BARDOLINO IN BARDOLINO

There's nothing to compare with going directly to the source.  I'm at this moment sitting in a pizzeria in the town of Bardolino, sipping on a glass of Bardolino while I wait for my 4 Stagioni pizza.   This is the most popular pizza in Italy and its toppings represent the four seasons--artichokes for spring, olives for summer, mushrooms for fall, and prosciutto for winter.

And I didn't have to wait long.  Excuse me while I make a dent in this.

NO....I didn't eat the whole thing, but I did finish my glass of Bardilino, which was wonderful and cost only 2.5€, or about $3.50.  You can buy a bottle for as little as 4€, which is about $5.50.  Considering the price of a bottle in the U.S., I wish I could carry a few bottles back in my suitcase.

I like Bardolino as much as I liked Lazise.  Lake Garda is really beautiful and all these small towns on its shores are charming.  Look at these views I have at this very moment.

It's a dark day with off and on rain and occasional bursts of sunshine through the clouds.  I took a bus first to the town of Garda, which is about half the size of Bardolino.

 

Then I hopped another bus to Bardolina.  There are lots of shops and restaurants in Bardolina, enough to keep you busy for an afternoon.  

And you see a number of older stone houses as you wander through the town.

The local church had a beautiful fresco above the altar.

It didn't start raining seriously until I got off the bus at the stop closest to where I'm staying.  So my feet got a bit wet, but I'm happy that I decided to venture out in spite of the dismal weather forecast.  Because how many people can say they drank Bardolino in Bardolino?  Okay, a few hundred thousand, or maybe millions, but I'm one of 'em!

FAIRY TALE TOWN

Traveling by train from southern Italy to the upper north gives you an interesting perspective on the economic differences between the southern and northern parts of Italy.  In the south the cities look a bit seedy--trash on the streets, sidewalks crumbling, buildings with faded and peeling facades.  As you move north you see a gradual improvement until the towns are clearly well maintained and clean.   My trip from Bari to Milano took 8 hours, and the weather deteriorated as we moved north where it's been raining quite a bit.  My train from Milano was cancelled, so I had to scramble to get to the ticket office and see if there was a later train.  Luckily, there was and I was on my way to Peschiera del Garda after just an hour delay.  My hostess kindly picked me up at the train station and I was tucked into the most comfortable bed I've had in a while by 11:30 p.m.

The place I'm staying is 3 kilometers away from Lazise, a small town on Lake Garda with a population of about 6300.  I was lucky that the forecasted rain didn't begin until late the following day, so I had some time to explore this fairy tale town that I immediately loved.  It has a castle that is just what you'd imagine in a respectable fairy tale.

And it's right on Lake Garda, and I mean that literally...the water laps against some of the town's buildings.  

And it comes right into the main piazza where you can moor your boat and enjoy a gelato and the beautiful vista.  The town was crowded with people because May 1 is a national holiday in Italy (their Labor Day), as well as in Germany (as I learned from a German couple staying in the bedroom next door).  So there were lots of German and Italian cars clogging the roads.

There's a small church here on the piazza with some frescoes dating back to the 12th century.

After the ornate Baroque churches of Lecce, there was a humble simplicity in this place of worship.

I wandered through shops looking for an umbrella, since I left mine in Antonio's car in Lecce.  And it did rain, so I headed back to my cozy room.  The rain didn't last very long and I took a long walk before dinner to enjoy this gorgeous country scenery.  There were plenty of olive orchards.

And, of course, vineyards abound.  This vintner was patriotic, and being a national holiday, there were several Italian flags fluttering in the neighborhood.

The backdrop for the orchards and vineyards were these beautiful mountains.

The forecast for all four days I am here is rain.  And I was lucky yesterday that it didn't rain very much.  Today it's raining quite steadily.  I have a bicycle at my disposal, so if it ever stops raining, I'll check out more of this beautiful landscape that surrounds me.

IN THE BOOT

If I were in England, this blog might be about something that's in the trunk of my car.  But I'm in Italy, and this is about my travels around the heel of "the boot" in southern Italy.

After a few days in Cassano delle Murge, near Bari on the Adriatic side, as the guest of my friends here, I decided that I wanted to go further south.  One of my other Italian friends, Antonio, owns a house in Lecce, and we hoped to meet there this year instead of at his year-round home near Rome.  My friends in Cassano were disappointed that I was leaving after only 5 days with them, and I was also reluctant, so I rented an apartment with two bedrooms and we went off together to explore "the boot".  They hadn't spent mich time in Lecce, and it was fun to discover a part of Italy with a couple of natives.  Antonio was already there when we arrived, and the next day, he gave us a guided tour of the city where he spent part of his youth and where he now spends a couple weeks of vacation time.

Lecce is a really old city, dating back to the Trojan War, when it was a Greek colony.  The Romans took over in the 3rd century B.C.  Some people say that Lecce is the Florence of the South because of its rich architecture.  Lecce is one of those cities that sings of its past...its buildings are carved from sand-colored limestone and it's loaded with Baroque architecture.  There are a number of old gates like this that invite you to enter the old city, or centro historico.

I was happy to introduce my friends to each other, and we roamed the streets of the Old Town together for a few hours.  This is Antonio and his lady friend Antoinette chatting on the street with Tina.

This was the first church we saw, and when it comes to Baroque, you'd have a hard time topping it outside or in.

We wondered how long it might have taken to build this church with its several ornate altars and impressive Baroque facade.  Antonio said maybe 30 or 40 years because the stone used from this area is very soft and thus easier to carve.  It also deteriorates more quickly and has to be treated periodically to protect it against the erosion of the elements, especially acid rain.

The Duomo here is also pretty impressive.  It's in a piazza with a few old palaces that now serve a civic role.

One street we wandered down had some interesting door knockers.  This one that Donato is demonstrating had double doors with a pair of hands as knockers.

And what self-respecting ancient Roman city would be without an ampitheater?

The old Roman road, the Apian Way, ended in this area, and this is one of the two columns that marked its terminal point.  That's St. Oronzo, the patron saint of Lecce, perched at the top.

And here's the altar of yet another beautifully Baroque church.  I was negligent in recording the names of the ones we entered.

Later in the evening, I went to see Antonio's house and to watch Antonio and Antoinette dance at a restaurant in the small nearby town where his house is located.  We had a delightful evening together and I enjoyed watching couples of all ages doing ballrom and line dancing.  The DJ/singer/trumpet player entertained us with a very clever routine that involved dancing with a dummy, once standing on a bottle, with a flourishing finale of flashing knives.

The next day, Tina and Donato and I explored the Adriatric coast south of Lecce driving first to Otranto, a touristy harbor town with a castle and lots of shops.

This gentleman was deonstrating his skill of basketweaving.

The streets here were already packed with tourists and I can't imagine what it would be like in high season.  We were like sardines swimming in a tight pack through the narrow streets.

We wandered up the coast stopping now and then to walk by the sea.

The next day we were planning to drive to Gallipoli on the Gulf of Taranto, but I was suddenly struck with a bout of 24-hour flu, so we just hung around the apartment.  We had to leave the next day and we just wandered up the coast back to Bari, but it rained most of the day and it wasn't picture taking weather.  

Now I'm heading north to the lake district where I hope to enjoy some quiet time at Lakes Garda, Como, and Maggiore.  There's rain in the forecast for the next four days, so I may just be doing a lot of reading!

BUONA PASQUA

I was so delighted to spend the Easter holiday with my friends in Cassano delle Murge, near Bari in the province of Puglia, Italy.  My friend Tina had written to me about the feasts she prepared for her extended family at Easter and Christmas, but I couldn't have imagined what it would be like to sit at her table.  I was happy to meet so many people in her family....everyone except her daughter was there.

In Italy, both Easter and the Monday after Easter are holidays.  On Easter, we had 10 at the table.  The guests were Donato's mother, his two sisters and their families.

I followed Tina through her garden in the morning as she clipped this and that, and a bit later she walked into the living room with this beautiful centerpiece for the table.

Tina is very creative and has decorated a number of plates, vases, and lamps, mostly in floral patterns.  She also paints.

We started Easter "pranzo" (lunch) with a fairly typical antipasto.

This was followed by a delicious lasagna.  After that came a dish of lamb braised in tomato sauce and fried artichokes.  Then a green salad, followed by a macedonia of fruit, and lastly an assortment of chocolates and Italian cookies.  A sweet tradition in Italy is to make a scarcellas for family members.  Tina had made them for Donato, her three children, and for her grandaughter.  It's a braided cookie with an egg in the shell baked into it (under the cross at the upper left).  It's decorated with sugar icing. candy sprinkled, and chocolate eggs.  We cut into Donato's later in the evening.

I thought that was quite a feast, but it was nothing compared to the pranzo on Monday.  There were 16 people at the table--Donato's mother, one of his sisters and her husband, both their sons and their wives/significant others, the family of their daughter-in-law, who gave them their only grandchild, a beautiful little girl who was the center of attention the entire day.

There was a seemingly endless stream of food that came to the table, a dish or two at a time, and it was a potluck--everyone contributed something.  We started with some snack foods--chips, nuts, crackers and pretzels, and an appetizer I contributed made of a cream cheese mixture topped with cocktail sauce and shrimp.  

Then we had this very delicious dish called ciambella di pasta, which is a mold of tagliatelle pasta topped with ham and garnished with a pile of sauted mushrooms and ham in the center.  It was delicious.

It was served with a dish of peas and artichokes that was also delectable.  Next came a bowl of mushroom tortellini with cheese sauce.  These are typical "primi" dishes, but primi is usually one dish, not three.  Then came a huge plate of meat that was chargrilled--lamb, pork sausage, and beef sausage--which was served with a cold salad of roasted red peppers in viniagrette.  

I was pretty surprised at the next dish that came to the table.  It was lambs' heads, cleaved in half and roasted.  While a few enjoyed eating the brains and tongue, I passed on this one.

By now I'm filled to the gills, but we're not finished yet.  Another macedonia followed by a huge bowl of fava beans were next.  The fava beans were served raw in their long pods.

There were dolce galore.  There was Colombo Cake and two cakes in the shape of a lamb.  The Colombo cake is at the bottom and it was my favorite.

This "lamb cake" was made with almond paste and was really sweet.  

There were cookies and chocolates again--one was a giant hollow chocolate egg that had a toy inside for little Nicole who was the sweetest lamb at the party.  

GOOD NEWS-BAD NEWS

GOOD NEWS

I'm back in Italy and staying with my good friends in Puglia.  I took an overnight ferry from Patras, Greece which was, including the bus trip tp Patras along the beautiful Gulf of Corinth, about a third of the cost of airfare.  And I got a bed to sleep on to boot!   I was amused by this sign over the toilet in the Ladies' Room.

Please don't throw your chips or newspaper into the loo?  Would someone really do that?

My cell phone survived its water bath!

BAD NEWS

The woman who shared my cabin on the boat snored all night.

The port authorities in Bari, Italy confiscated my favorite chef knife.  This knife has gone in and out of planes, trains, buses, and ferries on four continents and a dozen countries with no problem, but is considered a lethal weapon by Italy's port authorities.  It's flown into and about Italy several times with no problem.  When it's transported in the hold of an airplane, it's okay, but not in the baggage area on a ferry?  Does this make any sense?   I begged to no avail.  I'm going to miss that knife.

PARADISE LOST

Today was the last day of my seven-day Greek island-hopping jaunt.  And it was pretty much a bust.  I arrived on the island of Milos after midnight and awoke at about seven to the pitter patter of rain outside my window.  I went back to sleep with hopes that it would pass over, but at nine, there was no sign of a let-up.  I went to get some coffee and watched BBC News, read and answered email, took a shower, and then packed my suitcase, because I had to check out at noon, rain or not.  I was filling my water bottle because you can't drink the tap water on any of the islands I visited, and the bottle slipped from my hand and fell into my open purse......certainly not an aupicious beginning to the day.  It's a cloth purse, so other than it getting all wet, there didn't seem to be anything in it that was ruined.  

I left my bags in the lobby and went out into the rain to get some lunch and at least take a look at the town.  I choose a nice-looking internet cafe on the harbor and discovered that, while they had an extensive menu, they were only serving toast and club sandwiches.  They don't start serving their full menu until next week.  I was comfortably settled on a sofa and didn't feel like moving, so I ordered the club sandwich.  While I was waiting, I decided to pass the time by playing a favorite game on my phone.  After about a minute, it froze.  So I did what I always do, I "rebooted", i.e., turned the phone off and on again.  The same thing happened.  I took it out of its case, and that's when the dripping began.  The phone had been in a pocket of my purse and hadn't seemed wet when I pulled everything out, but water had penetrated it, and when I took off the back, more water dripped out.  Oy vey!  I googled "wet phone" and followed the instructions on what to do as best I could considering what I had available to me, e.g., I didn't have a vacuum cleaner to suck out any of the water.  I won't know until tomorrow if the phone will work when it's dried out.  

After lunch, I walked around town a bit in the rain, but after not too long, my feet felt wet inside my shoes.  I went back to the hotel lobby, where the owner said I could wait out the rain, and sure enough, my socks were wet.  So I guess I have finally worn out my favorite walking shoes...they're leaking!  And my other pair of closed shoes are in the big bag I put in a storage locker so I could travel lightly around the islands.

It rained until around seven.  I used my hair dryer to dry the inside of my shoes and my cloth bag and puddle-hopped my way to have dinner before my ferry left at nine.  It was very chilly because the wind was blowing.

So Milos was a bust.  There are some beautiful mineral rock formations here that I hoped to see, but there aren't any interesting museums or even many shops here in the port of Adamas, population 1,000.  

 I took a few photos of the harbor, but that's all I have to show for my day here.

When you travel this long, you're bound to have a crappy day now and then.  I've had a few, but there's usually at least one bright spot to offset the bad stuff.  The highlight of this day was Eleni, the very warm and gracious owner of my hotel, who let me hang out in her lobby all day, kept me company when she wasn't busy with other guests, and supplied with hot tea and cookies.  

She is a real gem and has a smile that lights up the room and lifted my damp spirits.