Last night in Milan

Erin is off to Cairo for the evening, and Beth and I are staying at the airport hotel tonight (a first for us - staying directly attached to the airport). We figured we have to be at the airport at 5am tomorrow, so it's worth the extra few euros to avoid the shuttle bus before the crack of dawn tomorrow.

Rather than hanging out at the surprisingly nice Sheraton, we hopped the train into downtown Milan. We wandered around, soaking up our last bit of European charm, giant piazzas, outdoor cafes, and impressive cathedrals (the Milan duomo is something else - wow!). One last meal of tomato/mozzarella, pizza, and gelato, and it's back to the US we go tomorrow.

Chasing Shakespeare in Italy

As Erin blogged yesterday, we spent the evening and this morning in Padua (aka Padova in Italian). As Shakespeare aficionados know, "Taming of the Shrew" is set in Padua, though there's no really mention of that or Shakespeare at all around town as far as we could tell.

What was all around town, however, we're many costumed performers who were in town for the European Folk Festival. It was fantastic to run into people wearing kilts, Heidi-like outfits, many bonnets, and other traditional folk outfits. We heard a few performances while we were eating dinner but didn't get to indulge too much in the Festival since we were only in town a few hours.

Today, we left the Folks behind after a quick visit to yet another important and
Impressive church (they're everywhere in Italy!). Off to Verona we went, following Shakespeare's footsteps to the land of not only "Two Gentlemen of Verona" but more famously "Romeo and Juliet."

Verona has cleverly capitalized on the love of Romeo and Juliet, and they've created an entire fictional home and balcony for Juliet. Of course we had to go see it, so we crammed into the tiny courtyard with a million other tourists to gaze upon the (fake) famous balcony that Romeo climbed in order to be with his Juliet. We did not pay the 5 euro to get inside the "capulet house", so we didn't get to take our own turn on the balcony. We probably could have recited more lines from the play than most of the people here, but we couldn't deal with the kitsch.

It really is amazing how a fictional couple can draw tourists to a fictional house, and entice them to spend money on Romeo and Juliet souvenirs. In addition to the house/museum/shops, Verona also has a volunteer "Guilietta" club that answers any letters sent to Juliet c/o Verona from around the world.

(there apparently were two families in Verona prior to Shakespeare's time with similar names to the Capulets and Montagues, but in no way did Shakespeare actually base his play on a true story of star crossed lovers from the families)

What Shakespeare doesn't teach you about Verona is that it's very large (a much larger city than we anticipated), nor that it would be packed with tourists and locals. I figured only nerdy Shakespeare fans like us would want to visit, but apparently it's quite a draw for Italians and other europeans. We didn't encounter too many Americans there, but tourists, tour groups and street performers galore! Its car-free old town, historic ruins and roman amphitheater, and charm certainly make it an appealing stop in northern Italy. Well worth a day trip from Venice (as was Padua, with it's large university scene, giant markets, and frescos by Giotto is the Scrovengi Chapel).

Side trip to Austria

Since we were so close to Austria when we were in Lake Bled, we figured why not hop over the border and see what Austria is like. So after a quick Internet search for a local castle to visit and fond farewell to Lake Bled, we headed north through a 7900 meter tunnel to the land of "Sound of Music."

Austria is, in a word, rainy. It poured our entire way north to the castle (Burg Hochosterwitz) we were visiting (with very low visibility at times through the mountain roads). It rained as we walked up the steep path to the castle on the large hill. It rained as we toured the castle (much of it outdoors). And it finally slowed down to a lighter sprinkle for the drive back through the lower Alps (Dolomites?) into Italy. It was not coincidence that as we ended our drive through the lovely mountains, the clouds cleared, the sun shined, and temps rose dramatically (from 12.5 c at the castle to 30 c by the time we arrived in Padua).

I'm sure there are times it doesn't rain in Austria (for example, I only remember one rain storm in the entire "Sound of Music" movie), but for now, when I think of Austria, I will think of rain and edelweiss.

(btw, we missed Ritterfest - aka Knights Fest) at the castle by just a few days - boo!)

Aperol spritz, take duo

Apparently aperol spritz is the end-all-be-all drink du jour in Padua to have when you're here.

Unfortunately our experience with the drink at the world record breaking cheers in Venice scarred us against what tasted like the most terrible drink on the face of the planet. Err, I mean... Drinking straight cough syrup with an aftertaste of burning is *awesome!*

But as it is the drink of choice in this university town, we decided we needed one last attempt. Thankfully our drink this time tasted slightly better. Obviously the proprtions were better mixed, and it was actually drinkable, unlike our first horrific attempt.

However, the aftertaste of burning orange cough syrup lingers, and I dont think this drink is going on any of our wish lists.

Belch.

The only other lesson Padua has taught us is "left, left, left, Indiana Jones."

But that's another story.

Fairy tale

Before our jaunt around the gorge-ous hike (noted below), the tres Poli spent the morning walking around Lake Bled and visiting the Castle Bled.

I sent the below photo to my friend in the US. She immediately responded something along the lines of, "Holy crap, that looks like it walked out of a fairy tale.
Where are you?!?"

Truer words.

Not in a fairy tale, but Lake Bled is an old tourist area dating back hundreds of years and even more recently including a private mansion for the former Yugoslavian Tito. The area is also apparently home to extensive Slovenian rower training, which turns out famous and wildly successful rowers by the -pun intended- boatload. (Hee hee hee...)

If anyone ever finds themselves in this part of the world, I think we would all highly recommend a visit to the area. You just really can't beat castle on a rock, church on an island, crystal blue lake, ducklings, and row boats, all against the background of the Alps.

Well... You know. If you're into that kind of thing.

Gorge-ous

As most of you know, I'm slightly obsessed with following Rick Steves' advice while traveling in Europe. He's got good instincts and advice about 90% of the time. Today, he rightly advised us to visit Vintgar Gorge near Lake Bled (two out of three triangles, his rating system). However, he very incorrectly described them as "the poor man's Plitvice." Having visited both in the last few days, I can assure you that other than both having waterfalls, they're really not comparable.

Plitvice is a series of tiered lakes, with each lake flowing down to the next (leading to gorgeous waterfalls). Vintgar Gorge is a mountain river flowing through a rocky gorge, with waterfalls over rocks along the way. I guess they both have boardwalks too, but other than a general waterfall and boardwalk theme, there's little to connect them. I fear that readers of Ricks book who have been to Plitvice before coming here will skip Vintgar and miss out on a beautiful (and easy) hike. Hopefully he corrects that inappropriate phrasing in his next book...

A few pics of the gorge and our faith in engineering (these boardwalks were originally built in the late 1800s and some seem that old)....

Sweater weather?!?!

Today we headed north from the Adriatic to the Slovenian Alps. What a difference a few miles and some elevation makes. For the first time since we arrived, we all wore sweaters at dinner (in addition to the pashmina wraps we were lent by the restaurant). Tomorrow is predicted to be a high of 70, with intermittent rain showers. We are hoping tonight's thunderstorms blow through in time for us to actually take advantage of the beautiful surroundings tomorrow with some outdoor activities.

When we were talking to a vintner in Istria today where it was still sunny and warm, she actually lamented the lack of rain and said that it hadn't rained in more than 2 months (a winery we'd stopped at earlier in the trip told us that last year they'd gone 5 months without rain, leaving their grapes more like raisins). Irrigation isn't such a big thing here, so the lack of rain really hurts the vineyards and olive groves.

The hilltop areas of Istria are indeed picturesque and lovely to visit. We stopped at Rick Steves' favorite today (Motovun), to enjoy the views, some truffles, and a tasty lunch. We are sad to leave Istria/Croatia, but at least it's a lovely end to that part of our journey.

Ljubljana, Slovenia was a surprising delight. Much less a typical gritty urban city than imagined (or in any way similar to Split or even Pula, which feel like big cities), instead Slovenia's capital is a nice mix of Italian and Austrian architecture, few high rises, many squares, a hilltop castle, and a delightful river walk area. We easily could have enjoyed a few more hours there (or even another day or two, soaking up the ambiance), but had to settle for a quick visit of only a few hours on our way to Lake Bled (up near the Austrian border). If you're ever in the area, put Ljubljana on your travel radar.

In our few hours so far in Bled, we are in love. Our pension is fantastic (it looks like it should be in a Heidi storybook, complete with a big shaggy dog). Lake Bled is gorgeous and picturesque (even with the clouds). Our dinner on a patio, under a tent as a thunderstorm raged around us (with a view of the lit up castle across the lake lake) was atmospheric and delicious (mmmm...schnitzel...).

We are looking forward to exploring the area more tomorrow, and hoping the intermittent rains are more "off" than "on" (and at the very least no thunderstorms).