Appenzell... the most traditional Swiss village.

The next morning, I was offered another fabulous egg breakfast. All I had to do was lifted my coffee cup to drink and my folk to eat. I so can get used to this... Then we set out for one of my most favorites villages in all of Europe. Appenzell!

Rick Steves said Appenzell had none of the famous Swiss mountains, but it had the best cow culture and the most traditional Swiss region. Men proudly wore the Appenzell cow belts. The town had many festivals where all the local people showed up in their traditional garbs, with the cows and their cow bells, and smoking pipes and dancing to old music. Even their dialect is a little different than the rest of Switzerland.

Appenzell was also the canton where my MIL grew up, and a place I had visited many times and couldn't wait to go back. We drove there with Susan's brother's family in 2 cars, quickly found parking spots, then set out to walk through town.

I've always loved, loved this village.  Going back to it again was so gratifying, even as "progress" and modernization have reached it too. One of my favorite traditional stores is now a water store. Yep. It sold various flavored and infused waters. I mean high end, snooty waters. Really? In the middle of Appenzell? But guess what? It was thriving when we came in to check it out. Ugghh!!!

We went for a walk (hike) in the mountains after visiting the town. Let's be clear about the Swiss people... Many years ago I'd come to visit Susan's family at her Dad's family home. Supper was cooking in the oven so everyone said let's go for a "walk". Some of her aunts and uncles were only wearing house shoes... 90 minutes later and having ascended 1500+ feet and back, they were ready for the meal. Don't let the innocent, off-the-cuff remarks fool you, a "walk" to a native Swiss person is a strenuous MOUNTAIN CLIMB to most of us.

So during this "Walk" when I saw the wall in front of me that was basically vertical, I told them to go ahead and I would see them back at the restaurant in the base. I had a great time to myself, wifi was working, beer AND wine were good, the house dog was my pet by now... Then they came back and we had a nice lunch.

Then the bill came, and we did not have enough cash. Uh oh... I was not ready to drive 20+ minutes to find an ATM... The MIL jumped in and talked to the proprietor. We took an IOU note. I mean... who tf does that anymore? Yet! In this great country, old tradition and your word still carry. Amazing...

Later that evening we had an amazing family reunion with most of Susan's side of the family, at the restaurant where her mother worked and grew up it. Food was great. Everyone was happy and jovial. Let's hope the next time we have an event like this, we wouldn't be missing anyone.

The view from the restaurant was great too.

Hello cows my old friends...

The next morning we woke up and my MIL asked me what I wanted for breakfast. Really?! My.Wife.Does.Not.Do.That  Sheepishly I said... eggs. See, I love eggs. And I had gone too long without them. Soon eggs were in front of me with fresh baked bread she'd gone out to pick up earlier from the local bakery. The eggs had been picked by her from the chicken pen a day ago. Wow!! Everything was delicious. I think I can move here.

The town where my MIL lives in the summer is a rural little town in the northeastern region of Switzerland. I remember over 20 years ago, before I married my wife I came here to visit my future in-laws. They sent me down to get bread from the local bakery, literally 12 doors down. By the time I got there, the shop owners already know I was Susan's boyfriend. Walked by school on the way back, the children were at recess and they pointed at me and giggled, because they'd never seen one like me before. And even after these years, the town was still the same. The bakery closed down, but there was still only 1 street through the town. And of course no street light. Oh.. and the aroma never changed.

After breakfast we went out to revisit some of the old familiar sites that we have not been to in 6 years, since the last time we came to lay Susan's dad to rest on a beautiful piece of land, where he had been raised, next to his favorite bee house. Rural Switzerland in the summer is green, with lots of cows wandering the pasture. Definitely cool, punctuated by periodical rains, compared to the hot Tuscany countryside we'd just left.

Dubsnation represented...

Hi friends

We drove from one rural town to another, from Hinterland to Toggenburg. We went on a short hike at the base of the Santis mountain. Then we went to have lunch at Rechberg. I am always baffled and amazed by how the Swiss people can know of little gem of restaurants, tucked way high on a mountain, surrounded by nothing but trails. You would drive up a one lane road, up a 30+ degrees grade, for 20 minutes, twists and turns, and then suddenly you would run into a beautiful traditional Swiss building on a parking lot, that serves terrific food.

We had lunch at Wirtschaft zurn Rechberg. I had the daily special Rahm Schnitzel. It was so good.

After lunch we went back home to meet up with Susan's brother and his family, who had also been traveling. They had spent 3 weeks in Switzerland and were meeting us here for a few days before flying back to Larkspur.

We went to Susan's aunt's house for a family dinner. I had been looking forward to seeing her uncle. In fact, seeing him again for perhaps the last time was one of my strongest motivations of this trip. He had obviously gotten a lot older. More reserved, quiet. It was so good to see him and her aunt, but man.... time sucks.

Moo.... and some bratwursts

As we were leaving Italy, we missed it. I missed it! We have visited Italy 6 times and always had great stays. I've always found the Italian people patient, gentle, friendly... This was our first time staying in AirB&B and we had great experiences. The Siena place was state of the art modern, top of the line luxurious, in such great location. Our little cottage in rural Montalcino paradise was not as up to par in creature comfort, but it had great grounds. We always ended each day sitting outside, looking down the Tuscan hills, drank our wine and ate our snacks, as the sun set. Memories of a life time.

Soon we were descending to Zurich. This was the only time we checked our luggage (back to the nightmare a few hours ago...:-( but luckily ours were some of the first to arrive. Zurich airport transition to the train station was not anything like what I'd remembered just a few years ago. I had to hit the ATM for some Swiss Franc. Really Swiss?? The UK left an open spot for ya! while S got us tickets to Uzwil. We soon found ourselves back on the familiar Swiss train platform. And what else? the train was on time. Hahaha...

Some 40 minutes later we ware ready to step out to our cow country destination for the next 9 days.

My mother in law met us at the platform. She then took us to her summer home. It's 3 flights up with no lift. The ladies left me with EVERYTHING to bring up. I guess Man is King of the castle, but his wife is always the boss. I succeeded without pulling something major... We were soon settled in, I had a beer in hand and life was good. It was great to be home.

We went to the local CooP store to stock up her fridge. It had moved too. Sheesh... sometimes progress ought to slow down for old guys like me.

We got back, I wad handed a home mixed cocktail drink, and soon a dinner of bratwursts, rosti was on the table. I can get used to this forever. :-)

Onto the land of the cows...

We had breakfast, cleaned up then return the cottage to Alexandra. Said good bye to it and SR2 as we headed back to Florence. The drive wasn't bad, our Fiat did its best to hold its own. The Googlemap lady got us right to the car return area. Then the Italian attendant wanted to put some bogus bumper scrapping charge on me. I was furious. I was telling the guy the scratches, even minor were not ID'ed when we picked up the car so it could have been there when we got it. I was screaming at him and was not going to back down.Then a Norwegian, out of the blue, next to us said aloud that his car was not given an out going inspection either. Bolstered by my new ally, I stepped up the offense, and the Italian troublemaker relented and didn't write anything on me. I.Did.Not.Cause.It.

We got to the shuttle and the terminal smoothly. Then things went FUBAR.

SwissAir was the carrier to fly us to Zurich. We could not get them to take our money online to check luggage. So at check in we had to pay. But the agent did not take money transactions. We had to pay at another counter and needed to get a receipt for her. Off we went to wait at this other cashier counter. After waiting a long time, we got up to the counter and were told they only took cash.

WTF cashier place only took cash?

We raced down one level to the ATM, waited to get to the kiosk to get our money. We ran back up and paid the Cash-Only lady. Got our receipt and had to go back to SwissAir to show the agent so she could check off a box so our luggage would get to our destination. Everything was finally squared away, we got lunch, then meandered to the gate and waited.

There were a million people at the gate area. We hunkered and waited for our call, as we had no status at all. Finally we got on the bus to ride to the plane on the tarmac. It was hot inside and fumes of gasoline was overwhelming. I thought S was going to lose it, but the bus soon started to move, and we got to our plane and our seat.

Once airborne, S was fine. They served Movenpick ice cream and she ate both hers and mine. :)

Seaside, in Tuscany??...

We knew we were alive because the sun rose, and it woke us up. Good God if that searing orb hadn't penetrated our sleep, who knows... we could still be in Montalcino sleeping our lives away... As it was, woke up with the sun, son!

:/

At breakfast we were trying to decide what to do for the day. I had kicked around the idea of going to the coast. But Susan was concerned that it was a bit far of a drive and I might get tired. So we decided to hit a local Brunello winery. We found Foglio was open for drop in tastings. The grounds of this winery was of course, beautiful and immaculate. We were given a 90 seconds glimpse (not tour) of the cellar, then we were ushered to the tasting room, where we were the only 2 people with the pourer.  I chose a 5 varietals flight, somehow charged for the 6 varietals flight. When I pointed this out, there was mass confusion from the pouer, and she was going to "make it up" to me somehow. I'm still waiting...

The wine was meh... In our short time in Tuscany I've had much much better. But hey, it was about the experience, right? and the still awaiting "make up" ;-)

After the tasting, we walked the grounds, then I decided to go to the coast anyway. It was a gorgeous day, not too hot, and Susan did not have to be persuaded very hard. We headed West.

We set our Google map direction for Marina di Grosetto. The drive was fast and didn't take as long as we had thought...Soon we saw street signs of waves and could smell the ocean. We found a place to park, which was about a hundred miles from the sand, but \S said we should just be happy we found a spot, got out and walked.

Sounds like her?

We were ready for lunch. Bumping around asking a few people and places. We found a lovely seaside restaurant right on the sand.The breeze was lovely, the view was good, there were 8 year old Italian boys playing soccer on the side. They were as good as high school varsity kids here... We ordered shrimp cocktail, and I had grilled octopus, a Mediterranean specialty.

The shrimp cocktail was a disaster. Everything was drenched in an indefinable sauce, that was like mayonnaise. I hate and am allergic to mayonnaise.  Even S was overwhelmed by this sauce. But she was game. We knew she would be... I used all the available napkins (there were few...) to wipe the sauce off and salvage the shrimps. Ummm... a little bit of a downer to start.

My octopus was great. Cooked well with great texture and taste. The fries we ordered with it did not come until we were done. But we were not to let a little lunch mishap let us down. We walked out onto the sand toward the ocean.

Then we felt at peace. Those who know me know I love the ocean. I was in my element. Not many were swimming, as the water was not warm enough. But there were tons of tanned European sunbathing to get even more crisp. For a dark skinned guy, I can't understand this. Their enjoyment and love of it made me happy though...

We'd never thought that we would get to see the ocean on this trip. It was a cherry on the cake for us. We loved the day.

A public execution in a tiny Italian village...

We had gone to the local CooP store in Montalcino to stock up, so breakfast, snacks and wines were set while we stayed in this cottage. This first morning, we woke up to a blinding sun. Absolutely, stunningly binding as the red orb was directly rising up from the horizon, right on the other side of our one tiny window in the bedroom, its brightness cut right through the flimsy curtain material and set out eyelids on fire. Turning away and put pillows on our heads was futile. We were in the center of the Circle of Light.

Gosh it was bright!!

S made me some awesome coffee to get me over the grumpy mood... She always does have a way :-)  After breakfast, we set out to explore our neighboring villages.

The drive here was different than on the drive from Siena to this region. The small local roads led us through more lush and green aura. Vineyards abound. We stopped and took a picture back toward Montalcino from a far.

S mentioned it was perfect for a biking trip.  Hhmmm... No! I thought... too hilly for me. :)

We arrived at Monticchiello, a tiny tiny village on... what else, a tall hill. As small as SQd'O but a lot, a lot more charming. Someone mentioned to me his father-in-law could settle in here. And considering this person is in his mid 60's... Hahaha... I can imagine his FIL would be a lot older than us, but I gotta agree with the man, this town is cute with lots of charm.

As we walked through town, workers were setting up the stage for a local stage play later. S was telling me they were setting up for a public execution. I love her imagination and humor. But it was time to get out of Dodge as I was the only Non-White there. Hahaha...

We headed off to Montepulciano. A short 20 minutes drive away. It was amazing how close these small villages are away from each other, yet each retains its own charm. Montepulciano laid out similarly to San Gimignano, but was a lot smaller and quieter with less tourists and tours. As we were walking and getting hungrier, I noted a line outside a restaurant. I suggested we get in line, as the place was not going to be open until 1PM. It was 8 minutes away and we had a short wait. (These Italians were on time :-) and we were seated in one of many long communal tables. Soon food were ordered and served. We had a fabulous meal of soup and pasta, but soon I couldn't help noticing the locals around us were getting the Florence steaks.

So, patrons would say something to the proprietor, he drew a few lines on their paper place mats. Then he went in the back, which was 20 feet away, chopping sounds reverberated through... then he brought out a piece of porterhouse steak for approval.

And each of these steaks was bigger than Susan's head.

We were glad we didn't order because one of those would have lasted 5 days for us. But we were happy for the experience.

We took some pictures of the surrounding areas after lunch.

Montalcino and Brunello. As close to perfection as you get

We woke up, went to our favorite morning cafe, unsure that they'd be open on a Sunday morning. Like old friends at Cheers, they waved us in and brought our normal breakfast to us without having to order. We were so sad to leave that cute little cafe, as well as our fabulous, AIR CONDITIONING, apartment in Siena. Well, life goes on and so did our journey. We really truly loved that place and our host. Ciao Siena, we'll see each other again...

We found SR2 again, heading back south again. Our next home, which was 2 kilometers outside of the town of Montalcino, was not available until 3PM so we headed straight for Montalcino. We wanted to explore the town before decided to have lunch.

Most everything was closed on Sunday, there were local kids playing soccer in the church front courtyard. We went everywhere... to the old convent with a hospital high atop the next hill to the town center. Hiking back took a few stops for a breather.  But the view and experience couldn't be beat. We passed so many houses that were preparing this Sunday lunch, the great smelling cooking aroma was driving me insane with hunger.

The restaurant we decided on was terrific. We were a little early and was the only 2nd table seated (unlike most other times when we took the last :)  It had a fabulous view of the valley, great pate for S (in Italy, right?) and a nice flight of tasting Brunello for me. Not a bad start Montalcino.

After lunch we went to explore the rest of the town. Of all the places so far we've visited this trip, Volterra and Montalcino share the same vibe, and we would not think twice about spending extended time in either place. Before long we ran up to check in time, so I texted the hostess of our upcoming AirB&B to ask her for a recommendation for a nice Brunello. She is a local wine expert and runs a business educating and giving tours to local wineries, We picked up a nice bottle from her suggestion. Then we headed to her place.

Did I say 10 times or more S is a great navigator and travel partner? With the Google lady working overtime, we still needed S great effort to find the turn off to our new place. The driveway of pebbles was long and steeeeep... our little Fiat was about to die when we found the parking.

And paradise.

We checked into our new place, through those double doors there, The place was clean, spacious, with a small kitchen and a comfy bed. BUT NO AC. :(

It was hot but had a nice breeze going through. We popped open our bottle of wine and went back outside for fresh air, some coolness and relaxation.

We settled in, had our wine, relaxed, read, played on our iPad's. Soon it was time to head back to town for dinner. Afterwards, we stroll through town to take in the tremendous sunset.

What a great day in paradise.

14 towers and a... wedding?

The next day we got back on SR2, but we headed north this time. The towns of San Gimignano and Volterra were our next destinations.

San Gimignano was a large town. It had 4 huge public parking lots outside of the city walls, and 3 of the 4 were full by 10AM. The 4th and last one was so far out and down the hill that they had an elevator to get weary visitors half way up to town. Once inside the old 13th century fortified walls, the street were full of tourist shops and restaurants. We saw a Mexican (not Spanish) and a Chinese restaurant within the first 2 blocks. That was an obvious indication that this town was all for the tourists and tour groups.

It was unbearably hot in the old town square. Actually it's the old town Triangle. Think the old town designers of San Gimignano forgot one side? The center had many gelato places. Each calling itself "the best gelato in the world". A few had mist machines, which all they did were turned the humidity higher. Street performers competed around every corner. Mercifully we found the alley that led to the perimeter of town, off the beaten track. Then we were treated to awesome scenery.

Saw glimpses of normal life...

We took a rest in the shade of the old church, watched the local band setting up to perform and wondered how anyone could play under such relentless sun and oppressive heat.  Took them a long time, too long for them to play so we decided to move on to Volterra.

The drive to Volterra was wonderful. The scenery and terrain was very similar to Northern California. Except there were not many cars. :) We arrived at Volterra, parked outside the walls again, had to pay for it this time, and began our trek into town.

Did I say the whole friggin area was hilly?

We finally found our way on the fringe of the center of town. It was getting close to 2PM so S was worried, rightfully, that we needed to find a restaurant for lunch. We lucked out to a last table at a cute restaurant on the side of the town church. We had a fabulous meal, right next to the locals as they were singing Italian songs.

We wandered through town after lunch. I love this town. Not large and touristy as SG, not small as Pienza or SQd'O. Not loud nor too quiet. As we approached the lookout point, we saw some very pretty young ladies, in beautiful formal dresses walking along while having their pictures taken. Then a few graceful and beautiful older women with nice dresses and corsages, walking up into town. I told S they were going to a wedding and I was determined to crash it. In my shorts and sweaty and smelly from the heat. Luckily for them, or me... we could never find where they went. I'm still upset about not being in a nice formal Italian wedding.

Volterra, I will see you again, and that wedding, here I come...

Time for a country ride...

We started our 2nd full day in Siena with a quick breakfast of croissants and coffee. Haha, we actually had all our breakfast the same way. We found this cute little cafe a few doors down from us. By the end of our stay in Siena, we were "the regulars" :)

After breakfast we began our long trek back to our car outside the walls. Phew... walking there at an earlier time in the day, and not having to lug our luggage made it slightly better. We set our Googlemaps lady for Pienza, and set off looking for good old SR2. We were going to be on that road quite a bit the next few days.

This was our first drive out of town into the Val d'Orcia valley, and it was a phenomenally beautiful drive. Neatly parceled land in all different hues of gold and green, undulating hills, majestic Italian cypress, and magnificent mansions. On and on and on, we thought we saw a postcard perfect view then we turned a corner and saw more of the same perfection. We pulled off the road a few times to admire the surroundings. Took us a little longer to reach Pienza, but the pleasure was all in the journey. :-)

Walking into Pienza I fell in love with it instantly. Perched on a hill, the walk in from the parking lot led us through small quiet quaint streets.

I can imagine it would be really annoying with a few bus loads of daytourers descending at the same time. As it was I only saw 2 tour guide flags, the town retained its quiet small village charm. The view down the valley was fantastic.

We wandered around looking for a place to have lunch. I picked a cute little restaurant at the end of the long walkway through town. Nice outdoor sitting. Trattoria Latte di Luna. It was so hot by this time so the large beer and cold sparkling water were so good going down... I had tagliatelle al ragu and it was so good. If it hadn't been so hot that i kinda lost my appetite, I could have a few more dishes. The food was that good.

After lunch we set off for San Quirico d'Orcia, only a few short kilometers from Pienza. We parked at the bottom of a hill and walked up quite a way to the center of town. By then, jet lag, lack of sleep, the heat all got to me and I had to sit down in the town square to rest up. SQd'O is a much smaller, sleepier town than Pienza. S liked it a lot better.  Too quiet for my taste.

We went home to our fabulous AC apartment. Went back out later that night for some gelato. I've been pressing S to get some gelato, being such a huge ice cream fan that she is... When she finally had some, she finished hers and most of mine.

Wake up... your new city awaits...

Well, at least it was not 4AM but I woke up QUITE early from jet lag. The wifi in the apartment was perfect so after I had caught up with everything... personal stuff and world events and social media and games and a few movie trailers... It was still barely first light. LOL... I decided to get up and go for my first Siena walkabout. The city was still asleep, was quiet and quite deserted except me, the street cleaners, garbage clean up crews and very few other early stragglers. None of the shops was open. The whole town had a surreal and serene feel about it. Clean, unspoiled, uncrowded. I ventured to imagine the Siena of yore... I walked for a couple of hours as the city began to wake and the crowd started to fill... I was able to capture a glimpse of the Tuscany hills awaiting...

I grabbed some croissants and coffee for breakfast and headed back to the apartment. Time to wake the princess.

After breakfast we went out together. I showed S where I had gone, then we went to other areas of the city. Siena was a great city in that it was of moderate size, had a lot of history and amazing monuments, but to me, the most endearing thing about it was it was still a real, living city with everyday people, not completely overrun with tourists if you went a little off the beaten track. There were so many amazing, cute little nuggets of regular life around each coners. Including some naked lady stalking out her window at passerbys

We took a break, had a beer in one of the restaurants in the Piazza del Campo square before we went back for lunch in our apartment and rested before we went back out to check out the rest of the city and the Palazzo Publico museum. There I found the original Italian FacePalmer.

We had an amazing dinner at La Tarvena di San Giuseppe. Appetizers, pappardelle with porcini in wild boar ragu sauce, dessert and a fine bottle of local red wine. The Campo square was lit up and casted a beautiful sight on the setting sky.

Landing in the Old Continent and finding our way in Siena

After the transfering mess in Paris, we arrived in Florence withour having to go through passport control, or customs service. Since we only took carry-on bags, we breezed through the airport and found our shuttle to the rental car terminal. Man... the weather was hot and quite humid. I was sweating... ah hemmm... a bit when I was checking out our new ride for the next 8 days.  Opted for the add-on TomTom GPS, which turned out to be useless, worthless waste of money.

We made our way through the parking lot to our new ride, a white Fiat 500

At least it has AC. LOL

We made our way slowly out of Florence. It was not bad using the TomTom. S as always was great as Co-Pilot/Navigator.  As we got near Siena, the TomTom started losing signal. On.The.Highway.

We turned my iPhone on and started roaming. Punched in the destination and GoogleMaps lady was our guiding angel. We ended up spending a lot of roaming overusage charges for her. And appreciated every penny.

We found a free parking lot just outside of the walls. Spotted an open spot right away, unloaded our stuff and began our long, long, and HOT trek to our apartment in town. Our great AirB&B host met us outside the apartment door and showed us up to our place for the next 5 nights. This place was beyond fabulous. Right in center of town, had a lift and AC. Found Gold !

The apartment was modern, spacious, and beautiful. Could not have been any happier with it.

We unloaded, rested a while, and went out to say hi to our new sity.

We tried to get a walk in table at La Taverna di San Giuseppe, a great local restaurant that had been highly recommended. No go. But we made reservation for the next evening. We then strolled around looking for something that looked appealing. After a long day of travel, we decided to have pizza. Snagged the last 2 spots at TeKeVoi on a long communal table to share with other Italians. Needless to say the pizza was good.

After dinner it was time to turn in. Long day...

The journey begins...

It's been a long time coming... almost a year of planning including getting the Business class tickets on non-stop overseas flights through Air France, hotels booked and canceled, hundreds of rooms and AirB&B reviews... we were finally on our way to Europe on our 3 weeks plus vacation. This was to be our longest time traveling, being away from home in one stint. I was excited. I thought S was too, but I suspected she'd also be a little ambivalent about being away from our home for so long. But as always, she was all game.... We said good bye to the house and climbed into our ride to SFO under bright California summer afternoon sunshine.

Check in process was smooth with Air France. We went through security quickly. At least at SFO the TSA has done an excellent job with the international security lines. We found the AF lounge, and were soon settling into our little seating area and started hunting for food. We had not eaten lunch so the little fingerling sandwiches were extra special tasty. :)

Soon came the call to board. The boarding area at the gate was an absolute mess of humanity. We crawled along. When we got to our seats, there was no welcoming drinks. Business cabin in the A380-800 was spacious, seat was comfortable. Lie flat but not completely horizontal.

There was delay of close to 30 minutes before we pushed off from scheduled departure time. Then came first drinks, with a box of mixed nuts/mini pretzels. Really ?!!! Meals were served from a rolling cart, unlike Business and First Class from other carriers, where they would ask your order and brought it straight to you from the galley. Not top shelf service. The appetizer with lobster meat was fantastic. But then I spilled salad dressing directly on my shirt. Boo!

The main course, as said earlier, was served off the cabin cart. Kinda took a lot of the luster off... It was not very good either. We managed to grab a couple of hours of sleep after the meal. The flight was smooth and the cabin comfortable.

The transfer at CDG from one plane to the next one, onto Florence was one of the low points of the trip. Our plane from SFO landed and took close to 20 minutes taxiing to the gate. Then we had to go through a long line to get through passport control. Even with Sky Priority stauts, we were late for the scheduled departure time to Florence. Fortunately for us, that flight was delayed. Unlucky for many of our flight mates, they missed their next flights and had to scramble fantically to reschedule.

Finally the delay was over, we got on the tiniest airplane in AF fleet, and off we went to Italy.