• Awesomes
  • Awesomes

Epic Europe

Awesomesによる92日間のアドベンチャー もっと詳しく
  • Mantua Day 1 Palazzo Ducale

    2023年11月10日, イタリア ⋅ 🌙 8 °C

    Today is a day of near misses.
    We could not book our train from Padua to Mantua online for some reason so we got to the train station early and a good thing we did. The route we wanted to take had a long delay because there was an accident on the tracks so the ticket office told us to book another route.
    When we had to change trains in Monselice.
    We had lunch at the cafe between train changeover. When we boarded our connecting train, I realised I might have left my phone at the cafe. With 9mins before the train scheduled departure, I ran all the way to the cafe and made it back to the train with 2mins to spare.
    When we got to Mantua, the platform was crowded and Ruby left the luggage for me but I didn't know and within minutes our cabin bags were missing. Fortunately the police managed to help us find our bags.

    After we recovered from the travels, we headed to Palazzo Ducale. Every square inch of the Palazzo was painted. The Bridal Chamber was so impressive and it got even better. It was amazing, but we couldn't find any where nice for dinner because all the good restaurants were booked all weekend. So Ruby came up with a brilliant idea of getting takeaway from one of the nice restaurants called Osteria dell' Orca finally a nice finish to our night.

    Distance walked 9.9 km.
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  • Mantua Day 2 Sabbioneta Day Trip

    2023年11月11日, イタリア ⋅ 🌙 6 °C

    We went on a day trip to Sabbioneta, which is an hour bus ride away from Mantua and included in the Mantua card.
    Mantua card gives free access to the major sights in Mantua, including free transport and is valid for 72hrs, costing €25.
    We started with a coffee at a patischeria and had sbrisolona (almond shortbread), Elvezia cake (Dorina cake) and Ruby had her coffee with grappa called caffe corretto. We started our morning well.
    We then visited the sights on the Mantua card,

    My favourite was the Teatro all' Antica, where the stage has a built-in street with buildings in perspective and a gallery that is a painted fresco.

    Oratory of San Rocco was a church that was turned into an art gallery.

    We also visited the Synagogue and walked around the town to check out the remains of the city walls.

    We headed back to Mantua after lunch to fit the Palazzo Te visit.
    The Gonzaga family really loved painting every wall and ceiling in their palaces. Palazzo Te is no exception.

    The bus in Mantua stopped for a while in the centre, conveniently outside a Carrefour supermarket. We took that opportunity to get some vegetables. We did another take away from the same Osteria del Orca, ordering a serve of rabbit leg with polenta. It was delicious. The green vegetables we bought was less so, but we were still happy with some greens anyway.

    Distance walked 11.1km
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  • Mantua Day 3

    2023年11月12日, イタリア ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    Today is day of rest being Sunday.
    We went only to Andrea Mantagna's house and the Museo Civico MACA Mantova, and a car museum of Tazio Nuvolari and San Andrea's Church, and the Duomo. Also did a late afternoon passagiata along the lake.
    The idea of how Mantagna's perspective paintings were displayed at his house, with geometric diagrams did shed light on how the angles were worked out.
    We learnt about the man Tazio who raced everything on wheels, from motorcycles, to cars and even bicycles.
    A old Italian man selling church stuff explained (in Italian and the international language of mime) the painting of the archer shooting an arrow at St Sebastian in the chapel of St Sebastian at the Duomo and then given a English booklet. He rattled much Italian which only word we recognised was crypt. He then ushered into the Crypt. Fortunately in the group was a lovely lady from Torino who volunteered to interpret what the guide said to us. The crypt held the Holy Blood of Christ taken from the earth under the cross.
    We could not look up at anymore frescoes, see anymore paintings or take anymore pictures. So a walk along the lake. Mantua is surrounded by three artificial lakes, engineered and built in the 12th century as essentially a tremendously large moat.
    We are either getting old, getting travel weary, lazy or just becoming sensible as we are catching more buses and trams. At the start of this holiday, we'd think nothing of walking 2-3km between sights. Now, if there's a bus, we take it.

    Distance walked 12 km
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  • Bologna Day 1

    2023年11月13日, イタリア ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    I left a piece of my heart in Mantua. It's Mantova in Italian, but Mantua colloquially or in Latin. It has gorgeous buildings in interesting laneways, is not too busy, and we did not see a single monster tour bus for 4 days. I would happily trade places with Romeo and be banished to Mantua.

    Most notable event was Grace fell in the bus this morning. One moment she was standing with the suitcase, next moment she was at the feet of an old lady, bum down legs and arms flailing with the purple suitcase and the older lady's handbag on top of her. Fortunately old lady and Grace were not hurt. There was much commotion on the bus, with many seats offered to her. I returned the handbag to the old lady, made sure she and Grace were fine, righted the suitcase, got off the bus and CRACKED UP LAUGHING ! Nothing was hurt, not even the crackers in her backpack that she landed on.

    Our host in Bologna kindly allowed us to drop our bags of at the apartment, use the toilet and wifi. Of course we had a chat and found out that he manages 10 Airbnbs in Bologna. He personally checks every apartment after the cleaners and before check in.

    Lunch was at I Matti Della Polenta, a small cafe serving polenta and piadine, flatbread sandwiches. You choose the polenta (fried, grilled or plain) the sauce, and cheese if you want. We were helped by Marco who explained the different cheeses and helped us match it to the topping. I had plain polenta with salciccia, which is crumbled sausage meat without the skin much like well seasoned minced meat, and gorgonzola cheese. Grace had just plain polenta and mushrooms. It was the best, smooth tastiest polenta. Like the best Italian food, it was simply prepared with good ingredients and just so tasty.

    We decided that we were too tired, and headed back to the apartment but could not resist walking into a patisccheria. The enthusiastic young man recommended a large bun with cream, called Marotozzi. We succumbed, and were rewarded with another delight of our tastebuds. We came back to our apartment at 3.20pm to rest. No sightseeing today.

    Dinner will be fresh handmade pasta and sauce we bought from a little shop on the way back, and spinach from COOP supermarket.

    One of Bologna's many nicknames is la Grassa, The Fat One. We fear that may also apply to us when we leave this city after 4 nights.

    Distance walked 6.4km
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  • Vale Tinesh

    2023年11月14日, イタリア ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

    We had some very sad news this morning whilst we were at the Pinotecca (art gallery). There was a fatal accident which saw Perth's first fatality of a paramedic whilst on duty. Tinesh was a senior at Murdoch College whilst our girls were there. He used to run Spice Express in Myaree, and was always cheerful even at the busiest times and with the worst customers. Kai remembers him as a very kind, generous and thoughtful boss. He would always put aside Ruby's favourite dishes for Kai to take home at the end of her work day and Indian rojak for Kai.
    Tinesh is one of those precious people who leaves special impressions even though the interactions are infrequent and brief.
    The world will be much impoverished without Tinesh.
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  • Bologna Day 2 Pinotecca, Church visits

    2023年11月14日, イタリア ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    Today we had planned to go to the Pinotecca in the morning and a free walking tour in the afternoon. We got an email saying that it was cancelled so we've slotted in Church visiting in the afternoon instead.
    The Pinotecca was chronologically arranged from 13th to the 18th century.
    Beautiful works by Raphael, Guernico ( Barbieri), Tintoretto, Tizian, Gracia etc.
    We went to Mo Mortadella Lab for lunch. Freshly baked rolls with stracciatella, Mortadella massive sandwiches.

    We visited 3 churches and in one of the churches , Church of San Sebastian, there were 7 "churches" in one area due to additional buildings and add ons from the church built in 350AD.

    We had dinner at a restaurant about 3km away and it was so good. Carpaccio served a huge bowl of mixed seafood of crabs, prawns, shrimp, mussels, vongole and octopus just simply boiled. Never thought that it could be so tasty.
    Then we had ragu with tortellini again yummy. Lastly, seabass wrapped in salt crust and baked. The owner served the fish with a mallet, fork and knife. He used the mallet to break the salt crust, then he skillfully filleted the fish infront of us. Fish was simply served with a drizzle of olive oil.
    We didn't think we could eat it all, but we did.
    Distance walked 19.7km
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  • Bologna Day 4 Palazzo Pepoli

    2023年11月15日, イタリア ⋅ 🌙 8 °C

    Our ticket to the Pinotecca yesterday included a visit to the 17th century Palazzo Pepoli Campogrande, with frescoes by Giuseppe Maria Crespi and Donato Creti. It also houses the collection of paintings that the Zambeccari senatorial family collected during the 18th century.

    It is always a privilege to have the gallery to ourselves. We had an addition recommendation by the check ticket lady, to see the Oratorio de San Cecilia that was a bonus because at the Oratorio, a official lady took to Ruby and explained the beautiful frescoes and instructed her as to which order to look.

    We also did a free walking tour and learnt that Bologna was like Venice and had lots of canals that are covered up now. Also, Bologna is in the Guinness book of records for the most Portico city. From memory, it was around 43km of porticoes, and that is increasing as new ones are added.

    We saw the big Basilica that is half finished because it was built without the pope's permission. When the pope visited a year later, he stopped work on it. It has only been recognised by the Catholic See in 2020.

    After walking around Bologna today, Ruby was feeling rather unwell. She complained of headache, dizziness and even nausea. It did not stop her finishing all her polenta lunch, but I knew she wasn't well when she did not want any dessert. We think it's from secondary inhalation of all the alternative substances smoked. Probably not helped by the large number of youths around with Bologna being a university town. She was most disappointed that she did not experience any happy high, just awful symptoms. In January this year, on a hike in Albany, Ruby stopped for a 10-15 minute chat with a fellow hiker who held a smoke behind his back the whole time. When she caught up with me after, she complained of being dizzy and had to sit down for a while, and giggled . We realised then that he was smoking pot and that was what he was holding behind his back. No giggles this time.

    After apertivo with a plate of local cold cuts, cheese and bread, we were too full for dinner.

    Distance walked 17.2 km
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  • Bologna Day 5 Faenza, Brisighella

    2023年11月16日, イタリア ⋅ 🌙 10 °C

    When asked by an Italian we met, why we were in Bologna for 5 days, we said so that we could do a day trip to Brisighella. His response was, "Mama Mia, why Brisighella? Nothing to do there!"
    We took a train to Faenza where we had to change to a bus to Brisighella. As Faenza had a market this morning, we stopped for coffee and a poke around. We bought a Christmas tablecloth there.
    Brisighella is a lovely tiny mediaeval town overlooked by castle, a tower and a church. We climbed up to the castle, but could not find a route through the windy web-like mediaeval streets to the tower. We must have walked the town streets many times over, looking for that route as we kept coming into laneways and buildings that looked familiar. We did have a delicious lunch of seafood entre and rabbit stew.

    Dinner was at a Japanese restaurant called NIU taste different. Food was very fine and very good Japanese.

    Distance walked 21 km
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  • Florence Day 1

    2023年11月17日, イタリア ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    It was very eventful journey from Bologna to Firenze. Our bus that was meant to take us to the train station even after confirming with the driver that he was, took a turn away from the train station and told us to either stay on his bus for another 20mins before we get to train station, or get down and cross the road for the next bus to come along. We didn't have 20 more mins to spare so we got off and changed buses.
    When we got to the station we could not find our train number on the departure board. We then realised that it had left half an hour earlier as we saw the arrival time at Firenze (Florence) and mistook that as the time of departure. So we got on the next train to Firenze only to find out we were not on a Trenitalia train but an Italo train, a totally different train company. We had to buy another 2 tickets. Only consolation was that the train did stop at Firenze, and we got to our accommodation without anymore hiccups.

    Distance walked 10.5km
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  • Florence Day 2 San Ambrogio mkt

    2023年11月18日, イタリア ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    Our first stop was the San Ambrosio Market. The market was as vibrant and as lively as I remembered but much more English spoken by the stall holders. We bought fresh pasta, artichoke, beans, dried figs, ricotta and rice. It was great to be able to buy 100g of rice. We really missed Sweeleng and Kai as they would have loved the food here and we would have Kai's and Sweeleng's muscles for carrying the countless bottles of water that we had to buy.

    We walked through Piazza Signore, admiring the statues along the way of course stopping at David.

    In the evening we went to Santa Croce Church for mass. There was a Pavarotti size monk who was a one man choir and a very, very long sermon.

    Distance walked 11.9km
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  • Florence Day 3 Boboli Gdn, Medici Chapel

    2023年11月19日, イタリア ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    Went to the farmer's market at Santo Spirito this morning before our planned trip to Fiesole. The market had fruit, cheeses, vege and sauces, jewellery and craft, all made by the stall holders.
    I missed our bus to Fiesole and the next one would be too late so we changed plans.
    We went to Boboli Gardens instead. The gardens were sprawling with fountains, grottoes, columns, statues and a green house full of citrus trees.

    Then we visited The Medici Chapel where the Medici family were buried.

    Attended Vespers at the Duomo and finished the day with tartufo pasta and a Bistecca Florentine. We had to take half the steak home, eventhough it was delicious, it was huge.

    On our way back to the accommodation, we passed a group of old cigarette smoking men playing music. They were very entertaining.

    Distance walked 14km
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  • Florence Day 4 Fiesole

    2023年11月20日, イタリア ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    The day trip that was planned for Fiesole has finally eventuated.
    Fiesole is a quaint little town north east of Florence. It was relatively easy to get to by bus. The town was built on the hill which meant walking was either ascending or descending.
    We hiked up to Convent of San Francesco then returned to the town centre for lunch. The views were amazing. Also learnt that Albert Einstein spent a great deal of time resting at this convent when he visited his sister Maya in Florence.
    Our second hike after lunch was on the old Roman road that leads us to old quarries where Michaelangelo and other sculptors got their marble.
    The hike was lovely in amongst the trees, occasionally opening out into a viewing vista. The old Roman road lead us from Fiesole to San Domenico.
    We then got on our bus ride back to Florence where we got a 40€ fine for not validating our bus ticket.

    The fine strangely entitled us to ride on as many buses for free until midnight. So we took the opportunity to go to Basilica of San Miniato to listen to the monks sing Vespers.

    Had beautiful Florence " buratta" which is mozerella filled with ricotta instead of cream, back at the apartment for dinner. I prefer the mozerella with ricotta more than the buratta we get in Perth filled with cream.

    Now very full and very sleepy.

    Distance walked 15.7km
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  • Florence Day 5 Palazzo Pitti

    2023年11月21日, イタリア ⋅ 🌧 12 °C

    We left our apartment only at 10.30am, starting our day the latest ever this trip. Or was a sale amble toSan Ambrogio Markets for brunch and to get supplies for dinner. There were a great many choices and decisions were difficult to make. We settled for cooked food to reheat in the apartment. Some lentils, stewed pork ribs, spinach and artichokes. We couldn't finish the bottle of wine we got with the accommodation, so Ruby used it to poach pears, and we even had dessert.

    Palazzo Pitti was bigger than we thought and spent 3½ hours there. There were many Raphael paintings to admire, with some other artists unknown to us but still beautiful paintings. There were Tintoretto, Tizian, Guercino, Guido Reni and much more. The rooms were ornately decorated and frescoed with Herculean themes. As fitting to the rulers of the renaissance, there was even symmetry and balance in the palace, right down to the way pictures were hung.
    So glad we went to the Palazzo for a mere extra 2€ added to our Uffizi tickets.

    Ruby and I were comparing the Florence 6 years ago and we realised that there are a great many pizzerias, kebab shops and glitzy boutiques that were not here then. Sadly what's missing though, are the small coffee shops run by old men where we used to have our morning coffes with Kai and Swee. There is a significantly reduces number of small appertivo (evening drinks and nibbles) venues. The girls and us went to a few that had a free buffet spread of nibbles that you could help yourself to when you bought a drink. Did not see a single one of those this trip.

    Distance walked 8.4km
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  • Florence Day 6 Uffizi Gallery

    2023年11月22日, イタリア ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    Today is our designated special day for the Uffizi Gallery. We booked our entry when the museum opens at 8.15am so we could see the Masterpieces that we liked first before the crowds descended.
    It paid off and we just about had the Botecelli, Michaelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Caravagio rooms with minimal people.もっと詳しく

  • Montepulciano Day 1

    2023年11月23日, イタリア ⋅ 🌙 10 °C

    Montepulciano is a quaint medival town. Very difficult to get to by public transport because it is difficult to find and or takes hours to get here. Ruby finally found a route that took a bus, train and bus from Firenze.

    Our host at the Airbnb was very good and did give us very clear instructions how to get here and finished by saying that it was a mere 150m walk from the bus stop to the apartment. What he didn't tell us was 150 m up steep steps. In the last 20 steps or so, a lovely young man bounded down from above, like an angel, and asked if we needed help. He then gathered all our bags and bounded back up the steps despite protest from Ruby that we could manage the small bags ourselves. What a lovely kind strong man, another travel angel.

    Montepulciano is a sleepy town when we arrived. The sunset was beautiful.

    Osteria Aquacheta for dinner was an interesting experience. We were seated at the end of a long bench right next to a family of 4 from Texas. The culture in this restaurant was you just speak to the person next to you and the family from Texas assured us that Montepulciano transform and comes to life in Saturday and Sunday because the locals from neighbouring towns come to the Christmas markets. Another interesting event was when we ordered a 250ml carafe of house wine. Carafe came, and waiter said something about one glass, so we thought we only get one wine glass for this small amount of wine, but no wine glass came. When we asked again for a wine glass, after more Italian/English explanation, we realised what he meant was that we have to use our glass for water for the wine as well. One glass.

    Distance walked 7.7 km
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  • Montepulciano Day 2 Pienza

    2023年11月24日, イタリア ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C

    A car is very advisable for this region. We have had the most difficult time planning day trips with public transport. Even after we had checked with the tourist information and got the bus times from them, when we got back to the accommodation to check, the times of the buses didn't match up. We had planned to go to Bagni del Fillipo, which is a natural thermal bath.
    We had to change plans and went to Pienza instead.
    Pienza was lovely and magical medieval town. We walked the length and breadth of the town and also found a lovely market that sold the juiciest dried apricots and roasted almonds in the shell.
    We also meet a lovely Benedictine nun who was making a rosary with string at the gate of a convent. We found out that she was born in Melbourne and she invited us in to see the produce that the nuns made.
    She told us that Benedictine nuns are committed to prayer and work. We bought an onion jam and pistachio spread that the nuns made.
    With the Bagni bus tickets, we found that we could also visit San Quirico d' Orca too. We waited and waited and waited for 30 mins and the bus didn't appear so we crossed over and caught the bus back to Montepulciano. With a car, the destinations would have taken no more than half an hour each.
    We still had a nice day regardless of the transport issue.
    Tomorrow, we are supposed to walk to Montefollicino and bus back but again, there is a bus there but none to come back. So we are going to bus there and walk back instead. We will see how it turns out tomorrow.

    Distance walked 7.7 km
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  • Montepulciano Day 3 Montefollonico

    2023年11月25日, イタリア ⋅ ☀️ 5 °C

    We had planned to take the bus to Montefollonico and hike the 7.5 km back to Montepulciano. When we got to the tabacco shop to buy it tickets, their machine was broken. So, plan B
    was a 14km loop walk just outside the town of Montepulciano after breakfast.
    At breakfast, we met a couple of physical therapists from Montana, who we first met at the Osteria Aquacheta on our first night here. We were chatting and discussed the public transport difficulties and our need to change hiking plans this morning. They were leaving after breakfast back to Vincenza, where he works on an American army base.
    To our surprise, they returned after 10mins and said that they had extended their trip by another day and if we liked, they would drop us off at Montefollonico so we could do the hike without catching the bus.

    Montefollonico is a tiny mediaeval town with 3 gates, 3 streets, 3 churches and a total population of 700. It took us a total of 15 minutes to totally explore the town. The hike back to Montepulciano was picturesque, colourful and serene.

    On the way back we stopped at Church of San Biagio. I'll let the pictures show the beauty of the church and it's surroundings.

    Today was a maximum of 7⁰C with a constant chilly wind blowing for the entire day. So we abandoned all plans to go to the Christmas markets and are now hibernating in the apartment, thawing out.

    Distance walked 17.7km
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  • Montepulciano Day 4

    2023年11月26日, イタリア ⋅ ☀️ 9 °C

    We must be truly travel weary. Less than 2 weeks before going home. We started our day at 1030am, which would have been unheard of even a week ago.
    We went to the Christmas markets and were transported into the Christmas spirit. It really felt Christmassy. There were Christmas carols in the air, the cold weather, all the other people bundled up passing by and stalls selling all things Christmas. The was even a small energetic brass band marching the streets and dancing.
    Lunch was a splurge at Il teatro. Delicious with unlikely combination of octopus in soya sauce andchick pea puree, taglioni with anchovie breadcrumb and the normal pici ragu.

    Distance walked a mere 4km.
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  • Montepulciano Day 5

    2023年11月27日, イタリア ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    We did a hike outside the walls of Montepulciano to Church of Maria Querce. When we got about 3km into the hike, there was a turn off to Sant Albino town which Ruby decided would be a more interesting walk and when she showed me that the town had a patischeria, I was convinced to make a detour. It was a much prettier walk, but also more difficult. We left the gravel path to walk in wet, muddy and hilly paddocks, even having to cross a stream.
    We stopped when a farmer conveniently placed a trailer in the paddock for us to sit and have second breakfast. As we were eating the grey clouds loomed in the direction of our hike, and darkened. The clouds and forecast of rain eventually chased us back to Montepulciano. We abandoned the idea of walking to Sant Albino and headed back.
    When we arrived at our apartment, I realised with horror that I had locked the keys in the apartment. Best solution for any problem is to sit and mull the problem over lunch. The host kindly brought the keys to our lunch venue which was 80m from the apartment.
    Distance walked 9.6km
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  • Perugia Day 1

    2023年11月28日, イタリア ⋅ 🌙 10 °C

    Our travel from Montepulciano to Perugia went uneventfully. Buses and trains behaved and arrived on time.
    I even had time for an expresso between bus and train from a patischeria run by an Italian, and Mandarin speaking oriental lady who made really good expresso.
    We were met by our host in Perugia who spoke very quickly and only in Italian giving us information and walked us round the apartment to show us where things were. She apologized greatly for her English speaking daughter not being able to check us in as she was sick with fever.
    Thanks to the little Italian I have picked up from Merome and Fiona, was able to make a good guess as to her instructions.
    We came across a Tipici (shop that sells local delicacies and wines) when we were walking around. The warm shop owner invited us in and welcomed us to Perugia with a tote of complimentary Visiolata. It's a red wine that has some cherries in it. Delicious .

    Distance walked 8.7km
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