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Tag Archives: Italia13
Lønsj i et veikryss
Til og med tilfeldige veikryss er nusselige i Italia. Dette er midt mellom Montalcino og Montepulciano (som hver ikke er store stedene) og her spiste vi turens tristeste lønsj.
Men vi prøvesmakte lokale matvarer.
Og fant den perfekte døra for meg.
Og kjøpte noe som må være Italian delight som lønsjdessert for å kompensere for den dårlige lønsjen. Men det var et ypperlig sted med vakker utsikt over vinmarkene.
Vinsmaking i Montalcino og Montepulciano
På samme dag rakk vi to vinsmakinger, både i Montalcino og Montepulciano. Ikke overraskende ligger de ganske nære hverandre og heldigvis for oss er det et av yndlingsvinområdene våre. Så det var en riktig bra dag.
Først Montalcino. Her kjøpte vi også en kjempedyr vin. Nå har vi allerede hatt den i et år, så jeg håper vi oppbevarer den riktig.
Så bar det til Montepulciano. Her fant vi et lite vinhus der vi smakte på akkurat deres viner.
De hadde også et lite museum, der man kunne se på noen av de årgangene de hadde på fat. De hadde til og med noen på eikefat.
Ekstra flaks hadde jeg som ikke kjørte 😉
Nyt maten!
Vi var for det meste for opptatte med å nyte maten til å ta bilder av den, men her er noen deilige retter. Italienerne gjør så mye med så lite, så man er helt fornøyd med å bare ha tre ingredienser i maten sin. Deilig!
En studie i stein – San Gimignano
I San Gimignano hadde de begynt å kjekle om hvem som hadde høyest tårn, noe som hadde ført til at alle bygde på tårnene sine. Fremdeles står det mange tårn igjen i byen.
Byblomster i San Gimignano
San Gimignano er en liten og nusselig by rett utenfor Firenze. Den er kjent for alle sine tårn og er en ypperlig utflukt om man har bil. Jeg var nok like interresert i blomstene mellom steinene, som på steinen…
Olivenlunder som gjøres klare for våren.
Morgenkaffen.
En studie i stein – Siena
På vei fra San Gimignano stoppet vi innom Siena. Foreldrene mine elsker byen, så vi skulle gi den en sjanse. Og den var bra, men jeg ble ikke trollbundet. Kanskje det skulle vært bedre vær og vi skulle hatt bedre tid?
En del av den ytre bymuren, tror jeg.
Og gamle sentrum sett fra den andre siden.
Ned i dumpa og opp igjen.
Atter et stripete tårn.
Det ligger utrolig mye arbeid i dette her.
Mange av byene i Italia bærer preg av når de var spesielt rike, her er det mye krimskrams over alt 🙂
På denne store plassen er de visstnok veldig lett å høre en taler nederst på midten. Nei, hva skal man med høytalere?
Staselig duomo og domkirke
Noe av det Firenze er mest kjent for er det staselige paret med duomo og domkirke. Det var den aller mest praktfulle vi så, men den i Siena var ikke så verst den heller…
Firenze utforskes
Første hele dag i Firenze hadde en rolig mørgen, utforskning av bydelsmarkedet og så tur til sentrum.
Vi gikk videre til den store markedshallen og fant en slakter vi kjøpte fire skiver god skinke av.
Han syntes vi var litt rare. Men det er ypperlig småmat!
Vi så på stein.
Og folk som spiste mat.
Og historiske broer.
Vi fant til og med en eksotisk hage.
Det er deilig å reise sørover og finne våren.
Endelig fant vi en park, så vi kunne ta en hvil.
Vi fant et stille sted etter å ha vandret rundt lenge, og fant til og med yndlingskaka mi 🙂
Parma i detaljer
Vi hadde en halv dag i Parma og så på mye rart.
Skjøteledning i et tre.
En helt.
En veldig stor dør.
Levende tin sammen med stein.
Gater i fine farger.
Hjelpsomme naboer.
En inneklemt champagnekork.
Et av få bilder av oss begge.
Italiensk design.
Obligatorisk iskrem! Vi var jo på “sydentur”.
De hadde to ulike typer sjokolade i kranene sine 🙂
En studie i stein – Parma
Vi hadde første natt i Parma og neste dag utforsket vi byen. Vi oppdaget at alle italienske byer med respekt for seg selv har en duomo og at det er mye trange gater og god mat.
En studie i stein – Cremona
Det var veldig mye stein i Italia. Fin stein, men allikevel. Dette er fra første dagen vår. Det regnet og var kaldt.
On top of Pisa
I have so many pictures from Italy last year and so few posted. Here are some of me after vi had climbed all the stairs up to the top of the leaning tower of Pisa.
Last, but not least, Firenze
These are my best pictures from our days in Firenze (Florence).
Vegetables at the marked just around the corner from Victoria’s flat.
Buying meat in the food hall.
Walking around town in the cold.
Massive doors in the old part of town.
Home cooked meals.
The big cathedral.
In Italy, more is more.
We saw most of the museums only from the outside.
I love the level of detail!
David nmbr 3 and I
Ponte Veccio in the background.
Coffee on a cold day.
A summer dress
Nuns in the street (they were tourists)
The bag I didn’t buy. It was lovely, but heavy.
Playing boardgames on the iPad together with a bottle of wine in the early afternoon.
Chocolate place where you needed to buy minimum 7 pieces. Oh, no…
An old fashioned gentleman store where Erik bought a pair of woolen trousers for winter.
Their pattern diversity was wonderful.
We found a marked and bought 12 port glasses. Not these cups though.
And found a really cool restaurant with a great wine selection.
We have even started our own cork collection 😉 (only champagne ones, though).
Don’t you just love these chairs?
I bought these shades at the marked, too. 4€ and made in Italy.
Italian cooking
The last day of our trip, we went to a cooking class to learn some Italian food art.
The house where we stayed
Our teacher
Italian bacon crisps
Tiny, round squash.
Rice and egg fill.
Huge aubergine in the oven.
Erik doing the work.
The basis of ITalian cooking, olive oil, garlic…
…and tomatoes.
We filled them 🙂
Five year old parmesan, it was superb. And this is the proper size for a piece of cheese.
The best balsamic vinegar that I dipped my cheese in. I know, we had the best time.
Vegetarian “lasagna” with aubergine and tomato sause.
And parmesan on top.
Pisa
We just had to go to Pisa. Erik put his foot down and said that we had to try to get into the tower (because I didn’t want to queue for ages for all the museums in Florence) because we had to see the inside of just one thing. And lucky for us both, there was no queue. No queue! Because we arrived just 1,5 hours before they closed, so everyone had left. And it had been raining that day. But we were very happy. Before we went to see the tower we had lunch, met my cool friend Silvia who owns a comic book shop in the old town of Pisa.
Handy hooks for bags on the wall.
Super high roof.
Getting into Italian comics.
Silvia, the coolest Italian.
Rain with sand from Sahara.
The Nokia GPS led us safely through Pisa to the tower.
See! It was actually leaning! I was surprised, I have to admit. I didn’t think it was that leaning.
It is the bell tower of the cathedral.
Erik giving it a helping hand.
Me being jolly.
No queue, no people.
Macro lenses are wonderful for detail shots high up on buildings.
This is the inside the tower. There is nothing in it, just air and a lot of things to keep it from toppling over.
A guide told us about the history of the tower. The true contractor is not known, because he stopped all work after finishing the three first floors and was never heard of again. But 50 years later someone else thought it would be cool to finish the tower, so they did. It used to lean more, but they have straightened it a bit. They could make it completely straight, but that wouldn’t be economical…
The only thing in the tower is the staircase. And it was totallyl weird to walk it, both up and down. You can see Erik standing straight and the tower leaning. We were constantly compensating for the leaning and walking on the left or right of the steps. Superstrange.
At the top of the tower, with the bells still in use (Italians are good at using things that are old when they still work, instead of building something new).
Pisa.
Cathedral from above.
We were not the first to walk these steps.
There were two fences around the top, one in ordinary height (waist height) and one two meter high. We guessed it was because on the “down side” it felt like it would not catch you if you actually tripped and fell.
There were 30 min left before everything closed, so we went in and looked at the cathedral too.
As they say in Italy (I guess): “more is more”.
This is a detail of the roof, maybe 40 meters above. Did I tell you that a macro lens is also wanderful for taking pictures of roofs in high churches? Well they are.
Montalcino and Montepulciano
In one day we did two wine tastings and were lucky to see two very beautiful cities as well. First we went to Montacino.
This is the old castle.
And this is where the magic happens.
We looked…
…we found the wide we had the day before…
…and we tasted.
We learned the beauty of riserva.
The next wine tasting was in Montepulciano. Lonely Planet had complained that it was very hilly, but I didn’t believe them, but when we came there, it was true! The whole town was one big clilmb.
This is the top, the town square.
It was raining and it was a long and steep klimb, so we were quite alone.
And the unfinished front of the church.
Here we visited a winery, so one producer.
They also stored wine the old fashioned way.
Riserva are the ones that are also stored for a year on the bottle before they are sold.
The modern (and hygenic) wine storing method.
Montepulciano is known for their Vino Nobile and we triend different types.
We ended up buying a very expencive bottle of wine in Montalcino, as an investment. I wonder what occation will be the right one.
Siena
We visited so many places during the trip, including Siena. We only spent the afternoon there, but we had time for both two churches, icecream and dinner.
There is this valley in the middle of Siena and we parked on the other side. So here we are walking over to the right side.
A lot of rock.
A lot of steep hills here too.
Italians adapt (and custom make furniture).
Italy is really a good place for maens fashion. So many colours and patterns and everything.
Another duomo.
Stripy pasta.
Icecream!
The sloping town square.
We found a window ledge to kick back on.
In Italy, more is more.
Girl in yellow
Sant Angelo, Ciniganno
We spent two nights in Sant Angelo, a random wine area in Montalcino, just to walk in a wineyard and relax. I’ll post all the close ups of nature later.
We were walking along an old train track, when a train suddenly appeared. A steam driven one 🙂
It was a wonderful sunny day.
Standard, simple lunch.
My evening makeup and dress. I also wore my new metal tipped shoes.
