Back with Ugo and Deb

Camping is fun, but after two weeks with limited gear, it was good to get back to Genova and to Ugo and Deb. Our wonderful hosts were awaiting us with open arms. We regaled them with tales of our trip while they began to prepare the first of many amazing Italian meals for us.

Ugo is a chef with masterful talents, and Deb is his capable and efficient sous-chef. Our first evening back, they had arranged a bit of a dinner party with another couple, and it was like a grand reunion between old friends. It is so nice to be so far from home and have this kind of generosity and warmth in our lives. Ugo and Deb have been true "salt of the earth" people. They really have given us all a little taste of Italy and their passion for food and things Italian has been infectious. They are also both very conscious about being socially responsible human beings -- it has been nice to be with people who care so deeply about our planet and the people and living things we share it with.
So much of the food prepared by Ugo and Deb was thrown together in a matter of minutes with great passion, excellent ingredients of the highest quality, and with mouth watering results. Here is a simple organic tomato salad with balsamic vinegar, fresh basil and extra virgin olive oil made from olives grown in their own trees in a nearby community garden . . . Wow!
Tuna is a very traditional food in parts of Italy, and Ugo spoiled us with this amazing feast cooked to perfection on the barbeque with fresh herbs from his terrace garden. What an amazing treat!
As is the case with most Italian meals, there are different parts or courses to the meal. The next course involved a pasta dish with this incredible delicacy (very hard to come by apparently): a salted and dried egg sac from a tuna fish, cut and sauteed with the pasta. Once again it was quite the culinary experience, one which we would never be able to afford in a restaurant.
Ugo and Deb had Sunday free, so they planned to take us on a lovely hike on the coast just East of Genova. It landed up being quite a steep and strenuous hike. The hike took us along typical Italian paths from times gone by -- paths that took us between quaint villages and along stunning coastal scenery. It was hot, so we landed up at a lovely coastal swimming spot and spent the afternoon hanging out in the turquoise waters of the Mediterranean. Pippin and Kai had a great time hanging out and playing with Ugo and Deb!
The coastal region around Portofino is part of a marine park and is protected, so there was an impressive variety of colourful fish to check out in the water.
Ugo was happy to get right in there with the kids and do some "serious" swimming. He would dive down deep between the rocks and expose all kinds of critters for the kids to check out. He really knew how to connect with the kids. Thanks for that Ugo!
Like much of Italy, the coastline is densely inhabited. This picture gives one a sense of the "rural" region outside of Camogli.
The gorgeous Mediterranean in the late afternoon sun!
Ugo was keen to make a traditional Genovese Pesto with us while we were here, and so he roped the kids in on the process. For those who do not know it -- "pesto" comes from the word pestle (as in mortar and pestle) and refers to the act of grinding the ingredients. In Ugo and Deb's home, only the best local, organic basil was permitted for the job.
There was definite method to the use of the mortar and pestle -- Pippin has now been well trained by the master!
Just imagine that amazing aroma from the basil . . .
By now there was basil, pine nuts, salt and olive oil -- dried parmaggiano reggiano and pecorino was to be added next!
The final product was by far the best pesto dish we had ever had . . . The pasta and pesto were combined with new potatoes and green beans. It was out of this world!
While we were here, we spent some time in the old quarter of Genova. The city has a long history going back to Roman times. The real glory days seem to have been the sea faring times around the 15oo's when Genova was considered one of Europe's most important cities. This is where Christopher Columbus set out from on his maiden voyage in search of a route to Asia (and instead, as we all know, he stumbled upon the Americas.) The city is steeped in history and has many grand buildings reflecting the wealth and oppulence of those times. There are churches we saw that make it easy to understand why the Catholic church came under scrutiny for having lost touch with the founding principles of Christianity -- too much gold and glitter! Still one has to appreciate the beauty and the attention to detail. This church above was probably one of the most ornate we saw in all of Europe.
This building is one of many fancy residences built by famous/noble families from the 1500's -- they were all competing to 'out do' one another. The whole neighbourhood has become a world heritage site to preserve some of these amazing buildings.
Skye admiring the old town! She's not particularly fond of this nostril-showing shot, but Ronato likes it!
Kai and Pippin during one of their sibling "moments." We have spent a lot of time together in the last six months. In fact, we have not really been apart at all this whole time. As much as there have been some challenging sibling moments, this trip has really allowed Kai and Pippin to become closer to one another -- there were many times where they only had each other's company.
Well it is hard to believe, but this is likely to be our last post from European soil. We are leaving today to return the car to the rental place in Nice, and then it is off to the airport where we will spend the night before departing early Friday morning.

This has been an amazing time, filled with incredible experiences. It has been very healthy to step outside of our lives and have the opportunity to contemplate other angles and perspectives from a distance. It is funny how all of us have been experiencing mixed emotions in the last few days. There is the readiness to return home to some routine and familiar comfort, but also some sadness to say goodbye to this amazing adventure and time we have had as a family. We have had a particular closeness and a real simplicity in our lives for the last six months. Most days were simply about what we should eat and where we should go explore, and yet it was so much more than that. What a gift!

We hope to do some final reflection from Canada, and we will add a final travel blog or two from there.

Hope this finds you all well. Until next time . . .

Skye, Ronato, Kai and Pippin

The Cinque Terre

The introductory picture of the Cinque Terre here speaks for itself. This is a gorgeous region with five villages dotted along the coast. These lovely little villages were traditionally just about fishing and wine growing. Well, that has changed somewhat and now the tourists flood the region en mass. We haven't heard that much English in months! The scenery is stunning and the Italians have luckily made some excellent decisions by not allowing any cars into the region and by having some restrictions on commercial development (so there aren't a lot of tacky t-shirt shops everywhere.) The only way between villages is to hike or to take a train. The result is that it feels great even with the heavy tourist traffic. That said, it would be far better to visit here in the spring or in the fall when the numbers of visitors are fewer. We only had the choice of coming now, and we enjoyed the region despite the many visitors.

One of the things we did that helped our time here was to camp in a place called Framura. This town was a few villages along the train route outside of the actual Cinque Terre. It was much quieter, and we found a campsite with an astounding view of the coast. We were able to easily get to the train below and into the famous Cinque Terre villages with minimal hassle.
We saw the region by doing a combination of hiking between the villages and some train rides when the kids got too tired. There was also quite a bit of time assigned to swimming in the amazing blue Mediterranean waters along the way. Sometimes we swam at the little beach fronts by the villages and on other occasions we swam off the rocks away from the crowds.
The scenery speaks for itself!
Many cool look out points could be found along the coastline.
On one of the days in the region, we chose to hang out on the beach in Levanto. There had been a crazy storm the night before and the ocean was really wild that day. The Italian surfer dudes were out in full force -- dreadlocks and all! It was quite something to see them riding the crazy waves. We found out later that some of the waves had reached heights of up to 3 meters. Pippin and Kai were lapping up the beach scene.
We all got into the surf a little but to be truthful, it was a little intense. Once the waves came onto shore, the draw from the water back into the sea was quite scary. We continually got bowled over. It was good for the kids to see what a strong force the ocean can be.
Until next time...
Skye, Ronato, Kai and Pippin

Goodbye Tuscana - great people, food and sights

Our lovely days in Toscana finally came to an end, and we must say we were a little sad to leave. It was fabulous to be in one place/region for 10 days - it really is true that at times less is more!

The longer we stayed at the campsite, the more connected we became with people, making for some fun times all around. It is amazing how building relationships tends to make the traveling experience the richest. The campsite was run by a really lovely Italian family and the staff were wonderful, friendly, and helpful. Italians seem to like to engage with foreigners, and this was no exception. When our campstove ran out of fuel and we couldn't find a matching fuel cannister anywhere, they loaned us one of their campstoves. When Pippin got locked in the bathroom, they were there to get her out, and if we needed information on anything from driving instructions to wine recommendations they were there to help out. We were made to feel like welcome guests.

As the days went by, we fell into a kind of routine -- we would intersperse our outings to various towns and sites with some good old 'down time' around the pool. There we would invariably have a fantastic cappuccino (against all Italian traditions -- apparently they only drink cappuccinos in the morning for breakfast, while we were always having them in the afternoon!) We got to know our barista Josef as well as we could given the language barrier (he spoke almost no English). He was very curious about us as Canadians given that 99% of the visitors to the campsite tend to be other Europeans. Here is a picture of Skye with Josef.
And here is a picture of the oh-so-delicious cappuccinos that would arrive at our table . . .
As you may have noticed from our previous posts, sometimes it takes us awhile in our new locations to figure out how things work. After spending exorbitant amounts of money on little pre-made paninis from the campsite, we discovered a local bakery and started making them ourselves for a fraction of the cost. One our favourites ended up being a marinated eggplant and potato chip conconction (not very Italian we know, but it was so tasty!)
As the days went by in the campsite, spots would fill and empty with various people. Then some days after we arrived, a lovely Dutch family "moved in" right across from us. We immediately connected. They had two kids the same age as ours and they were immediately friendly and fun to hang around with. Despite the language barrier, the kids found all kinds of games to play together -- crazy games in the pool, table tennis, board games, beach ball, soccer . . . you name it.
After our daily outings, we would all gather around their table (we didn't have sitting options at our site), drink wine or some other beverage, snack on yummy nibblies and have good chats about all kinds of things. It was great to get to know another young family. As the days rolled on we spent more and more time together and we were sad to have to say goodbye.
On our way to the Cinque Terre, on the advice of various friends, we stopped in the pretty town of Lucca in Northern Tuscany. It was a baking hot day and it was lunch time, so we thought why not? Well what a treat -- this old walled town was a lovely diversion for a couple of hours. We wound our way through the old streets and soaked up the sights. Lucca had a very similar feel to Siena in that it is a manageable size and it has a similar historical feel. Having seen paintings and pictures of it, Skye wanted to see the Piazza Amphetheatre and thus began a bit of a wild goose chase -- we didn't have a map and we kept getting turned around in our directions. Just when we were ready to give up, there it was (see picture below.)
Well after all of our hunting, we were hungry and we found a new delicacy. In Lucca it is called Cecina, in Genova and surrounds it is called Farineta -- either way, this delicious chick pea flour specialty is to-die-for-delicious! All it is is chick pea flour, salt, water and olive oil -- the trick, it turns out, is the hot, wood-fired brick oven that it needs to bake in. We could hardly get enough of this treat!
The journey back up to the coastal area not far from Genova was a smooth affair. Gone were the relatively quiet rural Tuscan roads and on came the throbbing Mediterranean coastline. July at the coast is quite a scene in Europe.
We will continue with that thought in our next blog. Until then . . .

Ciao,

Skye, Ronato, Kai and Pippin

Firenze (Florence)

We knew we couldn't come to Tuscany without visiting Florence. Well, when one visits Florence it really does feel like the city of art. Everywhere one looks the city is plastered with incredible sculpture, architecture and art. It really is a feast for the eyes.

For days we had been trying to figure out just exactly how we were going to make it into Florence. We knew that Florence was much bigger than Siena and that it would likely be swarming with tourists and city chaos. So far we have largely avoided driving in or through larger centers, but when we looked into the other options, we just couldn't see any other way of getting there. We figured that a Sunday would be a good day to try it, so yesterday we got up early and steeled ourselves for the drive. Well . . . it turned out to be no big deal at all -- all the traffic was streaming in the opposite direction, heading to the seaside, and when we got to the edge of the southern wall, we found parking within easy walking distance to all the sights we were hoping to see. Yippee!

We started with finding our way to the Duomo -- talk about ornate glory! What a spectacle with all of its intricately carved marble. We all thought that it definitely beat out the Duomo in Siena.
After gawking at the exterior of the cathedral, we started winding our way towards the Galleria dell' Accademia where David, the famous Michaelangelo sculpture, is displayed. We all felt we couldn't miss out on seeing him "for real." We were expecting a big fancy art museum, but were surprised to find it was a rather non-descript, graffiti covered building with a very long queue of people waiting to get in. It took us about an hour of waiting before we made it through the entrance -- Kai and Pippin were amazingly patient. When it came to purchasing the tickets, we clutched a little at the price (40Euros for the 4 of us -- eek, that is about $68 Canadian), but bit the bullet and headed on into the gallery. Interestingly, they were holding a Robert Mapplethorpe retrospective which was drawing parallels between his photography of the human form and Michaelangelo's works. This was what we started with before entering the hall where David lives. Then . . . we found David . . . wow!
We spent a long time walking around and looking at all sides of David. The kids managed to maintain a mature demeanor, only punching us in the arm a few times when we made comments about certain parts of his anatomy. It probably helped that were lots of other kids in the gallery seeing what they were seeing and somehow not giggling hysterically! He really is quite something. We then checked out the rest of the gallery, and while they have an interesting collection of some really old (600 - 700 year old) religious paintings on wood panels, we were kind of disappointed with how small the gallery was given the cost. We felt like we had kind of blown the bank at this one spot, so we weren't able to check out the Uffizi where, of course, there are a lot of major Renaissance works displayed. Oh well . . . we will have to leave that for the next trip!
We spent the rest of our afternoon wandering through the old streets finding lovely old sculptures and fountains here and there . . .
We also found a free gallery with the works of a known Italian painter on display, he was there, but we didn't talk to him -- we just checked out his art . . .
For all of you who like the Percy Jackson & The Olympians series, here a statue of Poseidon in all of his glory!
Like all big cities, Florence is not immune to the graffitti culture -- some of it was really fun -- this piece was right near the Galleria dell'Accademia . . .
Even though we were not able to enjoy the inside of the Uffizi, we definitely enjoyed the goings on around it -- there were artists of all kinds . . . cartoonists, painters, portraitists, performance artists of a sort . . . Here is a view of the river with an old covered bridge -- all of the little buildings on top housed various merchants.
A pretty view near the Uffizi Gallery . . .
Tourist central -- this outdoor "room" of major sculptures was just around the corner from the Uffizi.
As we mentioned above, there amongst the artists were performers -- all along the steps of the gallery were a variety of these "statues" all playing their particular parts to perfection. We were completely drawn to "Cupid" here who was really playing his part. He was winking and huffing and puffing and just being very Cupid-like. We just had to contribute to his little busking basket, and when you do that, you get a little personal interaction. Neither of the kids would go for it, so Skye stepped up and had some fun! It was the perfect end to a lovely day in Florence.
Until next time . . .

Skye, Ronato, Kai & Pippin