Turino to Monaco, Sunday, March 26

We awake in the Movie Room and it’s a new day! This has been a unique city and a unique experience! We pack up and go across the street to a restaurant that serves breakfast, albeit a Double Expresso to open my eyes, LOL. And a tuna salad sandwich. Sure would love to get an egg dish, but that is not a common meal here.

The door to our place is quite unique! One panel opens at a time like a doorway turned into driveway and there is parking inside a courtyard, but not for us!

I walk the mile to get our car and Elee sits with the luggage. I pick her up and turn the keys over to her so she can drive for a day. We head off in search of a back road across the Alps towards Monaco. The scenery is spectacular! The Alps all covered with snow as contrasted against bright green farmlands is exciting to our camera lenses! We wind our way up this route and come across the road closure that we saw on our maps but there is a way around it! We drive another mile on another road and it all comes to a halt! We are in the Alps on a spectacular road but we have been blocked.

Well, it certainly is an adventure! We have seen some beautiful scenery but we have to turn around. An hour and a half in each direction, not wasted because of the views so we’ll call it a 3 hour side trip into the Alps! And the views on the way back down are as spectacular!

We get back on the original route that our GPS suggested (okay so GPS isn’t as stupid as we accused it of! But it didn’t know how to get us up close and personal views of the Alps! So there, GPS!) and we work our way down to the coast where the GPS makes a mistake of telling us to turn left and we really needed to turn right! So it tells us to make a u-turn in 8 kilometers. Sure enough, there isn’t an exit for 8 (count them) kilometers! We make the necessary u-turn and get back on the way!

We cross the border into France and it is just a sign saying, “Welcome to France” (in French, of course!). Shortly after we see the similar sign saying “Welcome to Monaco”. Interesting that we see that sign but we are not yet in Monaco! Our GPS directs us to make a sharp turn to the left into some serious switchbacks to go down the steep hill!

As we are driving down the extremely steep switchbacks (emphasis on steep), our GPS again makes miscalculations as it is seeing us from a satellite view and the switchbacks from that perspective are difficult at best! Think a steep cliff more than a 45 degree angle, sometimes a 30 or 25 degree angle. The map on our GPS screen was crazy! But we figured out that ‘downhill’ was the key and we arrived, unscathed, in Monte Carlo, Monaco! We found our Novotel Hotel just by finding the correct Boulevard and just driving slowly (which irked the locals driving behind us to no end!). We found the hotel and Elee yells at me (did I tell you that we switched drivers 3 hours ago and I am driving now?) for I park in the hotel parking on the wrong side of the road? LOL, the most convenient place to stop the car on these narrow roads!

Have you see those James Bond movies where they race tiny cars on impossibly narrow roads? Think Monte Carlo! (or any other Italian roads in any city, for that matter!) But this is a beautiful city and we are intrigued to be here! Lucky for us, our concierge takes our keys and will park our car for us! We have no use for the car until we leave tomorrow! We will be on foot tonight and in the morning!

We get situated in our room and as we have only arrived around 5:30PM, we have limited daylight to see the city. Luckily for us, Europe has started their Daylight Savings Time this morning, only 2 weeks after the USA (Normally, they are one week behind the USA) and we still have 2 plus hours of daylight!

We check our computers and look for the “Palace of Monte Carlo” and see it is a 6 minute walk from the hotel. Sweet! We walk there to no avail. There is no Palace here. We walk down through a set of gardens towards a building that looks like a palace but it turns out to be a Hotel/Casino. Tomorrow we will try to locate the Palace. A nice lady on the street told us it is far away and we can’t walk there from here. So some more research is necessary to find it in the morning!

We find an inexpensive restaurant a block away for dinner (inexpensive is tough to find in a place like Monte Carlo!) and the food is good! Octopus salad and raviolis for me and a green salad (think just some lettuce, LOL) and eggplant parmigiana for Elee. Toss in 3 glasses of wine for a total bill of 45 Euros and it was well worth it with a take out leftover of ravioli for a snack!

It’s time to call it a night and the bottle of Barbera has dwindled to nothing as I write this blog! But that’s a good thing as it turns out that it was a bottle of “Vino Frizzante” which means it has bubbles or carbonation. Once opened, you can’t put the cork back in! Lucky me? LOL

Good Night!

Casteggio to Turino (Turin) Saturday, March 25

Today we awake and go down to a homemade breakfast by our host ladies. It is cured meats, cheeses, pastries, blood orange juice and coffee. They even cook me a couple of scrambles eggs! Discussion ensues and it turns out we are not only on a farm, but a winery!

We share winemaking in common and I get a tour of the facilities. Fascinating to say the least! They bottle over 20,000 bottles per year and are looking to market to the USA! I spend some time photographing their vineyards in the bright morning light!

But it is time to move on and we pack up and head out. We have a scant 1.5 hour drive to Turino (Turin) and we arrive there shortly. The views of the Alps covered in snow come into view and they are magnificent! I was driving so I have no photos of them. Maybe Elee will drive tomorrow and I’ll get some photos!

After getting into our latest AirB&B, we find a parking garage for our car. It turns out to be a fun room to stay in as it is called, “The Movie Room”! It also turns out that Turino is the capital of the movie industry in Italy! See the photo of our room!

We then head out on a walking tour of Turino and we soon come across several festivals happening. It is Saturday afternoon and the city is alive with thousands of people! There is a “DeeJay” Festival with lively music playing. We walk about and check it out but don’t opt to wait in line to enter. Instead, we check out a couple museums where the festival is taking place.

We then walk back in the direction of our AirB&B only to bump into a Chocolate Festival with hundreds of chocolate vendors selling their wares over about 5 city blocks! We walk on past that to find a large park filled with what appears to be a Farmer’s Market. We actually taste many wares and buy some fabulous salami’s to take with us.

We make it back to our room and rest for a half hour. Most restaurants in Italy don’t begin serving until 7PM. So at 7, we walk out and find a Pizzeria with a full Italian menu. I order a dish of paste specific to Turino called, “Agnolotti”, lamb filled small raviolis that were delicious! Elee ordered “Guancia”, Veal Cheeks cooked in red wine. Her meal was rather disappointing and we questioned if it was authentic as it had quite a lot of gristle and was chewy. Opposite of all we have ever heard of animal cheeks!

So after we both get our 10,000 steps in (more like 13,000 for me) we call it a night and head back to the Movie Room to retire! See you all tomorrow!

Bologna to Casteggio, Friday, Mar 24

We awake in our Air B&Bat an early hour. After trying to take a shower, I discover the hot water lasts less than 2 minutes! Brrr! Well, I’m awake now! So we get dressed for the day and pack up our bags for this first part of our trip is day by day! We have a 700 meter hike to get our car as we are staying in the city center where parking is fairly non existent! But we find a breakfast restaurant on the way to break up the hike! Again, getting Americano Coffee is a real treat as they just can’t get it right!

We drive our car back and park it illegally for 5 minutes while we run back up to the room and pull our luggage out. Now we are on our way for a fairly short travel day. We drive just over an hour to Parma where we find a lucky parking spot near the city center and start walking around the area.

An interesting Basilica grabs our attention, but alas, it doesn’t open until 3:30PM. We will be long gone from here by then. We locate a deli called “Salumeria Garibaldi” and we have lunch here. Dozens of legs of Prosciutto hang here and how we would love to bring one home! But that is not to happen so the next best thing is to order many slices along with slices of salami and generous slices of Parmigiana Cheese with a fun bread, almost a croissant type! Top it off with glasses of white and red wine and lunch is served! Interesting that Elee’s white wine is served in a wine glass but my red wine is served in a cup!

We then walk around the city for an hour and take in the sights. Not as pretty of a city as Assisi or San Marino but interesting in it’s own right! And we had Parmigiana in Parma! How many can say that?

So we drive on to Piacenza where we find even less interesting sights. A short stay there and we drive on to our final destination for the evening, Casteggio. An interesting place that brings our drive tomorrow even shorter.

We are in an AirB&B Farmhouse in wine country called, “Cacina Angelina” where our hosts don’t speak a lick of English and we don’t speak more than 10 words in Italian! Thank goodness for Uncle Google, my favorite Uncle!

We head back to town and stop to gather sunset photos over the vineyards on the way! We come across a supermarket and pick up a few sundries to help sustain us for the next week or so. A new corkscrew to replace the one that TSA thought was too dangerous. Some chips to sustain us while browsing the TV channels for an English speaking one (not to be found in 400 channels, trust me I went through every one!) and a couple bottles of Barbera for late nights writing Blogs!

Then we cruise around town looking for authentic Italian food. We finally stumble upon “Cafe Il Ponte” where they invite us in and we ask to see a menu. Not a strange request for most people, but definitely a strange request for Italian restaurants, at least this one! They show us a pizza menu. We sort of shrug and attempt to leave. The waitress tries to corner us in the most pleasant of ways and, with the help of Uncle Google once more, we continue chatting with her over our phone screens! It becomes quite entertaining discussing with her our likes and desires for a meal!

Glasses of wine placed in front of us solidifies our commitment to staying here and we take it as a, “Whatever happens happens”, LOL. I can’t wait to see the check! We impart to her our desires to have Italian meats, Pasta and Cheeses and Elee even suggests a salad. We got everything except the salad! Course after course flowed to our table. Again I think, ‘What will the bill be?’

It is a pleasant night and we just go with it. The waitress comes around often and the wine flows. Elee is drinking a dry Reisling which is something that would normally be averse to our desires. But it is quite good! I am drinking a dry Chianti, again something I would shy away from at home. But it is not the weak, thin red wine that one thinks about when one thinks about Chianti, it is robust and quite good!

A family group is lead into the room where previously only Elee and I have been in. It is a group of 16 or 18 people and a couple of them eye us with what looks like contempt because how dare we be in their private space? Their party ensues and I pull up Google Translate on my phone and type in, “Have a great night!” I show the phone to a couple of them and the all shout, “Grazie” (Thank You) and all is well with the world! It is amazing how a little kindness goes a long way! Our bill arrives and is only 60 Euro (about $70) and that includes all the wine, the cheese and meats and a serving of a linguini type pasta served to a perfect aldente!

So we drive away and wind our way back up the switchback roads to the top of the hill to our AirB&B farmhouse for the night! How many of you have ever stayed in an Italian farmhouse? Such a treat! We can’t wait for our hosts to make breakfast for us in the morning!

Good night all!

San Marino to Bologna, Thurs Mar 23

We wake today and have breakfast at the hotel. Getting used to Americano Coffee will take some doing, but it’s not bad. We pack up and walk our luggage to the car. Then we walk back into the top of San Marino and seek out the ramp and stairs to the first tower.

Quite interesting to climb into a tower that was started in the 11th century. Mountaintop views are always amazing and these views don’t disappoint. Who doesn’t love castles on a hill? Stone towers with stairs and ladders to get to the top take our breath away in more ways than one!

We also spy a church on the way to the top and it is open! So Our cameras snicker at us and drag us inside!

Then we head back down and get in the car with the plan to drive 2 hours to Bologna. The mountain roads zig and zag in switchbacks until we are finally down to the bottom. Then it is an uneventful drive on the toll roads to Bologna. It turns out that most all highways in Italy are toll roads. Thank goodness for GPS as locating our next hotel in the center of Bologna creates a bit of a challenge! But after a couple of wrong turns and GPS re-navigating the route, we finally locate it. But then there’s the challenge of getting someone to answer the door of the B&B we have reserved. A lovely lady comes along and seems to know how to contact our landlord and all is good.

We get settled into our B&B and get instructions for where to park our car, some 700 meters away. A mere 10 minute walk. This is standard in Italian cities, it seems. So now we head out and walk to the city center where all the thousand year old buildings are and we find the Plaza Di Maggiore Square and get an outdoor table to have a couple cocktails. A couple of musicians are playing guitar and keyboards and are drawing quite the crowds playing American Rock and Italian Ballads. We listen and rest while taking photos of city people scenes and decide it is time to walk on. I even catch a couple of lovers to add to my collection!

We go inside a cathedral in the square, The Basilica of San Petronio, and take our obligatory photos of yet another gorgeous Basilica.

Upon exiting we spot a cute little shuttle train and inquire and it is the San Luca Express and for a mere 12 Euros per person, it takes us up a steep hill to the San Luca Cathedral. It arrives at sunset and we get marvelous views of the sun illuminating the Cathedral’s already orange colored stone! Inside the Cathedral, it is yet another stunning interior and my cameras are entertained once again!

Back on the tram, we wind our way back down the hill alongside a famous Portico, aka a covered walkway, which Bologna is famous for! The City Center boasts over 38 (count them!) kilometers of Porticos! This one famous for leading up to San Luca, is 24 kilometers long and residents climb the last 2 every Easter Monday! Back in the Plaza Di Maggiore Square, we take some night photos of the buildings and then step one block off the Square to the Quadrilatico, the restaurant district.

We find seating at Osteria Quadrilatero and order dinner. Since we’re in Bologna, I order Lasagna Alla Bolognese and Elee orders a Tortellini dish. We enjoy the outdoor ambience of the restaurant seating in the street and the dinner is quite good! We also order wine varietals we have never heard of and are not disappointed! After dinner we walk the mile and a half back to our Air B&B to relax and get our blogs written and get a head start on editing the days photos!

So until tomorrow, we’ll bid you Adieu!

Assisi to San Marino, Wed March 22, 2023

We wake up refreshed this morning after almost 2 days of travel to get here (Count a half day of time zone changes). Breakfast in the hotel and we check out. The hotel gives us a key to get to our luggage when we finish touring the city. We walk around streets that were built in medieval times and are amazed how they are still used today! Small cars and trucks zoom up and down these streets as if they owned them (We guess they kind of do!) and you’d be best to pay attention and get out of the way when they zoom by!

We enjoy taking photos and walking the city and we aim ourselves toward the cathedral of San Francisco di Assisi, named after St Francis of Assisi. Any of you religious people will recognize this name. The exterior and interior of the cathedral are both amazing in their own rights! Do not get me started on the excesses of the catholic church for I, like most tourists, only want to see more as the views are amazing! The expenditures in money and labor are a side effect to the grandeur of the sights that abound!

So we shoot to our hearts delight and eventually head back to our hotel. Elee’s knees are yelling at her because she needs replacements (which are scheduled in May through July) and I go downhill to our parking garage and find out how to get our car out! Not an easy feat because they didn’t tell me that I had to pay the parking 150 vertical feet above where I parked it! LOL, my own knees are getting a workout! I finally get it figured out and get the car out! Now just to figure out the narrow, one-way roads and find my way back to the hotel where Elee is patiently waiting, or so I think, LOL. We pack our luggage and head out of town with the expectations of driving to our next destination of San Marino, an actual country embedded within the country of Italy!

The city of San Marino is basically a castle on top of a hill and the roads we have to take to get there are windy and difficult to traverse! At one point, a huge semi tractor trailer actually drives us off the road on a corner which he has no business of being on! I had to drop the right side wheels into a ditch to allow him to pass! WTF??? But that was the only extreme incident and the rest of the ride was just a challenging drive on small hilly and curvy roads!

We finally arrive in the country of San Marino and the signs and GPS warn us of a “Border Crossing Ahead”. It turns out the “Crossing” was simply the crosswalks turning blue, LOL. But if anyone were to do a Google Maps tour of the Country (and City), you would see a criss-cross series of zig zag roads that are amazing to see on a GPS map! We wind our way to the top where we have booked a hotel called the “Rosa Hotel” near the top of the Country Empire! We have to park a hundred yards downhill from the hotel and walk our luggage up. Luckily, this is our very first trip with only Carry-On Luggage so it’s not a real chore!

We check into our hotel and go off into the town to see what we can see. We walk to the town square and off to the Ariel Tramway to only discover we are already at the top! Views of the city and countryside galore assault our senses and camera lenses!

We stop for drinks and snacks at a restaurant that my California friends will find amusing, “In Or Out Burgers”, a play on In And Out. The wine and drinks are good, I have a Very Dry Prosecco and Elee has an Aperol Nisonni which is better than my Prosecco!

We then walk around the area to find a dinner restaurant and find “Betafico” which has some fun local dishes but I am a tad disappointed because I researched a local San Marino dish called “Nidi Di Rondine” which is an interesting Lasagne type dish and we couldn’t find it anywhere! We have experienced this before where we research a local dish that we cannot find! I promise myself to look up the recipe and make it at home!

So we take another walk around and end back at our hotel and relax for the night while we wind down!

Good night and see you tomorrow!