Croatia = WOW. What we’ve seen so far is breathtaking. I absolutely cannot believe it. How have I not heard more about how beautiful Croatia is?! For someone who loves to be on the water (me!)….this is paradise. Jake reminded me why I haven’t heard about it more: up until 1991 Croatia was part of Yugoslavia which was a communist country. Tourism wasn’t a focus. The Croatian War of Independence ended in 1995 and as the years have passed, the tourism industry has slowing built itself up. If you’ve read our previous blog posts you know that although we were very interested in checking out Croatia, it wasn’t actually in the plan until we learned about the Schengen and needed to get ourselves out of that region for a few weeks. I’m pretty psyched about this change of plan! Yesterday we left on a bus out of Venice, traveled for a few hours through northeast Italy, quickly passed through Slovenia and ended in Rovinj, Croatia. When we got to the Croatian border, border police came onto the bus and people got their passports out. We were the only people with US passports and the officer said, “I’ll get you your stamps.” She took our passports, and no one else’s and returned them with our stamps - we were officially out of the Schengen! We had no idea if we’d get a stamp entering on a bus so we were happy that that worked out so smoothly. Today we walked around the Old Town of Rovinj, had coffee at a cafe on the ocean, checked out the St. Euphemia Cathedral which was built in 1736, went grocery shopping and now are taking care of some administrative things (laundry and blog posts :) )! We are in Rovinj for a total of six nights before we go to the island of Cres.
So Venice and me - love at first sight. That might not have been the case if we had arrived in the middle of the day. In the middle of the day it is an absolute zoo. Disneyland for the 65+? At least three massive cruise ships were there and it was so crowded. I stand by my original feelings though - it was awesome and I will go back. Andrea, I think you personally would absolutely love it. We took the vaporetti (waterbus) to the Film Festival and saw a screening of Spotlight. I chose the film because it had actors I like (Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Michael Keaton…), tickets were available, and it was playing at a good time of day for us to still have time to do some sightseeing in Venice. I didn’t take a close look at what the movie was about. It takes place in Boston. It was pretty surreal to be watching a movie, in Venice, that takes place in Boston. It was in English with Italian subtitles. Most of the people appeared to be in the industry or locals but they show the films in their original languages. Anyway, the movie was excellent but very, very heavy. It will make you sick to your stomach. It’s a true story about the Boston Globe Spotlight team (investigative reporters) and how they revealed the coverup by the Roman Catholic Church of child sex abuse in the Arch Diocese of Boston. When I walked out of the theater I felt ashamed to be associated with the city and I couldn’t stop crying. I’m crying right now as I think about what so many young children, mostly boys, went through. I can’t write anymore. Go see the movie. Always keep your eyes open about what is going on around you and do the right thing. Don’t be afraid, speak up for those who are too scared to speak up for themselves.
Ok, enough of that. It was really cool to go to a film festival and before our movie started we walked by the red carpet for Black Mass (another Boston movie!). We didn’t see Johnny Depp but I did see some beautiful women doing their thing on the red carpet and it was pretty cool to see in person! The last thing we did in Venice was a gondola ride. It was special and romantic to see Venice from that perspective.
Before Venice we spent a week in a farmhouse in a small town in between Florence and Siena (Poggibonsi). We picked the place because it was affordable, looked really nice and was central to areas we wanted to explore. It was the perfect place to settle down for seven nights. What was incredible was how quickly the week flew by. We easily could have stayed another week. I was very sad packing up - almost to the point of being angry. I didn’t want to lug my suitcases around. Moving around a lot is getting tiring but obviously the result is that we get to see more. Now that we are in Croatia, I’m over no longer being in Tuscany! While we were there we spent a few days doing nothing but planning future phases of the trip and reading by the pool. That was really nice and I needed it. One day we went on a guided wine tour and learned all about Brunello di Montalcino. It is made from 100% Sangiovese grapes, is a highly regulated wine (DOCG), and goes through an extended aging process.
At home, believe it or not, we’ve never had this wine before as it is typically out of the price range we like to spend. It was good but then again….we like pretty much every wine we taste. In between wineries we had a fabulous lunch in the tiny hilltop town of Sant’Angelo in Colle (population ~ 90). Tuscany is nothing like Napa and Sonoma. You must have an appointment to visit the vineyard and do a tasting and you don’t see any buses or limos driving hoards of tourists around. It was really nice, laid-back and private, no one but the two of us and our guide teaching us about the wine and the vineyard. We explored a few vineyards in the Chianti region on our own and I’d have to say that my favorite was Montecchio which Gabriele Corcos recommended we visit. If you don’t remember who he is, check out this previous blog. For 10 Euros each we had a private tour which included going through all of the wine cellars (so cool!) followed by a tasting of 4 different wines (unlike Napa, a “tasting” is basically a full glass of wine). The wine was paired with bruschetta, salami, finocchiona, and 2 types of pecorino cheese. It was our first time having finocchiona and it was awesome. It’s a variation of regular Tuscan salami, but is flavored with fennel seeds and we’ve had it several time since then. If we can’t find it in the States when we get home, I will have it imported from Italy! We were unexpectedly given so much food that we canceled our lunch plans and went to pick up dinner.
In one of the wine cellars at Montecchio
Gabriele had also suggested that we go to a butcher named Dario Cecchini in Panzano, a small town in the Chianti region of Tuscany. Fabio, the person we rented the farmhouse from also suggested we go. Fabio described Dario’s butcher shop as a museum as well as a place to buy meat. I’m not sure what he meant by that but we went and Dario was there, and he sliced the finocchiona and bistecca all Fiorentina that we bought. Jake grilled up the steak and it was delish. The rest of the experience was kind of underwhelming but it was cool to go home and watch the clip of Anthony Bourdain visiting the shop a few years ago. All of a sudden we felt like “Wow - we just talked to that guy!”
Prior to our arrival in Tuscany, I had read about the “Bravio delle Botti” which takes place every year on the last Sunday in August in Montepulciano. It’s a competition between the eight contrade (districts) of the town which seek to win the “Bravio”, the painted cloth banner depicting the city’s patron saint. Each contrade chooses 2 strong spingitori (aka pushers) to push a botti (wooden wine barrel) for about a kilometer uphill along the narrow streets of Montepulciano’s historical center. The origins of this competition go back to the 14th century. Prior to the race each contrade marches through the streets and you feel like you have been transported back to the Middle Ages. It was a really unique experience to be a part of. I’m not sure if we saw any other non-Italians. It was truly a community event and I’ll always remember being a part of it. You can see a short video I took of the race here.
Waiting for the race to begin!
Jesslyn