20 years

20 years ago at the end of September I married my best friend...

Gag. I mean it's true, but, so sappy.

We took last weekend as an anniversary get away.

We stayed at the Nutmeg Inn B&B in Meredith, NH. 

A nice little B&B, the building has been there since 1763. We stayed in the "Sugar Shack" which is next door to the inn. It's small, maybe 16x20, with a spiral staircase to the second floor.

The bed was comfortable, breakfast was good, what else could you ask for. Oh, it was charming, B&Bs are supposed to be charming. I don't get paid anything if you click the link. If you do end up going there maybe mention you read about it here. They're nice folks. The location is fantastic, easy access to both Meredith and Weirs Beach, not too far from Laconia.

We spent the day at the Funspot, "the worlds largest arcade". 

If you like arcades you owe it to yourself to go to the Funspot. Theres something like 600 arcade games, bowling, skee ball, and all the ticket barfing amusement you could want. The food is actually pretty good too, all things considered. We spent a HUGE amount of time there, like more time than I've ever spent in an arcade in one chunk. I discovered that my bride likes arcades as much as I do which was surprising to discover considering how long we've been together.

One game I really wanted to play was "Firetruck" 

This is one of the first games I remember from my childhood. It's a cool idea too, you collaborate to drive the firetruck with one driver in the front and one in the rear. Sadly this one didn't seem to be working for the rear driver, it was still kind of hilarious to try though.

Qbert is the first arcade game I ever remember playing. It was on the pier at Old Orchard beach back in the day when the last thing out on the pier was an arcade. That arcade closed over 30 years ago but I still remember being able to see through the boards in the floor down to the water.

Angie turns out to really like pinball and this is her favorite "Jokerz". It's a fairly advanced one which includes digitized speech.

Computer space is the first "video arcade game" as we know it today. This one wasn't working right but I'm given to understand it's quite a hard game anyway because the physics are realistic and, well reality is boring...

Dinner was on the "turkey train" put on by the Winnipesaukee Scenic Railroad. The turkey was from Hart's Turkey Farm which is just up the road.

We went all out, you really ought to dress up for these things. Many of our fellow diners looked like they had just rolled out of bed. I can't imagine going out to dinner in sweat pants.

Turkey dinner with all the fixings carved to order while trundling along in a 100 year old rail car. Pretty fun.

The railroad has an interesting story, it was bought by the state of New Hampshire after the old Boston and Maine gave it up and was eventually sold to a private investor who ran it until his death when his kids took it over. The "kids" are about my age but were only in their early 20s when they started running the thing. 

The whole trip takes 2 hours and covers maybe 8 or 9 miles. At one point we traveled beside the road where there was one of those speed tracker signs that listed us at 14mph.

We slept well that night, it had been a long, full day...

A vacation, during this? Well, for fiddleheads...

Yeah I know, pandemic and all. Heres the thing, we've got this place in Aroostock county Maine, population 67,000 give or take a few and 8 COVID cases. We've done a pretty careful job of quarantining ourselves and since we would spend the vast majority of our time at camp anyway we figured we were safe for the journey. The one variation we took from our normal trip is that we didn't take our kayaks. In retrospect that was a mistake but not a big one, we were able to rent a pair up there.

That kayak rental was really important as it let us pick fiddleheads.

I know I've written about fiddleheads on here before and they're somewhat of an obsession for us. This year's trip was a little early so our normal picking spots weren't ready yet. However there was one spot we usually pass by because we were too late that was just perfect.

Our early estimate is that we had picked around 25 pounds, I'm thinking that was probably low its probably more like 40 pounds which took us about 4 hours.

We waited to process until we got home, its really hard to blanch fiddleheads without running water and a good source of ice. My old Coleman 413E did heating duties. I really need to get my Handy Gas Plant up and running, we could have used a larger burner.

This is secondary cooling. I let this get up to 15 bags and then I'd haul the first ten to the freezer in the basement. Secondary cooling ensured we weren't putting warm fiddleheads into the freezer.

We ended up with 52 quart bags. We tend to pack them pretty full, in fact we should probably get a scale to weigh out the product for more consistent results but since its just for us it probably doesn't matter.

Anyway the rest of vacation was fantastic, the weather was perfect if maybe a little warm and we got to really relax which was great. I found time to plant a garden and Angie trimmed a bunch of trees. I'll post more on that later.

Back to Rome

Our trip back to Rome really showed off how comfortable we had become traveling in Italy. First we tried to take a bus from the hotel to the pier but for reasons unexplained it never seemed to appear so we ended up in a taxi. Then a long wait for the ferry, at least the weather was nice so the ferry was very smooth.

Then an Italo rail trip from Naples to Rome. On our journeys in Italy we first rode Trenitalia, these are the green trains I mentioned before. They varied between the 1950s vintage train we took from Lamezia to Soverato, the fairly modern interurban train/trolley from Soverato to Reggio Calabria and the modern but slow and dirty Freccabianca from Reggio Calabria to Naples.

Italo rail is a whole different train company, these are the super modern red trains you'll see in most travelogs and they are vastly superior to Trenitalia. Faster, more comfortable, and they serve snacks like an airline does. 10/10, would ride again.

I don't have any pictures of the Rome subway but our second hotel in Rome (Hotel Tango) was near a subway stop so it was the easiest way to get there. The Roman subway is fantastic, easy to understand, clean, friendly. I apparently exude a "don't mess with me" vibe, as I've never ever been messed with on a subway. That was comforting as we had our bags and were obviously tourists.

Believe it or not this is the front door of our hotel. By this point we had gotten used to finding hotels by the little brass plate in the wall as an identifier. Opening this door was pretty hilarious using that big doorknob. Hotel Tango is actually a modern building inside of a much larger older building. We picked it because the rooms are all two stories which seemed cooler than it actually was. The inner building didn't have terrific sound insulation and the kids in the room next door to ours were a bit infuriating.

This is one part of the wall around Vatican City about 2 blocks from Hotel Tango which is another reason I had picked that hotel.

Look carefully in this shot and you'll find "The Godfather pigeon" who keep strolling around a restaurant we were eating in. He seemed very well behaved but the staff of the restaurant kept shooing him out in embarrassment.

I should have taken a picture of this pizza/calzone before we started eating it. As you may have heard pizzas in Italy don't come pre-cut, you end up just tearing it apart with your hands. This was half pizza, half calzone which is an idea was should totally bring to the US.

Angie scored us tickets to the Colosseum which is amazing. It starts with arriving off the subway at the Colosseo stop. As you exit the subway and your eyes adjust the Colosseum is right there across the street and its so big it amazes your eyes and it takes awhile to really sink in and for your brain to figure out what you're looking at...

 Our tickets included access inside to the underground portions. This is a reinvention of the elevator used to transport animals (like lions) from the underground portion to the floor of the Colosseum. Theres a NOVA documentary on the construction of this elevator which is worth seeing.

This is one of our guides, our tour package included a tour of the Roman Forum, a tour which we almost missed because we were busy filling our faces with more pizza. This part of the tour included the burial spot of Julius Caesar and the supposed birthplace of Romulus and Remus, the brothers who led to the founding of Rome. Having a tour guide was fantastic, both guides really added depth to our tour.

Angie in Vatican City. We didn't have time to tour the Vatican, this was the morning of our last day. We really needed another 2-3 days in Rome, probably at the outset of our trip, there is so much to see there.

Okay so looking back here are a couple pieces of advice:

1. Ignore most of the advice you see online, its ridiculous, specifically: Italians dress the same as you do, at least mostly. They wear jeans and sneakers, anybody saying otherwise hasn't spent any time in Italy or if they have they've only been in tour groups.

2. When going to a big attraction like the Coliseum get timed tickets. By that I mean get a ticket that has a specific start time. This will save you waiting through the miles long lines.

3. Naples to Sorrento has a local train but I couldn't find a way to buy tickets online. The ferry is difficult to get to in Naples traffic.

4. The Roman subway is terrific but you're limited in where it goes.

5. Not everybody in Rome speaks English but there are so many people that do that its rarely an issue. Everybody we met in Sorrento/Capri spoke excellent English.

5a. Few people in Soverato in the south spoke English but they all seemed excited to play the pantomime game. I think English speakers are fairly rare there and they were excited to see us.

In short if you're afraid of travel to Italy you shouldn't be, its easy. If we can do it you can do it too...

Little Capri

Note: I wrote this a few weeks ago but in light of current events I'd like to keep posting positive things. Know that I'm thinking about folks and hope you're doing okay.

Capri is a little island off the coast of Sorrento. There are ferries to go over but our group had chartered a 40' motor yacht. This seemed like a good idea at the time but by the time we left the weather hadn't improved any. Our trip was supposed to include lunch but the cruise company didn't think anybody would be stupid enough to want to go so they hadn't made any. No matter, the cruise was still a go, they just refunded a little of our money.

The ride over was rough:

The pictures kind of give an idea, you can see the clouds. We had a following sea which meant that the boat wallowed and the diesel fumes were pushed back into the cabin. We were all pretty much up against sea-sickness for awhile. Angie leaned over the rail at one point, fortunately she didn't throw up because I think it would have triggered the rest of us.

Fortunately that was the point where the weather cleared enough that we could move to the front of the boat. I didn't get any pictures of that part but things got a lot more pleasant and we made a loop around the island before heading in.

Capri is neat in that the island is basically all mountain. Theres a little ring of beachfront but most of what you want to see is high up. Theres a little train, the Funicolare di Capri which takes you up. A funicular railway like this is one that uses two trains connected by a cable. Since the trains weigh about the same it takes a small amount of energy to move them.

You get an idea how steep it is...

The views from the top were epic and the weather started to clear which was even better.

Capri has some cool old tunnels into the mountain which is where I found the fat man's restaurant.

And coincidentally the only gas pressure lantern of the trip.

LA Cisterna is literally the best restaurant we went to in Italy, no joke. Its hidden away in a tunnel but absolutely worth the trip. We had:

-Lemon/mozzarella toasted bread. I thought this was a weird sounding combination but the bread, cheese and lemons were all fresh, it was amazing

-Fried anchovies: "Caught fresh not two hours ago!" quoth the fat man. I wish I'd taken a picture of them, these were cooked exactly the way my grandfather cooked smelts, they were dredged in flour and fried in oil. We were nervous to order this but the fat man was so enthusiastic how could we deny him. By the way that is him on the wine bottle...

-Gnocchi, Angie still has dreams of the gnocchi.

-Pizza margarita, some of the best pizza I've ever eaten.

The fat man claimed the wine was made special for him. I don't know if thats true or if its a generic rebottling but it was really good.

We all ordered and then we all shared, it was a great way to dine. There were only 6 of us, the others had gone to eat at some place with a great view. In talking to them we definitely got the better deal, they paid much more for food that wasn't half as good. We joked that they paid the "tourist tax".

Capri is much like Sorrento in the shopping mall vibe. The "streets" are really just pedestrian walkways, there are almost no cars up on the mountain because there are almost no roads. One of our party told Angie and I that we needed to check out the botanical gardens, he then gave us super sketchy directions and to our amazement we actually found the place:

The views were spectacular, the yacht actually took us around the rocks in the last picture. One of them has a hole in it just big enough to fit the yacht through. When he lined up the boat on the hole I thought "Theres no way he's going to.... Oh, he is..." and through we went, it was super cool.

The return trip to Sorrento was way better than the trip over. We all sat out on the front of the yacht, limoncello, beer and prosecco which is a bit like champagne. This was one of the highlights of the whole trip.

Up Next: Back to Rome and headed home.

Charming Sorrento

I originally started blogging as a way to tell people about good things and in Sorrento we found a very good thing.

Sorrento is a real tourist town. I realize not everybody reading this blog is from New England but I usually tell fellow New Englanders that Sorrento is like North Conway, New Hampshire, which is to say its full of outlet stores. The big difference, of course, is that Sorrento is something like 2000 years old. Wikipedia says Sorrento is known for its "small antique shops". I dunno where they were, I don't remember any antique shops.

Sorrento sits across the bay from Naples, so we took the train from Soverato to Naples but my research didn't give me a way to get from Naples to Sorrento. It turns out theres a train but you can't (or at least I couldn't figure it) book tickets online. What I could find was the ferry so we booked that.

There were two things I hadn't counted on:
#1. Naples is bonkers. Seriously, I'm used to Boston. Compared to Boston, Rome is bonkers, the traffic is heavy, the streets are small. Compared to Rome, Naples is totally bonkers, the streets are way smaller, the traffic is way heavier. Our cab ride from the train station to the port was frantic.
#2. Italy was experiencing unusually cold weather. Later that summer they'd have a heatwave but when we were there the temperatures in Italy were pretty much the same as at home in the northeast US.

So our ferry ride to Sorrento was really bumpy. I don't get seasick but that ride was pretty scary and my stomach was not happy.

Anyway you can spend big money on one of the grand hotels in Sorrento but I've never been a fan of the big grand hotels. Instead I searched around and found "Luiselle Charming Accommodation" and booked it just on the name. Well, I did look at the reviews but lets face it, the name sold me. I was a trifle worried when I told the cab driver where we were going and he said "Theres no hotel there." but we pressed on regardless.

It turns out the Luiselle Charming Accommodation is in an old office building. When I say old I'm not kidding around, the building must be from the '20s. Check out the elevator.

I had to stand outside the elevator to take the picture because otherwise you get:

Its small, its wood. You open the outside doors, open the inside door, step inside, close the outside door, close the inside door and then select your floor.
One thing I was caught off guard by is that in Italy buildings have a 0 (zero) floor, what we in the US would call the first or ground floor. This led to us getting lost, Luiselle was on the "second" floor which is actually what I would think of as the third floor. Fortunately you don't have to "drive" the elevator, you select a floor and listen while contactors slap in relays to make your selection happen.

The accommodation is indeed charming:

As usual I wish I'd taken more pictures. The room was big and well appointed with free Netflix that we didn't use, after all we were in Italy. We went out and came back exhausted.
The first morning our host Andrea offered Angie scrambled eggs and I thought she was going to kiss him. Italians eat a lot of desert and lunch meats for breakfast and she was eager to have something savory that wasn't salty. "Scrambled eggs" turned out to be a fried egg but it didn't matter she was super happy.

I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this hotel to anyone interested in accommodations a bit off the beaten track that are a little different. Also those who are looking to save money. Although as I say it is a little off the beaten track it was only maybe a 5 minute walk to the main street where all the action was. At night I was actually happy to be somewhere quiet so we could get some rest.

Up next: Capri

A wedding in Italy

When I last left you we had traveled to the south east of Italy for a wedding.
The whole point of the trip was the wedding right?

Soverato is a bit like Old Orchard Beach, its a tourist town. Its actually a bit smaller than OOB and I'd say its a tourist town for Italian tourists, not the kind of spot I'd expect North Americans in. English was uncommon which I think is one of the scary and fun things when traveling. We got lots of opportunities to pantomime and gesture. I also quite like not being exactly sure what will happen next. What is this thing that I'm being served? What will it taste like?

The wedding was on the beach, well at the beach. It started to sprinkle just as we arrived so they opted for "plan B" which was under cover although they did get pictures on the beach.

You can see the two photographers here, they were madmen. I've worked at a few weddings and I've never seen photographers like these guys, they were literally everywhere. Kurt tells me they have thousands of pictures.

I had asked Kurt about the dress code for the wedding and he bemoaned that Victoria was making him wear pants. Everybody was pretty casual which was fun. A few months later they had a ceremony in Massachusetts and we all dressed up more, unfortunately that day was stinking hot.

Angie and I thought that this room full of food was dinner and had a couple plates worth, it turns out that this was actually the appetizers...

This is the dinner menu for those who can read Italian.

And for those who cannot.

 I had more octopus in 3 days than I've had in the rest of my life put together.

Proof that Angie ate octopus.

Not everyone was so adventurous. Johanna got special chicken tenders.

The fish was amazing!

 After dinner the appetizer room had been converted to the desert room.

Amazing right?

There were the normal speeches and such but of course I had to get in. Angie and I started dating in 1996 (gads that seems so long ago) and I think the first family gathering I attended would have been Easter '97. Kurt and Johanna would have been quite young.
Angie and I used to always bring toys for Kurt and Johanna at Christmas. We stopped doing it at some point and I think some of the joy went out of Christmas. So while we were out wandering around I picked up some Kinder Joy eggs. I actually wanted Kinder surprise eggs but couldn't find any, they're illegal in the US...

I presented the eggs to Kurt, Victoria and Johanna and apparently a lot of people thought I was a high point for the night. It proves you don't have to spend a lot of money, or really think things through to make people happy.

Next time: Sorrento and the Charming Accommodation!