Last Days

Croatia 2011

Days 21 and 22

Day 21  This has got to be the most relaxing place in the world. We took a boat (15-min. ride) to an island where we had a spectacular lunch.  The weather is perfect for the beach and the water is cool but not cold.

We then went swimming, again, in the Adriatic Sea. On the island, you can find your own private beach amongst the rocks.

After coming back, showering, and relaxing, we had a wonderful dinner.  They have some dishes that we’ll never have anywhere else unfortunately, and seems the recipes are not likely to be handed off to a visitor.  Roberto never has had them, so he’s very amazed that there is something so good that’s he’s not had.

We took in a concert that a new artist friend told us about.  The musicians included a flutist, a violinist, and guitarist and they were great.  We thought it was to be classical music, and it was classical Balkan music.  Roberto calls it gypsy music.

We finished the night with a stroll. We heard the music and looked out over the water. We even saw the Lunar Eclipse.  It was a great way to end the night.

Day 22  After our last European breakfast of café’ and brioche, we rented bikes and rode along the Adriatic Sea, once again….the bike path we mentioned earlier that seems to go on forever with no cars. It was a very warm day.

We got back and decided to climb the tower at the top of this town. Shari thought it was the scariest tower she has ever climbed. The steps are only about five inches wide, and there are huge gaps between the steps where you can look below where if you fell, you would die….according to Shari.

Dinner was at a favorite place, outside and on the harbor. We said good-bye to friends we’ve made here and got ready for the long trip home.  It’s hard to leave but it will be great to get home. 

Days 19 and 20

Italy and Croatia 2011

Days 19 and 20

Day 19 Today we left Bologna on a train to Venice so that we could take a bus to Rovinj, Croatia. We were there a year ago and really liked it. We were planning to take a four-hour fast boat ride from Venice to get here, but we found out long after we made our reservations that the boat doesn’t run on Sunday and Monday. The only way to get to Rovinj was a bus. It was not exactly a pleasant day. Once on the small, crowded, hot bus, we found out that it wouldn’t stop at Rovinj. Thank God there was a Croatian woman on the bus who spoke good English. At first she told us we were on the wrong bus, but then she spoke to the driver, and they figured out they could drop us off at a certain place where we could catch another bus to Rovinj. Our bus stopped at a few places along the way for coffee/wine/cigarette breaks. We also stopped at two borders (Slovenia and Croatia) where a man came onto our bus and checked our passports. After the second place, when we were officially in Croatia, that’s when the polka music started. We looked at each other and started laughing, wondering WHAT NEXT. At one stop, Shari got locked in the bathroom of the rest area. It was scary, since there was no one who spoke English (the one woman who spoke English had gotten off the bus by that time). After about five minutes she found her way out. Along the way, we said we wished we weren’t spending all this effort to come to Croatia for only four nights or that we had the yacht of our dreams.

It took over six hours to get to the place where they dropped us off. We have no idea where it was, but the driver pointed out where to wait for the bus that would take us to Rovinj. Twenty-five minutes later the bus did come along and took us to our destination. Once we arrived and saw the Adriatic Sea, we had the same feeling that we had when we arrived at Lucca….like we were coming home. Rovinj is a small ancient port town located right on the Adriatic Sea. We are staying in the same apartment as we did last year. It has three big windows that overlook the beautiful harbor. We have a small kitchen, comfortable living room, small bedroom, bathroom, and air-conditioning. 

This is a picture looking at our apartment from the harbor. Ours is on the second floor of the yellow building with the flowers.   

We had dinner at a place called Scuba where we had the freshest of fish. We strolled along the harbor, and we both agreed it was such a good thing we came here!

Day 20 We had the typical Croatian breakfast – coffee and a brioche. It was so good. We then went to a photo museum. There is a photo/art show in Rovinj that is very interesting. Look closely at the following picture and see if you can see a bit of  M. C. Escher. 

There are competitive photos in places all over town…even outside on the wharf in front of our place.  

We had lunch at one of the best pizza places, Da Sergio. We loved it last year, and we loved it today.

We walked a block to a place to rent bikes. In front, there was the cutest boy playing a ukulele for tips.   How could you refuse this cute kid even if he couldn’t strum a single tune?  Roberto is working on becoming his agent.

We got our bikes and road along the bike path that goes for miles and miles through the trees on one side and the Adriatic Sea on the other. There are no cars. After riding for an hour, we stopped and went swimming. The water was so clean and refreshing.

Dinner was at a restaurant along the harbor. We had fresh fish and vegetables. This harbor town is just amazing. Everyone sits outside to eat, and everyone’s table overlooks the walkway filled with people strolling and biking, and just a few feet beyond is the water and many boats.   

        

Day 18

Italy 2011

Day 18

We had another adventurous day when we took a train to the town of Ravenna, the town famous for its mosaics. It’s close to the coast. This town is a little smaller than Lucca, and it doesn’t have all the tour groups. It’s not a college town, so there are a lot of people our age….which means there is more of the traditional Italian food. When you are in a place like Bologna, a college town, you see a lot of fast food kinds of places. We have found that the food in Bologna is not as good as that in the surrounding smaller towns.

Bikes are a big thing in Ravenna, and we discovered that tourists (us!) can ride bikes for free, and they are good bikes. These bikes are parked in various racks throughout the town. All we had to do was go to the tourist information center, fill out a form, and get a key. Then we could choose any yellow bike from any one of the city racks and ride all day.

We bought tickets that would let us into five museums and churches. What’s really different about the churches, bapistries, and masoleums in Ravenna is that instead of the frescoes being painted, like most everywhere else, they are made with mosaics, little tiles put together to form a picture. Even the floors are mosaics.  We were looking at art from the 5^th century and it looked pretty darn good for being over 1500 years old.  

We went into one museum that is world-famous for its Ivory Throne (also 5^th century).  It was amazing and we wish we could share a picture, but picture taking was strictly forbidden at the museum.

Our lunch was at a place we researched, and we chose to sit outside, as usual. There was a regular menu, but we chose the menu of the day where we paid one low price for two courses. The first was wonderful homemade ravioli stuffed with spinach and rocotta, and the second course was a skewer of pork and peppers, which came with roasted potatoes. We added wine, of course, and ended with espresso drinks to keep us moving.

We felt very calm and peaceful in this town and would like to come back. We would also like to come back to Imola (see day 16) on the same trip.

After getting back to Bologna, we had to figure out another place for dinner.  Such problems we have! Our favorite desk person at our hotel suggested a place called Pizzeria La Mela, and it turned out to be our favorite place in Bologna….very inexpensive and fantastic food. Bob ordered a wonderful pizza while Shari ordered an arucola salad and a plate of grilled vegetables, because she couldn’t eat any more carbs. After we were finished eating and paying, we watch the pizza man making the crusts (including throwing them, topping them with all the various ingredients, and sliding them into the brick oven.   We was the best we’ve seen.  Roberto told him in Italian that he was a good man, and he appreciated it, but his wife working the register had a different take on his worthiness.

Tomorrow we will have a very long day ahead of us. We will take a train to Venice and a bus to Croatia. We were planning to take a fast boat from Venice, but it doesn’t operate on Monday! 

       

Day 17

Italy 2011

Day 17

We were planning to travel by train to the town of Ravenna, known for it’s dazzling mosaics. However, we woke up to a fairly hard rain. Since it was still raining after breakfast, we decided to stay in Bologna. We are both reading books we love, so we read contentedly in our room until the rain stopped.

When the skies cleared, we set out to visit the Basilica de San Domenico. Contrary to what you might be thinking, we don’t think of food ALL the time! We do try to fit in a little culture now and then. The Basilica was big and very beautiful. There were paintings and sculptures by Pisano, Lombardi, Michelangelo, and many others. One of Michelangelo’s sculptures, called San Procolo, is said to be the rehearsal for his later David.

We then had another food adventure. We went to a trattoria recommended by our hotel clerk. We chose a table outside. Immediately our waiter came over and poured us glasses of champagne without asking if we wanted any. We waited for a menu, but we never saw one. After a long time we were given more champagne and bread with meat and cheese.  We were patient, since we had nowhere we had to hurry off to. Eventually our waiter came to take out order, but we had to figure out what he was telling us in Italian because there was still no menu. We each ordered a small plate of some form of delicious homemade tortellini. The problem came when we got our bill. Nothing was itemized, and we were charged 40 euros. All we really ordered was the tortellini, a glass of wine, and two espressos. Evidently we were charged for all the other things that we didn’t order. One interesting thing, though, was that Arnold Schwarzenegger had been there. Here is a photo of the picture in the hall:

After lunch, we visited the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna (National Picture Gallery). Nothing was in English, all the pictures were from the Baroque period, so we had trouble understanding what we were looking at.

Coming home we discovered a street with the most wonderful food shop all in a row. There was a fish shop, one that sold only fruits and vegetables, and another that sold lots of interesting meats, cheeses, and olives.  There’s also a pasta shop, Roberto’s favorite.

After more reading in our hotel room, we ventured out again for dinner at Osteria dell’Orsa. There was lots of action out on the streets. The osteria proved to be excellent and cost about half of what our lunch cost. We both had tagliatelli with Bolognese sauce, and it was excellent.

Every since we got to Bologna, we've noticed that there is a more color here in the architecture which makes the city unique.  There is a phrase in one of language books that seems to fit Bologna which we've said a time or two.  For those that love Italian, the phrase is Que colore!  Here's a glimpse of what we mean by it:

       

Day 16

Italy 2011

Day 16

Our adventure today was so great that Shari said she could end our trip right now and be happy. We are calling it our 41^st wedding anniversary meal. Our Frommers’ guide, which we usually don’t listen to for places at which to dine, said this: “Foodies from all over travel to the unlikely village of Imola to savor the offerings of what some food critics, ourselves included, consider the best restaurant in Italy.” We made our required reservations weeks ago for a midday meal. We wore our best clothes and traveled by train to Imola late this morning. We went early to make sure we got there in time and could find the restaurant. We found it, and we had more than an hour to explore the small town. We absolutely loved it!!! It’s smaller than Lucca, but like Lucca, most everyone rides a bike for transportation….even old people. But the big difference is that this town has very few tourists and certainly no tour groups. In fact, our Frommers’ guide didn’t say a thing about the town except for the above about the restaurant, and Rick Steves doesn’t even mention the entire Bologna and Emilia-Romagna area. We suppose that’s a good thing, since we really dislike those big tour groups. We strolled around the town, and it was so beautiful and peaceful.  Here's the fort we found on our walk:

We arrived at our restaurant, San Domenico, at 12:30 when it opens. Here is a picture of it with the owner/world famous chef standing outside:

We were seated in a beautiful semi-private room. Right away we felt we were in Italian Food Heaven. We had two very friendly waiters giving us their full attention. They wore black pants, white shirts, black bow-ties, and black aprons. We chose the option where we paid one price for four courses that were pre-chosen and included all the wine and champagne that come match up with the various cour. They filled our glasses before they were even close to empty. Both waiters would come out at the same time….one carrying Shari’s plate and the other carrying Roberto’s.

The bread came with a covered dish of butter. When we took off the lid, we saw it had a coat of arms imbedded into the butter:

The first course was anchovies with green olive oil and a little ball of mashed potatoes with a delicious sauce.

The second course was risotto with lobster, scampi, and clams.

The third course, and this is when they switched us to red wine, was beef cheek, polenta, potato, and mushrooms with beans. Bob grew up with beef cheek, but Shari had never had it. It was so delicious! It was so tender it could be cut very easily with a fork.

For desert we had the most delicious pastries and something that is a cross between a mousse and a pudding. This was accompanied by a very smooth white dessert wine.  It’s hard to impress us with dessert as neither of us have a significant sweet tooth.

Even the bathrooms were the best we have ever been in. Everything was first class. This painting next to our table said it all.  (How much did I eat)

We agree this is the best food we have had in Italy, although the meal we had in Soriano on the first night of our cooking school last summer is almost equal.  

We took the 30-minute train ride back to Bologna and decided to climb the 500 steps to the top of the tallest tower in the city. There are actually two towers next to each other, but one was leaning so badly they had to cut off the top for safety reasons.

Inside Tower:

From Top of Tower:

The shorter tower is in lower left of picture above.

   

Day 15

Italy 2011

Day 15

Our first breakfast at our hotel (included in the price) was in the beautiful garden, and it was wonderful.  We then took a train to the walled town of Ferrara. We read that most of the residents own a bike, and half of them are joggers. We rented bikes at a place just outside the train station. We wanted to say, “Wait….don’t you have anything newer????” But we didn’t. Our bikes were covered with dust and dirt, and Bob’s bike made this terrible, and I mean TERRIBLE, grinding sound. He certainly didn’t need a bell on his bike. Everyone knew he was coming.

We thought it would be like Lucca, since there is a path along the top of the wall around the city. We didn’t have a map, and we found out the hard way that the city is four times the size of Lucca. We rode the wall for an hour, but then we decided to cut across the city to get back to the train station where we rented our bikes. It wasn’t the short ride we thought it would be. Once again, a friendly local resident, in the form of a college student, came to our rescue. We asked how to get to the train station, and she told us to follow her, because that was where she was going. Evidently most residents own these old rusty bikes, and when they want to take the train to another city, they ride the bikes and park and lock them outside the station where they will be waiting when they return. That’s what she was doing. There seemed to be hundreds of bikes parked outside the station.

We turned in our bikes and walked back to the city center where we looked at a few ancient sites. One was the Duomo (cathedral) and another was the Castello Estense, a moated four-towered castle. It was huge and beautiful.

 On our walk back to the train station, Bob wanted to try mortadella, this region’s incomparable sausage, and a very distant cousin to American-style bologna.

We took the train back to Bologna and rested for a few hours. For dinner, we went to a trattoria highly recommended by a worker at our hotel. It’s called Trattoria Anna Maria. Since it was back across town, we decided to use the bikes provided by our hotel. At times we were cruising down quiet streets, other times we were in crazy traffic of cars, busses, bikes, and pedestrians only inches from us and our bikes, and sometimes we found ourselves going the wrong way down a one-way street. Of course, helmets weren’t an option. No one wears them here, either. Bob thought it was great fun, while Shari thought it was harrowing….hoping she would live to tell about it.

Our dinner was wonderful….the best we’ve had in Bologna.  Shari had Roast Guinea Hen and Bob had Tortellini with Ragu Sauce.  

    

Day 14

Italy 2011

Day 14

It’s amazing how quickly you can move about Italy.  We took the fast train from Florence to Bologna this morning, and we spent less than 40 minutes on the train.  We spent a lot more time getting to our hotel, walking nearly an hour across the city.  We started without a decent map, so that made for a shaky start.  Along the way we got a taste of the architecture.  It’s very different here.  Porticos on buildings are extremely common such as this one. People can walk for many blocks under these porticos.

We did find our new temporary home, and it is very nice.  It doesn’t look like much from the street, but once inside, it is quite beautiful.  It has a beautiful courtyard filled with fragrant blooms of a wide variety.  Our building was built in the 15^th century but is quite comfortable.

We were shown our room, and it was very small.  Since we are here five nights, we decided to ask about an upgrade.  The people here are so great, and they gave us a new room that is double the size of the first room – at no additional cost! To get to it, we have to walk through the beautiful courtyard and up three flights of stairs. No problem for us!

The city center is Piazza Maggiore where many very old buildings and the Statue of Neptune resides.  This was once considered a risqué monument due to both Neptune and the four sirens beneath him.  Neptune is the Roman god of water and the sea, and while the picture poorly conveys the paths of the water in the fountain, we’re sure you can imagine. Actually, Shari just said it’s hard to tell from the picture. So in case you can’t imagine, the fountain water flows through the sirens’ breasts.

A very short distance from the Piazza is a special theatre.  The University of Bologna is the oldest in all of Europe.  It has been around since 1088 and supposedly has the best medical school in Italy.  We stumbled into the Teatro Anatomico, where in the late 1600’s they taught human anatomy with cadavers.  Back in the seventeenth century, this was a big deal.  Medicine was very primitive for a very long time. The table you see is where the dead body would go. You will also see a place where the professor would stand with the two skinless statues on either side of him. Robert’s replacement knee and hip replacement parts are based a little on the discovery of anatomy.

Our dining experiences for the day were less rewarding.  Lunch was good, as Shari had a risotto dish with primavera (spring) vegetables.

Our dinner was another story.  We used a Frommers’ recommendation for a pizzaria that turned out to be a bust.  The food was mediocre and worse yet, the service was very poor.  We’ve never had such an experience, but we normally don’t use the guide books to find places to eat.  If you have a good hotel with good staff, they are often the best source of information for eating.  Most of them eat out and know the current status of what’s good and what’s affordable.  Because we like what the locals like and don’t want any food modified to make it somewhat American, this formula works for us.

The city after hours is very alive, as the university students seem to be everywhere including a lot of bars that appear to be doing quite well.  We strolled the streets and eventually came across something that reminded us of Young Frankenstein -- very impressive knockers (only one shown).