Italy | FindPenguins

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Trip start
September 29, 2021
Italy Traveler
On our way
September 29, 2021 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
Feels good to be back. It's been a long time since the Sadovyi's hit the open road (air?). Smooth trip to Atlanta, now relaxing before our flight to Rome. We've doubled down on COVID tests so we should have all our bases covered and things have been easy breezy so far.

Next flight is about 9 hours long so should land in Rome at 10 am Italy time. Looking forward to eating too much pasta and drinking all the wine!Read more
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Italy Traveler
Hello Rome
September 30, 2021 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
We made it! We landed in Rome around 10 am and caught the next train into the city. we accidentally boarded the fancier train with 2nd class tickets but the attendent took pity on our cluelessness and didn't kick us off. Pretty uneventful travel otherwise! In typical Sadovyi fashion, we got settled at the hotel and then immediately headed out to find food.

We ate at a cute little pasta and wine place (so basically any reastaurant in Italy) - it was amazing. We had the Burrata appetizer and truffled pasta. We also got to see the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, and enjoyed a few cocktails around town - cue all the selfies.

Now the name of the game is just stay awake until a reasonable bed time (730?). Looking forward to a full night's sleep before exploring more of Rome tomorrow!Read more
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Italy Traveler
A day with a few views
October 1, 2021 in Vatican City ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
With a good nights rest and a few cappuccinos we were ready to go. It's off to the Vatican today!

We started at the Vatican museum, spending a few hours exploring the halls of the museum and of course ending in the Sistine Chapel. A stunning place. After taking a break with a nice bottle of prosecco we headed to St. Peter's Basilica and climbed every stair we could find - we made it up to the very top for a rewarding and beautiful view.

To round out our day of walking we had dinner at Aroma, a delicious Michelin star restaurant with a 7 course meal & wine pairing. It was an amazing setting overlooking the Colosseum.Read more
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Italy Traveler
We're here for the food
October 3, 2021 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C
We enjoyed our last full day in Rome with pasta, pizza, and gelato. Oh and we found an awesowe brewery with barelywine. Not sure it gets much better than that. It's definitely good we're balancing all this eating with a lot of walking, but by the end of this trip they may have to roll us onto the plane home.

Today we are headed to the countryside! First a trainride to Florence to pick up our car, then off to a wine resort.Read more
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Italy Traveler
Tuscany countryside
October 6, 2021 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C
We've spent the last 3 days relaxing in the stunning hills of Tuscany at Conti di San Bonifacio. A wine and wellness retreat ❤️

We read a few books, played cards, ate tasty food, drank good wine, and strolled the countryside. It was wonderful.

On our last day we got a tour of the vineyards and learned about how they make wine here - with some interesting facts:
- Rose in Italy requires you to specify the blend %s up front, before you process any grapes. So if you estimate wrong you might be way off in color or taste. (Also it's made from nearly all red grapes)
- Don't swirl your Prosecco - the wine is best in the first 30 minutes and will continual bubble for about that long if you handle it nicely.
- Champagne is best in the first 1-2 years, so don't save your fancy bottles
- You can tell how much alcohol by how the wine runs down the side of the glass (called tears - or legs in the US)
- White wine should reflect green, red wine should reflect purple

Also they have somewhere around 40-50 thousand vines! On 7-8 hectares.

After a great few days were back to Florence to explore the city (and hopefully do some laundry 🤞).Read more
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Italy Traveler
Firenze & food
October 7, 2021 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C
We are enjoying our time in Florence, wandering the streets and gardens of the city. And of course eating way too much food.

We started our food tour of Florence with a Tuscan wine flight, beef tartare, risotto, and truffle pasta. It may be my favorite meal to date. It was wonderful.

Later that same day we ate 1.5kg Florentine steak at I Fratellini, it was delicious. Then cue the meat sweats as Igor would call them. We were out of commission the rest of the evening.

After that it was about time to get some exercise - we picked up some local sandwiches and headed to the gardens. We wandered through Giardino Bardini gardens and enjoyed the views of the city.Read more
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Italy Traveler
More wine you say?
October 8, 2021 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C
As we venture into the second half of the trip, we also venture back into the countryside. We're off to stay just outside Montepulciano at a little olive grove hideaway called Lupaia.

On on way there we stopped at the oldest winery/vineyard in Italy! (One of the oldest in the world). It's Barone Risacoli at the Borlio Castle. We booked the everything included private tour because why not? We need all the details to bring back to our 100 vine vineyard.

Here we got to learn the history of the castle, where the wine making originally started, with the first vines and wines from 1141! The castle itself had to get be rebuilt a few times due to wars n such (protect the wine!), so the castle we toured was only from the 1400s - so young and new!

This is where the first Chianti wine was made and other interesting advancements including crop rotation experiments, grafting, and figuring out how the soil most affects the grape (even identical grapes can taste different between a limestone soil or a clay or sandy soil).

They have over 700 acres of vines 😱 and were just at the end of harvesting them all by hand. We got to see the wine making process, their state of the art setup, all through to the cellars filled with the final product.

Our tour ended with a nice wine flight and lunch-wine pairing! (Of course we had to have food).Read more
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Italy Traveler
Cooking adventures
October 9, 2021 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C
We enjoyed another day in Tuscany today by partaking in some Italian cooking lessons. A three course lunch, with crostini and stuffed zucchini flowers, ragu tagliatelle, and biscotti - Chef Igor and sous chef Danielle were ready!

We started in the garden with the chef and got to pick some fresh veggies and herbs. We also met the neighborhood kitty, Olive, who helped in our food gathering.

Our teacher was wonderful and we enjoyed a lazy afternoon of prosecco and cooking, with multiple tastings in between. We made some disproportional noodles but hey, they tasted wonderful!

The biscotti was dangerously too simple to make, so don't mind me making and eating biscotti for the rest of my life. We dipped them in Vin Santo, a delicious dessert wine - so good.

We enjoyed a few cocktails and played cards as our last day in Tuscany came to a close.Read more
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Italy Traveler
Roadtrip in the Panda
October 10, 2021 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C
Today is driving day - we had a tasty breakfast at Lupaia, our beautiful Tuscany stay, and got on the road.

While we were in Florence, we exchanged our beautiful but tiny, slightly frightening to drive, Alfa Romeo for a equally tiny but much more practical Fiat Panda. It is in the Panda that we make our way north to the Alps. ~6 hours worth of driving.

The drive was easy, and the driver quite skilled and good company 😘 we decided it was apt to listen to a wine making and tasting book as we drove. It made time pass quickly, until we finally made it to.... A McDonald's!

A now time honored Sadovyi vacation tradition, we had to try out a McDonald's in this country! Also who doesn't love McDonald's?

Italy is currently ranked 1st in best McDonald's - this place not only had cheesy fries with bacon, but also beer! Not to mention the burger and chicken sandwich were quite tasty (they even had arugula - how fancy!).

After McDonald's we made our way up into the mountains and arrived at the beautiful Borgo Eibn mountain lodge. We'll be here a couple nights relaxing, hiking, and of course eating.Read more
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Italy Traveler
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Mountain retreat
October 12, 2021 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 3 °C
Igor and I got to live out our dream mountain farm life here at Borgo Eibn - tucked up high in the mountains we enjoyed a slow and easy going stay.

The adorable chalets made of Lurch lumber are surrounded by hilly pastures and mountain tops. (Lurch is a type of pine tree that actually changes colors in the fall and drops it's needles). Here they make all their own dairy products and meat offerings - everything from butter, to yogurt and milk, to pancetta. Everything was delicious.

Our first full day here, we went on a nice hike through the hills (so much up and down!). It was sunny and a warm 50 degrees, a perfect day for a fall hike. we followed up the hike by a long stay in the spa's sauna, indoor pool, and steam rooms. Then had a massive dinner of Florentine steak and the best lamb either of us has ever had. A perfect day!

On Tuesday the restaurant was sadly closed but we ventured off into the mountain towns to find food. Being clueless as to the seasons up here, we had a challenging time finding anywhere open - we were past the summer crowd but before winter and skiing started. We finally found a place ~30 minutes away (but only ~7km - got to love those mountain roads). It's like if someone came to Wisconsin and tried to find a place to eat in Arena - seriously the biggest towns around we're ~1000 people population.

Anyways the place we found was adorable and more importantly had food 🙏 We got to try some local favorites of polenta and frico (cheesey potatoes) and venison. As the only ones at the restaurant we also got to chat with the owners and had some tasty Italian schnapps of some kind!Read more
Traveler glad you found a doggo
10/13/21Reply
TravelerBest part of the trip! His name is Ugo!
10/13/21Reply
Traveler<3 ugo
10/13/21Reply
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Italy Traveler
Planes, trains, and automobiles
October 14, 2021 in Italy ⋅ 🌙 13 °C
More like automobiles > trains > ferry > gondola > water taxi > planes. For as long as I remember, I always count # of transportation methods per a given trip. This one is pretty high on the list! Especially with some unique means of transport this week!

We enjoyed our last few days of vacation in Venice at the Gritti Palace - a beautiful Marriott hotel on the grand canal. Venice is a pretty cool place, filled with interesting history and complicated architecture.

We had a little mishap with some COVID testing - the test we brought and carted all over Italy was recalled.. dang. There had to be some COVID drama on this trip. But a quick trip to a pharmacy got it all squared away! Otherwise it's been pretty uneventful and easy going.

Of course we spent most of our time eating and then wishing we hadn't eaten so much 😂 our last meal of the trip included a tasting menu at Quadri, a one Michelin star restaurant on Piazza San Marco.

Tomorrow we head out to the airport via water taxi and start the journey home. It's been a wonderful trip ❤️ now we're ready to be back with our pup and eat a few salads.Read more
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Trip end
October 15, 2021