An Italian Experience

I'm starting this post the morning after having returned from nearly two weeks in Italy - so pretty jet-lagged and a little emotional.

What I Loved:

Italy is an objectively beautiful country. We flew into Rome, spent a couple of days there, then went to the Tuscany region for five days and then to the Amalfi Coast area for four days. In Rome you have the history and the art. In Tuscany, you have the beauty of the rolling hills, the quaint villages, and the wine/olive oil, and in Amalfi you have the beauty of the ocean next to the mountains. Every region we went to was very different, but all of them were beautiful in their own ways. My favorite was Tuscany - Tuscany is like the Napa Valley region of California, but covers a much larger area and has a much deeper history. I loved the small villages and we were fortunate to see many of them (Lecchi, San Sano, Gaioli, Radda, Montepulciano). There is a charm and quietness to them that is unlike anything I've seen here in the US. For example - when we arrived in Florence, we did a little exploring there and then drove to where we were staying in the Tuscan countryside. We needed some basic groceries and just happened to stop in Lecchi (it was unplanned). The small village grocery store was open and then gentleman who owns and runs the store, Paolo, was incredibly helpful and welcoming. We probably ended up spending more money there than we were expecting, but he was patient and offered us samples of all the meats and cheeses he recommended, and it was all fresh. It was such a pleasant experience that we drove specifically to visit his store again later in our trip. In that same town was a wonderful little restaurant called Malborghetto - the owner himself took my reservation and then it felt like we were eating in someone's backyard while we were there. Excellent food, wine and atmosphere. There are a lot of stories like this from our time there.

I loved the pace of life there as well - at first I was a little taken aback by how long some of our meals took, but I came to like that pace...just a lingering and an enjoyment, not the rush and urgency I so often feel here in the US. A lot of the places also close middle of the day - open for lunch, closed mid-afternoon, and then open again for dinner. I think I need to remember this takeaway, especially with family -- to enjoy a meal that just lingers...and really, to make space for it; to not rush to clear the table when people are done eating or to rush to the next thing, just sit and enjoy time together.

What I Will Remember:

There were two things (food/beverage) that I had in Italy that I doubt will ever be out-done. We went to a restaurant in Florence called 'Vini e Vecchi'. When we first stopped by, the place was slammed and Tommaso, one of the owners told us he couldn't get us in, not possible. My friend Will then dropped the name of his friend "Mike, from America" (lol) and Tommaso said, "ok, come back in 45 minutes". So we came back, and he said "come back in 20 minutes". So we came back and he relented and gave us a table. Mind you, this was not offensive - it was clear that they were very busy and they don't take reservations, so you kinda just have to time it right.

So we get a table in the back of the restaurant and the service was very good - I ended up ordering the beef stew because it caught my eye. It was less like a stew and more like a pot roast that had a lot of sauce on it, and came with a side of pole beans. The meat was fall apart tender and the sauce - oh the sauce - was the star of the show. It had whole peppercorns in it which exploded the flavor of the whole dish when you would bite into them. If I could have gotten away with physically lifting the plate and licking it clean, I would have. Meanwhile, we're watching Tommaso move non-stop the entire time were there, with incredible energy, joy and kindness to everyone there. Everyone enjoyed their meal there - if we had had time to go back, we would have.

The second memorable food item was on the last day of our trip. We drove from Amalfi to Naples because that was the airport we were flying out of, and ended up having an afternoon to explore. After eating lunch we were just wandering around for awhile and stumbled across 'Antica Pasticceria Giovanni Scaturchio', or just 'Scaturchio', a very famous pastry shop there in Naples. We sat down at the tables across the street and ordered some pastries and then I just happened to order a cold coffee, the 'caffe freddo'. I guess I was just expecting a cold cup of espresso, but what came was a small cup of heaven. Imagine an almost slushie type drink, except it's coffee and it's sweetened. It was amazing. Will ended up going into the store and ordering one for himself. We also got a couple of Coda d'Aragosta pastries, one with chocolate and one with cream...so freaking good.

Another thing I will remember is the traffic. We are spoiled here in the US - wide roads, logical rules of the road that most people respect, and mostly passenger vehicles (cars, SUVs, etc) on the roads. In Rome, there are cars, buses, delivery trucks, mopeds, scooters, bicycles, pedestrians, etc...and seemingly no rules. Scooters and mopeds, especially, seem to have no rules. No lanes. Not enough room on the road for all of this either. In Florence there were what were called ZTL Zones which were certain areas of the city that you could only drive in IF the sign was not on. Google Maps does not know when those signs are on. So - for example - we were on our way to leave Florence via train and needed to drop off our rental car prior to catching our train. We left a hour of extra time figuring we were giving ourselves plenty of time. Then we encountered what I now call "ZTL Hell". So Google Maps is telling us to go down a road in which the ZTL Zone sign was on, meaning we can't drive on it (and these streets are monitored via street cameras and you will get a fine/ticket if you violate). Google Maps can't reroute us and we have no assurance that if we take another route we won't run into another ZTL Zone. We made it with about 15 minutes to spare.

The traffic was like this in all of the major cities we visited (Rome, Florence, Naples). Terrible terrible traffic. I drove to work today and thought to myself, 'how do people ever get into accidents here'?

Final Thoughts:

I have thought about the question "would I go back"? Probably not - I would go back to Tuscany, I really did enjoy that area...but now I've seen it. I would want to do something different if I ever did go back - like a biking tour of that whole area, or staying nearer to one of the small towns...something like that. Rome is packed with art and history - both of which I like, but again, now I feel like I've seen it. The Colosseum is very large and impressive when you're standing under it's shadow - the Vatican is amazing as well; I didn't have a chance to see the Sistine Chapel but St. Peter's Basilica is the single most impressive overall work of art that I've ever seen. The Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, all of the various things you stumble across in Rome are all great to see. But once you see them, you've seen them. The Amalfi Coast is awesome as well - a very rare place where the mountains meet the water in a stunning display of God's Creation. But it's also extremely expensive there. There is also no lateral travel there - everywhere you go is either upstairs or downstairs. I loved hiking the Path of the Gods trail there - I also climbed 180+ flights of stairs that day according to my Garmin watch.

Other random things:

- Apparently french fries on pizza is a thing in Italy, and we saw more than one display of this, and actually ended up trying it. It's not bad - but I did not have that on my bingo card when thinking about food in Italy.

- I'm not into gelato. Everyone says it's the best there, and I had some, but I guess I just don't have a taste for it.

- The whole trip, all I wanted was a big cup of coffee that I could sit and enjoy for 1/2 an hour. Never found it. Italians have great coffee, but it comes in very small quantities. At one of the places we stayed, they had an American coffee maker, but it took two hours to make a carafe of coffee and so we gave up.

- When you can find one who speaks English, taxi drivers are amazing sources of information. One particularly memorable interaction we had was when I asked a taxi driver to tell me about all of the graffiti you see EVERYWHERE in Rome (and Florence, and Naples) and he said 'it's bullshit and everyone here hates it and the people that do it are a bunch of bullshits'.

- The phrase 'when in Rome' can be justification for pretty much anything when you are in fact, in Rome. We also used it in all of the other places we went in Italy.

- Wine windows, while a good idea, are overrated in Florence. There are probably too many of them at this point, and you are usually served wine in a glass that you have to give back instead of in a cup you can carry around with you. So you have to stand there and enjoy your drink and then give the glass back before you can go on your way. It's fun, it's unique for sure, but I didn't get it.

- We were in Naples two days after the Napoli soccer team won the Serie A championship and they put all American sports celebrations to shame. We didn't see the actual celebration or the parade that they had planned for the next day, but it was clear, everyone was still celebrating. Maradonna jerseys everywhere, MSA jerseys everywhere - people (kids mostly) still going crazy with noise makers and vuvuzelas.

- People say that the wine in Italy is different and I have to say, I agree. Never had a headache, never had a hangover. Gotta be careful with Limoncello.

Photo Album if you want to see some of the pictures: https://photos.app.goo.gl/4Q55ZW7nJ58nxovT7