Category Archives: Trip Report

Back home in beautiful Italia.

I arrived back home yesterday. I had a lovely week with my sister. She is doing well after her treatment. Getting stronger every day.

The drive from Dulles to Wintergreen wasn’t too bad. Both there and back were on Sundays so that helped. Also government shutdowns always make traffic in the DC area light. I have lived through a few. There were a lot of reports of delayed flights because the air traffic controllers were not coming in. I don’t blame them. They aren’t getting paid. But that didn’t affect either of my flights.

I left the Hyatt and drove to Total Wine, a big wine shop, to buy some wine to share. When I got close to Wintergreen I stopped at the last, good grocery to buy stuff for the dinner I was making and the many things I wanted to take home. I had packed only one outfit. Jeans and a sweatshirt. I had ordered a bunch of clothes from Amazon to be delivered to my sister.

She lives at 3,400 feet up on a mountain. I was stunned at the colors along the road up the mountain. The pictures don’t do the color justice unfortunately.

I had a number of things to accomplish during my week. One was to get a flu shot and a Covid vaccine shot. Why not, right? I also had a list for the grocery store. And I had 3 things to mail for a friend. Since the tariffs were instated you can’t mail any packages from Italy to the U.S. Last, Luther wanted a bottle of bourbon. Over the course of the week I got all this done.

The autumn color in the mountains of Virginia is something I’ve missed. I hit it right at peak on this trip. It was glorious. Like driving in golden tunnels. The forests are very different in Virginia compared to Italy. Wintergreen is a four season resort which sprawls up the mountains and along the tops. There is skiing and the Appalachian Trail goes through it. The first image is of the mountain called Three Ridges.

I also watched Monday night football and three of the World Series games. I’m not a huge sports fan but it was something we three could watch and still talk during the games. We cooked together each night. The weather was very brisk. In the 30s F most days with blustery winds. We took some walks. We visited Waynesboro which is over the mountain from her. It is a typical country town. We shopped in a shop run by Mennonites called The Cheese Shop. Much more than cheese. Lots of good stuff. I had forgotten how they go nuts for Halloween in the U.S. I only took one picture but there were some other amazing displays. This guy did not want any vampires around! The wreath is entirely of garlic.

On Friday we visited Early Mountain Vineyards where they have a restaurant. It is about 1.5 hours from their house. We had a lovely lunch and drove back. The GPS directed us to use the Blue Ridge Parkway to get back home. We were fine with that and we got to take some amazing photos on the way. This particular pine is very famous. Bill took this photo.

Sunday I left their house and drove back to Dulles which was uneventful. Then I checked in and went through security which had no lines. Nice. I hit the Polaris lounge and had lunch and a wine and then sat and enjoyed myself for the two hours I had to wait.

Now I am home. The car I hired picked me up. Nice young man from Brazil. He is married to an Italian. While on the drive home, I was struck by how drab the colors are here. Just nothing like the brilliance of the leaves on the U.S. east coast. Italy has its other charms and a beauty of its own, but Virginia is where I was born and lived so I have a special spot for it in my heart. ❤️ I’m tired and happy to be home. I was pretty proud of myself that I negotiated all the things one must negotiate when traveling internationally. I had been worried. I guess I’m not as decrepit as I thought! 😁

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Back to everyday life for a while. Lots of laundry to do. It is also time to begin closing up the terrace for the winter. I need to put all the cushions and the outdoor rug inside. Then all the plants must be cut back and disposed of. It is a little sad. Cycle of life. Happily, the holidays are ahead to look forward to. Umbertide already has all its lights up but not yet illuminated.

Fino alla prossima volta, ciao.

First leg of USA trip…not without drama!

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First step of the trip finished. I have a half full suitcase. It has several gifts in it and I wanted them to stay safe. Also some packages to mail for a friend. So I packed the entire thing in one half of the case. I’ll fill the other side with things I bought or will buy. My first step was to catch my hired car to Roma.

Silvia picked me up in a nice, shiny, black BMW. A quick and smooth trip. Arrived at the Hilton Rome Airport hotel in less than 2.5 hours. We talked the whole way. She and her husband own the car service and have four cars. They each drive two cars and they have two employees who drive the other two. She has a ten year old daughter. They do a lot of work for the upscale hotel in our area, Reschio. Their season slows in November and they generally vacation in January or February. She dropped me right at the hotel, got my suitcase out of the trunk and gave me a double kiss goodbye. Only in Italy would your hired car driver kiss you goodbye. 😁

So now I’m happily checked into the hotel, which is HUGE by the way. I ordered room service. Stuck with a salad of melon, burrata, and prosciutto. I figured they couldn’t mess that up too much. I also got a bottle of Trebbiano d’Abruzzo. Very nice white.
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Yes, well then. Sunday started out nicely. I got up showered, put everything back in the suitcase and checked out. Found the skywalk to the airport. It had three people mover walkways, one of which was not working. Pretty long walk. Found the check in, last section at the far end of terminal 3, and then went through security. Walked to gates E. Another long walk. Finally found the Polaris Lounge. It was packed! After a while I found a seat. Got a yogurt. And water. Later I got a cappuccino and a small pastry. This is when I left the lounge. I couldn’t believe there was a line waiting to get in. I guess they must meter people in if it’s too full.

Left and went to my gate, which was another long walk and an elevator and then a train. The train went to a new terminal mid-field. Boarded fairly quickly. I had a Polaris pod in business class. I’m too old for tourist now! Nice seat. Welcoming sparkling wine. Then we took off. I moved all the blankets and pillow and propped my phone and iPad on the edge next to the wall. A little while later I noticed the phone slowing sinking down and poof! It was gone. Down into the bowels of the plane. Disastro!

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I went forward and informed the head flight attendant, her name was Alexa, that I had a problem. She said, “what is your problem?” I said, “I lost my phone”. She said, “that IS a problem”. She came to my seat and I showed her where it had disappeared and she pulled the foam stuff out and peered down the crevice. She turned to me and said, I think it’s gone. I asked, where. She said, down into the cargo hold. This kind of surprised me because I always thought the passenger compartment was separately pressurized. I guess not! 🤔 She told me I wasn’t the first and that they were working to fix this flaw. It looks safe to put stuff on but it isn’t.

She told me that the flight deck (pilots) had been informed and they had called ahead to Maintenance to be ready to try to find the phone when we landed. Alexa explained it was a security risk. She said, this plane is not going anywhere until they find it. The question was when would they come, and how long would it take to find it.

The rest of the flight proceeded normally with me worrying about what I’d do without the phone. I was counting on using GPS to find my way around. Things have changed around here. I waited after we landed and went to the back of business class. The head maintenance guy came in who Alexa had hoped would be there, he was a friend. I went into the jetway to wait. He and his peeps went into the hold. I swear, no more than five minutes later he was back with the phone! We all screamed! I was so glad. We all have a story to tell. I am glad that it is over with!

I want to commend all the flight crew. Especially Alexa. She was kind and optimistic even though, after it was over, she said she had no real idea. It was a first for her. Anyway, she was great. And another thing I noticed, as I stood in the back of business class after all of that cabin was empty, and I watched all the people from tourist leaving. They were all very cheerful and complimentary to the crew, thanking them over and over with big smiles saying how great the flight was. I will say I’ve flown tourist all my life and many times on United since Dulles is their main hub, and I had some pretty horrible experiences. I’m glad to see things are better.
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After all that I went through passport control. There was no one there! No wait. And no fuss. Then found my suitcase, went through customs and went to rent my car. I changed out my SIM card and put the hotel where I was staying into the GPS. Now I am up at 4:30AM. My brain said time to get up! So I am finishing a few things like writing this report.

I drive to Wintergreen this morning stopping a few places on my way. I’ll write later about my time in Virginia with my sis.

Lecce road trip – 2025

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We left Sunday at about two so we could get to our hotel after check-in time. It is a drive completely on the big toll highways. As we neared our destination the weather got ominous and the signs on the highway warned of high winds. Even with our low profile car we could feel it. We got to the hotel and it was spitting rain and gale force winds. There was a wedding going on in their restaurant. What a day for a wedding!

We checked in and Luther finally managed to find a parking place but then the car burglar alarm would turn on every time he locked up the car. He finally got it to stop and we decided a bottle of wine was in order. The hotel made a reservation in the only open restaurant around, a pizzeria, but we decided to make do with the snacks that came with the wine instead of going out in that weather again. Morning Adriatic Sea.

Next morning we checked out at 10:30 and headed for Lecce, a four hour drive away. I hate riding on those superstrade because I can’t see much. We are so low and the guardrails so high. I did notice all the dead olive trees along one stretch. There is a disease and they had to destroy acres and acres of old olive trees. But mostly there were literally hundreds of thousands of healthy trees. And grapes. Puglia is famous for its Primativo wine. Used to be it was all sold as cheap wine but they now make some world class wines.

We stopped on the way at a rest stop for lunch of wraps with crudo and cheese. Pretty good. It also killed about 40 minutes so we could get there after three. I am always full of trepidation going to a new town and having to park. We decided to go directly to the car park. The hotel had reserved for us. They gave us good directions. Turns out it was painless and the car park was just like a normal parking lot with normal spaces. That probably sounds weird but so many cities, never made to have cars in them, make these ridiculous spaces into parking. Never should they be called a car park.

We were a six minute walk from the hotel. Lecce is completely flat. It was also still very windy. The hotel, Palazzo Zimara, is in a 500 year old palazzo. Beautiful space. The gentleman, David, who checked us in and took us to our room was very nice.

Our friends Susan and Gary were meeting us there. Well they had issues with their train connections, late trains and ended up arriving at nine pm. We told the hotel to expect them then. And they graciously made reservations for us for dinner in La Scarpetta Hosteria. It was about an eleven minute walk so we headed out about 7:30.

Just when we arrived it began to rain. And the door to the restaurant was locked. Eventually they noticed us and we got seated. Nice place. Mostly seafood. I wasn’t that hungry so I can’t rave about my food. We did enjoy watching all the action. There were two really big tables set up for big groups and they began to fill up as we finished. We were glad we had gotten there early.

We left and the rain had stopped but not the wind. I had fun taking pictures of the night streets, piazze and churches. There was an almost full moon. We hit the sack early. Pictures during our walk back.

Tuesday 7 October

We met up with Susan and Gary for breakfast. It was great to see them. They had gotten in just after nine and the hotel had ordered a taxi for them. Luckily as there were none available at the station. They also managed to get something to eat nearby. They had only nice things to say about the hotel staff. We both agreed the spaces are magnificent in the hotel but the bathrooms and storage spaces were not thought out well. There is not one hook or rail in the bathroom for a damp towel. I’ve never been anywhere like that. Our room was also too hot and it was impossible to cool it down. I slept poorly.

Breakfast was a la carte and not a lot of choices. I got scrambled eggs that were inedible. Never had eggs been so overcooked. Tomorrow I decided to just get fruit.

We headed out for a walk about. We figured we would stop where we wanted. Mostly there are churches to see. We saw the church of Santa Teresa first. I looked up the legend. The sculpture was of a woman with her heart outside her chest. It was being stabbed by an angel. Evidently signifying holy ecstasy.

Then the Duomo. Nice space, rococo inside. Very ornate. Then we wandered the shopping streets, checked out a couple more churches, and in our wanders went through the old Jewish quarter. First the duomo and its piazza.

One of the old gates into the city. And a church.

Many of the religious “statues” we saw in the churches are made of paper mâche. There is even a museum. This one was on the street.

We stopped for refreshments then headed to our lunch destination, Le Zie Trattoria Casareccia. Salintino traditional cuisine.

It was a small place on a semi busy street outside the walls. It was run by all the women (aunts and nonnas) and had been in business since 1966. One thing I had noticed on all the menus here abouts, the most popular meat served is Cavallo, horse. I won’t eat horse because I love them and always have since a small girl. Susan and I got the fried pasta with chick peas. It is a traditional dish here. And then the polpettoncino al vino bianco ripieni di formaggio. So filling. We vowed not to eat for a few days.

Our walk back was nice enough. There are tons of tourists here. Almost all American. I haven’t heard this much American English since we last visited the U.S.

Wednesday 8 October

My breakfast pancakes. Pretty good. Avoid the eggs in any form!

We decided to visit a museum called Museo Sigismondo Castromediano. Very interesting with many recovered antiquities. Here are pictures. My favorite is the last one which is a headstone for a deceased person. They misspelled his name and so had to insert a tiny letter to fix it 🙂

Along our walk.

We wended our way across town to our lunch destination, Zephyr. It is unique. Situated in an olive grove inside the city walls. Probably the only one! And it is a hotel too. It was a small menu for a light lunch. It was perfectly satisfying and in a lovely space.

The buratta on my tomatoes is made here in Puglia and I really wanted to try it. It was terrific.

Thursday, 9 October

I had the yogurt and muesli breakfast. Not bad. We hung around the room until checkout time. We were off on our way home with a stop in Termoli in the Molise region. It was my third visit but Luther had never been. We walked to the car park and found our car safe and sound. Off we went northward!

We arrived at about two and checked into our seaside hotel. Pretty basic but walkable to the town. We walked up there and had a couple glasses of wine. It was risposta so everything was closed. We went back and had a nap before going out for dinner.

Our restaurant was Osteria dentro le mura. It was situated inside the walls of the old town. Hence the name. Small family place. We got there early but there was a big table set for a group next to us. They came pretty early too. The family consisted of mom and dad and two sons. The one who waited on us was fluent in English.

My sum up. In the future, if we are going to a city and only that city we will not drive. Waste of two days and two nights. Not to say we didn’t enjoy our overnights, but it would have been more expedient to take the train. Lessons learned. The hotels in the costal beach towns were as expected, nothing special but clean and decent bed etc. The hotel in Lecce was very nice but had its issues. The city of Lecce is beautiful, especially after the tour groups leave. I am afraid it will become another Florence. Sad but true. I liked both of our lunches for different reasons. I would go back.

The Trabocchi coast on the Adriatic

The party’s over…it’s time to call it a month

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We are winding down our vacation. We will leave here Saturday and drive south to just north of Bologna to break the trip in two, mainly because I erred in my planning and am traveling on about the busiest travel days in Italy. Feragosto. The main holiday in a month that is one big holiday here. So I figured I couldn’t avoid the traffic, but I could make each day trip shorter. We shall see if that works!

We took a trip around the lake to a fancy restaurant that was not worth the cost in my opinion. I’m not going to inundate you with food pictures but I’ll include a few. There are captions.

Loved these little flamingo tables to hold your purse

Loved the dessert box. They bring it closed and then open up all the compartments. They were yummy but we were stuffed

Here, we pretty much hang in our town of Pörtschach. The weather is hot, hazy and muggy. I can no longer see the Alps 😕 We also visited the next town towards the Italian border, Villach. And then we picked a typical Austrian place for lunch on the way back called Gasthaus Fruhmann. That was fun. I had my first and last Schnitzel of this trip there. Yummy. Tonight we visit a typical Austrian place here in town that we’ve been to before. We have eaten at most places here in town. These pictures are from Gasthaus Fruhmann.

I have been cooking in the apartment maybe half the time. It has been eye opening. The ingredients are just not up to the standards I’m used to. But also, I don’t have much to work with here. I bought thyme and oregano. That’s the extent of my herbs. I brought good Umbrian olive oil and pepperoncino, spicy peppers I cannot live without those. I always bring knives. The pots and pans are minimal. It is pleasant to eat on our terrace, because it gets very quiet at night, and by that, at six PM everybody disappears. There are a lot of families and that means a lot of children. Daytime is noisy with them.

I will do a recap of my feelings and observations about this trip once I’m finally back home in my beloved Umbertide.

Ciao! Or tschüss! as they say here.

Look what I found!

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For those of you who know me you won’t be surprised at my excitement. I found sweet corn! And in Austria of all places. I freely admit I am a corn snob and connoisseur. I adore sweet corn and I miss it a lot, living in Italy. They grow a lot of corn for animal feed and to make polenta, It is the same in most of Europe. They only grow it as animal food. But not for humans to eat. When I have seen any it has been picked for so long all its sweet juices have turned to starch. I don’t normally even try it if I do see it anymore.

One year I borrowed a friends land to try to grow my own. I had brought seeds from the US, three different kinds. I was moderately successful. Here is the culmination of my quest that year in my post called Corn. That same year I also tried “container corn” on our terrace. Sadly that was not so successful. Post on the Terrace Corn.

Anyway, yesterday we made the trip to the farmers market and there was corn! I took a chance and bought three ears. As everything in this country, it was the neatest, tidiest corn I have ever seen. Not a tassel in sight. Here are pictures.

My report is positive. It was very fresh, sweet and juicy. Maybe not “quite” up to US standards, but close enough and we devoured it with our meal las night
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Starting to head into the homestretch of this, too long, stay in Austria. I miss my home and my messy Italy. Next week we head back.

Weekend in the Bergenland

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Last week in Portschach was pretty quiet. There were several days of rain. I did take some walks along the promenade and took some pictures of the interesting architecture. We ate out a couple times.

On Friday we were off on another excursion. This time our destination was the Bergenland in Styria. This is a wine region. We drove along the very good roads that are in Austria. We haven’t found a bad road yet, not even the small ones. The first part of the trip after leaving Klagenfurt is some of the prettiest scenery I have ever seen. The alps are just to the south, then it becomes rolling hills, farms and dense forests. A very, very lot of forests with straight pines towering into the sky. You can see nothing within after the first fifty feet or so they are so dense. I loved driving through that part.

About 12:30, we decided to find lunch. I put in Google maps “restaurants” and there were many in towns off of the Autobahn. I randomly picked one which got a score of 4.8 and figured it would be a nice Gasthaus. We got off the highway and drove down pretty roads with great views across a large valley. The GPS took us to a village called Ligist. It was the quintessential Austrian village and the Restaurant Wörgötter was right on the main square.

There was a covered porch and we found a table outside. The locals looked very curious. The waitress was a beautiful young girl, slim with porcelain skin. We got some wine and the menus. Luckily I still remember a lot of my German and can read menus in German without any trouble. I decided to get more adventurous and I ordered two things I wasn’t familiar with. The appetizer is hard to describe but it had beets and kohlrabi as main ingredients. It was delicious. Then I ordered a braised veal shoulder dish which also was very good. Luther got the salmon sashimi and the cod. The plates were beautifully presented. It was not your typical Gasthaus! Sehr gut. I didn’t realize at the time it was actually a Michelin one star restaurant! 😳

While in the restaurant a couple came in. I couldn’t help marvelling at her outfit. It was a very short, flouncy dress and red knee socks and shoes. Austrian fashion I guess.

We drove onward past Graz and the countryside got uglier. Eventually as we entered Styria and drove further it began to get prettier but remained very flat. When we got near our apartment we stopped at a vinotek and bought some wine and sat outside with a couple glasses in the pretty, well manicured lawn area with many small buildings alongside it. Two had thatched roofs which I never saw here before.

We had read about a lodging option in the wine region with many of the old winery buildings being converted into cottages you can rent. They are called Kellerstöckl. Ours is the Kellerstöckl Andrea and Walter Mittl. Pretty little place. Tiny inside with a kitchen living dining area and a small bedroom and bath. Nicest part is the covered porch with grape vines, laden with grapes all over it. Nice big table and a view of the vinery grapes.

Saturday morning around 10:45 we planned to go and visit some wineries and the have lunch. Luther did some research and found 4 places he liked and off we went. It was cool and overcast. None of the places were more than 15 kilometers so not far. The roads were good. Some were very narrow. For the most part the land was flat except for the best wine area and there was a large hill on which were planted many vines. Here are pictures of some roads and also views from that hilltop.

We visited all four of Luther’s picks and, although TripAdvsor said they were open…they were not. So, by this time it was lunchtime and since our choice for lunch was ALSO closed I got on google maps and found a few in a town 17 kilometers away. The town was Grosspetersdorf. It had two choices. We decided on the Gasthaus. It was good enough. We sat outside and each had fish.

We stopped at a grocery store and bought some meat for our picnic this evening, and then we went to a winery we had visited that morning which showed they were open after two. It was a nice place. Luther bought nine bottles. We will take them back to Portschach to enjoy. We may be able to squeeze in some bottles when we return to Umbertide but the Porsche is pretty packed so can’t bring many.

Sunday. Another overcast day. We had a lazy morning and Luther researched places to eat. He found Restaurate Ratschen. It is an interesting enterprise with spa and sauna and 24 small cabins 24 square meters each arranged in a circle around a common area where they serve breakfast. I would have stayed there had I ever heard of it. Anyway, the restaurant was lovely. it was situated up on a hill with great views. Lots of glass ad wood.

The people were very nice. Lots of young people and an apprentice who was very young and eager to learn and the owner/manager was super kind to him and seemed happy to have him for 3 months. Our meal was very nice and the Austrian wines were spectacular. I had a appetizer of watermelon with cheese. it tasted more like tomato than watermelon and the cheese was imperceptible. It was still good if not as expected. Luther had beef tartar. We both had trout for an entree.

We decided to forgo dessert and have an after lunch drink. I got a sweet local wine which was much like port which I really liked – it was very creamy. Luther got Schnapps.

Tomorrow we return to Portschach. We will leave early-ish and drive straight through. It was a nice visit but I doubt I will return. It is so quiet here.

Random Observations
* Very little is old here except some of the farmsteads. Most of the cities were bombed in the war so they are rebuilt. Things were damaged in Italy, but not like here.
* The towns, except for the biggest ones, have no services at all. No stores or shops or restaurants. They are only residential towns with homes shuttered from the street so it is all very stark and empty. Uninviting.
* After Italy, this place is irritatingly tidy. 😁 Will it be hard to go back to messy, untidy Italy…nah!
* There are more bells in Austria than Italy.
* Both apartments have an abundant selection of egg cups of all things!
* Maybe not so surprising is that the glassware in both apartments is high quality crystal. Austria is known for its crystal. I have an entire set I bought years ago in Vienna. It was a gift from my Mom and Dad.

Weekend trip to Graz Austria

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Graz is only two hours from Portschach and we had never been. So we decided to take a weekend trip there. It is the second largest city in Austria. We stayed in the Schlossberghotel. Just at the north end of the old town. The building dates from the 1500s and was originally an artisan wood workshop for the aristocracy. Now a boutique hotel known as the art hotel. The owner has commissioned over 100 works of art specifically for places in the hotel. Our room has several. Here are a couple hotel pics.

I got a suite. it is the biggest room we ever had. But not expensive.

After we arrived we checked in and went for a walk. We stopped for a glass of wine in a plaza near us but it was also home to the amazing staircase up the Schlossberg to the clock tower and where the castle used to be. There is a lift and a funicular if you don’t want to do the stairs.

We decided on a place for dinner. Schmidhofer im Palais. We had a nice time. We enjoyed the ambiance. Not fancy. Good people watching. I had fried burrata with tomatoes and watermelon and branzino.

We woke to pouring rain. it was predicted. But it was a deluge. We had breakfast and stayed in for a while. We finally donned our raincoats and went down the street to the Graz museum. Mostly history of Graz but a special exposition had some art too. It was interesting. Graz was bombed during the war by the Americans. 30% of the city was destroyed. I delved into it a bit and found that Austria is a neutral nation. The Russians liberated them and in order for them to remain independent they agreed to that. They are not members of NATO.

After the museum it had cleared so we went for a walk to check out the Murinsel. Built in 2003 in conjunction with the European Capital of Culture celebrations. They have an outdoor arena where they screen movies.

Then we walked into the altstadt where we explored a shopping street and visited the main square. There were some exquisitely decorated and painted buildings. The sun had come out and so had the people.

Time for lunch! Luther chose Steirisches Wirtshaus, a very traditional restaurant. There was a great outside garten but it was very wet so we stayed in the outside, undercover area. I had forelle, which is trout served whole. One of my favourites. So good.

This concludes my trip report on our short trip to Graz. I really liked the city. Tomorrow we head back to Portschach. Our home away from home. Our house sitter sent us pictures of what we are missing. I miei pomodori.

Back to Portschach tomorrow. Ciao for now!

The excellent adventure begins…

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Well, here we go! We have embarked on our excellent adventure. We left pretty early on Friday and the google person said it would be a 6.5 hour drive. It ended up being more than that because of what looked like the removal of a burned out truck. It sure slowed us down. This was in Bologna. The traffic there is always bad. Then we continued north, passing Ferrara (one of my favourite towns) and Padua. Then Venice and finally Udine. The alps were now visible ahead, the traffic sparse and the air clean. ahhhh.

We checked into the Werzer Strand Casino. It is apartments that are part of a hotel. Despite the name it is not a Casino. We have a one bedroom apartment with a nice terrace right on the lawn that slopes down to the lake.

There was a mishap in the underground garage. Luther scraped the Porsche against an Audi parked in the spot next to us. He met the owner and they have worked out an agreement without getting the police involved. I felt sorry for the German guy who was just trying to enjoy his Urlaub in Austria. In fact he lives in Aschaffenburg very close to where we once lived. Cars can be repaired so no real harm done.

We had stopped for groceries before we checked in so I got us all unpacked and by then it was near dinner time. So we went to the closest place which abutted the property we were on. It was a beach restaurant called Werzer’s Boothaus Café. It was right on the lake next to the boat landing. We sat outside and watched the world go by. A family came up to the dock in a beautiful solid wood oversized rowboat with electric motor. it had a nice table aboard.

Here are views of the lake. It is just north of the the Alps so some mountain views too.

I can’t say the dinner was amazing. I did like my appetizer. It was sliced beets with feta and grilled octopus. A nice combination.

Since Austria is still very old fashioned and nothing will be open on Sunday we went looking for a wine store and a farmers market on Saturday morning. We were successful on both fronts. The wine store was amazing! It had so many Austrian wines which are among my favourite wines. We bought a lot. They also had more spices than I have ever seen. Maybe more than Penzeys!

Then we navigated over to the farmers market which turned out to be very nice. Not huge but nicely varied. There were two vegetable stands, a couple selling fresh and cured meats, at least 3 cheese stands and a wine stand. I bought some pork chops for dinner and we bought cheeses and meats for our lunch. It is open on Saturday and Wednesday mornings. Excellent find.

It was a laid back day. We enjoyed the nice weather and watching all the activity on the lake from our terrace. I cooked the pork chops which were good. We ate them with fresh tomatoes which are quite nice and new potatoes. Ciao from Österreich. Until next time…

Sestri Levante, Liguria

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This is another Trip report…

Sestri Levante, Liguria, June 2025 — Anniversary trip

We had reserved a really nice room with balcony at the Vis a Vis for 3 nights. We had stayed there a couple nights just after Covid. The hotel is way up high on a hill with amazing views. It is family owned and they designed it to be like a cruise ship. It is very beautiful. We go to this town to relax and wander. We don’t go to the beach. I know! People say, you go to the beach but don’t do the beach?! I like the beach OK but Luther, being very fair skinned does not, so it’s no problem not to go.

While we were driving there I received a phone call from the hotel saying they had an issue with the air conditioning on that floor and they didn’t have our room for us. They had booked us into a waterfront hotel ocean view suite. We didn’t have a lot of choice so we ended up checking into the Hotel Nettuno. The room is nice I guess. It has a nice view of the beach. The hotel has its own umbrellas. A lunch restaurant and a rooftop bar. The room is two story. This presents issues for me because of my poor knees. The bathroom was downstairs. For the last two nights I slept on the couch downstairs. Not quite the experience I had envisioned.

Oh well. It is what it is. We walked over to the Vis a Vis to their roof bar which has beautiful views for drinks to welcome ourselves there.

Then we had reservations for dinner at Pesce Balla — the Dancing Fish. It was recommended by my friend Matt. It was about a ten minute walk. You are seated and when ready to order you go to the counter where all the fresh seafood is displayed. They give you a glass of Prosecco which was a nice touch. You decide and order then return to your table.

We split the Branzino cooked in a salt crust. Luther got marinated tuna and I had the anchovies. It was all good! I enjoyed the dinner a lot.

We enjoyed a leisurely stroll back to our hotel. Nice evening.

Wednesday
I woke early and looked out the window about 5:30am and loved the quiet. I snapped a couple of pictures.

Sestri Levante is not big, at least the old part of town isn’t. There is a newer part which is much larger which is normal for Italian towns. We set off on a walk to just shop and look at stuff. The sun was very hot. We tried to stay in the shade but it was not always possible. I looked for a loose linen dress but didn’t find any. Seemed everyone walking the streets was wearing one but none were for sale.

Finally we stopped for refreshments. It was on a tiny pedestrian street lined with places to eat and shop and great for people watching which we did while having our drinks. The buildings in Sestri Levante are all elaborately painted to “fool the eye” in the Trompe l’oeil method. The buildings are all painted to look like they are built of stone and have elaborate stone embellishments, but it is all fake. Painted by talented artists to look that way. It’s fun to look at.

This fellow was making pesto Genovese the traditional way, with a mortar and pestle. He worked at the restaurant next door. He had on a mic and speaker for his demo. Pesto made this way is a lot different than that made with a processor or blender.

Afterwards we went to a supermarket we found on our walk and bought a nice picnic for the room.

Later, after showers to wash the sweat off we headed out to our dinner spot we had reserved. La Sciamadda dei Vinaccieri Ballerini. It was right on the same street where we people watched. It was goodish. I had a weird starter which I can’t remember the name of but it was seafood and layered veggies and bread. Tasted good. Then I got fish again. They do fish well.

We walked back and decided to check out the roof bar in our hotel. It was very nice. The sun had set. It was comfortable. They had two singers who sang old standards. It was pleasant.

Thursday
Another slow day as intended. The breakfasts are good here at the hotel. They have a big deck restaurant area under cover but with nice sea views. It has breakfast and lunch. A beachy place. The breakfast is a buffet and I have really been enjoying the fruit. I don’t think I’ve had better. Melons are so sweet now. Lots of sliced things. Melons, kiwi, pineapple, grapefruit, blueberries, and then whole beautiful figs and other things. I also have a taste of focaccia with a little cheese and some scrambled eggs. No sweet pastries. That’s a big breakfast for me. If we eat too late I’m not hungry for lunch. Today we had plans for lunch and picnic dinner in the hotel for dinner so we got up and went to breakfast early. Nice watching the empty beach. Seagulls calling. Fishermen in their boats heading back in from getting their catch.

We went for a short walk and visited the church. It has nice bells. We walked over to the Bay of Silence beaches

Lunch was back at the Vis a Vis on their beautiful outside terrace on the top floor. It is breezy with spectacular view of the baia dí silenzio— bay of silence, isn’t that a pretty name? And also of the city in the opposite direction. They have pretty white curtains hung all around which flutter in the breeze just an exceptional place. On my friend Matt’s recommendation we had the fish burger with fries, but first we had appetizers. We both got the anchovies all ways. What a great dish. My sister would love it. She’s a big anchovy fan. This one had them marinated in vinegar with a little pesto on top, fried, on a bread with cream, and a delicious curry version. So yummy. It was a really nice lunch. And then back to the hotel for naps, showers, picnic and may be a visit to the roof bar again. A nice day.