One thing that I don't think I have mentioned so far is Skype, and what a difference it is making in this trip. My Mom is 93 (as of yesterday), and in failing health. My sister, Sarah, has responsibility for her care (Mom lives in a nursing home 6 blocks from Sarah's house), and is luckily very supportive of our gypsy lifestyle. On our last trip, one big frustration was using the payphones over here – every calling card is different, and of course, you can't understand the instructions! In addressing this problem, I purchased a cell phone at www.callineurope.com, thanks to fellow RVer, Betsy Crawford. Their phone and rates are by far the cheapest I saw, not for casual chatting, but for average calls. I also have my little Asus Eee PC with me, which I love, love, love, and which has a microphone and webcam built in. A few weeks before we left, I went to www.skype.com, and downloaded their free program. Sarah bought an external microphone ($10) and a webcam ($20 or so) for her PC, and we started talking....free. It is absolutely amazing the difference in the quality of a chat when you can see each other! (You don't have to have the webcam to still talk). We would set up the computer in our trailer in CA, facing the keyboard, and Dick would play for Mom, who was just captivated by the whole experience. Here in Europe, we have found wireless connections to be pretty available, either in our apartments, somewhere on the grounds, or, in Argeles, sitting in the cafe next to the grocery store. Many of the McDonalds offer it free for an hour. I talk to Sarah almost every day, and to Mom when she is at Sarah's. She was sad when she knew how long I was going to be gone, but now, feels so much closer, when she can see me, and I can show them our apartment, etc. The picture here was taken on Mother's Day from our apartment in Madrid. For all of you living away from family, it is an awesome tool.
One other thing that I forgot to mention, was how much fun it was to meet up with Greg and Mary Beth Mueller, fellow Jojobians, in Madrid. They just completed a two month trip that included Spain, Greece, a cruise to Israel, Egypt, etc., and ending in Rome. They just wrote that while they were sitting in the Rome airport, having coffee, they saw Tim Russert. No one could imagine, of course, that Tim would die the next day of a heart attack! How sad....and one more reminder to live like you want today.
It was time to pack up again and move on. We loved our little campground and the area in the Alpes....and we also really enjoyed Nice. She grew on me. For a short stay, I would probably recommend staying closer t
o Nice, if not right in Nice, and driving into the mountains. I do think it is worth the time to get off the coastal area to see the mountain villages.
Our trip to Levanto was uneventful, except for one little unintentional detour through Genoa, which actually piqued my interest in going back. We got to Levanto, where we were supposed to meet our new landlords at one of the local markets. I had emailed them our approximate arrival time. We got there about 3 to find that of course, the market was closed until 4:30. I called the landlord's number, and after a couple of tries, a man who spoke no English answered. It took some time to get across to him who I was and why I was calling. He finally said to be at the market at 4:30. A couple of minutes later, he called back and said to be there at 4:00. We drove around the town a bit – Levanto is the first town west of the Cinque Terre towns, and not at all as picturesque, so I was a bit disappointed, but at least there was a beach nearby for the kids. We were back at the market at the appointed time when a young lady in a pretty beat up car pulled up and motioned for us to follow her. Off we went, further and further out of town, higher and higher. We were back in the switchback roads that Dick had not enjoyed in France. We finally drove into the tiniest hill town we had seen, where, from the bottom, looked pretty dreary. She stopped in front of a cement “garage” in the side of the hill, and motioned us to pull in. We got out and followed her up a very steep driveway, full of construction – not at all scenic! I was getting pretty frantic by this time – my cousin, two of his teenagers and one of their friends were arriving the next day, for their first trip to Europe, and here we were in this remote ugly little place. We followed our lady (who spoke no English, and just giggled) through a gate, into a much prettier little set of buildings, and around the corner to a beautiful patio with amazing views of the valley, and no view of the construction below. She opened the door to a really beautiful apartment and my apprehension started to lessen. Our experience has always been that while all of the kitchens are well-stocked, the Italians are more serious about good kitchens. We have a great gas stove with convection oven and to Dick's joy, a dishwasher. The Italians have a flair for the dramatic, and we love the way it is decorated. Marble is so available here, and the bathroom is huge – all marble, complete with a big jacuzzi tub.
F
rom our large balcony/patio, we have a view of the valley – there are several other tiny hill towns, each with a big church steeple. At 7:00 every morning, we wake to church bells. In the evening at 7:00, they all ring, some 7 times, some many more. It is really charming.
Since we just have the little car, and are doing all transport by train, Dick has to make two trips
t
o the train station each morning and evening, but we have our routine down. The Cinque Terre towns are just a very few miles from here, so it is a short trip. The first day, we went to the furthermost one, Riomaggiore, and spent most of the day exploring – all up hill, of course. The views in this part of the world are just breathtaking. These are small towns with pastel colored buildings, literally hanging on the sides of montains right next to the Mediterranean. We wanted to walk the 15 minutes to Manarola on the trail that connects all 5 towns , but it costs 5 Euro apiece per day to walk the trail,no matter how far you go, so we took the train (1.40 E all the way back to Levanto, with unlimited stops in a 6 hour period). The parts of the towns next to the water are where the tourists spend most of their time in the charming restaurants and shopping areas. If you walk to the top of the towns, you find the piazzas where the locals live. At the top of Manarola, we found a church built circa 1300, which is still hard to grasp, and this was not any special church. Although there is not a large commercial wine industry here, there are little vineyards on every square foot of land.
Vernazza was the busiest of the towns, which none of us liked much, but when we climbed to the top of the town, we were almost alone. The cemeteries are on the top of the towns, with either rows of white marble vaults (all decorated with pictures of the dear departed and artificial flowers), or above ground graves, similarly adorned.
The kids (Alexandra, Becky, and Christian) really liked Monterosso al Mare, where there are long stretches of beach, and they could work on their tans. There are lots of Americans here, and we all laughed when we met a young man who had not only gone to their high school in St. Paul, but had been at their oldest sister's graduation party!
On Thursday, we decided we should expand our horizons, and took the train to Genoa. It was an hour and a half train ride, and when we got there, we couldn't find an information office anywhere. We finally found the old part of the city, with its tiny walkways and piazzas, but by that time, the kids were not intrigued! We ate fish and chips in a British pub and went back to the train station. So we sort of saw Genoa. Its worth seeing, but make sure you have a map! It is hard to see any city in one day, and get any feel for it. It wasn't until our third day in Nice that I really “got” it. After the charm of Cinque Terre, Genoa was a big loud dirty city, until we got to the old town, by which time we were exhausted. The moral of the story is not to hit the bigger cities unprepared.
Today, the weather is beautiful and as soon as the kids get up, we will go back to Riomaggiore and hike the trail to Corniglia. Past that, it gets pretty challenging, and we have all agreed that we just don't need to do it, especially since flip flops and moccasins are the shoes of choice for the girls – they somehow missed the fact that hiking is one of the big events here. Its fine with me – Dick and I did part of the hard hike two years ago, and while the views are spectacular, we feel no compulsion to do it again.
While there would have been merit to staying in one of the towns with all the evening activity (and I would recommend that for a shorter trip with less people), staying in a larger house has worked well for this group of six. The kids have been great about helping to fix dinner – they are terrific sous chefs – and we have enjoyed eating out on our pretty patio. They handle me beautifully – when I am lingering a bit long on the patio enjoying Happy Hour, instead of whining about being hungry, one of them will come out and ask what he/she can do to help with dinner. We have some very good management skills here.
Dick and I found our first English speaking channel on TV (at least some of the time) since arriving in Europe – MTV!! The Europe 2008 soccer tournament is going on, so poor Dick has been doing his best to become a soccer fan. We see lots of American TV shows, but they are all dubbed. It is so frustrating to watch the news and see them show a clip of an American interview, just to have them talk over the top of it in Spanish, French or Italian. Its kind of pathetic watching Dick channel surf every day, expecting a different result :-).
Tomorrow morning is another dreaded moving day. Van has to be in Bologna by noon to pick up their car before they close for the weekend, so he will ride with us, while we put the kids on a train (no train changes involved). The train leaves at 7:30, which the kids can't grasp, since they haven't seen a minute before 10:00 am since we got here.
June 28
Another week has passed – Van and the kids should be on the plane home. Our move last Saturday was pretty much without incident for once. The temperatures were hot, as predicted – they literally went from a cool rainy spring to blazing hot temperatures (mid to high 90s) in one day. We stopped at a traditional osteria for our first Emilia Romagna lunch, and were not disappointed. This region is known as the best in Italy, famous for the Parmegiano Reggiano cheese, proscuitto ham, and real balsamic vinegar. The pastas are homemade and wonderful. We all had tasty cheese stuffed raviolis with an asparagus sauce. Christian and I split the pasta and then split an order of fresh sausage, which was excellent. One of my frustrations in Tuscany two years ago, was that I never got past the pasta course – I have no idea how these folks eat so much! I came away not really feeling that I had experienced much of the cusine. I then read that it is perfectly acceptable to split courses, therefore getting to taste more foods. Rick Steves has the phrase for it in his phrase book, which I have been practicing – of course, I usually have to just show them the words, since they don't understand my sorry attempts.
This is absolutely beautiful country – mountain ranges (or very large hills) and patchwork fields of yell
ow and green. Then there are the sunflower fields which are currently in full bloom. We spent a day in Bologna, which is very manageable and chock full of history.....and great food. Another great little city is Ravenna, famous for mosaics. They have a very nice central market that is open everyday, and a cafeteria style restaurant that has no real ambience, but has very tasty regional food. The kids were mostly interested in seeing Dantes tomb, since they had just read Dantes Inferno. Ravenna is also close to the Adriatic Sea and beaches – boy did the water feel good in all this heat!
We are goin
g back to both of these cities and several others this week when my son, Steve, his
girlfriend, Julie, and friend Lora come in. I just love the smaller cities and towns.
The kids couldn't be this close to Florence and not see David, so with great trepidation, given the heat and how much they had not enjoyed Genoa, we headed out. Bologna is only a 58 minute train ride, but for some reason the train tickets were pretty expensive. It cost 5 of us $210 and $30 parking. The Duomo is just beautiful, and they did enjoy David, but boy, the crowds. We all decided that we just aren't big tourist city people. I know there are lots of Florence lovers out there, and it is a beautiful and very important art city, but the place is just teeming with tourists and vendors, and the fact that it was 100 degrees didn't help. I think off-season is definitely the time to visit. Our train was late and changed bins, it cost Van $180 for train tickets to Milan the next day, and we made a wrong turn going home – not The Lady's fault – mine, so we were all mighty glad to pull into our little country home. Its not fair to Europe to complain about the money – it is the exchange rate that is making it so hard. Living like Dick and I have has made it tolerable, and we don't spend much time thinking about it, but the cost of traveling to a big city with so many people really brings it home. We are going to pretty much stick to our small towns from now on.
Our home is part of a large very old stone house high in the hills of Bologna. The owners, Gabriella and Dino Russo are just amazing people. They have been completely responsive to all requests – both speak English, as do their high school and college-aged sons. Van asked Dino about how close WWII action came to this area. Our house was a German command post when the Allies had gotten to Florence!! A group of Germans came by a few years ago and asked to see it – a couple of them had been soldiers in that command. For information on renting the apartment, go to www.vrbo.com and search on property 115679. They also have 2 B&B rooms. We have a charming little patio with a table large enough for six – even in this heat, the evenings and early mornings on the patio have been pleasant, and the big thick stone walls keep the house pretty cool. Leela, their big black dog, comes to visit every night when she suspects there might be treats. Dino has a huge garden, and told me to use whatever fresh herbs there are. So, this is a very comfortable place to be, where we really feel like we are living with the Italians. I also love the fact that I can find out all the best places to shop and eat. After an afternoon and day on our own, we are getting ready to head out to Bologna to pick up Steve and Julie. They have been in Florence since yesterday (plane arrived in Milan at 7:30 am, and they caught the train), so I would imagine that we'll have two tired pups. We have reservations at a local tratorria tonight and then we will come back and put them to bed.
Later.......Julie and Steve were actually in pretty good shape – they had a wonderful time in Florence. Every thing they ate was good and they were very happy with their hotel. After a good night's sleep, they went did their tourist thing, caught the train to Bologna and arrived right on time. They always amaze me – they always seem to have a wonderful time, no matter what they do. Great attitudes!
We had a lovely dinner at Trattoria Indice 95, recommended by our landlords. We started with simple but delicious salads – lettuce, mushrooms, lemon vinaigrette, and shavings of the delicious local Parmegiano Reggiano cheese. This became our first course for most of our evening meals at home the rest of the week. We then had various pastas, and finished with veal scallopine in lemon sauce, and broccolli. Fine start to the week.
The heat continued to plague us, but we soldiered on. Sunday, we drove to Ferrara, a beautiful walled city with a castle. We watched a bit of a local pagentry involoving teams of drummers and flag throwers, and found some great gelato. Another on our growing list of cities to which we would like to return.
Monday was Parma and Modena. Our primary goals involved food, although for the more cultured, both are known as great art cities. In Parma, we had no trouble getting a recommendation on the best place to taste prosciutto and Parmegiano Reggiano cheese, the Salumeria at Strada Garibaldi Giuseppe, 42. Since we were eating most of our dinners at home, we decided to splurge on the best of each. The prosciutto just melted in our mouths. We hit another great salumeria across the street where we bought gorgonzola cheese to try to re-create something Steve ate in Florence – slices of cured meat (we used prosciutto) spread with soft creamy gorgonzola and wrapped around arugula. Serve on a bed of arugula and sprinkle generously with lemon juice.
Our next stop was Modena, known for its balsamic vinegar, being the home of Lucianl Pavrotti, and the headquarters for Ferrari, Maserati, and De Tomaso. We didn't do the proper research, and since it was Monday, a “closed” day for many shops and restaurants in Europe, we had no luck finding balsamic tasting shops, so settled for a gelato, where Steve taught the ice cream server how to make a float – all with no common language, of course. Although the city was pretty well destroyed in WWII it is still the home to many art treasures from its more glorious past, and now enjoys the highest per-capita income in Italy.
On Tuesday, we picked up Lora, Steve and Julie's friend, in Bologna. We walked down the market street just off of Piazza Magiore, and found the balsamic we were seeking in Modena. Only that made in Modena can be called balsamic vinegar – all others, no matter what the quality, can only be called balsamic seasoning. The really high end stuff tastes nothing like what we buy in the grocery stores in the US. It is much sweeter and richer. Steve and Lora sprung for a bottle of pretty high end stuff to split and take home, although they did share with the rest of us at meals. There are some great food stores and restaurants in Bologna - A. F. Tamburini on 
via Caprarie, 1 has an amazing array of local specialties, and you can order on-line at www.tamburini.com. Bologna is a really nice city – in the historic Piazza Magiorie, they were having a film festival, where every night they were showing a classic film on a huge screen outside for no charge. We really wanted to go to one, but they didn't start until 10;00 pm, and we were living at least 45 minutes away. After long days of touring in the heat and having a leisurely dinner on the patio, we just couldn't quite get it togther. Oh, and by the way, leaning towers are not unique to Pisa – it just marketed its better. We saw them all over Bologna.
On Wednesday, we went back to Ravenna. As the capitol of the Western Roman Empire, the Visigoth Empire, and the Byzantine Empire, Ravenna was once one of the greatest cities on the Mediterranean, and is known for the many well-preserved mosaics created during that time. It was hot, but well worth the trouble to walk all over town to see them.
On the way to Ravenna, we stopped at the tiny city of Dozza – possibly the highlight of the week. Our landlord had suggested that we might enjoy touring the castle. What a delightful place. The castle is well-preserved and interesting with a beautiful wine Enoteca in the basement with an excellent variety of the Emilia Romagna wines. This is also an artist's colony and the walls of the tiny streets are painted with fanciful murals. It is just charming! If you ever visit, when you come out of the castle facing the town, there are two restaurants facing you. (these are not the one you are looking for). There are also two streets. Walk down the street to your left until you reach the osteria (can't remember the name). We had a delightful lunch there. It was a long but very good day.
The next day was supposed to be our rest day – the kids were all leaving on Friday. But, of 
course we couldn't resist another drive. I found a map in the house of an area not far from us that looked interesting, between Borgo Tossignano and Brisighella. It included a national park, and what our landlords told us was some of the best food in the region. The most direct way there was on the winding mountain roads that Dick has gotten so good at. The views of the mountains and valleys were just beautiful. Our favorite little town was Brisighella. Driving in from above it were amazing views of a castle and several churches. The center of town, was a typical beautiful old village, where Dick found his gelateria, where he could relax while the rest of us explored. This is a real hill town, and we found the path to to top of the hill, where the views were spectacular. It is always so frustrating, because a camera can't begin to capture the beauty, and I am not a good enough writer to describe it. I could easily stay a week or more in this little town, and might just do it on our way back in October.
We dropped everyone off at the train station and airport on Friday, and went back to pack for the next stage of our journey. The Emilia Romagna area is just beautiful – the cities are very historic, but small enough to be manageable, and the food is great. We found the people to be very friendly – we highly recommend it.
The dreaded travel day.....actually pretty uneventful, other than the fact that this weekend markedthe beginning of vacation season. We had only about 200 miles to drive to Merano and on the autoroute, it should have only been about a 3 hour trip. Note to self – try to avoid driving on Saturdays during vacation season. We had eaten up most of the perishable food since we were spending the next week in a hotel, but figured that we could eat at one of the really pretty good AutoGrills along the freeway. What we didn't figure on was the fact that every Italian in region had exactly the same idea. Long lines snaked out of both the grills and the bathrooms the entire trip. We finally pulled over and dug through the car until I found a can of tuna fish (thanks, Julie!) and some peanuts. We had plenty of water, so that became lunch. The other interesting thing was the traffic pattern – these people are world-class rubber-neckers (I hear the same about Germany). It was pretty much stop and go traffic all the way – after a long delay, things would finally start moving and we would see someone changing a tire! It took almost five hours to reach our destination.
But, what a destination is was!! Merano is in the Sud Tirol (Alto Aldige region), which was owned by Austria until WWI. It is truly a parallel culture – all signs are in German and Italian, and the people speak both. Through the untrained eye, you would swear that you were in Bavaria, although it was pointed out to us that the architecture and styles are quite different. Merano (Meran in German) is nestled in a valley in the Alps, with a Mediterranean feel to it.
Even though it is in the mountains, it is one of the hottest areas of italy because the air gets trapped in the valley. Also, although the mountains are covered in snow in the winter and skiing is very popular, it never snows here in the valley. Hence, the foliage is very Mediterranean, including palm trees and cactus. It is a huge agricultural area, producing more varieties of grapes than anywhere in Europe (and maybe the world) and is also Europe's top apple producing area. It is breathtakingly beautiful, and virtually unknown (or at least unvisited) to both Brits and Americans. We are here because of our exchange student, Pam. She lived with us in 1991 in Detroit, and we have remained friends with her and her family ever since. She, her boyfriend, Michael, her Mom, Sigrid, and her friend, Stefan, were to meet us here for the weekend. Her brother, Werner, is the General Manager of the Steigenberger Hotel here, and is graciously putting us up for the week. Our suite is in the front of the hotel, overlooking the rushing river and pedestrian plaza. After the Austrian Empress made this her holiday retreat in the 1800s, she introduced it to other European royalty, really putting it on the map. They love her here.
It is always wonderful to see Pam – she really is like a daughter. Werner treated us to a wonderful dinnner at a local restaurant on the first night – he always knows the best places. 
We have seen several places in Europe we would have never known, had it not been for Werner's career and hospitality – Erfurt, in the former east Germany, Ruegen, an island in the Baltic Sea and also former east Germany, and now Merano. We are spoiled because the majority of the staff are German and speak at least some English. We also have found, that even though we have seen literally no other Americans or Brits, most of the waiters in at least the tourist part of town speak English. This is a beautiful new hotel, with a wonderful spa area with pools that have jets going all the time, saunas, and whirlpool – but not as hot as ours. I like it much better. It has both inside and outside pools – very luxurious.
We had two and a half great days with Pam and company before they headed back to Germany. It is so nice to know that we will see her again soon – maybe even next weekend in the Loire. We were also thrilled to learn that Werner and Suzanne are getting married in Erfurt on August 15, Its such fun to be here long enough and have enough flexibility to be able to fit in such great occasions.
One of the employees here in the hotel, Marc, offered to spend one of his vacation days taking Dick and me on a tour of the area. Marc was born here and loves it. After spending time in Germany, and then working in the hotel business all over the world, he has now moved back to stay. His long term goal is to own a small hotel, where he can provide great service, as well as arranging, and leading, tours for his guests. From our experience, he should be very good at it.
We drove over to the area of the Dolomites – what a beautiful mountain range. I have often heard of them, but had never seen them. They are unusually rugged, and have some of the beauty of southern Utah. We stopped for coffee at a lovely small and elegant hotel, a hotel his Dad had run for years and in which Marc grew up with. One of the owners showed us a room - very traditional and quaint. We then stopped for lunch at Trattoria Gasthaus Egarter – a restaurant with a long reputation of serving the best fish in the area. Although ownership changed, the new Italian owner is continuing the tradition. Marc worked for the previous owner, and has become a regular customer with the new one. Although the weather has been a bit iffy, – they have had a very rainy spring and summer, interspersed with really hot days - we hit it perfectly. The extra altitude helped with the temperatures. We sat on the outside patio with a beautiful view of the Dolomites. We were told that it is the view most used for marketing shots of the mountains.
Marc suggested that we let the chef set the menu. We started with a cold appetizer, tuna carpaccio, topped with a little feta cheese and shredded celery, and honey drizzled on the plate. Excellent. The second appetizer was a hot one – mussels and a scallop gratineed in their shells. Also very good. The main course was some sort of very mild, but meaty, roasted fish, surrounded by a beautiful and plentiful array of fresh grilled vegetables. He divided one whole fish among the three of us, so it was just meat, and wasn't looking at us from the plate. We finished with lemon sorbet blended with prosecco and served in a glass. Everything was just delicious and we would very highly recommend that if you ever visit this area, you give Trattoria Gasthaus Egarter, Monte di Mezzo 63 - Collalbo/Renon a try. Telephone is 39 0471 358045, although I don't know if anyone speaks English. Email address is egarter@hotmail.it. You would need specific directions on getting there – it is definitely in the country.
After this wonderful lunch and a litre of white wine, Marc had us climb quite a hill on what he said was part of an old Roman road, to a church built around 1100. Although we were huffing and puffing a bit, the view was definitely worth it. The church was very small, but looking through the window, it is pretty and seemed to still be in use. They must have a very fit and dedicated congregation!
After a quick walk through old town Bolzano, which is very nice, but the hottest city in the country (only about 50 km from the Swiss border!), Marc returned us to the hotel. What an amazing day and what amazing country. It was so much fun to see it through the eyes of someone who knows it and loves it like Marc does.
The rest of the week, we have just been enjoying Merano and our beautiful hotel. We have had dinner with Werner most nights, and tonight, our last night, we are going to his very cool apartment where I am going to fix risotto. By the way, we figured out the secret to really good gelato. Look for the Produzione Propria, or something like that on the sign, that indicates that it is made in-house. We also found that in most, if not all, of those gelaterias, the gelato is in stainless steel containers with lids, not heaped up in those beautiful displays you see in most places.
Tomorrow we head out across Switzerland towards the Loire area of France to meet up with Dick's oldest daughter, Mary, and her family. We are excited to see them, and always grab a chance to see the grandkids. Since we have five days to go about 1100 km, we are going to stay off the motorway and try the red roads. Dick has had a week's vacation from driving, so we will put him to the test.
I know I promised shorter posts, but apparently lied through my teeth :-).
Strasbourg is another of those European cities that has been passed between
