Italy 2019

Italy is hot, the roads are twisty, places close for undetermined amount of hours, they don’t speak English, Italians couldn’t care less if you have a complaint, Rome is full of trash, they don’t believe in railings and there’s wild boar in the woods. What’s not to love?

Two years ago we made our first trip to Italy, we said it was great, but we would never go back during the summer. Is June 29 to July 13th really considered summer? Maybe not in Denmark, but yes, it was summer, it was hot, there were crowds at times, but you know where this is going. It was an incredibly wonderful trip for many reasons.

The merry crew initially began with eleven Danes one Pole, one Swede and only one crummy American (me) Our trip from Denmark was uneventful. We smoothly flew from efficient Denmark via smooth-sailing Brussels to Italy. Notice the lack of adjective there. Yes we got from Denmark to Rome  with a layover in Brussels in about 5 hours. Then we went to the Avis counter in Rome Fumicino Airport where it took us SIX HOURS to get our pre-ordered, pre-paid for vehicles. Don’t even ask me to explain what the problem(s) were. Just imagine eleven Danes (one of whom is 2 years old) one Pole, one Swede and one American (me) at a car rental office at Rome airport for six hours. Oh and by the way, Svend lost his wallet in one of the cars we almost rented, but then it wasn’t the right one so we had to repack into another, which was then stopped at the exit for not being on the list. At that point the crummy American snapped, jumped out of the car and stood in front of the exit and said“ we’re not going back, call the Police, or I should say cabinari! Yes, what fun.  

Fast forward, we finally escaped and drove for two hours into the rustic Tuscan countryside, arriving at our possibly beautiful villa sometime after midnight. At that point we knew the 200 year old stone house was beautiful inside and very dark outside. 

It was a great relief  to get up the next day to see the beautiful vista and more importantly the glorious pool. We had sort of made fun of the Danes for making sure we brought food from Denmark for breakfast. We said, “of course we’ll be able to buy groceries” not anticipating the 6 hours at the Avis counter. Nothing beats stinky cheese, serious rye bread and Coffee in the AM! 

Svend and I had to return to the hated airport the very next day to pick up our beloved Erik because of course we could never coordinate properly and arrive on the same day. But at least I had another fellow American to speak un-accented English with.

Now it was truly time to appreciate our place in the sun. We spent the next few days either not moving from the villa or making small local jaunts to our town Saturnia or other nearby locations near our remote villa. 

Tuscany is of course a well know location, Florence, Sienna, Pisa - these are world renowned locations, I mean they have Michelangelo’s David for crying out load! But most people don’t know about Saturnia, Pitigliano, of Montemerano. The remoteness of the area we were in had its good and bad points. On the good side was pretty much everything; on the bad was driving around the twisty hairpin, mountainous roads. 

After all the hubbub with Avis and driving to Rome again, it was high time to do nothing but lounge around the pool, eat good food and good afternoon limoncellos. And we did that all very well.

The Danes consisted of Egon and Anna (the Pole) Gitte , Lars, Nicklaus, Jackeline, Mathilde (the adorable) Janne, Anne, Rikke, Martin and Peter.  Age range 2-82, a perfect mixture. The first evening there Egon invited us all out to dinner to celebrate his birthday. Yes Italy is comparatively inexpensive (especially) compared to Denmark. But fourteen people, four course meals with plenty of wine was an extremely generous gesture. Don’t tell any Dane that in America you get gifts on your birthday, not give them. Needless to say we had a wonderful evening.

After several fine days in southern Tuscany, Svend , Erik and I drove north to the Tyrolean Alps to the town of Brixen, where although you are still in Italy you would swear you were in Austria. Mainly because everyone speaks German, the menus are in German and it looks like Austria. It is a very charming town with a big river running through. So what brought us to Brixen? That crazy young woman who is our daughter, that’s who. Many months ago when we were planning our big trip to Tuscany she decided to look online for a “run.” Lo and behold there was an extreme marathon in Brixen so she signed up. Hello? This is a person who never did a marathon before. I distinctly remember her saying after a half marathon that she wasn’t interested in doing more. You can’t trust anyone these days. And you can’t trust her friend Rico who decided to do a 28K alpine run to keep her company. Needless to say it was a tremendous day where they both were on the podium  for placing in their age groups. Amelia actually was number one. Very impressive!                   

I did not get a single medal for going up a steep and scary chairlift which brought us up to a fantastic vista in the Dolomites. However the finish line was nearly an hour’s trek further (uphill-in case you’re not following) only Erik was able to deal with that climb (in his Birkenstocks-again bad planners) So Amelia and Rico had someone to greet them at the end. The poor runners then had to walk down for nearly and hour to get to the place where we mere mortals were waiting.                                        

The next day is where poor planning worked well. Rico was going to Venice and we were going to go back to our beloved villa in Tuscany. But we said, “ We can’t not go to Venice!" Amelia and Erik have never been and everyone has to see Venice. So we decided to drive Rico and spend a day and a half. What a great decision! I’m not going to describe Venice, you just need to get here yourself. Along with the gazzion other people from everywhere. Our best time was Sunday evening after the cruise passengers were gone. The sky was amazing after a rainstorm, the music from the band, clad in white tuxedos, was surprisingly wonderful, the drinks were delicious and expensive and worth every cent. Especially since Erik paid.

On our way back to southeast Tuscany we took a side trip to San Marino, one of the worlds smallest country (which, PS was in the opposite direction.)  But it was beautiful, we had dinner and a walk and a long drive back through the dark small roads. We did see a lot of Italian wildlife that come out at night. The majority were cats. Cats own Italy at night. We also saw foxes, hares and the best, a big wild boar right on the side of the road. Oh my.

The Danes were not idle while we were away, they went to the actual ocean for one day and to a water park on another. Both of which they enjoyed very much.

There was a lovely outside room over looking the Tuscan hills where we generally ate dinner together. The cooking was done by various teams. The Eriksens barbecued pork with delicious sides, we did Fourth of July - steak, hamburgers - potato salad, Egon and Anna made a delicious Danish meal with beef, Nicklas did a gorgeous paella, Janne and Rikke went Italian with a Bolognese, yum! and Amelia and Rico did ceviche and other tapas dishes,
also yum. So as you can see, it was not a dieter’s vacation. Vegans and vegetarians would be welcome, but it wouldn't take long for them to give up their lifestyles and go carne. The bella vita!

So there went the Tuscan trip, that we planned for a year. When I say we, I mean the big three, Gitte, Janne and Rikke, the Danish mafia mommas. The rest of us benefited from their hard work. Next trip, we promise to help.

 

Ciao.