Mantova

We decided to tempt the Fates today and headed south into earthquake country - the Padana region of Italia - to visit Mantova, which is quite near Modena and the area of the recent (May and June) seismic activity. So far, so good, no shaking! Mantova is a beautiful, picturesque city, and was the home of the Gonzaga dukes during the 14th to 17th centuries. It is also known in literature as the city where Shakespeare's Romeo was sent into exile from neighboring Verona, and as the birthplace of the Roman age poet Virgilio Marone, better known as Virgil. It was also the setting for Verdi's famous opera Rigoletto. The origin of Mantova goes back to prehistoric times, when lake-dwelling people settled the land along the marshy waters of the Mincio River. Later, the Etruscans founded settlements and then the Gauls until Mantova became a Roman colony. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the city experienced a rebirth, and modern town planning. They did a incredible job with that as, basically, the city is an architectural historian's dream. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and rightfully so. We visited the Palazzo Ducale,or the part we could get into, since it was damaged during the May earthquake. Wow, what a place - 500 rooms, multiple gardens,churches, a basilica and a huge piazza. It was home to the Gonzaga family during the Rennaissance and its interior frescoes are telltale signs of that historical period. The palazzo also incorporates the Castello (castle) of San Giorgio a 14th century fortress. We walked around town to another smaller palazzo in Piazza delle Erbe and then around the city in general. The Duomo is under restoration so we didn't spend much time there except to enjoy the natural "air conditioning" afforded by the gorgeous mrble walls and ceiling. It was terribly hot and humid today, so that small respite was most welcomed. Pictures of Mantova will have to wait until the weekend. Tomorrow we are off to Verona for the day and then back to Berzo for a pizza dinner at the sports bar with cousins to watch the Italia vs Germany game. Predictions here are that Italia's run at the European championship will end at the hands (or feet really) of a sharp, young German team. As for me, I am ever hopeful that the Azzurri can pull off a huge upset. Hope along with me. Forza Italia!!

Benvenuti Lidia e Greg!

Rachel and I drove to Milano today to pickup Lidia and Greg who arrived this afternoon.  Yay!  It's been 23 years since Lidia's been here (only 2 for Greg) and all the cousins here in Berzo are quite anxious to see her. But, that will have to wait until tomorrow since they were both very tired from the long flight.  Greg's was a marathon day, as he flew from San Francisco to LA, then LA to Roma, and then Roma to Milano - some 30 hours total transit time.  Their flight from Los Angeles went well, and, unlike our Air France nightnare, they both complimented the food and the service on Alitalia.  Lidia made fast friends with the young man sitting next to her who was from Australia but who spoke perfect Italian.  Neither Lidia nor Greg made it very long once we got to Berzo, so they are happily asleep as I type this.

We've finally made some very good progress on the house, at least on the top floor.  It's been scrubbed from top to bottom, but we're still needing some other things to fall in place, namely new mattresses (just a minor technicality) and a thorough cleaning of the marble flooring.  Meanwhile, life at Casa Riboli is wonderful as always and now Rachel and I have some company other than my cousin Bruna's least favorite neighbors - the cats!

Tomorrow morning Lidia will see her house for the first time and after that, we're planning on stopping at the pizzeria/bar here in Berzo for a yummy espresso.  The bar has been closed for the past two weeks, so it'll be fun to finally have coffee with our cousins who frequent there for their morning "cup of joe" and to get caught up on all the local news.  The next few days will be spent visiting family, a trip to Iper Supermercato so Greg can load up on cheese and salume, and possibly a trip to the Lovere mercato on Saturday morning depending on how the time change is going for Lidia and Greg.  We have tentative plans to visit either Pavia or Cremona next week and maybe Lago di Garda or Lago di Como.  Stay tuned.

How about those Azzurri!! For those of you who watched the Italia vs. Ireland game, or maybe just the highlights (or maybe you didn't watch at all), the player who made the last goal - Mario Balotelli - is from the province of Bergamo, which is our province here in Berzo.  How cool is that! After Italia's win, you could hear people cheering outside all around Berzo. Now, we're all very excited and hopeful about the Italia vs. England quarterfinal game on Sunday.  So, wear your soccer blue for the Azzurri and think red, white, and green.  Forza Italia!

I've been trying for two days to upload pictures of the house without luck. The internet connection here is soooooooooo slow. It's takes at least 1/2 hour just to get online (and I'm not exaggerating).  I'll keep trying though, but there may not be any photos until we head to Barcelona the first week of July and have good internet access.

Happy summer solstice everyone!

Padova a piedi (on foot)

Well, let it never be said that didn't walk off the gelato today.....We've spent the past two days in Padova walking around the historical town center for hours upon hours.  Tonight we're held up in the hotel trying to soothe our feet. Gotta love the cobblestone streets they have here! Actually, it took us a while to figure out that the "sidewalks" were made of smooth marble, whereas where we were walking (in the center of the street) was truly rough cobblestones.  Now, don't go thinking we crazy enough to walk down the middle of any street - this was an area of pedestrian use only.

We decided to buy a "Padova Card" which allows use of the public transportation system to get around the city, as well as free or reduced admission to many historical buildings.  We learned quickly, however, that  the bus service here is not very punctual (actually nowhere near punctual), but from my perspective, it was still better than driving into the city center and trying to find parking.

Yesterday, we visited several piazze - Piazza della Frutta (fruit), Piazza delle Erbe (herbs), and Piazza dei Signori (aristocrats). A small mercato was in each piazza, so we spent some time walking around and checking out the goods.  Near one of  piazza's we witnessed a "tar and feathering" of students that had just completed their Ph.D's.  One guy, dressed in a sort of cat outfit, was being smeared with raw eggs and flour, while his classmates poked fun of him and sang bawby tunes. Another was dressed like a bumblebee. After, their classmates paraded them around the piazzas continuing their singing, which I won't translate because, after all, this is a family blog.  A picture of the "cat" student is below.  It seems that this is quite the ritual here, and it was certainly being done with fun and not malice.  Poor guys, they finally earned their doctorates in Science and then they are subjected to raw eggs being rubbed through their hair and then coated with flour and water.  You'd think they were nutrition or culinary majors.

We had dinner at ristorante "Agli Eremitani", where we had eaten some delicious pizzas two years ago.  The food was once again fantastic.  Rachel had two huge pieces of grilled swordfish with vegetables, while I had branzino (sea bass) and spinach.  For the first time in all our years visiting Italy, Rachel was offered a "doggie" bag for the fish she didn' t finish.  Was she ever happy about that!


We got an early start this morning, and headed to the largest mercato in Padova, which was at Prato Della Valle (Field of the Valley).  Seriously, there we hundred of vendors and, unlike other mercati we've been too, it was organized according to what was being sold - fruit, housewares, clothing, and shoes - the latter of which was an immediate draw for Rachel, who ended up buying two pairs (the counting of shoes begins!).  After lunch, we visited the Basilica of Sant'Antonio, the patron saint of Padova.  The basilica is gorgeous, filled with marble walls and colonades, and beautiful frescoes.  It also has the tomb of Sant'Antonio to whom my Mom was much devoted.  We visit here when we come to Italia in her honor and memory.

We continued our walking tour of Padova, sightseeing the city in general and passing some very large palazzi (palaces).  We returned to Piazza della Frutta to pickup a few items for dinner and have, once again, a delicious and refreshing pre-dinner Martini Royale cocktail that is made from Martini white wine, prosecco, lime, and mint.  On a hot and humid day like today, it was just perfect.

"Tar and feathering" of a graduate.

The local meat market.  This whole section of the mercato in Piazza delle Erbe is filled with meat counters.

Rachel and the pink Vespa

Piazza della Frutta and the mercato

Rachel and our favorite Padovan cocktail

The prosciutto shop that Greg wants to own someday. Check out all those hams hanging in the background.

Well, that's it from Padova.  Tomorrow we return to Berzo to partake in the Festa della Birra on Sunday night.  Don't forget to root for the Azzurri on Monday, who play against Ireland. Forza Italia, Forza Azzurri!!

A few more pictures of Venezia

Some pictures of Venezia we downloaded today:

A typical canal

The girls in Venezia

Rachel incognito. 

Some of the more unusual masks.

Venezia

Thunderstorm over Piazza San Marco

Rachel in Venezia

We've spent two wonderful days in Venezia, weathering an intense thunderstorm, throngs of tourists, and hours of walking around ""La Serenissima", the stunningly beautiful city of shimmering water.  Had we arrived one day earlier, we would have been here when a tornado struck the island of Sant' Elena, which is about a 15 minute walk from Piazza San Marco.  The tornado uprooted many trees on the island, as well as leveled an agricultural area on the neighboring island of San Pietro.  The locals here are saying they've never witnessed anything like it - sunny one moment, a tornado the next.  Good timing on our part!

Our first afternoon in Venezia was sunny and warm, but within just a few hours, an unexpected thunderstorm arrived, scattering the crowds of tourists.  We sought shelter inside our favorite jewelry store near the Rialto Bridge so, yes, it was a slightly expensive thunderstorm.  We had dinner in a not so great restaurant, where it took well over an hour to get our food, this with a total of about 10 people in the place!.  Rachel had cuddlefish with black squid ink sauce and polenta (a Venetian speciality), but it wasn't as good as the last time she was here. After weathering the storm, and the not so great dinner, we were treated to a beautiful rainbow over Giudecca Island on our boat ride back to the hotel.

The hotel (Molino Stucky Hilton) offers the most incredible buffet breakfast, so we started today off by having some decadent and delicious food.  There must have been at least 10 different cheeses and salume, smoked salmon, gorgeous bowls of fresh fruit, and mouth-watering pastries, although neither Rachel nor I could eat those :-(   I was really surprised to find a gluten free chocolate cake at the buffet, so of course I had to try it - yummy!

We walked through the Dorsoduro and Accademia districts, which are far less crowded that the touristy San Marco area.  Rachel was on the hunt for some Carnevale masks, and we also visited one of our favorite glassware shops where I couldn't resist buying a gorgeous vase for the new house.  We had dinner at a much better restaurant in Campo San Polo (named after Marco Polo who was from Venezia).  They had quite the gluten free menu (which was great for me), so I had some ricotta and erbette (herb) ravioli with brown butter and sage sauce; Rachel had orate alla griglia (grilled sea bream).  We headed back to the hotel early to watch the Italia vs. Croazia soccer game in the bar, where the wine and prosecco helped calm our nerves during the game (or at least that was my excuse).  The match ended 1-1, so now Italia is 0-0-2 in the European Championship.  Forza Azzurri, here's to winning next time.

Tonight, the sunset over Venezia was just gorgeous - the sunlight over the glittery water was something to behold.  We leave for Padova tomorrow, where we'll visit for two days before returning to Berzo on Sunday.  Although I never want to leave Venezia, it's not quite goodbye yet, as I know we'll come back next month with Lidia and Greg.

A presto Venezia!

Sunset over the Giudecca Canal

Rainbow over Giudecca Island

The Ferrari's

Life here in Italy continues to be wonderful despite the many challenges posed by fixing up the house.  We're finally getting to the point of starting the "deep cleaning" and, with the much-needed help of my cousin Maria Luisa, we hope to get that taken care of by early next week before Lidia and Greg arrive. Sometimes this past week it seems like it's been one step forward and two steps back but, as Rachel tells me, we've only been at this for a few days and it will definitely take time to get it just right. Our garden area is the one shining light - it's beautiful and filled with many blooming plants and bushes like lilies, hydrangeas, and other flowers that I don't recognize.  The trellis archway that leads into the garden is particularly gorgeous, as it is outlined by clusters of red roses. 

Yesterday while driving to Bergamo, we were treated to a Ferrari "car show".  With a police car in the lead, some 23 Ferrari's (yes I counted) drove by us, all in a row, on the other side of the road - wow, what a sight!  I wonder how many dollars (or euros) that constituted - millions upon millions for sure. The cars were beautifully polished and super shiny, and most were the signature red Ferrari color, while a few were black; there was even a yellow car although I think it may have been a Maserati since someone once told me that yellow is their signature color.  Somehow, the  nice rental car I was driving just didn't hold a candle (not even a match) to those stunning Ferrari's.  Here's hoping that someday I'll get the chance to ride in one. 

The weather here has been really unsettled, with daily thunderstorms, spectacular lightning, and even some hail one evening.  We brought along a lot of summer clothes, but we really haven't had the opportunity to wear them yet.  We're getting tired of wearing our one jacket and two pair of long pants. We're hoping the weather will change in the next few days, as tomorrow is our last day in Berzo before our trip to Venezia and Padova.  Yay, I get to visit my most favorite city in the world!  We're planning on visiting some areas in Venezia that we haven't been to yet and, of course, have some fun  jewelry shopping, a small reward for all the house cleaning or at least that's what I'm telling myself.

Venezia, we can't wait to see you!!

The woes of flying Air France and our first few days in Berzo

Saluti da l'Italia! 

We've been in Berzo for 4 days now, and each one has been filled with visiting family and beginning the task of readying the house.  All of that is so wonderful (even cleaning the house) compared to our trip over on Air France.  Where to begin.....we arrived at the airport in San Francisco 3 hours early to check-in as recommended for international travel.  When we walked through the door, the check-in area was absolute chaos, with hundreds of people standing in "line".  We had been unable to print boarding passes before going to the airport because the Air France system would not accept our confirmation number or airline ticket number, so we had to wait in the regular check-in line and not the one for those with boarding passes, which was considerably shorter.  While in line, a large group (50+) of French tourists strong-armed their way in front of Rachel, so now we had so many more people in front of us in an already ridiculously long line.  I'll save everyone reading about the details of the ensuing nightmare other than to say that these French tourists were the rudest and most disrespectful people I've ever seen.  They actually were shoving children out of the way to move forward in the line!! A lady next to us who was French-American had enough of their behavior and barreled her way through the crowd with us in tow.  I don't understand French but I could sure tell that expletives were flying about.  All in all, it took us 2 hours to get to the check-in counter, where another surprise awaited us.  We had extra suitcases to pay for (of course we had lots of suitcases!) so instead of accepting the fee for those at the ticket counter, we had to go stand in yet another line to pay, which had about 5 people in front of us.  By this time, I'm figuring we were going to miss the flight.  After 20 minutes ow waiting in that line and finally paying, we were given priority through security and made it to the plane with about 15 minutes to spare!  After landing in Paris, the nightmare continued on our continuation flight to Milano since our plane was about 1 hour late in arriving.  We literally had to run from one terminal to the next, having to stop for passport inspection and yet another security check.  We made it to that flight with about 20 minutes to spare.  Never again will we fly Air France and I would highly recommend that anyone reading this doesn't either.  The rude behavior of the French is legendary and in that one day I had enough to fill a lifetime.

Now on to the good part - Italia - where people are anything but rude and disrespectful (and no, I'm not being ecocentric here!).  We arrived in Milano and spent the night there to help adjust to the time change. So far, so good with that.  The next morning we drove to Berzo - what a great feeling and welcome we received after the French debacle.  We went straight away to the house where Rachel got the first viewing of her Italian home.  We've spent the last few days taking stock of all their is to do, which is really quite overwhelming.  We are making progress daily, but there's still so much yet ahead before we can move in.  Our hope is that within a few weeks we'll finally get to sleep in house.  Meanwhile, we are enjoying life at Casa Riboli and the hospitality of our extended family here in Berzo.

Today we went to Bergamo with our cousin Paolo to sign up for internet access and I'm actually writing this email from Casa Riboli.  We've moved up in the world!!  The connection is painfully slow but, hey, it works. Tomorrow we will return to Bergamo to shop at Iper, which is a giant supermarket, and to visit my cousin Giorgio who is in the hospital there. Although this week has been filled with "house things", next week we'll get a well earned break, as we're off to visit Venezia and Padova.  The "Festa della Birra" (Beer Festival) is in Berzo next weekend, and we'll be back on the last evening of that to enjoy some time with our comune (community).  

We'll post some pictures when we get to Venezia next week, where the internet connection should be must faster.  It took 10 minutes just to get access to the blog - I can't imagine how long it would take to upload some photos!

We need a vacation!

Tomorrow is our big day -  Rachel and I leave for Bella Italia.  The last few days have been an absolute whirlwind of activity, buzzing around town picking up last minute items, goodbye BBQs with neighbors and friends, and packing and more packing. We both agree that we need a vacation from packing for our vacation.

We depart San Francisco mid-afternoon and fly to Paris, where we have a three hour layover before catching the plane to Milano.  All told, it will be a 15 hour trip, that is if all goes as planned. There always seems to be some type of glitch in the travel system, and just as long as it doesn't mirror the 30 hour trip we had in 2010, all will be good.  We'll stay in Milano overnight and drive to Berzo on Thursday morning (or will it be our night with the time change?). My cousins will be finishing the painting of the upstairs of the house tomorrow, and we're hoping to move in after a few days of letting it air out.  In the interim, we'll once again be staying at "Hotel Riboli", my cousin Bruna and Gene's home in Berzo.

The weekend will be busy visiting family, taking stock of the house and what we need to buy, and trying to get internet service set up with the help of my cousin Paolo, who thankfully is fluent in English and Italian and can talk "computer lingo" on my behalf.   We're hoping to get to the mercato (the Italian version of a farmer's market and a bit more) in Lovere on Saturday (it's awesome!), but that might be too ambitious given the effects of the time change and all we'll need to do to get the house ready. 

                                                 Our cherry tree - yummy! - and garden area.

                                                                  Villa Meli Terzi (our house). 
                                         The big tree in the background is the cherry tree.
                                  The garden in the foreground is our neighbor's, not ours :-(


As you can imagine, we're very excited about the trip.  For me, it will be a dream come true to have my daughter walk into her own house in Berzo. Our parents immigrated to America never having had a home together in Italy. They came here "on a wing and a prayer" and, like so many of those early immigrants, with nothing more than a heart full of hope and dreams for a better future. They more than gave that to us, their children, but in doing so, they had to leave behind their families and friends, and their hometown.  They instilled in us, though, that strong sense of family, regardless of whether aunts, uncles, and cousins lived here or back "in the old country", and they also nurtured the growth of deep, branching roots that have finally brought our family back to Italy.  After almost 75 years, our parents now have a home in Berzo, as do their children, grandchildren, and future generations. The circle is complete.

We appreciate you all "coming to Italy" with us this summer.  Let's get this started! 
Next post from Milano.