Hannah, Glen, and I just spent just over 2 wonderful weeks in Italy. That means there is a lot of potential material for me to write about--the desire to be short and concise and the desire to be thorough and detailed warring with each other...so there are going to be several posts. The short post has already been posted. https://treadingwater-beth.blogspot.com/2024/03/italy-short-of-it.html
I have been awake since 2:20 am and have spent almost the entire last 12 hours working on my blog posts about our trip to Italy. I still need to make at least one more, which will be mostly photos, but for now, I'll let this be enough.
Thorough and detailed with just a few photos trying to cover everything I mention (Most of these photos were with Hannah's very nice camera. Some were taken with my camera phone):
Sat March 2nd (Reno to San Francisco heading to Zurich)
We left Reno during a snow storm, which storm delayed our flight out of Reno long enough to mean that our flight went to San Jose and not San Francisco like it was supposed to (due to some of the SFO runways being under construction, it limits the amount of air traffic they can handle). So, we then needed to take a shuttle to the San Francisco airport, which had a hiccup of its own, but we managed to get to San Francisco.
We then flew all night long on Swiss Air to Zurich. Dinner was passed out like at 9 pm (which turned out to be a typical dinner time for us on our trip), and they also pass out little delicious Swiss chocolates on every flight.
There wasn't much leg room at all--our knees were practically touching the seats in front of us and we are not tall. None of us slept very well, though the travel neck pillows we had really helped me. In-flight shows, of which there was a huge selection, were a good thing for passing the time (saw "Barbie" for the first time). Glen and I also did a ton of Sudoku puzzles on the plane and on the entire trip.
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| Reno airport |
Sun March 3rd (Zurich to Milan)
In Zurich, we got our new passports stamped (yay! don't know why that is exciting to me, but it is). Then we flew to the Milan airport (where, sadly, they didn't stamp our passports because they had already been stamped in Europe). Hannah rented a super-sweet car for our use in Italy. It was a Spanish Cupra Formentor. Really, really nice.
I'm so glad I didn't have to drive in Italy...too fast and too close together and the parking was insane. There was parallel parking everywhere and the spaces were so close together. I don't know how Hannah did it. In some places (like near our Airbnb in Milan), it was very hard to find an available parking space. There was an app Hannah had on her phone which allowed her to easily pay for the paid spaces. There were a lot of toll roads that seemed expensive (20 euros or more for a typical trip which is just over $20). Gas, we figured out in the beginning, was about $8.50/gallon. Towards the end of the trip, we were paying more than that.
On the whole, though, Hannah liked driving in Italy. Even though it was crazy, she said the drivers were courteous and good about letting people in. And there were roundabouts everywhere and they worked really well (when you are driving with people who know how to use them).
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| we could watch our flight path on our tv screens |
Mon March 4th (Milan/Milano)
As Hannah kept saying, jetlag is real, so our first full day in Milan was spent recovering and not exploring. Glen and I did go for a little walk to a local grocery store (where we learned that we were supposed to have weighed and labeled our tangerines in the produce department--the checkout stands don't have scales).
We watched some TV--some Italian shows (Glen watched a cooking show on how to make something that looked like a Boston cream pie), some American shows with Italian audio (from "Little House on the Prairie" to "CHiPs" to "Love It or List It"), and some shows in that are in English (we watched the first episode of a Hailey Dean mystery "Murder, With Love," and in Milan "Diagnosis Murder" was in English, but in Silvano it was dubbed in Italian). In other areas we did not find TV shows that were dubbed or were originally in English (not that we really tried to watch much tv).
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| watching TV in a language we don't speak |
Tues March 5th (Milan to Marghera which is just outside of Venice/Venezia)
We went out and about for the first time, taking the Metro to the Duomo of Milan (a Duomo is the Italian word for Cathedral--what's the difference between a Catholic church and a Cathedral? We had to look it up. A Cathedral is a Catholic church where a Bishop resides). We wandered about for a while, which included walking to the Castello Sforzesco (Sforza's Castle) where some insistent men gave us cheap thread bracelets and wanted us to pay for them, and we ate some of the best gelato.
I believe this is when Glen started his magnet collection(though that might have started at the grocery store the day before). He bought a magnet, if one was available, in every place we stopped. Sometimes he bought 2. He also bought many postcards... and we also bought gelato in every place we stopped. So good and creamy. Besides buying magnets, Glen took a photo of everything he ate. Hannah and I only took a few food photos.
We then drove 2 1/2 hours to our next accommodations--a little bungalow in Maghera, where we stayed for 2 nights.
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| Gelato in Milan |
Wed March 6th (day trip into Venice)
We caught a bus to Venice--cars aren't allowed there. Venice is made up of 118 little islands connected by over 400 bridges. I don't know how many we walked on, but it felt like a lot of them. I got in over 23,000 steps in that day.
Once again, we had gelato (which was basically a daily occurrence). That evening, we attended a concert where the musicians were dressed in period costumes as they played Pachelbel's Canon and Vivaldi's Four Seasons along with a few other pieces that I didn't know. So talented. How can people play like that?!
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| on one of the many bridges in Venice |
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| our Vivaldi concert |
Thurs March 7th (drove to Latina, which was on the coast a bit south of Rome).
The drive from Marghera to Latina was about a 6-6 1/2 hour drive. That is pretty much all we did that day.
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| I don't know where this was, just that we drove past it on our way to Latina |
Fri March 8th-Pompeii, which is about a 2 hour or so drive south from Latina, towards Naples (Napoli)
We drove from from Latina to Pompeii. Turns out it was International Women's Day (March 8th), which they seem to really celebrate in Italy. So, Hannah and I got into Pompeii for free while we had to pay 18 euros to get Glen in. We hired a private tour guide for 2 hours, which really helped to make the place come alive to me, and then we wandered around a bit on our own. Awesome place.
Pompeii is just south of the city of Naples/Napoli and Napoli is the birthplace of pizza. We went to Lombardi's in Maddaloni (which is in the same region as Naples), and had pizza there. It was also a patisseria and gelateria. It was probably Hannah's favorite meal on our whole trip.
We started off with gelato while we were waiting for them to start serving dinner. Salvatore was called over to assist us since he spoke English very well (his grandfather had been an English teacher). That was a big help here because their menu was not translated into English, as many restaurants might have done.
For dinner, we all ordered a type of vegetarian pizza and then swapped them around. I preferred my cosacca pizza (or whatever it was called) which had little dollops of a soft 4 cheese blend on top like it was squirted out of a pastry bag. I googled it and get various answers, but it looks like the cheese(s) were probably made from sheep's milk. Hannah had ordered a margherita pizza (basically a cheese pizza) and Glen's was with bufala mozzarella cheese, which turned out to be cheese made from the milk of Italian buffalos. Hannah really liked the bufala cheese. For dessert, Hannah ordered a molten chocolate cake, which we all shared and really, really enjoyed.
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| Pompeii |
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| Gelato at Lombardi's, where they put baby cones on top even if you ordered your gelato in a cup |
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| my cosacca pizza at Lombardi's (at least I think that's the name) |
Sat March 9th-Rome/Roma
The LDS Rome Temple is north of the city and we were south on the coast, so we drove up and around and didn't go into Rome at all. We hit the Visitors Center and then took in a session in the temple, which it turned out that that session was in Spanish and not Italian. I was amazed at how often I got to speak Spanish while in Italy. They have a lot of immigrants from Central and South America there. Loved it.
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| Rome Temple |
Sun March 10th-Rome, sort of, and Sandicci (just on the SW edge of Florence)
We attended the Rome 4th ward for church, and they actually had translators for us in Sacrament meeting and in Relief Society (but not for Glen in Elders Quorum). We didn't see anything else in Rome. Next time.
We drove on to Florence after church.
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| the church building in Rome |
Mon March 11th-Florence/Firenze
Couldn't see the statue of David by Michelangelo because the museum is closed on Mondays. Gorgeous city (well, they all are). We did go to the Museo Galileo. Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa in the 1500s, but lived in Florence and they had some of his scientific instruments.
That night, Hannah surprised us by signing us up for a cooking class. We learned how to make pizza and gelato and they sent the recipes in an email so we can make them again at home. It was so much fun. They had pickled red onions as a topping choice and supposedly one caper in the middle of the pizza is traditional.
Originally we were just going to stay in Florence for only one night, but we changed our minds, which meant we had to move to a different Airbnb.
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| Florence |
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| eating our pizza from the cooking class |
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| eating our gelato from the cooking class |
Tues March 12th-Florence to Lucca to Pisa to Silvano d'Orba
The tickets to see David were sold out, so even though we stayed an extra night in Florence, we couldn't see him. Instead, we went to a little paleontology museum, Il Paleontologico, Museo di Geologia e Paleontologia. Not the same, but good enough. We really enjoyed walking around. Most cities have a place where you can go to look down over the city. Breathtaking views.
Made 2 stops in Tuscany on our way to Silvano d'Orba: Lucca (a charming, small walled city where we rented a bike for a short while) and Pisa (which needs no introduction). We spent an hour at each place. Really liked them.
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| having fun at the paleontology museum |
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| out for a bike ride |
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| part of the wall around Lucca |
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| more of the wall around Lucca |
Cheesy photo taken in Pisa below...
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| me saving the tower after Glen almost knocked it over |
Wed March 13th and Thurs March 14th- Silvano d'Orba, Alessandria, Piedmont, Italy (the Orba is the river right next to the town)
https://www.comune.silvanodorba.al.it/ (this link has a great panoramic photo of the town)
Our Airbnb was in the countryside of Silvano, up in the hills. The drive was often a narrow road that you had to carefully move over to let other cars going in the opposite direction pass. Like I said, I wouldn't have been able to drive in Italy, but Hannah did a great job.
Glen's grandfather, Natale "Otto" Antonio Perasso, was born in the little town of Silvano d'Orba in 1907 before immigrating to the US in 1910 at 3 years of age. His dad was already in the US, so he came with his mother, Francesca, and his older half-sister, Domenica. He had a brother, Giovanni, who stayed in Italy and never wound up coming over to the states. That's why Glen has cousins in Italy.
We have the address of where the Perasso family lived (78 Via Roma) and we took photos of it (just like our nephew, Jacob, had done when he and his wife, Susan, visited Italy a few years ago). It now houses what looks like a beauty shop on the lower level, but it looks like a family lives on the upper level.
Went to several cemeteries, but the custom in Italy is that, after so many years (30? 50?), the bones are removed from the cemetery, unless you put them in a mausoleum. So, even though Glen has had ancestors buried there, we couldn't find them. But the cemeteries are amazing to walk around in.
We met the Mayor (Sindaco in Italian), Giuseppe "Pino" Coco, who, since we were heading to Turin to meet up with Glen's cousin, Grazia, invited us back to meet with him a few days later. We took him up on his offer and are so glad that we did.
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| outside of 78 Via Roma, the Perasso's house from the early 1900s |
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| The castle of Silvano on the hill with St. Peter's church in front of it |
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| Castello di Silvano on the left and La Chiesa di San Pietro Apostolo on the right |
Fri March 15th-Turin/Turino
Glen's second cousin, Grazia, is the granddaughter of Giovanni. She is almost 70 and Glen had met her last summer when she and her boyfriend, Lionello, came to the US. On Friday, Lionello took us on a tour of Turin while Grazia was at work, and then we had a pasta dinner, with cheese for Hannah as her second course with a wilted spinach salad for all of us and pork medallions for the rest of us.
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| dinner with Grazia and Lionello in Turin |
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| in front of the Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy statue in the Piazza San Carlo |
Sat March 16th-Sacra di San Michele (St. Michael's Abbey)
Had a day trip with Grazia and Lionello to the Sacra di San Michele, which involved a car trip up a narrow winding road that we shared with serious bicyclists and cars coming from the other direction, walking up a semi-steep path, and lots of stairs in the abbey itself. From the abbey there is a breathtaking view where you can see the Alps where Hannibal crossed over with his elephants on his way to attack with Rome (we learned a bit of history on this trip--whether I can remember it remains to be seen--Lionello really knew a lot of history and made a great tour guide). They also fed us dinner that night, too. Risotto this time with salmon as the second course and chopped fruit for dessert.
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| this is the way Hannibal came over the Alps |
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| one of my favorite photos that I took |
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| Hannah (and Lionello and Grazia) on the stairs |
Sun March 17th-from Turin to Alessandria and Silvano d'Orba
Went to church in Alessandria with no translators this time. We got that the speakers topic was charity. One of the speakers used 1 Corinthians 13 (Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal...). That was about all I caught, but it was still very nice.
In Alessandria, I had the best panino (Italian lesson: panini is the plural of the Italian word for sandwich, and since I only ate one, it's a panino) - grilled eggplant, grilled red bell peppers, and caramelized onions. I would love to eat it again. It just might have been my favorite meal while in Italy.
Then we headed back to Silvano for our 11 am meeting with the Mayor, Sindaco Pino Coco, and the Deputy Mayor, Vicesindaco Chiara Boarini. She is Hannah's age and spoke a bit more English than the mayor and was also extremely nice.
We were thrilled when they gifted us a beautiful drawing of a little barge on the Orba river... way back when, the Perasso family ran the barge to bring people back and forth across the river since there wasn't a bridge. The Mayor told us that the Perasso family were the only ones allowed to run the barge, so the gift was very meaningful.
They brought us to tour a local grappa distillery. Grappa is an alcohol made by distilling the leftovers from the wine-making process. They were surprised that we declined taste-testing their products.
Then they brought us to Albergo Ristorante Italia di Perasso Alberto, a restaurant and hotel owned by a Perasso family: Alberto (who spoke no English) and his daughter, Valentina (who spoke some English), and grandson, Eduardo (who spoke excellent English). Albergo means Inn, by the way. Could not figure out how we might be related, but we're sure we must be. Glen is working on expanding the Perasso clan in the database already.
We wound up eating there--the vegetarian pizza with fresh greens on top for lunch probably had my favorite crust I ate while in Italy and a delicious pesto lasagna for dinner for me. We also spent the night in their hotel.
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| a picture of the drawing the Mayor gave us- dimensions of the drawing are 13 1/2" by 19 1/2" |
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| at the distillery with Pino Coco and Chiara Boarini |
Mon March 18th-Ovada and Silvano d'Orba and then Milan
Originally we were going to go down to Genoa (Genova), birthplace of Christopher Columbus (Cristoforo Colombo), but there wasn't anything we were really interested in--plus we had to figure out how to make a box so we could get our beautiful new picture safely back to America, and we were meeting up with the Mayor and Deputy Mayor later at 5 pm. So we spent some time in Ovada, the next town over from Silvano, which is a bit bigger than Silvano. One thing we had fun doing was looking at the Real Estate listings in the windows of the Real Estate offices.
We met up with the Mayor, Deputy Mayor, and someone else (Pierre?) that they had invited along because he spoke more English than they did. They took us to the home that the first Perassos who moved to Silvano owned. Didn't get a date for that happening, though. They also took us to a little eatery where Pierre couldn't believe that we just wanted water to drink. Flat water, aka acqua naturale, is definitely preferred by us over the sparkling kind they offered.
While we were there, an older woman (87 years old) came in and the Mayor called her over because she had married into the Perasso family. Signora Perasso ran home to get her father-in-law's old ID. Glen took a photo of it and will see if he can connect her line to ours.
Then we ate gelato. And then we drove to our last Airbnb which was near the Milan airport.
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| peperoni (meaning bell peppers) pizza in Orvada |
Tues March 19th-- flights from Milan to Frankfurt to San Francisco, then rental car to Reno
We had trouble getting to the airport, which is all just water under the bridge now since we did manage to make our flight--just barely. We were the last to board and they had even announced our names over the intercom system. It was a stressful morning.
Hannah had placed our seats where we were in the front row for our section of the plane. It was great because it gave us extra leg room, plus it was right next to the bathroom which allowed me to easily hop up and use it when it was unoccupied.
Hannah sat in a window seat across the aisle from our middle section. We had a young German family sitting next to us--a father and mother (who seemed to speak English well) and their adorable 13 month old son. At one point, I got to say "es tut mir leid" (I'm sorry) when I spilled a bit of water. However, I didn't dare say "gesundheit" when she sneezed a few times. That seemed a bit too weird.
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| Sudoku on the plane to Frankfurt |
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| We now have 2 stamps in our passports from airports we stayed in for an hour or 2, but no stamp for the place we stayed over 2 weeks in. I'm glad Germany stamped our passports. Go figure. |
And this message was waiting for us on the fridge when we got home. Thanks, Eric. We love you, too.
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| (Welcome back from Europe. I love you my family) |
Stray thoughts on Italy and our trip:
"Non parlo italiano" (I don't speak Italian) is okay, but "Parla inglese?" (do you speak English?) is even better to know. And many did seem to speak at least some English or they could call over someone who did. And I surprisingly had quite a few opportunities to speak to people in Spanish.
I consider Pompeii and Venice musts when someone is going to Italy, however, one day for each is enough. Florence is a must, but more than one day would be great. And for us, Silvano d'Orba is a must as well.
FOOD:
Pistachios, one of my favorite things, were everywhere. Our tour guide in Pompeii said that pistachios are grown in Sicily. I think there was only once that pistachio flavored gelato wasn't available in the gelato choices. And they are blended in, so the gelato is smooth and not crunchy. There were pistachio croissants all over the place, and little pistachio tarts, too. Loved it.
Also, when you eat somewhere, you pay at the end. So, even if you take your food outside, you have to remember to go back in and pay before you leave... which we almost forgot to do at a Turkish/Italian place in Orvada. Oops. And you have to ask for your check. They never bring it to you at your table.
As far as food goes, our eating pattern was varied. Some days we didn't eat at all until dinner. But there was always gelato. We ate many pizzas and only a little pasta. The vegetarian pizzas were interesting. The first few times I had it, the vegetables were eggplant, zucchini, and roasted red bell peppers (or at least they were cooked before being added to the pizza-not sure if they were truly roasted). The pizza we had in Silvano actually had what I think was arugula on top (not cooked...sprinkled on afterward it was cooked).
"Ciao House" is a cooking competition in English where they took 10 chefs from America and brought them to Tuscany for an Italian cooking reality show. I saw the first episode on the plane coming home and then after coming home, I watched the 2nd episode on DiscoveryPlus where the chefs were given a brief lesson on pasta making by 2 nonne (grandmothers--Italian lesson, nonna is a grandmother and more than one would be nonne). The show is also on Prime Video, but you have to pay/episode.
Other:
The Italians are really big on recycling, which is great, but we couldn't always tell what category certain things went in (some paper like things almost seemed plasticized...so are they plastic or paper or neither?), so sometimes we just carted our trash around with us.
Every place is a photo opportunity. No matter where we went, we wanted to take photos...and of course, photos never do it justice. So, after a while, I stopped taking so many photos to save my sanity. We loved the color scheme of the houses.
Most light switches are outside of rooms, even in restaurant restrooms. And they have multiple switches so you had to play with it to see which was the bedroom light or the hall light or the light in the next room.
Daylight savings ends on March 31st in Italy, so we missed the change in the states while we were in Italy and will miss the one in Italy. Of course, adjusting to an 8 or 9 hour change is more difficult than a one hour change. I just thought it was interesting that they did daylight savings at all.
Some cars had a capital P on a paper in their back windows. We asked Lionello about them as we had been curious. Turns out that if you are learning how to drive, this sign lets the other drivers know.
There is a semi-siesta in Italy. Many places close down for a few hours in the afternoon, maybe from 2-5...or 1 to 3, 2 to 4. It wasn't really standardized, but a few times we went looking for food, but the places we wanted to eat at were closed for the afternoon.
Glen and I managed to keep our Duolingo streaks! I hit 2,300 days while there. The internet was iffy sometimes, but Hannah could make us a hotspot using her phone if it was needed.
It was awesome, amazing, and I'm really glad there were 3 of us. Especially when one of us (Hannah) was so capable in figuring things out.
I had pizza with aruglua on it several times in Italy and I have to I am not a fan but it's probably good for you haha. Getting stamps on your passport is so fun!
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