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TRAVELS IN ITALY 2nd January 2010

After getting back to Norway from the Canadian camp in the United States, I had one day to pack up my apartment and my travel bags before heading off to Wales and Italy.

The Norwegian season ends in mid November so at this time, as I am already based in Europe, I like to travel. Last year Amy Vermeulen, Diana Matheson and I went to Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales. This year, Diana and I decided to visit Italy. Amy tried to make it over to join us, but the plane ticket from Vancouver was slightly more expensive than ours from Norway and she did not make it.

D and I started our Italian trip with a ten day warm-up in Wales. My mother’s family comes from Wales, and we Wilkinson children were brought up with strong ties to the place. In fact, in 1989-1991 my parents went on sabbatical and moved us all over there, and because of this we are very “in touch” with our Welsh-ness. We try to visit relatives there at least once a year.

This was the second time I have dragged poor Diana to Wales with me, I am very proud of the place. We stayed with my Aunt Molly who is a super star, and continues to astound me with her work-rate and workload as head of the Women's Institute in South Glamorgan. Our visit to her coincided with two of her biggest events of the year, so we just made ourselves scarce and went to visit the west of the country.

On the 24th November we left Wales and headed back to London for our flight to Milan; the real adventure was about to begin. We landed at about 6:00 pm in Bergamo, Milan’s airport. We rented our car and drove into the city. Milan is by far the worst place I have ever driven! Please keep in mind that when I wrote this I was coming from London, where there are also crazy drivers, and I was driving on the wrong side of the road with my gears on the wrong side. Milan was at least ten times worse. I think it the fact the we were totally lost and exhausted didn’t help. However, we did eventually find our hostel and were told by the very friendly man running it, "to just park on the sidewalk, as everyone does that here. Just make sure the trams don’t hit your rear end! So, we ended up leaving the car on the sidewalk for two days while we explored the city. Free parking is the best.

Milan was most memorable, in my opinion, for its beautiful covered archway leading from La Scala to the jaw droppingly fantastic Duomo or cathedral. There was plenty about the city I was not fond of, but this church made everything worthwhile. Now that I have seen the place, the mini replica of the Duomo thrown at Prime Minister Berlusconi's face is all the more cringe-worthy. The replica and the original are very "pointy."

On our last night in Milan, D and I stayed with our National Team trainer, Mario. So, that evening we went for a workout session at his gym, Palestra, and then went again in the morning. I really enjoyed getting to train there, as we needed the work-out and we went for a fantastic meal afterwards. It was an excellent day and fun to see how one of our trainers lives when he is not kicking our butts in camp.

From Milan we drove down the coast to Cinque Terra. We had read about this place in our tourist book and it did not disappoint. Basically, it is five small villages which are perched along the edge of the Mediterranean coast and there is a gorgeous sea path linking them all. We stayed in Riomaggiore, and did the 5-6 hour hike along the joining path in just over 3 hours - domination. Of course D and I were hiking it in the off season, so we were really by ourselves. I am sure that in the summer the place is teeming with tourists which must slow down the time it takes to hike the whole length.

From here, we drove down to Sienna, Tuscany passing through Pisa on the way. Obviously everyone has heard of Pisa and seen pictures of the leaning tower. Honestly though, the sight is still amazing. I had not realized that there is also a church and Baptistry, as well as the famous tower. So, seeing the three together is quite something. The price to get up to the top of the tower is astronomical, but when else am I going to be there? I am pleased I went up. The view of the church from the top is worth the price. I found it very interesting to learn that these three buildings are on a slant and "leaning," because they are built on a bog. In fact, it has taken most of the last decade for the "lean" to be put under control and stabilized. How is it that the tower has not fallen?

Our next stop was to be with friends of my parents in a hilltown. Patrick and Christine, taught with my parents in Quebec. It was just by chance that while up at the town we got to see a pretty amazing sunset over the Tuscan landscape.

Staying with Patrick and Christine was one of the highlights of the trip. D and I went to Italy expecting to travel on the cheap. However, staying with these two great people was like staying in a five star villa. Their house is gorgeous, sitting on 20 acres of Tuscan beauty. The house is on top of a hill and the view is not one I will soon forget. D and I used their house as a home base to roam the Tuscan countryside. We visited Sienna, San Gigmiano and a few other towns in the area. Every night we returned from our travels to an excellent meal and even better wine. I wish all travel could be like this. Thanks again Patrick and Christine.

After leaving Tuscany we drove to Florence, stopping on the way for a cooking class in a local Italian restaurant. Paula was the owner of the restaurant and a very patient teacher. D and I were probably not her best-ever students, but she worked hard to make us feel way more capable than we actually are. After spending three hours in the kitchen learning to make pasta, pasta filling, and sauces, we went out to the dining room to sample some of our work.

For some reason the pasta served to us looked rather different from the twisted, mangled pieces we had been working on. No matter. It tasted brilliant. The simple pasta sauce we were taught there was the best I have ever tasted. Since returning I have twice tried to replicate it. However, the stuff never even comes close to tasting the same- bah!

In Florence we stayed at one of the grungiest hostels on our trip, quite a shock after what we had become used to in Tuscany. Florence was great though. It is definitely one of my favorite cities, and I really enjoyed getting to stroll around the Ufizi museum, seeing the statue of David, visiting their fantastic Duomo and eating their great food. We were three days there, but only used two to explore as we went wine tasting on one day.

This wine tasting was at the Castello Verrezano and we had a great time there. I was driving, so I was only able to sample a few of their wines. However, D. let me know that they were all quite delicious. One of the great things about traveling in the off season is the fact that there are very few tourists. Hence, local people have much more time to give to you. At the wine tasting, the owner of the vineyard made an appearance to see how we were getting on, and we soon learned that our tour guide was one of the managers of the place. He told us he was bored with his paper work, so he took us on the tour. He gave us a great visit and then sat with us as we sampled the wine letting us know how to taste wine properly and what to look for in the color and the smell. I think he enjoyed the fact that D and I were not there to get drunk and were genuinely interested in the wine-making process and what to look for in a good wine. As a result he brought out the vineyard's best wines for us and even gave us a a huge discount on the price on the bottles we took with us - making friends is great.

From Florence we drove to Venice, home of Carolina Morace herself. Venice was AMAZING. There aren’t words enough to describe the place. The first day we arrived D and I just wandered around in complete amazement and stupor. How can a city like this even exist?

It was rainy and windy the first day, but on the second day, things really cleared up and gave us a real view of the place. We bought ourselves a 3 day transport pass giving us access to all busses, taxis and boats in the Venice area. This turned out to be a good idea. We went to visit Murano Island, which is in Venice’s lagoon and it is where they make glass. Then we went to Burano, where they make lace. Both places were interesting and stunningly pretty. All the houses were painted in different colors, and the effect was one beautiful picture after another.

The following day we met up with Carmelina, our National Team friend and teammate, who has been playing for a team just outside Venice: Udine Soccer Club. I had one of the best days of the whole trip exploring Venice with D and Carm. It was great fun. We started our day by visiting the Doge’s palace and taking the tour of secrets. It was hilarious, as you are basically given the history of Casanova, the great lover, or at least, we received the history according to our 25 year old tour guide. The three of us did plenty of Christmas shopping while there and by the time we headed off for supper we were heavily laden with packages.

Dinner was undeniably, quite an experience. Carolina was in Canada with the youth team, but she had very generously made plans for us to eat at her favorite restaurant in her hometown. She had asked if I was brave about trying new and different foods, and she seemed to ignore the fact I answered "no" to this. Carm, D and I went to a small place and were treated to 6 courses of sea "things" of the highest quality. At least, Carm tells me this. I tied everything; I really did.

Carmelina loved every single thing and kept telling us how lucky we were to be getting this unique and wonderful stuff. D ate almost everything and she tried to expand her range of taste bud experiences. I have to admit that I struggled. I did try everything that came my way, and this was not an easy task as we are talking about clams, scallops, octopus oysters and other sea things, but I did. It turns out though that I still have the taste buds of a 10 year old and it is going to take a little more time for me to appreciate this kind of menu!

The waiter at the Il Nuovo Galeon restaurant, and the staff were great and I was so glad to have had the chance to meet such wonderfully hospitable people and to see where Carolina hangs out when she is back in her homeland.

The following day D and I drove Carm back to Udine. We were pleased to have had the chance to see her and where it is she is living and playing. Carm was in the middle of her season. This is unfortunate as we would love to have spent even more time with her. After dropping her off we headed North to the Dolomites.

On every trip we make, I like to do some mountain hiking, and the Dolomites were perfect for this. We headed up late in the day and drove most of the way to our Alpine hostel in the dark. The following day, which is when we had planned to go downhill skiing, the cloud was so low and thick that we could barely see down the driveway. Instead of skiing we decided instead to go for a hike. We drove up to an area called the Tre Croci and headed out. The view from this place was meant to be bar none, but unfortunately, this is not exactly what we saw. The clouds obscured everything and we son returned and decided to try cross country skiing. We rented skis from a guy at the top of the mountain and headed off.

I have inherited many things from my father, and nothing is more similar about us than our hatred of the hum-drum. D and I went around the groomed cross country ski track once, but it was utterly boring. It didn't take long before we were headed off into the woods and things then got much more interesting. The cross country day ended in a snow storm as we herring boned our way up a downhill skiing slope. It was an interesting day all round, especially when the snow storm ended up being so intense that we had to buy snow tires to drive back to our hostel. It was an unexpected cost to our trip, but it was money well spent as we survived the drive!

The following day we headed off early for our day of downhill skiing. We drove to Cortina, renting our skis on the drive there from our hostel, and skied from 11:00 am; till 5:00pm. It was amazing. We met a guy called Dario in the parking lot and spent the day skiing with him. Dario was maybe 60 years old, and he thought D and I were the funniest people he had ever met. I expected him to soon become bored, but he didn’t. He stuck with us, chatting away for the whole day, whether we wanted him to or not.

The skiing conditions were unbelievable. The day before had been the last day of an Italian holiday, and there had been the snow storm I mentioned previously. This meant that there was fresh powder everywhere, and no one had skied it. Not only this, but there was no one there to ski on it as they were all headed back to the city. I have grown up skiing on the ice of the Quebec mountains, so skiing on Cortina’s fresh powder on empty slopes was quite a pleasure.

We sadly left early the next morning to drive to Bergamo and our flight home. We decided, on very little actual information, that driving through the mountains in our Panda Fiat, to Bergamo, would be a great idea. This turned out not to be the case. The drive was much longer than we had anticipated. The constant change from using snow chains on the tyres, then taking them off again, became more than a little tiring. However, there were some beautiful views; in fact, there always seem be beautiful views in Italy. In my opinion what we should have done was to stick to the main roads and pay the toll fees. We did arrive eventually though, and we spent our last night in a hostel in Bergamo and flew back to Oslo the following morning. What a trip.