I am writing this from the pool outside our room. It is surrounded for 40 acres with nothing but olive trees. The farm we are staying at has 8 rooms for rent but is primarily a working olive oil farm. Just 50 feet from our room is a building with 20 large steel vats holding last years harvest, or the remains of it. The olive crunching and squishing machines are a few rooms down from ours. There is a center square out the front door of our room where dinner is served daily. It’s preparations consist of only local ingredients. Last night we had family produced wine and oil and the best, freshest, Italian meal yet. 4 courses from antipasti to fruit salad. Tonight we do the olive oil tasting before dinner. We are in western Sicily about 40 km north of marsala, the famous sweet wine region. This is the least touristed area we have been in Italy and one of the most relaxing. The rugged coast has 3 islands of shore that are nice to look at or explore. The cost has salt producing farms running the length of it which adds to the interesting mix of industry and baron landscape.
It has been a long time since we posted and we apologize. We have been moving so fast for the last few weeks we have barley had time to catch our breath. So here is a fast recap of what has happened and where we have been. Forgive the typos. Hope you enjoy.
Day 23
Purcheda, Spain
-rented mountain bikes and rode to france through the pyranees
-Ate French rotisserie chicken, frsh apple juice and baguettes for lunch at some small market
-bought a jamon and cheese sandwich from a vending machine (2 euros)
Day 24
Purgchedia, spain to Latour de Carol, france to perpignon to nice
- Took a narrow gauge train out of the Pyrenees mountains to the coast. The train had an open car so that you were able to look around 360 as the train hugged the mountainside
- Once on the coast(perpignon) we hopped on a train to nice.
- Nice is shady but the beach is really nice
Day 25
Nice to Moujins
-walked to nice beach after breakfast
-took a taxi to the nice airport and picked up our brand new car, a peugot 307. We will have it for the next 30 days
-drove an hour east to our hotel in Moujins, Had a posh poolside lunch.
-toured the small spiral village
-had a pizza dinner in the hotrl restaurant looking out over the pre-alps.
Day 26
Moujin, france
-Had messages in the morning
-worked out in the outside gym, to try and shed a few of the 15 lbs we have gained.
-10minute-thunderstorm
-dinner up in old town moujins. The best meal of the trip so far. Classic provicial food. Lots of bold flavors on seafood.
Day 27
Moujins to cannes to ITALY
-called peugot and told them our new car has electrical problems and we need a new one
-drove to Cannes and did laundry and shopped for music and books.
-Ate doner kebabs for lunch.
-drove back to Nice got lost in Nice for an hour. The town goes in circles I swear.
-Final found the grand corniche out of town. Drove the coast on the cliffs through Monaco and monte carlo and then into italy.
-Pit stop in the last town in france for salad Nicoise
-As you enter italy frome france the landscape becomes super lusha nd hilly and the highway has massive tunnels drilled through the mountains for miles(kilometers actually)
-past Genoa and decided to get a hotel in Santa Margherita, a small town west of Genoa out on a peninsula.
-pizza for dinner, with Salami of course.
-Drivers in Italy are crazy fast
Day 28
Santa margharita to cinque terre
-had pesto fettucine before leaving santa margharita. Killer.
-Drove to cinque terre(5 villages on the Italian Riviera, were were in monterosso), found a room at an old lady’s house for $90 a night.
-explored the town and the beach, took a dip in the Mediterranean.
Day 29
Hiked the cinque terre
-hiked all 5 towns on thr cliff side.
-the views were amazinf of the towns, cliffs and ocean as we progressed.
-took a train from the last town back to monterosso (the first town)
-Ate dinner at a local place were they made an amazing spaghetti and seafood and served it in these huge, old terra cotta pans.
-Dan claims I ate a frog in the antipasti, I don’t think so.
Day 30
Cinque terre to Milan to Siena
-drove to Milan to get a new car because our electrical problem didn’t get any better
-after we drove south to parma nd had some proscuitto and parmasean cheese. The best ever and the cheapest ever. We threw in a bottle of Balsamic viniger for good measure because we new that we weren’t stopping in modena.
-More tunnels, crossed into Tuscany and soon arrived in Siena.
-Hotel in Siens sucked, was totally 70’s and was too expensive.
Day 31
Tuscany touring
-checked out Siena’s square and duomo. Impressive.
-drove to chianti to try and taste wine.
-found the castle we were looking for but it was closed. After sittinf in front of the gate for a few minutes we heard a buzz and it opened. We saw noone and we stepped inside to an open square. It closed behind us and we sheepishly walked towards the small door across the courtyard. It opened and the non English speaking man took 6 euro from us and told us the cantina was around back.
-the castle was huge, tons to explore, chapel, gardens but no cantina.
-back outside the gates we drove down the hill and found the wine tastind. Ok chianti, needed to age more.
-We then decided to find this out of the way restaurant a few town away for dinner. 3 hours and several dirt roads later we sat on a terrace overlooking the tuscan hills as the sun set and we ate taglitelle with wild boar, stewed meats and drank a local wine.
Day 32
La crete and montalcino
-We began the day driving to Asciano which is in the la crete area of Tuscany. That is the area that has all the golden hills in all the pictures of Tuscany you see. Asciano was to have a fair and some mountain bikes.
-we found the fair/market but the bike shop was closed.
-it rained a bit and then cleared up.
-by that time we were in montalcino a few towns south, eating lunch at a small osteria (bena soup, stewed chicken and raviolis in sage and butter sauce and a house brunello of course.
-after that a wine tasting and tour up the road. Montalcino is home to the brunello wine a wine made of a sangiovese clone grape and aged 2 years in oak at a minimum. Italy claims it is there best wine. It was really, really good. And we were the only ones there. That always makes it better.
Day 33
Siena to Elba Island
-drove from siena to the tuscan coast and then south to a small town with a ferry to Elba
-Elba is a small island a few miles off the coast of Tuscany.
-we stumbled upon a women who had an apartment for rent in a village high in the mountains of the island.
-equipped with kitchen and done in a perfect tuscan style we quickly paid the $70 and headed for the grocery store.
-the next 2 nights we cooked in our kitchen and drank lots of wine.
Day 34
Hiking on elba
-Woke up early and hiked across elbas highest peaks. Great views. Some rocky terrain, cable assistance necessary
-took a cable car back down to town
-had lunch near our apartment
-went to the beach
-cooked dinner
Day 35
Kayaking on Elba
-crossed to the other side of elba and rented kayaks
-took them up the coast and had lunch on our own little found beach
-back at the car we drove to the ferry, went back to the main land and headed south stopping ijn some random town, tarquania. Shady, lots of drunk Italian men in the streets. Southern italy her ewe come.
Day 36
Tarquania to Rome
-drove to Rome, found our hotel, intense navigating and drivinf. All roads lead to Rome but once your there all roads lead….well nowhere it seems.
-Ate sandwichs and had great peach iced tea in some bar
-shopped atr a local market in the square for leather and stuff
-toured saint peters basilica. Crazy, huge and amazing history
-some laundry and pizza for dinner
Day 37
Rome to Pompeii
-Woke really early and headed to the Sistine chapel
-huge line, 20 blocks easy
-we jumped on a tour top get in immediately and then ditche dthe tour to find the chapel (to see the chapel you have to go through the Vatican museum. We didn’t have time so we just b-lined it to the chapel
-chapel, we found after navigating the maze of galleries to get there, was simply amazing.
-back at the car we driove to the colossieum. Skipped the entrance and just did a walk around. A quick lunch and a haircut for J. and we were heading for Pompeii.
-Our hotel was 500 feet from the ruins.
Day 38
Pompeii to Vesuvious to Naples
-Toured the ruins, saw the body casts. Really freaky.
-drove up to Vesuvious, hiked to the crater, peeked in.
-Drove to Naples to catch a ferry to Sicily. Had some time to kill so we drove into naples.
-Naples is crazy. It is a run down industrial city with scooter bandidits everywhere. The city itself is made up of 3 wide streets and 1000 super narrow ones that are for 2 way traffic. Noone obeys any traffic signals and everyone drives 100 miles and hour. I havn’t seen pandemonium like that since Schriber knocked over the red wine at the cape that time.
-Soon enough were were back at the docks and loading ourselves and our car onto the over night ferry to sicily..
_we had a 2 bed cabin with shower and toilet. The boast had 2 lounges, a store, a cinema and a restaurant.
Day 39
Palermo, sicily to Marsala, sicily
-the boat arrived in Palermo sicily at 6:30am
-9:00am we were ate an olive farm on the west coast where we will stay for the next 3 nights.
