Museums

Using the Paris Pass over the next three days we visited or tried to visit some of the famous museums of Paris.  We intentionally skipped the Louvre as we had visited it many years ago on a brief trip to Paris.  It is so large and crowded, and takes a lot of time to really see.  Instead, we targeted the Orsay, the Pompidou, the Rodin, the Dali, and the Picasso museums.  The Dali was closed for renovations, so that was a disappointment, but the rest were fun and interesting. In the Orsay we also also had lunch in its beautiful and ornate dining room, and there are some nice photos of that in the Orsay album and below.

                 

The Pompidou was really an interesting building with it modern theme and unusual exterior.  It also offered nice views of the city from its top floor.  We captured some nice views of Sacre Coure and the Eiffel Tower from there.

                  

       
The museums were certainly interesting but also exhausting when you try to see so many in such a compressed time period.  We were trying to maximize our Paris Pass opportunities, but that also meant we were pushing ourselves to see it all.  It would be fun to have more time to explore them more slowly and over a longer period of time.

The Paris Pass, the Opera House

On the advice from a friend we purchased the Paris Pass online before leaving the US for the trip.  The Paris Pass provides pre-paid access to some 60 venues around Paris, plus free Metro passes.  You can purchase the Paris Pass for one day or multiple days, but the days must be consequetive once you activate your pass.  We chose the 4 day pass and activated them on Saturday, after we had spent the previous two days exploring a bit on our own.

Our first activity using the Paris Pass was to ride the Red Bus, which is the open top bus that travels around the interesting areas and provides recorded commentary on the sights along the way.  It is also allows you to get off and on at any of its stops as much as you want for the day of your ticket.  We used the Red Bus tours as our way of seeing an overview of the tourist areas of the city.  The photo album on the Red Bus shows a few interesting views of the ride.  We also stopped near the famous Moulin Rouge for some photos of the outside. 

The Red Bus tours consumed more of the day that we expected, as it stopped and remained stopped more than we had anticipated.  But we still managed to fit in a couple of other activities that day.  We finally got off the bus the last time near the Opera House, which we then used our pass to tour.  The Opera House was beautiful, inside and out, and the photos in the Opera House album are very nice.  We also viewed a movie on the history of Paris and then on a recommendation from a young woman at the Paris Story we walked into a nearby Lafayette Department Store to see a beautiful interior and also to check out its rooftop view.

We ended the first day of using the Paris Pass with a visit to Montparnesse, a 59 story office building with a spectacular view of Paris from the 56 floor viewing area, and even better from the covered roof on the 59th floor.  We enjoyed a nice entry and some champagne on the 56th floor, then stuck around for full darkness to take some photos of the city and especially the Eiffel Tower after dark.  It was a dreary and rainy day and evening, so the air was clear, but the photos are nice nevertheless.

Montmartre, Sacre Cour, Jardin des Tuileries

Our first two full days in Paris we explored on our own.  We rode the metro, got our bearings, walked some other neighborhoods, and enjoyed ourselves.  We ended up in Montmartre where Linda bought some art from an artist in the square.  We enjoyed the view from Sacre Cour, nearby, and walked through Jardin des Tuileries, a beautiful park that leads to the Louvre.  It was great to be under no schedule pressure and to find our way around.

Paris: Our Flat, Our Neighborhood

The train trip from Zurich to Paris was uneventful and we enjoyed the scenery along the way.  It was just over 4 hours with numerous stops along the route.  But on the long stretches, especially in France, we saw some high speeds, with the fastest  being 317 km/hour, or 197 mph!  That was fun, although the speed was hard to detect just looking outside.

We were anxious to see our flat, which we had rented from Airbnb, and when we arrived the owner was there to meet us.  She was very nice, showed us around and left.  It was just as shown on the website and very comfortable, and would be our home in Paris for 7 nights.  It turned out to be very nice and very affordable, and with a washer very convenient to do our laundry.

The neighborhood in which this flat was located was along St Martin's Canal, what had been a working canal for goods and transportation many years ago.  Today its mostly for recreation and beauty, and the locals (20 somethings) loved to hang out along the canal day and night.  Especially at night it was lined with people enjoying wine, beer, and food they had brought as a picnic. 

The neighborhood was also where Jim's former boss lives, and we were fortunate to be able to connect with him and his family twice.  We had chosen this neighborhood specifically to be close to them, and it worked out great.

The neighborhood was also very convenient to the metro, with two stops nearby.  The larger stop was at the Place de la Republique, which boarders the 3rd,10th, and 11th districts.  It is one of the largest squares in the city at 33,000 square meters and was also the scene for the artsy crowd that lives in that area.  There was always something interesting going on there.

Switzerland: Chur, Zurich, Lucerne

We spent one night in the small mountain town of Chur, and it was a charming place.  We arrived on the Bernina Express from Tirano, Italy, about 5:30pm.  The hotel was a short walk from the train station and we were very pleased to find a very modern, very "Swiss" hotel.  It felt like an Ikea design through and through.  The hotel had made dinner reservations for us, and we enjoyed a nice Swiss dinner in an outdoor patio at a nearby restaurant.  The next day we casually walked around Chur, took some photos, and window-shopped a bit before boarding our train for Zurich.  We saw our first Swiss chocolate shop, but didn't buy any there.  It was tempting!

The other observation we made in Chur was that everything is smaller in Switzerland (and more expensive!).  The elevator in the hotel was so small we could barely put both of us and our luggage in it.  The water glasses were small at the cafe's and the servings were small with meals. 

We arrived in Zurich to high 80's temperatures and discovered that our hotel was not air conditioned.  Its actually not common to have A/C in hotels in Switzerland and they just deal with the heat when it arrives.  Fortunately, we had a fan in our room and had large windows to open, so we survived.  Our hotel was near the Zurich train station and an easy walk.  Later that evening we walked down to Lake Zurich and enjoyed a really nice sunset, and walked around the area by the lake.

The next day we took the local train to Lucerne for the day and enjoyed walking around Lucerne, although it was raining and dreary most all day.  Most notable in Lucerne was the medieval wall and tower we climbed for a fabulous view of Lucerne, and the wonderful cheese fondue we enjoyed at a restaurant along the water.  Lucerne looked to be beautiful, if the day was clear and sunny, so we will have to try again another trip.

Two nights in Zurich and we were off for Paris on the double-decker high speed train. 

Switzerland, The Bernina Express

Our trip over the Swiss Alps on the Bernina Express was everything we expected and a bit more.  We were fortunate that the weather was clear and sunny, allowing for spectacular views the entire day.  The Bernina Express is a narrow gauge scenic train that travels over the Alps between various points in Switzerland and the station in Tirano, Italy.  The cars are air conditioned, which we needed the day of our trip, and equipped with large windows for a glorious view.  However, the windows are also sealed closed and can interfere with taking good photos of the passing scenery.  So, Jim spent a lot of time at the back of our car, outside the door, shooting photos through an open window there.  Most of the photos in the album with this post were shot that way.

The train route over the Alps passes through 55 tunnels and over 196 bridges to make its way over the summit at 7391 feet above sea level.  The bridges are beautiful, built like roman aqueducts of stone with wonderful arches.  The provide a wonderful scene as the trains climbs and descends the mountains.

The train passes through villages and towns along the way, and along ridges above villages in the valleys below.  Every scene was more beautiful than the last.  Finally, at the top as we passed over the divide that separates the water runoff in separate directions, we passed by a beautiful lake.  These are some of the best photos of the trip and worth taking time to look at closely.

                                 

The trip was about 4 hours altogether from Tirano to Chur, arriving in Chur about 5:30pm.  It was a wonderful day!

Final Thoughts on Italy

Our week in Italy was everything we planned and expected, and more.  We were blessed to have friends in Italy who helped us and entertained us during our week. Our Italian neighbors from Houston who were back in Italy for vacation arranged a fabulous winery tour and tasting, and then a wonderful afternoon BBQ with their friends in Marone on Lake Iseo.  How often could we be so fortunate to enjoy an Italian dinner in an Italian home at a table filled with Italian friends we have made over the past year. And thanks also to Paolo, our neighbor, for excellent recommendations for our day trips.

Then we also were helped and blessed by U.S. friends living in Vicenza who gave us a personal tour of their town, plus fed us, then met us later in the week to tour Desenzano and have dinner there.  They also added to the advice for our day trips and enhanced our time in Italy.  Thanks to Andrew and Silvia for their hospitality.

Finally, Italy this trip for us was about the small towns and villages, the back roads and the countryside, the non-tourist areas and how the regular Italians live and work.  Our strategy worked out better than we could have expected and our experiences were local and genuine.  Of all the individual day trips, however, Valdobbiadene was the biggest surprise and most memorable. We had no idea that was wine country nor that it would be so beautiful. We will definitely return there one day.

Leaving Italy: Lake Como & Tirano

We began our train adventure on a Sunday, leaving Milan on a mid-morning train north to Tirano, Italy, in the alps on the border of Italy and Switzerland.  I had researched the train options extensively as it can be confusing for an Americwn not accustomed to European train travel. In this case I had purchased our tickets online from home before starting the trip to minimize any possible confusion on the travel day.  This also allowed us to skip the ticket machines where gypsies and pick pockets can hang out looking for victims. We did not see any this day, but the plan was to avoid them.  We were very excited to start the train phase of our trip.

This was the first of many trains we would use in the coming days and it turned out to be one of the most scenic.  The route from Milan to Tirano runs along the eastern shore of Lake Como for miles and miles, providing unbelievable views along the way.  Lake Como is the third largest lake in Italy and is one of the deepest in Europe.  It runs north into the alps and the combination of a large lake and surrounding mountains is spectacular.  Below are some sample photos, but there are many more beautiful photos in the album for this post.

We were surprised to find a lot of people boarding the train in Milan that morning.  Most were not carrying or pulling suitcases, but seemed to have small day bags.  In multiple cases we noticed women who appeared to be wearing swimsuits with a cover up.  The train traveled for about 30 minutes before we started seeing the lake, and then as we made some stops at stations along the lake, the day travelers started exiting the train. It became clear that this was an easy weekend day trip for people in Milan to spend the day at the lake, probably on a beach, and enjoy a break from the city and the heat. What a fabulous getaway for a day!

Our other observation was that we saw very few boats running on the lake, and none pulling skiers or wake boarders.  Perhaps it was too early in the day, but it seemed odd.  We had noticed the same thing earlier at Lake Garda.  Whether water sports are less popular in Italy, or perhaps the water is really cold (it is a mountain lake fed by mountain streams and snow melt), we could not be sure.  Our one regret was that we had not planned time to put our feet in the water here.  

Finally arriving in Tirano, we had a couple of hours to kill so we found a cafe and had one last meal in Italy.  From here we boarded a Swiss train at a different train station (just across the town square) for our scenic trip over the alps.

Driving in Italy

One of the questions going into the trip was how we would survive driving in Italy.  Everything we had read and heard pointed toward crazy drivers, frequent accidents, and generally chaotic conditions on the road.  What we found was quite the opposite.  On the motorway, their toll roads, speed limits were generally 130 kph (about 85 mph) and we found that the driving rules were much more sensible and everyone followed them strictly. Most notable is the European rule of never passing on the right side.  The fastest cars stay in the left lane and everyone yields to any car coming up faster from behind. No one pokes along in the left lane.  This eliminates the weave and erratic lane changes you see in the U.S. and is much safer.  So, even though many are driving fast than in the States, it's all more disciplined and orderly.

We also drove a lot on the secondary, two lane country roads and found them to be easy and fun as well. The roundabouts were confusing at times, but nothing we could not handle. We used Apple maps on my iPhone for all navigation and it was great with directions.  The roundabouts are very practical and keep traffic moving.  

Lastly, we had a great car that was fun to drive. It was a Fiat Bravia, 6 speed manual shift, diesel, but very fast and very sporty.  I had a blast driving it.  There will b no hesitation next time with driving in Italy and other countries as well.

Milan & Milano Centrale

The drive to Milan from the resort was about 3 hours on the motorway.  The rental car drop-off was downtown very near to the Milano Centrale train station and our hotel.  Milan is quite a busy city and many of the streets are narrow and crowded.  It was a little challenging at times, but we managed fine and were able to drop off our luggage at the hotel first before turning in the car.

The Milano Centrale train station is a magnificent building with wonderful architecture inside and out.  I could not take enough photos of it.  Below are some inside photos that show the soaring ceiling and the expansive entry on one side.  It was also interesting that there was a wine shop in one entry where you could buy wine, chilled and room temperature, to take with you on the train.  In Italy it is perfectly acceptable to take your own food and wine on the train, and many do.  The photo clips below are a bit compressed so I encourage you to view the photos in the album with this post.

The outside of the building is equally impressive but difficult to capture it all in one photo.  The building is massive!  So I focused on capturing interesting shots of the water flowing out of one of the lion's heads. In the right hand shot below is our hotel in th background, which offered another surprise.

When we went to breakfast the next morning we were pleasantly surprised to find the breakfast setup on the top floor of the hotel with a spectacular view of the train station. I took and kept too many photos, all in the album with this post, but it was spectacular in the morning light.

We enjoyed our last dinner in Italy that evening and celebrated with our final gelato as well.  The week had been fun and we enjoyed every day, but it was time for the next phase of our trip and our adventure with trains.

Leaving Radisson Blu

As our week in Italy came to a close we checked out of the resort to drive to Milan.  But we had to make a quick stop along a picturesque canal that we had driven along several times during the week. It doesn't seem to be a village or town and there was no name on the map.  But I liked the canal and the buildings around it and the bridges as well.  While Linda explored a couple of shops there, I took photos and then suddenly there was a young couple hugging and kissing in a doorway along the street.  They looked like many other young Italian couples in love that we had seen all week and I had to snap a candid photo.  If you like these photos, check out the rest in the album with this post.

After a short stop here we were on to the motorway and Milan.  Time for the next phase of our trip.

Lake Garda & Desenzano

One of our best day trips in our week in Italy was the trip to Lake Garda and Desenzano.  We arranged to meet our friends from Vicenza, the Mabie's, there in the late afternoon for dinner.  Lake Garda is the largest lake in Italy, located about halfway between Milan and Padua, and running mostly north and south and extending into the alps.  The lake is 32 miles long and 10 miles across at the widest.

Lake Garda is a popular vacation and resort destination for Italians and as we approached the lake its was clearly built out to support holiday visitors.  We drove north up the eastern shore for several miles and finally picked a spot where we could park the car and get out to walk along the water.  The lake was beautiful, there were boats of all types around, beautiful flowers were blooming, people were swimming, and it was HOT!  We should have taken out swim suits with us in retrospect.

We finally found a bar/cafe along the water where we could sit in the shade and have something cold to drink.  It was a great spot to watch the crowd and enjoy the view, but there was little breeze and we were still quite hot even sitting in the shade.  We relaxed there awhile then headed for the car.  Along the way we spotted a beautiful house with nice gardens that we stopped to enjoy.

Back in the car we drove around the southern shore of the lake toward Desenzano, which was quite a distance away.  We found a couple of other nice spots to stop and take some photos, and we generally enjoyed the drive and the scenery.  When we finally arrived in Desenzano and messaged our friends, we arranged a meeting place near the harbor and the lighthouse.  From our parking spot we had a small walk to the harbor area and spotted another beach.  Just like the earlier beach we saw this one was very rocky, but still full of people.  Neither beach was sandy, but that wasn't stopping the vacationers.  The beaches were full and busy.

We met up with our friends, walked around the town, explored the harbor and lighthouse, and took some nice photos.  Desenzano is a picturesque town with nice shops and pretty pedestrian streets, typical of many old towns in Italy but especially nice there.  But the harbor and lighthouse were especially nice and made a nice backdrop for some photos.  I captured some good shots of Sylvia and her daughter at the lighthouse.

Finally it was time for us to drive a short distance to dinner at a restaurant our friends had recommended that was hard to get tables.  She had made our reservations several days earlier. The view over the lake with the mountains in the background looked impressive, but it was very hazy that night and the photos were not so good.  But the food was wonderful and we especially enjoyed watching them make their speciality, "Mac and cheese", but Italian style.  They first cooked pasta, then brought it to the dinning room in a skillet with cream sauce.  Then putting a liquor in a cheese wheel, they lighted the liquor to make a flame over which the finished cooking the pasta.  The flames also melted a thin layer of the cheese wheel which they then scrapped up and mixed with the pasta before serving it.  It was interesting to watch and delicious to eat.

There are a lot of beautiful photos in the album for this post that are worth taking the time to view.  Desenzano and Lake Garda were both beautiful and both are places we would like to see again on another trip. In fact we could enjoy spending a few days around Lake Garda and enjoying the lake activities.  Maybe on another trip we can arrange that!

Unknown Walled City

As our week in Italy was winding down, our last major day trip was to Lake Garda and Desenzano.  We chose to drive cross country rather on the motorway, to see more of the countryside and small towns.  On the way we came across a small walled town that was completely intact all the way around.  We were able to drive around it easily and could see through the gates that it looked interesting inside.  But with our experience the previous day in Bologna and our limited time, we only took a few photos around the outside and bypassed a visit inside the walls.  We also failed to write down the name of the town and now have forgotten it.  It seemed unusual that is was so well preserved and intact, and that made it more interesting.  We passed it on to out friends in Vicenza and perhaps they can explore it one day.

Bologna

Our final destination for our day trip south was Bologna.  It turned out to be a larger city than we anticipated and presented large city challenges.  The larger towns and cities in Italy, especially those with old town areas, have instituted restricted zones in the central areas of the old town areas.  These are called ZTL's are are usually marked, but as we learned, not always very clearly.  We had been warned about the ZTL's but had not really seen them until Bologna. 

Driving into the city we were following the instructions from the map app on my iPhone and I proceeded to cruise right into the restricted area.  We did not know it for sure at the time, but Linda suspected we were in it.  I parked and we walked into the old town.

We found the Tourist Information office and soon learned that we had not only entered the restricted zone but had parked in it as well.  The fine in Bologna is 50 euros, or about $55!  However, we were told that we could purchase a day pass and nullify the fine if we hurried to the traffic control office several blocks away.  We did that and for 6 euros cleared the fine and fixed the problem.

The old town area of Bolgna is currently undergoing a large renovation project, so it was not that interesting nor accessible as it will be when the work is done.  We found a nice piazza as we walked into the city, and some nice architecture in a couple of places.  I took one of my favorite archway photos in Bologna (see below).  Otherwise, the ZTL experience was our most memorable moment in Bologna.

Ferrara

Continuing south from the pottery shop our first stop was Ferrara.  This was a walled city built in a flat area of the country so that bicycles are quite popular in Ferrara.  In fact we saw many more bicycles in Ferrara than we had seen in one location to that point.  I captured some nice bicycle photos here.

The castle and walled area of the old city is quite nice and there is a large, beautiful cathedral built in 1135.  Toward the end of the 13th century the cathedral was embellished in marble, giving the cathedral a unique appearance.  The old city contains beautiful archways and the castle still has a working drawbridge.  They also were promoting an upcoming festival that would probably be fun to attend if we had been around.  Our visit was short but enjoyable, and it was also quite hot that day and we were glad to be back in the A/C in the car and on to our next destination. 

Antiques and Pottery

The day following our wine country trip, we headed south to explore some towns there. One of the recommended destinations was a pottery shop in Nove.  This route, as had our earlier route through Este to Vicenza, kept us off the motorway and onto 2 lane country roads.  We really enjoyed driving through the country and through the small towns.  This part of Italy is also very agricultural and in August the crops looked mature and ready soon for harvest

Enroute to the pottery shop we came across an antique store that Linda had to explore.  So an unplanned stop there yielded some interesting photos to send to our friends in Vicenza.  

Marostica

Leaving Valdobbiadene we then turned our sights toward Marostica, a town famous for its recreation of a human chess board.  After WWI the local chess club began playing chess n the main square and then decided to conduct a match using living chess pieces.  After WWII a comedy writer authored a play where two noblemen play a chess match to win the hand of the local nobleman's eldest daughter, the loser having to marry the younger daughter. The match play was recreated with living human chess pieces so the town's people could follow the moves. While only a play, it's become the legend that is sometimes told as the real history.

Every two years the town recreates the living human chess match with great celebration.  The twin square is a hug chess board, as you can see below.  The high castle can also be seen in the background. The square is surrounded by nice restaurants, and we enjoyed a wonderful meal while sitting outside for a nice evening.

Valdobbiadene - wine country

One of our best day trips was our drive to the wine country of Valdobbiadene, where they specialize in prosecco.  Valdobbiadene is much like Napa Valley in California, as it an entire region dedicated to growing grapes and making wine.  The region is up slightly into hilly country and the view becomes more and more beautiful as you approach.  Everywhere you look are beautiful fields of well-manicured grapes with both old and new winery's all around.  It would require several days just to complete an overview exploration of the area.

One of the recommendations we received was a small winery in the hills outside of town where they have an old building containing bread, cheese, meat, and a refrigerator with bottles of their prosecco. They invite visitors to take some of whatever they want for a picnic and leave the suggested fee in the cash register. It's all on the honor system.  They view there was said to be spectacular so taking some time for a picnic would allow time to enjoy the view.  It was everything as advertised and the views were fantastic!

After an enjoyable lunch and some lingering to enjoy the view, we walked to the next winery adjacent to this one for a tasting.  The second winery had also been recommended to us so it was convenient that they were so close.  There we tried three of their prosecco wines, all of which were very good.  Based on a recommendation from our Italian neighbors at home we were very interested in trying a cartize, which a more rare type of proseccoo made only in a few places. It so good we had to purchase some to take with us, despite our space and weight limits.

After the tasting we drove around the area a bit more, taking pictures and enjoying the views. At one look-out we read a sign that gave some history of Valdobbiadene.  It said the last battles of WWI were fought there, probably to much devestation of the area.  No signs of that now.  Reluctantly we finally had to move on to our other planned destination for the day, and we left. But this is another lace we have on our list of places to visit again.

For all of the photos see the photo album for this post.

Vicenza

After the morning in Este we continued on to Vicenza where we met Andrew and Sylvia and their family who are currently stationed in Vicenza.  They gave us a personal tour of the city, which was a real treat for us. 

First on the list was the Teatro Olympico (Olympic Theatre), built from 1580-1585. The Palladian design is a reconstruction of a Roman theatre. It was also the first indoor theatre ever built and remains in use today as one of three surviving indoor theaters of that era. 

The sets there today are the original sets built for the inaugural event in 1585 and were kept in place because of their unique qualities of perspective and depth.  It's difficult to capture the effect in photos but it is very real in person. 

When we entered the stage door was open and we saw an interesting view of the seats from the perspective on stage. The theatre is as beautiful for the performers as it is for the patrons. 

After touring the theatre we walked through a church the on to the main piazza where we climbed to the roof of the museum for a birds eye view.  The museum had beautiful colonnades that demanded to be photographed. There was also a spectacular view of the church tower. 

Finally we drove to a beautiful lookout with a spectacular view of Vicenza and had a great group photo taken with the Mabie family. As it was a hot day we were then ready to cool off and drove back to Andrew and Silvia's house for dinner. It was a fun day!

There are a lot of great photos from this day in the photo album of Vicenza. 

Este, a lovely small town

We had a half day available before meeting with friends in Vicenza at noon, so we drove south from our hotel a short distance and a bit west to the town of Este.  Our friends had said there was some good pottery there, so that was the initial interest.  We never found any pottery, but the town itself was very delightful with a large, open central piazza, and some nice shops and cafes around the piazza.  We also enjoyed the wonderful architecture of the surrounding buildings and the adjoining side streets.

While walking around we also discovered a lovely formal garden inside the walls of the Castello Carrarese, the historic castle that once ruled over the area.  Overall, this was an enjoyable visit it to an interesting small town.  

Lake Iseo and Marone

The drive from the the winery to Filippo and Simonetta's house brought us to and along Lake Iseo for several miles. The lake is large at just over 25 square miles and our destinartion, Marone was about halfway up the shoreline.

The drive was beautiful both approaching the lake from the south as well as along the Eastern shore. In the middle of the lake is a huge island that stands tall like a small mountain. With the larger mountains that surround the lake it is a spectacular scene. 

The photo album listed with this post contains many more nice photos of the lake. Check it out if you enjoy lake scenery. 

BBQ with Fillipo

After the wonderful winery tour with Paolo and Margaret, we drove on north to Marone on the shore of Lake Iseo. Paolo's close friend Filippo's and his wife Simonetta live just a short walk from the lake.  Filippo and his wife spent a month in the U.S. visiting Paolo and Maggie next door and we became friends as well. Filippo is a retired butcher who loves to BBQ and was preparing a BBQ dinner for our visit. 

The drive to Marone was beautiful, especially as we arrived at the south end of the lake and the road continued along the shore. Iseo is a huge lake with an island that looks like a mountain top in the middle. It was very picturesque. 

We parked the cars on the main road near the lake and walked up to Filippo's as the street is very narrow. As we approached his house we could smell the  grill and the meat cooking and finally we saw the smoke. Filippo was attending to the cooking with assistance from Michael, Paolo and Maggie's son. 

Filippo lives in a building that was formerly a convent, built in the 1500's. His father was also a butcher who kept the butcher shop on the street level and the living quarters were upstairs. When Filippo's parents passed away, the property was inherited by the children and divided into several separate living quarters.  Before the day was over we received a tour of the entire building and two of the other residences there.  All of the photos are in the album in the photo library.  Below is view of the courtyard.

Barone Pizzini Winery

One of the wonderful opportunities on this trip is that we are meeting three different friends at three different places.  Our first meeting is with our next door neighbors from the U.S. who are expats from Milan working in the States for a few years.  They have been in Italy in August for holiday and our time overlapped by  couple of days.  Paolo loves sparkling wine, especially Italian sparkling wine, and he arranged for us to meet and visit a wonderful winery north of Rovato.  This was on the way to Marone where we were spending the rest of the day.

This winery is located in the Franciacorta area of northern Italy, home to Italy's sparkling wines.  Barone Pizzini was founded in 1870.  This was also the first winery in this area to go organic, which involved cleansing the land of all chemicals, and transforming all of the wine making processes to work in a chemical free way.  Today organic practices are becoming more common in this region.

The winery cultivates 47 hectares of land, which is divided into 25 separate areas, each with its own unique soil composition and weather conditions.  Three varieties of grapes are planted across these 25 areas and the wines are made from blending the grapes from these areas.  It is quite a complex process!

We enjoyed a very informative tour of the winery and a brief tour of one field of grapes, then the best part was the tasting.  A nice tables of aperitifs was set with three sparkling wines for us to enjoy. One interesting part of the experience was the specialLy designed wine glasses.  A sparkling wine will continuously bubble, and these glasses are designed with their feet angle to cause the bubbles to rise in a small column from the center of the glass.  It was really beautiful.  The wines were delicious and unique, and we enjoyed each one.

For all of the photos from the tour, check out the album in the Photo Library. 

The Resort, Our Home for the Week

Our choice for a hotel for this week was driven by what we could trade for using a soon-to-expire Marriott timeshare week.  That put us 30 minutes south of Padova at Galzignano Terme Spa and Resort (http://www.jsh-hotels.com/galzignano/en-GB/).  While it looked good from the Internet, you never know until you see it first hand.  It turns out to be just fine and is actually three or four different hotels scattered around golf courses and includes pools and spa facilities.  There seems to be a lot of space and acreage here. We arrived from the airport in our rental car about 3:30 pm and were quite tired after the drive (that's a story for another post) and the long flight. 

After we settled into the room we took a short 45 minute nap, then decided to check out the pools nearby.  The one at the next hotel, just a short walk away, is much nicer so we returned to our room, put on our swimsuits, and lounged and swan a little in the pool.  It was really nice and relaxing. 

We were so relaxed after the swim and the place was so serene, we decided to order something light from the bar and eat by the pool.  What else to order but caprese and prosciutto with melon!  It was a great way to start our time in Italy.

Charles de Gaulle, a gem

This is our fourth vacation to Europe since 2012, and our third time connecting through Charles de Gaulle in Paris.  In 2012 it was a nightmare, we almost missed our connecting flight, and our luggage was lost for 5 days!  There was a lot of construction back then and nothing worked as designed.  Last year we connected thought CDG again and it was completely different, really fast and smooth.  Wondering if that was a fluke, we hoped this year was like last year, and it was again smooth and fast. CDG is really a fantastic airport, beautifully done, and wonderfully efficient.  It has become our favorite so far in our European trips.

Bon Voyage

We chose Air France again this year because of their Premium Economy class, in between coach and business. We also think they serve better food than most others. How appropriate for the French then that they started the meal service with Champagne! We had our own little "Bon Voyage" party right there in our seats. 

Italy-bound

Here we are again with another travel blog and a fun vacation planned in Europe.  As with the past blogs, this is for our family and friends, and will be a travel diary for us to remember the trip.  Any one else who wants to read it is welcome, and I hope you enjoy our personal travel blog.

This year will be different as the trip is entirely self-planned and self-guided.  No tour company this time.  We start with a week in Italy where we will stay in one place and take day trips by car.  Www will travel over the Swiss Alps on the scenic Bernina Express, spend the night in a Swiss mountain town, then on to Zurich for a couple of nights.  From there it's Paris for the rest of the trip, 3 weeks altogether!  Let's hope we can handle 3 weeks, as this will be a first for us. 

As before we welcome friendly comments from you if something we post catches your interest.  Next stop is Charles de Gaulle in Paris, and then connect to a local flight to Venice. More later.