There was a little confusion as to how we were to get to The Flavour of Italy, but after borrowing the cell phone of a helpful Italian woman, and an hour's wait at the train station, we were greeted by our host Wendy. After settling in and snacking on pizza adorned with zucchini flower, the Kloch clan (parents LeeAnn and Steve, sister Jaime and boyfriend Matt) showed up! We promptly celebrated by popping the top of some tasty Cava that we brought from Spain, sampling some local Italian wines, and enjoying some delicious homemade gnocchi.
A couple of gnocchi lovers
We also had an unexpected visitor, Francis, the friendly yellow lab, who became our pet for the next couple days (we have met many friendly animals over the course of our travels, and it's amazing how they can make you feel right at home!).
We woke up the next morning and had a wonderful breakfast at courtesy of Wendy, then caught the train into the city to start some sightseeing. We saw Michelangelo's Moses sculpture, the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, the Roman Forum, and the open-roofed Pantheon.
The sun was out and the heat was on, but we managed to make it over to the Piazza Navona, which turned out to be everyone's favorite spot of the day.
Of course, we couldn't leave the city without sampling some gelato. For dinner, we headed back to Riano where we were taken to Casa de Luca, a hidden local restaurant where the menu consists of whatever the chef feels like making that night! We didn't know how much food we'd get, so we ate everything (liking it all) and the dishes just kept coming! There seems to be about 8 courses total! The food was flowing, along with the wine and limoncello. We left feeling gorged and very happy!
Even though we were all feeling a little worse for wear the next morning, we toughed it out and headed back into the city, destination: Vatican City. The line into St. Peter's Basilica wrapped around the square, so we wove through the Museum, ending at the Sistine Chapel, first. Then, St. Peter's.
Leaving St. Peter's, clouds closed in and it started to pour:
so we bought some bumbershoots (umbrellas) and dodged puddles until we got to the Trevi Fountain, where some coins were tossed, and big wishes made.
Since it happened that this day was also our first anniversary, it was only fitting to celebrate, which we did big time, at a wonderful, filling meal at Ciao Bella Grille, with many thanks to Grandma Rita!
We had train:
tickets for the next morning taking us northward from Roma to The Cinque Terre (The Five Lands) on the coast. The views of the Italian countryside were beautiful, and we changed trains in Florence, then ended in the small seaside town of Riomaggiore, one of the five towns that make up the Cinque Terre area. We checked into our quaint, tri-level apartment, then took a lovely walk along Via Dell'Amore (Lover's Walk) to the next town of Manarola, ending with a tasty dinner at Dal Billy Trattoria before the stroll back.
The rain followed us from Rome, this time bringing some powerful thunder and lightning along with it, which made for a fitful night's sleep. The next day we explored three of the other towns (Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, and Corniglia) via a convenient train that ran between all the towns. One of the most interesting aspects of Cinque Terre is how they plant their gardens and vineyards on the terraced cliff sides:
Manarola
Corniglia
Looking toward Manarola
We left this unique coastline for another astonishing one - Venice. The no-cars aspect of the city is super-nice, and taking boats to get around is just so different! We caught the vaporetto (waterbus) on the canal to our apartment in the heart of Venice, and more good food with a bottle of prosecco capped off the day.
Another rainy day awaited us, but armed with our new umbrellas, we set off toward Piazza San Marco, taking refuge there just as a downpour started.
We thought we could wait it out, but the Piazza is notorious for flooding; we didn't want to get stuck there for the rest of the day, so we made a dash for it back to the apartment.
Soaked and tired, we opened the door to our apartment - to find that it too was starting to flood! The roof was being replaced, and the workers must not have got a covering up before the rain started. Luckily it only covered part of the floor and the only casualty was some of Jaime's bag. We used our resources, blow-dryer included, to get the water out and dry off our gear. Although the rain subsided, we decided against venturing back out, so instead we cooked our own pasta dinner and enjoyed staying warm and dry. We also said our goodbyes to Matt that night, as he was headed back to the States on an early morning flight.
The sun decided to show up the next morning so we took a vaparetto to Murano Island, famous for its blown glass. We perused the shops and gaped at some of the prices, but we enjoyed looking at the art nonetheless. We headed back early in the afternoon as we had to catch our train to Klagenfurt, Austria. The scenery from the train ride was amazing, with the high rise alps looming above the tiny Italian, then Austrian villages. We arrived just in time to grab a bite to eat, huge, delicious salads that we'd all been craving oh so badly. In the morning, we picked up our rental car and headed for the town of Kloch!
Yes, it is true, there is a town in south-east Austria by that name and it's actually known for its wine. After driving through several neat little towns, including Diepersdorf:
Autumn in Diepersdorf
we arrived to the official sign stating we were in Kloch.
Back to the roots
We ate lunch at the Klocherhoff, hiked up the Kloch castle:
and then tasted some of the Kloch wine at the local vinotek. We even bought some wine glasses adorned with the Kloch coat of arms! That night, we stayed in Graz, and were walked around the city long enough to climb to the Uhrturm Clock Tower (we actually took an elevator up and hiked down) and have a drink in the middle of the Mura river at the very strange Mur Island bar.
We left early in the morning for Salzburg, where we had another nice apartment. Salzburg is one of our favorite cities; the town is completely walkable, with an imposing fortress overlooking everything. We walked around Mirabell Gardens:
Garden with fortress in the background
toured the Hohensalzburg Fortress:
View of Salzburg from the castle
visited St. Peter's Church and Abbey, walked through the house where Mozart was born and raised, and more.
Mozart's hair
After that, LeeAnn, Steve, and Jaime went on the Sound of Music tour while we went to the Stiegl brewery, where we sampled some of their beers, and finally ended the afternoon with one liter mugs at the local beerhall!
Our last stop on the Austria tour was Vienna. We stayed outside of the city in the town of Baden. The afternoon we arrived, we took a stroll through the vineyards to the tiny wine nook of Soos, where we sat down to some delicious cheeses, bread, spreads (liptauer was a favorite), and of course wine. One offspring of the wine process is a drink called sturm (basically drinking the product of the first fermentation in the wine process, when the grape juice has only reached 4 percent alcohol). We tried this in Soos also - it's quite different than wine and pretty tasty!
We fueled up our bodies for sightseeing the next morning thanks to the generous breakfast of the Steinkellner Pension: meats, cheeses, eggs, fruit, breads, and individual carafes of coffee got us going! We took a tram trip around Vienna's city ring, marking our map of where to head back to, then saw St. Stephensdom, took the metro to the Danube River, and ate some kasekrainers (hot dogs with cheese in the middle). After a long day, we headed back to Baden, and also back to quaint little Soos for a last delicious dinner at the Fischer Winery, as the next day the Kloch family would be heading home.
We said our goodbyes after another delicious breakfast, then we left the Pension for a hotel closer to the train station in the city. That day we walked around the enormous Schonbrunn Palace and its gardens:
and did some window shopping and some errands. Next thing we knew, we were awake at 5:00am and catching a train to Budapest, Hungary!
If you would like to know how living life on the road for a year is, this photo sums it up: laundry hanging, dinner on the table, clothes in the closet (wait, the extra bed and chairs are the closet...), and Ryan hard at work in the office.
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