A long drive for lunch

Yesterday we decided to go for lunch with some of  the Galvagno clan - I thought we were headed to Trieste, but it actually turns out we were going to meet some peeps in Slovenia. So, after a mere 2 hours (!) in the car, we arrived at Pirano, a lovely coastal town set on a point sticking out into the Adriatic.

After ditching the car in the parkade on the outskirts we took the free shuttle to the town, and wandered the narrow streets for all of 5 minutes before it was time to stop for an apperativo - glass of wine. Driving is thirsty work, apparently! After our drink stop, it was time to hit the restaurant. It was now 3:00ish, and I was indeed getting hungry.

The location was spectacular! We were on a patio right on the ocean. It was covered and shady and cool, and the food at the next door table looked delicious. I was sure we wouldn't be disappointed since three of Piero's relatives were there, and they are all involved in the restaurant business in one way or another. In two words, we weren't.

First of course, a couple of litres of Malvasia wine. Cold, white and delicious. Then a plate of clams, and scampi, along with the most beautiful presentation of sea bass - the head and tail were at either end of the long, white oval dish, and between the two was the flesh, sliced thinly, delicious, and raw - but more like ceviche than sushi. Mmmmm mmmm good.

Seeing as how we were on the ocean, the seafood theme continued. Fresh raw oysters, tasting clean and lemony. A giant plate of different types of clams and mussels - more varieties than I have ever seen, dressed in a lovely garlic and basil butter. And then, well, it was time to swim, of course!

We left our things (you know, just our passports and money!!!) in the restaurant which was open to anyone walking by, changed our clothes, and went off into the salty, salty warm water. After some play time, it was time to resume eating.  

A beautiful small crusty bread bowl with a single scampi in sauce arrived. The scampi was standing up so it looked like a little Jack-in-the-box.  Then things get a little fuzzy - who knew that could happen when you mix a lot of sun and wine?  Oh yeah, it may also have had something to do with the brown liquor (like a stronger version of Jager) that somehow showed up between glasses of wine. However, I do remember the final plate of pasta, with a wonderful light creamy sauce with fresh truffles shaved on top. Holy cow, was that good! 

Mark slept in the back seat on the return trip, and Piero's cousin Egidio piloted us home and had to suffer with my crazy drunken Italian for the whole trip. Nice guy. 

I was a little under the weather today, and luckily it was a low key day anyways. Completely worth it though, and I'd do it again in a second. 

Venice to Nimis

Hello everyone. You have probably realized that sadly, we haven't figured out how to post photos on this blog with the iPad. We will update it at some time, but are not going to stress about it. We are too busy enjoying our vacation!

We left Venice a few days ago and got into a rented car. It feels like forever ago that I drove anywhere, let alone Italy! We avoided the autostrada and drove mostly on secondary low speed roads. It's a lot more scenic and a lot less stressful!

We stopped at San Paulo looking for our friend Lori's family's bar. I think we found it, but it appeared to be closed on Thursdays. We definitely were in the right town, because there was a giant Canadian flag hanging out of a window - we're sure it was for us. :-) Mark did call out "Noi siamo Canadese!" but nobody poked their head out. Oh well, maybe we'll get back there on our return trip to Venice on Thursday.

Our destination was the ancient town of Aquileia. It was a very important city in it's heyday in Roman times, although now is mostly fueled by tourism. With good reason, it has some key sites to visit. I thought the most impressive was the Basilica and the bell tower. The floor of the basilica is a giant mosaic that has been beautifully restored (for the Pope's recent visit) and which predates the medieval church by 600 years. There is a raised glass walkway around the perimeter so that you can clearly see the beautiful work. We chose to take a tour so that we could get a better understanding of the story behind the pictures represented.

The clock tower provided a good look out for some photos of the surrounding countryside. And of course, there was another mosaic at the base of it. Just over 100 steps up, and I was totally winded. I am not looking forward to my exercise regimen when I get home! My heart rate hasn't been that high since I arrived.

We had dinner in the seaside town of Grado. It's the White Rock of this area, full of little cafes and restaurants, and shops selling blow up beach toys, gelato, tacky shirts, sunglasses and sunscreen. But everyone (EVERYONE) is super tanned here.  The stores still sell SPF 6 !

After dinner we were headed back to the car, but stopped when we heard classical music coming out of one of the churches in the historical center. We went in and enjoyed the end of a free classical music concert - there were 4 violins, a cello, a clarinet, a flute, a bass and timpani. The acoustics in the church were amazing, let alone the ancient decoration and ambiance! After one last stop for our daily gelato, we headed back to the car and back to Aquilea to the hotel. 

We are now in Nimis, the home town of our friend Piero's family. Mark started his vacation cycling from Austria to Venice with him, and we are now staying at a very nice b&b about a block from the family house where Piero is staying with his wife and kids. Normally we visit them in Kelowna, but it's a whole different side of Italy that we get to see with them now. Friuli Venezia Giulia with a local guide - it's great!

We've been to Cividale to the medieval festival, hung out in the homes of relatives, been to Nona's house to see the muffa on the salami that is curing in the cellar, drank wine, ate cheese, and written on the wall of a frasca, ate dinner at a local restaurant overlooking the beautiful valley, ate at another local restaurant with a hand written menu, made fig jam with free figs from nona's tree, and gone for early morning walks through the forest and countryside. We also visited the nearby city of Udine to check out the Saturday market. Today we are headed to Trieste and beyond. Can't wait to see what adventure await......

It's all about the food

Okay, so you know us. You know we like to eat. Right? So if you don't want to read about food, skip this blog entry. Because it's all about the food.

Mark booked us in at a couple of b&b's on the northern islands of the Venice lagoon. One was on Mazzorbo, near Burano - a picturesque little island full of candy colored homes and stunning photo ops. It also just happened to have a pretty good restaurant attached to it. Hah! That's the understatement of the year!

We checked in to our very modern room at Venissa, overlooking the canal, and took the short walk over to Burano. Moseyed about, looked in a few shops (ALL full of lace and glass for the tourists, of course) and then returned to our room to get ready for dinner. And what a dinner it was! First off, the setting. The dining room was situated on a patio, surrounded by their vineyard and kitchen garden. The look of the restaurant was very sleek and tres chic, complete with lights shaped like giant glowing eggs set into the wood of the patio. A very stylish single sunflower face looked up at us from the table setting. The air was warm and there was a light breeze, and the sun was low in the sky. Ahhhhh!

We decided to go for the chefs tasting menu. All 8 courses. With wine pairings.  Mark, ever diligent about his research, knew of the restaurant in advance of course, so suggested we miss lunch so we'd be starved enough to  eat it all! I'm pretty sure my words will not do the meal justice, but here goes:

Our cocktail was predictably, Prosecco. Why mess with a good thing? And our amuse bouche was a deliciously crispy crostini with a slice of fresh warm-from-the-sun tomato with a lightly pickled sardine draped over top and drizzled with olive oil. Two bites of heaven!
Next up: mussels and clams from the lagoon with lemon and vervain. Again, simple preparation of steamed seafood, but oh so delicious. They really thought of everything, right down to the little towel to wipe your hands with. When the dish with the small white pill was brought by the waiter, I wondered. When he poured a tiny amount of lemon scented water from the pitcher, it expanded into a small fingertip towel. Impressive!
Figs from S.Erasmo and S.Daniele raw ham 27 month aged followed. Briny flavours from the seafood followed by the salty and sweet from the ham and figs. Brilliant! The ham was sliced from the haunch that was sitting just inside the restaurant proper, none of this pre-sliced nonsense for this place.

"Scartosso" with fried fishes from the lagoon was delivered to the table next. A delightful paper cone of deep fried fishies, very lightly battered so as not to interfere with the taste. As a surprise at the bottom of the cone, there were a few of the thinnest home made potato chips I've ever seen.

Ravioli stuffed with olive oil and parmigiano 36 month, clams - how do you stuff ravioli with olive oil? I think it's a secret like how the caramilk gets into the caramilk bar. Not something I'll try at home, which is a shame because it was delectable. 3 little round perfectly cooked ravioli, bursting with taste. Much, much better than the caramilk bar.

Rice and canestrelli arrived. Canestrelli are, if I remember correctly, delicious scallop like sea creatures. They were floating in a kind of risotto - but not risotto in the traditional sense. This one was made with water, not broth, and was much lighter in taste. Good thing, because I was slowing down. Even though the portions were small, they're still filling.
3 more to go......

Roasted sea bass with porcini mushrooms. Crispy skin, delicate flaky fish, rich local mushrooms. Can this get any better? The answer of course is yes, yes it can.

Veal with anchovy's sauce and peppers. You'd never find me ordering anchovies on a pizza. But honestly, the taste of this sauce was the perfect salty foil for the mild flavours of the veal. Which, of course, was perfectly cooked.

And finally, peach with Prosecco, thyme and ginger ice cream. I do not need to explain this. Suffice it to say, there was not a speck left.

I wish I could remember the wines we had. They complimented the food perfectly. The service was top notch. And we met the chef as we were leaving. The. Best. Meal. Of.  My. Life.
So far....

Hanging with the locals

Here we sit, at a little trattoria in campo San Giacomo dell'Orio, enjoying a couple of 'spritz con aperol' - the local happy hour beverage. At the next table are a boisterous group of locals, gesturing wildly and obviously enjoying their happy hour. In fact, they may have been here for more than an hour!  I love being on vacation!

We spent the last few days enjoying the sights of Venice. The Punta Della Dogana is a museum on the point just across the Grand Canal from Piazza San Marco that is currently housing some 'interesting' art. I'm not sure I am grown up enough to understand it, but I can say I tried. I did enjoy some of it, like the aptly named 'Boy with Frog' and the 1.5 ton shiny red heart suspended from the ceiling by a giant gold ribbon. There was also this humorous installation with two monitors facing each other, each with a slightly creepy clown saying "I don't know why I did it, I'm sorry I did it" to the other over and over and over and over. Art. Go figger.

Lunch is something I understand. The weather has been pretty warm, I'm guessing somewhere in the low to mid 30's, so we went from the museum to a recommended restaurant in the area. It was called Ristoteca Oniga where Mark had the fixed price menu of spaghetti with mussels followed by a local fish specialty called Branzino which was served with a dollop of white polenta. I had the biggest radicchio salad with prosciutto and pine nuts. Of course it would not be complete without a carafe of Prosecco, right? After lunch it was a stop at the adjacent gelateria and then a stroll to the closest shady park bench for a bit of a nap.

Fast forward a couple of days. It's been hectic being on vacation!

We have been getting around using public transport. A bus is so passé. Here the buses are boats. Vaporetti, to be exact. And it lots of fun to hop on and off, and there never seems to be a traffic jam on the water. They are well used (read crowded) at times, but very efficient.
And the other boats on the water, oh my! Makes me think of Bond, James Bond. All shiny highly lacquered wood and gleaming silver controls and horns - gorgeous. And one cannot forget to include the gondoliers! Right? We have only seen one or two singing - the rest have been quiet. Costs extra for the singing variety!
Time for our second of two over the top dinners. More on those soon. 

Venezia

Who were the crazy people who thought to build a city in this watery place? I'm glad they did, because it is an amazing place!
Mark picked me up at the airport yesterday (sadly without his backpack-my only piece of checked luggage-but who needs it? We have credit cards!) and the first thing we did was get on the Alilaguna water taxi. Venice proper is about a 20 minute ride from the airport, and it was a very pleasant way to arrive in the city.
There are no traffic jams here, everyone just moseys about in their boats! We've seen everything from vaporetti (public buses carrying tourists and locals to markets, work, and popular sites) to James Bond looking speed boats with the wood lacquered to a rich shine, to the ubiquitous gondoliers. We also saw working boats, more like barges, delivering boxes of goods to stores - they pile up the goods, get to the shore, and then transfer them along the narrow calli (alleys) with a two wheeled cart kind of like a reverse wheelbarrow. Not the easiet way to earn a buck, for sure! I have to say that it's refreshing to not worry about traffic at all while we're walking about! Oh, and something else I've noticed - everyone is tanned a very deep brown. I suppose it's all that time on the water.
Our hotel is a little b&b close to Piazza San Marco. Although that is THE place in Venice that all travelers must see, it's surprisingly quiet where we are. A 10 minute walk away and it's residential and quiet and lovely. We even have a spare bedroom if anyone wants to join us!
We haven't done much here other than get blissfully lost in the winding calli, ride the vaporetti, and eat and drink. My kind of vacation!
Speaking of eating and drinking, it's that time again. So, rather than type any more, we're heading out. Still working on the photo thing - I sure hope apple improved their iPad with generation that came after this one! It's still a cool little machine, but we don't appear to be the first with this problem if the forums are to be believed. So suffice it to say we're working on it. Right after our happy hour in the sunshine on a piazza somewhere.
Ciao for now!

A perfect lunch

Yesterday we found ourselves in Prosecco country around lunchtime. As we cycled through the villages dotted along the valley road, we kept our eyes open for some little family run place that looked good. The first one we checked was closed for the national holiday, which didn't bode well. The next, called Guia, was all set up with linen covered tables both inside and out, but was empty. Piero went in and it turned out that they were doing a fixed menu and were fully reserved except for one little table for four in the middle of the room.  What luck! As the room began to fill up, we ordered a carafe of Prosecco and soon the food began to arrive - antipasti of pickled red onions, pickled roasted peppers, sautéed young radicchio, salami, prosciutto, and small toasts with herbed cream cheese.  Then primi piatti of tagliatelle with minced duck, followed by secondi piatti of roast rabbit with fresh polenta, roast potatoes, and radicchio salad dressed with pan juices.  It took us another carafe or two of Prosecco to get through it, and then came a plate of various little cookies and cakes along with a shot of espresso. Afterward we walked over to the nearest shady tree and had a short siesta.  Three hours of gustatory pleasure all for 20 euros each.  I love Italy!

Cheers,
Mark

PS. I'm still working on this issue of getting photos from iPad to blog, but I'm making progress.  Check back soon to see if there's some new visual content.

Mary's turn

Finally! The date has arrived. My bags are packed, boarding passes are printed, and I am ready to go! 24 hours from now I will be sitting in a sunny piazza enjoying a glass of prosecco. Vancouver is a lovely place to call home, but how can I miss it if I never leave?
Hopefully we can get the photos on the blog to load, because after all, a picture is worth a thousand words!
Be well, enjoy the sunshine in Vancouver for us, and stay tuned!
For the record, it's very quiet in the world at 1:30 in the morning - I'm excited to get this trip going! And besides, maybe if I adjust to the Italian time zone early, I will avoid jet lag :-)
Arrivederci!

Austria to Italy

Day two was even better than day one! First we fueled up with a delicious and hearty Austrian breakfast buffet at our hotel before setting off along the bike path up river to Landeck.  The weather was perfect - sunny with some puffy clouds and temperatures in the mid 20's. We stopped for morning coffee break with the requisite Appel strudel on a nice patio before starting up a new narrower valley heading through a corner of Switzerland, back into Austria for a 5km climb with 11 switchbacks, before crossing into Italy and over the 1550m Reschen Pass.  Gorgeous lake at the top with a half-submerged church in it. Then it was down down down the bike path through some picturesque little towns with narrow, crooked streets, through forest, fields, and apple orchards to Oris. A 115km day in all. Walked down the road for pizza e birra before climbing into bed exhausted.



Approaching Swizerland



Bucolic climb near the top





Kevin on the lakeside path



First dinner in Italy!

On the road in Austria

Gutentag from Imst!  One day down and the second about to begin.  Had a very enjoyable, and mostly flat ride yesterday along paved bike paths through farmers fields and little Tyrollean towns along the river Inn. The weather was mixed and the temperature was perfect. The only minor glitch, other than the one flat tire (easily fixed) and the low speed crash (only hurt my pride) was the hour we spent at the end of the ride trying to find the recommended hotel based on a crude hand drawn map.  In the end we were successful and were rewarded with an excellent dinner at a nearby restaurant which only cost us 20 euro each!

Today we're going to follow the old Roman road, the Via Claudia Augusta, all the way over the mountains to Bolzano Italy.  Should be fun! 

Photos to come when I figure out how to post them using this iPad :-)

-Mark


Piero at Munich airport



Scenes from the bike path




Delicious Tyrollean dinner with spaetzle!



Mark's departure

Here we go again! We are very fortunate to have the ability to set off once again, this time to Europe. Mark is en route tomorrow, bike box in tow, for Innsbruck for a wee bike ride with friends, final destination, Venice. I am meeting up with him in Venice on the 17th. For some reason I had little desire to ride the 500 km with 3 very fit men. Go figger. Hills have never been my forte. If you want to see some of what he will be riding, google "Passo Pordoi". I'm glad I chose to miss the fun.

Packed and ready to go