Hiking in Tivoli at the Villa Gregoriana

Adventure seekers need not worry about being too "bored" in Rome.  Sure, the city is famously known for its gargantuan supply of art museums and archaeological sites and yes, they are pretty darn interesting.  But keeping the kids entertained can be tough after several days in the same spot with material that looks the same.  Luckily Villa Gregoriana is nearby, located in Tivoli, Italy, and it's exactly what you need to change things up.

Tivoli is only about 45 minutes from Rome.  It's the perfect partial day train trip to get out of the hustle and bustle when things seem too chaotic.   The city itself is charming and contains superb views of the Lazio countryside. Three important villas are worth visiting if a full day trip is possible. Villa d'Este is relatively compact and has some of the most beautiful gardens you'll ever see. Down the hill and not as easy to get to, Villa Adriana will stun you with its man-made pond surrounded by ancient sculpture not to mention the size and grandeur of the ancient site. And then there is something completely different: Villa Gregoriana.

Unlike the other two, Villa Gregoriana does not focus its attraction on just the ancient home of a ruler. It is more of a series of hiking paths through forested lands sliced by waterfalls and their beautiful runoff.  

On the steep hillsides of Tivoli, travelers can find random caves, ancient sites of worship and perhaps inner peace.  The sounds of nature blend in to your experience and for a brief moment in time, you just might feel like you belong.

It's also a place worth exploring for able-bodied people.  The paths were not difficult, but they weren't flat either. It was a mild workout through nature that reminds people why they love Italy.

 For outstanding views, a pleasant hike though the woods and so much more, I recommend a trip to the Villa Gregoriana if you are near Rome.

So have you been here before?  If so, what was your favorite part?  If not, what's the best place you've ever been for a hike?  Share your experience with us!

Venice: A Labyrinth for Romantics

Only a few cities in the world come close to matching the mystical beauty of Venice, Italy. It is an island where vehicles are prohibited on land, while boats traverse the crossword puzzle of murky green canals through the labyrinth of buildings. Buses are large boats.  Taxis are water taxis. Romantics may hire a gondola for a hand-pushed ride in those long and skinny Venetian boats, best for small parties.

 Above sea level, walking by foot is the only other choice. Here, no bicycles are found, no motorized scooters or tiny Smart cars are allowed.  Here, the island is a life away from the rest of the world.  A sort of paradise for romantics.  In the winter months, Venice is a cold and not so pleasant place.  Being located on the sea seems to chill even the warmest bones no matter how many layers of clothing. The benefit of going that time of year is the number of tourists drastically decrease.  Off season numbers are fantastic, including off season pricing for hotels and as airfare. 

 But in spring, autumn, and summer in particular, Venice may be crowded, but it has a magic to it.  The flowers are in full bloom delighting the nose and the eyes. The evening temperatures are comfortable, where nights show people wearing perfectly appropriate shorts, shirts or light dresses.  The charm of the city is discovered through evening strolls in the largest public square, Piazza di San Marco.  There, centuries ago, visitors arrived at their docks to a large palace, called the Doge Palace, and a beautiful basilica, the Basilica of San Marco.  Today, people stand in awe at the immaculately detailed and wonderfully preserved mosaic and sculpture-filled facades of the religious institution. Truly, it is a jewel not to be missed both at day time and night.

 In the very same piazza, at least one live band plays easy listening instrumental-only hits. One band prefers to showcase their accordionist. Another, more of a jazz ensemble, highlights their talent through the liquid yet playful clarinet. Every one of them has a pianist and drummer.  Behind the band is the entrance to the restaurant sponsoring the musical group.  In front of them are seventy tables for two, tempting passers-by to sit down and enjoy just a few more pieces over a refreshing Bellini  the peach and prosecco concoction originating from Venice. Falling in love with everything has never been so easy.

 At Carnevale, the annual festival right before Lent, people wear masks and have done so for hundreds of years. Because of this age-old tradition, they are sold, it seems, in every other store on the island.  From the bright and colorful to the blank, unpainted varieties, masks of every odd mold and design are uniquely Venetian.

 Murano is nearby Venice, an easy boat ride to an island of artisans.  Their handmade glass is unique and known worldwide, considered very good quality. Art-lovers are lucky.  They don’t have to go to Italy just to get the beautiful products.  They can find Murano glass nearly everywhere, as vendors understand the demand for hand-crafted excellence.

Beautiful glass, odd shaped masks, canals, labyrinths and charm. Venice is easily one of the cities that make Italy so great. Have you ever been there?  What did you like best about Venice?

Pigging Out at the Wild Boar Festival

If you've ever lived in Italy, then you know the fine people of the country love their festivals.  The words sagra or festa are found year-round, usually ending with a food product the city is celebrating.  In this month alone, I am aware of a chestnut festival, a polenta festival, and one of the largest chocolate festivals in all of Europe located in Perugia, Italy. Next month, I will hear of wine festivals as well as olive oil festivals.  Food is synonymous with Italian culture, which is why I proclaim myself a "Culture Junkie".

Yesterday, in a lovely hillside city 45 minutes outside of Rome called Castelnuovo di Porto, was the Sagra del Cinghiale. The Festival of Wild Boar.  

I was expecting vendor stalls upon vendor stalls badgering people to purchase their quality pork products over their nearby competitors.  Tube meat would be tossed overhead to eager customers in the back of lines. Wild boar prosciutto, salami, sausages, ragu, spreads, everything about the pig's cousin would be celebrated.  I even hoped there would be the lone oddball out there with a wild boar lollipop or gelato flavor, always the losing dessert on televised cooking competitions.  

But when I arrived at the small medieval city, all that was there in the main piazza, the town square, were several picnic tables and a long line leading to the pickup window of a temporary outdoor kitchen. It was a comforting mix of prison and grade school lunch service. I was given my tray along with a leaky bottle of draught white wine, sfuso. Then I asked for the three course Wild Boar meal.

Pappardelle in Wild Boar Ragu

Wild Boar cooked in a savory and spicy chocolate sauce

French Fries

The french fries were delicious.

And honestly the pasta dish was quite good.  But the boar in chocolate sauce would have been ok if they de-boned it better, in addition to serving it MUCH warmer.  Throughout many bites, I found myself pulling shards of bone from my mouth, not the most pleasant experience.  But for 12 Euro total, I got what I paid for. 

That's right, a man on stilts who made balloon animals.

By the way, for any doubters out there, boar in chocolate sauce is amazing.  The best version I have eaten is at a restaurant in Rome called:  

L'Asino D'Oro

Via del Boschetto, 73  00184 Rome, Italy

If you are unsure of eating wild boar, let one of my other articles change your mind:

http://www.made-in-italy.com/italian-food/news/pigs-porchetta-and-cinghiale-the-italian-wild-boar

Rainbow Magicland, Rome's Amusement Park

As a surprise to my Cultural Coordinator, the art historian in my life, I took my wife to a place as un-cultural as it gets: an amusement park.  I thought it would be a good change of pace.

The surprise was difficult to hide because how do you prepare someone for a day of roller coasters, stunt shows, rapid rides and men dressed up in sea horse costumes? My description was something along the lines of, "Make sure you wear sandals, but not your nice ones.  And dress up assuming you are going to be really sweaty ." That statement got the weird look that makes me instantly retract what I said.

"I mean to say, there's not a lot of tree coverage where we are going.  Dress like you are going hiking, but we aren't going hiking."

And then the series of lies begin to try and throw her off the scent.  There might be a waterfall, or a little stream, there might be a church, paintings, a museum.  I said anything I could to prepare her but still throw her off where our final destination would be.

In the end, I gave too many hints and when she joked asking if where we were going had a log flume, I lost it in laughter. She knew instantly that there was indeed a water ride.

Two, specifically. A rapids ride and a big boat plunging into water ride that creates a tidal wave. Both equally good at getting soaked on a hot summer day.

Le Rapide

Rainbow Magicland, the two year old amusement park 45 minutes by train from Rome.  The name for the park is incredibly elementary.  When I first heard of it, I instantly thought super happy kid land, particularly for little girls.  But then I went to the website and saw some of the rides they had to offer.

A big draw to spending a day here was knowing that all the rides were brand new.  Two years old for a ride is young! And that meant they likely used all the latest technologies to make smooth, fun and hopefully energetic rides out there. It also didn't hurt that they reduced the admission fee by what round-trip train tickets cost from Rome to Valmontone.

The park itself was fun.  Sure, it's small compared to some of the monster parks like Disney, but it makes getting to all the rides faster. The place is clearly armed for expansion with a wide open, shallow lake and plenty of empty corners.  The exterior detail put into each ride and the storefronts are truly impressive.  On one ride, I thought I was entering an M.C. Escher ride. it was particularly enjoyable.

Cagliostro

Their main thrill coaster was truly spectacular and worth going on several times.  Easily my favorite ride, Shock goes fast, gives air time, does a couple fantastic twists and completes a round in 22 seconds.

This was taken from one of those rides that go up way high and then let you free fall for a couple seconds... always a fun thrill ride and great for seeing the park in all its greatness.

And the stunt show really impressed us.

I could do that if I really wanted to. Oh wait, have to own a car first.

The men wearing sea horse costumes were a bit strange, but then again, you're in a Magicland described solely as Rainbow.

What type of Magicland is it? Rainbow.

It was also my first time trying a Wurstel pizza, a surprising combination which, even more surprising, is quite common on Roman pizza menus.

That's right.  Hot dog and french fry pizza. More delicious than you think.

All in all, for a ridiculous name, this amusement park was great fun. The Maison Houdini ride deserves special honors because it literally messed with my mental orientation. Many times, I could not figure out which way I was moving, if I was moving.  So entertaining. It was worth the long wait in line.

Bombo, Shock, Maison Houdini and Cagliostro were my favorite four rides. I know you'll love them too if you ever take a trip out to Valmontone, Italy.

Discovering Etruscan Tombs

The past couple weekends, a chain of cities in Lazio, the region where Rome resides, held their wine festivals.  Thinking I would enjoy this, my  expert historian convinced me we would have a great time in the city called Tarquinia.  The plan was to first do the thing that most drew her interest: visit the Etruscan Tombs that have survived these past 2700 years since the people began the hillside burial practice.  After that, we would enjoy the wine festival then catch the train home (about an hour and 10 minutes out of Rome).

Notice the mounds, under those are the underground tombs.

The train station was small and instantly, we knew we were in a small city, thankful we bought the return tickets home at the same time as the ones to get there. We were lucky to catch the bus waiting all of two minutes from the moment we got off the train, which happened to arrive 52 minutes later than normal due to unknown circumstances.  If we had missed that bus, according to their schedule, we would have had to wait another 40 minutes for the next one to come around.  After all, Sundays are generally reduced transit days in Italy.  So by everything working out with the quick timing, we knew things were beginning to go our way.

Ten minutes later, we arrived at the bus stop for Tarquinia.  We walked up the main street and it felt like a town from the wild west.  All the stores were shut up, no people were in sight.  I'm surprised tumbleweed didn't blow past us. My initial thoughts were, Wow, this must be a great wine festival if the whole town closed to go to it. But then we arrived at the center of the small town where the festival was held. All the booths were vacated.  

Ghost Town

We figured we should go get some food at that point, curious when the event was going to start and after finding only two restaurants open, we got a bad feeling in our guts that things just wouldn't go our way that day. Near the place, we saw a poster for the advertised wine festival.  How lovely!  It starts at 8:00pm every night, five hours away.  Could we really wait that long when nothing was open?

As a tip for tourists, in these small cities around Rome, there are festivals often. Back in November, I wanted to attend an olive oil festival in some city outside of Rome, but I faced the same issue.  The problem was, they seem to cater to people who live in the town or have a car, because there are usually no trains or buses, or very few for that matter, which leave the city after 8:30pm.  Relying on public transportation has its limitations, and this past Sunday, we felt them. 

The answer was no, we really could not wait that long when nothing was open.  We wanted to be able to catch a train home.

The pasta lunch was just ok, although the secondo plate of the day, swordfish carpaccio, was refreshing and delicious.  After, we braved the hot weather and walked to the tombs, easy to find on foot in such a small city. At the necropolis, at least, the day got better, because it is nice to be around history so ancient.  The Etruscans, a PRE-Roman culture, mind you, are from around 700 BC.

But they left some fantastic pieces of art, including paintings, ceramics, tools and tombs dug into the hillside. The necropolis of the Etruscans in Tarquinia starts in the hills and goes what looks a few miles down to the sea, one of the largest "cemeteries" I have ever seen.

Terra cotta roofing covers the stairways made so visitors can see the tombs underground.

To see the art and tools of the culture, Villa Giulia in northern Rome has a great Etruscan Museum. Once upon a time I blogged about the villa here, and I'd like to note the post I linked was not one of my finer writing styles after just reading it again.  But hey, experimentation can be fun. The museum part of it is very interesting to see what ancient humans used without modern advancement. But for their tombs, which are equally interesting, and for a nice train trip outside of Rome along the beach of the Tyrrhenian Sea, it's worth going to Tarquinia.  

Historians wish they could go in the rooms and not just view through glass doors.

Just don't go there on a Sunday.

Trento, Italy Christmas Market

There’s nothing quite like going to an authentic European Christmas market to get you in the holiday spirit.

Welcome to the Mercatino di Natale - Trento!

This weekend, my expert and I were in Trento, Italia, a lovely 8-hour bus ride from Rome, north to the Alps.  This city has a lot of history, particularly that of the Catholic religion.  Many meetings were held here in the 1500s.  Originally, the plans were to reconcile the relationship between Catholics and Protestants but in a nutshell, the Protestants respectfully declined this offer.  And so the Catholic leaders made their meetings about fixing the internal problems of the Catholic Church at the time.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to see the historical sites in Trento.  Instead, we made this quick trip about the Christmas market and it turned out to be well worth it!

As this mountainous area of Italy used to be part of Austrian territory, many customs and influences have remained over the centuries… including culinary creations!

Like Vin Brulee!  This enormous pot full of purple, foamy liquid is actually warm red wine with spices synonymous with the holidays, such as clove, cinnamon, nutmeg... you get the picture.

They even had raclette!  What's raclette?  Well it's a melty cheese that's heated in a few ways, one of which is above, and the melted part is scraped off to be eaten.  It is a dish with Swiss and French origins according to wikipedia.

This isn't raclette, but it's possibly the largest wheel of cheese I've ever seen! And yes, the samples tasted delicious.

And like yesterday's posted video, many vendors offered polenta made the authentic way.  No instant stuff here!  This vendor offered it with that bubbly dark brown stuff in the farthest vat from this view?  That is indeed tender deer meat in its gravy.  Really wish I would have tried it!

So many hand-made goods, and not enough money in my checking account!

 This absolutely turned into a day of wishing we could buy so much.

 Jams, jellies and preserves!  Yes please.

 I'm pretty sure these aren't commercially made!

Being around so many people while looking through all the hand-made crafts, foods and more, we both felt the buzz of excitement through the crowd.

Christmas markets are wonderful things to attend while in EUROPE, not just Rome.  The influences from city histories are felt through each one we go to this holiday season and those differences are what I look forward to sharing with you all!