May | June 1992 Trip with Cindy and Bill
Italy, Austria, Switzerland

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May 30 - Saturday
It dawned gray but didn't rain like it had the previous day. We had a really good plan. We checked out and brought all our stuff down to the sidewalk. It was decided that Luther and I would get the car and Cindy and Bill would stay with the luggage.

The plan went awry when we couldn't turn on the via Veneto as planned. For some reason there were police barriers. I had had a perfect route planned and after that happened we were screwed. We were all over hells name. The Parthenon, all the walking streets, finally we reached the river and drove up a couple of "for taxi's only" streets and at last we went up a one way street the wrong way finally reaching our hotel - when in Rome as they say. The Roman drivers coming the right way down the street just expected us to move over so they could pass!

So we got out of Dodge and hit a traffic jam. We made Florence in about 2 hours and stopped for lunch in an unknown spa town and headed for Pisa.

It was sunny and hot after some thunderstorms along the way. Then we saw, in the distance, the tower. It sure was leaning! Amazing! Well, we took pictures and Cindy got a great tacky souvenir for her collection - a naked lady hugging a human sized tower of Pisa complete with pen and ashtray!

What can I say? The leaning Tower

Onward we went. In about an hour, just after Spezia, we got off the Autostrada. It was very green and mountainous. We took lit-tle tiny roads down, down, down to the Mediterranean to Monterossa al Mare.

At first it seemed at typical seaside town in a spectacular location. You couldn't drive to the hotel we found out after we tried to drive down a pedestrian area. We pared in a big lot and walked to a map. We found out our hotel is the last thing o the cliff-side so we got this really nice taxi man to bring us. WOW the road up to the hotel (really a foot-path) was only about a couple inches wider than the car.

The hotel was lovely [left]. We got really nice rooms with sea view balconies [right]. The water was beautiful turquoise. The older medieval part of town was very near the hotel yet the hotel was very secluded and private.

We walked into town and bought a couple of bottles of local wine and I got a hat. We hoped it would be beach weather the next day!

Dinner was a disappointment. We had the menu since we were on half pension. We started with the antipasti bar. Then for the next course Cindy had tomato juice, me - seafood risotto, Bill and Luther - pasta e fagiole. My entre was fish, Cindy and Luther got veal and Bill got Beef Wellington. We had cheese to finish.

Not such a great meal. We went outside and listened to a duo play pop songs and shared a grappa and some wine - an Amarone - Bill's favorite. The surf lulled us to sleep. It sure beat the Vespa lullaby.

May 31 - Sunday
The weather was changeable. Some sun, some clouds. We had a nice breakfast on the terrace and we ran this morning through town.

Cindy and I went dress shopping. Cindy bought - I didn't. We planned to go to the beach for 2 hours, and then have lunch.

The beach was interesting. We went to the nearest beach [left] which was free and all Italians. It rained on us and we only had a little sun. We still had fun and swam in the Med. The water was cold but quickly felt good. It was very buoyant. It must have been saltier than the Atlantic. It was trashy though. The water was super clear but there was lots of trash floating in it.

We ate lunch at the first place with a table. There were many huge Italian families having lunch. There were little girls in long white first communion dresses and a birthday party - very noisy but fun. The food was ordinary except I had the marinated mussels, which were excellent.

The church in town had really cool bells. They play a very joyous tune. I wondered how many they could do. Later that night they would play a very slow scale up and down.

After lunch we walked through town looking at all the sun worshipers and players. Of course then it was hot and sunny. We watched the topless women and Cindy commented that the men were constantly "adjusting themselves".

We had also noticed several Para gliders coming down onto the beach. We were at the other side of town and watched as this one guy tried to land. He came in too high and then lost a lot of altitude very quickly but by then he'd missed the landing zone and we heard the crash landing into a tree and boats and tables! We went down with a crowd and he was prone with very little movement. After many people untangled him he stood up. We figured he'd feel that tomorrow.

We strolled back and bought some olive oil and went to our balcony [right] where we had another bottle of Cinque Terre wine. They were pretty good wines! While we were out there we watched a big cruise ship go down the coast. It blasted its horn all the way - really deep and loud and carried a long way.

Dinner. The dining room had a lovely view. We had coffee outside the bar and talked to a clearly irritated parrot. We retire to the balcony in our room for Grappa.

June 1 - Monday
Luther and Bill decided to run on the path to the next town in the "five lands". Lots and lots of stairs and sheer drops. Luther scraped his leg but good.

We checked out of the pretty place. It was relaxing. We had our luggage transported to the parking lot in an Ape (3 wheeled truck-scooter) and we walked. The day was sunny and warm.

We headed a relatively short distance to the Asti area. The Autostrada was good and sparsely trafficked. It went in and out of a zillion tunnels. We passed Genoa and headed just about due north. It was nearing lunchtime and we were within 20 Km of Ciacarro - our destination - so we stopped in Asti for lunch.

It was Monday in Italy. Asti was pretty much a working class town. It was pretty much shut down. We wandered for maybe 45 minutes and were nearly ready to give up when we found a really nice pizzeria. Just what we wanted. There was a nice terrace where we sat and had pizza and 2 bottles of wine. The pizza was only OK but we had fun.

We drove north and quickly found our turn off up into pretty green fields and vineyards. The place we were headed got a star for its food. Our hotel [left] was well signed and we drove down a tree-lined driveway to a beautiful old brick complex. The people were super nice. They shook our hands and told us the pool was ready.

Our rooms were named for flowers. Ours had a sleigh bed of massive proportions. Luther decided to snooze while the rest of us headed for the pool. We had a nice dip and I had a nap and then the clouds came. We went in and cleaned up for dinner. We were really looking forward to it.

We dressed nice and went into the main building. All their stuff has a pretty little woodpecker on it including the plates etc. As usual we were a bit confused. We felt pressured to take the house wine. We had an Asti Spumante for a starter which was poured from a pitcher with strawberries and mint in it but could taste none of those flavors.

The menu was brought and we went for the local specialties. It started with these little slices of pizza and little doughy fried pillows (I liked the pillows). Then we had a plate with about 10 different things - heart, fried sweetbreads, fried stuffed squash blossoms, two asparagus spears tooth picked and fried in cornmeal, two sweet things - one really almondy and the other like fried lemon pound cake and other things I probably forgot.

Then they came and recited the pastas. I chose the gnocchi with truffles, Cindy the linguine with tomato sauce, then they suggested a half order of each. Suddenly the light bulb came on; they wanted us to decide as a table! So we had the 2 pastas and all 4 ate it. Then they asked about the main course we let Bill and Luther pick since they didn't get to pick the pasta and they chose the veal. Meanwhile we had 2 great red Bardolino wines (local). The veal tasted just like roast beef that my Mom would have made!

We had ice cream for dessert and strolled down the driveway - the rain had taken a break. We saw 5 or 6 cats.

June 2 - Tuesday
We rose to a rainy day. Breakfast was super. There were many cheeses, croissants, meats which were served upstairs in the main building.

We packed and checked out with many more handshakes. We were each given a bag with 2 bottles of their own wine. How nice!

We left and chose a direct route on small roads, which proved to be extremely slow. The farther we drove the harder it rained. We bought bread, meat and cheese for a picnic in a tiny deli.

As we headed up into the Simplon Pass, we were awed by huge gushing waterfalls [left & right] on all sides. The "half tunnels" over the road were now explained to me as they protected the road from the waterfalls during rainstorms.

There were some washouts and big rocks in the road along with lots of large streams and puddles. The pass was over 2,000 meters and above the tree line. We crossed the border before the pass. We came down by the Rhone River in Brig. Then we stopped for our picnic, which we ate in the car of necessity.

As we headed toward the next pass we got the bad news. Passes closed! In fact after a phone call to confirm we found out that all three possible ways were closed. The only alternative was to drive over 200KM around, past Montreaux, Bern, etc. When we finally arrived in Grindlewald we were bushed and it was 6PM.

The beautiful scenery buoyed us up though. The rain had quit shortly after we started the mega loop and it was sunny with some clouds caught on the tops of the mountains.

We checked into the Fischerblick [left]. Our rooms were nice - big with windows and a walkway facing the Jungfrau. As it turned out the Jungfrau was the only mountain we were sure of. We could also see the Eiger, Wetterhorn, and Fiescherhorn. We also could see part of the two massive glaciers.

Susie, the VERY bubbly lady who runs the place was just amazing - sort of like a human tornado. Unfortunately, the restaurant was still closed after the spring break. I had heard it was excellent.

We went out to explore the town (didn't take long) and then to have a beer where we were exposed to a loud-mouthed Brit woman who never stopped talking. Then we went to the Alte Post on Susie's recommendation. Well there was no doubt we were back in Germanic countries. I had a salad and goulash stroganoff with röste. Everyone else had schnitzels with pommes along with a couple of excellent Swiss wines. It was not terribly expensive. We went back to share some grappa. Boy, what a day!

June 3 - Wednesday
We had discussed hiking the next day so even though it was glum and gray we decided to stick to our plan. We had breakfast which was typical and the nice waitress informed us that they had decided after all to have a dinner for their guests - half pension for 30SF each. We accepted happily.

We walked into town and bought hiking maps. We decided to climb up to the Pfingstegg restaurant (we had seen it's lights the night before) and it had a golanda going up to it so if we got too tired we could ride down.

At first we walked along a stream swollen with rain and melting snow. Then the path turned upward. We came to the first of the restaurant. The path became really steep as it climbed toward the gorge formed by the glacier. It leveled off. It began to drizzle. I add that we were ill equipped for hiking - we wore shirts and sweaters, pants, and running shoes. We met some Americans who were trying to get to the rapids below. Then we heard the cries of two baby goats. There was no mother in sight. Cindy took some pictures. The path turned down the side of the gorge. We sidled down to the bridge we could see below.

The gorge must have been 300 feet or more deep - sheer rock walls - very narrow with the roaring river far below. There was indeed a path just above the water level cut into the Cliffside.

We walked on up the other side - also just a path cut in the cliff. Then there was a fence to keep us from falling over into the gorge. A small plaque proclaimed that a woman had fallen to her death from this spot just 8 months prior. She was born the same year I was. I couldn't stop thinking of her - imagining falling like that, into the abyss. Just a few steps more and we were at another restaurant. We went in out of the rain and met Charlie, another extremely friendly person (she was from South Africa) who sat with us as we drank water and coffee. She and her husband lived there and ran the restaurant. She had 2 children - a boy 2 1/2 and a 6-month-old girl. You would never have guessed that she had 2 kids - she was young, slim and pretty. She had an au pair to help with the kids and 2 Portuguese to help at the restaurant. She said the woman who died was on a closed trail - there was ice and snow at the time.

The rain was still mostly a drizzle so we decided to continue on to the third restaurant - the Pfingstegg. Charlie said the trail was steep but not scary. She was right on one count anyway - it was steep but it WAS scary. I became famous on this hike for my crab walk. We were so high up it was like being in an airplane. The entire valley was at our feet. I wished I wasn't so afraid of heights because I loved to hike.

It started raining harder and by the time we reached the restaurant we were drowned rats. It was nothing a couple of grosses biers wouldn't cure. After the beers we had lunch. I had raclette which was good but not enough. Luther had my second choice - ham, cheese on röste topped with a fried egg! Wow! Cindy and Bill had wursts and pommes. We did ride the gondola down. It wasn't scary at all after that hike! Really though, it was and remains a high point of our trip.

We got warm with baths and warm, dry clothes then we drove back to get Cindy's camera which she left with Charlie. Then we drove up to see the nearest glacier [right]. It was a huge, rotten, blue ice thing.

Dinner was special. There was a set menu with smallish portions (not usual) so we weren't stuffed. We had a bottle of white wine in our room and then, along with 3 other tables, we had our dinner.

First there was a Potato Leek soup in a rich warm broth - great on a cold, wet day. Then something called Alpermagroni - penne with cheese and fried onions and a few apple slices - excellent! Then stroganoff and rice - much better than the other stroganoff I'd had. After that salad and dessert - a flan. The wines were Swiss and very good. Everything was excellent - really local but cooked with subtlety and finesse.

In bed I was tired in my muscles - nice.

June 4 - Thursday (last day)
Well the last day was sort of a summary. We talked about what we'd done, seen, spent, and eaten. We had lunch near France. It was a port cutlet, salad, soup and ice cream. Too much. Too much for the last 2 weeks!

We arrived home about 3:30. It was grayish at home too. We sat outside and had wine and watch the news and headed to the Tannenhof for dinner. I had spargle and potatoes with Cindy - light for a change.