So, I know it's been a while since I
last posted, more than a while actually, and I'm a few trips behind.
Hopefully I'll get to them but for the most part I am going to skip
past my trips to Barcelona/Pamplona, Spain and a second trip to
Brussels, Belgium and hopefully I'll post them later. I want to jump
to my most recent trip to Italy, which will also be a pretty long post since we did so much.
Our first night into Italy we stayed in the hotel
Grand Hotel Duca di Mantova
in Sesto San Giovanni outside of Milan. I have to admit, this was
just a basic hotel and we didn't go into Milan on this trip so I
don't have much to report. All in all, a
reasonable hotel with adequate food in the restaurant. Nothing to
shout home about but comfortable.
The next day we started our drive into
western Italy, towards our next destination of Savona, near Albenga.
Two of our cars GPS's took us along the Mediterranean Coast, which
while a slow and somewhat tedious drive at ~50-60kph, was very
beautiful with clear blue sky and water along the coast. The other
two took a more direct route of the Autostrada. Ironically we only
arrived ~10 – 15 minutes apart. At Albenga was our second hotel
for the night, a villa called Villamir,
a quaint and beautiful and very reasonable villa turned into a bed
and breakfast. The proprietors (who had only been managing this B&B
for a few years, spoke enough English to hold pleasant conversations
and give us excellent suggestions for lunch and details of the
surrounding area. I'm getting ahead of myself, but breakfast the
next morning was a fantastic assortment of local meats, cheeses and
pastries (including a few baked fresh by the proprietors). We the
chatted pleasantly with the owners until we paid (cash or credit
card) and left for Florence the next morning. I highly recommend and
will definitely be interested in staying in this villa again.
After checking in, but before spending
the night in Villamir, we also ate lunch in the local town of Savona.
We grabbed some pizza at a local pizzeria while cautiously eyeing
our sportier cars from some slightly sketching looking locals. Odds
are nothing would have happened, but we decided to take no chances.
As we've found with all Italian pizzeria's, the pizza was delicious.
After lunch we took our main trek for the day which was planned to
go to Monaco, and at least see the famous Monte Carlo Casino if not go in.
Monaco was a very clean, if not
crowded small country where the population reaches a staggering
50,000 per square mile (The country is .74 square miles). There also
happened to be what appeared to be a Halloween related festival going
on while we were in town. 
After finding parking in one of Monte
Carlo's many parking garages, we wandered around, taking pictures,
and even entered Monte Carlo Casino which was gold embossed as you
might expect but rather underwhelming otherwise. In the public area
there was a smidgeon of tables that tourists could poke at but the
action was probably in all the private rooms where we weren't
allowed. After that we wandered until it was dinner time and decided
to eat at a small restaurant called which I believe was called La
Shangre`la. All in all a very lack luster and uninteresting
restaurant. While the food was not bad, we regretted not visiting
another restaurant we had passed. Once we had finished dinner we
began the hour plus drive back to Villamir and stared at the stars
for a little while before going to bed. And you've already heard the
rest of the story.
The next morning, after breakfast, we
departed to head to our final, multi-night, destination of Park Hotel Chianti
in Tuscany. This was a fantastic hotel, all the quality of a good
Hilton or Sheraton without the need for membership for WiFi or
breakfast. And quite affordable, it was lovely. On the way to the hotel, we took the time to stop at a famous part of Italy, Cinque Terre, specifically the village of Riomaggiore. We did have to hustle through the village since we were a little short of time, and parking there was extremely difficult. I suggest leaving plenty of time to find a parking spot so you can leisurely spend time in the area. It is very beautiful.
After we checked in and
almost immediately departed for a food and wine tour (apologies, I
didn't organize the tour so I don't have a link for you. I'll try to
find one). Normally the tour is an all day affair, but our guide was
flexible and picked us up from the airport to start us on our tour
around 1200. After pausing for some history and picturesque photo
opportunities from our guide, we started by heading towards the Tanuta Torciano Winery near medieval San Gimignano. where we were served a fantastic 3
course meal of meats and cheeses for appetizer, delicious Ribollita soup,
and the main course of one of the best lasagna's I have ever had,
drizzled with truffle flavored olive oil. Each course paired with a
variety of wines for tastes and introductions to the wines, olive
oils, and vinaigrette that this winery has to offer, all for direct
purchase or delivery to your home. I came way with two bottles of
wine and a bottle of the truffle olive oil. 
Once lunch was complete
we continued for a small walking tour of San Gimignano, which was fascinating and a pleasure to wander it's streets and take
photographs of it's 14 remaining towers representing families from
medieval times. We even sampled gelato from the local gelato shop
Gelateria Dondoli that has won
the World Gelato Championships TWICE. Our guide knew and introduced
us to the owner and it really was fantastic gelato. Finally to round
of the day we headed to the winery at Fattoria Poggio Alloro
where we sampled a few more wines and Italian appetizers of bread,
cheese and olive oil and enjoyed a history of making wine and great
conversation with our guide. Here I brought home some Italian pasta
for future use. Another great stop. We then headed back to the
hotel for the night, content and ready to sleep soundly through the
night.
The following day, after a light and
delicious breakfast at the hotel, we decided to take a trek into
Florence for touring around the city. We consolidated our group into
two cars and drove in. One group parking in a garage just inside the
river, and the other parking in a small parking lot just below
Piazzale Michelangelo
which provides a fantastic overlook of Florence. We wandered around
Florence, visiting such attractions as the statue of David,
had lunch near the outdoor markets, Cathedral of Santa Maria delFiore
and the Piazza della Signoria where the
Fountain of Neptune lies. We even stopped for coffee at the Gucci
Cafe outside of the Gucci Museum. The hot chocolate was had by a
member of our group, and looked like melted chocolate. 
Following a
full day of wandering we returned to our vehicles via the Ponte Vecchio bridge
and returned to the hotel. We then went next door to the restaurant
Ristorante Pizzeria Pontenuovo
and had some more amazing Italian food. Italian restaurants (at
least the ones we attended) are organized into courses. You can
order appetizers, first course and second course (or only one or two
dishes) and you get treated to delicious dishes. Here I had Pappa al
pomodoro, a tomato and bread soup, as well as a Gnocchi and seafood
dish (potato noodles with seafood). All were fantastic. Finally, we
ended the night with playing monopoly before going to bed to put a
good relaxing feeling to the day.
The next day after breakfast, our group
split up. Some heading home early, some going shopping, and some (me
included) going to Pisa. Once arriving at Pisa and parking we
wandered toward that famous leaning tour and the
cathedral.
Even doing the obligatory holding the tower up. We even paid to go
up into the tower and partake of the fantastic panorama of Pisa and
the nearby mountains with perfect weather. Another great day. 
When
we were finally done wondering and acquiring some souvenirs we headed
back to the hotel where the remainder of our group reconvened and we
went out for our last dinner at Ristorante La Fattoria
where once again we had amazing service and amazing food. Dinner
this evening consisted of another bowl of the fantastic Ribollita, as
well as the main dish of fried rabbit with fried vegetables, also
quite spectacular.
After an amazing night sleep, we
departed the hotel to start our last day in Italy and our trek home
later that night. We had preplanned a trek through some Italian
mountain roads on our way to Maranello, Italy where we planed to
visit the Ferrari Museum. There we also took the opportunity to pay
for some time (80 Euros for 10 minutes) to drive Ferrari's around for
the fun. While some of us had great co-drivers that encouraged us to
"have fun", I unfortunately had a co-pilot who grumpily
kept me slow and steady. All in all a decent experience driving and
seeing Ferrari's. (I no longer want one). After the museum we also
visited the Pagani Factory in Modena and received a tour of the
factory. We were able to see a Zonda R super car and walk through
the factory as they actively worked on building new Pagani super-cars
. This was a very enjoyable tour. Finally we started our trek home at around 4pm, and after about 9.5 more hours of driving we arrived home after 1am in the morning to go to sleep and end our weekend vacation.
Even though we had a lot of driving, I
highly recommend a road trip through Italy. Just remember to stay in
the speed limit, since both Italy and Switzerland can gift you with
speeding tickets of 100-200 Euros if caught. Safe travels!
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