Sloane and Kelly eat (and drink) our way through Italy!

The morning of good Friday got off to an early start as we caught one of the first flights out of Heathrow to Milan. The plan was to rent a car at the airport and spend the day driving down the A1 through Parma and Modena and end up in Florence for dinner that night. We were a little worried about the "super economy" car we'd rented, thinking we'd end up with something like this....
To our surprise out car happened to be parked next to this one and was actually a nice four-door. While the car exceeded our expectations, our driving/navigation skills were a little rusty. After Sloane nearly blew the transmition leaving the airport parking lot (the tiptronic was in manual mode not automatic), I directed us about an hour in the wrong direction on the A1. We managed to pull ourselved together, started out in the correct direction and stopped at the Fidenza outlets just in time for a quick snack. I'd heard that the Lindt store there has the best ice cream in the world and after testing it out I'd have to wholeheardtly agree...it was amazing!


On our way back to the highway we found a deli store and stocked up on a few goodies for the next few days. We bought Cutallo di Parma and Coppa Artigianale meats, Carnia Altobut Dolce and Parmseano Reggiano cheeses and Lambrusco wine.

We got back on the highway (going the right direction this time) and made a quick stop in Parma.





Back on the road (our longest day of driving) we made our way to Modena. I'd booked a tour with a Balsamic vinegar producer, Acetaia Villa San Domino. This was one of our favorite stops of the trip. Our host Davide gave us a tour of his villa where scenes from the movie 1900 were filmed, the collection of paintings and frescoes were beautiful.



We were then taken to the barn where we learned about he process by which traditional balsamic vinegar is made (it's a 12 year process!).


The villa was beautiful and the tour informative, but the highlight was the tasting. It was just the two of us on the two and we felt very spoiled. We tasted different "vintages" of balsamic vinegar (aged 12 and 25 years) on parmesan cheese and breads, balsamic vinegar jam with ricotta cheese (my favorite) and even balsamic vinegar with ice cream (surprisingly good!). If that wasn't enough we washed it all down with some of the Lambrusco wine that they make on their farm.


We hit massive amounts of trafic on the road from Modena to Florence, but ended up making it into the city in time for a late dinner at Golden View Open Bar (Mike's recommendation). We had a very nice dinner seated at window table with a live Jazz band and perfect view of the Pontevecchio. The view was nearly eclipsed by the ravioli served in a truffle cream sauce...to die for!

Saturday morning we set out to explore the city. Our hotel was right around the corner from the Duomo, which is probably the most spectacular buildings I've ever seen.

We spent the morning walking around the city following a walking tour we downloaded before we left. Here Sloane's standing in front of a replica of Michaelangelo's David in the Piazza Della Signoria.

After working up an appetite walking through the city we grabbed lunch at the restaurant where Mike worked when he was in Florence, Buca Del'Orafo.


We stopped along the Arno river for a few pictures...


...Sloane in front of the the Ponte Vecchio


We waited in the endlessly long line to get into the Uffizi Gallery, and unfortnatly didn't have time to see the Accademia Gallery.


But we took a minute to rest in the cafe on the top of the Uffizi for a pre-dinner glass of wine.

We spent a bit more time walking around the city before dinner at Il Latini (another of Mikes recommendations). The line was insane (luckily we had reservations!) and when the opened the door people there was a mad rush to get in. It sounds a little crazy but I'd throw a few elbows for food like Il Latini's any day!


We both agreed that this was the best meal of the trip. They sat us family style in a big room with meats hanging from the ceiling, and the food just kept coming. There's no menu, the waiter comes over gives you a few choices (antipasta or salad, rabbit, veal, pork or beef, ect.). We started with antipasta which consisted of parma ham, crostini, and stuffed peppers. Then came the pasta, wild boar tagliolini for me. We washed down our main courses with Chianti. I ordered rabbit and Sloane had pork, both amazing. They then brought us vin santo and cantucci (another favorite of mine) and we shared an almond tart for desert which was served with a glass of muscatto. So good!


The night was going so well that something had to go wrong. We got out of the city to head down to the villa we'd booked outside of Asciano in the Tuscan country, The Lazy Olive. We got out of Florence without any problems but once we got to the area where we should have been we realized we had no idea where we were going. It was getting close to midnight and after heading down several dirt roads in the wrong direction (I blame google maps and not my shortcomings as a navigator) our gas was getting dangerously low and we started worrying that we may be spending the night in the car. It was so late and I hated to do it but in a final desperate attempt to get to the villa to see if they could help. Malcolm, one of the owners, came to the rescue and actually drove into the city to meet us and guide us back. As we followed him down the long winding (unmarked) dirt road to the villa we were extremely grateful, we never would have found it without his help.

When we woke up the next morning (Easter) we were treated to a breathtaking view in one of the most beautiful places we've ever been. This is the building we stayed in (a renevotaed barn)...

We had our own terrace...Sloane quickly made friends with the locals, he and the great dane, Spark, were good friends by the end of the trip.

Pictures just don't do justice to the incredible views. (To see a video of our room and the views go to the end of the post)


On Easter Sunday we headed but up towards Florence to Panzano in Chianti to have Easter Lunch Solociccia, famous butcher Dario Checchini's resturant (another of Mike's reccomendations). Before the lunch the went into the macelleria (butcher's shop) where they served wine and a few appetizers and we watched Dario prepare some meat for the lunch.



The lunch was a real treat and consisted almost entirely of meat! We started with meat ragu on toast, batter fried meats and veggies, and sauteed marinated beef. We snacked on homemade focaccia, veggies and garbanzo beans before the brought out the main courses, roast beef, boiled beef and braised beef. They then served "Italian Military" liquers which I could have easily done without. I don't care if grappa is a good digestive...it's just plain gross! Luckily the olive oil cake and coffee were a perfect end to the meal and we left full and happy!

We spent a little time walking around the town of Panzano before we headed back down to the Lazy Olive.


That night we enjoyed a light dinner of the meats and cheeses from Parma with a bottle of the Lambrusco wine over a game of cribbage (Sloane's slowly coming around to card games). We missed spending Easter with our families but this wasn't a bad substitute!

On Monday we headed south to Montalcino to the Frattoria dei Barbi vineyards which produce the traditional wine of the region, Brunello.




A little further down the road from the vineyard we found the Abbey of Sant'Antimo...


We decided to head up to Sienna to grab dinner and see the city. Another beautiful church, the Siena Duomo...
We did some shopping (paneforte and other baked goods) and had dinner in the Piazza del Campo (where they hold the Palio horse races twice a year).



On Tuesday we headed back north to Chianti for some more wine tasting. We started the day in Monti in Chianti at Castello di Cacchiano where our host treated us to a private tour of the estate and vinyards, a real treat!



We then headed down the street for another Monti in Chianti vineyard, Il Sodi.



It was time for lunch and we drove towards Gaiole in Chianti to the Ricasoli estate where we had lunch and sampled a few of the Barone Ricasoli wines. After lunch we too a walk up to the castle to admire the view.

The next stop was another castle (I didn't realize just how many castles there were in Tuscany!), Castello di Meleto.

Sloane was fine (which was a good thing since he was driving) but I'd had about as much chianti as I could stand for the day. We headed home and made pasta for dinner, enjoyed a bottle of wine, and spent a cozy last night in our villa.

We were flying out of Rome on Wednesday night and our original plan had been to wake up early drive so that we'd reach Rome in the late morning and see as much of the city as we could before we had to leave. However, on Tuesday night we decided we'd had such a nice relaxing time in the country we didn't want to end the trip rushing around a city. We decided we'd go back to see Rome on a seperate trip later in the year when we could devote more than just a few hours to it and instead casually drove down to Rome, stopping in Montepulciano.




We tasted the vino nobile di Montepulciano at a few of the local shops and stopped for a nice lunch before embarking on the last leg of the trip.


It was a little depressing to realize that our amazing trip had come to an end as we flew back into rainy London, but we managed to take some of the better parts of Italy with us and cheered ourselves up by unpacking our collection of goodies.


Next up...back to Paris for Anso and Pauls wedding!

Oslo

When I found tickets for next to nothing to Oslo I though "why not?" and booked. Almost immediately I regretted the decision. I'd gotten the idea to visit Oslo on the flight back from Turin in the Ryan Air magazine. They highlighted Oslo as the most convenient weekend ski destination in Europe as you can take the tram 20 minutes outside of the city center and straight to the ski lifts...I should have known better than to trust a Ryan Air recommendation. As it turned out you could take the tram to the ski lifts, all five of them, and when they said they fly to Oslo airport they neglected to mention that the "Oslo" airport where they fly is actually a 2+ hour bus ride from Oslo. I guess you get what you pay for.

After some debate we decided to stick with the trip but bag the idea of skiing and just see a what we could of the city, but by Friday night before we left we were having serious second thoughts. I'd been working crazy hours for the past few weeks and was exhausted and Sloane was feeling a bit rundown as well. Leaving the apartment at 4am Saturday morning for the airport was pretty much the last thing we wanted to do. In the end it was worth it as Oslo far exceed both our expectations.

We woke up bleary eyed and managed to make it to the airport and catch the bus connection to Oslo without a glitch. The flight and bus ride went by in a sleepy haze. I'd booked the most inexpensive hotel I could find (Hotel Thon Astoria) and was a little nervous about it. Tired as we were, the last thing we wanted to deal with was searching in some back alley for a grimy hotel with unfriendly staff. There was no reason to worry. Not only was the hotel perfectly located in the center of the city, they let us check in a few hours early with no problem at all. We were pleasantly surprised when we got to our room which was modern and pristinely clean. We happily fell into our comfortable bed for a quick nap before hitting the town.


When we woke up we grabbed a bite to eat and headed out of the city. I'd read that you can take the trams outside of the city and rent sleds at the top of the mountain overlooking the city. Apparently you take the tram up, rent sleds, and sled down a track which ends a few kilometres later at a different tram stop. The article said that people buy a day ticket for the metro and ride it up and sled down over and over. After night sledding in Switzerland we considered ourselves experts in all things sledding so we decided to check it out. We were met with beautiful views of the city when we got off the tram and quickly found the place to rent the sleds.

It really was as easy as they mentioned in the article. We spent the next few hours sledding (or luging) down the mountain, gabbed the tram at the end of the track and made our way to the top to do it all over again.

We took a break at the end of the afternoon at a picturesque restaurant with exception views of Oslo and the Oslofjord. In spite of it's name the Oslofjord is not actually a fjord (a narrow inlet with steep sides created in a valley carved by glacial activity for which Norway's country side is famous) but it's actually a bay. We relaxed over a warm drink (see video 1 at the end of the post) before setting out for a few more rounds of sledding.



The pictures (and video's...see video's 2,3 and 4) don't do justice to the experience. As we gained speed going down certain parts of the track we'd fly over one of the many bumps and come crashing down out of control. I quickly found that I shouldn't quit my day job in pursuit of becoming the next American Olympic luger. I'd either go so slow I'd be barely moving, or if I'd gain any speed I'd spin out of control and end up crashing (once into an unsuspecting Norwegian child and another time into a Japanese tourist...oops!). Sloane showed more potential, but we both ended the day feeling bruised and battered.

We decided to go back to the restaurant where we'd stop for drinks because the menu looked pretty good and we were pretty hungry. We hadn't heard great things about Norwegian food, so our expectations weren't high. Again, we were more than happily surprised! Sloane ordered pork loin with a wine sauce and risotto, and my arctic char with seafood risotto and king crab legs was one of the best meals I've had in a while. Before heading back down to Oslo we shared the famous apple cake fore desert.

When we got back to the hotel we were met in the lobby by a heard of very blonde decked out Scandinavian cheerleaders. Apparently the was some sort of competition and they all happened to be staying in our hotel! Sloane suddenly had a second wind and wanted to go and "check out the night life." I, however, was not equally motivated to "see the sights" and once we got back to our room and fell into our oh-so-comfortable beds there was no chance we were leaving.

We woke the next morning to try to fit in all the sights of the city we could before we had to catch our bus back to the airport. We started by walking down to Oslofjord and along the water.

We made a quick stop at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo...

...and to Frogner Park

The park was probably the highlight of Oslo for me. It was created by Gustav Vigeland and created the 212 bronze and granite sculptures which are located throughout the park.
The bridge is marks the entrance to Vigeland Sculpture Park and are said to be an introduction to the "Human Condition" theme of the park.

One of my favorites was the stature named Sinnataggen or "the Little Bad Angry Boy"

The people in his sculptures are uniquely expressive, positioned in scenes that evoke many different emotions some comedic and some outright disturbing.

The fountain is in the center of the park and the children and skeletons intertwined in giant trees is mean to suggest that from death comes new life.

The most famous of the sculptures in the park is The Monolith which is a tower that sits at the highest point in the park comprised of 121 human figures and is over 45 ft. tall. Apparently The Monolith represents man's desire to become closer with the spiritual and divine.

The Monolith stands on a platform of 36 figures in arranged in a circle to signify the "circle of life".

After the park we walked around the royal palace.

Then we grabbed our bags at the hotel and headed off to our final stop, the Munch museum, which holds many of Edvard Munch's famous pieces including The Scream and Madonna. The Scream is Munch's most famous piece and has been the target of several high-profile art thefts (in 1994 a version of The Scream was stolen from the National Gallery and in 2004 both The Scream and Madonna were stolen from the Munch Museum...all have since been recovered). We both agreed that while we were happy to see the Munch collection we were more impressed with the pieces from Nikolai Astrup's collection (another Norwegian artists whose work was being showcased in the museum).

We finished with the Museum in time to catch our bus back to the airport and arrived back in London on Sunday night. Although we were both a bit tired and a little cranky from lack of sleep, we were really glad we went and would highly recommend the trip to those who are thinking about going.

Amsterdam

Continuing on our marathon streak of weekend trips to Continental Europe, we hit Amsterdam. We've both always wanted to visit here as the people are notoriously laid-back and have an anything goes mentality. I couldn't help thinking how much trouble I would have caused if I had visited here with my buddies or brothers, but as I was here with Kel, we stayed fairly well behaved.

We stayed at a really cool and funky B&B complete with the token Buddha statue that I attempted to imitate because, well, I'm an idiot. The place was a great deal as it was near one of the main canals and super convenient to many of the museums and the Heineken Brewery.



We set off from there on Saturday morning after sleeping in and went on a guided 5 hour bike tour that headed through the city and into the countryside. Along the way were some of the iconic symbols of the Netherlands - windmills, canals, cheese and klogs.










Kel loved the cheese, so much so that she decided to share a Kodak moment with the cow that produced it...


After the bike tour we wandered through town and checked out the local pubs and cafes. For those of you wondering, the hippy lettuce is definitely prevalent and freely enjoyed, although only by the visitors for the most part as the locals don't tend to partake.


As night approached we made our way to a nice Italian place and then went off to see what Amsterdam's nightlife was like.
Along the way Kelly, in true inebriated Kelly form, found a waffle stand and proceeded to act as if she found an oasis in a barren desert. Good times.
Sunday we only had half a day to work with before our flight (weekend trips are too short!) so we made out way to the museums, which were actually far more impressive from the outside than in. Regardless, some of Rembrandt's best stuff was on display which was cool to see.



Our final stop was the Heineken Brewery, which was pretty similar to the Guinness version in Dublin, loaded with so much corporate propoganda that you emerge wondering why you suddenly crave a fresh, smooth, dry-hopped beverage in a green can.




After that it was off to the airport, with an ever-so-brief glimpse of the red light district along the way. I can't say that this upset me too much, however, as the girls that I managed to see in the window looked like a cross between Rosie O'Donnel and RuPaul (no pictures to support this, but trust me that's a good thing).

All in all it was another great, if brief, trip and another stamp in our passport. We'll prob be back for a longer stay at some point, but for now we've got plenty of travel ahead of us - next stop TUSCANY!