The US will always be home for us, but Italia
could easily be our adopted country. I
think that it was finally Wednesday last week when blood was once again coursing
through my veins instead of wine and cheese.
At the height of my gluttony, I even ate gelato 3 times in one day,
including breakfast. Italy is truly a
place to indulge in everything fine in life…food, wine, food, wine and ravishing
landscapes that were brilliantly captured by our Japanese contingent (Sayuri aka
Ann and Yoshi aka Patrick). Susie and I
made fun of them a lot darting around with multiple cameras, but we are so thankful
that they were able to capture our unforgettable 10 days. The Kings hardly need an introduction, but
they are our tree hugging, ACLU card-carrying friends from Minneapolis!!! Sadly, I informed them that after our move to
Texas, they will no longer be suitable friends.
After their visit a year ago to London and Ireland, we began planning
the 2012 Knapp-King Reunion in Italy. We
hashed out a rough itinerary and then each couple was responsible for planning
our respective halves of the trip. When
travelling in Europe, especially Italy by car, there can be many things that can
go askew, but for the amount of travelling that we did, it was one of the most
uncomplicated trips that I have taken.
It always helps when there are others in the car to lighten the mood
when you are lost or yelling at your spouse for their backseat driving or
questionable navigation skills!! In
retrospect, we probably packed in a little too much, but there is not one
regret (besides Genova). I will do my
best to recount the best, the worst, and the many highlights from our
adventure:
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Day 1 – Bologna - We had an
fantastic first meal at Vicolo Colombina including a ridiculous Salami platter
as an appetizer.
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Day 2 – Santarcangelo - Susie
has recently re-connected with the Italian side of her family and they invited
us to visit them in their hometown where her parents had visited many years ago. We were welcomed with unspeakable generosity. Her cousins, Gastone and Valentino, who are
close to our age, and their friend Nicola (THE INTERPRETER) welcomed us into their
home for a traditional Italian lunch and to meet the extended family, gave us a
tour of Santarcangelo and the nearby Republic of San Marino, and treated us to
an amazing meal on Saturday night. There
are many highlights, but the unforgettable one has to do with Nicola, our new
friend and interpreter. Nicola was awesome
and certainly made our interaction with everyone so much easier. He also had the whole “good looking Italian”
thing going on for himself. Anyway, we
are out at a bar after dinner with Gastone, Valentino, and Nicola and we were
planning to maybe hit the beach before we left the next day. Nicola mentioned that he might not wear his
speedo, and out of nowhere, Ann and Susie, in unison, said, “No, no, you can
wear your speedo.” CLASSIC!!!
-
Day 3 – Florence – We arrived
in Florence on Sunday afternoon. Patrick
did a fantastic job of negotiating the windy roads through the mountainous
national park as well as the one-way streets of Florence. The first highlight was definitely getting
pulled over by the Caribinieri as we are trying to return the car by way of the
largest pedestrian walk in Florence.
They were not amused that we were driving down this street amidst
thousands of people, but were understanding once we explained where we were
coming from!! The rest of Sunday
proceeded seamlessly as we made our way around the Duomo, visited the
Accademia and Michelangelo’s David, and had a really fun dinner. We decided to hit an Italian Club after
dinner. We ended up roped off inside
their “VIP” section, which consisted of 2 couches and 2 tables, but apparently
plenty of space for Susie to invite some new friends who I had to entertain!! The final highlight of the night was me
getting pickpocketed on our way home at about 2am. In all of my travels, I have amazingly never
fallen victim, but these little Italians bastards caught me off guard and I was the sacrificial lamb.
Luckily, I realized it within about 2 or 3 minutes, and we were able to
cancel all of my cards. Sadly, I lost my
driver’s license, some pride, and most meaningful to me, my last Clemson
Student IDL
-
Day 4 - Florence – After waking
up with considerable hangovers and the complete realization that I had in fact
no wallet, we recovered quickly to continue to discover Florence. The highlight of the day was definitely our
dinner, probably our best in Italy. We
encountered a restaurant called La Giostra.
We were all introduced to a new cheese called Burrata, which is
essentially a mozzarella cheese shell stuffed with cream. They served it with drizzled honey, and let
me just say that it was food ecstasy.
The entire dinner was incredible and was a great way to end our time in Florence.
-
Day 5 – Genova and The Cinque
Terre – We picked up the compact diesel “Benz” in Florence and made our way from Tuscany to Liguria, all along the Mediterranean Coast and the Cinque Terre. The Cinque
Terre literally means “Five Hills” and is composed of five villages along the
coast. The Villages are accessible
by road, train, and can also be reached by hiking trails, which are amazing. We had a fantastic lunch in the first village called Riomaggiore.
At this point, I will take full responsibility for my planning screw
up. I had booked us into a hotel in
Genova for 2 nights, which was a huge disappointment, and not nearly as close
to the Cinque Terre as I had thought. We
spent one night in Genova, which by the way, we had the best pizza of the trip,
and we were able to find a hotel in the village of Vernazza on the Cinque Terre
for the 2nd next night.
Thanks to Ann and Susie for the last minute research and making this
happen.
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Day 6 – Vernazza and Corniglia,
Cinque Terre – We left Genova early that morning in the “Benz” and made our way
back to the Cinque Terre. The mountain
drive along the Cinque Terre has endless captivating views. We negotiated treacherously narrow and
winding mountain roads to the village of Vernazza, but made it in one piece. The village had sadly been devastated last
year by floods. The destruction is still
evident in the roads and upper village, but the seaside was untouched and is
extraordinarily breathtaking. The
highlight of the day was our hike from Vernazza to Corniglia where we had lunch
and swam in the sea. It was an awesome
adventure. It was pretty warm and the
hike was fairly challenging, but it is absolutely the way to experience the Cinque
Terre and all of its dramatic views high above the sea.
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Day 7 – Bergamo – We sadly awoke
in Vernazza to find that Susie had fallen victim to food poisoning from dinner
the night before. She was definitely
down for the count. I do have to mention
this incredible pastry shop that Ann, Patrick, and I found for breakfast that
morning in Vernazza though. It was
called Il Pirata, a Sicilian bakery just below our hotel. We had some of the best pastries that I have
ever tasted and Patrick and I both had this amazing watermelon slushy. After breakfast, we managed to get Susie to
the car and headed towards Bergamo. We stopped
for lunch in a small town called Cremona, which happened to be the home of the
violin. We left poor Susie in the car
while the three of us walked around and grabbed a quick Panini. We pulled into Bergamo in the late afternoon
and in my mind, discovered one of the gems of our trip. Bergamo is an ancient Roman city that sits
just northeast of Milan in the foothills of the Alps and surrounded by
vineyards. The view from our balconies
in our B&B was of grape vineyards.
It was awesome. Ann, Patrick, and
I ventured through the extremely quaint old town in the afternoon and had a fantastic dinner at
a local place Trattoria La Colombina.
Bergamo was a complete surprise for me.
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Day 8 and Day 9 – Lake Como - With Susie back in action, the fearless
foursome were again at full strength and pumped for the final push to Lake
Como. It is hard to describe in words
the beauty and majesticness of this stunning part of Italy. Como di Lago is a glacial lake dotted with aristocratic and pastel painted villages, palaces and ornate villas sitting at the base of
snowcapped mountains. We stayed in
Mennagio and hopped back and forth by car and ferry between Bellagio, Varenna,
and Tremezzo. We found one of the
coolest wine bars in Bellagio called Cava Turacciolo and one in Tremezzo called
Cantina Follie. We also found the best
gelato that we had in Italy in Menaggio.
It was an awesome end to the trip.
We were somewhat disappointed that we did not get an invitation for
dinner at George’s villa, but after Ann and Susie’s performance around “Speedo
Nic,” Patrick and I would have been fearful of their behavior!!!
10 days, 4 Regions, 7 Cities, 2 Cars, 1 Wallet and
many shared hotel rooms and bathrooms later, The Kings and The Knapps emerged
unscathed and full of the most exquisite pasta, pizza, gelato, compari, wine, and a plethora of
memories to last a lifetime. Thanks to
all of my travel companions for their patience, courage,
laughter, love, and of course to Patrick for his proficient use of the Spanish
language. Perhaps next trip we will
choose a country where that will actually be useful!!! Patrick and Susie, we are so lucky to have
you all as friends, and we can’t wait to see you on the next Knapp-King
adventure.
As I am quite tired of writing, and I probably
lost you all as readers long ago, I am going to wrap this up. We have fully recovered from Italy and are
looking forward to a last couple of busy months in London. Ann is flying to Moscow this week for work
and we are so excited to have our good friends Nick and Jenny Garlie arrive
next weekend from St Paul to spend a week here in London and Paris.
Ciao Amore!!
Kevin
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