furnished with heavy Victorian furniture. We waste a couple of hours -- R takes a bike and goes for a ride through disappointing flatlands.
We go for dinner just after eight. The cooking is okay but nothing like we imagined. We have eaten so well everywhere else that we have to count this as our least satisfactory meal in Italy. The Wi-Fi conks out in the evening. We have booked for two nights! My mood is very dark as I prepare for bed.
Mar 28th, 2010, 10:12 AM
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Saturday, March 20, 2010:
Today, everything is brighter. At breakfast, the Signora’s mother offers to cook eggs -- I choose uova strapazzate, scrambled eggs. I have juice, a tiny coffee, then a croissant, then some of the home baking: there is a rich, wicked chocolate cake and rather a lot of plain and chocolate shortbreads.
A young woman (the Signora’s sister?) clicks a couple of buttons and Internet service is restored. She also plots a great itinerary for us: Walled Cremonese towns, all within 20 miles of here.
Though the day is overcast, it is mild. When we set off, the air is still dewy, almost foggy. Away from the city, the flat countryside has a certain beauty, largely because of the emerald green of its broad fields. We speed along straight, straight roads on which there are few other travelers. The only negative -- one we are to encounter throughout the day, in country and town alike -- is the pervasive smell of sh**.
Our first stop is little Pizzighettone. The red-brick walls, which engulf the whole centre of town, date from the 12th C but were rebuilt and the fortifications strengthened by the Austrians in the 1830s. A 19th C plaque in German records the fact. On the top of the walls, a family of goats grazes.
Next, we travel to Crema, a small city, only fragments of whose red-brick walls remain. The great draw of the place is its magnificent white-fronted cathedral. Monstrously high towers are a feature of the churches here. Crema’s is not an exception. I also admire the neo-classical covered market -- a grand affair in stucco, with pillars, built by order of the Austrian emperor in the 1820s.
A few miles away is Soncino, where the riverside walls are complemented by a small but glorious fort, the Rocca Sforzesca. Begun by Venice in the mid-1400s, the fortress passed into the hands of the Sforzas of Milan in the late 1400s.
We are free to wander pretty much at will through the restored fortress, a municipal property since an owner turned over the dilapidated property in the 1860s. It’s a gorgeous pile of crenellations, square and round towers, brick staircases, dungeons, high walkways. At one point, we are greeted by a tall, thin man who introduces himself as the Mayor and gives us a pep-talk on the cardinal attractions of the town.
Our combined ticket also gives us access to the town’s Museum of Printing. In this building, some itinerant Jews from Germany, deprived of their traditional pursuit of money lending (to the cash-strapped Sforzas), switched vocation and became printers. In 1488, they produced the first copy of the Bible in Hebrew, with printed vowels. (Prior to this, we learn, all vowels were added by hand after printing, since the traditional Hebrew alphabet had no vowels.)
Our informant is the elderly deaf curator of the museum, who holds forth at great length, delivering a learned, elegantly phrased Italian lecture. He also shows us how the printing press works and pulls a copy of the opening page of the Bible, using a facsimile of the 1488 type and layout. He presents a copy to each of us. Upstairs, there is a show of etchings. The elderly man in the next room turns out to be the artist; we chat amicably in Italian with him and his wife.
Finally, we visit, all too briefly, Cremona: a civilized small city, not overwhelmingly interesting visually, except for the staggering medieval cathedral, baptistery, arcaded tower and palazzo municipale. They rival their counterparts in Pisa, Siena and Venice -- indeed, approach the grandeur of Florence.
Dinner tonight is an altogether different experience from the previous evening’s. We have finally understood that you are meant to order from their prix fixe menu, not a la carte. We choose the 25 E menu invernale, the winter menu. That price includes our wine, we later discover. We have a bottle of Garda red with this dinner.
Dinner starts with a huge plate of cold meats: slices of prosciutto crudo, bresaola, salami and something rather like smoked bacon. With it comes a plate of mixed pickled vegetables: red pepper, yellow pepper, cauliflower, carrots and celery. Shortly after this arrive plates with flatbread covered with melted mozzarella, choux pastry with a bit of bacon inside and croissants stuffed with ham and cheese.
Our next dish is a pasta course: flat pasta squares (I am ignorant of the name, though I am sure it has one) with mini-polpette of sausage meat and zucca (pumpkin) in a light cream sauce. Our “main” dish is a very simple vegetarian one: grilled radicchio, artichoke, potato, squash and carrot, with chips of provolone cheese. For dessert, we are served iced torrone -- rather like a nougat chaud-froid.
We are stuffed and very content.
Today, everything is brighter. At breakfast, the Signora’s mother offers to cook eggs -- I choose uova strapazzate, scrambled eggs. I have juice, a tiny coffee, then a croissant, then some of the home baking: there is a rich, wicked chocolate cake and rather a lot of plain and chocolate shortbreads.
A young woman (the Signora’s sister?) clicks a couple of buttons and Internet service is restored. She also plots a great itinerary for us: Walled Cremonese towns, all within 20 miles of here.
Though the day is overcast, it is mild. When we set off, the air is still dewy, almost foggy. Away from the city, the flat countryside has a certain beauty, largely because of the emerald green of its broad fields. We speed along straight, straight roads on which there are few other travelers. The only negative -- one we are to encounter throughout the day, in country and town alike -- is the pervasive smell of sh**.
Our first stop is little Pizzighettone. The red-brick walls, which engulf the whole centre of town, date from the 12th C but were rebuilt and the fortifications strengthened by the Austrians in the 1830s. A 19th C plaque in German records the fact. On the top of the walls, a family of goats grazes.
Next, we travel to Crema, a small city, only fragments of whose red-brick walls remain. The great draw of the place is its magnificent white-fronted cathedral. Monstrously high towers are a feature of the churches here. Crema’s is not an exception. I also admire the neo-classical covered market -- a grand affair in stucco, with pillars, built by order of the Austrian emperor in the 1820s.
A few miles away is Soncino, where the riverside walls are complemented by a small but glorious fort, the Rocca Sforzesca. Begun by Venice in the mid-1400s, the fortress passed into the hands of the Sforzas of Milan in the late 1400s.
We are free to wander pretty much at will through the restored fortress, a municipal property since an owner turned over the dilapidated property in the 1860s. It’s a gorgeous pile of crenellations, square and round towers, brick staircases, dungeons, high walkways. At one point, we are greeted by a tall, thin man who introduces himself as the Mayor and gives us a pep-talk on the cardinal attractions of the town.
Our combined ticket also gives us access to the town’s Museum of Printing. In this building, some itinerant Jews from Germany, deprived of their traditional pursuit of money lending (to the cash-strapped Sforzas), switched vocation and became printers. In 1488, they produced the first copy of the Bible in Hebrew, with printed vowels. (Prior to this, we learn, all vowels were added by hand after printing, since the traditional Hebrew alphabet had no vowels.)
Our informant is the elderly deaf curator of the museum, who holds forth at great length, delivering a learned, elegantly phrased Italian lecture. He also shows us how the printing press works and pulls a copy of the opening page of the Bible, using a facsimile of the 1488 type and layout. He presents a copy to each of us. Upstairs, there is a show of etchings. The elderly man in the next room turns out to be the artist; we chat amicably in Italian with him and his wife.
Finally, we visit, all too briefly, Cremona: a civilized small city, not overwhelmingly interesting visually, except for the staggering medieval cathedral, baptistery, arcaded tower and palazzo municipale. They rival their counterparts in Pisa, Siena and Venice -- indeed, approach the grandeur of Florence.
Dinner tonight is an altogether different experience from the previous evening’s. We have finally understood that you are meant to order from their prix fixe menu, not a la carte. We choose the 25 E menu invernale, the winter menu. That price includes our wine, we later discover. We have a bottle of Garda red with this dinner.
Dinner starts with a huge plate of cold meats: slices of prosciutto crudo, bresaola, salami and something rather like smoked bacon. With it comes a plate of mixed pickled vegetables: red pepper, yellow pepper, cauliflower, carrots and celery. Shortly after this arrive plates with flatbread covered with melted mozzarella, choux pastry with a bit of bacon inside and croissants stuffed with ham and cheese.
Our next dish is a pasta course: flat pasta squares (I am ignorant of the name, though I am sure it has one) with mini-polpette of sausage meat and zucca (pumpkin) in a light cream sauce. Our “main” dish is a very simple vegetarian one: grilled radicchio, artichoke, potato, squash and carrot, with chips of provolone cheese. For dessert, we are served iced torrone -- rather like a nougat chaud-froid.
We are stuffed and very content.
Mar 28th, 2010, 10:14 AM
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Sunday, March 21, 2010:
Today we must get to Milan and meet Roberto. I have my usual pre-departure jitters: Will we get to Milan by 10:30? How will we ever find our way to Roberto’s address, having only rudimentary directions and a very primitive map? Will we be able to get to Linate in time for our Monday flight? And can we locate a place near the airport to gas up before turning in the rental car? I ponder these questions as I lie awake at 4 am. No one, seeing me in these agonies, would ever imagine I am a seasoned traveler. Once again, my need for certainty and control has got the upper hand.
I am appalled when I arise at 7 am to discover the fields around us are filled with dense fog. I mentally add a half-hour to our travel time.
Breakfast awaits us at 8 am, as requested. Though the credit-card machine at first cannot process our payment, the problem is quickly resolved. When R tells me the amount of the bill, I am incredulous: Can they be charging so little for those two dinners?
We offer some extra cash for the staff that served us during our stay: the Signorina says that is far too much and suggests another figure, one-quarter of what we offered. We settle at half the original sum. We buy one of their special home-made Cremonese cakes to take to dinner with Roberto’s family. The Signorina gives us some of their home-made mints as a souvenir. We leave Al Carrobbio after heartfelt expressions of esteem on both sides.
We decide to take the Statale, instead of the motorway. This turns out to be a good choice: we drive the 83 km to Milan in an hour, even with some stop lights and a very slow stretch where the road is under construction, near the city.
We actually have time to check in at the hotel in Sesto San Giovanni before meeting Roberto around 10:30. His apartment is only 5 minutes` walk and indeed, there he is, striding toward us. I get a big, enveloping hug -- “strong to lift”, as Roberto sometimes ungrammatically says.
Immediately, we set off for the centre of Milan on the filthy subway.
Today we must get to Milan and meet Roberto. I have my usual pre-departure jitters: Will we get to Milan by 10:30? How will we ever find our way to Roberto’s address, having only rudimentary directions and a very primitive map? Will we be able to get to Linate in time for our Monday flight? And can we locate a place near the airport to gas up before turning in the rental car? I ponder these questions as I lie awake at 4 am. No one, seeing me in these agonies, would ever imagine I am a seasoned traveler. Once again, my need for certainty and control has got the upper hand.
I am appalled when I arise at 7 am to discover the fields around us are filled with dense fog. I mentally add a half-hour to our travel time.
Breakfast awaits us at 8 am, as requested. Though the credit-card machine at first cannot process our payment, the problem is quickly resolved. When R tells me the amount of the bill, I am incredulous: Can they be charging so little for those two dinners?
We offer some extra cash for the staff that served us during our stay: the Signorina says that is far too much and suggests another figure, one-quarter of what we offered. We settle at half the original sum. We buy one of their special home-made Cremonese cakes to take to dinner with Roberto’s family. The Signorina gives us some of their home-made mints as a souvenir. We leave Al Carrobbio after heartfelt expressions of esteem on both sides.
We decide to take the Statale, instead of the motorway. This turns out to be a good choice: we drive the 83 km to Milan in an hour, even with some stop lights and a very slow stretch where the road is under construction, near the city.
We actually have time to check in at the hotel in Sesto San Giovanni before meeting Roberto around 10:30. His apartment is only 5 minutes` walk and indeed, there he is, striding toward us. I get a big, enveloping hug -- “strong to lift”, as Roberto sometimes ungrammatically says.
Immediately, we set off for the centre of Milan on the filthy subway.
Mar 28th, 2010, 10:37 AM
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Just to complete the narrative, I'll add in a bit about what we did in central Milan that gloomy Sunday.
Pointless to opine on Milan when we really had only a few hours downtown. Let's just say it has some ancient things of great beauty and shows the signs of having been an important place for a very long time. I could tell too that it was a place of great style -- especially at the Triennale museum, where you see the more sophisticated Milanese echelon.
But I didn't fall in love with Milan on this occasion, as I did with Rome on first sight.
Sunday, March 21 continued:
Ah, my dear old friend: As usual, we are jinxed. It always rains and there are endless glitches, when Roberto and I get together.
Drizzle begins. The art exhibitions Roberto thought we might visit (Goya; a show of US photojournalism) have long, long lines into the street. At the café he has chosen for lunch we are told that no table will be available before 3:30 or 4 pm. At another upstairs café at La Rinascente (Milan`s Bloomingdale`s) we find the celebrated view over the Piazza del Duomo is totally obscured by scaffolding and sheet metal.
Roberto takes us to see the jewel-like Portinari chapel, in the former monastery church of Sant’ Eustorgio. We do succeed, moreover, in visiting the Triennale museum (I don`t want to see the Roy Lichtenstein show but we take in the Ferragamo Museum`s show “Garbo Style``, which I had seen advertised in Florence).
At the huge and impressive Castello Sforzesco, costumed locals are recreating the 1848 confrontation between Milanese revolutionaries and the Austrian forces who controlled the city.
Finally, we visit the great Duomo -- its pinkish wedding cake exterior gives no clue of the sober grandeur of the magnificent, solemnity of the plain interior.
Back for an hour or so to the Hotel Barone di Sassj, a newish business hotel in Sesto San Giovanni. It seems empty; that must be why we got a room with full American breakfast, free parking (and 20 minutes of Internet use) for just 70 E on Venere.com.
Our room is high-ceilinged and wood wainscoted; the kingsize bed with its padded headboard is an opulent touch. Also the green marble vanity in the spacious bathroom. Everything is spotless and new-seeming. We have read some mixed report on Tripadvisor; we will be posting, or rather riposting, there.
At 7:30 we head to Roberto’s apartment, 3 minutes’ walk away.
Roberto and Pola have prepared a fine dinner. Their charming children Francesco and Alessandro join us. We eat garlic-laced spaghetti with cherry tomatoes, onion and celery; an abundant dish of shrimp, swordfish and tuna with spinacci; a chocolate pudding that is served with the almond-y cake we have brought from Cremona.
Roberto serves white wines he has chosen -- he lays them down by the 10 dozen. We finish with some limoncello.
Later that evening, after the kids have gone off, Roberto says that "he's sure" we will get together again soon. Yeah, that would be the third time in 31 years.
Always looking forward, never back -- I like that about him.
Pola comments that he is resilient, not easily depressed by life`s setbacks. We decide that his proper nickname is ``Ercolino, sempre in piedi`` -- the lead-weighted kids` toy that always bounces back when knocked over.
With regret, I say goodbye to these hospitable friends.
Pointless to opine on Milan when we really had only a few hours downtown. Let's just say it has some ancient things of great beauty and shows the signs of having been an important place for a very long time. I could tell too that it was a place of great style -- especially at the Triennale museum, where you see the more sophisticated Milanese echelon.
But I didn't fall in love with Milan on this occasion, as I did with Rome on first sight.
Sunday, March 21 continued:
Ah, my dear old friend: As usual, we are jinxed. It always rains and there are endless glitches, when Roberto and I get together.
Drizzle begins. The art exhibitions Roberto thought we might visit (Goya; a show of US photojournalism) have long, long lines into the street. At the café he has chosen for lunch we are told that no table will be available before 3:30 or 4 pm. At another upstairs café at La Rinascente (Milan`s Bloomingdale`s) we find the celebrated view over the Piazza del Duomo is totally obscured by scaffolding and sheet metal.
Roberto takes us to see the jewel-like Portinari chapel, in the former monastery church of Sant’ Eustorgio. We do succeed, moreover, in visiting the Triennale museum (I don`t want to see the Roy Lichtenstein show but we take in the Ferragamo Museum`s show “Garbo Style``, which I had seen advertised in Florence).
At the huge and impressive Castello Sforzesco, costumed locals are recreating the 1848 confrontation between Milanese revolutionaries and the Austrian forces who controlled the city.
Finally, we visit the great Duomo -- its pinkish wedding cake exterior gives no clue of the sober grandeur of the magnificent, solemnity of the plain interior.
Back for an hour or so to the Hotel Barone di Sassj, a newish business hotel in Sesto San Giovanni. It seems empty; that must be why we got a room with full American breakfast, free parking (and 20 minutes of Internet use) for just 70 E on Venere.com.
Our room is high-ceilinged and wood wainscoted; the kingsize bed with its padded headboard is an opulent touch. Also the green marble vanity in the spacious bathroom. Everything is spotless and new-seeming. We have read some mixed report on Tripadvisor; we will be posting, or rather riposting, there.
At 7:30 we head to Roberto’s apartment, 3 minutes’ walk away.
Roberto and Pola have prepared a fine dinner. Their charming children Francesco and Alessandro join us. We eat garlic-laced spaghetti with cherry tomatoes, onion and celery; an abundant dish of shrimp, swordfish and tuna with spinacci; a chocolate pudding that is served with the almond-y cake we have brought from Cremona.
Roberto serves white wines he has chosen -- he lays them down by the 10 dozen. We finish with some limoncello.
Later that evening, after the kids have gone off, Roberto says that "he's sure" we will get together again soon. Yeah, that would be the third time in 31 years.
Always looking forward, never back -- I like that about him.
Pola comments that he is resilient, not easily depressed by life`s setbacks. We decide that his proper nickname is ``Ercolino, sempre in piedi`` -- the lead-weighted kids` toy that always bounces back when knocked over.
With regret, I say goodbye to these hospitable friends.
Mar 28th, 2010, 10:45 AM
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Monday, March 22, 2010:
We have a substantial breakfast at the Barone di Sassj, then drive in heavy rush-hour traffic to Linate airport.
Linate is a breeze: there’s an Agip station for refueling the rental car, right at the airport entrance; a 5 minute check-in; quick-moving security lines. Our flight leaves on time and arrives in Amsterdam a few minutes early.
At Schiphol, we have just over an hour -- just the right amount of time. We hit the duty-free and enjoy a quick visit to the Rijksmuseum`s little gallery. Our flight to Montreal, though full, is uneventful and on time.
Returning home always fills me with trepidation. Not that I regret leaving Europe so terribly -- only that arrival in Canada is invariably disgusting. Today is no exception....
(But I will draw a veil over this final chapter, the always-sordid business of trying to get back into my home and native land. We got home safely and more-or-less on time.)
I'd rather finish this trip report on a brighter note: We had a trouble-free trip; we stayed in great places and paid less for everything than if we had traveled at home. We saw new corners of Italy; we spent a fair bit of time with old friends and made some new ones. One of our best trips, in fact. I'm glad I recorded so much of it in prost.
And in photos: Here is a link to an album (previously posted with Part II of the Trip Report) that shows both the Tuscany and Lombardy portions of our trip:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...5&l=d21189b9f6
We have a substantial breakfast at the Barone di Sassj, then drive in heavy rush-hour traffic to Linate airport.
Linate is a breeze: there’s an Agip station for refueling the rental car, right at the airport entrance; a 5 minute check-in; quick-moving security lines. Our flight leaves on time and arrives in Amsterdam a few minutes early.
At Schiphol, we have just over an hour -- just the right amount of time. We hit the duty-free and enjoy a quick visit to the Rijksmuseum`s little gallery. Our flight to Montreal, though full, is uneventful and on time.
Returning home always fills me with trepidation. Not that I regret leaving Europe so terribly -- only that arrival in Canada is invariably disgusting. Today is no exception....
(But I will draw a veil over this final chapter, the always-sordid business of trying to get back into my home and native land. We got home safely and more-or-less on time.)
I'd rather finish this trip report on a brighter note: We had a trouble-free trip; we stayed in great places and paid less for everything than if we had traveled at home. We saw new corners of Italy; we spent a fair bit of time with old friends and made some new ones. One of our best trips, in fact. I'm glad I recorded so much of it in prost.
And in photos: Here is a link to an album (previously posted with Part II of the Trip Report) that shows both the Tuscany and Lombardy portions of our trip:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...5&l=d21189b9f6
Mar 28th, 2010, 02:04 PM
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Lovely shots and I enjoyed the details of your trip.
You seem to have encountered more than one curator with some sort of handicap. We tend to find mean older women in the larger museums and johns. Are the "challenged" assigned to the "esoteria" in Italia? LOL
You seem to have encountered more than one curator with some sort of handicap. We tend to find mean older women in the larger museums and johns. Are the "challenged" assigned to the "esoteria" in Italia? LOL
Mar 28th, 2010, 02:28 PM
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I have been hanging out silently and impatiently for you to get to Cremona.
I've never been, but while others spent their youth dreaming of getting to Italy so they could see Michaelangelo's David, or eat real risotto, or see the Vatican, I spent my youth dreaming of getting to Italy so I could:
a) See the mosaics in Ravenna
and
a) eat mostarda di Cremona
I love mustard-preserved fruits with a passion, and I still can't believe I've yet to visit Cremona. Next year I hope. I have NO problem with flat Italy.
I also wanted to say YES!!!! You're supposed to eat what everybody else is eating that night in Italy. Italian recipes are developed with big families and farm hands in mind. The best food will always be that night's special, cooked for a crowd. So now you know.
Perhaps the stuffed pasta you ate was cappelletti, typical of the Emilia, and often filled with pumpkin or meat.
http://francorossi.tripod.com/english/stuffed.htm
If you are even in Milano again, visit the Pinoteca Ambrosiana, a kind of small Milanese Smithsonian, filled with both great art and some curious treasures.
So now I'll look at your pictures and plot my visit to the toown of famous mustard fruit, violins and a stupendous medieval core.
Mille Grazie!
I've never been, but while others spent their youth dreaming of getting to Italy so they could see Michaelangelo's David, or eat real risotto, or see the Vatican, I spent my youth dreaming of getting to Italy so I could:
a) See the mosaics in Ravenna
and
a) eat mostarda di Cremona
I love mustard-preserved fruits with a passion, and I still can't believe I've yet to visit Cremona. Next year I hope. I have NO problem with flat Italy.
I also wanted to say YES!!!! You're supposed to eat what everybody else is eating that night in Italy. Italian recipes are developed with big families and farm hands in mind. The best food will always be that night's special, cooked for a crowd. So now you know.
Perhaps the stuffed pasta you ate was cappelletti, typical of the Emilia, and often filled with pumpkin or meat.
http://francorossi.tripod.com/english/stuffed.htm
If you are even in Milano again, visit the Pinoteca Ambrosiana, a kind of small Milanese Smithsonian, filled with both great art and some curious treasures.
So now I'll look at your pictures and plot my visit to the toown of famous mustard fruit, violins and a stupendous medieval core.
Mille Grazie!
Mar 28th, 2010, 04:39 PM
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The curator at the printing museum was hilarious. He was rather like the Ancient Mariner, right down to the "glittering eye", though missing the "long, grey beard":
Once he grabbed you, you were not getting away.
He kept up an incredible patter in elegant Italian, much of it directed to a youngish man who arrived when we did:
"As you see, the printing press requires considerable muscular effort. If the young gentleman worked on this press, he would have no need to go to a gymnasium for the exercise by which he seeks to make himself even more fascinating than he already is..."
Zeppole: The term "cappelletti" rings a bell with me, though I cannot be entirely certain that is what we had...I hope you make it soon to that great city.
Once he grabbed you, you were not getting away.
He kept up an incredible patter in elegant Italian, much of it directed to a youngish man who arrived when we did:
"As you see, the printing press requires considerable muscular effort. If the young gentleman worked on this press, he would have no need to go to a gymnasium for the exercise by which he seeks to make himself even more fascinating than he already is..."
Zeppole: The term "cappelletti" rings a bell with me, though I cannot be entirely certain that is what we had...I hope you make it soon to that great city.
Mar 29th, 2010, 04:31 AM
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I particularly enjoyed this section of your report, as like zeppole, Cremona is on my visit list, in part for the mostarda (though versions are produced in other cities too.) From a stay in Modena, we got only as far on the train as Carpi, with its enormous piazza.
During your time in the Brenta area did you go as far south as Finale di Agugliaro? I will be staying in the Villa Saraceno in May and hope that the driving and terrain are not so grim as to the north.
During your time in the Brenta area did you go as far south as Finale di Agugliaro? I will be staying in the Villa Saraceno in May and hope that the driving and terrain are not so grim as to the north.
Mar 29th, 2010, 06:04 AM
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No, I haven't been there.
You're staying IN the Villa Saraceno?
I know that place was restored by Landmark Trust -- Have they fitted it up with self-catering accommodation? That would be a great experience!
You're staying IN the Villa Saraceno?
I know that place was restored by Landmark Trust -- Have they fitted it up with self-catering accommodation? That would be a great experience!
Mar 29th, 2010, 08:18 AM
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Yes, it's for the birthday of a friend, a week in the Villa Saraceno. There is room for 14/16 people, and roughly a bathroom for each double room. You can arrange for dinners to be catered, which we are doing for the first night. There is also a Landmark Trust property in my village in Lincolnshire, and I hope the furnishing at the villa is similar - austere but appropriate.
I agree with your assessment of driving in the Veneto, we had a difficult time finding the Villa Emo. I hope the signs are better further south, or my map-reading skills have improved.
I agree with your assessment of driving in the Veneto, we had a difficult time finding the Villa Emo. I hope the signs are better further south, or my map-reading skills have improved.
Mar 29th, 2010, 03:17 PM
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I really like the Villa Emo but it was a total fluke that we found it.
Your comment about Landmark Trust started me researching their rental places.
Now I want to stay at their tower on Landsdown Road in Bath -- built by mad Wm. Beckford, who also built Fonthill Abbey.
Your comment about Landmark Trust started me researching their rental places.
Now I want to stay at their tower on Landsdown Road in Bath -- built by mad Wm. Beckford, who also built Fonthill Abbey.
Mar 30th, 2010, 01:00 AM
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Ted, we also saw the Villa Barbaro that day, but V.Emo was my favourite. Have you seen "Ripley's Game"? It is a stunning film and the V.Emo is where Ripley lives (I know, it should be France but I'd be happy if every film were set in Italy.) You can also stay in the privately owned Villa Valmarana "Ai Nani" just outside Vicenza in a bedroom with Tiepolo walls.
Mantova and Vicenza produce their own versions of mostarda. As to where to buy it, I visit Valvona and Crolla on my annual trip to Edinburgh, and Brindisa in London usually stock it. I did buy mustard essence at Ai Due Catini d'Oro in Pisa but haven't produced anything satisfactory yet myself.
Mantova and Vicenza produce their own versions of mostarda. As to where to buy it, I visit Valvona and Crolla on my annual trip to Edinburgh, and Brindisa in London usually stock it. I did buy mustard essence at Ai Due Catini d'Oro in Pisa but haven't produced anything satisfactory yet myself.
Mar 30th, 2010, 03:23 AM
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Yes it was Ripley's Game that got me interested in it.
BTW: For anyone visiting Cremona province, the Provincia di Cremona - Servizio Promozione Turistica produces some excellent materials for visitors. I got these free at our locanda.
I am looking at a booklet, lavishly illustrated, called Citta' Murate e Castellate della Provincia di Cremona. It has suggested itineraries and recommendations for places to stay and for restaurants in each suggested destination.
I am not sure how to obtain these in hard copy from a distance...
Here is a link to the province's (very good) tourism page on the province's website:
http://turismo.provincia.cremona.it/
BTW: For anyone visiting Cremona province, the Provincia di Cremona - Servizio Promozione Turistica produces some excellent materials for visitors. I got these free at our locanda.
I am looking at a booklet, lavishly illustrated, called Citta' Murate e Castellate della Provincia di Cremona. It has suggested itineraries and recommendations for places to stay and for restaurants in each suggested destination.
I am not sure how to obtain these in hard copy from a distance...
Here is a link to the province's (very good) tourism page on the province's website:
http://turismo.provincia.cremona.it/
Apr 5th, 2010, 11:21 PM
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Fun Read!! Enjoyed your take on Crema, a dear friend lives there and I have spent much time last year in that town, even checked out a few apartments there but alas for me Florence remained a better fit 
BTW totally agree with countryside of lombardia not the most picturesque reminds me of driving thru Indiana from Chicago to NY
BTW totally agree with countryside of lombardia not the most picturesque reminds me of driving thru Indiana from Chicago to NY
