Italian adventure: Verona, Venice and Modena

A couple of months ago we realized that our time living overseas is limited (and punctuated by the birth of another child), so it was time to make some crucial travel decisions. We pulled out the atlas and discussed the countries we would like to further explore. France, Spain, Greece and Italy made the top four.

Northern Italy was the first of our four big trips. We rented a small apartment in downtown Verona and made the 6 hour drive. Prior to living there for a week, my knowledge of  Verona was very limited. Having taught it, I knew the famous Shakespearean play, Romeo and Juliet was set in Verona; and that people still flock there to see Juliet's home and balcony, thought by most to be folklore. However there is a lot more to this historical city. It houses the Verona Arena which is an ancient amphitheater built by the Romans that is still used today for opera, dance and theatre performances. In addition to the arena, many other Roman monuments, exquisite churches, and bustling plazas are found throughout the city.

Venice is only an hour train ride away, so we left early one morning to spend the day in the city on the water. After a fun train ride, we arrived in Venice and immediately hopped on a water bus to take us on the Grand Canal.  After we toured Venice on the water by boat, we headed to a great lunch at a small, nine table L'osteria where we feasted on Venetian specialities, followed by touring the city on foot. What a great day!

Modena was another day trip. CM wanted to hit the Ferrari Museum and Factory and I wanted to get my hands on some of that great balsamic vinegar for which Modena is known. The Ferrari Museum was kind of a disappointment. After visiting the Porche, Mercedes and BMW museums (my husband enjoys cars), we had certain expectations for the Ferrari Museum. Unfortunately, they weren't met. The staff was rude and it was small and expensive for what was on display. Modena itself was a lovely city with a large indoor market, (where I found my balsamic vinegar) and we shared some fantastic pizza, so the trip wasn't a total bust.

Our week in Northern Italy was memorable. We ate our way through the region and tried it all (who knew that the Veronese ate horse... regularly!??) and got a real feel for the Northern Italian culture. Off to France next....stay tuned. 

Triberg

Triberg is a quaint little town in the heart of The Black Forest. It boasts that it has the largest waterfall in the country as well as being the birthplace of the cuckoo clock. The town itself is a little on the touristy side, with many places to buy your very own Black Forest cuckoo clock and handmade wooden music boxes but the waterfall and the many hiking trails surrounding the fall, makes this a great way to spend the day.

If you ever find yourself in Triberg, lunch or dinner at the Parkhotel Wehrle is not to be missed.  We were a little leery taking a three year old into this relatively high-end and famous restaurant known for its intelligent cuisine and presentation of its dishes, but G proved once again that he enjoys the finer things in life. We had a wonderful lunch that started with the first course pictured below. A kurbis (pumpkin soup) accompanied with a savory pumpkin sorbet. Beautiful and delish!

Paris

AHHHH Gay Pareeee.... yet another one of our kid-less trips. This time my parents were visiting (once again). They are always more than eager to push us out the door on another adventure.

The train from Stuttgart to Paris is about 4.5 hours, a very easy way to travel.  We left early one morning and by lunchtime we were sitting in a little cafe around the corner from the Arc de Triomph indulging in a goat cheese salad and tartare de bouef (only CM  had his cooked in a patty surrounded by a bun avec pomme frites). :)

We spent our days there looking like the quintessential tourists. With our Rick Steves book in hand and numerous Michelin guide recommendations, we set off on foot (although took advantage of the user friendly metro when I was in heels) and walked until our feet were blistered and in some cases, bloody. We covered all of the essential sites. Walked and shopped along the Champs-Elysees, got in line early, before opening, to take the elevator to the top of the Eiffel Tower, walked through the Arc de Triomph, feasted in the Latin Quarter and checked out the Mona Lisa, among many other works, in the Louvre. We also did some things off the beaten path, including visiting the Memorial de Martyrs de la Deportation; a memorial to the Jewish Parisians who were deported from France to German concentration camps during WWII.

Having discovered after planning this trip that we were expecting our second child, I was unable to enjoy the amazing French wines. However, my husband was kind enough to tell me ALL about them as I sipped my mineral water. Visiting France numerous times while pregnant only strengthened my resolve to return and do a wine and food tour of the French wine regions at a later date ...many years down the road.

Rue de Vin "Thelma and Louise" Weekend

This summer my oldest and dearest friend and I took to the autobaun and headed to France to explore the Rue de Vin.  The Rue de Vin starts just outside of Strasbourg and extends about seventy miles through the Vogues mountains. It covers the Alsace wine region which are known mainly for their fruity white wines.

Having planned this trip a few months in advance, I had anticipated being able to enjoy the aforementioned wines. What I hadn't counted on was that I would be 10 weeks pregnant when headed out on this adventure. So...although I couldn't enjoy the "Vin" part of the Rue, the Alsacian villages, the patisseries, the rolling vineyards, and of course the company, made the trip a wonderfully memorable one.

Zurich

Christopher and I continue to make our way down our list of desired travels. We were able to take a little two day childless get-away when my mother-in-law came over from the States for a couple of weeks. For this trip, we chose Zurich, Switzerland.

Zurich is gorgeous but very expensive. The tree-lined streets downtown are filled with amazing high end shops; name a designer and they have a shop in Zurich.  It sits along the Zurichsee (Lake Zurich) and the weekend we were there, the city was hosting a water sports fest. The waterfront was packed with spectators and the competition as well as the people watching were great!

As with all of our little trips, we had some great food, great wine and overall wonderful time just hanging out with each other. 

Schwarzwalder Freilichtmuseum Vogtsbauernhof (English Translation: A Real Snooze-Fest)

While researching places and things to do and see on our weekends, the Black Forest Open Air Museum (Schwarzwalder Freilichtmuseum Vogtsbauernhof) caught CM's eye. Farmhouses, cottages, crops, and livestock are all contained in this outdoor park that demonstrates how people lived in the Black Forest for the past 400 years. The reviews online used words like "fascinating",  "informative", "culturally educational". It was also touted as the most popular and most visited open -air museum in Germany. Even with this info, I wasn't all that enthralled with the idea of this road trip, but I signed on when CM told me that we were also on the hunt for authentic Black Forest cake.

After a lovely car ride into the Black Forest we arrived at the Schwarzwalder Freilichtmuseum, paid our entrance fee and headed in to see what all of the hoopla was about. We spent an hour and a half walking around, checking out the way the farmers of the Black Forest lived. Frankly, it was really boring (how did these people endure this lifestyle?) However on the way in we spotted a refrigeration case filled with Black Forest cake; so with the prospect of the cake looming, I kept on truckin.

We ended up having a really nice lunch at the restaurant, although the Black Forest cake wasn't everything we had hoped it would be. German sweets aren't terribly sweet, so what looks like a cloyingly sweet cake was really kind of bland. We decided to call it a day and chalk it up to an experience.

I made quite the discovery on the way out. Between the corn and wheat, lay the answer to my question (how did these people endure this lifestyle?):

Cannabis!

CM says it was used to make rope and clothing (yea, okay.)

The Spring We Felt the Love... (visits from our Amerikanische Freunde)

What fun we have had these past few weeks. Many of our dear friends made the trip across the Atlantic this Spring to check out our life in Germany and to experience some of the local culture. I continue to be touched and humbled that they would spend their limited free time and their hard-earned money to see us. We visited cities, villages, castles and biergartens. We walked and talked and ate and drank. My heart was filled.

Calw

Another one of our day trips took us to the northern part of the Black Forest to a small city called Calw (pronounced 'kalf'). The outskirts were very industrial, so we felt a little bummed driving into town..we even passed both a McDonalds and a Burger King. Not exactly what we were looking for! So of course we were pleasantly surprised to find the small village that sat a little further in, with an open air market, a green park, restaurants and eis cafes.  And even though the photos of these quaint towns are starting to run together, we still love the "going back in time feeling" we get each time we stumble upon these little pockets of German history.

Weiden and Nuremberg

CM has continued to travel a lot for work. This past trip, he stayed in a great little German hotel in a town named Weiden. He booked the family suite and asked us to join him. Weiden is a lovely small town with great restaurants, shopping and a large park with running/biking path that runs parallel to the village.  And although we stuck to our regular schedule, it was a welcome break from our normal routine. (We even had gelato, and only gelato, for lunch one day....we were crazy like that. It did put G in a short-lived sugar coma, however ...documented in pic below)

For the weekend, we headed to Nuremberg. Of all the larger cities we have been to in Germany so far, this is one of our favorites. It's a fantastic walkable city with a castle that sits on the edge of town high on a hill. Nuremberg is known for its Christmas Markets that are said to draw over a million people each winter. It was nice to see this city in the Spring but being only a two hour drive from Stuttgart, we plan to return for the markets next holiday season.