In Milan, They Thought We Were Crazy!

Rick Steves says that the further South in Italy you go, the more intense it gets.

Our feeling is that in Rome and Naples, the locals are laughing with us. 

 

In Florence, the locals were laughing at us. 

 

And in Milan, they thought we were absolutely insane.

 

We are really fairly reasonable people and don’t make a lot of demands, but quite often got looks of complete puzzlement in Milan.

 

Nowhere was this more true than at the Villa Malpensa Hotel.

 

We stayed here on our last night when we went to Europe in 2012.  The airport is 30 miles outside of the city of Milan.  There is a good train that goes to the airport, but with the cost of hotels in Milan and the early time of our flight, staying near the airport made sense.

The Villa was built by an early aviation pioneer in Italy, and is a beautiful building.  They are very close to the airport and have a free shuttle service.

In 2012, we were in Europe for almost a month.  We were absolutely drained by the last day.  So we headed to the hotel fairly quickly and planned to spend the day just relaxing.

When we checked in, we met this guy….

 

Well, this is not an actual picture of him, but he did look a lot like this.  Interesting man, and he really blew hot and cold our whole stay.  We were never quite sure if we were going to be chastised or greeted warmly.

As we walked around the grounds, looking for the advertised pool, the garden staff gave us really puzzled looks.  It turned out that the pool was closed for repairs.

As we sat in the outdoor gazebo area, the other staff gave us puzzled looks.  One lady came out to set up tables for a gathering, and decided not to leave the table clothes.  Who knows what those crazy Americans would do to them!

 

We had lunch in a little sitting room, as they were working on their snack bar.  I was thoroughly tired of ham and cheese, even if it was Italian, by this point and ordered a Tuna Sandwich on White Bread.  The waiter started to argue with me, but then concluded I was just a crazy American, why bother.

 

So, when it was time to plan our last night in Italy, we decided to come back.  We had to return our car to the airport.

 

Helpful Hint…follow the signs that say “Car Hire,” there are none for Car Rental Returns.

We went outside and called the hotel for the shuttle to come get us. 

“Where are you?”

“Exit number 10”

Click!  I told the B.F. that the guy hung up on me!  But a few minutes later, there was the van.

When we got to the hotel, we realized we had left our hats sitting on a post at the airport.

Ooooooops!

Okay, okay….truth be told….I left the hats behind.  The B.F. was in charge of all of our ever-increasing luggage and I was in charge of the hats.

Oooooooops!

So we unloaded the bags from the van, I was put in charge of checking in, and the B.F. explained to the van driver that he needed to go back to the airport.

At the desk, I saw that our same friend was in charge.

 

When the van driver explained he had to take the crazy American back to the airport, the desk clerk was in great disbelief!  Who but a crazy American would make such a request!?!?!  (honestly, the airport was really only a couple of miles from the hotel)

 

 

As I was checking in, the clerk asked if I had 2 rooms.

Um, no, just one.

Apparently, I had somehow indicated there was only one of us checking in.  It was okay, he could add another, but it was going to cost more!  Note:  Later I saw another woman check in, and had the same issue, so I’m thinking it is a flaw in the website!

He then DEMANDED we make dinner reservations!  We could see why this was important, as we were one of three parties in the whole, huge restaurant!

 

By then, Dennis was back with the hats, and we were escorted to our room by the van driver –slash- bell boy.

Heavens, what do you tip a bell boy in Italy?  We gave him a five, since he was so nice about going back to the airport.

We got our luggage organized for the next day’s trek to the airport and went to the EMPTY dining room.  The waiter was just able to squeeze us in.  We ordered glasses of wine and a simple dinner.  The food was okay, the wine was okay.  The waiter did drop off the rest of the bottle of wine at no charge, so that was nice.  It wound up being one of our most expensive, less impressive dinners, but it also took little effort on our part.

 

We did go to dinner at the unfashionably early time of 7:30 and were surprised when they sat another table.  It was two Italian gentlemen.  We had a theory they were Mafia and were there to make a hit…but have no evidence to support our idea.

 

They did have one of my favorite desserts of the trip…vanilla ice cream with a balsamic vinegar reduction.  Sounds weird, I know, but yummy…The B.F. passed on that dessert, not being a vinegar fan.

 

We then got a good night’s sleep, had a fairly decent breakfast at the restaurant and took the shuttle back to the airport.  We had to do some searching for the Customs office to turn in some VAT paperwork, and then through security and the long walk to the gate.

While standing around waiting to be let on the plane, a tall gentleman made a point of forcing his way through the crowds and standing RIGHT IN FRONT of me.  But it worked to my advantage, I drafted off him to get onto the plane quicker…let him do all the shoving, I just walked in his wake.

 

And then, just 20 short hours later, we where home….

 

 

….and this is all I have to say about that!

The Germans really do say Gesundtheit, And the Swiss drive slow!

As a way to relax at the end of our vacation, we decided to spend a few days in the Piedmonte region.  This is where quite spectacular wines come from.  The area is at the foothills of the Alps, and has beautiful, rolling green hills with vineyards and Hazelnut trees.

 

We booked a room at a beautiful little winery near Sinio.  The hosts are wonderful people who love entertaining and learning about where their guests come from.

 Chiara and Paulo

 

There were two couples from Germany, a couple from Switzerland, and a couple from Austria as guests.  Um, everyone spoke German except the hosts and us…Luckily, these lovely people all switched to English when we were in the room.

One of the guests sneezed and another did wish them Gesundtheit!  I always thought that was one of those made up, TV German things!

After our delightful breakfast, we wandered around the area and stopped in the town of La Morra. 

 

It is a beautiful little town, with great views of the valley.

 

No lizards, but apparently there are Big Foot sightings in town!

 

There are 2 churches, right next to each other…just like Starbucks in Near Seattle!

 

 

 

 

We stopped in the Comunale de La Morra, which is a cooperative of the local wine makers.  They were having a special wine tasting of Barolos – The King of Wine and the wine of Kings!  We stood in the middle of the room feeling very imitated.

 

So we left!

After a couple of minutes of girding our loins, we went back in and tentatively asked what the deal was.  Fortunately we got a lovely lady, who spoke English, who explained that we pay 10 Euro, received a glass and ran around tasting the wines of a dozen or so wineries.  She was very clear that we were to give back the glass when we were done!

Since we really don’t know much about Barolo, we enjoyed tasting different samples from different years and vineyards.  It is a very rich, bold wine and we now have a slightly better understanding.  It will take many more years of research and many more bottles of this wine for us to truly understand it!

We are very willing to try!

And we did return our glasses when we finished tasting!  No sense having a run-in with the wine police!

 

During the day, we stopped at a little bar to have a drink and use the facilities.  They served us cute little snacks with our drinks.

The bar in the bar was neat!

 

They turned out to be the Snacks Of Death!

 

I'm not sure what this statue was suppose to represent, but we think he ate in the same place!

 

As we were getting ready for dinner, the B.F. was feeling chilled.  But he soldiered on and was willing to still go out.  We went to a lovely restaurant, and he felt worse and worse.  Nothing looked good, so he ordered something light from the menu.

It was a shame we didn’t feel better, the restaurant was very elegant, and the food we did try was good.  There was a family with 2 young children that ran around the restaurant the whole meal.  The little girl had a major crush on the waiter, and followed him around batting her eyes!

There was also a large family group having the chef’s special dinner.  The waiter would go around the table with each course and end with the teenage boy….he got to have all that was left of each dish, and it was usually a lot!

By the time dinner arrived, the BF was feeling really bad, so we rushed the waiter, as much as you can rush an Italian waiter, got his meal wrapped up to go, and went back to the B&B.  All during this, I didn’t feel my best.  Since our room had a sleeping loft, we spent the night running up and down the stairs. 

I don’t know what the Italian is for Montezuma’s Revenge…but I know what it feels like!

The next day we felt better, but drained.  So we spent a lovely day, sitting in the sun and relaxing. 

One of the couples from Germany left. They had about a 10 hour drive to Düsseldorf.  They were not looking forward to the small part of the trip through Switzerland, since the speed limit is ONLY 120 in Switzerland.  That is about 75 MPH for the American audience.  And apparently way to slow for that German’s taste!

 

Finally, at about 2 PM we had to leave to get our car back in time and drove off, saying goodbye to beautiful Piedmonte.

 

Sigh!

Assassin’s Creed

Day 14 Siena to Montereggioni to Piedmonte

And the Skies Opened and it Rained!

We had pretty good weather for most of our trip.  It was hot and sunny the whole time in Milan and Lake Como.  They were predicting rain one of the days we were in Venice, but we only had a little drizzle.

All this came to a screeching halt on the day we were leaving Siena.  The day started out drizzly and we wore our rain coats to breakfast in Il Campo.  It was our most expensive breakfast in Italy, but came with quite a view.  As it was trash day, it came with a “floor show” also.

We went back to the hotel and grabbed our suitcases.  As we walked to the car, the rain got a little harder.

As you have probably figured out, I do 99.7% of the planning for our vacations.  We are really much happier that way.  I do take suggestions from The Blog Fodder and I keep his interests in mind.  Just to keep me on my toes, the B.F. often throws a monkey wrench into the works.  In 2012, it was San Marino.

 

San Marino is an independent country on a mountain top that is completely surrounded by Italy.  When the rest of the country got together, they declined to join in, and for whatever reason, were allowed to stay independent.  It was a beautiful side trip, but I seem to remember, it rained that day….

This year, he got the notion he would like to see Monteriggioni.  This is a small fortress town that was built by Siena in the 1200’s as a defense against the Evil Florence.  The town had stayed fairly well untouched and is now a little gem   If you’ve been to a Renaissance Faire in the US, you have a good idea of what it is like.  They have their own Medieval Festival each July.

 

See the Umbrellas?

There is a line in Dante’s Hell about the town.

But currently, its claim to fame is that it is featured in the video game Assassin’s Creed.

Since it is not far from Siena, and on our way, we decided to stop in.  The B.F. looked at the map and had a plan on how to get there.  Luckily it was also well signed.

As we got closer and closer, it rained harder and harder.  The B.F. was doubting if we should go or not.  We might get wet!

 

Um, we come from Near Seattle…the rainiest place on the face of the Earth.  (okay, not really, but rain shouldn’t stop us)

I encouraged him to go forth! 

We parked and paid for an hour’s worth of parking…it really is a small town. 

While it was raining pretty darn good, we really enjoyed wandering around the walled city.  We chose not to walk the walls or go to the museum of old weapons. 

 

You can see the walk on the top of the wall

The clerk in the Tourist Information Center was the rudest attendant of our trip, but we got over it.  It was the only restroom in town, and she had the key!  She did tell us we had better be only using it for one person, and we had to give her back the key IMMEDIATELY.  Some people should not be in public service!

 

The town is also on the Pilgrim trail, so we did see some backpacking pilgrims.

 

At one of the shops, a little dog was in residence.  He kept walking outside and sitting in the rain, and then coming back in the shop.  A car pulled up and tooted its horn.  Out ran the dog and jumped in the car.  He was apparently waiting for his ride.

 

The shop is in the middle, but this is after the dog caught his ride

 

 

The Inside of the shop was great!

 

We did come home with Signore Cinghiale.

 

But here are some views of the town.

 

We did go into the rather plain little church

 

 

 

After our hour was up, we continued on our way to Piedmonte. It was a wet, rainy drive most of the way.  We did pass some road work.  There was a guy in a truck with his arm out the window, waving an orange flag.  After that, there was a tractor mowing the grass along the side of the road.  This just struck us as so silly!

We passed the ONE accident we saw the entire trip (we saw no accidents the last trip).  So all the reports you have heard of the crazy Italian drivers are mostly not true.  They do drive fast and aggressive, but they really watch where they are going.

But now we have gotten to the last stretch of our trip!