Making our way toward Sicily, the next travel step took us southwest back across Italy from Puglia in the “heel” of the boot to Reggio Calabria in the “toe” that seems perpetually poised to kick Sicily like a soccer ball. 🙂
We began the rainy day driving along the Ionian Sea on the east coast10th Century Temple of the Order, Castle of Roseto Capo Spulico, now a restaurantWithout rain, one cannot capture a beautiful rainbow!Halt! Todd, what did you do?? Actually, the German owner is animatedly explaining the ovenAfter lunch, the clouds persisted as we made our way across the middleAnd later drove along the Tyrrhenian Sea on the west coast into the toe
We knew what the villa looked like from the pictures but still drove up and down the street several times with Google confidently announcing we’d “arrived” every time we passed the place we couldn’t see. Aargh. Susie maintained contact with the owner all day regarding timing, and he said he would wait for us on the street, but we’d passed only fishermen. Hmmm…? Another text, and finally, a man stepped onto the sidewalk from a small gate between two garage doors. Roberto? Yes!
That’s our little white Fiat, but you cannot see the house from the streetAccess is through the gate, between the two street-level villas & up the garden pathTo… the villa we’d been searching for!
Sitting atop a small hill, we had a fantastic view of Sicily and the largest and most active volcano in Europe! Mt. Etna. We in the US don’t really hear about it, but heck, they had a big spew 4 months ago! … Didn’t know it, but we do now. The African tectonic plate is bashing into and sliding under Sicily, which is mostly on the Eurasian plate. We say “mostly” because that is where and why Mt. Etna is there and has been erupting for 3500 years. Well, the first eruption jotted down was in 1500 BC. It leaks something every day and is tall enough to have a snowy top from October-ish all the way to May-ish. And what a beauty!
View of the street and sea from the upstairs terraceOpening the gate for access to the seaLooking across the beautiful Mediterranean at Mt. EtnaAnd Sicily!Sunset over the Mt. Etna volcanoGifts from Roberto’s bountiful garden
Having spent our recent time in Puglia sightseeing, we spent most of the few days in Calabria enjoying the view, catching up on laundry, preparing for our upcoming time in Sicily, etc.
While our host Roberto was pleased that we felt at home in the family villa, he highly recommended we at least venture out to catch a sunset from the nearby seventh century BC ghost town of Pentidattilo (a tongue twister from the Greek words penta and daktylos, or “five fingers” because it was built underneath a big hand-shaped rock).
For reasons unbeknownst to us, Google led us off the main roadAcross what appeared to be a dry riverbedUp small, rutted, dirt roadsBack down againPast some abandoned buildings & back ontoA paved road w/a killer view that we could have been on the whole time!Oh, crazy Google Maps…
Nearing the top, we again had to venture off the paved road and were hoping for a large enough area on the cobblestones to turn around and park the now seemingly massive Fiat (eight-point turn, anyone?).
Unexpectedly, a smiling man stepped from, of all things, a gift shop to point us to a tiny indent in the bushes where we could leave the car. He was engaging, friendly, knowledgeable of the ghost town up the hill, and somewhat fluent in broken English. He also had items to sell and very few visitors this time of year. Entrance is free – you to pay to get out! Ha! (Someone we know just might be receiving an item from this little shop…) 🙂
Shop at the base of the hillOne of the many cats, directing visitors up the hillTo the top
The town is undergoing a restoration of sorts, with a few people living there and selling their artistic handiwork in small shops.
There was only one other couple visiting while we were there, and only one shop was open at the top of the hill. (Because of which, one of us had to dash back down the hill to retrieve a bit of cash from the car. More Christmas gifts, perhaps…)
Todd, who is typically ahead of the team photographer (Susie) waited near the top of the hillLa Panchina de Baci translates to “The Kissing Bench” Ha! A spirit of fun in the village
We returned to the car with packages in hand and plans to ignore Google on the way back down.
The promised stunning sunset over SicilyFollowed by festive Christmas lightsAnd a kiss!
Which is the perfect ending for a post backdated to December 12 but distributed on New Years Eve! 😉
We’d been in Italy four weeks when we donned our only jackets as “raincoats” to load the car and check out of the cozy “Old Cave” duplex near Florence. We were headed for Villa Perlata in Montefiascone, 62 miles north of Rome.
To avoid a repeat of the “no advance tickets” wrinkle experienced in Florence, this next place was to be a “don’t move the car” stop where we would sit still for a couple of days and pin down what we’d do on our upcoming stop in… Rome! (And perhaps preorder some tickets this time?)
As we returned the keys to the friendly rental owner, Cristina, she suggested a scenic stop on our way south in San Gimignano, a village started in the 3rd century BC! The area took off as a town in 63 BC when a pair of rich brothers came from Rome to build really big castles. Then named Silivo, the town truly got noticed in 450 when Bishop Geminianus saved the castles from being wiped out by the troops of Attila the Hun! Okay, so one stop along the way can’t hurt, right? 🙂
Through more of the many tunnels in the mountainsPast fields and vineyards… to San Gimignano we went.
And what a pretty stop it was!
The weather and time worked against us, so we saw it but didn’t really get to SEE it. Oh geez…
Now, that’s a patio with…… a view!Shame this restaurant isn’t openWe didn’t make it to the church but did wander far enough into the village for gelato 😉
After gelato and a quick panino for lunch, we were back on the road to Montefiascone with its ancient Rocca dei Papi (Fortress of the Popes), cathedral and churches from the 14th century. Stop, Susie. Remember the plan. No sightseeing on this stop. Sigh.
The trees make an interesting property lineOr windbreak, perhaps?Pretty ray of the sun trying to burn through the dark clouds
Villa Perlata in Montefiascone overlooks the 5th largest lake in Italy, Lake Bolsena, a great spot for former cruisers to sit still. On our drive along the lakeshore, we enjoyed the lovely sunset before quickly realizing sunset means darkness, like really dark! Once you drive beyond the parklike lakeshore, there are no more streetlights, and we still had to find the villa, pull the car up to the correct locked gate just off the road, walk along the shrubbery/fence line to find the small gate containing a lockbox, enter the code (thank goodness for phone flashlights) and acquire the keys.
First peek at Lake BolsenaUh-oh. No more light
After we got our things inside and Todd locked the villa’s massive door in the inky darkness, Susie declared the villa we could barely see to be beautiful and excitedly stated she couldn’t wait to actually see the place in the morning. Ha!
There was a small issue with the dishwasher mysteriously turning itself on during the night and refusing to stop without turning off several breakers, but daylight revealed that the villa, while quirky, was, indeed, quite lovely.
Villa PerlataWith views of Lake Bolsena in the distanceAnd pomegranate & olive orchards seen from the upper terrace
The owners said to help ourselves to any produce available in the garden and left us fresh olive oil they’d produced, as well as some local wine, “Est! Est!! Est!!! di Montefiascone.” Huh? Well, we’re glad you asked! 😇
Interestingly, we’d found ourselves in a wine region with a fanciful story and funny name that has been repeated for centuries. In general, the tale is that of a 12th-century bishop traveling to Rome who sent a servant ahead to find the best wines, with instructions to write ‘Est’ (Latin for ‘It is’ or ‘There is’) on the door of any inn where he was especially impressed with the wine so the bishop would know where to stop. Legend has it that the servant was so impressed with the wine being served at a Montefiascone inn that he enthusiastically scrawled “Est! Est!! Est!!!” on the door.
Today, the “Est! Est!! Est!!! di Montefiascone” wine region caters to tourists visiting the nearby Lake Bolsena, while the wine itself receives mixed reviews, such as “… the dullest white wine with the strangest name in the world” or the “… history is more compelling than what’s currently in the glass.” ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Don’t know about the white, but we actually enjoyed the red that was left for us.
Not moving the car does not mean not moving ourselves, so we took daily walks to explore the grounds of the villa.
The property includes a large vineyardAnd a rambling olive orchardWith a place to rest when working the treesA few of the pomegranate trees were still bearing fruitWe took freshly dug veggies into the shed for a rinseTo find this unique old light fixture on which Susie wanted to make an offer – do you think they’d miss it??
With our research done, tickets ordered, and souls refreshed, we sat back to enjoy the sunset.
On November 3, after one more pretty sunset over Lake Como, we packed the car for an a.m. departure from Nesso.
Sorry, George. 😉 The Olsens are bound for the Alps!
Not the Swiss Alps, the Dolomites, otherwise known as the Italian Alps. We’d planned a 175-mile drive north and then east over to Trento to skirt along the lower edge of the Alps. Too close to winter to venture way up there – we prefer to see the snow only from a distance.
But first, a boat ride on Lake Como!
A quick dash inside for tickets to VarennaAnd we were loaded onto the ferryHey, a ferry’s a boat – it counts
From the shoreline at Varenna, we wound our way up the mountain via switchbacks and through the mountains in numerous l-o-n-g tunnels.
Per the sign, this tunnel is 2060 meters (1.28 miles) long!In less than an hour, we were seeing the high mountain peaksSome mountainsides are dotted with townsOthers with large vineyards (we’d later appreciate the fruits of these labors – Ha!)Careful. Careful.There was a surprising amount of fall color remaining in November
Along the way, we passed through towns of various sizes.
Christmas spirit beginsOne of the larger town squares dotting the landscape
While stopped for an early lunch in the town of Vezza d’Oglio, we researched (i.e. googled) the unusual name. Legend has it that after a flood destroyed the ancient village of Rosolina, a large barrel of olive oil was found among the debris, giving rise to the name for the new town to be built on the ruins. The dialectal translation of Éza is “barrel,” thus basically “Barrel of Oil.” Tada!
The other tidbit we picked up led to a small adventure to find the nearby Parish Church of San Martino, one of many of the same name in Italy, this one dating back to 1100. Google claimed we could drive up to the small church. Unfortunately, you cannot always trust Google’s interpretation of “roads” to mean a car will actually fit. After reversing back down out of a particularly tight squeeze, we parked and set out on foot. When we tried to ask a few residents, the language barrier got in the way, so we were on our own.
This is a nice two-way street (much wider than the lane we’d backed out of)Aha! After some wandering & animated charades with locals, we spotted the bell tower
Once we could aim for the bell tower, we easily found the church. The inside is surprisingly ornate, from an entirely different time period than the tower, which, sadly, is the only thing remaining of the original church that was destroyed by fire in 1700, along with a large part of the town.
We arrived in time to watch the bells at NoonThe church was renovated in 1875& adorned with frescoes in 1876
Post lunchtime adventure over, it was time to return to where we’d bailed on the car. Hmmm… Honey, just where was that again?? Oops.
In addition to not trusting Google Maps for what’s a viable road, we’ve now learned, A) the Italian word for church (since apparently neither making the sign of the cross nor folding hands in prayer are helpful gestures in the game of language charades); and B) to drop a pin on the map on one of the phones before wandering away from the car (since cars don’t have handy, easy-to-spot bell towers). 🙂
Once back on the road, we cheerfully enjoyed the fall color and snow-capped mountains! Until…
UH OH
If cruising is aptly referred to as “working on boats in exotic locations,” just what do you call it when the alarms go off on the foreign rental car and the main thing you can make out on the panel is WARNING OF IMMINENT ENGINE FAILURE. Huh. Not good.
Well, as we were more than five miles from the nearest town, we considered ourselves lucky to slowly make it to a place to pull off the narrow, curved mountain road, into the large parking lot of a ski lift. Bonus, perhaps we could ask the workmen over there for assistance in reading the instrument panel! No go on the assistance part, as both of them soon drove off right past us. Heading to lunch perhaps? (Insert enthusiastic raspberry here.)
No worries, we had our resident mechanic, Todd. Radiators being the same in any language, we waited for things to cool down and fortunately located the blown radiator cap in the engine compartment! Hmm, now we needed water, and we just happened to have most of a 1.5-liter bottle Susie had brought with us. Into the radiator, it went (yeah!), and we were back on the twisty road with fingers crossed and those praying hands folded, hoping to make it off the mountain and to Trento before dark. (Susie, you can stop hyperventilating now.)
While trying to photograph the poles that line the road to guide the snowplow (think about that one – yikes!)Is that..?Yep. A man rollerblading UP the mountainSo pretty! Especially from a moving car 🙂 (sigh)
As the sun was setting, we reached Trento, left the car resting in a small parking garage outside the town center, and set out on foot to find our small B&B, supposedly very near the historic Church of Santa Maria Maggiore. We found the church easily enough – those bell towers are so helpful – and after a few wrong turns, located our lodging.
The church was built between 1520 and 1524On the balcony of our B&B with some much-needed water (as ours was sacrificed to the car’s radiator several hours before)Couldn’t have stayed any closer unless we slept in the sanctuary.
Since we would only be in Trento one night, we dropped the luggage, downed the water, and dashed back out, utilizing the remaining daylight to find the duomo of Trento / the Cathedral of San Vigilio.
The pleasant street near our B&B (Yes, cars also pass through here…)
With roots back to 397 A.D., the L-shaped structure of the Cathedral of San Vigilio is so large, it took three shots to capture the facade from our perspective on the piazza.
Looking leftThat will be one heck of a Christmas tree in the center!Looking rightNo photography is allowed inside the structure
The next morning, we strolled over the bridge and along the river to the Church of Sant’Apollinare, one of the oldest buildings in the city. The church has looked this way since the 14th century, and among those buried in the outer walls is Marcus Apuleius, gravestone dated 23 BC. Now that’s old!
A pleasant stroll along the riverand across the bridgebrought us to the picturesque old churchNo entry was allowed, but we could look through acrylic walls in the foyer to see the inside
Our last stop in Trento was a cable car ride to the town of Sardinia at the top of the mountain.
While waiting in the lobby, should we be worried about the man on top of the car??We rode to the topAs the other car returned
The scenic ride up and back was fairly quick. We found the most interesting part to be identifying the historic town center of Trento from the top. Game time!
It is easy to see the oldest church near the bridge (lower left), but can you spot the town center on the other side of the river?
The black arrow shows the distinctive tower of the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, behind which is the small B&B (not visible). The red arrows show the L-shaped Cathedral of San Vigilio. Now look back at the other shot – bet you can find it.
And with that, we grabbed our luggage and a bottle of antigelo (antifreeze) and confidently departed for Modena. Moving on!
We’d planned to explore both Como and Bellagio during our stay in Nesso. Our few ventures into Como, however, proved somewhat too challenging for our taste. WOW! What a crazy, bustling city! Instead, we chose to spend a couple of days enjoying the much less busy town of Bellagio – not the one in Las Vegas, but the so-called “Pearl of Lake Como.” Ha, imagine finding a place that has the same nickname as our car!
Having worked our way through the main street of shops in the historic center and checked out the 11th century chapel, then down to the lakeshore area for a late lunch, it was time to return to the car. Whew!
First step, a lot of steps back up to street level!And then, which way to the car??
Not owning a house at the moment, we don’t really have need for a great deal of shopping. Surprise! The next day, we opted to return to Bellagio not for the shops, but for a stroll through the Giardini di Villa Melzi (Gardens of Villa Melzi) instead. The complex was created between 1808 and 1810 for Francesco Melzi d’Eril (1753-1816), Duke of Lodi, vice-president of Napoleon’s Italian Republic and, later, Grand Chancellor of the Kingdom of Italy…and a, oh, well, there’s more, but enough is enough! Most importantly for us, it would close for the season on November 3. Time to go!
Melzi dwelt in the villa until the end of his political career, after which it became his summer home.
Not too shabby…
The villa itself, still privately owned by the family, isn’t open to the public, but there are plenty of grounds to enjoy. One of the highlights is the sprawling, diverse garden filled with loads of majestic century-old trees that are in some cases quite massive. Even better, a great biological garden that included signs on the special plants. Todd loved it. No Todd, we can’t read them all! 🙂
Atlas Cedar that’s way taller than the villaAnd stretches its limbs far across the lawnOr the Chilean Wine Palms that clearly love their spot along Lake Como. Those are 3 ft thick!
Scattered through the garden is a fine collection of commemorative and mythological statues.
Dante and BeatriceThe mustachioed gent Melzi and his wifeApollo – basking in the splendid view, perhaps?
This fine nobleman was fortunate enough to have his own family chapel on the grounds.
Family chapel at Villa MelziFancy domeAltar – oops, not sure about the statueTomb of Francesco Melzi d’Eril, with amazing “curtains” wrought from marble!
After wandering all through the garden, we hurried back to the car and headed off to find a “nearby” restaurant named Trattoria Baita Belvedere, enthusiastically recommended by the kind agent at the gate as her “favorite.” She failed to mention, however, that it is located near the top of a mountain. A wonderful drive until the last mile or so of the skinniest “one lane” road to date! Thank goodness Todd doesn’t have much because it was absolutely hair-raising! NO pictures were captured on the way up. (Breathe, Honey….)
Near the end, it seemed even this guy was chuckling.
But make it we did.
That’s our spiffy blue Renault parked in the “lot” at the top of the mountain.
UGH. Do we have to drive back down? NAH. It must be a one-way drive up & another down (he says, optimistically…)
One thing at a time. How about lunch?
Corner table with a view (Villa Melzi marked by the arrow)Umm. No.Caio, Francesco! Thank you for a wonderful afternoon!
Our friendly young server, Francesco, delivered a spectacular lunch along with plenty of local knowledge and basics he felt we needed to know. In fact, we closed the joint while pondering (putting off?) the drive back down. Eventually, we really had no choice but to hit the road. Francesco assured us that we shouldn’t meet anyone coming up since the restaurant was now closed until 7pm. Todd thinks he winked. 🙂
Fingers crossed that we wouldn’t meet anyoneBacking out of here would stinkLook, almost there! That’s the turn onto the marked road!We made it! No one coming from the other way! Even got a few pictures! (Breathe, Honey…) Yeah!
Whew! That’s a relief. Now that we’re back to the main road, let’s stop for a few supplies.
Sure. It’s right here in town, on this oh-so-wide road Ha! 🙂
After enjoying a few days in Longview, TX with friends Terry and Lynn, we garaged our trusty steed(-ette?) Pearl in her temporary digs at their place. On the way to a wedding in Dallas Saturday, they then dropped us at a hotel near the Dallas Fort Worth Airport.
Amazing planning by the super planners!
Sunday afternoon we flew to Atlanta to catch a long flight across the ocean all the way to Milano, Italy. The vagabonds are cruising by air! Luckily, we didn’t have anyone next to us on the 9-hour leg. That’s a long way! But arrival was exciting, and customs was a wonderful non-event.
At the gate in the Dallas Fort Worth International AirportAll smiles on the flight from Atlanta to Milano – let’s go!A people carrier pulled up next to the plane to take us from the boarding stairs to the terminal in MilanoShucks, none of these belongs to us
After securing our suitcase (Score! No lost luggage!), we followed the signs to the “Noleggio Auto” in the airport, pulled a number and settled in for a bit of a wait.
Once handed the key to a snazzy blue Renault, we hit the road amongst a plethora of signs, all unreadable to these Americanos. Fortunately, many of the important ones are symbols: Stop, Yield, Merge, Do Not Enter, No Parking, etc. (And at least the Italians drive on the right. Ha!) Through the magic of cellphone navigation (yeah, T-Mobile!), – not to mention, we are so young and cool 😉 – we found a mobile phone store in Milano and picked up a local Tourist SIM card for our spare phone. Poor handsome dude spoke a smattering of “Inglese” to help us now somewhat babbling oldsters.
The next task was even more challenging – find a market and purchase enough food to scrounge up dinner and breakfast at the rental so we could get some much-needed sleep before facing a larger provisioning trip. That first attempt at grocery shopping was certainly entertaining… until our “young cool side” remembered that crazy cellphone. We are now learning how to make the best use of Google Translate. And it’s Fantastico!
As to driving? Nothing like going rapidly from 85+mph (135+ kph) to a crawl (and everything in between) whilst operating a manual stick in a foreign country. Yahoo! Navigating through and around Milano’s larger roads turned out to be good training for things to come when we reached the Como area. Mamma mia!
Welcome to Como!Pizza! But nowhere to pull over Can you please toss us one? They’re frisbee-shaped 🙂Once off the main road, the roads got really tightWorking our way through Como and NessoSorry, no shots of the narrowest sections, as the photographer was white-knuckling the oh-crap handle
About an hour outside of Milan, we were rewarded with our first glimpses of the famous Lake Como!
Approaching the town of NessoPlenty of boats & seaplanes on the lake
Another 30-minutes of increasingly narrow, twisting roads and several hairpin turns up the mountain (double mamma mia!), and we found our first home away from home between Como and Belagio.
Parking is at street level, naturallyThe house, perched mountainside, is however downhill Wait a second there, Amore Mio, why are your hands empty?The quaint front entrance leads tothe bright kitchen & living areaAnd the indescribable view of Lake Como from the terrace!
We’ve spent our first few days sleeping, provisioning, sleeping, enjoying the view, sleeping, and getting used to things. We can’t wait to explore and share the adventure. For now, arrivederci, one and all!
Our Travels 