This was pretty much our view and our experience on Thursday, Oct. 3 as we made our way south from the Milan Airport, where we picked up our car, to Orvieto in the Umbria region.
Sleeping hasn’t been much of thing for us here, but that’s not a complaint. Just noting we’ve both been a little tired in the days, especially now that we aren’t walking about 12 miles each day. Walking revs us up. Driving does not.
Everything has a learning curve, and driving in Italy proved that adage. Because of a shortage of automatic cars, we ended up being upgraded to a VW SUV. That sounds good in theory, and it was great yesterday for driving on Italy’s version of an interstate, but I worry that the narrow roads of Puglia won’t be as welcoming for this size vehicle.
And, it wasn’t fun driving in downtown in Milan, either. Why were we in downtown Milan? Because we programmed our destination as Orvieto in the onboard navigation system and then had to pick the type of route. I chose “shortest.” That apparently means “as the crow flies,” since I later learned another option, “Fastest,” would have been a much better choice. We ended up driving right through the city. It was, as with any city, filled with traffic, delivery trucks, crazy drivers, cyclists (motor and manual), baby carriages, joggers, road work, construction work, one-way streets, sudden turns, traffic lights and the ever-present roundabouts.
That list doesn’t even give a full description of the stress of that part of the drive, which took about two hours by the way. We should have made it from the airport to Parma in an hour. Instead, it took three. Because we left Orta so early, we had not eaten anything, and we were excited about trying Parma’s famous pasta dish: anolini in brodo, a stuffed round pasta in broth.
That didn’t happen. We made a beeline to a restaurant recommended by Elizabeth Minchilli, author of Eating Italy and other books. We were late getting there and the place was in its final lunch service, and packed. We couldn’t get a table. Walking back to our car, we found a little family restaurant and ate there. That dish was not on the menu.
We ended up eating the same thing we’ve been eating for days: Gnocchi for Betsy and pizza for me. We are both ready for a break from those dishes, although this little Mom’n’Pop was really good.
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Betsy’s gnocchi always tastes better than it looks, she says. |
I don’t think I mentioned that absolutely no English was spoken in our lunch spot. We used our Google Translate app to figure out the menu. I experienced user error. I was trying to order pizza with pepperoni, but ended up with pizza with lots of bell peppers. I hate bell peppers, but these weren’t bad.
We didn’t see another thing in Parma. We pulled out of town and then skipped Modena, too. We should never have planned to stop at either place, in retrospect. Adding too much to a trip is a mistake I make too often. It would have been so much better if we had driven directly to Orvieto (on the fastest route) and then had a chance to enjoy more of this beautiful city. But, no point in regretting decisions…just need to learn from them.
Orvieto is so lovely. The Duomo is the most interesting we’ve ever seen, including compared to the one in Florence. The town is a shopping/tourist mecca, but last night it was quiet and inviting. We walked the streets and peered through the windows of mostly closed shops and just enjoyed the beauty of the town.
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| A Wizard of Oz shop |
Oh, sorry to friends in Georgia and Tennessee, but it’s actually cold here. We had to layer up last night when we were out, and Betsy has two pairs of pants on this morning to stay warm.
This German bar was hopping and we dropped in for a minute for the warmth and to enjoy the atmosphere, but we didn’t eat there. It was a pizza/beer joint.
Pasta and mushrooms for me last night. It’s autumn and mushrooms are in season, and fortunately I love mushrooms.
Betsy had her heart set on soup. She would have loved mushroom or tomato soup, but we couldn’t find any on any of the restaurant menus. So, she chose minestrone, which was really just broth with zucchini and carrots. It was warm and delicious.
Back to our hotel and in the bed. We had a pretty good night’s sleep for a change and are now about to explore more of Orvieto this morning and then take a long, slow drive through Umbria, stopping to see the sights.
Ciao!
Kim & Betsy 