A note to readers

This is a note for the readers of this Blog.

 

This Blog covers a trip from Albury in Australia through Germany, France , Switzerland, Italy and the US in May and June of 2012.

 

The sequence of most Blogs goes from the most recent post to the forst post so if you are reading this blog for the first time then it is best if you start from the first post which happens to be at the bottom and work your way up. Otherwise nothing will make sense if indeed it was ever likely to make sense in the place.

 

Enjoy! ( and comment!)

A Day in Piacenza - Tuesday 5th June

A Day in Piacenza - Tuesday 5th June

 

The Church bells announce the morning - usual throughout Italia - reflect.

Another of those early morning teleconferences - will the hotel wi - fi hotel up? - no - revert to prepaid Sim - Sim lasts 15 minutes - not enough Italian to get it recharged - never mind - We have more Rebecchi's to photograph.

 

Had Antonio Giacomo stayed I might have been:

 

 

 



a builder

 

 

 

 

 

or a sweet maker

 

 

 

 

 

 

or a fashion designer

 

 

 

 

 

 

We sit and absorb Piacenza - the stylish Italians remain in Venice - no room for another Massimo Rebecchi store here

 

We drive - we park - we wander - how much has the square changed since Antonio wandered here? - did he really leave because of Austrian oppression? - did he want to avoid conscription? - was it the lure of gold and Irish women? - we drive some more - the countryside displays all of its spring magnificence - why would you leave a place like this? - a rhetorical question even when asked of ourselves - we are seeing this place at a time when nature and politics are treating it kindly.

Time to leave Antonio and his Italy to themselves - confident - polite - welcoming.

 

Occhiobello to Piacenza - Monday 4th June

Occhiobello to Piacenza - Monday 4th June

 

The Villa Pepoli was a delight - dinner, bed and breakfast for 110 Euros - location is not great but the food is so good you will stay in anyway.

No toll roads please - a rainy day - ideal for slow tourism - To Piacenza along the Po River levee for 120k - narrow smooth bitumen - quiet - where are our bikes? - 20 feet of flood restraint for a hundred kilometres - protection for small village after small village - protection for crops of poplar, rice, wheat, maize and pomadore - the greens and yellows sprinkled with the reds and oranges of Italian wild poppies - a food bowl - a significant river - a delightful drive.

 

 

 

 

Approach Piacenza - young, rolling hills surround - nice - clean - pleasing merge of old and new -

 

 

Seek out Casa Rebecchi - no room at the inn!

 

Seek out Trattoria Rebbechi - closed - park - Bernie prowls - returns with Andreas Rebecchi - mother appears - wife appears - brother appears - children appear - talk in hand signals -shattered English - shattered Italian - try the Apple translate solution - no connectivity - revert to mime in support of the shattered English and Italian - more and more sucess - show them the family tree - great interest - pose for a photograph - exchange email addresses.

 

 

Roberto, Andreas' wife, mother Angela, Andreas, Mike, son and daughter Michelle

 

 

 

On our way - sneak back past to enhance the digital record.

 

 

 

 

 

Photograph the countryside back towards Piacenza.


 

 

 

 

The Hotel Mantis with antique Lancias and motorbikes waves us down as we pass Fiorenzuola d'Arda - we stop.

Nap - dinner at Hotel Mantis - local meats - Parma ham - salami - delightful - Richette - speciality of Piacenza - pasta and beans - delicate - delightful - sweets - icecream and strawberries - simple - delightful - a stunning meal made so by stunning ingredients.

 

 

Relieve the hotel of an excess supply of Rebecchi branded stuzzicadenti

 

 

 

 

Comacchio to Occiobello - Sunday 3rd June

Comacchio to Occiobello - Sunday 3rd June

 

 

 

 

We rise to dine with Julia - she presents an amazing spread - we casually take our leave of a great booking.com experience - the hotel can be recommended !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Along the Porto Garibaldi shore - camper van after camper van after camper van - families heading for a day on the beach at 8:00 in the morning.

 

 

 

 

Into Comacchio - tour the town


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Follow the vaile de Comacchio tourist drive - fish farms on canals - enormous nets - fields of wheat and fields of corn - Italian wild poppies clump along the verge - their larger french cousins occasionally join them - Bernie photographs them all to within an electron of their last petal - huge nursery farms with standards and scrubs, with christmas trees and box plants - birds swarm over crops devouring the copious butterflies - walkers out.

 

 

 

 

Further on to national park - We stop to photograph - mosquitoes emerge to show their displeasure at our intrusion into their domain - a hasty retreat - now we understand why a mosquito tolerant kingdom might chose to put itself under the protection of these proficient swarming territorial defenders.

 

 

Onwards to Ferrara - follow the signs to Centro - old walled city centre - people gather for the Sunday market - women shop - men gather - large numbers - small acquaintance groups - convivial chats - earnest discussions - clearly enjoyed and valued by all.

 

 

 

Ferarra - the city of bicycles - the purists would be aghast - seats too low - bikes too old - inefficient riding styles - but fit for purpose - they suit high heels and both feet can touch the ground!

 

Yet another Castle - 1.2 metre long Carp now cruise the moat.

 

Café for lunch - wander inside - Moto 2 race is on - owner glued to TV - stand inside watching for an instant - wander out to complete lunch - waitress urges me back in to sit with the owner - me Italian so Valentino must win! - Stoner good - you stay for GP! - decline - we are tired - off to Villa Poppuli at Occiabello - sleep - organise some Australian meetings for the morning.

 

Rise to dinner - entre - scrimp in pumpkin soup - stunning in taste and simplicity - finish with liquid lemon sorbet - wine glass and straw - equally stunning in taste and simplicity .

 

To bed - Bernie and I both feel the earth move - alas a mild aftershock of the Bologna earthquake .

 

 

 

Venice to Comacchio 2nd June

Venice to Comacchio 2nd June

 

We are finally adjusted to the late rising characteristics of the Old Hostel Montin - we haul our cases down at 8.30 just as the breakfast doors open - we partake - walk with mostly obedient suitcases trailing behind - pause to assist the cases up and over the ponte and onwards to the Alilaguna pier at Zateere - Board for a final journey across Venician waters to the airport and our rejuvenated steed awaiting us in the Marco Polo 2002 parking lot.

 

If the Marco Polo 2002 carparking establishment was a train service it would be a worthy competitor for Vic Rail - given that service ranking we thought it unwise to await the airpark shuttle - how did that Taxi driver do that? - I watch the meter - 8 Euros when we stop - when I look again it is 18! - a good return for a two kilometre trip - never mind - as John Lowenstein would say - "not much in the scheme of things"

 

We front to the Marco Polo 2002 - how much we ask - we hear him say 70 - oh hell he is a rippoff artist as well - pull out the rapidly tiring credit card - no! - cash only! - we fumble we only have 50 between us - what will we do - we fumble some more - what you doing? - I say 17 - we peel off the money and bid him farewell.

 

Southward from Venice along the Adriactic - fields of teenage corn, poplar plots, village after village, speed change sign after speed change sign all dutifully ignored by our Italian friends - why are they slowing down? - Tommy screams at us "radar" as soon as he stops screaming our Italian friends have become a speck in the distance - was Tommy quick enough to alert us? - the Australian postman will tell us when we get home!

 

 

Ah - Chioggia - little Venice - we stop - park in the old town - stroll - lots of beutification work going on - note some minor earth quake damage - get an Italian sim card - lovely lady - E10 for sim and initial credit - 250Mb for week - amazing how a transaction can be completed with handsigns.

 

Given that Chioggia is moving to increase its tourism we have some advice for the town - establish a by-law as follows - "young ladies shall not ride their electric bicycles at speeds in excess of 5 kilometers per hour" - this law is proposed in the interests of minimising hospitalisation costs for tourists - we believe these hospitalisation costs can arise from two sources - heart failure of ageing males or severe brain injury as a result of an impact to the head inflicted on the tourist by their partner - the risk of hospitalisation is believed to be influenced by 5 factors - the age of the tourist, the speed of the bicycle, the bumpiness of the road, the extent of female endowment and the efficiency of their bosum restraint mechanism.

 

The old town is busy at midday on a Saturday morning - everyone - young and old seems to have a modern electric bike - they all use them to their maximum potential some by use of the throttle and some by use of the pedals - we have been warned about Italian drivers but they seem tame compared to an Australian "tradie" - no one warned us about Italian cyclists - they rush about with skill and agility using a set of unpublished rules of transit that are understood by pedestrian and bike rider alike - watching as they go about their business is something that should be on the itinerary of every foreign tourist .

 

Onwards to Comaggio - on the Po delta - we turn to Port Garibaldi and the lovely Hotel Julia. - what will the be like? - we approach the beach - the town is busy with weekend holiday makers -there is Julia- not a carpark in sight - Bernie and the suitcases are deposited at Julia's portico - the Eurocar is tethered a few streets away - back to Julia - what is she like ?

 

 

 

 

Magnificent - we are special - she will look over us as we sleep.

 

 

Complete the siesta - rise to join the hundreds of people making the promenade along the town's shopping strip - look for the stylish Italian - hard to find! - the walkers are joined by amazingly skillful cyclists in ages from 10 to 100 - they speed and weave their way through the crowds - their way made secure by their skill and by their shared knowledge of those unpublished rules of pedestrian / cyclist interaction that remain a mystery to observers like us.

 

We leave the promenade - to the beach - thousands of umbrellas, a mullitude of identical sun lounges, beach volleyball courts, complete extended families, kite surfers, swimmers - Lots of Tony Abbott lookalikes - nothing like Bondi - ah - an Italian in a Bondi tee shirt - Bernie chats to him - photographs him - he loves Australia - we are in an Italian beach holiday haven swollen by the flock of sun starved locals keen to set aside the deprivations of winter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another day in Venice 1st June

Another day in Venice 1st June

 

This is the day of the Vaporetto .

 

We have the day planned - to Burano to see the Lace Museum followed by time at Rialto, dinner and a night time ride home down the Grand Canal - the best laid plans of mice and men!

 

It all starts out according to plan - we catch the Vaporetto but somehow we take the anticlockwise route and find ourselves at Lido - let's get off here and have breakfast - there is a place - no we don't make breakfast- some toast?- out comes a badly made toasted ham and cheese sandwich glazed with carbon with the combination rescued by cups of Italian cappuccino.

 

We partake of breakfast and watch the people go about their business - where have all the stylish Italians gone? - the Lidostians we see at 10 in the morning have none of the style of their main island brothers and sisters - perhaps the stylish ones have been sent off on the Vaporetto to work in Venice - perhaps not - perhaps Lido is something different - after all it has cars and buses and all kinds of things mechanical with hardly a gondola in sight

 

 

 

 

There is a bike hire place - we can go to Burano later - we ride around the tiny island past the manicured beachs of the Adriatic with their bathing huts - past nice if not stunning houses of the middle classes - past residences for the relatively well to do working classes - save for the beggars and the north African refugees this appears to be a well healed community - we continue on past a small market and back to the pier - there is still no sign of the stylish Italians of Venice proper.

 

Off to Burano past Murano - there are words to a song right there! - what do I say about Burano? - I could say - "Toy World" - I could say "Venice World " at Disney Land - I could say the wonton destruction of a natural human environment in pursuit of the tourist dollar - I could say a lovely clean little island filled with quaint brightly coloured houses laid out along spotless canals and squares occupied by all manner of stalls and shops in support of a lace theme - the reality is that it is all of these things - the reality is also that much of the lace that is for sale bears no small measure of resemblance to lace produced in the mechanised factories of China - perhaps that is unfair since I saw no trace of the Chinese entrepreur and his north African collegues that caught our attention in Venice yesterday.

 

 

We said this was a be the day of the Vaporetto - it turned out to be true! - An hour and a half from Burano to Venice visiting every stop on the way including some more than once - too much of a good thing leaves you feeling jaded especially when it delivers you back into Venice in peak hour - thank god for the restaurant at Antica Locandar Montin - it washed away the memory of the return trip from Burano.

 

We head out of Venice tomorrow

 

 

 

 



 

Venice - 31st May

Venice - 31st May

 

We are awoken by a lightshow supported by the sound of thunder and rain - some retribution for the unseasonal weather of the past few days? - the rain clears - we prepare for a day of 'not doing' Venice.




We wonder what is at the heart of the animated discussion between a Chinese fellow and a group of north Africans - we observe them turn away as the police barge drifts up the canal - we notice them return to their discussion - ah - a Chinese man organizing illegal immigrants to flog the Italian leather bag knockoffs that he has brought into Venice from his homeland.

 

We Stroll through Academia on our way to St. Marco - pause for an Italian breakfast - be surprised when it is found to consist of toast and jam, coffee and orange juice with a croissant thrown in.

 

Sit and admire the stylish Italian men and women - they all walk with their shoulders back and their feet gliding smoothly - they walk with pride - the women all simply but fashionably dressed and all carrying large shoulder bags of Italian leather - the men often carrying shoulder bags are dressed in snazzy shirts and/or stylish jackets - the contrast with the tourists is stark - I can recommend breakfast in a Venetian square playing 'pick the Italian' - an easy but enjoyable past time.

 

 

 

We wander onwards through the narrow shop lined alleys towards St Marks - Venetian masks , Murano glass and Italian leather bags seem to be on everyside - there is price creep as we approach the square -

 

 

 

Creep that suddenly transitions to the ridiculous in the square itself.

 

Ah the square at 9:00am - the tourists have been disgorged from the Cruise Ships, loaded on Vaporetto and dispatched here - they queue and they queue and they queue again -they look like camera carrying cattle heading for the slaughterhouse - not a smile among them -I think this is what "Doing Venice" actually means - Bernie takes photograph after photograph of the bovine lookalikes - we sit a little longer and watch the self propelled tourists arrive in the square - they become stressed and anxious when they see the queues - we feel like walking up to them and telling them that cruise ship hordes will soon move on to their next "Must do" leaving manageable queues in their wake.

 





 

We wander through calle after calle past stylish shops that clothe the stylish Italians - we bump shoulders with tourists who just like us stop on a whim at one shop window or another - we know this is not on exclusive tourist strip when the shop window displays vacuum cleaners! - as we move away from the square prices are quite reasonable.

 

Back towards Antica Locandar Montin - stop in a square - we select some jewelery for Bernie - the shop owner, yet another stylish Italian lady, talks about the fake Murano glass that abounds in the city and about the pressure being imposed on Italy by the illegal migration caused by the conflicts across the Adriatic.

 

We wander on pausing at canals to smile at the traffic jambs as the gondolas manouver to make way for a freight barge with kegs of beer and other produce precariously spread across its deck - the Venician equivalent of Freight Direct - this feels to me like we are observing a parade at Disney Land - to Bernie it feels like the a Mexican waterpark - in any event we both get the sense that we are watching some form of circus.

 

We felt like we have become ' holier than thou ' so we joined the tourists in a guided walking tour of Venice - in reality a walking tour of the environs of San Marco - to be fair to the lady she tried hard but I suspect she might have been better taking us to a café, serving us a cappuccino and making presentation from Wikipedia - the walking tour ends in a gondola ride - if you are going to take a gondola ride then try something well back from the grand canal - what did my father tell me? - ah - yes - I remember - you get what you pay for! - the cynic that is within me, some say so close to the surface that it is can be seen through my skin, has modified my father's adage to become 'the chances of getting what you want are proportional to what you pay' - it is amazing how just when you need an example to prove your point one is presented to you - we return to the Antica Locanda Molin to dine in their garden restaurant - we experience an amazing meal - the adage proves itself when our modern day slothful credit card is required to do much more than just wave at the electronic waiter.

 

Sleep.

 

 

To Venezia 30th May

To Venezia 30th May

 

As is usual we rise to a breakfast the magnitude of which we would never consider on those hum drum days at home - here consideration of the effects of food and drink on the volume of the human presence are left to another day.

 

The Villa Iris bids us farewell and we head for a parking pasture where our Eurocar steed will rest and recuperate while we annoy the Vaporetto of Venice - a few wrong turns - in defence of Tommy perhaps more the driver than electronic navigator - we reach one of those commercial parking lots that feed off the greed of commercially operated airports - the steed is put to pasture and we are shuttled through the airporto environs to the Allilaguna ferry terminal for the ride into Venice .

 

 

The initial impression is of a tired, untidy and soiled waterway.

 

 

 

 

 

Gradually as the main island is approached the waterway becomes similtaneously busier and cleaner while the visage becomes that of the postcard.

 

 

 

We stay aboard past ferry stages at places with famous names like Murano, Lido and St Marco - we alight at Zatterre on a very hot, sun shiny day - Venice promises to be what Venice has always promised to be!

 

500 meters to the Antica Locanda Montin - a diversion - no room for both stone masons and pedestrians in the laneways of Venice - we pause for an instant - joined by a Venician who quickly corrects our way - the restaurant is closed - ring the bell.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A nice young man greets us - shows us to our room - room overlooks a canal - a private bathroom over the hall - Bernie is relieved - she was a little concerned about low cost accommodation in Venice .

 

 

 

 

Time to absorb Venice - we smile at the people with recipes in their hands - they seem so preoccupied with what the writers from Lonely Planet and Frommers want them to do that they cannot see what is surrounding them - they spend so much of their time with their heads in a map wondering how they will get to where they need to be next that they don't realise what is surrounding them - we hear one say to another 'where are you going to do after Venice' - they are do busy 'doing' Venice that they do not let Venice 'do' them - we wonder if they even hear the music that is the banter between the locals - there is something special about the sound of the Italian language.

 

We wander to Academia - wander into the University - admire the Vice Chancellor's boat moored at the front steps on the Grand Canal

 

We are not 'doing' Venice - sit and lunch on the square - laugh at our fellow tourists with their heads stuck in their recipe books while their partners express either boredom or frustration - OK smart Alex lets see if you can find your way back to the Antica Locanda Montin - some wrong turns but we make it! - the essential nap!

 

Wake refreshed and hungry - wander to the waterfront at Zattere - grace a waterfront table - watch wondering what we have done to deserve this life - admire ferry boat captain after ferry boat captain as they transplant people from land to sea and from sea to land - another bottle of local Pinot Grigcio -

 

 

Wander home through the quite, narrow alleys and along the even narrower footpaths beside the canal - be impressed by the silence of the place - life without the noise of cars and trucks is an unknown pleasantry for urban dwellers!

 

 

 

Menaggio towards Venice 29th May

Menaggio towards Venice 29th May

 

Its time to move on although we regret that the time has actually arrived - we join the short line at the ferry that will take the car and its custodians to Vareena - the Sun is shining - it is a gorgeous day.

 

 

We cross the lake and breakfast on the lakeshore - we are amused by the smily faced coffee that greets us.

 

 

 

Meet a group of four middle aged Australians on a cycling tour of the Dolomites - they are winding up their holiday at Lake Como - they have left their wives tucked up in bed in Menaggio and are having their morning coffee after having completed their early morning ride on the Vareena reach of the lake - they rave about the hotel they stayed at in Bardia - it is a pity we have forgotten its name - Bernie tells them about Rad Reisen - they take note.

 

We strike out towards Venice - the road from Vereena towards Bergamo is a delight - the Italian drivers are polite and constrained - we pass and are passed by many lycra clad warriors enjoying their morning ride - can life get letter? - as we approach and leave Bergamo the euphoria of Menaggio gradually dissipates - we traverse busy roads and suburbia before joining the Autostrada running east towards Venice .

 

 

Veer of the freeway at St. Bonnifice - stop at a Trattoria - how could it call itself just a trattoria? - we had the finest lunch of our trip - Bernie raved about her salad of squid, octopus and asparagus - I raved about local pasta with tomatoe and cream cheese sauces - should not be missed - a wonderful place tucked away where the tourist hordes would never find it save for those as blessed as us.

 

Now to find some accommodation - Tommy gets confused we end up back on the autostrada - turn off towards Pedova - into the slinky part of town - get lost - get stressed - get out of Pedova - there must be better parts of Pedova but there were no hotels that Tommy was prepared to take us to that we would be prepared to stay in - Tommy needs to be careful or he will be purged and complete firm upgrade inflicted upon his once loyal self.

 

We give him another chance - towards Venice on a minor road - there is a nice hotel - only 75 Euros - nap and calm the nerves - rise to dinner at the hotel in dining room straight from an Italian wedding.

 

Some great experiences but not the greatest day of our Italian sojourn but at least the Villa Iris with its typical Italian dining room is just on the outskirts f Venice.

 

 

 

Menaggio - 28th May

Menaggio - 28th May

 

We have settled into this life - we lie in waiting until the urge takes us to rise for breakfast - the urge arrives around 8:30 - we stroll to a less populated square than we encountered yesterday - the Italian day trippers have been confined by their weekday obligations to their home environs in Milan and Monza - Menaggio now has just its locals and the tourists who have been blessed by choosing their accommodation here - they both will be joined later in the day by the tourists who will ferry across the lake from Bellagio and Verenna.

 

We breakfast in another of the cafes that surround the square - a little different - this time jam filled croissants, toasted sandwichs and coffee.

 

We sit amused by the group of local women who have met at the café - like their french sisters they smoke and smoke but unlike the french women they support the café owner by disposing of adequate quantities of produce - this difference in habit between the international sisters appears to result in a significant difference in the shape of the two sisterhoods.

 

We watch also with amusement the old man who arrived on his scooter to sit at the next table reading reading paper and sipping coffee - he smokes and smokes but they are sourced not from his pocket but from the pocket of any of his fellow locals who have the misfortune to be walking by when his previous cigarette is no longer delivering the requisite quantity of nicotine - every request is greeted in the affirmative and in good cheer.

 

Bernie takes the camera - she is determined to capture the image of the lake that defines for her the magnificence of this place - she complains that the blog does not do it justice

 

 

 

 

 

We make our way to the ferry - joined by others - some day tripping across the lake like us - some wheeling their cases and moving on.

 

 

The smaller of the three towns on the confluence of the lake - Verenna is a relaxed place - it seeks not to compete but to complement its lakeside neighbours - the shops of Bellagio are absent

 

 

This place is about relaxing and the tourists seem to sense it - everyone wanders slowly and quietly -

 

They pause for extended periods in the waterfront cafes

 

At least in this part of the tourist cycle it is hard to imagine a better place to calm the soul.

 

 

 

We return to Menaggio - how do you know you have reached that age? - you know when you pay money to ride on an immitation train - we take the train / tractor / vehicle - feel free to call it what you will from Menaggio to Lenno - the driver - a young Italian girl has talents that exceed those of the great Fangio - Fangio could only drive fast - this girl could not only drive fast she could simultaneously send text messages and remonstrate with misbehaving passengers - in her more relaxed mode she simply drove fast and held her phone to her ear as the trailing carriages rocked and jumped over every bump in the road - like Fangio she had her pre race procedure but unlike Fangio who would spend his time visualising the race circuit, her procedure involved a complex combination of make up application, hair styling and clothing adjustment - we survive and take what we believe to be a will deserved nap

 

We rise and return to our favourite Trattoria - Bernie has Pork and Polenta that she suggests she might consider dying for - as is now our practice we finish with a visit to the gelato vendor in the square.

 

We depart tomorrow on our way to Venice - we will recommend a visit to Menaggio in early June to anyone that will listen - we both rank these few days on Lake Como amongst the best of our travelling days.